Ther is becoming an increasing common thread of power prices in Europe and Asia dramatically increasing well beyond current inflation. Another case of funneling the limited funds of the middle, poor and elderly to a selected few. Just reinforcing keeping ownership in the state. Yet unlike the last 10 years there has to be price controls to protect from this bring just another means for indirect taxes as had been evident by national and labours past actions in their expectations for increased dividends by the soe’s
As opposed to New Zealand where since 2002 real prices have gone up by an average of 4.7% per year.
Price controls would be just as effective whether or not the enterprises were state-owned.
I’m not that pro asset sales (not against them either though), but sick of hearing the two arguments that state-owned companies keep pricing down yet also somehow have magical returns for the government that need to be preserved.
If they are that great at keeping the prices down surely the returns shouldn’t be good.
And still those clowns want to do the same to us sell our power companies. And they must know that prices will skyrocket why would they ? They will either be living overseas or be one of the ‘share holders’. And Ma and Pa Shareholder will be shafted as usual.
There are many things conspiring against Labour, there must be for them to be continually performing poorly in polls and for getting so much negative media coverage. Labour are the only party that can rescue the country from financial ruin, and they are the only party that can eliminate poverty and get everyone into employment with a decent wage and a fair tax rate.
Do you agree that the country is facing financial ruin because of decisions this Government has made, that there are distressing amounts of poverty and that it is important to get everyone into employment with a decent wage and a fair tax rate?
If not I think that arguing with you will be a complete and utter waste of time.
Do you agree that the country is facing financial ruin because of decisions this Government has made
No. Most people don’t seem to think that.
that there are distressing amounts of poverty
In New Zealand, yes, on our measure of “poverty”.
In East Africa , yes, that is what distressing poverty really is.
that it is important to get everyone into employment with a decent wage
No – it’s important to strive to get as many people who are able to work as possible into sufficient levels of employment, but we have to accept not everyone will always be able to have the job they want with the wages they want.
and a fair tax rate?
“Fair tax” is a meaningless term that can be debated with futility. What is fair to some is not seen as fair to others. What a fair balance of tax burden is will always be argued and tweaked, and never agreed on.
Do you agree that the country is facing financial ruin because of decisions this Government has made
No. Most people don’t seem to think that.
So you do not know anything about the country’s financial condition, you base your opinion on what the polls are saying, even though they measure political parties popularity and not peoples understanding of the country’s finances and you decry Labour even though you clearly do not understand what their policies are?
Can you link to any serious expert opinion that New Zealand is currently facing financial ruin, and that it is due to decisions this Government has made?
Perhaps it would be more accurate to describe NZ’s financial ruin to come as the result of the global financial fraud of the banksters. Of which John Key was a very integral part while he worked for Merrill Lynch selling Derivatives.
Well there are a few billion dollars worth of untargetted cuts that have to be made. And we are selling off power shares to pay for the housekeeping bill. And we are no longer putting aside enough to pay for baby boomers retirements. And there are obviously signs of major difficulties in various departments. And we have kids eating dog food to get by. And third world diseases, the types caused by grinding enduring poverty are apprearing far too frequently.
But apart from that no I can’t prove a thing.
And Pete you are trolling. You are not taking to task.
I have just given you 6 examples of where things are going wrong. So far you have provided nothing except to express a single view based on the misinterpretation of opinion polls.
Go on, argue the specifics, give it a go. Show that you are not trolling.
You need to argue specifics, you’re the one who claimed “the country is facing financial ruin because of decisions this Government has made”.
Your “examples” are weak and vague talking points and do nothing to back up your claim. If you can’t give any specifics does that mean you’re trolling?
These are examples that have been highlighted for some time. Don’t you recall posting thousands of comments in posts that dealt with these topics? Do you actually read the posts?
I’m sure you have no idea that you’re doing it, but you are illustrating exactly the point I was making.
You expect others to take your word for being right, and get exasperated when others don’t just accept it without question. And you attack the messenger while desperately ignoring the message.
You are walking around with your eyes deliberately closed and refusing to accept the truth of anything you cannot see.
Help help I am trying to understand Pete’s thought processes and my brain hurts because I cannot.
I gave you 6 different areas:
1. A few billion dollars worth of untargetted cuts that have to be made.
2. Selling off power shares to pay for the housekeeping bill.
3. No longer putting aside enough to pay for baby boomers retirements.
4. Obviously signs of major difficulties in various departments.
5. Kids eating dog food to get by.
6. Third world diseases, the types caused by grinding enduring poverty appearing far too frequently.
You replied that my examples “are weak and vague talking points and do nothing to back up your claim”.
Well feck me. This from the king of weak and vague.
You’ve posted 6 arguable political points, some very arguable. Nothing there points to anything that tries to prove that “the country is facing financial ruin because of decisions this Government has made”.
You saying kids eat dog food is not proof. It’s you using emotive talking points to try and shame people into agreeing with you.
If your attitude remains prevalent in Labour the party is dog tucker.
You’ve posted 6 arguable political points, some very arguable. Nothing there points to anything that tries to prove that “the country is facing financial ruin because of decisions this Government has made”.
But you won’t debate any of these points. You just dismiss them because they do not fit in with your world view and then claim that I have raised nothing of substance.
You contribute nothing to a debate but always insist on having the last word.
I’m asking you to support your original claim which you keep avoiding.
There have been stories of people eating dog food for decades – how would you claiming kids eat dog food now be any sort of proof that “decisions this Government has made” are causing the country to “face financial ruin”?
PG must be that treasury official that say we are going to have 170,000 new jobs, or is he the one thats been working on NZ catching up with Australia, I think he might be the one that wrote John Keys speech before the last elections although he left out one line “for the rich” no new taxes read my lips.
Perhaps we are facing financial Hardship particislly due to the mismanagement and missed opportunities from many govts including the last labour. Your myopic view of the world separates you from total reality. Nat has continued the long line of missed opportunities and poor management. As one case our ranking in the OECD and lack of substainable areas of growth and ability to prosper in the future.all areas of failure in govt leadership.and why should anything change?
We have not had ten years of finacial chaos… .. yet. National furthering the same policies without any change is obvious to all except the myopic. Policies shovelling more money into the economy (to the rich) because its expanding on cheaper oil (in real terms) don’t work any more. Labour have yet to get a grip on the new language of peak oil, and policies, since even the CGT is a old policy, like roading, that we should have introduced thrity years ago.
Look we’re in transition and all the rocks, poisionous pests, are all exposed as the tide goes out. The politics of poision are now current as the losers (the rightwing revolutionaries) try vainly to shore up their flagging position. The dodo economic pundits like Brash are brought out to steady the sinking ship with their retortic (a bland rather unthink form of right wign talking points framed to lie to the masses in good times).
Welcome to the collapse, see you on the other side.
Micky in good times mismanagement is less evident, but in the later years of the last labour govt this for me is what nz was delivered. Life increased in difficulity
Micky in good times mismanagement is less evident, but in the later years of the last labour govt this for me is what nz was delivered. Life increased in difficulty, and remember what is not reported in any inflation, cost of living – interest cost which peaked in 2008 at 10.4percent. Given the position when labour left govt the likes of unemployment would be similar to what we have today,govt deficits would be similar given labs tax cuts that were promised.
There is this incredible article in the Herald this morning about the already wealthy and some amazing comments by those who already have more than they could ever need.
Apparently the fortunes of the country’s 150 richest people grew by almost 20 per cent over the past year but the poor dears are still calling for the easing of “constrictions” around wealth creation.
The article does not say what these constrictions are, but presumably minimum employment standards and environmental controls are the sorts of things that stop the uber rich from acquiring even more wealth.
The NBR called it “freeing up the entrepreneurial spirit”. If it was me it would be called “rampant and excessive greed that is destroying our society and our environment”.
I now await being labelled as engaging in the politics of envy.
Gooday Polly, had a look and the top 10 are the usual suspects, no TW or Psfka in view. Surprisingly I was not surprised. I am sure you will be shocked to hear that, given that I am assured by my regular reading of blogs from RWNJs that its all down to the individual. Its what you personally do, there is no disadvantage etc etc. So there!
Do you have a link to support the assertion re Donna Hall as it does not equate with my understanding of how Treaty settlements are negotiated.
Settlements are largely the result of many years of hard work by groups of people with many dying in the process. At the negotiating table are usually kaumātua and kuia, lawyers, other professionals – so no one individual is responsible for the outcome.
The only reference I was able to find online to match your claim about Donna Hall was at http://www.treatyofwaitangi.net.nz/payouts that insinuates she earned $20,000,000 out of treaty claims. In the same websearch there is a link to a site that shows her arguing over fees of $19,000. Treatyofwaitangi.net.nz has as much credibility as Celticnz.co.nz and is hosted by the same redneck mentality.
Our entire socio-economic system has been designed by the rich to further the interests of the rich. Time to can that design system as it just doesn’t work for the majority.
Jeweller Sir Michael Hill, worth $245 million, told NBR: “Could not the Government give us a little freedom to be able to make common sense decisions for ourselves?”
This is from that Herald article, and I note both the whinging tone, and also, the lack of meaning in Hill’s comment. What kind of decisions is he talking about?
Just a few of the war crimes committed by NATO the last two weeks while everybody got distracted byt the horrible events in Norway.
NATO bombed and destroyed the $ 30 million water pipe providing 70% of Tripoli with fresh drinking water on Friday 22 of July. On Saturday they bombed the factory needed to repair the water pipe.
