This will be the third election since the site started. I merely start escalating the length of times for repeat bans as an inducement for people to find their better behaviour in the election year. It is amazing how some of the inter-election bickering diminishes as the ban length steadily rises towards “after the next election”.
I try to go for the whole subtle approach..
lprent
Yeah right
In response to Jono Hutchinson reporting on a comment on mine on this site, Lynn Prentice with the help of others has engaged in a character assassination of myself.
This character assassination probably springs from Lynn’s insecurity that left commentary departing from the Labour Green political script will be picked up by the media.
As part of this character assassination Lynn Prentice has let Qot a poster on this site make comments slandering me as a inveterate liar. Fair enough I suppose. But if I try and defend myself by asking her and others who attack my integrity to provide just one example to back up their accusations. Lynn censors my comment.
It seems that on this site you have the right to be attacked but no right to defend yourself.
This character assassination launched on me is obviously building up to justify a complete ban to prevent me making comments during the run up to the elections next year.
Lynn Prentice himself has called me delusional and accused me of lying. He has also accused me of twisting his words. It is not my fault that he has changed his testimony since I first commented on them.
As it looks likely that I will be banned from commenting on this site during the elections. I have decided to put up the debate here. And let the readers decide whether it is justified, or not.
Lynn. Whether or not it can be proved that Shearer shouted out “We will be having a review”. I know what I heard. (And saw) Your supporters are not even saying that I am mistaken. You let them call me a liar, letting them attack my integrity at will. When I challenge them to show just one example of this, which you know they can’t, you blank it out. In this you are colluding with those who are trying to paint me as a liar. These are the actions of a bully.
I know that you are hostile to my attempt to make climate change an election issue, which by all accounts indicate it will not be. To this end you are trying to use a minor dispute to attack my integrity and ultimately to shut me out, so that you can happily have your election coverage and debate in peace, free to ignore climate change. Don’t deny it you have already expressed this view. It is, “Politics 101″. not to expend political capital on this one issue, you said.
I can see the writing on the wall. Go ahead disgrace yourself.
In my opinion we should be expending every form of capital we have to defeat this menace.
In this ongoing debate between you and me, it doesn’t surprise me that you take David Shearer’s side against David Cunliffe. In my opinion David Cunliffe is the only parliamentarian who has taken climate change seriously.
I thought Cunliffe’s contribution was dignified and sincere while Shearer’s was churlish and uncalled for. You disagree. I suppose we all make our own bed and have to lie in it. Live then, with an administration that will permit the continuation of climate change and the collection of metadata against its citizens, you will have done your part to bring it about.
Now I’m aware that you have been avoiding this next question. There would have been NO reason for him to tell Cunliffe to hew to the party line then – because Cunliffe had already finished doing exactly that. Basically you appear to be both illogical and delusional on this point which has been raised by others and you have not addressed
That’s the crux of the matter TRP. If Shearer was saying exactly what Cunliffe was saying why did he need to so rudely interject it?
And by the way, there were a number of other people who have confirmed they heard David Shearer say “We will be having a review”. Notice the full stop. This was after Cunliffe said our leader has promised a review and “this law must not, will not and can not stand”. Shearer’s unmissable message is “WE WILL BE HAVING A REVIEW’ full stop. And no, heartfelt “this bill cannot stand” nonsense will be tolerated.
It looks to me that we are in line for another tragic sell out.
It is cross over. Takes time to write comments and read other comments. I had the same irritation about telling you repeatably to read the update at the end of my post
The major nuisances imo on The Standard open mike (which users are fortunate to have going by many other blogs) for me are ranked thus:
• over long pieces
• boring others who use some of their valuable time visiting and contributing here
• being at variance with any recognisable version of political reality
• posting the same crappola once too often
So I end up automatically skating over about a dozen regulars but stopping and reading every word from about the same number who write pithy relevant comments.
Tiger Mountain
You could be criticising me I think. So my defence for longer items –
. over long pieces – I will often copy some of a longer piece that makes good points that are relevant, and then I put the links so others can read the rest for themselves, if…
. boring – they don’t think the subject is boring. And not everything can be absorbed on any given day but is still important to others.
. being at variance…with political reality – What is it? Can reality be
definitely established? And could I and others survive the actuality which might
be entirely lacking in hope for something better. Endless chewing of cuds of trivia though just becomes boring when it seems to be fantasy fiction. One hopes of course that it is.
. posting the same crappola once too often.
My thing is that it would be a better world if we applied more carrot and less stick, more
community kindness and less rule-driven judgementalism, more care for parents and help for them so there were less distressing results of wrong doing, and concentrating on happy families working together etc etc I get repetitive about this. But seeing it seems obvious to me and is not a new idea but continues to be resisted by policy makers and policy followers, I think it does need holding up continuously as a worthwhile and achievable goal.
And I don’t think short sharp comments show much thinking. They are more just acknowledgments and reactions from people who know about the matter. Sometimes a mere agreement with a well-written comment, or a pithy, funny, clever, heartfelt or whatever one is good.
But to inform on a thought at least a few words are needed, a bit of explanation to fill out the opinion etc. People who know what they are talking about or trying to present the matter in a new way make the thread interesting. I choose my favourites but also look at the thought lines of others, and soon find those who I consider haven’t got joined up synapses and skip them. And the ones that are obviously RWNJ spoilers I enjoy applying some well-rounded phrases as they usually seem no more than naughty children throwing stones to annoy while at the same time being prepared to impact and hurt.
Boring is in the mind of the interpreter …what bores one will not bore another …and divergence is good ….so bring on all those boring old farts and right wingers and vulgarians and lets have some fun! ( too many smart people can be mind numbing)
Also I like Jenny and what she has to say ….so keep going Jenny ….keep fighting for Cunliffe ….and whatever happened to Xstasy ?
Thanks Chooky
I know I do a few long ones but not all about the same thing though. Jenny is very focussed and long. I have to skip – I haven’t the time. Diversity is good, but focus is important and Jenny’s can be excellent but I like detective stories for a long read.
I like obsessive compulsives myself…and Climate Change is important to be harped on about ( that said I would also be interested in those HAARP conspiracy stories my American friend used to go on and on about until she went off the internet…ha ha) ….Labour Leadership cant be let go of either ….someone has to keep at it like a Rotweiller with a bone!….WATCH DOGS are the answer. I am rather partial to conspiracy theories and Sci fi myself for a longer read.
No, I was asking you to put up evidence, a timeline, anything to examine your claims. After all there were a pile of mics, cameras, and people at that meeting – surely you’d be able to find some kind of support. Something that was so clearly lacking when you made the assertion in the first place and that fool Hutchison wrapped a story around it.
When you did I looked at it with the results I reported. I see you haven’t dealt with that at all in this comment. Have you even listened to that video’s audio track? Or did gathering evidence get lost in your obsessional drive to put your own spin and unsupported assertions on events.
Basically I think that your assertions about what Shearer said are outright fantasy
Jenny, out of mole hills mountains are made, your claims about what Dave,(the incumbent),said or didn’t say to the other Dave,(not the incumbent), and in what manner he said it, including that Dave(the incumbent) was trying to Bully Dave(not the incumbent) have become in terms of what has occurred since farcical,
Having read parts of this ‘debate’ what i have so far ascertained is that you will not answer even the most simple of questions, ‘were you in the hall when the interjection by Dave(the incumbent) was made and if so where in the hall were you’,
Your assertion made here this morning that LPrent is attacking you for sinister reasons, that being ‘your’ attempt to make Climate Change an election issue, have i missed something, can you add a little proof to such an assertion like in what Post and on which days such an attempt has been made,
i can assure you that Climate change is and will be an election issue, do you know why, the Green Party will be standing in that election, full stop,
You don’t seem to accept the criticisms leveled at you, no big thing i certainly struggle to do the same, however this morning’s calling for martyrdom of yourself takes the farce to new heights,
Yeah exactly, the amount of vitriol and invective leveled at Dave(the incumbent), would scorch what remains of the natural hair off of the head of the Slippery little Shyster we have as Prime Minister if leveled at Him,(leaving Him with only a large patch of soft hairs gathered from the anal crevice of a blind donkey called Brucie)…
You do realise that John Key already wears a toupée? All that fretting about who he ripped of as an investment banker I guess. Didn’t realise they made toupées from the “soft hairs gathered from the anal crevice of a blind donkey” though.
Well said. bad12. Her refusal to state whether she was actually there and if so, where in the hall totally undermined her credibility in my eyes.
But re your request that she identify her posts on climate change, Jenny has put up many comments seeking to make climate change the only issue (usually the first post on Open Mike). In many of these posts, Jenny has at the same time claimed that the Greens have sold out on climate change and attacked them for this supposed sell-out. I gave up reading any of Jenny’s comments on this issue long ago.
Yeah i have read a number of these comments from jenny and commented on the odd occasion about Her little obsession,
Read paragraph 2 of Her little effort today and there is a direct accusation that LPrent is attacking Jenny over the ‘Dave interjection’ because LPrent does not like what Jenny has previously commented on about ‘climate change/election issue’, blah blah and on She goes,
Such Machiavellian Bull-s**t simply does my head in where the is no proof offered to back up such an assertion,
i have no reason what-so-ever to be a Dave(the incumbent) supporter, in fact after the ‘sickness bene on the roof speech’ exactly the opposite, but, give the bloke a ‘fair go’, the training wheels will definitely come off if Labour decide to keep Him as leader and He becomes the Prime Minister but it wont be ummmm aaah that he will be roasted over should this occur…
Your assertion made here this morning that LPrent is attacking you for sinister reasons, that being ‘your’ attempt to make Climate Change an election issue, have i missed something, can you add a little proof to such an assertion like in what Post and on which days such an attempt has been made,
That would be the same LPrent who has written and commented extensively on AGW in these very pages, both promoting good science and knowledge of the realities of AGW and combating CC deniers and idiots.
LOLZ weka, it’s probably time to resort to the rolly eyes icon, Jenny seems to formulate Her comments in the same vein as the wing-nuts do except from a left perspective,
i have a giggle reading some of them and occasionally comment to Her but like a lot of others tend to go yawn and keep scrolling when it’s the same thing over and over…
I find all this stuff symptomatic of trying to paint Shearer in a good light.
The guy is not only a total failure as a leader, he also represents the right wing of Labour.
The substantial difference between the two statements on Thurs night is clear go me.
The future leader Cunliffe made a statement that opposed the Bill outright, taking an implicit repeal position (Must not, cannot and will not stand) not dependent on the review.
Shearer understood this challenge and rejected it shouting out ‘we will do a review’.
“Shearer understood this challenge and rejected it shouting out ‘we will do a review’.”
Yeah, nah. Cunliffe said there would be a review, Shearer (allegedly) said there would be a review. That’s it, no contradiction between them at all. Unless, of course, you have the evidence Jenny has failed to provide …
No, of course you don’t have evidence. There were hundreds of people in the hall, a host of big and little cameras and not a single recording of Shearer contradicting Cunliffe. Because it didn’t happen.
I also attended the meeting, and because I was standing on the left hand side and out of view of the stage, spent most of my time watching the crowd.
Posted on the David dynamic on the Daily Blog the next day. Would’ve refrained if I knew what a dissection the interaction would have resulted in.
From my perspective – at the hall – and with full view of all three Davids:
David Cunliffe did not know that David Shearer had arrived, and stood up to speak because the mike and attention were directed to him, as he had been there since the beginning front and centre. He did not appear to be aware of Shearer during his answer, because Shearer was out of direct sightline, and Cunliffe was skillfully addressing the crowd and not the questioner alone.
David Shearer made tentative but silent moves to answer the question, but as usual in a meeting – since attention was already directed to the front – had little chance of being noticed. When a review was mentioned (and I too thought it was Shearer) – the tone seemed supportive rather than corrective or aggressive, but since I don’t know Shearer’s personality and communication skills intimately – my take is completely personal. In the appreciation following Cunliffe’s “it will not stand!” most people missed it – and also – missed the opportunity to notice Shearer and ask for further clarification.
The interaction, while interesting, was typical of what happens during any informal meeting, and happened in the space of a couple of minutes.
red rattler, AND, the next day clarified that interjection by stating that there will be a full review and we will change the legislation based upon that review,
i can assure you that Climate change is and will be an election issue, do you know why, the Green Party will be standing in that election, full stop,
Well said bad12. Despite the mainstream media ignoring anything to do with anthropogenic climate change (that means it’s man made), there has been some recent serious developments that should mean climate change is once again on the agenda.
As much as these current events about who’s the biggest liar in parliament are entertaining, not much of that performance is going to compare when the effects of climate change start costing us the entire worlds GDP.
Ground-breaking analysis has found that the likely cost of methane emissions as Arctic permafrost melts is 60 trillion dollars (39 trillion pounds) globally, nearly equalling the 70 trillion dollar (46 trillion pound) value of the global economy in 2012.
The dire warning of an “economic time-bomb” comes from the first ever calculation of the potential economic impact of a scenario which some scientists consider increasingly likely – that the unprecedented thaw will trigger the release of methane from the East Siberian Sea in the polar region.
Although the sea holds only a fraction of the Arctic’s vast methane reserves, experts from the universities of Cambridge in England and Erasmus in Rotterdam, Holland warned that even the release of that relatively small proportion of the area’s methane could result in climatic catastrophe around the world.
In that case, politics will truly become the entertainment branch of industry, and the politicians “performance” will be all too horribly inadequate.
Pretty good support ratio. And since Labour’s policy is in line with Mana and the Greens a thumbs up for all those parties to continue along this vein.
Given the higher income and asset owning profile of The Herald it seems like Labour has picked the right policy. But they’ve got to get out there and sell it right and sell it hard!
Looks like Granny didn’t like the results of that poll. It’s been replaced with another poll likely to give a more comforting result for their Tory masters..
TV3 News, your pro govt news channel, according to a commenter on this stuffed article says that TV3 did apologise last night for their bold error on Saturday night’s news where they stated that bottles had been thrown at the Palmy GCSB protest when in fact they hadn’t.
I guess if they get their tip off’s from random emails that contain no photographic evidence and they don’t bother to verify the claim, then they are willing to say anything as long as it is sensational and frames the mighty anti GCSB movement as just another flakey protest.
I missed the news last night, did anyone see the apology? Must have been a sheepish one.
Also on that Saturday bulletin they “misrepresented” the truth in regards to the gates at parliament and access for the protesters With repressed mirth they talked about protesters climbing over the closed gates when there was a gate open nearby. The reality was the immediate entrance was closed and 1000’s had to squeeze through the small side gate.
All this on top of the- you-know -what Jonolism story last week (see Jenny at post #1) it looks like they have a real agenda to pursue.
