Panama-based company Ceol & Muir which is owned by Italy-based Rafael Grozovsky and his Argentina-based brother Federico Grozovsky, purchased the 1317-hectare Onetai Station in Awakino, Taranaki in 2014, for $6 million. In Argentina, their company was charged with discharging carcinogenic waste from their tanneries into the nearby river. However, regarding the sale of Taranaki land, the OIO has found the purchasers have met their ‘good character’ requirements.
“Maybe he has been watching how his colleague finlayson q c manages to so accurately display his nonsensical sense of place…”
Ain’t that the truth. I often wondered what happened to the guy. At one time he was half reasonable (for a Gnat) – then I realised …. Key happened and he became an arse licking woose. So much for principle
John Key ramming through TPPA – we all know that it is for the benefit of his cronies and the 0.1% who don’t feel the need to pay taxes, and can pollute at will.
“The latest country to be hooked under ‘free trade’ agreements is Colombia, writes Pete Dolack, sued for tens of billions of dollars by US and Canadian gold mining companies for valuing its national parks and the high-altitude Andean wetlands that provide 70% of the nation’s water above the profits of foreign corporations. Free trade or clean water? You can’t have both.”
“TTIP: UK Government found secret courts in trade deal have ‘lots of risk and no benefit’ in its only assessment
Stark warning against agreement disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information request”
A visit by US officials could be used to pressure the government into further concessions on the Trans Pacific Partnership deal, a long time critic of the trade pact says.
RNZ reports that Corbyn has demoted Ken Livingstone for suggesting zionism had a connection with nazism. I like some of the things Corbyn has done, but on this one he is wrong.
“The WZO leaders said as little as they could about Germany in as much as they knew that negotiations were proceeding to work out a trade agreement with Hitler. Jabotinsky brought forth a motion to support the embryonic anti-Nazi boycott, but it had no chance of success. The delegates were totally put off by the fascist character of Revisionism. During the Congress, Jewish Telegraphic Agency dispatches told of the police discovering Jabotinsky’s letter to Achimeir denouncing him for his pro-Nazi articles. [24] The vast majority of the delegates believed that the Biryonim had murdered the Political Secretary of their movement and the letter could only serve to reinforce their opinion. They could only think that their own Hitler was denouncing the WZO leaders for being pro-Nazi. The resolution calling for action against the Hitlerites was soundly defeated, 240 to 43. [25] (In fact the Nazis announced, during the Congress, that a trade agreement had been reached with the WZO’s Anglo-Palestine Bank.)”
There seems to quite a lot of bullshit being pushed, including by a number within UK Labour, that antisemitism is a trait of the more left leaning people within UK Labour.
I agree that Corbyn should have faced it down but…over a few years I’ve noticed a more general ‘getting up in arms’ about supposed antisemitism in the UK media. For example, I’ve been aware of the BBC running (to me) incongruous reports on the threat to the Jewish community off the back of terrorist attacks or apparent imminent likelihood of some terrorist attack.
Yes with lots of compost and nitrogenous matter they have cultivated a lot of deadly nightshade.
Israel at one time showed the world how to use water very effectively for irrigation.
Now they should turn their hands back to teaching the world how to use their human resources in a more effective way than making other people miserable and desperate in enclosed apartheid-like homelands. This would honour their people who suffered the same sort of treatment in WW2 and before.
Bullenglish is blabbing about low interest rates, good potential investors out there, plenty of cash around, when the parameters are right…. Then you realize he’s talking about mental health services
Can someone – a political scientist type of person (but not that fellow in the Herald, Edwards !) provide us with some sort of analysis of the more recent polls please.
An analysis that includes the numbers of “Don’t Know” who they’ll vote for, and also what sort of questions are being asked in the polls. Plus the PM’s rating each time.
It looks to me like the PM’s rating is dropping, but that’s not being picked up by the media. And I cannot figure out why there is so much confidence in the NAct govt when so much is happening that is obviously negative : the TPPA, the known corruption, the PM supporting the 1%, climate change issues, housing, unemployment, beggars in the streets, dairying going down, etc.
Why isn’t all this showing in the polls?
And I don’t want to be given the glib answer that we don’t have a Bernie Sanders or Corbyn – we have Winston Peters and that’s more than enough for one little country and yes – his poll rating has gone up, and I’m assuming that’s because he’s the spokesperson for everything in NZ First, and now he is Northland MP, he has a lot to make a noise about.
Afaik the incumbent PM usually rates higher than all other party leaders as preferred PM. I think the whole focus on that is part of the manufacture of the Teflon Key myth. Myself I think it’s irrelevant.
Most polls don’t report or account for the don’t knows/undecideds, nor the people that won’t answer their questions or don’t even answer the phone. That and the margins of error, and the fact that results are often close make me think much of what we do will polls is spin rather than reality. I think polls tend to reflect many things including what the MSM are doing, esp close to an election.
We should be looking at the poll of polls, not individual ones, because the poll of polls shows trends over time and that’s more important. Individual polls with commentary are highly speculative. We can use that, but I don’t think we should get too hung up on it at this stage. Closer to the election it’s an issue (I believe polls should be banned for some weeks pre-election). But we’re not there yet.
(as an aside, Peters isn’t our Corbyn or Sanders. He’s a centrist, authoritarian power-monger. Yes, he’s charismatic, knows how to play the political power game very well, has done some good things for NZ (think Winebox) and NZF has some good policies, but he’s also damaged MMP and democracy in NZ. Not even close to being a Corbyn or Sanders)
Peters is his own political tour de force. Unfortunately he is on the last term or two of his career. There is no one else of his calibre politically once he is gone. Cunliffe had the potential but that’s all over now.
But this term National and Labour will continue to weaken while he benefits.
NZ will be better off politically and societally once Peters is gone from parliament. I can name good things he has done, but they don’t outweigh how much he has damaged MMP and democracy. I don’t care how good he is at macho politics beyond how much power that garners him to keep on with the bullshit game. You and I obviously rate good politics quite differently.
He is entertaining though so I guess there is that.
Actually I think that describes Peters. But it’s interesting that that’s what you resort to, trying to make out that I’m something or other rather than addressing the points. Let’s try again,
“enjoy you talking about democracy and MMP, while simultaneously wishing gone one of the most popular and effective political figures of the decade.”
Yes, because the underpinnings of MMP and democracy aren’t popularity or even political effectiveness, which can obviously be used in anti-democratic ways. The underpinnings are representation and fairness. Peters has demonstrably worked against those things at times.
Peters is popular for sure, but he never got his party permanently out of the sub 10%. He fucked up a couple of times and lost his votes, so we can say that historically he’s been popular and unpopular depending on his behaviour. Like I said, I can name the good things he’s done, but I can name the mistakes too and the problems.
Weka, Do you hate Peters more than the national party supporters and tax cheats who had to pay millions to our government that they had successfully swindled past the IRD …………….. until Winston and his wine box extracted back to new zealand some of their stolen loot. http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/8515361/Money-trail-leads-home-to-New-Zealand
Winne cost the nat party votes and their rich criminal supporters money, so they hate him very much ……………
And look at what Winston did to Key in the Northland bye-election when Nationals expert solution to the P problem and future police minister Mike Sabin had to leave parliament ……………..
Key performed like a limp dick trying to hammer a nail against Winston 🙂
National are now engaged in working with rich tax cheats and other criminals to such an extent that the architect of a multi BILLION dollar tax swindle is the guy that Key picked to be the judge on ‘New Zealand Tax Haven Inc’ ……………. The tax haven that key accidentally created and then after many talks and meetings with people like his bent ex lawyer mate accidentally kept going …………… Against IRD advice.
No doubt our prime ministers Keyzheimers disease will kick in even worse than it has so far ……. he won’t really remember what that advice was ………. at the end of the day.
But enough waffling and lets get pratical.. which is where I desperately need your smarts puckish….Your cleaver, cognitive and know whats what so…… could you please do some sums for me ……….. I wouldn’t bother asking any of the ‘leftie’ peeps around here….. because just like me they cant do math either …. and many are barking mad.
