WIMP WALLOPING : David Shearer on Larry Williams Drive
NewstalkZB, Wednesday 29 August 2012, 6.18 to 6:24p.m.
Williams is shamelessly partisan and pro-National. Thirty minutes before this debacle, he had Gerry Brownlee on the programme, and treated him with cringing deference, feeding him the sort of patsy questions that someone like Simon Bridges or Chris Tremain serves up for a minister at Question Time in the House.
Toward the Leader of the Opposition, though, his tone was radically different….
Re selling off our state assets, Williams insolently stated: “You see risks, David, because you don’t want them sold.” Shearer let that go, unchallenged.
Williams asked in a querulous tone: “Why SHOULDN’T private investors own umm, ahhh, part of the power company?” Shearer garbled a reply, and Williams condescendingly capped him by quoting something by Steven Joyce. Again, Shearer failed to pick him up on that, failed to challenge him.
And it wasn’t over….
WILLIAMS: Listen, the report on the child poverty…
SHEARER: Uh, we’re still looking THROUGH that…”
WILLIAMS: Do you really think these parents can’t afford to feed these kids some porridge?
SHEARER: Uhhh…
Throughout the interview, Larry Williams was by turn brusque, condescending and insolent.
How long can this go on?
Statistical analysis of Shearer’s performance:
“y’know”…. 11 times
“um”…. 14 times
“uh uh, ahhh”…. 16 times
“and and and and”…. 6 times
“in the in the in the”….. 9 times
“yeah”…… 5 times
Don’t know how you do it Morrissey. This talent you have for listening to antagonistic tosh and dissecting it is kind of admirable. Must admit, I’d need a stockpile of radios and a good plasterer if I tried to emulate your efforts. And although you deserve a medal of some description, I’m afraid you’ll just have to settle for my thanks for making me laugh first thing in the morning. That running total of ‘Shearisms’ is pure gold.
Morrissey, your transcripts do an amazing job of cutting through the bullshit to see exactly what was going on. Your one yesterday I think it was Deaker and some others was brilliant.
I’ve given up paying attention to Morrissey’s transcripts after he twice transcribed interviews I had listened to and his transcription was biased and out of context.
I’ve given up paying attention to Morrissey’s transcripts after he twice transcribed interviews I had listened to and his transcription was biased and out of context.
Nonsense. You were upset because I recorded the inanity and lack of thought in the comments of some pro-nuclear shills on the National Radio.
I didn’t record them verbatim, it was a rush transcript, but the gist of their idiotic comments was correct.
Let’s not forget that even as the Japanese government was seriously considering the evacuation of the city of Tokyo, YOU were blithering on about how SAFE nuclear power is. My transcripts, which underlined the lack of intellectual substance and complete lack moral integrity of pro-nuclear advocates, clearly angered you. Your objections were nothing more than quibbles about a few missing words, and are thus quite spurious.
So not a transcript, then Mozza? Just a precis? Can I suggest you don’t use the word ‘transcript’ in future, now that you’ve acknowleged that they are no such thing.
Hey Morrissey, we never managed to agree on the World Cup final…..went on forever..and we agreed to disagree. I did however send you to metaphorical purgatory for being ideologically impure on referees being innocent until proven guilty…and you then got a ban proving there is a God and I was right. So there. Carry on.
Thats sad, Sad because of the performance of the labour leader. And sadder still that someone actually counted his umms, arrrs, and errs. And saddest of all is the unimpressive totals.
Sorry people but on that performance he has got to go.
Joyce says government can’t legislate for prosperity,
but can take the draw down of charity profits
from pokies, and give them to SkyCity
for a conference center.
Joyce shouts, GFC has made governing to hard, along with Labours
legacy, National is unable to turn the economy around!
Defeatism from Joyce.
Then, Joyce says that tax cuts don’t effect benefitaries,
as we all know Australians don’t pay tax on the first dollar
of income, unlike here in NZ where 10.2% is levied, as
National achieved nothing in reducing this rate from 12.5% to 10.2%!
See National believes that Kiwis aren’t going to OZ for the zero tax income
on the five thousand earned, the capital gains tax that increase the burden
on the non-productive sector, but because there are jobs in OZ.
CV 1 6 1 1 competing visions of NZ out there
This morning on Chris Laidlaw Radionz Jim Dier a very enthusiastic community builder who has found that he and his fellows have made a lot of difference. So he is not an armchair idealist but a thinking down-and-dirty-hands worker who has a good idea that works. Audio should be up by noon.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday
10:06 Ideas: Growing Communities
Epuni Primary School’s Common Unity Project aims to produce enough fruit and vegetables to feed not only the school’s 110 pupils but their families as well. It’s a classic example of what’s been called Asset Based Community Development – or ABC Development. Ideas visits Epuni Primary School in Lower Hutt and talks to the project’s volunteer coordinator Julia Milne; Jim Diers, a proponent of the ABCD movement, tells Jeremy Rose about Seattle’s Strong Communities Initiative; and Denise Bijoux of Inspiring Communities talks to Chris Laidlaw about the proliferation of asset-based community projects in New Zealand.
Presented by Chris Laidlaw
Produced by Jeremy Rose.
… don’t torture yourself by listening to ZB. Listen to Radio NZ “National” Programme instead. That way your stress levels will drop markedly, and you’ll find that bigots like Williams, Smith, Watson et al become irrelevant.
What sort of independence do you think you will get from the commercial network anyway?
That ten minutes or so, plus the earlier interview with Brownlee, was all I listened to on NewstalkZB yesterday. Oh, and a few minutes of gardening expert Simon Farrell and Danny Watson being flippant and unfunny with their elderly callers earlier in the day.
Listen to Radio NZ “National” Programme instead.
I usually do.
That way your stress levels will drop markedly, and you’ll find that bigots like Williams, Smith, Watson et al become irrelevant.
Not correct. Have you listened to Jim Mora’s programme? Have you listened to Geoff Robiinson’s patsy interviews in the morning?
What sort of independence do you think you will get from the commercial network anyway?
Sorry Morrissey, I thought the “National” in quotes might have been a concession there. Yeah, well I’ve let Mora know my feelings on many issues and Robinson… well he is best suited to Births Deaths and Marriages announcements where he can put on his “I’m ever so concerned” voice.
I don’t listen to Radio. Haven’t for 15 years I used to listen to talkback radio when delivering pizza’s, and it wasn’t too bad. But i was somewhere the other day, where they had some honking idiot shouting all over the other person who was trying to make a point. And the 15 years radio less were instantly justified.
I don’t listen to Radio. Haven’t for 15 years I used to listen to talkback radio when delivering pizza’s, and it wasn’t too bad. But i was somewhere the other day, where they had some honking idiot shouting all over the other person who was trying to make a point.
There’s a high likelihood that that honking idiot was one of the following: Leighton Smith, Larry Williams, Michael Laws, Mark Watson. Of course, there are others almost as bad, but they are the worst.
And the 15 years radio less were instantly justified.
Transpower have been painting the pylons supporting the Haywards A & B transmission lines for about the last year (?). As they are coming closer to the pylons near my dwelling I started to look into exactly what they were doing.
Transpower are using a product called Garnet, ignoring the .05% lead in this stuff, it is relatively inert, and is even used in water filters. It is also used, along with high pressure water, to cut steel. Garnet certainly has the ability to lift galvanising off steel.
So my question is what is in the galvanising?
It turns out it contains Cadmium and Zinc, which when hit with high pressure water and Garnet will cause the Cadmium and Zinc to be more or less vaporised.
I rang OSH, they asked how to spell Cadmium? But are now looking into this.
It is kind of hard to see a 100% pure NZ/Kapiti with these heave metals blowing all over the district.
Anyone living near a freshly painted pylon may need a blood test.
And where are the experts, the people that are supposed to know about this shit??? Probably ‘Gone to Aus” But to ask how to spell Cadmium, why does that not leave me with a very warm feeling ?
The only by-product of the sand injected blasting would be zinc from the galvanised tower struts, no heating so no oxides, and the abrasive sand.
With strict compliance conditions regarding recovery of blasting sand and residue, including lead from previous paint jobs, pollution from tower painting is from the transport and compressor emissions.
Cadmium plating is limited to high value components and fasteners so it’s highly unlikely there’ll be any present on transmission tower steel.
If you’re the one doing the blasting/painting you’re compelled to cover up and use a mask because of the nature of the work and as with most industrial poisoning the real risk is hand to mouth ingestion.
If you’re a grazing animal the sand wouldn’t be to good for your teeth and no doubt you’d exceed the daily zinc allowance but in my experience there’s rarely if ever any stock present because the animals do tend to either eat your gear or shit all over it.
So IMO there’s no real risk of being poisoned by zinc, an essential mineral in your diet, the blasting sand is only bad for you if you ingest it and the presence of cadmium is highly unlikely.
One of my chief delights is the English fortnightly magazine Private Eye whose covers are usually a news photo with a satirical caption and speech bubble attached. The latest issue is particularly funny, though Muzza, Mozza and other members of the rapidly dwindling Assange fan club should probably look away.
I think you should give people more credit for having a sense of humour TRP. I’m certainly one of those people who figures it is absolutely unacceptable for a person to be exposed to a somewhat paranoid and vindictive US justice system on the back of some other, unrelated and actual crime they may or may not have committed.
I love Private Eye. It has a go at everyone, even the saintly, and it’s always funny.
Yes, they’re having a go at Assange here, but their coverage of his persecution by the state has been thorough and fair.
Unlike you, the Eye long ago worked out that William Hague is a pathetic little worm and an inveterate liar, qualities that come in useful when mounting a campaign against a dangerous dissenter. Unlike you, they can have a go at Assange while also realizing the attacks on him by scoundrels like Hague are politically motivated.
You say that the Eye is one of your “chief delights”, but it is clear that you just don’t get it.
FFS TR, who gives a flying fekk at a rolling donut about a rapidly dwindling Assange fan club? Are we being told what is politically correct to think again, tow the line or you are going to be show trialled a al Soviet by the blogging ideologues on TS?
Muzza, the intention is to trivialize your arguments. One fool called me a “fan boy” at least three times. If Assange was Jewish, he no doubt would used an antisemitic slur against me.
Remember his support for S59 and how it boosted his public image while the Left got punished for social engineering. Now his open support for the Marriage Bill looks good, but he doesn’t have to speak to it, just leaves his vote, while he is off at some Pacific Forum.
Manufacturers will have to achieve an average of 54.5mpg or 4.36 litres per 100km. How does that compare with current models?
Toyota Prius 4.7 l/100km
Honda Civic hybrid 5.3 l/100km
Mitsi Lancer 7.7 l/100km
Ford Falcon 9.9 l/100km
Bugatti Veyron 29 l/100km
So the new average economy for all models will have to exceed the most efficient currently available.
“Everybody is a winner today,” said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.
“Motorists win because they will have much more fuel-efficient cars to drive, thus saving thousands of dollars at the gas pump every year,” Beinecke said. “The auto industry — and its workers — win because these standards will spur the creation of thousands of new jobs as well as state-of-the-art vehicles that go nearly twice as far on the same gallon of gasoline.”
These standards will flow on to global manufacturing not just US produced models.
Its interesting that they managed to pass this very tough (and actually world leading) legislation – they had help from a lot of Republicans in order to do so. However, they are counting on a lot of sales of electric and semi-electric vehicles in order to meet the overall average requirement. That’s where these regulations are taking a big risk, in terms of technical and commercial feasibility.
The other longstanding trend to bear in mind is that new car sales in the US are slow and that people are holding onto existing cars longer and longer. Average vehicle age in the US is now a record 10.8 years.
In other words, the new mileage standards will take up to a decade before significantly reducing US gasoline consumption.
seti the hybrid figures above are manufactures figures in reality hybrid cars are no more effecient than small petrol cars + the huge energy cost of manufacture.
Reading comments on this on Slashdot, there was one very interesting one. Note that I haven’t verified it’s veracity.
These aren’t actually MPG standards, but are air emissions standards, which can *equate* to MPG standards. However the equation part is actually quite misleading. For example, to improve emissions you can either increase fuel efficiency or invent a better better exhaust / muffler system – either will be sufficient to meet the emissions standards. The commenter also indicated that such things as swapping standard incandescent lamps in headlines/brake lights to LEDs can be counted towards the emissions reductions, which doing absolutely nothing for the fuel efficiency of the car.
Yes mr micky that is refreshing. Ken Shirley had no answers.
Now that approach needs to be applied to other major issues facing us, such as;
How having foreign landlords is a better thing for us.
Why selling the assets is a good thing when it is actually costing us.
Why the taxpayer needs to support big business all the time (NZX, irrigation, etc).
As far as I can see, the right wing free market private business model is lying in tatters on the road. Farmers have woken up and acknowledged their pollution (different issue, but with same attitudes) but it took some time…. and similarly, it will take a bit more time before these other sectors acknowledge their very substantial and fatal flaws.
Thanks for that mickysavage. I found this bit interesting:
Ken Shirley: Bigger but fewer trucks than you would otherwise have, and safer trucks because they are higher technology and you can get up to 20 per cent improved loadings ah in bigger trucks but fewer trucks than you would otherwise need for a given freight task.
There is no “higher technology” being employed… They are simply loading the same old trucks to the maximum weight they can carry. Not only does this cause more wear and tear on the trucks themselves, making them less safe, it damages our roading infrastructure.
Shirley is wrong that there will be less trucks on our roads. National has recently revealed plans to further disestablish our rail network, which will push more heavy freight onto less efficient trucks.
Of course road repairs and things like $45 million for strengthening bridges so heavier vehicles can use them are socialized costs. This ensures that the trucking industry appears on paper to be more cost effective, because they’re simply not paying all their overheads.
Shirley was also completely wrong concerning the Auckland rail link. Even before you account for the benefits from highway decongestion, things like job creation and regional efficiency make the CBD rail link economically viable.
Perhaps the intellectually deficient Ken Shirley was getting confused with the holiday highway, which has completely failed its cost to benefit analysis.
Bahahahahaha at Ken Shirley resorting to a straight party-political diatribe when he lost the argument!
“They don’t like it up ’em, do they captain Mainwaring!”
I must confess I love it when smug right-wing middle aged white men are trounced in public like that, it really rattles their cage and they absolutely hate it.
Jaybus aitch fracking Christmas, Carol, just when you thought you’d plumbed the depths of gormless, racist, arrogant shallowness, out pops another zinger from the Keyster.
Tentacles. Way to burn off decades of hard-wrought good will, kid. With the market that’s propping us up. The burgeoning superpower, and the only one in history that hasn’t invaded another country.
Tentacles. Maybe they won’t notice or take offence.
Fiji-a Chinese Naval Base? hee hee-“Race for the Pacific” (again)
Brendan Horan (now thats a phonetically interesting sir-name) -re CONSCIENCE vote
“hadn’t given ‘it’ much thought”
conscience? what conscience? foolish presenter not ‘present’
but we suffer quite a few ‘presenters’ in our democracy (finger approaching throat, but i just had breakfast)
Assad-” rebels face inevitable death”
Chemical Weapons deployed inevitable?
