If you are still needing a reason to vote Green, here is evidence of why we need to act on climate change urgently.
What do we want to leave for our children and grandchildren?
“Southern Alps snow, ice vanishing
Retreating glaciers and uncovered rocks evidence of swift change in climate with implications for sea level.
A third of the permanent snow and ice on the Southern Alps has vanished in less than four decades, according to an analysis of aerial surveys.
In an article published on Australian website The Conversation, three Kiwi researchers describe the story of the alps’ disappearing ice as very dramatic.
The analysis, by climate scientist Dr Jim Salinger, Otago University Professor Emeritus Blair Fitzharris and glaciologist Dr Trevor Chinn, follows on from a paper published by Dr Chinn last year documenting the retreat of our postcard glaciers.”
Compared with the now unstoppable collapse of the West Antartic Ice Sheet, the ice disappearing from the Southern Alps is piffling. And there is nothing the Greens can do about either even if they had a 100% majority in Parliament so you might as well vote National, grab your share of the money-go-round and party while you still can.
There are things that can be done to mitigate disasters.
For example I live in a coastal area and yet there are still people building substantial houses and businesses within metres of a coastline that has issues with eroding storm damage . People who invest their money into buildings and businesses on the coastline complain bitterly about RMA regulations yet are the first to go crying to Council to fix the problem when a storm occurs. This type of behaviour costs Councils a lot of time and money and I repeat: the people conducting themselves in such ways are the same people who are not prepared to create distance between the shoreline and their buildings from the outset. It is bloody ridiculous.
“There are things that can be done to mitigate disasters.” – Blue leopard.
Go tell it to the President.
US President B. M. Obama, 14/6/2014
“[S]ince this is a very educated group, you already know the science. Burning fossil fuels release carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide traps heat. Levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are higher than they’ve been in 800,000 years. …
We know the trends. The 18 warmest years on record have all happened since you graduates were born. We know what we see with our own eyes. Out West, firefighters brave longer, harsher wildfire seasons; states have to budget for that. Mountain towns worry about what smaller snowpacks mean for tourism. Farmers and families at the bottom worry about what it will mean for their water. In cities like Norfolk and Miami, streets now flood frequently at high tide. Shrinking icecaps have National Geographic making the biggest change in its atlas since the Soviet Union broke apart.
So the question is not whether we need to act. The overwhelming judgment of science, accumulated and measured and reviewed over decades, has put that question to rest. The question is whether we have the will to act before it’s too late. For if we fail to protect the world we leave not just to my children, but to your children and your children’s children, we will fail one of our primary reasons for being on this world in the first place."
“As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to continue to expand safe and responsible domestic energy production, BOEM…today announced that the bureau will offer more than 21 million acres offshore Texas for oil and gas exploration and development in a lease sale that will include all available unleased areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area.”
You shouldn’t solely base your views on what America is doing. They are screwed politically just now.
We are a much smaller country with a different political system (namely our voting system). We have more opportunity to get a shift happening. The more countries, such as ourselves, that take rational stances toward the problem – the more pressure there will be on America and other more captured countries to make a shift.
“The more countries, such as ourselves, that take rational stances toward the problem – the more pressure there will be on America and other more captured countries to make a shift.”
Er, yeah. Like Europe’s Green powerhouse Germany, now importing coal from the USA to burn for power generation so it can abandon nice ‘clean’ nuclear.
But my original point in response to the thread starter was that voting Green in New Zealand isn’t going to make any difference to the loss of snow and ice on the Southern Alps as that problem doesn’t originate in New Zealand.
“The more countries, such as ourselves, that take rational stances toward the problem – the more pressure there will be on America and other more captured countries to make a shift.”
And exactly how many countries are taking that rational stance? China, India, the EU, Australia.
The hot air emanating from politicians about tackling Global Warming is just adding to the problem.
Great article you linked to there. It was really informative, thanks.
Yes your original point was that voting Greens wasn’t going to make any difference to the snow and ice loss on the Southern Alps and I responded by saying that having a Greener approach works on many different levels for example as it stands the RMA, which has really good guidelines for mitigating disaster, is being undermined by our current government. This means that people are less likely to be personally affected by the very real issues that are likely to arise in the not so distant future due to climate and pollution issues. Their behaviour and attitudes, therefore, don’t change and this not only means any sea-level rise will cause more disruption than it needs to, it also lowers peoples’ awareness of the issue and drops any pressure for change on a larger scale.
I am not too informed about what countries are taking strong actions on the issue of climate change (hopefully someone who is will jump in … Jenny? I am vaguely aware of perhaps Scandinavian countries, maybe the Netherlands? doing well with greener technology) – it is a pity to hear that about Germany re coal – however that article does indicate that they haven’t given up and perhaps see the use of coal as a way of avoiding nuclear power while they certainly sound like they are investing a lot into finding alternatives. So it is not like they have given up on their aim.
When countries become successful with Greener technologies – they are bound to catch on. We have an opportunity to be part of that process. Moreso than larger countries.
One thing for sure – simply following those countries that are captured by big money and are accordingly not making sincere efforts in that regard certainly won’t address the issue. Nor will defeatism.
Your logic is flawed Tom, if you really believe nothing can be done – Then you should have not commented here, and should be sniffing coke off Keys ass.
I don’t believe nothing CAN be done. I strongly suspect nothing WILL be done, until it is far too late to prevent disaster. After all, we are already locked in to a 2 – 5’c temperature rise and a minimum 15ft sea-level rise and what has actually been done to ameliorate worse?.
However I’m sorry my expressed opinion disturbed the harminious circle-wank you clearly come here for and won’t waste my time putting up alternative views that might frighten the horses, as I don’t come to The Standard to be insulted.
There are others that express similar concerns on the Standard that you have, Tom – I hope you don’t get completely put off commenting here. I enjoy a variety of opinions as I am sure others do too.
I don’t think that staying down at 2C by the end of the century has about as much hope of happening as a icicle has of surviving the night in hell. Pretty much on track for about 4C or higher and I’d be assuming something closer to 15 metres sea level rise than 5 metres after the WAIS starts getting undercut and lubricated. I suspect from the previous deglaciation evidence, that once it starts, it is very fast emptying the basin area of ice and a bit slower after that.
But those are pretty minor provided you don’t live in the tropics, on an atoll or in a coastal plain like Bangladesh. They take time enough for people to adapt.
It is the rapid weather pattern shifts that are going to be much more problematic. Those will impact directly on to food production. They will do so much earlier than sea level rises or heat prostration. Most people fail to understand exactly how reliant we as a civilization are on the settled weather of the current interglacial in our farming practices.
I dont normally warm to much to Latta, but I thought that program last night was excellant if you still vote National after watching this program you have to be a loaf short of a picnic.
I am not usually a fan of Nigel Latta either but this time he made a great job of presenting the realities of the huge difference between the haves and the havenots. Since Key English are in denial about this, no doubt they will be very angry little boys. TVNZ please explain! http://tvnz.co.nz/nigel_latta/video
I was impressed with Nigel Latta’s show – very good indeed. I also share others’ misgivings of Mr Latta – but this show is really something else. Exciting to witness something so informative on TV.
Just saw this and although so, so, many worthy topics of discussion it is imo important and shocking
Director Ridley Scott’s new biblical blockbuster, Exodus: Gods and Kings, has come under fire for “whitewashing” African history, casting four white leads to tell a story of Israelites and Egyptians.
I am SICK of politicians claiming we should treat everyone the same “under the law” and that is why Maori shouldn’t get Maori seats of whatever. The TREATY of Waitangi is (arguably I know) a legal document. It is “under the law”
A partnership agreement made when Maori were 99% of the population and the british 1%. NOW that our dominance is assured, it’s a piece of law, an agreement that group, and others don’t want any more.
Many of us white folk seem to choose to forget the incredible generosity of the Maori folk back in 1840. Im not to sure that it was 99/1 but there were certainly way more Maori being generous than there were English receiving it at the time.
No doubt, there was an area of misunderstanding between the parties, as to what the other interpreted it to mean (each side interpreting it by their own culture) but that did not excuse the wrongs that were subsequently done to the Maori people.
When you do a wrong, you need to put it right. Hence the Waitangi Tribunal.
contra proferentum my friend. its all allowed for under the law.
Contra proferentem (Latin: “against [the] offeror”),[1] also known as “interpretation against the draftsman”, is a doctrine of contractual interpretation providing that, where a promise, agreement or term is ambiguous, the preferred meaning should be the one that works against the interests of the party who provided the wording.[2] The doctrine is often applied to situations involving standardized contracts or where the parties are of unequal bargaining power, but is applicable to other cases.[3] However, the doctrine is not directly applicable to situations where the language at issue is mandated by law, as is often the case with insurance contracts and bills of lading.[4] wiki
+11111 Tracey – I was not happy when Dame Susan Devoy was appointed Race Relations Commissioner. She did say though that she had a bit of catching up/reading to do about what had gone before, but she certainly has ripped into the ACT leader’s comments and rightly so.http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11301500
Goodness me, first Nigel Latta and now Dame Susan – whoever next.
I imagineshe has learned stuff, like facts, since taking up the position. Previously she, like others only tuned into shallow rhetoric and thought it was “true”
You’ll have to point out to me in the Treaty where is says anything about Maori seats. The Maori Representation Act 1867 was a bribe to Crown loyalists during the land wars and now seem only to exist to prop up National and maybe get Kim Dotcom influence in Parliament.
Oh I do like listening to jamie Whyte. He is so articulate and you always know what he stands for. The people of Epsom must be jumping up and down with joy at having him represent them in parliament. /sarc.
The people of Epsom must be saying oh fuuuucccckkkkkkk. Oh why, do we have these fools foisted on us by TricKey.
Whtye is on the ACT list, and he will get into parliament if any red buttons are found and pushed.
Unfortunately even the richest people are seeing that National no longer is representing their interests. Wealth can be undermined, by boardrooms, by market failures but also by governments undermine the society that underwrites the whole economy.
Why would a wealthy person want to support others to get wealthy, cheat on their taxes, get incentives than undermine their consumers buying power, etc, etc. Its just dumb to want tax cuts, its socialism for the rich, an easy rich for those who are supposed to make their wealth by hard work, or harder risk taking.
National is corrupted by its neo-liberal ideological heart. I still can’t find an example of this high minimum wages causes job loses ideal, the closest I can find is a slave economy, where slave owners raise the amount of money they give the slaves. The slaved then buy themselves out of slavery and push up the unemployment numbers.
i have to wonder then Gosman why the pathetic racially divisive idiot is then given airtime anywhere on the TeeVee or my wireless,
The 7 Maori electorates, in my opinion, being a physical manifestation of Tinorangatiratanga, would suggest that until such time as Maori enrolled to vote in such electorates agree to not have them they will be a major feature of our political landscape…
just like they understand the rule of law, contract law and property rights 🙂
for a party that is chock full of crims, doesnt want to honour legal contracts and wants to remove property rights from a group of people, they have some funny policies
ACT’s Whyte is in some ways correct, Maori do have a legal privilege here in Aotearoa/New Zealand,
Its called the Treaty of Waitangi and the only racial problem ever created from the existence of this legal privilege was in fact the ignoring of its provisions once the colonials got the upper hand militarily over the tribal Maori nations…
Interesting that the Treaty is considered a “race” based document. It is between the chiefs and tribes of NZ and the Crown. The former are the owners of property and property rights allowing usage over the same. It just so happens that these “owners” and “sellers” happened to be Maori, the “buyers” non Maori. Under British law we are talking property rights that are inherited by through genealogical linkage. Is that “race” based?
Watch out. Auckland home owners, surely, could argue that they have special treasure in the liveability of Auckland and so stop the councils from raising the building heights.
There was a lilt in his voice, an inflection that screamed out loud and clear his class position: there was an assumed authority that underlined the former. In short a privileged prat. He sounded like Don Brash Mark 2.
His logic on race was quite precise: which all goes to prove that a logical argument can be made for anything in isolation. That in a nutshell is where ACT are, ideologically logical in isolation of any facts or realities that challenge their dogma.
I hope someone takes the time soon, live, to destroy Unclecousin’s facile conceit that his sophistry qualifies as philosophy, while he splutters and rages like the lying entitled wretch he is.
How fascinating. You appear to regard people with Don Brash’s “class position” as being privileged prats.
Presumably you regard David Cunliffe as being a “privileged prat” also. After all Don’s father was a Presbyterian Minister and David’s an Anglican one. Both apparently favoured the Labour Party. Hard to see any difference really.
One would have to say they come from the same class, wouldn’t one?
@ alwyn 3.10
How fascinating. That you have not noticed that people from the same class can behave in a variety of ways. There is a general behaviour that people adopt within a class system, with extremes at the fringes. So David Cunliffe can be different from Don Brash on that basis.
Then within each church referred to there are differing attitudes to achieving righteousness. If Don’s parents were Calvinists and David’s were from the liberal side of the Anglican church they would be quite different in their outlooks, though they would be aware of the attitudes likely coming from those positions. The Anglicans have a broad church – the Presbyterians inclined to be more demanding to be worthy of heaven.
The whole core of the rich prick class brought in by Thatcher, was of a socialist party for the rich, and privatizism for the everyone else. They’re the rich so they can cheat on their taxes, and force our taxes up while screaming how we aren’t paying enough.
ACT is not a libertarian party. Its a socialist elite party. Nearest thing a western country comes to a communist politburo. Always dictating how others aren’t shaping up.
Can you perhaps tell me how the class they come from is different?
Just what class do you think each one was born into if it isn’t the same one?
Claiming say that the Presbyterian church is a higher class than the Anglican which in turn is higher than The Salvation Army which is higher than the Baptist doesn’t really cut it.
Brash became a commercial – a blind servant of mammon – 2nd class. Cunliffe seems to subscribe to a notion of public service that resembles to some degree the synthetic ideals of Hutcheson. As an accountant Brash may have had some virtue, as a statesman he had none. You might also consider Brash’s degree (Canterbury?) vs Cunliffe’s (Harvard?).
I suppose I could consider Don Brash’s degrees, since you have no idea.
Canterbury BA and MA in Economics. That’s economics, not accounting.
ANU PhD. That is a more highly rated University than any of the NZ ones.
Cunliffe has one economics qualification I suppose. A diploma from Massey.
Doesn’t really seem much does it?
Did Brash learn his racism at ANU? The university at which someone gets their qualifications has very little to do with how well they do in their chosen career. I’ve seen many examples of this.
But I have, greywarbler, I have. It was ennui who appears to regard peoples behaviour as being due to the class into which they were born. If you are born in one class he seems to think your behaviour is pre-ordained.
I think that Don and Dave were born into a very similar class background. It didn’t really matter though. Whatever class Don came from I think he would always have been successful and would have contributed greatly to New Zealand, particularly as he did from his time as Reserve Bank Governor. David Cunliffe on the other hand was always going to be a prat.
I will take your word for the religious attitudes of the various churches. I regard all those who profess to believe in a god as being idiots. You are allowed to take the easy way out and say, as Helen Clark did, that you are an agnostic, or come out and say you are an atheist. Anything else is for people who believe in fairies.
Greywarbler – in defence of some Presbyterian friends I have, it is also a fairly broad church. Standard Calvinism is pretty rigid stuff, but my friends (one a reverend) have been in favour of “worldly” things like gay marriage and marijuana legalisation for years. My impression was that it was broader than the Anglicans, with some of the more traditional Anglicans being able to swap easily to Catholicism.
@ Murray Olsen 1.43
Trying to classify religions as I did was a mistake. I remember now one interesting book by I think, a chap Greenwood, which referred to the high Anglican church and its rites being so near Catholicism, setting its style apart from the practice of the major part of the church. Actually there are some quite good crime stories that weave religious practices and styles in and it is a fascinating theme within the genre.
And alwyn I think you are looking down on the goings on of pollies, while I am the reverse, looking up. And I see Don Brash as a prat who probably got too much praise at school for being precise and clever while never learnign much about actual human behaviour, and David Cunliffe as being successful, highly trained, experienced and yet human-oriented, less statistical and theory biased and more ground-based than Brash.
I don’t like fervent idealists and theory based, utopian followers whether its in economic theory squeezing life to comply, or socially based humanitarian ones who announce the world belongs to the people in fervent tones, or knock-it-all-down and rebuild fresh and new stirrers, or religious ones whose hymn is I Did it my Way, and there is no other, and anyway it is the next life that counts. A pox on all their houses.
John Key says that water quality is not that bad, all it means is that we can’t swim in some rivers on some days.
Show us the money John. It’s your policy, so you should understand the costs by now. Tell us which rivers and which days. Or is it more like which catchments and which months or seasons?
Paul Fish & Game are so unimpressed that they have (collectively as a Council that is) called for Nick Smith’s resignation – the resignation of their very own Minister.
And these are sensible calm rational people (the f&g folk that is, not smith of course)
Fantastic cartoon by Murdoch in the Press this morning showing Nick Smith at a restaurant refusing a glass of water “strained lovingly through cows” while he eats fish.
Someone described this as not the “rock star economy” but the “pollution economy”, which is most apt. John Key’s pollution economy.
Given the newspaper rage aimed at Mr Cunliffe about the Liu affair, does it seem strange that newspapers seem to have almost avoided the clean water/Smith issue?
From my wireless, RadioNZ National, 550+ pack out the hall at the Rotorua InternetMana roadshow, the sniff of 5% of the vote for InternetMana i had last week just got as pungent as that from one of the many mud-pools up there in Waiariki,
Those numbers say to me Annette Sykes will be the new Member of Parliament for that electorate, the tangi for the Maori Party begins….
“someone” should not have put Curtis in the media mix till he had at least fronted the event. Always easier to let a cat out of the bag than add one.
I don’t know the inside story here yet, but do know that there are a number of whanau still split along Mana/Māori Party lines that take it seriously which is why Hone was still reaching out for some kind of rapprochement last year.
Curtis is just doing a nice turn of supporting his bollocks with a fence rail.
And now for the next act… surprise surprise folks … (drum roll) … bring you hands together for Simon Bridges…… (applause) … our latest LIAR from John Key’s government.
Yesterday Bridges admitted spending $240,000 on oil execs in NZ for the rugby world cup
The result?… is this … “Only one of those companies had so far been granted a petroleum exploration permit but had committed to spending almost $20 million here,”
BUT folks here is the clanger, the lie, the deceit and the dishonesty that you have all been waiting for …… I give you again …. Siiiimmon Bridgeessssss…. (applause) …
“But Energy Minister Simon Bridges defended the spending: “the sums expended were very modest …. and has resulted in billions of dollars of international investment in New Zealand.”
…. ta daa
$20million the reality
$billions the liar claims.
Simon Bridges please take your place alongside all the other liars in your government….
(the audience is nearly all gone at this point …)
Yep, six oil companies, that’s a 40 grand piss up, accommodation, and, you can just about bet with certainty free tickets to the rugby for each of those oil companies, only one of which has taken up the right to explore here, all paid for by us the taxpayers,
i wonder if that was one executive per company that such largesse was bestowed upon by Slippery’s National Government, if so, the expense would suggest that they got flown around the country on one very long drunken tour of our rugby stadia,
Meanwhile, those of us living life within the small means brushed our way as crumbs off of the table got to watch ‘live’ from the big screens at the pub…
I’m pretty sure these three companies will make investment decisions on factors other than sychophantic governments. A nice presentation to the Boards would have done the trick if NZ had solid investment potential. I’ keen toknow whhether thre other three companies are established players or cowboy companies. Also if any of them operate here already, or have up sticks and left.
The oil and gas sector currently earns the Government about $800m in royalties and taxes each year which are used to fund roads, schools and hospitals.
Yes, let’s point out what taxes are for, while somehow implying that if not for oil exploration we’d not have roads, schools and hospitals.
Yes clever clogs, well aware of the place of the mining and oil sector in NZ …. but you missed the deception. The point of the comment was not the place of oil and mining, it was the dishonesty of Simon Bridges…. can you see it here?
“the sums expended were very modest …. and has resulted in billions of dollars of international investment “
i was just about to indulge in my favorite breakfast when i read that, 2 toasts, i each with a swipe of marmite and peanut butter, both then lashed with guacamole,
Think i might wait for your image of Banks indulging in His dogs dinner to fade…
That’s my standard munch at breakfast Chooky, laugh, six months ago i had never even made guacamole now its become a staple replacing butter or margarine which are both off the menu here,(and strangely enough not missed at all),
i have just moved to supplying myself with milk for $1.20 a liter via buying in the skim milk powder and purchasing a couple of liter bottles with screw top lids which resemble the milk bottles of my hugely misspent youth,(takes all of five minutes to mix, and is best accomplished by mixing half the liter and then leaving overnight for the froth from the shaking to dissipate),
Soy milk which tastes yummy has been put through my testing regime and found wanting in a number of areas including cost,(anyone thinking of shifting to obtaining their milk via powder should buy the kilo pack as there is no savings involved from buying the smaller packages)…
Well you could put your sign out as a local breakfast cafe as far as i am concerned! …breakfast is the meal of the day i enjoy most i think ( probably because i havent eaten for a while….food tastes so much better on an empty stomach)
Lolz, i have a breakfast menu, including a couple of slices of one of the poor little piggies rear end that is the ultimate in Delish, works as dinner as well…
…you won’t be arguing with Phillip over breakfast then!