Just as well John Campbell is there to shine a light
Hi, Rosie, I did see it. Very short and a fair way into the bulletin, unlike the original item. Though, to be fair to them, they were pretty open about the nature of the mistake and promised to do better. So I’m confident there will be no more Jonolism on TV3 till, ahhhh, 6 O’clock tonight.
and Anonymous bringing down around 11 National Party websites today, it’s all going off lately. Our voices are getting louder and stronger. Soon the media will have to acknowledge the legitimacy of the grievances of NZ citizens and stop being apologists for the govt………….might be a naive view, but you never know!
That is the thing, generally speaking the Slater/Farrar sewer racism is to loath Polynesians, but worship Chinese. This seems to be because they can only see the the world in terms of fearful, Manichean objectification.
Plus if it wasant for China, neo-liberalism would have fallen over long ago. Capitalists need that huge pool of slave workers in China.
Every boardroom in the world should have a picture of Deng Xiaopeng up in it. He did more than Reagan, Thatcher, Douglas, Hawke, Keating, Mulroney, Tebbit, Lawson, Lamont, Howe, Douglas, Prebble, Lange, Volker, Clinton, Summers, et al ever did for neo-liberal capitalism.
The Labour party if in government will implement a policy of banning sales of residential houses to people who live overseas and not in NZ.
John Key says this will be in breach of a number of free trade agreements.
Therefore the free trade agreements restrict the ability of our Parliament to pass what laws it wishes – i.e. they directly affect our sovereignty.
The people of NZ have never agreed to have our Parliament restricted in such a way.
The free trade agreements are therefore invalid.
This has been apparent for some time but always ignored. NZ’s Parliament has no ability to enter into any FTA which attempts to limit our voting rights or sovereignty.
large areas of China are polluted by industrial and agricultural carcinogens. Avoid. Also China is in the middle of a massive unsustainable debt fuelled residential property bubble.
Two reasons Chinese might want to trade in their local property for NZ property.
No because their local laws don’t allow for private property even for their own citizens. Just the same as our local laws can be whatever we want. Like we insist on clear titles for instance which is a rarity in most countries.
My understanding of it is..
The FTA says (broadly) that kiwis seeking to do doing business in China are treated no worse than any other investor from any other country and not treated any different to their own citizens. There are various exemptions to that.
That means that it is reasonably hard to lease property in China. But that is largely because it is just hard to find suitable places there. It is usually more of a pain getting stuff past border controls or even figuring out how to deal with the distribution networks. At least that is what people I know doing business there say. They often go through distributors in HK even now.
Similarly we can put largely whatever restrictions we want on purchasing property. However we cannot give other citizens from countries better access than we give the Chinese or the aussies and depending on how the FTA’s are written some other countries..
Foreign buyers are not completely banned, from my reading of the policy, and feel free to correct me if i have got this wrong,
Foreign buyers who are not resident in New Zealand can buy land and build upon it within a year, i assume that they then have a year to sell that property or become resident,
i doubt whether any Government we have an FTA with will object to that, the Labour policy simply attempts to shut out foreign speculators buying existing houses…
Yes and there doesn’t seem to be an explanation around that exception. Why would that exemption be any use? I don’t buy the “adds to the housing stock” argument.
vto, but it would add to the housing stock, IF foreign investors are prepared to buy land and build upon it they are entitled to make an amount of profit from selling that house to a person resident in New Zealand,and pay any tax due i might add,
The whole ban on foreign residents buying existing property isn’t a big deal in my opinion and will probably result in demand shrinking by 2-5%, i see no negative in the policy for New Zealands residents and citizens,
The only small niggle i have is that with the Australians being exempt from the proposal we may find that while British and Asian speculators are driven out of the market that the demand from Australian speculators grows as their dollar value and higher wage rates will then make them the ‘wealthiest buyers’ and having British and Asian buyers with more wealth than them may yet prove to have held that Australian speculation in our housing market in check to a certain extent…
Well yes I suppose it could add to the housing stock…. but it kind of defeats the purpose of the policy as foreigners will simply look to get their bolthole by building new rather than buy existing. Overall the effect could be pretty similar to the current result, pre-policy.
2-5% is a significant chunk in my experience. Vary the demand side by that amount and it will have an effect. But also bear in mind that affordable housing requires a multi-pronged solution – this is one of them prongs.
And I have seen with my own few eyes the very real bidding out of young families by a foreign buyer. And this is the other benefit of such a policy…
… it creates more ownership within the community and that makes a community stronger.
The family that was outbid went back to renting, with its attendant greater transience and weaker strength. Eventually they moved away.
The policy has two very positive features;
1. Drives down capital values. High capital values only benefit banks.
2. Leads to stronger ownership etc within the community as opposed to more transient renters.
vto, no not from my reading of the proposal, non residents can buy land and build on it but cannot hold either the built on land or bare land for more than a year,
The only bit of that i am unsure of is the total actual time they can hold the land, i am going to assume that they have just the 1 year to build and sell, that’s more positive ‘investment’ than allowing non-residents to buy existing houses and then hold them until the price has risen to a point where they are happy to sell and take the profit for doing nothing…
“It should be an outright ban on foreign ownership of anything in NZ.”
That really is a brave call. It would be fascinating to try. So you mean literally that New Zealansd would have zero foreign direct investment? That has never been acheived in modern times by any nation. But I guess we could be the first.
OK. If you ban all incoming FDI, won’t you need to ban all New Zealand outgoing FDI because otherwise you will run out of capital?
Nope. Two reasons:
1.) The government can create more money.
2.) I expect other countries to do the same.
Are you going to ban imports too or is that still OK?
I didn’t mention trade but generally I’m supportive of it. It needs regulating of course else we end up with society becoming worse off as we’ve seen over the last few decades.
If Shearer gets into trouble with this housing policy banning foreigners he should not get defensive, rather he should attack harder. Show some mettle, show some aggression, take a fight directly to Key and make it hostile. Accuse Key of being a racist. Accuse Key of being deceptive and a liar. And don’t back down.
Shearer should have done this with the bad man ban too.
sheesh CV, if that is so then he should be outski. Is Shearer scared of everyone and everything? Is the Labour Party similarly scared like scaredy cats?
I don’t buy that if it is the reason for his slipper-wearing approach to every issue. If the right wing media are hostile then he should still stand up and not back down to them too.
Like Irishbill says on that other post, middle NZ are not stupid. And where they go the media will generally go too.
After all, why is Shearer there? He only has one life like most of us (apparently) so why doesn’t he grab it by the balls? To be or not to be …….. surely
sheesh CV, if that is so then he should be outski. Is Shearer scared of everyone and everything? Is the Labour Party similarly scared like scaredy cats?
Not scared of their own dissenting MPs and party members
OK I confess I can’t demonstrate that the MSM is left wing. I take it back.
I am sure that the MSM is stupid, produces mostly rubbish, and is (with a few exceptions) not worth reading. I think because I find it irritating, I have a tendency to assume it is left wing, but I see now that is unfair of me. So I withdraw and apologise.
+1. Your comments are usually worth reading srylands. I may not always agree with them but at least you explain your reasoning well, even when you are taking the piss.
Ah you have just been reading the fools at KiwiBlog and Whaleoil. While some journos may be left leaning, their bosses running the few remaining media companies are most definitely not – they’re mostly interested in money. And generally you make money by sucking up to the lowest possible common denominator.
That lower standard usually equates to talkback, comments on whaleoil, reality TV, paul henry, and seven#. In other words absolutely convinced of their own moral rectitude despite the occasional lapses into fornication, fighting, bigotry, racism, and beating on the missus while absolutely paranoidly certain that everyone else is getting a better deal out of life than they are. And too stupid or lazy to look stuff up.
Seen a mirror lately?
(I do so love it when someone gives me the straight line..)
I listened to a great episode of the Food Programme (mp3, 13MB 28 mins.) from BBC Radio 4 yesterday, covering food poverty. You can read the programme blurb here.
Food insecurity is a growing issue in the UK, linked with inadequate social welfare, lack of transportation and exacerbated by benefit “reforms”. Similar issues are faced by many New Zealanders as we have seen from the food in schools issue in recent months.
Frustrating time listening to a Mr Wall of an Auckland Real Estate firm attacking Shearer on Morning Report, accusing him of racism, xenophobia and basically not having a clue with the new policy for sales of housing to non-resident foreigners..
Mr Wall talked about NZ being built on immigration when he should have known that the Labour policy cøncerned overseas, non-resident owners. He did not know that similar laws were current in several countries but pronounced on how hard the new law would be to enforce “because in most of the cases he dealt with (20 per year, high end sales) he didn’t even know who the parties in the deal were.” Several times he said that he “didn’t know about that” but still continued to make comments.
How did they ever pick him for his ability to add to our sum general knowledge?
Finally there were two good comments from listeners who heard the same self-serving ignorance both of Labour’s policy and the outside world.
My God……..I recognise the guy……..one of those mouthy know it all (according only to blatant self-interest and sense of superiority) yuppie pricks. Vanity !!!!
LOL – thanks for the Denizen link. What a dork! He must have been down on real estate sales and desperate for income.
I initially got angry at that RNZ interview – and then decided that if I was looking to buy real estate in Auckland, Wall would immediately go on my “don’t touch with a barge pole” list – as slimy, ignorant and untrustworthy. Talk about how not to sell yourself!
RNZ pridefully holds itself as the centre of mature, technically informed expression. That is becoming more of a laugh everyday.
Who the hell in RNZ devised to have a Mr Wall from Wall Real Estate vent his self-interested spleen about policy concerned with foreign non-resident buyers ? Any bets that Mr Wall is a mate or a mate of a mate of someone in RNZ who could jack it up for Mr Wall and his ilk ?
His company deals extensively with the very people the policy is concerned about. Oh no, the policy is all racist shit according to the patently self interested Mr Wall. A policy he’d expect to hear from the racist Invercargill taxi rider he spits, in his mock rounded vowels.
RNZ has allowed Mr Wall to publicise himself as the go-to man when/if such a policy is implemented. It is outrageous that RNZ presents that sort of contribution from the likes of Mr Wall as expert, well-informed, uninterested.
Well done RNZ. Dumbing down is the order of the day.
That one is hardly worth the effort of raising the spittle to direct His way, when asked about the fact that Kiwi’s cannot buy property in China the liquid excrement flowed,
”Oh i don’t know what goes on in China” says He, jesus doesn’t such utter sh*t make you see violent shades of red…
North
Don’t concentrate your spleen on our only public broadcasting service that still is standing after the right-wing earthquake. If there’s something wrong mention it but don’t drop s..t from a great height. Someone in government may be listening and the next thing we know, is that Radionz is being downsized because the public find it unsatisfactory – and it’ll all be your fault! Then we’ll all be sorry. I have the feeling that the gubmint often runs on anecdote when it matches the direction they would like to take.
Listen to some other sites (commercial or student) and let us know how they are. That would be interesting as I don’t do that much. By the time that the good vibes from advertisements for elkhorn nostrums or whatever have been heard a few times it’s goodbye from me.
If I don’t like things on Radionz I’ll probably let them know and why. Why don’t you do the same instead of dissing them so strongly.
I CANNOT agree that my comment – “RNZ……becoming more of a laugh everyday” (the wheeling in of sham commentators I mean, obviously), nor my suspicions as to how/why Mr Wall was asked to comment/rant in the first place, nor my sardonic thanks to RNZ for the brilliance of its impartial, informative invitees (not)…..amounts to venting my spleen or dropping shit from a great height.
I AM NOT about to take seriously your fear that my comment may activate the dark forces to cancel RNZ.
I AM NOT about to take your direction to listen to “other sites (commercial or student)” and report back to you, firstly because I can’t handle the constant inane guffawing one finds on such “sites”, and secondly because you don’t seem to have expended the effort to do so yourself.
I AM about to ignore the busybody in you. You who misrepresents how I said what I said, and then, just by the way, fails to venture any view on the question.
If then it’s a case of my styles your riles…….tough. Rile away !
The deadline for submissions re the consitiutional review is the 31st (tomorrow).
Does anyone know for sure, if that means today is the last day to get one in, or tomorrow is the last day to submit?
Really don’t have much time today (shouldn’t be here….)
“Send your submission
Please send us your submission by 5pm 31 July 2013.
You can make a submission in a number of ways:
Make a submission online
Fill out the quick submission form and post it to us.
Email a submission to constitutionalreview@justice.govt.nz with “CAP submission” in the subject line. You can attach documents to your email.
Or you can post a submission to:
Cheers VV.
Youre a champion.
I’ve only got a rough outline and I really need to sit down and spend a couple of hours on it.
Time I’ve got tomorrow but not today.
A Herald-poll shows that the majority of respondents support the children of Beneficiaries being included in the Working for Families Tax Credit scheme,
Admittedly only a small poll of 700 but a small ray of light nonetheless,” If beneficiaries want working for tax credits they can get a job”, those words which finally severed any desire for me to either support or vote for Labour,
Just how much denigration can the children of beneficiaries be expected to weather, tax their meager income for spurious reasons, directly cut their meager income for even more spurious reasons, then deny them income from a government redistribution where hand over heart that government dared suggest that the children of families with $60,000 of income were more deserving,
Indulging in the above doesn’t make ‘bad parents’, indulging in the above makes bad parenting a f**king government policy…
O would go along with that – you just have to recognize that some people are not worth much (professionally) – you have a $1 skill – you can sell it for $1.
Actually you point out a weakness in Lanthanide’s comment. What one is paid is not a reflection on what they are worth. If this is so, the person looking after, for example, your sick mother in hospital, or someone growing food that you eat, would be considered worth less than a lying and cheating fraudster in the financial system commanding oodles of bonuses whilst undermining the entire functioning of our society.
However, is there anyone working who doesn’t deserve to be paid wages or a salary that covers their living costs?
It appears that rather a lot of employers think this is o.k.
O would go along with that – you just have to recognize that some people are not worth much (professionally) – you have a $1 skill – you can sell it for $1.
Sure, as long as you recognise that some employers are so shit, workers should be paid bonuses for putting up with their BS.
Fair enough – I agree on that point. My wife works for the Auckland Council and they are terrible – she deserves more for putting up with them (Not that she will get it mind).
But at lease we have been able to agree that some people simply do not have skills that are worth much and are compensated as such.
You can wish all you like but if workers are paid more than their marginal output value the business goes bust.
You must have no experience in running a business. I can tell you that the equaion is simple. Some workers produce more than otehrs but at the margin there will be a worker who is producing marginally more than his/her wages. If wages are regulated upwards beyond that break even point that worker has to go.
Probably because once you’ve read more than one or two simplistic libertarian Hayek/Friedman internet raves, it becomes hard to go back to such a trite view of the world.
Something is clearly wrong with the way we do things, working out new ways that have better results will never be solved by continuing to believe that old answers are working.