WINZ could save a couple off million dollars each year, if only they would do a little Synchronization of there clients, a little time management.
Sickness beneficiaries have to go to the GP every 3 months to have there benefit renewed.
And once a year the Sickness beneficiaries also get a full review, which means another GP visit.
The current system means that once a year a Sickness beneficiary will go to the GP for a 3 month renewal and then, go to the GP again (generally within 3 weeks of just getting there medical certificate updated) for another medical certificate, even though they have a valid one on record that’s not due to expire for another couple of months.
This costs each Sickness beneficiary around $40 with is refunded by Winz.
So my point is, if Winz synchronized this Annual medical certificate with the 3 month medical certificate, it would save the state the cost of a medical certificate.
If there are 59,500 people on a Sickness benefit then performing this would save the Government around $2,380,000 each and every year.
Not sure if there is a similar issue with invalid beneficiaries but if there is then that could more than double the $2+ million dollars.
Yes, the GP’s will make less money but will also have less paper to deal with and would be able to cope with an extra 59,500 sick people.
Note: I don’t want my private information by Paula Benefit or any Winz staff or Ministers.
Will cross post this to Red Alert and the Greens blog.
OMG did I just work out a way to save over $2 million dollars a year…
“This costs each Sickness beneficiary around $40 with is refunded by Winz.”
I’m not sure that is true. Maybe the rules have changed, but in the past you had to claim the medical fee back on disability allowance. If your DA is already at the maximum then the only way to claim medical fees is if you get TAS (hardship grant, which is meant to be temporary, capped, and which only pays a proportion of the cost).
I take your point though, and agree there are many inefficiencies in the WINZ system. All the people on SB long term for instance (and being refused Invalid’s), could go on 6 month or even 12 month reviews.
Like me I am a long term (3 years) and not really much chance of going back to work I have been refused the Invalids Benefit on the word of a doctor I have never met, who has never even spoken to me let alone examine me, and he seems to know a hell of a lot more about how to cure me, that all the specialists I have seen and have spoken to me don’t know. My medical expenses are worked out by winz, and then divided by 52 and paid that way, so when I go to the doctor its still hard to pay the bill. It would be better if they also paid you the $40 the week of your appointment (even if you had to show your appointment) or they just put it on the card.
[blockquote]The current system means that once a year a Sickness beneficiary will go to the GP for a 3 month renewal and then, go to the GP again (generally within 3 weeks of just getting there medical certificate updated) for another medical certificate, even though they have a valid one on record that’s not due to expire for another couple of months.[/blockquote]
Seems tidy on paper, one less vist being “better”, but make sure you check the real life experience of a sickness beneficiary visiting a doctor at any given time which may reveal the opposite. A person may only be able to deal with the stress of a short visit, that deals with only one aspect of an illness at a time and need a pause before being additionally reminded of the administration of their affairs. These people don’t just have a bad case of flu, they have a profound health concern that effects all aspects of their lives. Most doctors these days at least have a piece of paper stuck to the wall of their office that says they are officially concerned at the emotional state of their clients as well as any other aspect.
Saving money sounds great, but it should not come at the cost of making vulnerable people feel even more out of control of their affairs, or in an extreme, trampling over their human rights because they are “beneficiaries who owe society” i.e. lower class of person. Treating situations that have inherent fragilities from a dollars-and-cents-first-make-the-people-fit-it approach, makes me nervous.
Saving money sounds great, but it should not come at the cost of making vulnerable people feel even more out of control of their affairs, or in an extreme, trampling over their human rights because they are “beneficiaries who owe society” i.e. lower class of person.
It wouldn’t. In fact, it would make the person feel more in control and less like having to jump through hoops. If they have to go every three months to get a doctors certificate plus another every year then the fourth one just becomes the yearly one meaning that the person only has to go four times per year and not five.
Treating situations that have inherent fragilities from a dollars-and-cents-first-make-the-people-fit-it approach, makes me nervous.
This amounts to what we might call an “irrelevance” defense: Finance theorists cannot be held responsible, since no one in the real world pays attention to them!
Great video from Richard Heinberg at the Post Carbon Institute
DON’T WORRY, DRIVE ON: Fossil Fools & Fracking Lies
“In recent months we’ve seen a spate of articles, reports, and op-eds claiming that peak oil is a worry of the past thanks to so-called “new technologies” that can tap massive amounts of previously inaccessible stores of “unconventional” oil. “Don’t worry, drive on,” we’re told.
But as Post Carbon Institute Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg asks in this short video, what’s really new here? “What’s new is high oil prices and … the economy hates high oil prices.”
WE NEED YOUR HELP SHARING THIS VIDEO
Email the video to everyone you think needs to watch it
Share it through your social networks
Send it to your elected officials
We can fall for the oil industry hype and keep ourselves chained to a resource that’s depleting and comes with ever increasing economic and environmental costs, or we can recognize that the days of cheap and abundant oil (not to mention coal and natural gas) are over.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media and politicians on both sides of the aisle are parroting the hype, claiming — in Obama’s case — that unconventional oil can play a key role in an “all of the above” energy strategy and — in Romney’s — that increased production of tight oil and tar sands can make North America energy independent by the end of his second term.
We need your help: Please share this video and help bring a dose of reality to the energy conversation.”
NZ has reached “peak coal” according to Solid Energy chief executive Don Elder. There is plenty of coal left in the ground, but it is becoming prohibitively expensive to extract. This is illustrated by yesterdays announcement by Solid Energy of hundreds of job losses.
“Underground mining was inefficient and “very hard”.
”It’s becoming harder, it’s becoming problematic,” he said.
“After 110 years of mining in New Zealand, the easy coal has gone.”
New technology was needed to reach the significant amount that was left deep underground, which was why the company was pushing its underground coal gasification and coal seam gas projects, he said.”
Yeah poor guy right. A $141,000 pay cut and he still makes over one million dollars. I’ll be sure to pass the hat around my friends and family to help support this kiwi battler.
Some people around here seem to think I make my transcripts up. I don’t. Often, however, they are not verbatim, but hurried transcripts taken down in longhand as I listen to the source of the inanity, whether it be radio or television. Occasionally, though, I’ll transcribe the whole thing. Here’s a real transcript, laboriously taken from an audiotape…
Larry Williams clashes with Murray Deaker
Friday 4 February 2003
Friday afternoon’s little stoush live on air was not the first time these two have brawled like this. On the day of the launch of the Blackguard organisation just five or so months ago, Williams got a sheepish, evasive Deaker to admit that he’d been at the launch of the super-patriotic organisation. “You’re PATHETIC!” snarled Williams. An indignant Deaker wasn’t going to stand for such insolence: “Larry, you never READ anything, you have no idea of what you’re talking about!” he bellowed, and they proceeded to yell at each other for at least three minutes. Later, on his 7 o’clock show, a still upset Deaker played the tape again, presumably to show what a bastard Larry Williams was.
By the next day, the two pilgarlics had kissed and made up and Deaker was smothering Williams with his legendary flattery: “Larry, THAT is why YOU are the best in the business,” he cooed after Williams had made an unremarkable comment about another matter. But that was then and this is now. Last Friday afternoon, Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth, the targets of the Blackguard vilification campaign, broke their silence, revealing that it was mainly the shoddy and vacillating management of the trustees that forced them to leave Team New Zealand three years ago. Support for the Alinghi sailors by listeners was swift, indicating widespread suspicion and resentment of the Blackguard organisation and, in particular, of its most strident mouthpiece, Murray Deaker. We present herewith a selection from the last half hour of the Larry Williams
show of Friday 31 January….
5:32 p.m.
LARRY WILLIAMS: I have been involved with Russell and Brad and there’s plenty more there than they released today – that’s all I’m going to say… you’ve just heard jim Farmer QC; you’d have to be a MONKEY, an IDIOT to accept on those terms…
5:32 p.m.
MICHAEL LAWS: [commenting on the failure of TVNZ to show the TV interview from Swiss TV which proves that Team NZ and Blackheart were always very close, and never independent] This should be Broadcasting Authority stuff… Gee, the Americas Cup is a nasty piece of work. I’ve never come across a sport that is so much about lawyers, vindictiveness, money and nastiness.
5:45 p.m.
[A Blackguard supporter rings in to sling off at Coutts and Butterworth…]
WILLIAMS: You’re PATHETIC!
…………………………
CALLER TIM: I’m sick of hearing certain commentators, who look like Kojak, shooting from the mouth – or screaming from the mouth – and I’ve said all along we’ve never heard the other side of this.
WILLIAMS: Well we haven’t heard the other side because they haven’t been allowed to tell the other side and yet you must know – let this be clear – they didn’t actually want to TELL the other side. They NEVER wanted to say anything. They just wanted to go at the time and get out and do what they do best, which is sailing boats. Look it has to be pointed out it was Team New Zealand who wanted this kept secret. Now I must also point out that we’re not talking about Team New
Zealand TODAY, really – we’re talking about Team New Zealand the old trustees, although the new trustees wanted this kept silent. But in the main, we are talking about Coutts and Butterworth’s negotiations with the OLD – let me emphasise that, the OLD – Team New Zealand
trustees, not the ones we’ve got now.
CALLER TIM: Yes I understood that from what you said earlier. I’m just surprised people kept on slaying them when they were silent and you – I understood there must have been reasons why they weren’t speaking and you don’t, if you’re fair, have a go at someone unless you’ve heard the other side.
WILLIAMS: Well, we’ve also got to understand that there will be a lot of people who won’t have a bar of this, they will not believe this, they will NOT want to know, because they’re bigoted. But thanks for your call. Hello, Scott.
SCOTT: Congratulations! I’d just like to add to what the other person put through to you. We had our doubts, and we’re keen yachties down here in Christchurch – but where does Murray Deaker stand on all this? I notice that he’s been perpetuated [sic!] by his silence. What’s going on?
WILLIAMS: Well now, hold on, hold on! To be fair to Murray, he’s been on a week’s leave and frankly I don’t – lookm I don’t care WHAT Murray thinks. Murray’s had – Murray has taken his course and I respect what he’s had to say, I don’t believe a WORD of it but I respect his right to have an opinion.
SCOTT: Fair enough.
WILLIAMS: But what he thinks about it now, I don’t know. Doesn’t worry me, frankly.
SCOTT: Hey, thank you for that.
WILLIAMS: Thanks for your call…. I should point out I’ve only mentioned part of the release and as I said before there is a lot of – no, I’m not going to tease you, we’ll go to a break.
[ADVERTISING BREAK….]
5:56 p.m.
WILLIAMS: Now Murray Deaker is – has called in. I’ve got two minutes Deaks. What’s your main points?
DEAKER: Well, firstly, I’ve been on holiday so I take exception to that chap’s reference that I’m gutless. Huh! That is ONE thing that I’m not!
WILLIAMS: But hold on, I clarified that, so –
DEAKER: The second point that I’d make is this – that you say, and you led Tom – um, the chap Farmer to say that it was an impossible situation –
WILLIAMS: Yup.
DEAKER: Larry, it CAN’T have been impossible. Tom Schnackenburg took on the role WITH THOSE CONDITIONS –
WILLIAMS: No he did NOT!
DEAKER: He did.
WILLIAMS: You are talking ABSOLUTE – you are talking –
DEAKER: He stayed there and –
WILLIAMS: Murray… MURRAY! YOU ARE TALKING CRAP! He did NOT stay there –
DEAKER: He stayed there Larry –
WILLIAMS: Murray! Murray! He did NOT stay there on the same conditions –
DEAKER: He stayed there Larry under the same conditions. And they got them changed didn’t they.
WILLIAMS: Whaddya mean – when Coutts and Butterworth announced –
DEAKER: No, no, they worked those conditions to get them changed because there are two – there are three other people who stayed there as well –
WILLIAMS: He did NOT stay –
DEAKER: Reiseley, who was appointed by Coutts and Butterworth –
WILLIAMS: YOU SEE, YOU DON’T WANT TO LISTEN TO ME. Can… Can I tell you what – have you – have you read the press release? Do you know what a –
DEAKER: Yes, I’ve read the press release.
WILLIAMS: He did not stay under the trust that was offered to Coutts and Butterworth. The trust was changed and it took TWO HOURS for that trust to be changed, when the new trust went to the old trust and said: hand it over under these conditions otherwise we’re outa here. THAT’s what happened. So STOP trying to move the story around, Murray!
DEAKER: But the point is that Schnackenburg stayed. The other guys could have stayed as well Larry and you know that.
WILLIAMS: Well look –
DEAKER: They could have worked it –
WILLIAMS: Hey! –
DEAKER: SURE they were completely frustrated –
WILLIAMS: Hey! –
DEAKER: – and that comes through in their release as well.
WILLIAMS: HEY!!! MURRAY!!! They could NOT have stayed under the deal that was offered –
DEAKER: The guys that they had appointed as trustees, namely Norris and, ah, Reiseley and Menzies who you’ve not interviewed yet, and those are the guys that I’ll have on my program tomorrow.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, GOOD… yeah, GOOD, well I –
DEAKER: Because you NEED to get some balance into this.
WILLIAMS: Absolutely. Hey, just like –
DEAKER: You sounded like a P.R. agent for Alinghi mate.
WILLIAMS: Yeah well I learned that off you with your sycophantic interview with Dave Walden the other day. I’ve goota go, and I respect your opinion even if you’re wrong. Thanks for your call. It’s now, ah, three to six o’clock here at Newstalk ZB…
……………………………………
[TRANSCRIBED BY WALLIE INGRAM FOR RADIO TRANSCRIPTS LTD, A DIVISION OF DAISYCUTTER SPORTS INC.]
Basically no change. So Labour have wasted all the gift-wrapped chances National have offered in the past few weeks, because they were busy going down a dead-end street. It looks like they have slowly backed up the truck (while hoping nobody would notice), and maybe we’ve heard the last of Shearer’s roof-painter.
It would be good if the Labour leadership said “you were right, we were wrong, and we won’t be taking advice from idiots any more”. It would be good, but unlikely.
well nobody is going to take your advice gobsmacked.
you are just here as an agent provocateur and Labour will be the next government no matter what some poll says today.
(Perhaps stinging from all the criticism of late of him being a NAct lackey), Dunne has refused to support ACT’s proposed budget cap, so the bill won’t proceed….. for now.
The Government has shelved a cornerstone of its support deal with ACT that would have capped Budget spending after Revenue Minister Peter Dunne refused to back the move.
Finance Minister Bill English said the planned change had been set aside “at this stage” after consultation with other parties.
”The decision has now been made to introduce the spending limit as a stand alone Bill later this term. This will allow for further consultation and more policy work to be completed.”
But it seems unlikely those talks will be successful, and the move appears to be doomed.
John Key said our troops had the best of equipment – Link
TV3 say otherwise
A private security operative working in Afghanistan says the New Zealand military has to ‘beg for, borrow or steal’ equipment and it’s not just Humvees they’re cutting costs on.
Jack Waldron, who himself survived an IED explosion, says the New Zealand Government and military officials need to supply troops with better gear or more lives will be lost.
