Open mike 29/03/2015

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, March 29th, 2015 - 126 comments
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126 comments on “Open mike 29/03/2015 ”

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  1. LynWiper 1
    29 March 2015 at 8:12 am

    Thank you Northland. 🙂

    • Paul 1.1
      29 March 2015 at 8:14 am

      +100

    • James 1.2
      29 March 2015 at 10:18 am

      As an unashamed righty – this was far from the result I was wanting. But Nation ran a terrible campaign – and lets face it Winston (Love or loath him) really does have that “X” factor.

      Personally I hope that this does not impact the RMA reforms, but I can see that this is going to be an issue now.

      Oh well, lets hope the cricket goes well. On that at least most of us will agree.

      • vto 1.2.1
        29 March 2015 at 10:46 am

        Why do you want the RMA reforms? The current system does not prevent development, provided it is environmentally sustainable. And conversely, the proposed reforms were simply a return to colonial times of greed, slash and burn and fuck the environment. The proposed reforms were indicative of Neanderthal thinking.

        • felix 1.2.1.1
          29 March 2015 at 11:43 am

          I’m glad you answered your own question because there was fuck all chance that James was going to.

  2. Clemgeopin 2
    29 March 2015 at 8:13 am

    The beginning of the end of an evil dishonest RW era of Key. Well done Winston, Well done NZF, Well done Willow-Jean, Well done Labour, Well done Andrew Little, Well done all the Opposition of NAT/ACT, Well done Northland and Well done New Zealand!

    • Ffloyd 2.1
      29 March 2015 at 8:15 am

      And so say all of us!

      • LynWiper 2.1.1
        29 March 2015 at 8:35 am

        +100

        • Pasupial 2.1.1.1
          29 March 2015 at 9:38 am

          Thanks especially to; Clendon and his Northland team, for convincing the Wellington GP strategists that contesting this byelection would be a waste of time and money. His 3639 voters from last election certainly helped make Peters’ victory an emphatic one.

          • Skinny 2.1.1.1.1
            29 March 2015 at 10:09 am

            +I
            Actually I would credit both the Whangarei and Northland electorate teams who were very smart working together with Labour & NZF during the 2014 election campaign. The local Greens was never in doubt supportIng Peter’s for a collective win.

            Well done Mora and the GT!

    • tc 2.2
      29 March 2015 at 8:34 am

      +1000

      Now watch the crafty Peters slowly but surely lance the NACT abscess and let NZ see the pus ooze out over the remainder of this term. Payback for 2008 just begun.

      So much material to work with, starting with the former member for northland.

      • greywarshark 2.2.1
        29 March 2015 at 12:24 pm

        Oh Doctor please do! Bring your healing fingers. Goodness gracious me.

      • Chooky 2.2.2
        29 March 2015 at 6:46 pm

        +100 tc …yes I would love to see this…in fact I think most of New Zealand is waiting to see Winston play this…

  3. Tommo 3
    29 March 2015 at 8:25 am

    Well done Winston,a real David and Goliath performance.Has the current PM made any statements too his media puppies?

    • tc 3.1
      29 March 2015 at 8:41 am

      ‘Waaaahh they all ganged up on us’ probably, be good to see some real journos in Oz get in his face.

      CT will have the lines are prepared however the fact remains they just lost one of the safest rural national seats after throwing the kitchen sink at it in terms if on the ground presence and pork barrelling.

      Worm turning….tick.

      • tc 3.1.1
        29 March 2015 at 8:44 am

        Would like correct my dodgy typing but it says I have no permission to edit.

        • lprent 3.1.1.1
          29 March 2015 at 9:09 am

          That is odd unless the time has expired. Is this when you save an edited comment?

          • Lanthanide 3.1.1.1.1
            29 March 2015 at 9:39 am

            This happened to me yesterday as well, Lynn. The edit link was available, but clicking on it said I didn’t have permission. This was when the timer was at about the 7 min mark. Refreshing the page, the edit link had vanished.

            This has sporadically happened in the past, as well. I wonder if it’s related to moderator activity happening elsewhere in the comments?

            • Pasupial 3.1.1.1.1.1
              29 March 2015 at 10:36 am

              My problem of late has been that my comments often just disappear until the 10 minute editing window has expired (at which point I notice some obvious typos I would have corrected). Yestereve, I just put that down to the elevated amount of site traffic, but it’s been happening sporadically for the past week.

              • lprent …
                29 March 2015 at 11:54 am

                Ah. That one is due to some kind of combination of server and client side caching.

                Try doing a Shift+F5 or Shift+Refresh when you next see it. And get back to me if it doesn’t fix it.

                What that does is force the local cache to be flushed and a new request to load to be sent to server. The problem is that there are several layers of caching going on.

                The closest one is your browser cache that shows when you use the back button.

