Another kiwi dead in afghan land, pike river, etc etc but RNZ onto bigger issues this morning……TVNZ replacing coro st with chef show…..I feel informed now.
Yeah but to his credit Joky Hen has one success. He can claim to have converted a mad butcher. And he also appears to have more clarity on what he thinks about rugby now that he is in his 50s.
Mostly to give idiot tories a straw to grasp at and incessantly repeat, as opposed to the multitude of examples that frustrated, vicious, selfish, incompetent small-minded tories give the left each and every day,
“Hooten, the butcher is “world famous in New Zealand” as the expression goes.”
Shift the comma.
“Hooten the butcher, is “world famous in New Zealand” as the expression goes.”
… my comment of 07:47 and yours of 07:56 – what are you insinuating?
Sir Edmund Hillary was a Knight of the Order of the Garter and recipient of many other international and national honours.
154000. The number who don’t have a job despite the relentless focus on jobs from John Key.
170000. The number of extra workers BHP Australia says it will hire over the next 5 years, half of whom will be construction workers.
So if you know one end of hammer from the other, where would you rather be? Rebuilding Chch or repairing leaky homes in Auckland for fuck all, or pulling in 100k plus super in Queensland for a 37 hour working week?
Yes but the retards in NZ (and that’s all of parliament) have so frightened the public that we can’t go down the track of mining – because it’s evil…… evil I tells ya !
You’ll notice that in Australia, all the major coastal cities are experiencing economic slow downs, while it is the mining towns which remain booming.
In other words, without widespread and varied high value industry, all mining will do (as dairy does) is focus wealth in specific communities, with only trickles down at the margin.
BTW increased mining in NZ would not have been an issue if Key and Brownlee hadn’t completely misjudged the public and decided that they needed to try and fuck over schedule 4 land.
i.e. some of the blame for the backlash against mining belongs to those two. (rereading your comment I see you think so as well).
lower standard their resources will run out sooner than later . The cost of retrieving minerals in this country is much higher 29 deaths for a start.Minerals are far more inaccessible, here Australia is a big ugly country and no one will notice a few holes in the ground while New Zealand is far more beautiful , and we don’t need idiots like you to stuff it up.It would be far better for our economy to add value through R&D to what we do well sustainable agriculture.However Nact have cut and re branded R&D and reduced the gains possible through consistent investment.
I think you missed my point, HS. I’m not bothered about the mining jobs, particularly, it’s the construction work that is going to knacker NZ. We already have many thousand less construction workers than are going to be needed for Chch and Ak in the next few years and very little work for those that are still here. We need to be training apprentices now and looking to both upskill and upgrade the pay and conditions of workers for the future or the rebuilds just won’t happen in a reasonable time frame.
Troll on, you can’t compare Oz’s mining industry which occupies desert wilderness with NZ who have no such areas to hid away the toxic lakes, sprawling worker camps etc and to play your game name some economically viable ore bodies we should be mining HS? just one will do, now’s good.
Which is utterly crap without extensive and expensive processing, fuck, for the price of processing it, you’d be better off importing mid quality coal for the same job.
Its not the mining mate, its the fact that people like you want it done in the Southern Alps, Mt Taranaki/Egmont (I have seen oil ooze out of the ground there..).
Anyway, go to Central Otago, etc and look at all the ghost towns there. My point being is when the gold (or silver, platimum or whatever) runs out, the boom ends and it all falls over.
Key says often that they have created 45,000 jobs in NZ. Has anyone contested that figure?
A bit like the claims of increasing the number of nurses by 1000 and teachers by 15000. Huh?
Looks at both the geological and economic and it’s effects on price. I’d have liked to have seen more on the price tipping points to other tech. But it was a brief ( for economics ) article.
A group of economists is being taken on a tour of an underground gold mine when there is a terrible accident, sealing them all underground.
They are not likely to be rescued for weeks, but luckily, there is an ample store of air and water down in the mine. But no food. All the economists become really quite anxious.
One brightens considerably when he realises that he has two BLT sandwiches packed away in his briefcase. Looking at all the gold around, a cheer goes up from the economists who realise that they are all now saved.
With no regulations, plenty of liquidity on hand, and keen buying interest, a busy market in BLT sandwiches was surely only moments away.
Well, when the market price of a BLT sandwich increases sufficiently due to sandwich scarcity, market forces will guarantee additional investment in BLT sandwich production because of the massive ROI present in that market.
This means that the more BLT sandwich prices increase, the more BLT sandwich supply will also increase = problem solved, everyone can wait happily at the bottom of the mine for rescue.
CV, I hate to say this, but the logic of the market would still hold.
It would very soon become obvious (information would be accurate and flow pretty rapidly, after all) that making BLT sandwiches was not the kind of production for which available resources could be switched to meet demand.
That would mean another demand (e.g., ways of getting out of the mine) would become the focus of resources, and production would shift that way. The market may not last very long (as the last BLT nibble – which would probably become the ‘currency’ – goes gutwards) but a market may well make sure the last food went to the person with the best chance of providing the exit strategy for all – e.g., a chemistry hobbyist or economist turned garden shed engineer. But that doesn’t mean anyone will get out of the mine.
As I understand it, markets don’t guarantee outcomes – they just respond to the greatest demand for resources and supposedly provide the ‘best bet’ for the desired (short term) outcomes.
Where the analogy does work, however, is that the market can very well lead us merrily into the closed off mine in the first place – but its principles would continue to work efficiently right till the last smug breath was drawn by the last surviving economist.
Schelling’s ‘Micromotives and Macrobehavior‘ makes a good case for the possibility of outcomes at the macro level – that no individual might actually desire – arising from the micro-level motives of people (especially acting in markets – e.g., resulting in racially segregated neighbourhoods).
He got the Nobel prize in Economics for that kind of insight yet, for me, it’s like a big, flashing sign saying ‘beware of markets – they can give you what you don’t wish for’ – like being stuck in a goldmine with nothing to eat (a bit like today’s world for a significant number of people).
It’s true and anyone who actually applies logic to it must realise that it is so. The market works at the micro level but fails at the macro level and yet our economists and politicians continue to try to apply it at the macro level and then become surprised when it fails.
so i have to tell my neighbor of my camera pointing into their backyard,
under the privacy act, but the state soesn’t need a warrent to do the
exact same thing, go figure?
Top ten google searches for New Zealand in the past seven days.
Take that NZRFU, go the Warriors. http://www.google.com/insights/search/#geo=NZ&date=today+7-d&cmpt=q&q=%22google+plus%22
1 nrl grand final +1,000%
2. google plus +400%
3. x factor +400%
4. grabaseat +150%
5. nz time +150%
6. daylight savings +120%
7. nrl +100%
8. warriors +100%
9. companies office +90%
10. grab a seat
Will the viewing figures top the Opening Night of the RWC. Thats the test Brett.
I think it is great that Kiwi’s have two teams to support at the moment. There seems to be a bounce around town. We call forget about the economic gloom for a change.
Top ten google searches for New Zealand in the past seven days.
How deeply depressing… It just confirms the idea I have had for many years (first shown by a useless ex-husband) that New Zealanders are generally rugby boofhead morons! Thankfully, I know that’s not true of all of them.)
Comparisons with 1956 are apt here. Go and find an old timer and ask him what the atmosphere was like during the 1956 tour. He’ll pretty much tell you it was the same as it is during RWC 2011, but with a bit more sophistication in terms of the bar and eatery scene.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 8
“Were you part of the molotov throwing, semiautomatic firing group, or not? You cannot purport to be an anti war activist when you are throwing molotov cocktails.”
You may not be aware that we even have a Minister of Communications. It wouldn’t help much if you happen to use networking programs either… as the minister doesn’t have any online presence…
It get worse in the HCC. Not content with cutting funding for community groups and NGO’s, it plans to take an axe to parks and reserves, and hike rents at its pensioner housing by 70% (or flog the unit off to the highest bidder).
Its offical. Julie Hardaker is New Zealand’s Michelle Bachmann.
Scotty,
The time of each collapse was indeed 14-16 seconds. 180 floors collapsed in 15 seconds. Do you believe it pancaked? Here is a law of physics which can not be broken. It’s called the conservation of energy.
If you watch the video you see these big black lumps shooting out from the building. Those are tons of steel who for no apparent reason decide to fly sideways at 70 miles per hour. That energy has to come from somewhere. Gravity does not explain the energy required for these huge beams to go flying of horizontally.
Here is another video with some strange movements of flying objects which can not be explained away by planes and gravity.
By the way NIST has deserted the pancake theory. Molten aluminum and water does not explode and most certainly does not cause a building to explode nor does it generate the force needed to separate tons of steel into truck sized lots and buildings do not explode outwards in 15 seconds just because of a plane impact. The fuel was mostly burned off within seconds and people were shown as standing in the hole the plane made while not being burned and holding on to the steel frame. So where did the energy come from to explode huge beams outward with the speed of 70 miles per hour?
Newton’s 4th law is “and for any public tragedy, the reliability or accuracy of internet analyses of the first three laws is inversely proportional to the scale of the tragedy”
Rev,cheers for that, How much energy do you reckon was generated from 300,000 T accelerating to 160 kph in 15 seconds.? what happened to that energy?
Are not large elements of the buildings’ construction being blown laterally,just travelling the path of less resistance.?
In itself making and throwing molotov cocktails into an old oven is not illegal I would have thought. (Years ago my brother tried putting lumps of carbide in a sealed bottle of water and watched it explode. He is a very peaceful chap.)
Firing semi-automatic guns would be akin to the sort of people who enjoy paintball wars.
On the face of the information given there is still not proof of crime (unless those guns are illegal.)
Not making excuses and would hate to live near anyone who carried out those activities, but……
Mine was depth charges and rockets. Had quite a lot of fun making explosives. Of course after you get to play with plastic explosives you suddenly realize how ‘messy’ my home made stuff was. I really loved being able to carve my initials into Armour of an old bren gun carrier.
Indeed it is interesting, HS. I quite like Pagani’s blog, even though I don’t always agree with him. This time he has got it spot on, though.
What a bunch of dreamers and tossers it turns out these people are. Reminds me of the sort of macho ‘defence of the homeland’ fantasies we normally associate with the likes of KKKyle Chapman. It’s a damn shame the coppers stuffed this up, because this lot should be explaining themselves in court, not excusing themselves on blogs.
I dunno. There goes a chap who never had fun with things that go “bang”, even if the police “evidence” is as clear cut as they would have us believe.
As a girl, with bad eyesight and only one brother (much younger) I never was a fan of things that go bang. My Dad who suffered from what I know now was PTSD, had an arsenal in the house, and was obsessed with the fear of invasion (he’d ‘fought all through t’second world war, and so taught we girls to fire guns – or tried to.)
So, my feeling is with Pagani on this. My Dad was prosecuted for his arsenal, and ended up in dire straits (I won’t go into it all, just to say that the authorities were less than understanding!). So I am not sympathetic, which is not to say that I support prosecution on illegally gained evidence…
I have no real problem with persecuting based on actual unequivocal evidence about acts and intent.
What I have a problem with is the police charging on what looks like quite circumstantial equivocal evidence (like similar clothing) for actions that are not in themselves unlawful, on the basis of a criminal intent that they have no actual proof of beyond what looks like people blatting the breeze. I really get irritated that it has taken more than 4 years to not get to trial because the police were so damn sloppy that they relied on unlawfully gathered evidence.
Quite simply I think that the police who brought caused this travesty of a misuse of their powers should be kicked out of the force and a severe look taken at how in the hell their superiors allowed it to happen.
Incidentally I know exactly how you feel. There was a family friend who always kind of got me giving him second looks. It was the arsenal of obsolete military hardware like missile launcher outside his house. But he was mostly legal…
My Dad who suffered from what I know now was PTSD…
Yeah, so did mine, but he didn’t have an arsenal – he took us boating instead. My father had a love planes (which is why he joined the RAF when war started) and a love of boats.
Yeah, so did mine, but he didn’t have an arsenal – he took us boating instead
That would have been a lot better! My Dad was convinced that WW3 would happen in his lifetime, and we’d have to fight off invaders… Hence the self-sufficient lifestyle (growing all our own food, candles and gas stoves etc) and the shooting lessons.)
I still loathe guns to this day as a result. If by some bizarre chance, we were invaded, I could never shoot anyone…
What really pisses me off about all this is that the cops are continually speculating on things without much evidence and some of the evidence they do have was illegally obtained. The entire case is farcical!
I have had the misfortune of dealing with incompetent cops for 35 years. I was dragged into a situation due to a CIB inquisition in 1979 which pertained to an inquiry involving a politician in 1976. I was silenced and bullied by the police.
In order for me to RECEIVE any justice by the police an inquiry would need to be held and only Key or Marshall have the power for this to occur. I would expose the police for misleading the last three ministers of police, for not adequately investigating my concerns, for making defamatory remarks on many occasions and for the loss of police documentation/files as well as with holding the full police evidence concerning the politician who was denied legal representation.
Basically the politician gave four reasons for the incident with the cop. But the cop has given three different reasons for why he had me silenced and bullied because he told me of the incident with the politician before the incident was raised in parliament. Issues with the cop having name suppression which I did not know about for sometime and the CIB inquisition triggering historical sexual offending. The inquiry was about whether police breached the incident.
My observation yesterday regarding a 10 second view on the news with Marshall, Drew and Hide was this:
Drew was area commander in the Wairarapa, we have not heard back yet from the IPCA on whether or not Drew is responsible for child sexual violation cases languishing. (At some point Marshall was involved in the back log of the Wairarapa cases and has fobbed off being directly responsible). Police say they need more tools but appear to not be able to organise something as important as legally using video surveillance and then they cry and say we want to prevent crime. Hide got it right when he implied that the police knew what they were doing was illegal.
About time that a Police Commissioner grows some balls and takes responsibility for MAJOR WEAKNESS within the police because Broad’s legacy was bad enough with C.R Rickards, sexual assaults on children (Wairarapa) and adults (by sworn police officers) and people like Patrick O’ Brien languishing concerning wanting to expose the police and to hold them to account. I predicted prior to Marshall taking up the post as commissioner of police that Marshall would be drawn into the Urewera raids. Even I did not foresee how compromised Marshall would be due to bozo Broad.
I am a lone voice in the wilderness but I have balls of steel. I have had first class teachers (been a student for 35 years regarding devious cops). When I hear about major stuff ups by the police it only intensifies and prolongs the complex form of PTSD I have.
I sometimes wonder if the Police give a damn at all about what the public thinks… They stumble along from one PR disaster to another showing very little thought for the consequences of their actions…
I like the Burroughs quote, Jackal. Mind you I like all Old Bill Lee’s quotes, including the one about society hating functioning junkies because it spoils the argument for the war on drugs.