NATO bombed a hospital in West Libya were there is no military presence.
Remember the UN mandated only a no fly zone as a humanitarian intervention so remind me again how this is helping to “liberate” the Libyan population who on the whole have no interest in being “liberated” by the West and who have been given millions of arms to protect their country if and when the US and NATO begin to send in the troops and guess what; They are going to be fighting women. You know? Those subdued suppressed Muslim women? Yep, those!
I’m wondering if all this wasn’t the plan from the start…
It was. The developed nations need that oil and money to keep their delusional economies turning over just that bit longer and to transfer wealth to the already wealthy and then they’ll look for other wars to keep it going when that runs out.
We have a govt that appeals to a lot of folk who believe in the ‘I’m right jack f you all and get out of my way so I can have more more more’ and the article Mickey linked to is a sad indictment of the attitudes that are behind this govt.
The games rigged with the MSM on the nats leash. Williamson this morning blah blah about the 9 years of surplus whilst he’s fronting the leaky home issue his govt created a case in point, no challenge or questions put to him about the fact he is guilty of creating it, just let the soundbite about surpluses hang there unchallenged……sad indeed.
Has Labour invited Robbie Williams out here yet? And how about kicking up about our bikkies? Asset sales are one thing, but hands off our gingernuts you tory swine.
Trying to engage Pete (aka Secret Squirrel) George in a serious debate is like trying to catch a cloud to pin it down or holding a moonbeam in your hand. Unless you have an inordinate ammount of time to waste it’s best avoided.
He does have ads, but mostly I think he just wants to give himself an air of legitimacy by boosting his page rank.
AFAIK, links from comments on this site are set to “nofollow” by default so he’s not getting any link juice anyway, so all he gains are page views when people click his links.
And as anyone who reads his comments can see, there’s really no point clicking them. 😉
Some RWReactionaryNJ who will remain unnamed today sent a pile of spammed emails informing recipients that 10% of taxpayers pay 75% of the tax……..
For my Friday fun on receipt of his email I promptly Googled a few Viagra sites and handed off the email address. He can finally fell like a real prick. Any more unsolicited emails and it 1000 automated replies….
Cripes how bloody boring. Is this what blogs are about? Somebody with a differing view and immense time to display opinions and everyone taking a nip at his ankles. Pete G is swamping the site.
It could be that he is bringing up the very same arguments that other NACTs circulate amongst themselves and it is handy to be able to get a backdoor into their brains? a bit like that film Being John Malkovich. But the brains being addressed are more like what the USA call ground beef.
The advice appears more akin to a self help suggestion to those who experience frustration and annoyance engaging with PG and a strategy which will hopefully result in less of the party political broadcast (which we get already from the MSM) type comment and link farming. He is a politician so it is understandable – however this is not his soapbox – it is a shared space. What is really boring is reading the same shit day after day.
It’s a free country though (or at least going cheap under the Nacts) so if you think Petes brain will make a nutritious meal help yourself to a scoop, however you will have to forgive me for not joining you in optimism.
Sending people to Coventry was very effective in England. Either ignoring Pege G and his ilk would be a sensible response, or just registering the words Ho hum so he doesn’t feel ignored. That would be a blow to enthusiasm, even putting a failing grade alone of D-.
I read what I choose and skip what I want to, it’s quite easy really. That’s what most people do. Those that want to stop different points of view are usually the ones who stop and make hissy comments.
Not so easy on a blog – being seen to be ignoring someone.
BTW Ian, the post about Happy Feet is nothing about me. It’s someone else taking the piss about their own organisation, and it’s very funny for anyone with a sense of humour.
No-one criticizes you for having a “different point of view” Pete.
In fact the most common complaint I see about you is that you refuse to express any point of view.
Worse though is your habit of spreading your spam links by pretending to raise some matter of debate, but then refusing to debate it.
It’s becoming very clear to many that you aren’t here to engage with people at all, but simply to stand on a soap-box and shout at the top of your voice. And usually about nothing but your brand.
As Campbell says, you’re a politician. Way out on the margin, sure, but a politician nonetheless. I wonder how you’d react if, say, Hone Harawira spent all day every day plastering your website with links to his press releases, refusing to discuss anything, and playing the victim whenever his behaviour was questioned.
Have a think about how you come across with this approach, Pete.
Have a think about what happened here. I posted something with a link, nothing unusual, that’s common practice. Anyone can choose to read or ignore.
MS chose to respond (I doubt he read the link, but even if he did he was obblivious to the point of it). He then made a claim that he couldn’t substantiate and kept complaining, but not fronting up. If he’d offered something substantive other than repeating his opinion there would have had something debate. I eventually gave up on that and addressed one of his points and he chose not to follow up. His choice.
I don’t have any problem debating with other people in other forums.
A perfect example of Pete’s duplicitous behaviour. Look closely.
Pete appeared to reply to my comment, but actually ignored it entirely. Not one word of what he wrote was in address to anything I questioned him on. So now we have another comment full of Pete’s statements to wade through, and still no engagement from him.
See?
As you know full well, Pete, I’m not talking about a specific conversation with ms.
I’m talking about your well established pattern of behaviour on this site over a long period of time.
Seriously Pete, think about how you would react to someone who tried this on at your site, and think about the enormous amount of liberty granted to you by the operators of this site.
It’s my opinion that you’re abusing those liberties.
felix, it’s refreshing to see you being up front with this.
I accept that I push boundaries and I know I annoy some people here (I know not everyone because I get other feedback too). Same elsewhere. If a blog or forum wants to stop me from what I do they ask me to stop, delete posts, warn me or whatever, but that’s been rare and I’ve never been banned anywhere else.
Labour complains about the lack of media coverage they get, it’s much worse for small parties, and if you’re smaller still you have to find your own ways of saying things and experimenting with what works and what doesn’t.
My “well established pattern of behaviour” here is not just me. I could easily be ignored. My pattern of behaviour fhere has a lot to do with the pattern of behaviour of others like you and MS, how you react and in particular how you attack.
You know full well you often haven’t tried to engage in meaningful debate. You don’t seem to engage in meaningful debate much at all here, you more often try to “deal with” selected commenters. Whose liberties are you abusing?
I don’t aim to piss people off, I’d prefer I didn’t piss people off, but to raise attention to issues being blunt or confrontational is sometimes necessary and it will annoy people. No one likes being told they are wrong or stupid or blind – me neither and that happens often.
In most forums I’ve participated in I’ve actually managed to get on with most ok (admittedly it took maybe a year at KB).
I find it odd that a blog in the political spectrum I’m probably closest to (or was) can be so unwelcoming and intolerant of people pre judged as “undesirable”. Partly I know that’s due to how I’ve done things, but partly I think it’s due to a high sensitivity here to criticism, particularly of Labour, and due to a posse of patch protectiveness that you often seem to ride shotgun on.
We could probably both reduce the level of conflict here.
Have a look back into the 2007 and 2008 archives. There were some pretty active attempts to shut this site down with quite deliberate trolling behaviors. We clamped some highly reactive and strong behavioral limits on to the site about what is permissible. This is because it fitted the time constraints that we had for doing moderation (especially mine).
And we don’t muck about when people try to violate those rules or if they try to put in their own rules. This prevented the comments from becoming unreadable and ensured that we kept authors. They remain in place because they ensure that we don’t get a repetition of the boring comments sections when the trolls ran rampant.
Most of the longer term commentators (like felix) also remember those crowds of trolls descending from clint, camerons, and davids sites, the tactics used, and act accordingly.
The specific tactic that people are talking about with you is not being “being blunt or confrontational”, but avoiding confrontation like a politician. It is also a ‘debating’ tactic that I know as “slithering”. You whack up a few general statements that are barely sketched out, and then when people start to point out the gaping holes the lack of detail and the apparent lack of any thought, you slide off onto a different topic rather than deal with it. Frequently that consists of accusations that the critics are not being upfront or are being too confrontational.
We’ve had a number of people use the technique here in the past. It is as boring as hell to read. You tend to get a lot of criticism for it.
It is also a ‘debating’ tactic that I know as “slithering”. You whack up a few general statements that are barely sketched out, and then when people start to point out the gaping holes the lack of detail
That’s what MS did, he made a way out claim and avoided backing it up. I wouldn’t say he slithered, but he didn’t seem aware that anyone should doubt his word because simply that’s what he said.
(I doubt he read the link, but even if he did he was obblivious to the point of it).
I assume he did read it, and so did I… and as far as I can see, the point of it, was simply to jeer. There was no actual evidence for any of your assertions.
Housing problems being addressed!! Maurice Williamson speaks positively about great National initiative. unlike Labour who didn’t exert themselves!!
This is another NZ Government shonky go at having a policy that does the minimum, on the cheap, addresses the surface iceberg that is obvious and does nothing or little for the hidden probs. It demands that people match government help dollar for dollar, and can lead people to penury without even a complete house to live in which was worse than the deteriorating building they previously had.
It would be manageable for people affected if government offered limited cheap secondary loans or capped guarantees for extra remedial work required after the walls etc were opened and the true state of the interior supports was revealed. That doesn’t deal with people who built outside the 10 year building legal liability period.
Sad very, and another case of how the RWNJ are diminishing prosperity and wealth of ordinary NZs, really because of the decreasing regulations and desire for self-policing businesses with less government monitoring. Crazy, the reason we had laws regulating stuff was because of past bad experience of failures of standards and probity with business corner-cutting, which properly policed laws would prevent.