                The next is the signature that your browser sends to the server based on its cache info. The server uses that to determine if it has a “new” copy of that page, if not it tells your browser to reload the existing copy on your system. Sometimes the page hasn’t ‘changed’ after you async save a comment because it hasn’t ‘stored’ that update yet.

                In those cases it may tell your browser to reuse the stored copy of the page, or it may send you one that has been cached on the server side.

                Then there is the database cache that keeps track of updates. That sometimes doesn’t update immediately after a change is made because the database is still async processing it.

                Nett effect is that sometimes, usually under heavy load you won’t get the page displaying with your comment on it. Doing a forced refresh will usually get it for you.

                I’ll have a review of the current cache settings. But they are optimized for readers rather than commenters for the obvious reason – more than 95% of the page loads are from pure site reads. What I am wondering is if the memcached signatures are set to clear when a comment is made, but are reloaded by something else while the comment is being saved.

            • greywarshark 3.1.1.1.1.2
              29 March 2015 at 12:34 pm

              That has happened to me quite often. Sometimes I have been away from the post or even to another blog and when I have returned and want to edit and improve? my comment I am not allowed back in though plenty of time is available still. And refreshing wipes out the time available.

              And I did wonder if it relates to activity in other areas of the blog, big downloads, new posts, etc. It’s still possible to put a separate amending note – it’s not being locked out – just from your own original comment.

            • lprent 3.1.1.1.1.3
              1 April 2015 at 11:24 am

              Nope. What I am wondering about is how it determines that time. Maybe there is a absolute UTC time transmitted as part of the Javascript.

          • tc 3.1.1.1.2
            29 March 2015 at 10:04 am

            trying to correct a loaded one to edit it with 7min’s plus remaining on it and I’ve never seen this message before.

            It was on a first gen iPad which is just about ready for the technology scrapheap….imac is fine but the android pad has always had issues with the site and while I’m on the subject the iPhone never shows a ‘reply’ button for any comments in safari.

            • David H 3.1.1.1.2.1
              29 March 2015 at 10:56 am

              I get the missing reply button as well. I find that logging in solves the problem. but it is random.

            • lprent 3.1.1.1.2.2
              29 March 2015 at 12:04 pm

              Umm…

              I’m on the subject the iPhone never shows a ‘reply’ button for any comments in safari.

              On the usual desktop site? Or the mobile one?

              The mobile site doesn’t have a reply button per comment. It is a problem with the theme.

              The desktop theme shouldn’t do that. I wonder what the Shift-F5 equivalent is on a tablet…

              BTW: I just splashed out $120 and grabbed the “Agency” version of WPTouch so I could get the developer documentation so I can correct issue properly. Lyn in Vietnam for a few weeks so I should have some extra spare time.

              BTW2: The Agency version of the mobile theme has a pile of speed enhancements. Seem to do great things on my android phone. What about others?

              • David H …
                29 March 2015 at 3:30 pm

                I usually use the desktop site, and can leave a couple or 3 computers logged at once maybe that’s it???

              • David H …
                29 March 2015 at 3:45 pm

                I have logged in using my Android phone looks like a good deal for your $$$ speed is way better. BUT.. Sorry to say no reply button in Android even after logging in.

    • Lanthanide 3.2
      29 March 2015 at 9:37 am

      Except Winston was the Goliath.

      When Winston ran his first electorate campaign in the north, Mark Osborne was 3 years old.

    • whateva next? 3.3
      29 March 2015 at 12:38 pm

      “Has the current PM made any statements too his media puppies?”
      ……..you mean since he said Winston had “no chance”? is his radar malfunctioning? will he be having a serious think about his future after last night, like he did after the cup of tea debacle? I think he should.

  4. Tautoko Mangō Mata 4
    29 March 2015 at 8:38 am

    The FBI used to recommend encryption. Now they want to ban it! What?

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/28/the-fbi-used-to-recommend-encryption-now-they-want-to-ban-it

  5. phillip ure 5
    29 March 2015 at 8:39 am

    a p.s…before my two-week absence/protest in support of murray kicks off..

    ..see you all in a couple of weeks..

    ..but first i have to give thanks..

    http://whoar.co.nz/2015/comment-whoar-those-we-need-to-thank-for-the-victory-in-northland/

    • jenny kirk 5.1
      29 March 2015 at 8:54 am

      As a Northland electorate voter, all I can do is give thanks as well – to Winston for standing, to Andrew Little and Willow-Jean for giving us “permission” (“approval” ?) to vote for Winston, and to the Nats for giving us almost six weeks of constant entertainment and amusement as evidenced by these cartoons –

      http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2015/03/cartoons-about-the-northland-by-election.html

      • logie97 5.1.1
        29 March 2015 at 9:15 am

        Agree with your sentiments, except that the party organisations do not give permission to anyone to vote. The enlightened voters make that choice, and there were still over 1000 who do not understand first-past-the-post up there.

