…me thinks the leader speaks with forked tongue. Calvert said she entered her name for list consideration and Brash says she withdrew from the ballot. Who would you believe…? One of them has aspirations to be the nation’s leader. Morning Report Brash’s version around 7:43.
Hilary’s composure, voice and vocalisation was extremely remarkable for that interview. Well done! She surprised listeners with her excellent performance in conveying how superbly she had, before going on Radio NZ, controlled herself in swallowing and holding down broken glass and bullshit.
Brash said that Calvert withdrew her nomination when the ACT management made it clear they were wishing to make changes, going forward to the future etc. She obviously realised that she was dog tucker. She supported him rolling over Hide, now she finds that Dr Jekyll and Hide are two heads on the same coin. Brash is rolling her out of the way like a draught excluder stopping the door opening on a bright, new future.
Calvert: too crazy or not crazy enough? Brash reckoned on RNZ the mystery 3rd spot will be given to a high profile New Zealander. So not former ACT president Catherine Isaac then.
So the ACT team includes Roger Cur’s wife. Funny how the same names and associates keep cropping up. But also that with a small coterie they manage to remain in parliament, influential beyond their deserts.
I’m going to miss Hillary. It is not often that you can combine that blind hypocritical ideological earnestness in such an obviously bat shit crazy person.
Is it possible that the ACT strategy is that by with-holding the name of number 3 on the list, speculation will keep them in the lime-light? Can’t understand why a party with 2% support gets this much exposure. Surely it isn’t in National’s interest – is it?
Not only ‘where is Cactus Kate?’ but where is the diversity? Surely they should have a token ethnic like that deluded asian guy they dumped after he stopped being useful last election. Surely there must be someone out there who both supports ACT and isn’t a dry balled, shirt tucked into Y fronts chinless wonder?
I don’t think Cactus Kate was well-served by her blog where she comes across as elitest and uncaring.
Act already had a bomb with David Garrett, they don’t really want to go through it again with Kate, especially with all of her dirty laundry on display in public (or in google cache if she took the blog down).
Don’t answer the question, so you can inflict us with
your preconceived conclusion, ignoring us as part as the
debate. Consent without consultation is not consent.
Peak oil can’t be ignored, peak oil is crushing the
economy, pushing people to drink, into poverty, and
suicide. But the best the PM has is its too difficult,
its up to society to look at itself he says. Totally
abdicating any responsibility as the leader of our nation.
Government has the power, the resources, and the duty
to open the discussion on how we can raise our standard
of living in light of peak oil, doing nothing will
only insure that exploitation and self abuse will
continue to rise across society. Parliment is filled
with the representatives of the people, yet our
undemocratic leader is happy to go on TV morning
and tell us he can’t do anything and its up to us as
a society to talk about it. Where would we do that/
Where have we always done that? In the debating
chamber where the people cannot be charged with
being bludgers and have their privacy invaded by the
minisiter, where the people cannot be ignore when the
speaker forces the PM to give an answer. Our PM
head of a coalition of parties was not the outright
winner of the last election, Key had to hold his
party together as they choked on the idea of sitting
with Maori Party. Its a shocking indication of our
lazy mornign interviews with the inane PM how they
did not pickup on Key’s spin, that he won the last
election, that he’s a winner, the guy grazed in and
then grazed on the trinkets of office abdicating his
role as leader of our nation. No doubt waiting for
head office in the US to give him the new ideological
answers, has the twit of a PM actually looked at the US
recently, its run by feckless morons like him who
dither and ignore peak oil at their peril.
Watched Hollow Men on Maori TV last night. Had to laugh at what a clueless fuck the Don was and how his answer to lifes problems seems to be lie and use a bigger hammer.
Kinda scary how crosby/textor, Key and co have just blindly followed the right wing script laid down for the 05 election, as though a worldwide recession and the crumbling of capitalism since doesn’t really factor into their thinking.
It’s still all about cutting jobs, lowering wages, bashing bludgers and demeaning maaris to distract from their fatcat muthafucka mates raping the system.
Just goes to show how much John Key cannot be trusted. Only difference between him and Brash is he’s got the kiwi sheilas thinking he’s a stand up guy.
Jeez there’s some dumass kiwi sheeple out here. At least us poly’s have an excuse. We still think the gov’t works for God 🙂
oh yeah, i forgot to mention about that other right wing trump card for stimulating growth…taxcuts for the rich…PFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTT !!!
hopefully mainstream middle NZ and all the hardworking kiwi battlers, to use the subliminal crosby/textor vernacular, can cut through the bullshit this election, see how stupid the PR spinners think they are and revolt against Key and co.
…but i doubt it, as long as the mainstream media keep the focus on Keys face and not the international banksters hand up his arse moving his muppet lips.
hahhaha the thing is that people like Matthew Hooten-sprung pure and simple……
Noone I know even knew it was gonna be shown- it only when I spam texted 200 contacts on my phone and then I facebooked it -alot of my mates who detest nact as much as me ended up watching it
Maori tv has some kick ass hows on- not as much as they used too but not promoted as such,unless youre a reg watcher like our household,you will miss some really informative doco’s from all over the world not just here…
The Bollywood movies are eye opener.But yeah pity mainstream TV channels dont show more of this stuff.
I for one am over singing shows infomercials and cooking cookoffs
bah
TV now in NZ is bullshit
Kinda scary how crosby/textor, Key and co have just blindly followed the right wing script laid down for the 05 election, as though a worldwide recession and the crumbling of capitalism since doesn’t really factor into their thinking.
It doesn’t factor into their thinking. The only thing that is of importance to them is the channelling of more of the communities wealth to the rich.
