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.
Didn't See It Coming: NZ Herald columnist Lizzie Marvelly's latest column merits serious scrutiny because such a clear example of anti-democratic thinking is encountered only rarely on the pages of the daily press. Which is not to say that the elitism which lies at the heart of such social disparagement ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Initially it was reported that in an aerial bombardment that took place on August 30th seven children were massacred; the figure then went up to eight and then on November 11th Noticias Uno reported that, according to people from the community in close proximity to the ...
Next year is an election year, and Labour needs money to fund its campaign. So naturally, they're selling access:Labour is charging wealthy business figures $1500-a-head to lunch with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at its annual conference later this month. [...] On the weekend beginning November 29th, around 800 delegates will ...
Yesterday the government announced its changes to tenancy laws, including an end to no-cause evictions, limits on rent increases, and anonyminity for tenants who defend their rights against bad landlords (sadly necessary because landlords are scum who maintain blacklists of "uppity" tenants). They're all good moves, and have resulted in ...
In 2003 New Zealand sent a Provincial Reconstruction Team to Afghanistan to support America's doomed war there. While there, they conducted regular weapons practice on local firing ranges, littering the landscape with unexploded ammunition. These ranges weren't secure - they're on land used by locals for animal herding - so ...
Green MP Gareth Hughes has announced he will retire at the election. Its understandable - he's been there ten years, and wants to actually see his children grow up rather than miss it while drowning in the toxic parliamentary sewer. But his departure is also a huge loss for the ...
Words and images by Jacqui GibsonGone are Auckland Museum’s days of doing science using a museum-centric academic approach, after Māori land rights holders Ngāti Kuri gave the museum an ultimatum.Tom Trnski holding a fossilised whale tooth from the Far North.Aussie-born Head of Natural Sciences at Auckland Museum ...
MediaWorks announced in October 2019 that it intended to sell off its struggling television business and cancel or cut back on several popular local programmes, including New Zealand Today, Married at First SightNew Zealand and 7 Days. Its radio and outdoor advertising arms are currently performing well, but MediaWorks’ ...
Westminster voting intention:CON: 44% (+3)LAB: 28% (-1)LDEM: 14% (-1)BREX: 6% (-)via @OpiniumResearch, surveyed this weekChgs. w/ 08 Nov— Britain Elects (@britainelects) 16 November 2019 This, of course, doesn't look good. Labour have been chucking big, headline grabbing policies left, right and centre ... Well, maybe not right. Left, left ...
Some readers may remember that I mentioned last year that I was applying for NZ citizenship. I filled out the paperwork and had my original citizenship interview in February. Everything went well until they discovered that, because I had spent five months in the US in 2017, I had not ...
by Deirdre O’Neill It is becoming quite acceptable for certain sections of the left to declare that people like me – women who are ‘gender critical’ – should not be allowed in leftist or anarchist spaces. Leaving aside the arrogance and implicit authoritarianism of this claim, its lack of critical ...
There is an article in The Conversation, written by Jeremy P. Shapiro (Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University), about what he sees as the psychologically-based underpinnings of three main matters that seem to vex people all around the planet. The article is titled “The Thinking ...
. . Blogger Martyn Bradbury has won his case against unreasonable search and surveillance against the NZ Police; and subsequent Police attempts to produce evidence in secrecy, in a closed Court. His case highlights a disturbing growing trend in Aotearoa New Zealand for State power to be used against ...
The Committee of Disobedient Women has intercepted an email from Dr Emma Eejut, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Massey University to the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Jan Thomas. Dear Jan, Thank you for your courageous move. I think 10 pages of blether** should tie any of the students game enough to try holding ...
That's the only response to the findings of the Ombudsman's investigation into LGOIMA practices at the Christchurch City Council:My investigation identified serious concerns about the Council’s leadership and culture, and its commitment to openness and transparency. In particular, Council staff raised concerns with me about various methods employed by some ...
NZ First seems to be nakedly trying to enrich itself from public office:A powerful New Zealand First figure helped establish a forestry company that then pushed for money from two key funding streams controlled by a New Zealand First Minister. An RNZ investigation has found Brian Henry, lawyer for Winston ...
Behrouz Boochani is an award winning author and journalist. He is also a refugee, who for the past six years has been detained in Australia's offshore gulag on Manus Island, and in Papua New Guinea. But last night, with the cooperation of the WORD Christchurch festival and Amnesty International, he ...
Different Strokes: If a multicultural immigration policy imposes no obligation on immigrant communities to acknowledge and ultimately embrace their host nation’s most cherished traditions and values, then how is that nation to prevent itself from being reduced to a collection of inward-looking and self-replicating ethnic and cultural enclaves?THE COALITION GOVERNMENT’S ...
Protective Zone: Reading the rules and guidelines released by Massey University, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that its governing body considers the whole concept of free speech a disruptive threat to the orderly imparting of orthodox academic knowledge.IN TRUE ORWELLIAN fashion, Massey University has announced its commitment to ...
Farmers held a hate-march on Parliament today, complete with MAGA hats, gun-nut signs, and gendered insults. While supposedly about a grab-bag of issues - including, weirdly, mental health - it was clear that the protest was about one thing, and one thing only: climate change. And specifically, forestry "destroying" rural ...
The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security released their annual report today, and I've been busy reading through it. In amongst the usual review of what they've been doing all year, there's a few interesting bits. For example, a discussion on "agency retention and disposal of information", which points out that ...
Recently more than 150 post-graduate students and young scientists presented an open letter to the Green Party via The Spinoff, encouraging them to reconsider their position on genetic modification. Their target is tackling climate change issues.[1] Can any party continue to be dismissive about genetic modification (GM) contributing to ...
by Deirdre O’Neill Under Thatcher and then Blair and continuing up until our contemporary moment, the working class has seen its culture slowly and progressively destroyed. The change from an industrial society to a service society produced a marked shift in focus from the working class as the backbone of ...
