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.
by Rafael D. Quiles (gender-critical gay man from Puerto Rico) The writing on the wall is right in people’s faces and people just don’t see it or don’t want to. What could actually possess a heterosexual male to want to feminize himself and claim that he is a lesbian? Because ...
From the Wall Street Journal:Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Mr. Trump looked over a gathering of American and Egyptian officials and called out in ...
by the Redline blog collective At Redline we are very saddened to hear of the death of Magdalen Burns who passed away on the morning of Friday, September 13 (British time). Magdalen was a great fighter for the rights of women in general and lesbian women in particular, a defender ...
The Brexit issue has certainly brought with it a series of apparently difficult constitutional issues, many of them concerning the respective roles of the executive and parliament. Most of them arise because of the unwillingness of MPs, despite their professions to the contrary, to be bound by a constitutional rarity ...
. . This blogpost is different to my usual format of reporting on issues… Since July 1011, I have blogged on a variety of political issues; near always political and/or environmental; mostly highly critical of the previous National Government. Other issues included Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and repression of ...
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When National was in power, they were very keen on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) - basicly, using private companies to finance public infrastructure as a way of hiding debt from the public. They were keen on using them for everything - roads, schools, hospitals. But as the UK shows, that "service" ...
Moving And Shaking: There was a time when people spoke matter-of-factly about the “labour movement” – a political phenomenon understood to embrace much more than the Labour Party. Included within the term’s definition was the whole trade union movement – many of whose members looked upon the Labour Party as ...
by Philip Ferguson Much of the left, even people who formally identify as marxists, have collapsed politically in the face of postmodern gender theory of the sort pioneered by American philosopher Judith Butler. For Butler even biological sex is socially constructed. “If the immutable character of sex is contested, perhaps ...
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By Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern I am every bit as angry as you are. I am every bit as disappointed as you must be. The people with power, oversight and the ability to do something about these processes within the Labour Party should be ashamed. Whoever those people are, I ...
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Labour Party president Nigel Haworth resigned yesterday over the party's sexual assault scandal. But while that's good news, its unlikely to take away the stench of a coverup. Because according to Paula Bennett in Parliament yesterday, pretty much everyone in the Prime Minister's office was involved as well:I have been ...
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By Simon Bridges. The following is a press release from the office of Simon Bridges, leader of The National Party. Key ora, New Zealand. Happy Maori Language Week. Look, I’m writing to you today because I want to clear something up. There’s been a lot of kerfuffle around some things ...
I understand there's some stuff going round about how the SIS "was removed from the list of public offices covered by the Public Records Act in 2017". The context of course being their records derived from US torture, which will be disposed of or sealed. The good news is that ...
Dr. Christopher Labos and Jonathan Jarry discuss the recent Canadian fluoride/IQ research. They provide an expert analysis of the paper and its problems. Click on image to go to podcast. The critical debate about the recent ...
Australia is burning down again, and meanwhile its natural disaster minister is denying climate change:Australia’s minister responsible for drought and natural disasters, David Littleproud, has said that he doesn’t “know if climate change is manmade”. Clarifying earlier comments that the question is “irrelevant” when considering the Coalition government’s response to ...
Auckland Philippines Solidarity is excited to host Professor Judy Taguiwalo for a speaking tour of NZ in September. She is a well-known activist in the Philippines and was a political prisoner under the Marcos dictatorship. Professor Taguiwalo briefly served as a Cabinet member under President Duterte but was forced from ...
This open letter to the Green Party was penned after an opinion piece by Jill Abigail, a feminist and founding member of the party, was censored by the Greens’ leadership. (Redline has reprinted her article here).The intolerance of the Green Party leaders and their acceptance of the misogyny of gender ...
Today is a Member's day, and David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill continues its slow crawl through its committee stage. They're spending the whole day on it today, though the first hour is likely to be spent on voting left over from last time. After that they'll move on ...
An ambitious plan to fly to Los Angeles petered out into a brief sight-seeing trip and a desire to return home and get some sleep before work tomorrow. Air New Zealand has confirmed a flight to Los Angeles last night was turned back about a quarter of the way into ...
There appears to be consensus – by omission – that the concept of indigenous futures should be accepted at face value. So I scavenged the internet to see if I could locate an academic descriptor or a framework around how we think about it as a concept, and whether it ...