Don Brash is a total slime-ball.
Key’s own words :- ‘Prime Waster’ John Key and ‘WasteMaster General’ Bill English! Perfect!
English’s words for their perfomance:- ‘Inept and mismanaging the Economy’! Perfect!
Only difference between him and Brash is he’s got the kiwi sheilas thinking he’s a stand up guy.
Not all of we sheilas, thankfully! (Although that nice Mr Key did plaster his ugly mug all over a postcard in my letter box this morning inviting me to join the National Party! (The Labour and Green election stuff is informative, the National stuff isn’t.)
“Only difference between him (Key) and Brash is he’s got the kiwi sheilas thinking he’s a stand up guy.”
Only a minority (49%) of kiwi sheilas according to the latest Fairfax poll (and given that Fairfax polls historically lean a little to the Right, that’s probably actually about 45%). Younger women appear to be the least enamoured with Key.
Watching Hollow Men again after all these years was creepy. The same closet ideology, the same sham words, the same lies, the same scew-ball sychophants and crooked businessmen in the background, the same policies dressed up to look like non-policies and the same bunch of C/T shysters running the show. The only difference is an old Brash has been replaced with a younger Key.
The behind the scenes stitch-up deal to get Brash back into parliament makes more sense now I’ve seen that film again.
” “It’s the classic neo-liberal economic theory that you pay what the market can bear, and I think you would see very low wage rates on that basis,” Key said on Newstalk ZB when asked about his view on the ACT Policy. ”
FFS. Imagine Helen Clark coming back to lead the Mana Party and Goff responding to a policy announcement with: “It’s the classic Marxist economic theory . . . ”
I’m 28, have 2 degrees and halfway thru a MA. Half my friends live overseas. I never intended on joining them. But another term of crony capitalism will do my head in.
PJ, I got degrees years ago but not as a meal ticket….which seems to be the modern obsession. Now the employers dont even want them. A word of advice, be GOOD at something that degrees just dont teach. For example you cant learn sales at Uni, you cant learn customer empathy at Uni, you cant learn all sorts of real world stuff. And the debt you run up just wont repay itself.
Sorry to be depressingly honest, good luck with the wide world, go offshore now whilst you can.
I’m resigned to getting paid jack all for a science postgrad degree (when I get it, in molecular bio or conservation and evolution), but IT in regards to network wiring/hardware set ups is looking rather attractive money wise…
Dont worry about the money. Just be the best at what you choose and generally the money follows. And the best way to be the best at something is to do what you like best no less.
Yep. I looked at it when I was completing my undergrad science degree and realizing I was qualified as a bottle washer in the science community. So I went into management and stayed there until it got too boring. Did a MBA and realized that management was just inherently boring. That is when I seriously started moving into programming because PC’s were a lot more interesting than the mini’s I’d worked with in the previous degree. Never regretted it….
I’m not worried about money, at all! – can’t be in my profession! all I’d like is to earn enough from my passion to, one day, raise and support a family in the country I love. both my under-grad degrees are in the field I’m passionate (and, at least in my opinion, pretty skilled at) about, and my MA is in a related, and highly-specialised field that is teaching me the skills to turn my current start-up business into a long-term sustainable enterprise, that will,hopefully, one day fulfil my aim of supporting a family.
You’re forgetting about degree inflation, were by there’s too many people choosing to go to uni, instead of apprenticeships or polytechs, thus creating a market glut of BA’s, BL’s and BSc’s, which is one of the issues facing graduates. Along with teh annoying tendency of businesses in NZ to seek x number of years of experience, thus forcing graduates to head off overseas
That is because it takes graduates 3 years to get over, the 30 000 new words, and the attitude that they are worth more than someone who can actually do the job, they acquire at University.
A degree plus experience is extremely valuable. A degree with out experience is worth less than someone with the experience.
It is not more lawyers, accountants and masters of f–king up businesses, we need. It is more of the type of competent can do Kiwi’s we used to have, before they gave up and went offshore.
BCom and BA’s possibly, but with BSc’s, BA’s in geography, and mathematics (esp. stats) you do gain very relevant experience. From the work requirements for BE’s, to Lab course work and research projects for BSc’s that give them the basics and GIS experience for geography. Heck, if I had done geography with a few relevant pol.sci or sociology papers I’d be able to get a job with only a BA and good grades.
As for attitude, from experience in sci.undergrad courses, we all knew that we’d need further experience/education to even have a chance of getting a foot in the door in a science position without the right contacts. And with Tegal flooding the micro-bio market with low level lab techs, you’d need either a MSc or 2-3 year polytech lab-technician course to get anywhere with a micro/molecular bio major…
BCom and BL’s on the other hand are probably what you’re talking about, however due to being a bit asocial I don’t generally run into those…
Even though the whole thing was a backdrop that could be manipulated to impress an American television audience the ‘schadenfreude’ is quite nice.
After months of preparations, hours of television and radio talk all geared up for the big day, tons of merchandise manufactured, Glenn Beck could just about muster over a thousand people at his “Restoring Courage” last night in Jerusalem.
Someone in the Christchurch police needs to loose their fucking job over this, as it’s a rather blatant set of lies to the judge(s) that was involved in this case.
Police were victims, they had to risk their lives chasing looters in unstable buildings, they
must have had enough with having to search buildings, not to risk their lives another time
chasing a thief. Sure, police were wrong. The moment they discovered he only wanted
light bulbs they should of clicked the guy wasn’t a thief but suicidally insane.
