morena phil,
i am aware that us people who post on these sites are a lot more engaged polliticaly than the masses..
a comment came up here or somewhere else that working folk are either working or recovering from working (tired, family time, etc), so dont want to know about it.
we are also blessed (cursed) to live in a sparsely populated country abounding with natural resources, water, clean air, food etc.
i reckon the way to have people wake from their slumber is an election cycle of hard right politics.
let the act crew have their way for three years.
after all isnt this why the new party in spain is popular?
when the gfc (or enevitable result of capitalism ) occured, petrol went over $2 a litre, and the middle clas got squeezed, i saw community gardens crop up, sharing started to happen.
then, like the frog in the heating pot of water, we got used to it.
i say swap the pot of h2o for a microwave.
hmm.. rather a melting down of mana, wasnt there a large part of labour cannibilizing (again) one of the other parties to the left of it.
just think, labour strategy up in the far north.. give us your party vote and if hone wins you get two mps in parliament
clearly 30 yrs of he who dies with the most toys wins, is not enough for the sheeple.
my thoughts above were to how to energize/activate the populace.
cheers, have a good day, i’m off.
Internet Mana lost Te Tai Tokerau by 800 votes, through all the established parties in Parliament ganging up on them.
This was not a “melt down”, this was a political execution.
We are sorely missing having both Hone Harawira and Laila Harre in the House right now. Instead we have the same old establishment players playing their same old game.
yes I’ve read your thoughts on it and I don’t agree – why I don’t agree is that I think you are pulling two different things and making them into one thing.
You have no evidence whatsoever that votes for ALC would have gone to IMP
You have no evidence whatsoever that Hone’s dislike of cannabis took votes from IMP
You do have knowledge and experience but that cannot draw it all together imo
I agree, marty. I doubt very much that Hone’s views on the electric puha cost many votes. Phil is unlikely to ever agree with us on that. My life is not less complete because of this.
Kelvin Davis did a lot of campaigning in the southern end of Te Tai Tokerau .
The urban voters of the Auckland area were perhaps more aspiring to the slick image of KD rather than the more flax-roots type of leadership that is Hone’s strength.
Having Hone and Laila miss by such a small margin was very directly related to Labour’s intransigence.
Labour was founded on the idea of strength through unity.
They could have been in a governing coalition now if they had been less single-minded.
If Labour keeps crapping on its allies the left will have to regroup around a leader who comes from outside the parliamentary feather-bedding system.
Labour was founded on the idea of strength through unity.
Indeed. Have a think about that, and then ask yourself how and why the Labour party views external left parties with a certain degree of skepticism.
They formed unity out of disunity, and have had nearly a century of being sniped at by other politically ineffectual wannabe parties of the ‘left’ with strong tendencies to disintegrate from internal dissension.
For some strange reason, not unrelated to that history, they tend to view jackasses like yourself with cheap self-serving formulas with a certain degree of scepticism.
The greens didn’t get any particular help, yet managed the 30-40 year build from being the Values party to a strong multi-person independent party advocating their own interests. They have earned political respect the hard way.
Whereas the IMP looked and acted like just another useless and ineffectual disaster.
If you want Labour to do you favours for your political views, then go and join it and spend some decades earning respect for your hard work, tenacity and clear thinking.
If you want to run a party outside then expect to spend decades building a solid and robust organisation that can compete with the NZLP and its rather independent electorate candidates for support. If you want the silver dish treatment, couple up with National and get sucked dry as the Maori party are now.
I thought that I was being very clear. I think you are a idiot who is too lazy to think about why the Labour party doesn’t do the kinds of stupid things that *you* think that they should do. I explained it to you.
However from your response, and its complete lack of response to any point in the comment, I suspect that you are so busy self-pleasuring yourself with a broomstick up your arse, that you have forgotten there is a real world out there.
As for “personal attacks” – you really are a fool. Go and read the policy instead of just being an idiot trying to wank your way to an alternate reality.
There is a rule about personal attacks on authors writing posts. That is because I want authors to write more posts. Given a choice between an author who makes and effort to keep this site having comment and a commenter who is often just there to attack authors, then I ban the arseholes who attack my authors.
If you don’t like that, then I really don’t give a damn. Argue about it and the rules about being a useless critic trying to run the site come into effect.
There is no rule about personal attacks between commenters. That is because it would wind up in a wrangle about what is an attack or not. So attacks between commenters are usually ok – unless they get out of hand (and too boring to be bothered reading). Then I pick the person who I think is the biggest problem (ie worst troll) and boot then out of the discussion. If required then I keep booting until the comments get interesting to read again.
However there is a rule about *pointless* abuse. If you want to abuse someone while making a personal attack, then you have to explain clearly why the abuse is directed at them.
However I’d say that my “attack” was quite pointed.
Don’t like the rules? I really don’t care. Just don’t whine about them. Just leave.
What I can’t understand is why IMP didn’t realise that political parties and political candidates generally don’t do ‘favours’ for other parties.
The IMP didn’t do enough work in the Auckland parts of TTT. It was pretty clear that they underestimated Kelvin Davis targeting there. They also really underestimated how much they’d pissed off the Maori electorate Labour activists with Hone and some of his idiot supporters bad-mouthing Kelvin and Labour. The mood amongst them on election night was strongly on the “fuck you Hone, take that” mood. They weren’t like that in 2011.
Essentially when fucktards from parties like the IMP slag off other parties and candidates, then they should damn well expect a reaction. Bitching about it just shows a degree of political immaturity that to me indicates that they are more adolescent than adult, and I wouldn’t want to trust them near legislative power. Voters tend to follow the same way of looking at parties.
The “other parties” really only were the Maori party for electorate votes. They have always opposed Hone. Their vote wasn’t dissimilar to that of 2011.
So what you are talking about are the few wankhard National and Act voters in that electorate. If there were half of 800 of them voting there I’d be really surprised.
Looks to me like just another myth to cover people who weren’t up to the task at hand – perhaps they should learn from it and come back another day with a better understanding on what not to do in politics.
A execution yes but surely when planning the Mana Internet alliance they realized that they would hand a big stick with which to beat them with to the right wing parties and that a desperate labour party wouldn’t hesitate to join them if the tide of public opinion went out on Kim Dotcom which it did when the moment of truth turned into a sideshow around the ‘evidence’ Kim promised and didnt front.
Mana played a risky card to try and break the circuit which I understand but it was a gamble that was lost I think that who ever advised them was overly optimistic or an idiot. They certainly needed someone a whole lot better around the strategy to get it right probably would have been a better use of funds than to have a ‘roadshow’.
Phil your quite harsh on Labour, I feel a lot more optimistic with Little as leader than I did with Goff, Shearer and Cunliffe. Little’s speech contained plenty of positives like high job growth, repelling anti worker legislation, fire at will, destroying zero hours contracts. With staunce Leftie Matt Mc Carten in there do you believe he is going to turn neo-liberal. You can take it the answer is NO.
Phil it’s a complex issue for the Left here countering against capitalism and neo liberal party’s. Political party’s have to either get elected or over throw the government. The later just won’t happen here.
One of the biggest problems is babyboomers and the shift in who they vote for. Early on many fought the fight against tories. As they age and acquired wealth, get comfortable with assets, a home mortgage free, a rental or 2 as a retirement nest egg. Plenty change to protect their lot. They won’t vote for a party that wants to introduce a CGT. Whole sways of them change. Then you have rampant consumerism, the free market, freedom to negotiate (bullshit con) with the boss, never mind unions attitude. It goes on to why bother voting politicians/party’s are all the same.
I’ll tell you what Philu. If Greece or Spain actually alter anything significant in terms of the ‘austerity’ policies they are being forced to follow in the next 18 months I will acknowledge you on a public forum as a much more astute follower of political trends than I.
Gosman.
It looks like Gosman is going to have to eat his own words a lot sooner than his own timeline.
Given that Greece has already halted all that is all asset sales already.
That is huge change and is hugely signifigant!
The Bank of Englands comments
Hugely signifigant!
Gosman time to honour your promise!
..is that the best way to stimulate/grow/help/preserve an economy..
..is to increase the incomes of the poorest..
..because all that money instantly churns back into the economy..
..thru retailers’/service-providers’ tills…
This is a point that parties on left failed to communicate and it is one that is easy to understand and for that matter common sense. Give someone doing well an extra hundy they will save 50 spend 20 in NZ and the rest offshore… give someone at the bottom and extra hundy they will spend it all in NZ in the tills of the small businesses that so many people work for in NZ I hope it is a point Andrew Little hammers home.
Oh look who ghosts in to challenge phil in a cock fight.
Planing on joining thousands of pakeha & maori up at Waitangi Gosman?
How about joining Pete G flipping pork & puha burgers, fund raising for the ACT party on a stall next to Mana’s. Post us a selfie rubbing noses with Hone if you do.
At Waitangi this year Kingi Taurua the paramount Chief of Ngati Rahiri at Te Tii Marae has come out saying David Rankin has misheard the announcement there is a ban on Burgers not Burqa especially triple cheese burgers with fries. The leadership at Waitangi want better food choices but are willing to consider burgers if they are healthy.
Eleanor Catton has managed to reveal the mechanism of the National party media dictatorship this could be extremely dangerous for the survival of our democracy. According to Sean Plunkett you are not permitted to criticise the National government its unpatriotic and against the people of New Zealand.
Too many reporters within journalism have intimate relationships with the national party that are a conflict of interest designed to mislead the New Zealand public. These reporters are holding back real journalists like Andrea Vance.
It is unnatural for the press gallery to be uncritical of a seven year old government. The Prime minister office is pouring to many resources into dirty politics and controling the media and little effort to tackle the housing crisis or poverty reduction.
The graphic is particularly funny. Competition for The Civilian?
While I disagree with the sentiment expressed by Mr Plunket I do think receiving government funds opens yourself up to this sort of criticism. If you don’t want people thinking you are public property don’t accept public funding.
It only opens you up to criticism by people who lack the correct understanding of our system and that is mostly conservatives who, research has established, have lower IQs, so it is hardly surprising and absolutely no reason to listen to your point which is rubbish
I didn’t state that. I stated that receiving government funds basically means people start to feel they are entitled to make comments on aspects of your life you may feel like are only you acting in a private capacity. It happens with politicians all the time for example.
Gosman.You have painted yourself into a corner goostepper!
Lies covered up by bigger lies.
Shifting the blame of your lies to politicians in general shows your argument is rather lame.
Apparently pretending that “people” only feel entitled to talk about aspects of a prominent person’s private life only if that person receives government funds.
Maybe it was a genuinely-held assertion on your part, rather than pretence, but making blatantly stupid comments as if folks have never heard of “Woman’s Weekly” or “TMZ” opens you up to to this sort of criticism. Especially as your comments tend to favour or at least praise with faint damnation (like your ‘I don’t agree with him, but people like him will think it so keep your head in if you take public money’ comment today).
I mean, I’m sure you weren’t trying to spin the issue at all, but (since you keep making comments like that) it’s only natural that “people” will think you’re a damned liar who keeps trying to mislead readers.
hi gosman,
“..I do think receiving government funds opens yourself up to this sort of criticism. If you don’t want people thinking you are public property don’t accept public funding.”
i assume you include mr plunketts’ employer as well.
“Too many reporters within journalism have intimate relationships with the national party that are a conflict of interest designed to mislead the New Zealand public.”
Yes so what’s the answer Pete? Fund raising by the Left to buy them out?
A journalism ethic’s body that has the real powers to admonish (out) and fine journalists that don’t play the game with straight bat.
I do have a left leaning billionaire Australian friend who I missed catching up with at this years premier horse sales. I assume he is too busy bringing about Abbott’s down fall, tho he likes a challenge, get a much better one out of Key.
Oh He of the Beige, your suggestion is amusing as it exposes you once again for being a shrill pill.
You state endlessly how you source information from a wide variety of news media and blogs from all sides of the political spectrum yet now claim ignorance of Mana News? A site that has been steadily producing content for quite a while now and was most certainly an active source of information during the last Election.
So thankyou for re-confirming that as far as political sincerity and comments thereof, you are and will always be an utter waste of peoples’ time.
What’s going on with the Manawatu Standard? It’s published two pieces recently that support the right of women to speak out strongly, and one of pieces has a named author.
what?
please provide evidence the MSM approves of threats of sexual or physical violence towards women as long as they aren’t journalists or published writers.
No I won’t, because that has nothing to do with what I said.
But if the MSM gave equivalent attention to similar threats against women (or members of any other frequently-threatened group) who aren’t journalists or authors, there wouldn’t be column space for any other type of news story.
”But if the MSM gave equivalent attention …”
Many women or others who have been subjected to violence eschew being in media, talking about it in public, or even telling friends and family.
But for those who choose to their stories seem to be told well, given prominence, and angled to encourage others to seek help.
I would have been interested if you had examples to the contrary.
Commercial pressure on the media worries me in this respect. Obviously court reporting has gone by the wayside purely because of commercial pressure.
But your first sentence suggests your original comment was merely using this case to leverage a generalised comment against the media, which given what this case involves is rather vile.
Given that you took my initial comment to ‘suggest’ that I believed the media “approves of threats of sexual or physical violence towards women”, I don’t place any particular importance on what you might now think my comments suggest.
Dishonest of you to use a word from one comment and pretend I used it in a different comment.
sigh.
There you go again.
Hint: single quote vs double quote marks.
Hint: Your response to my comment was “please provide evidence the MSM approves of threats of sexual or physical violence towards women as long as they aren’t journalists or published writers.” (note the double quote marks).