Sherwan who selected by key was the prime mover in a 2.2 billion dollar ( or more) tax scam by the aussie banks who were gouging New Zealanders for record profits at the time.
We have benefit fraud tip lines and a government that uses racism and every stereotype smear to encourage hatred of the worst off and most disadvantaged in society ………. that helps generate the phone calls for their attack ‘the poor welfare policy’….. and the privatisation of and evictions from state housing.
But back to the numbers ……
“Benefit fraud cost New Zealand $22 million in 2010″* ……now lets assume after another six years of national people are twice as dishonest…. because they are copying people like Bill English ( cheated the mp’s housing allowance with a false declaration …. Or JK with his ‘charity’ games of golf, Judith collins who can’t tell a kauri log from a Kauri stump and accidentally makes millions from her ignorance.
So presuming a National government makes the people more dishonest we’ll double the 22 million benefit fraud up to 44 million ….. And we’ll round that up to $50 million to account for the acceleration of corrupt behavior lately.
How many years of benefit fraud by ALL the beneficarys would it take to reach the amount that the ONE SINGLE Nact man John Sherwan had a go at ……….. How many years please wise one???, I bet your much better at maths than me.
BUT how much of the benefit fraud was detected due to the haters tip line …………. 40% , 30% 25%.
Because you are so cleaver could you also work out how many years of the benefit tip line running would you need before reaching the amount that John Sherwin tried to steal on the Aussie banks behalf ????
I can’t work it out …….
Which leads me to concede that John sherwan must be very cleaver to not go to jail for an attempted theft of 2.2 billion dollars of government revenue…….. which admittedly pays for silly stuff like hospitals and schools.
But those financial types must all be geniuses as no one went to jail for the wholesale fraud of Billions ( or was it trillions) , directly leading to the GFC and much suffering world wide ………..for the poor.
I can see why you support such intelligence …… to do otherwise would be stupid of you.
I’ll never be that smart …………. can’t even do math 🙁
I’m going to ask you one last final thing….. it’s probably something you could be uncomfortable with and I can’t recall you ever doing it on here……… I need your common sense to tell me who to vote for.
Hell if you can work out those unsolvable mathematical impossibility I threw your way ………….. then you’d be justified in telling all of us fools here te standard who to vote for.
“The banks will not pay penalties and the full details of the settlement are confidential, although they are paying 80% of the total tax owed plus interest. The amount was enough to boost New Zealand’s current account into a surplus in the September quarter for the first time in almost 21 years.”
I remember this well. Dumped just prior to Xmas if I remember correctly – Photo of smiling individuals in the MSM – declaring the settlement of the tax dispute and I was incensed.
Proud of themselves for caving in and politically negotiating a Debt to the IRD.
Not the sort of outcome any ordinary Kiwi falling foul of the IRD can expect.
Reason, have you read my actual comments and thought about them? I’ve already said that I think Peters has done good things and I gave the Winebox as an example. I don’t hate Peters, and if you think this is about that then you’re not listening.
He stopped the Bolger government in it’s tracks. He stopped a third wave of hard neo-liberalism, by getting free health care for the under 5’s. The gold card, fighting for changes to the power of attorney, and enduring power of attorney. He enforced ring fencing for health. He has been out spoken in his criticism of neo-liberalism.
Winston has actually done quite a bit of good weka. Been a bit of a nob about it in a macho way I agree, and is as social conservative as they come. He and the greens are the only ones who openly want to end the neo-liberal game at present. I’d hate to say this, but making him PM to get rid of neo-liberalism, is a price I’m willing to pay.
IMO the biggest contribution of Peters and NZF is the increase in minimum wage to $12/hr (from 9.50) while in govt from 2005 – 2008. That set the scene for regular minimum wage rises, which wasn’t really something that happened before that.
“And I cannot figure out why there is so much confidence in the NAct govt when so much is happening that is obviously negative”
Because interest rates are low, business confidence is high, employment is low and steady, more kiwis are returning home then ever before, Exports are likely to increase through trade
Leader Favourability Ratings
(Net positive Rating – the percentage point gap between those holding a Favourable and Unfavourable view of Key)
2009 +58
2010 +51
2011 +48
2012 +25
2013 +19
2014 +27
2015 1/2 +19
2015 2/2 +13
(2015 broken down on a quarterly basis:
2015
1/4 +22,
2/4 +15,
3/4 +10,
4/4 +16)
Latest UMR puts Key on his lowest everFavourability rating of +2
As you can see, what was once a gaping chasm has shrunk to a narrow fissure as views on the PM have become as polarised as they were on Muldoon by the early 80s.
The Reid Research Leader Performance ratings confirm Key’s significant decline (particularly steep after the 2011 Election and, again, over the last 2 years)
Andrew Little’s net Favourability rating compared to Key – 2015
…………………1/4…………2/4……….3/4………4/4
Key…………..+22….+15….+10…+16
Little………..+24…..+25…+16…+15
So, while Little may be badly trailing Key on the Preferred PM measure (which, as weka has rightly said, usually involves a significant incumbency effect), the Labour Leader actually led the PM throughout most of 2015 on the net Favourability ratings – by 2, 10 and 6 points during the first three-quarters, before slipping only slightly behind Key in the final quarter.
In stark contrast, Little’s 3 Labour Leader predecessors were always well behind Key.
As you’ve implied, Jenny, we keep hearing (in the MSM over the last 12 months) that Key is vastly more popular than Clark was at the same point in her Third Term.
In fact, Helen Clark’s Favourability (UMR) and Performance (Reid Research) ratings were significantly better than Key’s is now. It’s true that she was slightly down on his rating as Preferred PM (but only slightly).
2/2 2006 Clark averaged 37% Preferred PM
2/2 2015 Key averaged 39% Preferred PM
Dang, I’ve been trying to edit the above comment … not least to make that Key vs Little table look a wee bit more respectable and ship shape.
But I’m being told (in quite an authoritative – almost scolding – way) that You do not have permission to edit this comment, with the advice that I should therefore Close immediately or, presumably, I’ll be in for a bit of a kick up the arse.
Let’s try it again and see if I can make that table look a little less messy …
I haven’t walked down Lambton Quay on a week day morning for a few years. Place is empty, slow and lifeless almost like a ghost town. Not what I remember it being at all. What the hell have you guys done with the place???
Meetings must be over… they all stepped out at lunchtime – Lambton Quay seemed as busy to me today as the last time I was here.
The thing that bothers me the most is the Big Brand sector of Cuba Mall. They all moved in a few years ago, amid lots of protest, to apparently upscale the place and now that’s the most awful bit of the whole central city.
He’s getting more money. Wellington ratepayers are funding his film museum that going inside the convention centre we are also funding. What PJ wants, PJ gets as long as he doesn’t have to pay for it.
Wellingtonians know what’s going on in govt because they work in the civil service. When Lambton Quay goes empty, when Wellingtonians stop spending, it’s because they see big trouble ahead.
It’s been sad to see shops that have been around for decades closing down – I was working in one that closed down! Having worked in retail and distribution round Wgtn I’ve seen first hand the decline, since the GFC, but it never really picked up. One store owner that was a customer of the distributor I worked for blamed the increase in GST and cut backs in the public service for killing his business. He closed down after 30 years in business.
Now it’s all just “pop up” shops selling container loads of crap and the expansion of dollar shops in the burbs. There is a sense of the temporary and vaguely desperate.
What shops that are left often are part of Aussie chains. The high end, boutiquey stores selling creative and unique items are almost all gone.
There is a sense of the temporary and vaguely desperate.
I was thinking exactly that when I was walking around yesterday. A year or two ago the caravans and pop-ups added vibrancy now there and an air of despondency about them with sense of what comes next.
As an aside I’m also not keen on the commercialisation of public space. It might be ok for small start-ups but it takes no time at all for the big brands to move on in if a retail start-up space proves viable.
Maybe the MediaWorks owners noticed that too many cheerleaders of the right has left a huge gap for the left media to fill, ha ha and falling ratings for the right…
When it comes to Campbell Live though, the average audience of 281,669 viewers in 2013 was the best they’ve ever been.
