A good follow up to Nigel Latta’s expose of the sugar industry in NZ.
Katherine Rich ( ex Nat MP ) is the hired gun for the sugar industry.
I think they used Slater to attack people who questioned the sugar industry.
Lewis Road Creamery Chocolate Milk, with queues of customers waiting for delivery every day. Each bottle contains 22 pieces of (delicious) Whittakers chocolate (half a chocolate slab).
Twenty two pieces …….. Glug glug glug.
A second drink, perhaps? Or a glass of coke to ‘wash it down’?
Could I please have a side order of diabetes?
The research referred to was some blind taste testing with dinner guests, that I carried out . Nothing to do with Mars. I was trying to understand if the queues could really be justified on the basis of taste, and also highlight the foolishness of the queues on the basis of health.
Yep he was floored by the question by Espiner about whether it was moral for NZ to enter the war. I thought he had difficulties understanding the concept of morality.
I have looked in vain for six years for any suggestions that Mr Key has a moral base. Right now the National Party is a convenient vehicle to satisfy his personal interests. Hopefully somone can explain why my view has no substance, as I would like to think better of him?
I think he has said himself that he is not an “ideology” type of person. The only thing I recall he has said he that believes in are asset sales. Is there another living NZer that cannot recall what they thought about the Springbok tour? When he first came out with this I thought he was lying. Now I actually believe it.
Yep one of his answers to ‘is it moral’ was “It is if we agree to that.” So what is moral is what we agree is moral.
That might be an interesting philosophical stance on ethics al la David Hume, but I for one would like a stance less cynical from our leader that doesn’t smack of focus group analysis on this issue. Higher standards anyone?
I don’t think he has any idea. He is totally amoral. I can recognise it because I was like that until I grew up a bit in my late 20s. As far as his philosophy goes, it’s a weird mix of Aleister Crowley and Nietsche, mixed with a desire for acceptance from those he worships. As a human being, he is hugely dysfunctional.
Why is that such a surprise, the ‘terror’ narrative arrived within a week of the election duely pushed by the MSM muppets so top diversionary tactic whilst the RMA, employment, exploration and sell offs etc etc continue.
kiwi soldiers bodies being returned home will be another unwanted legacy of key as he marches them off and increases our risk once we engage.
this govt has no moral compass just a monetary one.
This morning on the news about David cameron the journalist said all western leaders were on high alert since the canadian parliament incident.
I was at dinner sunday evening when the Pm arrived. There was no pre dinner sweep of the restaurant, he arrived with his wife and son, alone. NO guards, none of his special big boys. They were not discreetly outside they were nowhere…
So, NOT on high alert here.
BUT maybe he was dining as John Key the man, and not PM. The terrorists will probably respect that distinction aye?
He needs to be truthful. This isn’t about NZers, it is that he believes we should play a part alongside our allies. There are many who agree with that thinking so why not just say it, Honest John?
I’ve said before, how many of the jingoistic types will send their own children. I note, John Keys daughter the right age to fight – should she not be running off to basic?
i didnt see him… heads turned, conversations lowered and my right wing dad and his wife said he had arrived. he sat at a table behind me. i had eaten so it was just a question of keeping it down.
when i stood to leave, i was so tempted to say lousd enough
“i see the terror threat is very low tonight”… but didnt
he has good taste in restaurants. hes come in before when i was there…
But Tracey did you notice the casually dressed but awkward bloke who came in a few minutes before maybe with a companion, who could have been man or a woman, and the lone diner who came in a bit later or who stayed hanging around the door or feigned interest in the shop windows in the vicinity.
Key is paranoid, but increasingly aware that more NZers think the whole “entourage” thing is preposterous posing
The entourage thing is US-style politics invading New Zealand. Have you seen the motorcades that travel with the likes of Eric Holder? Not even the President.
I bet Steven Joyce et al. are frothing at the mouth for a personal security detail.
I wonder whether David Parker has demanded a team from the Diplomatic Protection Squad to travel with him all the time now he is the (acting) leader of the party? Cunliffe wanted them around all the time. Perhaps he thought it made him seem important.
Actually perhaps Cunliffe was worried about the other members of his caucus. It would seem justified wouldn’t it? http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10470344/Campaign-Diary-Monday-September-8
“Dirty Journalism” post by Bat Bean Beam is a must read. Asks all the right questions about journalists in NZ and the failure to change anything substantial since the release of Hager’s Dirty Politics book:
And while Nicky Hager is constantly questioned about the ethics of his working with stolen correspondence, none of the reporters who have collaborated with Slater have had to defend the public interest value of their stories against the danger of exposing others to Whaleoil. Yet that is also where the naivety defence falls apart: for nobody can claim not to have known what that blog was about. There is no excuse.
“We are always told that wages shouldn’t rise unless productivity rises. Well, productivity rose 48% from 1990 to 2010 – but after inflation, the average wage rose only 18%. This is a fundamentally unfair wages system, caused in large part by the lack of bargaining power that working people – wage and salary earners – have suffered.”
For a lot of people, those in the lower decile, as productivity has risen their wages have actually gone down.
It’s a simple fact that, if everything else remains the same, as productivity increases wages must decline. This government and all governments going back to the 4th Labour government have been working to keep everything else the same in the name of stability and with that has come the inevitable decrease in bargaining power and remuneration.
Oh, look, IT just increased productivity, had nothing to do with employees!
I must be due a bonus, and my banker can leverage the new ongoing wealth to sustain even higher valuations.
It must be great to live in a world when citizens are widgets, expendable moveable parts, where discourse about finance is all about how wealth is mismeasird and allotted to a shrinking class of super rich and their hanger on-ers.
Key screws us all, locking away choice.
Help Shut Down the Illegal and extremely cruel Dog Meat Trade in Thailand. Watch the video to understand what is happening there.
Please act immediately to stop thousands of dogs from being tortured and butchered for their meat.
Every aspect of the dog meat trade in Southeast Asia is horrifically cruel.
You can save thousands of dogs from unspeakable pain by adding your name to Soi Dog’s global petition. It calls on Thailand’s leaders to crack down hard on the criminals who profit from the agony of animals.
The modern equivalent of slavery is slavery. It’s pretty gross to exploit the utter dehumanisation of actual humans in order to make a cheap shock-value attack on people who eat things you don’t like.
Even conservative John Armstrong has something bad to say about National’s housing ‘reform’ (read: sell off all the shit to our corporate funders for pennies on the dollar). Armstrong refers to the policy as ideological for ideology’s sake.
National is continuing its policy of strip mining all the assets of the state, thus breaking a promise it made that there would be no more selling. They are behaving like a mafia that has taken over a business to squeeze every last dollar out of it before they send it into bankruptcy.
History tells us that the invisible hand is NOT the best solution to social problems. One of the main jobs of Government is dealing with the negative externalities the invisible hand creates in the first place, which is in essence what state housing is an example of – Providing where the market can’t, or won’t without the introduction of overbearing regulation.
Isis will “rain carnage on the world”, Prime Minister John Key tells us today … but he has yet to make a decision on whether NZ troops will go.
What sort of apocalyptic theology does he subscribe to these days ? Revelations ?
Will a NZ SAS haka have any effect on the Saudis and Qataris who used Chlorine at Kobane ? Is he referring to ballistic mass destruction ?
He may wish retire to a professorship in strategic decision making at Auckland University.
Isn’t this phrase indicative of the breathtaking level of arrogance of our current PM – given the carnage unremittedly being dropped from the sky creating vast civilian casualties is primarily and immorally being committed by his US “allies”?
The carnage being rained is a direct result of the insane invasion of Iraq which Key wanted NZ to be part of. So we could sell more butter to the yanks. Still need to shift more of it…
He’s just making sure that when we send our troops over, we know we’re doing A Good Thing, because otherwise we might have some public pressure to the contrary.
Last time I looked, it was nation states with developed economies, and strong military forces that were capable of raining carnage on the world, not a bunch of Koran waving teenagers with a couple of stolen MiGs.
Millsy, we are very selective about which people who are doing harm in the world that we should visit with our strong military forces, that as you say are capable of raining carnage on the world. Let us not forget that Vietnam received triple the bombing that took place in all of WWII !
In relationship to all this, I wonder what certain elements of society today would have called the men who went as volunteers to Spain to fight Franco’s fascists. Is that similar to the young men fighting with the Islamic State? Were those Spanish War volunteers idealists and defenders of freedom or were they brainwashed, radicalised terrorists?
Would our present Government have considered a military intervention into Republican Spain then?
It is the remuneration packages of bank CEOs that have been out of control. They are the ones who are left unchecked and will rain carnage on the world.
Well, well, I never knew that. George Key. My use of the Spanish Civil War analogy was entirely outside of that information. (And that’s no John Key-style memory lapse. His techniques for avoidance of issues are well criticised in tonight’s Marlborough Express editorial, by the way).
Remember that those who fought against Franco were reviled by the establishment, who thought that fascism, which got rid of those “pesky communist trade unions”, was a good idea.
Right up until Poland was invaded, and their skills were needed.
[lprent: I have no real objections to you placing these links here (all about ISIS, chemical weapons, and Kurds). However I do have a strong objection to you link-whoring them on our site for promoting google links. You haven’t provided a reason in the form of a paragraph or two for the people on this site why they should click into them.
This site values the opinions of those who comment here. We don’t value straight linking with no explanations. ]
Strange thing though, I imagine that there are many more young people willing to take up arms against IS than the few odd entrails that media manage to find have signed for IS.
Re. “link-whoring them on our site for promoting google links.”
.. they all linked to newspaper media sources, as I remember it, not google. A link is just an economical way of doing it ..
Putting raw links in a comment is most commonly used by bots and spam artists to increase google scores. When I look at a list of raw links that is what I presume.
There are many other search and meta-search engines out there besides google. I find google very limited, predictable, and constricting these days and try to broaden my sources. In this case I used
Moral is a word beloved of the Hasbara Zionists. The IDF is a moral army, Israel acts morally, etc….. Key is on the same side, so it’s no surprise to see the word being misused here as well. It’s a favourite term of immoral liars.
Good point. Plenty of more conservative lefties and left leaning intellectuals will nod sagely with the PM though. What could be more worthy than a ‘just’ war?
He won’t have read Dirty Politics
He will ignore all evidence on any subject which counters his limited self interested and parochial viewpoint.
He will rely on anecdotes to support his points.
He will aim tok provoke.
He’s unlikely to admit the only reason he voted for the Tories is naked self interest.
In short, he is not worth debating with.
I believe very much in democracy especially the last election where the people of NZ (well enough of them anyway) told you exactly what they think of so-called dirty politics and voted National back in
If you think an elected dictator every 3 years is cool and nobody should ask questions and the media should just be a propaganda tool,
then you are a f*cken tool as well mate.
Far be it for me to agree with a curmudgeon, but check out Gavin Ellis? (Elice?) on the regular gal’s NinetoNoon today. Completely on the mark – and couple that with the recent TVNZ decision.
When I get around to it, it may form a question on another post re what the fuck are prospective Labour Party candidates going to do about our media, and in particular PSB.
I’m hopeful I’ll hear that there will be some sort of bipartisan mechanism that protects our 4th Estate (not that we have one), and our public sphere. AND such a mechanism that bypasses old hacks and self-interested old boy/gal networks.
Personally, I believe there is such a mechanism, and one that not only recognises individuals’ true worth, and one that puts back a citizenry’s RIGHT.
(Might take one or two ex-pats to return home, and they can be convinced – AND one which is somewhat more ambitious than a CBB – which I have to support, but regard as JUST a little namby pamby – otherwise known as a co-alascence of a 3rd Way)
EDIT: What the fuck ever happened to protest, and journalistic integrity?
“America used to be a country that built for the future,” Krugman opens, somewhat mournfully. “Sometimes the government built directly: Public projects, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate Highway System, provided the backbone for economic growth. Sometimes it provided incentives to the private sector, like land grants to spur railroad construction. Either way, there was broad support for spending that would make us richer.”
Not any more. These days, our government steadfastly refuses to invest in the country’s future.
It isn’t as if there’s no cash to do so. Seven years after the housing bubble burst, “the country is awash in savings,” Krugman writes, “with nowhere to go.” Corporations and banks are holding on to trillions in excess reserves that are simply sitting idle. State governments are strapped, yes, but the federal government, with its ability to borrow money cheaply, could easily help them out.
(if watching replays of q-time..i wouldn’t bother much past question five..if i were you..
..norman under-performed/delivered..
..king got follow-up question of the day..(referencing/comparing collins/key..vis a vis ‘ministerial-responsibility’..
..and this:..
(excerpt..)
‘..and english slam-dunks him/labour by noting labour signed up to the social-accord in 2013..which detailed this dismantling/devolution of the state houses asset..(!)
..(ed:..i didn’t know that..did you..?..that labour signed up to this..?..whoar..!..)..’
John Robertson, Professor of Media Politics at the University of West Scotland, on media bias in the Scottish Independence Referendum …..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajd4R-9BEIw
Some of his arguments towards the end of the clip (on the Establishment Media’s demonization of Opposition Leaders) has particular relevance for New Zealand.
A couple of minor corrections and additions to your report.
1. Oceana Gold is not a NZ company. It is just another foreign owned company making money out of NZ.
2. It is poisoning El Salvador’s water.
3. It is using a free trade agreement to sue the El Salvador government.
“Oceana Gold is claiming that under the US-central America free trade agreement, it has a “right” to compel mining or be compensated for loss of profits. In response, the company will today be handed a petition signed by 200,000 opponents to its attempt to force gold mining in El Salvador.”
But who cares. Some selfish shareholders are making heaps of money out of polluting the earth and screwing over a people.
Simply put yes, yes it does…except for the little issue of its not a case of me doing well therefore no one else can do well instead its a case of I’m doing well and everyone else can do well if they so choose
The problem with the left in general is you all think that for someone to do well (whatever the definition of doing well is) it has to be at the expense of someone else
Whereas the inconvenient truth of the matter is that everyone can do well if they choose to but most choose not to
actually, if you bought power shares you are doing well at the expense of everyone else, in the form of increased overseas debt the government pays because of the reduced dividend take.