If a country continues to follow rubbish notions of what can and can’t be done, then, Srylands, they go bust like America, Greece, Britain, Ireland and New Zealand (we are all in massive debt are we not?) or become dependant on power-grabbers who have an obsession with gaining materially and whom have very little concern for the wellbeing of people.
If someone is growing carrots, and the owner can’t afford to pay him or her a living wage, then put the price of the carrots up, Noddy.
No, wait, I have an idea, we can’t put the price of carrots up because we have decided we can’t (or people won’t buy them for that price) so we will just put the workers wages down.
…Oh, what? the worker can’t afford to pay rent and food? I know we will give him handouts. Or better yet we will give him a loan to buy his own house. That way the workers will feel wealthier than they really are and won’t complain!
….Oh what? the worker can’t afford to pay back the debt?
~ Oh I know we will just borrow off other countries to cover up the little problem
…Oh What?? That didn’t work?
~Oh I know, we will bundle the debts up into little packages and sell them as AA investments
…Oh What?? people aren’t repaying their mortgages and the banks have gone bust?
~Oh I know, we will get the workers to pay for the bailout ….
The reason that wages are low is because employers want more profit than is possible. Or perhaps technology has lead us into this place of not-enough-profits-for-neccesities. Or perhaps it is that those with capital prefer to speculate on futures markets (thereby raising the prices falsely). Perhaps we need to change the way we organize ourselves.
The invisible hand can go and fuck itself for a start.
“We can’t put the price of carrots up because people won’t buy them for that price.”
Stop growing carrots. Sell house in Levin. Buy vineyard in Martinborough. Make wine. Run cool concerts in summer. Incentivise workers with profit sharing scheme. Everyone is happy.
Import carrots from Tasmania.
All the workers applaud by an invisible hand-clap 🙂
Well I might have agreed with you had you left out the bit about importing the carrots from Tasmania. If people won’t buy the carrots at a decent price and haven’t land to grow them themselves then they can jolly well go without.
I’m unsure what makes you think that the invisible hand has any time for niceties such as applauding…(perhaps the same notion that leads you to believe the invisible hand sorts our organizational problems out for us….)
but…but…Colonial Viper…you missed something there…
People go hungry (or into debt) so that some others may experience the freedom to do what they want regardless [of whether they are screwing anyone else]…especially they should be able to make as big a profit as their heart’s desire, and that is what is really important now, isn’t it?
Self interest properly understood would mean that the wealthy elite would not let things get too out of balance. The example of the French Revolution should not be so far from their minds, for instance. The wealthy elite enabled Roosevelt to act during the Depression, making significant concessions to the masses, while essentially saving the system of capitalism.
Unfortunately what we have now amongst the elite is self interest misunderstood.
They’ll bury themselves and us with them over the next 20-30 years.
PS a lot of these “rich” people are going to find themselves very poor in the coming years, as their paper wealth becomes worthless for exchange for real goods and services.
@ C.V
Although I understand what you are getting at, and the form of self interest you speak of is certainly healthier than the narrow self interest that has come to be the rule of the day, I really don’t think that a society that believes in an organizing principle of self interest is going to get far.
Societies come together for the benefits that mutual help and cooperation provides. Trying to ignore cooperation and turn the main organizing principle into one of self interest is never going to get far because it goes against the reality of why we clump together in the first place (or more scientifically speaking; that we are a ‘social animal’); i.e. working in groups leads to a better quality of life for the whole tribe; if this wasn’t the case, people wouldn’t bother.
Surely a far more productive organizing principle is to focus on the very qualities that leads to the intended aim–a better quality of life–not those that lead us to pull apart?
I really don’t think that a society that believes in an organizing principle of self interest is going to get far.
In olden times people believed that what was good for their nation was good for themselves. Eg. “For King and Country”. In earlier times they believed in the good of their tribe, their clan, etc.
These days the Left has become so intellectually and rationally clever that there is little remaining for people to believe in.
these City bankers are being handsomely rewarded for bringing the global financial system to the brink of collapse. While collecting salaries of between £500,000 and £10 million, leading City bankers to destroy £7 of social value for every pound in value they generate.
For every £1 they are paid, childcare workers generate between £7 and £9.50 worth of benefits to society.
For a salary of between £50,000 and £12 million, top advertising executives destroy £11 of value for every pound in value they generate.
We estimated, however, that for every £1 they are paid [hospital cleaners], over £10 in social value is generated.
For a salary of between £75,000 and £200,000 tax accountants destroy £47 of value for every pound in value they generate.
Our model projects that for every £1 of value spent on wages, £12 of value will be generated.
See, I’m quite happy for people to be paid what they’re worth but the rich won’t like it because they’d owe the rest of us billions of dollars.
+1 all it does is artificially subsidize employers much a like the accomodation supplement subsidizes and therefore inflates rent. I’d imagine that if supplements wern’t propping up the rental market an investment property would become a whole lot more unattractive. I’d dare say it would take more heat out of the housing market than investor retsrictions…
Aha, also interest payments can be deducted from PAYE so why wouldn’t the middle class pile into ‘investment housing’ en masse with such subsidies,
Don’t tho expect Labour to change any of that, they are after-all fighting with National for a slice of that middle classes vote and good luck to them,
National wont touch Working for Families either in spite of the Slippery little Shyster when in opposition venting fit to burst a blood vessel that WfW is ‘Communism’…
This is the real issue; ensuring people are paid a wage they can live on.
I will add though, that if NZ is going to move into supplementing wages with welfare, as it appears to be doing, then NZers need to be clearly informed and realise the extent of this welfare and drop the whole stigma of receiving welfare.
If governments are going to support landlords and employees by supplementing their requirement to charge higher rents than people can afford and wages that people can’t afford, then governments are going to have to quit the whole anti-welfare memes that they consistently encourage in order to get votes.
If governments persist in ensuring that those on welfare are obligated to feel shame for receiving help, (and as Cricklewood pointed out this help immediately transfers into support for businesses and landlords) then governments need to also ensure that employers and landlords are made to feel obligated to provide wages and ask for rents that are affordable without requiring governments to make up the shortfall.
In my opinion the issue of ‘welfare costs’ needs to be transformed into an issue of ensuring good jobs are available to all. This is the most positive and effective way of clearing up the matter for all NZers.
Attended a free New Economics Foundation workshop – run by Auckland Council (believe it or not), and one of their publications deals with the issue of remuneration vs value.
A Bit Rich (2009) compares the anomaly created in valuing different occupations, and the SROI (Social Return on Investment) and community impact of different types of work.
“We have tested our theory by taking a close look at a sample of highly paid and low paid jobs. We found that some of the most highly paid benefit us least, and some of the lowest-paid benefit us most. Although this will not always hold, it does point to a massive flaw in the system and highlights the need for reform. “
Excerpts: “….While collecting salaries of between £500,000 and £10 million, leading City bankers to destroy £7 of social value for every pound in value they generate.”
“…. For every £1 they are paid, childcare workers generate between £7 and £9.50 worth of benefits to society.”
Interesting read, and worth the read – even if only to provide interesting debates on these topics.
I agree thoroughly and have been realising lately that the belief that one is worth more when one is paid more is really a problem for social cohesion. I also think it is hard for humans to not believe that they are worth more when paid a lot more than others.
Trouble is, this is a false belief, noone is worth more just because they are paid more. Every human is worth the same, unless perhaps a human who is doing a great deal of good for others, in which case, perhaps they are worth more…to society at least.
As the information you have shared points out most astutely; some of the people providing the most important services are paid the least and some who are destroying our society are being paid the most. Kind of scuppers the idea that a person is worth more depending on the pay they happen to receive.
Agreed. And part of the problem is the “neoliberal” propaganda that private profit-focused businesses contribute more to society than than public sector work. Also undervalued is most of the work that cares for, educates, helps, heals and nurtures people.
Attended a free New Economics Foundation workshop – run by Auckland Council (believe it or not), and one of their publications deals with the issue of remuneration vs value.
A Bit Rich (2009) compares the anomaly created in valuing different occupations, and the SROI (Social Return on Investment) and community impact of different types of work.
“We have tested our theory by taking a close look at a sample of highly paid and low paid jobs. We found that some of the most highly paid benefit us least, and some of the lowest-paid benefit us most. Although this will not always hold, it does point to a massive flaw in the system and highlights the need for reform. “
Excerpts: “….While collecting salaries of between £500,000 and £10 million, leading City bankers to destroy £7 of social value for every pound in value they generate.”
“…. For every £1 they are paid, childcare workers generate between £7 and £9.50 worth of benefits to society.”
Interesting read, and worth the read – even if only to provide interesting debates on these topics.
Two current issues need a great deal more transparency – the GCSB legislation and the Trans- Pacific Partnership negotiations, writes Gerald McGhie.
[ From an earlier Herald articile : “Gerald McGhie is a former career diplomat who served as ambassador to Moscow and Seoul, High Commissioner to Port Moresby and Commissioner in Hong Kong. Now retired, he is a past director of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs and was chairman of the New Zealand chapter of Transparency International.”
Penny, i detect from the double post a level of anger, so much so that you have been unable to delete one of them,
Your question is self evident, coz it’s His blog and he can, just as in the final analysis LPrent can give someone a spanking here at the Standard for behavior one day and ignore the same behavior from another the next,
Bomber probably got sick of some of your more Loooooong efforts at posting a comment, i quite often do here on the Standard and simply skim such efforts as i scroll my way down the page…
Question Time today – should be interesting after the two week break and what has happened in that time.
Shearer has his usual – twice (1 and 11) and Peters also has one at Q6. Norman is still on the “Dunne” case(Q2), and Parker is on ‘house price’ duty (Q4). Hipkins is going to give us another’Minister of Education’ moment; and Eugenie Sage is on water safety/quality.
The rest are Nat Patsy questions.
Questions to Ministers
1.DAVID SHEARER to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his statements?
2.Dr RUSSEL NORMAN to the Prime Minister: Did his Chief of Staff, Wayne Eagleson, advise Parliamentary Service that United Future Leader Hon Peter Dunne had agreed to cooperate with the Henry inquiry and had consented to releasing his electronic phone logs; if so, why?
4.Hon DAVID PARKER to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement that “High house prices matter because many New Zealanders spend a large portion of their incomes on housing and that has helped fuel household debt and contribute to damaging imbalances in the economy”?
6.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his statements?
7.EUGENIE SAGE to the Minister for the Environment: What percentage of sites identified as a river in the Suitability for Swimming indicator report released yesterday were categorised as “Very Good” or “Good” and therefore were safe for swimming?
9.CHRIS HIPKINS to the Minister of Education: Does she agree with the Minister of Finance that “The Government is focusing on ensuring that every teacher put in front of our children is competent”?
11.DAVID SHEARER to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his statements?
?
Pretty hard hitting stuff all round, but especially from Shearer.
Why is it that the Greens, with far less parliamentary experience, almost always seem to do far better in parliament? Are Labour actually trying?
By bringing up their housing policy, all Shearer and Parker did is open themselves up to Key etc making disparaging remarks, as nice soundbites for the MSM Fran Mold may be back in the fold, but there was so much more they could have been winning hits on but …………………
Alan Ray designer of CTV building has taken legal action to stop surveillance of his professional background. Ask the GCSB they’ll know. What a cheek. Its wonderful how these bare-faced scammers as he was, though within the law, can evade taking responsibility.
I remember that he was known for designing buildings so they just achieved building requirements, therefore being efficient no doubt (utilizing a particular commodity or product with the least waste of resources or effort) which is usually judged in NZ as being cheapest.
A very engaging NZ expert spoke on Radionz this morning. He is into DNA sequencing and tracing evolution through tests that can be done. Very interesting. Says NZ is very important and that we and the Galpagos Islands are important sites in the world. Though he can’t get funding in NZ and we don’t seem enough about our environmental history and present situation to support needed study. So he’s working in Australia. He says that the kiwi is originally Australian!!
Dna sequencing expert interesting insightful http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
Tuesday 30/7/13
Feature Guest – Professor Alan Cooper (27′ 54″ )
10:07 Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of
Adelaide. Alan’s a former Wellingtonian who is leading groundbreaking research which uses ancient DNA to record and study evolutionary processes in real time, especially those associated with environmental change.
He says that many clever talented people come from NZ but can’t get work or funding. And I started thinking yes, we came, we saw, we conquered the land and over-ran Maori and have settled into taking what we wanted that we could sell. We are pragmatic, we are ‘practical’, we have ‘common sense’.
We don’t have a real love for our country or each other in society or it would pervade government as well. We are happy if we can get lots of money together, live in a gated community and rumble about the lazy b..s unemployed and the over-fertile women looking to the government to carry their responsibilities.
The country was developed as a land speculation scam where people either came out of desperation from a Britain in recession, enticed here with extravagant promises and unreal scenarios of being in the tropics of the South Pacific, or sold land that hadn’t even been made available by Maori, or if it had, had not been formalised and paid for.
And we were unable to find a working system between landowning farmers, business and unions just as we were reaching a more advanced state of development. Which had largely been achieved through the experience overseas from WW2 and the more sophisticated refugees and new wave of immigrants after the war. Then came defensive reaction to Britain joining the EU and fear that we would be locked out of replacement markets for our primary produce. So we dropped all our protections to show our sincerity and determination to have free borders and dropped the country in a huge cow pat.
Along came neo liberalism, the right wing jumped right in and are prepared to go to jackboot stage as they seek to mould a country to their own personal wishes and interests. Now we have dropped our progressive tax system and brought in high GST that impacts on nearly all financial transactions, and apart from the most wealthy, the middle class are squeezed and the poorer get the toothpaste tube when it is almost flat.
And no hope for better economic management from either major political party which would return us to an enterprising nation having employment for us all which would automatically produce better conditions – that is the final nail in the coffin.
Andrea Vance’s phone records were given by Datacom to Henry inquiry without request and Henry sent them back !!! carter apologises … question time in the house in 20 mins shd be fun !!
A new age friend of mine (yeah, I know), made the statement recently that the problem with protesting against something is that it is inherently negative and doesn’t say what one actually wants. I generally find these kinds of statements to be idiotic and existing in a vaccum that is disconnected from political reality, but I do take the point that being anti- something without being pro- something can be a problem sometimes (depending on context). On the other hand, sometimes you just have to stand up and say fuck off.
I was thinking about it more today and realised that most activists I know and follow do seem to know what they want as much as what they trying to stop. And the more I think about it the more I am struggling to see protests that have been important to me where we were fighting against something without there being a clear sense of fighting for something as well.
So I thought I would ask. When you are protesting something are you thinking about what you want as much as what you don’t want? Am particularly interested in how activists have seen this over time as specific issues have been addressed and then things have moved on.
Any examples of purely ‘anti’ protests?
I’d also like to know to what extent the whole negative/positive thing gets discussed as strategy in activist circles. Is the whole anti/pro dichotomy a complete nonsense?