– In 2013 the average viewers was the best its ever been, in 2013.
In 2014, the average audience for Campbell Live fell 22% to 219,406 viewers per night.
– That’s a big drop in numbers so the show is bringing in less money and remember its a private company NOT another make-work scheme for tired lefties
So far in 2015, the average audience is down a further 13% to 191,432. Overall, this equates to a 32% drop in the average nightly audience.
So yes people were watching it but not enough people were watching it so instead of losing money on the program the company, as is their right, dropped Campbell Live
Not a utopia but certainly in the top 10 countries to live in the world (probably top 5 but why argue semantics), the National party aren’t perfect (WFF should be scrapped for one thing) but certainly way out in front of any opposition and John Key as god…well I wouldn’t go that far I mean as this pic clearly states hes in the water not walking above it
You are being unfair to Paul. The problem is he isn’t really up to debate.
He tends to make some unsubstantiated comment and when asked why he said it refuses to give any reason because he “Can’t be bothered”. Most frustrating
I happily debate with people on this site I do not identify as trolls.
I substantiate comments with evidence when discussing points with fellow standardisas. I even sometimes add evidence for trolls. See below at 18.2.1.1.1.
I have contributed to the discussion in areas that intrigue me. Evidence below.
Back in my day I think he would have been a milk monitor.
They were back in the days before (I think) 1967 when kids had to drink a half pint of milk that had been sitting in the sun all morning. The milk monitor’s job was to make kids drink the horrible stuff. Proper little prats they were.
Alwyn …… about the only Wellingtonian who does not like the Zealandia bird sanctuary and the HUGE explosion of native birds spreading out from it…….. Got something against natives Al ?
Spending any small part your precious wealth giving some protection to creatures whose habitats we have trashed and changed to the point of near extinction for many of them is barking mad and a crime against your money.
Ayn Rand told the truth to those who would listen ……..money determines those who are winners ………. losers deserve what they get, be they bird, child or whatever ….WARNING TRIGER https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/vulture-stalking-a-child/ TRIGGER TRIGGER …..this Ayn Rands natural world photo lead to the photographer committing suicide ….. which is a good thing as they both self identified as undeserving losers by not having the individual drive to take advantage of the freedom of money.
John Key deserves his 50-100 million-from working as a goldman sachs merchent banker and its natural because he’s a winner ……. Poor family s and other people around the world deserve to pick through rubbish to survive, with no sanitation or medicines and associated high death rates for their loser children ….. they and their impoverished governments must pay the crippling interest on corruptly lent money…. because they are losers………… It’s the natural order of things and if they did not pay how could Godman sachs and the John Keys of this world express themselves as the winners that they naturally are.
It should be a crime to subvert the natural logic of winners taking all……….. I hope I’ve clearly shown to all the empathy clowns that those parasite birds are trying to get away with stealing Alwyns small change when really they should die as they are meant to.
Its also natural that Alwyn wins all arguments around here so its best Paul wakes up and recognizes Alwyns superiority here at this site ….. and John Keys superiority over everyone in NZ ………. apart from those who are richer of course……… Talleys, Myers, Harts,Fays and Richwhites are all amongst the best of the best we have in this country…. we should stop all losers stealing from them too…… birds included
Thank god for tax havens to preserve our natural orders …. as I’m sure you agree Alwyn.
“John Key deserves his 50-100 million-from working as a goldman sachs merchent banker”.
Really? Just when was it that he worked for Goldman Sachs?
I have nothing against bird sanctuaries, which is what Zealandia really is.
What I object to is that the council poured something like $17million into a visitor centre because they accepted the bs that it would increase patronage hugely and the $10 million loan would be repaid. That sort of thing was typical of the idiots we have as councillors. If we want to protect native birds what is wrong with Mt Bruce?
I really can’t be bothered reading through the rest of your rave.
And in the land of ‘no surprises’ …and given that the SNP is on track to win another clear majority in a voting system geared to prevent majorities…
More than 10,000 Scots have used a Voter Guidance toll being run by researchers from Strathclyde University. Labour voters prove to be less likely than SNP supporters to give a left-wing response..
In total, 73 per cent of SNP voters can be classified as left wing, while 44 per cent of Labour supporters fall into this category.
Looks like a self selecting poll and there’s a lot of subjectivity in deciding what’s ‘left wing’, but still… 10 000 respondents must be suggesting something worth considering, no? (And yet various Labour Parties in the English speaking world seem hell bent on continuing to accommodate market fundamentalism or neo-liberalist b/s)
Listened to this fascinating interview by Brian Crump with a chap who has written a book on how the world’s military have been and still are giving their troops all sorts of drugs to desensitize them, give them courage, make their reactions faster and basically be better at killing. For the ancient Greeks it was wine. During World War II both the German and the Allied soldiers were stoked to the eyeballs with amphetamines which is the drug of choice for contemporary wars. Cocaine was common during World War I, mixed with rum. Montgomery gave out 100,000 pills before the battle of El Alamein so that means New Zealand soldiers were popping their version of “P” while fighting along with everyone else. Obviously it is still going on today in all theatres of war. As the author points out, this is something that is barely acknowledged but is an integral part of all war environments.
Syria’s war is being fueled by a drug called Captagon
“A powerful amphetamine tablet based on the original synthetic drug known as “fenethylline,” Captagon quickly produces a euphoric intensity in users, allowing Syria’s fighters to stay up for days, killing with a numb, reckless abandon.”
‘He’s done it. Word is slowly seeping out that Key has granted an American Warship access to our harbour.
We must not allow this.
In November this year, an American warship will be entering Auckland Harbour for the first time in 32 years for the 75th anniversary of the NZ Navy. I remember protesting against the last warship visit when I was ten years old and I’m damned if I’ll simply sit quietly by while National and their corrupt followers cheerlead the American empire back into our waters!’
On 21 September, visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Royal New Zealand Navy ships would be allowed onto Defence Department or Coast guard facilities both within the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. “These changes make it easier for our militaries to engage in discussions on security issues and to hold co-operative engagements that increase our capacity to tackle common challenges. [We will work together despite] differences of opinion in some limited areas.” At the same time, however, New Zealand had not changed its stance as a nuclear-free zone.
On the 29th of October 2013 it was announced that “The United States and New Zealand will resume bilateral military cooperation after a near-total 30-year interruption” by New Zealand Defence minister Jonathan Coleman and United States Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel
So if the ships not carrying nuclear weapons whats the big deal?
Better than a cruise ship for local economy, especially if an air craft carrier, let them in I say, Paul can get his old placard out, no problem, every one happy Strange Paul your views have not really evolved since you where 10, the old saying if your not a socialist in your teens you have no heart, if your still a socialist as an adult you are a fool may have some purchase here
made with the outside help of Nobel Peace prize winners like Kissinger who fought the dirty socialist and stopped the diabolical plans like improved health care, meager pay rises for exploited workers,land rights or any other communist plots disguised as fairness.
Gangster states who kill with impunity and where the police stations are rape and torture centers are the price we must pay to protect the great freedoms of money.
Fairness is evil when you think about it …… can I send you money for your educational services you do here Reddellusion……. you could donate it to research on the scary sounding “deranged Key syndrome” you were trying to warn me about…… thanks for the early warning of this creepy disease …. I was rude and didn’t thank you before.
I stupidly thought you were an obnoxious troll with your own sad problems ..,. sorry bro
Socialism had done a fairly good job in killing, I think Cambodia, China and USSR out surpassed by a million miles any US war, all in the name of ideology Venezula Cuba, North Korea all these great socialist paradise all rate highly as desirable countries to live, I also see the refugees of the world flocking to the socialist paradise of the evil money hungry west, strange that
those times in those countries had nothing to do with “socialism”, just like the current version of the financial and economic system has little to do with “capitalism”.
The left really has their work cut out for them because of the ideological alignment between Key and the Crown. The only way they can form an effective opposition is to become anti-establishment. Of course then they are then faced with the problem of finding common ground, since opposing something isn’t of itself a source of shared values.