Here’s another novelty chocolate to shove in your gob, New Zealand Cadbury could be seeking to make itself great again with a rumoured new release: Pineapple Trumps, a spin on its classic chocolate-encased pineapple treat and do-it-yourself tooth remover. The global confectionery manufacturer and bumbling “before” character in an infomercial, ...
During my time in the Pentagon I had the privilege of sitting down with military leaders and defence and security officials from a variety of Latin American nations. Sometimes I was present as a subordinate assistant to a senior US defence department official, sometimes as part of a delegation that ...
Kia ora, Aotearoa. It’s that magical time of year. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. In English, the week that frightens talk radio. As you probably know by now, all your favourite media outlets are participating, some more successfully than others. Stuff has changed its name to Puna for the ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. So how's that going? I was curious, so I asked for all advice about the proposal. ...
As the Brexit saga staggers on, the focus is naturally enough on the Prime Minister and his attempts to achieve Brexit “do or die”. But the role played by the Leader of the Opposition is of almost equal interest and complexity. The first problem for Jeremy Corbyn is that he ...
Last week, English Prime Minister Boris Johnson boldly declared that he would rather die be dead in a ditch than delay Brexit. Unfortunately for him, the UK parliament accepted the challenge, and promptly dug one for him. The "rebellion bill" requires him to ask for and secure yet another temporary ...
Lost In Political Space: The most important takeaway from this latest Labour sexual assault scandal, which (if I may paraphrase Nixon’s White House counsel’s, John Dean’s, infamous description of Watergate) is “growing like a cancer” on the premiership, is the Labour Party organisation’s extraordinary professional paralysis in the face of ...
by Daphna Whitmore Every Sunday for the past two months unionists from First Union, with supporters from other unions, have set out to the Ihumatao land protest, put up gazebos and gas barbeques, and cooked food for a few hundred locals and supporters who have come from across the country. ...
Newsroom today has an excellent, in-depth article on pine trees as carbon sinks. The TL;DR is that pine is really good at soaking up carbon, but people prefer far-less efficient native forests instead. Which is understandable, but there's two problems: firstly, we've pissed about so long on this problem that ...
Canan Kaftancioglu is a Turkish politician and member of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). Like most modern politicians, she tweets, and uses the platform to criticise the Turkish government. She has criticised them over the death of a 14-year-old boy who was hit by a tear gas grenade during ...
Hi there, just call me Tim.We face tough problems, and I’d like to help, because there are solutions.An Auckand District Health Board member has nominated me for as a candidate for the ADHB, because her MS-related pain and fatigue is reduced with hemp products from Rotorua. Nothing else helped her. If I ...
The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security has published their report on whether the SIS and GCSB had any complicity in American torture. And its damning. The pull quote is this:The Inquiry found both agencies, but to a much greater degree, the NZSIS, received many intelligence reports obtained from detainees who, ...
Bewhiskered Cassandra? Professor Hugh White’s chilling suggestion, advanced to select collections of academic, military and diplomatic Kiwi experts over the course of the past week, is that the assumptions upon which Australia and New Zealand have built their foreign affairs and defence policies for practically their entire histories – are ...
For most of the time I was a British MP, my party was out of government – these were the Thatcher years, when it was hard for anyone else to get a look-in. As a front-bencher and shadow minister, I became familiar with the strategies required in a parliamentary democracy ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh On August 29th a video in which veteran FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) commander Iván Márquez announced that they had taken up arms again was released. There was no delay in the reaction to it, from longtime Liberal Party figure and former president Uribe, for ...
Air New Zealand couldn’t believe its luck that this seemingly ideal piece of real estate had so far gone entirely unnoticed. Air New Zealand’s search for a site to build a second Auckland Airport may have made a breakthrough this afternoon, after employees scanning Google satellite imagery spotted a huge, ...
No-one on the anti-capitalist left in this country today puts forward a case that Labour is on the side of the working class. There are certainly people who call themselves ‘socialist’ who do, but they are essentially liberals with vested interests in Labourism – often for career reasons. Nevertheless, there ...
When National was in government and fucking over the poor for the benefit of the rich, foodbanks were a growth industry. And now Labour is in charge, nothing has changed: A huge demand for emergency food parcels means the Auckland City Mission is struggling to prepare for the impending arrival ...