Weka, I think it entirely depends on what the situation is, and that there doesn’t necessarily need to be a flip side, what one desires, as an alternative, to what one doesn’t desire. You talk about a dichotomy and as humans I wonder if we often fall into the trap of dichotomous thinking. If you don’t want this then you must want that, kind of thinking.
Why must we justify our objection to something by introducing a nice and positive counter solution to make others feel better about what we do? (I’m thinking of your new age friend here) Sometimes the only thing that needs to be said is “No”. Of course we always need to fully understand why we fight for a certain outcome otherwise it is a meaningless effort.. I’d be surprised that anyone wouldn’t have a full grasp of the holistic value of what they are objecting to as they are marching along and chanting. But then again I have met serial protesters while out a protest. I was speaking with another woman a couple of years ago who said she hadn’t seen me out before. I replied, that I can’t get to everything and like to save my energy for a real and focused fight. We also have differing empathies and allegiances. I wondered if this person was more like a rent-a-crowd stand in, “what ever’s going, I’m in” kind of thing. Maybe this is an example of being purely “anti” without giving much thought to why, and what is beyond. I believe this example is an exception and most folks out protesting have a firmer grasp of their issue than this.
During some protests the “positive” speaks for itself alongside the “negative” and are interwoven. Oppose the GCSB bill?/ (Negative) You want to retain your most basic right to privacy. (Positive) Look at all the placards in the photo’s online. Those two themes appeared equally in the protesters forms of expression.
Can’t speak for strategy discussion in activists group,(in recent years at least) just my observations. As it is I am unavoidably surrounded by folks not of my ilk, right wingers, non voters and the odd new ager and the odd ultra conservative religious person. I find they will always make the same kind of statement as your friend. I agree that they “exist in a vacuum that is disconnected from political reality” . I find these kinds of statements infuriating for many reasons but the main one is that because this ignorance and judgement about protesting means for they are enabling the “enemy” for want of a better word. Inaction of the masses leads to the loss of democracy. So you know what I reckon, keep doing what you do and don’t be sidetracked by those who would make believe you’re “negative and therefore that’s a problem” because you make a stand.
I was anti-tour and pro-equality, I was anti-foreshore and seabed legislation and pro-Māori rights, I am anti-exploitation and pro-environment. I don’t think the anti bit undermines the pro bit, they both co-exist. They have a relationship and are both entwined and you can’t have one without the other. In other words being anti-something is not possible without being pro-something even if at the time we don’t express it as such or aren’t even conscious of it. For me it is part of the fabric of existence and the dichotomies are inherent within the system, and manifested as a human attribute much like the almost automatic ability to catagorise or anthropomorphise what we experience around us.
Anti-anti democracy – and ‘everything’ that flows from anti democratic tendencies in society. And as two negatives make a positive 🙂
Less trite answer? I think if some future vision isn’t borne in mind and modes of organising built around values of that future vision (eg, always pushing more democratic means of organising while resisting authoritarian habits), then protest becomes (sometimes) winning battles against the backdrop of a war that will inevitability be lost.
(Over 21 ‘dislikes’ – so must have jammed a few buttons on full! 🙂
MEDIA ALERT: Auckland Mayoral candidate Penny Bright:
“Will National Party MP Nikki Kaye do the right thing and vote against the GCSB Bill?
“Over 500 signatures have been collected, in Auckland Central, for a petition to National MP for Auckland Central Nikki Kaye, which says:
“The will of the people is the basis of the authority of Government.”
We, the undersigned, call upon YOU, as an MP, to defend the lawful human rights of New Zealanders to privacy, freedom of association and freedom of expression – that is – to oppose arbitrary search and surveillance by the State over citizens.
If YOU, as an MP, vote for this GCSB Bill, which will allow widespread spying on New Zealanders, we hereby PLEDGE to campaign against your re-election in 2014, and to encourage our families, neighbours and workmates to do the same. ”
“These petitions are now with the overnight courier, destined for Parliament, and should arrive in time for the National caucus meeting, which, as I understand it, should be meeting at 10am, Tuesday 30 July 2013.”
“If there is ONE thing that politicians understand – it is VOTES!
My very strong recommendation is that as many people as possible, email all National MPs, Peter Dunne (now ‘Independent’), and the DEFENDANT – ACT Party Leader and MP for Epsom, John Banks, who supported the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill, at it’s first reading, and urge them NOT to support this Bill, ” says Auckland Mayoral candidate Penny Bright.
A party vote was called for on the question, That the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill be reported back to the House by 26 July 2013, and that the Intelligence and Security Committee have authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting (except during oral questions), during an evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House, and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House, despite Standing Orders 188 and 191(1)(b) and (c).
Ayes 61 New Zealand National 59; ACT New Zealand 1; United Future 1.
Noes 57 New Zealand Labour 33; Green Party 13; New Zealand First 7; Maori Party 3; Independent: Horan.
Motion agreed to.
“The will of the people is the basis of the authority of Government.”
I call upon YOU, as an MP, to defend the lawful human rights of New Zealanders to privacy, freedom of association and freedom of expression – that is – to oppose arbitrary search and surveillance by the State over citizens.
If YOU, as an MP, vote for this GCSB Bill, which will allow widespread spying on New Zealanders, I hereby PLEDGE to campaign against your re-election in 2014, and to encourage my family, neighbours and workmates to do the same. ”
It is the result of investigations about the Ahmed Zaoui case, and the background we have never been told. It apparently raises significant questions about our intelligence services:
he documentary feature film Behind The Shroud is scheduled to broadcast for the first time on New Zealand television on FaceTV and Sky channel 83 on Monday August 5 at 8pm.
Behind The Shroud was researched and directed by me [Manning] and was produced over a seven year period.
Behind The Shroud reveals for the first time secret testimonies of witnesses who appeared before the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security’s secret hearings into the Ahmed Zaoui case.
This testimony is highly relevant today as we all debate how we as New Zealanders can all take a role in resisting gross abuses against our civil liberties and the excessive use of the State’s intelligence agency powers.
The frequency of the double saved comments is increasing damnit. I actually have a fix for it (full MD5 to replace the existing check, increased size of the recent comment queue, an increased timeout, and flushing to auto-mod if it times out).
BUT I coded it into a plugin designed for wordpress 3.6 – which last time I looked had just made it to RC2….. Ummm. wait I think..
Can’t find any comment on it above……………Geoffrey Palmer on Campbell Live. A powerful statement. Had “Churchillian” flashing across my head a coupla times. Which surprised me.
So, so significant. He gave a clear, stern admonishment to New Zealand that democracy and our rights are under threat.
Let’s see the ShonKey Python response – the level of response will say SO much.
In a Vaudeville moment I see ShonKeyPython giving Jamie-Lee Ross his next gig ???
Yes. I watched Palmer on Campbell Live. He was very good. Very clear. Good journos everywhere would’ve been nodding their heads in agreement. So would most of the viewers I expect.
His awkward dancing at a Pacific Islands forum did him in. Times have changed. John Key’s awkward dancing just seems to generate smiles, and even his planking probably increased his poll support. 🙂
Some of us have worthless share certificates to remind us.
It begs the question how this individual has been allowed to get near the finance markets since…
Allan Hawkins was apparently sentenced for six (6) years for 7 charges of fraud and conspiracy in 1993.
That’s an example of what I complained of a day or so ago – (I was referring then to ShonKey Python and the MSM, especially television) – they’re fucking around with the nation’s psyche, our democracy, our values.
Sadly that sort of stuff is business as usual in the public sense now. Our morals have been deadened.
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Hi,Before we get into Hayden Donnell’s new column about how yes, Donald Trump is definitely the Antichrist, I wanted to touch on something feral that happened in New Zealand last week.Members of Destiny Church pushed and punched their way into an Auckland library, apparently angry it was part of Pride ...
Despite delays, logjams and overcrowding in our emergency departments, funding constraints are limiting the numbers of nurses and doctors being trained. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, February 18 are:A NZ Herald investigation ...
Now that the US has ripped up the Atlantic alliance, Europe is more vulnerable now than at any time since the mid-1930s. Apparently, Europe and Ukraine itself will not have a seat at the table in the talks between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin that will ...
Olivia and Noah and Hana are going to the library!It is fun to go to the library. It has books and songs and mat time and people who smile at you and say, Hello Olivia, what have you been doing this morning?The library is more fun than the mall. At ...
New World Orders: The challenge facing Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins is how to keep their small and vulnerable nation safe and stable in a world whose economic and political climate the forty-seventh American president is changing so profoundly.IT IS, SURELY, the ultimate Millennial revenge fantasy. Calling senior Baby-Boomer and Gen-X ...
“This might surprise you, Laurie, but I reckon Trump’s putting on a bloody impressive performance.”“GOODNESS ME, HANNAH, just look at all those Valentine’s Day cards!”“Occupational hazard, Laurie, the more beer I serve, the more my customers declare their undying love!”“Crikey! I had no idea business was so good.” Laurie squinted ...
In 2005, Labour repealed the long-standing principle of birthright citizenship in Aotearoa. Why? As with everything else Labour does, it all came down to austerity: "foreign mothers" were supposedly "coming to this country to give birth", and this was "put[ting] pressure on hospitals". Then-Immigration Minister George Hawkins explicitly gave this ...
And I just hope that you can forgive usBut everything must goAnd if you need an explanation, nationThen everything must goSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Today, I’d like to talk about a couple of things that happened over the weekend:Brian Tamaki’s Library Invasion and ...
New reporting highlights how Brooke van Velden refuses to meet with the CTU but is happy to meet with fringe Australian-based unions. Van Velden is pursuing reckless changes to undermine the personal grievance system against the advice of her own officials. Engineering New Zealand are saying that hundreds of engineers ...
The NZCTU strongly supports the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill. This Bill represents a positive step towards addressing serious issues around unlawful disparities in pay by protecting workers’ rights to discuss their pay and conditions. This Bill also provides welcome support for helping tackle the prevalent gender and ...
Years of hard work finally paid off last week as the country’s biggest and most important transport project, the City Rail Link reached a major milestone with the first test train making its way slowly though the tunnels for the first time. This is a fantastic achievement and it is ...
Engineers are pleading for the Government to free up funds to restart stalled projects. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 17 are:Engineering New Zealand CEO Richard Templer said yesterday hundreds of ...
It’s one of New Zealand’s great sustaining myths: the spirit of ANZAC, our mates across the ditch, the spirit of Earl’s Court, Antipodeans united against the world. It is also a myth; it is not reality. That much was clear from a series of speakers, including a former Australian Prime ...
Many people have been unsatisfied for years that things have not improved for them, some as individuals, many more however because their families are clearly putting in more work, for less money – and certainly far less purchase on society. This general discontent has grown exponentially since the GFC. ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 9, 2025 thru Sat, February 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report shows worsening food poverty and housing shortages mean more than 400,000 people now need welfare support, the highest level since the 1990s. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and ...
You're just too too obscure for meOh you don't really get through to meAnd there's no need for you to talk that wayIs there any less pessimistic things to say?Songwriters: Graeme DownesToday, I thought we’d take a look at some of the most cringe-inducing moments from last week, but don’t ...
Please note: I’ve delayed my “What can we do?” article for this video.The video above shows Destiny Church members assaulting staff and librarians as they pushed through to a room of terrified parents and young children.It was posted to social media last night.But if you read Sinead Boucher’s Stuff, you ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is sea level rise exaggerated? Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, not stagnating or decreasing. Warming global temperatures cause land ice ...
Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
"This is a crisis of the Government’s own making and the unit is another sign of desperation," said PSA acting national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francesca Perugia, Senior Lecturer, School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University Australia’s housing crisis has created a push for fast-tracked construction. Federal, state and territory governments have set a target of 1.2 million new homes over five years. Increasing housing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ash Watson, Scientia Fellow and Senior Lecturer, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock When we’re uncomfortable we say the “vibe is off”. When we’re having a good time we’re “vibing”. To assess the mood we do a “vibe check”. And when the atmosphere in ...
What’s up with the man from Epsom? The leader of the Act Party has been in plenty of headlines in the last two weeks, ranging from a controversial letter to police on behalf of constituent Philip Polkinghorne (written before David Seymour was a minister) to an attempt to drive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Stephenson, Deputy Director, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, Australian National University Newly published research has found clear evidence that openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer+ (LGBTIQ+) Australian politicians were disproportionately targeted with personal abuse on social media at the ...
Gilmore Girls, Schitt’s Creek, even The Vampire Diaries – they’re all set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. So what is it like to actually know your neighbours? My favourite television shows are set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. Characters attend town meetings where they debate local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yanyan Hong, PhD Candidate in Communication and Media Studies, University of Adelaide IMDB On the surface, Ne Zha 2: The Sea’s Fury (2025), the sequel to the 2019 Chinese blockbuster Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child, is a high-octane, action-packed and ...
Wellington travellers say their buses are so hot they’re often forced to get off early and walk. Shanti Mathias explores the impact of non-functioning air conditioning on public transport. When Bella, a young professional living in Wellington, thinks about taking the bus, her first thought is “Ugh”. The bus might ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Annette Kroen, Research Fellow Planning and Transport, RMIT University The cleanup is underway in northern Queensland following the latest flooding catastrophe to hit the state. More than 7,000 insurance claims have already been lodged, most of them for inundated homes and other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Subha Parida, Lecturer in Property, University of South Australia Carl Oberg/Shutterstock Houses and fire do not mix. The firestorm which hit Los Angeles in January destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings and forced 130,000 people to evacuate. The 2019–20 Australian megafires destroyed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Tasmania has been burning for more than two weeks, with no end in sight. Almost 100,000 hectares of bushland in the northwest has burned to date. This includes the Tarkine rainforest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Loosemore, Professor of Construction Management, University of Technology Sydney This week, the Productivity Commission released its much-awaited report into productivity growth in Australia’s housing construction sector. It wasn’t a glowing appraisal. The commission found physical productivity – the total number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pascale Lubbe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Molecular Ecology, University of Otago Royal spoonbills are among several new species that have crossed the Tasman and naturalised in New Zealand. JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA When people arrived on the shores of Aotearoa ...
Stats NZ’s head is stepping down over the agency’s failure to safeguard census data, and more officials may soon be in the firing line, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. An ‘absolutely unacceptable’ failure Stats NZ chief ...
Health NZ is under greater government scrutiny, with the new health minister setting up a unit he says will "drive greater accountability and performance". ...
Manurewa Marae acknowledges should have done better at handling completed census forms, following an inquiry into steps government agencies took to protect data. ...
Police failed to protect people from protesters at a high-profile rally and made unlawful arrests at another, the Independent Police Conduct Authority says. ...
Comment: Crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are making it easier for people to invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum without having to handle digital wallets or private keys. These allow investors to buy and sell cryptocurrency through their regular brokerage accounts.This has opened the door for billions of dollars ...