I also find this line interesting:
“People simply don’t accept that because Abbott wasn’t convicted, he isn’t guilty”
Do you also apply that reasoning to the wannabes running around the Ureweras with guns?
Do you mean all those hunters who are after some grub and don’t have gun licenses? I can’t think why the cases are similar… the Urewera 18 haven’t killed anybody.
Not going to be much left of that grub after you’ve shot it with a semi-automatic and molotov cocktailed it.
I suppose it’s a method for simultaneous cook and kill though – perhaps that’s what Valeri Morse was is practicing when she torches the NZ flag each ANZAC day.
I thought they had a CD of gun shot sounds – I once had an album of BBC sound effects; can I charge the person in charge of making hoof sounds with coconut shells?
Oh dear you sound like you were more of a nerd (didn’t think it possible) than me in your younger days….. although my younger days predate CDs somewhat.
What’s up with editing the sounds anyway… perhaps the cops are attempting to get the gunshots closer together so they sound like a semi? Either way it proves nothing!
Firebomb game HS? There’s still no clear proof that they were even using Molotov cocktails, which isn’t a crime I might add.
Feck it really is quite amusing to see you trying to defend this lot.
S’pose it comes down to whether you think this is a reasonable thing for ‘adults” to be up to and if it is reasonable and it was merely a harmless get together for a bit of hunting practice why the need to withhold the videos – surely the defendants would be more than happy for the video footage to be made public or the very least be made available in court to vindicate their jolly japes.
Oh Jackal the police give a dam about being caught, but they know that 99 % of individuals do not have the resources or influence to take out a civil case. This is why the government has to order an independent inquiry.
If the commissioner of police gave a dam about what the public think about crooked cop practices he would order an inquiry.
In Open Mike yesterday I commented on a talk by Dick Smith and gave the basic link for it.. It was from May this year but not outdated. I have remembered that he referred to Oz news media being about 70% controlled by Rupert Murdoch who he said, is growth oriented and so dos not want to follow any other thinking or viewpoints. He criticises capitalism which DTB would affirm.
What about TVNZ changing Coro Street to children’s tv time, and sanitising it.
Forget the Uruweras crap, Rugby World Cup, BLT sandwiches and other insignificant irrelevances.
Who wants more Masterchief at prime time. Will the overpaid PHD’s at TVNZ ever learn it’s the customer, not what they want. The Helen Clark era is dead – but mummy still knows best it appears.
What about TVNZ changing Coro Street to children’s tv time, and sanitising it.
It’s not that I am serious Coro fan (I do watch it, but not fanatically), but what irked me, was the programmers’ comments – that the olds who watch Coro could watch at 5.30, or watch the omnibus on Saturday. What about Coro fans who are not olds? I like to work, and can’t get home by 5.30, and who on earth watches TV on a Saturday morning?
The passing of the VSM bill is great news for those interested in freedom and social justice, as the bill in line with UN’s Declaration on Human Rights, which guarantees rights of association and non-association.
‘Free at last, free at last
Thank God almighty
We are free at last’
Yesterday is a day that will be seen on a par with emancipation and women’s suffrage, and those who opposed this bill will be looked on as the oppressors of freedom that they are.
Yep – Roger Douglas is NZ’s very own Nelson Mandela. /sarc
“Oppressors”? You merely demonstrate, yet again, that ACToids have no sense of perspective at all. E.g: everyone in a students’ association got a vote, and all stdents got to vote on membership rules. This is not the same as half the population not having the vote. Actually, a better analogy would be saying that everyone in NZ should choose whether they get all the benefits of NZ citizenship/residency, or whether they get pretty much all the benefits of NZ citizenship/residency but pay no tax – regardless of the wishes of the rest of NZ.
Yesterday was a great day for dictatorship and propoganda, but a shit day for students and freedom in general.
Just in case it doesn’t survive there. I put this on Pagani’s site on his rather stupid post about the operation 8 court documents.
Hey John – as a lefty I think you simply had a rather sheltered and unadventurous upbringing.
I used semi automatics on the farm when I was a kid (and bolt-actions and shotguns). Making molotov cocktails would have been too easy. I used to make explosives for rocketry and for the sheer hell of making things explode. Not to mention building electric detonators to find out how it was done.
I did all that before I went into the army at 18 and started using military grade weapons and explosives. Then I did a science degree where I had even more fun.
When I looked at these reports I thought that they were too unremarkable to get wound up about. I guess you wasted your youth if you think that anything revealed was terrorism.
If they’d started accumulating ammunition stockpiles or large quantities of seed chemicals for explosives or war gases then I’d have been interested.
But feel free to make a even bigger dickhead of yourself.
“Anonymous comments don’t add much to the Internet.
You can leave comments, but I moderate them hard.
I use this blog to write about things that interest me. If comments aren’t interesting, they are not going on my blog.
I encourage intelligent dispute and argument. If you feel like insulting me, there are a large number of places on the Internet where you can go to do that. If you want to insult others, than I encourage you to be funny, at least.
Also, ‘x said y so therefore x is a bad person’ may be the standard for commenting elsewhere, but not here.
You can send an email to post@posterous, and the machine will start a blog for you just like that, where you can say what you like. If you are interesting I might link to you.”
Jeez, Lprent, you’re way off the beam on this. These sad fucks were practising at being guerillas and some, at least, were apparently trying to learn how to kill people by throwing bombs through windows. They should be in jail. There is no excuse for this immature behaviour and it is now pretty clear that the raids were entirely justified, even if the cops cannot now use all the evidence gathered. What a bunch of gutless, whining cowards and thank fuck they were stopped before they killed someone.
A bunch of boys playing at being soldier in the bush! Terrorists??? Training to ‘kill people’, as you imply????
You must have had a sad childhood indeed. Not so long ago, we used to buy sparklers from the Warehouse, tape them together and blow up rubbish bins along the Wellington waterfront and out the suburbs.
Should we be in jail for being young and immature, but essentially harmless? Those bombs were definitely classed as dangerous, and restrictions were put in place on them.
I have serious problems with people like you trying to turn this country into a police state and stifling people and punishing thousands disproportionately with no discretion.
It will alienate people and result in more discontent.
It’s pretty Orwellian to punish for something you think they ‘might’ do. It’s a bit like invading Afghanistan to defend NZ…a sane, rational person doesn’t see the link.
I suggest you reassess this and think about whether it’s your paranoia or deluded thinking, or whether these people were planning an all out guerrilla war. Think of it as you think of 9/11 ‘truthers’, come on, which is the more likely?
I didn’t use the word terrorist, Clandistino. I said guerillas. But these twats only have Che’s Tshirt, not his nous. I don’t care whether they were planning an all out war or just being muppets, but their immaturity has cost us all a right and a freedom. As a result of their stupidity, the police are soon going to able film us all whenever and however they feel like it. And I’m really pissed off about this because they have consistently said that there was nothing of substance to the police claims, but now it turns out the cops were right all along and the Urewera loons were lying to us all.
As I said above, I’m just pleased there was an intervention before someone got killed, though I suppose there was more likelihood of them shooting themselves than mounting a credible attack on some poor sod whose politics they didn’t like. Hmmm, anyone seen Four Lions?
It kind of fucks your argument that you agree they were not a credible threat, don’t ya think??
Don’t believe the bullshit they come out with about how they have ‘evidence’ of plans to attack anyone. It’s called fucking BANTER and we are (mostly) all guilty of it every blimmin day!
TVOR: I have been on management ‘team’ exercises that, from the evidence I have seen, went further into the required training than what went on in the targets of Operation 8. I don’t see those camps being shut down – do you?
For that matter, Gilchrist – the police spy who was rocky’s partner and whom she exposed, was running management training camps that did exactly this type of military style camp quite legally for those managers.
Now I’ve done military training, management training, know a lot about the law (I had to suffer through my ex’s law) and I read a hell of a lot of material that is military history including insurgencies. I also know a lot of activists and most of them are to my mind extremely legal. There are a few bullshitters, but most of them appear to try to keep on the right side of the legal system.
As far as I’m concerned, the really dangerous people in operation 8 appear to be the paranoids in the police building in Otahuhu. Stupid acts like this exercise appear to be more driven by creating dangerous activism than preventing it.
Been away and I see there is another related post now, so I guess I might have more to say there.
However, yes, I have seen military style camps shut down. You’ll recall the NZ Army was snapped running shoot ’em up days on the side a couple of years ago and they got shut down pronto. Sometimes it’s just not appropriate, eh.
And I bet that flea Gilchrist did not teach the suits how to chuck molotov’s on those courses either. But that’s not the point. This was military training for a political purpose. And have we forgotten where arming politically motivated people can take us?
Were you part of the molotov throwing, semiautomatic firing group, or not? You cannot purport to be an anti war activist when you are throwing molotov cocktails.
Jesus! What a plonker! When I was younger, we used to make bombs out of fireworks and let them off down at the beach. We used to make our own guns etc for something to do. We also used real guns with adult supervision… and shock horror non of us kids had licenses. That’s how I learnt to hunt at the age of seven. People like Pagani must have grown up mollycoddled in cotton wool to not realize that thousands of New Zealand kids do this sort of thing.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 22.4.1
When I was younger, we used to make bombs out of fireworks and let them off down at the beach. We used to make our own guns etc for something to do. We also used real guns with adult supervision…
OK. Your misanthropic streak is starting to make sense.
I enquire because thejackal made something of the fact that he was “younger”, presumably to explain his love of blowing things up as youthful exuberance, or something.
Valerie Morse is a 36 year old librarian.
Bit old to be blowing things up for fun, don’t you think?
That’s right, McFlock. Running around in the bush lobbing molotov cocktails left, right and centre is just like setting off a catherine wheel for the kids.
I think the woman’s reluctance to offer an innocent explanation speaks volumes about her motives.
Ummm, from the police evidence it looks like the alleged molotov cocktails were done in a single place. Lemme see what is online – I seem to have seen something..
Det Sgt Pascoe was to give evidence that he believed she threw the Molotov cocktail into an outdoor oven, where police later found remnants of Molotov cocktails.
It doesn’t look like you are being even a teeny bit accurate. In fact reading what the the police have said (rather than your levels of fiction) it seems like the range area was not dangerous.
She will have been advised by her lawyers not to say anything. Apart from anything else if I was her, I’d be in the midst of preparing a civil case against the police and against some individual police.
lprent, you are right of course, this whole thing turns on how widely the molotov cocktails (yes, molotov cocktails) were thrown. If she was throwing them in a narrow area everything is just peachy because she was clearly throwing them for the amusement of small children whose love of violent explosions and firearms is both legendary and to be encouraged.
Let’s see, the article lprent linked to above said […]”holding an object believed to be a Molotov cocktail.
Det Sgt Pascoe was to give evidence that he believed she threw the Molotov cocktail into an outdoor oven, where police later found remnants of Molotov cocktails. ”
So – they have a burned out oven with glass in it. They have a photo of someone who might or might not be Morse holding a molotov bottle. Maybe even throwing it in the direction of the oven (but no explosion etc on camera).
Not really. The biggest issue for the police would have been to prove that she was doing it – something that they clearly had little direct evidence for since they were relying on evidence of similar clothing.
The second would have been to prove that the activity was unlawful. Now that isn’t as easy as you’d probably like to guess because I don’t think that there are any that many laws against lighting fires on private land in a old fridge (regardless of the means). In much the same way as there aren’t that many laws against having old fridges, burning old fence posts, or indeed most activities.
As I was pointing out in the post the police would have to prove a criminal intent. So far they have singularly failed to even get close to it outside of the fevered imagination of Aaron Pascoe and the presumptive judgement of Pagani.
BTW, I seem to recall Bomber Bradbury (remind me why the only the right are called out for using violent language?) having a lot to say about how shocking the actions of these delightful people were at the time of the raids. Has he resiled from that or does lprent need to give him a slap?
She are you saying that she has confirmed it? Point to where she does…
She is under no obligation to confirm or deny that except in court if and only if she takes the stand and sits under oath. Doing it for your prurient interest is probably no high on her list of things to do.
But lets start with you under the same basis. I hereby say that you are a wanker – do you wish to confirm or deny that? And I have about 50 more questions of an increasingly severe nature that you remaining silent on will just confirm your guilt.
Basically that is not an argument by you. It is an excuse for your gormless foolish behavior
I would have thought she would have had an absolute defense if she was not in the Urewera’s – I s’pose she could have decided not to mount a defense to get as much to moan and bitch about for her ongoing campaign against ‘the man’.
Personally I find it disappointing no one knobbled the silly bint during her ANZAC day flag burning.
But you mean the flag burning that the court decided was not unlawful and not dangerous (as I seem to remember that was the decision) ? The decision that really brings into question the silliness of the police in bringing forward a case that they were unlikely to convict on?
She probably was somewhere, there or elsewhere. The question in that case is probably proving it absolutely.
I really couldn’t prove where I am absolutely anytime when I’m not at work. I’m always amused when people look at electronic records as proof because after doing work for the payments industry and thinking about how others could spoof our systems, it all becomes a matter of cost and effort.
But the question for the police even with the unlawfully obtained evidence would have been to prove that their accusations were correct.
Standing rule for any activist usually is that if the police wish to charge you, then they should have to prove their accusation. Typically they are unable to convict.
In rocky’s case she has literally had dozens of charges against her. She has defended them all, and they only managed to convict her without being overturned on appeal once because the police kept postponing the trial until she was unable to keep having defense witnesses or herself attending court. For the same reason she was unable to take it to appeal.
That is the standard that some of these police descend to….. Some of the charges were about as useful as the flag burning. “Intimidation by loitering”, “using a megaphone” is a favorite, etc etc
I think that you have assaulted someone…. and primary school and kindergarten count (since you don’t seem to be bothered about if a conviction is possible).
Wasn’t the court decision not to convict due to no-one in the vicinity causing a disturbance – i’e if someone had been pissed off enough to clout her she would have been convicted for causing a disturbance ……. I may be wrong…… old age memory failing .. wine with dinner etc .
The moral high ground Paganai is using when it comes to being anti war and molotov cocktails reminds me of how a woman may be made to feel in a rape trial. Her sexual history is bared for all to examine, she then is on trial for her sexual history and being raped is considered as being probable or not probable even though consent was absent.
Focus must be on the charge and not using moral high ground. Paganai needs to apologise for using a person’s personal beliefs and linking them to being charged with an alleged offence which is before the court.
22.5 “… which is before the court.” I over looked that Bailey (another female) is to stand trial and not Morse, however Morse could appear as a witness or could take out a civil case against the police.