..once when I was in an isolated fish and chip shop with my 8 year old son a Mongrel Mob looking guy walked in and my 8 year old red head said “Mum, what do people taste like?”….the Mongrel Mob guy looked interested ….I said “I dont know but your sister would!”…there was the teenage daughter cool as a cucumber …she would have scared any Mongrel Mob!…the guy smiled ever so slightly…I said “I have heard people taste a bit like bacon that is why they were called ‘long pig’ ”
Maybe some NACTS will come knocking at your door and you could have them in for breakfast
Just watched BamBam on the Whitehouse Lawn “givin them damned godless Ruskies” a tongue lashing. Absolute pity about the whole thing was that nothing he said could be backed up by solid evidence, it was all be implication. What the limp rag Uncle Tom was announcing was more sanctions against Russia on behalf of US corporate energy and agricultural corporates. The Russians of course are better placed because they don’t have to rely upon “faith” in the Greenback..they have the real oil and gas that Europe so desperately needs. Merkel wont risk German wealth just to help out a US oil company that cant supply her industry.
Somehow I think the whole issue is going to blow up in our faces with much higher oil prices: the timing is such a pit because along with the drop in dairy receipts, pressure on petrol prices might just have given Key and his cronies a massive electoral headache.
To say that Obama doesnt care is pretty harsh. To say that on the important stuff, he doesnt actually have much of a say, would be far more accurate.
The things he did push, like ObamaCare (he promised “You can keep your existing plan”) may or may not have been a good policy move, but its upsetting a bunch of his middle income voters who already had an existing plan and couldnt keep it, despite the promise.
Those who got cover for the first time, were overwhelmingly likely to support the Democratic nominee in any case.
Laila Harre is standing in Helensville for the Internet/Mana Party.
Hopefully, this will encourage Prime Minister John Key to participate in Helensville electorate candidate debates.
I look forward to voters who support candidates who are members of political parties, giving them their PARTY vote, and giving me their ELECTORATE vote as the (fiercely) Independent MP for Helensville.
So, Slippery the Prime Minister has spun the roulette wheel and bet the ‘House’ on Winston Peters, that’s some gamble from the money trader who in His former life always got to play the game with the deck having been previously stacked by the bigger money boys on the floors of the ‘trading house’ above,
There’s a huge prospect in play here where NZFirst and Colon’s Conservatives become entwined in a lose/lose battle for party vote %’s each chiseling not only votes from each other but crucially nibbling at the soft rump of the National Governments own party vote,
A minus for NZFirst in September will be the loss of support from those who in election 2011 voted for that party solely on the basis that Slippery the PM ruled Peters out of inclusion in a National coalition, and, in the chess game of MMP politics voted as a ‘check’, which incidently nearly became ‘check-mate’, to ensure National as all the media polls were suggesting at the time, could not ‘Govern alone’,
Unfortunately this ‘tactical vote’ which helped NZFirst re-enter the Parliament in 2011 cannot be measured, but, my opinion says, a 3% Conservative vote along with the loss of that 2011 ‘tactical vote’ will see NZFirst fall again, as the party did in 2008, agonizing short of the 5%,
If Anette Sykes wins Waiariki, and, last nights standing room only InternetMana meeting in that electorate has me giving Her a 70/30 advantage over the dying Maori Party’s Flavell there, then Nationals chances of forming a third term Government look even more remote,
Kick ACT from Epsom and/or Dunne from Ohariu and it becomes virtually impossible for the Tory’s to gain that third term,
The left? despite the media polls, looking good, by that i mean looking GOOD, Labour 33%, Greens 12%, InternetMana 5%, not too big an ask at all i would suggest….
i always seen you as confused Puckish, add to that conflicted and we await the addition of a few more words beginning with the consonant C, above four letters please, and we may have you described to a T as opposed to simply describing you in simpler form via C with few other letters added….
(Condensed springs to mind as an addition to confused/conflicted)…
In 2006 Weissglass was just as frank about Israel’s policy towards Gaza’s 1.8 million inhabitants: ‘The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.’ He was not speaking metaphorically: it later emerged that the Israeli defence ministry had conducted detailed research on how to translate his vision into reality, and arrived at a figure of 2279 calories per person per day – some 8 per cent less than a previous calculation because the research team had originally neglected to account for ‘culture and experience’ in determining nutritional ‘red lines’
The regularity of Israel’s perceived need to use force is illustrated by the notorious expression, “mowing the lawn,” that one of its military officers used to describe strategy toward Gaza. It is reminiscent of the advice that Thrasybulus gave Periander of Corinth, recounted in Herodotus. Walking through a field, Thrasybulus broke off the tallest ears of grain by way of showing Periander’s envoy the best way to rule violently. The envoy couldn’t figure out his meaning, but Periander, the prototype of the ancient tyrant, understood immediately on hearing the envoy’s report. The analogy showed that violence could not be a one-time affair. New stalks would grow up. It would remain necessary to keep lopping off the top ones—i.e. mowing the lawn.
Twelve days after the shoot-down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, your administration still has issued no coordinated intelligence assessment summarizing what evidence exists to determine who was responsible – much less to convincingly support repeated claims that the plane was downed by a Russian-supplied missile in the hands of Ukrainian separatists.
Your administration has not provided any satellite imagery showing that the separatists had such weaponry, and there are several other “dogs that have not barked.” Washington’s credibility, and your own, will continue to erode, should you be unwilling – or unable – to present more tangible evidence behind administration claims. In what follows, we put this in the perspective of former intelligence professionals with a cumulative total of 260 years in various parts of U.S. intelligence:
What the professional’s think of the ‘evidence’ against Russia can only be termed scathing. They’re particularly nasty in their condemnation of Senator Kerry.
I just read on another blog a post by someone complaining about Key’s WWI speech yesterday, and was pleased to see someone felt the same as I did. Other pollies spoke with emotion and as this person said, from the heart. But John Key read his speech without any emotion or emphasis. He looked bored and he sounded it and as if it was all just too tiring and bothersome. I felt it was insulting that he didn’t take the time to familiarize himself with the material someone else had written for him. I can only think the subject was just not important enough to him personally. Our veterans weren’t worth the bother of him learning his speech and speaking with the level of commitment the commemoration deserved. Why are so many blinded by this fake?
Don’t take it personally. He’s always like that. There is nothing warm or genuine about him, he’s just going through the motions. Enter room, shake hands with Important Person One, smile, shake hands with Important Person two, smile. Give canned speech written by someone else. Wait until applause dies down. Move away for media standup. Exit. Move on to next event.
As to why so many are blinded, there is a lot that power, money and superficial charm can convince people to overlook.
..the Israeli government has gone mad …it is hell of a PR for Israelis around the world …they are beginning to look more and more like the Nazi government…they will be called to account by history and future generations for crimes against humanity ….and the rest of the world had better not look on and do nothing about it!…because we also will be called to account!
Daniel Barenboim is one Israeli who has spoken out
I met Mirak Smisek several times ….a New Zealand potter of repute, an a opponent of the Nazis and a refugee from Nazi torn Europe …and he told me that it is art that will save us…it was art that gave him hope and art that helped him transcend the evil he had witnessed
Yep it really grates when the right of the party side with the Herald to tell us there is no bias to see and to move along when we spend so much time detailing the concerns. Their choice is a dead giveaway. If the Herald wanted a debate it would select a leftie not an apologist for the right.
I also wish Quin would get his stuff right. The comment about how Labour is only going for the missing million has been replied to on numerous occasions but he still trots out the wrong line …
Just remember that after the next election and you’re scrambling around for excuses as to why Labour did so badly you were told time and time again whats wrong with Labour
I’ll tell you what I have had a gut full of – people who are so lacking in respect that they think they can turn the Labour Party into a vehicle for whatever suits them. For God’s sake, this guy cites the opinion of Shane Jones, who has decamped to work for National. Having taken a glance at other headlines of Quin’s, I assume he is one of the eighties’ influx of aspiring “young men of the city” who sought a vehicle for themselves under Douglas’s wing. And Josie and her ilk appear to think the party exists to allow nice, talented people like themselves to retain a foothold among the political/media elite. To these people I say, read the party’s bloody principles, and try to refrain from dissembling to yourself as you do so! You would not become a priest because the Catholic church could do with more atheists. You would not join the Greens to contribute a much-needed voice in favour of fracking. Why do you think it is OK to do this kind of thing to Labour?
Labours a broad church so i’m guessing their views are valid otherwise why would you have the likes of Mallard, Cosgrove, Goff , King etc etc still hanging around
About six weeks before Helen Clark finally cemented her grip on NZ Labour – one which she maintains to this day, even in absentia – I had finally convinced Phil Goff to topple her.
Phil Quin was someone who tried to get rid of Helen Clark prior to her gaining the government for 9 years.
Perhaps that is why he is an ex Labour adviser?
Not someone’s advice who I would listen to.
It is about time those further right (centrists) created a new party. As it stands it appears that the ‘right-wing’ faction of Labour are pissing on our chances of a decent left-wing government gaining power. Those who are ‘centrists’ in the party need to realise that Labour have very much been presenting themselves to appeal to the centre whilst still attempting to appeal to those further left too. It is ultraistic to push Labour’s current stance any other way. I wish those right-wing /’centrist’ types connected to Labour would stop their squawking and get real.
[Additionally in his article Quin cited, amongst other things, the Dong Liu saga as ‘mismanaged’ by Labour – omitting to mention the story was fictitious and yet propagated by our media. There has been no apology for that nonsense. The problem there was Labour took the story seriously – how were they to know that the media would grab something so unsubstantiated and report it as fact? I think most people who followed that story were truly shocked by how lacking in facts that story was.]
Interesting BL. So according to Quin Helen’s reign and the fifth Labour Government was an abject disaster for the party and we should be led by Shane Jones, no doubt with Josie Pagani as deputy.
It is certainly looking like that although I think it is important to acknowledge the many Labourites who are loyal and are working diligently. Those loyal people need to speak firmly to the ones that are wrecking things for Labour and tell them in no uncertain terms how unacceptable their behaviour is.
i think Richard is flailing, sadly, in the wrong place at the wrong time, it really is too late in the piece for us to be attempting to exploit that which we see as not quite right in the policy arena,
The 3 years just passed were the times to be talking thus, with the campaign proper having overtaken such concerns the vote itself now becomes the imperative,
i like these numbers, for me they have a certain resonance, an inevitability if you will, Labour 33%, Greens 12%, InternetMana 5%, my little gaze into the crystal ball of the 2014 election…
A dreadful comment on Radionz this morning about the ballooning tragedy and the defects of the CAA. They knew lots about the guy, binge drinker, marijuana smoker, incidents. But they all know each other, and cosset each other apparently. The CAA put hot air balloons low on the dangerous list! They are not only not doing their job properly, they are under their own control and espouse apparently, that stupid, irresponsible free market crap about businesses should control and regulate themselves.
And they are one of these pseudo-government entities that are free to operate as they wish without control, oversight or discipline from government.
It is time that we demanded a complete overhaul and sacking of these pompous, diseased shits. The disease of arrogant position, so that they feel no shame when accidents occur, just throwing excuses, statistics and technical jargon in everyone’s eyes when actually the source of the fault is quite obvious to the naive, unpropagandised enquirer. And a Royal Commission to establish the fault properly. These so and so’s in CAA should be jailed and fined as well. The interview with David Still sets out the situation well.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
Balloon death families call for government to act ( 12′ 43″ )
09:08 David Still’s daughter Alexis was one of 10 passengers who died in a hot air balloon crash in Carterton in 2012, along with pilot Lance Hopping. He says the Civil Aviation Authority failed to act despite repeated complaints about Hopping prior to the accident, and he’s calling for the government to force change upon the aviation safety regulator.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport
CAA failed to take action over balloon pilot complaints ( 3′ 11″ )
08:23 An inquest has been told several complaints had been made to the Civil Aviation Authority about the pilot of a hot-air balloon which crashed in Wairarapa in 2012 killing all 11 people on board.
Preventable accidents in NZ –
Crash survivors sue Ansett for $3 million – Tony Stickley – NZ … http://www.nzherald.co.nz/tony-stickley/news/article.cfm?a_id=143...
Dec 23, 1999 – … Dash-8 flight which smashed into a hill while trying to land at Palmerston North in June 1995. Two passengers and one crew member died in the tragedy. … The airline had also made a deliberate decision not to replace faulty landing gear, … on flying the plane, said Mr Miles, the captain was helping the co-pilot lower the …
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=192796
As evidence would show, this was not as alarming as it may sound. Landing gear problems on the Dash-8s had become so frequent that pilots had stopped reporting them to Ansett.
But what Captain Sotheran and First Officer Brown had failed to notice was that their aircraft was perilously close to the foothills of the Tararua Ranges, to the east of Palmerston North.
Interestingly, i gather the market response is that now that business will fail, and others will see their failure, due to deaths, and do stuff to avoid people dying… But look how many have to die
Job interview at 2pm.
Only a fixed term contract through January 31st 2015, but a bit of breathing space from Mr Wolf when he comes a knocking.
Don’t know what to say about my last employment when asked, but I’ll burn that bridge when I’ve crossed it.
I went with honesty being the best policy. Whether it works or not is out of my hands now.
I was happy enough with my performance. I’ll just have to keep my trotters crossed.
Labour had some concerns about the proposals, but agreed to back the bill into law because it felt urgent measures were needed to relieve house prices. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/election-2014/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503581&objectid=11301094
And many wonder what the difference between Nat and Lab are ? Well for developers IMO they allow for profits to increase as they transfer costs to the rate payer, and I defie anyone to prove anything different.
If anyone has any ideas that transferring council contributions to rate payers will reduce the price of property, they are misguided. The price we pay for a house is “market driven” not as cost plus basis.
If you look to the last major building industry crisis, leaky homes, developers took profits, shut down the company, avoided any liability and have had NO legislation aimed at them… Builders, yes. Designers? Yes. Developers no, and this govt wants to give them more money, less regulation and still no tightening of liability.
And they get full support from Labour. Next year when rates have increased it is not all the fault of our local govt, they have been given a hospital pass from Wellington.
Many of the services that are to now be funded by “other ” sources like libraries, sports grounds, community facilities, there are vast amounts that have been already collected by council & to be spent in the future, but under the LTCCP are deferred., part of the reason is the squeeze on councils increasing debt. Also talking of the LTCCP , councils spent huge resources, $ and time in preparing these and in one wee stroke all the work and planning of funding and timing has been undone. What a waste
Now that Stephen Joyce has confirmed that he will be nationalising Novopay from Talent2, can some one tell me whether Michelle Boag is a shareholder in Talent2?
This expensive re–look at the 4 decades old Crewe murders is only significant for more arse covering and fingers in ears from the blue bellies. They do manage to find space to retry the case and smear pardoned and compensated Arthur Thomas again and let one early suspect off the hook.
RIP to those who perished in the Wairarapa ballooning tragedy, it could be said that to be the passenger of a balloon pilot so affected is even worse,
Obviously, at some point in the future when the Parliament comes to look at the decriminalization/legalization of that particular substance such concerns as how to address the use of such vis a vis employment/public safety issues will have to be an inherent part of such Legislation,
The recent ‘running aground’ of a Tranzrail passenger train at the Melling station here in Wellington has been attributed to either a too high speed limit rounding the bend into that particular end of the line station and/or the Marijuana use of the driver…
“in the future when the Parliament comes to look at the decriminalization/legalization of that particular substance such concerns as how to address the use of such vis a vis employment/public safety issues”
Not to make light of that shocking preventable tragedy, but a literacy test might be a start.
i laughs,(but only quietly up my sleeve), gee Alien for once i am a little disappointed in the Wiki,
my Collins English ‘book of words’ is far more descriptive and explanatory when the words puckering up are considered previous to a reference to condyloma,
i am of course far to polite to go into the minute detail here, and besides, its dinner time…
David Cunliffe’s facebook page just sent a message:
“Multinationals must pay their fair share of tax, just like ordinary working people. Labour will ’embed’ IRD auditors in corporations that have a history of tax avoidance #forabetterNZ”
Yes, just like a political commissionar in the old soviet union. All decisions will be then be able to be vetoed if they don’t meet certain “National interest” criteria.
Unions will get no more of a ‘free pass’ on tax than any New Zealand-based business or other organisation currently does.
This policy is an additional tax enforcement strengthening measure and not the removal of all tax enforcement for everyone other than some errant multinationals.
Puckish, David Cunliffe as far as i know does not collect taxes, the IRD involve themselves in that activity,
i see no suggestion from you or the Labour Party that Trade Unions will be absolved from taxes by altering of the current Legislation which makes your comment somewhat deserving of a multiple lettered epithet starting with the consonant, (you choose)…
Those right-wing hacks/commenters are so irrational…and yet they are the type to trust that ‘markets players are rational’ – you couldn’t make this stuff up.
People such as the writer of this article apparently fall outside the expected group of low income folk, people in debt or worried about immigration status, etc.
I think this group who just don’t want their details bought and sold for business gain is growing.
Anyone got a good reason for the roll to be published at all? I can’t see why and I bet the turnout would go through the roof if voters were allowed to remain anonymous, just as the vote they cast is.
Anyone got a good reason for the roll to be published at all?
Not that I know of.
That said, it was possibly an idea that someone had that people would be able to look at the role and see if there were people on it that shouldn’t be. It may have worked if communities stayed below about 1000 people and everyone knew everyone else. Won’t work in any community above that size though.
And these days we have better options to ensure that people are registered where they should be without having to make the role publicly available.
It’s up to the EC to decide who should and should not be on the roll, not the public. So at the moment you have to register by paper, or online using RealMe. Even using RealMe you have to open an account then go to a postshop and have your photo taken.
Even after all of this I cannot see a reason for publishing unless the EC have been given a directive to fund themselves by selling voters’ information to third parties.
Ie, user pays, even when voting, a basic right in any democracy.
News from my wireless, RadioNZ National, the Government has announced it will establish a private company to take over the Education Payroll from Novopay,
Novopay is said to be paying the Government an undisclosed amount as penalty payment for a system that still fails to fulfill its expectations,
Gee only how many years too late and the ‘problems’ in the system will still have to be addressed by this ‘private company’…
From, I think, the same item on Checkpoint Stephen Joyce admitted that the taxpayer was picking up the larger share of the tab because there was “blame on both sides”. The Ministry had, apparently, bungled some things too. He didn’t mention who the negligent Minister was who has just cost us this coin.
Then, when asked if this was a case of the public sector being better than the private sector Joyce said words to the effect of ‘not at all, it simply happens that the government holds one side of the contract in this case and is taking over’.
But I thought that governments and their bureaucracies just can’t do this sort of stuff. Wouldn’t they be the last type of organisation you’d therefore turn to for a safe pair of hands in this kind of situation?
Aren’t things like payrolls just too tricky by half for them to get their heads around. The private sector, on the other hand …
Do we need another Henare voted into Parliament? The last one was bad enough. Is it not time for labour supporters to start voting for greens and other candidates in electorates? Labour activist here and elsewhere, keep begging the left not to split the vote. The gall to ask people to hold there noses and vote for some Tory scum in red clothing.
How about all those so called supporters of working people advise/aid/direct, or just be honest about some of the candidates that the labour party have put up. Phil Goff, Stuart (I think your grandfather is rolling in his grave) Nash, I’m sure others can be added to this list.
These are the evil shits we need to remove, the elephant in the room – how much longer labour people, how much longer you going to push the dead donkey?
Why do labour supporters keep putting up with these scum?
In the interests of working people any chance we can have an honest debate about the dead chaff in Labour who are hell bent on losing this election? Or am I going to get called a right wing troll – stupid or some other slagging off? Are the labour faithful going to go into fits of there own self-righteousness, and cling to any old Tory wannabe?
You say you like David Cunliff, yet he keeps being treated like shit. Labour have finally put up a leader who will make a bloody decent PM. And it is these MP wannabes who seem to me the happiest to poop in their own nest. Quite frankly, it reeks of the politics of self interest.
Everyone is accusing Jamie Whyte from the Act Party of being a racist.
Hypothetically speaking, if his partner was black, like I mean black black, would that change anything?
[lprent: Everybody? Don’t be a fool. There are usually thousands of people reading this site every day and a few hundred commenting. I guess you can’t count or have the common neolib inflationary view that expands the few fools in Act into a “movement”. I’d suggest that if you’re going to indulge in hyperbole, that you don’t do it about this site. That draws my attention to the dickheads doing it because I will answer for the site.
I really hate wasting time on peewees who measure their dicks using a magnifying glass for that extra size inflation. Read the policy. ]
No. Notwithstanding his personal family situation, to claim Maori are unjustly privileged is unhelpful to New Zealand, and racist. We intend to be different to African and American history here.
In addition, to describe someone as black is one thing, silverbullet, but to then describe someone as “black black” is…
Go put your Stalinist comrade uniform on – oh hang on, you are already wearing it.
[lprent: I suggest that you read the policy. You appear to be wearing a troll uniform. Lets be nice and imagine that it is like this…
This is your one warning about being a dickhead jerking off on our site. Engage with the conversation or leave before I have to toss you off the site. Leading up to an election, I really can’t be bothered being tolerant of mindless fools who try to imagine that they are sophisticated smartarses. ]
If any current NZ leader could be compared to Stalin it is John Key. Figuratively, the similarities between Key’s rejuvenation drive to the great purge in the 1920’s are alarming.
