The Greens will not take votes from National; they will take them from Labour
National will not take votes from the Greens; they will take them from Labour
Labour will take votes from National by distancing itself from the Greens
Labour will take votes from the Greens by steering clear of any and all National policies
Therein lays the problem for Labour. Cosy up to the Greens and be seen as nutty or agree with some National policies and be seen as pragmatic. The Greens are poison no matter which way you look at it.
Thanks for letting all of us know that it’s the Greens that National are currently shitting their pants over. Also that National have so few routes left to forming a Government. Appreciated.
Your dreaming the Melons are doing National a favour
They can only take Labour votes. Labour need to grow some balls and ditch the Melons
A vote for the Melons is a vote for massive job loses and real poverty in this country
Laughable comment Tacky-man, check out the Auckland City electorates held by National between elections 2008 and 2011, the Green Party sucked party votes out of these National held electorates by the truckload…
You don’t like hearing about the Green Taliban aye
You smoke to much weed and the heroin hasn’t helped either
Try jandals shorts and a tee shirt
You need a good steak and cheese sandwich your brain is fading
Whoah! GoNaddy Man might even have a pair of sansa belt slacks to go with those grey velcro strap shoes!! (as part of the pants collection with the perfect crease)
And akshuly (to quote your guy) Go Naddy Man, way back in ’08 when you bought those shoes (they were still available then) I attended a pub meeting of Left Candidates which incidentally Labour weren’t invited to and Sue Bradford said to the crowd that she didn’t feel particularly offended by the watermelon tag and said ” I am after all red to my very core” or words to that effect.
And it “eh” not aye. Aye is the Scots word for yes and pronounced eye.
I get the melon reference to an extent; though, perhaps because it is such a straight copy from Australian RWNJ spin (akin to the hollow men/ brethren pamphlets), it doesn’t translate so well to a NZ context. Or perhaps it’s merely your ineptitude.
First of all you have to say what kind of melon you’re referencing. My preference would be honeydew; green on the outside with a delectable taste inside, nurturing the seeds of the future in it’s innermost heart.
Also; “Labour need to grow some balls and ditch the Melons”, seems to be implying that Green Party members have bigger (metaphorical) balls than Labour. This may be true; at least when it comes to opposing deep-sea oil, but hard to see how it helps your cause of discrediting the Greens.
However the metaphor you seem to be running with (having been passed a used sweaty baton, but then running off in the wrong direction) is that of the watermelon. Green exterior, red centre, black pips haphazardly arranged probably going for some racist dogwhistle, not sure what the white pith represents… In the hands of a proficient propagandist, that could almost work in Aotearoa – with you spinning this shit; there’ll be no sign of your relay team on the winner’s podium post-election.
It serves the left for the GP to take Labour votes. Labour takes some middle votes and picks up much of the last election non-vote (assuming they keep left). This builds a very strong left, esp if Mana do well.
Cosy up to the Greens and be seen as nutty or agree with some National policies and be seen as pragmatic.
Nope and nope. The Greens aren’t seen as nutty by anyone except the hard right National Party and it’s becoming obvious that agreeing with National isn’t pragmatic but delusional.
BTW, There was ~800k people who didn’t vote at the last election. If they vote then they’ll most likely vote for a left party. National are a minority party and always have been. The only way that they’ve been able to get power is due to the vagaries of FPP and/or people not voting.
..half the time i am laughing my tits off at them..
..so many sharks have done so many jumps..they are now jumping thru hoops..and smiling for the camera..eh..?
..watching the exquisite car-crash that is the (non)-relationship between the co-comperes..
..(‘that-was-an-awkward-moment!) on steroids…that is..
..watching ‘rawdy’..like a guppy out of water..
..serially opening his mouth..gasping/grasping for ideas/thoughts/words..and finding none..
..the badly-fumbled cross-overs..
..their steadfast march onwards as the banner-carriers for that (oh! so 2013!) lacquered-helmet/dirty-hair-look..(and good on them..!..eh..?..someone has to..)
As I understand it, the company needs to reduce debt. It also needs capital for planned oil and gas exploration. The Danish government sell down is to 60%, so it maintains control.
It is a non story. What would your advice be on the debt restructuring? No idea. Yeah thats what I thought.
And what the hell is a “bankster”? Do you mean banks?