“Restaurant Brands is a fast food company based in New Zealand and is listed on the NZ Stock Exchange as RBD. It operates most of New Zealand’s KFC, Pizza Hut, Carl’s Jr. and Starbucks stores and provides management and support services to New Zealand’s independent KFC franchisees. It holds the New Zealand franchise for KFC and Pizza Hut from Yum Restaurants and Starbucks from Starbucks USA.”
So just a subsidiary and a franchise of a massive US company owned by large multinational banks.
“Yum! Brands, Inc. or Yum! is an American fast food company. A Fortune 500 corporation, Yum operates the licensed brands Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Wing Street worldwide. Prior to 2011, Yum! also owned Long John Silver’s and A&W Restaurants.”
Nope sorry they weren’t, they were offered at a fair price and the controlling majority were kept by the government and there been two elections thus far that have returned National to be power
James Shaw, the new Green Party MP’s maiden speech in parliament,
When we’re presented with this conflict between the environment and the economy and it is almost always a false choice. There’s almost always a solution that delivers both.
Problems and conflicts that seem unsolvable have solutions, and the hard part is getting the different parties to work together to find them
Yes, Shaw is in the section of the Green Party that see a future working with National. They are still in a minority but do have influence. Julie-Ann Genter and Russel Norman are in this group also, but are not quite as right as Shaw.
I am still appalled that Norman said in the minor leader’s debate that the politician he most admired in another party was Bill (sell off state houses) English.
I’ve always had some criticisms of Norman’s values.
Actually. In the speech, Shaw doesn’t say he’s a fan of “market forces”. He says he’s a fan of “the market”; that the cause of destructive climate change is economic, but the solution is political. He said the market is not sentient, and we need to tell it what to do.
I have heard before that people generally rate him as pretty right wing.
So, he’s into regulated markets. He cites the abolition of slavery (having outlined the various strand of his whakapapa, which includes a female slave in the US).
He also talked of his mother raising him and his siblings on her teacher’s salary, as well as saying he was raised by his mother and her female partner. He spoke in praise of suffragettes and stroppy activist women.
Even those Greens who have rightish economic views are still a lot smarter and more socially enlightened than the right of the Labour Party (Cosgrove, O’Connor etc).
I’m just listening now. He’s saying some prettty radical stuff eg that nature has inherent rights. His stuff about the expansion of rights is very good (how they are feared but the fears prove unfounded in time).
and yeah, interesting re his statement that he likes the market, which he follows by saying that the market needs to be controlled. He says that for setting prices and allocating scarce resources it’s better than the alternatives. It would be good to see him do actual comparisons with the alternatives.
I know that presently we are stuck. To get unstuck, we will all need to let go of some things, and to be more committed to finding the answers than to being right or to others being wrong
The guy has serious problem solving intelligence and skills, I can see why the GP have promoted him. Very good speech.
I was also appalled at Russel Norman’s snuggling up to the Nats. Because of that I changed my vote from Greens to Labour and wonder if that comment lost them many votes at the election. Politics is in a woeful state at the moment.
I will probably vote reluctantly for Andrew Little in the Labour Leader contest, dont like any of the others in the running but is a worry when I cant even say to myself that I will vote for Greens if the outcome isn’t what I prefer.
Well, it’s the likes of Metiria Turei, Catherine Delahunty, and Jan Logie in the Greens that keep me voting Green. i’d also like to see Jack McDonald and Marama Davidson in the House.
But it is hard to decide who to vote for when I have criticisms of every party on the “left”.
“..I am still appalled that Norman said in the minor leader’s debate that the politician he most admired in another party was Bill (sell off state houses) English…”
yeah..that one is still echoing/bedding-in…
..and yeah..macdonald and davidson have both impressed..
“There’s a lot of chatter on twitter about Shaw being into market force. A bit worrying.”
I think it is inevitable with the Greens. Unless the left organises a progressive movement pretty damn quick, the party will work with whatever it can, including market forces. Norman of course is also into using the market to effect change.
It will be an interesting dilemma for the Greens. There is this idea that they’re neither left nor right (I think Lynn once used the imagery of them being vertical to the horizontal axis of the traditional left/right spectrum). I tend to see them as trying to move beyond the left/right gulf (which is why the whole ‘we can work with anyone on policy’ thing is so important to them). I have some sympathy for this because the left appears to be failing to stop neoliberalism and proto-fascism. Not that I think the left is necessarily at fault, but that we may need other things as well.
I’ll try and download Shaw’s speech later so I can see what all the fuss is about.
i also empathise. i think they are trying to go beyond left right dichotomy and are saying that whoever is in power and wants to advance policies the green party advocate they will work with.
that is not the same as being “right”
it seems to me that there is no single solution to many of our big problems but amalgams which most of our parties dont want a bar of.
It’s the same as doing what the Maori Party does, without the cabinet posts. It’s hugely dangerous, but then again, I also consider any collaboration with Labour since 1984 as working with the right.
the greens memorandum with national has resulted in over 400,000 homes being more insulated.
there has been a pilot scheme for a building wof
both things done by parties not around the cabinet table and with no outside cabinet baubles either.
far too little credit, and too many brickbats, get thrown for this. insulating homes is a step toward homes affects health improvements for the poorer amongst us
I don’t buy that line about moving beyond left and right. The MO of working for consensus and collaborative rather than being into competitive game-playing is to me a left wing value.
I think people like Shaw =, saying they are beyond political partisanship, and being into working with whoever for solutions to the big problems, are deluded.
They ignore that there are those out to maintain their power and privilege, and will resists any changes that challenge that – even if it damages the whole planet.
Slavery, for instance, never really went away, the capitalists used the market for exploit people in new ways.
i am not even sure it is a left wing value given the labour caucus consider itself left wing.
it is possible that people can believe they are moving beyond left and right in an attempt to place the value or ethic pursued above any exterior label. they may or may not achieve that but it doesnt change the intent. intent is often more key than outcome whether that outcome is negative or positive. the greens appear to be trying to place their policies, the intent above traditional labels. i admire the attempts given the people and process they are surrounded by
Well, I don’t see the current Labour caucus as being into consensus building and collaborative approaches.
There’s a strong element within that caucus that are into approaching politics as combative game playing. Very different from the approach of the Greens.
oh i agree but many behaving that way will consider themselves left wing.
i hesitate to say this but collaborative and consensus, imo, is a feminine trait rather than left or right wing… and before anyone leaps on that by feminine i mean as opposed to masculine not women versus men.
I see a collaborative approach as being more dominant on the left. I also see it as being more common among women. But, there are also some pretty competitive, combative, individualistic and right wing women: Judith Collins, for example.
For me, traditional human communities have always functioned with both conservative and liberal elements. While I also see the intent to shift beyone game playing and power-over structures as being more naturally left, I think that conservatives can also work collaboratively (I’m not talking about neoliberals or fundamentalists). The GP moving beyond left/right doesn’t mean they leave left wing values or skills behind.
“I think people like Shaw =, saying they are beyond political partisanship, and being into working with whoever for solutions to the big problems, are deluded.”
That’s a somewhat different thing than what I was talking about. I think that in principle we could have multi-party accords on some things (across the left/right divide), and to an extent this already happens within MMP. But in practice it won’t happen much because NACT’s agenda is so extreme and because we live in an MMP age where taking out opponents is part of the process (aka cutting off one’s nose to spite’s one face).
A question for any IT geeks around. Is there a technical reason for not having platforms that allow multiple logins at the same time on the same computer/browser (eg gmail, twitter etc)? Or is it that developpers don’t see the need?
yes I know how to use different browsers, my question is if there is a technical reason why it can’t be done on the same app.
How do you login to two different gmail accounts in the same browser? When I do that, gmail just logs me out of the first one, once I’m in the second one.
in gmail using a web browser, click on the person-shaped icon (top right) and click “add account”. Each account is opened in a different tab in firefox.
I suspect it involves cookies that link each session on the website to the specific tab, so on the flipside it might not work so well for sites whose users like to open the browser, go to the site and straight into their account with no further clicks.
Of course, all of the above are security workarounds that mean anyone using your machine can open your accounts, so you might not want to do it with any emails you conduct business on.
It’s by design, for security and convenience (in most use cases – not yours though!).
The Gmail login page creates an “authentication” cookie, so when you open a new tab Google knows you are logged in already. And when you open your other Gmail account, a new Gmail cookie is created which supersedes the previous one.
You may wonder why opening a different browser does what you want. It’s because they don’t share cookies among one another. Each browser (Firefox, IE, Chrome, Safari, etc.) has a separate set of cookies.
Email clients like Outlook or Thunderbird should make it easier to collect your email from different accounts.
Thanks. I understand why using different browsers works (cookies).
I’m still not clear if there is a technical reason multiple logins can’t be used on one platform. How is it a security issue? And in this day and age, how is it a convenience issue?
“Clients like Outlook or Thunderbird should make it easier to collect your email from different accounts.”
Can I send from the different gmail accounts using Outlook?
It’s not about making it easier to collect email. It’s about being able to work in two or more different logins at once. eg working with googledocs, I’ve been logged in on a community group account and my own account, which requires me currently to use two browsers.
Cookies are per-website not per-account. If you had 2 cookies for the same website there’s a good chance the browser will mix up the account details when sending email.
Outlook is able to send & receive from different accounts no probs.
‘Canadian Green MP warns against harsh anti-terror measures’
By Keith Locke / October 28, 2014
“Canada’s Green Party has provided a welcome counterpoint to Prime Minister Harper’s call for tougher anti-terrorism laws in the wake of a soldier outside the Canadian Parliament…
How many times does it need to be said that it was not terrorism.
It was an act of war in a country that has been at war for 13 years. Unless can someone prove otherwise. Or just silly gormless soundbites for te news. probably
The latest news I’ve heard on Canada is that Toronto heavyweight Rob Ford was going to stand again for Mayor? but became ill, and at the last minute his brother stepped into his place. So how will Toronto vote?
Much of the commentariat’s reporting of the most recent GDP figure was misleading and unhelpful. The prize for the stupidest remark about the GDP figure for second quarter 2020 (2020Q2) released on Thursday (17 Sept) goes to Judith Collins, whose response to Grant Robertson’s comments indicated she did not ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh goloing@gmail.com (19/09/2020) Che Guevara said that a true revolutionary is motivated by love i.e. love of the oppressed, the poor, the children dying from preventable illnesses. This phrase of his is true but has been used by reformists and their more hippy wing have taken advantage ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 13, 2020 through Sat, Sep 19, 2020Editor's ChoiceGet to Net-Zero by Mid-Century? Even Some Global Oil and Gas Giants Think it Can Be DoneA report by a ...
With the National Party this week announcing a new policy of tax cuts to spice up the election campagin. MyThinks went along to the launch and afterwards we spoke to the party’s finance spokesperson Paul “Golden Touch” Goldsmith. MT: Thanks for speaking to us Mr Goldsmith. PG: No. Thank you. ...
Always to islanders danger Is what comes over the seas ‘Landfall in Unknown Seas’ (Allen Curnow)Six economic issues external to New Zealand, which will greatly impact upon us. 1. The Diminishing Global Dominance of the US. Since 1941 America has dominated the world economically and politically. Probably it could ...
By Geoffrey Miller New Zealand should continue to champion human rights in Belarus amidst an ongoing crackdown on protests by the country’s regime, former Prime Minister Helen Clark says. Protests in the country often referred to as ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’ erupted after the country’s disputed presidential elections on August 9 ...
Jacqui Maguire, registered clinical psychologistThis podcast episode highlights how difficult it is to have effective conversations about euthanasia due to how polarised people’s views are. I’m a clinical psychologist, with a passion for science communication. In early 2020 I founded the podcast Mind Brew, with an aim to make psychological ...
In case anyone needed further convincing, there's another example today of why we need cameras on fishing boats: reported seabird bycatch doubled during a camera trial: Commercial fishers operating off Auckland's coast around vulnerable seabirds are twice as likely to report accidentally capturing them when cameras are on ...
In the leadup to the euthanasia referendum, an array of conservative Christian political organisations is running an expensive campaign to sow doubt about the safety of assisted dying. Graham Adams argues that these religious forces know that Christian arguments aren’t convincing the public, but that it is in the public ...
Dangerous Times: This will be the choice confronting those coming of age in the 2020s. Embrace Neoliberalism’s belief in racial and sexual equality; adopt its secular and scientific world view; and cultivate the technocratic, multicultural, global outlook required of those who keep the machinery of hyper-capitalism humming. Or, throw your ...
It would be a great time to reform the benefit system, according to former Deputy Chief Economic Advisor at the Treasury, Tony Burton. He argues the complexity of benefit system means that it’s failing to achieve its difficult three core objectives, which form an “iron triangle”.New Zealand’s benefit ...
Tax Justice UK, September 2020 Serious tax reform is on the political agenda for the first time in decades due to the coronavirus crisis. As this debate hots up it is important to understand what people think about public spending, wealth and tax. Tax Justice UK, along with Survation and ...
Not Mucking Around: With upwards of 800 dead from the virus’s resurgence in the Australian state of Victoria, leniency is not on Premier Daniel Andrews’ agenda. The Victorian Police are cracking down hard on the protesters the Australian press has labelled "Covidiots".IMAGES OF POLICE, some in riot gear, others on ...
Although I had the fortune of being a graduate student of some of the foremost US nuclear strategists of the day (1970s) and later rubbed shoulders with Air Force and Naval officers who were entrusted with parts of the US nuclear arsenal, I seldom get to write or speak about ...
News that Zhenhua Data, an arm of China Zhenhua Electronics Group, a subsidiary of the military-connected China Electronic Information Industry Group (CETC), maintains a list of 800 New Zealanders on a “Overseas Key Information Database” that contains personal information on more than 2.4 million foreign individuals, has caused some consternation ...
Marie BecdelievreJanuary 2020. The number of news article mentioning coronavirus exploded and anxious voices whispered about a global pandemic.Whisper? To me, it was only a whisper. I tend to learn about the world through non-fiction books, conferences, and academic research rather than news and social media, so ...