If Police find a naked man on a bridge about to jump to their death, then do they arrest
him for indecency or try to talk him down. Do they assume he’s an offender, or a
victim of some male rape who just can’t take living anymore? Police have a tough job,
and I can see how they thought this man had criminal intent, the judges seem to
see right to the heart of the matter early on, and the prosecuter should have seen reason.
Not everyone who runs into a unstable building is there to steal stuff.
But saying to the judge that the victims of the theft were fearful is NOT a heat-of-the-moment misunderstanding. Unless they spoke to the victims, it is either an assumption or an outright lie (typed, printed and hand-delivered).
Someone should be in the shit.
Yes, I don’t know how to spin Police prosecutor position. Maybe they could argue
that since they were dealing with so many opportunists criminals, while courts
were out of commission, and chaos reigned in eaarth shatter ChCh, the papers
got misfiled – and the statements did not seem unreasonable even if now they
are clearly reprehensible.
They probably will argue something along those lines, but the fact is that the case got kicked back to a judge several times with incorrect and prejudicial information submitted to the court each and every time.
This really is the thin end of the wedge when it comes to corruption of the judicial system – and the only thing that saved the guy was the fact that he wasn’t up in front of someone like Judge Jeffries, despite “let’s joke about rape in custody” (not as pithy as “crusher”, but more accurate) Collins.
Maori TV should repeat the hollowmen after the RWC in and around something big they can promote as these jokers have just slipped further back into the shadows but are very much in control now.
Hasn’t Sideshow come a long way with the media…..got the aww shucks I made a boo boo to replace the ‘ I’m not stupid enough to think these things don’t come back to bite you’……we’ll see oh slippery one, time will tell.
Hooton wasn’t pushjing his 210,000 jobs on rnz9-n00n this morning. instead he was making out he knew everything there was to know about the Labour party. What doesn’t he know about everything except that National will get a drubbing in the final poll.
yes indeedy.
Useful policy proposition for Labour No.1.
Have a workforce managed outside the WINZ regime that supplies work-ready teams for NZ agricultural, horticultural seasons. These people would be esteemed, graded into teams. Team A would be the top, experienced fit and committed to doing and finishing the job and able to earn high pay from their efforts which they would be allowed to keep not having that miserly claw-back attitude that has deadened initiative and aspiration by Soc Welfare throughout the years.
There would be a Team B, working towards a Team A classification, Team Ca for trainees and newbies, and Team Cb those confronting this sort of hard work for the first time. They would work in different areas where they were needed and the travel and change of locale would be an added incentive for young people. They would be able to go onto the unemployed benefit when work finished or was cancelled, and would get a gym/sports membership in out of season time so they could keep fit.
The extremely hard physical work required by some jobs requires fit strong hard-working people, and their qualities should be recognised. We applaud the All Blacks for being physically fit and skilled at physical activity, why don’t we also appreciate those who do the physical jobs. There was a clash between mandarin growers needs in different areas this year in NZ as they had a big crop. We could help with these situations and provide semi-permanetnt work for young adults, much as the freezing works or the wharves provided holiday jobs for students in previous years.
This policy is aimed at –
1 Raising physical work to a similar standard of recognition and respect to that of sport.
2 Providing work for those young people who find satisfaction in work that is more physical
than intellectual.
3 Enabling young people to have a path to get into the work force and receive respect and
wages, rather than disrespect and the dole.
4 Once in the ‘Agriteam’ young people would have opportunities to round out their education
with new skills, or to catch up on earlier education steps missed during their school years.
5 Including both school leavers and young adults but in separate peer groups and tailoring the
work team management with regard to higher need of care for teenagers.
6 Encouraging self-respect and individual motivation to control and manage their own lives
rather than ceding control by social welfare department or filling time and an identity gap
through criminal gang membership.
7 Encouraging and also monitoring, fitness activities in the off-season times, so that people are
work ready when the seasonal work starts, but in off-season carry on with positive life
schedules including gym activity and sport, and any off-season occupation that is suitable.
I think the above presents a reasonable case for the policy introduction.
Why would you condemn people to the misery of seasonal work – weather dependent, unable to have lengthy job security making it difficult to make long term commitments such as obtaining mortgages, uncertainty as to how much work their will be next season – if any for many, variability of need depending on whether crops dovetail or overlap, low pay.
Surely we can be more ambitious than that.
Flaxmere in Hawkes Bay is a prime example of community that is offered this work year after year – and they do it – and then they are left to rot the rest of the year.
One employer makes a concerted effort to look after the workers from that community but even they can’t give many of them continuity of work.
It’s a good example to look at because both the unemployed and the sole parents in that community do lots of seasonal work.
Many people drop by the wayside after injury in high end sports. Its naive to expose
people to unnecessary risks to their long term health as some political gimmick to
solve the jobs problem. We don’t need more people in the health system.
People need to be engaged in work that plays to there own goals, not the goals
of politicians. All government work schemes are dubious.
Instead of create a false market in wearing out the young people in mindless
physical exertion why not just remove the weight of business monopolies on
the population so they can trade between themselves. Lower GST, raise
a capital gains tax. Turn oney over faster in the economy, rather than
slow it and funnel it to the top of the public and private heirarchy.
People used to be able to afford to give the neighbors boy some money to
mow the lawn, or run an errand, or wash a car, its because we have no money,
or are in debt, or are paid a pittence, due to the economics of neo-liberals.
Funnel the money to the wealthy just does not work.
It won’t take long for the youth gang to work on a industrial site and
they all come down with cancers and other nasties.