Since 2013, the Australian government has detained refugees without trial in Pacific gulags, where they are abused, tortured, and driven to suicide. The policy is not just an abuse of human rights and possible crime against humanity; it has also had a corrosive effect on the states Australia uses as ...
It seems fair to say that we currently live in a problematic political moment in world history. Democracies are in decline and dictatorships are on the rise. Primordial, sectarian and post-modern divisions have re-emerged, are on the rise or have been accentuated by political evolutions of the moment such as ...
Last month, Greenpeace head Russel Norman surrendered his speaking slot at an EPA conference to student climate activist Sorcha Carr, who told the EPA exactly what she thought of them. It was a bold move, which confronted both regulators and polluters (or, as the EPA calls them, "stakeholders") with the ...
The core principle supposedly underlying New Zealand's electoral finance regime is transparency: parties can accept large donations from rich people wanting to buy policy, but only if they tell the public they've been bought. Most parties abide by this, so we know that TOP was wholly-owned by Gareth Morgan, and ...
Today is a Member's Day, probably the second-to-last one of the year, and its a big one, with the Third Reading of David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. last Member's Day it was reported back from committee, after MPs voted narrowly to make it subject to a (rules TBA) ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThe growth of the human population over the last 70 ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women In her excellent oral submission to the Abortion reform select committee on 31st October on behalf of Otago University’s Department of Public Health, historian and public health researcher Hera Cook stated: “We would ask that the committee not use the term ‘pregnant persons’ and ...
by Don Franks In 1957, E M Forster wrote, of his greatest work: “The India described in ‘A Passage to India’ no longer exists either politically or socially. Change had begun even at the time the book was published ( 1924) and during the following quarter of a century it ...
The Referendums Framework Bill was due back from select committee today. But there's no report on it. Instead, the bill has been bounced back to the House under Standing order 29593) because the Committee didn't bother to produce one. They probably tried. But given the membership of the committee (which ...
Two years into New Zealand’s Labour-led government, the long-delayed Zero Carbon Bill became law on 7 November. Passed essentially unanimously, the lengthy public debates and political manoeuvring faded away until the final passage was even anticlimactic: Flipping through the @nzstuff@DomPost I was starting to wonder if I’d dreamt ...
Now the Zero Carbon Bill is law, what's next? Obviously, the ETS changes currently before select committee are going to be the next battleground. But we're also going to get a good idea of where we're going, and if the progress the Zero Carbon Act promises is good enough, during ...
Grant PearceThe effects of the current Australian bushfires in New South Wales and Queensland (and also again in California) are devastating and far-reaching. To date, the fires have resulted in several lives being lost and many homes and properties destroyed. Here in New Zealand, the impacts have been only ...
A passing comment in a post the other day about the labour force participation rates of older people prompted me to pull down the fuller data and see what we could see about various participation rates over the decades since the HLFS began in 1986. As it happens, the ...
Distract And Divert: The rise of what we have come to call “Identity Politics” represents the ideological manifestation of the ruling class’s objective need to destroy class politics, and of the middle-class’s subjective need to justify their participation in the process.THE RELIEF of the ruling class can only be imagined. ...
"I saw a newspaper picture,From the political campaignA woman was kissing a child,Who was obviously in pain.She spills with compassion,As that young child'sFace in her hands she gripsCan you imagine all that greed and avariceComing down on that child's lips?" ...
Dr Matt Boyd, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Nick WilsonThe Global Health Security Index which considers pandemic threats has just been published. Unfortunately, NZ scores approximately half marks (54/100), coming in 35th in the world rankings – far behind Australia. This poor result suggests that the NZ Government needs to ...
The Zero Carbon Act is inadequate, with a weak methane target designed to give farmers a free ride. But it turns out it could have been worse: Climate Change Minister James Shaw was so desperate to get National on board, he wanted to gut that target, and leave it in ...
The Herald reprints an Australian story on a couple of tragic deaths in Bali from drinking cocktails that had methanol in them. The story argues that methanol is likely the result of home distillation. But what the young tourists were experiencing was far from a hangover. They’d consumed a toxic cocktail ...
Last month, the police announced a trial of specialist roaming armed units, which would drive round (poor, brown) areas in armoured SUVs, armed to the teeth. When they announced the trial, they told us it was about having armed police "ready to attend major incidents at any time if needed". ...
Spain went to the polls today in the second elections this year, after the Socialists (who had come to power in a confidence vote, then gone to the polls in April) rejected the offer of a coalition with the left-wing PoDemos, and instead decided to gamble n a better outcome ...
A couple of days ago I attended (and spoke at) the University of Waikato’s “LearnFest” event. There were lots of talks and sessions on very diverse aspects of teaching, mostly at tertiary level. One was by Myra Williamson from Te Piringa Faculty of Law here at Waikato, on Contract Cheating ...
There will be a transit of Mercury – the planet Mercury will pass across the face of the Sun – taking place at sunrise in New Zealand on Tuesday, 12th November. It was by observing such an event 250 years ago that James Cook and his scientist colleagues were able ...
Since becoming the world’s first openly transexual mayor and member of parliament, Georgina Beyer has been recognised as a trailblazer for trans rights. Daphna Whitmore talks with her about where she sees the current trans movement We start out talking about legislation the government put on hold that would have ...
If FFNZ really put their faith in “Top Medical Journals” they would now be amending their billboards to recognise new research results. Image from FFNZ but updated to agree with the latest research. ...
National Messiah? Chris Luxon identifies himself as an evangelical Christian. If he is genuine in this self-characterisation, then he will take every opportunity his public office provides to proselytise on behalf of his faith. He will also feel obliged to bear witness against beliefs and practices he believes to be ...