Barbados is planning to remove the queen as head of state and become a republic in time for the 55th anniversary of its independence in 2021: Barbados has announced its intention to remove the Queen as its head of state and become a republic by November 2021. [...] Reading ...
At the 2017 election, the New Zealand Labour Party promised a Fees Free Policy for tertiary students. Basically, it would make the first year of university education free in 2018, with a second year in 2021, and a third in 2024. It also promised to restore Post-Graduate access to the ...
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.nzWhat is the impact of temperature increases in the tropics? ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons It felt like 100 degrees in my in-laws’ Grass Valley, California, kitchen, but at least the lights were on and for the moment we were safely “distanced” from the Jones Fire. We’d just finished dessert, after pizza and a movie ...
A key part of our electoral funding regime is a requirement for some transparency around donations, on the basis that if we can find out who has bought our politicians (typically after we have voted for them) then everything is alright. There are a lot of problems with that regime ...
On “In Defense of Looting” Matt Taibibi takes an entertaining look at this generation of woke activists and how they compare with Abbie Hoffman the iconic anti-Vietnam war counter-culture figure of the 1960s On Thursday, August 27th, the same day Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican nomination, National Public Radio ...
When Parliament introduced the Emissions Trading Scheme, it was worried that carbon prices might get too high. So it introduced a "fixed price option", allowing polluters to pay the government $25 in the place of surrendering credits. The result was predictable: after we were thrown out of international carbon markets ...
The government will finally be requiring large New Zealand companies to disclose their climate change risks: New Zealand finance companies will be made to report on climate change risk, Climate Change Minister James Shaw has announced. The policy will force around 200 large financial organisations in New Zealand to ...
By Claire Grant, Genomics Aotearoa Communications ManagerCommunity consultation is becoming an increasingly important aspect of research programmes in New Zealand, and with that comes the art of relationship building. Engagement between scientists and user-groups is certainly nothing new. But as stakeholder involvement becomes more of a requirement for science, ...
Rebels In A Wrong Cause: The truly frightening thing about Jami-Lee Ross’s and Billy Te Kahika’s success in persuading thousands of New Zealanders that Covid-19 is just another trick, just another way of stealing away their power, is realising just how many of them once marched at the Left’s side. ...
In a couple of months, the 53rd Parliament will meet in Wellington, and approximately 120 MPs will be sworn in, many of them for the first time.They will all have political goals, some aligning with their party platforms, some not, some complex, and some simple, but they will gain one ...
Media Statement For Immediate Release 10th September 2020 The income and wealth inequality lobby group, “Closing the Gap” thinks the Labour proposal a great start says Peter Malcolm, a spokesperson for the group. But they need to be aware of what many of the rich do and of what do ...
ACT is pushing a "no-nonsense climate change plan". What does it involve? Repealing the Zero Carbon Act and Emissions Trading Scheme, reversing the fossil-fuel exploration ban, and allowing mining on conservation land. In other words, repealing any policy which might actually reduce emissions. Which is the very definition of nonsensical. ...
This blog post is a follow up to my recap of Al Gore's Climate Reality Leadership Training I recently participated in. One of the exercises we were asked to complete was to write about our respective "Climate Story". This is a slightly updated version to the one I had submitted during ...
New Zealand’s media and online politics often reflect the values of liberal and progressive agendas. According to Liam Hehir, the current proposals to lower the voting age to 16 years – which the media overwhelming supports – is indicative of a wider mismatch with society, which is not good for ...
My wife and I, through a combination of good luck and good management, have managed to retire in comfortable circumstances. We celebrate our good fortune by making relatively small but regular donations to a range of good causes – to rescue services like the rescue helicopters, St John’s Ambulance and ...
Jacques Raubenheimer, University of SydneyIf we don’t analyse statistics for a living, it’s easy to be taken in by misinformation about COVID-19 statistics on social media, especially if we don’t have the right context. For instance, we may cherry pick statistics supporting our viewpoint and ignore statistics showing we ...
Over the weekend, Labour released its welfare policy: an increase in benefit abatement thresholds. And that's it. Faced with clear evidence of ongoing hardship among beneficiaries and a call from its on Welfare Expert Advisory Group to raise core benefits by between 12 percent and 47 percent, Labour's response is ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (Bogota; 09/11/2020) The murder of Javier Ordoñez in the neighbourhood of Villa Luz in Bogotá, Colombia at the hands of two policemen brings to the fore the issue of police violence and its function in society. First of all we should be clear that we are ...
Story of the Week... La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Humans exploiting and destroying nature on unprecedented scale – reportAnimal populations have plunged an average of 68% ...
Gabrielle Po-Ching In November 1918, the cargo and passenger ship Talune travelled to Apia, Samoa from Auckland, carrying a number of passengers who had pneumonic influenza. From these passengers stemmed the biggest pandemic Samoa had ever seen. With around 8,500 deaths, over 20% of the country’s population at the ...
Prof Nick Wilson*, Prof Michael Baker In this blog the arguments for and against shifting all COVID-19 related isolation/quarantine facilities to a single air force base at Ōhakea are considered. The main advantage would be a reduction in the risk of border control failures, which can potentially involve outbreaks ...
So the Greens co-leader James Shaw recently made a mistake. In his role as Associate Finance Minister approving funding for “shovel-ready” projects, he fought hard for a private “Green school” to get funding to expand their buildings and, therefore, their student capacity. There are many problems with what he did: ...
Over the last three years there have been growing calls for the government to provide dental services under the health system – universal free dental care. This is because at the moment there’s an anomaly in which teeth are regarded as different from the rest of the body which means ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 6, 2020 through Sat, Sep 12, 2020Editor's ChoiceWith California ablaze, Newsom blasts Trump administration for failing to fight climate change Trinity River Conservation Camp crew members drown ...
Dear Sir, As we head into the run up to the upcoming election I feel it is my duty to draw your attention to the lack of fun we are currently forced to ensure by the Adern regime. In their efforts to keep the nation’s essential workers, health compromised people, ...
It finally happened: about 13 years after first watching Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” (AIT) in 2007 when it became available in Germany, I recently completed the Climate Reality Leadership Corps Training! Participating in this particular training had been on my to-do list for quite some time but it ...
Windows 95 is famous for requiring the shutting down the system by clicking ‘start, like stopping your car by turning the ignition key on. Why are so many interfaces so user-unfriendly? The Covid app to register your entering premises can be so clumsy. Sometimes I have signed in, sat down ...
Is the 2020 election result really the foregone conclusion that the polls and commentators are suggesting? Josh Van Veen suggests otherwise, pointing to some of the shortcomings of opinion polling, which could ready some politicians to say “bugger the pollsters” on election night. In November 1993, opinion polls foretold ...
Back in 2019, six select committees of the UK Parliament established a Citizen's Assembly to investigate how to respond to climate change. The Assembly's deliberations were forced online by the pandemic, but it has finally reported back, and overwhelmingly supports strong action: Taxes that increase as people fly further ...
I am feeling a bit impish today and so for no particular reason I thought I would share this thought, which I first posted over on twitter: “Hurricanes, wildfires, floods, heatwaves, street protests, armed vigilante militias, a lethal pandemic and a corrupt authoritarian using the federal government for partisan and ...
Wayne Mapp (Photo: Tsmith.nz via Wikimedia) A former Minister of Defence says the government was too slow to involve the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) in New Zealand’s response to Covid-19. But Wayne Mapp, a National MP from 1996-2011 who served as Minister of Defence for three ...
Transport is our second biggest polluter after agriculture, making up 17% of our national emissions. Cars and trucks emit 15 million tons of CO2 every year. So, if we're serious about tackling climate change, we need to eliminate this entirely. Public transport and better urban design will be a key ...
Five things we’ve learnt 1. We know where the virus ultimately came from We know that the virus originally came from bats, and most probably a species of horseshoe bat in South East Asia. However, the spike protein in SARS-CoV-2, which allows the virus to attach to cells and infect ...
The Greens' greatest disappointment while in government this term has been the failure to implement a ban on mining on conservation land. Promised by Jacinda Ardern immediately after gaining power, it had long been assumed that the problem was NZ First (who have a long history of environmental vandalism). But ...
If they get into Parliament, everyone expects the Greens to form a coalition with Labour. But James Shaw has said that that might not be the case, and that they might instead choose to sit on the cross-benches: The Greens are prepared to forego a coalition or confidence and ...
Chantal Denise Pagel, Auckland University of Technology; Mark Orams, Auckland University of Technology, and Michael Lueck, Auckland University of TechnologyThree people were injured last month in separate humpback whale encounters off the Western Australia coast. The incidents happened during snorkelling tours on Ningaloo Reef when swimmers came too close ...
Den Of Thieves: They describe themselves, and the money-making rackets they dignify with the name of church, “Christian”, but these ravening wolves are no such thing. The essence of the Christian faith is the giving of love – not the taking of money. It is about opening oneself to the ...
David Pomeroy, University of Canterbury; Kay-Lee Jones, University of Canterbury; Mahdis Azarmandi, University of Canterbury, and Sara Tolbert, University of CanterburyAcademic streaming in New Zealand schools is still common, but according to recent reports it is also discriminatory and racist. Also known as tracking, setting and ability grouping, streaming ...
A New Holy-Day: Perhaps, by accepting this gift of Matariki from the first arrivals in Aotearoa, we late arrivals, shorn of our ancestors’ outlandish fleeces, can draw strength from the accumulated human wisdom of our adopted home. Perhaps, by celebrating Matariki, we can learn to take ownership of our colonial ...
If there was any doubt left, we can surely call it now. Time and date. End of. Finito. Perhaps you thought you saw a flickering eyelid or a finger move? You were wrong. Labour has given up on tax reform for the foreseeable future. One of the key remaining left/right ...
Will the rich get richer under Labour’s latest tax policy? Based on the analysis in reaction to yesterday’s announcement, the answer would seem to be yes. The consensus from commentators is that inequality and severe economic problems will remain unchanged or even be made worse by Labour’s new policy. Although ...
Labour has released its energy policy, and its basicly business as usual: bring forward the 100% renewable target to 2030, build pumped storage if the business case stacks up, restore the thermal ban and clean car standard (but not the feebate scheme), and spread a bit of money around to ...
What's wrong with Labour? The end of yesterday's RNZ health debate says it all: Do you have private health insurance? Reti: "I do." Hipkins: "Yes, I do." Hipkins is Minister of Health. But it turns out that he won't be waiting in the queue with the rest ...
McKayla HollowayThe helicopter carries a team of four Lakes380 scientists and me; we hug the Gneiss rock walls that tower over Lake Manapouri. It’s arguably one of New Zealand’s most well-known lakes – made famous by the ‘Save Manapouri’ campaign of the 1970s. My chest is drawn back into ...
Rainy-Day Man: Is Labour’s tax policy a disappointment? Of course it is! But it’s the best the Traditional Left is going to get. Why? because Labour’s pollsters are telling them that upwards of 200,000 women over the age of 45 years have shifted their allegiance from National to Labour. (Where else, ...
When we last left our intrepid Drow Rogue, he was sitting in a tavern with his companions, only for a crazy Paladin to burst in, and start screaming about the Naga. It soon turned out that ...
Slight tweak to New Research Articles in NR are categorized by domain, roughly. This introduces the problem of items that don't neatly fit in one slot, or that have significance in more than one discipline (happily becoming more frequent as the powerful multiplier of interdisciplinary cooperation is tapped more frequently). ...
Today AstraZeneca pushed the pause button on its late-stage trials of a COVID-19 vaccine. A clinical trial participant has experienced a serious health event and an investigation is underway to determine the cause. What does it mean? A cautious approach – trials can halt to assess safety data With over ...
Kaya Klop-Toker, University of Newcastle; Alex Callen, University of Newcastle; Andrea Griffin, University of Newcastle; Matt Hayward, University of Newcastle, and Robert Scanlon, University of NewcastleOn an island off the Queensland coast, a battle is brewing over the fate of a small population of goats. The battle positions the ...
Dr Ben Gray* This blog discusses what will be needed to operationalise the End of Life Choice Act in the event that it is approved at referendum. It argues that this will take significant resources. Judging by the experience in Oregon it is likely that this may only benefit ...
Nau mai, haere mai – welcome to our newest addition to Sciblogs: Tuhia ki te rangi. Over the eleven years Sciblogs has been operating, the face of science communication has changed dramatically. Where a decade ago there was a burgeoning number of scientists and other experts looking to stretch their ...
I'm grappling with my sheer fucking anger over Labour's pathetic tax policy. Yes, it utterly contradicts their pretence of being a "centre-left" party and shows that they have no interest whatsoever in fixing any of the problems facing New Zealand. Yes, its self-inflicted helplessness, which will allow them to cry ...
Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández, Queensland University of Technology and D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye, Queensland University of TechnologyA disturbing video purporting to show a suicide is reportedly doing the rounds on the popular short video app TikTok, reigniting debate about what social media platforms are doing to limit circulation of troubling material. ...
The Green Party has released its Thriving Oceans Plan, which would dramatically increase marine protected areas and ban bottom trawling on seamounts. ...
It was another busy week out on the campaign trail, with Labour focused on jobs, training, and supporting Kiwi workers. As we continue to roll out our five-point plan for recovery, we’re investing in our people, businesses, communities and vital services, so we can keep our economy moving as we ...
Our regions are a vital part of our economic recovery plan. They’re home to innovative and creative businesses, and the backbone of our export economy - which is why Labour will continue to support our regions to grow as together, we rebuild better. ...
National’s ‘alternative budget’ that includes huge cuts to the government’s operating allowance would risk gutting critical public services, and put health, education and nature at dire risk. ...
Data released this week shows that, while New Zealand is not immune to the economic impacts of the global pandemic, our strong health response has meant we’ve been able to get our economy going faster than many other countries. ...
This year’s election is on 17 October - and it’s coming up fast! With one month to go until Election Day, we’ve come up with 17 ways you, your friends and family can get involved in our campaign and help Labour keep New Zealand moving. ...
PREFU has given a good insight into what was required to ensure New Zealanders were largely supported to continue work and remain healthy during COVID-19, but it is clear we need additional revenue raising measures ongoing, Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said today. ...