‘About 300 people carrying signs with slogans including ‘Stop the slop’ staged a protest today about the quality of Dunedin Hospital food.
The protest, organised by the Real Meals Coalition, called on the Southern District Health Board to cancel its food service contract with the Compass Group.’
“sense of entitlement” you say?, compare people who have paid taxes throughout their lives and in need of the healthcare they have paid for, to those pompous fat cats swanning around like the flash harries they are, being served by people that can’t afford to have a decent home.
Beggars belief you dare to suggest the masses have a “sense of entitlement” against your Tory lot. The masses are entitled to a decent home and a decent job, Tories prefer to avoid taxes so that hey have more than everyone else, yet do not work harder for it.
No responsibility, all the perks, like starting a game of monopoly with an extra $1,000,000 and sneering when the other players lose.
nz is a welfare state. what the hell you going on about, 10 percent of population pay net tax, who are these rich harries, I suggest they are fairies at the bottom of your garden
This compass bollocks is a political stunt by the Political left taking advantage of the Dunedin deluded for thier own interests and power,,
How about you talk about the food Reddelusion? I would have thought getting people out of hospital in a timely and healthy manor was a corner stone of a good health system.
So in your mind when bad decisions are made, people should just say nothing?
Your hatred is showing, spewing up all over this page. Try getting some love in your heart.
What’s with Dunedin lefties and thier extreme sense of entitlement
It’s a bit sad that the radical right has become so inhuman lately they can’t even respect democracy, nor recognise the human right for decent food which doesn’t resemble prison rations.
Looking forward to tonight’s “The Friday Story”….
Shits and giggles and Dunk’s mud loif crisis all laid bare (going forward).
Interesting tho’….. Dunk and Ms duP…yA are (I think) starting to notice the Natzi’s fading star (housing bubbles, pathetic greenwashing, indebtedness et al).
I guess Dunk’s beginning to realise the kuds are growing up and about to face a shit future, and Heather dearest is beginning to realise she’s put all her hopes of wealth on a raspy voice – that really isn’t all that crash hot. Hopefully Dunk’s looking out for her
Oh dear! what a con! No duP..-yA, and something pathetic, appropriately dressed in yellow (going forward) giving me supposedly SAGE advice about the pressing ussyouse of the Nayshun (going forwid)…. and the Wherl.
Congrats Dunk! Worth a celery increase don’t you think?
Health minister Coleman quoted on TV1 news says the 2 million New Zealanders receiving hospital food from Compass, the Auckland company sending frozen food muck to Dunedin hospital are mostly happy with the food quality.
If as he says, there are 2 million people in hospital out of our population of about 4.7 million then something’s wrong with our ‘healthy’ lifestyle..or someone’s lying.
The patients in Dunedin who are supposed to eat the food (sic) still say it is crap.
Given how difficult it is to get into a hospital I find the 2 million rather on the high side – 40% of us are in hospital – I don’t think so .
Send him back to pass his NCEA levels maybe??
At 100% bed capacity and 100% of them being fed by Compass, that’s still a month or two of meals.
Basically, Coleman was probably referring to the total number of meals dished out by Compass so far. And the devil is in “mostly happy”, too – how many people actualy like the meals, as opposed to putting up with them or filling in the middle circle on a survey box?
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This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
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Opinion: New Health NZ commissioner Lester Levy is authorised to assume operational leadership – chief executive Margie Apa is effectively relegated to his operational deputy The post All-powerful Levy is feudal baron of a $28b fiefdom appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Panama-based company Ceol & Muir which is owned by Italy-based Rafael Grozovsky and his Argentina-based brother Federico Grozovsky, purchased the 1317-hectare Onetai Station in Awakino, Taranaki in 2014, for $6 million. In Argentina, their company was charged with discharging carcinogenic waste from their tanneries into the nearby river. However, regarding the sale of Taranaki land, the OIO has found the purchasers have met their ‘good character’ requirements.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/302593/oio-satisfied-with-foreign-owners-of-taranaki-farm
Fuertísimas emanaciones ponen en el tapete el accionar de la curtiembre Magromer http://www.noticiasmercedinas.com/100120magromer.htm
There’s a post up about it now.
http://thestandard.org.nz/mossack-fonseca-bites-national-on-the-arse/
https://translate.google.co.nz/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.noticiasmercedinas.com/100120magromer.htm&prev=search
Has anyone noticed how easily Key’s “relaxed about that” screwing up of his nose is so easily read now as uncaring arrogance??
With his foreign trusts and foreign owners he is entirely coming across as “I know best, stop wasting my time”
Maybe he has been watching how his colleague finlayson q c manages to so accurately display his nonsensical sense of place…
+1
“Maybe he has been watching how his colleague finlayson q c manages to so accurately display his nonsensical sense of place…”
Ain’t that the truth. I often wondered what happened to the guy. At one time he was half reasonable (for a Gnat) – then I realised …. Key happened and he became an arse licking woose. So much for principle
John Key ramming through TPPA – we all know that it is for the benefit of his cronies and the 0.1% who don’t feel the need to pay taxes, and can pollute at will.
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2987560/colombia_theres_no_place_for_clean_water_under_free_trade.html
“The latest country to be hooked under ‘free trade’ agreements is Colombia, writes Pete Dolack, sued for tens of billions of dollars by US and Canadian gold mining companies for valuing its national parks and the high-altitude Andean wetlands that provide 70% of the nation’s water above the profits of foreign corporations. Free trade or clean water? You can’t have both.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ttip-uk-government-only-did-one-assessment-of-trade-deal-and-found-it-had-lots-of-risks-and-no-a6999646.html
“TTIP: UK Government found secret courts in trade deal have ‘lots of risk and no benefit’ in its only assessment
Stark warning against agreement disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information request”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/302324/us-officials-heading-to-nz-to-talk-tpp
A visit by US officials could be used to pressure the government into further concessions on the Trans Pacific Partnership deal, a long time critic of the trade pact says.
RNZ reports that Corbyn has demoted Ken Livingstone for suggesting zionism had a connection with nazism. I like some of the things Corbyn has done, but on this one he is wrong.
“The WZO leaders said as little as they could about Germany in as much as they knew that negotiations were proceeding to work out a trade agreement with Hitler. Jabotinsky brought forth a motion to support the embryonic anti-Nazi boycott, but it had no chance of success. The delegates were totally put off by the fascist character of Revisionism. During the Congress, Jewish Telegraphic Agency dispatches told of the police discovering Jabotinsky’s letter to Achimeir denouncing him for his pro-Nazi articles. [24] The vast majority of the delegates believed that the Biryonim had murdered the Political Secretary of their movement and the letter could only serve to reinforce their opinion. They could only think that their own Hitler was denouncing the WZO leaders for being pro-Nazi. The resolution calling for action against the Hitlerites was soundly defeated, 240 to 43. [25] (In fact the Nazis announced, during the Congress, that a trade agreement had been reached with the WZO’s Anglo-Palestine Bank.)”
http://www.marxists.de/middleast/ironwall/08-fascter.htm#30s
There seems to quite a lot of bullshit being pushed, including by a number within UK Labour, that antisemitism is a trait of the more left leaning people within UK Labour.
I agree that Corbyn should have faced it down but…over a few years I’ve noticed a more general ‘getting up in arms’ about supposed antisemitism in the UK media. For example, I’ve been aware of the BBC running (to me) incongruous reports on the threat to the Jewish community off the back of terrorist attacks or apparent imminent likelihood of some terrorist attack.
Israel has been actively cultivating media contacts, I reckon.
Colonial Viper, You are not far wrong.
Colonial Viper, You are not far wrong!
Yes with lots of compost and nitrogenous matter they have cultivated a lot of deadly nightshade.
Israel at one time showed the world how to use water very effectively for irrigation.
Now they should turn their hands back to teaching the world how to use their human resources in a more effective way than making other people miserable and desperate in enclosed apartheid-like homelands. This would honour their people who suffered the same sort of treatment in WW2 and before.