I'm going to make a Reckless Prediction™ that the Tories have 'topped out' in the 'poll of polls' / Britain Elects multipoll tracker at about 38%, and in the next week we will start to see Labour creep up on them.In fact, we might just be seeing the start of ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Lizzie Marvelly: “I may have missed this… has @afterellen gone all terf-y? Or am I reading something incorrectly? “ https://twitter.com/LizzieMarvelly/status/1191840059105742849 After Ellen is a lesbian website that is unashamedly pro-lesbian, as you’d expect. So why is Ms Marvelly so bothered about lesbians having their ...
Did you know there once was a time when it was illegal to be a gypsy (aka Romani) in Britain?That was between 1530, when the Egyptians Act was passed, and 1856, when it was repealed.Amongst other things, the act forbade the entry of 'Egyptians' into England, ordered those already there ...
Some days I sit and think, “what will I write…?” What do you say when you get to 1000 posts? Maybe you just start where you are, diverge to where this all began, then offer a collection of reader’s favourite posts, and a few of your own? (And throw in ...
Counter-Puncher: The “activists” and “radicals” (his own words) from the Indian community who took such strong exception to Shane Jones’ remarks about Immigration NZ’s treatment of arranged marriages, may end up bitterly regretting their intervention. Jones is not the sort of person who turns the other cheek to his critics.SHANE ...
In the spirit of Remember, remember the fifth of November, let's keep this in mind FOREVER.
Oh dear. Extraordinary interview on PM with Andrew Bridgen and @EvanHD just now. Bridgen was defending Jacob Rees Mogg’s Grenfell comments. Evan asked him if JRM had meant to say he would have left ...
Collision Course? In conditions of ideological white-out, the international bankers’ “Woop-Woop! Pull Up!” warning may have come too late to save global capitalism.WHAT DOES IT MEAN when international bankers are more willing to embrace radical solutions than our politicians and their electors? At both the International Monetary Fund and the ...
Pertussis (whooping cough) is a conundrum. It is a disease that was described hundreds of years ago and the bacteria that causes it (Bordetella pertussis) isolated in 1906. We have had vaccines for about 80 years but this disease is defiant in the face of human immunity. I wanted to ...
The Zero Carbon Bill has just passed its third reading, uanimously. In the end, National supported it - but we all know they'll turn around and gut it the moment they regain power. Meanwhile, I guess ACT's David Seymour didn't even bother to show up. I am on record as ...
Dr Lindsay Robertson, Dr Jerram Bateman, Professor Janet HoekMembers of the public health community hold divergent views on how access to vaping products or electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) products should be arranged. Some believe ENDS should be as widely available as smoked tobacco and argue for liberal ...
When the Police were trying to cover up for the National Party over Dirty Politics, they went all-in with their abuses of power. They illegally search Nicky Hager's house, violating his journalistic privilege and invading his privacy. They unlawfully acquired Hager's bank records. They did the same to left-wing blogger ...
Last month, in response to a wave of protests by Extinction Rebellion, the British government purported to ban their protests from the whole of London. It was a significant interference with the freedoms of expression and assembly, and another sign of the country's decline into tyranny. But now, a court ...
Last year, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security reported on significant problems with the intelligence warrant system. While they were unwilling to declare any warrant "irregular" (meaning unlawful) due to the recent law change, they were also not willing to give the system a clean bill of health. Now, they've ...
The National Party has come out in support of encouraging greater vaccination uptake. But it sure isn’t the way I’d do it. National’s suggested docking the benefits of those on benefit whose kids aren’t keeping up with their vaccinations. Some in National have suggested extending that to payments under Working ...
Feeding The Flames: It is simply not enough to demand an end to “corruption”, or “inequality”, or the overbearing influence of the authorities in Beijing. These are just “lowest common denominator” demands: the sort of slogans that pull people onto the streets. They are not a plan.WHERE’S THE PLAN? Across ...
The labour market statistics have been released, and unemployment has risen to 4.2%. There are 115,000 unemployed - 11,000 fewer than when Labour took office. In that time the minimum wage has gone up by $2 an hour, which shows that the right's fears about increases causing unemployment are simply ...
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has called for submissions on Andrew Little's tyrannicalTerrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill. Normally I encourage participation in the democratic process. I am not doing so in this case. Instead, I encourage all of you to boycott this submissions process, and to post ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzIf tiny concentrations of carbon dioxide can hold enough heat ...
Aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and within it, one of the fastest sources is elite travel: billionaires flitting around the world in their private jets, spewing excessive pollution into the atmosphere just so they can avoid mixing with us dirty peasants. But in ...
That's what we face if we don't stop climate change, according to a warning from 11,000 scientists:The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists. “We declare clearly and unequivocally ...
by Phil Duncan Here’s just a few of the kind of threats issued day in and day out against gender-critical women – feminists, marxists, etc – overwhelmingly by MEN (albeit men identifying as women). “Kill all Terfs”. “Shoot a Terf today”. “All terfs deserve to be shot in the head”. ...
This is the third of the synopses of parts of the opening chapter of John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century (New York, Monthly Review Press, 2016). The synopsis and commentary below is written by Phil Duncan. Unlike the humble cup of coffee and t-shirt that we looked at in ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries Today the Government announced the delivery of the promise to protect New Zealand interests by applying a new National Interest Test to the sales of our most sensitive and high risk assets to overseas buyers. This further strengthening of the Overseas Investment Act will ...
The Coalition Government is delivering on its promise to protect New Zealanders’ interests by applying a new national interest test to the sales of our most sensitive and high-risk assets to overseas buyers. Under current Overseas Investment Act (OIA) rules, assets such as ports and airports, telecommunications infrastructure, electricity and ...
Rt Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First Allegations raised this morning by Stuff Limited / Fairfax concern a party matter but I am confident that New Zealand First has operated within electoral laws, now and for the last 27 years. Declarable donations were declared to the Electoral Commission. Our ...