Waldron spoke frankly with 3 News earlier in the week about the realities of working in a war-zone, in the wake of the recent deaths of five Kiwi soldiers. – link
Regardless of whether we should be in Afghanistan or not, we owe it to our people to equip them properly. And some PM’s should stop lying.
Is Susan Baldacci a journalist or a shill for illegal killing?
Thursday 30 August 2012
Just heard a clearly outraged Susan Baldacci on “The Panel” discussing the revelation that bin Laden was murdered, unarmed, during that illegal U.S. raid into Pakistan last year. But Susan Baldacci was outraged not at the murder, but at the fact the two men broke the code of omerta and actually told the truth.
Disgusted, I flicked off the following to stand-in host Finlay McDonald….
from: Morrissey Breen, 4:00 PM
to: Afternoons
Dear Finlay,
Susan Baldacci expressed her astonishment that a couple of Navy Seals have revealed what actually happened in Pakistan; that the killing of bin Laden was the assassination of an unarmed man. “I wouldn’t want to be them,” she said, darkly.
Surely, as a journalist, she should be applauding these men for actually telling the truth.
Yours in alarm at the standards at National Radio,
Good post on Auckland Transport Blog about our oil production, importation and use. It shows clearly that if we want to become more competitive then we need to get off using oil for transport, I.E, can the RONS.
Bored 27
Thanks. I was visiting Christchurch and a certain red-haired enchantress aged nearly two. I have been thinking. (Quote from Richard Prebble. And I am about as popular with some as Richard Prebble is with me – not. Also I have been reading Terry Pratchett one of the Discworld which has put any pretensions I had into perspective.)
And I thought I like The Standard but I haven’t time to indulge in lengthy or continual regurgitation of similar thoughts,. I want to find a way to join with others, as I have time and can make time available, who want to work with other good-hearted positive people with standards and also a bit of the skeptic thrown in, to build a better future.
So I won’t waste time entering into comments threads with my opinions but will reap the great benefit of finding access to good links provided from here, and also provide to the Standard any that I think make some point that seems worthwhile to me and hopefully others who want to BABF.
I put the latest Roy Morgan into the electoral seat calculator. Assuming the Maori party get 3 seats, UF, ACT and Mana 1 each, the current government can only muster 59 votes. Labour and the Greens together have 56, Mana 1 and NZF holds the balance of power with 6.
It’s a good thing Winston isn’t interested in the baubles of office, eh?
I do so enjoy it when Socialist policies work out exactly as predicted.
Save the schadenfreude, my bewildered friend. Surely even an ignoramus like you can see that site is irrationally biased against the Venezuelan president, who has committed the grave crime of being a genuinely popular politician.
If only he was a dictator, with a Somoza-sized body count instead of a democrat who has exactly no blood on his hands; then you’d approve of him, no doubt.
Yes I hear that Muslim President of the US’s Socialist policies are causing exactly the carnage that was predicted. Ordinary people are getting healthcare. They are living longer. They are not losing all of their assets to rapacious financiers so they can finance medical treatment.
Rena and Shipley cuts to maritime safety Joyce forgetting to update insurance, pike river scf goldman saching of world governments to the trillions
goose your full of sludge .
Maybe it could be to do with embargo’s on oil equipment from the US
Vi saluto in volo! That means I am in a tearing hurry, and don’t have time to see whether anyone else has covered this – but it’s doing my head in!
The NZ police are madly enthusiastic about using drones here. Apparently, in cahoots with the FBI, they’ve already been playing with them.
It’s horrifying – to say the least!
yeah well the judgement of police bosses in the last year or two have been seriously lacking. There is nothing in the US way of doing things that we want in this country.
New Zealand police have used the drones only once, to canvass the area where the body of Wellington woman Sofia Athanassiou was found in July.
Police used a drone from a commercial company to search Mt Victoria in that case, a spokesman said.
While the machines have been seen as a crime-fighting tool, there are concerns about their pervasive nature.
Drew told TV3 News that New Zealand police were too busy to be monitoring the general public from the sky.
“We don’t have the time to go spy on people for no good reason,” he said.
Well, yes, but they have in the past decided they had “good reasons” for spying on people who were politically active…. was grey power one of those groups?
Or fit them with AI sensors to read number plates, ID faces, warrantlessly track and follow individuals, listen into conversations, spy into bedrooms using far infra red etc.
I think they probably do all of those things already… The smaller and cheaper drones will just allow them to do it on a larger scale. When exactly investigative work ends and invasive voyeurism begins shouldn’t in my opinion be a decision left up to the police.
Over 80% on this stuff poll said that the Search and Surveillance Bill was a worrying invasion of their privacy. That bill pretty much gives the police the right to spy on people in any way they see fit.
Whatever happened to good old fashioned policing and getting the community on your side?
Definitely need some strict rules about their use and, unfortunately, the strict rules that the police operate under have been systematically lessened over time. I think we’ve forgotten that a state where the police have no checks on them is essentially anti-democratic.
Perhaps the leadership of Labour have worked out a successful strategy… head hunt the best of the other parties, hopefully trade a few of theirs in exchange. Next Banksie will be wearing red and calling all of us “brothers” 😉
On Campbell the txt poll was 4 to 1 in favour of raisng the drinking age to 20. A very well meaning man who picks up the peices from alcohol abuse spoke strongly in favour of raising the age. A young man wise beyond his years said all you would do was put off the abuse of alcohol by 2 years and they would get it anyway.
All I heard was the standard Kiwi punative approach to a problem.
It seems that the rich are looking for new areas to expand in:
“What is striking about the recovery, growth, and expansion of the world’s billionaires is how dependent their accumulation of wealth is based on pillage of state resources; how much of their fortunes are based on neo-liberal policies which led to the takeover at bargain prices of privatized public enterprises . . . that the state—not the market—plays the essential role in facilitating the greatest concentration and centralization of wealth in world history . . . The sources of billionaire wealth are, at best, only partially due to ‘entrepreneurial innovations.’ ”
Yep, NZ is definitely being colonised and this government is at the forefront in assisting that colonisation.
This is the unfairness that Shearer should be trying to explain to the populace:
She quotes one woman at a dinner party complaining that though she made $20 million in the prior year, she was disgusted that after taxes it would be only $10 million. It seemed like theft to her.
Unfortunately he, just like the RWNJs, is wailing on the poor.
Finland, Sweden, Novorossiya, and Incorrect AnalysesSince Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Putin has made much of NATO's supposed expansion to the east. As I wrote on 1 April:Much has been made of Putin's apparent anger that Ukraine was on the verge of joining NATO.However, this has been over-stated by both Western ...
Hoopla And Razzamatazz: Putting the country into debt allows a Minister of Finance to keep the lights on and the ATMs working without raising taxes. That option may become unavoidable at some future time, for some future government, but that is not the present government’s concern – not in the ...
Speaking Truth To Power: Greta Thunberg argues that the fine sounding phrases of well-meaning politicians changes nothing. The promises made, the targets set – and then re-set – are all too familiar to the younger generations she has encouraged to pay attention. They have heard it all before. Accordingly, she ...
The Spiral of Silence Problem As climate communicator John Cook cleverly illustrates below, a big obstacle to raising awareness about climate change is the "spiral of silence," a reluctance to talk about it. There are many reasons for this reluctance we can speculate about. Perhaps people don't want to be ...
The informed discussion on the next steps in tax policy is about improving the income tax base, not about taxing wealth directly.David Parker, the Minister for Inland Revenue, gave a clear indication that his talk on tax was to be ‘pointy-headed’ by choosing a university venue for his presentation. As ...
A couple of weeks ago, Newsroom reported that the government was failing to meet its proactive release obligations, with Ministers releasing less than a quarter of cabinet papers and in many cases failing to keep records. But Chris Hipkins was already on the case, and in a recent cabinet paper ...
Why are the New Zealand media so hostile to the government – not just this government, but any government? The media I have in mind are not NZME-owned outlets like the Herald or Newstalk ZB, whose bias is overtly political and directed at getting rid of the current Labour government. ...
In this week’s “A View from Afar” podcast Selwyn Manning and I speculate on how the Ruso-Ukrainian War will shape future regional security dynamics. We start with NATO and work our way East to the Northern Pacific. It is not comprehensive but we outline some potential ramifications with regard to ...
At base, the political biffo back and forth on the merits of Budget 2022 comes down to only one thing. Who is the better manager of the economy and better steward of social wellbeing – National or Labour? In its own quiet way, the Treasury has buried a fascinating answer ...
by Don Franks Poverty in New Zealand today has new ugly features. Adequate housing is beyond the reach of thousands. More and more people full time workers must beg food parcels from charities. Having no attainable prospects, young people lash out and steal. A response to poverty from The Daily ...
Drought: the past is no longer prologue Drought management in the United States (and elsewhere) is highly informed by events of the past, employing records extending 60 years or longer in order to plan for and cope with newly emerging meterorological water deficits. Water resource managers and agricultural concerns use ...
The government announced its budget today, with Finance Minister Grant Robertson giving the usual long speech about how much money they're spending. The big stuff was climate change and health, with the former being pre-announced, and most of the latter being writing off DHB's entirely fictional "debt" to the the ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has delivered a Budget that will many asking “Is that all there is?” There is a myriad of initiatives and there is increased spending, but strangely it doesn’t really add up to much at all for those hoping for a more traditional Labour-style Budget. The headline ...
Last year, Cook Islands Deputy Prime Minister Robert Tapaitau stood down as a minister after being charged with conspiracy to defraud after an investigation into corruption in Infrastructure Cook Islands and the National Environment Service. He hasn't been tried yet, but this week he has been reinstated: The seven-month ...
A ballot for three member's bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Repeal of Good Friday and Easter Sunday as Restricted Trading Days (Shop Trading and Sale of Alcohol) Amendment Bill (Chris Baillie) Electoral (Strengthening Democracy) Amendment Bill (Golriz Ghahraman) Increased Penalties for ...
No Jesus Here.She rises, unrested, and stepsOnto the narrow balconyTo find the day. To greetThe Sunday God she sings to.But this morning His face is clouded.Grey and wet as a corpseWashed by tears.Behind her, in the tangled bedding,the children bicker and whine.Worrying the cheap furnitureLike hungry puppies.They clutch at her ...
After two years of Corona-induced online meetings in 2020 and 2021, this year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will take place as a hybrid conference in both Vienna and online from May 23 to 27. To take hybrid and necessary hygiene restrictions into account, there (unfortunately) will be no ...
“Māori star lore was, and still remains, a blending together of both astronomy and astrology, and while there is undoubtedly robust science within the Māori study of the night sky, the spiritual component has always been of equal importance” writes Professor Rangi Matamua in his book Matariki – Te whetū tapu ...
The foibles of the Aussie electoral system are pretty well-known. The Lucky Country doesn’t have proportional representation. Voting for everyone over 18 is compulsory, but within a preferential system. This means that in the relatively few key seats that decide the final result, it can be the voters’ second, third ...
Julia Steinberger is an ecological economist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. She first posted this piece at Medium.com, and it was reposted on Yale Climate Connections with her permission. Today I went to give a climate talk at my old high school in Geneva – and was given a ...
A/Prof Ben Gray* Gray B. Government funding of interpreters in Primary Care is needed to ensure quality care. Public Health Expert Blog.17 May 2022. The pandemic has highlighted many problems in the NZ health system. This blog will address the question of availability of interpreters for people with limited English ...
I have suggested previously that sometimes Tolkien’s writer-instincts get the better of him. Sometimes he departs from his own cherished metaphysics, in favour of the demands of story – and I dare say, that is a good thing. Laws and Customs of the Eldar might be an interesting insight ...
One of the key planks of yesterday's Emissions Reduction Plan is a $650 million fund to help decarbonise industry by subsidising replacement of dirty technologies with clean ones. But National leader Chris Luxon derides this as "corporate welfare". Which probably sounds great to the business ideologues in the Koru club. ...
Poisonous! From a very early age New Zealanders are warned to give small black spiders with a red blotch on their abdomens a wide berth. The Katipo, we are told, is venomous: and while its bite may not kill you, it can make you very unwell. That said, isn’t the ...
“The truth prevails, but it’s a chore.” – Jan Masaryk: The intensification of ideological pressures is bearable for only so-long before ordinary men and women reassert the virtues of tolerance and common sense.ON 10 MARCH 1948, Jan Masaryk, the Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia, was found dead below his bathroom window. ...
Clearly, the attempt to take the politics out of climate change has itself been a political decision, and one meant to remove much of the heat from the global warming issue before next year’s election. What we got from yesterday’s $2.9 billion Emissions Reduction Plan was a largely aspirational multi-party ...
Michelle Uriarau (Mana Wāhine Kōrero) talks to Dane Giraud of the Free Speech Union LISTEN HERE Michelle Uriarau is a founding member of Mana Wāhine Kōrero – an advocacy group of and for Māori women who took strong positions against the ‘Self ID’ and ‘Conversion Practises Bills’. One of the ...
If we needed any confirmation, we have it in spades in today’s edition of the Herald; our supposedly leading daily newspaper is determined to do what it can to decide the outcome of the next election – to act, that is, not as a newspaper but as the mouthpiece for ...
Sean Plunkett, founding editor of the new media outlet, The Platform, was interviewed on RNZ's highly regarded flagship programme "Mediawatch".Mr Plunkett has made much about "cancel culture" and "de-platforming". On his website promoting The Platform, he outlines his mission statement thusly:The Platform is for everyone; we’re not into cancelling or ...
“That’s a C- for History, Kelvin!”While it is certainly understandable that Māori-Crown Relations Minister Kelvin Davis was not anxious to castigate every Pakeha member of the House of Representatives for the crimes committed against his people by their ancestors; crimes from which his Labour colleagues continue to draw enormous benefits; the ...
The Government promised a major reform of New Zealand’s immigration system, but when it was announced this week, many asked “is that it?” Over the last two years Covid has turned the immigration tap off, and the Government argued this produced the perfect opportunity to reassess decades of “unbalanced immigration”. ...
While the new fiscal rules may not be contentious, what they mean for macroeconomic management is not explained.In a pre-budget speech on 3 May 2022, the Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson, made some policy announcements which will frame both this budget and future ones. (The Treasury advice underpinning them is ...
Under MMP, Parliament was meant to look like New Zealand. And, in a lot of ways, it does now, with better representation for Māori, tangata moana, women, and the rainbow community replacing the old dictatorship of dead white males. But there's one area where "our" parliament remains completely unrepresentative: housing: ...
Justice Denied: At the heart of the “Pro-Life” cause was something much darker than conservative religious dogma, or even the oppressive designs of “The Patriarchy”. The enduring motivation – which dares not declare itself openly – is the paranoid conviction of male white supremacists that if “their” women are given ...
In case of emergency break glass— but glass can cut Fire extinguishers, safety belts, first aid kits, insurance policies, geoengineering: we never enjoy using them. But given our demonstrated, deep empirical record of proclivity for creating hazards and risk we'd obviously be foolish not to include emergency responses in our inventory. ...
