Open mike 28/10/2014
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6:48 am, October 28th, 2014 - 167 comments
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- Working together to protect businesses and workersAs New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...4 days ago
- State of National Emergency declared to fight COVID-19A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...4 days ago
- Prime Minister’s statement on State of National Emergency and Epidemic NoticeMr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...4 days ago
- Deadline for domestic travel extendedPeople needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...5 days ago
- Mortgage holiday and business finance support schemes to cushion COVID impactsThe Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...5 days ago
- Government working to keep air freight movingMinister of Transport Phil Twyford has today announced details of the Government’s support package to keep key air freight moving and ensure New Zealanders retain access to essential goods during the four-week level 4 lockdown. “The Government is working with airlines and air freight operators to ensure New Zealand’s key ...5 days ago
- New Zealand moves to COVID-19 Alert Level 3, then Level 4 in 48 hoursNew Zealand moved up to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 – Restrict New Zealand to move up to COVID-19 Alert Level 4 – Eliminate, in 48 hours Two-staged approach to give people and businesses time to prepare Level 3, from tomorrow Non-essential businesses must close All events and gatherings must be ...6 days ago
- Prime Minister: COVID-19 Alert Level increasedGood afternoon The Cabinet met this morning to discuss our next actions in the fight against COVID-19. Like the rest of the world, we are facing the potential for devastating impacts from this virus. But, through decisive action, and through working together, do we have a small window to get ...6 days ago
- Govt takes significant economic decisions as NZ readies for Alert Level 4 in COVID-19 fightThe Government is announcing significant further support for the economy, workers and businesses as the country unites to prepare for Alert Level 4 in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet today agreed to remove the cap on the Government’s wage subsidy scheme, which will inject a further $4 billion into the ...6 days ago
- Govt backs RBNZ move to support economy with lower interest ratesThe Government is backing the Reserve Bank’s latest action to support the economy by reducing longer-term interest rates, meaning lower costs for businesses and mortgage holders, and a lower currency to help our exporters. The Minister of Finance has signed a memorandum of understanding and a letter of indemnity with ...7 days ago
- Government statement on commercial cooperation during COVID-19The Government has asked the Commerce Commission to take account of the exceptional circumstances created by COVID-19 when monitoring business behaviour in coming weeks. “The purpose of my request to the Commerce Commission is to make sure businesses can work together in ways that will allow them to provide ...1 week ago
- New Zealand temporarily closes diplomatic posts in Barbados and Myanmar due to COVID-19The New Zealand Government has temporarily closed its High Commission in Bridgetown, Barbados and its Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Due to the increasing scarcity of air links in and out of Bridgetown and Yangon, and the pressure COVID-19 is placing ...1 week ago
- Supporting Māori communities and businesses throughAssociate Health and Whānau Ora Minister Peeni Henare has today announced the Government’s plan to support Māori communities and businesses in the face of COVID-19. “Our Government’s $12.1 billion economic package will help many Māori whānau, workers and businesses, whether it’s through wage subsidies, income support and worker redeployment, or ...1 week ago
- Guidelines for hospitality establishments releasedThe Government and the hospitality industry have worked together to produce guidelines to assist with managing and reducing transmission of COVID-19, Health Minister David Clark announced today. The guidelines developed between the Government, Hospitality New Zealand and SkyCity Entertainment Group, set out how the new restrictions on physical distancing and ...1 week ago
- Nation steps up to COVID-19 Alert Level 2Four stage Alert System for COVID-19 announced New Zealand moved up to COVID-19 Alert Level 2 – Reduce Contact New Zealanders over 70 and those with certain medical conditions told to stay at home as much as they can to reduce risk of contact with the virus Workplaces to implement ...1 week ago
- PM Address – Covid-19 UpdateKia ora koutou katoa I’m speaking directly to all New Zealanders today to give you as much certainty and clarity as we can as we fight Covid-19. Over the past few weeks, the world has changed. And it has changed very quickly. In February it would have seemed unimaginable to ...1 week ago