        And as an aside, National took two on the chin yesterday. Hope Slater recovers from that headache quickly, andthat it may have knocked some sense into him. Wonder if he will change his attitude to “bullying”

      • Rodel 5.1.2
        29 March 2015 at 10:37 am

        JK Thanks. Those cartoons are priceless. I think Emersons ‘morepork’ was no. 1.

      • mac1 5.1.3
        29 March 2015 at 11:56 pm

        And what will the cartoons be like when they find out why it was that there was a by-election, as Tremain’s cartoon refers ?

    • greywarshark 5.2
      29 March 2015 at 12:40 pm

      pu
      I thought your thank qus were very well said. You summed it up pretty well.

    • Pasupial 5.3
      29 March 2015 at 3:51 pm

      phillip ure

      It’s actually a shame to see you go this time. Twitter seems to have engendered more conciseness to your comments. I’ve only just caught up on last night’s conflageration and see why you feel that a boycott is required in this instance.

      Comment 31 & associated replies on:

      http://thestandard.org.nz/winston-takes-northland/

      Comment 28 & associated replies on:

      http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-28032015/

      Felix’s responses are good:

      I don’t know what “quite literally” means. Something like “pretty legal”?

      Meh, ban who you like. Bit rich though to ascribe a view to him that he quite definitely didn’t literally write, after warning him for ascribing views to other parties.

      However, I think the Pigman has the best solution when he says:

      Personally, I think it makes participating in discussions on her [Stephenie Rodgers’] posts a tense and unpleasant experience akin to walking on eggshells.

      Of course, the easiest way to avoid it is simply not to comment on anything she posts, a practice I’ll be adopting forthwith.

      (For the record, until her derailing on Bill’s Assange post, served with scattershot derision for ma[l]e commenters on ts generally, and subsequent excessively controlling discussions in another post this week, I regarded her as a good author whose views I often accorded with.)

      It seems a shame to have lost the commentary of; yourself, marty mars, rawshark –
      yeshe, & greywarshark, all over the needless banning of Murray Rawshark on a night when those opposed to NACT should have been celebrating their ability to work together. Especially since at the time he was banned, he had already announced:

      I’m taking a holiday from here. I can’t handle the approach taken by a couple of authors in their moderation. It feels too much like abuse of power and suppression of debate to me. See you all sometime. Maybe.

      Therefore until at least the 12th of next month, I will join the Pigman in not commenting on any of the posts of Stephenie Rodgers. I see no reason to boycott the Standard as a whole as other authors have shown no similar tendancies to abuse their powers of moderation. Perhaps those in voluntary exile might consider doing the same and not depriving TS of your viewpoints?

      Let her speak only with; the trolls, and her own echos, for a while.

      • swordfish 5.3.1
        29 March 2015 at 5:53 pm

        Yep, I’ll be boycotting Stephanie’s posts from now on. Her aggressive stance towards any sort of criticism is an on-going problem for The Standard. A mix of self-martyrdom and control-freakery. Needs to be confronted once and for all.

        It’s true that Stephanie comes in for an unusual amount of flak. But I’d ask her defenders (like, for example, Weka) – those who agree that it’s all to do with her gender – to consider the stark contrast between reactions to Karol and Stephanie.

        Karol is a woman and a feminist but received very little criticism. Why ? Because she dealt reasonably with anyone who took issue with her arguments. Typically, she’d reply with something like: “Show me the evidence”.

        Stephanie, on the other hand, seems to regard any criticism or disagreement as some sort of vicious attack upon her person. It really is Hyper-sensitivity gone mad. Unlike Karol, Stephanie’s reply would usually be along the lines of either:
        (1) Don’t you dare tell me what to think or say !
        or
        (2) Don’t you dare demonise me !

        Trigger-happy aggression dressed-up as self-defence.

        And she’ll never have to stand back and objectively scrutinise her own behaviour because, of course, she has “200 years of feminist scholarship” to reassure her that it’s all about “men not being able to deal with a strong, decisive woman” rather than her own deeply controlling personality.

        All of which may cop me a lifetime ban, but, as I say, it’s a problem that needs to be confronted once and for all. The shame of it is that Stephanie does, in fact, contribute some very important and interesting posts.

        • Chooky 5.3.1.1
          29 March 2015 at 6:54 pm

          +100…yes come back karol!

        • weka 5.3.1.2
          30 March 2015 at 9:46 am

          “those who agree that it’s all to do with her gender”

          I haven’t said it’s all about gender. Neither has Stephanie (and none of us know what Stephanie is thinking). The only person who has run that line is felix, and now yourself. Please don’t misrepresent what I say.