Gayford, pictured here on The Project, before things got wildly out of control. A bold public relations move by the Government to encourage parents to vaccinate their children has gone horribly wrong. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appeared on tonight’s episode of Three’s The Project, where the plan was for her ...
Mr. Whippy’s business model has driven it down a dark road of intimidation. Residents in major centres around the country are becoming disgruntled by the increasingly aggressive actions of purported ice cream company Mr. Whippy, who have taken to parking on people’s front lawns and doorsteps in a desperate attempt ...
Today the government released its Action Plan for Healthy Waterways, aimed at cleaning up our lakes and rivers. Its actually quite good. There will be protection for wetlands, better standards for swimming spots, a requirement for continuous improvement, and better standards for wastewater and stormwater. But most importantly, there's a ...
Today I appeared before the Environment Committee to give an oral submission on the Zero Carbon Bill. Over 1,500 people have asked to appear in person, so they've divided into subcommittees and are off touring the country, giving people a five minute slot each. The other submitters were a mixed ...
Anti-fluoride activists have some wealthy backers – they are erecting billboards misrepresenting the Canadian study on many New Zealand cities – and local authorities are ordering their removal because of their scaremongering. Many New Zealanders ...
So, those who “know best” have again done their worst. While constantly claiming to be the guardians of democracy and the constitution, and respecters of the 2016 referendum result, diehard Remainers (who have never brought themselves to believe that their advice could have been rejected) have striven might and main ...
Following publication of this article, the Ministry has requested it to be noted that this supplied image is not necessarily representative of what the final house will look like, and it “probably won’t be that nice.” As part of today’s long-anticipated reset of the Government’s flagship KiwiBuild policy, Housing Minister ...
Over the next week or two we will be running three synopses of parts of the opening chapter of John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century (New York, Monthly Review Press, 2016). The synopsis and commentary below is written by Phil Duncan. Marx began Capital not with a sweeping historical ...
The State Services Commission and Ombudsman have released another batch of OIA statistics, covering the last six months. Request volumes are up, and the core public service is generally handling them within the legal timeframe, though this may be because they've learned to extend rather than just ignore things. And ...
In 1994, I was editing an ambitious street mag called Planet, from a fabled office at at 309 Karangahape Road. The thirteenth issue of the magazine was published in the winter of that year and its cover embodied a particularly ambitious goal: the end of cannabis prohibition.I wanted to do ...
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As the climate crisis escalates, it is now obvious that we need to radically decarbonise our economy. The good news is that its looking easy and profitable for the energy sector. Wind is already cheaper than fossil fuels, and now solar is too:The levellised cost of solar PV has fallen ...
A Crown Asset? For reasons relating to its own political convenience, the Crown pretends to believe that “No one owns the water.” To say otherwise would re-vivify the promises contained in the Treaty of Waitangi – most particularly those pertaining to the power of the chiefs and their proprietary rights ...
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Longer term readers may remember my complaining that, as a political scientist, it is burdensome to have non-political scientists wanting to engage me about politics. No layperson would think to approach an astrophysicist and lecture him/her on the finer details of quarks and black holes, but everybody with an opinion ...
Joining The Fight: Stevan Eldred-Grigg's argument for New Zealand staying out of the Second World War fails not only on the hard-headed grounds of preserving the country’s strategic and economic interests; and not just on the soft-hearted grounds of duty and loyalty to the nation that had given New Zealand ...
On September 27, School Strike 4 Climate will be striking for a future to pressure the government for meaningful climate action. This time, they've asked adults to join them. And now, Lincoln University and Victoria University of Wellington have signed on:Victoria University of Wellington has joined Lincoln University in endorsing ...
Another day, another constitutional outrage in the UK. This time, the government is saying that if parliament passes a law to stop Brexit before being prorogued, they may just ignore it:A senior cabinet minister has suggested Boris Johnson could defy legislation to prevent a no-deal Brexit if it is forced ...
Environment Canterbury has finally proposed nitrogen limits to stop dairy farmers from poisoning Christchurch's water supply. And naturally, farmers are whining about it:A proposed move by Environment Canterbury (ECan) to protect Christchurch's drinking water by setting tough – some would say, draconian – nitrate reductions in the decades ahead and ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is currently before select committee. While its targets are weak, its a generally sensible bill that promises to establish a long-term framework to guide emissions reductions. But National hasn't made up its mind on whether it will support it - and according to Andrea Vance in ...