- NZ and Singapore commit to keeping supply and trade links open, including on essential goods and med...New Zealand and Singapore have jointly committed to keep supply chains open and to remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker welcomed the commitment. “This is an important collective response, and ...1 week ago
- Joint Ministerial Statement by Singapore and New Zealand -Covid-19 situationJOINT MINISTERIAL STATEMENT BY SINGAPORE AND NEW ZEALAND AFFIRMING COMMITMENT TO ENSURING SUPPLY CHAIN CONNECTIVITY AMIDST THE COVID-19 SITUATION The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis. As part of our collective response to combat COVID-19, Singapore and New Zealand are committed to maintaining open and connected supply chains. We ...1 week ago
- Transit between Australia and New ZealandTravel restrictions, closing our border to almost all travelers came into force from 23:59 on Thursday 19 March 2020 (NZDT). All airlines were informed of these restrictions before they came into force. Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says “The transit of passengers between Australia and New Zealand has been agreed upon and ...1 week ago
- $100 million to redeploy workersThe Government has allocated $100 million to help redeploy workers affected by the economic impact of COVID-19, with the hard-hit region of Gisborne-Tairāwhiti to be the first helped, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford, Forestry and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. Phil Twyford ...1 week ago
- More support for wood processingThe Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is ramping up support for Tairāwhiti’s wood processing sector to bolster the region’s economy at a time of heightened uncertainty, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. Following earlier announcements today of a regional support package for Tairāwhiti, Minister Jones has also announced a ...1 week ago
- Govt steps in to protect Air New ZealandThe Coalition Government has stepped in to protect Air New Zealand with a significant financial deal that protects essential routes and allows the company to keep operating. The Government and Air New Zealand have agreed a debt funding agreement through commercial 24-month loan facilities of up to $900 million*. The ...1 week ago
- Stronger border measures to protect NZers from COVID-19The Government has taken further measures to protect New Zealanders from the COVID-19 virus, effectively stopping all people from boarding a plane to New Zealand from 11:59pm today, except for returning New Zealanders, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. New Zealanders’ partners, legal guardians or any dependent children travelling with ...1 week ago
- Action on indoor gatherings and events to protect public healthThe Government has reinforced its commitment to protecting the health of New Zealanders from COVID-19 through the cancellation of indoor events with more than 100 people. “Protecting the health of New Zealanders is our number one priority, and that means we need to reduce the risks associated with large gatherings,” ...1 week ago
- New Zealanders advised not to travel overseasThe New Zealand Government is advising New Zealanders not to travel overseas due to COVID-19, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “We are raising our travel advice to the highest level: do not travel,” Mr Peters said. “This is the first time the New Zealand Government has advised New Zealanders ...1 week ago
- Govt announces aviation relief packageTransport Minister Phil Twyford today outlined the first tranche of the $600 million aviation sector relief package announced earlier this week as part of the Government’s $12.1 billion COVID-19 economic response. The initial part of the aviation package aims to secure the operators of New Zealand’s aviation security system, and ...1 week ago
- How Ardern’s coronavirus kindness theme can become contagious
The South African ‘Don’t Panic Buy’ jingle. Video: ENCA/PickNSave PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie, self-isolating in Auckland under New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdown as part of a new Pacific Media Watch series. A South African celebrity jingle that has gone viral at the end of this week could easily ...2 hours ago - Government says Australia’s coronavirus curve may be flatteningSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The federal government says there are signs the coronavirus curve may be flattening in Australia. Scott Morrison told a Sunday news conference the rate of increase in cases had fallen to about 13-15% a day ...4 hours ago
- Broadband and data usage surges as New Zealanders reach out
Whether to connect with friends and colleagues, catch up on news, or stave off the boredom with bingeable TV, we’ve all been on our devices a lot more than normal.Vodafone has released a summary of its traffic stats for the past six days, which compares phone calls, broadband, and mobile ...6 hours ago - Rushed Vaping Bill During Covid-19, Grossly Unfair
New Zealand vaping representatives have joined forces to condemn the Government continuing with its plan to rush legislation through Parliament to regulate vaping despite the Covid-19 lockdown. The Vaping Trade Association of New Zealand (VTANZ), ...6 hours ago - Locked down and locked out in Australia