          Myself, I think there is room on ts for a range of moderation styles. I could criticise every moderator here, or praise them. But I don’t because I believe that the moderation here is set to protect the site and the authors not to suit the ideals of the commenters. That keeps the place functional and vibrant.

          Unfortunately the comparison with karol just buys into the whole women/feminists have to behave in certain ways thing. It’s ok for Lynn to be rude and abusive when he moderates, but Stephanie has to behave like a well behaved feminist.

          I would also point out that Stephanie is in a completely different situation than karol with regards to being a feminist blogger and what that means, and that those things need to be taken into account (i.e. context has meaning).

          I’m gobsmacked to see you psychoanalysing an author and moderator. I think your characterisation of Stephanie is off and it’s really disappointing to see people thinking they can use their own characterisations of her to criticise her moderation.

      • Chooky 5.3.2
        29 March 2015 at 7:08 pm

        +100…and I feel that Murray Rawshark, Colonial Rawshark and others have also come in for some quite unwarranted, personal, distasteful and vicious attacks at times eg…”rape apologists” with extras ( check out the posts on Julian Assange issue)

        …sexism in reverse?

        … or disguised trolling ie their arguments (and in fact the whole initial Post) was illegitimately hijacked , overturned and twisted into something they never meant

  6. ScottGN 6
    29 March 2015 at 8:48 am

    Greens have gone from 1 seat to 4 seats in the NSW Lower House. They’ve taken the 2, formerly safe North Coast seats of Ballina and Lismore off the Nationals as the issue of Coal Seam Gas extraction became a major election issue. They held Balmain and gained the adjacent newly created inner Sydney seat of Newtown.
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-28/nsw-election-greens-balmain-newtown-ballina-lismore/6356098

    • millsy 6.1
      29 March 2015 at 9:55 am

      NSW still loses its power network tho.

    • swordfish 6.2
      29 March 2015 at 1:26 pm

      Fark, those North Coast wins for the Greens are amazing. That’s true-blue territory. (Lismore in particular).

      A massive 32% swing in Ballina and 26% in Lismore.

  7. Ffloyd 7
    29 March 2015 at 9:13 am

    Where are all the headlines reporting this tremendous rout?
    Where is John key putting in his usual two cents worthless worth?
    Where is the pig?
    Useless media!!

    • tc 7.1
      29 March 2015 at 9:28 am

      As expected, please John stay the F away from the black caps and keep your losing touch where it belongs….around Steven Joyce’s neck.

  8. Skinny 8
    29 March 2015 at 9:17 am

    Great win and a fantastic nights celebration. Have shaken the hangover, helped by the shock of our little dog befriending a kiwi when I let her out for a pee. Taken her for a walk along the water front. The media are intviewing Peters now, ha some lady just yelled out go Winston you beauty! which really does sum things up nicely.

    Hope you guys enjoyed my babbling last night 🙂

  9. Lanthanide 9
    29 March 2015 at 9:35 am

    I’ve turned on Q & A late, so far seen an interview with Joyce, and now one with Marama Fox from the MP. First time I’ve seen Marama do anything, and she appears a very capable politician – I’d say better than some of the government ministers when it comes to explaining their position and interviews.

    It’s still going on now on TV1, or you can catch it at 10am on 1 + 1.

  10. logie97 10
    29 March 2015 at 9:40 am

    Apparently Peter Dunne has made an urgent appointment at the hairdressers and can’t take a call from John just now …

  11. James 11
    29 March 2015 at 10:15 am

    I see Dotcom has had another setback. Its been a while since he had any good news in the courts.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11424752

    In the latest ruling he has lost an estimated $67 million to the US. Im not sure if this means assets held in NZ and HK as yet. He seems to think that this wont be touched, but then again he has not been right for some time.

  12. les 12
    29 March 2015 at 10:19 am

    nice to see the slug hit the canvass so swiftly in his ‘fight’ with Ryder.Maybe the useless loudmouth should hand in his ‘man card’,he fought like a woman!

    • James 12.1
      29 March 2015 at 10:22 am

      He was outclassed, and out skilled. But he actually got in there. He keeps the “man card”. Anyone who has boxed would agree.

      • felix 12.1.1
        29 March 2015 at 10:36 am

        He keeps his Idiot Card for doing it at all. I don’t think he ever had a “man card” and trying to punch people in the head while wearing your undies is no way to get one.

      • les 12.1.2
        29 March 2015 at 10:45 am

        physically it was an even match…Ryder is an over weight cricketer who is not toned or quick and I was expecting the slug,given his macho verbosity to actually fight.He did get up after being knocked over ,but offerred about as much resistant as a brightly coloured punching bag.

        • infused 12.1.2.1
          29 March 2015 at 11:19 am

          Doubt it. Cam looked like shit. He had shit cardio. He was puffed after 30s.

