Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Seymour Hersch says there is something ‘dramatically wrong’ with the way the government has behaved toward Nicky Hager.
The only unlawful act ever exposed by Hager was his own. I hope he faces prosecution and, if found guilty, which in my view is likely, a long custodial sentence.
And if that happens, the Opposition will make fake noises and then drop him. Because if they run on the issue, history will repeat – they will lose the 2017 election on the back of Hager just like they did the 2014 one.
Beyond pathetic. Not only has S Rylands not read Dirty Politics, he hasn’t even read the Dixon judgement.
…information, even confidential information, is not property…
I note that S Rylands the Stalinist creep wants to jail his political opponents. I say that sociopaths (especially those who are also policy advisers who’ve spent their entire working lives on the taxpayer teat) need supervision orders.
Fortunately on such matters your statement is of little significance. Of course if you laid out in detail the legal basis for your opinion it might become more significant.
He doesn’t have a legal or moral basis for his opinion as it’s just the standard knee-jerk defence of the indefensible that authoritarians always perform when their side is wrong.
Not strange that SSLands @ 2.1 should sniffingly miss Manuka’s point……neither that the Ponce-Key Media should purport to make the irrelevant point that Kiwibank is “state owned”.
S Rylands embraces collectivism by leeching every single cent of his income from the taxpayer teat (to put it in the hypocritical right wing terms he would use to describe other people).
Agreed. It will be interesting to see whether Westpac will be have found to have breached the Privacy Act. certainly having an independent set of eyes seeing the basis of their release of a customer’s records will be interesting.
Playboy, snooker hustler, bon vivant and writer Morrissey Breen has described B-grade novelist and hate merchant Martin Amis as “a joke” and said he’s “undeserving of a single reader”.
In a highly critical article for his own Daisycutter Sports Digest, reprinted in Media Lens, Breen, author of BERNADINE, or “Hell Hath No Fury”[1] said Amis was the “fluky beneficiary of a famous name”, and that his carefully cultivated Oxbridge stammer and air of studied insouciance fails to cover up the “painfully obvious” fact that he “reads little, and knows virtually nothing about anything.”
Breen’s intervention comes as Amis faces continued reaction from people disgusted with his crude race-baiting, which has proved to be a disturbing re-run of the notorious outbursts against “coons”, “wops”, “darkies” and Jews by his father, the late author Kingsley Amis.
Breen, who said he has spent “much too much” of his time struggling through really third-rate British fiction, also called Mr Amis “humorless”, “talentless”, and a “pathetic creep”, who had traded on his father’s fame and assiduously “sucked up” to the likes of the late Christopher Hitchens, who always poured scorn on Amis’s academic pretensions and treated his attempts to foot it with him intellectually with amused disdain. Breen noted how the notoriously lazy and ill-read Amis had boasted often about his “Congratulatory” Oxford First in English — “the sort where you are called in for a viva and the examiners tell you how much they enjoyed reading your papers.”
Mr Amis was a man “without the slightest semblance of character, leave alone discernible talent”, he added, and cited the academic Terry Eagleton’s opinion of some newspaper opinion pieces Amis had written as akin to the “ramblings of a British National Party thug.”
The Standardista and Media Lens regular commentator also said Mr Amis was “obviously objectionable” and predicted he would “end up like his father: hopelessly retrograde, self-absorbed, self-pitying and self-righteous, quite unembarrassable, necessarily and increasingly hostile to democracy, and in any sane view undeserving of a single reader.”
This article is worth considering – especially with the ‘all black’ stuff on
Is this all just political correctness gone too far?
Woodward says it’s not asking much to simply respect other people’s ways of life. “It’s about power. Those marginalised communities have already suffered a huge amount of discrimination in every aspect of life, from education to housing to the justice system — you name it — so this is just another form of discrimination, because it’s saying, ‘I have rights over you and your culture, to take it, represent it how I want and do what I want with it, just for fun’.”
It’s what inevitably happens when the government refuses to fully fund schooling. The schools have to look for funds elsewhere and, as people get used to paying for schooling individually, that opens them up to full privatisation. Which will cost more, make huge profits and provide a reduced service.
An excellent interview with Hayden Wilson, a privacy lawyer, which clarifies and puts into context the various legal issues with the release of information without a production order, informal information requests from NZ Police, and the possible ramifications of the recent Supreme Court decision on computer info as ‘property’. Well worth listening to.
The worst bit for the police is that the corner-cutting erodes public confidence in them. A perception of police corruption is creeing into New Zealand.
Very interesting that the Police pursuit of Hager involving a hell of a lot of staff and so many man hours and so many dollars must have been authorised and insisted upon by someone high up in the chain.
We could discount any Government MP of course. The Key hands are very clean. (Chokes.)
35 or 35 police at one stage according to hagers lawyer… and all when the PM was almost sure he knew who Rawshark was. Haver should call Key as a witness 😆
“The worst bit for the police is that the corner-cutting erodes public confidence in them. A perception of police corruption is creeing into New Zealand.”
One of the most shocking aspects of my family’s dealings with the police, when we were left with the question…”are they incompetent or corrupt?”….was that most people we shared our tail of woe with were NOT surprised.
“IMO, many in NZ realised that the police were corrupt a long time ago. ”
Yeah, okay. Some of us were living under illusions. ALL sorted now!
BTW…not just our immediate family…but the extended family and my ex and his family, and friends….all the folk who can look at the official paperwork…not just our angry rantings.
We will NEVER trust any police officer ever again.