Your Far Left ideology is grounded in the philosophy of Marxism, with its “class consciousness”, “class conflict” and some future “workers paradise” type utopia.
Seeing as you asked silverbullet, NO, racism is not confined within one racial grouping, a white male for instance with an African American partner could for instance express hatred for Maori and rightly be labeled a racist,
The term racist does not presuppose that there is hatred of all the races other than that of the racist, the racist might only be so concerning one race other than his own to be a racist…
Seriously? Its always been about white vs the rest. So it does bring into question hypothetically that Whyte really is racist if he is married to someone of African descent and has kids too…
I’m really sorry this exchange didn’t go the way you planned, and that’s left you arguing against a case that no-one seems to be making, but what’s happening here is obvious. Jamie Unclecousin is attacking maori so racists will vote for ACT.
Now that might be a racist thing to do, or it might just be a selfish stupid short-sighted evil nasty cynical divisive corrosive thing to do. But either way, it has nothing to do with his wife, just as it had nothing to do with Don Brash’s wife when he pulled the exact same stunt 10 years ago.
What we do know is that no good can come of it. It will make some people in our society angry about other people in our society. It will hurt people. It will hurt race relations. And it will not achieve a single positive thing.
“tough on crime” is their main clarion call in Epsom, despite the Govt, of which they were a part, until their only member committed… a crime… tells us crime is falling and we are safer than ever.
So
Tough on crime
2.Maori are too privileged
AND they will get a seat in parliament… Over 17% of their sitting MPs have committed crimes…People of Epsom worship at the later of money
Just heard on the TV that we’ve paid x millions to Talent2 for the Novapay fuckup and that we’re then going to paying another nine million over the next six years as well. Wish I could get a job like that – paid for fucking it up, paid to be fired from it and then 6 year multi-million dollar redundancy package.
@ Weepus beard 6.55
“Where is the minister of Education in all of this?She has learned when to keep her mouth shut.”
These words by Graham Nash have substance and they say what we are all thinking here! And we need to rouse them and ourselves and follow our dreams during the day and night – dreams for a happy, functioning society. I think there might be an odd word in it.
From musixmatch
“Teach Your Children”
You, who are on the road must have a code that you can live by.
And so become yourself because the past is just a good bye.
Teach your children well, their father’s hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams, the one they fix, the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
And you, of the tender years can’t know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth, they seek the truth before they can die.
Teach your parents well, their children’s hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams, the one they fix,the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
This extract from Chris Trotter’s reply to Phil Quin referred to in Puddleglum 6.45 carries forward my comment about the necessity for igniting the dream. I fear that the generations since 1984 have been unable to imbibe enough of that message from their parents, and certainly not from school or any other formal or informal education. One reason they may not feel like voting.
The people whose precarious position of privilege vis-a-vis the working poor and beneficiaries renders them unashamedly reluctant to redistribute even a little of the wealth they have “worked for”.
Beneath a superficial “concern” for the disadvantaged, these voters conceal a visceral contempt for the poor. They are terrified of being forced to share their resources with the “underserving” and will have absolutely no truck with any political party which suggests that, as citizens, they have a moral obligation to put an end to inequality and poverty. –
See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/07/30/the-40-percent-solution-chris-trotter-responds-to-phil-quin/#sthash.0TbWppqF.dpuf
I have to admit that I am stunned that there is still such a thing as a ‘Labour Right’ that extends so far to the right that its apparent members (Pagani, Quin, Jones) are essentially pushing an economic approach that actively undermines the welfare of just those people that Labour Parties around the world were set up to represent and advance.
How on earth is such an economic policy orientation part of any ‘Labour’ approach?
You can thank the Post Modernists for the meaningless of language these days, they are after all the bastard children of ‘Progressive’ Left Neo Marxist ideology.
I think you need to distinguish between postmodernism as an intellectual current and postmodernity as a hypothesised economic, social and cultural transformation of modernity.
The latter is exemplified by ‘late consumer capitalism’ and all of its attendant industries (marketing, advertising, media, design, etc.) and the emergence of a supposedly new social class (highly educated, high income, usually employed in the industries just mentioned) for whom ‘cultural capital’ is an additional boasting right (on top of other forms of capital).
To be honest, I think it is postmodernity (or the cultural and economic conditions that that term usually refers to) that is responsible for any loss of meaning in our use of language. That loss of meaning is present in managerialism-speak, marketing-speak, neoliberalism-speak (which is increasingly commerce-speak) and, sadly, political-speak.
This morphing flexibility in linguistic meaning comes very close, of course, to old-fashioned lying – semantic relativism taken to its logical conclusion.
For me that logical conclusion is forever epitomised by John Key’s one-time reference to ‘the dynamic environment’ to explain why the meaning of his words change over time (or something like that).
By comparison, I think the influence of postmodernist theorists over the actual loss of meaning in everyday practice is infinitesimal.
I’m afraid your ‘silverbullet’ just missed what should have been its real target.
@Puddleglum 7.42
Your comment on ‘the dynamic environment’ and changes in meaning reminds me of something that Thomas Belmonte wrote and I think called it protean, about the changing, sometimes conflicting and changing beliefs of people rather lost in a changing society. He was impressed how people could be Catholic and Communist at the same time etc.
I looked up protean and came on this psycholgist who has done work on Nasties and their psychology and the Holocaust. Then he has posited two streams of people management – one called totalism and has presented proteanism as being the opposite.
Indeed. I made a similar remark at 21.1.1.2. The broad church concept is meaningful where someone like, say, Damien O’Connor, is concerned, beavering away on behalf of the West Coast. He is often considered to be of the right of the party, but he still able to say he sees social justice and regional development as his missions. However, the people you list seem to want to remain in the Labour Party while casting aside everything it stands for.
The real schism in the Labour Part is between the traditional working class and the academic Identity Politics crowd – the latter having a strangle hold on the Labour Party which is a shadow of its former self.
No, the most significant parting of the ways will always be when one faction believes that it should be serving the interests of the powerful and entrenched rather than the powerless, dispossessed and marginalised.
Clever justifications for serving powerful interests (trickle-down, etc.) will never resolve that betrayal, I’m afraid.
I have no problems with someone like O’Connor being ‘Labour’. And I’m even enough of a pragmatist to accept that some in the Labour caucus would want to make some sort of ‘truce’ or compromise with the ‘neo-liberal consensus’.
What I really can’t fathom is people who are not satisfied with ‘accommodating’ neoliberalism but seem bent on actively extending its reach and pushing it further into our social and economic arrangements – just because that’s what National is doing and ‘Ooo, look how popular National are!’.
It’s just mind-boggling that someone wishing to do that would even want to be in the Labour Party.
I just wish that when the media went for people who can talk intelligently on the Labour Party they would choose people that I knew! Mike Williams can do it. He has a grassroots understanding of the party.
Pagani and Quin cannot. Honest I have been heavily involved in the party for the past 15 years and I have not met either of them. I met John Pagani but this does not qualify him as someone who can talk intelligibly on the party.
There are people who come and go at the “upper” level but they have no comprehension about what is happening at the activist level.
Pagani and Quin cannot. Honest I have been heavily involved in the party for the past 15 years and I have not met either of them. I met John Pagani but this does not qualify him as someone who can talk intelligibly on the party
I know exactly what you mean. I’ve met John Pagani once and wasn’t that impressed. His campaigning felt like it was out of the ark (mind you most of the MPs are worse). Never met the other two that I am aware of. And I’ve been to the majority of the conferences and congresses in one capacity or another over the last 25 years which is where you’d expect to meet Labour party people. I still do even though I’m in the media room rather than the remit floor.
That is truly horrible that the people commenting in the media as though they are informed about Labour – or as though they are insiders – may not be even actively involved in the Party – that really is terrible to hear.
Why can’t the media find more informed voices to comment on these political current affairs? (Not really a question – more of a plea).
Basically because damn near everyone who is suitable is also actively working during the day for a variety of private and public organisations and volunteering at night. Generally companies like my current employers have contract clauses that limit how much time I can take during paid hours and conflict of interest clauses that limit me in the rest. I also have many claims on my “free” time.
It takes time to write articles, prep for interviews and panels, or anything else.
Hell the one interview I have ever done involved me in a 3 hour hole in the middle of my working day driving from Albany to Newmarket, doing a segment, and then going back to work. I then worked 3 hours extra that day, which interfered with the volunteer work for the rest of the week as I caught up.
The people who are left over to become talking heads are those who aren’t particularly actively involved, those developing careers as talking heads, or who are semi-retired.
For everyone else who works a lot, the whole thing is a confounded nuisance.
Well written from Chris Trotter, thanks for the link as i forget sometimes to cast an eye over the daily offering from that direction,
40% as far as the vote goes is totally unnecessary in the enviroment of MMP, these numbers, Labour 33%, Greens 12%, InternetMana 5%, are hardly wildly optimistic, they do tho shout out 50% at the September vote…
I have a little anecdote. Talking to an older woman with health problems. Mentioned that it was very hard for unemployed and mentioned the recent comment that people are required to apply for 5 jobs a day and may still have their benefit withdrawn.
She said that was awful but she couldn’t cope with it, she needed to just manage and carry on quietly. I said well don’t vote for National will you. But I like John Key she said, he seems nice, (or something of that nature). She said with a smile, is that the end of the lecture. We smiled and went on with our day.
greywarbler …that is very depressing when you meet idiots like that…however after her encounter with you this timid soul may change her vote once she gets in the voting booth
Interesting you should say that, because i had a similar, but more disturbing experience. The person I was talking to was a 50 plus year old primary school teacher who said that she would be voting National because she said, she likes key! I was very surprised that she was so naive. I try to change her reasoning, but she actually was peeved with me and did not want to discus the issue.
Shows that lots of people have been fooled and conned so very easily by the smiling assassin!
Nats know this. No wonder they have chosen #Team Key as their slogan.
People are in pretty bad, sad political/enlightened state in modern NZ!
@ Chooky 10.54 and Clemgeopin
“that is very depressing when you meet idiots like that”
Trouble is she is not an idiot. But I think one of many NZs who want to leave the pollies to govern, as that being their job, and have never been taught how fragile democracy is, and our firm opinions are (not firm at all – able to be changed fast with a propaganda campaign.) To many NZs, having an interest in politics is a hobby, it is akin to stamp collecting, or it is for go-getters who are pushing their wheelbarrow not for ordinary people.
Then there are those who can hardly bring themelves to complain about anything apart from blocks to whatever is dear to their heart. What right do we have to disagree with the confident con men and fabulists who tell us all they want us to know, and are never guilty of wrongdoing, at worst whatever – was a little mistake – just a tiny, teeny one. We all have a little cringe built-in. We have got confused, don’t have a dream for NZ, don’t have even a workable vision – given up on pollies substance and just see the candy floss. Poem for today’s pollies, there for us at election time with hearts on sleeves, and then after the election – a different story.
W. H. Mearns – Antigonish
Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away
When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn’t see him there at all!
“It’s not just radicalised Islamists – what about foreign fighters who flock to the IDF?
Is the Government interested in UK citizens who have been fighting in Israeli uniform in Gaza in the past couple of weeks?…
Let me be frank. Dozens of British supporters of Israel do serve in the Israeli army. The same applies for Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US. And they don’t necessarily gravitate to being war criminals. This may not be what an Arab would say – and it is certainly not what Israelis would suggest. But there is plenty of evidence – from 1982 in Lebanon, from 1996 in Qana, from 2008-9 in Gaza and again in Gaza these past two weeks – that individual Israeli soldiers and pilots have committed acts which, under international law, are war crimes…
It will hit you sooner or later, what goes on in Ukraine, in Middle and Near East, and many other parts of the world, New Zealand is not insulated and will be affected.
After Ukips success in the UK and EU elections NZ polictions are trying to jump on the bandwagon but NZ has only a limited number of racist so it will be slim pickings for Winnie the poo ,in reading whyte supremacist and Crazy Colon Craig.
Does National have any chance of winning the election in September? It’s looking very unlikely, especially after National’s change of leadership hasn’t exactly produced Mullermania in the first two weeks. Quite the opposite, in fact, as I summarised in Tuesday’s Political Roundup column: Todd Muller’s torrid start as National leader. ...
Another study comparing effect in children from nonendemic areas (Dagang) and endemic fluorosis area (Jinghai) about 80km apart in the Tianjin area of China. Hardly sampling the same population. Anti-fluoride campaigners still use studies from ...
George Thomson, Nick Wilson, Richard EdwardsThis blog discusses the passing of the Smoke-free Environments (Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children) Amendment Act last week. We briefly review some lessons from this legislation’s long journey and explore future smokefree possibilities in Aotearoa / New Zealand. A law ...
Last month I noted that the public policy debate was all about how we deal with covid-19. That’s changing now, and will change more over the next couple of months as the buffering impact of the wage subsidy disappears and we see starkly the economic hole out of which we ...
The mission of the New Zealand Police is to make this country the safest nation in the world. To achieve that aim, there is one important step the police need to take at the end of this month. When the evaluation of the Armed Response Teams’ trial is completed, the ...
The right of employees to strike is an internationally recognised employment right that has been a feature of New Zealand’s industrial relations system for over a century, albeit with different constraints and limitations at different times. Although more restricted, this right even continued under the anti-union Employment Contracts Act (1993-2000). ...
Bernard Hickey is one of New Zealand’s leading financial journalists. His latest article, published by Newsroom, lays bare the cruel treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers stranded since the lockdown. Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of ...
For a good part of my adult life I have studied civil-military relations. I have studied authoritarian and democratic variants, and I have studied them across countries and regions. I have also worked in and with several US security agencies and have lectured on the theme at a number of ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzIf we stopped oil, gas and coal extraction immediately – ...
by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...
The latest opinion poll is out, and it’s more bad news for the National Party, with Roy Morgan putting them on only 26.5% support, against Labour’s 56.5%. You can see the details here: Roy Morgan May opinion poll. Roy Morgan is regarded as less accurate than other polling companies, and the ...
When miners pillage conservation land, they are typically required to "rehabilitate" it afterwards. Its not much compared to the damage they do, but its something. But apparently even that is now too much to expect. NZG Limited, a company owned by Oravida directors James Blackwell, Julia Jiyan Xu, Stone Shi, ...
Like everyone else, I've spent too much of the weekend watching the protests in America, and the increasingly brutal response to them. The overwhelming impression is of a nationwide police riot, as people speaking out against a murder and demanding change are beaten, gassed and shot by racist, militarised thugs ...
In mid-April, as New Zealand entered its fourth week of alert level 4, the Prime Minister warned us not to make comparisons with other countries over our Covid-19 pandemic response. This extraordinary advice came after Simon Bridges had urged the government to adopt a less-stringent lockdown similar to those in ...
Wales has lowered the voting age to 16: 16 and 17 year olds can now officially vote in Wales for Senedd elections. Votes at 16 & 17 come into force on Monday, as part of the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020. Next year’s Senedd elections will ...
The government announced more changes to the ETS today, including to the emissions budget for 2021 - 2025. The overall budget for that period will stay at 354 million tons of CO2-equivalent. But the ETS component of that - stockpile reduction, free allocation, and credits to be auctioned - budget ...
The new National Party leader, Todd Muller, had been at pains to portray himself as a solid, serious, safe pair of hands, in contrast to the increasingly Trumpian leanings of Simon Bridges, who Muller deposed in a leadership coup last Friday. But after an uneventful, if uninspiring, first press conference, ...
Minneapolis Police StationIf you’ve been keeping an eye on recent events in the United States, you’ll likely understand why there’s so much anger on the streets at the moment. Not only did police officers murder another black man; it is patently obvious that authorities initially attempted to cover up George ...
Becoming the leader of a political party is a bit like having a baby. Not so much the screaming and sleepless nights, as the fact that you’ve waited and hope and planned for something and it’s finally here. And when that wonderful gift finally arrives, you want to be ready, ...
The US appears to be headed towards what Antonio Gramsci and other Italian political theorists call an “organic crisis of the State.” It involves the simultaneous and compounded fractures of economy, society and politics, which together constitute a tipping point in a nation’s history. Social contradictions are exacerbated, class and ...
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week...
Climate concerns as Siberia experiences record-breaking heatHeat wave sparks concerns about devastating wildfire season and melting permafrost.Satellite ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 24 through Sat, May 30, 2020Editor's ChoiceAntarctic Ocean Reveals New Signs of Rapid Melt of Ancient Ice, Clues About Future Sea Level RiseA study of seafloor ripples ...
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk A banner on the International Energy Agency website spells it out in bold font: “The global oil industry is experiencing a shock like no other in its history.” As the response to the coronavirus pandemic upends the lives of billions of ...
The ownership of newspapers and televison channels is in turmoil, and they want to redisorganise public broadcasting. *Three years ago, I expressed concern in a column about the future of the (traditional) media. Nothing has happened since to reduce the concern. It was based on an earlier column which ...
Australia's High Court has ruled that the "palace letters" between the queen and then-Governor-General John Kerr are public records rather than private papers: Historian Jenny Hocking has won her High Court bid to access the letters exchanged between then governor-general Sir John Kerr and the Queen around the time of ...
SATURDAY MAY 30Six60: Live at Western Springs 2020 (TVNZ 1, 8.45pm). Remember live concerts? The day will come again, friends, when we will be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an uncomfortable sweaty venue with people we don’t know. It will happen. Sometimes the sound of concerts drifts over to the ...
New Zealand and its prime minister Jacinda Ardern have received international attention and praise, rightly so, for decisive leadership, clear communication and scientific management of the coronavirus pandemic. Observers point out that the nation has been through multiple crises under Ardern’s leadership – such as the Christchurch terrorist attack and ...
…a lot of things unrelated to the pandemic were happening. Relatively little attention was given to some major events on the global stage, so I thought I would do a quick recap of some of the high (or low) -lights, starting with something familiar. The common theme throughout is human ...
Labour's talk of gutting the RMA to push through "shovel ready" projects to boost employment after the pandemic predictably has every half-arsed pipe-dream crawling out of the woodwork demanding special treatment. Today, it's the West Coast inbreds, who are demanding a host of laws be rescinded so they can dig ...
"I can't breathe, Mama. I'm dying." - Last words of George Floyd.LOOK HARD at this image. Think about what it depicts. Ask yourself how one human-being could behave so brutally when so many eye-witnesses – and very soon millions of people online around the world – were there to watch ...
Since the government announced its pandemic wage subsidy, there have been regular stories about companies taking it and then sacking or refusing to pay their workers - essentially committing fraud. But how often does this happen? The Minister just doesn't want to know: Government ministers are not receiving up to ...
"You call that a conservative?Nah, this is a conservative!" New Zealanders are in the market for a quiet and reassuring small-c conservative political centrist. The critical question, however, is which politician is currently playing that role? Who has mastered the art of relaxed, informal and intimate political communication? Who ...
I’VE OFTEN WONDERED if South African immigrants passing through towns like Kerikeri and Kaikohe ever wonder how we do it. In their homeland, through the bitter years of Apartheid, keeping the races segregated required pass laws, Alsatian dogs, tear gas, rubber bullets and, all-too-often, live rounds. Not here. Not in ...
Below is the list of gender-critical material which appeared on Redline from July 31, 2019 to September 30, 2019. Sports categories must be by sex, not gender identity Queer theory glossary Woke misogyny and homophobia: a gay critique of trans ideology Another unfortunate experiment? New Zealand’s transgender health policy and ...
Smart Energy Europe: A Plan to provide 100% of ALL ENERGY using Renewable Energy to EuropeIntroductionAll Energy renewable energy systems are often commented on here at Skeptical Science. Many comments suggest that it will be difficult, expensive or impossible to use renewable energy to power the world. To ...
The government released its Action for Healthy Waterways package today, ostensibly with the goal of cleaning up our rivers and making them swimmable within a generation. Doing that, of course, requires confronting the cow in the room: the dairy industry which causes most of the pollution. But while they've imposed ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzI would like to know if New Zealand’s carbon emissions ...
Simon Lamb, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Timothy Stern, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonBack in the 1970s, scientists came up with a revolutionary idea about how Earth’s deep interior works. They proposed it is slowly churning like a lava lamp, with buoyant ...
Remember KiwiBuild? Previously the government's flagship policy, it was supposed to build thousands of new homes every year for kiwi families. But instead of flooding the market, we've got a pathetic dribble: The Government's former flagship housing policy is so far behind schedule it will take more than 400 years ...
Don Franks Now Covid-19 restrictions allow gatherings of a hundred, an urgent hui needs calling. A special conference of the Council of Trade Unions. Today, workers face the greatest attack on employment, pay and conditions since the depression, we need a strong united union voice. As it stands now, organised ...
George Henderson New Zealand schools have introduced a climate change resource that suggests children “eat less meat and dairy”, even though teachers will not know how much meat or dairy any child in their care has eaten. Opinion pieces in the papers have called for the reduction of meat and ...
Questioning the number of district health boards in New Zealand has got to the extent that “too many DHBs” has become a perceived truth requiring no further elaboration. It is rarely challenged by policy advisers, academics, and journalists. But when one drills down further it becomes clear that the number ...
The emergence of a new National party leader, seemingly out of nowhere, has – not surprisingly – raised a number of questions as to who Todd Mulller actually is and what makes him tick. He has been an MP for some time but seems to have hidden his light under ...