Dum-de-doo. Children across New Zealand have known him for generations as the lovable giraffe who tells them to exercise, hydrate and not to shove lit cigarettes up their nostrils. But a world renowned giraffe expert says we shouldn’t be getting attached to Life Education’s Harold the Giraffe, as he is ...
By Mike Hosking. Yesterday morning, I waltzed into work, and as I walked past the drones aggressively typing out news on the computers I’ve repeatedly asked to be moved further away from, I caught a glimpse of the words “climate change”, and noticed that suspiciously they weren’t in condescending quotation ...
National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett spent the week claiming a serious cover-up in the Prime Minister's office. She used parliamentary privilege to name three of the Prime Minister's closest advisors who, she says, knew about the sexual assault ...
Six months on from the worst terrorist attack in New Zealand history, Simon Shepherd asked Al Noor Mosque spokesperson Anthony Green how the Christchurch Muslim is community faring. ...
“The Game Animal Council is concerned that the Government’s second tranche of firearms legislation released today may contain unreasonable provisions that will unfairly impact hunters,” says Game Animal Council Chair Don Hammond. ...
Government policy work on the Carbon Zero bill highlights connections between climate change, carbon sequestration and agriculture. Water quality and allocation are also topical with the release of the Draft Policy Statement for Freshwater Management ...
DairyNZ Chief Executive Dr Tim Mackle is welcoming this afternoon’s announcement that consultation on Essential Freshwater has been extended by two weeks - but is calling on the Minister to go further. ...
DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle is calling on the Government to move swiftly to extend the six-week timeframe of the Essential Freshwater consultation. ...
Immigration New Zealand could really benefit from an large investment of money, comments Ms June Ranson, chair of the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment (NZAMI) , a leading voice in the immigration sector. “Instead of spending $25m ...
In recent times there has been no shortage of commentary regarding whistleblowers, with the proposed amendments to the Protected Disclosures Act 2000. These are aimed at strengthening the protection available to whistleblowers in New Zealand. That ...
Gun Control NZ strongly welcomes the comprehensive gun law reform bill and calls on all political parties to support it. Gun Control NZ encourages New Zealanders to let their MPs know they support this Bill, submit to the Select Committee, and ...
Federated Farmers agrees with most of the steps by government to protect people from illegal or irresponsible firearms use. But concerns about pest control and the effectiveness of a register remain. ...
Today at Parliament the NZ Drug Foundation released Taking control of cannabis: A model for responsible regulation, a new report that shows how we can take back control of cannabis from organised crime. ...
In the face of overwhelming public opinion that farmers need to clean up after themselves, Federated Farmers has mounted an offensive to try and stop some of its members having to do just that. ...
Responding to reports that Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa plans to restrict flavoured e-cigarette liquid, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams says: ...
Māori and non- Māori value different aspects of plantation forestry, which owners should bear in mind if they want to maximise their social licence to operate, a new study shows. ...
The Prime Minister’s Award in the first annual Spirit of Service Awards has been won by the Ministry of Health and five agencies who teamed up on the Healthy Homes Initiative. ...
Smoking kills 5,000 Kiwis each year, so any government policies to help reduce smoking are a good thing. However, the current approaches are not working nor will the proposed limit on flavoured e-liquid that Associate Minister Salesa announced on the news ...
A petition, that promises a significant and dramatic improvement for the New Zealand economy, was handed to Dr Deborah Russell, the MP for New Lynn today. The petition, signed by over 5,000 New Zealanders addresses our crippling level of debt as well ...
The New Zealand Medical Association welcomes the announcement of an Initial Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. We look forward to working with the newly appointed Chair Hayden Wano and the Commission. “It is vital that the steps to mental health ...
For anyone who even randomly follows the news will know that Hong Kong has been embroiled in demonstrations for months. These sometimes bloody demonstrations initially started as a result of a proposed Extradition Bill whereby there would be special ...
The release yesterday of Port Otago’s financial result for 2019, outlining a 12% increase and profits, including the news that the Chief Executive had received a $100,000 pay increase taking his remuneration to between $610,000-620,000, is like ...
“ I continue to be amazed at the incompetence of this Government when it comes to suicide prevention and mental health. Not only is this Government about to appoint a regional coroner who has a history of under reporting suicides amongst children ...
An unannounced inspection at Tongariro Prison has found a safe and well-managed prison, with a clear sense of purpose and striving for continuous improvement. ...