(unless of course their bots are picking up on this talk and the cops want to have a proper look? No? didn’t think so.) 🙂
The USA seems to be spoiling for a major war. I suspect this has something to do with their declining influence around the world. They’re starting to panic as the resources of the world start to go elsewhere and they’re powerless to stop it.
Alternatively, China are flexing their muscle, talking tough while further ratcheting up tensions in the region turning sandbars (in waters that have multiple territorial claims) into islands. Developing and expanding its military presence in the strategic and disputed region.
China is most definitely flexing their muscle but a large part of that is because of the declining power of the US. Although, it may not be a decline in power as a perception of a decline in power. The US has proven, through it’s ballsup in the ME, that it can’t successfully wage war outside of it’s borders.
There was an event last month (see clip below) that was used to help bolster the narrative, Obama is a weak President. Perhaps this was also Obama’s response to that?
actually not much in the way of a lowered flashpoint, IMO. Both sides would have thoroughly gamed their strategies and contingencies, so this latest round will probably be pretty well managed with mutually-acceptable posturing and an eventual “shrug, I’m not bovvered” by one side or the other.
The real danger will come from an unexpected destabilisation/crisis, rather than the planned chessgame. An unmanaged economic collapse that affects the governement’s liquidity and internal stability in one of the superpowers, for example.
i doubt these guys have gamed much out. the chinese are autistic as hell – they can’t read any of their neighbours. the US really doesn’t get China, so they have not much analytical to draw on at all. but the US has pretty much everyone in the region behind them, so eventually a light may go on in the senior leadership’s collective thinking. maybe.
so the headline was pulled from a piece in a newspaper called the global times. it gets quoted a lot and while there are ‘links’ between it and the communist party, it’s by no means an official mouthpiece of the party. it’s just some idiot editor whose business model is heavily reliant on getting references in western media. and you do that by saying outrageous things. within china itself the rag has a pretty small voice.
You would expect that the births would be balanced by deaths. According to that graph, the birth rate has been for years double the death rate. Really?
Why on earth would you expect the number of births and deaths to be the same in any given year?
Look at the total population of the world. You don’t have to worry about migration then since, as far as I know, there isn’t any net immigration or emigration. Believers in flying saucers may care to differ.
Hence the only way to get here is to be born and the only way to leave is to die.
The population was about 1 billion in 1800. If the number of births and deaths in each year since then was the same the population would still be 1 billion.
It is actually about 7.5 billion isn’t it?
Why Norway is rich…. they are not a free market obsessed low commodity driven economy like NZ and manage their resources as efficiency as possible.
Because the government is highly invested, (oil profits are taxed at 78 per cent, and in 2011 tax revenues were $36-billion), it is as interested as oil companies, which want to maximize their profits, in extracting the maximum amount of hydrocarbons from the reservoirs. This has inspired technological advances such as parallel drilling, Mr. Lindseth says.
“The extraction rate in Norway is around 50 per cent, which is extremely high in the world average,” he adds.
Norway has also managed to largely avoid so-called Dutch disease (a decline in other exports due to a strong currency) for two reasons, Mr. Lindseth says. The GPFG wealth fund is largely invested outside Norway by legislation, and the annual maximum withdrawal is 4 per cent. Through these two measures, Norway has avoided hyper-inflation, and has been able to sustain its traditional industries.
In Norway, there’s no industry more traditional than fishing.
“As far back as the 12th century they were already exporting stock fish to places in Europe,” explains Rashid Sumaila, director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre.
Prof. Sumaila spent seven years studying economics in Norway and uses game theory to study fish stocks and ecosystems. Fish don’t heed international borders and his research shows how co-operative behaviour is economically beneficial.
“Ninety per cent of the fish stocks that Norway depends on are shared with other countries. It’s a country that has more co-operation and collaboration with other countries than any other country I know,” Prof. Sumaila says.
“That’s [partly] why they still have their cod and we’ve lost ours,” he adds, pointing out that not only are quotas and illegal fishing heavily monitored, policy in Norway is based on scientific evidence and consideration for the sustainability of the ecosystem as a whole.
Prof. Sumaila cites the recent changes to Canada’s Fisheries Act, as a counter-example: “To protect the habitat, you have to show a direct link between the habitat, the fish and the economy,” he says, adding, “That’s the kind of weakening that the Norwegians don’t do.”
““To protect the habitat, you have to show a direct link between the habitat, the fish and the economy,” he says, adding, “That’s the kind of weakening that the Norwegians don’t do.””
Does that mean that like our system the economy trumps environment. For example dairy farming can and does trump rivers because we need the money, or so they say.
NZ and the ‘free market neoliberal way’ seems to be to kill the golden goose. Go after as much short term profit as possible and kill or injure the underlying business such as environment, innovation, employees, etc (which by starving them off) eventually kills or undermines the initial business.
That why we have so much debt. Our businesses are not healthy profitable ones, we are borrowing and selling off our assets but still not getting ahead.
Eventually they fold like Pike River, solid energy, Kaipara council, Mainzeal and so forth when the business is completely non functional. Fonterra is on it’s way, inflated executive salaries, staff lay offs, refusing to change to more sustainable, lobbying to pollute (or being handed it on a plate by government and council), buying in too much supplementary feed (palm oil one of the world’s most destructive practises) etc The executives are actively pursuing a low commodity agenda that is risky and damaging to it’s farmers.
Like our government wet dream RMA reforms. The economy is considered as a legal factor. We can pollute i.e. rivers if someone can make a dollar from it and both needs are to weighted equally legally. Very scary stuff. The opposite of what they should be doing as we know the planet is in trouble.