The chairman of the Upper North Island Supply Chain Strategy (UNISCS) working group, Wayne Brown, has hit back at critics of his group’s recommendations to relocate the Ports of Auckland cargo operations to Whangarei’s deepwater port of Northport. The working group's recommendation to close Auckland waterfront to all but cruise ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First backs the public to decide on the End of Life Choice Bill via a referendum at the 2020 General Election. The Bill, with New Zealand First’s referendum provision incorporated, passed its final reading in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Justice New Zealand First is proud that a key Coalition Agreement commitment which will provide for a more transparent and effective criminal justice system has been realised. Legislation to establish the Criminal Cases Review Commission, an independent body focused on identifying and responding to possible miscarriages of ...
"Today we have made a choice that will leave a legacy... I hope that means that future generations will see that we, in New Zealand, were on the right side of history." - Jacinda Ardern, Third Reading of the Zero Carbon Bill ...
Darroch Ball, New Zealand First List MP A Member’s bill has been proposed that would provide income tax exemptions for all New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel while on operational deployment overseas. The Income Tax (Exemption for Salary or Wages of NZDF Members on Active Deployment) Amendment Bill proposed by New Zealand First ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have brought common sense to the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, which passed its final reading in Parliament today. Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters says months of hard work went into negotiating a balanced ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First has listened to calls to recognise paramedics as registered health professionals under the Health Practitioners’ Competence Assurance Act (the Act).Today, the Coalition Government announced plans for paramedics to be registered as health practitioners under the Act, and the establishment of a ...
We began the week by commemorating the New Zealand Wars and celebrating a major increase in the number of teachers. Then, we were busy supporting offenders into work and getting our rail back on track after years of underinvestment. And that's just the start! ...
In October I was sworn in as the Mayor of Lower Hutt.It’s the privilege of my life to serve Hutt people as their Mayor. There is something really special to be able to serve the community where I was raised, and where I live. ...
New rules to clamp down on overzealous wheel clamping and extortionate fees charged in order to release a vehicle have passed their final stage in Parliament today. The Land Transport (Wheel Clamping) Amendment Bill has now passed its third reading. “These changes mean $100 will be the maximum wheel clamping ...
An independent Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission is a step closer after it unanimously passed its first vote in Parliament today. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill lays the groundwork for establishing the Commission as a fully independent crown entity – delivering on a key recommendation of He Ara ...
We’ve improved border security with the NZeTA, New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority, which helps us to screen travellers for border and immigration risks off-shore before they travel to New Zealand. It was launched in August and became mandatory on 1 October 2019. More than 500,000 NZeTAs have been issued since ...
A proposed national plan of action to reduce the number of seabirds caught in fisheries is being circulated for public feedback. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage say New Zealand is a global centre of seabird diversity with about 145 species in our waters. It has more ...
The Government is delivering on its promise to protect New Zealanders’ interests by applying a new national interest test to the sales of our most sensitive and high risk assets to overseas buyers. Associate Finance Minister David Parker said under current Overseas Investment Act rules, assets such as ports and ...
The Government is building special housing to accommodate one of Aotearoa’s greatest taonga- our kaumātua, says the Minister for Māori Development, Hon Nanaia Mahuta. Speaking at a National Kaumātua Service Providers Conference in Rotorua today, the Minister reinforced the importance kaumātua play in maintaining and passing on mātauranga Māori, knowledge, ...
Eleven men from a pilot forestry training programme for prisoners in Northland now have full time jobs or job offers upon release, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis and Forestry Minister Shane Jones announced today. The ‘release to work’ programme was a collaboration between Te Uru Rākau and the Department of Corrections, ...
Minister of State Services Chris Hipkins today introduced into Parliament a Bill that will make it easier for the public service to tackle the biggest challenges facing Governments. The Bill represents the most significant change in the public service in 30 years. The State Sector Act 1988 will be repealed ...
The families of more than 416,000 students will be better off next year as their schools have signed up to the Government’s donations scheme, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. The scheme will see almost $62.5 million in additional Government funding go to schools nationwide next year. “I’m really pleased ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced further support as the Government of Samoa responds to a serious measles outbreak. “New Zealand will deploy a further 18 vaccination nurses, bringing the total to 30 working in Samoa over the next four weeks,” Mr Peters said. “A New Zealand Medical Assistance ...
Fa’atalofa atu, malo e lelei, Kia ora koutou katoa Thank you to the Child Poverty Action Group for asking me to be here today to provide an update on some of the things that have been happening across my the social development portfolio. Can I firstly acknowledge the vast ...
***Please check against delivery*** Good morning everyone. It is a pleasure to be with you this morning to open this year’s New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Conference and AGM. Firstly, thank you Dr Alan Jackson, NZTR Chair for your introduction. And let us acknowledge also: The NZTR Board; Dean McKenzie, Chair ...
The Government has delivered on its promise to the over one million New Zealanders who now rent to make it fairer and more secure, Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing) Kris Faafoi has announced today. Both renters and landlords will benefit from the suite of practical changes to the Residential ...
A marine conservation milestone - the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Te Tapuwae o Rongokako Marine Reserve - is being celebrated today at a community event in Tairāwhiti/East Coast attended by the Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “The creation of this marine reserve in November 1999 was a game ...
The Government is asking the food industry to step up work to tackle obesity including reducing sugar, fat and salt in their products, better information for consumers, and tighter restrictions on advertising to children. Health Minister David Clark and Food Safety Minister Damien O’Connor have responded to a ...
ew, modern emergency department and outpatient facilities at Queenstown’s Lakes District Hospital mean better emergency care for the growing tourist mecca’s visitors and locals, says Health Minister David Clark. Today Dr Clark officially opened the hospital’s redeveloped Emergency Department and Outpatient facilities. The new facilities include: • An extended Emergency Department ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter says today’s release of sexual and reproductive health data reinforces the significance of the Government’s commitment to providing free or very low-cost contraception. The Ministry of Health today published statistics from the Ministry of Health’s 2014/15 Health Survey. “It is important people can make ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced that at the request of the Samoan Government, New Zealand will be providing further support to Samoa as it faces a worsening measles outbreak. “In response to a request from the people of Samoa, New Zealand is providing 3000 measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) ...