The Auditor-General’s discussion paper Public accountability: A matter of trust and confidence was presented to the House of Representatives today. ...
Keep New Zealand Beautiful (KNZB) are proud to announce the winners of the Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) – Litter Less 2019 competition. ...
The Far North District Council (FNDC) and the Whangarei District Council (WDC) have lodged a joint appeal against the Northland Regional Council’s (NRC) omission of precautionary rules in its plan. [1] ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that an officer was not justified in tasering a man for a second time during an arrest in Picton on 23 June 2018. ...
The Chairman of the Authority, Judge Colin Doherty, has agreed to assist the Hong Kong Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC) as a member of an international panel to provide high level advice to the IPCC in relation to its proposed "Thematic ...
“Putting families into motels is a temporary fix for desperate situations, rather than a sustainable solution to problems of poverty and homelessness,” says Scott Figenshow, Chief Executive of Community Housing Aotearoa. He was commenting on media ...
The New Zealand Psychological Society (NZPsS) says the current partial strike by 600 psychologists working in district health boards is a sign that temporary fixes to ongoing workforce shortages in the profession are not working. ...
New Zealand’s contribution to military operations in Malaya and Malaysia from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s will be commemorated in a national service held at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park at 11.00am on Monday 16 September. ...
The Christchurch mosque attack might not have occurred had police had the resources to enforce firearms restrictions they control, according to the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO). ...
The resignation of the President of the Labour Party over the sex pest allegations was inevitable. It was inevitable because of his appalling handling of the situation so far; and, because in situations like this where there has to be a “fall guy” ...
“It’s disappointing that Parliament failed to address the accountability issues in the End of LifeChoice Bill ,” says Renée Joubert, Executive Officer of Euthanasia-Free NZ . ...
Yesterday Hon Grant Robertson Minister of Finance issued a welcome ‘clear directive’ in the press to ensure every Government considers the wellbeing of New Zealanders when creating future budgets . ...
The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has written to Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters today urging that New Zealand condemn the Israeli Prime Minister’s planned annexation of vast tracts of the occupied West Bank of Palestine. ...
A groundbreaking tool launched today at The Spinoff will help voters across New Zealand see who’s running for local government election in their area and what they stand for. ...
Today Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence (NPM) releases its next Te Arotahi paper calling on government to pay even closer attention to the issues of whānau and whakapapa within the criminal justice system. ...
“Technology adoption supports higher productivity growth, higher income growth and increased resources to pay for the things New Zealanders’ value. But the main problem facing New Zealand today isn’t too much technology, it’s not enough,” ...
DairyNZ Biosecurity Manager, Dr. Liz Shackleton, will be appearing before Parliament’s Primary Production Select Committee today to submit on the National Animal Identification and Tracing Amendment Bill (No 2). ...
Federated Farmers is asking nicely - please can the Government immediately extend the timeframe of the Essential Freshwater consultation so we can find a pathway forward that provides for both the health of the water, the health of people and the health ...
Youthline applauds the Government’s commitment to boosting mental health and addiction programmes and its intention to establish a Suicide Prevention Office but we urge swifter action in relation to implementing the programmes announced in the last budget ...
An Auckland mayoral candidate has broken the internet* by announcing a plan for a monorail around the central city. Who is Craig Lord, and is he serious? Alex Braae spoke to him shortly after his campaign launch to find out.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. ...
Antibiotics are becoming increasingly less effective, so what treatments can we use when the drugs stop working? With help from plant extracts, award-winning company HerbScience is set to breathe new life into how we treat bacterial infections.When Cynthia Hunefeld was just 10 years old, her father was hospitalised with a ...
For some, it symbolises the very backbone of New Zealand’s food culture. But can Kiwi onion dip survive after the factory that makes reduced cream is shut down?The Australian factory that makes Nestlé reduced cream, an integral ingredient in Kiwi onion dip, is shutting down, casting a shadow over the ...
Every year Matariki X brings Māori innovators and entrepreneurs together to share their experiences and inspire one another. Callaghan Innovation’s Vinnie Campbell says the Māori economy’s biggest strengths have nothing to do with money.This story was funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The ...
Today marks the start of Covering Climate Now. To launch the week, the New Zealand climate change minister, James Shaw, writes an open letter to participants in the School Strike 4 Climate ahead of their day of action later this month.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is thanks to ...