The biggest Joke is that their not paying any one out who had a leaky home under their watch.Neither are they paying any one with structural damage cased by leaks or by poor building practice.These buildings were signed off under their laissez fair building codes and inspectors.Wheres the justice in that I suspect CHCH citizens will have a similar battle to come!
I say add a $1tax per burger and/or fries sold – transfer the money straight to the Ministry of Health – less obesity as the price goes up and McD’s becomes less affordable and the country generates more than enough cash to operate a school lunch programme.
Remember Lockwood Smith Speaker of the House ruling “Privatization” as a word not acceptable but rather use the newspeak word of…? Can’t remember because its meaningless verbiage, deliberately so to confuse and bewilder criticism.
None Dare Call It Privatization
Dispatch from a high-powered conference spelling out a new strategy for raiding the commons
“Just remember something: The term “Privateer” means PIRATE. It means someone who will steal from you without a moment’s hesitation. Kill you if need (or just plain malice) be.
Real world example: Back in 1980, Colorado spent an average adjusted $70 million per year on it’s prison system. We were sold a bill of goods that said that for profit prisons would be SO much cheaper, it would be just foolish NOT to implement them. So we did. Now, 30 years later, after all these “savings” have been realized, that has gone UP to $770 MILLION PER YEAR. Only an 11 TIMES INCREASE. And as a result, our schools are now at the absolute LOWEST rate of funding in the country.
If you allow this kind of horse shit to go on in your state, expect JUST THIS KIND of savings. You can expect EVERYTHING that your govt’ USED to do to cost you 11 TIMES more. how can it NOT? You’re adding profit to the operating expenses, which are generally as low as they will be in govt’ services, because there is NO profit motive. Add a 30% charge on top of those expenses and tell me HOW they will get lower? NOT going to happen. PERIOD.
ANYONE who wants to do this kind of thing has MONEY in the game. PERIOD. Watch out for these people, they want YOUR money and they don’t CARE how much of a hardship it puts on you, your state, your family or the country. They LIVE for the money,. and everything else be damned.
Tell these people to go to hell.
Tresser sez: “… privatization is what happens when we transfer control of public assets, infrastructure and services into the private sector …”
***
“Privatization” is itself a soft euphemism. Before its introduction to the lexicon, another word sufficed to describe this practice. That is, corporate fascism.Because the Public’s Government becomes increasingly financially powerless(Due to less and less revenue from tax cuts and public assets) and controlled by the increasing financial power of necessary corporate backers as in the U$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Seems like the correct term would be “profitization” – adding an extra layer of cost to the public to provide sufficient profits for the (newly) private owners of (formerly) public property and services.
I don’t see how a private company can provide a service at less cost than the government. The private operator must charge enough to provide ample returns to the owners. Public operators can provide services at cost. We’re seeing this in my own state and several nearby, where private interests are taking over public services and properties. In most cases the profit operators reduce pay and benefits for the (newly) private employees while charging the government more than it cost to provide the service in-house. In many cases (some say in all cases) there are concealed price escalation clause in state contracts so that the actual cost to the government is higher than the :”bid” price on which the contract was originally based. In the case of public properties (state parks being an example) the fees charged to the public are raised as well as reducing wages and benefits, and using fewer employees.”
Why do the NZ sheople still support a Government that aims to impoverish them further by selling their assets to FOREIGNERS! Is that the price we pay for Pin Up Key our celeb PM and not too high a price at that?
Seems like the correct term would be “profitization” – adding an extra layer of cost to the public to provide sufficient profits for the (newly) private owners of (formerly) public property and services.
QFT&E
There’s absolutely no way privatisation can make anything cheaper than what it was being provided for under government ownership. Lots of ways for it to add to the costs though and that’s what always happens.
Earlier this year Social Development and Employment Minister Paula Bennett, as part of National’s divide and rule agenda announced a “War on Beneficiaries.”
Hi jackal
She’s caught out there! Why would you make war on your fellow kiwis? Last year she attended the “Eisenhower Foundation” whose most prominent member is War Criminal Colin Powell who publically lied that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction despite WEAPONS iNSPECTORS having certified Iraq was in the clear. He is part of the WAR ON TERROR. Looks like poor cow Bennett has been picking up tricks while sitting on his lap! The U$$$$$$$$$$$ is a Corporate Fascist State,we’re heading that way even more if Pin Up Shonkey gets back in Power this election.We already have GruntMeister Brownlee having assumed Dictator powers due to the CHCH earthquake.
WAR ON BENEFICIARIES In the useless U$$$$$$$$, that’s already happening: they’re screwing up the courage to attack social security and medicaid by you guessed it! by screwing those same people!
Today’s Press (print edition) reports from one of its polls, that 56% of women intend to vote National and 49% put Key as their preferred PM. Quite a change from the Clark years.
Speculation in the article suggests it’s because Key’s perceived as a ‘family man’, ‘loves his children’, is powerful, is wealthy, ‘charming’, ‘blokey’, ‘ordinary’, etc., etc..
Turns out that the coming election is not about choosing a government, after all. A shame, really. Perhaps we can set up a proper process to do that sometime?
And then he is going to turn into the devil incarnate after they have sold off all the Silverware and these same women are trying to make ends meet then they will know that he is cold heartless conniving prick who thinks less of the general population than he does of a dog in the street.
@ Puddleglum 1.06pm *Sigh* Depressing really. How much is it a Fairfix constructed poll? Was that the list of choices they gave people who voted? Did they mention anything about NAct’s poor record on women – re-policies and women’s roles within NAct? That record is also something that doesn’t get much coverage in Fairfix’s papers.
On that point, the figures for National/Labour support are identical to the May, 2008 Fairfax poll. Perhaps they just reprinted it? (I joke, of course).
Oh, and ‘no’ there was nothing on policy in the article though it was embedded (in a formatting sense) in a story about record numbers of people leaving New Zealand. (That article is online, hence the link – but I couldn’t find the one about women voters preferring Key, online.)
I was hoping that they realised it was too much of a puff piece to bother giving it a wider audience. But what do I know? Obviously those at stuff realise the value of the old saying – no-one ever went poor underestimating the intelligence (or was it ‘taste’?) of the public.
One and a half kilometres of steel tracks have been laid around Wynyard Quarter, along Halsey Street, Gaunt Street, Daldy Street and Jellicoe Street.
Waterfront Auckland spokesman Luke Henshall says testing of the two 1920s trams is due to start this weekend when electrification of overhead wires is complete.
"They're literally just being tried out on the tracks," Henshall says.
"It's just something we need to do to check the gauge and the technical specifications.
Clearly, O’Reilly does not believe this killer’s actions or profile qualify him as Christian. Which I would agree with. But his barrier to entry is somewhat less strict when it comes to linking the Fort Hood maniac and Islam.
BILL O’REILLY (7/26/2011): I’m saying that he was a Muslim terrorist because he carried a business card that said “Soldier of Allah”. And he committed his crimes in the name of Allah.
See the difference? That guy printed up Soldier of Allah business cards! The other guy only printed up an Army of Christ manifesto! I guess, the only connection is both psychos, for some reason, spent the day at Kinko’s.
You know, I actually feel sorry for the pundits and anchors who have added this story to their file of grievances that are perpetrated against them. Not because I think they are actually victims of persecution, but because I know that the sense of grievance and victimization that appears to pervade their every waking moment is actually something they hate……………… in others.
SEAN HANNITY (1/5/2009): Liberals do make themselves out to be victims.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (9/2/2009): … victimization thing you guys on the left come up with …
REP. ALLEN WEST, R-FL (7/20/2011): The liberals want to play victim.
MONICA CROWLEY (6/1/2011): They play the victimhood card all the time.
All the time! Victims play the victim card! Liberals play it even when they’re playing Yahtzee, which doesn’t use cards! It’s annoying.
The latest figures from the Fairfax Media-Research International poll have finally cheered the Labour Party…
Why would having a quarter of young people planning to leave the country cheer them up? Oh, that’s right, it wouldn’t except in some delusional journalists’ mind as he writes to get more ratings rather than to inform people.
It says a lot about how journalists themselves see everything as just an opportunity for political advantage. I notice the only related quote was from Parker, who called it a “shocking statistic”.
The only two people in the article who were, in fact, sanguine about the figures were Bill English – who, oddly, saw these figures as representing young Kiwis looking forward to their OE – and, also oddly, the person reporting the poll who seemed keen to play down the number of people who might actually leave (despite the real world stats for the months of May and June – discussed in the article – being the highest net exodus since 1979 and 1981, respectively).
That latter comment is odd because it undermines the meaningfulness/validity of one of the items used in his own poll. (Since, presumably, the item aimed to measure and report intentions that might reliably lead to behaviour as opposed to, for example, statistics that might generate headlines.)
I can see the article on the Auckland Library’s website dDgital Library, Press Display – It’s available to Library Members.
There’s a quote from Sue Bradford saying he has more charm than most politicians, but he doesn’t appeal to her – that some women go for the blokey quality. And those quotes about Key’s qualities are from a Massey uni Assoc. Prof of Commendation Design (Say what?), who says Key has qualities women like “doting husband, adores his kids…. and is a nice guy.”
Strange and pathetic. Not the press blatantly lying to make Labour look bad – that’s been a given since 2004 – but Brash attacking his only cobber and making better political hay than the Labour machine can.