          • Lanthanide 12.1.2.1.1
            29 March 2015 at 2:37 pm

            He was happy that he could now run 8km, when at the start of his training he couldn’t run at all.

            I doubt Ryder would have much trouble running 16km.

      • vto 12.1.3
        29 March 2015 at 10:56 am

        the fat feral fucker got his head smashed into the ground…

        how apt

        what goes around comes around… every time

      • Tracey 12.1.4
        29 March 2015 at 12:05 pm

        🙄

      • Denis Stewart 12.1.5
        29 March 2015 at 4:59 pm

        There is nothing man about Slater as it was for self promotion, if you think other wise you have been suckered by the biggest coward in NZ.

    • millsy 12.2
      29 March 2015 at 8:27 pm

      Not so tough without a laptop to hide behind…

  13. James 13
    29 March 2015 at 10:20 am

    WhaleOil – I know hes not the most liked here, but regardless takes stones to get into a boxing ring (More so on television).

    So all credit for raising the $$$ for charity. But I wouldn’t think he will be stepping into the ring again. Simply seriously outclassed on the night.

    • Pasupial 13.1
      29 March 2015 at 10:41 am

      I agree with tc (at cmnt 15 below); “slater is all about self promotion”. I fail to see why we should celebrate his macho posturings here.

      • weka 13.1.1
        29 March 2015 at 11:17 am

        +1

        Not enjoying the confluence of politics and violence either. Boxing match, Peters giving National a bloody nose analogy etc.

    • Rodel 13.2
      29 March 2015 at 10:43 am

      “Man card”? “stones” ? “fought like a woman”?
      Hey this is the 21st century.

    • Tracey 13.3
      29 March 2015 at 12:06 pm

      Can you confirm that he didnt receive any recompense at all, with documented proof. Thanks.

  15. tc 15
    29 March 2015 at 10:34 am

    Stones or stupidity either way the slater is all about self promotion and this was an opportunity to do so without expensive lawyers or govt MP’s.

    • Draco T Bastard 15.1
      29 March 2015 at 10:57 am

      Boxing is pure stupidity.

      • BassGuy 15.1.1
        29 March 2015 at 2:20 pm

        Agreed. I don’t want to open up any jokes about intelligence or whether he has a brain or not, even a few blows to the head can cause concussion and brain damage, which can have a lasting effect on your life.

        Mind you, some people get brain damage and become better people for it. I’m not wishing brain damage on him, but maybe it’ll be for the better in the long term.

    • Tracey 15.2
      29 March 2015 at 12:07 pm

      Those according him courage for self promoting himself in a boxing ring are the kind of people that mean we struggle to get justice for many vulnerable in this county, they perpetuate a dangerous and outdated definition of “man”. Being prepared to fight someone for personal gain (be it financial or publicity) is not manly.

  16. vto 16
    29 March 2015 at 10:42 am

    where is the Key-sucker fisiani today I wonder?

    • Clemgeopin 16.1
      29 March 2015 at 11:14 am

      Even Key is speechless and has gone into hiding! Winston had Zero chance of winning, he had said!

      • Wonderpup 16.1.1
        29 March 2015 at 2:02 pm

        I think Key has gone to get his photo taken with Abbot at the cricket. They can share exit strategies together.

        • veutoviper 16.1.1.1
          29 March 2015 at 3:51 pm

          Abbott is not in Melbourne for the cricket. He is in Singapore for Lee Kuan Yew’s funeral – which is where Key should also be IMO.

    • swordfish 16.2
      29 March 2015 at 2:03 pm

      Nah, the problem is: A couple of weeks back, Fisi suddenly changed his tune and covered his ass by predicting a Winnie win. (And I see he’s turned up today on another thread).

  17. Draco T Bastard 17
    29 March 2015 at 10:56 am

    NZ fishery catch may be three times more than reported

    A leaked copy of the report, led by University of Auckland research fellow Dr Glenn Simmons, estimated that over 60 years, 40.4 million tonnes of catch was taken. That was roughly 2.9 times the 14 million tonnes reported officially during the period.

    Government officials are braced for the impact of the report, acknowledging that New Zealand’s data on historic catch levels are poor.

    Since the quota management system was introduced, Simmons “conservatively” estimated that the actual catch was 2.2 times official reported data.

    Simmons, who could not be reached for comment on Friday, blamed the “vast majority” of the unreported catch on industrial catch and discards, in large part pointing the finger at foreign flagged vessels.

    This is why we need better reporting and oversight of fishing. We need to know how much is being taken so that we can set quotas so that the fish in our seas get back to historic levels. We can’t do that if catches are being misreported.

    Also note that the report was leaked by the fishing industry in what appears, IMO, to be an attempt to attack it before it’s official release.