National’s new agriculture spokesperson finds himself in one of the party’s most important portfolios, at a time of dramatically increasing tensions in the sector. Will Todd Muller, a man regularly mentioned as a future leader contender, find common ground?Todd Muller’s obsession with politics began with an American encyclopaedia, which his ...
Although few would now deny that there are far-right extremists in NZ, questions remain around whether we have truly reckoned with the root causes of white supremacy. ...
To celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, cookbook authors, 2014 MasterChef-winning sisters and badass wāhine Māori Karena and Kasey Bird (Te Arawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Manawa) have translated some of the delicious recipes from their second cookbook, Hungry, into te reo Māori for The Spinoff. Today, poached pears in chocolate.NGĀ PEA KŌHUA ...
Miss June’s Bad Luck Party was recorded literally between hospital shifts, and their summer schedule includes both festival dates and their frontwoman’s graduation from medical school. We sat down with the band to ask just how, exactly, they’ve survived so far.The first years of life for Tāmaki Makaurau pop-punk quartet ...
The following four short extracts are from A City Possessed: The Christchurch Child Crèche Case by Lynley Hood, which has just been reprinted by Otago University Press. The book was first published in 2001 and won the Montana Medal for Non-Fiction at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. The controversial ...
Hamilton councillors have drawn headlines this year for being anti-science and insensitive to terror victims. At a mayoral debate on Wednesday, there were signs a campaign for change is gathering force.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click ...
The Spinoff editor writes on the story that has engulfed NZ politics this week.One of the very few positive things to come out of a hideous week in New Zealand politics has been the sieving-out of the blinkered, partisan zealots. On one side, those who are ready to conjure up ...
In June 2018, Rawinia Higgins was appointed chairperson of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori. She’s the first female and the first te reo Māori second-language speaker to hold the role, and during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, she sat down with The Spinoff to talk about her ...
Compulsory New Zealand history in schools is an exciting opportunity but it’s crucial we’re critical of the stories we tell ourselves, writes Dr Aroha Harris. History is not simply an assemblage of facts and evidence. History is also the interrogation of those things.This may be unsettling news for some, including the ...
The government and the Drug Foundation say they are committed to keeping the public informed and keeping fear mongering to a minimum ahead of the cannabis referendum. ...
One of the people who first brought Labour's assault complaints scandal to light says the party has a long way to go before it's clear it has learnt from its mistakes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Senior Research Fellow, Moral philosophy, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University Argument is everywhere. From the kitchen table to the boardroom to the highest echelons of power, we all use argument to persuade, investigate new ...
Climate change is not just an environmental threat but also a psychological crisis, especially as children increasingly shoulder the burden to act. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alastair Blanshard, Paul Eliadis Chair of Classics and Ancient History Deputy Head of School, The University of Queensland Comedy often succeeds where tragedy fails. Fangirls, the pop musical which premiered on Thursday night in Brisbane, is not the first drama to explore ...
On the 10th anniversary of the infamous “Imma let you finish” episode, Josie Adams reflects on what this moment revealed about both Taylor Swift and Kanye West.Cast your mind back a decade: 2009 DJ Earworm was still good, Barack Obama was sworn in as president of the US, Israeli ground ...
Analysis - An astounding week in politics has left Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern carrying responsibility for sorting out the mess the Labour Party is in over the sexual assault allegation, writes Peter Wilson. ...
Newsroom joins 250 media organisations internationally who are highlighting global climate change in the week leading to a critical United Nations summit. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karen Dwyer, Deputy Head, School of Medicine, Deakin University Autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is the most common genetic kidney disorder, and the fourth most common cause of kidney failure in Australian adults. It affects about one in 1,000 Australians. In people ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has confirmed details of a new bill that will create a registry of guns, and new offences and penalties for illegal manufacture, trafficking or changing markings of firearms. ...
To celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, cookbook authors, 2014 MasterChef-winning sisters and badass wāhine Māori Karena and Kasey Bird (Te Arawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Manawa) have translated some of the delicious recipes from their second cookbook, Hungry, into te reo Māori for The Spinoff. Today, a tino reka salmon salad.NGĀ MOMO ...
James Elliott suggests it might be time for Simon Bridges to turn to AI for answers and for the Prime Minister to move her meetings to the Koru Lounge. ...