The Green Party is disappointed with the Labour Party’s decision to reverse their three free years education policy and back down on their commitment to postgraduate student allowances. ...
In the first two years of our term in Government, we gave teachers record pay rises as a way of recognising the lack of adequate adjustments over the previous decade and the significant role they play in the lives of children and young people. We also increased the number of ...
Labour has a proud history of supporting working New Zealanders, whether through the implementation of the 40hr work week or the introduction of the Working for Families package. ...
The Green Party welcome Labour’s commitment to extend the living wage to Government contractors, but will push for Fair Pay Agreements across industries in the next Government so more New Zealanders can earn a dignified income. ...
The Green Party is urging the Government to act on its commitment to te reo Māori, by making it a core subject up to year 10, and including te reo courses in the Targeted Training and Apprenticeships scheme. ...
We're officially back to the campaign for the 2020 General Election. The campaign may look a little different this year, but our candidates are still getting out and about in their communities and spreading the word about how another term of Labour will keep New Zealand moving in the right ...
You might have heard a bit of discussion about Government debt lately, as experts weigh in on the COVID-19 economic recovery. If you’re wondering why it’s such a contested topic, or even if you’re unsure of what Government debt actually is, then read on - we’ve got you covered! ...
The Green Party has released its Farming for the Future Plan, including a $297m fund to support farmers and growers to transition to climate-friendly practices. ...
We believe every New Zealander deserves the chance to make an informed decision on Election Day. We’ve answered some of the most common questions on our 2020 tax policy, including how much money will be raised from our new top tax rate, and how this will be used to control ...
The Green Party says Labour’s energy policy is a step in the right direction, but the Greens would go further and faster to meaningfully tackle the climate crisis. ...
All this tax talk leaving you a bit dazed and confused? Read below to find out more about our progressive tax system and what Labour's policy means for you. ...
We’re committed to managing the Government’s books responsibly and keeping debt under control while supporting our people and our economy through the 1-in-100 year shock caused by COVID-19. ...
The Labour Party has moved towards more progressive income tax, but is not addressing the growing wealth gap and inequality in Aotearoa. Labour’s new revenue policy also doesn’t help pay for the necessary response to the COVID-19 crisis, Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said today. ...
As New Zealanders we are proud of who we are, what we stand for, and the way we weave together different worlds and cultures to create our unique national identity. ...
It is appalling and negligent that landlords are being encouraged to keep their properties cold and damp until after the election, as advised by the NZ Property Investors Federation, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
The Government will provide up to $1.69 million through the One Billion Trees programme to Māori landowners to make their whenua more productive through the planting of forests, both native and exotic, and improve economic and environmental outcomes, Forestry Minister Shane Jones has announced. “Around 1.5 million ha of land ...
People planning to head outdoors now have a resource that lets them know how accessible an area is for people with varying levels of mobility, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. The Halberg Foundation, Sensibel, and the Department of Conservation (DOC) have launched Accessibel, a new tool which helps ...
One of the most significant battle sites of the 1860s Land Wars will receive $2.96 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to improve the site and help tell the New Zealand story to visitors, Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. Nanaia Mahuta ...
The journey towards recognising Māori as an official language and taonga has been captured as a web series and launched today during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, announced Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni. “Te reo Māori is a living language, and understanding its significance, and pathways to ...
Today’s better-than-forecast GDP figures show the expected impact of the decision to act quickly to protect New Zealanders from the global COVID-19 pandemic. GDP fell 12.2% in the June quarter from March, reflecting decisions to close New Zealand’s borders and enter Alert Level 4. “This result was better than the ...
The Government is investing $39.7 Million over four years to support the educational needs of Pacific learners and families in the regions hardest hit by COVID-19, with Auckland getting an immediate boost, Associate Minister of Education Jenny Salesa says. “Like all New Zealanders Pacific families want learners to do well ...
New Zealand’s goal of 100,000 kiwi by 2030 is being helped by an extra $19.7 million in funding to accelerate iwi and community efforts to protect kiwi, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced. “$19.7 million of Jobs for Nature funding is being invested in kiwi conservation activities including increased predator ...
Ensuring New Zealanders can get the best deal on their electricity takes a step in the right direction today with the South Island launch of the EnergyMate pilot run by the Electricity Retailers’ Association, says Minister of Energy and Resources, Dr Megan Woods. EnergyMate is an industry-led programme providing coaching ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter announced today that the Government has reached its target of 50 percent on women on state sector board and committees – setting a new record level of women on state sector boards. “This Government is committed to having more women in leadership roles - ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford released today the final Government Policy Statement on land transport (GPS) 2021 which outlines the planned $48 billion investment in services and infrastructure over the next decade. “The final GPS supports our Government’s five-point plan for economic recovery by confirming our record investments in transport infrastructure ...
Three ambitious and cutting-edge research programmes that will lift New Zealand’s advanced energy technology research capability over seven years, have been supported by Government today, says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. The projects will each receive a share of $40.7 million investment from the Strategic Science Investment Fund. ...
The critical area for forensic examination known as Pit Bottom in Stone has been reached in what is a major milestone for the Pike River re-entry project, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little announced. “The infrastructure located in Pit Bottom in Stone is of very significant interest in ...
The Government is working on how New Zealand’s retirement income policies and settings can best support Kiwis in light of the COVID-19 economic recovery, with the help of the Retirement Commissioner’s latest review, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said. “The Retirement Commissioner’s three-yearly review into New Zealand’s retirement ...
A new digital hub and development centre in Murupara will be instrumental in growing the region’s productivity, said Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau at the official opening of two community initiatives today. “I’m pleased to be here celebrating a significant milestone for two projects set to make a ...
PREFU shows economy doing better than forecast Unemployment to peak at 7.8%, down from 9.8% forecast in the Budget Year-to-June accounts show tax revenue, debt and OBEGAL better than forecast Global forecast downgraded as COVID-19 second waves and uncertainty grows Balanced plan to support critical public services, manage debt and ...
The Kāpiti Coast town of Ōtaki will receive $1.4 million in Government funding for two projects providing scores of jobs for locals while improving community facilities, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Māoriland Charitable Trust will receive a $900,000 Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) grant to upgrade the ...
The Provincial Growth Fund will provide $11.88 million to fund fencing and waterway projects nationwide that will improve the environment and create jobs in their communities, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. “These projects will create more than 100 jobs nationwide with work starting within the next couple ...
As part of the COVID-19 recovery, the Government has strengthened its procurement rules to ensure its annual $42 billion spend creates more jobs, uses more sustainable construction practices and results in better outcomes for Māori and Pasifika, Government Ministers announced today. Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford says the $42 ...
The Government is supporting a major upgrade of Timaru’s iconic Theatre Royal and the construction of a new connected Heritage Facility museum and exhibition space with $11.6 million from the Government’s Infrastructure Fund, Jacinda Ardern announced today. “We heard the call from the community and the council. The Theatre Royal ...
Chrissy Montague (formerly Armstrong), barrister of Auckland has been appointed as a District Court Judge with Family Court jurisdiction to be based in Wellington, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Ms Montague commenced practice in Auckland in 1987 and went into general practice dealing with Wills, Estates, Trusts, Conveyancing, Relationship Property ...
A Proposal to provide for the development and operation of commercial film and video production facilities in areas of Christchurch has been given the go ahead. Hon Poto Williams, Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, has approved the Proposal, which was prepared and submitted by Regenerate Christchurch. Minister Williams ...
As part of the Government’s focus on building closer partnerships with Māori and enhancing the quality of, and access to, Māori medium education, a payment of $8 million will be made to Te Wānanga o Raukawa in partial recognition of its Waitangi Tribunal claim (WAI 2698), Associate Education Minister Kelvin ...
The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage has announced a $19 million investment over four years in an important forest restoration project involving a partnership between the Department of Conservation, iwi/hapū, the Bay of Plenty and Waikato Regional Councils, community conservation groups and organisations such as Forest and Bird across the ...
New Zealand will be the first country in the world to require the financial sector to report on climate risks, the Minister for Climate Change James Shaw announced today. The changes build on the huge progress this Government has made to tackle the climate crisis. “Today is another step on ...
Economic activity across the Auckland region and the country bounced back to levels experienced under Alert Level 1 following Auckland’s move out of Alert Level 3, analysis in the Treasury’s latest Weekly Economic Update shows. The analysis of economic data since Auckland’s move out of Level 3 shows: Auckland card ...
Takiri mai te ata, ka ao, ka ao, ka awatea, tihei mauriora! Tātou katoa ngā iwi o Aotearoa, tēnā koutou! Tēnā tātou e whakanuia ana i te wiki nei, te wiki o te reo Māori Greeting to you all from Otepoti, Dunedin. This week is the Māori Language week and ...
More mental health and addiction services are available for young New Zealanders in Rotorua and Taupō, Wairarapa, South Canterbury, Dunedin and Southland from next month, Health Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter say. “The Government is serious about making sure New Zealanders struggling with mental health ...
The Manuherekia catchment in Central Otago is the third exemplar catchment to be targeted as part of the Government’s plan to clean up waterways by supporting community-led programmes. Environment Minister David Parker said the Manuherekia catchment is vitally important to the people of Central Otago. “The Manuherekia rises in the ...
The Government has agreed on a preferred design for the new Dunedin Hospital featuring two separate buildings, and has provided funding for the next stages of work. Minister of Health Chris Hipkins says Cabinet has approved in principle the detailed business case for the new hospital, giving people in ...
New Zealanders across the country are set to mark history as part of the Māori Language Week commemorations led by Te Taura Whiri i te reo Māori this year. Māori Development Minister, Nanaia Mahuta says the initiative will mark history for all the right reasons including making te reo Māori ...
More than 1000 teachers, support staff and school leaders have graduated from a programme designed to grow their capability to use te reo Māori in their teaching practice, as part of the Government’s plan to integrate te reo Māori into education, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Being trialled ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio, says the Toloa Tertiary Scholarships which aims to encourage more Pacific student numbers participating and pursuing STEM-related studies in 2021, are now open. “These tertiary scholarships are administrated by the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP), and are part of MPP’s overall Toloa ...
Four Bay of Plenty timber businesses will receive investments totalling nearly $22 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to boost the local economy and create jobs, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Rotorua-based sawmill Red Stag Wood Solutions will receive a $15 million loan to develop an engineered ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced that New Zealand is exploring the viability of working with partners to conduct a search for the black box on the Gulf Livestock 1. “We know how much it would mean to the families of those on the ship to understand more about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has today announced the Government is supporting the creation of new marine infrastructure in northern Te Tairāwhiti on the North Island’s East Coast. The Government has approved in principle an allocation of up to $45 million to support the construction of a marine transport facility at ...
E Epineha. Ka tangi te iwi, ki a koe e ngaro nei i te kitenga kanohi. Kua mokemoke to whānau, to iwi, te motu whanui. Haere ki o matua, tipuna. Haere ki te okiokinga tuturu mo te tangata. Haere i runga i te aroha o ngā reanga kei muri i ...
Catch limits will be increased for 26 fisheries and reduced for three fisheries as part of a regular round of reviews designed to ensure ongoing sustainability of fisheries resources. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash has announced decisions following a review of catch limits and management controls for 29 fish stocks. The ...
The Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson says while it is disappointing the Rugby Championship will not be held in New Zealand, the country will host two Bledisloe Cup games in October and has the capacity in managed isolation facilities to host other international sporting events. “We offered flexible quarantine ...
Up to 350 more people in regional New Zealand will gain a pathway to trades training through a $14 million government investment in apprenticeships, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. The apprenticeships are part of the $40 million Regional Apprenticeship Initiative (RAI) announced in June. The funding comes ...
A Government brokered solution to the parking woes at Christchurch Hospital will deliver more than 1000 new car parks near the Hospital for staff and visitors while also ensuring the completion of the Metro Sports Facility, say Minister for Christchurch Regeneration, Dr Megan Woods. The new parking package is made ...
National tried to go high-tech in its virtual campaign launch - but it was a far less sophisticated mathematical error which overshadowed Judith Collins, Sam Sachdeva writes As far as political humiliations at Avalon Studios go, Paul Goldsmith didn't quite match the time Rodney Hide dropped his Dancing with the Stars ...
Protecting 30 percent of our oceans by 2030 was one of a raft of marine plans announced by the Green Party Bans of bottom trawling in the Hauraki Gulf and a dramatic increase in the amount of protected marine areas are part of the Green Party's vision for oceans. Green ...
In this second of a series on the party leaders on the campaign trail, Tim Murphy joins the Greens' Marama Davison on a Sunday street corner in Glen Innes Marama Davidson and her offsider doubled the numbers when they arrived at the third of her four street corner campaign stops in ...
Covid-19 has put sign language in the public eye this year, but the fight to have it recognised as a 'real 'l language continues This week is New Zealand Sign Language Week, to coincide with the International Week of the Deaf and the United Nations International Day of Sign Languages ...
All week this week we focus on an extraordinary book of essays by Iranian-born Auckland film-maker Ghazaleh Golbakhsh. Today: her tale of a wandering Persian exile The Shah of Grey Lynn walks in front of me, his body long and lean, his head hung low. A shah is similar ...
Some of the safest parliamentary seats in the country are about to be taken over by newbies. They're sure things, anointed by their parties, waiting for the public's stamp of approval. In the latest in an occasional series, Marc Daalder speaks to public health expert Ayesha Verrall who, fresh off a ...
It was trash talk of a constructive nature during a political debate about the country's waste problem, including a hike in landfill levies hoped to fund better waste infrastructure Politicians put forward their policies for dealing with New Zealand’s growing waste problem in an online debate. Per capita we have ...
Fresh-faced and 14, our new national surfing champion initially struggled under the weight of the title. But with a new mindset, Ava Henderson is looking forward to claiming more crowns, she tells Anna Willcox. In the months after being crowned the New Zealand women’s surf champion, Ava Henderson didn’t like it. ...
Misinformation about the effectiveness of the test is swirling, but in fact the PCR is both reliable and critical in taking on the virus, explains Siouxsie Wiles.I’ve been asked by several people in recent days whether there is any truth to a video about the Covid-19 PCR test that is ...