Celebrated Kiwi author and expat Ian Brodie adds his voice to pleas for the Australian government to relax welfare rules and help more than half a million vulnerable New Zealanders, writes Jill Herron. Brothers in arms, we are not. That’s the call from award-winning Kiwi author, photographer and film tourism ...7 hours ago - Review: Netflix’s addictive Tiger King will leave you feeling grubby for watchingThe new true crime documentary sensation shares many of the flaws of its own subject, writes Sam Brooks.Joe Exotic, the man at the centre of Netflix’s new documentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, is a star. There’s an unnerving charisma that burns through the tattooed eyeliner, the sickly ...7 hours ago
- NZ lockdown – Day 4: First death in New Zealand from coronavirusBy RNZ News New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern have confirmed the country’s first death from the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Dr Bloomfield said New Zealand had its first death today, after a woman who was initially diagnosed with influenza died. The woman ...7 hours ago
- Covid-19 in NZ – Sunday’s numbers charted
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. There were 63 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, down from the previous day's 83 new cases. Details of how many tests have been completed are now being released ...7 hours ago - PNG’s Health Minister Jelta Wong ‘sidelines’ Kramer in virus briefingsPapua New Guinea will have only one press release in the afternoons at 4:00pm daily to give updates on the Covid–19 in the country in a reshuffle of information briefings. Health Minister Jelta Wong announced this when visited the office of the PNG Nurses Association accompanied by his department’s ...8 hours ago
- First Covid-19 death in New Zealand
New Zealand has had its first death linked to Covid-19. The patient, a woman in her 70s on the West Coast, was admitted to hospital with what was thought to be influenza complicated by underlying health conditions. She was later diagnosed with Covid-19. The woman's family has asked for privacy ...9 hours ago - President Lú-Olo declares Timor-Leste state of emergency over coronavirusPacific Media Watch The President of Timor-Leste, Francisco Guterres Lú-Olo, has declared a state of emergency to enable the government to address the global Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. The state of emergency started last night at midnight and it will run until the night of April 26. Timor-Leste’s National Parliament ...9 hours ago
- Cut Traffic Speeds To Reduce Pressure On Hospitals, Say Cycling AdvocatesIt’s time to lower traffic speeds to reduce crashes and free up hospital beds, say cycling advocates. "This will reduce harm and ease the burden on our health workers and emergency services," says Patrick Morgan from Cycling Action Network. ...9 hours ago
- Pacific coronavirus: French Polynesia Covid-19 tally rises to 34By RNZ Pacific The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in French Polynesia has risen by four to 34. The update from the government said the hospitalisation rate is unchanged with one person in care. Last night a curfew was declared for the first time, forcing residents across ...10 hours ago
- Ohura Medieval Market Day, and the fight to keep a small town standingIt’s a town where people often feel the rest of the country has given up on them, in the middle of a region where every place feels isolated. So how did Ohura become an unlikely centre of Medieval Combat sports in New Zealand? Alex Braae spent three days there finding ...11 hours ago
- Coronavirus – analysing the data makes you think we could do with more of it
If you want to understand some of the thinking behind the policy response to the spread of coronavirus, you might want to read the paper from the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team, which is credited with accelerating the introduction of the current lockdown measures in the UK. The paper builds ...11 hours ago - The Pink Jumpsuit: An essay about the bubbles we live in‘It seems like someone else’s dream of my past.’ For Emma Neale, the painting ‘Wanderlust’ by Dunedin artist Sharon Singer stirs memories of her childhood, and new understandings of guilt and forgiveness.There were gifts from my father when he came home from overseas trips. Love offerings; a bit like those ...11 hours ago
- Māori Party delay launch to fight Covid-19
The Māori Party is delaying the launch of its new-look party to fight Covid-19 in Māori communities. ...12 hours ago - Resuscitating a virus-ravaged economy – the answer lies in the soil and the exports it generates
Westpac is forecasting 200,000 jobs will be lost in NZ as a result of the response to the coronavirus pandemic. Chief economist Dominick Stephens estimates economic activity during the four week lock-down would decline by a third, despite the government and the Reserve Bank having “done a lot to calm ...13 hours ago - Renée, the Lockdown Letters #3: Help yourself to my rhubarbIn our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Ōtaki author Renée.I have a wild tomato flopping all over the path down the back of the veg garden. I picked a ...13 hours ago