Or did you not take my initial comment to ‘suggest’ (note single quote marks) that I felt that the MSM approves of threats of sexual or physical violence towards women as long as they aren’t journalists or published writers?
In which case: why did you ask me to provide evidence for an assertion you did not believe I made?
You’re using single quote marks incorrectly in this instance.
Single quote marks are for a quote within a quote (like reported speech inside a quote) or characterisations and colloquialisms, not for a single word like that.
BUT approve was the wrong word; I could have expressed it differently.
You have since indicated your comment used the farmer journalist case as a general barb towards the media.
To me that is distasteful because of the specifics of this case.
Whether or not you deem my view to have any value or importance is of very little concern.
Oh joy, another argument about quotation vs paraphrasing. The difference between “characterisations” and my use of “‘suggests'” is a bit subtle for me.
My comment was in response to Weka’s comment about an apparent change in coverage and editorial line by a fairfax publication. My “barb” was that this change is fleeting, and self-interested. You might find it distasteful, but (call me cynical) I’m pretty sure that in a few weeks we’ll be reading as much about it as we read about ebola these days, and with about as much relative change in prevalence.
I don’t think there has been a change.
Former National MP Tau Henare rightly received negative coverage for his disgraceful comments about cleaner Mareta Sinoti who had made a submission on employment law changes. That was an attempt to silence this person, for whom giving a submission to a select committee would have been daunting, and the media did not think it was OK, or that it didn’t warrant a leading story.
And no, this comment doesn’t mean I don’t also think there are huge deficiencies in media, but it’s untrue to say there is not prominence afforded to less powerful people who are attacked after trying to speak truth to power.
I don’t know. I just remember the coverage generally, and that people I discussed it with were disgusted a National MP bullied a person who was exercising their democratic right to participate in the democracy and say their piece.
By the way, it’s not right to say she was threatened; I would use the term bullied or attacked.
Found loads of press releases and news reports (although most of those generally seem to be the same wire service report after editing) on it.
But I don’t recall (and can’t find) any editorials on freedom of speech etc relating to henare’s behaviour. And yet there are quite a few editorials and opinion pieces as well as news articles on Catton’s comments and the responses, and on the journo who received threats from farmers.
I suggest that there is your example of editorial change.
You have a point; the Henare case was stark because of the power imbalance and ought to have been linked with more subtle ways National bullies as a narrative about this government.
But I think people assume that if they hear a couple of cases (Andrea Vance as well), it means every time a journalist is threatened or bullied they rush into print and set it to rights. I don’t think that is the case.
Putting aside the effect on the individuals involved (after all NZ is a bullying culture which permeates many sectors) it can affect the quality of coverage the public receives, so it’s probably good to be reminded now and then.
Cripes Ergo R
What is all this about? I thought you took a balanced view to matters.
What a disappointment. You have chosen to defend the media against some cynical comment and are going on as if it was a matter of life or death. Shees.
grey: when we agree with someone their view is ‘balanced’; if we don’t agree it’s extreme; if we don’t think the topic is worth discussing, they’re being a bit silly and ”going on” about something that doesn’t matter too much.
weka: ignore it then. If I had to make a judgement, I’d put quite a bit of what gets said on here into the less important category, but I don’t take it on myself to make such a call, much less to officiously state what topics are worthy of discussion, or what days it’s OK to divert from the main news stories.
It seems John Key couldn’t answer several questions about his new housing strategy but despite being the PM who is running the country that’s fine by the MSM. He still gets 8/10 from the NZ Herald.
Andrew Little openly admits he doesn’t know which country [currently] has the lowest unemployment statistic but oh dear what a shocking blunder, He gets 4/10 from the NZ Herald.
“Imagine, for a moment, that an industrial nation were to downshift its technological infrastructure to roughly what it was in 1950.”
Nothing, but nothing, stirs up shuddering superstitious horror in the minds of the cultural mainstream these days as effectively as the thought of, heaven help us, “going back.” Even if the technology of an earlier day is better suited to a future of energy and resource scarcity than the infrastructure we’ve got now, even if the technology of an earlier day actually does a better job of many things than what we’ve got today, “we can’t go back!” is the anguished cry of the masses. They’ve been so thoroughly bamboozled by the propagandists of progress that they never stop to think that, why, yes, they can, and there are valid reasons why they might even decide that it’s the best option open to them.
Heh, I’ve been thinking about this very thing this week. Why is it that we don’t even talk about powerdown seriously yet? What would be so bad about doing with less? It’s not like we haven’t been through processes like this before eg Great Depression, WW2. Is it hang over from then? Or neoliberalism?
Or is it fear? How would we manage if we don’t have all the shiny things, or aspire to all the shiny things? What would be left with?
Not only are we not talking about power down seriously yet, we are not talking about power down *at all*. Labour is talking about more economic growth, creating export jobs, and improving the living standards and consumption of Kiwi households though.
I think the quote sums up the why – the cult of progress is, pretty well, all persuasive unless like some of us who choose early to drop out the bottom of the system (as much as possible anyway). Hell we can’t even get enough people to vote green or change their lifestyle – it is no wonder that deliberate slowdown is laughed at.
I don’t think many are talking about this, exempting a few, and if they did, publicly they be ridiculed and ostracised. I see the whole downsizing, de-unrelentingprogress type movements as being quite underground but growing, definitely growing – people are getting on with it – they are there but public exposure is just not worth it – very difficult to stand up to the ‘progress-zealots’.
hi marty, weka,
weka what does your version of powerdown look like?
i am most of the way thru derrick jensens’ end game.
i keep coming to the conclusion that the way my brown brothers lived, pre european contact, is the long term future for aotearoa/new zealand.
i can build a dwelling from the land base, but its a lot harder without corrugated iron.
@ weka
I think there ia an Earth Day in March. I was thinking wouldn’t it be a good idea to talk about having a powerdown day on that day.
Get out all the things at home waiting to be repaired, and sit down as a family and do them. Fix and glue some toys, paint chipped ones, mend a doll’s dress or knit something. Do some crafts.
Plan a new crop and work in the garden, Someone find recipes using own garden vegetables for when they are full-grown. Work out a roster so everyone does something in the garden.
Wear clean clothes that haven’t been ironed. Wear something that is still good that has a small stain on it. Sew the missing buttons on shirts. Clean and polish shoes and try to get another season out of them. Retain, repair, reuse, save and then have that money for things that you need and that bring enjoyment.
That’s how I would sell it. Would that work in with the idea of powerdown? Or am I going away from the point. What I have been saying is part of acting locally while thinking globally idea.
@ weka
I’m good with ideas and have done some things in the past but not sure how to get started. And don’t have much time available. But I have the drive to do something to get started. Is powerdown a good word to use that conveys a lot in its intrinsic meaning and intrigues those who haven’t started to think about it? At first thought I think it would be useful as a sort of exhortation and description of the thinking and rhythm needed for the future.
The type of thing I suggested, hanging on April Earth Day, could get going in even just a few regions as a pilot. An individual could try to get a group together in each region. At first there might only be one person in each town working on one thing, but all keeping in touch with activity and keeping readable diary notes in an exercise book! (that would be passed on to the next year’s activist and added to, keeping up with the info on who was helpful, receptive, sour and dogmatic etc) and getting the idea out there. And the one thing they thought of would be written about in the local newspaper, someone would talk about it on Radionz to ?Simon Mercep on around the country’s doings, Bryan Crump in the evenings, weekends? Something arty to the creatives in the weekends. And then talk to someone who would give a positive word on commercial radio, (no good getting sneered at or having a final put-down comment just after the interview finished which many male voice-peacocks have perfected).
How to get people together and talking first? I suppose Facebook or Twitter, which would get the younger ones. And not to forget the stalwarts already in the field for years working away, who would give advice and support and enjoy some elder acknowledgment. They are great characters who have laboured on for years and often against resentment or apathy. They enjoy seeing some others rise and continue the work even in a different way.
Incidentally, and germane to this, on the radionz farming program, there were interviews with someone from a group I think Ducks Unlimited which has been working for years at restoring and maintaining wetlands and breeding various native ducks. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20165515
It was mentioned that almost all the members had grey hair, and the young ones weren’t enthused. And she said that the same applied to community-aware groups like Rotary and Lions. Younger people are not coming forward. And there used to be a group called Jaycees for young men mainly in business and enterprising to get amenities and good facilities in their towns. Then it dwindled as the impact of weekend opening and longer hours, and less weekend availability for personal choice came with the 1980’s neo libs. A poultry breeder said that the loss of the weekends and time for personal life and interests had made a big impact on their followers.
So there is a malaise in NZ, a loss of the binding community-building interest where young mature people got together in a common interest. If that can be combatted more and more with more community-building, sustainability events as well as artistic and entertainment ones and displays and goods at eco-weekends etc. that would be a good aim and achievement.
As someone who’s been active in the field for a long time, I would say this. Most people who already get it are already doing many things and have little free time to organise something like this. We can look at the many intiatives already in existence eg Transition Towns
The trick becomes finding the right person/people who get the idea and have the skill and time to make it move forward. I think the best thing we can do here on ts is keep discussing it and see what comes out of it.
I put a comment in Weekend Social asking people what they’re doing over the weekend that’s part of the powerdown. We can also keep coming back to this theme in whatever other conversations are going on. I would see getting the powerdown discussed more widely than it presently is is crucial.
I’m going to have a think about whether powerdown is the right term to use (it comes out of the Transition Town/Peak Oil movements, so it has a good pedigree, but I’m not clear what it will say to people who are only just starting to think about this.
I get you, but you are asking for a miracle in this age of Facebook, i-phone, twitter, internet, umpteen Tv channels, U-Tube, Wi-fi……..and did I mention Facebook?
Hmm. My first reaction is to go in the opposite(?) direction. Take all the labour saving and more efficient technologies of today, remove the in-built obsolescence, and free vast numbers of ourselves from stupid, soul destroying jobs.
Abolish the market and have communities, as opposed to individuals, interact with systems of production and distribution.
Move out of our power hungry nuclear family castles/sarcophagi and back to more communal and less power hungry living arrangements. Retrofit present houses to better serve individual and communal needs instead of having them stupidly set up to replicate individual needs all of the time. 20 houses currently equates to 20 washing machines, 20 hot water systems, 20 cookers, 20 bathrooms/showers/toilets etc…and 20+ cars, TVs, computers etc while the reality is that a fraction of those numbers would comfortably cater for the (say) 60 odd people currently living in those 20 houses.
ok, but historical pedantry aside, did you get my point to Bill?
Going back doesn’t mean literally giving up everything we have now and reverting. It means being willing to do without the consumerist imperative or modern ideas about what need is.
Leaving aside light bulbs, NZ was still largely manufacturing goods in the 50s (and 60s, 70s) that were designed around quality, performance and longevity. Things lasted and then when they broke things could be repaired. We had whole businesses dedicated to repairing things. These are dynamics of a society that is attempting resiliency and sustainability. Not only is technology better in some cases back then but the philosophy was better too.
So true weka – you have really understood the concept – it is going back to go forward. JMG does say, and I agree with him, that we don’t know what will happen so we don’t know what level of technology is sustainable and relevant – we might have to go back further to find the equilibrium or sustainable point.
I remember the point where I had to buy a car that I knew I could no longer maintain myself. Individual car ownership aside, the issue of engines being so complex now that you need high level infrastructure to maintain them is a good example of where we need to go back. I love reading about the experience of Cubans, and in this instance of how they’ve kept an old fleet going for so long, out of necessity. This is one reason why I think the whole electric car things is bogus. If we try and conver the fleet now, we will just end up with cars that run on electricity but are not very resilient. I’d be more confident if I saw use going backwards.
I feel lucky because my parents were children of the depression and my mother’s family were farmers, so I have appreciation for these things built in. I don’t know how you teach that in the age of disposable cell phones where some people have never known anything else.
I love that point about not knowing what will happen. David Holmgren talks about how we can’t know the future too, and that it will be up to later generations to figure out the hard stuff as they come to it. We just have to deal with what is in front of us.
Its time for the Greens to seriously consider their future.
Do they want to be a ‘junior coalition partner’ to a Labour party that has no idea where it wants to go (Labour IMO is like a possum in the headlights — it has been for a long time. It litterally doesnt know what to do), support a National government that will push away a lot of its core supporters, or…
Go for government in their own right.
It is possible, but it will take a lot of debate within the party, a lot more comprimises, and it will require the pissing off of the phil u’s of this world. Might need a leadership change or three as well. The Green’s dont owe Labour anything. They have been repeatedly shut out by them for 15 years, its time to go out on their own.
10% isn’t a small minority. I think more people like the GP’s philosophy/ethos but get scared off voting for them (hence the GP do better in pre-election polls than on the day). Besides, Draco posted this the other day,
A survey by the website voteforpolicies.org.uk reports that in blind tests (the 500,000 people it has polled were unaware of which positions belong to which parties), the Green party’s policies are more popular than those of any other. If people voted for what they wanted, the Greens would be the party of government.
“Sorry, but people don’t vote on policy detail, they vote on philosophy, leadership and the credibility of that philosophy and leadership.”
You appear to be implying that the GP’s policy is somehow separate from those things. It’s not.
I’m not sure really where you are coming from. My comment was that of course the GP want to be govt by themselves. But as you and I know they’re not after power itself, and consider other things just as important. You criticise them for not having a popular philosophy, and then you criticise them for pandering to the middle classes (which increases their vote).