From my understanding they were found with about 200 rounds of ammunition and about half a dozen firearms in various stages of useability. Knowing the socio-economic status of Māori, as I do, it probably took them over 10 years to amass this horde of weaponry, and from Trademe.
Your paranoia is fed by ignorance of the world outside of the bubble you occupy. Pop that cherry and explore the real New Zealand.
From my understanding they were found with about 200 rounds of ammunition and about half a dozen firearms in various stages of useability.
Anyone who has been farming for longer than 2 seconds typically has anywhere between 10-20 serviceable firearms (from .22’s all the way through to various shotguns) and a thousand plus rounds of ammo for said firearms.
From my understanding they were found with about 200 rounds of ammunition and about half a dozen firearms in various stages of useability. Knowing the socio-economic status of Māori, as I do, it probably took them over 10 years to amass this horde of weaponry, and from Trademe.
Your paranoia is fed by ignorance of the world outside of the bubble you occupy. Why don’t you pop that cherry and explore the real New Zealand.
Oh, yeah, the police. Whose charges have been thrown out again and again.
What interests me is how the Police are now denying the remaining accused a fair trial by leaking this stuff to the media. They must know what they’re doing. Seems like pure vengeance. And an admission they have no case.
Insider I was being specific about Morse. The Supreme Court has ruled that video camera surveillance is not admissable where she is concerned.
Go and Google what Ross Meurant says about cops and the forest. I learnt at age 16 about how cops were. I worked at a police barracks and accommodation was supplied due to the three split shifts.
Can’t supply a link but try Deep in the forest: Ross Meurant – Sunday Star – Times
Meurant is honest about how cops are conditioned to tow the line when it comes to them and us.
I have a general distrust where cops are concerned but there are some honest ones. The longer service or the higher rank are usually the worst. A lot of the good ones get out due to knowing that they cover for their mates, have assaulted people they apprehend and know that they are there to serve and protect the public and not themselves.
A few days ago the Otago Daily Times reported that the Department of Conservation will receive $100,000 from gold-miner Oceana Gold in return for taking a neutral stance on an application to expand the East Otago gold mine. This is a blatant bribe as DOC had already made its position known…
First he tries to buy his popularity and get his name up in lights, now he’s going to try and buy up NZ starting with the top sporting teams. Key and Glenn make a good pair of sociopaths!
Anne, wakey, wakey, that was covered at 6.2 above.
However just in case you missed it … applying Fenton’s First Law, can we expect Labour to call for a total boycott on watching the Warriors, if the sale to Owen Glenn goes ahead?
Speaking of Gormless Fools – no personal reflections TGFKAO – when will Charles Chauvel withdraw his crap press release:
A report showing air pollution in Auckland is double that of Sydney’s and on a par with Tokyo’s is another blot on National’s ever-expanding not very environmental copybook, Labour’s Environment spokesperson Charles Chauvel says.
World Health Organisation data out today reveals New Zealand cities trail all major Australian cities in terms of air quality, with Auckland the worst.
“Our largest city is just now getting a glimpse of the real cost of Steven Joyce’s anti-rail, more roads-at-all-cost policies – increased air pollution,” Charles Chauvel said.
Turns out the WHO report is almost as full of hot air as Labour’s policy cupboard. The report’s been pulled and a new set of numbers posted that show all main centres are within WHO safety guidelines.
Look’s like the real cost of Joyces anti-rail, more-roads-at-all-costs policies is – clean air!
Now, does that actually undermine the ACC report that indicates that 700 people per year are dying to air pollution in Auckland? No, it doesn’t. Nor does it excuse Nationals drive to increase that pollution and death by putting in roads most of Auckland don’t want.
Well only four years ago it was 900 deaths for the whole country and pollution levels have remained static if not dropped since then. The acc report is based on 2006 data. That to me undermines it a tad…
Still doesn’t undermine the report considering that the conclusion would be based on probabilities defined by years of research around the world, ie, population thus, pollution thus, estimated level of premature deaths caused by pollution approximately this. It’ll be fairly close even if it was based on 2006 data. Pollution levels may have remained static but population hasn’t, especially Auckland, and the estimates probably have probably changed as well.
Oh, an MP that admits a mistake, now there’s a thing; still waiting for Key to admit his stuff ups; I anticipate a long wait as he has yet to retract any of his lies.
Of course Charles won’t recant – it’s not in his nature and it’s not in the nature of the party he represents. Much easier to blame the whole thing on some dastardly right wing plot.
To be fair to chauvel, he was using data from a reputable source that he had no reason to doubt. Who have admitted the flaw so it’s a bit pointless doing a retraction now
Intermittent signal September 2011/7 (last 15/9)
There was a great interview today about helping parents with their onerous tasks, something I
believe is vital and needs to happen. So there are positives coming through the fog of unpleasant news that we shouldn’t overlook.
On 9 to Noon today – Parenting with Matthew Sanders
Professor of parenting studies at the University of Auckland and University of Queensland. He was co-investigator of a major study carried out in South Carolina which found that there were lower rates of confirmed abuse cases, child out-of-home placements, and hospitalisations and emergency room visits for child injuries in countries where parenting support was implemented. (17′30″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2499133/parenting-with-matthew-sanders.asx
And it sounds as if its being done with no patronising or authoritarian attitudes to parents either.
“The Herald is just now catching up with the online outrage against such a shallow and nasty attack against a Kiwi icon.” – Campbell Slater
How can Slater look at himself in the mirror at night. “Shallow and Nasty” attacks are all he fucking does. He’s a clinical depressive who seems to think the only way he can be happy is have his daddy bankroll his unemployment by having a blog that is set up for him to tell the world how fucking much he hates it. “Shallow and Nasty” and Salter are the same thing.
The Mad Butcher can fuck off, he knows what he was doing, stop licking Nationals balls , it makes your workingman brand look a joke. He plays in the media, that’s all he does, his butcheries went broke a long time ago and he doesn’t run them. He’s just the briscoe lady of cheap meat. Don’t play innocence. Leitch is just one of a long line of businessman who have opened butcheries in Auckland and like him, most fail and are bought out.
Another day, another IPCA report on criminal conduct by policy. This time they kicked a child in the head when he was handcuffed:Police chased him and yelled out for him to stop. When he turned to face the police, he threatened them with a hammer. That's when the officers tasered ...
The investigation of two of the five parties in Parliament for fraud around their election donations has pushed the issue of party funding back into the spotlight. And while there are obvious things we can do to tighten up the donations regime - a much lower declaration threshold, realtime disclosure ...
While the south of New Zealand has been struggling with too much rain in recent days, here in the north we are so very short of it (though Saturday’s forecast looks promising). Basically, we have had almost none since Christmas.As someone who relies on rain to wash the car, ...
Former National Party MP Jami-Lee RossIt comes as no surprise that Jami-Lee Ross has been named as one of the defendants in the X2 $100,000 National Party donations case currently before the courts. Click bait journalists who were chaffing at the bit to discredit the former senior whip had already ...
Stand Clear! Winston Peters is encouraging voters to think of RNZ as belonging to “The Media Party”. He wants them to see it as a politically partisan institution with its own, vicious attack-dogs in the electoral fight. If he succeeds, it will be, and probably should be, the end of ...
"You're going to need a longer runway" Gratton et al explore the ongoing effects of upward-creeping temperatures on aviation in Greece in the period since 1955 at a range of airports in that country. For longer runways impacts are measurable but with little impact on operations. For airports with shorter runways, ...
In mid-December the Israeli secret police, the Shin Beit, revealed it had arrested dozens of Palestinian left-wing activists, including members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in the previous few months. Among those arrested was one of the central leaders of the PFLP, Khalida Jarrar. As ...
Former National Party chief whip Jami-Lee Ross is one of the four people charged over National's multiple fraudulent donations. How unsurprising. Meanwhile, just days ago National leader Simon Bridges was trying to pretend the charges were nothing to do with his party. Yeah, right. When your chief whip effectively publicly ...
If you've been watching FYI for a while, you'll have noticed that the police have a bad habit of demanding ID from requesters. They have apparently been repeatedly told to stop doing this by the Ombudsman, but we all know what law enforcement thinks of the law, so thye keep ...
Collateral Damage: For the Green Phoenix to be reborn, the funeral pyre so patiently assembled by its identity politicians over the course of many fractious years – but with growing intensity over the past three – first has to be ignited. The terrible probability, of course, is that, in setting ...
If you follow politics in New Zealand you've likely noticed that the right wing have been going on and on about the Coalition Government failing to reduce poverty. In fact they’ve been incessantly claiming, in the absence of any conclusive data, that poverty has been getting worse.Yesterday, NewstalkZB reported:Mike Hosking: ...
The Herald reported over the weekend that an Auckland business owner is being targeted with asset forfeiture laws over a workplace death:A workplace fatality has seen police use a law usually associated with drugs and organised crime to seize millions of dollars in assets from a business owner because of ...
Just days after talking about how people feel "squeezed" and promising tax and service cuts as a "solution", National is talking about cancelling a rise in the minimum wage if elected: National is considering scrapping the Government's planned minimum wage increase if it wins this year's election, the party's finance ...
Nobody thinks about the next century anymore. That at least is Sci-Fi writer William Gibson’s observation (in this BBC 4 short interview, starting at 1:43:50 ). He calls it “Futures Fatigue”, but isn’t judgemental about it. Gibson notes that in the 20th century speculation about the 21st (and beyond) was common. Now ...
A Labour government desperate for the numbers crawls into bed with Winston Peters. Winston ignores the law and secretly takes money under the table from someone. When it is exposed just months out from an election, he is investigated by the Serious Fraud Office. That's what happened back in 2008. ...
So the Serious Fraud Office has another secret $100,050 National Party donation before the Courts in a major scandal that looks set to quash any chances Simon Bridges had of winning the 2020 election.Yesterday, Newsroom reported:The Serious Fraud Office prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C., breaks off Pine Island glacier in Antarctica Story Highlights: The Pine Island ...
Prof Philippa Howden-ChapmanHousing policy is building up to be the key election issue again. In this blog I reflect on the importance of the role of the New Zealand Government in improving access to affordable housing. I look at what the Government has been doing to increase quality public housing ...
Writing on The Spinoff, Danyl Mclauchlan argues that we have a vacuum in our political system, in that there is no longer an anti-establishment party anymore:I think there’s a vacuum in our political system. There are obvious problems with the status quo but no real critics offering reform. It’s a ...
Stuff today has a piece about the government discovering it has been oversubsidising polluters for a decade under the Emissions Trading scheme:The Government is pledging to urgently fix an issue within the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), after it emerged some polluters are likely being over-compensated with taxpayer-funded carbon credits. [...] ...
The Marlborough District Council, tired of public scrutiny, wants to increase the amount it charges for LGOIMA requests:The cost of requesting official information from Marlborough's government agency could almost double after a jump in "fishing expeditions". Charges could be raised from $60 to $100 an hour for information supplied by ...
When Winston Peters was caught money laundering donations and stalking journalists, the Greens were conspicuous by their silence. It was another example of how getting along with their government partners was eroding their values and their own reputation. It was obviously unsustainable, and so now James Shaw has finally spoken ...
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...
With over 69,000 confirmed cases and 1,600 deaths, here’s your round-up of the latest coronavirus news. New disease and virus have now officially been named On the 11th February, the WHO Director General announced a new name for the disease: COVID-19 which is short for coronavirus disease 2019. The naming ...
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After cross-examination Jones knew he would lose the defamation case he took against film maker Renae Maihi. That’s why he threw in the towel. The weight of evidence was clearly against the old tycoon with the defense presenting fifty articles to confirm Jones’ racist views.Being unable to harass somebody into ...
Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre.(Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...
Ruth Cunningham, Charlotte Paul, Andrew MoorePublic health responses to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 require us to draw on our common humanity and be explicit about our values. Recognising this will help us make good decisions in difficult situations so that, for example, the need to impose restrictive measures ...
The Helen Clark Foundation has released its report on the housing crisis, and found that house-hoarders are to blame for it:Property investors are to blame for New Zealand's high house prices, a new research paper published by the Helen Clark Foundation says. [...] McArthur said previous attempts to address housing ...
The Abortion Legislation Committee has reported back on the Abortion Legislation Bill and recommended that it be passed with some amendments. Unfortunately, the latter include even more hoops to jump through for those seeking abortions after 20 weeks, including a time-wasting requirement to consult a second doctor. No-one casually seeks ...
Brexit is likely to be a disaster for the UK (how sad, never mind). But now that they're out of the EU, the latter has finaly taken the opportunity to blacklist one of their key tax havens:The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is to be put on an EU ...
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Bob Jones has dropped his defamation case against Renae Maihi. Good. But at the same time, it perfectly exposes what the case was all about: not protecting Jones' reputation, but punishing someone who had dared to criticise him, and deterring others from doing the same. This rich pompous asshat dragged ...
As I've done for the past few years, I'm curating and presenting The Listening Lounge, the talk programme at Splore. On the morning of Saturday the 22nd at the Living Lounge stage, the korero goes like this.Yes, we're talking about drugs again, not just because I'm professionally interested in drug ...
What Were They Thinking? RNZ's CEO Paul Thompson (left) and Jim Mather, Chairman of the RNZ Board of Governors, attempt to justify the debacle arising out of their attempt to downgrade RNZ Concert to the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Select Committee at Parliament on Thursday, 13 February 2020.WHAT IS ...
Dame Tariana Turia with former PM John KeyWhat is it about Tariana Turia’s grudge against the Labour Party? Not content with attacking the Government over Whānau Ora funding, which was increased by $80 million in 2019, she has now made it personal by saying that Jacinda Ardern is out of her ...
Back in 2017, right after being elected, Jacinda Ardern promised that there would be no new mines on conservation land. Since then, her government has done nothing to make that happen, and now the policy has been officially "parked" for the election:West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O'Connor says the "no new ...
So the guy who advocated for public burning and beheading feels offended because someone called him a racist!Perhaps Bob Jones hasn't heard of the very old saying; Live by the sword, die by the sword?I mean for someone who often writes opinionated nonsense about Maori; this is a ridiculous case ...
The government today announced a major support package aimed at reducing homelessness. A thousand new transitional housing places, more support for people to find homes (or not lose them in the first place), all good stuff. The one problem with it is that they're going to start charging people in ...
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As of today, the novel coronavirus spreading in China is called COVID-19. Why does it matter? Around the office, we’ve had several conversations over the past few weeks about how 2019-nCoV needed its own name. First, it was getting annoying calling it by the above designation, and ‘novel coronavirus’ doesn’t ...
by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...
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In theory, the emissions trading scheme should reduce emissions. Making polluters pay for permits to pollute lets them save money by reducing pollution, giving them a financial incentive to do the right thing. But right from the start the ETS was broken with a system of free allocation, so polluters ...