Cut the pleasant waffle brothers and sisters, nice was last year and they’ve picked their idol. It’s the serious drama slot; remember you’re talking to the swinging voter and tell him with conviction:
“Key promised to stop this. He promised over and again that we’d catch up with Oz, but the gap’s got wider on his watch. Bugger the polls, our kids are voting with their feet – and they won’t be back while he keeps borrowing billions to give tax cuts to his rich mates and hocking off their last assets. For our kids’ sake, we need to lock up the family silver and throw away the key.”
saw these figures as representing young Kiwis looking forward to their OE
This ‘O.E’ thing amuses me greatly! In the late 80s, I met another solo mother at a church creche, and became friends with her. She was from an upper middle class background, and a bit stunned to have ended up on a DPB… but we had everything else in common, and so we ‘bonded’… Then one day we were talking about art, and she started enthusing about galleries in Venice. When I said I’d never seen them, she asked “But where did you go on your O.E?” She was stunned to learn that I had never had one, and still haven’t – that in common with almost everyone I had known at school, I had gone to work straight out of school, and got to Uni only 10 years later… that the O.E was a middle class kiddie thing, and not a norm!
It still isn’t. My sons both went into tertiary study and then work straight out of school (no gap years or OE for solo Mum kids!). My older son married, and he and his wife may get an OE when they retire. If the younger one goes overseas, it won’t be for years – and then, it will be to work.
I look back, and think how nice it would have been to have rich parents (or parents at all), and to have spent the years of my late teens seeing Venice! Sigh… 😀
The News of the World hacking thing just gets worse http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/28/phone-hacking-sarah-payne
Not only did they gift a phone that they later hacked, they also convinced the mother that she had not been hacked and got her to write an article stating this.
There is no doubt that many of the parents of hungry kids are simply incapable of managing anything, even the smallest amount of money. They are what broadcaster Michael Laws quite rightly calls the “ferals” of our society.
Yeah, he is. Sure, those people exist but they’re not “ferals” just people who haven’t been properly educated by either their parents or the schooling system.
I am amazed DtB that you picked that one paragraph out of the article, and ignored the other 90% of it. It’s as if you were looking for something to hate – but how could you intentionally ignore this?
The widely held view is that parents are to blame, that they spend their money on booze, smokes and other drugs and let their children starve, and that food vouchers should be given to beneficiaries instead of cash.
It’s the old “I pay my taxes and that’s enough” philosophy.
But what do we do about hungry kids in the meantime? Let them starve?
…………………………. and right after the two sentences you complained about we have …
They may be irredeemable, but their children are not. And for them, we must all make ourselves responsible.
I might choose this moment to point out that when I was on a DPB I supported one and a half children (I had regular visits from my older son, custodially stolen by my alcoholic ex, and while this son, a teenager, visited, I got no money for him at all.) None of us ever went without food in all those years. Granted it wasn’t very nice food most of the time, and it’s lucky that I don’t have the alcoholism problem that’s in the family – I tend to agree with George that some parents just can’t manage money! (I remember a solo Mum who was a friend of mine, who owned her own home so had one less expense than I did, and who was constantly visiting me to do her washing etc because she couldn’t her bills – instead she devoted her money to looking middle class – to use her own words! and to feeding and paying vet bills for a ruddy great dog… )
I didn’t – I viewed it as the same as the paragraph I quoted. The children need to be helped and so do the parents and yet he’s certain that the parents can’t be helped and so should get thrown on the scrapheap.
The fact DtB is that some parents are very difficult to help! When I walked my son to school (remember, I was a nasty solo mother on DPB, and many of the other parents wouldn’t soil their skirts, as if it was catching – it was a high SES area!) we regularly met a little boy the same age as my son at the time (about 6 years old) who wore hand-downs too big for him, and no shoes (in winter). It wasn’t my duty to help (as if I even could have – beneficiary, remember!) but the father seemed to think it was, as I was white and he wasn’t – and he was a solo Daddy. *
No shoes for the son, but two bloody great Rottweilers in his front yard. Typically, the Lady Mucks in the area were greatly concerned about the living conditions – of the freaking dogs!
* I had the experience the other night, of seeing a solo Daddy on Clive the other night, talking about his problems feeding his family. Then the following night, I switched to Close Up, when Clive’s trailer in the news, showed the heaps of presents viewers had sent for solo Dad. How nice it would be if solo mothers got gifts, not abuse! (Such as the nasty email comments Sainsbury read out about the beneficiary he’d covered!)
So yes, some parents don’t deserve sympathy, but their kids do. That’s the whole point.
The fact DtB is that some parents are very difficult to help!
Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help them if at all possible.
So yes, some parents don’t deserve sympathy,
I’m not the sympathetic type. If the parents can’t be helped you take the kids off them and help them directly and tell the parents to go fuck themselves but you do try to help the parents first.
Then the following night, I switched to Close Up, when Clive’s trailer in the news, showed the heaps of presents viewers had sent for solo Dad.
Yep, that’s pretty much disgusting. It’s obviously the sexism coming through. The females are “breeding for a living” while the guy’s having a hard time through no fault of his own.
Yep, that’s pretty much disgusting. It’s obviously the sexism coming through. The females are “breeding for a living” while the guy’s having a hard time through no fault of his own.
I have my own reasons for being very sour on solo daddies (my first ex got custody of our son solely because he had parents to help, and I didn’t – that was truly the reason the judge gave! My mother had just died a few months before the case came before the court, and the ensuing years showed that J., wanted custody so he wouldn’t need to work!)
But the more relevant story when it comes to differing standards is that years later, when I lived in Welly, and visited my sister in Nappy Valley, she pointed out Ross, the solo daddy who was the father of her daughter’s best friend. He’d gone to court to get the family home, and he’d got it in an ex parte hearing, as his wife Margaret had “run off” and left him… My sister and all the other neighbours, would take him casseroles, wash and mend the kid’s clothes etc…
I asked my sister to exercise a bit of caution about believing Ross’ story, especially as she had known Margaret and thought that running off and leaving three children, one of them from a previous marriage, was out of character. Well (and I credit my sister with honesty, for telling me later) it turned out that Margaret hadn’t known she was “running off” until her oldest daughter contacted her. She had cancer and had taken Ross’ advice to go home to Tauranga and live with her parents while having chemo. It was only when her father moved his new girlfriend into the family home, that the daughter (I think she was 13?) caught on to the fact that Daddy had been telling two different stories to his wife and children, and to the court and the neighbours! (I never said she was all that bright, it took months..)
The casseroles, the baby-sitting and the mending dried up then, along with the sympathy for poor solo dad doing the best he could!
It was the Chamber of Commerce, Chris73, and locally that is the Nactoids in business suits.
They did not want to be told a thing or two about Marlborough having the lowest wage economy in the country, the highest supermarket prices, or a shameful treatment of guest workers by using corrupt and exploitative contractors to act as proxy employers for grape growers.
They did not want to hear criticism of Marlborough being in many ways a third world country in that 80% of grapes grown in Marlborough are owned by non-Marlborough companies, many overseas owned. They do not want to hear that the Marlborough District Council has high rates in terms of national figures.
They do not want to hear of growing unemployment figures or that the local food kitchen fed 74 poor folk last week.
They do not want to hear that they are represented by an imported MP who possesses Key like qualities of geniality but who carries no weight within his own caucus nor bears any great intellectual burdens.
Of course they stayed away………… they’re not into self-flagellation.
Petulant Bean went to the U.S. to broaden her education. If it was all on the public purse can we expect her to report back to us with detail of what her courses covered and what she learnt. I expect it would be in the form of cartoon strips, and pictures but that doesn’t matter.
As an aside and further to the campaign (now at least 2 signatories if you are with me Vicky) for quality relaxing music being played while “hanging on” to a corporation phone call, I discovered that when one closes the doors on those modern street-side loos, quite a relaxing and pleasant melody ensues. Perhaps Pete George could take up the campaign.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
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 ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
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. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
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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. ...
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Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
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. ...
Ther is becoming an increasing common thread of power prices in Europe and Asia dramatically increasing well beyond current inflation. Another case of funneling the limited funds of the middle, poor and elderly to a selected few. Just reinforcing keeping ownership in the state. Yet unlike the last 10 years there has to be price controls to protect from this bring just another means for indirect taxes as had been evident by national and labours past actions in their expectations for increased dividends by the soe’s
As opposed to New Zealand where since 2002 real prices have gone up by an average of 4.7% per year.
Price controls would be just as effective whether or not the enterprises were state-owned.
I’m not that pro asset sales (not against them either though), but sick of hearing the two arguments that state-owned companies keep pricing down yet also somehow have magical returns for the government that need to be preserved.
If they are that great at keeping the prices down surely the returns shouldn’t be good.
Re electricity price hikes in the UK :- http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/107461
And still those clowns want to do the same to us sell our power companies. And they must know that prices will skyrocket why would they ? They will either be living overseas or be one of the ‘share holders’. And Ma and Pa Shareholder will be shafted as usual.
I’ve collated reasons why Labour may be failing to get traction.
Linkwhoring again Pete?
Do you agree that the country is facing financial ruin because of decisions this Government has made, that there are distressing amounts of poverty and that it is important to get everyone into employment with a decent wage and a fair tax rate?
If not I think that arguing with you will be a complete and utter waste of time.
Do you agree that the country is facing financial ruin because of decisions this Government has made
No. Most people don’t seem to think that.
that there are distressing amounts of poverty
In New Zealand, yes, on our measure of “poverty”.
In East Africa , yes, that is what distressing poverty really is.
that it is important to get everyone into employment with a decent wage
No – it’s important to strive to get as many people who are able to work as possible into sufficient levels of employment, but we have to accept not everyone will always be able to have the job they want with the wages they want.
and a fair tax rate?