Changing the topic. Back on to Ministers and their snouts in the trough with travel and hotels etc under the guise of conferences etc to include in with their main events – rugby finals for example, my partner has just come back from Canberra where he did two days of looking around the old and new parliament buildings – along with other holiday things. He did a “proper” tour as well as just looking around. He found out that all politicians, cabinet included – everybody that is, has to pay their own way when they go overseas and on all expenses – and then on their arrival back home they submit their expenses/chits and get reimbursed by supposedly a type of expenses committee.
Presumably this is to curb sundry expenses which go on the card and helps to remind the ministers where their money is going and what might not be accepted as genuine expenses once they get home. I know a lot of large private companies do this to keep their expenses down and to stop wilful wastage. It seems the Australian government is doing this as well. Good on them – can’t see it happening under Key’s government or any government who is in power over here.
Oz still has independant and public media still (watch that space) whereas here with the owned MSM assisting shonky they get away with all kinds of troughing.
Recent example of Bronwyn Bishop across in OZ being made an example of and embarrassing Tony towards the end even further by the media.
Sugar intake was reduced from about 28 percent of total calories to about 10 percent. Fructose – a form of sugar believed to be particularly bad for health – was reduced from 12 percent to four percent of total calories.
Sugary foods were then replaced with starchier alternatives, such as hot dogs, potato chips, and pizza.
“This ‘child-friendly’ study diet included various no- or low-sugar added processed foods including turkey hot dogs, pizza, bean burritos, baked potato chips, and popcorn that were purchased at local supermarkets,” the study authors wrote.
Each child’s caloric intake closely resembled the amount they ate before the study began. However, the children reported feeling less hungry with the new diet.
“They told us it felt like so much more food, even though they were consuming the same number of calories as before, just with significantly less sugar. Some said we were overwhelming them with food,” Schwarz said.
And the result of this change in diet?
After weighing themselves daily as part of the study’s requirements, one-third of the children said they could not eat enough food to stop losing weight. The children lost an average of nearly two pounds in just nine days.
“I have never seen results as striking or significant in our human studies; after only nine days of fructose restriction, the results are dramatic and consistent from subject to subject,” Schwarz added.
Blood pressure went down by an average of five points. The triglyceride measurement of cholesterol fell by 33 points, and low-density lipoprotein (LDL, also known as “bad” cholesterol) fell by 10 points. Blood sugar and insulin levels also fell. Glucose tolerance and the amount of excess insulin circulating in the blood improved.
So, when are our politicians really going to do something about reducing the amount of sugar added to foods?
Forget taxing sugar – regulate how much can be added. Many foods should be at zero added sugar.
Putting the price up has no impact on the richer people, who tend to have the larger girths anyway, so yes I agree ban it or regulate it. Just taxing it only hits the poor.
No wonder Key likes these methods – leaves his demographic alone to keep consuming booze, ciggies, more booze with abandon
There are other links that claim the opposite but, not being particularly informed on the matter I don’t know who might be right.
Is your view, like mine, based on a gut feeling or do you have hard information on the matter.
Auckland Council has today voted to support oil exploration off the city’s west coast.
Mayor Len Brown said the council was “handcuffed”, as it did not have the final say on whether drilling went ahead.
(OH so we will agree it anyway??)
Len Brown said it was better to present a submission with recommendations on how drilling should be managed, rather than throwing out the plan altogether.
(OH what a NatLite approach, umm can’t be bothered to make a decision so support a yes position while pretending you don’t really!)
Councillor Wayne Walker called the decision “gutless”.
Shirin Brown from the Waiheke Local Board addressed counsellors in a last ditch attempt to sway their vote. She says New Zealand exudes a “clean green” image and if there was a disaster such as the Rena in Bay of Plenty, the main port of call for tourism in New Zealand would be tarnished.
Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Steve Abel called on the council to have the “political courage” to vote no on the issue.
“We need oil like a heroin addict needs heroin – we don’t need it, we are dependent,” he said.
Throughout the meeting similarities were drawn between the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which saw 4.2 million barrels of oil spill over 87 days, and a potential disaster on Auckland’s West Coast.
Christchurch and Kaikoura councils have already strongly opposed the move.
Fear of Corbyn palpable in hysterical right wing and “liberal” media coverage.
Media Activism In A Time Of Hope – An Appeal For Support
by Medialens editors DE and DC | 17.09.2015 11:23 | Other Press | Sheffield https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2015/09/521556.html
It is normally impossible for us to regard the leader of a major British or American political party without cringing at their compromised, corporatised, plastic personalities.
We like the fact that Jeremy Corbyn wears uncool shorts and sandals, that he doesn’t look ‘prime ministerial’ or ‘presidential’. We have always reviled Blair’s self-assured, Clintonian head-waggle; Obama’s all-knowing, fatherly smile. We never understood how anyone could be deceived by Thatcher’s sonorous, strident ‘sincerity’.
We might disagree with Corbyn on any number of issues, but he is at least recognisably human. He seems more like the people we know, less like the people with serious suits and unserious souls who view themselves as ‘The Masters of Mankind’.
In three earlier media alerts, we described how media futurologists have been tirelessly informing their long–suffering readers that Corbyn will be ‘catastrophic’ for the Labour party, the country, the world. Every last one of the claims has been rooted in the assumption that they truly know what is good for UK democracy, what is the limit of possible political change. But the fact is they don’t know – nobody does. Consider a couple of simple thoughts:
1) Let’s assume that, before Corbyn’s victory on September 12, the press was correct in arguing that deep political change was impossible in the UK. After all, journalists were writing at a time when voters had been without hope for decades, when they believed the political system was 100% sewn up and locked down by the 1%. But even if the press was right then, it does not mean that radical political change is impossible now when hope has clearly been restored, when people can see that that an honest and compassionate leader can be voted into a position of genuine influence. Nobody can know what might happen now because the hopelessness of several decades really has been overthrown. The cat is out of the bag, democracy has broken free from its establishment box of choice-as-no-choice. People were given a fleeting chance to vote for someone real and they jumped at it.