Myself, I think they know what they are doing. I think they’ve shifted the conversation hugely around sustainability, and they’re largely hampered by the neoliberal agenda, Crosby Textor, the MSM*, voter apathy, and fear. In other words, the usual stuff.
And of course the GP aren’t going to govern on their own. They don’t actually need to if Labour gets it shit together.
You appear to be implying that the GP’s policy is somehow separate from those things. It’s not.
So you say, but I’d also make the same criticism of Labour.
Notice how National goes into elections with little more than a shred of policy. But people believe in their philosophy, their ethos, their sincerity, and their ability to deliver.
So I would indeed say that in many ways policy detail is actually “somehow separate from those things.”
I didn’t see him either, but tv3 printed his anti-green vitriol (The GP is now in serious trouble, blah blah if I say it enough it will be true!).
“So you say, but I’d also make the same criticism of Labour.”
The GP’s princples are apparent throughout the party, the structure, the policies. I think the’ve compromised most on presentation.
That might be true for Labour too, but not in a good way 😉 Not overly critical, because Labour have the whole neoliberalism thing to shake that the GP has never had to deal with, so the GP are starting cleaner if you like.
Comparing the GP with National as if National are doing something good or right is a non-starter, because the only way for the GP to acheive that would be to abandon the principles and that would wreck the party because of what I just described (they’re throughout everything).
“Notice how National goes into elections with little more than a shred of policy. But people believe in their philosophy, their ethos, their sincerity, and their ability to deliver.”
Ok, so we’re talking about 30% of the electorate. Of that 30% some will be as you say. But many will vote National because their family does. Or because they like the economic policy but not the social policy but can’t vote on the left (ie they don’t buy the philosophy). Others will be swing voters and can’t bring themselves to vote Labour. etc. In other words, National win because they present this cohesive philosophy as you portray. They win because of apathy from the non-vote, disarray on the left, and too many people now voting from self interest.
Further, in the last couple of election the GP have had good leadership and focus on philosophy. What they can’t get over is the fact that ultimately they’re asking people to change for the greater good, whereas National are appealing to self interested people to stay the same.
CR
Would that be expressed as. they have not placed their separate policies and general ideas into a narrative that most NZs feel has a place for them and will enable them to have a good life of the kind they can envision now.
If the Greens need to get the wider public behind the Party to bring about better environment, sustainable futures that are different from today/s view then they need to think hard, run focus groups and chat and then run through that circle again till they get it right for broadcast.
a narrative that most NZs feel has a place for them and will enable them to have a good life of the kind they can envision now.
Almost exactly.
Except the Greens have to help Kiwis envision a kind of good life that most cannot imagine now. A good life which is about something other than consuming more material goods and more energy faster than ever before.
If Norman is stepping down it’s likely to be either family reasons or a health issue. As far as I’m aware it’s not an internal party matter. Key and their spin merchants will be crunching whether to choose the timing to stand Sabin down. I would assume Key will over the weekend. This is if Norman steps down of course.
This NZ chap in the link that Ad supplied, who tried to burn down his house poured kerosene on it and drank alcohol as he watched. His partner’s family had underwritten a mortgage on it, and they both had been working on it to finish it. He has virtually kicked everyone who had helped him with his house, in the backside. He is getting help for his addiction. He is supposed to be paying back money owing to his in-laws.
when the defendant was questioned about why he did it, he said his reasons “encompassed a lot of things”.
Mr Stevens said his client had been stressed trying to finish the house.
Grindlay also had alcohol issues, which he was now getting help with from CareNZ, an addiction treatment provider, he said.
I listened on Radionz this morning to how Charles Manson, the mad, managed to con women. A bad mixture – an amoral, unstable man who was on some sort of drugs.
This NZ man is on alcohol and what else? Even after help he may never get back to normal behaviour and empathy.
Charles Manson at primary school stirred up girls there to attack a boy who had annoyed him. His comment was that the girls had been doing what they wanted to, Manson wasn’t involved. The words ‘uninvolved, narcissistic, anti-social’ are important to consider when our survival is tenuous. The description of negative traits is of the arsonist, the destroyer, who is driven from a personal drive to satisfy vengeful emotions or desire for fame or infamy, either, like Charles Manson. And if it destroys others hopes and resources, this is a passing minor consideration.
I think eventually we may have to bring back the death penalty to protect ourselves from such amorals. Manson is now 80 years and is still charismatic and seems entirely unchanged. As an old man his warped mind is still as potent. He has a presence on the internet. People have been known to meet outside the jail walls in the hope that he will be released. One vicious amoral may ruin a whole population. Poison to the people!
Nope. Not the death penalty. Not now. Not ever. Have a look at whom it gets used against – minorities, people that the 1% doesn’t like. It is too easy for the prosecution to fabricate evidence as well. Never.
Manson now 80 years old, “married” a 26 year old woman last year who had been communicating with him since she was 17. Charming and manipulative as ever.
He has been the most effective opposition to NAct in the house. Labour have mostly either been AWOL or scored own goals. I wish him well in the future and am glad he’s still an MP, even if his super will be more than people who sit around smoking dope get.
We’re being told we could save ourselves $10,000 a year if we ditched the car and used public transport to get to work.
That was actually ten days ago. I spotted it today in yesterday’s Western Leader under the headline Ditching the car can save money – Report
The first question I had was: Why the hell isn’t this a major story in every news propagation service?
Then: Why the hell isn’t the government doing something to increase and improve public transport?
But then I realised that, if such savings were applied across the board as they could and should be, then NZ’s GDP would decrease by about 10% and no government would do that as they chase ever more GDP growth. There’s also the fact that the profits from those captured motorists would disappear and no government, wedded to the profit motive as ours are, would do that either.
Fuck you apathetic NZ. But carry on with your reality tv and your iphones and property speculation. Thank-you the NZ that is still and always working hard to at least slow down the damage.
“The data covered all of the country’s monitored rivers except for those in Auckland, Waikato, Northland and the West Coast, where councils did not use SFRG indicators in the period.”
So that ratio is probably very optimistic once those regions are added in
Philip Catton, Eleanor Catton’s dad and philosophy professor, takes on Plunkett. Couldn’t bring myself to listen to Plunkett himself, but there’s this partial transcript from the Herald.
“I think you used words that have nothing to do with the motivation of someone’s critical discussion, you called someone an ‘ungrateful hua’, you called them ‘a traitor’, these are names,” Dr Catton said, saying they were also “factually false”.
He later said: “What you’ve said does not square with the reality that I know. I’m extremely surprised by the inaccuracy of your vision, not just by the inaccuracy of what you’ve said.”
When did Dr Catton officially become a “Professor”, Weka?
Did you promote him or is it the Herald that is confused?
According to them
“Dr Philip Catton, a former senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Canterbury, confronted RadioLive presenter Plunket on his show this morning.”
Didn’t the title of senior lecturer seem suitably elevated to you?
I cut and pasted those two words, so I assume the Herald made a mistake and later corrected. Care to take back the snark? There are plenty of things I can be accused of on ts, but making up that kind of shit isn’t one of them.
Fair enough. The fact that the Herald stuffed up their report doesn’t surprise me.
The fact that they bothered to fix it is the amazing thing. I didn’t think they bothered to correct anything these days.
Excellent!
Eleanor Catton’s Dad takes on Sean Plunkett You can listen to it on Radio Live, but if (like me) you cannot bear listening to Plunkett then there’s quite a good report here:
I would like to ask for some opinions on repeat posts of links. This might be unpopular to discuss as some people could feel they are being hassled, but I really am not pointing fingers at anyone. Most of us here have done it at one time or another. I know I have.
It really does happen an awful lot and I would hazard a guess many are unaware quite how regularly it occurs because it occurs so regularly it has become a sort of white noise . Which is why I feel it needs to be addressed. Maybe it’s just me and this sort of stuff doesn’t bother others but how can a stronger community form, and comments grow to become meaningful discussions, if actions are regularly taken by that community without paying attention to activities within its own environment?
I appreciate that it can be an oversight sometimes, but often it just looks like there is no thought applied before posting a link. Is it the desire to be first? Is that all people want? To be seen to have their finger on the pulse, which is kind of ludicrous when discussing links to MSM articles.
Is it not wanting to put comments under certain handles that will create some illusion of hierarchy because that person got their post up first?
If you look at today’s open Mike, posts 20, 21 + 24, there are three posts of the same link, almost in succession. Do people just not bother checking? It intrigues me is all, so thought I would ask.
I’ve found that sometimes reading the link, then checking to see if someone’s already linked, then figuring out what I want to put around the link, etc, leaves a lag where others see the same link and post it in the meantime.
Particularly if grazing on the web -reading other threads, and then some oik disturbs me at work and I have to earn my crust 🙂
And then I look like a dick because someone posted it 25 minutes ago (longer if it was in moderation :)). And then I delete, but someone’s replied and it kills the comment numbering. Might as well leave it up, lol.
All in all, I’m pretty cool with just leaving the multiple links up – in today’s case, I generally overlook one of the commenters who linked, so I’m actually more likely to read the link because someone I have a bit more respect for actually linked to it, as well. And if something’s important to me, I try not to care by which avenue other people read it 🙂
All that notwithstanding, come folks link better than others – the 1,000 word one-sentence rant is just as overlooked by me as the pretentious link-whore question that in no way describes the content of the link (e.g. “who do people feel about this – should they face further action, or have they…” yadda yadda. It’s impossible to tell whether it’s a political issue, a rugby team, or some oik talking about an obscure case in the levant).
“And then I delete, but someone’s replied ”
That is the very behaviour I was probing when I mentioned how who posts the link seems to matter and how multiple reposts of links harm the dialogue.
The fault there, if there is any, is with the person who did not comment on the first posting of the link but instead chose to comment on a later posting of the same link. This ‘skip over’ is most likely due to whomever posted the link being out of favour with the person making a comment. At times this has lead to multiple streams of similar discussions and we all know how quickly that can cause confusion, ill feelings and ultimately derail a topic.
There are no big solutions here, apart from the obvious ones
Don’t do it!
Think before posting !
They have as much right as you do to post it! 🙂
All I am saying is awareness of an issue is a positive step in resolution of that issue. And I think I am not alone in thinking it is an issue, albeit a minor one.
It’s not quite so simple – if someone’s replied to me, were the previous linkers in moderation? Did I make an insightful or (outrageously foolish) point that the responder wishes to discuss, and the first linker did not focus on that aspect? Were the links adjacent, or was one link buried in a completely different sub-thread and missed?
I reckon it’s just in the “shit happens – roll with it” category, rather than being a big-ass problem.
“shit happens – roll with it” ummm that’s how the world got in this mess
(your moderation example is imho a rare event in context of the discussion)
and i’m not saying it’s a big-ass problem, i was pretty clear about that
I said it contributes to some of the negative influences in this community is all.
Without details, big pictures do not exist. I pay attention to details, you know that. 😉 which is usually why when I stuff up, it is on the obvious stuff 🙂
lol they didn’t say anything about planting, just that one would be a “native reserve”. I think they’re just saying they won’t un-plant it.
Also I wonder if “reserve” means a reserve that’s available to the public? And if not, I wonder if it means they definitely absolutely promise not to “develop” the reserve island for their own commercial use. Maybe a teeny tiny little bar on the “reserve” island, perhaps?
For the past 80 years Pararekau, the second largest island in the harbour, has been used to graze stock, degrading the ecological value of the island.
The developers say farming Pararekau is no longer financially or environmentally viable and they plan to subdivide the island into 11 lifestyle blocks with a shared recreation area, wetlands and extensive coastal planting.
A causeway created in the 1960s would link the private community to the mainland. With a gate at either end of the causeway, vehicle access would be limited to residents, their guests and emergency services.
Pedestrians and cyclists would be able to use the road to access a walkway around the island’s coastline.
Local iwi Ngati Te Ata initially opposed the plans, saying Pararekau is wahi tapu – a site of sacred significance.
But the preservation of archaeological sites in the developer’s structural plan, and the continued public access to the island’s coast that will allow iwi to undertake their kaitiaki (guardianship) role, convinced them to agree to the development.
The court acknowledged the significant ecological gains the proposal would provide including the restoration of the island’s vegetation which would help the recovery of indigenous birds and lizards.
A final Environment Court decision on the plan change is still to come.
Gated communities offend this kiwi’s sensibility, but I have to say that there is some good ecological work being done in NZ by very rich people, esp from overseas. We can complain about lack of access and foreign ownership (and I do), but these people are just getting on with doing the right thing by the land while NZ still thinks it’s acceptable to clear native ecosystems and pour cow shit into the water.
I agree it’s good to be cautious. In the case of the island, it’s unfortunate that the reporter didn’t check this out, but it was on the business pages I think, so who gives a shit, right? I suppose I know more examples of rich people doing the right thing, but then I move in pretty green circles, and am less exposed to the ones just planting a few trees.
I hope the greenys you you circle with aren’t the type that build castles then slap a few solar panels on and a Prius in the garage and pat them selves on the back.
When sexual offenders are asked what they’re in prison for, it is common for them to answer “assault.” Technically they’re right, I suppose. Assault could be anything from hitting a cop’s face with your fist to sexual assault on a minor. The truth usually comes out.
Well, now you’ve raised it, I am indeed wondering whether anybody else is thinking what you are thinking. But then I’m not you, so the answer is yes somebody else is thinking what you are thinking, so I’m no longer wondering, so the answer is unknown. I wonder what it could be- geettoutofmybraaaaiiinn!