“The new Disability Action Plan 2019–2023 moves us towards the inclusive and accessible New Zealand that this government has committed to,” Minister for Disability Issues Carmel Sepuloni announced today. “The Action Plan was designed by disabled people, their family and supporters, the disability sector and government agencies. It will ensure ...
Third Singapore-New Zealand Defence Ministers’ Meeting 14 November 2019 Joint Statement 1. Defence Ministers Ron Mark and Dr Ng Eng Hen today conducted their third annual Singapore-New Zealand Defence Ministers’ Meeting in Singapore. 2. Building on the Enhanced Partnership signed between both countries in May this year, this annual meeting ...
A Bill to improve the court system’s response to sexual violence has passed its first reading in Parliament today. Justice Minister Andrew Little says the Sexual Violence Legislation Bill will reduce the trauma sexual violence complainants experience in court, while maintaining defendants’ fundamental rights and making sure the trial process ...
Streamlined payment practices are a step closer for Kiwi businesses with the formal launch of New Zealand’s e-Invoicing framework. Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says the government has now established the structure to enable automated and direct data exchange between the accounting systems of buyers and sellers. “The move to ...
Another 51 quarantine officers and four new biosecurity detector dog teams will help protect New Zealand from invasive pests and diseases this summer, says Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor. “The Government is delivering on its commitment to strengthen New Zealand’s biosecurity system and support our valuable primary sector “New Zealand’s flora, fauna ...
A new report has found New Zealand’s space sector contributed $1.69 billion to the economy in the last financial year and employs 12,000 people, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford announced today. The report by Deloitte was commissioned by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and shows New Zealand ...
Judge Coral Shaw has been appointed as the new Chair of the Royal Commission into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions, Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin announced today. "Judge Shaw, who is currently one of the inquiry commissioners, is extremely well qualified for the ...
The Government has confirmed its third major mental health facility upgrade since the Budget, this time at Palmerston North Hospital. The Prime Minister and Health Minister today visited MidCentral DHB to announce that $30 million has been allocated to upgrade its acute mental health facility. It follows earlier announcements in ...
The roll out of the National Bowel Screening Programme has reached the halfway mark, with 10 out of 20 District Health Boards now part of the programme. MidCentral DHB, which covers Palmerston North, Manawatu and surrounding districts, this week became the latest to DHB to offer free bowel screening to ...
The Government welcomes PHARMAC’s decision to fund a vaccine to protect young people from meningococcal disease from 1 December this year. “Meningococcal disease is a serious threat which people at higher risk should be protected from,” says Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter. “The combined pharmaceutical budget was increased by ...
Groups involved with innovative fisheries research projects are encouraged to apply for government support in the latest funding round from the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures programme. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash says the SFF Futures funding is designed to be flexible enough to support small or large projects across a ...
The Government has fixed an issue affecting how Immigration New Zealand has processed visa applications for culturally arranged marriages, which will now see a consistent process applied which ensures people with legitimate arranged marriages can visit New Zealand while also preventing any rorting of the system. Earlier this year Immigration ...
The Royal Commission into the Attacks on Christchurch Mosques will report back on 30 April 2020 to give it more time to hear submissions and consider information, Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The Royal Commission was originally scheduled to report back to Government by 10 December 2019. “There has ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Washington DC today to attend a ministerial meeting focused on defeating ISIS, and to continue pursuing New Zealand’s trade opportunities. Mr Peters will participate in a meeting of Foreign and Defence Ministers from key countries contributing to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. ...
The recently crowned Bird of the Year, the hoiho/yellow eyed penguin, is getting a much needed helping hand alongside more than 168 other community conservation projects announced Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage today. 168 community conservation projects throughout New Zealand are benefiting from $8 million in government grants, including $500,000 ...
Controls on assault rifles and semi-automatic firearms are to be broadened to include some types of pistols, under changes to a bill currently making its way through Parliament. Police Minister Stuart Nash has tabled a Supplementary Order Paper to the Arms Legislation Bill, which is currently before a Select Committee ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark will travel to Singapore today to conduct a counterpart visit and to co-chair the third annual Singapore-New Zealand Defence Ministers’ Meeting with his counterpart, Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen. “Singapore is one of our most important defence partners in the region, and our ...
Nelson’s Salisbury School is to be rebuilt, creating a modern and suitable learning environment for students at the residential special school, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The school for girls aged 8-15, in Richmond, was earmarked for closure by National until the process ...
The panel undertaking a comprehensive review of the Resource Management Act has identified the main issues to be addressed and options for reform and is calling for feedback to inform its final report. In July the Government announced the comprehensive review of the resource management system, including the RMA - ...
An important safety valve has been added to New Zealand’s criminal justice system with the third reading of the Criminal Cases Review Commission Bill today. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) will investigate claimed miscarriages of justice. “We’ve seen how our justice system can very occasionally get things spectacularly wrong, ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters welcomes the tabling of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) 2019 Annual Report in Parliament today. He says the 2019 Annual Report marks the point when New Zealand’s racing industry’s decline was arrested and a turnaround started. RITA’s 2019 Annual Report recorded an industry net profit ...
The New Zealand Government is today sending 21 firefighters to help fight the ongoing catastrophic Australian bushfires. “The fires in Australia are in some of the toughest, most challenging conditions ever,” says Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin. “As of yesterday morning, there were 100 active bushfire-related incidents across Queensland and ...