“Fair tax” is a meaningless term that can be debated with futility. What is fair to some is not seen as fair to others. What a fair balance of tax burden is will always be argued and tweaked, and never agreed on.
Do you agree that the country is facing financial ruin because of decisions this Government has made
No. Most people don’t seem to think that.
So you do not know anything about the country’s financial condition, you base your opinion on what the polls are saying, even though they measure political parties popularity and not peoples understanding of the country’s finances and you decry Labour even though you clearly do not understand what their policies are?
You are taking the piss, arn’t you?
No, taking the micky, to task.
Can you link to any serious expert opinion that New Zealand is currently facing financial ruin, and that it is due to decisions this Government has made?
Perhaps it would be more accurate to describe NZ’s financial ruin to come as the result of the global financial fraud of the banksters. Of which John Key was a very integral part while he worked for Merrill Lynch selling Derivatives.
Well there are a few billion dollars worth of untargetted cuts that have to be made. And we are selling off power shares to pay for the housekeeping bill. And we are no longer putting aside enough to pay for baby boomers retirements. And there are obviously signs of major difficulties in various departments. And we have kids eating dog food to get by. And third world diseases, the types caused by grinding enduring poverty are apprearing far too frequently.
But apart from that no I can’t prove a thing.
And Pete you are trolling. You are not taking to task.
You are not taking to task.
Because you can’t or won’t back up your assertions with anything of substance?
I guess you don’t want to link to “Trev’s talking points”.
I have just given you 6 examples of where things are going wrong. So far you have provided nothing except to express a single view based on the misinterpretation of opinion polls.
Go on, argue the specifics, give it a go. Show that you are not trolling.
You need to argue specifics, you’re the one who claimed “the country is facing financial ruin because of decisions this Government has made”.
Your “examples” are weak and vague talking points and do nothing to back up your claim. If you can’t give any specifics does that mean you’re trolling?
*/repeated bashing of head on table/*
PeteG
These are examples that have been highlighted for some time. Don’t you recall posting thousands of comments in posts that dealt with these topics? Do you actually read the posts?
I’m asking for links to back up your claims, as commonly requested here.
If what you claimed is a simple fact it should be simply proven.
PeteG you are a waste of bandwidth.
You are walking around with your eyes deliberately closed and refusing to accept the truth of anything you cannot see.
I’m sure you have no idea that you’re doing it, but you are illustrating exactly the point I was making.
You expect others to take your word for being right, and get exasperated when others don’t just accept it without question. And you attack the messenger while desperately ignoring the message.
That’s the height of unintentional irony.
jesus wept pete g – you twist and turn like a twisty turny thing
Help help I am trying to understand Pete’s thought processes and my brain hurts because I cannot.
I gave you 6 different areas:
1. A few billion dollars worth of untargetted cuts that have to be made.
2. Selling off power shares to pay for the housekeeping bill.
3. No longer putting aside enough to pay for baby boomers retirements.
4. Obviously signs of major difficulties in various departments.
5. Kids eating dog food to get by.
6. Third world diseases, the types caused by grinding enduring poverty appearing far too frequently.
You replied that my examples “are weak and vague talking points and do nothing to back up your claim”.
Well feck me. This from the king of weak and vague.
You really are a waste of bandwidth Pete.
You’ve posted 6 arguable political points, some very arguable. Nothing there points to anything that tries to prove that “the country is facing financial ruin because of decisions this Government has made”.
You saying kids eat dog food is not proof. It’s you using emotive talking points to try and shame people into agreeing with you.
If your attitude remains prevalent in Labour the party is dog tucker.
You’ve posted 6 arguable political points, some very arguable. Nothing there points to anything that tries to prove that “the country is facing financial ruin because of decisions this Government has made”.
But you won’t debate any of these points. You just dismiss them because they do not fit in with your world view and then claim that I have raised nothing of substance.
You contribute nothing to a debate but always insist on having the last word.
You are trolling Pete.
I’m asking you to support your original claim which you keep avoiding.
There have been stories of people eating dog food for decades – how would you claiming kids eat dog food now be any sort of proof that “decisions this Government has made” are causing the country to “face financial ruin”?
He didn’t ask what “most people” think, he asked what you think!
PG must be that treasury official that say we are going to have 170,000 new jobs, or is he the one thats been working on NZ catching up with Australia, I think he might be the one that wrote John Keys speech before the last elections although he left out one line “for the rich” no new taxes read my lips.
Perhaps we are facing financial Hardship particislly due to the mismanagement and missed opportunities from many govts including the last labour. Your myopic view of the world separates you from total reality. Nat has continued the long line of missed opportunities and poor management. As one case our ranking in the OECD and lack of substainable areas of growth and ability to prosper in the future.all areas of failure in govt leadership.and why should anything change?
Blah blah blah … ten years of economic mismanagement … missed opportunities …
Got the old CT songbook out this morning Herodotus? Although I agree that National’s management is poor.
We have not had ten years of finacial chaos… .. yet. National furthering the same policies without any change is obvious to all except the myopic. Policies shovelling more money into the economy (to the rich) because its expanding on cheaper oil (in real terms) don’t work any more. Labour have yet to get a grip on the new language of peak oil, and policies, since even the CGT is a old policy, like roading, that we should have introduced thrity years ago.
Look we’re in transition and all the rocks, poisionous pests, are all exposed as the tide goes out. The politics of poision are now current as the losers (the rightwing revolutionaries) try vainly to shore up their flagging position. The dodo economic pundits like Brash are brought out to steady the sinking ship with their retortic (a bland rather unthink form of right wign talking points framed to lie to the masses in good times).
Welcome to the collapse, see you on the other side.
Micky in good times mismanagement is less evident, but in the later years of the last labour govt this for me is what nz was delivered. Life increased in difficulity
Micky in good times mismanagement is less evident, but in the later years of the last labour govt this for me is what nz was delivered. Life increased in difficulty, and remember what is not reported in any inflation, cost of living – interest cost which peaked in 2008 at 10.4percent. Given the position when labour left govt the likes of unemployment would be similar to what we have today,govt deficits would be similar given labs tax cuts that were promised.
There is this incredible article in the Herald this morning about the already wealthy and some amazing comments by those who already have more than they could ever need.
Apparently the fortunes of the country’s 150 richest people grew by almost 20 per cent over the past year but the poor dears are still calling for the easing of “constrictions” around wealth creation.
The article does not say what these constrictions are, but presumably minimum employment standards and environmental controls are the sorts of things that stop the uber rich from acquiring even more wealth.
The NBR called it “freeing up the entrepreneurial spirit”. If it was me it would be called “rampant and excessive greed that is destroying our society and our environment”.
I now await being labelled as engaging in the politics of envy.
There was a thing on the telly last night highlighting the gap on that list between men and women.
It got me wondering who the richest Maori or Pasifikan in NZ is and how did they make their dosh ?
Gooday Polly, had a look and the top 10 are the usual suspects, no TW or Psfka in view. Surprisingly I was not surprised. I am sure you will be shocked to hear that, given that I am assured by my regular reading of blogs from RWNJs that its all down to the individual. Its what you personally do, there is no disadvantage etc etc. So there!
Donna Hall (who apparently gets 10% of any Treaty claims she wish) ust be up there.
@Ianupnorth – Did you mean that the lady gets 10% of claims she WINS? Bit of proofreading needed methinks.
Do you have a link to support the assertion re Donna Hall as it does not equate with my understanding of how Treaty settlements are negotiated.
Settlements are largely the result of many years of hard work by groups of people with many dying in the process. At the negotiating table are usually kaumātua and kuia, lawyers, other professionals – so no one individual is responsible for the outcome.
The only reference I was able to find online to match your claim about Donna Hall was at http://www.treatyofwaitangi.net.nz/payouts that insinuates she earned $20,000,000 out of treaty claims. In the same websearch there is a link to a site that shows her arguing over fees of $19,000. Treatyofwaitangi.net.nz has as much credibility as Celticnz.co.nz and is hosted by the same redneck mentality.
Same as the large wealthy corporates in the USA which pay zero income tax pushing for lower company tax. GREED.
“Freeing up the entrepreneurial spirit” means unlocking the initiative and opportunities facing the bottom 95% of society,
Not reinforcing an edified moneyed aristocracy in its place.
(of course the NBR already know this but the last thing that the few at the top want is true competition from ther masses below)
+1
Our entire socio-economic system has been designed by the rich to further the interests of the rich. Time to can that design system as it just doesn’t work for the majority.
This is from that Herald article, and I note both the whinging tone, and also, the lack of meaning in Hill’s comment. What kind of decisions is he talking about?
Not to pay any tax at all I presume
Just a few of the war crimes committed by NATO the last two weeks while everybody got distracted byt the horrible events in Norway.
NATO bombed and destroyed the $ 30 million water pipe providing 70% of Tripoli with fresh drinking water on Friday 22 of July. On Saturday they bombed the factory needed to repair the water pipe.
NATO bombed a school for disabled children
NATO bombed a hospital in West Libya were there is no military presence.
Remember the UN mandated only a no fly zone as a humanitarian intervention so remind me again how this is helping to “liberate” the Libyan population who on the whole have no interest in being “liberated” by the West and who have been given millions of arms to protect their country if and when the US and NATO begin to send in the troops and guess what; They are going to be fighting women. You know? Those subdued suppressed Muslim women? Yep, those!