- Covid-19 live updates, March 29For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this ...15 hours ago
- Covid-19 scams: Here’s what you need to look out forOnline criminals have been making the most of Covid-19 by preying on people’s fear and doubt. Here are some of the calling cards of these con artists.With most New Zealanders tucked up at home, digital devices are proving to be critical tools for staying connected with each other, making good ...15 hours ago
- A visit to the supermarket
Author and illustrator Sarah Laing draws a rite of passage in The Lockdown. Reprinted with the permission of the author from Let Me Be Frank, Sarah Laing's blog devoted to "Reading. Writing. Parenting. Angsting." Let Me Be Frank is also the ...15 hours ago - Life on paws: How to deal with your pets during lockdownAs New Zealand adjusts to a month of lockdown, many pet owners have questions about their furry friends. Alex Casey had a chat with the SPCA – here’s what she learned. AC: My cat had a disgusting abscess on his tail and now has to get his stitches out. ...15 hours ago
- No shops, no launches – but the NZ book scene is finding new ways to reach people under lockdownBooks editor Catherine Woulfe takes an energising walk around the lockdown block of New Zealand books. When the bubbles settled over us they settled over the books too. Libraries were the first to shut down, then the physical bookstores and finally, the hammer blow: online sales and indeed any notion of ...16 hours ago
- Fiji: A paradise under pandemic rules
Convincing its citizens to take lockdown seriously will be a major challenge for Fiji’s government, writes Mandy De Vries. My husband, Howie, and I are lucky enough to live on the beautiful Coral Coast in Fiji. We started a tourism operation here two years ago which was, until recently, booming. ...16 hours ago - We’re better placed now than GFC or 1987
New Zealand’s businesses and government are far better prepared for the rapidly escalating global health and economic crisis than they were for the Global Financial Crisis in 2008-09 or the stock market crash in 1987, says Rob Campbell, one of the country’s most experienced corporate leaders. “Executive teams and boards ...16 hours ago - Gavin Ellis: Time for adversity journalism
Journalism commentator and former editor Gavin Ellis says media organisations play a vital role in keeping the community informed and, if possible, safe. They also have a crucial part to play in the maintenance of public order and morale, just as they did in the 1940s. With the country in ...16 hours ago - We’ve been forgotten: midwife
The country has millions of protective gowns, gloves and eyewear – midwives ask: Where are they? David Williams reports Two days into a national lockdown some midwives didn’t have any protective equipment, adding to concerns about safeguards for frontline health workers. On Friday, announcements were made by the Health Ministry ...16 hours ago - What lockdown could do for your business idea
Covid-19 lockdown provides valuable time for planning a new business, as Dr Mary-Ellen Gordon explains You have a great idea for a business. You’ve been working to get it up and going. Then, just as you were starting to gain traction, the entire country and much of the rest of ...17 hours ago - Covid-19: A catch-22 for our most vulnerable
Low-income workers whose jobs have disappeared thanks to Covid-19 will increasingly need to access benefit income. When this happens, however, they lose a tax credit for their children. As a direct result of the Covid-19 crisis, the Government has improved its rescue policies for business. We now need to see urgent ...17 hours ago - First boredom, then fearThe strange energy of preparing for level four is over, now the dystopian reality has kicked in. Danyl Mclauchlan writes an essay about home life during a ‘cosy catastrophe’.We start by setting up our home workspaces, covering the kitchen table with such a thick mass of black cables and USB ...17 hours ago
- All Australians will be able to access telehealth under new $1.1 billion coronavirus programSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison will unvieil on Sunday a $1.1 billion set of measures to make Medicare telehealth services generally available during the coronavirus pandemic and to support mental health, domestic violence and community services. The “Medicare ...22 hours ago
- Covid-19 in NZ – Saturday’s numbers charted
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. There were 83 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, down from the previous day's 85 new cases. Details of how many tests have been completed are now bing released ...1 day ago - NZ lockdown – Day 3: PM Ardern chats with followers on FacebookBy RNZ News New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke to her followers on Facebook today from her office in Premier House. Her chat lasted about 15 minutes and garnered more than 310,000 views. She discussed wage subsidies for full-time and part-time workers, personal protection equipment (PPE) supplies for ...1 day ago