It also needs capital for planned oil and gas exploration.
It’s a government and thus can print the money.
The Danish government sell down is to 60%, so it maintains control.
BS and for the exact same reason that selling 49% takes control of our assets away from us – the majority owner can’t do anything that lowers the minorities profits.
Bankster; a fraudster who uses financial systems to disguise their theft. Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfein is a prime example. Another example is the collusion with Greek MPs around the time of the Athens Olympics via credit default swaps leading to their current economic woes.
But you’ll know all this already, and I’m just wasting my time attempting to inform one who is so determinedly ignorant about everything.
That photo of Obama at Mandela’s funeral now has 7 photos in the sequence leading to the switch in seating and boy when the wife of the President looks like that, then you MOVE. Will try to forward the email I received to the CONTRIBUTE section.
Rather disappointingly the answer is apparently yes.
The only one who didn’t maintain a separate bedroom, at least in the last hundred years was Gerald Ford.
In France the first “partner” was unceremoniously dumped after the relationship with the French President ended because she was living of the taxpayers wallet and in France the taxpayer still has something to say.
Previous French presidents were bonking all over the place of course but they did so out of their own pocket and their wives did not, like Michelle Obama, command ridiculous entourages on the tax payers dime.
American presidents such as JFK were also known for having a very loosely zipped zipper but the women involved also did not claim tax payers expenses and the first wives gain did not command Michelle’s royal court or her traveling expenses for that matter.
As a tax payer I would like to be kept abreast of those we pay and the people being financially dependent on them and while I don’t need to know the intimate details such as they want to know from us, if it is OK to spy on tetraplegic people on benefits as to whether they have a live in companion and chuck them out of their home if they lie about it, it’s OK to demand the same of the richest of us who get paid from our hard earned money as far as I am concerned.
Still not sure how whether they sleep in the same room or not has any bearing on that. Sleeping in separate rooms is not necessarily a sign of a broken marriage. And even if their marriage doesn’t fit your idea of what a proper marriage should be, surely the issue is whether Michelle Obama is doing a good job or not. Or are you saying that she has to be having sex with her husband to do that?
She may well be rorting the US taxpayer, but are you saying that as long as the marriage is ‘good’ that that is ok?
Some it seems are more equal then others eh? That poor tetraplegic woman was hauled to every front page because she had dared to keep from us that maybe she had a person sharing what can’t have been fun for her and not a peep from you but when I dare to ask questions about the behavior of the people we have elected to do a job for us wow!!!!! you can’t do that! Well actually yes I can and you should too.
Ev, I’m not saying don’t ask questions about Michelle Obama. By all means question how much money she gets and what she does with it. I just don’t know why you think that where she sleeps has anything to do with that. You still haven’t explained.
Great to see you buying into the racist TeaBagger attacks on Michelle Obama, that uppity black who has ideas above her station. “As a taxpayer”..what taxes do you pay in the US and A?
What about Metiria Turei and her fancy jacket? Any comment on that?
I’m an equal opportunity politician hater and think that the whole upper echelon of global politicians and their hangers on is long overdue for a nice Guillotine party. The only exception so far, as far as I am concerned, is Hone Harawira whom I recently met and had the honor to shake hands with after an excellent impromptu speech on our Raglan Whale bay shores. He is my hero, black ass and all!
Did you count your fingers after the hand shake?
He is still a politician you know and I have always thought the only safe thing to do is to put on heavy gauntlets before shaking hands with any of them.
Funny you should say that but I’m sure you’re not saying that because he’s Maori and, dare I say it, of a darker skin than your pasty Pakeha, university subsidized, skin. That would not be you at all!
1. And what makes you think that I have “pasty pakeha” skin?
2. You noticed that I did say “any of them”, I suppose?
It doesn’t have a damn thing to do with him being Maori.
Had to look up the controversy about Metiria Turei and her fancy jacket. I don’ t see what I would have to say about her clothes. She is perfectly free to wear whatever clothes she wants. I don’t understand what all the fuss is about and perhaps her opponents are baiting her and that of course would be very easy to do. All they have to do is insinuate that she is spending money on clothes which as a black greeny she shouldn’t and if she reacts… BOOM!