After a brief hiatus, the “A View from Afar” podcast is back on air with Selwyn Manning leading the Q&A with me. This week is a grab bag of topics: Russian V-Day celebrations, Asian and European elections, and the impact of the PRC-Solomon Islands on the regional strategic balance. Plus ...
Last year, Vanuatu passed a "cyber-libel" law. And predictably, its first targets are those trying to hold the government to account: A police crackdown in Vanuatu that has seen people arrested for allegedly posting comments on social media speculating politicians were responsible for the country’s current Covid outbreak has ...
Could it be a case of not appreciating what you’ve got until it’s gone? The National Party lost Simon Bridges last week, which has reinforced the notion that the party still has some serious deficits of talent and diversity. The major factor in Bridges’ decision to leave was his failed ...
Who’s Missing From This Picture? The re-birth of the co-governance concept cannot be attributed to the institutions of Pakeha rule, at least, not in the sense that the massive constitutional revisions it entails have been presented to and endorsed by the House of Representatives, and then ratified by the citizens of New ...
Fiji signed onto China’s Belt and Road initiative in 2018, along with a separate agreement on economic co-operation and aid. Yet it took the recent security deal between China and the Solomon Islands to get the belated attention of the US and its helpmates in Canberra and Wellington, and the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Lexi Smith and Bud Ward “CRA” It’s one of those acronyms even many-a-veteran environmental policy geek may not recognize. Amidst the scores and scores of acronyms in the field – CERCLA, IPCC, SARA, LUST, NPDES, NDCs, FIFRA, NEPA and scores more – ...
In a nice bit of news in a World Gone Mad, I can report that Of Tin and Tintagel, my 5,800-word story about tin (and political scheming), is now out as part of the Spring 2022 edition of New Maps Magazine (https://www.new-maps.com/). As noted previously, this one owes a ...
Dr Jennifer Summers, Professor Michael Baker, Professor Nick Wilson* Summers J, Baker M, Wilson N. Covid-19 Case-Fatality Risk & Infection-Fatality Risk: important measures to help guide the pandemic response. Public Health Expert Blog. 11 May 2022. In this blog we explore two useful mortality indicators: Case-Fatality Risk (CFR) and Infection-Fatality ...
In the depths of winter, most people from southern New Zealand head to warmer climes for a much-needed dose of Vitamin D. Yet during the height of the last Ice Age, one species of moa did just the opposite. I’m reminded of Bill Bailey’s En Route to Normal tour that visited ...
In the lead-up to the Budget, the Government has been on an offensive to promote the efficiency and quality of its $74 billion Covid Response and Recovery Fund -especially the Wage Subsidy Scheme component. This comes after criticisms and concerns from across the political spectrum over poor-quality spending, and suggestions ...
Elizabeth Elliot Noe, Lincoln University, New Zealand; Andrew D. Barnes, University of Waikato; Bruce Clarkson, University of Waikato, and John Innes, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare ResearchUrbanisation, and the destruction of habitat it entails, is a major threat to native bird populations. But as our new research shows, restored ...
Unfinished: Always, gnawing away at this government’s confidence and empathy, is the dictum that seriously challenging the economic and social status-quo is the surest route to electoral death. Labour’s colouring-in book, and National’s, have to look the same. All that matters is which party is better at staying inside the lines.DOES ...
Radical As: Māori healers recall a time when “words had power”. The words that give substance to ideas, no matter how radical, still do. If our representatives rediscover the courage to speak them out loud.THERE ARE RULES for radicalism. Or, at least, there are rules for the presentation of radical ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters A brutal, record-intensity heat wave that has engulfed much of India and Pakistan since March eased somewhat this week, but is poised to roar back in the coming week with inferno-like temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius (122°F). The ...
The good people at the Reading Tolkien podcast have put out a new piece, which spends some time comparing the underlying moral positions of George R.R. Martin and J.R.R. Tolkien: (The relevant discussion starts about twenty-seven minutes in. It’s a long podcast). In the interests of fairness, ...
Crime is becoming a key debate between Labour and National. This week they are both keen to show that they are tough on law and order. It’s an issue that National has a traditional advantage on, and is one that they’re currently getting good traction from. In response, Labour is ...
So far, the excited media response to the spike in “ram-raid” incidents is being countered by evidence that in reality, youth crime is steeply in decline, and has been so for much of the past decade. Who knew? Perhaps that’s the real issue here. Why on earth wasn’t the latest ...
In the past 10 years or so – and that’s how quickly it has happened – all our comfortable convictions about the unassailability of free speech have been turned on their heads. Suddenly we find ourselves fighting again for rights we assumed were settled. Click here to watch the video ...
Enforced Fertility: The imminent overturning of Roe versus Wade by the US Supreme Court is certain to raise echoes here that are no less evocative of the dystopia envisioned by Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale. Gilead can happen here.WITH THE UNITED STATES seemingly on the brink of becoming “Gilead”, ...
Not Wanted On Grounds Of Political Rejuvenation: Winston Peters did nothing more than visit the protest encampment erected by anti-vaxxers on the parliamentary lawn. A great many New Zealanders applauded him for meeting with the protesters and wondered why the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition could not do ...
May The Force Be With Us: With New Zealanders under 40, nostalgia for a time when politics worked gains little purchase. Politics hasn’t swerved to any noticeable degree since the 1980s, becoming in the Twenty-First Century a battle between marketing strategies, not ideologies. Young New Zealanders critique political advertisements in ...
Dane Giraud reflects on his working class upbringing and how campaigning for free speech radicalised him Evidence to support censorship as a tool for social cohesion is paltry. I Read the NZ Human Rights Commission website, and 99% of their ‘evidence’ is anecdotal. When asked why we need hate speech ...
As you may have noticed, I have been slowly working my way through the works of Agatha Christie. At the time of writing, I have read some thirty-eight of her books – less than half her total output, but arguably enough to get a reasonable handle on it. It ...
Population growth has some effect on economic growth, but it is complicated especially where infrastructure is involved. We need to think more about it. In an opinion piece in the New Zealand Herald, John Gascoigne claimed that New Zealand was a ‘tragic tale of economic decline’. He gave no evidence ...
The Greens have been almost invisible since the 2020 election. Despite massive crises impacting on people’s lives, such as climate change, housing, inequality, and the cost of living, they’ve had very little to say. On this week’s highly contentious issue of politicians being banned from Parliament by Trevor Mallard, the ...
The government has announced it will be replacing all coal boilers in schools by 2025: All remaining coal boilers in New Zealand schools will be replaced with cleaner wood burners or electric heating by 2025, at a cost of $10 million, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced. The coal ...
Israeli news media and politicians often complain about the activity of neo-Nazis in Ukraine. “Activists and supporters of Ukrainian nationalist parties hold torches as they take part in a rally to mark the 112th birth anniversary of Stepan Bandera, in Kyiv, Ukraine, January 1, 2021. Credit: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters The recent ...
Another gnawing warming worry Accidental outcomes of our engineering prowess are warming Arctic regions at a rapid pace. Another species of accomplished engineers is rapidly occupying and exploiting new territory we've thereby made more easily available, namely beavers (Castor canadensis). Beaver populations in affected Arctic regions have increased from "none" to "quite a ...
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Mr Speaker, It has taken four-and-a-half years to even start to turn the legacy of inaction and neglect from the last time they were in Government together. And we have a long journey in front of us! ...
Today Greens Te Mātāwaka Chair and Health Spokesperson, Dr Elizabeth Kerekere, said “The Greens have long campaigned for an independent Māori Health Authority and pathways for Takatāpui and Rainbow healthcare. “We welcome the substantial funding going into the new health system, Pae Ora, particularly for the Māori Health Authority, Iwi-Partnership ...
Budget 2022 shows progress on conservation commitments in the Green Party’s cooperation agreement Green Party achievements in the last Government continue to drive investment in nature protection Urgent action needed on nature-based solutions to climate change Future budget decisions must reflect the role nature plays in helping reduce emissions ...
Landmark week for climate action concludes with climate budget Largest ever investment in climate action one of many Green Party wins throughout Budget 2022 Budget 2022 delivers progress on every part of the cooperation agreement with Labour Budget 2022 is a climate budget that caps a landmark week ...
Green Party welcomes extension to half price fares Permanent half price fares for Community Services Card holders includes many students, which helps implement a Green Party policy Work to reduce public transport fares for Community Services Card holders started by Greens in the last Government Budget 2022 should be ...
New cost of living payment closely aligned to Green Party policy to expand the Winter Energy Payment Extension and improvement of Warmer Kiwi Homes builds on Green Party progress in Government Community energy fund welcomed The Green Party welcomes the investment in Budget 2022 to expand Warmer Kiwi ...
Budget 2022 support to reduce homelessness delivers on the Green Party’s cooperation agreement Bespoke support for rangatahi with higher, more complex needs The Green Party welcomes the additional investment in Budget 2022 for kaupapa Māori support services, homelessness outreach services, the expansion of transitional housing, and a new ...
Green Party reaffirms call for liveable incomes and wealth tax Calls on Government to cancel debt owed to MSD for hardship assistance such as benefit advances, and for over-payments The Green Party welcomes the support for people on low incomes Budget 2022 but says more must be done ...
Our Government has just released this year’s Budget, which sets out the next steps in our plan to build a high wage, low carbon economy that gives economic security in good times and in bad. It’s full of initiatives that speed up our economic recovery and ease cost pressures for ...
A stronger democracy is on the horizon, as Golriz Ghahraman’s Electoral (Strengthening Democracy) Amendment Bill was pulled from the biscuit tin today. ...
Tomorrow, the Government will release this year’s Budget, setting out the next steps in our plan to build a high wage, low carbon economy that gives economic security in good times and in bad. While the full details will be kept under wraps until Thursday afternoon, we’ve announced a few ...
As a Government, we made it clear to New Zealanders that we’d take meaningful action on climate change, and that’s exactly what we’ve done. Earlier today, we released our next steps with our Emissions Reduction Plan – which will meet the Climate Commission’s independent science-based emissions reduction targets, and new ...
Emissions Reduction Plan prepares New Zealand for the future, ensuring country is on track to meet first emissions budget, securing jobs, and unlocking new investment ...
The Greens are calling for the Government to reconsider the immigration reset so that it better reflects our relationship with our Pacific neighbours. ...
Hamilton City Council and Whanganui District Council have both joined a growing list of Local Authorities to pass a motion in support of Green Party Drug Reform Spokesperson Chlöe Swarbrick’s Members’ bill to minimise alcohol harm. ...
Today, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a major package of reforms to address the immediate skill shortages in New Zealand and speed up our economic growth. These include an early reopening to the world, a major milestone for international education, and a simplification of immigration settings to ensure New Zealand ...
Proposed immigration changes by the Government fail to guarantee pathways to residency to workers in the types of jobs deemed essential throughout the pandemic, by prioritising high income earners - instead of focusing on the wellbeing of workers and enabling migrants to put down roots. ...
Ehara taku toa i te toa takatahi, engari taku toa he toa takimano – my strength is not mine alone but the strength of many (working together to ensure safe, caring respectful responses). We are striving for change. We want all people in Aotearoa New Zealand thriving; their wellbeing enhanced ...
The Green Party is throwing its support behind the 10,000 allied health workers taking work-to-rule industrial action today because of unfair pay and working conditions. ...
Since the day we came into Government, we’ve worked hard to lift wages and reduce cost pressures facing New Zealanders. But we know the rising cost of living, driven by worldwide inflation and the war in Ukraine, is making things particularly tough right now. That’s why we’ve stepped up our ...
An independent review of New Zealand’s detention regime for asylum seekers has found arbitrary and abusive practices in Aotearoa’s immigration law, policy, and practice. ...
Tiwhatiwha te pō, tiwhatiwha te ao. Tiwhatiwha te pō, tiwhatiwha te ao. Matariki Tapuapua, He roimata ua, he roimata tangata. He roimata e wairurutu nei, e wairurutu nei. Te Māreikura mārohirohi o Ihoa o ngā Mano, takoto Te ringa mākohakoha o Rongo, takoto. Te mātauranga o Tūāhuriri o Ngai Tahu ...
Three core networks within the tourism sector are receiving new investment to gear up for the return of international tourists and business travellers, as the country fully reconnects to the world. “Our wider tourism sector is on the way to recovery. As visitor numbers scale up, our established tourism networks ...
The Government is contributing $100,000 to a Mayoral Relief Fund to help the Levin community following this morning’s tornado, Minister for Emergency Management Kiri Allan says. “My thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted by severe weather events in Levin and across the country. “I know the tornado has ...
The Quintet of Attorneys General have issued the following statement of support for the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and investigations and prosecutions for crimes committed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine: “The Attorneys General of the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand join in ...
Morena tatou katoa. Kua tae mai i runga i te kaupapa o te rā. Thank you all for being here today. Yesterday my colleague, the Minister of Finance Grant Robertson, delivered the Wellbeing Budget 2022 – for a secure future for New Zealand. I’m the Minister of Health, and this was ...
Urgent Budget night legislation to stop major supermarkets blocking competitors from accessing land for new stores has been introduced today, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Dr David Clark said. The Commerce (Grocery Sector Covenants) Amendment Bill amends the Commerce Act 1986, banning restrictive covenants on land, and exclusive covenants ...
It is a pleasure to speak to this Budget. The 5th we have had the privilege of delivering, and in no less extraordinary circumstances. Mr Speaker, the business and cycle of Government is, in some ways, no different to life itself. Navigating difficult times, while also making necessary progress. Dealing ...
Budget 2022 provides funding to implement the new resource management system, building on progress made since the reform was announced just over a year ago. The inadequate funding for the implementation of the Resource Management Act in 1992 almost guaranteed its failure. There was a lack of national direction about ...
The Government is substantially increasing the amount of funding for public media to ensure New Zealanders can continue to access quality local content and trusted news. “Our decision to create a new independent and future-focused public media entity is about achieving this objective, and we will support it with a ...
$662.5 million to maintain existing defence capabilities NZDF lower-paid staff will receive a salary increase to help meet cost-of living pressures. Budget 2022 sees significant resources made available for the Defence Force to maintain existing defence capabilities as it looks to the future delivery of these new investments. “Since ...
More than $185 million to help build a resilient cultural sector as it continues to adapt to the challenges coming out of COVID-19. Support cultural sector agencies to continue to offer their important services to New Zealanders. Strengthen support for Māori arts, culture and heritage. The Government is investing in a ...
It is my great pleasure to present New Zealand’s fourth Wellbeing Budget. In each of this Government’s three previous Wellbeing Budgets we have not only considered the performance of our economy and finances, but also the wellbeing of our people, the health of our environment and the strength of our communities. In Budget ...
It is my great pleasure to present New Zealand’s fourth Wellbeing Budget. In each of this Government’s three previous Wellbeing Budgets we have not only considered the performance of our economy and finances, but also the wellbeing of our people, the health of our environment and the strength of our communities. In Budget ...
Four new permanent Coroners to be appointed Seven Coronial Registrar roles and four Clinical Advisor roles are planned to ease workload pressures Budget 2022 delivers a package of investment to improve the coronial system and reduce delays for grieving families and whānau. “Operating funding of $28.5 million over four ...