Irish voters went to the polls on Saturday in parliamentary elections, and perhaps delivered a political revolution. Since independence, Irish politics has been dominated by two parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Basicly patronage networks with indistinguishable policies, their cleavage isn't ideology, but who killed whose father or grandfather in ...
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Under Attack: By sacking not only RNZ Concert’s presenters, but also its producers and librarians, and reducing the station to an automated purveyor of classical music in-between parliamentary broadcasts, RNZ’s CEO, Paul Thompson, wasn’t simply announcing an operational shake-up, he was declaring war on one of the most important guardians of ...
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James Renwick is Professor of Physical Geography at Victoria University of Wellington. He studied at Canterbury and the University of Washington and has worked on diverse aspects of climate science, including global atmospheric circulation and Antarctic sea ice. In December 2019 he was appointed to the New Zealand Climate Change ...
by Philip Ferguson Exit polls are showing a three-way virtual tie between the main parties in the south of Ireland. Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are all on just over 22%. FG on 22.4, SF on 22.3, FF on 22.2. Exit polls indicate that over 30% of 18-24 ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 2, 2020 through Sat, Feb 8, 2020 Editor's Pick New Report Details How Fossil Fuel Industry's Climate Destruction Also Exacerbates Human Rights Abuses"Even in the face of the ...
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by Don Franks Under a government claiming empathy with the fine arts, Radio New Zealand ( RNZ) is poised to cut back its classical music station, RNZ Concert. The plan is replacing it on FM radio with music “for a younger audience” as part of a new multimedia music brand. ...
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Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland NZ First is calling on Rio Tinto to accept its responsibilities to the Southland community and enable the immediate removal of the toxic Aluminium Dross from the Mataura Paper Mill site. New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland, Mark Patterson ...
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A dairy owner in St Kilda, Dunedin was delighted to hear that an attempted robbery of his establishment was foiled by a government-funded security system. Sean Lee was delighted at how well the anti-theft smoke system worked. When a knife-wielding man entered the store, the shop assistant immediately pressed a ...
Customs says it stopped more than three tonnes of illegal drugs coming into New Zealand last year. This includes 1,180kg of methamphetamine, 329kg of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine precursors, which could have been converted into 246kg of methamphetamine, 739kg and 6469 pills of MDMA or Ecstasy and 60kg of cocaine. Offshore, ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Up to $2 million will be allocated from the Provincial Growth Fund to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia where drought is biting hard, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Drought conditions in Northland have led to ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...
In a heated debate in Parliament, National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett claimed that “nearly 1600 patched gang members have been added” since the Coalition Government took power. To illustrate her point, she altered a chart used by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to show her government’s progress in housing to instead ...
Speech by the Rt Hon Winston Peters at Parliament’s Opening 2020 "We all need insurance" This year New Zealanders are going to have a clear choice to make That choice is between: Optimism versus pessimism; More progress versus back to the future; Investment versus divestment; Unity versus division. New Zealand ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has slammed the Board of Auckland Airport following the airport's runway closing twice within two weeks due to maintenance. Around 2,000 passengers were affected by last week’s runway closures, according to 1NEWS. Another maintenance closure on January 24 saw two international flights and three domestic flights ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Broadcasting New Zealand First supports the commissioning of a business case to assess the viability of a new public media entity. “A strong media environment is critical for a healthy democracy. New Zealand First is a strong supporter of a diverse, independent media,” New Zealand First broadcasting spokesperson ...
Pounamou and technology industries in the West Coast region are set to receive more than $2 million in Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding. This was announced by the Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau during Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika. He said $800,000 would be given to Development West ...
Clayton Mitchell MP, New Zealand First spokesperson for Labour and Industrial Relations Unemployment and wage growth numbers released by Stats NZ today demonstrate a labour market in good shape with unemployment falling to 4.0%, the underutilisation rate falling to an 11 year low, and wage growth at a 10-year high ...
Hon. Ron Mark, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence Ron Mark, welcomes the official opening of Te Rau Aroha, a new museum at Waitangi Treaty Grounds as part of our Coalition Agreement. “It is a great honour to be part of an effective Government ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterGood morning,Let us start with important acknowledgements.First, this special day, in remembrance of the 28th Maori Battalion, is also to honour all those men and women who have risked their lives in the service of our country.Second, special guest Robert ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand will look to build on its relationship with the United Kingdom and recommit to the European Union, after the country officially left the continental union recently. The Minister said New Zealand already cooperates closely with Britain on defence and security issues and has ...
The Government continues to make progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the First Reading of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill and its referral to the Social Services and Community Select Committee. “Now is the opportunity for landlords, tenants and others who want ...
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Hon James Marape will visit New Zealand from 21-25 February, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “New Zealand and Papua New Guinea have a warm and friendly relationship. I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Marape here and strengthening the relationship between our two countries,” ...
Thousands of children have begun receiving a free lunch on every day of the school week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. The Government’s free and healthy school lunch programme is under way for 7,000 students at 31 schools in Hawke’s Bay / Tairāwhiti and Bay of Plenty / Waiariki, extending ...
The Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni today announced a new approach that continues to broaden the Government’s social sector focus from a narrow, investment approach to one centred on people and wellbeing. Minister Sepuloni said redefining the previous approach to social investment by combining science, data and lived experience ...
The Government is strengthening the Protected Disclosures Act to provide better protection for whistle blowers, Minister of State Services Chris Hipkins said today. “The Protected Disclosures Act is meant to encourage people to speak up about serious wrongdoing in the workplace and protect them from losing their jobs or being ...
Nǐn hǎo (Hello in Mandarin). Xīn Nián Kuài Lè (Happy New Year in Mandarin) Néi Hóu (Hello in Cantonese). Sun Nin Fai Lok (Happy New Year in Cantonese) Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Thank you for your invitation to attend this celebration today. I would like to acknowledge ...
Tougher penalties for gun crime are a step closer with the passage of firearms reform legislation through another stage in Parliament. The Arms Legislation Bill has tonight passed its Second Reading. “The changes have one objective - to prevent firearms falling into the wrong hands,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. ...
Introduction Mr Speaker We all know why we are here today. It has been a long journey. The journey did not actually begin on 15 March 2019. It began on 30 June 1997. Almost 23 years ago, Justice Sir Thomas Thorp told us what was wrong with our firearms legislation. ...
The Government’s work to put trades and vocational education back on the agenda took another major step forward today with the passing of the Education (Vocational Education and Training Reform) Amendment Bill, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “This is a watershed day for trades and vocational education. These law changes formalise ...
Speeding up the return of Christchurch regeneration activities to local leadership is behind the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament today by Minister Megan Woods. “As we approach nine years since the February 2011 earthquake in Canterbury, and with the transition to local leadership well underway, the time ...
Hundreds of New Zealanders and international visitors will be able to get back out into nature with the Milford Track partially reopening next week, after extensive assessments and repairs, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. The popular Great Walk has been closed since 3 February after an extreme ...
Up to 110 new EV chargers nationwide in cities and regions 50 electric vehicles for ride-sharing The Government is helping deliver more infrastructure and options for low emissions transport through new projects, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods says. Tauranga, Nelson, Levin, New Plymouth and Oamaru are just some ...
New Zealanders are increasingly better off under this Government as wages rise and families have more disposable income, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ reported today that average household disposable incomes after housing costs rose 4.9% in 2019. This was the highest rise in four years and came as ...
All New Zealanders need to have their voices heard at work to ensure we have an inclusive and productive economy. Today we introduce a Bill to do this for workers in the New Zealand screen industry, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “The Screen Industry Workers Bill will ...
The Government has announced further help for the Southland and Otago regions to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. “I’ve approved Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG), making $500,000 available to help with the clean-up in Fiordland, Southland, and the Clutha district in Otago,” Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said. ...
Following the announcement that more than 340 schools will be funded to run events promoting vocational education, the Government has announced it will fund a further 257 events to be run by employers and industry. “These industry-run events will allow more than 30,000 students to connect with more than 2,000 ...
Today the Government is making progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the introduction of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in Parliament. “This Bill includes a series of reforms to improve the wellbeing of the 609,700 households that live in rented homes, and ...
A Government programme to wipe out pea weevil has achieved a world first, with Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor today announcing the successful eradication of the noxious pest from Wairarapa. This means the nearly four-year ban on pea plants and pea straw was lifted today. Commercial and home gardeners can again grow ...
Southland residents hit by flooding caused by heavy rainfall can now access help finding temporary accommodation with the Government activating the Temporary Accommodation Service, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare announced today. “The Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) has been activated by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to help ...
“Is that it?” That’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s response to Simon Bridges’ much-hyped economic speech today. “Simon Bridges just gave the most over-hyped and under-delivered speech that I can remember during my time in politics,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s not surprising. Simon Bridges literally said on the radio this morning ...
A trial deployment of the Police Eagle helicopter in Christchurch will test whether the aircraft would make a significant difference to crime prevention and community safety. “The Bell 429 helicopter will be based in Christchurch for five weeks, from 17 February to 20 March,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. “The ...
The Government has kept up the pace of its work to promote New Zealand’s trade interests and diversify our export markets, with visits to Fiji and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker. Building momentum to bring the PACER Plus trade and development agreement ...
The Coalition Government’s investment in a strong border and disrupting transnational organised crime produced record results for stopping drugs in 2019, says Minister of Customs Jenny Salesa. The illegal drugs were seized at the New Zealand border by Customs, and overseas by Customs’ international border partners before the drugs could ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off construction of a separated cycleway alongside Tamaki Drive. A two-way separated cycleway will be built along the northern side of Tamaki Drive, between the Quay Street Cycleway extension and Ngapipi Road. There will be a separate walking path alongside. Phil Twyford said giving ...
Owner-occupiers of unit and apartments living in earthquake-prone buildings will have certainty about the financial support they’ll be eligible for with the release of criteria for an upcoming assistance scheme, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. The Residential Earthquake-Prone Building Financial Assistance Scheme will help unit owners facing ...
Temporary restrictions on travel from China will remain in place as a precautionary measure to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The restrictions which prevent foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through, mainland China from entering New Zealand have been extended for a further 8 days. This position ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today that Tairāwhiti rangatahi will benefit from an investment made by the Government’s He Poutama Rangatahi (HPR) scheme. The funding will go to the Tautua Village, Kauneke programme and the Matapuna Supported Employment Programme which will fund 120 rangatahi over two years. “Both programmes work ...
All parents and caregivers need to ensure that their children go to school unless they are sick, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin said today. “The school attendance results for 2019 show, across the board, a drop in the number of students going to school regularly,” the Minister says. “Apart from ...
A Deed of Settlement agreeing redress for historical Treaty claims has been signed by the Crown and Moriori at Kōpinga Marae on Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) today, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little has announced. Moriori have a tradition of peace that extends back over 600 years. This settlement ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today with Māori King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII officially opened the country’s newest road, the $384 million Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway. The 15km four-lane highway with side and central safety barriers takes State Highway 1 east of Huntly town, across lowlands and streams ...
The rapid uptake of life-saving new hepatitis C medicine Maviret since it was funded by PHARMAC a year ago means the elimination of the deadly disease from this country is a realistic goal, Health Minister David Clark says. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus which attacks the liver, proving fatal ...
Kaupapa Māori will underpin the Government’s new plan to deal with homelessness announced by the Prime Minister in Auckland this morning. “Māori are massively overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness, so, to achieve different outcomes for Māori, we have to do things very differently,” says the Minister of Māori Development ...
1000 new transitional housing places delivered by end of year to reduce demand for emergency motel accommodation. Introduce 25% of income payment, after 7 days, for those in emergency motel accommodation to bring in line with other forms of accommodation support. Over $70m extra to programmes that prevents those at ...
Clear requirements for ensuring customers are treated fairly by banks, insurers and other financial service providers are included in new financial conduct legislation that passed its first reading today. “The recent reviews, by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and Reserve Bank of New Zealand, into the conduct of banks and ...
Applications are now open for the fifth round of the Regional Culture and Heritage Fund Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Grant Robertson announced today. “I am delighted to open this year’s fund which has some $7 million available to support performing arts venues, galleries, museums and whare ...
The Minister of Māori Development, Hon Nanaia Mahuta today congratulated Associate Professor Amokura Kawharu on her appointment as the next President of the Law Commission. “Amokura Kawharu will be a standout in her new role, leading in an innovative and forward looking approach to the law reform process. She will ...
Auckland University legal academic Amokura Kawharu has been appointed as the next President of the Law Commission, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Associate Professor Kawharu will take up her new appointment on 11 May 2020. “I would like to congratulate Associate Professor Kawharu on her appointment,” Andrew ...
A programme for employers to help them engage effectively with younger employees was launched today by Minister of Employment, Willie Jackson. The Youth Ready Employer Programme contains a range of on-line templates that employers can easily access to help with employing and retaining young people in their businesses. The programme ...
Budget 2020 will be delivered on Thursday 14 May, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “This year’s Budget will continue the Coalition Government’s focus on tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand while also preparing the economy for the future. “Those challenges and opportunities cannot be resolved in one budget, ...
I move, That this House place on record its appreciation and thanks for the devoted and distinguished service to New Zealand by the late Rt Hon Michael Kenneth Moore, member of the Order of New Zealand, a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, an Honorary Member of the ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias.FICTION 1 In the Clearing by JP Pomare (Hachette, $34.99) All next week at ReadingRoom is devoted to this brilliant thriller inspired by Australian cult The Family, led by ...
‘A life-changing experience’, ‘The greatest of the great! It must be experienced!’, ‘That show with the dancing lady on the billboard.’ Shen Yun ads are impossible to avoid, but what on earth is it?So what is Shen Yun?According to the Shen Yun website: “It is a brilliant artistic revival ...
A Northland property stockpiled one million litres of flammable and toxic chemicals. Almost two years since the situation came to the attention of authorities, the poorly stored solvents remain a fire and environmental risk. While Government agencies struggled to get a polluter to clean up his mess, up to one million ...
Georgia Hale's tireless and compassionate work, using her sport of rugby league to create opportunities for many different communities, has earned her the title of Young New Zealander of the Year. As soon as she left high school, Georgia Hale began working with children with intellectual disabilities. It changed her ...
"To the girls, to the women, to the mothers, to the daughters who hear the music bubbling within, please speak up. We need to hear your voices." These are the words of Hildur Guðnadóttir, who recently accepted the Oscar for best original score for the film Joker at the 92nd ...
Dr Amanda Landers discusses the stigma associated with palliative care and why the field deserves recognition Scalpels are a powerful tool in medicine, but words can be just as mighty. Some medical specialties are easy to comprehend - they cut, stitch, unblock, restart or fix. Others are just too hard ...