Erica Dawson didn't want to be another female who dropped out of sailing, so now she's focused on the Tokyo Olympics and being a role model instead ...
Are possible solutions to child maltreatment complicated? Yes. Quantum physics? No. The University of Auckland's Dr Ian Hyslop looks at how we can address child abuse as a social problem. ...
If what has been reported is both true and not a breach of the rules for political donations, then New Zealand’s reputation for for being squeaky clean looks like a joke, writes electoral law expert Andrew Geddis.Anyone paying attention to New Zealand political parties and how they run their election ...
New Zealanders like to claim moral superiority over their Australian neighbours when it comes to how asylum seekers are treated. But this belief is not based on reality, writes Tim Maurice of the Asylum Seekers Support TrustThe local news media has welcomed Iranian asylum seeker Behrouz Boochani into New Zealand ...
Sometimes it’s a great job being a news editor. Like the BBC staffer putting together the national news for radio on Tuesday morning.Lead off with the Conservative party election pledge to increase the life sentence for child murderers to … er … really life. Add factual qualification: this might ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government is responding to increasing concern about the faltering economy by bringing forward A$3.8 billion of infrastructure investment into the next four years, including $1.8 billion for the current and next financial years. Scott ...
Power Play - Rumours of dodgy political donations, Winston Peters full of bluster and denial, and potentially a drawn-out series of combative but ultimately meaningless exchanges with the press gallery. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government has overhauled its much-criticised robo-debt scheme which has seen many welfare recipients asked to repay money they do not owe. A Tuesday email to staff in the Human Services department’s customer compliance division ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government has overhauled its much-criticised robo-debt scheme which has seen many welfare recipients asked to repay money they do not owe. A Tuesday email to staff in the Human Services department’s customer compliance division ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University Every summer in Australia, bushfires, cyclones and floods threaten lives and properties. Preparing for these emergencies includes creating an emergency kit that contains everything you and your baby will ...
I am an everyday Mum and I am scared. My youngest child is 4 years old. In 2100 she will turn 85. What will that world look like? On our current trajectory, it’s not looking great. You have all heard the consequences of every degree that goes up in ...
Sam Brooks gives you the lowdown on Disney+, the exhaustive streaming service launching today.What on this good green world is Disney+?Disney+ is a streaming service run by, as you might expect, Disney. If you need someone to explain what Disney is to you, then this service probably isn’t for you. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caroline Wake, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance, UNSW Australia invests heavily in its major festivals: A$5 million in state government funding for Sydney Festival, $7 million for Perth, and $9 million for Adelaide. Funding for festivals has remained relatively constant over ...
Forest & Bird is calling on New Zealanders to back strong rules to protect penguins, albatross, and other seabirds from fishing nets and hooks, as the Government releases its National Plan of Action on Seabirds for consultation . ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Colin Klein, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Australian National University Why do people believe conspiracy theories? Is it because of who they are, what they’ve encountered, or a combination of both? The answer is important. Belief in conspiracy theories helps fuel climate change ...
There are many things up for debate in Parliament this week, including wheel clamping, farm debt and loan sharks. Among the work load here are few of the key things to keep an eye out for. ...
After months of silence on Ihumātao, the government is considering a loan to Auckland Council to buy the occupied Fletcher-owned land, according to an RNZ report.What is the dispute over the land? Fletcher Residential bought a section of land in South Auckland in 2014 for $19m with plans to build a ...
Organisations from across Auckland have gathered to come up with solutions to make the city safer for women at night – including a commitment from Uber NZ to make it easier to report harassment and abuse, write Emma McInnes and Amanda Gilmore.Over 70% of women in Aotearoa have been a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amanda Tattersall, Postdoc in Urban Geography and Research Lead at Sydney Policy Lab. Host of ChangeMakers Podcast., University of Sydney While thousands of Hong Kongers have protested “like water” for the past six months – flowing through the city with seemingly spontaneous ...
Tuesday, 19 November: An international team of scientists have just found that nitrous oxide emissions are rising much faster than had been previously thought. ...
The Labour led coalition government is continuing to create homelessness. The impact of immigration, failure of Kiwibuild, and attacks on the rental market, have resulted in the opposite outcomes that New Zealanders were promised. ...
Kris Faafoi, ranked 17th in Cabinet, emerged as the politician who most impressed top chief executives for ministerial performance in this year’s NZ Herald CEOs survey. It is the first time in the history of the Mood of the Boardroom survey that a minister ranked towards the tailend of Cabinet, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Last week’s catastrophic fires on Australia’s east coast – and warnings of more soon to come – will become all too common as climate change gathers pace. And as the challenges ...
NZ First leader Winston Peters has responded to allegations his party breached electoral law, saying he's confident the party has always acted within the law. ...
19 November 2019: In May 2019, Hon Judith Collins raised some concerns about KiwiBuild with our Office. We decided to look into those concerns as part of the 2018/19 annual audit of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. We have now completed that ...
The Radio New Zealand headline was emphatic– Ihumātao protest: Govt will not intervene, PM says. Some four months later we can put this into the same political leadership category as Bill Clinton’s equally emphatic “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” The RNZ headline sat atop a ...
A global movement which has transformed the way young people engage with philanthropy is launching in New Zealand and 10x10 is encouraging young Kiwis to choose charity over avocado toast at its first event in Auckland this month. ...
In the second part of a new event series looking at the future of Auckland, The Spinoff and Auckland Council host In My Backyard: Glen Innes, to ask what the suburb can teach the rest of the city about housing. Photographer Brendan Kitto shares his images from the 2016 exhibition Redevelop ...
Employees of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research say they don’t want to take industrial action, but management have backed them into a corner. ...
NZ First leader Winston Peters is refusing to comment on news reports raising questions about how the party uses the New Zealand First Foundation to handle donations. ...