Two long-awaited reports into alleged personal data misuse, centred on census collection and Covid-19 vaccination efforts at Manurewa Marae, were released yesterday. Here’s what you need to know.“Very sobering reading” was how public service commissioner Sir Brian Roche described his organisation’s long-awaited report into the alleged misuse of census ...
Backbench MPs reached new levels of patsy questions in an extraordinarily dull question time on Tuesday. Echo Chamber is The Spinoff’s dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. “MPs ask questions to explore key issues ...
The New Zealand Government says the Cook Islands must share more information about the deals it has signed with China, following the release of an ‘action plan’ in the face of protests in the Pacific nation’s capital.The Cook Islands government has also revealed plans to spend $3 million on a ...
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Comment: The recent attack by Destiny Church front groups on a Drag science show at Te Atatū library crossed a line. This wasn’t the first time that Brian Tamaki, the multimillionaire self-appointed ‘apostle’, has ordered acts of aggression against the queer community. Last year, Drag Story Time events were targeted, ...
Martina Salmon is well versed in the fast-paced action on a netball court, but even she was caught by surprise with the speed at which her career changed tack last year.Staying in the fast lane is only part of her drive this season.Fresh off a nine-day camp in Sydney with ...
Last night I may as well have been in Taihape. Or, closer to home, for me at least, somewhere in the Wairarapa. Or Tūrangi, even – which is near where we used to spend the summer when I was a child. For there was that same gorgeous small town feeling ...
Having Auckland’s food scraps dumped onto your rural backyard sounds scandalous, but in the North Island town of Reporoa there’s no fuss about the thousands of tonnes carted here every week.From the same site as one truck drops the waste, another truck picks up fertiliser to spread on local sheep ...
Yeah right
In response to Jono Hutchinson reporting on a comment on mine on this site, Lynn Prentice with the help of others has engaged in a character assassination of myself.
This character assassination probably springs from Lynn’s insecurity that left commentary departing from the Labour Green political script will be picked up by the media.
As part of this character assassination Lynn Prentice has let Qot a poster on this site make comments slandering me as a inveterate liar. Fair enough I suppose. But if I try and defend myself by asking her and others who attack my integrity to provide just one example to back up their accusations. Lynn censors my comment.
It seems that on this site you have the right to be attacked but no right to defend yourself.
This character assassination launched on me is obviously building up to justify a complete ban to prevent me making comments during the run up to the elections next year.
Lynn Prentice himself has called me delusional and accused me of lying. He has also accused me of twisting his words. It is not my fault that he has changed his testimony since I first commented on them.
As it looks likely that I will be banned from commenting on this site during the elections. I have decided to put up the debate here. And let the readers decide whether it is justified, or not.
Jenny
30 July 2013 at 4:11 am
Lynn. Whether or not it can be proved that Shearer shouted out “We will be having a review”. I know what I heard. (And saw) Your supporters are not even saying that I am mistaken. You let them call me a liar, letting them attack my integrity at will. When I challenge them to show just one example of this, which you know they can’t, you blank it out. In this you are colluding with those who are trying to paint me as a liar. These are the actions of a bully.
I know that you are hostile to my attempt to make climate change an election issue, which by all accounts indicate it will not be. To this end you are trying to use a minor dispute to attack my integrity and ultimately to shut me out, so that you can happily have your election coverage and debate in peace, free to ignore climate change. Don’t deny it you have already expressed this view. It is, “Politics 101″. not to expend political capital on this one issue, you said.
I can see the writing on the wall. Go ahead disgrace yourself.
In my opinion we should be expending every form of capital we have to defeat this menace.
In this ongoing debate between you and me, it doesn’t surprise me that you take David Shearer’s side against David Cunliffe. In my opinion David Cunliffe is the only parliamentarian who has taken climate change seriously.
I thought Cunliffe’s contribution was dignified and sincere while Shearer’s was churlish and uncalled for. You disagree. I suppose we all make our own bed and have to lie in it. Live then, with an administration that will permit the continuation of climate change and the collection of metadata against its citizens, you will have done your part to bring it about.
Jenny
28 July 2013 at 10:06 pm
That’s the crux of the matter TRP. If Shearer was saying exactly what Cunliffe was saying why did he need to so rudely interject it?
And by the way, there were a number of other people who have confirmed they heard David Shearer say “We will be having a review”. Notice the full stop. This was after Cunliffe said our leader has promised a review and “this law must not, will not and can not stand”. Shearer’s unmissable message is “WE WILL BE HAVING A REVIEW’ full stop. And no, heartfelt “this bill cannot stand” nonsense will be tolerated.
It looks to me that we are in line for another tragic sell out.
Oops! I missed the date stamp on Lynn’s comment showing that it was made after I had addressed the question he accuses me of avoiding.
It is cross over. Takes time to write comments and read other comments. I had the same irritation about telling you repeatably to read the update at the end of my post
🙄
Come and see the violence inherent in the system! I’m being repressed!
Popcorn for breakfast!
The major nuisances imo on The Standard open mike (which users are fortunate to have going by many other blogs) for me are ranked thus:
• over long pieces
• boring others who use some of their valuable time visiting and contributing here
• being at variance with any recognisable version of political reality
• posting the same crappola once too often
So I end up automatically skating over about a dozen regulars but stopping and reading every word from about the same number who write pithy relevant comments.
+1
Tiger Mountain
You could be criticising me I think. So my defence for longer items –
. over long pieces – I will often copy some of a longer piece that makes good points that are relevant, and then I put the links so others can read the rest for themselves, if…
. boring – they don’t think the subject is boring. And not everything can be absorbed on any given day but is still important to others.
. being at variance…with political reality – What is it? Can reality be
definitely established? And could I and others survive the actuality which might
be entirely lacking in hope for something better. Endless chewing of cuds of trivia though just becomes boring when it seems to be fantasy fiction. One hopes of course that it is.
. posting the same crappola once too often.
My thing is that it would be a better world if we applied more carrot and less stick, more
community kindness and less rule-driven judgementalism, more care for parents and help for them so there were less distressing results of wrong doing, and concentrating on happy families working together etc etc I get repetitive about this. But seeing it seems obvious to me and is not a new idea but continues to be resisted by policy makers and policy followers, I think it does need holding up continuously as a worthwhile and achievable goal.
And I don’t think short sharp comments show much thinking. They are more just acknowledgments and reactions from people who know about the matter. Sometimes a mere agreement with a well-written comment, or a pithy, funny, clever, heartfelt or whatever one is good.
But to inform on a thought at least a few words are needed, a bit of explanation to fill out the opinion etc. People who know what they are talking about or trying to present the matter in a new way make the thread interesting. I choose my favourites but also look at the thought lines of others, and soon find those who I consider haven’t got joined up synapses and skip them. And the ones that are obviously RWNJ spoilers I enjoy applying some well-rounded phrases as they usually seem no more than naughty children throwing stones to annoy while at the same time being prepared to impact and hurt.
+1 Rosetinted….and I am being supportive of you
Boring is in the mind of the interpreter …what bores one will not bore another …and divergence is good ….so bring on all those boring old farts and right wingers and vulgarians and lets have some fun! ( too many smart people can be mind numbing)
Also I like Jenny and what she has to say ….so keep going Jenny ….keep fighting for Cunliffe ….and whatever happened to Xstasy ?
Thanks Chooky
I know I do a few long ones but not all about the same thing though. Jenny is very focussed and long. I have to skip – I haven’t the time. Diversity is good, but focus is important and Jenny’s can be excellent but I like detective stories for a long read.
Reply Rosetinted
I like obsessive compulsives myself…and Climate Change is important to be harped on about ( that said I would also be interested in those HAARP conspiracy stories my American friend used to go on and on about until she went off the internet…ha ha) ….Labour Leadership cant be let go of either ….someone has to keep at it like a Rotweiller with a bone!….WATCH DOGS are the answer. I am rather partial to conspiracy theories and Sci fi myself for a longer read.
Now, now CV, better watch what you say or you will be next 🙂
Already thought I was 😉
No, I was asking you to put up evidence, a timeline, anything to examine your claims. After all there were a pile of mics, cameras, and people at that meeting – surely you’d be able to find some kind of support. Something that was so clearly lacking when you made the assertion in the first place and that fool Hutchison wrapped a story around it.
When you did I looked at it with the results I reported. I see you haven’t dealt with that at all in this comment. Have you even listened to that video’s audio track? Or did gathering evidence get lost in your obsessional drive to put your own spin and unsupported assertions on events.
Basically I think that your assertions about what Shearer said are outright fantasy
More rope?
and a nice big martyr sign.
Jenny, out of mole hills mountains are made, your claims about what Dave,(the incumbent),said or didn’t say to the other Dave,(not the incumbent), and in what manner he said it, including that Dave(the incumbent) was trying to Bully Dave(not the incumbent) have become in terms of what has occurred since farcical,
Having read parts of this ‘debate’ what i have so far ascertained is that you will not answer even the most simple of questions, ‘were you in the hall when the interjection by Dave(the incumbent) was made and if so where in the hall were you’,
Your assertion made here this morning that LPrent is attacking you for sinister reasons, that being ‘your’ attempt to make Climate Change an election issue, have i missed something, can you add a little proof to such an assertion like in what Post and on which days such an attempt has been made,
i can assure you that Climate change is and will be an election issue, do you know why, the Green Party will be standing in that election, full stop,
You don’t seem to accept the criticisms leveled at you, no big thing i certainly struggle to do the same, however this morning’s calling for martyrdom of yourself takes the farce to new heights,
Take a deep one jenny, let it go…
Fight the real enemies.
Yeah exactly, the amount of vitriol and invective leveled at Dave(the incumbent), would scorch what remains of the natural hair off of the head of the Slippery little Shyster we have as Prime Minister if leveled at Him,(leaving Him with only a large patch of soft hairs gathered from the anal crevice of a blind donkey called Brucie)…
You do realise that John Key already wears a toupée? All that fretting about who he ripped of as an investment banker I guess. Didn’t realise they made toupées from the “soft hairs gathered from the anal crevice of a blind donkey” though.
Well said. bad12. Her refusal to state whether she was actually there and if so, where in the hall totally undermined her credibility in my eyes.
But re your request that she identify her posts on climate change, Jenny has put up many comments seeking to make climate change the only issue (usually the first post on Open Mike). In many of these posts, Jenny has at the same time claimed that the Greens have sold out on climate change and attacked them for this supposed sell-out. I gave up reading any of Jenny’s comments on this issue long ago.
Yeah i have read a number of these comments from jenny and commented on the odd occasion about Her little obsession,
Read paragraph 2 of Her little effort today and there is a direct accusation that LPrent is attacking Jenny over the ‘Dave interjection’ because LPrent does not like what Jenny has previously commented on about ‘climate change/election issue’, blah blah and on She goes,
Such Machiavellian Bull-s**t simply does my head in where the is no proof offered to back up such an assertion,
i have no reason what-so-ever to be a Dave(the incumbent) supporter, in fact after the ‘sickness bene on the roof speech’ exactly the opposite, but, give the bloke a ‘fair go’, the training wheels will definitely come off if Labour decide to keep Him as leader and He becomes the Prime Minister but it wont be ummmm aaah that he will be roasted over should this occur…
Et tu Brute????!
Just kidding mate
Your assertion made here this morning that LPrent is attacking you for sinister reasons, that being ‘your’ attempt to make Climate Change an election issue, have i missed something, can you add a little proof to such an assertion like in what Post and on which days such an attempt has been made,
That would be the same LPrent who has written and commented extensively on AGW in these very pages, both promoting good science and knowledge of the realities of AGW and combating CC deniers and idiots.
LOLZ weka, it’s probably time to resort to the rolly eyes icon, Jenny seems to formulate Her comments in the same vein as the wing-nuts do except from a left perspective,
i have a giggle reading some of them and occasionally comment to Her but like a lot of others tend to go yawn and keep scrolling when it’s the same thing over and over…
I find all this stuff symptomatic of trying to paint Shearer in a good light.
The guy is not only a total failure as a leader, he also represents the right wing of Labour.
The substantial difference between the two statements on Thurs night is clear go me.
The future leader Cunliffe made a statement that opposed the Bill outright, taking an implicit repeal position (Must not, cannot and will not stand) not dependent on the review.
Shearer understood this challenge and rejected it shouting out ‘we will do a review’.
“Shearer understood this challenge and rejected it shouting out ‘we will do a review’.”
Yeah, nah. Cunliffe said there would be a review, Shearer (allegedly) said there would be a review. That’s it, no contradiction between them at all. Unless, of course, you have the evidence Jenny has failed to provide …
No, of course you don’t have evidence. There were hundreds of people in the hall, a host of big and little cameras and not a single recording of Shearer contradicting Cunliffe. Because it didn’t happen.
I also attended the meeting, and because I was standing on the left hand side and out of view of the stage, spent most of my time watching the crowd.
Posted on the David dynamic on the Daily Blog the next day. Would’ve refrained if I knew what a dissection the interaction would have resulted in.
From my perspective – at the hall – and with full view of all three Davids:
David Cunliffe did not know that David Shearer had arrived, and stood up to speak because the mike and attention were directed to him, as he had been there since the beginning front and centre. He did not appear to be aware of Shearer during his answer, because Shearer was out of direct sightline, and Cunliffe was skillfully addressing the crowd and not the questioner alone.
David Shearer made tentative but silent moves to answer the question, but as usual in a meeting – since attention was already directed to the front – had little chance of being noticed. When a review was mentioned (and I too thought it was Shearer) – the tone seemed supportive rather than corrective or aggressive, but since I don’t know Shearer’s personality and communication skills intimately – my take is completely personal. In the appreciation following Cunliffe’s “it will not stand!” most people missed it – and also – missed the opportunity to notice Shearer and ask for further clarification.
The interaction, while interesting, was typical of what happens during any informal meeting, and happened in the space of a couple of minutes.
Thanks Molly.
red rattler, AND, the next day clarified that interjection by stating that there will be a full review and we will change the legislation based upon that review,
Mountains out of molehills…
bad12
Well said bad12. Despite the mainstream media ignoring anything to do with anthropogenic climate change (that means it’s man made), there has been some recent serious developments that should mean climate change is once again on the agenda.
As much as these current events about who’s the biggest liar in parliament are entertaining, not much of that performance is going to compare when the effects of climate change start costing us the entire worlds GDP.
In that case, politics will truly become the entertainment branch of industry, and the politicians “performance” will be all too horribly inadequate.
+1
Reader Poll on Stuff.
Support the Party’s housing policy.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/
48% think it’s a really good idea
24% playing the race card
Another of National’s mouthpieces the Herald is also worried about Labour’s new policy on housing and doing a survey.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
At 9:46am, 2650-2700 votes.
Support: 60%
No: 34%
I’m not sure: 6%
Pretty good support ratio. And since Labour’s policy is in line with Mana and the Greens a thumbs up for all those parties to continue along this vein.