Costa Rica has become the first country in Central America to recognise same-sex marriage: The first same-sex weddings have taken place in Costa Rica, the first Central American country to equalise its marriage legislation. A lesbian couple became the first to tie the knot in a ceremony that took ...
There's a new twist in the Winston Peters secret donation story. It appears that a significant chunk of NZ First's secret laundered donations goes straight into the pockets of the people administering the scheme: Tens of thousands in donor's funds given to the New Zealand First Foundation were spent paying ...
Is Todd Muller the Ned Flanders of the National Party? This is how he’s been characterised by political commentator Gordon Campbell, who suggests the change in leadership is, in Simpsons terms, akin to swapping the scary and cruel Monty Burns for Homer Simpson’s compassionate but conservative neighbour. There’s almost a ...
We all know that many so-called journalists and political commentators in New Zealand work directly or indirectly for political parties or for certain political factions. This was obviously the case when pundit for hire Matthew Hooton launched a campaign against then National Party leader, Simon Bridges, over their numerous polling ...
Let's Roll! The easy victory over a Bridges-led National Party which the Left had every cause to anticipate just a few days ago is no longer in the offing. Our enemy’s position has changed. His numbers are swelling. A rapid thrust to the left, followed by an audacious outflanking manoeuvre ...
New National Party leader Todd Muller has been interviewed about his policies, and has promised to restart offshore fossil fuel exploration if elected: The Bay of Plenty MP rolled former leader Simon Bridges last week, but says the party has not changed its stance on previous promises. "That is ...
Anyone who keeps an eye on evidence around cannabis and public health will be familiar with the Christchurch Health and Development Study. It's one of two local longitudinal studies frequently cited with respect to cannabis and youth development. But in a new article in the New Zealand Medical Journal, it is ...
In the age of covid we are Jacinda’s team of five million, except for some. There has rarely been a more blatant case of discrimination against beneficiaries than Grant Robertson’s announcement yesterday that people who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus will receive weekly payments of $490 per week for 12 weeks and $250 per week for part time ...
It was 75 years ago this month that Germany surrendered and the Allies celebrated VE (Victory in Europe) Day. Millions of people around the world had been killed and many more injured or captured. It was an end to war not just for Europeans, but their allies too, in countries across Africa. But its impact is ...
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...
Watching Todd Muller make his first speech as the newly minted Leader of the Opposition after Simon Bridges’ defenestration on Friday brought to mind a headmaster addressing a school assembly. He showed no particular desire to ingratiate himself with his audience although the occasional flash of self-deprecating humour indicated a ...
The government has announced another income support scheme for people affected by the economic aftershocks of the pandemic: a $490 a week tax-free payment for the newly unemployed, which you can get even if you have a working partner. Which is great, because its supporting people who need help, but ...
The Greens have released their party list, and it contains a few surprises. The one that's getting all the news is that the membership are clearly fans of Chlöe Swarbrick, and she has worked hard to earn that. But they've also favoured incumbent protection over new blood, and in the ...
age credit:Science and Politics – Skeptically.org It seems impossible to keep politics out of science. It’s a pity because politics can end up forcing science to produce the results desired by ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Matthew Parry, Dr Ayesha Verrall, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Martin Eichner (author details*)This blog details a recent modelling study we conducted. In it we estimated that it would take between 27 and 33 days of no new detected cases of COVID-19 for there to be ...
The 2015 Schol Bio paper included a question about a group of birds known as honeycreepers, specifically, the 56 species endemic to the Hawaiian islands. (Or, were endemic: 18, or perhaps 19, are still living; the others are extinct.) Students who’ve already had a look at this paper as part of ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... What a Week’s Disasters Tell Us About Climate and the PandemicExtreme weather presents an even bigger threat ...
Todd Muller has made a good start to his leadership, though it would obviously be pretty stupid to extrapolate too much from the first couple of days. Nevertheless, as a matter of speculation, it is interesting to think what success on his part might say about the preferences of the ...
A guest post by Hamish Price.“A leader is a dealer in hope.”— Napoléon BonaparteCatholics have a name for potential successors to a dead pope. Papabile. The small coterie of distinguished cardinals who have what it takes to step up. Todd Muller has always been one.I first met Muller at a National ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced that new Lockheed Martin Super Hercules aircraft would replace the outdated and costly 1960s Hercules fleet. The $1.521b project will include a flight simulator for staff training and other supporting infrastructure. "This fleet will ensure the Defence Force can continue to support New Zealand's ...
The Green Party is urging the New Zealand Police to rule out the use of Armed Response Teams, following their recent trial in communities around Aotearoa. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has described Labour's original COVID-19 commercial rent dispute proposal as "poorly targeted". Justice Minister Andrew Little hasannounced a temporary law changeto force commercial landlords and renters to consider COVID-19 in disputes over rent issues, almost two months after the Government first floated the idea. But ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First acknowledges that some small businesses have been struggling to meet fixed costs due to the loss of revenue by COVID-19. We also know some businesses are at greater risk of insolvency when they cannot come to a reasonable ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First is disappointed that the removal of the spousal deductions has had to be delayed by the Ministry fo Social Development, due to COVID19 workload pressures. “New Zealand First has always stood for fairness when it comes to superannuation ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First On the steps of Parliament today the Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters received a petition from registered nurse Anna Maria Coervers, requesting an amendment to the Protection for First Responders Bill which will ensure the legislation also include registered ...
It's been a busy seven days as we start to rebuild New Zealand together. From delivering extra support for small businesses, to investing in our artists and arts organisations, to cutting red tape on home DIY projects, we're rolling out our plan to get the economy and New Zealand moving ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says alert level 2 restrictions have to be discussed during today's Cabinet meeting. Thousands gathered across the country, including at Parliament, yesterday forBlack Lives Matter marcheswhere social distancing and mass gathering rules were flouted. Mr Peters said the breaching of Alert Level 2 rules at ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of State Owned Enterprises KiwiRail’s Northland rail upgrade steps up another gear today and will help Northland recover from the impacts of COVID-19, State Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters says. The Government is investing $204.5 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to ...
“Today and every day we stand in solidarity with George Floyd’s family, friends and community who feel pain and fear about his untimely death at the hands of Minneapolis police”, said Green Party Co-leader and Māori Development spokesperson Marama Davidson. ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Hon Eugenie Sage, Minister of Conservation The West Coast forests of Mount Te Kinga at Kotuku Whakaoho/Lake Brunner are the latest predator free project to receive Government funding, announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
The Green Party says major freshwater reforms announced today provide the strongest ever protections of our waterways, to help ensure the next generation can swim in the rivers of Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party has begun the process for a Select Committee inquiry into student accommodation, which has been exposed during COVID-19 as an under-regulated sector that straddles students with unfair debt. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Hon Dr David Clark, Minister of Health Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods, and Health Minister David Clark today announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy, ...
Budget 2020 is about rebuilding together, supporting jobs, getting business moving and the books back into the black. It’s an integral part of our COVID-19 economic response, and our plan to grow our economy and get New Zealand moving again.Here’s a quick look at the five top things you ...
The Green Party is pleased to reveal its candidate list for the upcoming election. With a mix of familiar faces and fresh new talent, this exceptional group of candidates are ready to lead the Greens back into Government. ...
The Coalition Government has approved $206 million in essential upgrades at Ōhakea Air Base. Defence Minister Ron Mark said the money would be spent on improving old infrastructure. He said safety issues would be addressed, as well as upgrades to taxiways, accommodation and fresh, storm and waste water systems. "This ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First “I am not persisting with this case just for myself, but for all people who have had their privacy breached. Privacy of information is a cornerstone of our country’s democracy. Without it our society truly faces a bleak future. We now ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones has introduced a Bill to Parliament that he says will "force more transparency, integrity and respect" for the domestic wood-processing sector through the registration of log traders and practice standards. The Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Bill had its first reading in ...
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman is joining over 300 lawmakers from around the world in calling on the big banks and the IMF to forgive the debt of developing countries, in the wake of the COVID crisis. ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones says concerns that carbon foresters are planting pine trees that will never be harvested are the result of "misinformation". "The billion tree strategy is an excellent idea, unfortunately from time to time it's tainted by misinformation spread by the National Party or their grandees, hiding in scattered ...
Extra 40,000 businesses to be eligible for wage subsidy extension Small business cashflow support application period extended The Government is today announcing further support for businesses that continue to be affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, as the broader economy becomes one of the most open in the world following ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed five Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Super Hercules transport aircraft will be purchased to replace the existing fleet, Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “Last year, Cabinet selected these aircraft as the preferred option to replace the current Hercules fleet. Procurement of the Super Hercules has been ...
The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage is celebrating World Environment Day with an announcement of a major step towards Wairarapa Moana being recognised as an internationally significant wetland. “Wairarapa Moana is an ecosystem of 10,000 hectares of wetland and open water that provides a home for indigenous fish, birds and ...
A new-look Police graduation ceremony to take account of COVID19 health rules has marked the completion of training for 57 new constables. Police Minister Stuart Nash attended this afternoon's ceremony, where officers of Recruit Wing 337 were formally sworn in at the Royal New Zealand Police College without the normal support of ...
Mobile traders and truck shops must adhere to responsible lending requirements Interest rate cap on high-cost loans Lenders prohibited from offering further credit to an applicant who has taken two high-cost loans in the past 90 days The Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Kris Faafoi, has signalled an end ...
94% of firms say wage subsidy had positive impact on cashflow 62% of firms say support helped to manage non-wage costs like rent A survey of business that have received the Government’s wage subsidy show it has played a significant role in saving jobs, and freed up cash flow to ...
New legislation introduced to Parliament today will support growth and assist businesses on the road to economic recovery, said Revenue Minister Stuart Nash. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2020-21, Feasibility Expenditure, and Remedial Matters) Bill proposes that businesses can get tax deductions for ‘feasibility expenditure’ on new investments,” said Mr ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson has welcomed the first release of funds from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced as part of Budget 2020. Sport NZ has announced that $4.6 million in funding will go to the Wellington Phoenix, NZ Warriors, Super Rugby teams and the ANZ Premiership ...
An iconic New Zealand tourism attraction and the country’s 31 Regional Tourism Organisations are the first recipients of support from the $400 million Tourism Sector Recovery Plan, to help position the sector for recovery from COVID-19, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. The plan includes a Strategic Tourism Assets Protection ...
The Government will legislate to ensure businesses that suffered as a result of the COVID-19 response will get help to resolve disputes over commercial rent issues, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. A temporary amendment to the Property Law Act will insert a clause in commercial leases requiring a fair ...
The Minister for Small Business says new data from Xero highlights the urgency of prompt payment practices to small and medium enterprises as we move into economic recovery. Last month Government ministers wrote to significant private enterprises and the banking industry to request they join efforts by government agencies to ...
Young people in Waikato will be the first to have free access to period products in schools in another step to support children and young people in poverty,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. During term 3, the Ministry of Education will begin providing free period products to schools following the ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash has issued the following statement in response to charges filed against three Police officers this morning in the New Plymouth District Court. “Any incident involving a loss of life in Police custody is taken very seriously. The charges today reflect the gravity of the ...
$196 million for Crown Research Institutes $150 million for R&D loan scheme $33 million for Māori research and development opportunities $12 million for the Nationally Significant Collections and Databases $10 million to help maintain in-house capability at Callaghan Innovation New Zealand’s entrepreneurs, innovators and crown researchers will benefit from a ...
Further temporary changes to NCEA and University Entrance (UE) will support senior secondary school students whose teaching and learning have been disrupted by COVID-19. “The wellbeing of students and teachers is a priority. As we are all aware, COVID-19 has created massive disruption to the school system, and the Government ...
Minister for Racing Winston Peters today announced that the terms for the directors of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) have been extended to 30 June 2021. Due to the COVID-19 crisis the transition period has been extended to ensure that the Racing Industry Bill can complete its progress through ...
The deadline for landlords to include detailed information in their tenancy agreements about how their property meets the Healthy Homes Standards, so tenants can see the home they are renting is compliant, has been extended from 1 July 2020 to 1 December 2020. The Healthy Homes Standards became law on 1 July 2019. The Standards are ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little today announced details of further appointments to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. “I am pleased to announce Paula Rose QSO OStJ as Deputy Chief Commissioner for a term of five years commencing on 15 June 2020,” said Andrew Little. “I am also pleased to announce the ...
The Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) will pay costs of learners of all ages to undertake vocational education and training The fund will target support for areas of study and training that will give learners better employment prospects as New Zealand recovers from COVID-19 Apprentices working in all industries ...
The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will finally start to cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas pollution as it was originally intended to, because of changes announced today by the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw. The changes include a limit on the total emissions allowed within the ETS, rules to ensure ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List provides an abundance of examples that Pacific people’s leadership capability is unquestionable in Aotearoa. “The work and the individuals we acknowledge this year highlights the kind of visionary examples and dedicated community leadership that we need ...
The Government is backing a new $27 million project aimed at boosting sustainable horticulture production and New Zealand’s COVID-19 recovery efforts, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our economy. During and ...
Applications have opened for 2021 Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships, which will support more Māori and women to pursue careers in forestry science, says Forestry Minister Shane Jones. “I’m delighted Te Uru Rākau is offering Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships for the third year running. These ...
The Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List once again highlights the dedication by many to looking after our native plants and wildlife, including incredible work to restore the populations of critically endangered birds says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Anne Richardson of Hororata has been made an Officer of the New ...
The Government will invest $10 million from the One Billion Trees Fund for large-scale planting to provide jobs in communities and improve the environment, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and Forestry Minister Shane Jones have announced. New, more flexible funding criteria for applications will help up to 10 catchment groups plant ...
Organisations that support women are invited to apply to a new $1,000,000 fund as part of the Government’s COVID-19 response. “We know women, and organisations that support women, have been affected by COVID-19. This new money will ensure funding for groups that support women and women’s rights,” said Minister for ...
Healthier waterways are front and centre in a new project involving more than 300 King Country sheep, beef and dairy farmers. The Government is investing $844,000 in King Country River Care, a group that helps farmers to lift freshwater quality and farming practice, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Yesterday ...
A major funding package for libraries will allow them to play a far greater role in supporting their communities and people seeking jobs as part of the economic recovery from COVID-19. “Budget 2020 contains over $60 million of funding to protect library services and to protect jobs,” says Internal Affairs ...
A jobseekers programme for the creative sector and four new funds have been set up by the Government to help our arts and music industry recover from the blow of COVID-19. Thousands of jobs will be supported through today’s $175 million package in a crucial economic boost to support the ...
Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has welcomed the First Reading of a Bill that will make legislative changes to further improve the veterans’ support system. The Veterans’ Support Amendment Bill No 2, which will amend the Veterans’ Support Act 2014, passed First Reading today. The bill addresses a number of ...
Views sought on Order in Council to help fast track the reinstatement of the Christ Church Cathedral The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Hon Poto Williams, will be seeking public written comment, following Cabinet approving the drafting of an Order in Council aimed at fast-tracking the reinstatement of the ...
The law setting out New Zealanders’ basic civil and human rights is today one step towards being strengthened following the first reading of a Bill that requires Parliament to take action if a court says a statute undermines those rights. At present, a senior court can issue a ‘declaration of ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today reiterated the deep concern of the New Zealand Government following confirmation by China’s National People’s Congress of national security legislation relating to Hong Kong. “New Zealand shares the international community’s significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand ...
Thousands of artists and creatives at hundreds of cultural and heritage organisations have been given much-needed support to recover from the impact of COVID-19, Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Jacinda Ardern announced today. “The cultural sector was amongst the worst hit by the global pandemic,” Jacinda ...
Key New Zealand assets will be better protected from being sold to overseas owners in a way contrary to the national interest, with the passage of the Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Bill. The Bill, which passed its third reading in Parliament today, also cuts unnecessary red tape to help attract ...
Setting higher health standards at swimming spots Requiring urban waterways to be cleaned up and new protections for urban streams Putting controls on higher-risk farm practices such as winter grazing and feed lots Setting stricter controls on nitrogen pollution and new bottom lines on other measures of waterway health Ensuring ...
The Government is on the verge of reaching its target of state sector boards and committees made up of at least 50 percent women, says Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter and Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa. For the first time, the Government stocktake measures the number of Māori, ...
The Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister and Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister, Kris Faafoi, has today announced the appointment of Tristan Gilbertson as the new Telecommunications Commissioner and member of the Commerce Commission. “Mr Gilbertson has considerable experience in the telecommunications industry and a strong reputation amongst his peers,” ...
The Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa have agreed to settle the pay equity claim for teacher aides, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This will see more than 22,000 teacher aides, mostly women, being valued and paid fairly for the work they do. “Teacher aides are frontline ...
Subcontractors will have greater certainty, more cashflow support and job security with new changes to retention payments under the Construction Contracts Act says Minister for Building and Construction, Jenny Salesa. A recent review of the retentions money regime showed that most of the building and construction sector is complying with ...
The Herald reported this morning that MediaWorks was on the verge of selling its TV assets to US TV giant Discovery – but an internal email and senior source suggest the story may have been premature.A senior MediaWorks source has emphatically denied a report in the NZ Herald that a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gery Karantzas, Associate professor in Social Psychology / Relationship Science, Deakin University Life in lockdown has been tough on many relationships. But negotiating the transition back to “normal” as restrictions continue to lift could also be a challenge for couples. So what ...
A slight bounce in the economy is brightening the outlook as the country heads into the winter months, Radio NZ reports. Retail spending is up and NZ shares rose on Thursday for a third day running. Key indicators have led some economists to point to a faster recovery than expected. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, University of Adelaide HomeBuilder is a good idea gone bad. It is possibly the most complex and least equitable program the government could have devised to deliver construction jobs. It gives $25,000 to people who already ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Keller, Professor of Cognitive Science, Western Sydney University The coronavirus pandemic has silenced the world’s concert halls and opera theatres. Organisations specialising in live performance face an existential crisis under current restrictions on social gatherings, with up to 75% of people ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson, wearing his Sport and Recreation ministerial hat, can show he can be a big spender and draw voters’ attention to his largess each time he dispenses money from the funds under his control – or the control of an agency within his ministerial bailiwick. Yesterday he ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University Scott Morrison wants to overhaul the skills workforce to ensure a better post-COVID-19 recovery. But there may not be enough people with the necessary skills to do so. And travel restrictions, which ...
As we transition out of a Covid-focused world and prepare for what comes next, New Zealand’s ICT industry is gearing towards growth.From app development helping track the Covid-19 virus to website engineering keeping businesses in touch and online, ICT knowledge has been crucial to keeping New Zealand working over the ...
Analysis: As New Zealand eases restrictions, it no longer has international precedent to look towards and must decide on its own how to reopen the economy while reducing the risk of a second wave of infections, Marc Daalder reports While most of the country eagerly awaits a likely move to ...
Ten days is too long. That from insurance claimant advocate, Ali Jones. EQC has today made contact with homeowners via email after accidentally releasing confidential details of 8000 insurance claims on May 26. Jones says although she has not received ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (Penguin Classics, $24)Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. The other day, ...
Simon Day discovers how the voluntary carbon market allows both individuals and companies to offset their emissions at the same time as investing in native forest regeneration.When Celia Wade-Brown sold her first batch of carbon credits earned from the native forest on her Wairarapa farm, she had two customers: Z ...
Simon Day discovers how the voluntary carbon market allows both individuals and companies to offset their emissions at the same time as investing in native forest regeneration.When Celia Wade-Brown sold her first batch of carbon credits earned from the native forest on her Wairarapa farm, she had two customers: Z ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin. The conversation around the 2020 covid19 pandemic has been widely framed as ‘health versus the economy’. It has been quite political, with people leaning to the left emphasising ‘health’, and people leaning to the right emphasising ‘the economy’. A couple of weeks ago ...
Sam Brooks pays tribute to Alex Rider, and the new TV series that (finally) captures the spirit of the books.“What if James Bond was a teenager?”The concept for Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series is so simple but so brilliant. There’s a reason why the franchise has managed to sustain 12 ...
Analysis - The PM resists pressure to move immediately to level 1, Winston Peters' tactics play into the hands of the Opposition and the government at last works out a commercial rent solution, writes Peter Wilson. ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By COHAFrom Washington DC Federal charges against the four protectors of the Venezuelan Embassy, who defended the building in Washington DC against violent opposition crowds for several weeks between April 10 and May 16 of 2019, were completely dropped in a case that ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By COHA Editorial TeamFrom Washington DC The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) joins the Black Alliance for Peace[1] and other pro-democracy organizations throughout the world in calling for the United Nations to address the systemic violations of human rights by the police and ...
Being shot by police had a profound, transformational effect on Rob Mokaraka’s life in more ways than you’d expect. A new documentary, airing on Māori TV at 7.30pm on Sunday, explores the work he’s done to heal his own mind and to ensure nobody has to go through the same ...
Human rights watchdog TAPOL has condemned the demand by Indonesian prosecutors seeking 17 and five years imprisonment for West Papuan activists Buchtar Tabuni and Irwanus Uropmabin. On June 2, the Jayapura District Prosecutor’s Office issued 33 pages containing charges against the defendant Irwanus Uropmabin. In the document, the Public Prosecutor ...