So Israel can make more of the desert bloom using permaculture and leave some land for Palestinians to live in peace. This article explains how:
http://permaculturenews.org/2013/03/01/recycling-animal-and-human-dung-is-the-key-to-sustainable-farming/
Bullenglish is blabbing about low interest rates, good potential investors out there, plenty of cash around, when the parameters are right…. Then you realize he’s talking about mental health services
Are mental health services a growth market under this administration ?
Can someone – a political scientist type of person (but not that fellow in the Herald, Edwards !) provide us with some sort of analysis of the more recent polls please.
An analysis that includes the numbers of “Don’t Know” who they’ll vote for, and also what sort of questions are being asked in the polls. Plus the PM’s rating each time.
It looks to me like the PM’s rating is dropping, but that’s not being picked up by the media. And I cannot figure out why there is so much confidence in the NAct govt when so much is happening that is obviously negative : the TPPA, the known corruption, the PM supporting the 1%, climate change issues, housing, unemployment, beggars in the streets, dairying going down, etc.
Why isn’t all this showing in the polls?
And I don’t want to be given the glib answer that we don’t have a Bernie Sanders or Corbyn – we have Winston Peters and that’s more than enough for one little country and yes – his poll rating has gone up, and I’m assuming that’s because he’s the spokesperson for everything in NZ First, and now he is Northland MP, he has a lot to make a noise about.
Afaik the incumbent PM usually rates higher than all other party leaders as preferred PM. I think the whole focus on that is part of the manufacture of the Teflon Key myth. Myself I think it’s irrelevant.
Most polls don’t report or account for the don’t knows/undecideds, nor the people that won’t answer their questions or don’t even answer the phone. That and the margins of error, and the fact that results are often close make me think much of what we do will polls is spin rather than reality. I think polls tend to reflect many things including what the MSM are doing, esp close to an election.
We should be looking at the poll of polls, not individual ones, because the poll of polls shows trends over time and that’s more important. Individual polls with commentary are highly speculative. We can use that, but I don’t think we should get too hung up on it at this stage. Closer to the election it’s an issue (I believe polls should be banned for some weeks pre-election). But we’re not there yet.
(as an aside, Peters isn’t our Corbyn or Sanders. He’s a centrist, authoritarian power-monger. Yes, he’s charismatic, knows how to play the political power game very well, has done some good things for NZ (think Winebox) and NZF has some good policies, but he’s also damaged MMP and democracy in NZ. Not even close to being a Corbyn or Sanders)
Peters is his own political tour de force. Unfortunately he is on the last term or two of his career. There is no one else of his calibre politically once he is gone. Cunliffe had the potential but that’s all over now.
But this term National and Labour will continue to weaken while he benefits.
NZ will be better off politically and societally once Peters is gone from parliament. I can name good things he has done, but they don’t outweigh how much he has damaged MMP and democracy. I don’t care how good he is at macho politics beyond how much power that garners him to keep on with the bullshit game. You and I obviously rate good politics quite differently.
He is entertaining though so I guess there is that.
I enjoy you talking about democracy and MMP, while simultaneously wishing gone one of the most popular and effective political figures of the decade.
I guess you prefer democracy done your way.
“I guess you prefer democracy done your way.”
Actually I think that describes Peters. But it’s interesting that that’s what you resort to, trying to make out that I’m something or other rather than addressing the points. Let’s try again,
“enjoy you talking about democracy and MMP, while simultaneously wishing gone one of the most popular and effective political figures of the decade.”
Yes, because the underpinnings of MMP and democracy aren’t popularity or even political effectiveness, which can obviously be used in anti-democratic ways. The underpinnings are representation and fairness. Peters has demonstrably worked against those things at times.
Peters is popular for sure, but he never got his party permanently out of the sub 10%. He fucked up a couple of times and lost his votes, so we can say that historically he’s been popular and unpopular depending on his behaviour. Like I said, I can name the good things he’s done, but I can name the mistakes too and the problems.
Weka, Do you hate Peters more than the national party supporters and tax cheats who had to pay millions to our government that they had successfully swindled past the IRD …………….. until Winston and his wine box extracted back to new zealand some of their stolen loot. http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/8515361/Money-trail-leads-home-to-New-Zealand
Winne cost the nat party votes and their rich criminal supporters money, so they hate him very much ……………
And look at what Winston did to Key in the Northland bye-election when Nationals expert solution to the P problem and future police minister Mike Sabin had to leave parliament ……………..
Key performed like a limp dick trying to hammer a nail against Winston 🙂
National are now engaged in working with rich tax cheats and other criminals to such an extent that the architect of a multi BILLION dollar tax swindle is the guy that Key picked to be the judge on ‘New Zealand Tax Haven Inc’ ……………. The tax haven that key accidentally created and then after many talks and meetings with people like his bent ex lawyer mate accidentally kept going …………… Against IRD advice.
No doubt our prime ministers Keyzheimers disease will kick in even worse than it has so far ……. he won’t really remember what that advice was ………. at the end of the day.
But enough waffling and lets get pratical.. which is where I desperately need your smarts puckish….Your cleaver, cognitive and know whats what so…… could you please do some sums for me ……….. I wouldn’t bother asking any of the ‘leftie’ peeps around here….. because just like me they cant do math either …. and many are barking mad.
Sherwan who selected by key was the prime mover in a 2.2 billion dollar ( or more) tax scam by the aussie banks who were gouging New Zealanders for record profits at the time.
We have benefit fraud tip lines and a government that uses racism and every stereotype smear to encourage hatred of the worst off and most disadvantaged in society ………. that helps generate the phone calls for their attack ‘the poor welfare policy’….. and the privatisation of and evictions from state housing.
But back to the numbers ……
“Benefit fraud cost New Zealand $22 million in 2010″* ……now lets assume after another six years of national people are twice as dishonest…. because they are copying people like Bill English ( cheated the mp’s housing allowance with a false declaration …. Or JK with his ‘charity’ games of golf, Judith collins who can’t tell a kauri log from a Kauri stump and accidentally makes millions from her ignorance.
So presuming a National government makes the people more dishonest we’ll double the 22 million benefit fraud up to 44 million ….. And we’ll round that up to $50 million to account for the acceleration of corrupt behavior lately.
How many years of benefit fraud by ALL the beneficarys would it take to reach the amount that the ONE SINGLE Nact man John Sherwan had a go at ……….. How many years please wise one???, I bet your much better at maths than me.
BUT how much of the benefit fraud was detected due to the haters tip line …………. 40% , 30% 25%.
Because you are so cleaver could you also work out how many years of the benefit tip line running would you need before reaching the amount that John Sherwin tried to steal on the Aussie banks behalf ????
I can’t work it out …….
Which leads me to concede that John sherwan must be very cleaver to not go to jail for an attempted theft of 2.2 billion dollars of government revenue…….. which admittedly pays for silly stuff like hospitals and schools.
But those financial types must all be geniuses as no one went to jail for the wholesale fraud of Billions ( or was it trillions) , directly leading to the GFC and much suffering world wide ………..for the poor.
I can see why you support such intelligence …… to do otherwise would be stupid of you.
I’ll never be that smart …………. can’t even do math 🙁
I’m going to ask you one last final thing….. it’s probably something you could be uncomfortable with and I can’t recall you ever doing it on here……… I need your common sense to tell me who to vote for.
Hell if you can work out those unsolvable mathematical impossibility I threw your way ………….. then you’d be justified in telling all of us fools here te standard who to vote for.
“The banks will not pay penalties and the full details of the settlement are confidential, although they are paying 80% of the total tax owed plus interest. The amount was enough to boost New Zealand’s current account into a surplus in the September quarter for the first time in almost 21 years.”
http://www.interest.co.nz/news/40814/banks-settle-structured-finance-tax-disputes-ird-nz22-bln-update-1
Sherwan who WAS selected by key was the prime mover in a 2.2 billion dollar ( or more) tax scam
I remember this well. Dumped just prior to Xmas if I remember correctly – Photo of smiling individuals in the MSM – declaring the settlement of the tax dispute and I was incensed.
Proud of themselves for caving in and politically negotiating a Debt to the IRD.