Given the higher income and asset owning profile of The Herald it seems like Labour has picked the right policy. But they’ve got to get out there and sell it right and sell it hard!
Looks like Granny didn’t like the results of that poll. It’s been replaced with another poll likely to give a more comforting result for their Tory masters..
Whoops, meant Stuff, not Granny Herald.
“Would parties’ policies on home ownership influence you to change your vote?”
Yes
612 votes, 45.1%
No
602 votes, 44.4%
Not sure yet, need to hear more
142 votes, 10.5%
They must be really freaking out now
The rwnjs have asked their editors to run a 3rd poll in a day.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/
TV3 News, your pro govt news channel, according to a commenter on this stuffed article says that TV3 did apologise last night for their bold error on Saturday night’s news where they stated that bottles had been thrown at the Palmy GCSB protest when in fact they hadn’t.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv/8977658/GCSB-protesters-lay-TV-complaint
I guess if they get their tip off’s from random emails that contain no photographic evidence and they don’t bother to verify the claim, then they are willing to say anything as long as it is sensational and frames the mighty anti GCSB movement as just another flakey protest.
I missed the news last night, did anyone see the apology? Must have been a sheepish one.
Also on that Saturday bulletin they “misrepresented” the truth in regards to the gates at parliament and access for the protesters With repressed mirth they talked about protesters climbing over the closed gates when there was a gate open nearby. The reality was the immediate entrance was closed and 1000’s had to squeeze through the small side gate.
All this on top of the- you-know -what Jonolism story last week (see Jenny at post #1) it looks like they have a real agenda to pursue.
Just as well John Campbell is there to shine a light
Hi, Rosie, I did see it. Very short and a fair way into the bulletin, unlike the original item. Though, to be fair to them, they were pretty open about the nature of the mistake and promised to do better. So I’m confident there will be no more Jonolism on TV3 till, ahhhh, 6 O’clock tonight.
Thanks TRP. Well, lets see what happens at 6pm then:-) With this nationwide march going on today
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1307/S00373/everyday-kiwisto-march-in-protest-at-12pm.htm
and Anonymous bringing down around 11 National Party websites today, it’s all going off lately. Our voices are getting louder and stronger. Soon the media will have to acknowledge the legitimacy of the grievances of NZ citizens and stop being apologists for the govt………….might be a naive view, but you never know!
The reaction at Labour’s housing policy by the right, only tells me how many people would embrace a full annexation by the Chinese.
That is the thing, generally speaking the Slater/Farrar sewer racism is to loath Polynesians, but worship Chinese. This seems to be because they can only see the the world in terms of fearful, Manichean objectification.
Manichean
Actually, what they worship is wealth and power and it’s obvious that China is becoming very wealthy and powerful.
Plus if it wasant for China, neo-liberalism would have fallen over long ago. Capitalists need that huge pool of slave workers in China.
Every boardroom in the world should have a picture of Deng Xiaopeng up in it. He did more than Reagan, Thatcher, Douglas, Hawke, Keating, Mulroney, Tebbit, Lawson, Lamont, Howe, Douglas, Prebble, Lange, Volker, Clinton, Summers, et al ever did for neo-liberal capitalism.
None of us voted Deng in. We did however vote many of the other pricks in.
The Labour party if in government will implement a policy of banning sales of residential houses to people who live overseas and not in NZ.
John Key says this will be in breach of a number of free trade agreements.
Therefore the free trade agreements restrict the ability of our Parliament to pass what laws it wishes – i.e. they directly affect our sovereignty.
The people of NZ have never agreed to have our Parliament restricted in such a way.
The free trade agreements are therefore invalid.
This has been apparent for some time but always ignored. NZ’s Parliament has no ability to enter into any FTA which attempts to limit our voting rights or sovereignty.
This is a sleeping giant.
Re the FTA agreements
Does that mean nzer can buy and own property in China?
large areas of China are polluted by industrial and agricultural carcinogens. Avoid. Also China is in the middle of a massive unsustainable debt fuelled residential property bubble.
Two reasons Chinese might want to trade in their local property for NZ property.
+1 Colonial Viper
No because their local laws don’t allow for private property even for their own citizens. Just the same as our local laws can be whatever we want. Like we insist on clear titles for instance which is a rarity in most countries.
My understanding of it is..
The FTA says (broadly) that kiwis seeking to do doing business in China are treated no worse than any other investor from any other country and not treated any different to their own citizens. There are various exemptions to that.
That means that it is reasonably hard to lease property in China. But that is largely because it is just hard to find suitable places there. It is usually more of a pain getting stuff past border controls or even figuring out how to deal with the distribution networks. At least that is what people I know doing business there say. They often go through distributors in HK even now.
Similarly we can put largely whatever restrictions we want on purchasing property. However we cannot give other citizens from countries better access than we give the Chinese or the aussies and depending on how the FTA’s are written some other countries..
Foreign buyers are not completely banned, from my reading of the policy, and feel free to correct me if i have got this wrong,
Foreign buyers who are not resident in New Zealand can buy land and build upon it within a year, i assume that they then have a year to sell that property or become resident,
i doubt whether any Government we have an FTA with will object to that, the Labour policy simply attempts to shut out foreign speculators buying existing houses…
Yes and there doesn’t seem to be an explanation around that exception. Why would that exemption be any use? I don’t buy the “adds to the housing stock” argument.
vto, but it would add to the housing stock, IF foreign investors are prepared to buy land and build upon it they are entitled to make an amount of profit from selling that house to a person resident in New Zealand,and pay any tax due i might add,
The whole ban on foreign residents buying existing property isn’t a big deal in my opinion and will probably result in demand shrinking by 2-5%, i see no negative in the policy for New Zealands residents and citizens,
The only small niggle i have is that with the Australians being exempt from the proposal we may find that while British and Asian speculators are driven out of the market that the demand from Australian speculators grows as their dollar value and higher wage rates will then make them the ‘wealthiest buyers’ and having British and Asian buyers with more wealth than them may yet prove to have held that Australian speculation in our housing market in check to a certain extent…
Well yes I suppose it could add to the housing stock…. but it kind of defeats the purpose of the policy as foreigners will simply look to get their bolthole by building new rather than buy existing. Overall the effect could be pretty similar to the current result, pre-policy.
2-5% is a significant chunk in my experience. Vary the demand side by that amount and it will have an effect. But also bear in mind that affordable housing requires a multi-pronged solution – this is one of them prongs.
And I have seen with my own few eyes the very real bidding out of young families by a foreign buyer. And this is the other benefit of such a policy…
… it creates more ownership within the community and that makes a community stronger.
The family that was outbid went back to renting, with its attendant greater transience and weaker strength. Eventually they moved away.
The policy has two very positive features;
1. Drives down capital values. High capital values only benefit banks.
2. Leads to stronger ownership etc within the community as opposed to more transient renters.
It is a no-brainer.
vto, no not from my reading of the proposal, non residents can buy land and build on it but cannot hold either the built on land or bare land for more than a year,
The only bit of that i am unsure of is the total actual time they can hold the land, i am going to assume that they have just the 1 year to build and sell, that’s more positive ‘investment’ than allowing non-residents to buy existing houses and then hold them until the price has risen to a point where they are happy to sell and take the profit for doing nothing…
Yep, the Labour policy doesn’t go anywhere near far enough. It should be an outright ban on foreign ownership of anything in NZ.
“It should be an outright ban on foreign ownership of anything in NZ.”
That really is a brave call. It would be fascinating to try. So you mean literally that New Zealansd would have zero foreign direct investment? That has never been acheived in modern times by any nation. But I guess we could be the first.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_received_FDI
So in 2015 the list of FDI by size might read:
Rank 151 Tajikistan $US million 1,046
Rank 152 New Zealand Nil
Is that what you actually mean?
Yes. We have no need of foreign money to develop our own economy. Thinking that we do is delusional.
That’s not an argument against it no matter what you think.
OK. If you ban all incoming FDI, won’t you need to ban all New Zealand outgoing FDI because otherwise you will run out of capital?
Are you going to ban imports too or is that still OK?
Nope. Two reasons:
1.) The government can create more money.
2.) I expect other countries to do the same.
I didn’t mention trade but generally I’m supportive of it. It needs regulating of course else we end up with society becoming worse off as we’ve seen over the last few decades.
I expect, over time, that trade will minimise.
And you would have this country’s economy 100% owned and controlled by foreign interests, would you not?
If Shearer gets into trouble with this housing policy banning foreigners he should not get defensive, rather he should attack harder. Show some mettle, show some aggression, take a fight directly to Key and make it hostile. Accuse Key of being a racist. Accuse Key of being deceptive and a liar. And don’t back down.
Shearer should have done this with the bad man ban too.
Too scared of the power of the right wing media.
sheesh CV, if that is so then he should be outski. Is Shearer scared of everyone and everything? Is the Labour Party similarly scared like scaredy cats?
I don’t buy that if it is the reason for his slipper-wearing approach to every issue. If the right wing media are hostile then he should still stand up and not back down to them too.
Like Irishbill says on that other post, middle NZ are not stupid. And where they go the media will generally go too.
After all, why is Shearer there? He only has one life like most of us (apparently) so why doesn’t he grab it by the balls? To be or not to be …….. surely
Spark up Shearer, spark up man.
Not scared of their own dissenting MPs and party members
I thought we had a left wing media?
and pissed the bed and thought it was the springs?
What makes you think that?
OK I confess I can’t demonstrate that the MSM is left wing. I take it back.
I am sure that the MSM is stupid, produces mostly rubbish, and is (with a few exceptions) not worth reading. I think because I find it irritating, I have a tendency to assume it is left wing, but I see now that is unfair of me. So I withdraw and apologise.
+1. Your comments are usually worth reading srylands. I may not always agree with them but at least you explain your reasoning well, even when you are taking the piss.
Ah you have just been reading the fools at KiwiBlog and Whaleoil. While some journos may be left leaning, their bosses running the few remaining media companies are most definitely not – they’re mostly interested in money. And generally you make money by sucking up to the lowest possible common denominator.
That lower standard usually equates to talkback, comments on whaleoil, reality TV, paul henry, and seven#. In other words absolutely convinced of their own moral rectitude despite the occasional lapses into fornication, fighting, bigotry, racism, and beating on the missus while absolutely paranoidly certain that everyone else is getting a better deal out of life than they are. And too stupid or lazy to look stuff up.
Seen a mirror lately?
(I do so love it when someone gives me the straight line..)
Can’t have the real poor getting Computers and Internet, they might learn bad stuff about National and vote this time!..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/budget-2013/8754279/Computer-scheme-funding-halved
I listened to a great episode of the Food Programme (mp3, 13MB 28 mins.) from BBC Radio 4 yesterday, covering food poverty. You can read the programme blurb here.
Food insecurity is a growing issue in the UK, linked with inadequate social welfare, lack of transportation and exacerbated by benefit “reforms”. Similar issues are faced by many New Zealanders as we have seen from the food in schools issue in recent months.
Frustrating time listening to a Mr Wall of an Auckland Real Estate firm attacking Shearer on Morning Report, accusing him of racism, xenophobia and basically not having a clue with the new policy for sales of housing to non-resident foreigners..
Mr Wall talked about NZ being built on immigration when he should have known that the Labour policy cøncerned overseas, non-resident owners. He did not know that similar laws were current in several countries but pronounced on how hard the new law would be to enforce “because in most of the cases he dealt with (20 per year, high end sales) he didn’t even know who the parties in the deal were.” Several times he said that he “didn’t know about that” but still continued to make comments.
How did they ever pick him for his ability to add to our sum general knowledge?
Finally there were two good comments from listeners who heard the same self-serving ignorance both of Labour’s policy and the outside world.
Mr Wall is not above the racism he accuses Shearer of…
http://www.thedenizen.co.nz/wellbeing/on-my-top-shelf-graham-wall/
My God……..I recognise the guy……..one of those mouthy know it all (according only to blatant self-interest and sense of superiority) yuppie pricks. Vanity !!!!
LOL – thanks for the Denizen link. What a dork! He must have been down on real estate sales and desperate for income.
I initially got angry at that RNZ interview – and then decided that if I was looking to buy real estate in Auckland, Wall would immediately go on my “don’t touch with a barge pole” list – as slimy, ignorant and untrustworthy. Talk about how not to sell yourself!
He merely reflects his clientele.
RNZ’s supremely impartial and instructive Mr Wall again……..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8981806/Hotchins-mansion-on-brink-of-sale
RNZ’s supremely impartial and instructive Mr Wall again……..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8981806/Hotchins-mansion-on-brink-of-sale
RNZ pridefully holds itself as the centre of mature, technically informed expression. That is becoming more of a laugh everyday.
Who the hell in RNZ devised to have a Mr Wall from Wall Real Estate vent his self-interested spleen about policy concerned with foreign non-resident buyers ? Any bets that Mr Wall is a mate or a mate of a mate of someone in RNZ who could jack it up for Mr Wall and his ilk ?
His company deals extensively with the very people the policy is concerned about. Oh no, the policy is all racist shit according to the patently self interested Mr Wall. A policy he’d expect to hear from the racist Invercargill taxi rider he spits, in his mock rounded vowels.
RNZ has allowed Mr Wall to publicise himself as the go-to man when/if such a policy is implemented. It is outrageous that RNZ presents that sort of contribution from the likes of Mr Wall as expert, well-informed, uninterested.
Well done RNZ. Dumbing down is the order of the day.
That one is hardly worth the effort of raising the spittle to direct His way, when asked about the fact that Kiwi’s cannot buy property in China the liquid excrement flowed,
”Oh i don’t know what goes on in China” says He, jesus doesn’t such utter sh*t make you see violent shades of red…
North
Don’t concentrate your spleen on our only public broadcasting service that still is standing after the right-wing earthquake. If there’s something wrong mention it but don’t drop s..t from a great height. Someone in government may be listening and the next thing we know, is that Radionz is being downsized because the public find it unsatisfactory – and it’ll all be your fault! Then we’ll all be sorry. I have the feeling that the gubmint often runs on anecdote when it matches the direction they would like to take.
Listen to some other sites (commercial or student) and let us know how they are. That would be interesting as I don’t do that much. By the time that the good vibes from advertisements for elkhorn nostrums or whatever have been heard a few times it’s goodbye from me.
If I don’t like things on Radionz I’ll probably let them know and why. Why don’t you do the same instead of dissing them so strongly.
A strange response there Rosetinted.
I CANNOT agree that my comment – “RNZ……becoming more of a laugh everyday” (the wheeling in of sham commentators I mean, obviously), nor my suspicions as to how/why Mr Wall was asked to comment/rant in the first place, nor my sardonic thanks to RNZ for the brilliance of its impartial, informative invitees (not)…..amounts to venting my spleen or dropping shit from a great height.