The main reason for this war was to allow the financial elite to seize (ahem, permanently ‘freeze’) US$90B in Libyan foreign assets.
Also of course the oil.
I’m wondering if all this wasn’t the plan from the start, when Blair et al invited Libya back into the ‘international community’.
It was. The developed nations need that oil and money to keep their delusional economies turning over just that bit longer and to transfer wealth to the already wealthy and then they’ll look for other wars to keep it going when that runs out.
We have a govt that appeals to a lot of folk who believe in the ‘I’m right jack f you all and get out of my way so I can have more more more’ and the article Mickey linked to is a sad indictment of the attitudes that are behind this govt.
The games rigged with the MSM on the nats leash. Williamson this morning blah blah about the 9 years of surplus whilst he’s fronting the leaky home issue his govt created a case in point, no challenge or questions put to him about the fact he is guilty of creating it, just let the soundbite about surpluses hang there unchallenged……sad indeed.
Has Labour invited Robbie Williams out here yet? And how about kicking up about our bikkies? Asset sales are one thing, but hands off our gingernuts you tory swine.
Is there any point having Pete George here? All he does is spam us with spam links to his own site.
Leave him to it I reckon.
day three of ignoring Peter Squirreltail and my forehead bruising has completely cleared up, i can heartily recommend following Felix’s suggestion
+1
Trying to engage Pete (aka Secret Squirrel) George in a serious debate is like trying to catch a cloud to pin it down or holding a moonbeam in your hand. Unless you have an inordinate ammount of time to waste it’s best avoided.
I said that about a week ago, wants his blog stats to rocket – has he got google ads on there or something?
He does have ads, but mostly I think he just wants to give himself an air of legitimacy by boosting his page rank.
AFAIK, links from comments on this site are set to “nofollow” by default so he’s not getting any link juice anyway, so all he gains are page views when people click his links.
And as anyone who reads his comments can see, there’s really no point clicking them. 😉
Some RWReactionaryNJ who will remain unnamed today sent a pile of spammed emails informing recipients that 10% of taxpayers pay 75% of the tax……..
For my Friday fun on receipt of his email I promptly Googled a few Viagra sites and handed off the email address. He can finally fell like a real prick. Any more unsolicited emails and it 1000 automated replies….
Report the individual, spam is illegal
So, Robbie Williams is a communist – well at least his views seem left(ish)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10741562
Cripes how bloody boring. Is this what blogs are about? Somebody with a differing view and immense time to display opinions and everyone taking a nip at his ankles. Pete G is swamping the site.
It could be that he is bringing up the very same arguments that other NACTs circulate amongst themselves and it is handy to be able to get a backdoor into their brains? a bit like that film Being John Malkovich. But the brains being addressed are more like what the USA call ground beef.
The advice appears more akin to a self help suggestion to those who experience frustration and annoyance engaging with PG and a strategy which will hopefully result in less of the party political broadcast (which we get already from the MSM) type comment and link farming. He is a politician so it is understandable – however this is not his soapbox – it is a shared space. What is really boring is reading the same shit day after day.
It’s a free country though (or at least going cheap under the Nacts) so if you think Petes brain will make a nutritious meal help yourself to a scoop, however you will have to forgive me for not joining you in optimism.
CL 😀
Sending people to Coventry was very effective in England. Either ignoring Pege G and his ilk would be a sensible response, or just registering the words Ho hum so he doesn’t feel ignored. That would be a blow to enthusiasm, even putting a failing grade alone of D-.
like sandfly bites, it is simply more efficient to ignore the irritant than slowly reduce the scratching
he clearly doesn’t read anyone elses posts either – it’s all about him! (see below)
I read what I choose and skip what I want to, it’s quite easy really. That’s what most people do. Those that want to stop different points of view are usually the ones who stop and make hissy comments.
Not so easy on a blog – being seen to be ignoring someone.
BTW Ian, the post about Happy Feet is nothing about me. It’s someone else taking the piss about their own organisation, and it’s very funny for anyone with a sense of humour.
No-one criticizes you for having a “different point of view” Pete.
In fact the most common complaint I see about you is that you refuse to express any point of view.
Worse though is your habit of spreading your spam links by pretending to raise some matter of debate, but then refusing to debate it.
It’s becoming very clear to many that you aren’t here to engage with people at all, but simply to stand on a soap-box and shout at the top of your voice. And usually about nothing but your brand.
As Campbell says, you’re a politician. Way out on the margin, sure, but a politician nonetheless. I wonder how you’d react if, say, Hone Harawira spent all day every day plastering your website with links to his press releases, refusing to discuss anything, and playing the victim whenever his behaviour was questioned.
Have a think about how you come across with this approach, Pete.
Have a think about what happened here. I posted something with a link, nothing unusual, that’s common practice. Anyone can choose to read or ignore.
MS chose to respond (I doubt he read the link, but even if he did he was obblivious to the point of it). He then made a claim that he couldn’t substantiate and kept complaining, but not fronting up. If he’d offered something substantive other than repeating his opinion there would have had something debate. I eventually gave up on that and addressed one of his points and he chose not to follow up. His choice.
I don’t have any problem debating with other people in other forums.
A perfect example of Pete’s duplicitous behaviour. Look closely.
Pete appeared to reply to my comment, but actually ignored it entirely. Not one word of what he wrote was in address to anything I questioned him on. So now we have another comment full of Pete’s statements to wade through, and still no engagement from him.
See?
As you know full well, Pete, I’m not talking about a specific conversation with ms.
I’m talking about your well established pattern of behaviour on this site over a long period of time.
Seriously Pete, think about how you would react to someone who tried this on at your site, and think about the enormous amount of liberty granted to you by the operators of this site.
It’s my opinion that you’re abusing those liberties.
felix, it’s refreshing to see you being up front with this.
I accept that I push boundaries and I know I annoy some people here (I know not everyone because I get other feedback too). Same elsewhere. If a blog or forum wants to stop me from what I do they ask me to stop, delete posts, warn me or whatever, but that’s been rare and I’ve never been banned anywhere else.
Labour complains about the lack of media coverage they get, it’s much worse for small parties, and if you’re smaller still you have to find your own ways of saying things and experimenting with what works and what doesn’t.
My “well established pattern of behaviour” here is not just me. I could easily be ignored. My pattern of behaviour fhere has a lot to do with the pattern of behaviour of others like you and MS, how you react and in particular how you attack.
You know full well you often haven’t tried to engage in meaningful debate. You don’t seem to engage in meaningful debate much at all here, you more often try to “deal with” selected commenters. Whose liberties are you abusing?
I don’t aim to piss people off, I’d prefer I didn’t piss people off, but to raise attention to issues being blunt or confrontational is sometimes necessary and it will annoy people. No one likes being told they are wrong or stupid or blind – me neither and that happens often.
In most forums I’ve participated in I’ve actually managed to get on with most ok (admittedly it took maybe a year at KB).
I find it odd that a blog in the political spectrum I’m probably closest to (or was) can be so unwelcoming and intolerant of people pre judged as “undesirable”. Partly I know that’s due to how I’ve done things, but partly I think it’s due to a high sensitivity here to criticism, particularly of Labour, and due to a posse of patch protectiveness that you often seem to ride shotgun on.
We could probably both reduce the level of conflict here.
Know your history.
Have a look back into the 2007 and 2008 archives. There were some pretty active attempts to shut this site down with quite deliberate trolling behaviors. We clamped some highly reactive and strong behavioral limits on to the site about what is permissible. This is because it fitted the time constraints that we had for doing moderation (especially mine).
And we don’t muck about when people try to violate those rules or if they try to put in their own rules. This prevented the comments from becoming unreadable and ensured that we kept authors. They remain in place because they ensure that we don’t get a repetition of the boring comments sections when the trolls ran rampant.
Most of the longer term commentators (like felix) also remember those crowds of trolls descending from clint, camerons, and davids sites, the tactics used, and act accordingly.
The specific tactic that people are talking about with you is not being “being blunt or confrontational”, but avoiding confrontation like a politician. It is also a ‘debating’ tactic that I know as “slithering”. You whack up a few general statements that are barely sketched out, and then when people start to point out the gaping holes the lack of detail and the apparent lack of any thought, you slide off onto a different topic rather than deal with it. Frequently that consists of accusations that the critics are not being upfront or are being too confrontational.
We’ve had a number of people use the technique here in the past. It is as boring as hell to read. You tend to get a lot of criticism for it.
It is also a ‘debating’ tactic that I know as “slithering”. You whack up a few general statements that are barely sketched out, and then when people start to point out the gaping holes the lack of detail
That’s what MS did, he made a way out claim and avoided backing it up. I wouldn’t say he slithered, but he didn’t seem aware that anyone should doubt his word because simply that’s what he said.
Why should I be held to a different standard?
Felix please…… don’t encourage him, I suspect he is only a computer program.
I think a computer program would probably do better 😈
I assume he did read it, and so did I… and as far as I can see, the point of it, was simply to jeer. There was no actual evidence for any of your assertions.
What I’ve said is hardly isolated “assertions”. If you want to see a growing cacophony try:
http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2011/07/nz-politics-daily-28-july.html
Sometimes you just need to be able to laugh about politics.
The Happy Feet Penguin Political Party (TV3)
Housing problems being addressed!! Maurice Williamson speaks positively about great National initiative. unlike Labour who didn’t exert themselves!!
This is another NZ Government shonky go at having a policy that does the minimum, on the cheap, addresses the surface iceberg that is obvious and does nothing or little for the hidden probs. It demands that people match government help dollar for dollar, and can lead people to penury without even a complete house to live in which was worse than the deteriorating building they previously had.