2) Even if a hopelessly unelectable, flawed and uncool individual was elected leader of the opposition, he or she might nevertheless bring huge benefits to democracy. Why?
One of the default assumptions of the corporate media is that it is their democratic responsibility to cover the full range of ‘mainstream’ political opinions. Specifically, it is their job to report what the party of government and the major opposition parties are saying and doing.
Since Tony Blair’s New Labour/’Red Tory’ coup of the 1990s, this default position has required that the press report the views of two establishment parties saying much the same thing. This has been disastrous for the range of honest and compassionate opinion. ‘Presentational’ politics has meant ‘presentational’ journalism pitifully denuded of anything challenging powerful interests at a time when those challenges have been desperately needed.
One of the potentially far-reaching consequences of Corbyn’s success is that it obliges the corporate press to pay attention to views that have previously been marginalised or ignored. ….
I saw the movie 99 Homes tonight. Quite a gripping movie and well worth going to see it if you can. It did not explain the mess that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did to the US Financial systems and just how US banks could do the things they did, but do go see it.
Four stars
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Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Jeremiah Manele has been elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, polling 31 votes to 18 over rival candidate and former opposition leader Mathew Wale with one abstention. The final result of the election by secret ballot was announced by the Governor-General, Sir David Vunagi, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Priestley Habru, PhD candidate, public diplomacy, University of Adelaide Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shaun Eaves, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Jamey Stutz, CC BY-SA How often do mountains collapse, volcanoes erupt or ice sheets melt? For Earth scientists, these are important questions as we try ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Most young adult men in Australia reject traditional ideas of masculinity that endorse aggression, stoicism and homophobia. Nonetheless, the ongoing influence of those ideas continues to harm men and the people ...
The NZQA proposal released to staff today would involve a net loss of 35 roles. There are 66 roles being disestablished with 13 of those currently vacant, and 31 new roles proposed, said Fleur Fitzsimons Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga ...
Alex Casey talks to Loren Taylor, the writer, director and star of new film The Moon is Upside Down, about assembling her dream ensemble cast, toilet paper pads and turning literal dreams into reality. There’s a moment in The Moon is Upside Down where frazzled anaesthetist Briar (Loren Taylor) gets ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassy Dittman, Senior Lecturer/Head of Course (Undergraduate Psychology), Research Fellow, Manna Institute, CQUniversity Australia With winter sports swinging into action, adults around the country have volunteered or been volunteered by others (humorously known as being “volun-told”) to coach junior sports teams. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University richardernestyap/Shutterstock Parents are often advised to burp their babies after feeding them. Some people think burping after feeding is important to reduce or prevent discomfort crying, or to ...
Workers at a major ASB contact centre in Auckland have voted to take strike action and withdraw their labour following disappointing pay negotiations with the employer and an "offer" to workers that would leave them worse off than the previous year. ...
As the government tries to get the country back on track with a school phone ban, Tara Ward has an idea for where they should turn their attention to next.New Zealand students returned to school on Monday morning, but their cellphones did not. The government’s new phone ban began ...
The Labour Party is demanding Peters be stood down, saying "he's embarrassed the country" with a "totally unacceptable" attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. ...
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, whose members were victims of a China-backed cyber attack, is discussing forming a standing committee to deal with foreign influence. ...
The PSA is concerned that the voluntary redundancies being offered to staff by Stats NZ will impact on the agency’s ability to deliver on its core functions. ...
Results ranged from surprisingly yum to soul-destroying. I love cooking. The kitchen is a hearth of culinary creation, of sensory delights, of gastronomic poetry. I also can’t afford anything nice. Why does a pack of instant noodles and some milk cost ten bucks? I love you, Aotearoa, but I miss ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Police in Solomon Islands are on high alert ahead of the election of the prime minister today. The two candidates for the top job are former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele at the head of the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation, which is ...
He’s fine but it feels like I’m losing a friend and it’s making me bitter. How do I say ‘enough is enough’? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzHey Hera,I’ve recently moved in with a girlfriend, her partner Steve, and his friend. We all live in a lovely little house. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
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Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
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Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
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Lawyers representing two iwi as well as the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn last week’s High Court decision on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to summons Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Tribunal is currently investigating the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of ...
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Seymour Hersh interviewed on Nicky Hager.
Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Seymour Hersch says there is something ‘dramatically wrong’ with the way the government has behaved toward Nicky Hager.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201776345/-government's-treatment-of-hager-is-'dramatically-wrong‘
Hager has shown the true nature of this current govt and the lengths it will go to against anyone who dares expose their dirty and corrupt ways.
Has anyone in opposition taken a position on this given keys besties cam and jase weren’t even charged by nationals police.
The only unlawful act ever exposed by Hager was his own. I hope he faces prosecution and, if found guilty, which in my view is likely, a long custodial sentence.
And if that happens, the Opposition will make fake noises and then drop him. Because if they run on the issue, history will repeat – they will lose the 2017 election on the back of Hager just like they did the 2014 one.
The only unlawful act ever exposed by Hager was his own.
You need to read Hager’s book Dirty Politics.
Right now, you’re posting from a position of sheer ignorance. Please stop embarrassing yourself and (more importantly) wasting our time.
Trolls don’t bother with the facts just the spin as srylands demonstrates.
+1
Just ignore him.
That would be a lot easier if I didn’t pay his wages.