@kriswgtn
I have packed apples, never picked as I was too old and wouldn’t have been able to reach the required harvest amount. I have heard that it is hard – of course there are always stories of so and so who was creaming it, because he was so good and fast. The contract pay thing has to be scrutinised, there needs to be a floor wage with commission or something. Another difficult job is vine pruning where the demands for speed, I understand, lead to bad RSI in significant numbers of workers.
Your reference to No.1 – Do you mean that having different levels of Teams would result in differing wages? It could be that the top Teams would get perks that wouldn’t be the same as any fringe benefits available to lower grade/ learner teams. And more skill resulting in more ‘productivity’ – that over-used word – should be rewarded with commission or bonuses.
I have just watched Saturdays Nation on tape. Good line up of three young upcoming Labour MP’s . Each one had a lot to offer and were interesting speakers.So what does Garner keep referring too. Goff’s leadership. Is Garner completly thick or is he told told keep harping on about Phil Goff’s leadership by his National Party friends? I for one am sick to death of the domination the Right has over our TV viewing. Holmes . Garner and Plunket are becoming the spokespeople for the Act/Nat party.
Its not so bad. Goff. Goff. Goff. Goff. Goff. Its call penetration the brand.
Goff does not come across as a saleman like Key does, will people buy
the soft sell or the hard? Trust your own brand.
Ho ho, I was wondering where I’d heard all Pete George’s “new way of doing politics” schtick before.
All that guff about how all the politicians should be able to agree on what’s in the best interest of everybody? And just get behind the biggest party and get it done without all the arguing and time-wasting?
I was laughing very loudly when I read this one….it is an attempt to state a position in a fast changing world where price certainty and the ability to sell are diverging rapidly. Terry seems to think that he is about $33 million in front when his assets and liabilities are balanced. Now that the market knows that to be his stated position the buyers will be busy discounting their offers. More fantasy and commercial unreality as the Serepesos empire unfolds.
He really should sell the Phoenix as a priority. Both to do the right thing by the club, but also to stop the media bugging him every five minutes about whether they are going to be dragged down with him. Then he can sell the rest of his empire for, say, $150 mil, enter bankruptcy and start again.
The real sadness is that he is still apparently relying on $100 million turning up from the scam artist he’s already wasted money on. It’s the same sort of delusion that inspires people to send money to Nigeria or put it into the pokies.
“I think the question then would be, how much would that take actually off the state then? Because people need a certain amount for subsistence living,”
“Of course we want to get people in work, but what is equally important in that young group actually, I think, is getting them into training.
“It’s also addressing why they’re not in work. In some of the cases they’re not in work because their basic foundation skills, their literacy and numeracy, are so poor they actually can’t hold together a job. They actually basically can’t carry out that work.”
He’s quoted as saying a National government couldn’t adopt conservative policies, because a socialist streak runs through all New Zealanders.
“My basic point was that New Zealand is a very caring country. Some of the things we see take place in the rest of the world where there are overt signs of poverty and begging is not something we want to see in New Zealand. In that regard, New Zealanders do have a heart.” – Link
The headline “Key says he has a socialist streak” should have been….
Prime Minister admits that conservative policies have no heart
Mr Key said, from memory, it was in response to a conversation about some very right wing policies. – from link.
That would be right. But remember George Bush was still in power so chances are he was talking to a Republican hack regardless of his fancy title – Charge d’Affairs if I remember correctly.
Translated what he was really saying to him was:
“Look, we want to introduce conservative policies like yours, but we gotta go slow and careful because our voting plonkers have got a socialist streak they’ve inherited from Labour, but don’t worry as soon as we get into power we’ll be working to change that.”
If the flagrant abuse of New Zealand’s Nuclear Free Legislation I blogged about yesterday wasn’t bad enough, it was also revealed by the Greens that the New Zealand Superannuation Fund Board of Trustees invested $2.5 million in five companies involved in the production of cluster bombs.
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The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
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Hillary Calvert on RadioNZ this morning putting on a brave face over non-recognition for her contributions to ACT. Talk about confused.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport around 06:43.
“Are you disappointed…?”
“Yes. (Whoops what have I said) Ahhh No. Bluster, bluster,… good of the party… bluster..”
You have to feel some sympathy for her.
…me thinks the leader speaks with forked tongue. Calvert said she entered her name for list consideration and Brash says she withdrew from the ballot. Who would you believe…? One of them has aspirations to be the nation’s leader. Morning Report Brash’s version around 7:43.
Hilary’s composure, voice and vocalisation was extremely remarkable for that interview. Well done! She surprised listeners with her excellent performance in conveying how superbly she had, before going on Radio NZ, controlled herself in swallowing and holding down broken glass and bullshit.
Brash said that Calvert withdrew her nomination when the ACT management made it clear they were wishing to make changes, going forward to the future etc. She obviously realised that she was dog tucker. She supported him rolling over Hide, now she finds that Dr Jekyll and Hide are two heads on the same coin. Brash is rolling her out of the way like a draught excluder stopping the door opening on a bright, new future.
Brashes new mantra bugger of before breakfast {gone by lunch time]
Calvert: too crazy or not crazy enough? Brash reckoned on RNZ the mystery 3rd spot will be given to a high profile New Zealander. So not former ACT president Catherine Isaac then.
Calvert’s just a casualty of the Exclusive Brashians.
the so called 3rd place high profile New Zealander spot goes tooooooooo
Roger Kerrs wife, Cathern Isaac
who?? meh
I shall begin to say, “ACT’s women … airrr … woman … *cough* … who, men? … ”
Never mind.
So the ACT team includes Roger Cur’s wife. Funny how the same names and associates keep cropping up. But also that with a small coterie they manage to remain in parliament, influential beyond their deserts.