The arrival of Dan Carter is far from the first time the ever-struggling Auckland team has hoped to turn around its fortunes with a star signing, writes Jamie Wall.New Zealand rugby Twitter is a generally desolate place, especially lately given that there’s been nothing to talk about ever since the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Senior Lecturer in New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity US President Donald Trump delivered an address this week in which he threatened military action on the nation. Then he walked to the nearby St John’s Episcopal Church ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vincent Ho, Senior Lecturer and clinical academic gastroenterologist, Western Sydney University Why do we burp? We sometimes also burp before meals, why does this happen? — Ahaana, age 7 That is a really interesting question, Ahaana! There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justine Bell-James, Associate Professor, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland After years of litigation, Australia’s highest court will today make a major decision on the fate of the controversial proposed expansion to the New Acland Coal mine in Queensland. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Williams, Associate Professor in Urban Ecology and Urban Horticulture, University of Melbourne Tomorrow is the first World Green Roof Day. Cities around the world will celebrate the well-documented environmental, economic and social benefits of green roofs. New ground-level green spaces are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Senior Lecturer, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Robodebt isn’t the only measure the government should consider withdrawing. Late last Friday, after a long press conference from the prime minister which avoided any mention of the topic, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW Harvard University’s Alberto Alesina died suddenly of a heart attack on May 23. He was 63. His long-time colleague and friend Larry Summers wrote that before him, “there was no academic field of political economy. Today, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith University What keeps democracies together? As America burns, Brazilians die and Europe braces for another wave of the coronavirus, the question assumes an alarming immediacy. If the answer is complicated in one way, it is ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Millions of dollars divvied up by Sport NZ, MSD’s problem with wrongly denied payments grows, and internal coalition battles emerge in time for election.It’s Friday, and there hasn’t been a lot of it recently, so we’re going to start with ...
The Government picks Waitomo caves as 'strategic tourism asset' and grants $4m to Tourism Holdings, boosting shares another 7.8 percent. Facebook staff and alumni revolt over Zuckerberg's inaction on Trump ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan NZ bestseller list and described by ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias.NON-FICTION 1 Vegful by Nadia Lim (Nude Food, $55) 2 Stop Surviving Start Fighting by Jazz Thornton (Penguin Random House, $38) 3 So Delish! by Simone Anderson ...
Systemic white violence against black Americans is alive and well, and it's white violence that sustains white supremacy Current scenes from the United States are both familiar and shocking. George Floyd’s life being brutally snuffed out by Minneapolis police, followed by peaceful protests of Floyd’s murder as well as legitimate ...
The US isn't the only country with a broken criminal justice system that works to criminalise and destroy the lives of black and brown families. Dylan Asafo puts forward two ways NZ could lead in dismantling systems of white supremacy. If you were to imagine a society without racial oppression, ...
Anomalies in the policy for superannuitants with overseas pensions are an indictment on the justice process in New Zealand, write Susan St John and Dr Claire Dale Along with many others, the Retirement Policy and Research Centre has worked assiduously for more than a decade to alert the public, policy-makers ...
A new study indicates native plants, despite their tendency to grow more slowly than exotic species like Pinus Radiata, are better at storing carbon in the soil for longer periods of time. ...
The British Tribe Next Door attracted over 60 complaints of racist themes from viewers when it first aired in the UK. Now TVNZ is streaming it on its OnDemand service attracting concerns from members of Aotearoa’s African community and a letter from race relations commissioner Meng Foon.When The British Tribe ...
When approached by The Spinoff Jeanette Wilson denied having told participants in an online session that the product ‘lined the lungs’, despite clear evidence to the contrary.The Covid-19 crisis has sparked misinformation in every corner of the world. In New Zealand, a “psychic healer” whose fixations read like a conspiracy ...
The union movement launched a push earlier this week to double the legal minimum of sick leave from five days a year to 10. Is a change likely?What’s all this then?In light of the recent global pandemic putting the focus on health in the workplace, unions have called for changes ...
An African American pastor from George Floyd's community gives The Detail a special insight into what's happening there - and gives us hope for the future. “Nobody in America wants to be a racist.” David Hill is a pastor in the Third Ward neighbourhood of Houston where George Floyd grew ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When Ken Wyatt, the Minister for Indigenous Australians, last week effectively pronounced dead the prospect of a referendum on indigenous recognition being put to the people this parliamentary term, the demise of his hoped-for timetable ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Morrison government will significantly strengthen its scrutiny of foreign investment to protect sensitive national security technology and information and further ring fence the nation’s critical infrastructure. It will insert a new “national security test” ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Does National have any chance of winning the election in September? It’s looking very unlikely, especially after National’s change of leadership hasn’t exactly produced Mullermania in the first two weeks. Quite the opposite, in fact, as I summarised in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne When a newspaper with the authority of The New York Times chooses to publish a party-political essay calculated to further inflame the violence wracking cities across America, serious questions arise. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Plank, Professor in Mathematics, University of Canterbury There is now a 95% chance COVID-19 has been eliminated in New Zealand, according to our modelling, based on official Ministry of Health data. As of June 4, New Zealand has had 20 consecutive ...
In 2014, Duncan Greive was invited to interview Dan Carter on the back of the All Black’s spokesmodelling gig for Jockey underwear – a meeting that would eventually lead to Greive co-writing Carter’s autobiography, My Story. To celebrate today’s big Dan Carter news, we republish that original Metro story here.In ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Coates, Program Director, Household Finances, Grattan Institute Scott Morrison’s new housing stimulus package is straight-out retail politics. HomeBuilder offers homeowners (including first home buyers) a grant of A$25,000 to build a new home worth less than $750,000 or to spend between ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Rachel Taulelei, CEO of Kono.Demand for New Zealand produce overseas is currently up. ...
By Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie in Jakarta A panel of judges at the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) has granted a lawsuit filed by civil society groups against the Indonesian government’s decision to impose an internet blackout during weeks of protests in Papua and West Papua provinces last year, declaring ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Mitchell, Professor of Nursing, University of Newcastle With coronavirus restrictions gradually lifting across the country, we’re now able to resume many of our regular activities. A lot of us might have been particularly keen to get back to the gym, which ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Perhaps at no point in Australia’s history has the demand for real-time figures been stronger than during the coronavirus crisis. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has stepped up its efforts to get data fast, to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bree Hurst, Senior Lecturer, QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jolynna Sinanan, Research Fellow in Digital Media and Ethnography, University of Sydney Earlier this week, you might have seen your social media taken over by a stream of posts showing simple images of a black square. These posts, often tagged with #BlackoutTuesday, ...
A strong vote for sustainability would make the resulting Labour-Greens government a confident and ambitious reformer, having shed its NZ First handbrake ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick White, PhD Candidate in History and Politics, James Cook University Australia’s local governments breathed new life into embattled regional communities after the second world war. Today, this history reminds us of the role local councils and communities should play in plans ...
This bill proposes to provide for enhanced information disclosure requirements for the gas market and to ensure that settings around enforcement and penalties are suitably robust. The Gas (Information Disclosure and Penalties) Amendment Bill would do this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mick Broderick, Associate Professor of Media Analysis, Murdoch University Over successive Sunday nights, the ABC has premiered two important television programs recounting the history of nuclear testing in Australia – the documentary Maralinga Tjuratja and a six-drama series Operation Buffalo. Both explore ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marisa Paterson, Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National University When the COVID-19 restrictions came into force more than two months ago, it meant lights out for the country’s 200,000 poker machines. Now, the pokies are slowly turning on again across ...
With roughly 97% of New Zealand enterprises categorised as small businesses – that is, 20 or fewer employees – accounting software platform Xero’s newly released analysis provides a stark picture of the severe impact of Covid-19 throughout the sector.What exactly does the data show?Essentially, the data shows that year-on-year revenue ...
This week, on 1 June 2020, an interest rate cap on high-cost loans (over 50% interest per annum) was finally introduced in New Zealand. The introduction of an interest rate cap will help borrowers, like Sarah Newham, who presented to Select Committee ...
After hammering out a deal over commercial rents with Labour, New Zealand First is now publicly criticising some of the measures its coalition partner had been pushing for. ...
After hammering out a deal over commercial rents with Labour, New Zealand First is now publicly criticising some of the measures its coalition partner had been pushing for. ...
After hammering out a deal over commercial rents with Labour, New Zealand First is now publicly criticising some of the measures its coalition partner had been pushing for. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lee, Associate Professor of History , UNSW The Conversation is running a series of explainers on key figures in Australian political history, looking at the way they changed the nature of debate, its impact then, and it relevance to politics today. ...
Labour-hire workers are falling between the cracks because neither the agencies they are employed by nor the host companies they work for want to take responsibility for them, FIRST Union said today. Dozens of agency workers have been contacting the ...
Open mike 30/07/2014 
Open mike is your post.
One of the safeguards built into the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 was automatic expiry. The law must be renewed by Parliament every 90 days, or it is automatically repealed. Orders made under the law are automatically revoked unless confirmed by Parliament within 10 sitting days, or 60 calendar ...1 hour ago
Does National have any chance of winning the election in September? It’s looking very unlikely, especially after National’s change of leadership hasn’t exactly produced Mullermania in the first two weeks. Quite the opposite, in fact, as I summarised in Tuesday’s Political Roundup column: Todd Muller’s torrid start as National leader. ...22 hours ago
Another study comparing effect in children from nonendemic areas (Dagang) and endemic fluorosis area (Jinghai) about 80km apart in the Tianjin area of China. Hardly sampling the same population. Anti-fluoride campaigners still use studies from ... 1 day ago
George Thomson, Nick Wilson, Richard Edwards This blog discusses the passing of the Smoke-free Environments (Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children) Amendment Act last week. We briefly review some lessons from this legislation’s long journey and explore future smokefree possibilities in Aotearoa / New Zealand. A law ...1 day ago
74 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Surface-Energy-Balance Closure over Land: A Review (open access) Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Human influence has intensified extreme precipitation in North America (open access) Observation-derived ice growth curves show patterns and trends in maximum ice thickness and ...2 days ago
Last month I noted that the public policy debate was all about how we deal with covid-19. That’s changing now, and will change more over the next couple of months as the buffering impact of the wage subsidy disappears and we see starkly the economic hole out of which we ...2 days ago
Bernard Hickey is one of New Zealand’s leading financial journalists. His latest article, published by Newsroom, lays bare the cruel treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers stranded since the lockdown. Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of ...2 days ago
For a good part of my adult life I have studied civil-military relations. I have studied authoritarian and democratic variants, and I have studied them across countries and regions. I have also worked in and with several US security agencies and have lectured on the theme at a number of ...2 days ago
by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...3 days ago
Minneapolis Police StationIf you’ve been keeping an eye on recent events in the United States, you’ll likely understand why there’s so much anger on the streets at the moment. Not only did police officers murder another black man; it is patently obvious that authorities initially attempted to cover up George ...3 days ago
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...4 days ago
Image credit: Writing an Article vs. Writing a Blog Post: What’s the Difference? I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is ... 4 days ago
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...6 days ago
SATURDAY MAY 30Six60: Live at Western Springs 2020 (TVNZ 1, 8.45pm). Remember live concerts? The day will come again, friends, when we will be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an uncomfortable sweaty venue with people we don’t know. It will happen. Sometimes the sound of concerts drifts over to the ...1 week ago
1 week ago
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...2 weeks ago
age credit: Science and Politics – Skeptically.org It seems impossible to keep politics out of science. It’s a pity because politics can end up forcing science to produce the results desired by ... 2 weeks ago
Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced that new Lockheed Martin Super Hercules aircraft would replace the outdated and costly 1960s Hercules fleet. The $1.521b project will include a flight simulator for staff training and other supporting infrastructure. "This fleet will ensure the Defence Force can continue to support New Zealand's ...51 mins ago
The Green Party is urging the New Zealand Police to rule out the use of Armed Response Teams, following their recent trial in communities around Aotearoa. ...7 hours ago
It's been a busy seven days as we start to rebuild New Zealand together. From delivering extra support for small businesses, to investing in our artists and arts organisations, to cutting red tape on home DIY projects, we're rolling out our plan to get the economy and New Zealand moving ...3 days ago
Extra 40,000 businesses to be eligible for wage subsidy extension Small business cashflow support application period extended The Government is today announcing further support for businesses that continue to be affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, as the broader economy becomes one of the most open in the world following ...55 mins ago
The Herald reported this morning that MediaWorks was on the verge of selling its TV assets to US TV giant Discovery – but an internal email and senior source suggest the story may have been premature.A senior MediaWorks source has emphatically denied a report in the NZ Herald that a ...12 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gery Karantzas, Associate professor in Social Psychology / Relationship Science, Deakin University Life in lockdown has been tough on many relationships. But negotiating the transition back to “normal” as restrictions continue to lift could also be a challenge for couples. So what ...22 mins ago
A slight bounce in the economy is brightening the outlook as the country heads into the winter months, Radio NZ reports. Retail spending is up and NZ shares rose on Thursday for a third day running. Key indicators have led some economists to point to a faster recovery than expected. ...49 mins ago
Finance Minister Grant Robertson, wearing his Sport and Recreation ministerial hat, can show he can be a big spender and draw voters’ attention to his largess each time he dispenses money from the funds under his control – or the control of an agency within his ministerial bailiwick. Yesterday he ...1 hour ago
The National Party says it will create a multi-million dollar fund for projects to boost the struggling tourism sector if elected this year. ...2 hours ago
Analysis: As New Zealand eases restrictions, it no longer has international precedent to look towards and must decide on its own how to reopen the economy while reducing the risk of a second wave of infections, Marc Daalder reports While most of the country eagerly awaits a likely move to ...2 hours ago
Ten days is too long. That from insurance claimant advocate, Ali Jones. EQC has today made contact with homeowners via email after accidentally releasing confidential details of 8000 insurance claims on May 26. Jones says although she has not received ...2 hours ago
The Government picks Waitomo caves as 'strategic tourism asset' and grants $4m to Tourism Holdings, boosting shares another 7.8 percent. Facebook staff and alumni revolt over Zuckerberg's inaction on Trump ...9 hours ago
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan NZ bestseller list and described by ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias. NON-FICTION 1 Vegful by Nadia Lim (Nude Food, $55) 2 Stop Surviving Start Fighting by Jazz Thornton (Penguin Random House, $38) 3 So Delish! by Simone Anderson ...9 hours ago
NZTA is allegedly exploring options for its $1b road to be built with a different set of builders. ...9 hours ago
Systemic white violence against black Americans is alive and well, and it's white violence that sustains white supremacy Current scenes from the United States are both familiar and shocking. George Floyd’s life being brutally snuffed out by Minneapolis police, followed by peaceful protests of Floyd’s murder as well as legitimate ...9 hours ago
The US isn't the only country with a broken criminal justice system that works to criminalise and destroy the lives of black and brown families. Dylan Asafo puts forward two ways NZ could lead in dismantling systems of white supremacy. If you were to imagine a society without racial oppression, ...9 hours ago
Anomalies in the policy for superannuitants with overseas pensions are an indictment on the justice process in New Zealand, write Susan St John and Dr Claire Dale Along with many others, the Retirement Policy and Research Centre has worked assiduously for more than a decade to alert the public, policy-makers ...9 hours ago
A new study indicates native plants, despite their tendency to grow more slowly than exotic species like Pinus Radiata, are better at storing carbon in the soil for longer periods of time. ...9 hours ago
An African American pastor from George Floyd's community gives The Detail a special insight into what's happening there - and gives us hope for the future. “Nobody in America wants to be a racist.” David Hill is a pastor in the Third Ward neighbourhood of Houston where George Floyd grew ...10 hours ago
A strong vote for sustainability would make the resulting Labour-Greens government a confident and ambitious reformer, having shed its NZ First handbrake ...21 hours ago
If you are still needing a reason to vote Green, here is evidence of why we need to act on climate change urgently.
What do we want to leave for our children and grandchildren?
“Southern Alps snow, ice vanishing
Retreating glaciers and uncovered rocks evidence of swift change in climate with implications for sea level.
A third of the permanent snow and ice on the Southern Alps has vanished in less than four decades, according to an analysis of aerial surveys.
In an article published on Australian website The Conversation, three Kiwi researchers describe the story of the alps’ disappearing ice as very dramatic.
The analysis, by climate scientist Dr Jim Salinger, Otago University Professor Emeritus Blair Fitzharris and glaciologist Dr Trevor Chinn, follows on from a paper published by Dr Chinn last year documenting the retreat of our postcard glaciers.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11301095
“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”
+100…
Compared with the now unstoppable collapse of the West Antartic Ice Sheet, the ice disappearing from the Southern Alps is piffling. And there is nothing the Greens can do about either even if they had a 100% majority in Parliament so you might as well vote National, grab your share of the money-go-round and party while you still can.
http://time.com/96173/antarctic-glacier-loss-is-unstoppable-study-says
There are things that can be done to mitigate disasters.
For example I live in a coastal area and yet there are still people building substantial houses and businesses within metres of a coastline that has issues with eroding storm damage . People who invest their money into buildings and businesses on the coastline complain bitterly about RMA regulations yet are the first to go crying to Council to fix the problem when a storm occurs. This type of behaviour costs Councils a lot of time and money and I repeat: the people conducting themselves in such ways are the same people who are not prepared to create distance between the shoreline and their buildings from the outset. It is bloody ridiculous.
“There are things that can be done to mitigate disasters.” – Blue leopard.
Go tell it to the President.
US President B. M. Obama, 14/6/2014
“[S]ince this is a very educated group, you already know the science. Burning fossil fuels release carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide traps heat. Levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are higher than they’ve been in 800,000 years. …
We know the trends. The 18 warmest years on record have all happened since you graduates were born. We know what we see with our own eyes. Out West, firefighters brave longer, harsher wildfire seasons; states have to budget for that. Mountain towns worry about what smaller snowpacks mean for tourism. Farmers and families at the bottom worry about what it will mean for their water. In cities like Norfolk and Miami, streets now flood frequently at high tide. Shrinking icecaps have National Geographic making the biggest change in its atlas since the Soviet Union broke apart.So the question is not whether we need to act. The overwhelming judgment of science, accumulated and measured and reviewed over decades, has put that question to rest. The question is whether we have the will to act before it’s too late. For if we fail to protect the world we leave not just to my children, but to your children and your children’s children, we will fail one of our primary reasons for being on this world in the first place."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/14/1307018/-President-Obama-s-remarks-at-UC-Irvine-commencement-ceremony
US President B. M. Obama, 17/7/2014
“As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to continue to expand safe and responsible domestic energy production, BOEM…today announced that the bureau will offer more than 21 million acres offshore Texas for oil and gas exploration and development in a lease sale that will include all available unleased areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area.”
http://www.boem.gov/press07172014a
Do you wonder that I’ve given up?
You shouldn’t solely base your views on what America is doing. They are screwed politically just now.
We are a much smaller country with a different political system (namely our voting system). We have more opportunity to get a shift happening. The more countries, such as ourselves, that take rational stances toward the problem – the more pressure there will be on America and other more captured countries to make a shift.
“The more countries, such as ourselves, that take rational stances toward the problem – the more pressure there will be on America and other more captured countries to make a shift.”
Er, yeah. Like Europe’s Green powerhouse Germany, now importing coal from the USA to burn for power generation so it can abandon nice ‘clean’ nuclear.
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/on_the_road_to_green_energy_germany_detours_on_dirty_coal/2769
But my original point in response to the thread starter was that voting Green in New Zealand isn’t going to make any difference to the loss of snow and ice on the Southern Alps as that problem doesn’t originate in New Zealand.
“The more countries, such as ourselves, that take rational stances toward the problem – the more pressure there will be on America and other more captured countries to make a shift.”
And exactly how many countries are taking that rational stance? China, India, the EU, Australia.
The hot air emanating from politicians about tackling Global Warming is just adding to the problem.
@ Tom Bradford
Great article you linked to there. It was really informative, thanks.
Yes your original point was that voting Greens wasn’t going to make any difference to the snow and ice loss on the Southern Alps and I responded by saying that having a Greener approach works on many different levels for example as it stands the RMA, which has really good guidelines for mitigating disaster, is being undermined by our current government. This means that people are less likely to be personally affected by the very real issues that are likely to arise in the not so distant future due to climate and pollution issues. Their behaviour and attitudes, therefore, don’t change and this not only means any sea-level rise will cause more disruption than it needs to, it also lowers peoples’ awareness of the issue and drops any pressure for change on a larger scale.
I am not too informed about what countries are taking strong actions on the issue of climate change (hopefully someone who is will jump in … Jenny? I am vaguely aware of perhaps Scandinavian countries, maybe the Netherlands? doing well with greener technology) – it is a pity to hear that about Germany re coal – however that article does indicate that they haven’t given up and perhaps see the use of coal as a way of avoiding nuclear power while they certainly sound like they are investing a lot into finding alternatives. So it is not like they have given up on their aim.
When countries become successful with Greener technologies – they are bound to catch on. We have an opportunity to be part of that process. Moreso than larger countries.
One thing for sure – simply following those countries that are captured by big money and are accordingly not making sincere efforts in that regard certainly won’t address the issue. Nor will defeatism.
Your logic is flawed Tom, if you really believe nothing can be done – Then you should have not commented here, and should be sniffing coke off Keys ass.
“..and should be sniffing coke off Keys ass…”
heh..!
I don’t believe nothing CAN be done. I strongly suspect nothing WILL be done, until it is far too late to prevent disaster. After all, we are already locked in to a 2 – 5’c temperature rise and a minimum 15ft sea-level rise and what has actually been done to ameliorate worse?.