“You need to read Hager’s book Dirty Politics.”
I doubt that he can read, actually, Morrissey. At least not unless he’s wearing his blue-tinted spectacles.
(You know, the one’s that filter out the truth!)
Beyond pathetic. Not only has S Rylands not read Dirty Politics, he hasn’t even read the Dixon judgement.
…information, even confidential information, is not property…
I note that S Rylands the Stalinist creep wants to jail his political opponents. I say that sociopaths (especially those who are also policy advisers who’ve spent their entire working lives on the taxpayer teat) need supervision orders.
Fortunately on such matters your statement is of little significance. Of course if you laid out in detail the legal basis for your opinion it might become more significant.
He doesn’t have a legal or moral basis for his opinion as it’s just the standard knee-jerk defence of the indefensible that authoritarians always perform when their side is wrong.
you trying to wind us up mate, get a brain we live in a Democracy NOT an AUTOCRACY
+1
Kiwibank is being censured for, in effect, insufficient spying on and monitoring of customers! The given concern is for “anti-money laundering”, yet during the same timespan (2013-14) the gov claimed to have no register or clear record of offshore buyers of NZ real estate.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/73441633/stateowned-kiwibank-censured-over-antimoney-laundering-failings
Funny I thought it was because they breached the Act, or there were good grounds to conclude that.
Not strange that SSLands @ 2.1 should sniffingly miss Manuka’s point……neither that the Ponce-Key Media should purport to make the irrelevant point that Kiwibank is “state owned”.
Anything vaguely ‘collective’ Bad……all ‘private greed’ Good.
You never disappoint SSLands !
“Anything vaguely ‘collective’ Bad……all ‘private greed’ Good.”
The funny thing is that this exposes the poorly thinking that goes on in right wing nutter heads ….. they don’t even know their own arse
Evidence 1: Farmers embrace everything collective such as cooperatives like Fonterra, Ravensdown.
Evidence 2: Business people embrace collectivism through shareholdings in limited liability companies.
Evidence 3: right winger nutters are embracing collective war-mongering action in the middle east
Right wingers such as srylands have bricks in their heads because they vote one way but act out their lives in another entirely.
brainless (and there is empirical evidence that right wingers like srylands are measurably thicker than the rest)
You’re correct of course on all counts VTO……’collective’ is sweet when it’s designed to advance ‘private greed’. It’s not even a swear word then.
+1
Well said.
Oh look, more cooperative behaviour being shouted from the rooftops by a farming leader as being the best for the farming community…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/73407300/mark-hooper-seeks-fonterra-shareholders-council-seat
If it is good for farmers then why would it not be good for other large groups of people, like, you know, New Zealanders?
Why the fuck do farmers act one way yet vote another?
brainlessness abounds
S Rylands embraces collectivism by leeching every single cent of his income from the taxpayer teat (to put it in the hypocritical right wing terms he would use to describe other people).
Agreed. It will be interesting to see whether Westpac will be have found to have breached the Privacy Act. certainly having an independent set of eyes seeing the basis of their release of a customer’s records will be interesting.
Amis is a humourless joke, says writer Morrissey Breen
by SERENA SOPWITH-FOTHERINGTON, Daisycutter Sports Digest, Tuesday 27 October 2015
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1446005701.html
Playboy, snooker hustler, bon vivant and writer Morrissey Breen has described B-grade novelist and hate merchant Martin Amis as “a joke” and said he’s “undeserving of a single reader”.
In a highly critical article for his own Daisycutter Sports Digest, reprinted in Media Lens, Breen, author of BERNADINE, or “Hell Hath No Fury” [1] said Amis was the “fluky beneficiary of a famous name”, and that his carefully cultivated Oxbridge stammer and air of studied insouciance fails to cover up the “painfully obvious” fact that he “reads little, and knows virtually nothing about anything.”
Breen’s intervention comes as Amis faces continued reaction from people disgusted with his crude race-baiting, which has proved to be a disturbing re-run of the notorious outbursts against “coons”, “wops”, “darkies” and Jews by his father, the late author Kingsley Amis.
Breen, who said he has spent “much too much” of his time struggling through really third-rate British fiction, also called Mr Amis “humorless”, “talentless”, and a “pathetic creep”, who had traded on his father’s fame and assiduously “sucked up” to the likes of the late Christopher Hitchens, who always poured scorn on Amis’s academic pretensions and treated his attempts to foot it with him intellectually with amused disdain. Breen noted how the notoriously lazy and ill-read Amis had boasted often about his “Congratulatory” Oxford First in English — “the sort where you are called in for a viva and the examiners tell you how much they enjoyed reading your papers.”
Mr Amis was a man “without the slightest semblance of character, leave alone discernible talent”, he added, and cited the academic Terry Eagleton’s opinion of some newspaper opinion pieces Amis had written as akin to the “ramblings of a British National Party thug.”
The Standardista and Media Lens regular commentator also said Mr Amis was “obviously objectionable” and predicted he would “end up like his father: hopelessly retrograde, self-absorbed, self-pitying and self-righteous, quite unembarrassable, necessarily and increasingly hostile to democracy, and in any sane view undeserving of a single reader.”
[1] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.sport.rugby.union/Morrissey$20$2B$20Bernadine/rec.sport.rugby.union/Ern1_QrFIw8/xFfPVadVB44J
http://home.bt.com/news/uk-news/corbyns-a-humourless-joke-says-writer-martin-amis-11364012763325
The ‘Morning Chuckle with Morrissey’. How it improves my coffee…..
Not to overlook the ‘Morning Chuck with SSLands’. How it removes my coffee…..