Not the sort of outcome any ordinary Kiwi falling foul of the IRD can expect.
Reason, have you read my actual comments and thought about them? I’ve already said that I think Peters has done good things and I gave the Winebox as an example. I don’t hate Peters, and if you think this is about that then you’re not listening.
Well would you look at that, we agree on something
He stopped the Bolger government in it’s tracks. He stopped a third wave of hard neo-liberalism, by getting free health care for the under 5’s. The gold card, fighting for changes to the power of attorney, and enduring power of attorney. He enforced ring fencing for health. He has been out spoken in his criticism of neo-liberalism.
Winston has actually done quite a bit of good weka. Been a bit of a nob about it in a macho way I agree, and is as social conservative as they come. He and the greens are the only ones who openly want to end the neo-liberal game at present. I’d hate to say this, but making him PM to get rid of neo-liberalism, is a price I’m willing to pay.
Would you vote for NZF in 2017?
IMO the biggest contribution of Peters and NZF is the increase in minimum wage to $12/hr (from 9.50) while in govt from 2005 – 2008. That set the scene for regular minimum wage rises, which wasn’t really something that happened before that.
“Cunliffe had the potential but that’s all over now.”
Wins tons been written of once or twice in the past ,and look at him now.
Exactly – a week’s a very long time in politics! David Cunliffe is feared by the Natz for good good reason!
“And I cannot figure out why there is so much confidence in the NAct govt when so much is happening that is obviously negative”
Because interest rates are low, business confidence is high, employment is low and steady, more kiwis are returning home then ever before, Exports are likely to increase through trade
“Employment is low and steady”
Yeah about right
@ Ms Jennifer Kirk
I’m slowly but surely completing some detailed poll analysis for my blog .. but unfortunately not finished yet.
In the meantime, here’s some PM/Leadership stats …
Preferred PM Averages – John Key
(Colmar Brunton / Reid Research – combined)
…………………………Average……………High……….Compare 2/2 2015-16
2/2 2015-16………..39………………………40…………………………..-
1/1 2015……………..42………………………44…………………..Down 3 Points
2014…………………. 45………………………48……………………Down 6 Points
2013…………………..41………………………44……………………Down 2 Points
2012…………………..43………………………48……………………Down 4 Points
2011…………………..53………………………59……………………Down 14 Points
2010…………………..49………………………54……………………Down 10 Points
2009…………………..52………………………56……………………Down 13 Points
Leader Favourability Ratings
(Net positive Rating – the percentage point gap between those holding a Favourable and Unfavourable view of Key)
2009 +58
2010 +51
2011 +48
2012 +25
2013 +19
2014 +27
2015 1/2 +19
2015 2/2 +13
(2015 broken down on a quarterly basis:
2015
1/4 +22,
2/4 +15,
3/4 +10,
4/4 +16)
Latest UMR puts Key on his lowest ever Favourability rating of +2
As you can see, what was once a gaping chasm has shrunk to a narrow fissure as views on the PM have become as polarised as they were on Muldoon by the early 80s.
The Reid Research Leader Performance ratings confirm Key’s significant decline (particularly steep after the 2011 Election and, again, over the last 2 years)
Andrew Little’s net Favourability rating compared to Key – 2015
…………………1/4…………2/4……….3/4………4/4
Key…………..+22….+15….+10…+16
Little………..+24…..+25…+16…+15
So, while Little may be badly trailing Key on the Preferred PM measure (which, as weka has rightly said, usually involves a significant incumbency effect), the Labour Leader actually led the PM throughout most of 2015 on the net Favourability ratings – by 2, 10 and 6 points during the first three-quarters, before slipping only slightly behind Key in the final quarter.
In stark contrast, Little’s 3 Labour Leader predecessors were always well behind Key.
As you’ve implied, Jenny, we keep hearing (in the MSM over the last 12 months) that Key is vastly more popular than Clark was at the same point in her Third Term.
In fact, Helen Clark’s Favourability (UMR) and Performance (Reid Research) ratings were significantly better than Key’s is now. It’s true that she was slightly down on his rating as Preferred PM (but only slightly).
2/2 2006 Clark averaged 37% Preferred PM
2/2 2015 Key averaged 39% Preferred PM
Dang, I’ve been trying to edit the above comment … not least to make that Key vs Little table look a wee bit more respectable and ship shape.
But I’m being told (in quite an authoritative – almost scolding – way) that You do not have permission to edit this comment, with the advice that I should therefore Close immediately or, presumably, I’ll be in for a bit of a kick up the arse.
Let’s try it again and see if I can make that table look a little less messy …
……………….1/4……….2/4……….3/4……..4/4
Key………….+22………+15………+10……..+16
Little……….+24……….+25……..+16……..+15
Thanks Swordfish, that helps clarify things a bit more. I’ll await your more considered analysis. Let us know when you put it up, please.
Greens go down three points in polls for exposing corrupt Prime Minister. New Zealand First goes up three
Which poll are you looking at?
This:
I haven’t walked down Lambton Quay on a week day morning for a few years. Place is empty, slow and lifeless almost like a ghost town. Not what I remember it being at all. What the hell have you guys done with the place???
Everyone’s busy consulting their trust lawyers?
Meetings must be over… they all stepped out at lunchtime – Lambton Quay seemed as busy to me today as the last time I was here.
The thing that bothers me the most is the Big Brand sector of Cuba Mall. They all moved in a few years ago, amid lots of protest, to apparently upscale the place and now that’s the most awful bit of the whole central city.
Good point, CV. Not *like* a ghost town – it is one.
Did you catch the tumbleweed the Weta film crew left behind ?
Memo to self: must give Peter Jackson more money
He’s getting more money. Wellington ratepayers are funding his film museum that going inside the convention centre we are also funding. What PJ wants, PJ gets as long as he doesn’t have to pay for it.
He’s nothing more than a parasite.
Wellingtonians know what’s going on in govt because they work in the civil service. When Lambton Quay goes empty, when Wellingtonians stop spending, it’s because they see big trouble ahead.
It’s been sad to see shops that have been around for decades closing down – I was working in one that closed down! Having worked in retail and distribution round Wgtn I’ve seen first hand the decline, since the GFC, but it never really picked up. One store owner that was a customer of the distributor I worked for blamed the increase in GST and cut backs in the public service for killing his business. He closed down after 30 years in business.
Now it’s all just “pop up” shops selling container loads of crap and the expansion of dollar shops in the burbs. There is a sense of the temporary and vaguely desperate.
What shops that are left often are part of Aussie chains. The high end, boutiquey stores selling creative and unique items are almost all gone.
There is a sense of the temporary and vaguely desperate.
I was thinking exactly that when I was walking around yesterday. A year or two ago the caravans and pop-ups added vibrancy now there and an air of despondency about them with sense of what comes next.
As an aside I’m also not keen on the commercialisation of public space. It might be ok for small start-ups but it takes no time at all for the big brands to move on in if a retail start-up space proves viable.
The GST increase to 15% was what really seemed to empty the shops of customers and start the closures
Define “morning” … if it was 4a.m then the answer is kind of obvious 🙂
Cantabrian cyclists with twitter access might be interested in this questionaire. Or any cyclist.
NZTA Canterbury/WC
@NZTACWC
Thinking about cycling to work? What would make you consider giving it a go?
Bike-friendly office
Safe cycle route
Having a cycle buddy
Bike and Helmet access
https://twitter.com/NZTACWC/status/725810110543462400
This is about the LNP in Aussie – but you get the feeling it could have easily been about the national party here.
Because it’s Friday, you should giggle more.
The quality of video is poor, but the content is great.
ta adam
John Drinnan: MediaWorks owner tightens reins –
Maybe the MediaWorks owners noticed that too many cheerleaders of the right has left a huge gap for the left media to fill, ha ha and falling ratings for the right…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11630411
no mention of canning Cambell Live and John Cambell. But never let the facts get in the way of reporting in Granny.
Like the fact that Campbell Lives ratings had been falling for years and that’s why it was axed, because the public didn’t want to watch it
That is a barefaced lie.