A rare visit by a prime minister of Papua New Guinea to New Zealand highlights a strong friendship, but one which could be closer, writes Johnny Blades for RNZ.Papua New Guinea’s James Marape has embarked on a state visit to New Zealand. It’s the first visit to New Zealand by ...
Plant-based food producers ‘stigmatise and demonise’ traditional agriculture, according to Jones, but those working in the new industry say it should be seen as an opportunity, not a threat. NZ First minister Shane Jones’ suggestion that plant-based food must be “stopped in its tracks” has been labelled concerning, negligent and anti-competitive ...
The prospect of going to the Red Planet is possibly a step closer with the US President's State of the Nation speech, in which he promises we will land there. The chances of anything coming from Mars - according to the 1978 Jeff Wayne musical War of the Worlds - are ...
Jennifer Ward-Lealand’s dedication to acting, directing and te ao Māori saw her named the 2020 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year at a special dinner in Auckland last night. Alice Webb-Liddall speaks to her about how she hopes to nurture the future of the craft that has given her so ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Seen as a political narrative, the Morrison government’s handling of the coronavirus (COVID-19) fits the patterns of its approaches on border security and anti-terrorism. Stressing the central imperative is to “keep Australians safe”, it has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The coronavirus is presenting a major threat to Australia’s education export industry, which is highly dependant upon the China market, and a huge challenge to the universities. Phil Honeywood, CEO of the International Education Association ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The corona virus is presenting a major threat to Australia’s education export industry, which is highly dependant upon the China market, and a huge challenge to the universities. Phillip Honeywood, CEO of the International Education ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stacey L Rowe, PhD candidate, Monash University Today’s evacuation of about 180 passengers from the cruise ship Diamond Princess to serve another period of quarantine back in Australia has raised questions about the best way to control spread of the coronavirus. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tess Hardy, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Melbourne Australian supermarket giant Coles and discount chain Target this week joined an ignominious list of large corporations caught up in “wage theft” scandals. Coles confessed to underpaying salaried employees about A$20 million over ...
Parliament is now seeking public submissions on an international treaty that makes it possible to recover child or spousal support from someone who lives in another country. The Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marissa Parrott, Reproductive Biologist, Wildlife Conservation & Science, Zoos Victoria, and Honorary Research Associate, BioSciences, University of Melbourne Since July last year, bushfires have burned more than 7.7 million hectares of southeast Australia, putting many threatened species at increased risk of extinction. ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Pranav Chopra, founder and CEO of Nemi Teas.On Business is Boring this week, ...
Barnardos is today welcoming the Minister of Social Development’s announcement of a new ‘social wellbeing approach’. Speaking from the official launch of the new approach in Tamaki Makaurau today, Barnardos’ Chief Executive Mike Munnelly ...
A failed Dunedin financial adviser is facing 12 charges relating to fraud and theft over what the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) says is a Ponzi scheme that lost investors $15.7 million. Barry Kloogh appeared in the Dunedin District Court this morning to face charges brought by the SFO over running ...
How to stop procrastinating and actually (finally) get on top of KiwiSaver. Because there’s a good chance that if you’re reading this, you don’t know a single thing about it. Read the full series here.As we learned in part two, being in the right fund can make all the difference: you ...
New Zealand Cricket and media company NZME have failed to reach a deal on radio broadcast rights for next season's international and domestic matches. The current deal expires at the end of April and does not affect the remainder of this summer's broadcast schedule on Radio Sport. Radio Sport has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jianling Xie, Postdoctoral Scientist, South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute Researchers in the United States have unveiled the structure of the “spike protein” of 2019-nCoV – the virus behind the current coronavirus disease outbreak. Despite the fact that researchers have already ...
Australian national airline Qantas is cutting some trans-Tasman flights because of the expected fall in business from the coronavirus. It said it will reduce capacity by 5 percent because of a fall in demand, along with the reduction in services to China, Hong Kong and Japan. Qantas and Jetstar services ...
Dr Bryce Edwards.Is the National Party off the hook over the Serious Fraud Office donations prosecution? That’s what the party is claiming, pointing out that no National official or MP has been charged. But of course, there was a National MP involved – albeit one no longer with the ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentDonation scandals Bryce Edwards (Guardian): Vested interests in New Zealand politics are too big to ignore – we need ...
Eden Project New Zealand (EPNZ) has announced that it has signed a ‘licence to occupy’ agreement with Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) and the Christchurch City Council (CCC) regarding a new Eden Project in Ōtautahi/Christchurch. ...
Thursday, February 20: South Islanders will be bidding ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to Austrian oil and gas giant OMV, which has come up empty handed following a controversial deep sea drill in the Great South Basin. Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner, ...
A Southland woman has been prosecuted by SPCA after she docked the tails of eight Rottweiler puppies using docking bands. Taylor Hall pleaded guilty to eight charges of docking the tail of a dog and was sentenced at Invercargill District Court on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon Piccini, Lecturer, Australian Catholic University Australia has just entered its final year of its membership on the UN Human Rights Council. This position was won on the strength of two key arguments: Australia would be the first Pacific nation to ...
In Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, the titular Zoey starts to hear the thoughts of those around her – but expressed in song. Sam Brooks investigates what would happen if Zoey took a trip across the Pacific to sunny ol’ New Zealand.If you could pick any superpower, what would it be? Flight? ...
Auckland Council is warning government officials of the risks of disastrous housing developments like some seen in the United Kingdom. It is facing off over the way the government plans to get thousands of prefabricated homes built here to tackle the housing crisis. An email sent last week by council ...
By Rambo Talabong in Manila The top lawyer of the Philippine Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) who was a controversial witness in Senate hearings on the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) controversy has been shot dead. According to the police report, lawyer Fredric Santos was gunned down yesterday afternoon by ...
Shane Jones was back in his Northland home patch during the week to announce the serving of another dollop of public money from the Provincial Growth Fund. It was not the first allocation of PGF funding to benefit the region this year. This time the PGF will allocate up to ...
We need to challenge those who minimise the actions of rapists based on the gender or ages of their victims, argues Emily Writes.Content warning: this article contains descriptions of sexual assault.News out of Australia of another college supporting a sexual predator is as unsurprising as it is horrific. Victims of ...
The two recent donations investigations show political party funding rules are not fit for purpose, and politicians cannot be trusted to fix them, Cat MacLennan writes. ...
The legislation setting up a firearms register and introducing tougher licensing controls is a step closer to becoming law, but negotiations with New Zealand First are still ongoing. ...
A year after they went carbon neutral, The Warehouse Group’s chief sustainability officer reflects on the journey so far and the work that is still to be done. It was a year ago that the red shed made its biggest commitment to going green in its 38 year history. The Warehouse ...
Fresh on the heels of this morning’s news about the prime minister handing someone a bottle opener, The Spinoff can reveal that Jacinda Ardern once offered a man a banana. Jacinda Ardern once offered an Auckland man a banana, according to a tweet viewed by The Spinoff.The MP who would go ...
Auckland Airport has reported a flat first-half result, and plans to bring forward the billion-dollar redevelopment of its domestic terminal, and upgrade the international arrivals hall. The company's net profit for the six months to December was unchanged from the year earlier's $147.2 million, reflecting a drop in passenger growth ...
How voters react to the headlines generated by NZ First’s latest financial shenanigans may (or may not) determine the outcome on September 19. The most recent Colmar Brunton poll had NZ First down at 3%, so some commentators are already writing off the party’s chances of survival. But the real ...
Since 2017 New Conservative has been calling for net zero immigration until our housing stocks meet demand. Immigrants must prove they are financially independent so they have the means to pay higher rents which forces those at the ...
Despite more than 40 years of law reform aimed at improving the experience of giving evidence for adult rape complainants, Ministry of Justice research in 2018 re-confirmed that the process remains distressing and re-traumatising. According to experts, more ...
Just like donations to political parties, the justice system should be open and transparent. That is what I believe and have sought. Until now, however, I have been unable to make a public statement regarding these allegations, despite wanting to ...
Himali McInnes looks past the fact that the first black woman to win the Booker had to bloody share it and focuses on the book – in itself a treasure. Girl, Woman, Other is the smart, urbane eighth novel by Bernadine Evaristo. Born in London of Nigerian, German and Irish descent, ...
The Prime Minister clearly hasn’t read the draft bill to legalise recreational cannabis, Road Transport Forum (RTF) chief executive Nick Leggett says. "That was clear after watching her answer a question at Parliament yesterday, on the bill ...
Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire inhale the stench of donation scandal enveloping NZ First and National. Can the prime minister avoid the pong?Winston Peters, his New Zealand First Party, and whatever the New Zealand First Foundation is are just part of a wider donations controversy that seems set ...
20 February 2020: Steve Abel was selected last night as the Green Party candidate for the New Lynn electorate in West Auckland. The Long time environmental activist and Greenpeace’s former Senior Campaign and Political Adviser stepped down from ...
Jami-Lee Ross is once again proclaiming his innocence, as he heads off to court next week - along with three others - to face Serious Fraud Office charges. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rowan Callick, Industry Fellow, Griffith University Brand “People’s Republic of China” is wobbling, as if the massive picture of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square was swaying with an earthquake tremor. But it can only actually fall if pushed from inside. The handling ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Waling, Research fellow, La Trobe University Older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI+) people fear discrimination, exclusion and isolation in Australia’s aged care services, we found in our research. With an ageing cohort of LGBTI+ people needing to access, and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin Tolhurst, Hon. Assoc. Prof., Fire Ecology and Management, University of Melbourne When it comes to reducing the extent of bushfires, scientists disagree on the best way to do it. Hazard-reduction burning (also known as “prescribed burning” or “controlled burning”) is controversial ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Stanley, Adjunct Professor, Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, University of Sydney Business School, University of Sydney We were heavily involved in the consultation program for Melbourne’s long-term land-use plan, Plan Melbourne. The idea that resonated most with many participants was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Michael X. Savvas, Senior Lecturer in the Transition Office (PhD in Creative Writing), Flinders University A recent project to encourage South Australian prisoners to write provides insights into how prisoners may benefit from written expression. The project, Life Sentences, gave more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wallace Boone Law, PhD Candidate, University of Adelaide On the night of January 9 2020, my wife and I secured our Kangaroo Island home and anxiously monitored the South Australian Country Fire Service (CFS) website for bushfire advice. After many horrific weeks ...
In today’s edition: Jami-Lee Ross is confirmed as one of four charged by SFO, a damning international report on the NZ housing crisis, and SkyCity cancels a booking for Peter Singer event.SFO–JLR is not just an unlikely long-haul flight from California to India, but the latest instalment in the ...
The author of a novel set in racy, racist Hawke’s Bay writes about the experiences and stories that make up his book. Ten years old and I’m walking with my grandfather to the Farmers Tearooms in Hastings. At the entrance we meet a man whose house has recently burnt down. ...
A major report by the Auditor-General on how councils manage drinking, storm and waste waters found an incoherent, disorganised and stagnant system unprepared for climate change Auditor-General John Ryan found so much lacking in our water management systems he chose to start his final report on it by listing the ...
Child victims of a notorious North Island psychiatric hospital are still doubtful charges will be laid. David Williams reports Police are reviewing their file on Lake Alice psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks in the wake of a landmark decision by a United Nations committee. In December, the Committee against Torture issued a ...
When New Zealand hosts the Rugby World Cup - for the first time in this hemisphere – in 2021, it will mean so much to the Black Ferns, both present and past. To outsiders, it may have been surprising to watch Kendra Cocksedge taking a moment to hold back her ...
Climate change and carbon footprints, political unrest, global epidemics – what does it all mean for the future of tourism? While the crystal ball is murky, futurologist Associate Professor Ian Yeoman from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Management has some ideas about how the sector may change ...
The amount of methane emissions for which humans are responsible could be as much as 40% higher than thought. What does that mean for the fight against climate change? New international research suggests that the volume of methane emissions humans are producing is dramatically higher than previously thought. The findings, which ...
SkyCity yesterday pulled the plug on hosting philosopher and academic Peter Singer’s event after disability rights advocates expressed strong objections to his views. They’re right to be angry with him, but he nevertheless deserves to be heard, argues Danyl Mclauchlan.Athoughtful piece on The Spinoff yesterday explored the disabled community’s ...
Open mike 29/09/2011 
Another day, another IPCA report on criminal conduct by policy. This time they kicked a child in the head when he was handcuffed:Police chased him and yelled out for him to stop. When he turned to face the police, he threatened them with a hammer. That's when the officers tasered ...16 hours ago
While the south of New Zealand has been struggling with too much rain in recent days, here in the north we are so very short of it (though Saturday’s forecast looks promising). Basically, we have had almost none since Christmas. As someone who relies on rain to wash the car, ...18 hours ago
Former National Party MP Jami-Lee RossIt comes as no surprise that Jami-Lee Ross has been named as one of the defendants in the X2 $100,000 National Party donations case currently before the courts. Click bait journalists who were chaffing at the bit to discredit the former senior whip had already ...19 hours ago
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"You're going to need a longer runway" Gratton et al explore the ongoing effects of upward-creeping temperatures on aviation in Greece in the period since 1955 at a range of airports in that country. For longer runways impacts are measurable but with little impact on operations. For airports with shorter runways, ...1 day ago
In mid-December the Israeli secret police, the Shin Beit, revealed it had arrested dozens of Palestinian left-wing activists, including members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in the previous few months. Among those arrested was one of the central leaders of the PFLP, Khalida Jarrar. As ...2 days ago
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...4 days ago
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Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...2 weeks ago
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics. Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...2 weeks ago
While the Provincial Growth Fund has provided $2 million to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia, Regional Economic Minister Shane Jones said he is greatly concerned that there are “issues” in implementing the projects. The Minister said the immediate solution was to pipe water from a bore ...17 hours ago
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...7 days ago
The Government continues to make progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the First Reading of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill and its referral to the Social Services and Community Select Committee. “Now is the opportunity for landlords, tenants and others who want ...14 hours ago
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias. FICTION 1 In the Clearing by JP Pomare (Hachette, $34.99) All next week at ReadingRoom is devoted to this brilliant thriller inspired by Australian cult The Family, led by ...17 mins ago
‘A life-changing experience’, ‘The greatest of the great! It must be experienced!’, ‘That show with the dancing lady on the billboard.’ Shen Yun ads are impossible to avoid, but what on earth is it?So what is Shen Yun?According to the Shen Yun website: “It is a brilliant artistic revival ...35 mins ago
A Northland property stockpiled one million litres of flammable and toxic chemicals. Almost two years since the situation came to the attention of authorities, the poorly stored solvents remain a fire and environmental risk. While Government agencies struggled to get a polluter to clean up his mess, up to one million ...1 hour ago
Georgia Hale's tireless and compassionate work, using her sport of rugby league to create opportunities for many different communities, has earned her the title of Young New Zealander of the Year. As soon as she left high school, Georgia Hale began working with children with intellectual disabilities. It changed her ...1 hour ago
"To the girls, to the women, to the mothers, to the daughters who hear the music bubbling within, please speak up. We need to hear your voices." These are the words of Hildur Guðnadóttir, who recently accepted the Oscar for best original score for the film Joker at the 92nd ...1 hour ago
Dr Amanda Landers discusses the stigma associated with palliative care and why the field deserves recognition Scalpels are a powerful tool in medicine, but words can be just as mighty. Some medical specialties are easy to comprehend - they cut, stitch, unblock, restart or fix. Others are just too hard ...1 hour ago
The prospect of going to the Red Planet is possibly a step closer with the US President's State of the Nation speech, in which he promises we will land there. The chances of anything coming from Mars - according to the 1978 Jeff Wayne musical War of the Worlds - are ...2 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Seen as a political narrative, the Morrison government’s handling of the coronavirus (COVID-19) fits the patterns of its approaches on border security and anti-terrorism. Stressing the central imperative is to “keep Australians safe”, it has ...6 hours ago
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Another kiwi dead in afghan land, pike river, etc etc but RNZ onto bigger issues this morning……TVNZ replacing coro st with chef show…..I feel informed now.