+1
Brilliant-thanks Morrissey .
I really think the elitist attacks on Corbyn are backfiring.
This article is worth considering – especially with the ‘all black’ stuff on
http://www.viva.co.nz/article/culture/is-your-costume-horribly-offensive/?ref=nzhbox
Jesus, what pious bores those two lecturers are.
Why do people take life so seriously.
I do my bit by not taking you seriously BM
I certainly don’t, so that’s probably the best approach.
Probably the land theft and genocide made them that way.
touche
And from the WTFF files…..
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/education/73451531/Marlborough-Boys-College-under-fire-for-charging-28-to-attend-prizegiving-ceremonies
So…if you son achieves at Marlborough Boys, you pay $28 to see him collect his prize.
Beyond belief.
The students should respond by invoicing the school for their attendance at the prize-giving
It’s what inevitably happens when the government refuses to fully fund schooling. The schools have to look for funds elsewhere and, as people get used to paying for schooling individually, that opens them up to full privatisation. Which will cost more, make huge profits and provide a reduced service.
At the moment Nine to Noon are discussing the Police requests for information re Nicky Hager, Very interesting,
An excellent interview with Hayden Wilson, a privacy lawyer, which clarifies and puts into context the various legal issues with the release of information without a production order, informal information requests from NZ Police, and the possible ramifications of the recent Supreme Court decision on computer info as ‘property’. Well worth listening to.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201776522/westpac-will-ask-for-warrants-in-future
The worst bit for the police is that the corner-cutting erodes public confidence in them. A perception of police corruption is creeing into New Zealand.
A real shame.
Very interesting that the Police pursuit of Hager involving a hell of a lot of staff and so many man hours and so many dollars must have been authorised and insisted upon by someone high up in the chain.
We could discount any Government MP of course. The Key hands are very clean. (Chokes.)
35 or 35 police at one stage according to hagers lawyer… and all when the PM was almost sure he knew who Rawshark was. Haver should call Key as a witness 😆
“The worst bit for the police is that the corner-cutting erodes public confidence in them. A perception of police corruption is creeing into New Zealand.”
One of the most shocking aspects of my family’s dealings with the police, when we were left with the question…”are they incompetent or corrupt?”….was that most people we shared our tail of woe with were NOT surprised.
There is no “perception” about it Muttonbird.
IMO, many in NZ realised that the police were corrupt a long time ago. It’s now a question of how much longer we’re going to put up with it.
Of course, we just voted in National for the third time in a row despite all the lies that they’ve been telling over the years.
“IMO, many in NZ realised that the police were corrupt a long time ago. ”
Yeah, okay. Some of us were living under illusions. ALL sorted now!
BTW…not just our immediate family…but the extended family and my ex and his family, and friends….all the folk who can look at the official paperwork…not just our angry rantings.
We will NEVER trust any police officer ever again.
(unless of course their bots are picking up on this talk and the cops want to have a proper look? No? didn’t think so.) 🙂
Not a perception of police corruption, a perception of a police state.
“informal information requests from NZ Police,”
A fishing expedition, and who, why and what is the fishing expedition really for?
I’d love to get hold of some police files. For sure bullshit castle has many hidden secrets.
Thanks veutovier – I just listened in the car
Environment report shows NZ isn’t that green
http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/environment-report-show-nz-isnt-that-green-2015102818#axzz3porDrAyo
Source Says Floggings Will Continue for Raif Badawi, Saudi Blogger Punished for “Insulting Islam”
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/10/27/source-says-floggings-will-continue-for-raif-badawi-saudi-blogger-punished-for-insulting-islam/
Tough talk coming out of Beijing
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/28/china-not-frightened-fight-war-south-china-sea-uss-lassen
Thoughts?
The USA seems to be spoiling for a major war. I suspect this has something to do with their declining influence around the world. They’re starting to panic as the resources of the world start to go elsewhere and they’re powerless to stop it.
i note journalists are now reporting on the ground in syria much more than before russia officially joined in….
Perhaps it’s because Russia is making so much progress there is more to report on?
I was just comparing it to NO journos reporting from alongside the rebels, or anywhere near the US bombing of Medecines sans frontieres?
Alternatively, China are flexing their muscle, talking tough while further ratcheting up tensions in the region turning sandbars (in waters that have multiple territorial claims) into islands. Developing and expanding its military presence in the strategic and disputed region.
see russia in syria….
China is most definitely flexing their muscle but a large part of that is because of the declining power of the US. Although, it may not be a decline in power as a perception of a decline in power. The US has proven, through it’s ballsup in the ME, that it can’t successfully wage war outside of it’s borders.
Because….?
http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-military-20150630-story.html
There was an event last month (see clip below) that was used to help bolster the narrative, Obama is a weak President. Perhaps this was also Obama’s response to that?
https://youtu.be/mTB49fx3sQs
actually not much in the way of a lowered flashpoint, IMO. Both sides would have thoroughly gamed their strategies and contingencies, so this latest round will probably be pretty well managed with mutually-acceptable posturing and an eventual “shrug, I’m not bovvered” by one side or the other.
The real danger will come from an unexpected destabilisation/crisis, rather than the planned chessgame. An unmanaged economic collapse that affects the governement’s liquidity and internal stability in one of the superpowers, for example.
i doubt these guys have gamed much out. the chinese are autistic as hell – they can’t read any of their neighbours. the US really doesn’t get China, so they have not much analytical to draw on at all. but the US has pretty much everyone in the region behind them, so eventually a light may go on in the senior leadership’s collective thinking. maybe.
so the headline was pulled from a piece in a newspaper called the global times. it gets quoted a lot and while there are ‘links’ between it and the communist party, it’s by no means an official mouthpiece of the party. it’s just some idiot editor whose business model is heavily reliant on getting references in western media. and you do that by saying outrageous things. within china itself the rag has a pretty small voice.