- Effective coronavirus messages and fake news: Can we do better?COMMENTARY: By Bob Howarth (self-isolating in Australia after his latest trip to Timor-Leste) After days of web surfing for Covid-19 coronavirus news around the Asia-Pacific, two areas that appear to need improving in some countries are official communication and fact checking. So here’s my two cents, rupiah, kina or ...1 day ago
- The best binges on NEON for these extraordinary timesWhether it’s a robot uprising, a woman catfishing into the publishing world or a bunch of lovestruck islanders, NEON has you covered. Here’s what we’re bingeing on NEON for the foreseeable future.WestworldJust in time for lockdown, there’s a buzz-worthy show with endless discussion points coming out on a weekly basis. ...1 day ago
- Covid-19: Who really needs to be wearing protective gear?There’s been a lot of talk about PPE of late – do we have enough, is it getting to the right people, and who exactly are the right people, anyway? Here’s the latest official advice.The Ministry of Health has now circulated updated advice on the appropriate use of PPE (personal ...1 day ago
- The face of the Covid-19 response: Who is Ashley Bloomfield?A month ago, not many had heard of Ashley Bloomfield. But as the Covid-19 response has ramped up, the director-general of health has become a calm, reassuring presence in a time of uncertainty and fear. Rachel Thomas profiles him, in a piece first published on RNZ.Today, Saturday, director-general of health ...1 day ago
- To fish or not to fish – that is the question
Jim Kayes tests the waters of social media to see how people are coping with being told to avoid their favourite pastime. “There is something ridiculously exhilarating about catching a fish. The thrill might have faded for the salty angler, but for this rookie, the novice still snagging fish hooks ...1 day ago - New PPE plan leaves community care workers without masks
The Government yesterday reassured us there are plenty of masks for front line staff dealing with the public. Yet it seems home care workers, who provide up-close personal care for tens of thousands of people every day, won’t be given them. Yesterday two documents hit my inbox. One was a ...1 day ago - Don’t fret, folks – Hone’s sweet with the mayor so long as he sets up checkpoints and doesn’...
Hobson’s Choice spokesman Don Brash (a former leader of the National and ACT Parties) is not alone in challenging the justification for tribes claiming to have closed roads to protect their people against Covid. Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters – his remarks apparently ignored by ...1 day ago - Manaaki Key For Getting Though COVID-19Preliminary results from a survey investigating how well-equipped Māori whānau in the South Island are to stay at home for extended periods show that the majority are prepared to manage their short-term needs, but have increasing anxiety about ...1 day ago
- Parliamentary Monitoring And Reporting Is Critical In Dealing With COVID-19 Responses"The risk of fraud and corruption is compounded during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. When quick decisions are necessary to move vast amounts of resources, bribery, fraud and corruption abound," says Suzanne Snively, Chair of Transparency International ...1 day ago
- Pacific coronavirus: Guam still region’s hot spot with 51 plus casesBy RNZ Pacific Guam remains the Pacific pandemic hot spot with the number of Covid-19 coronavirus cases climbing above 50. On Friday six people tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total to 51. Thirteen of the cases are currently in hospital. READ MORE: Al Jazeera live updates – ...1 day ago
- Outrage after Indonesian politicians get priority testing for Covid-19By Mong Palatino Many Indonesian internet users have expressed anger over the decision of the House of Representatives (DPR) to test its 575 members for Covid-19. Indonesia has a population of more than 260 million. As of today, the country has 913 Covid-19 positive cases with 87 deaths. But ...1 day ago
- Latest numbers: 83 new cases, two in ICU
New Zealand has 78 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and five probable cases, the Government has announced today, taking the total to 451. Civil Defence Emergency Management director Sarah Stuart-Black said 12 people are in hospital and two are in intensive care, including one on a ventilator. Twelve are in ...1 day ago - Covid-19: Total tops 450New Zealand has 78 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and five probable cases, the Government has announced today, taking the total to 451. Civil Defence Emergency Management director Sarah Stuart-Black said 12 people are in hospital and two are in intensive care, including one on a ventilator. Twelve are in ...1 day ago
- ‘We’re ready,’ says NCD chief Parkop with Port Moresby locked downBy Michelle Steven in Port MoresbyPacific New Guinea’s National Capital City Covid-19 Task Force team is preparing ahead should there be a possible coronavirus case during the 14-day lockdown. NCD Governor Powes Parkop told a media conference that the capital city would be in total lockdown with no public ...1 day ago