Millsy, if I am thinking what you’re thinking (and I think I am) why is it so? Is name suppression usual in a case like the one we’re thinking about? I can think of needing to protect the identity of the victim as one reason. But it can’t be that serious if the accused is remanded at large. And how far can we speculate on an open forum (serious question – I really don’t know) before the water-boarders step in?
The legal advice I’ve had is that you can speculate as much as you like, but if you have actual knowledge of the case, you cannot say that you know who it is. Lprent may have had different legal advice.
I have seen people remanded on bail for some very serious charges, but at large is a bit unusual. I can imagine it could be used if the judge were convinced that the prominence of the accused would make it difficult for them to leave the country. For example, the accused could have prominent tribal tattoos on their right arm, or could have been pictured in newspapers and television recently.
The pedophile Phil Smith managed to escape because nobody knew what he looked like. I assume the prominent accuse may be so well known that it would be difficult for them to get through airport security. Although that would only work if people knew the person was the subject of serious charges. This is indeed strange.
Pretty much. Speculation isn’t an issue so long as it is vague enough to be essentially meaningless – ie reading the tea leaves style.
But we will leap on people who state that they know – even if we know that they are likely to be bullshitting. Or even if they start speculating confidently so that they look like they know the facts of the case.
Simply put, if we don’t know what the suppression was on, then we can’t know what needs suppressing. So we act as if all such pointed speculation is someone trying to put us in the dock.
Court suppression orders are nothing to fool with. We don’t know what evidence was placed in front of a judge to cause them to issue the suppression order, so we don’t speculate.
I have a pretty basic rule. It says that if I see anything that might make a judge look at me and think that I may have deliberately allowed the name suppression to be violated, or that causes us problems with our privacy rules (ie having to give up some persons details) – then it is a problem.
Then I will act against the person involved immediately and rather ruthlessly to make sure that they never want to do that to us again.. Other moderators may be kinder and simply cut out the offending passages.
Therefore it is a possibly good or possibly bad thing that MS has been getting to comments before me today eh? Depends how much you like draconian preemptive bans.
What are you thinking? Tell us! Then may be I can confirm or deny directly (and not through my orifice, whoops, I mean office) if I was thinking that too.
“It’s actually a story of reducing Government spending, casualising our workforce, taking no steps to cool the property market, selling off our natural assets, ignoring inequality, ignoring high levels of personal debt, ignoring environmental change and privatising essential services. It is the story of the short-term benefits of trickle-down economics” : Chris Hedges–an American journalist, activist, author, Presbyterian minister and humanitarian.
Whoops! Thanks. Yes, you are correct. I made a big error. I copied the wrong quote!
The one I quoted above is indeed from the excellent Dita da Boni.
The one I wanted to quote (Which somehow my copy/paste did not capture and I didn’t notice) was this from Chris Hedges:
“We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the economy.” – Chris Hedges – (1956- ) American journalist, author, and war correspondent
—————————-
NOTE TO ANY KIND TS MODERATOR:
I would be grateful if a moderator would be kind enough to either delete my comment #29 or edit the author for that quote and enter the author as Dita da Boni. Thanks.
In future interviews with foreign media, I will of course discuss the inflammatory, vicious, and patronising things that have been broadcast and published in New Zealand this week. I will of course discuss the frightening swiftness with which the powerful Right move to discredit and silence those who question them, and the culture of fear and hysteria that prevails. But I will hope for better, and demand it.
Good on her. Our current crop of journalists remind me of school prefects, trying their best to catch the naughty boys and girls and curry favour with the teachers. I always thought prefects were scum. I got voted in as one in an experiment in democracy once, but the headmaster vetoed me 🙂 I wouldn’t have done it anyway.
What particularly struck me in her blog was her statement “I love these moments of connection and the conversation they bring.” I think we all know what she means by that and that it is these that make a community of people, real or virtual, or a cohesive society: a place or platform were people can express themselves freely and open up, without fear, but in a reciprocal environment. At times, TS is such an environment, which is why I decided to join in ‘the conversation’. This is also the reason why I tend to lean left because the right, at present, appears to stand for individualism bordering on selfishness rather than connection and unity.
Went to my sister’s for a BBQ tonight. Got to Henderson and some arsehole turned left over me. No, that isn’t an exaggeration he actually drove over my bike and me (No serious damage done to me thankfully but the front wheel was totaled). And then he didn’t stop.
But that’s not what pissed me of most.
I called the police immediately. A car didn’t turn up as there wasn’t one available so I got called back and asked to go to the police station and file a formal report. When I got there the receptionist, IMO, tried very hard to get me to not fill in a report because ‘there was nothing that could be done’.
Well, there would certainly be nothing done if I didn’t.
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There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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(spain will be the next neo-liberal domino to fall..)
“..Can Podemos Win in Spain?..
..Just a year after its founding –
– it’s the country’s leading party..”
(cont..)
http://www.thenation.com/article/195129/can-podemos-win-spain#
and what will it take to shake labour out of its’ austerity-politics/neo-liberal mindset..?
(one of my definitions of austerity-politics is the telling of/to the poorest..that we ‘can’t afford’ to help them in any way..)
..and by that/any definitions..labour is still in neo-lib lockstep..
..will they change..?..or will they follow the path of their greek ideological counterparts..
..and continue to wither..and be overtaken by the left-contagion sweeping europe..
(by a party talking also to the ‘missing-million’..remember them..?..)
..and receive a single-figure result @ the next election..?
..i guess the outcome is in their own hands..eh..?
..and at this stage..the ‘wither’ looks definitely on the cards..
..wot’ with the little-led labour promising to ‘move away’ from social-policies..
..talk about being on the wrong side of history..eh..?
and i guess u wd be asking:..but what about the greens..?
..couldn’t they be ‘our’ party..?
..well yes..they could..but not how they currently are..
..they are too wedded to the current-paradigm..
..and their willingness/eagerness? to sell-out the most basic ‘green’-principles..
(..drilling..?..we can live with that..mining..?..we can live with that..etc..etc..)
..pretty much rule them out..
(of course norman saying bill english is the politician he most admires..only adds to that ‘wedded’/sell-out’ image/problem..)
..so as with labour..the greens’ future is in their own hands..
..the only question being whether they have the will/motivation/vision to see that..
..and to act/change accordingly..
morena phil,
i am aware that us people who post on these sites are a lot more engaged polliticaly than the masses..
a comment came up here or somewhere else that working folk are either working or recovering from working (tired, family time, etc), so dont want to know about it.
we are also blessed (cursed) to live in a sparsely populated country abounding with natural resources, water, clean air, food etc.
i reckon the way to have people wake from their slumber is an election cycle of hard right politics.
let the act crew have their way for three years.
after all isnt this why the new party in spain is popular?
when the gfc (or enevitable result of capitalism ) occured, petrol went over $2 a litre, and the middle clas got squeezed, i saw community gardens crop up, sharing started to happen.
then, like the frog in the heating pot of water, we got used to it.
i say swap the pot of h2o for a microwave.
morena..
..i think 30 + yrs of neo-lib/right is more than enough..
..and i think that victory for the left will come from that missing-million..those labour said they were going to speak directly to..
..and then didn’t..
..give them some real ‘hope’ of a better life..
..and they will get out and vote..
..i mean..where was the motivation for them/youth to get out and vote in ’14..?
..the tories..a neo-lib labour..and a we-don’t-really-stand-for-much greens..
..and a melting-down internet/mana..
..hobsons’-choice – all around..
hmm.. rather a melting down of mana, wasnt there a large part of labour cannibilizing (again) one of the other parties to the left of it.
just think, labour strategy up in the far north.. give us your party vote and if hone wins you get two mps in parliament
clearly 30 yrs of he who dies with the most toys wins, is not enough for the sheeple.
my thoughts above were to how to energize/activate the populace.
cheers, have a good day, i’m off.
without going into the details..i think there were major campaign-failures/’meltdown’ from mana..
..and yes of course labour etc. ganged-up..and that was a factor..
..but defeat does have many parents..and some of those parents did that damage to their own..
..and how to motivate/energise the populace..?
..policies/promises that have a real chance of being made a reality..
..policies that give them ‘hope’..
Internet Mana lost Te Tai Tokerau by 800 votes, through all the established parties in Parliament ganging up on them.
This was not a “melt down”, this was a political execution.
We are sorely missing having both Hone Harawira and Laila Harre in the House right now. Instead we have the same old establishment players playing their same old game.
and also had harawira not alienated the pot-vote/scuppered the end-prohibition ad-campaign put together by internet party..
..and irredeemably marked mana as a reactionary party on pot..
..those 800 votes wd have been his for the taking..
..and he/they wd now be in parliament..
..that one is a clear/traceable defeat cause-effect..
..a clear and present ‘parent’ of that defeat..
(n.b..the aotearoa legalise cannabis party got about 12,000 votes..
..had harawira not driven them away..and had that end-prohibition media campaign been allowed to go ahead..
..many of those 12,000 votes wd have gone internet/manas’ way..
..(the greens had already burnt them off..again..with norman confirming that the repeal of cannabis-prohibition was not on their to-do list..
..so those votes were up for grabs..)
“.that one is a clear/traceable defeat cause-effect..
..a clear and present ‘parent’ of that defeat..”
No phil – I think you are drawing them together when in fact they are separate.
Sure lots of parents of defeat but we don’t need to search for more, there are more than enough already.
just saying no..doesn’t make it so..
..i laid out my reasonings for my call on that..
..if you wish to credibly challenge that call/conclusion..
..i wd suggest addressing/unpacking those reasons wd b a good place to start..
yes I’ve read your thoughts on it and I don’t agree – why I don’t agree is that I think you are pulling two different things and making them into one thing.
You have no evidence whatsoever that votes for ALC would have gone to IMP
You have no evidence whatsoever that Hone’s dislike of cannabis took votes from IMP
You do have knowledge and experience but that cannot draw it all together imo
“..You have no evidence whatsoever that votes for ALC would have gone to IMP..”
c’mon..!..do you think the end-prohibition media-blitz that harawira canned..wouldn’t have got any votes..?
“..You have no evidence whatsoever that Hone’s dislike of cannabis took votes from IMP ..”
see above..
..and when mainstream-polling shows that 87% of people favour ending prohibition..
..how does harawira throwing a media-tantrum..and coming out as a reactionary on pot..
..how does that not harm him/the imp-vote..?
..and especially those 12,000 alcp-votes..
..that had nowhere else to go..
I agree, marty. I doubt very much that Hone’s views on the electric puha cost many votes. Phil is unlikely to ever agree with us on that. My life is not less complete because of this.
Kelvin Davis did a lot of campaigning in the southern end of Te Tai Tokerau .
The urban voters of the Auckland area were perhaps more aspiring to the slick image of KD rather than the more flax-roots type of leadership that is Hone’s strength.
Having Hone and Laila miss by such a small margin was very directly related to Labour’s intransigence.
Labour was founded on the idea of strength through unity.
They could have been in a governing coalition now if they had been less single-minded.
If Labour keeps crapping on its allies the left will have to regroup around a leader who comes from outside the parliamentary feather-bedding system.
“..They could have been in a governing coalition now if they had been less single-minded..”
agreed..
Indeed. Have a think about that, and then ask yourself how and why the Labour party views external left parties with a certain degree of skepticism.
They formed unity out of disunity, and have had nearly a century of being sniped at by other politically ineffectual wannabe parties of the ‘left’ with strong tendencies to disintegrate from internal dissension.
For some strange reason, not unrelated to that history, they tend to view jackasses like yourself with cheap self-serving formulas with a certain degree of scepticism.
The greens didn’t get any particular help, yet managed the 30-40 year build from being the Values party to a strong multi-person independent party advocating their own interests. They have earned political respect the hard way.
Whereas the IMP looked and acted like just another useless and ineffectual disaster.
If you want Labour to do you favours for your political views, then go and join it and spend some decades earning respect for your hard work, tenacity and clear thinking.
If you want to run a party outside then expect to spend decades building a solid and robust organisation that can compete with the NZLP and its rather independent electorate candidates for support. If you want the silver dish treatment, couple up with National and get sucked dry as the Maori party are now.
“they tend to view jackasses like yourself with cheap self-serving formulas……”
After all your banning for personal attacks it seems a strange approach to discussion.
I don’t know what touched such a delicate spot that you came out firing like that. A very low Standard.
I thought that I was being very clear. I think you are a idiot who is too lazy to think about why the Labour party doesn’t do the kinds of stupid things that *you* think that they should do. I explained it to you.
However from your response, and its complete lack of response to any point in the comment, I suspect that you are so busy self-pleasuring yourself with a broomstick up your arse, that you have forgotten there is a real world out there.
As for “personal attacks” – you really are a fool. Go and read the policy instead of just being an idiot trying to wank your way to an alternate reality.
There is a rule about personal attacks on authors writing posts. That is because I want authors to write more posts. Given a choice between an author who makes and effort to keep this site having comment and a commenter who is often just there to attack authors, then I ban the arseholes who attack my authors.
If you don’t like that, then I really don’t give a damn. Argue about it and the rules about being a useless critic trying to run the site come into effect.
There is no rule about personal attacks between commenters. That is because it would wind up in a wrangle about what is an attack or not. So attacks between commenters are usually ok – unless they get out of hand (and too boring to be bothered reading). Then I pick the person who I think is the biggest problem (ie worst troll) and boot then out of the discussion. If required then I keep booting until the comments get interesting to read again.
However there is a rule about *pointless* abuse. If you want to abuse someone while making a personal attack, then you have to explain clearly why the abuse is directed at them.
However I’d say that my “attack” was quite pointed.