Nevertheless, it was accompanied by staunch comment from China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Lu Kang.
How data could be manipulated.
According to Stats NZ, 2014 was the 1st year that more than 30,000 people died in NZ.
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/population/births/BirthsAndDeaths_HOTPYeDec14.aspx
You would expect that the births would be balanced by deaths. According to that graph, the birth rate has been for years double the death rate. Really?
Why on earth would you expect the number of births and deaths to be the same in any given year?
Look at the total population of the world. You don’t have to worry about migration then since, as far as I know, there isn’t any net immigration or emigration. Believers in flying saucers may care to differ.
Hence the only way to get here is to be born and the only way to leave is to die.
The population was about 1 billion in 1800. If the number of births and deaths in each year since then was the same the population would still be 1 billion.
It is actually about 7.5 billion isn’t it?
why “manipulated”?
I’m not sure what your point is.
Joseph Stiglitz: Under TPP, Polluters Could Sue U.S. for Setting Carbon Emissions Limits
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/10/27/joseph_stiglitz_under_tpp_polluters_could
Why Norway is rich…. they are not a free market obsessed low commodity driven economy like NZ and manage their resources as efficiency as possible.
Because the government is highly invested, (oil profits are taxed at 78 per cent, and in 2011 tax revenues were $36-billion), it is as interested as oil companies, which want to maximize their profits, in extracting the maximum amount of hydrocarbons from the reservoirs. This has inspired technological advances such as parallel drilling, Mr. Lindseth says.
“The extraction rate in Norway is around 50 per cent, which is extremely high in the world average,” he adds.
Norway has also managed to largely avoid so-called Dutch disease (a decline in other exports due to a strong currency) for two reasons, Mr. Lindseth says. The GPFG wealth fund is largely invested outside Norway by legislation, and the annual maximum withdrawal is 4 per cent. Through these two measures, Norway has avoided hyper-inflation, and has been able to sustain its traditional industries.
In Norway, there’s no industry more traditional than fishing.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/canada-competes/what-norway-did-with-its-oil-and-we-didnt/article11959362/
“As far back as the 12th century they were already exporting stock fish to places in Europe,” explains Rashid Sumaila, director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre.
Prof. Sumaila spent seven years studying economics in Norway and uses game theory to study fish stocks and ecosystems. Fish don’t heed international borders and his research shows how co-operative behaviour is economically beneficial.
“Ninety per cent of the fish stocks that Norway depends on are shared with other countries. It’s a country that has more co-operation and collaboration with other countries than any other country I know,” Prof. Sumaila says.
“That’s [partly] why they still have their cod and we’ve lost ours,” he adds, pointing out that not only are quotas and illegal fishing heavily monitored, policy in Norway is based on scientific evidence and consideration for the sustainability of the ecosystem as a whole.
Prof. Sumaila cites the recent changes to Canada’s Fisheries Act, as a counter-example: “To protect the habitat, you have to show a direct link between the habitat, the fish and the economy,” he says, adding, “That’s the kind of weakening that the Norwegians don’t do.”
““To protect the habitat, you have to show a direct link between the habitat, the fish and the economy,” he says, adding, “That’s the kind of weakening that the Norwegians don’t do.””
Does that mean that like our system the economy trumps environment. For example dairy farming can and does trump rivers because we need the money, or so they say.
NZ and the ‘free market neoliberal way’ seems to be to kill the golden goose. Go after as much short term profit as possible and kill or injure the underlying business such as environment, innovation, employees, etc (which by starving them off) eventually kills or undermines the initial business.
That why we have so much debt. Our businesses are not healthy profitable ones, we are borrowing and selling off our assets but still not getting ahead.
Eventually they fold like Pike River, solid energy, Kaipara council, Mainzeal and so forth when the business is completely non functional. Fonterra is on it’s way, inflated executive salaries, staff lay offs, refusing to change to more sustainable, lobbying to pollute (or being handed it on a plate by government and council), buying in too much supplementary feed (palm oil one of the world’s most destructive practises) etc The executives are actively pursuing a low commodity agenda that is risky and damaging to it’s farmers.
Like our government wet dream RMA reforms. The economy is considered as a legal factor. We can pollute i.e. rivers if someone can make a dollar from it and both needs are to weighted equally legally. Very scary stuff. The opposite of what they should be doing as we know the planet is in trouble.
Vile people.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/walmart-israeli-soldier-halloween-costume-for-children-sparks-outrage-a6710321.html
Changing the topic. Back on to Ministers and their snouts in the trough with travel and hotels etc under the guise of conferences etc to include in with their main events – rugby finals for example, my partner has just come back from Canberra where he did two days of looking around the old and new parliament buildings – along with other holiday things. He did a “proper” tour as well as just looking around. He found out that all politicians, cabinet included – everybody that is, has to pay their own way when they go overseas and on all expenses – and then on their arrival back home they submit their expenses/chits and get reimbursed by supposedly a type of expenses committee.
Presumably this is to curb sundry expenses which go on the card and helps to remind the ministers where their money is going and what might not be accepted as genuine expenses once they get home. I know a lot of large private companies do this to keep their expenses down and to stop wilful wastage. It seems the Australian government is doing this as well. Good on them – can’t see it happening under Key’s government or any government who is in power over here.
Oz still has independant and public media still (watch that space) whereas here with the owned MSM assisting shonky they get away with all kinds of troughing.