    • vto 17.1
      29 March 2015 at 10:58 am

      the sea is rapidly being depleted of fish.

      just like the kauri, the seals, the whales and now the rivers and waterways, the greed of primary sector takers has no limits.

      we have idiots in government so what do we expect?

    • tc 17.2
      29 March 2015 at 5:39 pm

      Talking to both commercial and recreational fishermen the days of plenty are well in the past with some recreational outings yielding nothing.

      We also need to factor in the non NZ fishing fleets who take advantage of our lack of enforcement and plunder what they can and the damage bottom trawling has done to the ecosystem.

    • Sacha 17.3
      29 March 2015 at 8:31 pm

      Naturally our government introduced voluntary self-reporting for fishing vessels rather than having MAF inspectors on each one as previously. Though these figures suggest maybe that made little overall difference either.

      This is effectively a black market twice the size of the official one. You’d think any state might want to do something about that in their own territory.

  18. felix 18
    29 March 2015 at 11:12 am

    Feeling a bit sorry for the hostage in Northland, there’s no way Joyce will release him now that his face has been all over the tv.

    They’re going to have to kill him.

  19. Morrissey 19
    29 March 2015 at 11:32 am

    Hapless suitor of female reporters stirs up a hornet’s nest

    Steven Joyce, the campaign manager from Hell, is not the only right wing politician suffering massive ridicule at the moment….

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/67527214/Peter-Dunne-takes-on-New-Zealand-comedians

    • felix 19.1
      29 March 2015 at 11:40 am

      Oh god what a wally. What’s that old line about not getting into a war of words with anyone who buys ink by the barrel?

      It also applies to “people who take the piss for a living”

      • Tracey 19.1.1
        29 March 2015 at 12:09 pm

        never go into a war unarmed… and in a war of humour he is most definitely unarmed.

    • Wonderpup 19.2
      29 March 2015 at 2:10 pm

      Would he rather be lightly roasted by Sandy Tosksvig? I don’t think so…

  20. Treetop 20
    29 March 2015 at 11:35 am

    Which National MP is out?

  21. jenny kirk 21
    29 March 2015 at 11:39 am

    Here is a link to making a submission to Parliamentary select committee on Inquiry into the 2014 general election

    This is particularly essential for all those people – especially in the Northland electorate – who think they were unjustly turned away from voting in last year’s general election.

    The closing date for submissions is Tuesday, 31 March 2015

    By convention, a select committee inquiry is conducted following a general election into the legal and administrative aspects of that election. This process provides a multi-party approach to the review and any reform of the law and administration relating to Parliamentary elections.

    The terms of reference for the inquiry are: “To examine the law and administrative procedures for the conduct of Parliamentary elections in light of the 2014 general election”.

    The committee requires 2 copies of each submission if made in writing. Those wishing to include any information of a private or personal nature in a submission should first discuss this with the clerk of the committee, as submissions are usually released to the public by the committee. Those wishing to appear before the committee to speak to their submissions should state this clearly and provide a daytime telephone contact number. To assist with administration please supply your postcode and an email address if you have one.

    http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/business-summary/00DBSCH_INQ_59471_1/inquiry-into-the-2014-general-election

  22. greywarshark 22
    29 March 2015 at 12:09 pm

    Thinking about Northland and one of its industries – timber. Does that work well for them? Does it create lots of permanent jobs? A bit of background around the MDF (medium density fibreboard or squashed bits of timber making large panels of uniform strength and size.)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-density_fibreboard
    An alternative view of MDF. http://www.joshuakennon.com/why-i-avoid-mdf-and-furniture-built-with-mdf-and-think-you-should-too/

    And is there a business waiting to take off building furniture out of the pine they have planted in the past which I think is still abundant, and barging it south from Opua or a suitable port nearbuy to the big markets elsewhere in NZ though presumably mainly Auckland? The barges would also carry other produce. Another local business looking to the future when road making and vehicle costs are affected badly by high oil prices.

    Juken wood treatment company has had a plant in Kaitaia for years connected with the MDF board industry. And there are a number of businesses working with this material but I don’t know how many are fully in NZ and NZowned.
    http://www.paneltec.co.nz/ (An Australian firm with sales office in Dargaville)
    http://www.applefurniture.co.nz/ (A NZ enterprise based in Kaiwaka)
    Jim Anderton in 2005 launched this book on the growth of MDF board.
    http://www.beehive.govt.nz/node/24157
    Another site is hotfrog that is listing businesses and promoting them which gives an extra boost to small businesses.
    It listed Make Enterprises Dargaville connected with Paneltec.
    BBS Timbers NZ owned timber firm providing a range of species.