Don’t like the rules? I really don’t care. Just don’t whine about them. Just leave.
What I can’t understand is why IMP didn’t realise that political parties and political candidates generally don’t do ‘favours’ for other parties.
The IMP didn’t do enough work in the Auckland parts of TTT. It was pretty clear that they underestimated Kelvin Davis targeting there. They also really underestimated how much they’d pissed off the Maori electorate Labour activists with Hone and some of his idiot supporters bad-mouthing Kelvin and Labour. The mood amongst them on election night was strongly on the “fuck you Hone, take that” mood. They weren’t like that in 2011.
Essentially when fucktards from parties like the IMP slag off other parties and candidates, then they should damn well expect a reaction. Bitching about it just shows a degree of political immaturity that to me indicates that they are more adolescent than adult, and I wouldn’t want to trust them near legislative power. Voters tend to follow the same way of looking at parties.
The “other parties” really only were the Maori party for electorate votes. They have always opposed Hone. Their vote wasn’t dissimilar to that of 2011.
So what you are talking about are the few wankhard National and Act voters in that electorate. If there were half of 800 of them voting there I’d be really surprised.
Looks to me like just another myth to cover people who weren’t up to the task at hand – perhaps they should learn from it and come back another day with a better understanding on what not to do in politics.
A execution yes but surely when planning the Mana Internet alliance they realized that they would hand a big stick with which to beat them with to the right wing parties and that a desperate labour party wouldn’t hesitate to join them if the tide of public opinion went out on Kim Dotcom which it did when the moment of truth turned into a sideshow around the ‘evidence’ Kim promised and didnt front.
Mana played a risky card to try and break the circuit which I understand but it was a gamble that was lost I think that who ever advised them was overly optimistic or an idiot. They certainly needed someone a whole lot better around the strategy to get it right probably would have been a better use of funds than to have a ‘roadshow’.
+1
Labour and NZF were fools.
Had they played better smarter politics, today we would have had a labour led left wing government under a coalition with the Greens, NZF and IMP.
And Key would have been in Hawaii waiting for summer to pay his respects to Obama among some wealthy golf course holes.
Phil your quite harsh on Labour, I feel a lot more optimistic with Little as leader than I did with Goff, Shearer and Cunliffe. Little’s speech contained plenty of positives like high job growth, repelling anti worker legislation, fire at will, destroying zero hours contracts. With staunce Leftie Matt Mc Carten in there do you believe he is going to turn neo-liberal. You can take it the answer is NO.
skinny..all i have to go on are their policies..in ’14..and now..(what to make of the promise to ‘move away’ from social-policies..?..(!)..)
..and yes..they are better than the tories..
..but i see one of those waves of change/history on the way..
..the pendulum is well and truly swinging-back..
..and they/labour are well behind the 8-ball..(with the greens in there as well..)
..and i am sure there are many in labour who share those ideals just become a reality in greece..
..but they are not in power in the labour party..
..it is still all those same old same old neo-lib faces staring out at us..
..and the same old same old austerity-politics..
..and yes..little may be (marginally) better than those who came before..
..but i don’t think it is/will be enough..
..and seriously..!..go and look at the fate of labours’ ideological-compatriots in greece..the ‘socialist’ party..
..they have gone from being govt in the 80’s/90’s..to a single-figure result in the this last election..
..the similariies between the two parties is striking..
..and should be a wake-up call for the left within both labour and the greens..
..time for them to seize the moment..
Phil it’s a complex issue for the Left here countering against capitalism and neo liberal party’s. Political party’s have to either get elected or over throw the government. The later just won’t happen here.
One of the biggest problems is babyboomers and the shift in who they vote for. Early on many fought the fight against tories. As they age and acquired wealth, get comfortable with assets, a home mortgage free, a rental or 2 as a retirement nest egg. Plenty change to protect their lot. They won’t vote for a party that wants to introduce a CGT. Whole sways of them change. Then you have rampant consumerism, the free market, freedom to negotiate (bullshit con) with the boss, never mind unions attitude. It goes on to why bother voting politicians/party’s are all the same.
i point you at the ‘missing million’..
..think of policies that will give them hope..(u.b.i. the obvious one..)
..labour has spent far too much time fussing around the sensibilities/cares of the middle-class..
..and their neglect of their duties..for some thirty odd yrs..have left us with a low-wage economy..and endemic-poverty..
..labour must change..or someone else will come along promising just that..
..and will sweep labour away in the process..
I’ll tell you what Philu. If Greece or Spain actually alter anything significant in terms of the ‘austerity’ policies they are being forced to follow in the next 18 months I will acknowledge you on a public forum as a much more astute follower of political trends than I.
define ‘anything significant’..
Increasing the size of government and restoring benefits back to pre-‘Austerity’ levels would be a significant change.
halting all the asset-sales enough..?
(see below..1.1.3.2.1.1.)
Gooseman
Bank of England govenor says Austerity is foolish and is not working.
yeah..i was surprised/pleased to see that yesterday..
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/28/bank-england-governor-attacks-eurozone-austerity
..asp. as far as the timing was concerned..coming hot on the heels of the victory in greece..
..and the fact that destroys the austerity-story/myths..
..is that the best way to stimulate/grow/help/preserve an economy..
..is to increase the incomes of the poorest..
..because all that money instantly churns back into the economy..
..thru retailers’/service-providers’ tills…
Gosman.
It looks like Gosman is going to have to eat his own words a lot sooner than his own timeline.
Given that Greece has already halted all that is all asset sales already.
That is huge change and is hugely signifigant!
The Bank of Englands comments
Hugely signifigant!
Gosman time to honour your promise!
whew..!..that was quick..!
I thought this was Open Mike not Phil Ure and Pete George Mike
..is that the best way to stimulate/grow/help/preserve an economy..
..is to increase the incomes of the poorest..
..because all that money instantly churns back into the economy..
..thru retailers’/service-providers’ tills…
This is a point that parties on left failed to communicate and it is one that is easy to understand and for that matter common sense. Give someone doing well an extra hundy they will save 50 spend 20 in NZ and the rest offshore… give someone at the bottom and extra hundy they will spend it all in NZ in the tills of the small businesses that so many people work for in NZ I hope it is a point Andrew Little hammers home.
it has long puzzled me why the left don’t hammer that point home to the media/business..
..it is so bleeding obvious..
..and it is only the neo-lib politics of both national and labour..
..that stop them from doing it..
..ideology..not logic..rules/drives that (bad) decision..
Oh look who ghosts in to challenge phil in a cock fight.
Planing on joining thousands of pakeha & maori up at Waitangi Gosman?
How about joining Pete G flipping pork & puha burgers, fund raising for the ACT party on a stall next to Mana’s. Post us a selfie rubbing noses with Hone if you do.
It looks funny to me to see “Can Podemos win.” It seems redundant. I suppose that’s the curse of being multilingual, and illiterate in all of them.
Is this a spoof site?
And The New Zealand media dictatorship
The graphic is particularly funny. Competition for The Civilian?
Have you actually read the story you commented on? Have you read any other stories at that Mana site? You are a waste of time peter.
Yes I did read both stories I’ve quoted from. Did you read my comment before reacting? There were two different stories.
I haven’t found the articles on chemtrails or bogus moon landings yet though.
🙄
Is this a spoof site? I can’t think of any other reason for it.
http://www.donotlink.com/framed?579533
Spoofhead site?
I like the donotlink summary of the site: nonsense.
Like the comment above. Is Pete trying to be funny??
Nah, as usual he’s looking for free content that he can plagiarise.
What surprises me is how many people take it seriously (the comment).
The graphic is based on the cover of The Luminaries, which also shows a group of connected characters in that form.
So Sean Plunket says that if you receive something from the government you should be grateful and not criticise it…
That takes in every single person in the country.
Fuck Sean Plunket is a dick. A, big. limp. dick.
+ 1..
hi vto,isnt that sexist language? (insert cheeky winking round face here)
i expect you to be engaged in a long tirade of arguements now using a word for penis to describe someone, …or not.
I think the problematic word in vto’s last sentence is ‘big’.
lol
and yes gsays it is but that is just tough
gsays, you’ll find the handy stuff here
http://thestandard.org.nz/faq/ general formatting
http://thestandard.org.nz/faq/comment-formatting/#smile the round faces
While I disagree with the sentiment expressed by Mr Plunket I do think receiving government funds opens yourself up to this sort of criticism. If you don’t want people thinking you are public property don’t accept public funding.
It only opens you up to criticism by people who lack the correct understanding of our system and that is mostly conservatives who, research has established, have lower IQs, so it is hardly surprising and absolutely no reason to listen to your point which is rubbish
“conservatives who, research has established, have lower IQs,”
And the Left have demonstrated their superior intelligence by allowing the Right to run rings around them for the last seven years.
Well, they certainly have you enthralled 🙄
No mate.
I’m just wandering in the wilderness looking for some sign that the grass is growing back through the shit.
Andrew Little is giving me some hope that might finally be the case.
Yeah yeah, I know, you’ve got your profile to maintain.
that is bullshit gosman..
..the.any assumption that the receiving of any govt funding comes with an automatic gagging-clause..
..that’s the right..eh..?..always fighting against democracy/free-speech..
I didn’t state that. I stated that receiving government funds basically means people start to feel they are entitled to make comments on aspects of your life you may feel like are only you acting in a private capacity. It happens with politicians all the time for example.
Gosman.You have painted yourself into a corner goostepper!
Lies covered up by bigger lies.
Shifting the blame of your lies to politicians in general shows your argument is rather lame.
What lie have I made here?
Apparently pretending that “people” only feel entitled to talk about aspects of a prominent person’s private life only if that person receives government funds.
Maybe it was a genuinely-held assertion on your part, rather than pretence, but making blatantly stupid comments as if folks have never heard of “Woman’s Weekly” or “TMZ” opens you up to to this sort of criticism. Especially as your comments tend to favour or at least praise with faint damnation (like your ‘I don’t agree with him, but people like him will think it so keep your head in if you take public money’ comment today).
I mean, I’m sure you weren’t trying to spin the issue at all, but (since you keep making comments like that) it’s only natural that “people” will think you’re a damned liar who keeps trying to mislead readers.
No it doesn’t and the only people who would think that it does are the people who want to tell you how to live.
“While I disagree with the sentiment expressed by Mr Plunket I do think receiving government funds opens yourself up to this sort of criticism.”
Which sort of criticism (assuming from your comment that the treason and hua ones were out of line)?
hi gosman,
“..I do think receiving government funds opens yourself up to this sort of criticism. If you don’t want people thinking you are public property don’t accept public funding.”
i assume you include mr plunketts’ employer as well.
“Fuck Sean Plunket”
OK, but only if you use an extra-thick condom.
Here’s a nice exchange between him and Eleanor Catton’s father. He spends most of the time making strangled gargling noises:
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/AUDIO-Eleanor-Cattons-father-and-Sean-Plunket-discuss-intellectualism-in-NZ/tabid/506/articleID/70038/Default.aspx
“Too many reporters within journalism have intimate relationships with the national party that are a conflict of interest designed to mislead the New Zealand public.”
Yes so what’s the answer Pete? Fund raising by the Left to buy them out?
A journalism ethic’s body that has the real powers to admonish (out) and fine journalists that don’t play the game with straight bat.
Yes. Set up your own privately funded left leaning media. surely you have enough wealthy left leaning supporters to back you?
I do have a left leaning billionaire Australian friend who I missed catching up with at this years premier horse sales. I assume he is too busy bringing about Abbott’s down fall, tho he likes a challenge, get a much better one out of Key.
Besides the Tories are toast over there.
Not a spoof site – the domain name is registered to Joe Trinder who I believe was on the Mana list.
Oh He of the Beige, your suggestion is amusing as it exposes you once again for being a shrill pill.
You state endlessly how you source information from a wide variety of news media and blogs from all sides of the political spectrum yet now claim ignorance of Mana News? A site that has been steadily producing content for quite a while now and was most certainly an active source of information during the last Election.
So thankyou for re-confirming that as far as political sincerity and comments thereof, you are and will always be an utter waste of peoples’ time.
It’s far more serious and informed than yawnz. I thought what KIngi Taurua said was brilliant.
‘
It’s like Jack the Ripper got the portfolio of Ministry for Women.
To demonstrate their attitude to climate change…
The government has appointed Simon Bridges as Minister for Climate Change Issues.
The public’s reaction:
https://www.national.org.nz/team/mps/detail/simon.bridges
An interesting piece on why Syriza chose a right wing party as its coalition partner:
https://theirategreek.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/strange-bedfellows/
Like Labour forming a coalition with Act. Ewk!
Hope New Zealand is never put into that scale of crisis.
Mind you the current cross rate is great for the upcoming European holiday.
More like a successful Mana forming a coalition with ACT. What a shame that KKE are in an ultra-left social-fascist type stage of their development.
Eleanor Catton and Salman Rushdie: standard bearer for free speech? http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/from-rushdie-to-catton.html
What’s going on with the Manawatu Standard? It’s published two pieces recently that support the right of women to speak out strongly, and one of pieces has a named author.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/65446799/Editorial-Threats-go-way-beyond-freedom-of-speech
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/65532181/Editorial-Eleanor-Cattons-candour-does-New-Zealand-proud
Farmers came for a journalist, so the MS temporarily gets the point.
I’m sure it’s fleeting, like most media bouts of principle.
what?
please provide evidence the MSM approves of threats of sexual or physical violence towards women as long as they aren’t journalists or published writers.
Pretty sure that’s not what McFlock meant.