Charli XCX has just released her latest album, Charli. The futuristic musician is always looking ahead, and so are her fans. We’ve paired each star sign with their perfect Charli XCX song.Charli XCX burst onto the scene in 2012, when she co-wrote and performed electro-pop headbanger ‘I Love It’ with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benedict Sheehy, Associate professor, University of Canberra British health-care conglomerate Bupa runs more nursing homes in Australia than anyone else. We now know its record in meeting basic standards of care is also worse than any other provider. This is more than ...
Fable is best remembered for the disastrous, over-the-top promises made by its designer Peter Molyneux. But maybe, Adam Goodall argues, we’re remembering it all wrong.“There is something I have to say. And I have to say it because I love making games.” So opens an October 2004 post on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Senior Research Fellow, Moral philosophy, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University Argument is everywhere. From the kitchen table to the boardroom to the highest echelons of power, we all use argument to persuade, investigate new ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Native Son: The Writer’s Memoir by Witi Ihimaera (Penguin Random House, $40)Stand by for a review from ...
The liquidator of Stanley Group says the construction company is facing a $13.5 million deficit and it appears it has not held on to some retentions. ...
Tara Ward delved into Māori TV’s impressive OnDemand catalogue and found some of the best TV taonga for your viewing pleasure. From lifestyle shows to documentaries, from current affairs to reality TV, Māori TV has an abundance of quality telly that celebrates and acknowledges the people, places and cultures of ...
A new poem by London-based poet Morgan Bach.Turning, hurtlingI march diligently to sunshine in the parkeverything bathed and turning golden.A woman breathes fire by the folly framing herlike a personal door to hell. Conkers are pitched from high boughsto break and give up fruit, a spire emergent from the baring ...
Simon Day learns about the history and power of Chinese five-spice. Both the origins of Chinese five-spice and the flavour itself are a little mysterious. My internet investigations revealed the powder’s name could be in reference to the use of five spices (although this often grows to six or seven), or ...
Revelations around alleged sexual assault by a Labour staffer and the party inquiry into his behaviour have dominated the week. Alex Casey and Mihi Forbes join Gone By Lunchtime to survey the damage.Alex Casey, author of the Spinoff feature published on Monday, “A Labour volunteer alleged a violent sexual assault ...
In the fourth episode of Actually Interesting, The Spinoff’s monthly podcast exploring the effect AI has on our lives, Russell Brown speaks to Ana Arriola, general manager and partner at Microsoft AI and Research, about ethics and transparency in tech.Subscribe to Actually Interesting via iTunes or listen on the player below.To download this ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Labour Party sexual assault allegations Andrea Vance (Stuff): How to make the Labour abuse scandal ...
Toi Kai Rākau Iti, who is running in the Eastern Bay of Plenty Kohi Māori constituency, encounters an unlikely channel of youth engagement.In te ao Māori you’re always looking for tohu, or symbols. They guide you through uncertain territory and help you make sense of the world. The arrival of ...
A member of the Labour Party's youth wing says the party's handling of sexual assault allegations has left him heartbroken and doubting his commitment to the party. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tomer Ventura, Senior Lecturer, School of Science and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast The creation of all-male or all-female groups of animals, known as monosex populations, has become a potentially useful approach in aquaculture and livestock rearing. Researchers and those in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Holmes, Director, Climate Change Communication Research Hub, Monash University Predictably, both major political parties are resisting calls this week for a parliamentary conscience vote to declare a climate emergency in Australia. The resistance is unsurprising because both the Coalition and Labor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Shi, Lecturer, Graduate School of Business and Law, RMIT University If the Religious Discrimination Bill passes into law, women may find it harder to get an abortion. That’s because health practitioners with an objection to performing the procedure on religious grounds ...