However I’m sorry my expressed opinion disturbed the harminious circle-wank you clearly come here for and won’t waste my time putting up alternative views that might frighten the horses, as I don’t come to The Standard to be insulted.
There are others that express similar concerns on the Standard that you have, Tom – I hope you don’t get completely put off commenting here. I enjoy a variety of opinions as I am sure others do too.
I don’t think that staying down at 2C by the end of the century has about as much hope of happening as a icicle has of surviving the night in hell. Pretty much on track for about 4C or higher and I’d be assuming something closer to 15 metres sea level rise than 5 metres after the WAIS starts getting undercut and lubricated. I suspect from the previous deglaciation evidence, that once it starts, it is very fast emptying the basin area of ice and a bit slower after that.
But those are pretty minor provided you don’t live in the tropics, on an atoll or in a coastal plain like Bangladesh. They take time enough for people to adapt.
It is the rapid weather pattern shifts that are going to be much more problematic. Those will impact directly on to food production. They will do so much earlier than sea level rises or heat prostration. Most people fail to understand exactly how reliant we as a civilization are on the settled weather of the current interglacial in our farming practices.
Nigel Latta on the ‘The New Haves And Have Nots’
Good to see a discussion about inequality
http://tvnz.co.nz/nigel-latta/s1-ep4-video-6025283
I dont normally warm to much to Latta, but I thought that program last night was excellant if you still vote National after watching this program you have to be a loaf short of a picnic.
I am not usually a fan of Nigel Latta either but this time he made a great job of presenting the realities of the huge difference between the haves and the havenots. Since Key English are in denial about this, no doubt they will be very angry little boys. TVNZ please explain!
http://tvnz.co.nz/nigel_latta/video
+100 Nigel Latta is a good guy
Just keep him away from all that “darklands” nonsense.
lol +1 agree!
Some very interesting responses to his programme on face book. Like what Paula Benefit wrote in the Vic Uni magazine in 1996
I was impressed with Nigel Latta’s show – very good indeed. I also share others’ misgivings of Mr Latta – but this show is really something else. Exciting to witness something so informative on TV.
Thanks Nigel Latta and the team that made it.
whyte doing his race-baiting rant on tvnz..
..the man is unintelligible….
..he makes shearer look like a lucid speaker/wordsmith…
..and every appearance whyte makes..
..just confirms how much of an odious-oink he actually is…
Yep odious describes him well.
Just saw this and although so, so, many worthy topics of discussion it is imo important and shocking
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/10324082/Racist-casting-claim-for-Ridley-Scotts-Exodus
check out this tweet – it really is blatant and it is also rewriting history
https://twitter.com/TheeSouthside/status/493509410288041985/photo/1
I am SICK of politicians claiming we should treat everyone the same “under the law” and that is why Maori shouldn’t get Maori seats of whatever. The TREATY of Waitangi is (arguably I know) a legal document. It is “under the law”
A partnership agreement made when Maori were 99% of the population and the british 1%. NOW that our dominance is assured, it’s a piece of law, an agreement that group, and others don’t want any more.
Have some honour
Many of us white folk seem to choose to forget the incredible generosity of the Maori folk back in 1840. Im not to sure that it was 99/1 but there were certainly way more Maori being generous than there were English receiving it at the time.
No doubt, there was an area of misunderstanding between the parties, as to what the other interpreted it to mean (each side interpreting it by their own culture) but that did not excuse the wrongs that were subsequently done to the Maori people.
When you do a wrong, you need to put it right. Hence the Waitangi Tribunal.
contra proferentum my friend. its all allowed for under the law.
Contra proferentem (Latin: “against [the] offeror”),[1] also known as “interpretation against the draftsman”, is a doctrine of contractual interpretation providing that, where a promise, agreement or term is ambiguous, the preferred meaning should be the one that works against the interests of the party who provided the wording.[2] The doctrine is often applied to situations involving standardized contracts or where the parties are of unequal bargaining power, but is applicable to other cases.[3] However, the doctrine is not directly applicable to situations where the language at issue is mandated by law, as is often the case with insurance contracts and bills of lading.[4] wiki
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/graph/36364/maori-and-european-population-numbers-1840-1881
+11111 Tracey – I was not happy when Dame Susan Devoy was appointed Race Relations Commissioner. She did say though that she had a bit of catching up/reading to do about what had gone before, but she certainly has ripped into the ACT leader’s comments and rightly so.http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11301500
Goodness me, first Nigel Latta and now Dame Susan – whoever next.
I imagineshe has learned stuff, like facts, since taking up the position. Previously she, like others only tuned into shallow rhetoric and thought it was “true”
You’ll have to point out to me in the Treaty where is says anything about Maori seats. The Maori Representation Act 1867 was a bribe to Crown loyalists during the land wars and now seem only to exist to prop up National and maybe get Kim Dotcom influence in Parliament.
go read it..
and then we have that racist piece of shit on tvone breakfast..rawdon christie..
..with his blond sidekick..
..defending/(translating?) whyes’ racist diatribe..
..’he’s got a point there’..
(the only point whyte has..is his fucken conehead..)
..and then reading out emails from aggrieved-whites who have suffered from these excessive privileges maori enjoy..(!)..(who fucken knew..?..eh.?..)
..and after reading out an email noting the 150 yrs of maori having their land stolen etc..
..’rawdy’ airily waves his hand..and sneers:..’that’s looking back’…
..just who is the bigger odious-oink..?..whyte or christie..?
whyte accused Guyon of being “all over the place.”
Whyte was the one very much all over the place. Incoherent!
Seems to have done the trick about getting publicity though. Winston even joined in the fun.
yeah..if yr happy about that ‘publicity’ being widespread laughing-at/piss-taking…
..confirmation of what an inarticulate-idiot whyte is..
..i mean..cd the man give instructions on how to get to a bus-stop..?
..without thoroughly confusing the listener..?
not quite – even though i disagree with winston he was far more articulate and he fired some shots at act and nat at the same time
all jamie whyte power did was further confirm hes not very smart – just like most racists
Jamie Whyte wasn’t much better on RNZ this morning. Again, Espiner was asking some good questions. A nice surprise.
Oh I do like listening to jamie Whyte. He is so articulate and you always know what he stands for. The people of Epsom must be jumping up and down with joy at having him represent them in parliament. /sarc.
The people of Epsom must be saying oh fuuuucccckkkkkkk. Oh why, do we have these fools foisted on us by TricKey.
whyte is not the act candidate..he is the party ‘president’..
..(what do you call ‘the president’ of such a small motley-crew as act..?..delusional..?..)
..the actual candidate is a super-dweeb called seymour..
..and yet they keep him well under wraps..(since those unfortunate junping out from behind hedges and scaring people..and video-taping it..episodes..)
..and they wheel whyte out for act public-appearances….because he handles the media better..?..(!)..
(a talent-pool as deep as a petrie-dish..)
..seymour is walking proof of the dictum..’keep them wondering..!..don’t open yr mouth..and prove what an idiot you are!’..
..those lucky lucky epsom-voters…!..eh..?
..aren’t they spoilt..?
Whtye is on the ACT list, and he will get into parliament if any red buttons are found and pushed.
Unfortunately even the richest people are seeing that National no longer is representing their interests. Wealth can be undermined, by boardrooms, by market failures but also by governments undermine the society that underwrites the whole economy.
Why would a wealthy person want to support others to get wealthy, cheat on their taxes, get incentives than undermine their consumers buying power, etc, etc. Its just dumb to want tax cuts, its socialism for the rich, an easy rich for those who are supposed to make their wealth by hard work, or harder risk taking.
National is corrupted by its neo-liberal ideological heart. I still can’t find an example of this high minimum wages causes job loses ideal, the closest I can find is a slave economy, where slave owners raise the amount of money they give the slaves. The slaved then buy themselves out of slavery and push up the unemployment numbers.
Jamie Whyte is not standing as a candidate in Epsom so the people there won’t have him represent them.
But if Act get enough party votes he will get in won’t he?
Yes but you can hardly claim he is representing Epsom in that situation.
well apart from the fact that its only because of epsom he would be there
Then the same would apply to Laila Harre and Te Tai Tokerau if she gets in as a result of Hone winning that seat.
indeed.
Are any parties intentionally throwing the TTT electorate campaign in order to get an overhang on their side? No?
Epsom must be proud.
i have to wonder then Gosman why the pathetic racially divisive idiot is then given airtime anywhere on the TeeVee or my wireless,
The 7 Maori electorates, in my opinion, being a physical manifestation of Tinorangatiratanga, would suggest that until such time as Maori enrolled to vote in such electorates agree to not have them they will be a major feature of our political landscape…
Because it is newsworthy apparently. Winston and Tariana Turia also thought so as they both commented on the subject.
Nah Gos, the people of Epsom understand personal responsibility, surely?
just like they understand the rule of law, contract law and property rights 🙂
for a party that is chock full of crims, doesnt want to honour legal contracts and wants to remove property rights from a group of people, they have some funny policies
ACT’s Whyte is in some ways correct, Maori do have a legal privilege here in Aotearoa/New Zealand,
Its called the Treaty of Waitangi and the only racial problem ever created from the existence of this legal privilege was in fact the ignoring of its provisions once the colonials got the upper hand militarily over the tribal Maori nations…
Interesting that the Treaty is considered a “race” based document. It is between the chiefs and tribes of NZ and the Crown. The former are the owners of property and property rights allowing usage over the same. It just so happens that these “owners” and “sellers” happened to be Maori, the “buyers” non Maori. Under British law we are talking property rights that are inherited by through genealogical linkage. Is that “race” based?
Watch out. Auckland home owners, surely, could argue that they have special treasure in the liveability of Auckland and so stop the councils from raising the building heights.
There was a lilt in his voice, an inflection that screamed out loud and clear his class position: there was an assumed authority that underlined the former. In short a privileged prat. He sounded like Don Brash Mark 2.
His logic on race was quite precise: which all goes to prove that a logical argument can be made for anything in isolation. That in a nutshell is where ACT are, ideologically logical in isolation of any facts or realities that challenge their dogma.
I hope someone takes the time soon, live, to destroy Unclecousin’s facile conceit that his sophistry qualifies as philosophy, while he splutters and rages like the lying entitled wretch he is.
@ oan..
..tidily put…
Precisely:
That being despite all the evidence proving that it’s farming that is ruining our waterways.
How fascinating. You appear to regard people with Don Brash’s “class position” as being privileged prats.
Presumably you regard David Cunliffe as being a “privileged prat” also. After all Don’s father was a Presbyterian Minister and David’s an Anglican one. Both apparently favoured the Labour Party. Hard to see any difference really.
One would have to say they come from the same class, wouldn’t one?
@ alwyn 3.10
How fascinating. That you have not noticed that people from the same class can behave in a variety of ways. There is a general behaviour that people adopt within a class system, with extremes at the fringes. So David Cunliffe can be different from Don Brash on that basis.
Then within each church referred to there are differing attitudes to achieving righteousness. If Don’s parents were Calvinists and David’s were from the liberal side of the Anglican church they would be quite different in their outlooks, though they would be aware of the attitudes likely coming from those positions. The Anglicans have a broad church – the Presbyterians inclined to be more demanding to be worthy of heaven.
The whole core of the rich prick class brought in by Thatcher, was of a socialist party for the rich, and privatizism for the everyone else. They’re the rich so they can cheat on their taxes, and force our taxes up while screaming how we aren’t paying enough.
ACT is not a libertarian party. Its a socialist elite party. Nearest thing a western country comes to a communist politburo. Always dictating how others aren’t shaping up.
gw
Yes alwyn is really fascinating. My god I think DC and DB have the same size shoes too.
“One would have to say they come from the same class, wouldn’t one?’ (No one wouldn’t).
Isn’t torylogic great.
Can you perhaps tell me how the class they come from is different?
Just what class do you think each one was born into if it isn’t the same one?
Claiming say that the Presbyterian church is a higher class than the Anglican which in turn is higher than The Salvation Army which is higher than the Baptist doesn’t really cut it.
Brash became a commercial – a blind servant of mammon – 2nd class. Cunliffe seems to subscribe to a notion of public service that resembles to some degree the synthetic ideals of Hutcheson. As an accountant Brash may have had some virtue, as a statesman he had none. You might also consider Brash’s degree (Canterbury?) vs Cunliffe’s (Harvard?).
I suppose I could consider Don Brash’s degrees, since you have no idea.
Canterbury BA and MA in Economics. That’s economics, not accounting.
ANU PhD. That is a more highly rated University than any of the NZ ones.
Cunliffe has one economics qualification I suppose. A diploma from Massey.
Doesn’t really seem much does it?
Did Brash learn his racism at ANU? The university at which someone gets their qualifications has very little to do with how well they do in their chosen career. I’ve seen many examples of this.
But I have, greywarbler, I have. It was ennui who appears to regard peoples behaviour as being due to the class into which they were born. If you are born in one class he seems to think your behaviour is pre-ordained.
I think that Don and Dave were born into a very similar class background. It didn’t really matter though. Whatever class Don came from I think he would always have been successful and would have contributed greatly to New Zealand, particularly as he did from his time as Reserve Bank Governor. David Cunliffe on the other hand was always going to be a prat.
I will take your word for the religious attitudes of the various churches. I regard all those who profess to believe in a god as being idiots. You are allowed to take the easy way out and say, as Helen Clark did, that you are an agnostic, or come out and say you are an atheist. Anything else is for people who believe in fairies.
Greywarbler – in defence of some Presbyterian friends I have, it is also a fairly broad church. Standard Calvinism is pretty rigid stuff, but my friends (one a reverend) have been in favour of “worldly” things like gay marriage and marijuana legalisation for years. My impression was that it was broader than the Anglicans, with some of the more traditional Anglicans being able to swap easily to Catholicism.
@ Murray Olsen 1.43
Trying to classify religions as I did was a mistake. I remember now one interesting book by I think, a chap Greenwood, which referred to the high Anglican church and its rites being so near Catholicism, setting its style apart from the practice of the major part of the church. Actually there are some quite good crime stories that weave religious practices and styles in and it is a fascinating theme within the genre.
And alwyn I think you are looking down on the goings on of pollies, while I am the reverse, looking up. And I see Don Brash as a prat who probably got too much praise at school for being precise and clever while never learnign much about actual human behaviour, and David Cunliffe as being successful, highly trained, experienced and yet human-oriented, less statistical and theory biased and more ground-based than Brash.
I don’t like fervent idealists and theory based, utopian followers whether its in economic theory squeezing life to comply, or socially based humanitarian ones who announce the world belongs to the people in fervent tones, or knock-it-all-down and rebuild fresh and new stirrers, or religious ones whose hymn is I Did it my Way, and there is no other, and anyway it is the next life that counts. A pox on all their houses.
John Key says that water quality is not that bad, all it means is that we can’t swim in some rivers on some days.
Show us the money John. It’s your policy, so you should understand the costs by now. Tell us which rivers and which days. Or is it more like which catchments and which months or seasons?
Fish and Game sound really unimpressed by the government on this issue.
As am I.
Paul Fish & Game are so unimpressed that they have (collectively as a Council that is) called for Nick Smith’s resignation – the resignation of their very own Minister.
And these are sensible calm rational people (the f&g folk that is, not smith of course)
National, firstly they bought us carless days now its rivers we cant swim in. Time for real change.
Fantastic cartoon by Murdoch in the Press this morning showing Nick Smith at a restaurant refusing a glass of water “strained lovingly through cows” while he eats fish.
Someone described this as not the “rock star economy” but the “pollution economy”, which is most apt. John Key’s pollution economy.
And Tom Scott in the Dom, Nick screaming that no one will get away with accusing him of bullying!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/cartoons/
Given the newspaper rage aimed at Mr Cunliffe about the Liu affair, does it seem strange that newspapers seem to have almost avoided the clean water/Smith issue?
OOps. Found some items in the Newspapers today though muted criticism of Old Nick.
I think the swimming in Hawaii is great. Key probably wonders why people dont just there on holidays to swim.
I want to see on what days Key and his family are prepared to swim in which rivers?
From my wireless, RadioNZ National, 550+ pack out the hall at the Rotorua InternetMana roadshow, the sniff of 5% of the vote for InternetMana i had last week just got as pungent as that from one of the many mud-pools up there in Waiariki,
Those numbers say to me Annette Sykes will be the new Member of Parliament for that electorate, the tangi for the Maori Party begins….
Clarification from yesterdays open mike
I posted this
“Actor Cliff Curtis has become the latest celebrity to publicly declare support for the Mana Movement.” http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10320814/Cliff-Curtis-supports-Mana
today this
“But Curtis today clarified his position, saying that “while I respect my cousin Annette Sykes’ commitment in engaging in the political process, I do not endorse or support any political party”.” http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/10324758/Cliff-Curtis-denies-Mana-support
Hope that’s all sorted now 🙂
Not to split hairs but the second piece was published yesterday and last updated at 18:58 and not today. It was also on TV3’s site at 5:44p.m.
lol thanks allen
No worries Mars, I know you’re a stickler for accuracy and stuff.
“someone” should not have put Curtis in the media mix till he had at least fronted the event. Always easier to let a cat out of the bag than add one.
I don’t know the inside story here yet, but do know that there are a number of whanau still split along Mana/Māori Party lines that take it seriously which is why Hone was still reaching out for some kind of rapprochement last year.
Curtis is just doing a nice turn of supporting his bollocks with a fence rail.
And now for the next act… surprise surprise folks … (drum roll) … bring you hands together for Simon Bridges…… (applause) … our latest LIAR from John Key’s government.
Yesterday Bridges admitted spending $240,000 on oil execs in NZ for the rugby world cup
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10326838/Oil-exec-junket-needed-Govt
The result?… is this … “Only one of those companies had so far been granted a petroleum exploration permit but had committed to spending almost $20 million here,”
BUT folks here is the clanger, the lie, the deceit and the dishonesty that you have all been waiting for …… I give you again …. Siiiimmon Bridgeessssss…. (applause) …
“But Energy Minister Simon Bridges defended the spending: “the sums expended were very modest …. and has resulted in billions of dollars of international investment in New Zealand.”
…. ta daa
$20million the reality
$billions the liar claims.
Simon Bridges please take your place alongside all the other liars in your government….
(the audience is nearly all gone at this point …)
Yep, six oil companies, that’s a 40 grand piss up, accommodation, and, you can just about bet with certainty free tickets to the rugby for each of those oil companies, only one of which has taken up the right to explore here, all paid for by us the taxpayers,
i wonder if that was one executive per company that such largesse was bestowed upon by Slippery’s National Government, if so, the expense would suggest that they got flown around the country on one very long drunken tour of our rugby stadia,
Meanwhile, those of us living life within the small means brushed our way as crumbs off of the table got to watch ‘live’ from the big screens at the pub…
Chevron, Statoil, Apache and? ??
I’m pretty sure these three companies will make investment decisions on factors other than sychophantic governments. A nice presentation to the Boards would have done the trick if NZ had solid investment potential. I’ keen toknow whhether thre other three companies are established players or cowboy companies. Also if any of them operate here already, or have up sticks and left.
This is a nice touch at the end:
Yes, let’s point out what taxes are for, while somehow implying that if not for oil exploration we’d not have roads, schools and hospitals.
Yes clever clogs, well aware of the place of the mining and oil sector in NZ …. but you missed the deception. The point of the comment was not the place of oil and mining, it was the dishonesty of Simon Bridges…. can you see it here?
“the sums expended were very modest …. and has resulted in billions of dollars of international investment “
Yes, I can, I was being sarcastic about the need to include that tidbit at the end.
oh woops so you were – burning the candles at all ends makes for weary brain. Time for time out.
And if we didnt spend 250k wining and dining they would walk away from their drills…
And remember this Government buying votes for the Security Council bid with junkets to NZ/Queenstown.
question for the day:
..can john banks drive..talk on cellphone..and pick ‘n eat earwax…at the same time..?
i was just about to indulge in my favorite breakfast when i read that, 2 toasts, i each with a swipe of marmite and peanut butter, both then lashed with guacamole,
Think i might wait for your image of Banks indulging in His dogs dinner to fade…
sounds like a yummy breakfast…i also have avocado on my toast when i can ….what about the black coffee?
just read pu’s comment …disguisting….glad i have finished my vege/peanut butter toast
That’s my standard munch at breakfast Chooky, laugh, six months ago i had never even made guacamole now its become a staple replacing butter or margarine which are both off the menu here,(and strangely enough not missed at all),
i have just moved to supplying myself with milk for $1.20 a liter via buying in the skim milk powder and purchasing a couple of liter bottles with screw top lids which resemble the milk bottles of my hugely misspent youth,(takes all of five minutes to mix, and is best accomplished by mixing half the liter and then leaving overnight for the froth from the shaking to dissipate),
Soy milk which tastes yummy has been put through my testing regime and found wanting in a number of areas including cost,(anyone thinking of shifting to obtaining their milk via powder should buy the kilo pack as there is no savings involved from buying the smaller packages)…
Well you could put your sign out as a local breakfast cafe as far as i am concerned! …breakfast is the meal of the day i enjoy most i think ( probably because i havent eaten for a while….food tastes so much better on an empty stomach)
Lolz, i have a breakfast menu, including a couple of slices of one of the poor little piggies rear end that is the ultimate in Delish, works as dinner as well…
…you won’t be arguing with Phillip over breakfast then!