Let’s put tax at the core of this election. Sharing wealth is how we share care and responsibility for this land and all of the people in it, writes Laura O’Connell Rapira.It’s election season in the middle of a pandemic and global economic crisis. These are strange times we find ...
A look at the three elements that make up the TV election debate - the broadcaster, the moderator, and the politician. They come around every three years. Everything from the studio sets and the position of the podiums, to the colour of the ties, is carefully thought out; and then ...
By Keith Jackson The trend is your friend, it is said, and the trend in counting votes for the next president of Bougainville remains firmly with former Bougaiville Revolutionary Army commander Ishmael Toroama, who continues to move ahead of the field. With the elimination of the 14th presidential candidate late ...
A Government plan to charge people for emergency housing like motels was derailed by Covid-19, but will now come into effect two days after the election. ...
Thank you for your kind welcome. I am so proud to lead this great National Party in our first-ever virtual campaign launch. It is a bittersweet day. We should all be here together. But we all know why we aren’t. The rhetoric never matches the ...
Judith Collins’ hopes of kicking the National 2020 campaign into gear were stalled by an embarrassing accounting error, writes Justin Giovannetti from the Hutt Valley.Today was the day the National Party’s election campaign was finally going to start rolling with momentum after a belated campaign launch. Instead, festivities were overshadowed ...
It’s been revealed that an upcoming novel by the Harry Potter author features a crossdressing serial killer. In the last several years Joanne “JK” Rowling has doubled, tripled, and as of last week, quadrupled down on her bigotry towards transgender people, both in her public statements and in her popular fiction. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kcasey McLoughlin, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Newcastle Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death has generated an outpouring of grief around the globe. Part of this grief reflects her unparalleled status as a feminist icon and pioneer for women in the legal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jared Mondschein, Senior Fellow & Senior Advisor, US Studies Centre, University of Sydney As the two sides in US politics begin jockeying for position following the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the similarities to the 2016 presidential election are ...
The National Party has acknowledged it made a $4 billion error in its fiscal plan promising tax cuts to kick start the economy, after the anomaly was highlighted by Labour. ...
RNZ article today featured 'Truck crashes leave Auckland Harbour Bridge hobbled' clearly shows the massive cost of damages many of our highways drains, bridges and road surfaces by overuse of freight trucks all over NZ as the National Party recklessly ...
Kiwi politicians will face their toughest audience yet when they enter ‘a virtual hotseat’ hosted by a panel of the nation’s young people. Presented by Save the Children New Zealand and GirlGuiding New Zealand, the ‘Virtual Hotseat’ will ...
Today the Green Party announced their “Thriving Oceans Plan” to highlight their Ocean policies to build a thriving ocean. Every single life on our planet is dependent on the ocean. It’s one of the world’s greatest resources. It produces food and ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says that if Labour had done what it had promised and introduce an independent election policy costing office, the current confusion over National’s numbers would never have happened. Union Spokesman, Jordan Williams, says: “The ...
Child abuse advocacy group, Child Matters, is frustrated that calls to make Police vetting and child protection training mandatory for everyone who works with children have gone unheard Child Matters Chief Executive, Jane Searle, says while changes ...
Greenpeace is applauding the Greens marine policy, released today, saying it sets a strong vision for healthy and thriving oceans. Jessica Desmond, oceans campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa, says she’s pleased to see the Greens take a big picture ...
Ko au te moana, ko te moana ko au. I am the sea. The sea is me. Kia ora koutou katoa. Our moana is a taonga. Take care of our oceans and the oceans will take care of us. They are the lifeblood of our planet. A home to thousands ...
Greens to protect Aotearoa’s oceans with marine sanctuaries, bottom trawling and set-netting restrictions, and action against plastic The Green Party has released its Thriving Oceans Plan, which would dramatically increase marine protected areas ...
The Green Party will end bottom impact trawling, dredging, and Danish seining in the Hauraki Gulf, as part of its Thriving Oceans Plan. Green Party Co-leader and Tamaki Makaurau candidate Marama Davidson said today: “So many New Zealanders love ...
A basic error has left a $4 billion gap in National’s economic plan, Labour Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson says. “If National can’t even do the basics required on their own policy costings, they cannot be trusted to run the country. Making mistakes ...
For her Loading Docs short Going Home, film-maker Ashley Williams paid tribute to her late uncle Clive by learning to fly.Some people say I was brave to fly. I tell them my Uncle Clive was the one who had courage.He was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer at the age of ...
As if the UK doesn’t have enough trouble negotiating Brexit with the European Union, it has now entered the US presidential election campaign. Democrat candidate Joe Biden says there will be “no US-UK free trade agreement” if London tampers with the exit arrangements over Northern Ireland. House speaker Democrat Nancy ...
After the second lockdown came to Auckland, Nick Atkinson dusted off and spruced up his bicycle, touring from Pukekohe to Otorohanga.Two bikes slowly rusted in the back yard. One seized up completely, the other possibly salvageable. The traffic had dried up for periods this year and many Aucklanders took to ...
Charges have been laid over historic offending at Dilworth, but former students say it could be just the beginning, writes the NZ Herald’s Isaac Davison in this Herald Premium article.Two years ago, a former Dilworth School student approached the school with a warning.The old boy – a victim of alleged ...
“Early results from ACT’s Debt Destroyer suggest most New Zealanders are more fiscally responsible than Grant Robertson and want to reduce Government spending,” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “ACT launched the Debt Destroyer last week, an interactive ...
New Zealand's semi-official poet laureate Victor Billot pens topical verse every Sunday. Today: Billy Te KahikaConnecting the dots Good evening all! I hope you don’t easily scare. For what I will tell you will pin back your ears. I’m Billy T K (Junior), servant of truth. I’m all about ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 20, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other NZ news. The essential campaign dates are here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. 7.15am: National ...
In the second of a weekly election diary, National's Hutt South MP Chris Bishop enjoys the culinary delights of the south and prepares for the party's fiscal plan launch. Labour MP Deborah Russell will also contribute each week. Trite but true: it’s been a funny old election campaign. Level 2 for ...
As the Māori Party prompts debate around whether New Zealand should be officially named Aotearoa, Professor Kerry Howe examines our common usage and understanding of the term Should the name New Zealand be replaced by, or co-exist with Aotearoa? For Aotearoa, is it widely assumed, is the original ‘indigenous name’ for ...
Over the last few months, Linda Burgess has cheered herself up by watching food television. And saying fuck.For fuck’s SAKE! I say as my husband grates the broccoli. And I think, when did fuck become tame like – well, like for god’s, or even for goodness, sake? I listen to ...
Esther Ng is the most successful New Zealand designer you’ve never heard of. Her label, Prix, has been seen on celebrities like Ariana Grande and Kylie Jenner, she has over 150,000 Instagram followers and she’s currently working from her bedroom.On any regular weekday you’d likely find Esther Ng playing games ...
“Labour’s ‘Let’s Get Wellington Moving’ project has so far been a failure. Nothing has been delivered, the funding for the programme is still unclear, and Wellington is drifting while congestion continues to choke the region,” National Spokesperson ...
Winston Peters must have been confused this morning when he made the bizarre claim that tax cuts are a ‘bribe’ and, ironically, criticised another party for promising to scrap his provincial vote fund in the next breath. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman ...
Eamonn Marra has been trying to get help for his mental health problems for two years. It shouldn’t take hitting absolute rock bottom for him to receive it.Content warning: This story contains discussion of mental health issues and suicidal thoughts. Every time mental health is back in the news it comes ...
By RNZ News New Zealand today reported one new community case of covid-19 – the first in five days. There was no media conference today. In a statement, the Health Ministry said the source of the community case was still being investigated. Auckland Regional Public Health Service has identified all ...
Analysis by Dr Paul G Buchanan – 36th Parallel Assessments. News that Zhenhua Data, an arm of China Zhenhua Electronics Group, a subsidiary of the military-connected China Electronic Information Industry Group (CETC), maintains a list of 800 New Zealanders on a “Overseas Key Information Database” that contains personal information on ...
The Green Party’s plan to support community gardens and composting would help promote a stronger understanding of sustainable ecosystems and food production in places like Nelson. “One of our priorities in the next Government is to support ...
Greenpeace is calling the National Party’s newly announced energy policy blatant climate denial and an affront to all the people and communities already suffering the impacts of climate change. It has been reported that the National Party will ...
The Public Service Association says industrial relations policies announced by Labour today will, if implemented by a Labour-led government, make New Zealand a fairer and better place to live. "Under the Labour-led government of the past three ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa is welcoming Labour's announcement today that it would double minimum sick leave entitlements to 10 days per year if returned to Government. President Liam Rutherford says inadequate sick leave is an issue across the education sector, ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa says Kōhanga Reo kaiako can’t afford to be left out in the cold when pay and funding gaps in ECE are addressed. This week Labour joined the Green Party in including pay parity for early childhood teachers in their election pledges. ...
17 registered political parties and 677 candidates will be contesting the 2020 General Election Nominations have now closed and the Electoral Commission has released the electorate and party list candidates for 2020 online at vote.nz . Advance voting ...
Recently I was invited by a friend to watch a three hour YouTube discussion between Joe Rogan of the Joe Rogan Experience and Johann Hari on the topic of drug law reform. I thought it would be very relevant on our referendum issue coming up. After watching ...
The charity running the Māngere Markets makes close to half a million a year from a business centred on a publicly owned carpark, but distributes less than a third of its income in grants. That’s left some locals wondering whether the trust could be doing more to support the community, ...
A new poll shows Green MP Chloe Swarbrick is coming third in the contest for the Auckland Central seat, which could be crucial in ensuring her party stays in Parliament. ...
The Government has made another pitch for the Maori vote (presumably with borrowed money) by dipping into the One Billion Trees trough. It has proclaimed it is backing Maori landowners with this contribution to their wellbeing (and the environment’s) and it is fair to suppose it would appreciate the landowners ...
Apple has finally announced its long-anticipated content bundle Apple One. So what do you get, and for how much?What is Apple One? Apple One is a new content “bundle” that gives you access to the company’s music, TV, games and storage offerings via a single subscription. It was announced this week ...
It’s one of the most high-profile, and marginal, electorates in the country, and is jam-packed with hospitality and retail businesses. So which Auckland Central haunts do the three front-runners like to frequent?This story was originally published by EnsembleWhat do your favourite things say about you? Where you buy your regular ...
Published on the behalf of the Labour Party Union Affiliates The Labour Party Union Affiliates are celebrating today’s release of the party’s 2020 workplace relations policy, which reflects the hard work of the wider labour movement. Highlights of ...
The Labour Party’s Workplace Relations and Safety policy release today will see workers across the country being much better off. Policies announced include doubling minimum sick leave entitlements, continued minimum wage increases, implementing Fair ...
The Council of Trade Unions is applauding today's launch of the Labour Party’s industrial relations 2020 election policy by spokesperson Andrew Little. "Working people in unions have been campaigning for better treatment at work. Labour’s industrial ...
By Zedaiah Kanau in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinean businessman who caused the death of his girlfriend by punching her, forcing her to jump out of the car he was driving, has been jailed for 15 years. Richard Namaliu, 28, of Vunapope village in Kokopo, East New Britain was ...
By France 24 Since coming to power in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched an unprecedented crusade against press freedom. Facing censorship, threats from police and sometimes jail, the last few independent reporters – those who do not work for state media serving Communist Party propaganda – are no ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By C Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW Production of the reality TV show The Masked Singer was shut down last month after several crew members were infected with COVID-19. It’s one of ...
In the latest in our series chronicling the ins and outs of dating in 2020, Alie Benge explains her reliance on the ‘friend committee’ to judge the suitability of every love interest.Abby came to my desk in a panic. She was meeting Sia that weekend. For the first time, she’d ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 19, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other NZ news. The essential campaign dates are here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m ...
Open mike 28/10/2014 
Open mike is your post.