Establishment of Ministry for Disabled People Progressing the rollout of the Enabling Good Lives approach to Disability Support Services to provide self-determination for disabled people Extra funding for disability support services “Budget 2022 demonstrates the Government’s commitment to deliver change for the disability community with the establishment of a ...
Fairer Equity Funding system to replace school deciles The largest step yet towards Pay Parity in early learning Local support for schools to improve teaching and learning A unified funding system to underpin the Reform of Vocational Education Boost for schools and early learning centres to help with cost ...
$118.4 million for advisory services to support farmers, foresters, growers and whenua Māori owners to accelerate sustainable land use changes and lift productivity $40 million to help transformation in the forestry, wood processing, food and beverage and fisheries sectors $31.6 million to help maintain and lift animal welfare practices across Aotearoa New Zealand A total food and ...
House price caps for First Home Grants increased in many parts of the country House price caps for First Home Loans removed entirely Kāinga Whenua Loan cap will also be increased from $200,000 to $500,000 The Affordable Housing Fund to initially provide support for not-for-profit rental providers Significant additional ...
Child Support rules to be reformed lifting an estimated 6,000 to 14,000 children out of poverty Support for immediate and essential dental care lifted from $300 to $1,000 per year Increased income levels for hardship assistance to extend eligibility Budget 2022 takes further action to reduce child poverty and ...
More support for RNA research through to pilot manufacturing RNA technology platform to be created to facilitate engagement between research and industry partners Researchers and businesses working in the rapidly developing field of RNA technology will benefit from a new research and development platform, funded in Budget 2022. “RNA ...
A new Business Growth Fund to support small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to grow Fully funding the Regional Strategic Partnership Fund to unleash regional economic development opportunities Tourism Innovation Programme to promote sustainable recovery Eight Industry Transformation Plans progressed to work with industries, workers and iwi to transition ...
Budget 2022 further strengthens the economic foundations and wellbeing outcomes for Pacific peoples in Aotearoa, as the recovery from COVID-19 continues. “The priorities we set for Budget 2022 will support the continued delivery of our commitments for Pacific peoples through the Pacific Wellbeing Strategy, a 2020 manifesto commitment for Pacific ...
Boost for Māori economic and employment initiatives. More funding for Māori health and wellbeing initiatives Further support towards growing language, culture and identity initiatives to deliver on our commitment to Te Reo Māori in Education Funding for natural environment and climate change initiatives to help farmers, growers and whenua ...
New hospital funding for Whangārei, Nelson and Hillmorton 280 more classrooms over 40 schools, and money for new kura $349 million for more rolling stock and rail network investment The completion of feasibility studies for a Northland dry dock and a new port in the Manukau Harbour Increased infrastructure ...
$168 million to the Māori Health Authority for direct commissioning of services $20.1 million to support Iwi-Māori Partnership Boards $30 million to support Māori primary and community care providers $39 million for Māori health workforce development Budget 2022 invests in resetting our health system and gives economic security in ...
Biggest-ever increase to Pharmac’s medicines budget Provision for 61 new emergency vehicles including 48 ambulances, along with 248 more paramedics and other frontline staff New emergency helicopter and crew, and replacement of some older choppers $100 million investment in specialist mental health and addiction services 195,000 primary and intermediate aged ...
Landmark reform: new multi-year budgets for better planning and more consistent health services Record ongoing annual funding boost for Health NZ to meet cost pressures and start with a clean slate as it replaces fragmented DHB system ($1.8 billion year one, as well as additional $1.3 billion in year ...
Fuel Excise Duty and Road User Charges cut to be extended for two months Half price public transport extended for a further two months New temporary cost of living payment for people earning up to $70,000 who are not eligible to receive the Winter Energy Payment Estimated 2.1 million New ...
A return to surplus in 2024/2025 Unemployment rate projected to remain at record lows Net debt forecast to peak at 19.9 percent of GDP in 2024, lower than Australia, US, UK and Canada Economic growth to hit 4.2 percent in 2023 and average 2.1 percent over the forecast period A ...
Cost of living payment to cushion impact of inflation for 2.1 million Kiwis Record health investment including biggest ever increase to Pharmac’s medicines budget First allocations from Climate Emergency Response Fund contribute to achieving the goals in the first Emissions Reduction Plan Government actions deliver one of the strongest ...
Budget 2022 will help build a high wage, low emissions economy that provides greater economic security, while providing support to households affected by cost of living pressures. Our economy has come through the COVID-19 shock better than almost anywhere else in the world, but other challenges, both long-term and more ...
Health Minister Andrew Little will represent New Zealand at the first in-person World Health Assembly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from Sunday 22 – Wednesday 25 May (New Zealand time). “COVID-19 has affected people all around the world, and health continues to ...
New Zealand is committing to trade only in legally harvested timber with the Forests (Legal Harvest Assurance) Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament today. Under the Bill, timber harvested in New Zealand and overseas, and used in products made here or imported, will have to be verified as being legally harvested. ...
The Government has welcomed the release today of StatsNZ data showing the rate at which New Zealanders died from all causes during the COVID-19 pandemic has been lower than expected. The new StatsNZ figures provide a measure of the overall rate of deaths in New Zealand during the pandemic compared ...
Legislation that will help prevent serious criminal offending at sea, including trafficking of humans, drugs, wildlife and arms, has passed its third reading in Parliament today, Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta announced. “Today is a milestone in allowing us to respond to the increasingly dynamic and complex maritime security environment facing ...
Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor is set to travel to Thailand this week to represent New Zealand at the annual APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) meeting in Bangkok. “I’m very much looking forward to meeting my trade counterparts at APEC 2022 and building on the achievements we ...
Settlement of the first pay-equity agreement in the health sector is hugely significant, delivering pay rises of thousands of dollars for many hospital administration and clerical workers, Health Minister Andrew Little says. “There is no place in 21st century Aotearoa New Zealand for 1950s attitudes to work predominantly carried out ...
Health Minister Andrew Little opened a new intensive care space for up to 12 ICU-capable beds at Christchurch Hospital today, funded from the Government’s Rapid Hospital Improvement Programme. “I’m pleased to help mark this milestone. This new space will provide additional critical care support for the people of Canterbury and ...
Budget 2022 will continue to deliver on Labour’s commitment to better services and support for mental wellbeing. The upcoming Budget will include a $100-million investment over four years for a specialist mental health and addiction package, including: $27m for community-based crisis services that will deliver a variety of intensive supports ...
Budget 2022 will continue to deliver on Labour’s commitment to better mental wellbeing services and support, with 195,000 primary and intermediate aged children set to benefit from the continuation and expansion of Mana Ake services. “In Budget 2022 Labour will deliver on its manifesto commitment to expand Mana Ake, with ...
Policy failure over the last eight years — including a massive cut to the ABC’s international funding — has weakened Australia’s voice in the Pacific to its lowest ebb since the Menzies government established the first radio shortwave service across the region more than 80 years ago. Now, with China’s ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern early in March insisted there was no cost-of-living “crisis” in New Zealand. Now her right-hand man, Grant Robertson, has presented a budget which he proudly claims deals with that very same “crisis”, giving away $1 billion in an emergency cost-of-living package. About 2.1 million New Zealanders ...
Podcast - This Budget needed to tackle health and climate while delivering cost-of-living relief. Deputy Political Editor Craig McCulloch assesses the implications. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne AAP/Lukas Coch The federal election is on Saturday. Polls close at 6pm local time; that means 6pm AEST in the eastern states, 6:30pm in SA and the ...
Analysis - It was the government's biggest week of the year with the Budget and the Emissions Reduction Plan coming out, and neither was given much of a welcome, Peter Wilson writes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ataus Samad, Lecturer, Western Sydney University Mick Tsikas/AAP With the election almost upon us, thoughts are more than ever turned to political survival. While getting pre-selected and winning elections are the initial, difficult challenges of a political career, a major ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Chart by Keith Rankin. We know that New Zealand has one of the world’s lowest mortality outcomes, so far, in the Covid19 pandemic. (So has North Korea.) It’s still far too early to access the costs incurred – loss of utility enjoyed by actual and ‘would-have-been’ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liz Giuffre, Senior Lecturer in Communication, University of Technology Sydney Lillie Eiger/ Sony You’ve probably heard the name Harry Styles. He is the current “real big thing” in popular music. But how did a former boy band star become ...
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty managing director Mark Harris is advocating for a stamp duty on foreign buyers of residential property. Following yesterday’s Budget 2022 announcement, Harris believes that a stamp duty would help increase the ...
And how did the people react to the boost in spending announced in this year’s Budget to promote our wellbeing? In some cases by pleading for more; in other cases, by grouching they got nothing. But Budget spending is never enough. Two lots of bleating came from the Human Rights ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and Emma La Rouche, from the University of Canberra’s Media and Communications team, look at the last week of the campaign as Australians head to the polls. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Hurlimann, Associate Professor in Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock It will be impossible to tackle climate change unless we transform the way we build and plan cities, which are responsible for a staggering 70% of global emissions. ...
Military spending allocated in the 2022 Wellbeing Budget is $6,077,484,000 - an average of more than $116.8 million every week, and a 10.4% increase on actual spending in 2021. [1] This year’s increase illustrates yet again that the government remains ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Tingay, John Curtin Distinguished Professor (Radio Astronomy), Curtin University JIM LO SCALZO/EPA The United States Congress recently held a hearing into US government information pertaining to “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAPs). The last investigation of this kind happened ...
Bank shareholders, speculators, investors, and ticket clippers will be partying for days over the enormous profits they’ll be expecting following Labour’s budget reveal yesterday. After a 48 percent increase in profits in 2021, banks in particular ...
Budget 2022 has a relatively small amount of new cash allocated to science, research and innovation. This budget comes ahead of what could become a major overhaul of the research, science, and innovation sector in the coming years, with MBIE now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Curtin, Professor of Politics and Policy, University of Auckland Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to parliament via video link from COVID isolation during budget day.Getty Images All budgets are about economics and politics, and 2022’s was no different. The Labour ...
Early this Sunday evening there will be a phone alert you can’t ignore – but don’t worry, it’s just a test. This year’s nationwide test of the Emergency Mobile Alert system will take place on Sunday 22 May between 6-7pm It is expected ...
It was announced today that the inaugural Chinese Medicine Council of New Zealand (CMCNZ) has been appointed by the Minister of Health, Hon. Andrew Little. This brings the Chinese medicine profession in under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peggy Kern, Associate professor, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock It’s been a big week and you feel exhausted, and suddenly you find yourself crying at a nice nappy commercial. Or maybe you are struck with a cold or the coronavirus ...
No, we haven’t fully analysed Budget 2022, but we did listen to Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s speech. He took great pride in announcing his fifth Budget invests $5.9 billion a year in net new operating spending, while introducing multi-year funding packages that also draw from Budget 2023 and Budget 2024 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Victor Grabarczyk/unsplash Dogs have an exceptional sense of smell. We take advantage of this ability in many ways, including by training them to find illicit drugs, dangerous goods and even people. In ...
The Government is using dirty tactics as it pushes through enabling legislation to increase PAYE revenue by 10% under the cover of yesterday’s Budget, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union in response to the Income Insurance Scheme (Enabling ...
RNZ Pacific A total of NZ$196 million has been set aside for Pacific services in Aotearoa New Zealand in this year’s Budget. A big chunk of that — $76 million will go on Pacific health services. Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the cash injection would be used to support Pacific ...
By George Heagney of Stuff A group of students from West Papua, the Melanesian Pacific region in Indonesia, are fearful about their futures in New Zealand after their scholarships were cut off. A group of about 40 students have been studying at different tertiary institutions in New Zealand, but in ...
By Craig McCulloch, RNZ News deputy political editor More than two million New Zealanders will get a one-off $350 sweetener as part of the Budget’s centrepiece $1 billion cost-of-living relief package. The temporary short-term support is counterbalanced by a record $11.1 billion for the health system as the government scraps ...
Asia Pacific Report newsdesk A movement dedicated to peaceful self-determination among indigenous groups in the Pacific is the latest group in Aotearoa to add support for struggling Papuan students caught in Aotearoa New Zealand after an abrupt cancellation of their scholarships. About 70 Papuan students are currently in New Zealand ...
RNZ Pacific The pro-independence coalition parties of Kanaky New Caledonia have selected their candidates for the French Legislative elections next month. Wali Wahetra from the Palika Party is standing in one electoral district, and Gerard Reignier from Union Caledonienne is standing in the other. Speaking with La Premiere, Wahetra explained ...
COMMENTARY:By Nina Santos in AucklandOn May 9, the Philippines went to the polls in what has been called “by far the most divisive and consequential electoral contest” in the Philippines.The electoral race had boiled down to two frontrunners: one was the current Vice-President Leni Robredo, running on ...
PNG Post-Courier Governor-General Grand Chief Sir Bob Dadae has described Papua New Guinea’s late Deputy Prime Minister Sam Basil as a vibrant and visionary leader who was passionate about his people and the electorate. He said Basil loved and dedicated his life to the people of Bulolo until his unexpected ...
Are you receiving NZ Superannuation? If you are, then no, you are not one of the 2.1 million Kiwi’s getting the $350 cost of living supplement announced in the 2022 Budget. If you hold a Gold card the extension of the half priced public ...
On May 19th, the Government released its 2022 Budget which included a number of initiatives to help vulnerable whānau in our communities. Many of these initiatives focus on a proactive strategy to recover from the effects of COVID. Within the community ...
Budget 2022 has been a disappointment for New Zealand’s leading advocate for older people. Although the Grey Power Federation is pleased to note that the Government is investing $3.103 million over four years to continue implementing the Better Later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato Ukraine’s sea port of Mariupol, blockaded and now fallen to Russian forces.Getty Images Trying to gauge the worst aspect of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is difficult. For some, it will be the ...
The Government has committed $37.485m to continue the work of achieving a thriving, fair and sustainable construction sector. The funding will support the Construction Sector Accord to deliver its Construction Sector Transformation Plan 2022-2025. “This ...
The Commission commends the Government’s Budget 2022 investment in specialist mental health and addiction, particularly the investment in community-based crisis services, specialist child and adolescent mental health and addiction services, and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University You first have to lose an election on principle if you want to win one on principle. This was how Labor rationalised the miscalculations that led to its “Don’s Party” disappointment in 1969, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Camilla Hoyos, Research Fellow, University of Sydney Shutterstock There is increasing recognition of the important role sleep plays in our brain health. Growing evidence suggests disturbed sleep may increase the risk of developing dementia. I and University of Sydney ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Wilson, Associate Professor of Leadership, Swinburne University of Technology Shutterstock Whatever the result of the 2022 election, one thing is clear: many Australians are losing faith that their social institutions serve their interests. Our annual survey of 4,000 Australians ...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon has labelled the Budget a "backwards Budget" and with "bandaid" solutions. Watch his post-Budget speech here ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The text arrived on Thursday morning, from a woman who helps me with my horses. “And now I have to do that voting thing. Recommendations please? Who is best?” Well Margaret, after an unedifying ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margaret Hellard, Deputy Director (Programs), Burnet Institute Australia’s COVID death toll is rising, yet public health measures to reduce transmission such as mask mandates are largely a thing of the past. It’s time for governments and the community to consider what ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society and NATSEM, University of Canberra Shutterstock Early in the election campaign, on April 14, we learned that Australia’s unemployment rate had slipped below 4% in March, to 3.95% – ...