Open mike 30/08/2012 
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From the Wall Street Journal:Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Mr. Trump looked over a gathering of American and Egyptian officials and called out in ...14 hours ago
The Brexit issue has certainly brought with it a series of apparently difficult constitutional issues, many of them concerning the respective roles of the executive and parliament. Most of them arise because of the unwillingness of MPs, despite their professions to the contrary, to be bound by a constitutional rarity ...2 days ago
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Those close to the Police Minister believe the initiative may be the result of Nash “seeing a great deal” on AliExpress. In a move that comes seemingly out of nowhere, Police Minister Stuart Nash announced this afternoon that he expects all frontline staff to don bearskin hats, famously worn by ...2 days ago
The government has released its Arms Legislation Bill, containing the second tranche of changes to gun laws following the March 15 massacre. And it all looks quite sensible: a national gun register, higher penalties for illegal possession and dealing, tighter restrictions on arms dealers and shooting clubs, and a shorter ...2 days ago
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by Philip Ferguson Much of the left, even people who formally identify as marxists, have collapsed politically in the face of postmodern gender theory of the sort pioneered by American philosopher Judith Butler. For Butler even biological sex is socially constructed. “If the immutable character of sex is contested, perhaps ...3 days ago
By Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern I am every bit as angry as you are. I am every bit as disappointed as you must be. The people with power, oversight and the ability to do something about these processes within the Labour Party should be ashamed. Whoever those people are, I ...3 days ago
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During my time in the Pentagon I had the privilege of sitting down with military leaders and defence and security officials from a variety of Latin American nations. Sometimes I was present as a subordinate assistant to a senior US defence department official, sometimes as part of a delegation that ...5 days ago
Kia ora, Aotearoa. It’s that magical time of year. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. In English, the week that frightens talk radio. As you probably know by now, all your favourite media outlets are participating, some more successfully than others. Stuff has changed its name to Puna for the ...5 days ago
Lost In Political Space: The most important takeaway from this latest Labour sexual assault scandal, which (if I may paraphrase Nixon’s White House counsel’s, John Dean’s, infamous description of Watergate) is “growing like a cancer” on the premiership, is the Labour Party organisation’s extraordinary professional paralysis in the face of ...6 days ago
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Bewhiskered Cassandra? Professor Hugh White’s chilling suggestion, advanced to select collections of academic, military and diplomatic Kiwi experts over the course of the past week, is that the assumptions upon which Australia and New Zealand have built their foreign affairs and defence policies for practically their entire histories – are ...7 days ago
Air New Zealand couldn’t believe its luck that this seemingly ideal piece of real estate had so far gone entirely unnoticed. Air New Zealand’s search for a site to build a second Auckland Airport may have made a breakthrough this afternoon, after employees scanning Google satellite imagery spotted a huge, ...1 week ago
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A Crown Asset? For reasons relating to its own political convenience, the Crown pretends to believe that “No one owns the water.” To say otherwise would re-vivify the promises contained in the Treaty of Waitangi – most particularly those pertaining to the power of the chiefs and their proprietary rights ...2 weeks ago
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National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett spent the week claiming a serious cover-up in the Prime Minister's office. She used parliamentary privilege to name three of the Prime Minister's closest advisors who, she says, knew about the sexual assault ...2 days ago
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Antibiotics are becoming increasingly less effective, so what treatments can we use when the drugs stop working? With help from plant extracts, award-winning company HerbScience is set to breathe new life into how we treat bacterial infections.When Cynthia Hunefeld was just 10 years old, her father was hospitalised with a ...19 hours ago
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Today marks the start of Covering Climate Now. To launch the week, the New Zealand climate change minister, James Shaw, writes an open letter to participants in the School Strike 4 Climate ahead of their day of action later this month.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is thanks to ...22 hours ago
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Although few would now deny that there are far-right extremists in NZ, questions remain around whether we have truly reckoned with the root causes of white supremacy. ...1 day ago
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In June 2018, Rawinia Higgins was appointed chairperson of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori. She’s the first female and the first te reo Māori second-language speaker to hold the role, and during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, she sat down with The Spinoff to talk about her ...2 days ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Senior Research Fellow, Moral philosophy, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University Argument is everywhere. From the kitchen table to the boardroom to the highest echelons of power, we all use argument to persuade, investigate new ...2 days ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alastair Blanshard, Paul Eliadis Chair of Classics and Ancient History Deputy Head of School, The University of Queensland Comedy often succeeds where tragedy fails. Fangirls, the pop musical which premiered on Thursday night in Brisbane, is not the first drama to explore ...2 days ago
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The number of houses sold around the country has fallen to its lowest level in seven months. ...3 days ago
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In the fourth episode of Actually Interesting, The Spinoff’s monthly podcast exploring the effect AI has on our lives, Russell Brown speaks to Ana Arriola, general manager and partner at Microsoft AI and Research, about ethics and transparency in tech.Subscribe to Actually Interesting via iTunes or listen on the player below. To download this ...3 days ago
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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.