I AM NOT about to take seriously your fear that my comment may activate the dark forces to cancel RNZ.
I AM NOT about to take your direction to listen to “other sites (commercial or student)” and report back to you, firstly because I can’t handle the constant inane guffawing one finds on such “sites”, and secondly because you don’t seem to have expended the effort to do so yourself.
I AM about to ignore the busybody in you. You who misrepresents how I said what I said, and then, just by the way, fails to venture any view on the question.
If then it’s a case of my styles your riles…….tough. Rile away !
Thans for your reply North. A little thought would have made it shorter and sweeter but there you are. It takes all sorts.
Shorter ?………from you ? Hahahahaha.
Styles and riles again methinks. Same answer.
Shorter ?………from you ? Hahahahaha.
Styles and riles again methinks. Same answer.
The deadline for submissions re the consitiutional review is the 31st (tomorrow).
Does anyone know for sure, if that means today is the last day to get one in, or tomorrow is the last day to submit?
Really don’t have much time today (shouldn’t be here….)
Thanks in advance
Hope this helps from http://www.ourconstitution.org.nz/How-to-make-a-Submission
“Send your submission
Please send us your submission by 5pm 31 July 2013.
You can make a submission in a number of ways:
Make a submission online
Fill out the quick submission form and post it to us.
Email a submission to constitutionalreview@justice.govt.nz with “CAP submission” in the subject line. You can attach documents to your email.
Or you can post a submission to:
Submissions
Secretariat, Constitutional Advisory Panel
C/o Ministry of Justice
DX SX10088
Wellington
To make a valid submission you must supply your name. If you are submitting on behalf of an organisation please supply the name of the organisation.
If you have questions about how to make a submission, please call 0508 411 411.”
Cheers VV.
Youre a champion.
I’ve only got a rough outline and I really need to sit down and spend a couple of hours on it.
Time I’ve got tomorrow but not today.
Go well – I am in a good mood today amd knew where to go.
A Herald-poll shows that the majority of respondents support the children of Beneficiaries being included in the Working for Families Tax Credit scheme,
Admittedly only a small poll of 700 but a small ray of light nonetheless,” If beneficiaries want working for tax credits they can get a job”, those words which finally severed any desire for me to either support or vote for Labour,
Just how much denigration can the children of beneficiaries be expected to weather, tax their meager income for spurious reasons, directly cut their meager income for even more spurious reasons, then deny them income from a government redistribution where hand over heart that government dared suggest that the children of families with $60,000 of income were more deserving,
Indulging in the above doesn’t make ‘bad parents’, indulging in the above makes bad parenting a f**king government policy…
WFF should be scrapped and employers should pay people what they’re worth.
OR keep WFF AND make employers pay people what they are worth.
O would go along with that – you just have to recognize that some people are not worth much (professionally) – you have a $1 skill – you can sell it for $1.
Simple.
@ James,
Actually you point out a weakness in Lanthanide’s comment. What one is paid is not a reflection on what they are worth. If this is so, the person looking after, for example, your sick mother in hospital, or someone growing food that you eat, would be considered worth less than a lying and cheating fraudster in the financial system commanding oodles of bonuses whilst undermining the entire functioning of our society.
However, is there anyone working who doesn’t deserve to be paid wages or a salary that covers their living costs?
It appears that rather a lot of employers think this is o.k.
Sure, as long as you recognise that some employers are so shit, workers should be paid bonuses for putting up with their BS.
Fair enough – I agree on that point. My wife works for the Auckland Council and they are terrible – she deserves more for putting up with them (Not that she will get it mind).
But at lease we have been able to agree that some people simply do not have skills that are worth much and are compensated as such.
Not nice – true – but reasonable.
@ James,
So you reckon it is reasonable to have jobs that do not cover the living expenses of the worker?
I don’t.
Hope you don’t expect government welfare costs to go down anytime soon if you think a job needn’t cover living costs.
You can wish all you like but if workers are paid more than their marginal output value the business goes bust.
You must have no experience in running a business. I can tell you that the equaion is simple. Some workers produce more than otehrs but at the margin there will be a worker who is producing marginally more than his/her wages. If wages are regulated upwards beyond that break even point that worker has to go.
How can you not see that?
Probably because once you’ve read more than one or two simplistic libertarian Hayek/Friedman internet raves, it becomes hard to go back to such a trite view of the world.
Something is clearly wrong with the way we do things, working out new ways that have better results will never be solved by continuing to believe that old answers are working.
If a country continues to follow rubbish notions of what can and can’t be done, then, Srylands, they go bust like America, Greece, Britain, Ireland and New Zealand (we are all in massive debt are we not?) or become dependant on power-grabbers who have an obsession with gaining materially and whom have very little concern for the wellbeing of people.
If someone is growing carrots, and the owner can’t afford to pay him or her a living wage, then put the price of the carrots up, Noddy.
No, wait, I have an idea, we can’t put the price of carrots up because we have decided we can’t (or people won’t buy them for that price) so we will just put the workers wages down.
…Oh, what? the worker can’t afford to pay rent and food? I know we will give him handouts. Or better yet we will give him a loan to buy his own house. That way the workers will feel wealthier than they really are and won’t complain!
….Oh what? the worker can’t afford to pay back the debt?
~ Oh I know we will just borrow off other countries to cover up the little problem
…Oh What?? That didn’t work?
~Oh I know, we will bundle the debts up into little packages and sell them as AA investments
…Oh What?? people aren’t repaying their mortgages and the banks have gone bust?
~Oh I know, we will get the workers to pay for the bailout ….
The reason that wages are low is because employers want more profit than is possible. Or perhaps technology has lead us into this place of not-enough-profits-for-neccesities. Or perhaps it is that those with capital prefer to speculate on futures markets (thereby raising the prices falsely). Perhaps we need to change the way we organize ourselves.
The invisible hand can go and fuck itself for a start.
It fails at this point:
“We can’t put the price of carrots up because people won’t buy them for that price.”
Stop growing carrots. Sell house in Levin. Buy vineyard in Martinborough. Make wine. Run cool concerts in summer. Incentivise workers with profit sharing scheme. Everyone is happy.
Import carrots from Tasmania.
All the workers applaud by an invisible hand-clap 🙂
Well I might have agreed with you had you left out the bit about importing the carrots from Tasmania. If people won’t buy the carrots at a decent price and haven’t land to grow them themselves then they can jolly well go without.
I’m unsure what makes you think that the invisible hand has any time for niceties such as applauding…(perhaps the same notion that leads you to believe the invisible hand sorts our organizational problems out for us….)
The srylands market mechanism controls food prices by making people go hungry.
That is what happens in NZ today.
but…but…Colonial Viper…you missed something there…
People go hungry (or into debt) so that some others may experience the freedom to do what they want regardless [of whether they are screwing anyone else]…especially they should be able to make as big a profit as their heart’s desire, and that is what is really important now, isn’t it?
Self interest properly understood would mean that the wealthy elite would not let things get too out of balance. The example of the French Revolution should not be so far from their minds, for instance. The wealthy elite enabled Roosevelt to act during the Depression, making significant concessions to the masses, while essentially saving the system of capitalism.
Unfortunately what we have now amongst the elite is self interest misunderstood.
They’ll bury themselves and us with them over the next 20-30 years.
PS a lot of these “rich” people are going to find themselves very poor in the coming years, as their paper wealth becomes worthless for exchange for real goods and services.
“The srylands market mechanism controls food prices by making people go hungry.”
So why are there so many fat people and most of them are the poor?
@ C.V
Although I understand what you are getting at, and the form of self interest you speak of is certainly healthier than the narrow self interest that has come to be the rule of the day, I really don’t think that a society that believes in an organizing principle of self interest is going to get far.
Societies come together for the benefits that mutual help and cooperation provides. Trying to ignore cooperation and turn the main organizing principle into one of self interest is never going to get far because it goes against the reality of why we clump together in the first place (or more scientifically speaking; that we are a ‘social animal’); i.e. working in groups leads to a better quality of life for the whole tribe; if this wasn’t the case, people wouldn’t bother.
Surely a far more productive organizing principle is to focus on the very qualities that leads to the intended aim–a better quality of life–not those that lead us to pull apart?
@ Srylands,
cos they can’t afford personal trainers, silly.
srylands: you are as ignorant about human nutrition as you are misguided about everything else.
BL: 🙂
In olden times people believed that what was good for their nation was good for themselves. Eg. “For King and Country”. In earlier times they believed in the good of their tribe, their clan, etc.
These days the Left has become so intellectually and rationally clever that there is little remaining for people to believe in.
@CV
lolz (you have to laugh …sometimes…)
Are you sure you’d like that?
See, I’m quite happy for people to be paid what they’re worth but the rich won’t like it because they’d owe the rest of us billions of dollars.
+1 Lol. Brilliant. Cheers for that link.
+1 all it does is artificially subsidize employers much a like the accomodation supplement subsidizes and therefore inflates rent. I’d imagine that if supplements wern’t propping up the rental market an investment property would become a whole lot more unattractive. I’d dare say it would take more heat out of the housing market than investor retsrictions…
Aha, also interest payments can be deducted from PAYE so why wouldn’t the middle class pile into ‘investment housing’ en masse with such subsidies,
Don’t tho expect Labour to change any of that, they are after-all fighting with National for a slice of that middle classes vote and good luck to them,
National wont touch Working for Families either in spite of the Slippery little Shyster when in opposition venting fit to burst a blood vessel that WfW is ‘Communism’…
@Lanthanide
+1
This is the real issue; ensuring people are paid a wage they can live on.
I will add though, that if NZ is going to move into supplementing wages with welfare, as it appears to be doing, then NZers need to be clearly informed and realise the extent of this welfare and drop the whole stigma of receiving welfare.
If governments are going to support landlords and employees by supplementing their requirement to charge higher rents than people can afford and wages that people can’t afford, then governments are going to have to quit the whole anti-welfare memes that they consistently encourage in order to get votes.
If governments persist in ensuring that those on welfare are obligated to feel shame for receiving help, (and as Cricklewood pointed out this help immediately transfers into support for businesses and landlords) then governments need to also ensure that employers and landlords are made to feel obligated to provide wages and ask for rents that are affordable without requiring governments to make up the shortfall.
In my opinion the issue of ‘welfare costs’ needs to be transformed into an issue of ensuring good jobs are available to all. This is the most positive and effective way of clearing up the matter for all NZers.
Attended a free New Economics Foundation workshop – run by Auckland Council (believe it or not), and one of their publications deals with the issue of remuneration vs value.
A Bit Rich (2009) compares the anomaly created in valuing different occupations, and the SROI (Social Return on Investment) and community impact of different types of work.
“We have tested our theory by taking a close look at a sample of highly paid and low paid jobs. We found that some of the most highly paid benefit us least, and some of the lowest-paid benefit us most. Although this will not always hold, it does point to a massive flaw in the system and highlights the need for reform. “
Excerpts:
“….While collecting salaries of between £500,000 and £10 million, leading City bankers to destroy £7 of social value for every pound in value they generate.”
“…. For every £1 they are paid, childcare workers generate between £7 and £9.50 worth of benefits to society.”
Interesting read, and worth the read – even if only to provide interesting debates on these topics.
Thanks for the links Molly,
I agree thoroughly and have been realising lately that the belief that one is worth more when one is paid more is really a problem for social cohesion. I also think it is hard for humans to not believe that they are worth more when paid a lot more than others.
Trouble is, this is a false belief, noone is worth more just because they are paid more. Every human is worth the same, unless perhaps a human who is doing a great deal of good for others, in which case, perhaps they are worth more…to society at least.
As the information you have shared points out most astutely; some of the people providing the most important services are paid the least and some who are destroying our society are being paid the most. Kind of scuppers the idea that a person is worth more depending on the pay they happen to receive.
Agreed. And part of the problem is the “neoliberal” propaganda that private profit-focused businesses contribute more to society than than public sector work. Also undervalued is most of the work that cares for, educates, helps, heals and nurtures people.
@ Karol
Exactly!
I hope we can start to move in a more positive and pragmatic direction than the belief in neoliberal propaganda has been allowing us to.
Attended a free New Economics Foundation workshop – run by Auckland Council (believe it or not), and one of their publications deals with the issue of remuneration vs value.
A Bit Rich (2009) compares the anomaly created in valuing different occupations, and the SROI (Social Return on Investment) and community impact of different types of work.
“We have tested our theory by taking a close look at a sample of highly paid and low paid jobs. We found that some of the most highly paid benefit us least, and some of the lowest-paid benefit us most. Although this will not always hold, it does point to a massive flaw in the system and highlights the need for reform. “
Excerpts:
“….While collecting salaries of between £500,000 and £10 million, leading City bankers to destroy £7 of social value for every pound in value they generate.”
“…. For every £1 they are paid, childcare workers generate between £7 and £9.50 worth of benefits to society.”
Interesting read, and worth the read – even if only to provide interesting debates on these topics.
Wow.
How Serco runs the United Kingdom
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jul/29/serco-biggest-company-never-heard-of
An excellent Must Read now up on the Herald Online (Opinion) by Gerard McGhie
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10905042
Two current issues need a great deal more transparency – the GCSB legislation and the Trans- Pacific Partnership negotiations, writes Gerald McGhie.
[ From an earlier Herald articile : “Gerald McGhie is a former career diplomat who served as ambassador to Moscow and Seoul, High Commissioner to Port Moresby and Commissioner in Hong Kong. Now retired, he is a past director of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs and was chairman of the New Zealand chapter of Transparency International.”
Bomber on “Native Affairs”. Chur Bomber, an excellent spokesperson for the left.(we all have some shortcomings).
+1 RT, got the message across loud and clear without wasting words, UP’s to Bomber it’s nice to know that i aint alone out here…
So – why has ‘Bomber’ banned me from posting comments on his ‘Daily Blog’?
Try asking him and see what he says?
Penny Bright
Penny, i detect from the double post a level of anger, so much so that you have been unable to delete one of them,
Your question is self evident, coz it’s His blog and he can, just as in the final analysis LPrent can give someone a spanking here at the Standard for behavior one day and ignore the same behavior from another the next,
Bomber probably got sick of some of your more Loooooong efforts at posting a comment, i quite often do here on the Standard and simply skim such efforts as i scroll my way down the page…
Question Time today – should be interesting after the two week break and what has happened in that time.
Shearer has his usual – twice (1 and 11) and Peters also has one at Q6. Norman is still on the “Dunne” case(Q2), and Parker is on ‘house price’ duty (Q4). Hipkins is going to give us another’Minister of Education’ moment; and Eugenie Sage is on water safety/quality.
The rest are Nat Patsy questions.
Questions to Ministers
1.DAVID SHEARER to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his statements?