Its just so fekkin predictable, us and our children as collateral damage, the media just dealing to the trivia we are brainwashed to accept.
Meanwhile a family with a son to bury must be wondering why, what for. My sympathy is with them.
Great speech by David Cunliffe in general debate yesterday:
Some highlights:
Key complained that New Zealand did not have a debt problem in 2008, it had a growth problem. Thirty seven billion dollars later it has both.
We have a personality cult of a Prime Minister.
They said that they would close the gap with Australia. It is now 35% and was 30%.
“Key runs like a rabbit from the hard problems.”
National is betting its next three years “on a smile and a vacuous waft”.
Under Labour unemployment was 3.4%, it is now 6.5%.
“The rich have got richer with windfall tax cuts and the poor can’t feed their children.”
Yeah but to his credit Joky Hen has one success. He can claim to have converted a mad butcher. And he also appears to have more clarity on what he thinks about rugby now that he is in his 50s.
… and Hooten has the gaul to talk about a butcher in a similar league to Sir Edmund Hilary.
Hooten, the butcher is “world famous in New Zealand” as the expression goes.
“Hooten, the butcher is “world famous in New Zealand” as the expression goes.”
Indeed but why would anyone ‘wish he would hurry up and die’ ?
HS you are the last one to complain about standards of behavior on the internet.
Indeed Greg but do tell why would anyone wish that the mad butcher ‘… would hurry up and die’ ?
Nice attempt at distraction hs. Now let’s get back to discussing the economy.
Mostly to give idiot tories a straw to grasp at and incessantly repeat, as opposed to the multitude of examples that frustrated, vicious, selfish, incompetent small-minded tories give the left each and every day,
“Hooten, the butcher is “world famous in New Zealand” as the expression goes.”
Shift the comma.
“Hooten the butcher, is “world famous in New Zealand” as the expression goes.”
Warning troll alert!
W.T.F. hs???
Have you been away for the last few days ?
… my comment of 07:47 and yours of 07:56 – what are you insinuating?
Sir Edmund Hillary was a Knight of the Order of the Garter and recipient of many other international and national honours.
Some number crunching:
154000. The number who don’t have a job despite the relentless focus on jobs from John Key.
170000. The number of extra workers BHP Australia says it will hire over the next 5 years, half of whom will be construction workers.
So if you know one end of hammer from the other, where would you rather be? Rebuilding Chch or repairing leaky homes in Auckland for fuck all, or pulling in 100k plus super in Queensland for a 37 hour working week?
Yes but the retards in NZ (and that’s all of parliament) have so frightened the public that we can’t go down the track of mining – because it’s evil…… evil I tells ya !
You’ll notice that in Australia, all the major coastal cities are experiencing economic slow downs, while it is the mining towns which remain booming.
In other words, without widespread and varied high value industry, all mining will do (as dairy does) is focus wealth in specific communities, with only trickles down at the margin.
BTW increased mining in NZ would not have been an issue if Key and Brownlee hadn’t completely misjudged the public and decided that they needed to try and fuck over schedule 4 land.
i.e. some of the blame for the backlash against mining belongs to those two. (rereading your comment I see you think so as well).
lower standard their resources will run out sooner than later . The cost of retrieving minerals in this country is much higher 29 deaths for a start.Minerals are far more inaccessible, here Australia is a big ugly country and no one will notice a few holes in the ground while New Zealand is far more beautiful , and we don’t need idiots like you to stuff it up.It would be far better for our economy to add value through R&D to what we do well sustainable agriculture.However Nact have cut and re branded R&D and reduced the gains possible through consistent investment.
I think you missed my point, HS. I’m not bothered about the mining jobs, particularly, it’s the construction work that is going to knacker NZ. We already have many thousand less construction workers than are going to be needed for Chch and Ak in the next few years and very little work for those that are still here. We need to be training apprentices now and looking to both upskill and upgrade the pay and conditions of workers for the future or the rebuilds just won’t happen in a reasonable time frame.
Yep I agree with you 100% on that point VOR.
Troll on, you can’t compare Oz’s mining industry which occupies desert wilderness with NZ who have no such areas to hid away the toxic lakes, sprawling worker camps etc and to play your game name some economically viable ore bodies we should be mining HS? just one will do, now’s good.
Lignite in southland
Which is utterly crap without extensive and expensive processing, fuck, for the price of processing it, you’d be better off importing mid quality coal for the same job.
I wasn’t aware of that I was relying on the information from MED
http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/pdf-library/coal-1/coal-resource-si-lignite.pdf
lol – another summary of the issue is here. Southland lignite seems to be raised more easily on the interwebz than in real life 🙂
Its not the mining mate, its the fact that people like you want it done in the Southern Alps, Mt Taranaki/Egmont (I have seen oil ooze out of the ground there..).
Anyway, go to Central Otago, etc and look at all the ghost towns there. My point being is when the gold (or silver, platimum or whatever) runs out, the boom ends and it all falls over.
Key says often that they have created 45,000 jobs in NZ. Has anyone contested that figure?
A bit like the claims of increasing the number of nurses by 1000 and teachers by 15000. Huh?
New grad nurses are struggling to get jobs, except where? Australia
Oil Drum has a good reprint of an article on peak oil..
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/8410
Looks at both the geological and economic and it’s effects on price. I’d have liked to have seen more on the price tipping points to other tech. But it was a brief ( for economics ) article.
A group of economists is being taken on a tour of an underground gold mine when there is a terrible accident, sealing them all underground.
They are not likely to be rescued for weeks, but luckily, there is an ample store of air and water down in the mine. But no food. All the economists become really quite anxious.
One brightens considerably when he realises that he has two BLT sandwiches packed away in his briefcase. Looking at all the gold around, a cheer goes up from the economists who realise that they are all now saved.
With no regulations, plenty of liquidity on hand, and keen buying interest, a busy market in BLT sandwiches was surely only moments away.
Haah, a speluncean hypothetical!
The big question also is what happens next after the BLT gets swallowed down.
Might the spelunkers be eyeing each other or stare down the most vulnerable-looking one and smack their lips?
Well, when the market price of a BLT sandwich increases sufficiently due to sandwich scarcity, market forces will guarantee additional investment in BLT sandwich production because of the massive ROI present in that market.
This means that the more BLT sandwich prices increase, the more BLT sandwich supply will also increase = problem solved, everyone can wait happily at the bottom of the mine for rescue.
I bring you the miracle of the free market 🙂
ColoNial Viper:
BLT sansdwiches are going up in price? GRRRRR
CV, I hate to say this, but the logic of the market would still hold.
It would very soon become obvious (information would be accurate and flow pretty rapidly, after all) that making BLT sandwiches was not the kind of production for which available resources could be switched to meet demand.
That would mean another demand (e.g., ways of getting out of the mine) would become the focus of resources, and production would shift that way. The market may not last very long (as the last BLT nibble – which would probably become the ‘currency’ – goes gutwards) but a market may well make sure the last food went to the person with the best chance of providing the exit strategy for all – e.g., a chemistry hobbyist or economist turned garden shed engineer. But that doesn’t mean anyone will get out of the mine.
As I understand it, markets don’t guarantee outcomes – they just respond to the greatest demand for resources and supposedly provide the ‘best bet’ for the desired (short term) outcomes.
Where the analogy does work, however, is that the market can very well lead us merrily into the closed off mine in the first place – but its principles would continue to work efficiently right till the last smug breath was drawn by the last surviving economist.
Schelling’s ‘Micromotives and Macrobehavior‘ makes a good case for the possibility of outcomes at the macro level – that no individual might actually desire – arising from the micro-level motives of people (especially acting in markets – e.g., resulting in racially segregated neighbourhoods).
He got the Nobel prize in Economics for that kind of insight yet, for me, it’s like a big, flashing sign saying ‘beware of markets – they can give you what you don’t wish for’ – like being stuck in a goldmine with nothing to eat (a bit like today’s world for a significant number of people).
Irrationality of the free-market
It’s true and anyone who actually applies logic to it must realise that it is so. The market works at the micro level but fails at the macro level and yet our economists and politicians continue to try to apply it at the macro level and then become surprised when it fails.
😀 Colonial Viper…
so i have to tell my neighbor of my camera pointing into their backyard,
under the privacy act, but the state soesn’t need a warrent to do the
exact same thing, go figure?
Top ten google searches for New Zealand in the past seven days.
Take that NZRFU, go the Warriors.
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#geo=NZ&date=today+7-d&cmpt=q&q=%22google+plus%22
1 nrl grand final +1,000%
2. google plus +400%
3. x factor +400%
4. grabaseat +150%
5. nz time +150%
6. daylight savings +120%
7. nrl +100%
8. warriors +100%
9. companies office +90%
10. grab a seat
Will the viewing figures top the Opening Night of the RWC. Thats the test Brett.
I think it is great that Kiwi’s have two teams to support at the moment. There seems to be a bounce around town. We call forget about the economic gloom for a change.
I see Owen Glenn’s been doing due diligence on the Warriors.
Applying Fenton’s First Law, can we expect Labour to call for a total boycott on watching the Warriors, if the sale to Owen Glenn goes ahead?
Classic!
JB We can expect Glenn to be bankrupt in no time at all given other high flying sports club owners in New Zealand!
How deeply depressing… It just confirms the idea I have had for many years (first shown by a useless ex-husband) that New Zealanders are generally rugby boofhead morons! Thankfully, I know that’s not true of all of them.)
Brett Dale – yes go the mighty Warriors and go the All Blacks – this is a fantastic Rugby World Cup
Comparisons with 1956 are apt here. Go and find an old timer and ask him what the atmosphere was like during the 1956 tour. He’ll pretty much tell you it was the same as it is during RWC 2011, but with a bit more sophistication in terms of the bar and eatery scene.
Pagani on the Urewera thing:
http://johnpagani.posterous.com/call-of-duty
“Were you part of the molotov throwing, semiautomatic firing group, or not? You cannot purport to be an anti war activist when you are throwing molotov cocktails.”
Yup I’m calling Pagani out on this.
Sucking up to the police. Big time. I’m never going near him again.
He’s gone way out on a limb. It’s all about consumer choice. We don’t need sycophants like that…I’ll be buying my meat from another butcher now
Steven Joyce… Failure!
You may not be aware that we even have a Minister of Communications. It wouldn’t help much if you happen to use networking programs either… as the minister doesn’t have any online presence…
It get worse in the HCC. Not content with cutting funding for community groups and NGO’s, it plans to take an axe to parks and reserves, and hike rents at its pensioner housing by 70% (or flog the unit off to the highest bidder).
Its offical. Julie Hardaker is New Zealand’s Michelle Bachmann.
Yep, this really looks like pancaking to me!
Rev ,to me it looks like approx 20,000,000 cubic meters of air, being forced out of the building by approx 300,000 T of concrete and steel in 15 secs.
But Scotty, you cannae break the laws of physics!
Scotty,
The time of each collapse was indeed 14-16 seconds. 180 floors collapsed in 15 seconds. Do you believe it pancaked? Here is a law of physics which can not be broken. It’s called the conservation of energy.
If you watch the video you see these big black lumps shooting out from the building. Those are tons of steel who for no apparent reason decide to fly sideways at 70 miles per hour. That energy has to come from somewhere. Gravity does not explain the energy required for these huge beams to go flying of horizontally.
Here is another video with some strange movements of flying objects which can not be explained away by planes and gravity.
By the way NIST has deserted the pancake theory. Molten aluminum and water does not explode and most certainly does not cause a building to explode nor does it generate the force needed to separate tons of steel into truck sized lots and buildings do not explode outwards in 15 seconds just because of a plane impact. The fuel was mostly burned off within seconds and people were shown as standing in the hole the plane made while not being burned and holding on to the steel frame. So where did the energy come from to explode huge beams outward with the speed of 70 miles per hour?
Newton’s 4th law is “and for any public tragedy, the reliability or accuracy of internet analyses of the first three laws is inversely proportional to the scale of the tragedy”
I appreciate what Al Qaeda’s motives may be, but it’s a bit of a laugh…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/28/al-qaida-ahmadinejad-911-conspiracy?CMP=twt_gu
Real life far funnier than fiction.
Rev,cheers for that, How much energy do you reckon was generated from 300,000 T accelerating to 160 kph in 15 seconds.? what happened to that energy?
Are not large elements of the buildings’ construction being blown laterally,just travelling the path of less resistance.?
Interesting piece from John Pagani.
http://johnpagani.posterous.com/call-of-duty
In itself making and throwing molotov cocktails into an old oven is not illegal I would have thought. (Years ago my brother tried putting lumps of carbide in a sealed bottle of water and watched it explode. He is a very peaceful chap.)
Firing semi-automatic guns would be akin to the sort of people who enjoy paintball wars.
On the face of the information given there is still not proof of crime (unless those guns are illegal.)
Not making excuses and would hate to live near anyone who carried out those activities, but……
Years ago a (then) teenage brother along with a mate tried to blow up a bridge in Milford, North Shore. He became a successful businessman.
Mine was depth charges and rockets. Had quite a lot of fun making explosives. Of course after you get to play with plastic explosives you suddenly realize how ‘messy’ my home made stuff was. I really loved being able to carve my initials into Armour of an old bren gun carrier.