- Automatic 3-month Visa Extension Granted For Every MigrantLeading immigration lawyer Aaron Martin assesses the impact of the announcement of the epidemic notice for migrants. Immigration New Zealand announced that the government epidemic management notice relating to immigration matters comes into effect on 2 ...1 day ago
- Magazines and community papers aren’t an essential service, leaving some small towns and elderly w...Just a tiny handful of print publications will continue through the lockdown, with only daily newspapers specifically identified as being able to continue. Duncan Greive spoke to publishers of magazines and community newspapers about the impact on them and their communities.Publishers of magazines and community newspapers are reeling, after a ...1 day ago
- Government rules magazines and community newspapers aren’t an essential serviceJust a tiny handful of print publications will continue through the lockdown, with only daily newspapers specifically identified as being able to continue. Duncan Greive spoke to publishers of magazines and community newspapers about the impact on them and their communities.Publishers of magazines and community newspapers are reeling, after a ...1 day ago
- Coronavirus: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says no change in Australia’s stance to New Zealand...Jacinda Ardern has pleaded with the Australian Prime Minister to make an exception to the rule that bars many of the 650,000 New Zealanders there from receiving a benefit. ...2 days ago
- Morgan Godfery, The Lockdown Letters #2: I’m never sleepingIn our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, political commentator and essayist Morgan Godfery.I’M TWEETING AT 2AM.The responsible part of my brain is sending sleep signals. Inconvenient yawns. The ...2 days ago
- A review of Attraction, the road trip novel we need right nowTake a vicarious roadie via Attraction, the novel by Ruby Porter that was longlisted for the country’s biggest fiction prize. Released last year, it’s now a slightly eerie snapshot of Aotearoa as we were. Attraction is a New Zealand road trip novel with a heavy dose of postcolonial guilt. Whitewashing, cultural ...2 days ago
- Iwi do their thing: helping those in need
Iwi everywhere put support plans into action, focusing on their kaumātua, writes Kayne Ngātokowhā Peters. Iwi are ramping up support services to assist their people in need following the closure of Ministry of Social Development offices and the move to online and phone assistance from Work and Income. Central North Island ...2 days ago - Remembering RumblemaniaIt’s been 10 years since the release of Dane Rumble’s solo album The Experiment. Josie Adams looks back on why New Zealand fell so hard and fast.At The Experiment’s launch, a decade ago yesterday, Dane Rumble had only one wish: “I just want to write the best album that I ...2 days ago
- Short story: Party Games, by Emma Neale
"She blindfolded each of the children with a scarf, saying, ‘There’s going to be a surprise!'": a horror story set at a children's birthday party, by Dunedin writer Emma Neale. As soon as the last child arrived at Bevan’s ninth birthday party, the bashing began. Allan walloped Bevan with a ...2 days ago - What happens when breakfast radio enters the lockdown era?As New Zealand adjusts to our new normal, one thing from the old world remains – commercial breakfast radio. We tuned into the first morning of lockdown on the airwaves. In a time when the world seems completely upside-down, you can thankfully still count on commercial breakfast radio to be there ...2 days ago
- Pure As: Jane Watson
Dynamic Silver Ferns defender Jane Watson shares her heartrending and brave story in the final episode of the Pure As documentary series. The fading scar just below Jane Watson's left shoulder is the only clue to her until-now untold story, of the challenges that have tormented the netball world champion. The dynamic, tenacious ...2 days ago - Take it from these ocean safety experts: don’t head out to the water this weekendBy now, everybody should know about staying in their bubble and leaving the house only for essential services and exercise, provided social distancing rules are followed. Does this mean people can still take the boat out, or go surfing? “Staying at home will save lives,” said Jacinda Ardern in a question ...2 days ago
- Covid-19 live updates, March 28: Boris Johnson has the virus; One in 10 NZers plan to flout lockdownFor all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here.New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...2 days ago
- Survival of the fittest and other cruel logic
Donald Trump and Boris Johnson's response to coronavirus has revealed some disturbing attitudes towards segments of the population As New Zealand enters a period of indeterminate lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we (and I mean us as a global population) have learned a lot about the importance of ...2 days ago - How are we feeling about Covid-19? The first opinion poll since NZ locked downAs New Zealand entered national lockdown, The Spinoff commissioned social media polling company Stickybeak to measure the mood of the nation. Stickybeak co-founder David Brain reveals what the poll results show.As soon as the PM made her Monday afternoon announcement that the country was going to alert level three and ...2 days ago