Much of the commentariat’s reporting of the most recent GDP figure was misleading and unhelpful. The prize for the stupidest remark about the GDP figure for second quarter 2020 (2020Q2) released on Thursday (17 Sept) goes to Judith Collins, whose response to Grant Robertson’s comments indicated she did not ...11 hours ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh goloing@gmail.com (19/09/2020) Che Guevara said that a true revolutionary is motivated by love i.e. love of the oppressed, the poor, the children dying from preventable illnesses. This phrase of his is true but has been used by reformists and their more hippy wing have taken advantage ...20 hours ago
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 13, 2020 through Sat, Sep 19, 2020 Editor's Choice Get to Net-Zero by Mid-Century? Even Some Global Oil and Gas Giants Think it Can Be Done A report by a ...23 hours ago
With the National Party this week announcing a new policy of tax cuts to spice up the election campagin. MyThinks went along to the launch and afterwards we spoke to the party’s finance spokesperson Paul “Golden Touch” Goldsmith. MT: Thanks for speaking to us Mr Goldsmith. PG: No. Thank you. ...2 days ago
Always to islanders danger Is what comes over the seas ‘Landfall in Unknown Seas’ (Allen Curnow)Six economic issues external to New Zealand, which will greatly impact upon us. 1. The Diminishing Global Dominance of the US. Since 1941 America has dominated the world economically and politically. Probably it could ...2 days ago
By Geoffrey Miller New Zealand should continue to champion human rights in Belarus amidst an ongoing crackdown on protests by the country’s regime, former Prime Minister Helen Clark says. Protests in the country often referred to as ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’ erupted after the country’s disputed presidential elections on August 9 ...3 days ago
Jacqui Maguire, registered clinical psychologist This podcast episode highlights how difficult it is to have effective conversations about euthanasia due to how polarised people’s views are. I’m a clinical psychologist, with a passion for science communication. In early 2020 I founded the podcast Mind Brew, with an aim to make psychological ...3 days ago
In case anyone needed further convincing, there's another example today of why we need cameras on fishing boats: reported seabird bycatch doubled during a camera trial: Commercial fishers operating off Auckland's coast around vulnerable seabirds are twice as likely to report accidentally capturing them when cameras are on ...3 days ago
Dangerous Times: This will be the choice confronting those coming of age in the 2020s. Embrace Neoliberalism’s belief in racial and sexual equality; adopt its secular and scientific world view; and cultivate the technocratic, multicultural, global outlook required of those who keep the machinery of hyper-capitalism humming. Or, throw your ...3 days ago
Tax Justice UK, September 2020 Serious tax reform is on the political agenda for the first time in decades due to the coronavirus crisis. As this debate hots up it is important to understand what people think about public spending, wealth and tax. Tax Justice UK, along with Survation and ...3 days ago
Although I had the fortune of being a graduate student of some of the foremost US nuclear strategists of the day (1970s) and later rubbed shoulders with Air Force and Naval officers who were entrusted with parts of the US nuclear arsenal, I seldom get to write or speak about ...4 days ago
At the 2017 election, the New Zealand Labour Party promised a Fees Free Policy for tertiary students. Basically, it would make the first year of university education free in 2018, with a second year in 2021, and a third in 2024. It also promised to restore Post-Graduate access to the ...5 days ago
On “In Defense of Looting” Matt Taibibi takes an entertaining look at this generation of woke activists and how they compare with Abbie Hoffman the iconic anti-Vietnam war counter-culture figure of the 1960s On Thursday, August 27th, the same day Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican nomination, National Public Radio ...6 days ago
In a couple of months, the 53rd Parliament will meet in Wellington, and approximately 120 MPs will be sworn in, many of them for the first time.They will all have political goals, some aligning with their party platforms, some not, some complex, and some simple, but they will gain one ...6 days ago
My wife and I, through a combination of good luck and good management, have managed to retire in comfortable circumstances. We celebrate our good fortune by making relatively small but regular donations to a range of good causes – to rescue services like the rescue helicopters, St John’s Ambulance and ...7 days ago
So the Greens co-leader James Shaw recently made a mistake. In his role as Associate Finance Minister approving funding for “shovel-ready” projects, he fought hard for a private “Green school” to get funding to expand their buildings and, therefore, their student capacity. There are many problems with what he did: ...1 week ago-1f82146fa0d95608c5d921931b8dd46e7f0c9b1b/537110292.jpg?format=1500w)
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If there was any doubt left, we can surely call it now. Time and date. End of. Finito. Perhaps you thought you saw a flickering eyelid or a finger move? You were wrong. Labour has given up on tax reform for the foreseeable future. One of the key remaining left/right ...1 week ago
When we last left our intrepid Drow Rogue, he was sitting in a tavern with his companions, only for a crazy Paladin to burst in, and start screaming about the Naga. It soon turned out that ... 2 weeks ago
The Green Party has released its Thriving Oceans Plan, which would dramatically increase marine protected areas and ban bottom trawling on seamounts. ...19 hours ago
It was another busy week out on the campaign trail, with Labour focused on jobs, training, and supporting Kiwi workers. As we continue to roll out our five-point plan for recovery, we’re investing in our people, businesses, communities and vital services, so we can keep our economy moving as we ...1 day ago
The Government will provide up to $1.69 million through the One Billion Trees programme to Māori landowners to make their whenua more productive through the planting of forests, both native and exotic, and improve economic and environmental outcomes, Forestry Minister Shane Jones has announced. “Around 1.5 million ha of land ...2 days ago
National tried to go high-tech in its virtual campaign launch - but it was a far less sophisticated mathematical error which overshadowed Judith Collins, Sam Sachdeva writes As far as political humiliations at Avalon Studios go, Paul Goldsmith didn't quite match the time Rodney Hide dropped his Dancing with the Stars ...34 mins ago
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In this second of a series on the party leaders on the campaign trail, Tim Murphy joins the Greens' Marama Davison on a Sunday street corner in Glen Innes Marama Davidson and her offsider doubled the numbers when they arrived at the third of her four street corner campaign stops in ...34 mins ago
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All week this week we focus on an extraordinary book of essays by Iranian-born Auckland film-maker Ghazaleh Golbakhsh. Today: her tale of a wandering Persian exile The Shah of Grey Lynn walks in front of me, his body long and lean, his head hung low. A shah is similar ...34 mins ago
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It was trash talk of a constructive nature during a political debate about the country's waste problem, including a hike in landfill levies hoped to fund better waste infrastructure Politicians put forward their policies for dealing with New Zealand’s growing waste problem in an online debate. Per capita we have ...34 mins ago
Fresh-faced and 14, our new national surfing champion initially struggled under the weight of the title. But with a new mindset, Ava Henderson is looking forward to claiming more crowns, she tells Anna Willcox. In the months after being crowned the New Zealand women’s surf champion, Ava Henderson didn’t like it. ...34 mins ago
Misinformation about the effectiveness of the test is swirling, but in fact the PCR is both reliable and critical in taking on the virus, explains Siouxsie Wiles.I’ve been asked by several people in recent days whether there is any truth to a video about the Covid-19 PCR test that is ...1 hour ago
A look at the three elements that make up the TV election debate - the broadcaster, the moderator, and the politician. They come around every three years. Everything from the studio sets and the position of the podiums, to the colour of the ties, is carefully thought out; and then ...1 hour ago
By Keith Jackson The trend is your friend, it is said, and the trend in counting votes for the next president of Bougainville remains firmly with former Bougaiville Revolutionary Army commander Ishmael Toroama, who continues to move ahead of the field. With the elimination of the 14th presidential candidate late ...6 hours ago
A Government plan to charge people for emergency housing like motels was derailed by Covid-19, but will now come into effect two days after the election. ...6 hours ago
Thank you for your kind welcome. I am so proud to lead this great National Party in our first-ever virtual campaign launch. It is a bittersweet day. We should all be here together. But we all know why we aren’t. The rhetoric never matches the ...11 hours ago
The ACT Party is urging religious leaders who object to the End of Life Choice Act to respect the choices of others. ...13 hours ago
As if the UK doesn’t have enough trouble negotiating Brexit with the European Union, it has now entered the US presidential election campaign. Democrat candidate Joe Biden says there will be “no US-UK free trade agreement” if London tampers with the exit arrangements over Northern Ireland. House speaker Democrat Nancy ...20 hours ago
New Zealand's semi-official poet laureate Victor Billot pens topical verse every Sunday. Today: Billy Te Kahika Connecting the dots Good evening all! I hope you don’t easily scare. For what I will tell you will pin back your ears. I’m Billy T K (Junior), servant of truth. I’m all about ...23 hours ago
In the second of a weekly election diary, National's Hutt South MP Chris Bishop enjoys the culinary delights of the south and prepares for the party's fiscal plan launch. Labour MP Deborah Russell will also contribute each week. Trite but true: it’s been a funny old election campaign. Level 2 for ...1 day ago
As the Māori Party prompts debate around whether New Zealand should be officially named Aotearoa, Professor Kerry Howe examines our common usage and understanding of the term Should the name New Zealand be replaced by, or co-exist with Aotearoa? For Aotearoa, is it widely assumed, is the original ‘indigenous name’ for ...1 day ago
“..John Oliver Calls Out Sugar Industry..
..How much sugar are you eating?
Odds are you don’t know – and as John Oliver pointed out Sunday on ‘Last Week Tonight’ –
-it’s because food makers are doing their best to make sure you never find out..”
(cont..)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/27/john-oliver-sugar-peanuts_n_6052298.html
A good follow up to Nigel Latta’s expose of the sugar industry in NZ.
Katherine Rich ( ex Nat MP ) is the hired gun for the sugar industry.
I think they used Slater to attack people who questioned the sugar industry.
http://tvnz.co.nz/nigel-latta/index-group-6006369
rich pimps for the sugar-pushers..
..and other rightwinger/actite heather roy now pimps for big-pharma..
..classy..!..
..both of them earning their dirty-money by/for essentially..selling us out..
(and funny story..!..i had forgotten roys’ name..so i googled ‘act mp big-pharma’..)
..first link/hit..?..bingo..!..heather roy…)
Lewis Road Creamery Chocolate Milk, with queues of customers waiting for delivery every day. Each bottle contains 22 pieces of (delicious) Whittakers chocolate (half a chocolate slab).
Twenty two pieces …….. Glug glug glug.
A second drink, perhaps? Or a glass of coke to ‘wash it down’?
Could I please have a side order of diabetes?
Thanks Katherine.
Chocolate Milk comparison
(personal experiment)
it’s also measured as 82 grams..3+ ounces..or 21 teaspoons of sugar..
..it is like the crack of sugar..
..that’s what those idiots/fools/suckers are queuing to pay top-dollar for..
..’there’s one (a sucker) born every minute’..eh..?
..and today we can know them by their chosen/favoured brand of chocolate milk..
..eh..?
..(do we have sugar-lift-off..?..)
..(and those rushing out to buy/stock up on milk chocolate on the back of that research (funded by mars bars..(!)..)
..that chocolate is good for aging-minds/memories..
..should know those results were found after using almost pure cocao..
..which is sure as hell not what you get in the sugary-delights offered by..i dunno.!…milk-chocolate/the mars company..?..)
@ phillip ure (1.1.2.1)
The research referred to was some blind taste testing with dinner guests, that I carried out . Nothing to do with Mars. I was trying to understand if the queues could really be justified on the basis of taste, and also highlight the foolishness of the queues on the basis of health.
Keep on the good work talking about sugar.
Good one phillip. Sugar is a bad bad word. And thanks to Nigel Latta for his more detailed program.
Did anyone hear Key’s interview with Espiner on RNZ this morning?
It sounded to me like he was positioning us for military action.
Oh dear.
Yep he was floored by the question by Espiner about whether it was moral for NZ to enter the war. I thought he had difficulties understanding the concept of morality.
I have looked in vain for six years for any suggestions that Mr Key has a moral base. Right now the National Party is a convenient vehicle to satisfy his personal interests. Hopefully somone can explain why my view has no substance, as I would like to think better of him?
Made a career in currency trading. Made 50m in the financial sector. You have to have very selective morality to get as far as he did…
There are no flawlessly ethical guys at the top of banking or money market trading… they are loophole boys, rationalisers of untruths.
He’s no doubt worth far, far more than $50M now.
To get that far in finance you pretty much have to have no morality.
I think he has said himself that he is not an “ideology” type of person. The only thing I recall he has said he that believes in are asset sales. Is there another living NZer that cannot recall what they thought about the Springbok tour? When he first came out with this I thought he was lying. Now I actually believe it.
is pursuit of money at any cost an ideology?
A common trait in psychopaths.
Yep one of his answers to ‘is it moral’ was “It is if we agree to that.” So what is moral is what we agree is moral.
That might be an interesting philosophical stance on ethics al la David Hume, but I for one would like a stance less cynical from our leader that doesn’t smack of focus group analysis on this issue. Higher standards anyone?
“Higher standards anyone?”
Bahahaha that’s a fucking myth.
not quite… it is in the cabinet manual so it is real.
I don’t think he has any idea. He is totally amoral. I can recognise it because I was like that until I grew up a bit in my late 20s. As far as his philosophy goes, it’s a weird mix of Aleister Crowley and Nietsche, mixed with a desire for acceptance from those he worships. As a human being, he is hugely dysfunctional.
Of course he is Paul.
And to make matters worse Key knew he would be doing this if re-elected yet he deceitfully declined to raise the matter during the election.
Key is going to bring war and death into our country.
Why is that such a surprise, the ‘terror’ narrative arrived within a week of the election duely pushed by the MSM muppets so top diversionary tactic whilst the RMA, employment, exploration and sell offs etc etc continue.
kiwi soldiers bodies being returned home will be another unwanted legacy of key as he marches them off and increases our risk once we engage.
this govt has no moral compass just a monetary one.
when key was saying earlier this year that he ‘had no intention of taking nz into another middle-east war’..
..i was writing/calling ‘bullshit!’ on that..
..and that if re-elected..that five minutes later key would morph into spear-carrier/war-monger for america..
..to me at the time..it seemed the bleeding obvious..
..i am actually surprised people are surprised that this is how it has turned out..
..as key now marches us into yet another intractable sectarian/religious-war..as americas’ mercenaries..
..killing more arabs..for america..again..
..and of course..in the process..painting a big fucken bulls-eye on nz..
..as a soft-target for retaliatory-attacks..(!)
(of course key also lied until the un seat was secured..playing the peacemaker up until then..did anyone else also notice that..?..)
..and 21,000 civilians were killed by the invading/occupying forces in afghanistan..
..i wonder how many were killed in our name..?
If the gummint has a monetary compass I wish they would set up an expedition, go and find it and pay the workers better!!
This morning on the news about David cameron the journalist said all western leaders were on high alert since the canadian parliament incident.
I was at dinner sunday evening when the Pm arrived. There was no pre dinner sweep of the restaurant, he arrived with his wife and son, alone. NO guards, none of his special big boys. They were not discreetly outside they were nowhere…
So, NOT on high alert here.
BUT maybe he was dining as John Key the man, and not PM. The terrorists will probably respect that distinction aye?
He needs to be truthful. This isn’t about NZers, it is that he believes we should play a part alongside our allies. There are many who agree with that thinking so why not just say it, Honest John?
Perhaps Tracey, Key was having a last meal before sending his son off to fight war against ISIS …….
I’ve said before, how many of the jingoistic types will send their own children. I note, John Keys daughter the right age to fight – should she not be running off to basic?
no – no – no – no..!
..armchair-warriors always send other peoples’ children to war..
..and funny story..!..they are usually the children of the poor..
..those children who are sent to war..
..no parnell boys there..
Seeing Key would have spoilt my meal. In fact, it would have spoilt my whole evening.
i didnt see him… heads turned, conversations lowered and my right wing dad and his wife said he had arrived. he sat at a table behind me. i had eaten so it was just a question of keeping it down.
when i stood to leave, i was so tempted to say lousd enough
“i see the terror threat is very low tonight”… but didnt
he has good taste in restaurants. hes come in before when i was there…
not suggesting he is stalking me
“he sat at a table behind me”
I would have farted loudly. Would have been the “morally right” thing to do.
and you cd tell him that fart did not come from you as you..