I never graduated from the home made stuff that went pop. After meeting a guy who had blown his arm off, I kind of lost interest in the hobby.
sharp observation IM – I particularly like the way that your logic reduces the whole Middle East conflict thingy to a large paint-ball war
None of the 18 had a “E” endorsement so all of the semi autos were illegal to possess.
Indeed it is interesting, HS. I quite like Pagani’s blog, even though I don’t always agree with him. This time he has got it spot on, though.
What a bunch of dreamers and tossers it turns out these people are. Reminds me of the sort of macho ‘defence of the homeland’ fantasies we normally associate with the likes of KKKyle Chapman. It’s a damn shame the coppers stuffed this up, because this lot should be explaining themselves in court, not excusing themselves on blogs.
ps I see OOBB beat us to it, comment 8 above.
I dunno. There goes a chap who never had fun with things that go “bang”, even if the police “evidence” is as clear cut as they would have us believe.
As a girl, with bad eyesight and only one brother (much younger) I never was a fan of things that go bang. My Dad who suffered from what I know now was PTSD, had an arsenal in the house, and was obsessed with the fear of invasion (he’d ‘fought all through t’second world war, and so taught we girls to fire guns – or tried to.)
So, my feeling is with Pagani on this. My Dad was prosecuted for his arsenal, and ended up in dire straits (I won’t go into it all, just to say that the authorities were less than understanding!). So I am not sympathetic, which is not to say that I support prosecution on illegally gained evidence…
I have no real problem with persecuting based on actual unequivocal evidence about acts and intent.
What I have a problem with is the police charging on what looks like quite circumstantial equivocal evidence (like similar clothing) for actions that are not in themselves unlawful, on the basis of a criminal intent that they have no actual proof of beyond what looks like people blatting the breeze. I really get irritated that it has taken more than 4 years to not get to trial because the police were so damn sloppy that they relied on unlawfully gathered evidence.
Quite simply I think that the police who brought caused this travesty of a misuse of their powers should be kicked out of the force and a severe look taken at how in the hell their superiors allowed it to happen.
Incidentally I know exactly how you feel. There was a family friend who always kind of got me giving him second looks. It was the arsenal of obsolete military hardware like missile launcher outside his house. But he was mostly legal…
Yeah, so did mine, but he didn’t have an arsenal – he took us boating instead. My father had a love planes (which is why he joined the RAF when war started) and a love of boats.
That would have been a lot better! My Dad was convinced that WW3 would happen in his lifetime, and we’d have to fight off invaders… Hence the self-sufficient lifestyle (growing all our own food, candles and gas stoves etc) and the shooting lessons.)
I still loathe guns to this day as a result. If by some bizarre chance, we were invaded, I could never shoot anyone…
Being a peacenik means that you can’t learn to defend yourself from those who aren’t?
A compelling fullsome report on the idiocy of the Surveillance Bill. A must read.
“The Law Society has attacked the government’s plan to pass extraordinary and objectionable surveillance legislation.”
http://www.imperatorfish.com/2011/09/law-society-slams-police-spying-bill.html?showComment=1317249849178#c5726233854666049514
NZ Herald Complaint
What really pisses me off about all this is that the cops are continually speculating on things without much evidence and some of the evidence they do have was illegally obtained. The entire case is farcical!
Oh please, Jackal, it’s not like the police have an active media management / pr section – oh, wait…
I have had the misfortune of dealing with incompetent cops for 35 years. I was dragged into a situation due to a CIB inquisition in 1979 which pertained to an inquiry involving a politician in 1976. I was silenced and bullied by the police.
In order for me to RECEIVE any justice by the police an inquiry would need to be held and only Key or Marshall have the power for this to occur. I would expose the police for misleading the last three ministers of police, for not adequately investigating my concerns, for making defamatory remarks on many occasions and for the loss of police documentation/files as well as with holding the full police evidence concerning the politician who was denied legal representation.
Basically the politician gave four reasons for the incident with the cop. But the cop has given three different reasons for why he had me silenced and bullied because he told me of the incident with the politician before the incident was raised in parliament. Issues with the cop having name suppression which I did not know about for sometime and the CIB inquisition triggering historical sexual offending. The inquiry was about whether police breached the incident.
My observation yesterday regarding a 10 second view on the news with Marshall, Drew and Hide was this:
Drew was area commander in the Wairarapa, we have not heard back yet from the IPCA on whether or not Drew is responsible for child sexual violation cases languishing. (At some point Marshall was involved in the back log of the Wairarapa cases and has fobbed off being directly responsible). Police say they need more tools but appear to not be able to organise something as important as legally using video surveillance and then they cry and say we want to prevent crime. Hide got it right when he implied that the police knew what they were doing was illegal.
About time that a Police Commissioner grows some balls and takes responsibility for MAJOR WEAKNESS within the police because Broad’s legacy was bad enough with C.R Rickards, sexual assaults on children (Wairarapa) and adults (by sworn police officers) and people like Patrick O’ Brien languishing concerning wanting to expose the police and to hold them to account. I predicted prior to Marshall taking up the post as commissioner of police that Marshall would be drawn into the Urewera raids. Even I did not foresee how compromised Marshall would be due to bozo Broad.
I am a lone voice in the wilderness but I have balls of steel. I have had first class teachers (been a student for 35 years regarding devious cops). When I hear about major stuff ups by the police it only intensifies and prolongs the complex form of PTSD I have.
Asshole of the Week Award – Keith Abbott
I sometimes wonder if the Police give a damn at all about what the public thinks… They stumble along from one PR disaster to another showing very little thought for the consequences of their actions…
I like the Burroughs quote, Jackal. Mind you I like all Old Bill Lee’s quotes, including the one about society hating functioning junkies because it spoils the argument for the war on drugs.
I also find this line interesting:
“People simply don’t accept that because Abbott wasn’t convicted, he isn’t guilty”
Do you also apply that reasoning to the wannabes running around the Ureweras with guns?
lol
Should read many people… have fixed it.
Do you mean all those hunters who are after some grub and don’t have gun licenses? I can’t think why the cases are similar… the Urewera 18 haven’t killed anybody.
Not going to be much left of that grub after you’ve shot it with a semi-automatic and molotov cocktailed it.
I suppose it’s a method for simultaneous cook and kill though – perhaps that’s what Valeri Morse was is practicing when she torches the NZ flag each ANZAC day.
My word, this issue really gets people on edge. What Molotov’s and what semi-automatic weapons? Do you know what a semi-automatic weapon is?
Don’t tell me you actually believe that NZ Herald article HS… I thought you had a bit more nous than that?
Well it would be nice to see the footage of what was going on.
Anyhoo must I still admit to finding it odd that one needs to firebomb game.
And as for nous shouldn’t you be directing that slur to the good Mr Pagani ?
I thought they had a CD of gun shot sounds – I once had an album of BBC sound effects; can I charge the person in charge of making hoof sounds with coconut shells?
“I once had an album of BBC sound effects; ”
Oh dear you sound like you were more of a nerd (didn’t think it possible) than me in your younger days….. although my younger days predate CDs somewhat.
I still have a tape with BBC sound effects.
What’s up with editing the sounds anyway… perhaps the cops are attempting to get the gunshots closer together so they sound like a semi? Either way it proves nothing!
Firebomb game HS? There’s still no clear proof that they were even using Molotov cocktails, which isn’t a crime I might add.
Feck it really is quite amusing to see you trying to defend this lot.
S’pose it comes down to whether you think this is a reasonable thing for ‘adults” to be up to and if it is reasonable and it was merely a harmless get together for a bit of hunting practice why the need to withhold the videos – surely the defendants would be more than happy for the video footage to be made public or the very least be made available in court to vindicate their jolly japes.
HS78s
Yikes. I had that album too or one in the series. Lots of horror sounds from memory. Squelching and twisting necks
Basically they do not. The police are thoroughly independent of any significant oversight
Interesting…
Oh Jackal the police give a dam about being caught, but they know that 99 % of individuals do not have the resources or influence to take out a civil case. This is why the government has to order an independent inquiry.
If the commissioner of police gave a dam about what the public think about crooked cop practices he would order an inquiry.
In Open Mike yesterday I commented on a talk by Dick Smith and gave the basic link for it.. It was from May this year but not outdated. I have remembered that he referred to Oz news media being about 70% controlled by Rupert Murdoch who he said, is growth oriented and so dos not want to follow any other thinking or viewpoints. He criticises capitalism which DTB would affirm.
Don’t know about that one, but there is this one http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/08/17/buffett-slams-super-rich-tax-rates-but-what-about-australia/
What about TVNZ changing Coro Street to children’s tv time, and sanitising it.
Forget the Uruweras crap, Rugby World Cup, BLT sandwiches and other insignificant irrelevances.
Who wants more Masterchief at prime time. Will the overpaid PHD’s at TVNZ ever learn it’s the customer, not what they want. The Helen Clark era is dead – but mummy still knows best it appears.
It’s not that I am serious Coro fan (I do watch it, but not fanatically), but what irked me, was the programmers’ comments – that the olds who watch Coro could watch at 5.30, or watch the omnibus on Saturday. What about Coro fans who are not olds? I like to work, and can’t get home by 5.30, and who on earth watches TV on a Saturday morning?
The passing of the VSM bill is great news for those interested in freedom and social justice, as the bill in line with UN’s Declaration on Human Rights, which guarantees rights of association and non-association.
‘Free at last, free at last
Thank God almighty
We are free at last’
Yesterday is a day that will be seen on a par with emancipation and women’s suffrage, and those who opposed this bill will be looked on as the oppressors of freedom that they are.
Yep – Roger Douglas is NZ’s very own Nelson Mandela. /sarc
“Oppressors”? You merely demonstrate, yet again, that ACToids have no sense of perspective at all. E.g: everyone in a students’ association got a vote, and all stdents got to vote on membership rules. This is not the same as half the population not having the vote. Actually, a better analogy would be saying that everyone in NZ should choose whether they get all the benefits of NZ citizenship/residency, or whether they get pretty much all the benefits of NZ citizenship/residency but pay no tax – regardless of the wishes of the rest of NZ.
Yesterday was a great day for dictatorship and propoganda, but a shit day for students and freedom in general.
Just in case it doesn’t survive there. I put this on Pagani’s site on his rather stupid post about the operation 8 court documents.
Ummm can’t see it now. It is either moderated out or trashed…..
If it doesn’t come back, then I may extend it into a post.
Perhaps you ran foul of his comments policy.
“Anonymous comments don’t add much to the Internet.
You can leave comments, but I moderate them hard.
I use this blog to write about things that interest me. If comments aren’t interesting, they are not going on my blog.
I encourage intelligent dispute and argument. If you feel like insulting me, there are a large number of places on the Internet where you can go to do that. If you want to insult others, than I encourage you to be funny, at least.
Also, ‘x said y so therefore x is a bad person’ may be the standard for commenting elsewhere, but not here.
You can send an email to post@posterous, and the machine will start a blog for you just like that, where you can say what you like. If you are interesting I might link to you.”
Yep looks like you ticked most of those boxes.
Nope. Wasn’t anonymous, and I only called him a “dickhead” – which is as you know is rather mild for me, and I think it was in context…
He did e-mail back. But since he’d asked for posts on the subject, I gave him one. Of course it wasn’t exactly what he was probably after…
As I said
“Yep looks like you ticked MOST of those boxes.”
Well since he’d asked for left comment, I gave him one….. Since he didn’t like it, I published it here as a post.
Jeez, Lprent, you’re way off the beam on this. These sad fucks were practising at being guerillas and some, at least, were apparently trying to learn how to kill people by throwing bombs through windows. They should be in jail. There is no excuse for this immature behaviour and it is now pretty clear that the raids were entirely justified, even if the cops cannot now use all the evidence gathered. What a bunch of gutless, whining cowards and thank fuck they were stopped before they killed someone.
Eh??!?!!?
A bunch of boys playing at being soldier in the bush! Terrorists??? Training to ‘kill people’, as you imply????
You must have had a sad childhood indeed. Not so long ago, we used to buy sparklers from the Warehouse, tape them together and blow up rubbish bins along the Wellington waterfront and out the suburbs.
Should we be in jail for being young and immature, but essentially harmless? Those bombs were definitely classed as dangerous, and restrictions were put in place on them.
I have serious problems with people like you trying to turn this country into a police state and stifling people and punishing thousands disproportionately with no discretion.
It will alienate people and result in more discontent.
It’s pretty Orwellian to punish for something you think they ‘might’ do. It’s a bit like invading Afghanistan to defend NZ…a sane, rational person doesn’t see the link.
I suggest you reassess this and think about whether it’s your paranoia or deluded thinking, or whether these people were planning an all out guerrilla war. Think of it as you think of 9/11 ‘truthers’, come on, which is the more likely?
I didn’t use the word terrorist, Clandistino. I said guerillas. But these twats only have Che’s Tshirt, not his nous. I don’t care whether they were planning an all out war or just being muppets, but their immaturity has cost us all a right and a freedom. As a result of their stupidity, the police are soon going to able film us all whenever and however they feel like it. And I’m really pissed off about this because they have consistently said that there was nothing of substance to the police claims, but now it turns out the cops were right all along and the Urewera loons were lying to us all.
As I said above, I’m just pleased there was an intervention before someone got killed, though I suppose there was more likelihood of them shooting themselves than mounting a credible attack on some poor sod whose politics they didn’t like. Hmmm, anyone seen Four Lions?
It kind of fucks your argument that you agree they were not a credible threat, don’t ya think??
Don’t believe the bullshit they come out with about how they have ‘evidence’ of plans to attack anyone. It’s called fucking BANTER and we are (mostly) all guilty of it every blimmin day!
TVOR: I have been on management ‘team’ exercises that, from the evidence I have seen, went further into the required training than what went on in the targets of Operation 8. I don’t see those camps being shut down – do you?
For that matter, Gilchrist – the police spy who was rocky’s partner and whom she exposed, was running management training camps that did exactly this type of military style camp quite legally for those managers.
Now I’ve done military training, management training, know a lot about the law (I had to suffer through my ex’s law) and I read a hell of a lot of material that is military history including insurgencies. I also know a lot of activists and most of them are to my mind extremely legal. There are a few bullshitters, but most of them appear to try to keep on the right side of the legal system.
As far as I’m concerned, the really dangerous people in operation 8 appear to be the paranoids in the police building in Otahuhu. Stupid acts like this exercise appear to be more driven by creating dangerous activism than preventing it.
Been away and I see there is another related post now, so I guess I might have more to say there.