Michelle on the other hand pretends to be a hands on greeny with and for the people while she and her husband cater only for the rich and might I add WHITE bankers like good little slaves, while raking in the perks of the job much, by the way, George W Bush another stooge for the WHITE bankers cartel, did when he was in office. Last time I looked he was also WHITE.
Mind you his wife didn’t gallivant off to exotic places on her own for a bit of a girls thang travellng on Airforce one. So hmm…..
Judith Collins: I’m back
Grant Robertson: Thought so, I did feel a chill in the air
Judith Collins: That, dear Grant, is fear running up and down your spine
” If things are going as badly wrong in New Zealand as Cunliffe claims, why are Key and National still so popular?”
because of the biased drivel espoused by sycophantic parasites like John Armstrong and the cabal of press release parrots we call mainstream journalism ?
You start off saying reasonably truthful things phil.
Those like “i am available” and “quick authorship”
Then you drift off into fantasyland with things like.
“devastating-riposte”
Further to the above about moderation. I have put comment again, realised my error in using the t. word and reshaped the mud ball. So I’m happy for you to wipe this one if you wish plus these other two hangers on about it. Won’t do it again, promise!
I have no interest in becoming a member of the Judith Collins CBT club, thank you very much. She is not wonderful at all and should be trying to learn how to do her job, not causing priapism in the likes of Chris73.
Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson has reacted with renewed anger with news having ‘leaked’ that HousingNZ is negotiating to sell the Gordon Wilson housing complex which housed 100+ low income tenants to Victoria University,
Located within walking distance of the Uni the Gordon Wilson apartments were closed earlier this year because of what many saw as minor safety concerns which should have taken mere months to remedy and i commented at the time of the closure that ‘the plan’ was to flick the apartments off on the cheap to the University,
There are two major concerns here, one being while there are 100’s of people on the HousingNZ waiting list all over New Zealand the HousingNZ estate is being ransacked by this Government with no replacements in sight anywhere which simply puts more demand on the housing ‘market’ to provide what is in most cases barely affordable rental accommodation which also pushes demand and prices up in the private housing market,
The second concern, is the wholesale sell-off of the HousingNZ estate an Asset Sale as large, if not larger than the sell off of the Electricity Generators???,
My view is Yes, with the HousingNZ estate valued at some 50 billion dollars and Un-Housing Minister Nick Smith and HousingNZ CEO Sowry,(a National Party Puppet),making statements ”My plan is for HousingNZ to supply 20% less of social housing in the future”, and, ”If a HousingNZ property is worth 700,000 and is empty it will be sold”, you don’t have to be a mathematical genius to work out how much of the estate will be flicked off to private interests,
As HousingNZ have shown no intention of building any replacement stock for what has already been sold,(some 500 homes last year), it is becoming obvious that it is not that organization which is receiving the monies from this mass sell off of social housing, just where is the money going,
My view is that such monies are in fact being use by Slippery’s National Government in it’s efforts to declare a budget surplus and the bigger the hole in their projected finances the more of the States social housing stock they will sell…
Well bad12, looks like SSLands will have to share that Idiot of the Day trophy with Steve James (freedom’s image above) after his reply to you at 11. (9.59am)
Lolz Rosie, i just came back to ‘Open Mike’ and as it’s grown since this morning i read it from the bottom and got to SSlands really dumb comment befor yours,
Thought to myself ”damn i have already given away an award for dumbest comment of the day”, which means your spot on, the ‘Two Ronnies’ can share the award and i am really sure market forces will sort out the division of it…
I have to put a plug in for chris73 – he’s really trying hard and in some ways he has at least caught up with the other two and he really is giving it a good go…
Recently I rediscovered Backlight a series of Dutch public service TV documentaries. The series which is still being made today takes on subjects such as banking and the hideous consequences of an out of control banking system on the global economy amongst others.
Here is the first installment of a two part series on the mindset of your average investment banker/trader and with John Key and his asset selling, NZ economy trashing, privatizing ways in mind I thought I’d provide the link here. (For subtitling of the few Dutch spoken parts turn the captions settings to on)
I wouldn’t worry. The complex is ugly. VUW can fix it up for student accommodation.
As I understand it HousingNZ is simply trying to lift the value they deliver by adjusting their housing stock to better meet the needs of prospectuve clients. It doesn’t matter who owns the house. The market wil sort out any issues anyway.