It would be manageable for people affected if government offered limited cheap secondary loans or capped guarantees for extra remedial work required after the walls etc were opened and the true state of the interior supports was revealed. That doesn’t deal with people who built outside the 10 year building legal liability period.
Sad very, and another case of how the RWNJ are diminishing prosperity and wealth of ordinary NZs, really because of the decreasing regulations and desire for self-policing businesses with less government monitoring. Crazy, the reason we had laws regulating stuff was because of past bad experience of failures of standards and probity with business corner-cutting, which properly policed laws would prevent.
The biggest Joke is that their not paying any one out who had a leaky home under their watch.Neither are they paying any one with structural damage cased by leaks or by poor building practice.These buildings were signed off under their laissez fair building codes and inspectors.Wheres the justice in that I suspect CHCH citizens will have a similar battle to come!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/5359391/Stuff-Top-10-What-money-can-t-buy
Really?
Yeah, bizarre.
the opinion poll:
I think that should be:
Should McDonald’s cut Happy Meals?
Which they should. Targeting children in advertising should be illegal.
I say add a $1tax per burger and/or fries sold – transfer the money straight to the Ministry of Health – less obesity as the price goes up and McD’s becomes less affordable and the country generates more than enough cash to operate a school lunch programme.
Money can’t buy poverty.
Some idiot trying to fill up the space in the newspaper.
Who would want Ritchie McCaw? Really?
Remember Lockwood Smith Speaker of the House ruling “Privatization” as a word not acceptable but rather use the newspeak word of…? Can’t remember because its meaningless verbiage, deliberately so to confuse and bewilder criticism.
The robbing of the American public’s commons continues the same as our Power SOEs are being stolen from the public of NZ.
Refer link:http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/28-10
None Dare Call It Privatization
Dispatch from a high-powered conference spelling out a new strategy for raiding the commons
“Just remember something: The term “Privateer” means PIRATE. It means someone who will steal from you without a moment’s hesitation. Kill you if need (or just plain malice) be.
Real world example: Back in 1980, Colorado spent an average adjusted $70 million per year on it’s prison system. We were sold a bill of goods that said that for profit prisons would be SO much cheaper, it would be just foolish NOT to implement them. So we did. Now, 30 years later, after all these “savings” have been realized, that has gone UP to $770 MILLION PER YEAR. Only an 11 TIMES INCREASE. And as a result, our schools are now at the absolute LOWEST rate of funding in the country.
If you allow this kind of horse shit to go on in your state, expect JUST THIS KIND of savings. You can expect EVERYTHING that your govt’ USED to do to cost you 11 TIMES more. how can it NOT? You’re adding profit to the operating expenses, which are generally as low as they will be in govt’ services, because there is NO profit motive. Add a 30% charge on top of those expenses and tell me HOW they will get lower? NOT going to happen. PERIOD.
ANYONE who wants to do this kind of thing has MONEY in the game. PERIOD. Watch out for these people, they want YOUR money and they don’t CARE how much of a hardship it puts on you, your state, your family or the country. They LIVE for the money,. and everything else be damned.
Tell these people to go to hell.
Tresser sez: “… privatization is what happens when we transfer control of public assets, infrastructure and services into the private sector …”
***
“Privatization” is itself a soft euphemism. Before its introduction to the lexicon, another word sufficed to describe this practice. That is, corporate fascism.Because the Public’s Government becomes increasingly financially powerless(Due to less and less revenue from tax cuts and public assets) and controlled by the increasing financial power of necessary corporate backers as in the U$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Seems like the correct term would be “profitization” – adding an extra layer of cost to the public to provide sufficient profits for the (newly) private owners of (formerly) public property and services.
I don’t see how a private company can provide a service at less cost than the government. The private operator must charge enough to provide ample returns to the owners. Public operators can provide services at cost. We’re seeing this in my own state and several nearby, where private interests are taking over public services and properties. In most cases the profit operators reduce pay and benefits for the (newly) private employees while charging the government more than it cost to provide the service in-house. In many cases (some say in all cases) there are concealed price escalation clause in state contracts so that the actual cost to the government is higher than the :”bid” price on which the contract was originally based. In the case of public properties (state parks being an example) the fees charged to the public are raised as well as reducing wages and benefits, and using fewer employees.”
Why do the NZ sheople still support a Government that aims to impoverish them further by selling their assets to FOREIGNERS! Is that the price we pay for Pin Up Key our celeb PM and not too high a price at that?
QFT&E
There’s absolutely no way privatisation can make anything cheaper than what it was being provided for under government ownership. Lots of ways for it to add to the costs though and that’s what always happens.
Waging War on Beneficiaries
Earlier this year Social Development and Employment Minister Paula Bennett, as part of National’s divide and rule agenda announced a “War on Beneficiaries.”
That’s a startling quote, Jackal. When did Bennett say that?
Hi jackal
She’s caught out there! Why would you make war on your fellow kiwis? Last year she attended the “Eisenhower Foundation” whose most prominent member is War Criminal Colin Powell who publically lied that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction despite WEAPONS iNSPECTORS having certified Iraq was in the clear. He is part of the WAR ON TERROR. Looks like poor cow Bennett has been picking up tricks while sitting on his lap! The U$$$$$$$$$$$ is a Corporate Fascist State,we’re heading that way even more if Pin Up Shonkey gets back in Power this election.We already have GruntMeister Brownlee having assumed Dictator powers due to the CHCH earthquake.
WAR ON BENEFICIARIES In the useless U$$$$$$$$, that’s already happening: they’re screwing up the courage to attack social security and medicaid by you guessed it! by screwing those same people!
@ VOR I believe Bennett made the statement earlier this year in a Parliamentary speech, so there should be a record somewhere.
Here’s a manifestation of the right wing’s war effort: http://asianinvasion2006.blogspot.com/2011/07/benefit-of-doubt-no-thanks.html
Jezuz what a vindictive old slapper she is. Just right for the ACT old men to kick around.
Today’s Press (print edition) reports from one of its polls, that 56% of women intend to vote National and 49% put Key as their preferred PM. Quite a change from the Clark years.
Speculation in the article suggests it’s because Key’s perceived as a ‘family man’, ‘loves his children’, is powerful, is wealthy, ‘charming’, ‘blokey’, ‘ordinary’, etc., etc..
Turns out that the coming election is not about choosing a government, after all. A shame, really. Perhaps we can set up a proper process to do that sometime?
if we do it American Idol styles we can maybe make some cash at the same time
And then he is going to turn into the devil incarnate after they have sold off all the Silverware and these same women are trying to make ends meet then they will know that he is cold heartless conniving prick who thinks less of the general population than he does of a dog in the street.
@ Puddleglum 1.06pm *Sigh* Depressing really. How much is it a Fairfix constructed poll? Was that the list of choices they gave people who voted? Did they mention anything about NAct’s poor record on women – re-policies and women’s roles within NAct? That record is also something that doesn’t get much coverage in Fairfix’s papers.
“How much is it a Fairfix constructed poll?”
I almost missed the spelling you were so subtle 🙂
On that point, the figures for National/Labour support are identical to the May, 2008 Fairfax poll. Perhaps they just reprinted it? (I joke, of course).
Oh, and ‘no’ there was nothing on policy in the article though it was embedded (in a formatting sense) in a story about record numbers of people leaving New Zealand. (That article is online, hence the link – but I couldn’t find the one about women voters preferring Key, online.)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/polls/5357139/John-Key-a-hit-with-female-voters
There you go.
Thanks Deadly_NZ.
I was hoping that they realised it was too much of a puff piece to bother giving it a wider audience. But what do I know? Obviously those at stuff realise the value of the old saying – no-one ever went poor underestimating the intelligence (or was it ‘taste’?) of the public.
Tram trial in Auckland this weekend:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/5360285/Warning-The-trams-are-back
An interesting development.
Jon Stewart: Special Victims Unit, the poor downtrodden, victimized conservatives.
Kos has a transcript and more.
Clearly, O’Reilly does not believe this killer’s actions or profile qualify him as Christian. Which I would agree with. But his barrier to entry is somewhat less strict when it comes to linking the Fort Hood maniac and Islam.
BILL O’REILLY (7/26/2011): I’m saying that he was a Muslim terrorist because he carried a business card that said “Soldier of Allah”. And he committed his crimes in the name of Allah.
See the difference? That guy printed up Soldier of Allah business cards! The other guy only printed up an Army of Christ manifesto! I guess, the only connection is both psychos, for some reason, spent the day at Kinko’s.
You know, I actually feel sorry for the pundits and anchors who have added this story to their file of grievances that are perpetrated against them. Not because I think they are actually victims of persecution, but because I know that the sense of grievance and victimization that appears to pervade their every waking moment is actually something they hate……………… in others.
SEAN HANNITY (1/5/2009): Liberals do make themselves out to be victims.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (9/2/2009): … victimization thing you guys on the left come up with …
REP. ALLEN WEST, R-FL (7/20/2011): The liberals want to play victim.
MONICA CROWLEY (6/1/2011): They play the victimhood card all the time.
All the time! Victims play the victim card! Liberals play it even when they’re playing Yahtzee, which doesn’t use cards! It’s annoying.
he swings, he connects, it’s out of the park and on its way to Mars, which co-incidentally is where O’Reilly and Hannity were grown
More blatant stupidity and anti-Labour bias from the MSM:
Why would having a quarter of young people planning to leave the country cheer them up? Oh, that’s right, it wouldn’t except in some delusional journalists’ mind as he writes to get more ratings rather than to inform people.