Sympathy for a Devils frock…yeah right!
I’m going to miss Hillary. It is not often that you can combine that blind hypocritical ideological earnestness in such an obviously bat shit crazy person.
Is it possible that the ACT strategy is that by with-holding the name of number 3 on the list, speculation will keep them in the lime-light? Can’t understand why a party with 2% support gets this much exposure. Surely it isn’t in National’s interest – is it?
The Herald’s take on this http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10748123
Em, where is Cactus Cow Kate – have they blanked her as well?
Not only ‘where is Cactus Kate?’ but where is the diversity? Surely they should have a token ethnic like that deluded asian guy they dumped after he stopped being useful last election. Surely there must be someone out there who both supports ACT and isn’t a dry balled, shirt tucked into Y fronts chinless wonder?
Lessons for ACTing up before electioneering:
– you are much encouraged to treat your puppet politicians like toilet paper (don’t forget to flush after .. and remember to flush well)
– anyone and everyone is dispensable, except for the greedy and mega rich whose Invisible Hands pull the strings or do the wiping
I don’t think Cactus Kate was well-served by her blog where she comes across as elitest and uncaring.
Act already had a bomb with David Garrett, they don’t really want to go through it again with Kate, especially with all of her dirty laundry on display in public (or in google cache if she took the blog down).
You too are so alike, you’ll be pining for her. Opposites (politically) attract obviously
MS I thought that would have put her at the top of the list
Don’t answer the question, so you can inflict us with
your preconceived conclusion, ignoring us as part as the
debate. Consent without consultation is not consent.
Peak oil can’t be ignored, peak oil is crushing the
economy, pushing people to drink, into poverty, and
suicide. But the best the PM has is its too difficult,
its up to society to look at itself he says. Totally
abdicating any responsibility as the leader of our nation.
Government has the power, the resources, and the duty
to open the discussion on how we can raise our standard
of living in light of peak oil, doing nothing will
only insure that exploitation and self abuse will
continue to rise across society. Parliment is filled
with the representatives of the people, yet our
undemocratic leader is happy to go on TV morning
and tell us he can’t do anything and its up to us as
a society to talk about it. Where would we do that/
Where have we always done that? In the debating
chamber where the people cannot be charged with
being bludgers and have their privacy invaded by the
minisiter, where the people cannot be ignore when the
speaker forces the PM to give an answer. Our PM
head of a coalition of parties was not the outright
winner of the last election, Key had to hold his
party together as they choked on the idea of sitting
with Maori Party. Its a shocking indication of our
lazy mornign interviews with the inane PM how they
did not pickup on Key’s spin, that he won the last
election, that he’s a winner, the guy grazed in and
then grazed on the trinkets of office abdicating his
role as leader of our nation. No doubt waiting for
head office in the US to give him the new ideological
answers, has the twit of a PM actually looked at the US
recently, its run by feckless morons like him who
dither and ignore peak oil at their peril.
Watched Hollow Men on Maori TV last night. Had to laugh at what a clueless fuck the Don was and how his answer to lifes problems seems to be lie and use a bigger hammer.
Kinda scary how crosby/textor, Key and co have just blindly followed the right wing script laid down for the 05 election, as though a worldwide recession and the crumbling of capitalism since doesn’t really factor into their thinking.
It’s still all about cutting jobs, lowering wages, bashing bludgers and demeaning maaris to distract from their fatcat muthafucka mates raping the system.
Just goes to show how much John Key cannot be trusted. Only difference between him and Brash is he’s got the kiwi sheilas thinking he’s a stand up guy.
Totally agree Pollywog
Been looking forward to watching this and kudos to MT for showing it
The entire script is the same- Jokey had a major grooming makeover oh shucks and that shit course
and kiwis fell for it
Pity it wasnt on a major network,,get people talking
eh Wellikris !
Jeez there’s some dumass kiwi sheeple out here. At least us poly’s have an excuse. We still think the gov’t works for God 🙂
oh yeah, i forgot to mention about that other right wing trump card for stimulating growth…taxcuts for the rich…PFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTT !!!
hopefully mainstream middle NZ and all the hardworking kiwi battlers, to use the subliminal crosby/textor vernacular, can cut through the bullshit this election, see how stupid the PR spinners think they are and revolt against Key and co.
…but i doubt it, as long as the mainstream media keep the focus on Keys face and not the international banksters hand up his arse moving his muppet lips.
hahhaha the thing is that people like Matthew Hooten-sprung pure and simple……
Noone I know even knew it was gonna be shown- it only when I spam texted 200 contacts on my phone and then I facebooked it -alot of my mates who detest nact as much as me ended up watching it
Maori tv has some kick ass hows on- not as much as they used too but not promoted as such,unless youre a reg watcher like our household,you will miss some really informative doco’s from all over the world not just here…
The Bollywood movies are eye opener.But yeah pity mainstream TV channels dont show more of this stuff.
I for one am over singing shows infomercials and cooking cookoffs
bah
TV now in NZ is bullshit
It doesn’t factor into their thinking. The only thing that is of importance to them is the channelling of more of the communities wealth to the rich.
Don Brash is a total slime-ball.
Key’s own words :- ‘Prime Waster’ John Key and ‘WasteMaster General’ Bill English! Perfect!
English’s words for their perfomance:- ‘Inept and mismanaging the Economy’! Perfect!
Not all of we sheilas, thankfully! (Although that nice Mr Key did plaster his ugly mug all over a postcard in my letter box this morning inviting me to join the National Party! (The Labour and Green election stuff is informative, the National stuff isn’t.)