The sum includes about $1.8 billion to wipe out DHB deficits, while Pharmac will receive $191m over two years to fund new drugs - with a particular focus on cancer care. ...
E tū welcomes Budget 2022, which includes a range of measures that will help E tū members and their communities during a time of increased hardship coming out of the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. E tū Assistant National Secretary Annie Newman ...
The 2022 Budget was delivered against a gloomier backdrop. The latest forecasts suggest more subdued growth, more persistent inflation, and further tightening in the labour market. The headline numbers provided little surprise. The Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wendy Bonython, Associate Professor of Law, Bond University Shutterstock This Saturday, most Australians over 18 will vote in the federal election. The right to participate in elections is enshrined in international and domestic human rights law. Under Australia’s Commonwealth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Shaw, Professor of Politics, Massey University Getty Images One way to make sense of Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s fifth budget speech was to see it as a political performance working on different levels. First, Labour needs this budget ...
Greater Wellington welcomed news today that the Government will permanently fund cheaper public transport fares for community services card hold holders. Chair of Greater Wellington Daran Ponter said there had been strong support for this type ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Preston, Professor of Economics, The University of Western Australia Shutterstock In 2020 the Morrison government allowed Australians to raid their superannuation to get through during the pandemic. This week Scott Morrison proposed letting people raid their super for a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Eltham, Lecturer, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University Shutterstock The past term of government has been tough for arts and culture in Australia. Culture was among the worst affected by the pandemic of any aspect of society: ...
It's a 'cost of living crisis' not a 'spending on living crisis'. Throwing more and more money at a black-hole for kiwis to spend is akin to the famous saying: "...it's like standing in a bucket and trying to pull yourself up by the handle." ...
Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union and the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations are disappointed to see the tertiary education sector largely ignored once again in the Labour government’s fifth Budget since taking office in 2017. ...
The biggest Budget spend up in New Zealand’s history has delivered some, but not a lot, of initiatives that will support businesses in the Canterbury region. "Some of the initiatives announced in Budget 2022 will go some way towards helping business, ...
Community Housing Aotearoa, a peak body for the community housing sector, welcomes the announcement in today’s Budget to create a $350M Affordable Housing Fund. This investment is a good use of the unallocated Residential Response Fund and a sign ...
The Government’s fourth wellbeing budget fittingly delivered a raft of initiatives to support people, communities and the environment, but when it came to business support it was much as expected. The good news is $100m has been allocated for a ...
Budget 2022 has pluses and minuses for the disabled community, says Disability Rights Commissioner Paula Tesoriero. On the plus side there was considerable investment in the new Ministry for Disabled People and other funding which has the potential ...
New Zealand’s national association for civil contractors has welcomed the $230 million investment in trades training programmes, increased funding for rail and rural broadband infrastructure, and support for Construction Sector Accord Transformation ...
WIMP WALLOPING : David Shearer on Larry Williams Drive
NewstalkZB, Wednesday 29 August 2012, 6.18 to 6:24p.m.
Williams is shamelessly partisan and pro-National. Thirty minutes before this debacle, he had Gerry Brownlee on the programme, and treated him with cringing deference, feeding him the sort of patsy questions that someone like Simon Bridges or Chris Tremain serves up for a minister at Question Time in the House.
Toward the Leader of the Opposition, though, his tone was radically different….
Re selling off our state assets, Williams insolently stated: “You see risks, David, because you don’t want them sold.” Shearer let that go, unchallenged.
Williams asked in a querulous tone: “Why SHOULDN’T private investors own umm, ahhh, part of the power company?” Shearer garbled a reply, and Williams condescendingly capped him by quoting something by Steven Joyce. Again, Shearer failed to pick him up on that, failed to challenge him.
And it wasn’t over….
WILLIAMS: Listen, the report on the child poverty…
SHEARER: Uh, we’re still looking THROUGH that…”
WILLIAMS: Do you really think these parents can’t afford to feed these kids some porridge?
SHEARER: Uhhh…
Throughout the interview, Larry Williams was by turn brusque, condescending and insolent.
How long can this go on?
Statistical analysis of Shearer’s performance:
“y’know”…. 11 times
“um”…. 14 times
“uh uh, ahhh”…. 16 times
“and and and and”…. 6 times
“in the in the in the”….. 9 times
“yeah”…… 5 times
Don’t know how you do it Morrissey. This talent you have for listening to antagonistic tosh and dissecting it is kind of admirable. Must admit, I’d need a stockpile of radios and a good plasterer if I tried to emulate your efforts. And although you deserve a medal of some description, I’m afraid you’ll just have to settle for my thanks for making me laugh first thing in the morning. That running total of ‘Shearisms’ is pure gold.
Morrissey, your transcripts do an amazing job of cutting through the bullshit to see exactly what was going on. Your one yesterday I think it was Deaker and some others was brilliant.
They should be made to listen to themselves.
I’ve given up paying attention to Morrissey’s transcripts after he twice transcribed interviews I had listened to and his transcription was biased and out of context.
I’ve given up paying attention to Morrissey’s transcripts after he twice transcribed interviews I had listened to and his transcription was biased and out of context.
Nonsense. You were upset because I recorded the inanity and lack of thought in the comments of some pro-nuclear shills on the National Radio.
I didn’t record them verbatim, it was a rush transcript, but the gist of their idiotic comments was correct.
Let’s not forget that even as the Japanese government was seriously considering the evacuation of the city of Tokyo, YOU were blithering on about how SAFE nuclear power is. My transcripts, which underlined the lack of intellectual substance and complete lack moral integrity of pro-nuclear advocates, clearly angered you. Your objections were nothing more than quibbles about a few missing words, and are thus quite spurious.
“I didn’t record them verbatim, it was a rush transcript, but the gist of their idiotic comments was correct.”
If you didn’t record them verbatim, why did you present it as if you had, and then defended it when I challenged you on it?
The topic really isn’t relevant.
So not a transcript, then Mozza? Just a precis? Can I suggest you don’t use the word ‘transcript’ in future, now that you’ve acknowleged that they are no such thing.
Hey Morrissey, we never managed to agree on the World Cup final…..went on forever..and we agreed to disagree. I did however send you to metaphorical purgatory for being ideologically impure on referees being innocent until proven guilty…and you then got a ban proving there is a God and I was right. So there. Carry on.
and you then got a ban proving there is a God and I was right. So there. Carry on.
Yes, my friend, I’m sorry to say I was in purgatory for a month after that one.
Your one yesterday I think it was Deaker and some others was brilliant.
Actually, it was Larry (Pravda) Williams again….
yup
Epic fail again, wtf is he even doing on the right wing rant radio channel anyway. Another own goal.
Play the game in a way you can be effective…..what a media dunce DS is.
Thats sad, Sad because of the performance of the labour leader. And sadder still that someone actually counted his umms, arrrs, and errs. And saddest of all is the unimpressive totals.
Sorry people but on that performance he has got to go.
Joyce says government can’t legislate for prosperity,
but can take the draw down of charity profits
from pokies, and give them to SkyCity
for a conference center.
Joyce shouts, GFC has made governing to hard, along with Labours
legacy, National is unable to turn the economy around!
Defeatism from Joyce.
Then, Joyce says that tax cuts don’t effect benefitaries,
as we all know Australians don’t pay tax on the first dollar
of income, unlike here in NZ where 10.2% is levied, as
National achieved nothing in reducing this rate from 12.5% to 10.2%!
See National believes that Kiwis aren’t going to OZ for the zero tax income
on the five thousand earned, the capital gains tax that increase the burden
on the non-productive sector, but because there are jobs in OZ.
So joyce is saying the brighter future was a con
Which we knew all along. Too bad there are no competing visions of NZ out there to show the public.
CV 1 6 1 1
competing visions of NZ out there
This morning on Chris Laidlaw Radionz Jim Dier a very enthusiastic community builder who has found that he and his fellows have made a lot of difference. So he is not an armchair idealist but a thinking down-and-dirty-hands worker who has a good idea that works. Audio should be up by noon.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday
10:06 Ideas: Growing Communities
Epuni Primary School’s Common Unity Project aims to produce enough fruit and vegetables to feed not only the school’s 110 pupils but their families as well. It’s a classic example of what’s been called Asset Based Community Development – or ABC Development. Ideas visits Epuni Primary School in Lower Hutt and talks to the project’s volunteer coordinator Julia Milne; Jim Diers, a proponent of the ABCD movement, tells Jeremy Rose about Seattle’s Strong Communities Initiative; and Denise Bijoux of Inspiring Communities talks to Chris Laidlaw about the proliferation of asset-based community projects in New Zealand.
Presented by Chris Laidlaw
Produced by Jeremy Rose.
Shearers eloquence evokes passion in the hearts of listeners. He is umm, ah the best best possible leader for umm New Zealand , yeah.
… don’t torture yourself by listening to ZB. Listen to Radio NZ “National” Programme instead. That way your stress levels will drop markedly, and you’ll find that bigots like Williams, Smith, Watson et al become irrelevant.
What sort of independence do you think you will get from the commercial network anyway?
… don’t torture yourself by listening to ZB.
That ten minutes or so, plus the earlier interview with Brownlee, was all I listened to on NewstalkZB yesterday. Oh, and a few minutes of gardening expert Simon Farrell and Danny Watson being flippant and unfunny with their elderly callers earlier in the day.
Listen to Radio NZ “National” Programme instead.
I usually do.
That way your stress levels will drop markedly, and you’ll find that bigots like Williams, Smith, Watson et al become irrelevant.
Not correct. Have you listened to Jim Mora’s programme? Have you listened to Geoff Robiinson’s patsy interviews in the morning?
What sort of independence do you think you will get from the commercial network anyway?
Fair comment.
Sorry Morrissey, I thought the “National” in quotes might have been a concession there. Yeah, well I’ve let Mora know my feelings on many issues and Robinson… well he is best suited to Births Deaths and Marriages announcements where he can put on his “I’m ever so concerned” voice.
Yup morrissey, Robinson is a complete suckup, Mora belongs on ZB more that RNZ.
Another clever subtle tweak by the CT folk with nat boy Griffin pulling the strings at RNZ.
I don’t listen to Radio. Haven’t for 15 years I used to listen to talkback radio when delivering pizza’s, and it wasn’t too bad. But i was somewhere the other day, where they had some honking idiot shouting all over the other person who was trying to make a point. And the 15 years radio less were instantly justified.
I don’t listen to Radio. Haven’t for 15 years I used to listen to talkback radio when delivering pizza’s, and it wasn’t too bad. But i was somewhere the other day, where they had some honking idiot shouting all over the other person who was trying to make a point.
There’s a high likelihood that that honking idiot was one of the following: Leighton Smith, Larry Williams, Michael Laws, Mark Watson. Of course, there are others almost as bad, but they are the worst.
And the 15 years radio less were instantly justified.
Books are best. I agree.
Yes I agree books are best. In fact I am just re reading Joe Haldemans The Forever War and Forever Peace. Just as valid now as when it was written.
Health warning, and NZ 100% pure bullshit.
Transpower have been painting the pylons supporting the Haywards A & B transmission lines for about the last year (?). As they are coming closer to the pylons near my dwelling I started to look into exactly what they were doing.
Transpower are using a product called Garnet, ignoring the .05% lead in this stuff, it is relatively inert, and is even used in water filters. It is also used, along with high pressure water, to cut steel. Garnet certainly has the ability to lift galvanising off steel.
So my question is what is in the galvanising?
It turns out it contains Cadmium and Zinc, which when hit with high pressure water and Garnet will cause the Cadmium and Zinc to be more or less vaporised.
I rang OSH, they asked how to spell Cadmium? But are now looking into this.
It is kind of hard to see a 100% pure NZ/Kapiti with these heave metals blowing all over the district.
Anyone living near a freshly painted pylon may need a blood test.
Out of sight, out of mind. Tourists don’t arrive with heavy metal testing capabilities 😉
Maybe you should notify the Ministry of Health, they’re not too keen on heavy metals.
And where are the experts, the people that are supposed to know about this shit??? Probably ‘Gone to Aus” But to ask how to spell Cadmium, why does that not leave me with a very warm feeling ?
Robert, zinc galvanising isn’t cadmium plating, garnet injected water blasting isn’t garnet injected water jet cutting, mechanically sloughed particles aren’t vapourised oxides and hand to mouth ingestion isn’t metal fume fever.
Are you saying there are no pollution issues?
The only by-product of the sand injected blasting would be zinc from the galvanised tower struts, no heating so no oxides, and the abrasive sand.
With strict compliance conditions regarding recovery of blasting sand and residue, including lead from previous paint jobs, pollution from tower painting is from the transport and compressor emissions.
Cadmium plating is limited to high value components and fasteners so it’s highly unlikely there’ll be any present on transmission tower steel.
If you’re the one doing the blasting/painting you’re compelled to cover up and use a mask because of the nature of the work and as with most industrial poisoning the real risk is hand to mouth ingestion.
If you’re a grazing animal the sand wouldn’t be to good for your teeth and no doubt you’d exceed the daily zinc allowance but in my experience there’s rarely if ever any stock present because the animals do tend to either eat your gear or shit all over it.
So IMO there’s no real risk of being poisoned by zinc, an essential mineral in your diet, the blasting sand is only bad for you if you ingest it and the presence of cadmium is highly unlikely.
Transpower guidelines.
One of my chief delights is the English fortnightly magazine Private Eye whose covers are usually a news photo with a satirical caption and speech bubble attached. The latest issue is particularly funny, though Muzza, Mozza and other members of the rapidly dwindling Assange fan club should probably look away.
Assange Taunts Hague.
The cover when the Queen met former IRA man Martin McGuiness earlier this year wasn’t bad either!
I think you should give people more credit for having a sense of humour TRP. I’m certainly one of those people who figures it is absolutely unacceptable for a person to be exposed to a somewhat paranoid and vindictive US justice system on the back of some other, unrelated and actual crime they may or may not have committed.
The PE cover is genuinely humourous.
I love Private Eye. It has a go at everyone, even the saintly, and it’s always funny.
Yes, they’re having a go at Assange here, but their coverage of his persecution by the state has been thorough and fair.
Unlike you, the Eye long ago worked out that William Hague is a pathetic little worm and an inveterate liar, qualities that come in useful when mounting a campaign against a dangerous dissenter. Unlike you, they can have a go at Assange while also realizing the attacks on him by scoundrels like Hague are politically motivated.
You say that the Eye is one of your “chief delights”, but it is clear that you just don’t get it.
Ho ho, very satirical! I do get it, by the way. Every fortnight, by airmail.
I do get it, by the way. Every fortnight, by airmail.
No, you don’t “get it”.