..(i am sure he would understand..)
lol
But Tracey did you notice the casually dressed but awkward bloke who came in a few minutes before maybe with a companion, who could have been man or a woman, and the lone diner who came in a bit later or who stayed hanging around the door or feigned interest in the shop windows in the vicinity.
Key is paranoid, but increasingly aware that more NZers think the whole “entourage” thing is preposterous posing
hmmmm….i hang around the minties bowl myself
The entourage thing is US-style politics invading New Zealand. Have you seen the motorcades that travel with the likes of Eric Holder? Not even the President.
I bet Steven Joyce et al. are frothing at the mouth for a personal security detail.
I wonder whether David Parker has demanded a team from the Diplomatic Protection Squad to travel with him all the time now he is the (acting) leader of the party? Cunliffe wanted them around all the time. Perhaps he thought it made him seem important.
Actually perhaps Cunliffe was worried about the other members of his caucus. It would seem justified wouldn’t it?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10470344/Campaign-Diary-Monday-September-8
maybe but key is the one saying we are under threat from terrorists while standing down his security
“Dirty Journalism” post by Bat Bean Beam is a must read. Asks all the right questions about journalists in NZ and the failure to change anything substantial since the release of Hager’s Dirty Politics book:
hooton prounounced hager NOT a journalist today. so i guess tgat ends the argument
An Unfair Wages System
For a lot of people, those in the lower decile, as productivity has risen their wages have actually gone down.
It’s a simple fact that, if everything else remains the same, as productivity increases wages must decline. This government and all governments going back to the 4th Labour government have been working to keep everything else the same in the name of stability and with that has come the inevitable decrease in bargaining power and remuneration.
Oh, look, IT just increased productivity, had nothing to do with employees!
I must be due a bonus, and my banker can leverage the new ongoing wealth to sustain even higher valuations.
It must be great to live in a world when citizens are widgets, expendable moveable parts, where discourse about finance is all about how wealth is mismeasird and allotted to a shrinking class of super rich and their hanger on-ers.
Key screws us all, locking away choice.
Help Shut Down the Illegal and extremely cruel Dog Meat Trade in Thailand. Watch the video to understand what is happening there.
Please act immediately to stop thousands of dogs from being tortured and butchered for their meat.
Every aspect of the dog meat trade in Southeast Asia is horrifically cruel.
You can save thousands of dogs from unspeakable pain by adding your name to Soi Dog’s global petition. It calls on Thailand’s leaders to crack down hard on the criminals who profit from the agony of animals.
https://savedogs.soidog.org/petition
@ clem..
..a slight amendment/edit could be needed there..
“..Every aspect of the meat trade is horrifically cruel..”
..there ya go..!
..fixed now..!
..we wouldn’t want selective/speciesist-outrage to break out..would we now..?
..i mean..!..people might choke on their bacon..
..so..”..Please act immediately to stop thousands of dogs(pigs/calves/chooks etc.) from being tortured and butchered for their meat..”
..we should try for consistancy..eh..?
I just ate a bacon sandwich. It was delicious.
What can you say to a response like that.
You could say “Now I want some bacon too”?
No thanks. I would hate to think I would be as insensitive and lacking in empathy as you are.
You got that from a bacon sandwich?
yep..!
Amazing
no ‘amazing’..you are the modern equivalent of the slave-owner..
..thinking animals are just there for you to do whatever you like to them..
..that they have no ‘rights’ as sentient-beings..
..to be treated with respect/humanely..
..much the same way slave-owners scoffed at the very idea of their human-slaves having any ‘rights’..
..what do you find so hard to understand about that..?
..are you really that unthinking/dull..?
Slavery now? Of course, it is just like slavery dear.
The modern equivalent of slavery is slavery. It’s pretty gross to exploit the utter dehumanisation of actual humans in order to make a cheap shock-value attack on people who eat things you don’t like.
it’s a shame the power-imbalance prevents me from replying to you..
“it’s a shame the power-imbalance prevents me from replying to you..”
Don’t you mean your yellow streak and insipid fortitude?
I got a desire to eat a bacon sandwich…
Fuck. Now I’m really hungry.
nom nom
Even conservative John Armstrong has something bad to say about National’s housing ‘reform’ (read: sell off all the shit to our corporate funders for pennies on the dollar). Armstrong refers to the policy as ideological for ideology’s sake.
National is continuing its policy of strip mining all the assets of the state, thus breaking a promise it made that there would be no more selling. They are behaving like a mafia that has taken over a business to squeeze every last dollar out of it before they send it into bankruptcy.
History tells us that the invisible hand is NOT the best solution to social problems. One of the main jobs of Government is dealing with the negative externalities the invisible hand creates in the first place, which is in essence what state housing is an example of – Providing where the market can’t, or won’t without the introduction of overbearing regulation.
Interesting read:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/john-armstrong/news/article.cfm?a_id=3&objectid=11347878
only cos we are past the election and he is getting his balance reporting in now to refer back to nearer the next election
Money Wars, A Race To The Bottom And Massive Wealth Transfer Or Why The $ 523 Billion Printed In August 2012 Is Bad News For New Zealanders
They sold $521 million in August this year. Only a thousand times less, and 2 years later.
Isis will “rain carnage on the world”, Prime Minister John Key tells us today … but he has yet to make a decision on whether NZ troops will go.
What sort of apocalyptic theology does he subscribe to these days ? Revelations ?
Will a NZ SAS haka have any effect on the Saudis and Qataris who used Chlorine at Kobane ? Is he referring to ballistic mass destruction ?
He may wish retire to a professorship in strategic decision making at Auckland University.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11349273&ref=rss
“Rain carnage on the world”?
Isn’t this phrase indicative of the breathtaking level of arrogance of our current PM – given the carnage unremittedly being dropped from the sky creating vast civilian casualties is primarily and immorally being committed by his US “allies”?
The carnage being rained is a direct result of the insane invasion of Iraq which Key wanted NZ to be part of. So we could sell more butter to the yanks. Still need to shift more of it…
Did he himself actually come up with that turn of phrase? Seriously?
He’s just making sure that when we send our troops over, we know we’re doing A Good Thing, because otherwise we might have some public pressure to the contrary.
Last time I looked, it was nation states with developed economies, and strong military forces that were capable of raining carnage on the world, not a bunch of Koran waving teenagers with a couple of stolen MiGs.
Millsy, we are very selective about which people who are doing harm in the world that we should visit with our strong military forces, that as you say are capable of raining carnage on the world. Let us not forget that Vietnam received triple the bombing that took place in all of WWII !
In relationship to all this, I wonder what certain elements of society today would have called the men who went as volunteers to Spain to fight Franco’s fascists. Is that similar to the young men fighting with the Islamic State? Were those Spanish War volunteers idealists and defenders of freedom or were they brainwashed, radicalised terrorists?
Would our present Government have considered a military intervention into Republican Spain then?
It is the remuneration packages of bank CEOs that have been out of control. They are the ones who are left unchecked and will rain carnage on the world.
I read on wikipedia that John Key’s Dad went to fight in the Spanish civil war
Well, well, I never knew that. George Key. My use of the Spanish Civil War analogy was entirely outside of that information. (And that’s no John Key-style memory lapse. His techniques for avoidance of issues are well criticised in tonight’s Marlborough Express editorial, by the way).
“Fight for the filthy commo’s, no way”.
Remember that those who fought against Franco were reviled by the establishment, who thought that fascism, which got rid of those “pesky communist trade unions”, was a good idea.
Right up until Poland was invaded, and their skills were needed.
[deleted]
[lprent: I have no real objections to you placing these links here (all about ISIS, chemical weapons, and Kurds). However I do have a strong objection to you link-whoring them on our site for promoting google links. You haven’t provided a reason in the form of a paragraph or two for the people on this site why they should click into them.
This site values the opinions of those who comment here. We don’t value straight linking with no explanations. ]
Strange thing though, I imagine that there are many more young people willing to take up arms against IS than the few odd entrails that media manage to find have signed for IS.
Re. “link-whoring them on our site for promoting google links.”
.. they all linked to newspaper media sources, as I remember it, not google. A link is just an economical way of doing it ..
Putting raw links in a comment is most commonly used by bots and spam artists to increase google scores. When I look at a list of raw links that is what I presume.
There are many other search and meta-search engines out there besides google. I find google very limited, predictable, and constricting these days and try to broaden my sources. In this case I used
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/World+News/Middle+East/Syria?JavaScript=1&searchheadlines=&search=Aleppo
.. but because it is continually updating it seems to use a lot of bandwidth.
Key: Action against IS ‘morally right’
http://www.3news.co.nz/politics/key-action-against-is-morally-right-2014102810
Odd statement coming from a compulsive liar.
Not at all, brazenly claiming the moral high ground is standard practice for compulsive liars.
And Key gets away with it too.
Moral is a word beloved of the Hasbara Zionists. The IDF is a moral army, Israel acts morally, etc….. Key is on the same side, so it’s no surprise to see the word being misused here as well. It’s a favourite term of immoral liars.
Good point. Plenty of more conservative lefties and left leaning intellectuals will nod sagely with the PM though. What could be more worthy than a ‘just’ war?
Not strictly politics, but good comedic analysis – and it’s just so damn funny. Key and Peele alien imposters
Questions for oral answer today:
More questions to the PM on his communications with Slater – aimed at Key doing this in his role as PM.
Questions on workplace safety; state and social housing; TVNZ outsourcing it’s Māori & Pacific content.
*Yawn*
Oh sorry are we still talking about the thing that the opposition parties complained about stealing all oxygen during the election?
Jolly good then, carry on.
Are you from North Korea? Prefer licking the boots of the Great Leader?
In this country some still believe in this quaint notion called ‘democracy’, where the government is accountable to the people.
He won’t have read Dirty Politics
He will ignore all evidence on any subject which counters his limited self interested and parochial viewpoint.
He will rely on anecdotes to support his points.
He will aim tok provoke.
He’s unlikely to admit the only reason he voted for the Tories is naked self interest.
In short, he is not worth debating with.
I believe very much in democracy especially the last election where the people of NZ (well enough of them anyway) told you exactly what they think of so-called dirty politics and voted National back in
1 million people did not vote.
here’s who voted for National. It’s democracy as borderline failure. Funny you should like that so much chris.
If you think an elected dictator every 3 years is cool and nobody should ask questions and the media should just be a propaganda tool,
then you are a f*cken tool as well mate.
+1 ropata.
There is a little bit of Slater in everybody…my conclusion from that result.
Far be it for me to agree with a curmudgeon, but check out Gavin Ellis? (Elice?) on the regular gal’s NinetoNoon today. Completely on the mark – and couple that with the recent TVNZ decision.
When I get around to it, it may form a question on another post re what the fuck are prospective Labour Party candidates going to do about our media, and in particular PSB.
I’m hopeful I’ll hear that there will be some sort of bipartisan mechanism that protects our 4th Estate (not that we have one), and our public sphere. AND such a mechanism that bypasses old hacks and self-interested old boy/gal networks.
Personally, I believe there is such a mechanism, and one that not only recognises individuals’ true worth, and one that puts back a citizenry’s RIGHT.
(Might take one or two ex-pats to return home, and they can be convinced – AND one which is somewhat more ambitious than a CBB – which I have to support, but regard as JUST a little namby pamby – otherwise known as a co-alascence of a 3rd Way)
EDIT: What the fuck ever happened to protest, and journalistic integrity?
Rock stars do really die much younger than the general population.
So what about a so-called rock star economy when compared with other economies?
Good quip from a listener on Raionz yesterday.
NZ has a rock star economy because as usual the managers have run off with the money.
DTB put up a link on housing in the USA on Alternet. Very good reporting with anecdotes and background. http://www.alternet.org/hard-times-usa/turning-public-housing-over-private-developers-has-unfortunate-consequences?page=0%2C2
While I was there I saw this piece by Paul Krugman on the USA decline into stasis and ‘starvation in the midst of plenty’.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/paul-krugman-how-gops-ideology-destroying-americas-future
“America used to be a country that built for the future,” Krugman opens, somewhat mournfully. “Sometimes the government built directly: Public projects, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate Highway System, provided the backbone for economic growth. Sometimes it provided incentives to the private sector, like land grants to spur railroad construction. Either way, there was broad support for spending that would make us richer.”
Not any more. These days, our government steadfastly refuses to invest in the country’s future.
It isn’t as if there’s no cash to do so. Seven years after the housing bubble burst, “the country is awash in savings,” Krugman writes, “with nowhere to go.” Corporations and banks are holding on to trillions in excess reserves that are simply sitting idle. State governments are strapped, yes, but the federal government, with its ability to borrow money cheaply, could easily help them out.
(if watching replays of q-time..i wouldn’t bother much past question five..if i were you..
..norman under-performed/delivered..
..king got follow-up question of the day..(referencing/comparing collins/key..vis a vis ‘ministerial-responsibility’..
..and this:..
(excerpt..)
‘..and english slam-dunks him/labour by noting labour signed up to the social-accord in 2013..which detailed this dismantling/devolution of the state houses asset..(!)
..(ed:..i didn’t know that..did you..?..that labour signed up to this..?..whoar..!..)..’
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/new-zealand-parliament-list-of-questions-for-oral-answer-tuesday-28-october-2014/
laugh-out-loud appearance on panel from rodeo-pimp..
..quote:..’rodeo are leaders in animal welfare’…
..when in fact..they are ritualised animal-abuse/torture..
..and the rodeo-pimp made a real horses’-arse of trying to defend what they do..
..making farcical-claims that the animals ‘like it’..(!)..
John Robertson, Professor of Media Politics at the University of West Scotland, on media bias in the Scottish Independence Referendum …..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajd4R-9BEIw
Some of his arguments towards the end of the clip (on the Establishment Media’s demonization of Opposition Leaders) has particular relevance for New Zealand.
here..the greens and labour just seemed relieved that harawira was ‘it’..
..and not them..
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11349388
– Woohoo! Good to see NZ companies doing well
As far as OceanaGold is concerned, I’m happier to go with the Guardian and call it Australian. It’s not particularly good to see any company threatening a sovereign country, especially one which has been kept dirt poor by corruption and foreign business.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/03/australian-mining-is-poisoning-el-salvador-it-could-soon-send-it-broke-too
A couple of minor corrections and additions to your report.