Recent example of Bronwyn Bishop across in OZ being made an example of and embarrassing Tony towards the end even further by the media.
‘The worst calories’: Sugar even more harmful than it seems, study finds
And the result of this change in diet?
So, when are our politicians really going to do something about reducing the amount of sugar added to foods?
Forget taxing sugar – regulate how much can be added. Many foods should be at zero added sugar.
I may have to give up coffee.
“Forget taxing sugar ”
Yep, like ciggies too.
Putting the price up has no impact on the richer people, who tend to have the larger girths anyway, so yes I agree ban it or regulate it. Just taxing it only hits the poor.
No wonder Key likes these methods – leaves his demographic alone to keep consuming booze, ciggies, more booze with abandon
“richer people, who tend to have the larger girths anyway”
I would love to see your evidence for this claim.
My understanding was that it was the other way around and that rich people were less likely to be obese.
For example
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Rich-People-Less-Likely-to-be-Obese-64186.shtml
or
http://www.lse.ac.uk/researchAndExpertise/researchHighlights/Health/obesity.aspx
or
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-rich-people-mostly-so-obese
This last one doesn’t say what the question proposes, by the way.
There are other links that claim the opposite but, not being particularly informed on the matter I don’t know who might be right.
Is your view, like mine, based on a gut feeling or do you have hard information on the matter.
Sugar is a cheap filler for the manufacturers. Until people dump sugary products, the rubbish will keep being made.
Or we could have the government work for the betterment of the populace and regulate the sugar used in products.
Auckland Council has today voted to support oil exploration off the city’s west coast.
Mayor Len Brown said the council was “handcuffed”, as it did not have the final say on whether drilling went ahead.
(OH so we will agree it anyway??)
Len Brown said it was better to present a submission with recommendations on how drilling should be managed, rather than throwing out the plan altogether.
(OH what a NatLite approach, umm can’t be bothered to make a decision so support a yes position while pretending you don’t really!)
Councillor Wayne Walker called the decision “gutless”.
Shirin Brown from the Waiheke Local Board addressed counsellors in a last ditch attempt to sway their vote. She says New Zealand exudes a “clean green” image and if there was a disaster such as the Rena in Bay of Plenty, the main port of call for tourism in New Zealand would be tarnished.
Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Steve Abel called on the council to have the “political courage” to vote no on the issue.
“We need oil like a heroin addict needs heroin – we don’t need it, we are dependent,” he said.
Throughout the meeting similarities were drawn between the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which saw 4.2 million barrels of oil spill over 87 days, and a potential disaster on Auckland’s West Coast.
Christchurch and Kaikoura councils have already strongly opposed the move.
Fear of Corbyn palpable in hysterical right wing and “liberal” media coverage.
Media Activism In A Time Of Hope – An Appeal For Support
by Medialens editors DE and DC | 17.09.2015 11:23 | Other Press | Sheffield
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2015/09/521556.html
It is normally impossible for us to regard the leader of a major British or American political party without cringing at their compromised, corporatised, plastic personalities.
We like the fact that Jeremy Corbyn wears uncool shorts and sandals, that he doesn’t look ‘prime ministerial’ or ‘presidential’. We have always reviled Blair’s self-assured, Clintonian head-waggle; Obama’s all-knowing, fatherly smile. We never understood how anyone could be deceived by Thatcher’s sonorous, strident ‘sincerity’.
We might disagree with Corbyn on any number of issues, but he is at least recognisably human. He seems more like the people we know, less like the people with serious suits and unserious souls who view themselves as ‘The Masters of Mankind’.
In three earlier media alerts, we described how media futurologists have been tirelessly informing their long–suffering readers that Corbyn will be ‘catastrophic’ for the Labour party, the country, the world. Every last one of the claims has been rooted in the assumption that they truly know what is good for UK democracy, what is the limit of possible political change. But the fact is they don’t know – nobody does. Consider a couple of simple thoughts:
1) Let’s assume that, before Corbyn’s victory on September 12, the press was correct in arguing that deep political change was impossible in the UK. After all, journalists were writing at a time when voters had been without hope for decades, when they believed the political system was 100% sewn up and locked down by the 1%. But even if the press was right then, it does not mean that radical political change is impossible now when hope has clearly been restored, when people can see that that an honest and compassionate leader can be voted into a position of genuine influence. Nobody can know what might happen now because the hopelessness of several decades really has been overthrown. The cat is out of the bag, democracy has broken free from its establishment box of choice-as-no-choice. People were given a fleeting chance to vote for someone real and they jumped at it.
2) Even if a hopelessly unelectable, flawed and uncool individual was elected leader of the opposition, he or she might nevertheless bring huge benefits to democracy. Why?
One of the default assumptions of the corporate media is that it is their democratic responsibility to cover the full range of ‘mainstream’ political opinions. Specifically, it is their job to report what the party of government and the major opposition parties are saying and doing.
Since Tony Blair’s New Labour/’Red Tory’ coup of the 1990s, this default position has required that the press report the views of two establishment parties saying much the same thing. This has been disastrous for the range of honest and compassionate opinion. ‘Presentational’ politics has meant ‘presentational’ journalism pitifully denuded of anything challenging powerful interests at a time when those challenges have been desperately needed.
One of the potentially far-reaching consequences of Corbyn’s success is that it obliges the corporate press to pay attention to views that have previously been marginalised or ignored. ….
Read more….
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2015/09/521556.html
I saw the movie 99 Homes tonight. Quite a gripping movie and well worth going to see it if you can. It did not explain the mess that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did to the US Financial systems and just how US banks could do the things they did, but do go see it.
Four stars