    Juken have a big plant in Wairarapa and this item refers to the amount of wood available there. So perhaps Northland needs to keep up its plantings to get the right mass of wood to enable the local business to be ongoing.
    Some comments in a stuff article on the business.
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/9411743/Juken-primed-for-growth-with-founders-added-value-strategies
    While over half the timber logged in New Zealand leaves the country in this “primary” form, Juken focuses on tertiary production, which is only around 15 per cent of the country’s timber output, he said.
    “There’s enough wood in Wairarapa to have another 10 mills. We have the single largest ownership, 15,000ha – but that’s only 20 per cent of what’s available in Wairarapa.”
    Volatile prices and exchange rates have sent many domestic mills to the wall, such as Rotorua’s Tachikawa Forest Products which went into receivership last month with the loss of 120 jobs.
    But Juken has insulated itself against the worst impacts by buying its logs for milling from its own forests, at a long-term average price.

    Juken appear to have brains and foresight. Perhaps we should just throw out our politicians and contract out much of the business side of NZ to them. That however sounds suspiciously like an ACT idea so there is bound to be a worm in the apple.

    The spokesperson refers to volatile prices which NZ must adjust to, but this difficulty is worsened by the exchange rates affected by the mafia protection system we are locked
    into. Something that a government for NZ with guts, and explanations to the citizens of our true economic state, needs to do something about. Particularly the volatility of casino-like overseas financial entities playing with our money as if it was casino chips.

    • greywarshark 22.1
      29 March 2015 at 12:12 pm

      I noticed that my fingers produced nearbuy for nearby. I am wondering if there isn’t something of a Freudian slip here. Maybe nearbuy is going to be a new useful word that indicates local trading and business?

    • Sacha 22.2
      29 March 2015 at 8:38 pm

      Northland produces higher-density timber that is too valuable to be chipped into MDF. Making solid furniture from it locally would create skilled jobs and better export revenues.

  23. ianmac 23
    29 March 2015 at 1:30 pm

    Well well:
    “NZ First leader Winston Peters says NZ First may decide not to bring an extra MP into Parliament after his Northland byelection win because his party supports a smaller Parliament.”
    Interesting. Won’t make any difference to the Government power.
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11424888

    • Bearded Git 23.1
      29 March 2015 at 2:41 pm

      @ianmac I’m sure Winston will resign his list seat and bring in another NZF member.

      What people are missing here is the fact that the public of Northland knew this was going to happen if they elected Peters (or if they didn’t they don’t may attention-no excuse) yet they elected Peters with a stonking great majority.

      People who whinge about this outcome need to accept that a democratic process has taken place where the electorate knew the consequences of their vote, rather than focusing on the effect on the result of an election 6 months ago.

      • Draco T Bastard 23.1.1
        29 March 2015 at 8:28 pm

        Actually, I’m pretty sure that everyone who voted for Winston on Saturday fully expected him to resign his seat and that NZF would be up a seat afterwards. For him to now not do that would be against those expectations and thus against democracy.

        This is a problem with our democracy in that our ‘representatives’ can go off and do what they like once they’ve been voted in no matter what their policies or the expectation of the populace was when they were voted in.

    • veutoviper 23.2
      29 March 2015 at 9:01 pm

      It is actually a very complicated legal situation, as no explicit legal provisions exist for the current situation. Too tired tonight to try to explain but suggest you read Graeme Edgeler’s latest post on Public Address; together with his earlier post there and Philip Lyth’s earlier post there today. Links are included in Edgeler’s latest post.

      http://publicaddress.net/legalbeagle/what-next-for-winston/

  24. joe90 24
    29 March 2015 at 2:35 pm

    Charles Pierce says what he really thinks.

    .
    Let us be quite definite about this. Any Democratic politician who thinks this is a bad situation — or, worse, will not stand by a Democratic colleague in this situation — is not worth the hankie to blow Joe Lieberman’s nose.

    Representatives from Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, have met to discuss ways to urge Democrats, including Warren and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, to soften their party’s tone toward Wall Street, sources familiar with the discussions said this week. Bank officials said the idea of withholding donations was not discussed at a meeting of the four banks in Washington but it has been raised in one-on-one conversations between representatives of some of them. However, there was no agreement on coordinating any action, and each bank is making its own decision, they said.

    My god, what a prodigious bluff. Also, my god, what towering arrogance? These guys own half the world and have enough money to buy the other half, and they’re threatening the party still most likely to control the White House because they don’t like the Senator Professor’s tone? Her tone? Sherrod Brown’s tone? These are guys who should be worried about the tone of the guard who’s calling them down to breakfast at Danbury and they’re concerned about the tenderness of their Savile Row’d fee-fees? Honkies, please.

    http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a33971/the-senator-professor-has-some-interesting-enemies/

  25. joe90 25
    29 March 2015 at 3:02 pm

    Hate fueled pricks can’t take a trick.