“Only difference between him (Key) and Brash is he’s got the kiwi sheilas thinking he’s a stand up guy.”
Only a minority (49%) of kiwi sheilas according to the latest Fairfax poll (and given that Fairfax polls historically lean a little to the Right, that’s probably actually about 45%). Younger women appear to be the least enamoured with Key.
Watching Hollow Men again after all these years was creepy. The same closet ideology, the same sham words, the same lies, the same scew-ball sychophants and crooked businessmen in the background, the same policies dressed up to look like non-policies and the same bunch of C/T shysters running the show. The only difference is an old Brash has been replaced with a younger Key.
The behind the scenes stitch-up deal to get Brash back into parliament makes more sense now I’ve seen that film again.
werd Anne…
with Bed n Breakfast (brash n banks) back in the big house Key will look positively tame and moderate.
Bed n Breakfast lol.
Uh huh … it has started
That nice man, Key, now has his brash bogeyman
We should be seeing more of Key dishing out, for general public consumption, bigger servings of bullshit
See:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10748133
From the article linked to above:
” “It’s the classic neo-liberal economic theory that you pay what the market can bear, and I think you would see very low wage rates on that basis,” Key said on Newstalk ZB when asked about his view on the ACT Policy. ”
FFS. Imagine Helen Clark coming back to lead the Mana Party and Goff responding to a policy announcement with: “It’s the classic Marxist economic theory . . . ”
Is Key’s positioning any less ridiculous?
VOTE KEY
GET BRASH
LOSE NZ
Isn’t convenience a wonderful thing – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10748141
oh dear, too ill to speak on child poverty…….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/blogs/the-bottom-line/5507460/The-Governments-secret-gambling-habit
my head hurts, my heart hurts.
I’m 28, have 2 degrees and halfway thru a MA. Half my friends live overseas. I never intended on joining them. But another term of crony capitalism will do my head in.
PJ, I got degrees years ago but not as a meal ticket….which seems to be the modern obsession. Now the employers dont even want them. A word of advice, be GOOD at something that degrees just dont teach. For example you cant learn sales at Uni, you cant learn customer empathy at Uni, you cant learn all sorts of real world stuff. And the debt you run up just wont repay itself.
Sorry to be depressingly honest, good luck with the wide world, go offshore now whilst you can.
There was stuff in The Guardian about this recently http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/aug/24/value-of-degree-shrinks-for-graduates
and also http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/aug/24/earnings-by-qualification-degree-level?intcmp=239
which suggested graduates were paid less! It may not be much better elsewhere.
I’m resigned to getting paid jack all for a science postgrad degree (when I get it, in molecular bio or conservation and evolution), but IT in regards to network wiring/hardware set ups is looking rather attractive money wise…
Dont worry about the money. Just be the best at what you choose and generally the money follows. And the best way to be the best at something is to do what you like best no less.
Yep. I looked at it when I was completing my undergrad science degree and realizing I was qualified as a bottle washer in the science community. So I went into management and stayed there until it got too boring. Did a MBA and realized that management was just inherently boring. That is when I seriously started moving into programming because PC’s were a lot more interesting than the mini’s I’d worked with in the previous degree. Never regretted it….
With a MSc I can actually get a semi decent job as long as the specialisation is one that employers are looking for 😛
But it’s going to take time to deal with my depression, so I need a decent paying job in the meantime to keep me sane…
“But it’s going to take time to deal with my depression, so I need a decent paying job in the meantime to keep me sane…”
advice – start a blog…..
I only have so much motivation 😛
And I’d rather have a year long pass to CHCH city council pools 😛
cheers all for your comments.
I’m not worried about money, at all! – can’t be in my profession! all I’d like is to earn enough from my passion to, one day, raise and support a family in the country I love. both my under-grad degrees are in the field I’m passionate (and, at least in my opinion, pretty skilled at) about, and my MA is in a related, and highly-specialised field that is teaching me the skills to turn my current start-up business into a long-term sustainable enterprise, that will,hopefully, one day fulfil my aim of supporting a family.
You’re forgetting about degree inflation, were by there’s too many people choosing to go to uni, instead of apprenticeships or polytechs, thus creating a market glut of BA’s, BL’s and BSc’s, which is one of the issues facing graduates. Along with teh annoying tendency of businesses in NZ to seek x number of years of experience, thus forcing graduates to head off overseas
That is because it takes graduates 3 years to get over, the 30 000 new words, and the attitude that they are worth more than someone who can actually do the job, they acquire at University.
A degree plus experience is extremely valuable. A degree with out experience is worth less than someone with the experience.
It is not more lawyers, accountants and masters of f–king up businesses, we need. It is more of the type of competent can do Kiwi’s we used to have, before they gave up and went offshore.
lol-fucking-wat?
BCom and BA’s possibly, but with BSc’s, BA’s in geography, and mathematics (esp. stats) you do gain very relevant experience. From the work requirements for BE’s, to Lab course work and research projects for BSc’s that give them the basics and GIS experience for geography. Heck, if I had done geography with a few relevant pol.sci or sociology papers I’d be able to get a job with only a BA and good grades.
As for attitude, from experience in sci.undergrad courses, we all knew that we’d need further experience/education to even have a chance of getting a foot in the door in a science position without the right contacts. And with Tegal flooding the micro-bio market with low level lab techs, you’d need either a MSc or 2-3 year polytech lab-technician course to get anywhere with a micro/molecular bio major…
BCom and BL’s on the other hand are probably what you’re talking about, however due to being a bit asocial I don’t generally run into those…
Should be plenty of work around CH CH with the rebuild
Even though the whole thing was a backdrop that could be manipulated to impress an American television audience the ‘schadenfreude’ is quite nice.