- Hotel quarantine for returning Aussies and “hibernation” assistance for businessesSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra All Australians arriving from overseas will be quarantined in hotels or other facilities under strict supervision for a fortnight, under the latest crackdown in the battle against the coronavirus. Announcing the measure after Friday’s meeting ...2 days ago
- NZ lockdown – day 2: More cases, demand for protective clothingBy RNZ News As the number of Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic cases in New Zealand increases, daily demand for protective clothing for medical workers has come under pressure. On the second day of the country’s lockdown, the number of New Zealand’s Covid-19 cases has jumped by 85, with a man ...2 days ago
- How Covid-19 has shocked the global economy
Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr and Bernard Hickey 'Zoom' out to talk about the once-in-a-lifetime shock to the global economy this week and what it means for businesses and investors. Just as many other businesses are adjusting to the lockdown, so too are Kiwibank and Newsroom. Chief ...2 days ago - Tracking your location and targeted texts: how sharing your data could help in New Zealand’s level...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon MacKay, Lecturer, Business Analytics, University of Auckland New Zealand and much of the world is now under an unprecedented lockdown. Public health experts say this is the best way to suppress the spread of the virus. But how long will such ...2 days ago
- What is orthohantavirus? The virus many are Googling (but you really don’t need to worry about)Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allen Cheng, Professor in Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, Monash University According to Google Trends, the top globally trending topic this week is “orthohantavirus”, as spurious sites claim it’s the next pandemic on the horizon. Take it from me: it’s not. This baseless claim ...2 days ago
- Photo essay: Life under lockdown
As soon as the Prime Minister announced that the country had moved to a Level Three alert and would then move to a full Level Four lockdown, the only thing on most people's minds in downtown Wellington was how to prepare for living and working from home for at least ...2 days ago - Covid-19: Business leaders step up
Two Cents' Worth hosts Bernard Hickey, Nikki Mandow and Gyles Beckford reflect on the most turbulent week in New Zealand’s economic history. They look at two new tools for business and online working advice that were built over a weekend to help deal with the Covid-19 crisis. They also talk ...2 days ago - MyGov’s ill-timed meltdown could have been avoided with ‘elastic computing’Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erica Mealy, Lecturer in Computer Science, University of the Sunshine Coast These past few weeks have shown the brittleness of Australia’s online systems. It’s not surprising the federal government’s traditionally slow-moving IT systems are buckling under the pressure. On Sunday, the federal ...2 days ago
- Why New Zealand’s coronavirus cases will keep rising for weeks, even in level 4 lockdownSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arindam Basu, Associate Professor, Epidemiology and Environmental Health, University of Canterbury The number of New Zealanders testing positive for COVID-19 will continue to rise despite the strict conditions of the four-week lockdown that began this week. As of today, there are 368 ...2 days ago
- Lockdown leads to ‘super-exploited’ migrant workers
Advocates say they’re drowning in complaints of exploitation brought on by the lockdown, Dileepa Fonseka reports Migrant associations and unions have been swamped with allegations that some employers have abused the Government’s wage subsidy scheme or skirted their obligations. Indian Workers Association spokesman Mandeep Bela said he had been “flooded” ...2 days ago - Schools provide food for many hungry children. This needs to continue when classes go onlineSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona MacDonald, Senior Research Fellow, Victoria University For children, school is about more than just learning. This is even more the case for children living in disadvantage as many schools also provide vital food and a welcoming environment. As the COVID-19 pandemic ...2 days ago
- Coronavirus shines a light on fractured global politics at a time when cohesion and leadership are v...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University Leaders of the world’s largest economies came together at a virtual G20 this week to “do whatever it takes to overcome the coronavirus pandemic”. But the reality is that global capacity to ...2 days 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?