The Finance Minister Grant Robertson says it's too early to definitively say the Government is looking to lend millions of dollars to Auckland Council, to buy disputed land at Ihumātao. ...
The government will strengthen overseas investment rules by assessing whether the sale of high-risk assets - including "significant media entities" - is in the national interest. ...
The Public Service Association supports a Bill introduced by the government yesterday that aims to replace the State Sector Act 1988 with a new Public Service Act. ...
A quiz from the NZ Initiative got people talking this morning, mostly because it showed we were a nation of dumb-dumbs. Alex Braae, a person of limited intelligence and vast general knowledge, took the test. People who know me often conclude that there’s one area in which I really shine – ...
Leaks of NZ First Foundation records raise big questions about the party’s funding, and there’s every chance of more to come. A glance at history suggests the scale of the problem. An early election may not be a bad idea at all, suggests Danyl MclauchlanIt’s happening.During its time in government ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that Police were justified in using a Police dog during the arrest of a man in Auckland on 9 November 2018. ...
A review of the Crown Minerals Act 1991 to ensure it supports the long-term well-being of New Zealanders has been launched today with the release of a discussion document. ...
The A2 Milk Company expects continued strong growth for its speciality dairy products with increased marketing investment in China and the United States. ...
Greenpeace protesters have covered Parliament lawn with replica coral this morning, calling on the Government to take urgent action on bottom trawling. ...
Chlöe Swarbrick’s “OK boomer” retort in Parliament has proved to be the spark that set alight a dry field of latent generational angst. The debate over the remark rolls on and on, revealing that generational warfare is a growing cleavage in New Zealand. Increasingly, political problems of housing, inequality, climate ...
Can the flagship Disney+ show The Mandalorian serve the Star Wars diehards at the same time as the casual viewer, asks Sam Brooks.A quick multiple-choice test to find out if The Mandalorian is for you or not.Q. Does the title The Mandalorian mean anything to you?A) No.B) Kind of? It’s definitely part of ...
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 content by Dr Bryce Edwards.NZ First Matt Shand (Stuff): NZ First Foundation dodging electoral rules? Records suggest breaches Matt ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is labelling the Government and Auckland Council cowards, for reportedly giving in to the thugs occupying privately owned Ihumātao and proposing to use taxpayer funds and Auckland Council to buy the land. Radio NZ is reporting ...
Auckland one of the worst cities in the world for public transport, road taxes according to new data; and substantial benefit hikes appear off the Government's agenda. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rochelle Einboden, Lecturer, The Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sydney In Victoria, 35 young people aged 12-17 years ended their lives by suicide between 2007 and 2019 – all were entangled in the child protection system. This was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Haslam, Professor of Psychology and ARC Laureate Fellow, The University of Queensland The ABC’s Australia Talks project aims to stimulate a conversation on a broad sweep of topics — from job security and sexual habits to national pride and personal finances. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pep Canadell, Chief research scientist, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere; and Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, CSIRO Nitrous oxide (N₂O) (more commonly known as laughing gas) is a powerful contributor to global warming. It is 265 times more effective at trapping heat in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hilary Hollingsworth, Principal Research Fellow, Australian Council for Educational Research Australian teachers are in the thick of producing end-of-year reports. In many schools, the report writing process begins several weeks – or even months – before reports are eventually released. This process ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. (attributed to Danish physicist Niels Bohr) The difficulty of making predictions has long been known, but the rise of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Claire Smith, Professor of Archaeology, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University The Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory is dotted with around 300 termite mounds, dressed as people. They are reminiscent of giant, ochre coloured “snowmen” in their distinctly ...
Almost half a million dollars in political donations appear to have been hidden inside a secret slush fund controlled by a coterie of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters’ trusted advisers. ...
Sources tell RNZ the Crown is considering loaning money to the council to buy the disputed land, with Fletcher seeking $40m - more than double what it paid in 2014. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Christchurch stadium funding in the spotlight, more trouble for NZ First, and medical students caught in rort.Construction hasn’t even come close to starting on the new Christchurch stadium and the money is looking shaky. Stuff’s Michael Hayward reports a business case is ...
Severe storm surges will get bigger around parts of the South Island and smaller around the North Island as the climate changes, two studies have now predicted. ...
Bernard Hickey visited E-Go’s electric car factory in Aachen, Germany to find how it used a 5G network to flip car-making on its head, and how it’s an example of what Industry 4.0 could look like in New Zealand. ...
Open mike 29/09/2011 
Stuff's story on NZDF's negligence around its Afghan firing ranges has produced a result, with a commitment from the Prime Minister for an urgent cleanup. But this doesn't mean NZDF is accepting responsibility for the deaths and injuries that have occured - they're still refusing compensation. Which given that the ...18 hours ago
Didn't See It Coming: NZ Herald columnist Lizzie Marvelly's latest column merits serious scrutiny because such a clear example of anti-democratic thinking is encountered only rarely on the pages of the daily press. Which is not to say that the elitism which lies at the heart of such social disparagement ...21 hours ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Initially it was reported that in an aerial bombardment that took place on August 30th seven children were massacred; the figure then went up to eight and then on November 11th Noticias Uno reported that, according to people from the community in close proximity to the ...24 hours ago
Words and images by Jacqui Gibson Gone are Auckland Museum’s days of doing science using a museum-centric academic approach, after Māori land rights holders Ngāti Kuri gave the museum an ultimatum.