After months of preparations, hours of television and radio talk all geared up for the big day, tons of merchandise manufactured, Glenn Beck could just about muster over a thousand people at his “Restoring Courage” last night in Jerusalem.
Thoughts and wishes to the people affected by Hurricane Irene in the USA.
Gidday Brett! Where you been?
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/another-twist-revealed-in-looting-lightbulb-case-4369150
Someone in the Christchurch police needs to loose their fucking job over this, as it’s a rather blatant set of lies to the judge(s) that was involved in this case.
Police were victims, they had to risk their lives chasing looters in unstable buildings, they
must have had enough with having to search buildings, not to risk their lives another time
chasing a thief. Sure, police were wrong. The moment they discovered he only wanted
light bulbs they should of clicked the guy wasn’t a thief but suicidally insane.
If Police find a naked man on a bridge about to jump to their death, then do they arrest
him for indecency or try to talk him down. Do they assume he’s an offender, or a
victim of some male rape who just can’t take living anymore? Police have a tough job,
and I can see how they thought this man had criminal intent, the judges seem to
see right to the heart of the matter early on, and the prosecuter should have seen reason.
Not everyone who runs into a unstable building is there to steal stuff.
But saying to the judge that the victims of the theft were fearful is NOT a heat-of-the-moment misunderstanding. Unless they spoke to the victims, it is either an assumption or an outright lie (typed, printed and hand-delivered).
Someone should be in the shit.
Yes, I don’t know how to spin Police prosecutor position. Maybe they could argue
that since they were dealing with so many opportunists criminals, while courts
were out of commission, and chaos reigned in eaarth shatter ChCh, the papers
got misfiled – and the statements did not seem unreasonable even if now they
are clearly reprehensible.
They probably will argue something along those lines, but the fact is that the case got kicked back to a judge several times with incorrect and prejudicial information submitted to the court each and every time.
This really is the thin end of the wedge when it comes to corruption of the judicial system – and the only thing that saved the guy was the fact that he wasn’t up in front of someone like Judge Jeffries, despite “let’s joke about rape in custody” (not as pithy as “crusher”, but more accurate) Collins.
Maori TV should repeat the hollowmen after the RWC in and around something big they can promote as these jokers have just slipped further back into the shadows but are very much in control now.
Hasn’t Sideshow come a long way with the media…..got the aww shucks I made a boo boo to replace the ‘ I’m not stupid enough to think these things don’t come back to bite you’……we’ll see oh slippery one, time will tell.
Hooton wasn’t pushjing his 210,000 jobs on rnz9-n00n this morning. instead he was making out he knew everything there was to know about the Labour party. What doesn’t he know about everything except that National will get a drubbing in the final poll.
yes indeedy.
Useful policy proposition for Labour No.1.
Have a workforce managed outside the WINZ regime that supplies work-ready teams for NZ agricultural, horticultural seasons. These people would be esteemed, graded into teams. Team A would be the top, experienced fit and committed to doing and finishing the job and able to earn high pay from their efforts which they would be allowed to keep not having that miserly claw-back attitude that has deadened initiative and aspiration by Soc Welfare throughout the years.
There would be a Team B, working towards a Team A classification, Team Ca for trainees and newbies, and Team Cb those confronting this sort of hard work for the first time. They would work in different areas where they were needed and the travel and change of locale would be an added incentive for young people. They would be able to go onto the unemployed benefit when work finished or was cancelled, and would get a gym/sports membership in out of season time so they could keep fit.
The extremely hard physical work required by some jobs requires fit strong hard-working people, and their qualities should be recognised. We applaud the All Blacks for being physically fit and skilled at physical activity, why don’t we also appreciate those who do the physical jobs. There was a clash between mandarin growers needs in different areas this year in NZ as they had a big crop. We could help with these situations and provide semi-permanetnt work for young adults, much as the freezing works or the wharves provided holiday jobs for students in previous years.
This policy is aimed at –
1 Raising physical work to a similar standard of recognition and respect to that of sport.
2 Providing work for those young people who find satisfaction in work that is more physical
than intellectual.
3 Enabling young people to have a path to get into the work force and receive respect and
wages, rather than disrespect and the dole.
4 Once in the ‘Agriteam’ young people would have opportunities to round out their education
with new skills, or to catch up on earlier education steps missed during their school years.
5 Including both school leavers and young adults but in separate peer groups and tailoring the
work team management with regard to higher need of care for teenagers.
6 Encouraging self-respect and individual motivation to control and manage their own lives
rather than ceding control by social welfare department or filling time and an identity gap
through criminal gang membership.
7 Encouraging and also monitoring, fitness activities in the off-season times, so that people are
work ready when the seasonal work starts, but in off-season carry on with positive life
schedules including gym activity and sport, and any off-season occupation that is suitable.
I think the above presents a reasonable case for the policy introduction.
I reckon you should email this to Damien O’Connor.
@ColonialViper – Right.
Why would you condemn people to the misery of seasonal work – weather dependent, unable to have lengthy job security making it difficult to make long term commitments such as obtaining mortgages, uncertainty as to how much work their will be next season – if any for many, variability of need depending on whether crops dovetail or overlap, low pay.
Surely we can be more ambitious than that.
Flaxmere in Hawkes Bay is a prime example of community that is offered this work year after year – and they do it – and then they are left to rot the rest of the year.
One employer makes a concerted effort to look after the workers from that community but even they can’t give many of them continuity of work.