    Sarah LeavittVerified account ‏@sarahleavittcbc

    Hard to estimate but 3-10 people identified themselves as being sympathetic to #Pegida #cbcmtl

    https://twitter.com/sarahleavittcbc/status/581915649150181376

    http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/pegida-cancels-anti-islam-demonstration-in-little-maghreb

  26. Clemgeopin 26
    29 March 2015 at 3:44 pm

    The unforgettable photo of the winner and the vanquished:

    http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1823/821/original.jpg?w=600&h

  27. Paul 27
    29 March 2015 at 4:01 pm

    The Herald is not even trying to hide its bias with a headline like this.

    “Greenies say ‘frack off’ to drilling.”

    Roughan on duty, I’d guess.
    Unbelievable.
    What an awful rag.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11424932

  29. Ad 29
    29 March 2015 at 4:02 pm

    So now Yemen joins Syria, most of Iraq, northern Jordan, northern Lebanon, and northern Saudi Arabia into social chaos.

    The United States is aligned alongside Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and against them in Yemen. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, who have joined in the Saudi offensive in Yemen, are bombing factions in Libya backed by Turkey and Qatar, who also support the Saudi offensive in Yemen. The Syrian conflict has been fueled by competition among all regional powers to outmaneuver one another on battlefields far from home.

    Neither the US nor Saudi Arabia have any consistency, and even Iran is beginning to look coherent in its positioning.

    This is going to get broader and much, much worse before it gets better.

  30. Tautoko Mangō Mata 30
    29 March 2015 at 7:53 pm

    There was a well attended and very noisy protest outside Sky City this afternoon where the
    “New Zealand’s premier annual upstream event- featuring the government’s launch of block offer 2015-the exclusive tender for exploration permits”, was taking place.

    Topics include-expert speakers presenting with NZ context,
    -insights into NZ regulatory system,
    – best practice local community engagement.
    I guess we were helping inform them about the last topic. All protesters had been invited to bring a drum and were entertained by Michael Franti before marching from Victoria Park to Sky City.

    One major sponsor is Halliburton. Another is Fragomen which is a global corporate immigration law firm. This doesn’t indicate jobs for locals to me.

  31. millsy 31
    29 March 2015 at 9:41 pm

    Meanwhile, Kiwi Rail is going to chop the NIMT electrification

    OMGWTF.

    KiwiRail are saying that ‘no final decision has been made’, but when someone says that, it is pretty much always a done deal.

    New Zealanders paid a lot of money for that electrification, plus interest, and it is madness for it to be ripped out only about 30 year later and sold for scrap. Fuel prices may be low, but that doesnt mean that they will be low forever…

    When Lab VI bought Toll Rail back in 2008, it was supposed to be a new era for rail in NZ. Unfortunately since National won the election that year, their attacks on the rail system have been more savage than ever before.

    • b waghorn 31.1
      29 March 2015 at 10:06 pm

      Why don’t the nats go the whole hog and go back to steam trains , we could hire the unemployed on contracts to cut all those pesky trees down in the central north island to fuel them.

  32. logie97 32
    30 March 2015 at 12:09 am

    Where does Key get off?
    The Northland-safe-as-houses seat for National was lost for no other reason than the usual die-hard Nat voters were actually not sure what sort of National Party is running the country – its complexion appears to have changed over the last couple of months and they couldn’t be convinced enough to get out and vote. I don’t think they are actually impressed by the likes of Bennett, Bridges, Woodhouse sitting on or near the front benches. They want stability and substance, not flash Harrys.

    Perhaps the issues of the TPPA, RMA were not as important to them to motivate them to get out and vote. Surely they don’t need the presence of a campaign to get them to the polling booth.

    They must have known that their government’s programme was under threat if Winston Peters rested the seat from them. That surely should have been motivation enough.

    So Mr Key needs a bit deeper analysis than blaming the opposition for this defeat.

    • McFlock 32.1
      30 March 2015 at 12:21 am

      I’m happy for the nats to stay in denial with “the left and winnie ganged up on us” excuses.

      The longer they take to lose their hubris, the better it’ll be for everyone else in 2017 (or earlier).

      If dunnokeyo lives up to the form roughan confirmed, in a very short while our glorious pm will be reconsidering whether he wants to stay in the job. And mr didn’t-fix-it fucking up again leaves an opening for the minister for oravida, petulent bean, woodhead, mcshouty, and whoever else to battle for the iron throne…

      • Treetop 32.1.1
        30 March 2015 at 1:00 pm

        I reckon that Collins is sorry that she did not have the Orivida Kauri milled.

    • Treetop 32.2
      30 March 2015 at 12:57 pm

      If Saturdays 4,000 majority to Winston is combined with a National majority of 9,000 (last general election night) there is a loss of 13,000 to National.

      How many National supporters chose not to vote last Saturday?

      The spy agency probably has the answer to my question.

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