MediaWorks announced in October 2019 that it intended to sell off its struggling television business and cancel or cut back on several popular local programmes, including New Zealand Today, Married at First Sight New Zealand and 7 Days. Its radio and outdoor advertising arms are currently performing well, but MediaWorks’ ...2 days ago
Some readers may remember that I mentioned last year that I was applying for NZ citizenship. I filled out the paperwork and had my original citizenship interview in February. Everything went well until they discovered that, because I had spent five months in the US in 2017, I had not ...3 days ago
There is an article in The Conversation, written by Jeremy P. Shapiro (Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University), about what he sees as the psychologically-based underpinnings of three main matters that seem to vex people all around the planet. The article is titled “The Thinking ...4 days ago
. . Blogger Martyn Bradbury has won his case against unreasonable search and surveillance against the NZ Police; and subsequent Police attempts to produce evidence in secrecy, in a closed Court. His case highlights a disturbing growing trend in Aotearoa New Zealand for State power to be used against ...4 days ago
by The Council of Disobedient Women In her excellent oral submission to the Abortion reform select committee on 31st October on behalf of Otago University’s Department of Public Health, historian and public health researcher Hera Cook stated: “We would ask that the committee not use the term ‘pregnant persons’ and ...1 week ago
If FFNZ really put their faith in “Top Medical Journals” they would now be amending their billboards to recognise new research results. Image from FFNZ but updated to agree with the latest research. ... 1 week ago
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries Today the Government announced the delivery of the promise to protect New Zealand interests by applying a new National Interest Test to the sales of our most sensitive and high risk assets to overseas buyers. This further strengthening of the Overseas Investment Act will ...16 hours ago
We're setting our young people up for success, investing in education around the country. ...2 days ago
New rules to clamp down on overzealous wheel clamping and extortionate fees charged in order to release a vehicle have passed their final stage in Parliament today. The Land Transport (Wheel Clamping) Amendment Bill has now passed its third reading. “These changes mean $100 will be the maximum wheel clamping ...11 hours ago
Erica Dawson didn't want to be another female who dropped out of sailing, so now she's focused on the Tokyo Olympics and being a role model instead ...1 hour ago
Otaki writer Renée reveals the personal circumstances behind her new crime novel The Wild Card. ...1 hour ago
Fortune has been kind to Sonny Bill Williams, allowing him to stay healthy enough to bank one as the curtain slides down, ...1 hour ago
Are possible solutions to child maltreatment complicated? Yes. Quantum physics? No. The University of Auckland's Dr Ian Hyslop looks at how we can address child abuse as a social problem. ...1 hour ago
Dr Simon Chapple discusses what he describes as a considerable power grab by government ministers - to the detriment of the public good. ...1 hour ago
If what has been reported is both true and not a breach of the rules for political donations, then New Zealand’s reputation for for being squeaky clean looks like a joke, writes electoral law expert Andrew Geddis.Anyone paying attention to New Zealand political parties and how they run their election ...2 hours ago
If the Mt Albert protests are about removing trees, why have the Tree Council and Forest & Bird taken the side of the axemen? ...2 hours ago
Sometimes it’s a great job being a news editor. Like the BBC staffer putting together the national news for radio on Tuesday morning. Lead off with the Conservative party election pledge to increase the life sentence for child murderers to … er … really life. Add factual qualification: this might ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government is responding to increasing concern about the faltering economy by bringing forward A$3.8 billion of infrastructure investment into the next four years, including $1.8 billion for the current and next financial years. Scott ...6 hours ago
More politics will be added into the mix when it comes to the issue of foreign ownership. ...9 hours ago
Power Play - Rumours of dodgy political donations, Winston Peters full of bluster and denial, and potentially a drawn-out series of combative but ultimately meaningless exchanges with the press gallery. ...11 hours ago
Claims of a concerted effort to cloak donations are not yet proven, but there is enough there to concern Jacinda Ardern and the public. ...13 hours ago
I am an everyday Mum and I am scared. My youngest child is 4 years old. In 2100 she will turn 85. What will that world look like? On our current trajectory, it’s not looking great. You have all heard the consequences of every degree that goes up in ...13 hours ago
The Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has been ordered to add $250 million to its capital reserves after miscalculating its risk. ...14 hours ago
Labour's Māori caucus is pushing for a settlement at Ihumāto, which could include a creative solution. ...14 hours ago
The Commerce Minister is refusing to comment on reports the government is backing a new bid from NZME to buy Stuff. ...15 hours ago
Retirement village and aged care company Arvida has benefited from strong gains in the value of property and improved sales prices. ...16 hours ago
Kris Faafoi, ranked 17th in Cabinet, emerged as the politician who most impressed top chief executives for ministerial performance in this year’s NZ Herald CEOs survey. It is the first time in the history of the Mood of the Boardroom survey that a minister ranked towards the tailend of Cabinet, ...17 hours ago
The Radio New Zealand headline was emphatic – Ihumātao protest: Govt will not intervene, PM says. Some four months later we can put this into the same political leadership category as Bill Clinton’s equally emphatic “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” The RNZ headline sat atop a ...17 hours ago
The Finance Minister Grant Robertson says it's too early to definitively say the Government is looking to lend millions of dollars to Auckland Council, to buy disputed land at Ihumātao. ...18 hours ago
NZ First leader denies wrongdoing after allegations of donations being funnelled through a foundation to avoid disclosure. ...19 hours ago
The A2 Milk Company expects continued strong growth for its speciality dairy products with increased marketing investment in China and the United States. ...20 hours ago
Auckland one of the worst cities in the world for public transport, road taxes according to new data; and substantial benefit hikes appear off the Government's agenda. ...22 hours ago
Discussions are under way for Auckland Council to buy the disputed Ihumātao land in a bid to break the three-year deadlock. ...22 hours ago
Almost half a million dollars in political donations appear to have been hidden inside a secret slush fund controlled by a coterie of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters’ trusted advisers. ...22 hours ago
Severe storm surges will get bigger around parts of the South Island and smaller around the North Island as the climate changes, two studies have now predicted. ...1 day ago
Bernard Hickey visited E-Go’s electric car factory in Aachen, Germany to find how it used a 5G network to flip car-making on its head, and how it’s an example of what Industry 4.0 could look like in New Zealand. ...1 day ago
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.