However, yes, I have seen military style camps shut down. You’ll recall the NZ Army was snapped running shoot ’em up days on the side a couple of years ago and they got shut down pronto. Sometimes it’s just not appropriate, eh.
And I bet that flea Gilchrist did not teach the suits how to chuck molotov’s on those courses either. But that’s not the point. This was military training for a political purpose. And have we forgotten where arming politically motivated people can take us?
Were you part of the molotov throwing, semiautomatic firing group, or not? You cannot purport to be an anti war activist when you are throwing molotov cocktails.
Jesus! What a plonker! When I was younger, we used to make bombs out of fireworks and let them off down at the beach. We used to make our own guns etc for something to do. We also used real guns with adult supervision… and shock horror non of us kids had licenses. That’s how I learnt to hunt at the age of seven. People like Pagani must have grown up mollycoddled in cotton wool to not realize that thousands of New Zealand kids do this sort of thing.
When I was younger, we used to make bombs out of fireworks and let them off down at the beach. We used to make our own guns etc for something to do. We also used real guns with adult supervision…
OK. Your misanthropic streak is starting to make sense.
FFS! I wasn’t doing it to prepare to hurt anybody gormless!
How old were you?
What has that got to do with anything?
Next they’ll be raiding capoeira classes because everyone there is “learning how to kill”.
I enquire because thejackal made something of the fact that he was “younger”, presumably to explain his love of blowing things up as youthful exuberance, or something.
Valerie Morse is a 36 year old librarian.
Bit old to be blowing things up for fun, don’t you think?
Why? Ever been to a fireworks display? It’s not just kids in the audience.
Again, I know martial artists older than that. Should they all be illegally filmed and held at gunpoint?
That’s right, McFlock. Running around in the bush lobbing molotov cocktails left, right and centre is just like setting off a catherine wheel for the kids.
I think the woman’s reluctance to offer an innocent explanation speaks volumes about her motives.
Ummm, from the police evidence it looks like the alleged molotov cocktails were done in a single place. Lemme see what is online – I seem to have seen something..
It doesn’t look like you are being even a teeny bit accurate. In fact reading what the the police have said (rather than your levels of fiction) it seems like the range area was not dangerous.
Tell me again why I called you a gormless fool?
I think that your insistence people should prove their innocence just shows the totalitarianism that lurks beneath the tory surface.
She will have been advised by her lawyers not to say anything. Apart from anything else if I was her, I’d be in the midst of preparing a civil case against the police and against some individual police.
Pretty sure half the SAS soldiers we have in Afghanistan are around that age or older.
lprent, you are right of course, this whole thing turns on how widely the molotov cocktails (yes, molotov cocktails) were thrown. If she was throwing them in a narrow area everything is just peachy because she was clearly throwing them for the amusement of small children whose love of violent explosions and firearms is both legendary and to be encouraged.
Let’s see, the article lprent linked to above said […]”holding an object believed to be a Molotov cocktail.
Det Sgt Pascoe was to give evidence that he believed she threw the Molotov cocktail into an outdoor oven, where police later found remnants of Molotov cocktails. ”
So – they have a burned out oven with glass in it. They have a photo of someone who might or might not be Morse holding a
molotovbottle. Maybe even throwing it in the direction of the oven (but no explosion etc on camera).Yep, let’s lock away the key.
Not really. The biggest issue for the police would have been to prove that she was doing it – something that they clearly had little direct evidence for since they were relying on evidence of similar clothing.
The second would have been to prove that the activity was unlawful. Now that isn’t as easy as you’d probably like to guess because I don’t think that there are any that many laws against lighting fires on private land in a old fridge (regardless of the means). In much the same way as there aren’t that many laws against having old fridges, burning old fence posts, or indeed most activities.
As I was pointing out in the post the police would have to prove a criminal intent. So far they have singularly failed to even get close to it outside of the fevered imagination of Aaron Pascoe and the presumptive judgement of Pagani.
Judging by his blog he must have been playing with guns as a foetus because no-one over the age of three could write the shite that he does.
Either that or it’s all puff and bluster like his delusions of being a bit of a ladies man.
What are you talking about? Calling HS… Come back to planet earth.
Except, Lprent, she does not even deny it.
BTW, I seem to recall Bomber Bradbury (remind me why the only the right are called out for using violent language?) having a lot to say about how shocking the actions of these delightful people were at the time of the raids. Has he resiled from that or does lprent need to give him a slap?
Superb, OBB taking silence as an indication of guilt.
Who’d you study law from, Dick Cheney?
There’s silence and then there’s going out of your way not to try to offer a rational explanation for throwing molotov cocktails around.
She are you saying that she has confirmed it? Point to where she does…
She is under no obligation to confirm or deny that except in court if and only if she takes the stand and sits under oath. Doing it for your prurient interest is probably no high on her list of things to do.
But lets start with you under the same basis. I hereby say that you are a wanker – do you wish to confirm or deny that? And I have about 50 more questions of an increasingly severe nature that you remaining silent on will just confirm your guilt.
Basically that is not an argument by you. It is an excuse for your gormless foolish behavior
I would have thought she would have had an absolute defense if she was not in the Urewera’s – I s’pose she could have decided not to mount a defense to get as much to moan and bitch about for her ongoing campaign against ‘the man’.
Personally I find it disappointing no one knobbled the silly bint during her ANZAC day flag burning.
Talk about a side-issue.
But you mean the flag burning that the court decided was not unlawful and not dangerous (as I seem to remember that was the decision) ? The decision that really brings into question the silliness of the police in bringing forward a case that they were unlikely to convict on?
In fact just like the current case.
She probably was somewhere, there or elsewhere. The question in that case is probably proving it absolutely.
I really couldn’t prove where I am absolutely anytime when I’m not at work. I’m always amused when people look at electronic records as proof because after doing work for the payments industry and thinking about how others could spoof our systems, it all becomes a matter of cost and effort.
But the question for the police even with the unlawfully obtained evidence would have been to prove that their accusations were correct.
Standing rule for any activist usually is that if the police wish to charge you, then they should have to prove their accusation. Typically they are unable to convict.
In rocky’s case she has literally had dozens of charges against her. She has defended them all, and they only managed to convict her without being overturned on appeal once because the police kept postponing the trial until she was unable to keep having defense witnesses or herself attending court. For the same reason she was unable to take it to appeal.
That is the standard that some of these police descend to….. Some of the charges were about as useful as the flag burning. “Intimidation by loitering”, “using a megaphone” is a favorite, etc etc
I hereby say that you are a wanker – do you wish to confirm or deny that.
I confirm it. It is a beautiful act of love.
When will you start asking me about the violence I have committed?
I think that you have assaulted someone…. and primary school and kindergarten count (since you don’t seem to be bothered about if a conviction is possible).
Wasn’t the court decision not to convict due to no-one in the vicinity causing a disturbance – i’e if someone had been pissed off enough to clout her she would have been convicted for causing a disturbance ……. I may be wrong…… old age memory failing .. wine with dinner etc .
The moral high ground Paganai is using when it comes to being anti war and molotov cocktails reminds me of how a woman may be made to feel in a rape trial. Her sexual history is bared for all to examine, she then is on trial for her sexual history and being raped is considered as being probable or not probable even though consent was absent.
Focus must be on the charge and not using moral high ground. Paganai needs to apologise for using a person’s personal beliefs and linking them to being charged with an alleged offence which is before the court.
22.5 “… which is before the court.” I over looked that Bailey (another female) is to stand trial and not Morse, however Morse could appear as a witness or could take out a civil case against the police.
Re stockpiling ammunition, apparantly they were
From my understanding they were found with about 200 rounds of ammunition and about half a dozen firearms in various stages of useability. Knowing the socio-economic status of Māori, as I do, it probably took them over 10 years to amass this horde of weaponry, and from Trademe.
Your paranoia is fed by ignorance of the world outside of the bubble you occupy. Pop that cherry and explore the real New Zealand.
Anyone who has been farming for longer than 2 seconds typically has anywhere between 10-20 serviceable firearms (from .22’s all the way through to various shotguns) and a thousand plus rounds of ammo for said firearms.
Insider
From my understanding they were found with about 200 rounds of ammunition and about half a dozen firearms in various stages of useability. Knowing the socio-economic status of Māori, as I do, it probably took them over 10 years to amass this horde of weaponry, and from Trademe.
Your paranoia is fed by ignorance of the world outside of the bubble you occupy. Why don’t you pop that cherry and explore the real New Zealand.
yeah, right.
Who said that?
Oh, yeah, the police. Whose charges have been thrown out again and again.
What interests me is how the Police are now denying the remaining accused a fair trial by leaking this stuff to the media. They must know what they’re doing. Seems like pure vengeance. And an admission they have no case.
It was in the affidavit that was apparantly released by one of the accused
Insider I was being specific about Morse. The Supreme Court has ruled that video camera surveillance is not admissable where she is concerned.
Go and Google what Ross Meurant says about cops and the forest. I learnt at age 16 about how cops were. I worked at a police barracks and accommodation was supplied due to the three split shifts.
Can’t supply a link but try Deep in the forest: Ross Meurant – Sunday Star – Times
Meurant is honest about how cops are conditioned to tow the line when it comes to them and us.
I have a general distrust where cops are concerned but there are some honest ones. The longer service or the higher rank are usually the worst. A lot of the good ones get out due to knowing that they cover for their mates, have assaulted people they apprehend and know that they are there to serve and protect the public and not themselves.
DOC was Bribed
A few days ago the Otago Daily Times reported that the Department of Conservation will receive $100,000 from gold-miner Oceana Gold in return for taking a neutral stance on an application to expand the East Otago gold mine. This is a blatant bribe as DOC had already made its position known…
Do the Nats need to bother with asset sales to foreign owned companies with this goon around?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/5704264/Owen-Glenn-linked-with-Warriors-buyout
First he tries to buy his popularity and get his name up in lights, now he’s going to try and buy up NZ starting with the top sporting teams. Key and Glenn make a good pair of sociopaths!
Why is he a goon Anne ?
Is it just because he dared tell the truth about Winnie and put your beloved Labour party in an embarrassing position ?
Is it because of his charitable donations and philanthropy ?
Do tell.
I think Anne believes that the Warriors is presently an SOE.
Anne, wakey, wakey, that was covered at 6.2 above.
However just in case you missed it … applying Fenton’s First Law, can we expect Labour to call for a total boycott on watching the Warriors, if the sale to Owen Glenn goes ahead?
Speaking of Gormless Fools – no personal reflections TGFKAO – when will Charles Chauvel withdraw his crap press release:
A report showing air pollution in Auckland is double that of Sydney’s and on a par with Tokyo’s is another blot on National’s ever-expanding not very environmental copybook, Labour’s Environment spokesperson Charles Chauvel says.
World Health Organisation data out today reveals New Zealand cities trail all major Australian cities in terms of air quality, with Auckland the worst.
“Our largest city is just now getting a glimpse of the real cost of Steven Joyce’s anti-rail, more roads-at-all-cost policies – increased air pollution,” Charles Chauvel said.
Epic fail Charles Chauvel says!
Turns out the WHO report is almost as full of hot air as Labour’s policy cupboard. The report’s been pulled and a new set of numbers posted that show all main centres are within WHO safety guidelines.
Look’s like the real cost of Joyces anti-rail, more-roads-at-all-costs policies is – clean air!
Charles Chauvel says? A PR disaster!
Oh noes, the WHO made a mistake.
Now, does that actually undermine the ACC report that indicates that 700 people per year are dying to air pollution in Auckland? No, it doesn’t. Nor does it excuse Nationals drive to increase that pollution and death by putting in roads most of Auckland don’t want.
Well only four years ago it was 900 deaths for the whole country and pollution levels have remained static if not dropped since then. The acc report is based on 2006 data. That to me undermines it a tad…
Still doesn’t undermine the report considering that the conclusion would be based on probabilities defined by years of research around the world, ie, population thus, pollution thus, estimated level of premature deaths caused by pollution approximately this. It’ll be fairly close even if it was based on 2006 data. Pollution levels may have remained static but population hasn’t, especially Auckland, and the estimates probably have probably changed as well.
Oh, an MP that admits a mistake, now there’s a thing; still waiting for Key to admit his stuff ups; I anticipate a long wait as he has yet to retract any of his lies.
Yeah it is a rare thing indeed was perhaps one of Helen’s greatest weaknesses.
I reckon the public warm to politicians who admit they f’up and I’m surprised they don’t do mea culpas more often.
So you want to play dodgeball, huh, Ian?
Of course Charles won’t recant – it’s not in his nature and it’s not in the nature of the party he represents. Much easier to blame the whole thing on some dastardly right wing plot.
To be fair to chauvel, he was using data from a reputable source that he had no reason to doubt. Who have admitted the flaw so it’s a bit pointless doing a retraction now
[lprent: Dumping identical comments across posts just pisses off moderators. ]
Intermittent signal September 2011/7 (last 15/9)
There was a great interview today about helping parents with their onerous tasks, something I
believe is vital and needs to happen. So there are positives coming through the fog of unpleasant news that we shouldn’t overlook.
On 9 to Noon today – Parenting with Matthew Sanders
Professor of parenting studies at the University of Auckland and University of Queensland. He was co-investigator of a major study carried out in South Carolina which found that there were lower rates of confirmed abuse cases, child out-of-home placements, and hospitalisations and emergency room visits for child injuries in countries where parenting support was implemented. (17′30″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2499133/parenting-with-matthew-sanders.asx
And it sounds as if its being done with no patronising or authoritarian attitudes to parents either.
There is a Telecom roadshow at lunchtime tomorrow — supposedly the biggest thing goin on in our market right now – which means this market sucks!!!!
…… although there are some really good yields out there
Ok – here are some NZ div yields
Hallensteins 12%
Telecom 12%
Restaurant Brands 11.5%
Methven 10%
Not bad – assuming they don’t cut the divy
Damn fine yields actually. Whether they survive the GFC Mk II is another question.
“The Herald is just now catching up with the online outrage against such a shallow and nasty attack against a Kiwi icon.” – Campbell Slater
How can Slater look at himself in the mirror at night. “Shallow and Nasty” attacks are all he fucking does. He’s a clinical depressive who seems to think the only way he can be happy is have his daddy bankroll his unemployment by having a blog that is set up for him to tell the world how fucking much he hates it. “Shallow and Nasty” and Salter are the same thing.
The Mad Butcher can fuck off, he knows what he was doing, stop licking Nationals balls , it makes your workingman brand look a joke. He plays in the media, that’s all he does, his butcheries went broke a long time ago and he doesn’t run them. He’s just the briscoe lady of cheap meat. Don’t play innocence. Leitch is just one of a long line of businessman who have opened butcheries in Auckland and like him, most fail and are bought out.