You are a lie faced bear
http://www.throng.co.nz/2015/04/ratings-how-campbell-live-ended-up-on-the-block/
Your link shows hundred of thousands of NZers were watching CL up until it was axed. How does that equate to ‘the public didn’t want to watch it?’.
Where are the figures for online viewing?
Let me spell it out for you:
When it comes to Campbell Live though, the average audience of 281,669 viewers in 2013 was the best they’ve ever been.
– In 2013 the average viewers was the best its ever been, in 2013.
In 2014, the average audience for Campbell Live fell 22% to 219,406 viewers per night.
– That’s a big drop in numbers so the show is bringing in less money and remember its a private company NOT another make-work scheme for tired lefties
So far in 2015, the average audience is down a further 13% to 191,432. Overall, this equates to a 32% drop in the average nightly audience.
So yes people were watching it but not enough people were watching it so instead of losing money on the program the company, as is their right, dropped Campbell Live
I found the ratings most interesting at the time – CL’s only issue seemed to me that the 3news lead-in was the weak link.
TV3’s having subsequent programming successes would have justified the decision, but it’s still in the doldrums.
So what is the audience in that timeslot now?
Under 100k?
Funny response scared one.
Put it all in context TV3 had falling in the rating all over the place, it still does.
And before you blow a gasket – look at the trend post Campbell live, and also the viewer-ship numbers falling right across the medium.
So the shrill argument of ratings is just that, shrill.
I just can’t be bothered debating with pr.
That’s because you can’t debate with Puckish Rouge.
To Puckish Rouge, NZ is a utopia, the national party are perfect, and John Key is a god.
And we should all bow down to J.K and suck it up.
So you can’t argue or debate with Puckish Rouge – you just trade words that Puckish Rouge will take out of context to justify any old cods wallop.
Yes dear.
Not a utopia but certainly in the top 10 countries to live in the world (probably top 5 but why argue semantics), the National party aren’t perfect (WFF should be scrapped for one thing) but certainly way out in front of any opposition and John Key as god…well I wouldn’t go that far I mean as this pic clearly states hes in the water not walking above it
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/John-Key-Swimming-Pool-Metro-2006-300×224.jpg
You are being unfair to Paul. The problem is he isn’t really up to debate.
He tends to make some unsubstantiated comment and when asked why he said it refuses to give any reason because he “Can’t be bothered”. Most frustrating
An example is here. I would still like to know what he thinks “correct” exchange rates should be, and why.
http://thestandard.org.nz/if-you-need-a-good-laugh-this-morning/#comment-1166228
.
I happily debate with people on this site I do not identify as trolls.
I substantiate comments with evidence when discussing points with fellow standardisas. I even sometimes add evidence for trolls. See below at 18.2.1.1.1.
I have contributed to the discussion in areas that intrigue me. Evidence below.
http://thestandard.org.nz/keep-calm-and-carry-on/
You weren’t a high school prefect by any chance?
Back in my day I think he would have been a milk monitor.
They were back in the days before (I think) 1967 when kids had to drink a half pint of milk that had been sitting in the sun all morning. The milk monitor’s job was to make kids drink the horrible stuff. Proper little prats they were.
Alwyn …… about the only Wellingtonian who does not like the Zealandia bird sanctuary and the HUGE explosion of native birds spreading out from it…….. Got something against natives Al ?
Spending any small part your precious wealth giving some protection to creatures whose habitats we have trashed and changed to the point of near extinction for many of them is barking mad and a crime against your money.
Ayn Rand told the truth to those who would listen ……..money determines those who are winners ………. losers deserve what they get, be they bird, child or whatever ….WARNING TRIGER https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/vulture-stalking-a-child/ TRIGGER TRIGGER …..this Ayn Rands natural world photo lead to the photographer committing suicide ….. which is a good thing as they both self identified as undeserving losers by not having the individual drive to take advantage of the freedom of money.
John Key deserves his 50-100 million-from working as a goldman sachs merchent banker and its natural because he’s a winner ……. Poor family s and other people around the world deserve to pick through rubbish to survive, with no sanitation or medicines and associated high death rates for their loser children ….. they and their impoverished governments must pay the crippling interest on corruptly lent money…. because they are losers………… It’s the natural order of things and if they did not pay how could Godman sachs and the John Keys of this world express themselves as the winners that they naturally are.
It should be a crime to subvert the natural logic of winners taking all……….. I hope I’ve clearly shown to all the empathy clowns that those parasite birds are trying to get away with stealing Alwyns small change when really they should die as they are meant to.
Its also natural that Alwyn wins all arguments around here so its best Paul wakes up and recognizes Alwyns superiority here at this site ….. and John Keys superiority over everyone in NZ ………. apart from those who are richer of course……… Talleys, Myers, Harts,Fays and Richwhites are all amongst the best of the best we have in this country…. we should stop all losers stealing from them too…… birds included
Thank god for tax havens to preserve our natural orders …. as I’m sure you agree Alwyn.
“John Key deserves his 50-100 million-from working as a goldman sachs merchent banker”.
Really? Just when was it that he worked for Goldman Sachs?
I have nothing against bird sanctuaries, which is what Zealandia really is.
What I object to is that the council poured something like $17million into a visitor centre because they accepted the bs that it would increase patronage hugely and the $10 million loan would be repaid. That sort of thing was typical of the idiots we have as councillors. If we want to protect native birds what is wrong with Mt Bruce?
I really can’t be bothered reading through the rest of your rave.
yes dear
And now Hillary Barry has gone.
And in the land of ‘no surprises’ …and given that the SNP is on track to win another clear majority in a voting system geared to prevent majorities…
Looks like a self selecting poll and there’s a lot of subjectivity in deciding what’s ‘left wing’, but still… 10 000 respondents must be suggesting something worth considering, no? (And yet various Labour Parties in the English speaking world seem hell bent on continuing to accommodate market fundamentalism or neo-liberalist b/s)
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/study-finds-labour-voters-less-left-wing-than-snp-supporters-1-4114150
Listened to this fascinating interview by Brian Crump with a chap who has written a book on how the world’s military have been and still are giving their troops all sorts of drugs to desensitize them, give them courage, make their reactions faster and basically be better at killing. For the ancient Greeks it was wine. During World War II both the German and the Allied soldiers were stoked to the eyeballs with amphetamines which is the drug of choice for contemporary wars. Cocaine was common during World War I, mixed with rum. Montgomery gave out 100,000 pills before the battle of El Alamein so that means New Zealand soldiers were popping their version of “P” while fighting along with everyone else. Obviously it is still going on today in all theatres of war. As the author points out, this is something that is barely acknowledged but is an integral part of all war environments.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/nights/audio/201798782/shooting-up-drugs-and-war
Syria’s war is being fueled by a drug called Captagon
“A powerful amphetamine tablet based on the original synthetic drug known as “fenethylline,” Captagon quickly produces a euphoric intensity in users, allowing Syria’s fighters to stay up for days, killing with a numb, reckless abandon.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/19/the-tiny-pill-fueling-syrias-war-and-turning-fighters-into-super-human-soldiers/
Wonder if that was the drug that was found on the plane of a Saudi royal family member recently? A huge huge haul was found!
But but…all the cool kids are doing it…
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/superman/2013/05/sleep_deprivation_in_the_military_modafinil_and_the_arms_race_for_soldiers.html
Something coming down the interwebs about rich Britons and NZ domiciled trusts – Farrar’s posted about half of Britons paying no income tax.
‘He’s done it. Word is slowly seeping out that Key has granted an American Warship access to our harbour.
We must not allow this.
In November this year, an American warship will be entering Auckland Harbour for the first time in 32 years for the 75th anniversary of the NZ Navy. I remember protesting against the last warship visit when I was ten years old and I’m damned if I’ll simply sit quietly by while National and their corrupt followers cheerlead the American empire back into our waters!’
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/04/29/to-the-barricades-kiwis-key-is-letting-a-filthy-us-war-ship-into-our-waters-rage-and-prepare-to-fight-now/
Hmm, haven’t we had non-nuke ships when the US relaxed its neither confirm nor deny stance?