I think you should disclose you live in a State house. That colours your judgements.
Muppet – who? You tguy? You have yourself chosen one for your gravatar or whatever.
And remember it takes an ideological muppet, to recognise another.
As Johnny Cash and Pete Seeger sang, It Takes a Worried Man – to really see who’s who.
(Listen on the links we put up for Pete Seeger death if you know who he was. Now he knew what ideological was.)
Public debate is about to heat up in Dunedin, come along & take a stand:
“Protesters are vowing to ”peacefully confront” Anadarko’s drill ship when it arrives off Otago’s coast, but another seismic survey vessel working for oil giant Shell has already slipped into the area… The survey ship’s arrival came as Anadarko’s drill ship, [ig]Noble Bob Douglas, was due to begin drilling a test well 60km off the Otago Peninsula coast, at the bottom of the Canterbury Basin, next month. ”
Veteran protester Henk Haazen, on board his sailing ship SV Tiama, was due in Dunedin this morning to discuss plans with [Oil Free Otago]… former anti-nuclear protester, was also involved in protests against Petrobras’ deep-sea oil drilling plans off the North Island’s East Coast, in 2010, and more recently drilling by Anadarko off Raglan”
Prostituting Otago Oil’s response has been typically corporate from such a bought&sold lobby group:
“City councillor Andrew Whiley [Coyote], a vocal supporter of exploratory drilling off the Otago coast, was yesterday named as the spokesman for Pro Gas Otago. The supporters’ group was launched last month as Pro Oil and Gas Otago, but announced a ”restructure” yesterday.”
Hilary Calvert was the only person I ranked lower on last year’s STV councillor election than that oil-sands-land “golf professional”.
I have been looking at the drilling question and its validity in New Zealand.
I came across the following comment.
The Gorgon project got under way in 2009. It is Australia’s largest ever natural resource investment and one of the biggest oil and gas projects in the world. Gorgon’s total gas reserves amount to 40 trillion cubic feet. …It is believed it will last for 40 years and yield a total sales revenue of US$500 billion.
Still – makes you think what may be available after test drilling.
PapaMike
Will Oz then want to trade us for water, barrel for barrel. Still – it makes you think. They wouldn’t bother, they would just buy up the country, own the land, and the water they could utilise at will except for troublesome negotiations over long-term water licences the previous Free NZ Gummint had set up.
In yesterday’s parliamentary Q and A, I found this exchange and especially Mr Winston Peters’ point of order at the end very amusing :
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. The difficulty I have is that the member Mr Brownlee has not actually raised any new points at all. He has just asked me to reflect on the matter. I am happy to reflect on the matter and I will come back to not only Mr Brownlee but also to the House, if that is so required.
Hon David Parker: Speaking to that point, how could the Speaker be willing to reconsider the matter without being willing to consider the Opposition’s view on that? There are points to be made here, arising out of the Leader of the House’s submission to you, that I think are germane and I think I should have the opportunity to do that.
Mr SPEAKER: If the member can succinctly put his point of view, I am happy to hear it.
Hon David Parker: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The problem with the Leader of the House’s position, set out in his submission to you, is that it is within the right of the Opposition not to have confidence in the Government and Ministers, as we do in respect of motions such as the motion on the Prime Minister’s statement. That same ruling applies to questions such as Mr Mallard’s question, and therefore your original ruling is correct and Mr Brownlee is incorrect.
Mr SPEAKER: I will hear from the Rt Hon Winston Peters.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: In consideration of the request by Mr Brownlee, in your further consideration, as he has invited you to undergo, do you want to know the date, the time, and the room where the leak took place?
Mr SPEAKER: And the member should go back to his office and practise raising relevant points of order.
——
That was Q # 11.
Here is the video : http://inthehouse.co.nz/node/22769
Yes Clemgeopin. An interesting set of exchanges. And the Winston point at the end capped the whole issue of who did the leaking and it is still deeply suspicious and must be a concern for the PM.
In all honesty, I no longer understand what is going on here. Obviously (from yesterday’s Open Mike), my viewpoint of the situation aligns with Metiria Turei’s.