..once when I was in an isolated fish and chip shop with my 8 year old son a Mongrel Mob looking guy walked in and my 8 year old red head said “Mum, what do people taste like?”….the Mongrel Mob guy looked interested ….I said “I dont know but your sister would!”…there was the teenage daughter cool as a cucumber …she would have scared any Mongrel Mob!…the guy smiled ever so slightly…I said “I have heard people taste a bit like bacon that is why they were called ‘long pig’ ”
Maybe some NACTS will come knocking at your door and you could have them in for breakfast
Just watched BamBam on the Whitehouse Lawn “givin them damned godless Ruskies” a tongue lashing. Absolute pity about the whole thing was that nothing he said could be backed up by solid evidence, it was all be implication. What the limp rag Uncle Tom was announcing was more sanctions against Russia on behalf of US corporate energy and agricultural corporates. The Russians of course are better placed because they don’t have to rely upon “faith” in the Greenback..they have the real oil and gas that Europe so desperately needs. Merkel wont risk German wealth just to help out a US oil company that cant supply her industry.
Somehow I think the whole issue is going to blow up in our faces with much higher oil prices: the timing is such a pit because along with the drop in dairy receipts, pressure on petrol prices might just have given Key and his cronies a massive electoral headache.
Uncle Tom….
really ?
The election of a “black” President does not seem to have done any good for “his” people. One can only surmise that Obama is powerless to change the way things are for African Americans OR he does not care. Both would be Uncle Tom traits.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/nov/03/obama-african-americans-paradox
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/28/these-seven-charts-show-the-black-white-economic-gap-hasnt-budged-in-50-years/
http://blackagendareport.com/content/expansion-black-american-misery-under-barack-obama%E2%80%99s-watch
To say that Obama doesnt care is pretty harsh. To say that on the important stuff, he doesnt actually have much of a say, would be far more accurate.
The things he did push, like ObamaCare (he promised “You can keep your existing plan”) may or may not have been a good policy move, but its upsetting a bunch of his middle income voters who already had an existing plan and couldnt keep it, despite the promise.
Those who got cover for the first time, were overwhelmingly likely to support the Democratic nominee in any case.
Laila Harre is standing in Helensville for the Internet/Mana Party.
Hopefully, this will encourage Prime Minister John Key to participate in Helensville electorate candidate debates.
I look forward to voters who support candidates who are members of political parties, giving them their PARTY vote, and giving me their ELECTORATE vote as the (fiercely) Independent MP for Helensville.
All good!
Penny Bright
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
It will confirm Key as a no show in Hellensville. WHY would he debate he has won that seat.
“nternet Mana leader Laila Harre will take on Prime Minister John Key in the Helensville electorate.
Harre says she wants to debate Key at candidate meetings and says he has “some explaining to do.”
Key had a 21,000 majority at the last election and has held the seat since 2002.
“I want to wake New Zealanders up from the anaesthetic trance that John Key has induced with his soothing words,” Harre said.
A spokesman for Key said, “the Prime Minister has said Ms Harre is free to stand wherever she likes.” “
Why would he waste his time.
You capture Key’s arrogance quite well..
with his electorate? – beats me too – its not like he lives there or ever visits is it
Yet people know this and are still happy to vote for him in overwhelming numbers.
Accountability?
+100 Penny …Go Girl!
Penny! Don’t stand in Helensville . You and Laila will split the left vote and allow John Key to come through the middle. Yeah Nah.
That would be about 20 votes each would it?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10324092/Peters-No-deal-with-Maori-Mana
Do keep up will ya.
So, Slippery the Prime Minister has spun the roulette wheel and bet the ‘House’ on Winston Peters, that’s some gamble from the money trader who in His former life always got to play the game with the deck having been previously stacked by the bigger money boys on the floors of the ‘trading house’ above,
There’s a huge prospect in play here where NZFirst and Colon’s Conservatives become entwined in a lose/lose battle for party vote %’s each chiseling not only votes from each other but crucially nibbling at the soft rump of the National Governments own party vote,
A minus for NZFirst in September will be the loss of support from those who in election 2011 voted for that party solely on the basis that Slippery the PM ruled Peters out of inclusion in a National coalition, and, in the chess game of MMP politics voted as a ‘check’, which incidently nearly became ‘check-mate’, to ensure National as all the media polls were suggesting at the time, could not ‘Govern alone’,
Unfortunately this ‘tactical vote’ which helped NZFirst re-enter the Parliament in 2011 cannot be measured, but, my opinion says, a 3% Conservative vote along with the loss of that 2011 ‘tactical vote’ will see NZFirst fall again, as the party did in 2008, agonizing short of the 5%,
If Anette Sykes wins Waiariki, and, last nights standing room only InternetMana meeting in that electorate has me giving Her a 70/30 advantage over the dying Maori Party’s Flavell there, then Nationals chances of forming a third term Government look even more remote,
Kick ACT from Epsom and/or Dunne from Ohariu and it becomes virtually impossible for the Tory’s to gain that third term,
The left? despite the media polls, looking good, by that i mean looking GOOD, Labour 33%, Greens 12%, InternetMana 5%, not too big an ask at all i would suggest….
I’m conflicted, on the one hand National in power = good but Winston with some form of power = bad
i always seen you as confused Puckish, add to that conflicted and we await the addition of a few more words beginning with the consonant C, above four letters please, and we may have you described to a T as opposed to simply describing you in simpler form via C with few other letters added….
(Condensed springs to mind as an addition to confused/conflicted)…
[lprent: Approaching pointless again. ]
Well thats just plain rude 🙂
i have some manual labour to attend to, be assured Puckish, later there is more such ‘rudeness’ to be supplied and applied…
I used to do manual labour but I prefer to work inside now, much better on the body
the nz herald features in the huffington post..
..but not to be praised/for good reasons…
“..Newspaper Runs Image Of ‘Jackass’ Star Instead Of Killed Israeli Soldier..”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/29/newspaper-gaza-ryan-dunn-jackass-new-zealand_n_5629828.html?ref=topbar
Starve them and mow the lawn.
In 2006 Weissglass was just as frank about Israel’s policy towards Gaza’s 1.8 million inhabitants: ‘The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.’ He was not speaking metaphorically: it later emerged that the Israeli defence ministry had conducted detailed research on how to translate his vision into reality, and arrived at a figure of 2279 calories per person per day – some 8 per cent less than a previous calculation because the research team had originally neglected to account for ‘culture and experience’ in determining nutritional ‘red lines’
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n15/mouin-rabbani/israel-mows-the-lawn
The regularity of Israel’s perceived need to use force is illustrated by the notorious expression, “mowing the lawn,” that one of its military officers used to describe strategy toward Gaza. It is reminiscent of the advice that Thrasybulus gave Periander of Corinth, recounted in Herodotus. Walking through a field, Thrasybulus broke off the tallest ears of grain by way of showing Periander’s envoy the best way to rule violently. The envoy couldn’t figure out his meaning, but Periander, the prototype of the ancient tyrant, understood immediately on hearing the envoy’s report. The analogy showed that violence could not be a one-time affair. New stalks would grow up. It would remain necessary to keep lopping off the top ones—i.e. mowing the lawn.
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-thrasybulus-syndrome-israel%E2%80%99s-war-gaza-10968
Following the destruction of the sole power station 90% of Gazans are without electricity.
American Intelligence Officers Who Battled the Soviet Union for Decades Slam the Flimsy “Intelligence” Against Russia
What the professional’s think of the ‘evidence’ against Russia can only be termed scathing. They’re particularly nasty in their condemnation of Senator Kerry.
I just read on another blog a post by someone complaining about Key’s WWI speech yesterday, and was pleased to see someone felt the same as I did. Other pollies spoke with emotion and as this person said, from the heart. But John Key read his speech without any emotion or emphasis. He looked bored and he sounded it and as if it was all just too tiring and bothersome. I felt it was insulting that he didn’t take the time to familiarize himself with the material someone else had written for him. I can only think the subject was just not important enough to him personally. Our veterans weren’t worth the bother of him learning his speech and speaking with the level of commitment the commemoration deserved. Why are so many blinded by this fake?
Don’t take it personally. He’s always like that. There is nothing warm or genuine about him, he’s just going through the motions. Enter room, shake hands with Important Person One, smile, shake hands with Important Person two, smile. Give canned speech written by someone else. Wait until applause dies down. Move away for media standup. Exit. Move on to next event.
As to why so many are blinded, there is a lot that power, money and superficial charm can convince people to overlook.
Gaza: hell on earth. http://i.imgur.com/H0NSLBk.jpg
..the Israeli government has gone mad …it is hell of a PR for Israelis around the world …they are beginning to look more and more like the Nazi government…they will be called to account by history and future generations for crimes against humanity ….and the rest of the world had better not look on and do nothing about it!…because we also will be called to account!
Daniel Barenboim is one Israeli who has spoken out
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/07/29/bare-j29.html
I met Mirak Smisek several times ….a New Zealand potter of repute, an a opponent of the Nazis and a refugee from Nazi torn Europe …and he told me that it is art that will save us…it was art that gave him hope and art that helped him transcend the evil he had witnessed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirek_Sm%C3%AD%C5%A1ek
Daniel Barenboim is transcendent in a similar way
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/apr/04/beethoven-and-quality-courage/
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11301000
Looks like Phil Quin, like Jones, Pagani and Steve Kilgallon’s mysterious “insider”, is a paid-up member of the ABC club.
Yep it really grates when the right of the party side with the Herald to tell us there is no bias to see and to move along when we spend so much time detailing the concerns. Their choice is a dead giveaway. If the Herald wanted a debate it would select a leftie not an apologist for the right.
I also wish Quin would get his stuff right. The comment about how Labour is only going for the missing million has been replied to on numerous occasions but he still trots out the wrong line …
Just remember that after the next election and you’re scrambling around for excuses as to why Labour did so badly you were told time and time again whats wrong with Labour
that there was a bunch of turncoats who are in the wrong party and who couldnt swallow thier egos and get in behind the boss?
yeah we know that one already
+100 Framu
That they arent National enough?
I’ll tell you what I have had a gut full of – people who are so lacking in respect that they think they can turn the Labour Party into a vehicle for whatever suits them. For God’s sake, this guy cites the opinion of Shane Jones, who has decamped to work for National. Having taken a glance at other headlines of Quin’s, I assume he is one of the eighties’ influx of aspiring “young men of the city” who sought a vehicle for themselves under Douglas’s wing. And Josie and her ilk appear to think the party exists to allow nice, talented people like themselves to retain a foothold among the political/media elite. To these people I say, read the party’s bloody principles, and try to refrain from dissembling to yourself as you do so! You would not become a priest because the Catholic church could do with more atheists. You would not join the Greens to contribute a much-needed voice in favour of fracking. Why do you think it is OK to do this kind of thing to Labour?
Labours a broad church so i’m guessing their views are valid otherwise why would you have the likes of Mallard, Cosgrove, Goff , King etc etc still hanging around
As opposed to National which is a Cult.
For the money, I suppose !
Mickey
What does it take to get chucked out of Labour? Surely scuttling the ship is not a good thing?
We had a conversation about Phil Quin on another Open Mike.
It resulted in Karen sharing this article.
Phil Quin was someone who tried to get rid of Helen Clark prior to her gaining the government for 9 years.
Perhaps that is why he is an ex Labour adviser?
Not someone’s advice who I would listen to.
It is about time those further right (centrists) created a new party. As it stands it appears that the ‘right-wing’ faction of Labour are pissing on our chances of a decent left-wing government gaining power. Those who are ‘centrists’ in the party need to realise that Labour have very much been presenting themselves to appeal to the centre whilst still attempting to appeal to those further left too. It is ultraistic to push Labour’s current stance any other way. I wish those right-wing /’centrist’ types connected to Labour would stop their squawking and get real.
[Additionally in his article Quin cited, amongst other things, the Dong Liu saga as ‘mismanaged’ by Labour – omitting to mention the story was fictitious and yet propagated by our media. There has been no apology for that nonsense. The problem there was Labour took the story seriously – how were they to know that the media would grab something so unsubstantiated and report it as fact? I think most people who followed that story were truly shocked by how lacking in facts that story was.]
Here is a working link to that other Open Mike:
Interesting BL. So according to Quin Helen’s reign and the fifth Labour Government was an abject disaster for the party and we should be led by Shane Jones, no doubt with Josie Pagani as deputy.
Words fail me …
I am thinking, broadly, the difference between nats and labs is
Nats are driven by self interest and that drive will lead them to a collective lie cos they think it will benefit them in the long run
Labs are driven by self interest and if they think they wont get what they want, they will burn the house down
It is certainly looking like that although I think it is important to acknowledge the many Labourites who are loyal and are working diligently. Those loyal people need to speak firmly to the ones that are wrecking things for Labour and tell them in no uncertain terms how unacceptable their behaviour is.
Agreed.
Anything theydois undermined by the type i describe.
Former labour seems to mean when roger dpuglas was in power, so having them as commentator for the left is a joke cos they probably vote ACT now
😆 …. yes it beggars belief…
… and yet Quin gets his platform as a left-supportive commentator….?
I’m sure that a few of them would be quite comfortable in ACT.
Or united future… The right wing party pretending to care but bobbing its head in agreement to policies that are unfair
Yes it’s true that this is someone’s OPINION, well spotted 🙄
Even this crap: “Supporters and activists find it much easier to blame straw-men, presumably along with a mandatory 50 per cent of straw-women……”
This could be the most relevant part: “Phil Quin is a FORMER Labour Party adviser and a strategic communications consultant”
Yep, unemployed ‘strategic communications consultant’ touting for work.
yet another rightwing labour-trout..eh..?
..hardly an endangered-species…
He’s certainly no Mighty Quin, but he’s possesses a lame schoolboy humour Key
would beis proud of.I think Labour is failing, sadly, on several issues…
one of which is tax policy…
as an example:
Your image proves you an idiot.
Stylee 😆
i think Richard is flailing, sadly, in the wrong place at the wrong time, it really is too late in the piece for us to be attempting to exploit that which we see as not quite right in the policy arena,
The 3 years just passed were the times to be talking thus, with the campaign proper having overtaken such concerns the vote itself now becomes the imperative,
i like these numbers, for me they have a certain resonance, an inevitability if you will, Labour 33%, Greens 12%, InternetMana 5%, my little gaze into the crystal ball of the 2014 election…
A dreadful comment on Radionz this morning about the ballooning tragedy and the defects of the CAA. They knew lots about the guy, binge drinker, marijuana smoker, incidents. But they all know each other, and cosset each other apparently. The CAA put hot air balloons low on the dangerous list! They are not only not doing their job properly, they are under their own control and espouse apparently, that stupid, irresponsible free market crap about businesses should control and regulate themselves.
And they are one of these pseudo-government entities that are free to operate as they wish without control, oversight or discipline from government.
It is time that we demanded a complete overhaul and sacking of these pompous, diseased shits. The disease of arrogant position, so that they feel no shame when accidents occur, just throwing excuses, statistics and technical jargon in everyone’s eyes when actually the source of the fault is quite obvious to the naive, unpropagandised enquirer. And a Royal Commission to establish the fault properly. These so and so’s in CAA should be jailed and fined as well. The interview with David Still sets out the situation well.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
Balloon death families call for government to act ( 12′ 43″ )
09:08 David Still’s daughter Alexis was one of 10 passengers who died in a hot air balloon crash in Carterton in 2012, along with pilot Lance Hopping. He says the Civil Aviation Authority failed to act despite repeated complaints about Hopping prior to the accident, and he’s calling for the government to force change upon the aviation safety regulator.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport
CAA failed to take action over balloon pilot complaints ( 3′ 11″ )
08:23 An inquest has been told several complaints had been made to the Civil Aviation Authority about the pilot of a hot-air balloon which crashed in Wairarapa in 2012 killing all 11 people on board.
Preventable accidents in NZ –
Crash survivors sue Ansett for $3 million – Tony Stickley – NZ …
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/tony-stickley/news/article.cfm?a_id=143...
Dec 23, 1999 – … Dash-8 flight which smashed into a hill while trying to land at Palmerston North in June 1995. Two passengers and one crew member died in the tragedy. … The airline had also made a deliberate decision not to replace faulty landing gear, … on flying the plane, said Mr Miles, the captain was helping the co-pilot lower the …
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=192796
As evidence would show, this was not as alarming as it may sound. Landing gear problems on the Dash-8s had become so frequent that pilots had stopped reporting them to Ansett.
But what Captain Sotheran and First Officer Brown had failed to notice was that their aircraft was perilously close to the foothills of the Tararua Ranges, to the east of Palmerston North.
Interesting from CAA 1990s
NZ Fixed Wing Aviation Accidents 1995-2004
Seven Crop and Food deaths.:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3506293
Interestingly, i gather the market response is that now that business will fail, and others will see their failure, due to deaths, and do stuff to avoid people dying… But look how many have to die
Job interview at 2pm.
Only a fixed term contract through January 31st 2015, but a bit of breathing space from Mr Wolf when he comes a knocking.
Don’t know what to say about my last employment when asked, but I’ll burn that bridge when I’ve crossed it.
Good luck
Cheers mate
I bought fake job references on the Internet—and it worked
http://www.dailydot.com/business/career-excuse-fake-job-references/
http://www.careerexcuse.com/
By almost any measure, I have an impeccable résumé.
I went with honesty being the best policy. Whether it works or not is out of my hands now.
I was happy enough with my performance. I’ll just have to keep my trotters crossed.
Labour had some concerns about the proposals, but agreed to back the bill into law because it felt urgent measures were needed to relieve house prices.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/election-2014/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503581&objectid=11301094
And many wonder what the difference between Nat and Lab are ? Well for developers IMO they allow for profits to increase as they transfer costs to the rate payer, and I defie anyone to prove anything different.
If anyone has any ideas that transferring council contributions to rate payers will reduce the price of property, they are misguided. The price we pay for a house is “market driven” not as cost plus basis.
If you look to the last major building industry crisis, leaky homes, developers took profits, shut down the company, avoided any liability and have had NO legislation aimed at them… Builders, yes. Designers? Yes. Developers no, and this govt wants to give them more money, less regulation and still no tightening of liability.
And they get full support from Labour. Next year when rates have increased it is not all the fault of our local govt, they have been given a hospital pass from Wellington.
Many of the services that are to now be funded by “other ” sources like libraries, sports grounds, community facilities, there are vast amounts that have been already collected by council & to be spent in the future, but under the LTCCP are deferred., part of the reason is the squeeze on councils increasing debt. Also talking of the LTCCP , councils spent huge resources, $ and time in preparing these and in one wee stroke all the work and planning of funding and timing has been undone. What a waste
Now that Stephen Joyce has confirmed that he will be nationalising Novopay from Talent2, can some one tell me whether Michelle Boag is a shareholder in Talent2?
dunno about boag…but banks was…
Beyond Reasonable Doubt?–police culture is still reactionary no doubt about that.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11301287
This expensive re–look at the 4 decades old Crewe murders is only significant for more arse covering and fingers in ears from the blue bellies. They do manage to find space to retry the case and smear pardoned and compensated Arthur Thomas again and let one early suspect off the hook.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10328036/Labour-pledges-2-rise-in-minimum-wage-to-16-25
no..this was heralded before..
..and gee..!..shock horror..!..labour party promises to raise minimum wage..
..the story wd be if they weren’t promising to do that..
..um..!..do you ever say anything that could be of the slightest interest to anyone..?
..do you ever take the sneer off yr face..
..are you really as thick/simplistic as you appear in yr postings here..?..
..or is it a routine/act that you do..?
I apoligise if I sound rude but I’m having trouble following you
first step..join the mana party..
..second step:..stop eating animals..and their bye-products..
..third step..stop drinking booze..smoke pot instead..
..(then get back to me..and i’ll give you some more ‘following’-tips..)
..oh..!..and go to the pound..and get a dog or two…eh..?
first step..join the mana party..
..second step:..stop eating animals..and their bye-products..
..third step..stop drinking booze..smoke pot instead..
..oh..!..and go to the pound..and get a dog or two…eh..?
“The problem is it doesn’t matter if you vote left or vote right bacon is delicious”
Aint that the truth of it.
“I don’t think smoking pot is all that good for you either”
If you’re a balloon pilot it really isn’t.
RIP to those who perished in the Wairarapa ballooning tragedy, it could be said that to be the passenger of a balloon pilot so affected is even worse,
Obviously, at some point in the future when the Parliament comes to look at the decriminalization/legalization of that particular substance such concerns as how to address the use of such vis a vis employment/public safety issues will have to be an inherent part of such Legislation,
The recent ‘running aground’ of a Tranzrail passenger train at the Melling station here in Wellington has been attributed to either a too high speed limit rounding the bend into that particular end of the line station and/or the Marijuana use of the driver…
“in the future when the Parliament comes to look at the decriminalization/legalization of that particular substance such concerns as how to address the use of such vis a vis employment/public safety issues”
Not to make light of that shocking preventable tragedy, but a literacy test might be a start.