It says a lot about how journalists themselves see everything as just an opportunity for political advantage. I notice the only related quote was from Parker, who called it a “shocking statistic”.
The only two people in the article who were, in fact, sanguine about the figures were Bill English – who, oddly, saw these figures as representing young Kiwis looking forward to their OE – and, also oddly, the person reporting the poll who seemed keen to play down the number of people who might actually leave (despite the real world stats for the months of May and June – discussed in the article – being the highest net exodus since 1979 and 1981, respectively).
That latter comment is odd because it undermines the meaningfulness/validity of one of the items used in his own poll. (Since, presumably, the item aimed to measure and report intentions that might reliably lead to behaviour as opposed to, for example, statistics that might generate headlines.)
Strange days indeed.
I can see the article on the Auckland Library’s website dDgital Library, Press Display – It’s available to Library Members.
There’s a quote from Sue Bradford saying he has more charm than most politicians, but he doesn’t appeal to her – that some women go for the blokey quality. And those quotes about Key’s qualities are from a Massey uni Assoc. Prof of Commendation Design (Say what?), who says Key has qualities women like “doting husband, adores his kids…. and is a nice guy.”
Strange and pathetic. Not the press blatantly lying to make Labour look bad – that’s been a given since 2004 – but Brash attacking his only cobber and making better political hay than the Labour machine can.
Cut the pleasant waffle brothers and sisters, nice was last year and they’ve picked their idol. It’s the serious drama slot; remember you’re talking to the swinging voter and tell him with conviction:
“Key promised to stop this. He promised over and again that we’d catch up with Oz, but the gap’s got wider on his watch. Bugger the polls, our kids are voting with their feet – and they won’t be back while he keeps borrowing billions to give tax cuts to his rich mates and hocking off their last assets. For our kids’ sake, we need to lock up the family silver and throw away the key.”
This ‘O.E’ thing amuses me greatly! In the late 80s, I met another solo mother at a church creche, and became friends with her. She was from an upper middle class background, and a bit stunned to have ended up on a DPB… but we had everything else in common, and so we ‘bonded’… Then one day we were talking about art, and she started enthusing about galleries in Venice. When I said I’d never seen them, she asked “But where did you go on your O.E?” She was stunned to learn that I had never had one, and still haven’t – that in common with almost everyone I had known at school, I had gone to work straight out of school, and got to Uni only 10 years later… that the O.E was a middle class kiddie thing, and not a norm!
It still isn’t. My sons both went into tertiary study and then work straight out of school (no gap years or OE for solo Mum kids!). My older son married, and he and his wife may get an OE when they retire. If the younger one goes overseas, it won’t be for years – and then, it will be to work.
I look back, and think how nice it would have been to have rich parents (or parents at all), and to have spent the years of my late teens seeing Venice! Sigh… 😀
The News of the World hacking thing just gets worse
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/28/phone-hacking-sarah-payne
Not only did they gift a phone that they later hacked, they also convinced the mother that she had not been hacked and got her to write an article stating this.
What happens when you privatise energy companies?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/28/centrica-british-gas-profits-refuel-row-over-prices
I am saddened that all the anti-Garth George people have ignored this excellent piece he wrote about hungry children in yesterday’s Herald.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10741219
He is not evil, bad or wrong!
Yeah, he is. Sure, those people exist but they’re not “ferals” just people who haven’t been properly educated by either their parents or the schooling system.
I am amazed DtB that you picked that one paragraph out of the article, and ignored the other 90% of it. It’s as if you were looking for something to hate – but how could you intentionally ignore this?
I might choose this moment to point out that when I was on a DPB I supported one and a half children (I had regular visits from my older son, custodially stolen by my alcoholic ex, and while this son, a teenager, visited, I got no money for him at all.) None of us ever went without food in all those years. Granted it wasn’t very nice food most of the time, and it’s lucky that I don’t have the alcoholism problem that’s in the family – I tend to agree with George that some parents just can’t manage money! (I remember a solo Mum who was a friend of mine, who owned her own home so had one less expense than I did, and who was constantly visiting me to do her washing etc because she couldn’t her bills – instead she devoted her money to looking middle class – to use her own words! and to feeding and paying vet bills for a ruddy great dog… )
I didn’t – I viewed it as the same as the paragraph I quoted. The children need to be helped and so do the parents and yet he’s certain that the parents can’t be helped and so should get thrown on the scrapheap.
The fact DtB is that some parents are very difficult to help! When I walked my son to school (remember, I was a nasty solo mother on DPB, and many of the other parents wouldn’t soil their skirts, as if it was catching – it was a high SES area!) we regularly met a little boy the same age as my son at the time (about 6 years old) who wore hand-downs too big for him, and no shoes (in winter). It wasn’t my duty to help (as if I even could have – beneficiary, remember!) but the father seemed to think it was, as I was white and he wasn’t – and he was a solo Daddy. *
No shoes for the son, but two bloody great Rottweilers in his front yard. Typically, the Lady Mucks in the area were greatly concerned about the living conditions – of the freaking dogs!
* I had the experience the other night, of seeing a solo Daddy on Clive the other night, talking about his problems feeding his family. Then the following night, I switched to Close Up, when Clive’s trailer in the news, showed the heaps of presents viewers had sent for solo Dad. How nice it would be if solo mothers got gifts, not abuse! (Such as the nasty email comments Sainsbury read out about the beneficiary he’d covered!)
So yes, some parents don’t deserve sympathy, but their kids do. That’s the whole point.
Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help them if at all possible.
I’m not the sympathetic type. If the parents can’t be helped you take the kids off them and help them directly and tell the parents to go fuck themselves but you do try to help the parents first.
Yep, that’s pretty much disgusting. It’s obviously the sexism coming through. The females are “breeding for a living” while the guy’s having a hard time through no fault of his own.
I have my own reasons for being very sour on solo daddies (my first ex got custody of our son solely because he had parents to help, and I didn’t – that was truly the reason the judge gave! My mother had just died a few months before the case came before the court, and the ensuing years showed that J., wanted custody so he wouldn’t need to work!)
But the more relevant story when it comes to differing standards is that years later, when I lived in Welly, and visited my sister in Nappy Valley, she pointed out Ross, the solo daddy who was the father of her daughter’s best friend. He’d gone to court to get the family home, and he’d got it in an ex parte hearing, as his wife Margaret had “run off” and left him… My sister and all the other neighbours, would take him casseroles, wash and mend the kid’s clothes etc…
I asked my sister to exercise a bit of caution about believing Ross’ story, especially as she had known Margaret and thought that running off and leaving three children, one of them from a previous marriage, was out of character. Well (and I credit my sister with honesty, for telling me later) it turned out that Margaret hadn’t known she was “running off” until her oldest daughter contacted her. She had cancer and had taken Ross’ advice to go home to Tauranga and live with her parents while having chemo. It was only when her father moved his new girlfriend into the family home, that the daughter (I think she was 13?) caught on to the fact that Daddy had been telling two different stories to his wife and children, and to the court and the neighbours! (I never said she was all that bright, it took months..)
The casseroles, the baby-sitting and the mending dried up then, along with the sympathy for poor solo dad doing the best he could!
I would say that your story was purely imaginary, but I know many others in the same style. True life is stranger than fiction, no doubt.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/5359870/Goff-warns-of-the-growing-divide
18 people turned up to listen…
You’ll get over it Chris.
It was the Chamber of Commerce, Chris73, and locally that is the Nactoids in business suits.
They did not want to be told a thing or two about Marlborough having the lowest wage economy in the country, the highest supermarket prices, or a shameful treatment of guest workers by using corrupt and exploitative contractors to act as proxy employers for grape growers.
They did not want to hear criticism of Marlborough being in many ways a third world country in that 80% of grapes grown in Marlborough are owned by non-Marlborough companies, many overseas owned. They do not want to hear that the Marlborough District Council has high rates in terms of national figures.
They do not want to hear of growing unemployment figures or that the local food kitchen fed 74 poor folk last week.
They do not want to hear that they are represented by an imported MP who possesses Key like qualities of geniality but who carries no weight within his own caucus nor bears any great intellectual burdens.
Of course they stayed away………… they’re not into self-flagellation.
Another comment concentrating on the banal rather than the message …
@ms The banal comment referred to was that of Mac1? I thought it was refreshing in that it talked about real issues that he/she has observed.
Having following a link to Cactus Kate’s evil little site I found this
http://asianinvasion2006.blogspot.com/2011/07/guest-post-acts-david-seymour-on-moral.html
What kind of a psycho is this little pillock?
@Vicky32 – I thought Cactus Kate was in HongKong or Singapore? How then can she be taking an anti-Asian stance for NZ?
Petulant Bean went to the U.S. to broaden her education. If it was all on the public purse can we expect her to report back to us with detail of what her courses covered and what she learnt. I expect it would be in the form of cartoon strips, and pictures but that doesn’t matter.
Edited for clarity. No thanks needed.
As an aside and further to the campaign (now at least 2 signatories if you are with me Vicky) for quality relaxing music being played while “hanging on” to a corporation phone call, I discovered that when one closes the doors on those modern street-side loos, quite a relaxing and pleasant melody ensues. Perhaps Pete George could take up the campaign.
Oh yes, I am with you!
Private prisons, not such a great idea.
.
by @DrBrash – a parody of the real thing on twitter.