It’s a good example to look at because both the unemployed and the sole parents in that community do lots of seasonal work.
Many people drop by the wayside after injury in high end sports. Its naive to expose
people to unnecessary risks to their long term health as some political gimmick to
solve the jobs problem. We don’t need more people in the health system.
People need to be engaged in work that plays to there own goals, not the goals
of politicians. All government work schemes are dubious.
Instead of create a false market in wearing out the young people in mindless
physical exertion why not just remove the weight of business monopolies on
the population so they can trade between themselves. Lower GST, raise
a capital gains tax. Turn oney over faster in the economy, rather than
slow it and funnel it to the top of the public and private heirarchy.
People used to be able to afford to give the neighbors boy some money to
mow the lawn, or run an errand, or wash a car, its because we have no money,
or are in debt, or are paid a pittence, due to the economics of neo-liberals.
Funnel the money to the wealthy just does not work.
It won’t take long for the youth gang to work on a industrial site and
they all come down with cancers and other nasties.
theyre some good ideas ther Prism But then you get the problem of
1- same work for same pay?? you can t pay someone less than someone for doin same work-
2- an increase in wages for this work is long overdue
I pickled apples and kiwifruit for 5 seasons back when I didnt have any qualifications and i couldnt get work
The price of a bin paid to those who work for contract has hardly increased in 20 yrs
@kriswgtn
I have packed apples, never picked as I was too old and wouldn’t have been able to reach the required harvest amount. I have heard that it is hard – of course there are always stories of so and so who was creaming it, because he was so good and fast. The contract pay thing has to be scrutinised, there needs to be a floor wage with commission or something. Another difficult job is vine pruning where the demands for speed, I understand, lead to bad RSI in significant numbers of workers.
Your reference to No.1 – Do you mean that having different levels of Teams would result in differing wages? It could be that the top Teams would get perks that wouldn’t be the same as any fringe benefits available to lower grade/ learner teams. And more skill resulting in more ‘productivity’ – that over-used word – should be rewarded with commission or bonuses.
I have just watched Saturdays Nation on tape. Good line up of three young upcoming Labour MP’s . Each one had a lot to offer and were interesting speakers.So what does Garner keep referring too. Goff’s leadership. Is Garner completly thick or is he told told keep harping on about Phil Goff’s leadership by his National Party friends? I for one am sick to death of the domination the Right has over our TV viewing. Holmes . Garner and Plunket are becoming the spokespeople for the Act/Nat party.
Its not so bad. Goff. Goff. Goff. Goff. Goff. Its call penetration the brand.
Goff does not come across as a saleman like Key does, will people buy
the soft sell or the hard? Trust your own brand.
Ho ho, I was wondering where I’d heard all Pete George’s “new way of doing politics” schtick before.
All that guff about how all the politicians should be able to agree on what’s in the best interest of everybody? And just get behind the biggest party and get it done without all the arguing and time-wasting?
Just figured it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUCg7Oov88s
I was laughing very loudly when I read this one….it is an attempt to state a position in a fast changing world where price certainty and the ability to sell are diverging rapidly. Terry seems to think that he is about $33 million in front when his assets and liabilities are balanced. Now that the market knows that to be his stated position the buyers will be busy discounting their offers. More fantasy and commercial unreality as the Serepesos empire unfolds.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/5523771/Terry-Serepisos-assets-sell-off-plan
If that is the case then there is no doubt that he will come out the end under water. Poor fulla.
He really should sell the Phoenix as a priority. Both to do the right thing by the club, but also to stop the media bugging him every five minutes about whether they are going to be dragged down with him. Then he can sell the rest of his empire for, say, $150 mil, enter bankruptcy and start again.
The real sadness is that he is still apparently relying on $100 million turning up from the scam artist he’s already wasted money on. It’s the same sort of delusion that inspires people to send money to Nigeria or put it into the pokies.
Grr! God damn government departments stone-walling me again… that kind of rubbish makes people pick up a sword so to speak, instead of a pen.
John Key achully strikes again:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5527319/Key-against-scrapping-minimum-wage
“I think the question then would be, how much would that take actually off the state then? Because people need a certain amount for subsistence living,”
“Of course we want to get people in work, but what is equally important in that young group actually, I think, is getting them into training.
“It’s also addressing why they’re not in work. In some of the cases they’re not in work because their basic foundation skills, their literacy and numeracy, are so poor they actually can’t hold together a job. They actually basically can’t carry out that work.”
Key’s such a nice man compared to that mean old Brash.
Never mind that he’s going to slash the minimum wage for young people. And never mind the downward pressure that puts on all low wages.
Nah, just focus on how reasonable it all seems, relatively speaking. “John Nicey Key saves young workers from that evil old fuck” is the story, chaps.
The headline “Key says he has a socialist streak” should have been….
Prime Minister admits that conservative policies have no heart
Mr Key said, from memory, it was in response to a conversation about some very right wing policies. – from link.
That would be right. But remember George Bush was still in power so chances are he was talking to a Republican hack regardless of his fancy title – Charge d’Affairs if I remember correctly.
Translated what he was really saying to him was:
“Look, we want to introduce conservative policies like yours, but we gotta go slow and careful because our voting plonkers have got a socialist streak they’ve inherited from Labour, but don’t worry as soon as we get into power we’ll be working to change that.”
NZ Breaches International Convention
If the flagrant abuse of New Zealand’s Nuclear Free Legislation I blogged about yesterday wasn’t bad enough, it was also revealed by the Greens that the New Zealand Superannuation Fund Board of Trustees invested $2.5 million in five companies involved in the production of cluster bombs.