On 21 September, visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Royal New Zealand Navy ships would be allowed onto Defence Department or Coast guard facilities both within the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. “These changes make it easier for our militaries to engage in discussions on security issues and to hold co-operative engagements that increase our capacity to tackle common challenges. [We will work together despite] differences of opinion in some limited areas.” At the same time, however, New Zealand had not changed its stance as a nuclear-free zone.
On the 29th of October 2013 it was announced that “The United States and New Zealand will resume bilateral military cooperation after a near-total 30-year interruption” by New Zealand Defence minister Jonathan Coleman and United States Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel
So if the ships not carrying nuclear weapons whats the big deal?
It’s the ‘muricans!!!! It’s the ‘muricans!!!!
Some countries don’t share your enthusiasm for the Yanks and their military machine.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/list-of-countries-the-usa-has-bombed-since-the-end-of-world-war-ii/24626
Namely….
List of countries the USA has bombed since the end of World War II till 2011.
China 1945-46
Korea 1950-53
China 1950-53
Guatemala 1954
Indonesia 1958
Cuba 1959-60
Guatemala 1960
Belgian Congo 1964
Guatemala 1964
Dominican Republic 1965-66
Peru 1965
Laos 1964-73
Vietnam 1961-73
Cambodia 1969-70
Guatemala 1967-69
Lebanon 1982-84
Grenada 1983-84
Libya 1986
El Salvador 1981-92
Nicaragua 1981-90
Iran 1987-88
Libya 1989
Panama 1989-90
Iraq 1991
Kuwait 1991
Somalia 1992-94
Bosnia 1995
Iran 1998
Sudan 1998
Afghanistan 1998
Yugoslavia – Serbia 1999
Afghanistan 2001
Iraq 2003
Libya 2011
The Americans have a neither confirm nor deny policy.
You should know that.
and NZ has a no nuclear armaments policy so again whats the issue here
You should know.
Better than a cruise ship for local economy, especially if an air craft carrier, let them in I say, Paul can get his old placard out, no problem, every one happy Strange Paul your views have not really evolved since you where 10, the old saying if your not a socialist in your teens you have no heart, if your still a socialist as an adult you are a fool may have some purchase here
And your a supporter for actors Reddellusion ……
The actors in”The Act of Killing” …. http://www.actofkilling.com/
made with the outside help of Nobel Peace prize winners like Kissinger who fought the dirty socialist and stopped the diabolical plans like improved health care, meager pay rises for exploited workers,land rights or any other communist plots disguised as fairness.
Gangster states who kill with impunity and where the police stations are rape and torture centers are the price we must pay to protect the great freedoms of money.
Fairness is evil when you think about it …… can I send you money for your educational services you do here Reddellusion……. you could donate it to research on the scary sounding “deranged Key syndrome” you were trying to warn me about…… thanks for the early warning of this creepy disease …. I was rude and didn’t thank you before.
I stupidly thought you were an obnoxious troll with your own sad problems ..,. sorry bro
Socialism had done a fairly good job in killing, I think Cambodia, China and USSR out surpassed by a million miles any US war, all in the name of ideology Venezula Cuba, North Korea all these great socialist paradise all rate highly as desirable countries to live, I also see the refugees of the world flocking to the socialist paradise of the evil money hungry west, strange that
Cheers comrad bro
those times in those countries had nothing to do with “socialism”, just like the current version of the financial and economic system has little to do with “capitalism”.
“I also see the refugees of the world flocking to the socialist paradise of the evil money hungry west, strange that”
…you mean those money hungry western countries like Turkey,Lebanon.Jordan,Iraq and Egypt?……oh and around 10% of them try for europe.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/02/syrias-refugee-crisis-in-numbers/
The left really has their work cut out for them because of the ideological alignment between Key and the Crown. The only way they can form an effective opposition is to become anti-establishment. Of course then they are then faced with the problem of finding common ground, since opposing something isn’t of itself a source of shared values.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/11/20/all-wars-are-bankers-wars/
http://rense.com/general63/tcs.htm
‘About 300 people carrying signs with slogans including ‘Stop the slop’ staged a protest today about the quality of Dunedin Hospital food.
The protest, organised by the Real Meals Coalition, called on the Southern District Health Board to cancel its food service contract with the Compass Group.’
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/381452/food-protest-stop-slop
What’s with Dunedin lefties and thier extreme sense of entitlement
What’s with reactionary fools supporting the 0.01% with trite slogans and inflammatory statements?
Yea slogan master, just to get my slogans right is it the 1 percent or the 0.01pc who are the problem or the 0.001pc
the smaller the percentage, the bigger the problem
Saves on guillotine blades though.
“sense of entitlement” you say?, compare people who have paid taxes throughout their lives and in need of the healthcare they have paid for, to those pompous fat cats swanning around like the flash harries they are, being served by people that can’t afford to have a decent home.
Beggars belief you dare to suggest the masses have a “sense of entitlement” against your Tory lot. The masses are entitled to a decent home and a decent job, Tories prefer to avoid taxes so that hey have more than everyone else, yet do not work harder for it.
No responsibility, all the perks, like starting a game of monopoly with an extra $1,000,000 and sneering when the other players lose.
nz is a welfare state. what the hell you going on about, 10 percent of population pay net tax, who are these rich harries, I suggest they are fairies at the bottom of your garden
This compass bollocks is a political stunt by the Political left taking advantage of the Dunedin deluded for thier own interests and power,,
How about you talk about the food Reddelusion? I would have thought getting people out of hospital in a timely and healthy manor was a corner stone of a good health system.
So in your mind when bad decisions are made, people should just say nothing?
Your hatred is showing, spewing up all over this page. Try getting some love in your heart.
Food looks fine to me, again this just a beat up by a few leftie crazies
From what you find acceptable, anything would beat the 3 day old slops you must swill on at your own table.
Sad.
It’s a bit sad that the radical right has become so inhuman lately they can’t even respect democracy, nor recognise the human right for decent food which doesn’t resemble prison rations.
IN CELEBRITY (?) NEWS …..
Looking forward to tonight’s “The Friday Story”….
Shits and giggles and Dunk’s mud loif crisis all laid bare (going forward).
Interesting tho’….. Dunk and Ms duP…yA are (I think) starting to notice the Natzi’s fading star (housing bubbles, pathetic greenwashing, indebtedness et al).
I guess Dunk’s beginning to realise the kuds are growing up and about to face a shit future, and Heather dearest is beginning to realise she’s put all her hopes of wealth on a raspy voice – that really isn’t all that crash hot. Hopefully Dunk’s looking out for her
Oh dear! what a con! No duP..-yA, and something pathetic, appropriately dressed in yellow (going forward) giving me supposedly SAGE advice about the pressing ussyouse of the Nayshun (going forwid)…. and the Wherl.
Congrats Dunk! Worth a celery increase don’t you think?
How big’s the mortgage btw?
Health minister Coleman quoted on TV1 news says the 2 million New Zealanders receiving hospital food from Compass, the Auckland company sending frozen food muck to Dunedin hospital are mostly happy with the food quality.
If as he says, there are 2 million people in hospital out of our population of about 4.7 million then something’s wrong with our ‘healthy’ lifestyle..or someone’s lying.
The patients in Dunedin who are supposed to eat the food (sic) still say it is crap.
Given how difficult it is to get into a hospital I find the 2 million rather on the high side – 40% of us are in hospital – I don’t think so .
Send him back to pass his NCEA levels maybe??
Duh,,,he means they prepare 2m meals of which are eaten 2m times by people, think a little more laterally
That is still 666,666 bed days of meals
This news article on bed numbers from last year says NZ had 2.8 hospital beds per thousand people in 2012.
At 100% bed capacity and 100% of them being fed by Compass, that’s still a month or two of meals.
Basically, Coleman was probably referring to the total number of meals dished out by Compass so far. And the devil is in “mostly happy”, too – how many people actualy like the meals, as opposed to putting up with them or filling in the middle circle on a survey box?
Yep 59 days.
No! That’s not what he said. Duh! Try another sideways spin. Different from lateral. Nice try but.