I see your humour bypass has kicked in again, Mozza!
I see your humour bypass has kicked in again, Mozza!
My “humour bypass”? I did get the joke, in case you were wondering.
FFS TR, who gives a flying fekk at a rolling donut about a rapidly dwindling Assange fan club? Are we being told what is politically correct to think again, tow the line or you are going to be show trialled a al Soviet by the blogging ideologues on TS?
When did I ever indicate I was part of the Assange “fan club” in my posts on the topic?
Whoops, my mistake. It was another poster altogether I was thinking of, Muzza, humble apologies.
Muzza, the intention is to trivialize your arguments. One fool called me a “fan boy” at least three times. If Assange was Jewish, he no doubt would used an antisemitic slur against me.
Key gets lucky again.
Remember his support for S59 and how it boosted his public image while the Left got punished for social engineering. Now his open support for the Marriage Bill looks good, but he doesn’t have to speak to it, just leaves his vote, while he is off at some Pacific Forum.
… have a look at the Herald’s photo of Louisa Wall – illustrates the point. Can’t imagine they would publish that sort of picture of our PM.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10830418
The US government has established a new vehicle fuel economy standard for all cars and light trucks by 2025, which will nearly double the current regulation.
http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/28/13527985-obama-raising-fuel-standard-to-average-545-mpg-by-2025?lite
Manufacturers will have to achieve an average of 54.5mpg or 4.36 litres per 100km. How does that compare with current models?
Toyota Prius 4.7 l/100km
Honda Civic hybrid 5.3 l/100km
Mitsi Lancer 7.7 l/100km
Ford Falcon 9.9 l/100km
Bugatti Veyron 29 l/100km
So the new average economy for all models will have to exceed the most efficient currently available.
These standards will flow on to global manufacturing not just US produced models.
Its interesting that they managed to pass this very tough (and actually world leading) legislation – they had help from a lot of Republicans in order to do so. However, they are counting on a lot of sales of electric and semi-electric vehicles in order to meet the overall average requirement. That’s where these regulations are taking a big risk, in terms of technical and commercial feasibility.
The other longstanding trend to bear in mind is that new car sales in the US are slow and that people are holding onto existing cars longer and longer. Average vehicle age in the US is now a record 10.8 years.
In other words, the new mileage standards will take up to a decade before significantly reducing US gasoline consumption.
seti the hybrid figures above are manufactures figures in reality hybrid cars are no more effecient than small petrol cars + the huge energy cost of manufacture.
Reading comments on this on Slashdot, there was one very interesting one. Note that I haven’t verified it’s veracity.
These aren’t actually MPG standards, but are air emissions standards, which can *equate* to MPG standards. However the equation part is actually quite misleading. For example, to improve emissions you can either increase fuel efficiency or invent a better better exhaust / muffler system – either will be sufficient to meet the emissions standards. The commenter also indicated that such things as swapping standard incandescent lamps in headlines/brake lights to LEDs can be counted towards the emissions reductions, which doing absolutely nothing for the fuel efficiency of the car.
Well, Julie Anne Genter handed ex labour party MP and rogernome /hiss/ Ken Shirley his arse on Morning Report this morning.
How refreshing to have a fact based presentation of transport issues as opposed to the wooly headed rhetoric we normally get.
Yes mr micky that is refreshing. Ken Shirley had no answers.
Now that approach needs to be applied to other major issues facing us, such as;
How having foreign landlords is a better thing for us.
Why selling the assets is a good thing when it is actually costing us.
Why the taxpayer needs to support big business all the time (NZX, irrigation, etc).
As far as I can see, the right wing free market private business model is lying in tatters on the road. Farmers have woken up and acknowledged their pollution (different issue, but with same attitudes) but it took some time…. and similarly, it will take a bit more time before these other sectors acknowledge their very substantial and fatal flaws.
Thanks for that mickysavage. I found this bit interesting:
There is no “higher technology” being employed… They are simply loading the same old trucks to the maximum weight they can carry. Not only does this cause more wear and tear on the trucks themselves, making them less safe, it damages our roading infrastructure.
Shirley is wrong that there will be less trucks on our roads. National has recently revealed plans to further disestablish our rail network, which will push more heavy freight onto less efficient trucks.
Of course road repairs and things like $45 million for strengthening bridges so heavier vehicles can use them are socialized costs. This ensures that the trucking industry appears on paper to be more cost effective, because they’re simply not paying all their overheads.
Shirley was also completely wrong concerning the Auckland rail link. Even before you account for the benefits from highway decongestion, things like job creation and regional efficiency make the CBD rail link economically viable.
Perhaps the intellectually deficient Ken Shirley was getting confused with the holiday highway, which has completely failed its cost to benefit analysis.
Bahahahahaha at Ken Shirley resorting to a straight party-political diatribe when he lost the argument!
“They don’t like it up ’em, do they captain Mainwaring!”
I must confess I love it when smug right-wing middle aged white men are trounced in public like that, it really rattles their cage and they absolutely hate it.
Tentacles.
Jaybus aitch fracking Christmas, Carol, just when you thought you’d plumbed the depths of gormless, racist, arrogant shallowness, out pops another zinger from the Keyster.
Tentacles. Way to burn off decades of hard-wrought good will, kid. With the market that’s propping us up. The burgeoning superpower, and the only one in history that hasn’t invaded another country.
Tentacles. Maybe they won’t notice or take offence.
J-A G: excellent
Fiji-a Chinese Naval Base? hee hee-“Race for the Pacific” (again)
Brendan Horan (now thats a phonetically interesting sir-name) -re CONSCIENCE vote
“hadn’t given ‘it’ much thought”
conscience? what conscience? foolish presenter not ‘present’
but we suffer quite a few ‘presenters’ in our democracy (finger approaching throat, but i just had breakfast)
Assad-” rebels face inevitable death”
Chemical Weapons deployed inevitable?
Motorways-borrow borrow borrow burrow
Track-maintenance worker redundencies-MADNESS
Weasel Watch
Thursday 30 August 2012
Okay, everybody, listen carefully and do exactly as I say.
1.) Pick up your copy of the New Zealand Herald.
2.) Open it and look at page A16.
3.) Look at the advertisement on the bottom half of the page.
4.) Now ask yourself this question: is it or is it not the most blackly humorous, unintentionally funny advertisement you have ever seen?
I would never PAY for NZ Herald. Looked at it on Press Display.
:sigh:
Apt that the headline above it is It’s all downhill from here
Fitting for one of those beer billboards:
YOU FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE AGAINST SPIN DOCTORS
Williams, Watson, Hosking, Smith, Woodham [images of] Newstalk ZB
Yeah, right!
I liked a comment the other day which applies to ZB’s
‘the upper class telling the middle class it’s the lower class’s fault’
Shock jocks and dog whistlers.
‘the upper class telling the middle class it’s the lower class’s fault’
Actually, in the case of NewstalkZB, it’s more a case of “the Ignorant telling the Bewildered that it’s the Liberals’ fault.”
WINZ could save a couple off million dollars each year, if only they would do a little Synchronization of there clients, a little time management.
Sickness beneficiaries have to go to the GP every 3 months to have there benefit renewed.
And once a year the Sickness beneficiaries also get a full review, which means another GP visit.
The current system means that once a year a Sickness beneficiary will go to the GP for a 3 month renewal and then, go to the GP again (generally within 3 weeks of just getting there medical certificate updated) for another medical certificate, even though they have a valid one on record that’s not due to expire for another couple of months.
This costs each Sickness beneficiary around $40 with is refunded by Winz.
So my point is, if Winz synchronized this Annual medical certificate with the 3 month medical certificate, it would save the state the cost of a medical certificate.
If there are 59,500 people on a Sickness benefit then performing this would save the Government around $2,380,000 each and every year.
Not sure if there is a similar issue with invalid beneficiaries but if there is then that could more than double the $2+ million dollars.
Yes, the GP’s will make less money but will also have less paper to deal with and would be able to cope with an extra 59,500 sick people.
Note: I don’t want my private information by Paula Benefit or any Winz staff or Ministers.
Will cross post this to Red Alert and the Greens blog.
OMG did I just work out a way to save over $2 million dollars a year…
“This costs each Sickness beneficiary around $40 with is refunded by Winz.”
I’m not sure that is true. Maybe the rules have changed, but in the past you had to claim the medical fee back on disability allowance. If your DA is already at the maximum then the only way to claim medical fees is if you get TAS (hardship grant, which is meant to be temporary, capped, and which only pays a proportion of the cost).
I take your point though, and agree there are many inefficiencies in the WINZ system. All the people on SB long term for instance (and being refused Invalid’s), could go on 6 month or even 12 month reviews.
Like me I am a long term (3 years) and not really much chance of going back to work I have been refused the Invalids Benefit on the word of a doctor I have never met, who has never even spoken to me let alone examine me, and he seems to know a hell of a lot more about how to cure me, that all the specialists I have seen and have spoken to me don’t know. My medical expenses are worked out by winz, and then divided by 52 and paid that way, so when I go to the doctor its still hard to pay the bill. It would be better if they also paid you the $40 the week of your appointment (even if you had to show your appointment) or they just put it on the card.
[blockquote]The current system means that once a year a Sickness beneficiary will go to the GP for a 3 month renewal and then, go to the GP again (generally within 3 weeks of just getting there medical certificate updated) for another medical certificate, even though they have a valid one on record that’s not due to expire for another couple of months.[/blockquote]
Seems tidy on paper, one less vist being “better”, but make sure you check the real life experience of a sickness beneficiary visiting a doctor at any given time which may reveal the opposite. A person may only be able to deal with the stress of a short visit, that deals with only one aspect of an illness at a time and need a pause before being additionally reminded of the administration of their affairs. These people don’t just have a bad case of flu, they have a profound health concern that effects all aspects of their lives. Most doctors these days at least have a piece of paper stuck to the wall of their office that says they are officially concerned at the emotional state of their clients as well as any other aspect.
Saving money sounds great, but it should not come at the cost of making vulnerable people feel even more out of control of their affairs, or in an extreme, trampling over their human rights because they are “beneficiaries who owe society” i.e. lower class of person. Treating situations that have inherent fragilities from a dollars-and-cents-first-make-the-people-fit-it approach, makes me nervous.
It wouldn’t. In fact, it would make the person feel more in control and less like having to jump through hoops. If they have to go every three months to get a doctors certificate plus another every year then the fourth one just becomes the yearly one meaning that the person only has to go four times per year and not five.
Um, what? Where’d you get that idea from?
BTW, HTML for formatting here, not PHP.
Yes you’re right, it wouldn’t, or possibly it would. At least that is now cleared up. I get ideas from understanding the meaning of words.
The UK solution, if you won’t work for free you’ll be subjected to a work test which in some instances appears to have been fatal.
…
Isaac: MSM-Seven years to the day since Katrina
7 years, to the day! pretty ‘hairy’
Neil Armstrong and the decay of late capitalism
http://www.readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/neil-armstrong-and-other-relics-of.html
Fracking, denial and tin..
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/343202/title/The_Facts_Behind_the_Frack
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/economics-in-denial-by-howard-davies
http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/67884-the-deadly-tin-inside-your-smartphone
From your second link:
Which made me giggle 😈
Thanks for the links
Great video from Richard Heinberg at the Post Carbon Institute
DON’T WORRY, DRIVE ON: Fossil Fools & Fracking Lies
“In recent months we’ve seen a spate of articles, reports, and op-eds claiming that peak oil is a worry of the past thanks to so-called “new technologies” that can tap massive amounts of previously inaccessible stores of “unconventional” oil. “Don’t worry, drive on,” we’re told.
But as Post Carbon Institute Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg asks in this short video, what’s really new here? “What’s new is high oil prices and … the economy hates high oil prices.”
WE NEED YOUR HELP SHARING THIS VIDEO
Email the video to everyone you think needs to watch it
Share it through your social networks
Send it to your elected officials
We can fall for the oil industry hype and keep ourselves chained to a resource that’s depleting and comes with ever increasing economic and environmental costs, or we can recognize that the days of cheap and abundant oil (not to mention coal and natural gas) are over.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media and politicians on both sides of the aisle are parroting the hype, claiming — in Obama’s case — that unconventional oil can play a key role in an “all of the above” energy strategy and — in Romney’s — that increased production of tight oil and tar sands can make North America energy independent by the end of his second term.
We need your help: Please share this video and help bring a dose of reality to the energy conversation.”
http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2012-08-28/dont-worry-theres-plenty-oil
Hahaha, North America!
Americans will hear that and think “America”. Really it’s Canada, possibly with Mexico thrown in for good obfuscation.
NZ has reached “peak coal” according to Solid Energy chief executive Don Elder. There is plenty of coal left in the ground, but it is becoming prohibitively expensive to extract. This is illustrated by yesterdays announcement by Solid Energy of hundreds of job losses.
“Underground mining was inefficient and “very hard”.
”It’s becoming harder, it’s becoming problematic,” he said.
“After 110 years of mining in New Zealand, the easy coal has gone.”
New technology was needed to reach the significant amount that was left deep underground, which was why the company was pushing its underground coal gasification and coal seam gas projects, he said.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/7575543/Coast-reels-as-mine-closes
So now would be the time to prioritise all coal extraction to projects that build post-carbon resiliency. In NZ.
“Elder said he was refusing a short-term incentive payment and had taken a 10 per cent reduction in his $1.41 million salary.”
🙁
Yeah poor guy right. A $141,000 pay cut and he still makes over one million dollars. I’ll be sure to pass the hat around my friends and family to help support this kiwi battler.
if they know so much why the hell did they buy pike river.
Some people around here seem to think I make my transcripts up. I don’t. Often, however, they are not verbatim, but hurried transcripts taken down in longhand as I listen to the source of the inanity, whether it be radio or television. Occasionally, though, I’ll transcribe the whole thing. Here’s a real transcript, laboriously taken from an audiotape…
Larry Williams clashes with Murray Deaker
Friday 4 February 2003
Friday afternoon’s little stoush live on air was not the first time these two have brawled like this. On the day of the launch of the Blackguard organisation just five or so months ago, Williams got a sheepish, evasive Deaker to admit that he’d been at the launch of the super-patriotic organisation. “You’re PATHETIC!” snarled Williams. An indignant Deaker wasn’t going to stand for such insolence: “Larry, you never READ anything, you have no idea of what you’re talking about!” he bellowed, and they proceeded to yell at each other for at least three minutes. Later, on his 7 o’clock show, a still upset Deaker played the tape again, presumably to show what a bastard Larry Williams was.
By the next day, the two pilgarlics had kissed and made up and Deaker was smothering Williams with his legendary flattery: “Larry, THAT is why YOU are the best in the business,” he cooed after Williams had made an unremarkable comment about another matter. But that was then and this is now. Last Friday afternoon, Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth, the targets of the Blackguard vilification campaign, broke their silence, revealing that it was mainly the shoddy and vacillating management of the trustees that forced them to leave Team New Zealand three years ago. Support for the Alinghi sailors by listeners was swift, indicating widespread suspicion and resentment of the Blackguard organisation and, in particular, of its most strident mouthpiece, Murray Deaker. We present herewith a selection from the last half hour of the Larry Williams
show of Friday 31 January….