No I won’t, because that has nothing to do with what I said.
But if the MSM gave equivalent attention to similar threats against women (or members of any other frequently-threatened group) who aren’t journalists or authors, there wouldn’t be column space for any other type of news story.
”But if the MSM gave equivalent attention …”
Many women or others who have been subjected to violence eschew being in media, talking about it in public, or even telling friends and family.
But for those who choose to their stories seem to be told well, given prominence, and angled to encourage others to seek help.
I would have been interested if you had examples to the contrary.
Commercial pressure on the media worries me in this respect. Obviously court reporting has gone by the wayside purely because of commercial pressure.
But your first sentence suggests your original comment was merely using this case to leverage a generalised comment against the media, which given what this case involves is rather vile.
Given that you took my initial comment to ‘suggest’ that I believed the media “approves of threats of sexual or physical violence towards women”, I don’t place any particular importance on what you might now think my comments suggest.
Dishonest of you to use a word from one comment and pretend I used it in a different comment.
[lprent: Happens sometimes. Usually browser related. Fixed. ]
Oops, I’m not sure why that duplicated like that and the delete button has disappeared on them.
sigh.
There you go again.
Hint: single quote vs double quote marks.
Hint: Your response to my comment was “please provide evidence the MSM approves of threats of sexual or physical violence towards women as long as they aren’t journalists or published writers.” (note the double quote marks).
Or did you not take my initial comment to ‘suggest’ (note single quote marks) that I felt that the MSM approves of threats of sexual or physical violence towards women as long as they aren’t journalists or published writers?
In which case: why did you ask me to provide evidence for an assertion you did not believe I made?
You’re using single quote marks incorrectly in this instance.
Single quote marks are for a quote within a quote (like reported speech inside a quote) or characterisations and colloquialisms, not for a single word like that.
BUT approve was the wrong word; I could have expressed it differently.
You have since indicated your comment used the farmer journalist case as a general barb towards the media.
To me that is distasteful because of the specifics of this case.
Whether or not you deem my view to have any value or importance is of very little concern.
Oh joy, another argument about quotation vs paraphrasing. The difference between “characterisations” and my use of “‘suggests'” is a bit subtle for me.
My comment was in response to Weka’s comment about an apparent change in coverage and editorial line by a fairfax publication. My “barb” was that this change is fleeting, and self-interested. You might find it distasteful, but (call me cynical) I’m pretty sure that in a few weeks we’ll be reading as much about it as we read about ebola these days, and with about as much relative change in prevalence.
What do you mean by ”this change”?
See the preceding sentence.
I don’t think there has been a change.
Former National MP Tau Henare rightly received negative coverage for his disgraceful comments about cleaner Mareta Sinoti who had made a submission on employment law changes. That was an attempt to silence this person, for whom giving a submission to a select committee would have been daunting, and the media did not think it was OK, or that it didn’t warrant a leading story.
And no, this comment doesn’t mean I don’t also think there are huge deficiencies in media, but it’s untrue to say there is not prominence afforded to less powerful people who are attacked after trying to speak truth to power.
How many editorials were written about Mareta Sinoti being threatened?
I don’t know. I just remember the coverage generally, and that people I discussed it with were disgusted a National MP bullied a person who was exercising their democratic right to participate in the democracy and say their piece.
By the way, it’s not right to say she was threatened; I would use the term bullied or attacked.
As do I.
Found loads of press releases and news reports (although most of those generally seem to be the same wire service report after editing) on it.
But I don’t recall (and can’t find) any editorials on freedom of speech etc relating to henare’s behaviour. And yet there are quite a few editorials and opinion pieces as well as news articles on Catton’s comments and the responses, and on the journo who received threats from farmers.
I suggest that there is your example of editorial change.
You have a point; the Henare case was stark because of the power imbalance and ought to have been linked with more subtle ways National bullies as a narrative about this government.
But I think people assume that if they hear a couple of cases (Andrea Vance as well), it means every time a journalist is threatened or bullied they rush into print and set it to rights. I don’t think that is the case.
Putting aside the effect on the individuals involved (after all NZ is a bullying culture which permeates many sectors) it can affect the quality of coverage the public receives, so it’s probably good to be reminded now and then.
Cripes Ergo R
What is all this about? I thought you took a balanced view to matters.
What a disappointment. You have chosen to defend the media against some cynical comment and are going on as if it was a matter of life or death. Shees.
+1 far more important things to argue about, esp today.
grey: when we agree with someone their view is ‘balanced’; if we don’t agree it’s extreme; if we don’t think the topic is worth discussing, they’re being a bit silly and ”going on” about something that doesn’t matter too much.
weka: ignore it then. If I had to make a judgement, I’d put quite a bit of what gets said on here into the less important category, but I don’t take it on myself to make such a call, much less to officiously state what topics are worthy of discussion, or what days it’s OK to divert from the main news stories.
good o, mcflock has to prove a negative then…
😉
It seems John Key couldn’t answer several questions about his new housing strategy but despite being the PM who is running the country that’s fine by the MSM. He still gets 8/10 from the NZ Herald.
Andrew Little openly admits he doesn’t know which country [currently] has the lowest unemployment statistic but oh dear what a shocking blunder, He gets 4/10 from the NZ Herald.
Brent Edwards asks the rhetorical question:
Who’s going to get the most scrutiny?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/264867/andrew-little-in-testing-times
wasnt not being able to answer a question about your policy a death knell during the election campaign?
Them’s the rules for Labour/Green and NZ First leaders but not for John Key. There are no rules for John Key.
he’s pretty comfortable with Mike Sabin, didnt ask him to resign, and only his “office” knew about the resignation yesterday…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11394142
JMG has an interesting post up.
“Imagine, for a moment, that an industrial nation were to downshift its technological infrastructure to roughly what it was in 1950.”
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/the-one-way-forward.html
I know, I know – heresy!
But if you have a read I think he counters, rather elegantly, pretty much all of the objections that would be made.
Heh, I’ve been thinking about this very thing this week. Why is it that we don’t even talk about powerdown seriously yet? What would be so bad about doing with less? It’s not like we haven’t been through processes like this before eg Great Depression, WW2. Is it hang over from then? Or neoliberalism?
Or is it fear? How would we manage if we don’t have all the shiny things, or aspire to all the shiny things? What would be left with?
Not only are we not talking about power down seriously yet, we are not talking about power down *at all*. Labour is talking about more economic growth, creating export jobs, and improving the living standards and consumption of Kiwi households though.
I think the quote sums up the why – the cult of progress is, pretty well, all persuasive unless like some of us who choose early to drop out the bottom of the system (as much as possible anyway). Hell we can’t even get enough people to vote green or change their lifestyle – it is no wonder that deliberate slowdown is laughed at.
Yes, but it’s not like no-one is talking about this. It’s just not being done in public. By anyone (is that right?). Which seems odd.
I don’t think many are talking about this, exempting a few, and if they did, publicly they be ridiculed and ostracised. I see the whole downsizing, de-unrelentingprogress type movements as being quite underground but growing, definitely growing – people are getting on with it – they are there but public exposure is just not worth it – very difficult to stand up to the ‘progress-zealots’.
hi marty, weka,
weka what does your version of powerdown look like?
i am most of the way thru derrick jensens’ end game.
i keep coming to the conclusion that the way my brown brothers lived, pre european contact, is the long term future for aotearoa/new zealand.
i can build a dwelling from the land base, but its a lot harder without corrugated iron.
@ weka
I think there ia an Earth Day in March. I was thinking wouldn’t it be a good idea to talk about having a powerdown day on that day.
Get out all the things at home waiting to be repaired, and sit down as a family and do them. Fix and glue some toys, paint chipped ones, mend a doll’s dress or knit something. Do some crafts.
Plan a new crop and work in the garden, Someone find recipes using own garden vegetables for when they are full-grown. Work out a roster so everyone does something in the garden.
Wear clean clothes that haven’t been ironed. Wear something that is still good that has a small stain on it. Sew the missing buttons on shirts. Clean and polish shoes and try to get another season out of them. Retain, repair, reuse, save and then have that money for things that you need and that bring enjoyment.
That’s how I would sell it. Would that work in with the idea of powerdown? Or am I going away from the point. What I have been saying is part of acting locally while thinking globally idea.
That is such a great idea!!
Earth day is April 22 (Sunday), possibly too close to ANZAC day on the 25th (Weds), but maybe not.
How would it be organised?
@ weka
I’m good with ideas and have done some things in the past but not sure how to get started. And don’t have much time available. But I have the drive to do something to get started. Is powerdown a good word to use that conveys a lot in its intrinsic meaning and intrigues those who haven’t started to think about it? At first thought I think it would be useful as a sort of exhortation and description of the thinking and rhythm needed for the future.
The type of thing I suggested, hanging on April Earth Day, could get going in even just a few regions as a pilot. An individual could try to get a group together in each region. At first there might only be one person in each town working on one thing, but all keeping in touch with activity and keeping readable diary notes in an exercise book! (that would be passed on to the next year’s activist and added to, keeping up with the info on who was helpful, receptive, sour and dogmatic etc) and getting the idea out there. And the one thing they thought of would be written about in the local newspaper, someone would talk about it on Radionz to ?Simon Mercep on around the country’s doings, Bryan Crump in the evenings, weekends? Something arty to the creatives in the weekends. And then talk to someone who would give a positive word on commercial radio, (no good getting sneered at or having a final put-down comment just after the interview finished which many male voice-peacocks have perfected).
How to get people together and talking first? I suppose Facebook or Twitter, which would get the younger ones. And not to forget the stalwarts already in the field for years working away, who would give advice and support and enjoy some elder acknowledgment. They are great characters who have laboured on for years and often against resentment or apathy. They enjoy seeing some others rise and continue the work even in a different way.
Incidentally, and germane to this, on the radionz farming program, there were interviews with someone from a group I think Ducks Unlimited which has been working for years at restoring and maintaining wetlands and breeding various native ducks.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20165515
It was mentioned that almost all the members had grey hair, and the young ones weren’t enthused. And she said that the same applied to community-aware groups like Rotary and Lions. Younger people are not coming forward. And there used to be a group called Jaycees for young men mainly in business and enterprising to get amenities and good facilities in their towns. Then it dwindled as the impact of weekend opening and longer hours, and less weekend availability for personal choice came with the 1980’s neo libs. A poultry breeder said that the loss of the weekends and time for personal life and interests had made a big impact on their followers.
So there is a malaise in NZ, a loss of the binding community-building interest where young mature people got together in a common interest. If that can be combatted more and more with more community-building, sustainability events as well as artistic and entertainment ones and displays and goods at eco-weekends etc. that would be a good aim and achievement.
thanks grey, that’s very good.
As someone who’s been active in the field for a long time, I would say this. Most people who already get it are already doing many things and have little free time to organise something like this. We can look at the many intiatives already in existence eg Transition Towns
http://www.sustainableoamaru.org.nz/home.htm
http://www.transitiontowns.org.nz/lowerhutt
The trick becomes finding the right person/people who get the idea and have the skill and time to make it move forward. I think the best thing we can do here on ts is keep discussing it and see what comes out of it.
I put a comment in Weekend Social asking people what they’re doing over the weekend that’s part of the powerdown. We can also keep coming back to this theme in whatever other conversations are going on. I would see getting the powerdown discussed more widely than it presently is is crucial.
I’m going to have a think about whether powerdown is the right term to use (it comes out of the Transition Town/Peak Oil movements, so it has a good pedigree, but I’m not clear what it will say to people who are only just starting to think about this.
I get you, but you are asking for a miracle in this age of Facebook, i-phone, twitter, internet, umpteen Tv channels, U-Tube, Wi-fi……..and did I mention Facebook?
Hmm. My first reaction is to go in the opposite(?) direction. Take all the labour saving and more efficient technologies of today, remove the in-built obsolescence, and free vast numbers of ourselves from stupid, soul destroying jobs.
Abolish the market and have communities, as opposed to individuals, interact with systems of production and distribution.
Move out of our power hungry nuclear family castles/sarcophagi and back to more communal and less power hungry living arrangements. Retrofit present houses to better serve individual and communal needs instead of having them stupidly set up to replicate individual needs all of the time. 20 houses currently equates to 20 washing machines, 20 hot water systems, 20 cookers, 20 bathrooms/showers/toilets etc…and 20+ cars, TVs, computers etc while the reality is that a fraction of those numbers would comfortably cater for the (say) 60 odd people currently living in those 20 houses.
In short – get our fcking lives back 😉
Removing planned obsolesence is going back the to 50s 😉
Planned obsolescence was a well established feature of most manufactured goods by the 1950’s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
Not in NZ it wasn’t. I’m betting we didn’t get into full swing until the 80s. Fisher and Paykel appliances would be one example.
That was true to an extent in NZ at the time…but lightbulb manufacturers had long agreed to limit the life of their products to 1000 hrs.
This doco tells the story of planned obsolescence, dating back to the 1920s with the light bulbs:
https://archive.org/details/PlannedObsolescenceDocumentary
ok, but historical pedantry aside, did you get my point to Bill?
Going back doesn’t mean literally giving up everything we have now and reverting. It means being willing to do without the consumerist imperative or modern ideas about what need is.
Leaving aside light bulbs, NZ was still largely manufacturing goods in the 50s (and 60s, 70s) that were designed around quality, performance and longevity. Things lasted and then when they broke things could be repaired. We had whole businesses dedicated to repairing things. These are dynamics of a society that is attempting resiliency and sustainability. Not only is technology better in some cases back then but the philosophy was better too.