You will have to be far more lucid than this comment Alien if such ”literacy test’ were directed my way,
Of course as a general comment thought of as directed ‘elsewhere’ it becomes far clearer to understand,
Phillip below seems to have, perhaps mastered the art of the oblique when referencing a particular commenter,
Of course as ‘it’ is never ever engaging with me again here at the Standard that comment surely cannot be aimed my way,
i would have really liked to spark a discussion about puckering up to relieve some commenters of their condyloma but don’t dare…
“You will have to be far more lucid than this comment Alien if such ”literacy test’ were directed my way,”
Nah, I mostly get what you’re going on about.
“Of course as a general comment thought of as directed ‘elsewhere’ it becomes far clearer to understand,”
Bullseye. …Ah!!!..the rambling prose…
“condyloma”
I had to google.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condyloma
i laughs,(but only quietly up my sleeve), gee Alien for once i am a little disappointed in the Wiki,
my Collins English ‘book of words’ is far more descriptive and explanatory when the words puckering up are considered previous to a reference to condyloma,
i am of course far to polite to go into the minute detail here, and besides, its dinner time…
@ pouting ‘bad-boy’..
well at least you have got yr ‘following’ sorted out..eh..?
..that was a particularly silly conceit on yr part to claim that..eh..?
Those on The Standard who read women’s magazines will enjoy this one:
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/07/lessons-in-capitalism-from-kim-kardashian/375252/
David Cunliffe’s facebook page just sent a message:
https://www.facebook.com/david.cunliffe.labour
excellent idea…
Yes, I thought so too 🙂
Yes, just like a political commissionar in the old soviet union. All decisions will be then be able to be vetoed if they don’t meet certain “National interest” criteria.
Do you think multinationals shouldn’t pay their fair share of tax or not, Gosman?
no gossie..just ensuring they pay their tax…
..r u ‘relaxed’ about these thieving-bastards ripping us blind…?
…Gosman has suddenly come over all coy about responding. Funny thing that.
[lprent: Could be working? After all that is why my moderation sweeps have gotten more intermittent. ]
He probably is one of those thieving bastards.
😆 😯
“Yes, just like a political commissionar in the old soviet union.”
Or like a political commissar in Radio New Zealand: the purpose Richard Griffin has been fulfilling for the past few years.
Will that include unions that don’t pay their fair share as well?
Are unions ‘multinationals’?
So unions get a free pass on tax, good to know
Don’t know how you arrive at that conclusion
Oh, for goodness’ sake.
Unions will get no more of a ‘free pass’ on tax than any New Zealand-based business or other organisation currently does.
This policy is an additional tax enforcement strengthening measure and not the removal of all tax enforcement for everyone other than some errant multinationals.
Yes I can just see Cunliffe going after the unions for tax money…
Do you think multinationals shouldn’t have to pay their fair share of tax?
pouting ‘bad-boy’ is like gossie..
..he won’t answer that question..
..they both ‘duck and cover’..
..that is their answer..
Tell us about a vegan’s stance on possum/rat/weasel/stoat control any time.
Puckish, David Cunliffe as far as i know does not collect taxes, the IRD involve themselves in that activity,
i see no suggestion from you or the Labour Party that Trade Unions will be absolved from taxes by altering of the current Legislation which makes your comment somewhat deserving of a multiple lettered epithet starting with the consonant, (you choose)…
Those right-wing hacks/commenters are so irrational…and yet they are the type to trust that ‘markets players are rational’ – you couldn’t make this stuff up.
You need to pop away and research multinational. Clue its not a terms for national mps who change their positions on things many times
Further to the decreasing voter turnout debate…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/assignments/will-you-be-voting-in-this-election/10327597/I-value-my-privacy-more-than-my-vote
People such as the writer of this article apparently fall outside the expected group of low income folk, people in debt or worried about immigration status, etc.
I think this group who just don’t want their details bought and sold for business gain is growing.
Anyone got a good reason for the roll to be published at all? I can’t see why and I bet the turnout would go through the roof if voters were allowed to remain anonymous, just as the vote they cast is.
Not that I know of.
That said, it was possibly an idea that someone had that people would be able to look at the role and see if there were people on it that shouldn’t be. It may have worked if communities stayed below about 1000 people and everyone knew everyone else. Won’t work in any community above that size though.
And these days we have better options to ensure that people are registered where they should be without having to make the role publicly available.
It’s up to the EC to decide who should and should not be on the roll, not the public. So at the moment you have to register by paper, or online using RealMe. Even using RealMe you have to open an account then go to a postshop and have your photo taken.
Even after all of this I cannot see a reason for publishing unless the EC have been given a directive to fund themselves by selling voters’ information to third parties.
Ie, user pays, even when voting, a basic right in any democracy.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10326510/Ron-Mark-eyes-return-to-parliament
News from my wireless, RadioNZ National, the Government has announced it will establish a private company to take over the Education Payroll from Novopay,
Novopay is said to be paying the Government an undisclosed amount as penalty payment for a system that still fails to fulfill its expectations,
Gee only how many years too late and the ‘problems’ in the system will still have to be addressed by this ‘private company’…
From, I think, the same item on Checkpoint Stephen Joyce admitted that the taxpayer was picking up the larger share of the tab because there was “blame on both sides”. The Ministry had, apparently, bungled some things too. He didn’t mention who the negligent Minister was who has just cost us this coin.
Then, when asked if this was a case of the public sector being better than the private sector Joyce said words to the effect of ‘not at all, it simply happens that the government holds one side of the contract in this case and is taking over’.
But I thought that governments and their bureaucracies just can’t do this sort of stuff. Wouldn’t they be the last type of organisation you’d therefore turn to for a safe pair of hands in this kind of situation?
Aren’t things like payrolls just too tricky by half for them to get their heads around. The private sector, on the other hand …
Do we need another Henare voted into Parliament? The last one was bad enough. Is it not time for labour supporters to start voting for greens and other candidates in electorates? Labour activist here and elsewhere, keep begging the left not to split the vote. The gall to ask people to hold there noses and vote for some Tory scum in red clothing.
How about all those so called supporters of working people advise/aid/direct, or just be honest about some of the candidates that the labour party have put up. Phil Goff, Stuart (I think your grandfather is rolling in his grave) Nash, I’m sure others can be added to this list.
These are the evil shits we need to remove, the elephant in the room – how much longer labour people, how much longer you going to push the dead donkey?
Why do labour supporters keep putting up with these scum?
In the interests of working people any chance we can have an honest debate about the dead chaff in Labour who are hell bent on losing this election? Or am I going to get called a right wing troll – stupid or some other slagging off? Are the labour faithful going to go into fits of there own self-righteousness, and cling to any old Tory wannabe?
You say you like David Cunliff, yet he keeps being treated like shit. Labour have finally put up a leader who will make a bloody decent PM. And it is these MP wannabes who seem to me the happiest to poop in their own nest. Quite frankly, it reeks of the politics of self interest.
Everyone is accusing Jamie Whyte from the Act Party of being a racist.
Hypothetically speaking, if his partner was black, like I mean black black, would that change anything?
[lprent: Everybody? Don’t be a fool. There are usually thousands of people reading this site every day and a few hundred commenting. I guess you can’t count or have the common neolib inflationary view that expands the few fools in Act into a “movement”. I’d suggest that if you’re going to indulge in hyperbole, that you don’t do it about this site. That draws my attention to the dickheads doing it because I will answer for the site.
I really hate wasting time on peewees who measure their dicks using a magnifying glass for that extra size inflation. Read the policy. ]
No. Notwithstanding his personal family situation, to claim Maori are unjustly privileged is unhelpful to New Zealand, and racist. We intend to be different to African and American history here.
In addition, to describe someone as black is one thing, silverbullet, but to then describe someone as “black black” is…
racist.
Go put your pointy white hat on.
Go put your Stalinist comrade uniform on – oh hang on, you are already wearing it.
[lprent: I suggest that you read the policy. You appear to be wearing a troll uniform. Lets be nice and imagine that it is like this…
This is your one warning about being a dickhead jerking off on our site. Engage with the conversation or leave before I have to toss you off the site. Leading up to an election, I really can’t be bothered being tolerant of mindless fools who try to imagine that they are sophisticated smartarses. ]
If any current NZ leader could be compared to Stalin it is John Key. Figuratively, the similarities between Key’s rejuvenation drive to the great purge in the 1920’s are alarming.
Your Far Left ideology is grounded in the philosophy of Marxism, with its “class consciousness”, “class conflict” and some future “workers paradise” type utopia.
Nothing other than the slight possibility of making fellow racists less likely to vote for him.
Seeing as you asked silverbullet, NO, racism is not confined within one racial grouping, a white male for instance with an African American partner could for instance express hatred for Maori and rightly be labeled a racist,
The term racist does not presuppose that there is hatred of all the races other than that of the racist, the racist might only be so concerning one race other than his own to be a racist…
Seriously? Its always been about white vs the rest. So it does bring into question hypothetically that Whyte really is racist if he is married to someone of African descent and has kids too…
You were the one who brought up white vs “the rest” (ie brown, black, yellow).
You might want to stop digging.
Who are you kidding? The meme has always been white oppressors vs the oppressed ethnics, Comrade Weepy.
I’m really sorry this exchange didn’t go the way you planned, and that’s left you arguing against a case that no-one seems to be making, but what’s happening here is obvious. Jamie Unclecousin is attacking maori so racists will vote for ACT.
Now that might be a racist thing to do, or it might just be a selfish stupid short-sighted evil nasty cynical divisive corrosive thing to do. But either way, it has nothing to do with his wife, just as it had nothing to do with Don Brash’s wife when he pulled the exact same stunt 10 years ago.
What we do know is that no good can come of it. It will make some people in our society angry about other people in our society. It will hurt people. It will hurt race relations. And it will not achieve a single positive thing.
plus bloody 1
“tough on crime” is their main clarion call in Epsom, despite the Govt, of which they were a part, until their only member committed… a crime… tells us crime is falling and we are safer than ever.
So
2.Maori are too privileged
AND they will get a seat in parliament… Over 17% of their sitting MPs have committed crimes…People of Epsom worship at the later of money
🙄 Continuing the conversation with you would be an exercise in legitimizing abject stupidity, yours that is, 🙄 …
Wow, just wow, you really have been triggered.
Just heard on the TV that we’ve paid x millions to Talent2 for the Novapay fuckup and that we’re then going to paying another nine million over the next six years as well. Wish I could get a job like that – paid for fucking it up, paid to be fired from it and then 6 year multi-million dollar redundancy package.
In short, does that mean they’re being paid to keep their mouth’s shut?
Key spun it as the sensible thing to do. Might have been sensible 2 years ago, but not now. Now it looks like the Minister of fix-its didn’t fix it.
Where is the minister of Education in all of this?
@ Weepus beard 6.55
“Where is the minister of Education in all of this?She has learned when to keep her mouth shut.”
These words by Graham Nash have substance and they say what we are all thinking here! And we need to rouse them and ourselves and follow our dreams during the day and night – dreams for a happy, functioning society. I think there might be an odd word in it.
From musixmatch
“Teach Your Children”
You, who are on the road must have a code that you can live by.
And so become yourself because the past is just a good bye.
Teach your children well, their father’s hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams, the one they fix, the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
And you, of the tender years can’t know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth, they seek the truth before they can die.
Teach your parents well, their children’s hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams, the one they fix,the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
This extract from Chris Trotter’s reply to Phil Quin referred to in Puddleglum 6.45 carries forward my comment about the necessity for igniting the dream. I fear that the generations since 1984 have been unable to imbibe enough of that message from their parents, and certainly not from school or any other formal or informal education. One reason they may not feel like voting.
The people whose precarious position of privilege vis-a-vis the working poor and beneficiaries renders them unashamedly reluctant to redistribute even a little of the wealth they have “worked for”.
Beneath a superficial “concern” for the disadvantaged, these voters conceal a visceral contempt for the poor. They are terrified of being forced to share their resources with the “underserving” and will have absolutely no truck with any political party which suggests that, as citizens, they have a moral obligation to put an end to inequality and poverty. –
See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/07/30/the-40-percent-solution-chris-trotter-responds-to-phil-quin/#sthash.0TbWppqF.dpuf
Chris Trotter’s response to Phil Quin.
I have to admit that I am stunned that there is still such a thing as a ‘Labour Right’ that extends so far to the right that its apparent members (Pagani, Quin, Jones) are essentially pushing an economic approach that actively undermines the welfare of just those people that Labour Parties around the world were set up to represent and advance.
How on earth is such an economic policy orientation part of any ‘Labour’ approach?
Do words mean nothing anymore?
You can thank the Post Modernists for the meaningless of language these days, they are after all the bastard children of ‘Progressive’ Left Neo Marxist ideology.
Nope, the language has been screwed over by the RWNJs to further their own goals against the majority of people.
I’m not sure it’s that straightforward.
I think you need to distinguish between postmodernism as an intellectual current and postmodernity as a hypothesised economic, social and cultural transformation of modernity.
The latter is exemplified by ‘late consumer capitalism’ and all of its attendant industries (marketing, advertising, media, design, etc.) and the emergence of a supposedly new social class (highly educated, high income, usually employed in the industries just mentioned) for whom ‘cultural capital’ is an additional boasting right (on top of other forms of capital).
To be honest, I think it is postmodernity (or the cultural and economic conditions that that term usually refers to) that is responsible for any loss of meaning in our use of language. That loss of meaning is present in managerialism-speak, marketing-speak, neoliberalism-speak (which is increasingly commerce-speak) and, sadly, political-speak.
This morphing flexibility in linguistic meaning comes very close, of course, to old-fashioned lying – semantic relativism taken to its logical conclusion.
For me that logical conclusion is forever epitomised by John Key’s one-time reference to ‘the dynamic environment’ to explain why the meaning of his words change over time (or something like that).
By comparison, I think the influence of postmodernist theorists over the actual loss of meaning in everyday practice is infinitesimal.
I’m afraid your ‘silverbullet’ just missed what should have been its real target.
@Puddleglum 7.42
Your comment on ‘the dynamic environment’ and changes in meaning reminds me of something that Thomas Belmonte wrote and I think called it protean, about the changing, sometimes conflicting and changing beliefs of people rather lost in a changing society. He was impressed how people could be Catholic and Communist at the same time etc.
I looked up protean and came on this psycholgist who has done work on Nasties and their psychology and the Holocaust. Then he has posited two streams of people management – one called totalism and has presented proteanism as being the opposite.
I don’t know whether this is useful towards understanding what is exercising people’s minds at present but it is interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jay_Lifton
Indeed. I made a similar remark at 21.1.1.2. The broad church concept is meaningful where someone like, say, Damien O’Connor, is concerned, beavering away on behalf of the West Coast. He is often considered to be of the right of the party, but he still able to say he sees social justice and regional development as his missions. However, the people you list seem to want to remain in the Labour Party while casting aside everything it stands for.
The real schism in the Labour Part is between the traditional working class and the academic Identity Politics crowd – the latter having a strangle hold on the Labour Party which is a shadow of its former self.
No, the most significant parting of the ways will always be when one faction believes that it should be serving the interests of the powerful and entrenched rather than the powerless, dispossessed and marginalised.
Clever justifications for serving powerful interests (trickle-down, etc.) will never resolve that betrayal, I’m afraid.
Who in the current Labour caucus would you say is part of the “academic Identity Politics crowd”?
I’m struggling to make seense of that.
I suspect you are muddling a range of concepts.
I’m with pg. It’s more about those who’ve bought into the third way pandering to the comfortable middle classes as a route to electoral victory.
Agreed.
I have no problems with someone like O’Connor being ‘Labour’. And I’m even enough of a pragmatist to accept that some in the Labour caucus would want to make some sort of ‘truce’ or compromise with the ‘neo-liberal consensus’.
What I really can’t fathom is people who are not satisfied with ‘accommodating’ neoliberalism but seem bent on actively extending its reach and pushing it further into our social and economic arrangements – just because that’s what National is doing and ‘Ooo, look how popular National are!’.
It’s just mind-boggling that someone wishing to do that would even want to be in the Labour Party.
Aye.
I just wish that when the media went for people who can talk intelligently on the Labour Party they would choose people that I knew! Mike Williams can do it. He has a grassroots understanding of the party.
Pagani and Quin cannot. Honest I have been heavily involved in the party for the past 15 years and I have not met either of them. I met John Pagani but this does not qualify him as someone who can talk intelligibly on the party.
There are people who come and go at the “upper” level but they have no comprehension about what is happening at the activist level.
Pagani and Quin cannot. Honest I have been heavily involved in the party for the past 15 years and I have not met either of them. I met John Pagani but this does not qualify him as someone who can talk intelligibly on the party
I know exactly what you mean. I’ve met John Pagani once and wasn’t that impressed. His campaigning felt like it was out of the ark (mind you most of the MPs are worse). Never met the other two that I am aware of. And I’ve been to the majority of the conferences and congresses in one capacity or another over the last 25 years which is where you’d expect to meet Labour party people. I still do even though I’m in the media room rather than the remit floor.
@ MS & lprent,
That is truly horrible that the people commenting in the media as though they are informed about Labour – or as though they are insiders – may not be even actively involved in the Party – that really is terrible to hear.
Why can’t the media find more informed voices to comment on these political current affairs? (Not really a question – more of a plea).
Basically because damn near everyone who is suitable is also actively working during the day for a variety of private and public organisations and volunteering at night. Generally companies like my current employers have contract clauses that limit how much time I can take during paid hours and conflict of interest clauses that limit me in the rest. I also have many claims on my “free” time.
It takes time to write articles, prep for interviews and panels, or anything else.
Hell the one interview I have ever done involved me in a 3 hour hole in the middle of my working day driving from Albany to Newmarket, doing a segment, and then going back to work. I then worked 3 hours extra that day, which interfered with the volunteer work for the rest of the week as I caught up.
The people who are left over to become talking heads are those who aren’t particularly actively involved, those developing careers as talking heads, or who are semi-retired.
For everyone else who works a lot, the whole thing is a confounded nuisance.
Well written from Chris Trotter, thanks for the link as i forget sometimes to cast an eye over the daily offering from that direction,
40% as far as the vote goes is totally unnecessary in the enviroment of MMP, these numbers, Labour 33%, Greens 12%, InternetMana 5%, are hardly wildly optimistic, they do tho shout out 50% at the September vote…
I have a little anecdote. Talking to an older woman with health problems. Mentioned that it was very hard for unemployed and mentioned the recent comment that people are required to apply for 5 jobs a day and may still have their benefit withdrawn.
She said that was awful but she couldn’t cope with it, she needed to just manage and carry on quietly. I said well don’t vote for National will you. But I like John Key she said, he seems nice, (or something of that nature). She said with a smile, is that the end of the lecture. We smiled and went on with our day.
greywarbler …that is very depressing when you meet idiots like that…however after her encounter with you this timid soul may change her vote once she gets in the voting booth
Interesting you should say that, because i had a similar, but more disturbing experience. The person I was talking to was a 50 plus year old primary school teacher who said that she would be voting National because she said, she likes key! I was very surprised that she was so naive. I try to change her reasoning, but she actually was peeved with me and did not want to discus the issue.
Shows that lots of people have been fooled and conned so very easily by the smiling assassin!
Nats know this. No wonder they have chosen #Team Key as their slogan.
People are in pretty bad, sad political/enlightened state in modern NZ!
@ Chooky 10.54 and Clemgeopin
“that is very depressing when you meet idiots like that”
Trouble is she is not an idiot. But I think one of many NZs who want to leave the pollies to govern, as that being their job, and have never been taught how fragile democracy is, and our firm opinions are (not firm at all – able to be changed fast with a propaganda campaign.) To many NZs, having an interest in politics is a hobby, it is akin to stamp collecting, or it is for go-getters who are pushing their wheelbarrow not for ordinary people.
Then there are those who can hardly bring themelves to complain about anything apart from blocks to whatever is dear to their heart. What right do we have to disagree with the confident con men and fabulists who tell us all they want us to know, and are never guilty of wrongdoing, at worst whatever – was a little mistake – just a tiny, teeny one. We all have a little cringe built-in. We have got confused, don’t have a dream for NZ, don’t have even a workable vision – given up on pollies substance and just see the candy floss. Poem for today’s pollies, there for us at election time with hearts on sleeves, and then after the election – a different story.
W. H. Mearns – Antigonish
Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away
When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn’t see him there at all!
By Robert Fisk
“It’s not just radicalised Islamists – what about foreign fighters who flock to the IDF?
Is the Government interested in UK citizens who have been fighting in Israeli uniform in Gaza in the past couple of weeks?…
Let me be frank. Dozens of British supporters of Israel do serve in the Israeli army. The same applies for Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US. And they don’t necessarily gravitate to being war criminals. This may not be what an Arab would say – and it is certainly not what Israelis would suggest. But there is plenty of evidence – from 1982 in Lebanon, from 1996 in Qana, from 2008-9 in Gaza and again in Gaza these past two weeks – that individual Israeli soldiers and pilots have committed acts which, under international law, are war crimes…
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/its-not-just-radicalised-islamists–what-about-foreign-fighters-who-flock-to-the-idf-9634260.html
Maybe NZ needs some of this:
It will hit you sooner or later, what goes on in Ukraine, in Middle and Near East, and many other parts of the world, New Zealand is not insulated and will be affected.
MORE to come!
After Ukips success in the UK and EU elections NZ polictions are trying to jump on the bandwagon but NZ has only a limited number of racist so it will be slim pickings for Winnie the poo ,in reading whyte supremacist and Crazy Colon Craig.