5:32 p.m.
LARRY WILLIAMS: I have been involved with Russell and Brad and there’s plenty more there than they released today – that’s all I’m going to say… you’ve just heard jim Farmer QC; you’d have to be a MONKEY, an IDIOT to accept on those terms…
5:32 p.m.
MICHAEL LAWS: [commenting on the failure of TVNZ to show the TV interview from Swiss TV which proves that Team NZ and Blackheart were always very close, and never independent] This should be Broadcasting Authority stuff… Gee, the Americas Cup is a nasty piece of work. I’ve never come across a sport that is so much about lawyers, vindictiveness, money and nastiness.
5:45 p.m.
[A Blackguard supporter rings in to sling off at Coutts and Butterworth…]
WILLIAMS: You’re PATHETIC!
…………………………
CALLER TIM: I’m sick of hearing certain commentators, who look like Kojak, shooting from the mouth – or screaming from the mouth – and I’ve said all along we’ve never heard the other side of this.
WILLIAMS: Well we haven’t heard the other side because they haven’t been allowed to tell the other side and yet you must know – let this be clear – they didn’t actually want to TELL the other side. They NEVER wanted to say anything. They just wanted to go at the time and get out and do what they do best, which is sailing boats. Look it has to be pointed out it was Team New Zealand who wanted this kept secret. Now I must also point out that we’re not talking about Team New
Zealand TODAY, really – we’re talking about Team New Zealand the old trustees, although the new trustees wanted this kept silent. But in the main, we are talking about Coutts and Butterworth’s negotiations with the OLD – let me emphasise that, the OLD – Team New Zealand
trustees, not the ones we’ve got now.
CALLER TIM: Yes I understood that from what you said earlier. I’m just surprised people kept on slaying them when they were silent and you – I understood there must have been reasons why they weren’t speaking and you don’t, if you’re fair, have a go at someone unless you’ve heard the other side.
WILLIAMS: Well, we’ve also got to understand that there will be a lot of people who won’t have a bar of this, they will not believe this, they will NOT want to know, because they’re bigoted. But thanks for your call. Hello, Scott.
SCOTT: Congratulations! I’d just like to add to what the other person put through to you. We had our doubts, and we’re keen yachties down here in Christchurch – but where does Murray Deaker stand on all this? I notice that he’s been perpetuated [sic!] by his silence. What’s going on?
WILLIAMS: Well now, hold on, hold on! To be fair to Murray, he’s been on a week’s leave and frankly I don’t – lookm I don’t care WHAT Murray thinks. Murray’s had – Murray has taken his course and I respect what he’s had to say, I don’t believe a WORD of it but I respect his right to have an opinion.
SCOTT: Fair enough.
WILLIAMS: But what he thinks about it now, I don’t know. Doesn’t worry me, frankly.
SCOTT: Hey, thank you for that.
WILLIAMS: Thanks for your call…. I should point out I’ve only mentioned part of the release and as I said before there is a lot of – no, I’m not going to tease you, we’ll go to a break.
[ADVERTISING BREAK….]
5:56 p.m.
WILLIAMS: Now Murray Deaker is – has called in. I’ve got two minutes Deaks. What’s your main points?
DEAKER: Well, firstly, I’ve been on holiday so I take exception to that chap’s reference that I’m gutless. Huh! That is ONE thing that I’m not!
WILLIAMS: But hold on, I clarified that, so –
DEAKER: The second point that I’d make is this – that you say, and you led Tom – um, the chap Farmer to say that it was an impossible situation –
WILLIAMS: Yup.
DEAKER: Larry, it CAN’T have been impossible. Tom Schnackenburg took on the role WITH THOSE CONDITIONS –
WILLIAMS: No he did NOT!
DEAKER: He did.
WILLIAMS: You are talking ABSOLUTE – you are talking –
DEAKER: He stayed there and –
WILLIAMS: Murray… MURRAY! YOU ARE TALKING CRAP! He did NOT stay there –
DEAKER: He stayed there Larry –
WILLIAMS: Murray! Murray! He did NOT stay there on the same conditions –
DEAKER: He stayed there Larry under the same conditions. And they got them changed didn’t they.
WILLIAMS: Whaddya mean – when Coutts and Butterworth announced –
DEAKER: No, no, they worked those conditions to get them changed because there are two – there are three other people who stayed there as well –
WILLIAMS: He did NOT stay –
DEAKER: Reiseley, who was appointed by Coutts and Butterworth –
WILLIAMS: YOU SEE, YOU DON’T WANT TO LISTEN TO ME. Can… Can I tell you what – have you – have you read the press release? Do you know what a –
DEAKER: Yes, I’ve read the press release.
WILLIAMS: He did not stay under the trust that was offered to Coutts and Butterworth. The trust was changed and it took TWO HOURS for that trust to be changed, when the new trust went to the old trust and said: hand it over under these conditions otherwise we’re outa here. THAT’s what happened. So STOP trying to move the story around, Murray!
DEAKER: But the point is that Schnackenburg stayed. The other guys could have stayed as well Larry and you know that.
WILLIAMS: Well look –
DEAKER: They could have worked it –
WILLIAMS: Hey! –
DEAKER: SURE they were completely frustrated –
WILLIAMS: Hey! –
DEAKER: – and that comes through in their release as well.
WILLIAMS: HEY!!! MURRAY!!! They could NOT have stayed under the deal that was offered –
DEAKER: The guys that they had appointed as trustees, namely Norris and, ah, Reiseley and Menzies who you’ve not interviewed yet, and those are the guys that I’ll have on my program tomorrow.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, GOOD… yeah, GOOD, well I –
DEAKER: Because you NEED to get some balance into this.
WILLIAMS: Absolutely. Hey, just like –
DEAKER: You sounded like a P.R. agent for Alinghi mate.
WILLIAMS: Yeah well I learned that off you with your sycophantic interview with Dave Walden the other day. I’ve goota go, and I respect your opinion even if you’re wrong. Thanks for your call. It’s now, ah, three to six o’clock here at Newstalk ZB…
……………………………………
[TRANSCRIBED BY WALLIE INGRAM FOR RADIO TRANSCRIPTS LTD, A DIVISION OF DAISYCUTTER SPORTS INC.]
Latest Morgan poll out:
http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2012/4815/
Basically no change. So Labour have wasted all the gift-wrapped chances National have offered in the past few weeks, because they were busy going down a dead-end street. It looks like they have slowly backed up the truck (while hoping nobody would notice), and maybe we’ve heard the last of Shearer’s roof-painter.
It would be good if the Labour leadership said “you were right, we were wrong, and we won’t be taking advice from idiots any more”. It would be good, but unlikely.
The boy stood on the burning deck……
well nobody is going to take your advice gobsmacked.
you are just here as an agent provocateur and Labour will be the next government no matter what some poll says today.
I expect Labour will be (part of) the next government, because they will follow my advice.
Or do you want Shearer to talk more about his mythical roof-painter? If so, why?
(Perhaps stinging from all the criticism of late of him being a NAct lackey), Dunne has refused to support ACT’s proposed budget cap, so the bill won’t proceed….. for now.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7581311/Budget-spending-cap-shelved
Funny how little Mr Key knew about the Dotcom affair when such high level Cabinet discussions were happening. No briefing to a PM at all?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10830413
John Key said our troops had the best of equipment – Link
TV3 say otherwise
Regardless of whether we should be in Afghanistan or not, we owe it to our people to equip them properly. And some PM’s should stop lying.
Is Susan Baldacci a journalist or a shill for illegal killing?
Thursday 30 August 2012
Just heard a clearly outraged Susan Baldacci on “The Panel” discussing the revelation that bin Laden was murdered, unarmed, during that illegal U.S. raid into Pakistan last year. But Susan Baldacci was outraged not at the murder, but at the fact the two men broke the code of omerta and actually told the truth.
Disgusted, I flicked off the following to stand-in host Finlay McDonald….
from: Morrissey Breen, 4:00 PM
to: Afternoons
Dear Finlay,
Susan Baldacci expressed her astonishment that a couple of Navy Seals have revealed what actually happened in Pakistan; that the killing of bin Laden was the assassination of an unarmed man. “I wouldn’t want to be them,” she said, darkly.
Surely, as a journalist, she should be applauding these men for actually telling the truth.
Yours in alarm at the standards at National Radio,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
Good on you, Morrissey! Baldacci sounds like a truly horrible woman…
Miss Vicky, please see your messages.
A MUST-read … David Shearer talks (at last) about the roof-painter.
These are his own words. Not the MSM twisting them. This is the Labour leader speaking, explaining, justifying – or trying to.
Scroll down to the Shearer transcript at the bottom, and draw your own conclusions …
http://bat-bean-beam.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/the-man-on-roof.html#addendum
(Hat-tip: Giovanni Tiso, Bryce Edwards)
So does Shearer have an actual point? I couldn’t see it.
QoT covered this as well
http://ideologicallyimpure.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/david-shearer-lies-about-his-own-dogwhistle/
Good post on Auckland Transport Blog about our oil production, importation and use. It shows clearly that if we want to become more competitive then we need to get off using oil for transport, I.E, can the RONS.
A short while ago Prism indicated he was going off the Standard…he has not been here today. I would welcome his presence and wise words. Come back.
+1
Bored 27
Thanks. I was visiting Christchurch and a certain red-haired enchantress aged nearly two. I have been thinking. (Quote from Richard Prebble. And I am about as popular with some as Richard Prebble is with me – not. Also I have been reading Terry Pratchett one of the Discworld which has put any pretensions I had into perspective.)
And I thought I like The Standard but I haven’t time to indulge in lengthy or continual regurgitation of similar thoughts,. I want to find a way to join with others, as I have time and can make time available, who want to work with other good-hearted positive people with standards and also a bit of the skeptic thrown in, to build a better future.
So I won’t waste time entering into comments threads with my opinions but will reap the great benefit of finding access to good links provided from here, and also provide to the Standard any that I think make some point that seems worthwhile to me and hopefully others who want to BABF.
I put the latest Roy Morgan into the electoral seat calculator. Assuming the Maori party get 3 seats, UF, ACT and Mana 1 each, the current government can only muster 59 votes. Labour and the Greens together have 56, Mana 1 and NZF holds the balance of power with 6.
It’s a good thing Winston isn’t interested in the baubles of office, eh?
I do so enjoy it when Socialist policies work out exactly as predicted.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2012/08/venezuelas-oil-industry?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/upinsmoke
Meanwhile, in Communist California:
I do so enjoy it when Socialist policies work out exactly as predicted.
Save the schadenfreude, my bewildered friend. Surely even an ignoramus like you can see that site is irrationally biased against the Venezuelan president, who has committed the grave crime of being a genuinely popular politician.
If only he was a dictator, with a Somoza-sized body count instead of a democrat who has exactly no blood on his hands; then you’d approve of him, no doubt.
Yes I hear that Muslim President of the US’s Socialist policies are causing exactly the carnage that was predicted. Ordinary people are getting healthcare. They are living longer. They are not losing all of their assets to rapacious financiers so they can finance medical treatment.
There is something very wrong with the US.
goose sounds similar to bp horizon or exxon valdez such cynicism frakin cynicism goose.
Rena and Shipley cuts to maritime safety Joyce forgetting to update insurance, pike river scf goldman saching of world governments to the trillions
goose your full of sludge .
Maybe it could be to do with embargo’s on oil equipment from the US
“Goose” is simply an ignoramus. End of story.
Vi saluto in volo! That means I am in a tearing hurry, and don’t have time to see whether anyone else has covered this – but it’s doing my head in!
The NZ police are madly enthusiastic about using drones here. Apparently, in cahoots with the FBI, they’ve already been playing with them.
It’s horrifying – to say the least!
yeah well the judgement of police bosses in the last year or two have been seriously lacking. There is nothing in the US way of doing things that we want in this country.
All depends upon how they are used. Probably cheaper run than a helicopter and no worse from a legal/moral standpoint.
They claim it’ll just be used for some searches…. but once they have those machines/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7582496/Police-mull-eyes-in-the-sky
Well, yes, but they have in the past decided they had “good reasons” for spying on people who were politically active…. was grey power one of those groups?
Thanks, Carol!
Very informative…
yeah until they weaponise the drones.
http://rt.com/usa/news/us-domestic-drones-armed-090/
Or fit them with AI sensors to read number plates, ID faces, warrantlessly track and follow individuals, listen into conversations, spy into bedrooms using far infra red etc.
I think they probably do all of those things already… The smaller and cheaper drones will just allow them to do it on a larger scale. When exactly investigative work ends and invasive voyeurism begins shouldn’t in my opinion be a decision left up to the police.
Over 80% on this stuff poll said that the Search and Surveillance Bill was a worrying invasion of their privacy. That bill pretty much gives the police the right to spy on people in any way they see fit.
Whatever happened to good old fashioned policing and getting the community on your side?
Definitely need some strict rules about their use and, unfortunately, the strict rules that the police operate under have been systematically lessened over time. I think we’ve forgotten that a state where the police have no checks on them is essentially anti-democratic.
Technology & the Future of Violence
How should our defense strategy evolve in a world of easily accessible mini-drones, lethal nanobots, and DIY warfare?
They’ve adopted this tactic.
Related: http://www.snitching.org/
Who’s adopted that tactic?
great links Joe thankyou
It appears we have another Waka jumper within parliament
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7579040/MPs-poised-to-vote-on-alcohol-bill
im Groser (N)
Nathan Guy (N)
Kevin Hague (L)
Tau Henare (N)
Chris Hipkins (L)
Parekura Horomia (L)
Perhaps the leadership of Labour have worked out a successful strategy… head hunt the best of the other parties, hopefully trade a few of theirs in exchange. Next Banksie will be wearing red and calling all of us “brothers” 😉
On Campbell the txt poll was 4 to 1 in favour of raisng the drinking age to 20. A very well meaning man who picks up the peices from alcohol abuse spoke strongly in favour of raising the age. A young man wise beyond his years said all you would do was put off the abuse of alcohol by 2 years and they would get it anyway.
All I heard was the standard Kiwi punative approach to a problem.
The Post and Post-script on “how they voted” was densely packed full of revealing information
re politics of change: mercy triumphs over judgement with the NT
or for those who prefer gold and Jewels-compassion moderation humility
Welcome the PRC on the Way round
(though there will be much wailing and gnashing)(u knew gnashing was coming did u)
Let no one deceive you with Empty words
Good news — the government has dropped the spending cap.
grosser being put forward for top job at WTO what a dopey idea.
It seems that the rich are looking for new areas to expand in:
Yep, NZ is definitely being colonised and this government is at the forefront in assisting that colonisation.
This is the unfairness that Shearer should be trying to explain to the populace:
Unfortunately he, just like the RWNJs, is wailing on the poor.
If she paid $10M in taxes out of $20M income she really needs to fire her accountants. Because they are the ones stealing from her.
your right CV top company rate is 28% that means $5.6 million
personal tax 33% $6.6million.