So true weka – you have really understood the concept – it is going back to go forward. JMG does say, and I agree with him, that we don’t know what will happen so we don’t know what level of technology is sustainable and relevant – we might have to go back further to find the equilibrium or sustainable point.
That is very good, thanks.
I remember the point where I had to buy a car that I knew I could no longer maintain myself. Individual car ownership aside, the issue of engines being so complex now that you need high level infrastructure to maintain them is a good example of where we need to go back. I love reading about the experience of Cubans, and in this instance of how they’ve kept an old fleet going for so long, out of necessity. This is one reason why I think the whole electric car things is bogus. If we try and conver the fleet now, we will just end up with cars that run on electricity but are not very resilient. I’d be more confident if I saw use going backwards.
I feel lucky because my parents were children of the depression and my mother’s family were farmers, so I have appreciation for these things built in. I don’t know how you teach that in the age of disposable cell phones where some people have never known anything else.
I love that point about not knowing what will happen. David Holmgren talks about how we can’t know the future too, and that it will be up to later generations to figure out the hard stuff as they come to it. We just have to deal with what is in front of us.
Yep, a day, a month at a time.
BTW this is what a resilient cell phone looks like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_3310
How so?
I’ve been following these people
http://www.fairphone.com/roadmap/lifecycle/
http://therestartproject.org/consumption/the-footprint-of-those-iphones/
“If we truly care about sustainability, we need to delay manufacture of new devices, which is where we are using the most resources.”
“The most ethical mobile –> the one you already have”
Could be applied to many things.
The de-growth movement is taking shape in various guises. Of course, at grassroots level.
Thanks, that’s a good resource. Nice to see so many non-Anglo names too.
Thanks Molly
Its time for the Greens to seriously consider their future.
Do they want to be a ‘junior coalition partner’ to a Labour party that has no idea where it wants to go (Labour IMO is like a possum in the headlights — it has been for a long time. It litterally doesnt know what to do), support a National government that will push away a lot of its core supporters, or…
Go for government in their own right.
It is possible, but it will take a lot of debate within the party, a lot more comprimises, and it will require the pissing off of the phil u’s of this world. Might need a leadership change or three as well. The Green’s dont owe Labour anything. They have been repeatedly shut out by them for 15 years, its time to go out on their own.
“.. and it will require the pissing off of the phil u’s of this world..”
how/why exactly..?
..are you advocating a green party tie-up with the mad-butcher..?
..’go green..!..eat cow..!’..?
..whoar..!
“Go for government in their own right.”
What makes you think the GP aren’t already doing this?
The Greens don’t yet have a philosophy or ethos for NZ which appeals to more than a small minority of voters.
10% isn’t a small minority. I think more people like the GP’s philosophy/ethos but get scared off voting for them (hence the GP do better in pre-election polls than on the day). Besides, Draco posted this the other day,
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/28/convictions-politics-fear-syriza-podemos-snp-green
Sorry, but people don’t vote on policy detail, they vote on philosophy, leadership and the credibility of that philosophy and leadership.
“Sorry, but people don’t vote on policy detail, they vote on philosophy, leadership and the credibility of that philosophy and leadership.”
You appear to be implying that the GP’s policy is somehow separate from those things. It’s not.
I’m not sure really where you are coming from. My comment was that of course the GP want to be govt by themselves. But as you and I know they’re not after power itself, and consider other things just as important. You criticise them for not having a popular philosophy, and then you criticise them for pandering to the middle classes (which increases their vote).
Myself, I think they know what they are doing. I think they’ve shifted the conversation hugely around sustainability, and they’re largely hampered by the neoliberal agenda, Crosby Textor, the MSM*, voter apathy, and fear. In other words, the usual stuff.
And of course the GP aren’t going to govern on their own. They don’t actually need to if Labour gets it shit together.
*Did you see Paddy Gower’s rant today?
No, I missed* Gower today.
So you say, but I’d also make the same criticism of Labour.
Notice how National goes into elections with little more than a shred of policy. But people believe in their philosophy, their ethos, their sincerity, and their ability to deliver.
So I would indeed say that in many ways policy detail is actually “somehow separate from those things.”
*Not really of course, but I didn’t see him.
I didn’t see him either, but tv3 printed his anti-green vitriol (The GP is now in serious trouble, blah blah if I say it enough it will be true!).
“So you say, but I’d also make the same criticism of Labour.”
The GP’s princples are apparent throughout the party, the structure, the policies. I think the’ve compromised most on presentation.
That might be true for Labour too, but not in a good way 😉 Not overly critical, because Labour have the whole neoliberalism thing to shake that the GP has never had to deal with, so the GP are starting cleaner if you like.
Comparing the GP with National as if National are doing something good or right is a non-starter, because the only way for the GP to acheive that would be to abandon the principles and that would wreck the party because of what I just described (they’re throughout everything).
“Notice how National goes into elections with little more than a shred of policy. But people believe in their philosophy, their ethos, their sincerity, and their ability to deliver.”
Ok, so we’re talking about 30% of the electorate. Of that 30% some will be as you say. But many will vote National because their family does. Or because they like the economic policy but not the social policy but can’t vote on the left (ie they don’t buy the philosophy). Others will be swing voters and can’t bring themselves to vote Labour. etc. In other words, National win because they present this cohesive philosophy as you portray. They win because of apathy from the non-vote, disarray on the left, and too many people now voting from self interest.
Further, in the last couple of election the GP have had good leadership and focus on philosophy. What they can’t get over is the fact that ultimately they’re asking people to change for the greater good, whereas National are appealing to self interested people to stay the same.
CR
Would that be expressed as. they have not placed their separate policies and general ideas into a narrative that most NZs feel has a place for them and will enable them to have a good life of the kind they can envision now.
If the Greens need to get the wider public behind the Party to bring about better environment, sustainable futures that are different from today/s view then they need to think hard, run focus groups and chat and then run through that circle again till they get it right for broadcast.
Pretty sure they do all those things already.
What they’re really up against is that NZ doesn’t yet want to think seriously about sustainability. It’s getting there though.
Almost exactly.
Except the Greens have to help Kiwis envision a kind of good life that most cannot imagine now. A good life which is about something other than consuming more material goods and more energy faster than ever before.
OMG, new short film (2 minutes) starring Kirsten Dunst depressingly captures the ‘selfie’ generation’s lack of human interaction !!
http://www.omgblog.com/2014/09/omg_new_short_film_starring_ki.php#7XM4lJiPczSsKxZK.01
(If you remember Nelson Mandela’s funeral, it is not just the young generation who are affected by this).
rnz reporting norman about to resign..?
..news conference @ 11.00 am..
go on skinny..!..work yr contacts..!
Christ! Law of attraction in action (see above..).
The party needs someone with charisma.
If Norman is stepping down it’s likely to be either family reasons or a health issue. As far as I’m aware it’s not an internal party matter. Key and their spin merchants will be crunching whether to choose the timing to stand Sabin down. I would assume Key will over the weekend. This is if Norman steps down of course.
Well done Skinny of the Nostradamus blood line
Listen to rnz after 11 am for news on Greens. They referred to multiple possibilities amongst Norman stepping down.
Note to self: must finish the Auckland house renovations, before we kill each other:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11393999
This NZ chap in the link that Ad supplied, who tried to burn down his house poured kerosene on it and drank alcohol as he watched. His partner’s family had underwritten a mortgage on it, and they both had been working on it to finish it. He has virtually kicked everyone who had helped him with his house, in the backside. He is getting help for his addiction. He is supposed to be paying back money owing to his in-laws.
when the defendant was questioned about why he did it, he said his reasons “encompassed a lot of things”.
Mr Stevens said his client had been stressed trying to finish the house.
Grindlay also had alcohol issues, which he was now getting help with from CareNZ, an addiction treatment provider, he said.
I listened on Radionz this morning to how Charles Manson, the mad, managed to con women. A bad mixture – an amoral, unstable man who was on some sort of drugs.
This NZ man is on alcohol and what else? Even after help he may never get back to normal behaviour and empathy.
Charles Manson at primary school stirred up girls there to attack a boy who had annoyed him. His comment was that the girls had been doing what they wanted to, Manson wasn’t involved. The words ‘uninvolved, narcissistic, anti-social’ are important to consider when our survival is tenuous. The description of negative traits is of the arsonist, the destroyer, who is driven from a personal drive to satisfy vengeful emotions or desire for fame or infamy, either, like Charles Manson. And if it destroys others hopes and resources, this is a passing minor consideration.
I think eventually we may have to bring back the death penalty to protect ourselves from such amorals. Manson is now 80 years and is still charismatic and seems entirely unchanged. As an old man his warped mind is still as potent. He has a presence on the internet. People have been known to meet outside the jail walls in the hope that he will be released. One vicious amoral may ruin a whole population. Poison to the people!
Nope. Not the death penalty. Not now. Not ever. Have a look at whom it gets used against – minorities, people that the 1% doesn’t like. It is too easy for the prosecution to fabricate evidence as well. Never.
We create a humane civilisation, or none at all.
are you advocating euthanasing the NZ guy rather than putting him into rehab through a prison rehab service???
lol
Stupid acts when drunk and depressed are a far cry from being a lifelong psycho/sociopath.
Manson now 80 years old, “married” a 26 year old woman last year who had been communicating with him since she was 17. Charming and manipulative as ever.
Looks like he is standing down as co-leader (Norman) but staying on as an MP.
he will stay on as mp long enough to get the pension super-gold card..which kicks in @ nine yrs..
..and then he will leave..and sweet-ride off into the sunset..
..with that huge pension his for the rest of his life..
..colour me cynical..but if he left now..(just under nine yrs..)..
..he wd not get the super-gold pension-card..
He has been the most effective opposition to NAct in the house. Labour have mostly either been AWOL or scored own goals. I wish him well in the future and am glad he’s still an MP, even if his super will be more than people who sit around smoking dope get.
Public transport’s cost-effectiveness discussed
That was actually ten days ago. I spotted it today in yesterday’s Western Leader under the headline Ditching the car can save money – Report
The first question I had was: Why the hell isn’t this a major story in every news propagation service?
Then: Why the hell isn’t the government doing something to increase and improve public transport?
But then I realised that, if such savings were applied across the board as they could and should be, then NZ’s GDP would decrease by about 10% and no government would do that as they chase ever more GDP growth. There’s also the fact that the profits from those captured motorists would disappear and no government, wedded to the profit motive as ours are, would do that either.
Our economic system is uneconomic.
the peoples only gots ta be told wots makes em happy inside.
sabin has also resigned..
oh ho!
Skulking away while the cameras are pointing at the Greens.
By election time great. A group of us are having a BBQ meeting tonight to plan a campaign.
“Two-thirds of more than 160 monitored river swimming spots in New Zealand have been deemed unsafe for a dip.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11393840
Fuck you apathetic NZ. But carry on with your reality tv and your iphones and property speculation. Thank-you the NZ that is still and always working hard to at least slow down the damage.
“The data covered all of the country’s monitored rivers except for those in Auckland, Waikato, Northland and the West Coast, where councils did not use SFRG indicators in the period.”
So that ratio is probably very optimistic once those regions are added in
has the Minister of Tourism commented on how this affects our image to oversees folks?
Am guessing that most rivers don’t look polluted, and the ones closest to the tourists are still swimmable.
Some tourists getting sick and with the presence of mind to go to the media would be useful though.
Wow, its all happening…can I post yet?
[lprent: We clean the bans regularly on schedule. Please try to keep our workload down this time. ]
Baltic Dry shipping index at 3 decade low
That northern hemisphere economic recovery is really racing ahead, eh.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-29/wtf-chart-day-baltic-dry-index-crashes-lowest-29-years
Philip Catton, Eleanor Catton’s dad and philosophy professor, takes on Plunkett. Couldn’t bring myself to listen to Plunkett himself, but there’s this partial transcript from the Herald.
“I think you used words that have nothing to do with the motivation of someone’s critical discussion, you called someone an ‘ungrateful hua’, you called them ‘a traitor’, these are names,” Dr Catton said, saying they were also “factually false”.
He later said: “What you’ve said does not square with the reality that I know. I’m extremely surprised by the inaccuracy of your vision, not just by the inaccuracy of what you’ve said.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11394100
Go dad.
When did Dr Catton officially become a “Professor”, Weka?
Did you promote him or is it the Herald that is confused?
According to them
“Dr Philip Catton, a former senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Canterbury, confronted RadioLive presenter Plunket on his show this morning.”
Didn’t the title of senior lecturer seem suitably elevated to you?
I cut and pasted those two words, so I assume the Herald made a mistake and later corrected. Care to take back the snark? There are plenty of things I can be accused of on ts, but making up that kind of shit isn’t one of them.
Fair enough. The fact that the Herald stuffed up their report doesn’t surprise me.
The fact that they bothered to fix it is the amazing thing. I didn’t think they bothered to correct anything these days.
Someone probably asked them to. Not a good look I expect if the Catton family asked for a correction and they didn’t do it.
Excellent!
Eleanor Catton’s Dad takes on Sean Plunkett You can listen to it on Radio Live, but if (like me) you cannot bear listening to Plunkett then there’s quite a good report here:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11394100
I also liked Eleanor’s tweets at the bottom of the article
Protestors try to carry out citizens’ arrest on Henry Kissinger
John McCain: “Get out of here, you lowlife scum!”
Unfortunately, the stupidest man in the Senate wasn’t talking to Kissinger when he said that…..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11378342/John-McCain-Get-out-of-here-you-low-life-scum.html
It may not be as accurate as saying ‘we published lies’, but it is a start.