2.Dr RUSSEL NORMAN to the Prime Minister: Did his Chief of Staff, Wayne Eagleson, advise Parliamentary Service that United Future Leader Hon Peter Dunne had agreed to cooperate with the Henry inquiry and had consented to releasing his electronic phone logs; if so, why?
4.Hon DAVID PARKER to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement that “High house prices matter because many New Zealanders spend a large portion of their incomes on housing and that has helped fuel household debt and contribute to damaging imbalances in the economy”?
6.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his statements?
7.EUGENIE SAGE to the Minister for the Environment: What percentage of sites identified as a river in the Suitability for Swimming indicator report released yesterday were categorised as “Very Good” or “Good” and therefore were safe for swimming?
9.CHRIS HIPKINS to the Minister of Education: Does she agree with the Minister of Finance that “The Government is focusing on ensuring that every teacher put in front of our children is competent”?
11.DAVID SHEARER to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his statements?
?
Pretty hard hitting stuff all round, but especially from Shearer.
Why is it that the Greens, with far less parliamentary experience, almost always seem to do far better in parliament? Are Labour actually trying?
I just despair, MO.
For me, NRT put it quite succinctly in this post http://www.norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/oh-ffs.html
By bringing up their housing policy, all Shearer and Parker did is open themselves up to Key etc making disparaging remarks, as nice soundbites for the MSM Fran Mold may be back in the fold, but there was so much more they could have been winning hits on but …………………
I dunno about that. Do you stand by all your statements?
Alan Ray designer of CTV building has taken legal action to stop surveillance of his professional background. Ask the GCSB they’ll know. What a cheek. Its wonderful how these bare-faced scammers as he was, though within the law, can evade taking responsibility.
I remember that he was known for designing buildings so they just achieved building requirements, therefore being efficient no doubt (utilizing a particular commodity or product with the least waste of resources or effort) which is usually judged in NZ as being cheapest.
Joelle Dally wrote an article for stuff in which his name is given as Alan Ray. Other sources spell his name as Alan Reay. Poor journalism on someone’s part.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/7217699/Engineer-re-lives-inspection-of-CTV-over-and-over
http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/everything-is-fixed-says-key/
ICC says they should open the Cricket World Cup at a ground that doesn’t exist yet and is mired in controversy.
seems lgit
http://rebuildingchristchurch.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/the-icc-bowls-an-underarm-at-the-people-of-christchurch/
Olympic stadiums don’t exist when a city is to host a future olympics either. Yet it all works out in the end.
I’m sure they’ll have deadlines by which time if sufficient progress isn’t made, the match will be moved elsewhere.
“Olympic stadiums don’t exist when a city is to host a future olympics either. Yet it all works out in the end.”
Massive public debt, under used and under maintained facilities, hundreds of millions of tax payer provided corporate subsidies, etc.
Yeah, sure they do but usually the city hasn’t got another ten years or so of recovering from massive earthquake damage to do as well.
We just have to hope that the Black Caps dont get bowled out for -57..
A very engaging NZ expert spoke on Radionz this morning. He is into DNA sequencing and tracing evolution through tests that can be done. Very interesting. Says NZ is very important and that we and the Galpagos Islands are important sites in the world. Though he can’t get funding in NZ and we don’t seem enough about our environmental history and present situation to support needed study. So he’s working in Australia. He says that the kiwi is originally Australian!!
Dna sequencing expert interesting insightful
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
Tuesday 30/7/13
Feature Guest – Professor Alan Cooper (27′ 54″ )
10:07 Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of
Adelaide. Alan’s a former Wellingtonian who is leading groundbreaking research which uses ancient DNA to record and study evolutionary processes in real time, especially those associated with environmental change.
He says that many clever talented people come from NZ but can’t get work or funding. And I started thinking yes, we came, we saw, we conquered the land and over-ran Maori and have settled into taking what we wanted that we could sell. We are pragmatic, we are ‘practical’, we have ‘common sense’.
We don’t have a real love for our country or each other in society or it would pervade government as well. We are happy if we can get lots of money together, live in a gated community and rumble about the lazy b..s unemployed and the over-fertile women looking to the government to carry their responsibilities.
The country was developed as a land speculation scam where people either came out of desperation from a Britain in recession, enticed here with extravagant promises and unreal scenarios of being in the tropics of the South Pacific, or sold land that hadn’t even been made available by Maori, or if it had, had not been formalised and paid for.
And we were unable to find a working system between landowning farmers, business and unions just as we were reaching a more advanced state of development. Which had largely been achieved through the experience overseas from WW2 and the more sophisticated refugees and new wave of immigrants after the war. Then came defensive reaction to Britain joining the EU and fear that we would be locked out of replacement markets for our primary produce. So we dropped all our protections to show our sincerity and determination to have free borders and dropped the country in a huge cow pat.
Along came neo liberalism, the right wing jumped right in and are prepared to go to jackboot stage as they seek to mould a country to their own personal wishes and interests. Now we have dropped our progressive tax system and brought in high GST that impacts on nearly all financial transactions, and apart from the most wealthy, the middle class are squeezed and the poorer get the toothpaste tube when it is almost flat.
And no hope for better economic management from either major political party which would return us to an enterprising nation having employment for us all which would automatically produce better conditions – that is the final nail in the coffin.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10905495
Andrea Vance’s phone records were given by Datacom to Henry inquiry without request and Henry sent them back !!! carter apologises … question time in the house in 20 mins shd be fun !!
there is a fault in the House system .. no volume being broadcast … not questions time yet as offering congrats to baby george in UK …
Do you know what you are fighting for?
A new age friend of mine (yeah, I know), made the statement recently that the problem with protesting against something is that it is inherently negative and doesn’t say what one actually wants. I generally find these kinds of statements to be idiotic and existing in a vaccum that is disconnected from political reality, but I do take the point that being anti- something without being pro- something can be a problem sometimes (depending on context). On the other hand, sometimes you just have to stand up and say fuck off.
I was thinking about it more today and realised that most activists I know and follow do seem to know what they want as much as what they trying to stop. And the more I think about it the more I am struggling to see protests that have been important to me where we were fighting against something without there being a clear sense of fighting for something as well.
So I thought I would ask. When you are protesting something are you thinking about what you want as much as what you don’t want? Am particularly interested in how activists have seen this over time as specific issues have been addressed and then things have moved on.
Any examples of purely ‘anti’ protests?
I’d also like to know to what extent the whole negative/positive thing gets discussed as strategy in activist circles. Is the whole anti/pro dichotomy a complete nonsense?
Weka, I think it entirely depends on what the situation is, and that there doesn’t necessarily need to be a flip side, what one desires, as an alternative, to what one doesn’t desire. You talk about a dichotomy and as humans I wonder if we often fall into the trap of dichotomous thinking. If you don’t want this then you must want that, kind of thinking.
Why must we justify our objection to something by introducing a nice and positive counter solution to make others feel better about what we do? (I’m thinking of your new age friend here) Sometimes the only thing that needs to be said is “No”. Of course we always need to fully understand why we fight for a certain outcome otherwise it is a meaningless effort.. I’d be surprised that anyone wouldn’t have a full grasp of the holistic value of what they are objecting to as they are marching along and chanting. But then again I have met serial protesters while out a protest. I was speaking with another woman a couple of years ago who said she hadn’t seen me out before. I replied, that I can’t get to everything and like to save my energy for a real and focused fight. We also have differing empathies and allegiances. I wondered if this person was more like a rent-a-crowd stand in, “what ever’s going, I’m in” kind of thing. Maybe this is an example of being purely “anti” without giving much thought to why, and what is beyond. I believe this example is an exception and most folks out protesting have a firmer grasp of their issue than this.
During some protests the “positive” speaks for itself alongside the “negative” and are interwoven. Oppose the GCSB bill?/ (Negative) You want to retain your most basic right to privacy. (Positive) Look at all the placards in the photo’s online. Those two themes appeared equally in the protesters forms of expression.
Can’t speak for strategy discussion in activists group,(in recent years at least) just my observations. As it is I am unavoidably surrounded by folks not of my ilk, right wingers, non voters and the odd new ager and the odd ultra conservative religious person. I find they will always make the same kind of statement as your friend. I agree that they “exist in a vacuum that is disconnected from political reality” . I find these kinds of statements infuriating for many reasons but the main one is that because this ignorance and judgement about protesting means for they are enabling the “enemy” for want of a better word. Inaction of the masses leads to the loss of democracy. So you know what I reckon, keep doing what you do and don’t be sidetracked by those who would make believe you’re “negative and therefore that’s a problem” because you make a stand.
I was anti-tour and pro-equality, I was anti-foreshore and seabed legislation and pro-Māori rights, I am anti-exploitation and pro-environment. I don’t think the anti bit undermines the pro bit, they both co-exist. They have a relationship and are both entwined and you can’t have one without the other. In other words being anti-something is not possible without being pro-something even if at the time we don’t express it as such or aren’t even conscious of it. For me it is part of the fabric of existence and the dichotomies are inherent within the system, and manifested as a human attribute much like the almost automatic ability to catagorise or anthropomorphise what we experience around us.
Anti-anti democracy – and ‘everything’ that flows from anti democratic tendencies in society. And as two negatives make a positive 🙂
Less trite answer? I think if some future vision isn’t borne in mind and modes of organising built around values of that future vision (eg, always pushing more democratic means of organising while resisting authoritarian habits), then protest becomes (sometimes) winning battles against the backdrop of a war that will inevitability be lost.
GOT SOME BIG BITES ON KIWIBLOG OVER THIS POST!!
(Over 21 ‘dislikes’ – so must have jammed a few buttons on full! 🙂
MEDIA ALERT: Auckland Mayoral candidate Penny Bright:
“Will National Party MP Nikki Kaye do the right thing and vote against the GCSB Bill?
“Over 500 signatures have been collected, in Auckland Central, for a petition to National MP for Auckland Central Nikki Kaye, which says:
“The will of the people is the basis of the authority of Government.”
We, the undersigned, call upon YOU, as an MP, to defend the lawful human rights of New Zealanders to privacy, freedom of association and freedom of expression – that is – to oppose arbitrary search and surveillance by the State over citizens.
If YOU, as an MP, vote for this GCSB Bill, which will allow widespread spying on New Zealanders, we hereby PLEDGE to campaign against your re-election in 2014, and to encourage our families, neighbours and workmates to do the same. ”
“These petitions are now with the overnight courier, destined for Parliament, and should arrive in time for the National caucus meeting, which, as I understand it, should be meeting at 10am, Tuesday 30 July 2013.”
“If there is ONE thing that politicians understand – it is VOTES!
My very strong recommendation is that as many people as possible, email all National MPs, Peter Dunne (now ‘Independent’), and the DEFENDANT – ACT Party Leader and MP for Epsom, John Banks, who supported the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill, at it’s first reading, and urge them NOT to support this Bill, ” says Auckland Mayoral candidate Penny Bright.
WHO VOTED FOR THE BILL AT IT’S FIRST READING:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/debates/debates/50HansD_20130508_00000024/government-communications-security-bureau-and-related-legislation
A party vote was called for on the question, That the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill be reported back to the House by 26 July 2013, and that the Intelligence and Security Committee have authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting (except during oral questions), during an evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House, and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House, despite Standing Orders 188 and 191(1)(b) and (c).
Ayes 61 New Zealand National 59; ACT New Zealand 1; United Future 1.
Noes 57 New Zealand Labour 33; Green Party 13; New Zealand First 7; Maori Party 3; Independent: Horan.
Motion agreed to.
____________________________________________________________
CONTACT DETAILS for current NZ MPs:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/mpp/mps/current/
_____________________________________________________
THE MESSAGE MPS CANNOT IGNORE:
“The will of the people is the basis of the authority of Government.”
I call upon YOU, as an MP, to defend the lawful human rights of New Zealanders to privacy, freedom of association and freedom of expression – that is – to oppose arbitrary search and surveillance by the State over citizens.
If YOU, as an MP, vote for this GCSB Bill, which will allow widespread spying on New Zealanders, I hereby PLEDGE to campaign against your re-election in 2014, and to encourage my family, neighbours and workmates to do the same. ”
http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption / anti-privatisation’ campaigner
2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate
+1
An important documentary by Selwyn Manning, to be aired on Face (Sky & analogue TV) on Monday night (5 Aug 8pm)
It is the result of investigations about the Ahmed Zaoui case, and the background we have never been told. It apparently raises significant questions about our intelligence services:
The frequency of the double saved comments is increasing damnit. I actually have a fix for it (full MD5 to replace the existing check, increased size of the recent comment queue, an increased timeout, and flushing to auto-mod if it times out).
BUT I coded it into a plugin designed for wordpress 3.6 – which last time I looked had just made it to RC2….. Ummm. wait I think..
BTW: If anyone is interested. The timeline of revisions is really intense at present. But they’re starting to close more tickets.
http://wordpress.org/news/2013/07/wordpress-3-6-release-candidate-2/
Oops. The momentary outage was my doing a apt-get upgrade rather than a apt-get update….. php upgrade meant the site was off for a minute.
I thought you’d been cyber-bombed by the key gestapo
Ok stopped fiddling. Showing a 12% increase in performance overall.
But I’m getting not enough on the post with 700 comments damnit..
Can’t find any comment on it above……………Geoffrey Palmer on Campbell Live. A powerful statement. Had “Churchillian” flashing across my head a coupla times. Which surprised me.
So, so significant. He gave a clear, stern admonishment to New Zealand that democracy and our rights are under threat.
Let’s see the ShonKey Python response – the level of response will say SO much.
In a Vaudeville moment I see ShonKeyPython giving Jamie-Lee Ross his next gig ???
Yes. I watched Palmer on Campbell Live. He was very good. Very clear. Good journos everywhere would’ve been nodding their heads in agreement. So would most of the viewers I expect.
Despite his impressive calibre, he just wasn’t the right fit as a Labour Leader though 😉
His awkward dancing at a Pacific Islands forum did him in. Times have changed. John Key’s awkward dancing just seems to generate smiles, and even his planking probably increased his poll support. 🙂
These things are clearly important to voters.
Anyone out there remember Equiticorp?
Some of us have worthless share certificates to remind us.
It begs the question how this individual has been allowed to get near the finance markets since…
Allan Hawkins was apparently sentenced for six (6) years for 7 charges of fraud and conspiracy in 1993.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10905449
Or is this just par for the course behaviour of our captains of industry?
OK, I suppose fraud can be considered an “industry” nowadays.
That’s an example of what I complained of a day or so ago – (I was referring then to ShonKey Python and the MSM, especially television) – they’re fucking around with the nation’s psyche, our democracy, our values.
Sadly that sort of stuff is business as usual in the public sense now. Our morals have been deadened.
That would be par for the course.
Of course, he supposed to have paid his debt to society and turned over a new leaf.
Clearly Hawkins needs to be denied access to any more leaves. I never thought we’d hear from him again in the business world.