1. Oceana Gold is not a NZ company. It is just another foreign owned company making money out of NZ.
2. It is poisoning El Salvador’s water.
3. It is using a free trade agreement to sue the El Salvador government.
“Oceana Gold is claiming that under the US-central America free trade agreement, it has a “right” to compel mining or be compensated for loss of profits. In response, the company will today be handed a petition signed by 200,000 opponents to its attempt to force gold mining in El Salvador.”
But who cares. Some selfish shareholders are making heaps of money out of polluting the earth and screwing over a people.
Woohoo, as you put it so intelligently chris 73.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/03/australian-mining-is-poisoning-el-salvador-it-could-soon-send-it-broke-too
And Mighty River Power and Meridian were stolen from us.
All that chart demonstrates is the level of the theft.
Stolen? No I think you’ll find NZ still has majority shareholding but if it makes you feel better I’m doing better out of it
As long as you are ok.
That’s all that matters, isn’t it.
Simply put yes, yes it does…except for the little issue of its not a case of me doing well therefore no one else can do well instead its a case of I’m doing well and everyone else can do well if they so choose
The problem with the left in general is you all think that for someone to do well (whatever the definition of doing well is) it has to be at the expense of someone else
Whereas the inconvenient truth of the matter is that everyone can do well if they choose to but most choose not to
actually, if you bought power shares you are doing well at the expense of everyone else, in the form of increased overseas debt the government pays because of the reduced dividend take.
Ah, the old myth of pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps. Works pretty well when you can afford a Harvard education, or you went to school with the PM, or your brother is the Speaker of the House…
It also works pretty well if you’re the son of a cleaner and a sickness bene, who went to a state school
Utter nonsense.
“Restaurant Brands is a fast food company based in New Zealand and is listed on the NZ Stock Exchange as RBD. It operates most of New Zealand’s KFC, Pizza Hut, Carl’s Jr. and Starbucks stores and provides management and support services to New Zealand’s independent KFC franchisees. It holds the New Zealand franchise for KFC and Pizza Hut from Yum Restaurants and Starbucks from Starbucks USA.”
So just a subsidiary and a franchise of a massive US company owned by large multinational banks.
“Yum! Brands, Inc. or Yum! is an American fast food company. A Fortune 500 corporation, Yum operates the licensed brands Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Wing Street worldwide. Prior to 2011, Yum! also owned Long John Silver’s and A&W Restaurants.”
You can always look up Starbucks Shareholders ….
http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/sbux/institutional-holdings#ixzz3HQ11PYg1
Looks really NZ owned, chris 73.
Do you understand how capitalism works nowadays?
In your defence, Liam Dann, who wrote the article comes out looking like a fool too.
Or a puppet.
It’s just you should know by now not to believe what you read in the Herald.
The shares I have are in the power companies so your points are moot
They were stolen from ordinary New Zealanders.
Nope sorry they weren’t, they were offered at a fair price and the controlling majority were kept by the government and there been two elections thus far that have returned National to be power
The people have spoken, deal with it.
James Shaw, the new Green Party MP’s maiden speech in parliament,
ahem, you listening Labour? (and Russel Norman).
There’s a lot of chatter on twitter about Shaw being into market force. A bit worrying.
yeah..he’s a rightwinger..
..(support a national gummint..?..you betcha..!..)
Yes, Shaw is in the section of the Green Party that see a future working with National. They are still in a minority but do have influence. Julie-Ann Genter and Russel Norman are in this group also, but are not quite as right as Shaw.
I am still appalled that Norman said in the minor leader’s debate that the politician he most admired in another party was Bill (sell off state houses) English.
I’ve always had some criticisms of Norman’s values.
Actually. In the speech, Shaw doesn’t say he’s a fan of “market forces”. He says he’s a fan of “the market”; that the cause of destructive climate change is economic, but the solution is political. He said the market is not sentient, and we need to tell it what to do.
I have heard before that people generally rate him as pretty right wing.
So, he’s into regulated markets. He cites the abolition of slavery (having outlined the various strand of his whakapapa, which includes a female slave in the US).
He also talked of his mother raising him and his siblings on her teacher’s salary, as well as saying he was raised by his mother and her female partner. He spoke in praise of suffragettes and stroppy activist women.
Even those Greens who have rightish economic views are still a lot smarter and more socially enlightened than the right of the Labour Party (Cosgrove, O’Connor etc).
I’m just listening now. He’s saying some prettty radical stuff eg that nature has inherent rights. His stuff about the expansion of rights is very good (how they are feared but the fears prove unfounded in time).
and yeah, interesting re his statement that he likes the market, which he follows by saying that the market needs to be controlled. He says that for setting prices and allocating scarce resources it’s better than the alternatives. It would be good to see him do actual comparisons with the alternatives.
The guy has serious problem solving intelligence and skills, I can see why the GP have promoted him. Very good speech.
I was also appalled at Russel Norman’s snuggling up to the Nats. Because of that I changed my vote from Greens to Labour and wonder if that comment lost them many votes at the election. Politics is in a woeful state at the moment.
I will probably vote reluctantly for Andrew Little in the Labour Leader contest, dont like any of the others in the running but is a worry when I cant even say to myself that I will vote for Greens if the outcome isn’t what I prefer.
Well, it’s the likes of Metiria Turei, Catherine Delahunty, and Jan Logie in the Greens that keep me voting Green. i’d also like to see Jack McDonald and Marama Davidson in the House.
But it is hard to decide who to vote for when I have criticisms of every party on the “left”.
@ karen..
“..I am still appalled that Norman said in the minor leader’s debate that the politician he most admired in another party was Bill (sell off state houses) English…”
yeah..that one is still echoing/bedding-in…
..and yeah..macdonald and davidson have both impressed..
“There’s a lot of chatter on twitter about Shaw being into market force. A bit worrying.”
I think it is inevitable with the Greens. Unless the left organises a progressive movement pretty damn quick, the party will work with whatever it can, including market forces. Norman of course is also into using the market to effect change.
It will be an interesting dilemma for the Greens. There is this idea that they’re neither left nor right (I think Lynn once used the imagery of them being vertical to the horizontal axis of the traditional left/right spectrum). I tend to see them as trying to move beyond the left/right gulf (which is why the whole ‘we can work with anyone on policy’ thing is so important to them). I have some sympathy for this because the left appears to be failing to stop neoliberalism and proto-fascism. Not that I think the left is necessarily at fault, but that we may need other things as well.
I’ll try and download Shaw’s speech later so I can see what all the fuss is about.
i also empathise. i think they are trying to go beyond left right dichotomy and are saying that whoever is in power and wants to advance policies the green party advocate they will work with.
that is not the same as being “right”
it seems to me that there is no single solution to many of our big problems but amalgams which most of our parties dont want a bar of.
It’s the same as doing what the Maori Party does, without the cabinet posts. It’s hugely dangerous, but then again, I also consider any collaboration with Labour since 1984 as working with the right.
@ murray..
“..I also consider any collaboration with Labour since 1984 as working with the right…”
..aye..!
the greens memorandum with national has resulted in over 400,000 homes being more insulated.
there has been a pilot scheme for a building wof
both things done by parties not around the cabinet table and with no outside cabinet baubles either.
far too little credit, and too many brickbats, get thrown for this. insulating homes is a step toward homes affects health improvements for the poorer amongst us
“It’s the same as doing what the Maori Party does,”
Except the Māori party is actually right wing.
I don’t buy that line about moving beyond left and right. The MO of working for consensus and collaborative rather than being into competitive game-playing is to me a left wing value.
I think people like Shaw =, saying they are beyond political partisanship, and being into working with whoever for solutions to the big problems, are deluded.
They ignore that there are those out to maintain their power and privilege, and will resists any changes that challenge that – even if it damages the whole planet.
Slavery, for instance, never really went away, the capitalists used the market for exploit people in new ways.
i am not even sure it is a left wing value given the labour caucus consider itself left wing.
it is possible that people can believe they are moving beyond left and right in an attempt to place the value or ethic pursued above any exterior label. they may or may not achieve that but it doesnt change the intent. intent is often more key than outcome whether that outcome is negative or positive. the greens appear to be trying to place their policies, the intent above traditional labels. i admire the attempts given the people and process they are surrounded by
Well, I don’t see the current Labour caucus as being into consensus building and collaborative approaches.
There’s a strong element within that caucus that are into approaching politics as combative game playing. Very different from the approach of the Greens.
oh i agree but many behaving that way will consider themselves left wing.
i hesitate to say this but collaborative and consensus, imo, is a feminine trait rather than left or right wing… and before anyone leaps on that by feminine i mean as opposed to masculine not women versus men.
I see a collaborative approach as being more dominant on the left. I also see it as being more common among women. But, there are also some pretty competitive, combative, individualistic and right wing women: Judith Collins, for example.
yup, she uses some masculine characteristics as part of her methodology.
we are none of us, in my opinion all masculine or all feminine.
Well, i think it’s a cultural thing. And I think many upperclass or upper middleclass women are used to tell others what to do.
For me, traditional human communities have always functioned with both conservative and liberal elements. While I also see the intent to shift beyone game playing and power-over structures as being more naturally left, I think that conservatives can also work collaboratively (I’m not talking about neoliberals or fundamentalists). The GP moving beyond left/right doesn’t mean they leave left wing values or skills behind.
“I think people like Shaw =, saying they are beyond political partisanship, and being into working with whoever for solutions to the big problems, are deluded.”
That’s a somewhat different thing than what I was talking about. I think that in principle we could have multi-party accords on some things (across the left/right divide), and to an extent this already happens within MMP. But in practice it won’t happen much because NACT’s agenda is so extreme and because we live in an MMP age where taking out opponents is part of the process (aka cutting off one’s nose to spite’s one face).
and we now have labour talking about 50% of the vote… FPP thinking
has that been said recently?
in the recesses of my memory i think it was parker… am happy to be corrected
How Pinkwashing is Creating More Cancer
Komen is supposed to be curing breast cancer. So why is its pink ribbon on so many carcinogenic products?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/10/21/komen-is-supposed-to-be-curing-breast-cancer-so-why-is-its-pink-ribbon-on-so-many-carcinogenic-products/?hpid=z11
Good link, and great to see the Washington Post covering this.
A question for any IT geeks around. Is there a technical reason for not having platforms that allow multiple logins at the same time on the same computer/browser (eg gmail, twitter etc)? Or is it that developpers don’t see the need?
MS Outlook 2013
what?
I can do it. However, there is something that happens with gmail that it locks into one gmail account from my computer some times.
It can be undone – forget how – maybe clear cache, start again, and untick something -“stay logged in”?
Google pisses me off. It tries to link everything I do, under diverse identities, to each other.
Oh, and to use different logins simultaneously – try using different browsers for each log in.
yes I know how to use different browsers, my question is if there is a technical reason why it can’t be done on the same app.
How do you login to two different gmail accounts in the same browser? When I do that, gmail just logs me out of the first one, once I’m in the second one.
in gmail using a web browser, click on the person-shaped icon (top right) and click “add account”. Each account is opened in a different tab in firefox.
Brilliant! thanks. Interestingly, that doesn’t work if I open a new tab manually, go to the login page, and then add another account that way.
So that answers the question. There appears to be no technical reason to not design for this. ie it could be done on other platforms too.
I suspect it involves cookies that link each session on the website to the specific tab, so on the flipside it might not work so well for sites whose users like to open the browser, go to the site and straight into their account with no further clicks.
Of course, all of the above are security workarounds that mean anyone using your machine can open your accounts, so you might not want to do it with any emails you conduct business on.
It’s by design, for security and convenience (in most use cases – not yours though!).
The Gmail login page creates an “authentication” cookie, so when you open a new tab Google knows you are logged in already. And when you open your other Gmail account, a new Gmail cookie is created which supersedes the previous one.
You may wonder why opening a different browser does what you want. It’s because they don’t share cookies among one another. Each browser (Firefox, IE, Chrome, Safari, etc.) has a separate set of cookies.
Email clients like Outlook or Thunderbird should make it easier to collect your email from different accounts.
More details here.
Thanks. I understand why using different browsers works (cookies).
I’m still not clear if there is a technical reason multiple logins can’t be used on one platform. How is it a security issue? And in this day and age, how is it a convenience issue?
“Clients like Outlook or Thunderbird should make it easier to collect your email from different accounts.”
Can I send from the different gmail accounts using Outlook?
It’s not about making it easier to collect email. It’s about being able to work in two or more different logins at once. eg working with googledocs, I’ve been logged in on a community group account and my own account, which requires me currently to use two browsers.
Cookies are per-website not per-account. If you had 2 cookies for the same website there’s a good chance the browser will mix up the account details when sending email.
Outlook is able to send & receive from different accounts no probs.
“Outlook is able to send & receive from different accounts no probs.”
Different gmail accounts?
“So that’s why websites don’t do it”
Except the others just demonstrated it’s possible in gmail (above) 😉
I hear what you are saying abotu cookies, just not sure why some other system can’t be used.
Bloody McFlock showed me up! 😮
A cookie is just a simple little text file stored on your computer, not having to log in everywhere you go is part of the convenience they offer.
Something like LastPass (browser addon) is a possible alternative
cheers 🙂
Technically: multiple sessions in one browser are possible, but almost always a bad idea! So that’s why websites don’t do it 😛
‘Canadian Green MP warns against harsh anti-terror measures’
By Keith Locke / October 28, 2014
“Canada’s Green Party has provided a welcome counterpoint to Prime Minister Harper’s call for tougher anti-terrorism laws in the wake of a soldier outside the Canadian Parliament…
– See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/10/28/canadian-green-mp-warns-against-harsh-anti-terror-measures/#sthash.Weky26Uy.dpuf
How many times does it need to be said that it was not terrorism.
It was an act of war in a country that has been at war for 13 years. Unless can someone prove otherwise. Or just silly gormless soundbites for te news. probably
The latest news I’ve heard on Canada is that Toronto heavyweight Rob Ford was going to stand again for Mayor? but became ill, and at the last minute his brother stepped into his place. So how will Toronto vote?