Baby steps and all that
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/new-york-times-editor-dean-baquet-we-failed-to-do-our-job-after-911/comments/#disqus
Je suis gêné pour le malheureux Sean Plunket.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11394100
I would like to ask for some opinions on repeat posts of links. This might be unpopular to discuss as some people could feel they are being hassled, but I really am not pointing fingers at anyone. Most of us here have done it at one time or another. I know I have.
It really does happen an awful lot and I would hazard a guess many are unaware quite how regularly it occurs because it occurs so regularly it has become a sort of white noise . Which is why I feel it needs to be addressed. Maybe it’s just me and this sort of stuff doesn’t bother others but how can a stronger community form, and comments grow to become meaningful discussions, if actions are regularly taken by that community without paying attention to activities within its own environment?
I appreciate that it can be an oversight sometimes, but often it just looks like there is no thought applied before posting a link. Is it the desire to be first? Is that all people want? To be seen to have their finger on the pulse, which is kind of ludicrous when discussing links to MSM articles.
Is it not wanting to put comments under certain handles that will create some illusion of hierarchy because that person got their post up first?
If you look at today’s open Mike, posts 20, 21 + 24, there are three posts of the same link, almost in succession. Do people just not bother checking? It intrigues me is all, so thought I would ask.
Good points.
Morrisey esp deserves a slap for posting a full 80 mins after me but still having the time to write in such bold yet obscure French 😉
Sorry weka. I should have scanned the site before I posted. It’s another case of Great Minds Thinking Alike, n’est-ce pas?
Three great minds, in this case.
I’ve found that sometimes reading the link, then checking to see if someone’s already linked, then figuring out what I want to put around the link, etc, leaves a lag where others see the same link and post it in the meantime.
Particularly if grazing on the web -reading other threads, and then some oik disturbs me at work and I have to earn my crust 🙂
And then I look like a dick because someone posted it 25 minutes ago (longer if it was in moderation :)). And then I delete, but someone’s replied and it kills the comment numbering. Might as well leave it up, lol.
All in all, I’m pretty cool with just leaving the multiple links up – in today’s case, I generally overlook one of the commenters who linked, so I’m actually more likely to read the link because someone I have a bit more respect for actually linked to it, as well. And if something’s important to me, I try not to care by which avenue other people read it 🙂
All that notwithstanding, come folks link better than others – the 1,000 word one-sentence rant is just as overlooked by me as the pretentious link-whore question that in no way describes the content of the link (e.g. “who do people feel about this – should they face further action, or have they…” yadda yadda. It’s impossible to tell whether it’s a political issue, a rugby team, or some oik talking about an obscure case in the levant).
“And then I delete, but someone’s replied ”
That is the very behaviour I was probing when I mentioned how who posts the link seems to matter and how multiple reposts of links harm the dialogue.
The fault there, if there is any, is with the person who did not comment on the first posting of the link but instead chose to comment on a later posting of the same link. This ‘skip over’ is most likely due to whomever posted the link being out of favour with the person making a comment. At times this has lead to multiple streams of similar discussions and we all know how quickly that can cause confusion, ill feelings and ultimately derail a topic.
There are no big solutions here, apart from the obvious ones
Don’t do it!
Think before posting !
They have as much right as you do to post it! 🙂
All I am saying is awareness of an issue is a positive step in resolution of that issue. And I think I am not alone in thinking it is an issue, albeit a minor one.
It’s not quite so simple – if someone’s replied to me, were the previous linkers in moderation? Did I make an insightful or (outrageously foolish) point that the responder wishes to discuss, and the first linker did not focus on that aspect? Were the links adjacent, or was one link buried in a completely different sub-thread and missed?
I reckon it’s just in the “shit happens – roll with it” category, rather than being a big-ass problem.
“shit happens – roll with it” ummm that’s how the world got in this mess
(your moderation example is imho a rare event in context of the discussion)
and i’m not saying it’s a big-ass problem, i was pretty clear about that
I said it contributes to some of the negative influences in this community is all.
Without details, big pictures do not exist. I pay attention to details, you know that. 😉 which is usually why when I stuff up, it is on the obvious stuff 🙂
fair enough 🙂
rather than being a big-ass problem.
What is wrong with a big-ass?
the price of big-trousers
sold out down the dirty rivers .. au revoir NZ as we knew it … so many more pieces gone ….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11394200
I don’t know the islands in question, but developing one and planting the others in natives seems not too bad.
Look forward to the headline Swedes buy more southern pastures.
lol they didn’t say anything about planting, just that one would be a “native reserve”. I think they’re just saying they won’t un-plant it.
Also I wonder if “reserve” means a reserve that’s available to the public? And if not, I wonder if it means they definitely absolutely promise not to “develop” the reserve island for their own commercial use. Maybe a teeny tiny little bar on the “reserve” island, perhaps?
https://goo.gl/maps/hK6Hv
Actually I don’t wonder that much…
Yes, and thanks to the Herald we will probably not know. Looks like they reprinted a press release from the OIC office.
Wonder what happened to this from 2012,
For the past 80 years Pararekau, the second largest island in the harbour, has been used to graze stock, degrading the ecological value of the island.
The developers say farming Pararekau is no longer financially or environmentally viable and they plan to subdivide the island into 11 lifestyle blocks with a shared recreation area, wetlands and extensive coastal planting.
A causeway created in the 1960s would link the private community to the mainland. With a gate at either end of the causeway, vehicle access would be limited to residents, their guests and emergency services.
Pedestrians and cyclists would be able to use the road to access a walkway around the island’s coastline.
Local iwi Ngati Te Ata initially opposed the plans, saying Pararekau is wahi tapu – a site of sacred significance.
But the preservation of archaeological sites in the developer’s structural plan, and the continued public access to the island’s coast that will allow iwi to undertake their kaitiaki (guardianship) role, convinced them to agree to the development.
The court acknowledged the significant ecological gains the proposal would provide including the restoration of the island’s vegetation which would help the recovery of indigenous birds and lizards.
A final Environment Court decision on the plan change is still to come.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/7662446/Gated-island-community-a-step-closer
Rich foreigners buying a bolt hole just in case??
Gated communities offend this kiwi’s sensibility, but I have to say that there is some good ecological work being done in NZ by very rich people, esp from overseas. We can complain about lack of access and foreign ownership (and I do), but these people are just getting on with doing the right thing by the land while NZ still thinks it’s acceptable to clear native ecosystems and pour cow shit into the water.
I agree that any land care is good but am Sceptical about cashed up foriegn “greenys” planting a few trees in nz to keep the official s happy.
I agree it’s good to be cautious. In the case of the island, it’s unfortunate that the reporter didn’t check this out, but it was on the business pages I think, so who gives a shit, right? I suppose I know more examples of rich people doing the right thing, but then I move in pretty green circles, and am less exposed to the ones just planting a few trees.
I hope the greenys you you circle with aren’t the type that build castles then slap a few solar panels on and a Prius in the garage and pat them selves on the back.
lolz, good grief no.
lol weka to your swedes comment !
🙂 Am surprised the sub editor didn’t go for that tbh.
Observations for today:
When sexual offenders are asked what they’re in prison for, it is common for them to answer “assault.” Technically they’re right, I suppose. Assault could be anything from hitting a cop’s face with your fist to sexual assault on a minor. The truth usually comes out.
Why didn’t this say which court it happened in? That’s unusual.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11394223
Anything that could identify the person with name suppression is automatically suppressed. It is very unusual to say ‘a district court’.
Perhaps if the court decision coincided with something else going publicly, it would lead to speculation if the name of the court was released.
I wonder if anyone else is thinking what I’m thinking…
Well, now you’ve raised it, I am indeed wondering whether anybody else is thinking what you are thinking. But then I’m not you, so the answer is yes somebody else is thinking what you are thinking, so I’m no longer wondering, so the answer is unknown. I wonder what it could be- geettoutofmybraaaaiiinn!
LOLOLOL
Millsy, if I am thinking what you’re thinking (and I think I am) why is it so? Is name suppression usual in a case like the one we’re thinking about? I can think of needing to protect the identity of the victim as one reason. But it can’t be that serious if the accused is remanded at large. And how far can we speculate on an open forum (serious question – I really don’t know) before the water-boarders step in?
The legal advice I’ve had is that you can speculate as much as you like, but if you have actual knowledge of the case, you cannot say that you know who it is. Lprent may have had different legal advice.
I have seen people remanded on bail for some very serious charges, but at large is a bit unusual. I can imagine it could be used if the judge were convinced that the prominence of the accused would make it difficult for them to leave the country. For example, the accused could have prominent tribal tattoos on their right arm, or could have been pictured in newspapers and television recently.
The pedophile Phil Smith managed to escape because nobody knew what he looked like. I assume the prominent accuse may be so well known that it would be difficult for them to get through airport security. Although that would only work if people knew the person was the subject of serious charges. This is indeed strange.
Pretty much. Speculation isn’t an issue so long as it is vague enough to be essentially meaningless – ie reading the tea leaves style.
But we will leap on people who state that they know – even if we know that they are likely to be bullshitting. Or even if they start speculating confidently so that they look like they know the facts of the case.
Simply put, if we don’t know what the suppression was on, then we can’t know what needs suppressing. So we act as if all such pointed speculation is someone trying to put us in the dock.
Court suppression orders are nothing to fool with. We don’t know what evidence was placed in front of a judge to cause them to issue the suppression order, so we don’t speculate.
I have a pretty basic rule. It says that if I see anything that might make a judge look at me and think that I may have deliberately allowed the name suppression to be violated, or that causes us problems with our privacy rules (ie having to give up some persons details) – then it is a problem.
Then I will act against the person involved immediately and rather ruthlessly to make sure that they never want to do that to us again.. Other moderators may be kinder and simply cut out the offending passages.
Therefore it is a possibly good or possibly bad thing that MS has been getting to comments before me today eh? Depends how much you like draconian preemptive bans.
What are you thinking? Tell us! Then may be I can confirm or deny directly (and not through my orifice, whoops, I mean office) if I was thinking that too.
The prominent one goes back to a district court on February 19.
I will be in Whangarei on that day and it will be possible to pop along to the district court.
Northland also has district courts in Kaitaia, Kaikohe, and Dargaville.
Kaitaia is the closest to Coopers Beach.
There is also a district court in Waitemata.
A quote I read today:
“It’s actually a story of reducing Government spending, casualising our workforce, taking no steps to cool the property market, selling off our natural assets, ignoring inequality, ignoring high levels of personal debt, ignoring environmental change and privatising essential services. It is the story of the short-term benefits of trickle-down economics” : Chris Hedges–an American journalist, activist, author, Presbyterian minister and humanitarian.
You may read more of his column and info of his books here:
http://www.truthdig.com/staff/chris_hedges
Thought Dita da Boni wrote those words in the Herald?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11393230
Whoops! Thanks. Yes, you are correct. I made a big error. I copied the wrong quote!
The one I quoted above is indeed from the excellent Dita da Boni.
The one I wanted to quote (Which somehow my copy/paste did not capture and I didn’t notice) was this from Chris Hedges:
“We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the economy.” – Chris Hedges – (1956- ) American journalist, author, and war correspondent
—————————-
NOTE TO ANY KIND TS MODERATOR:
I would be grateful if a moderator would be kind enough to either delete my comment #29 or edit the author for that quote and enter the author as Dita da Boni. Thanks.
Does this sound like New Zealand?
‘The UK sacrificed pay for jobs.’
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/30/how-the-uk-sacrificed-pay-for-jobs
NZ did that back in the 1980s and we didn’t get the jobs either.
Go Eleanor Catton!!
In future interviews with foreign media, I will of course discuss the inflammatory, vicious, and patronising things that have been broadcast and published in New Zealand this week. I will of course discuss the frightening swiftness with which the powerful Right move to discredit and silence those who question them, and the culture of fear and hysteria that prevails. But I will hope for better, and demand it.
Full statement,
http://eleanor-catton.com/statement/
Snap!
Good on her. Our current crop of journalists remind me of school prefects, trying their best to catch the naughty boys and girls and curry favour with the teachers. I always thought prefects were scum. I got voted in as one in an experiment in democracy once, but the headmaster vetoed me 🙂 I wouldn’t have done it anyway.
Good on the NZ Herald for publishing Eleanor Catton’s latest Blog entry http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11394346
I did not know she had a blog – very naive of me http://eleanor-catton.com/category/blog/
What particularly struck me in her blog was her statement “I love these moments of connection and the conversation they bring.” I think we all know what she means by that and that it is these that make a community of people, real or virtual, or a cohesive society: a place or platform were people can express themselves freely and open up, without fear, but in a reciprocal environment. At times, TS is such an environment, which is why I decided to join in ‘the conversation’. This is also the reason why I tend to lean left because the right, at present, appears to stand for individualism bordering on selfishness rather than connection and unity.
Went to my sister’s for a BBQ tonight. Got to Henderson and some arsehole turned left over me. No, that isn’t an exaggeration he actually drove over my bike and me (No serious damage done to me thankfully but the front wheel was totaled). And then he didn’t stop.
But that’s not what pissed me of most.
I called the police immediately. A car didn’t turn up as there wasn’t one available so I got called back and asked to go to the police station and file a formal report. When I got there the receptionist, IMO, tried very hard to get me to not fill in a report because ‘there was nothing that could be done’.
Well, there would certainly be nothing done if I didn’t.
It’s a good way to keep crime stats down if you don’t let the victims report it A.
I’m pleased you are okay.