However, if one were to characterize this as a mud fight, why the hell is Collins now jumping in? No matter what she said, she was going to come away muddy…
you’re an idiot because you’ve reduced your assessment of the question to how many people explain in favour one way or the other, rather than looking at the quality of those explanations.
because you’ve been bleating on how nobody has explained it, McFlock showed that Turei had, and you agreed! So your whole line is exposed for the idiocy it always was. But still you’ll argue like a fool…
Better then being lazy. Let me break down the lefts side in all this: I don’t like Anne Tolley, Turei says Tolley said something racist there Tolley did say something racist.
Let me break down the lefts side in all this: I don’t like Anne Tolley, Turei says Tolley said something racist there Tolley did say something racist.
you’re an idiot.
And the latest of the many reasons for this assessment is because your summary of “the lefts side” demonstrates just how oblivious you are to the slightly more complex nuances of comments like this.
..i see it more as the tories trying to portray turei to her voter-base as a compromised sell-out..
..this is an old-skool tory political-tactic..
..and turei needs to toughen-up..
..the nats see attacking the greens as a top-priority this election-year..
..so she is facing a year of this..
..would turei prefer the greens go back to being studiously ignored..
..(and as an aside..i wonder if turei reckons my go’s at her over/for her (oh! so green..!..) penchant of hanging around bbq’s..while wrapped in dead-animal skins..
..i wonder if she construes those critiques as ‘racist’..?..)
..and are my piss-takes of kate willamsons’ wholehearted support for the nz collar-manufacturing industry..
This is a great laugh, anyone wanting to know the genesis of the fight between Tolley and Metiria only need cast their minds back to a RadioNZ National pre-election debate in 2011 where tired of Tolley’s puerile interjections while She was trying to make Her point Mets let go a blast at Tolley that resembled nicely many of the power tools i have working at full capacity,
That shut Tolley’s mouth for the remainder of the debate and hardened Slippery the Prime Minister’s resolve to give Tolley the kick from the education portfolio, since then Tolley, septic at the best of times, has had a huge hate on for Metiria which dwarfs the usual Tory hate for the Green Party by a country mile,
Metiria is simply playing Tolley like a fish, Collins a slow swimmer has just decided to make it a ‘school’ and anyone thinking that Metiria Turei need ‘harden up’ is deluded,
The longer Metiria can make Tolley and now Collins spit venom the better, ‘wing-nuts’ everywhere are of course going to leap about with glee in the belief that Tolley/Collins are giving Mets a serve, Party members like myself are going to watch this quietly laughing because we know that young born to rule National Party voters with a strong ecological/conservationist leaning are going to hear this vicious rubbish being spewed by Tolley/Collins and quietly think to themselves,like they did in droves last election, yeah why not follow my heart and give the Green Party a vote…
Lolz, as an afterthought all the Green Party MP’s should attend the Chamber on the next sitting day of the Parliament dressed in suits made of sack-cloth and spend question time quizzing Tolley on the appropriateness of their attire…
They remind me of the Nat. Party equivalent of those vicious teenage girls who hang around waiting for some ‘normal’ teenager to wander by and then beat them up. The kids only no one way to bully and demean and that is with their fists. Bennett, Tolley and Collins can use the power of their political office to do the same thing without using fists.
Jacinda Ardern better watch out because when jealousy is involved it can get really nasty.
It’s petty schoolgirl stuff and will be seen as such. Metiria’s not going to convince anyone it’s racism. The boys in parliament do the same sort of thing in their own way. We’ve been tolerating such childish behaviour from MPs for so long now it’s hardly a surprise the girls have at last descended to cattiness about clothes.
Metiria has already convinced me that it’s part of a well orchestrated litany of racist attacks undertaken by the Tories against herself and Hone Harawira. It is not an isolated event. The pattern has been established.
Fair enough. I thought the same thing when those UK journos all went bananas when Helen Clark wore a pants suit to meet the quoon. Racist blighters I thought.
Quite right Anne – Collins is like every girl’s school bully, demeaning personal comments to prevent anyone criticising her in-crowd. OTOH I don’t think that comment will have made her any new friends
No c73
It makes Collins look petty and shallow. Also Ann Tolley. We already know that. And we are not impressed. But apparently you are. You perhaps are drawn to the aggressive people that say the things you would never dare.
To be sure, some of the blame rests with the increasing irrelevance of overly narrow research in the social sciences. But it is also because the primary requisite of seniority in the policy world is too often an answer to the question: “What did you do during the campaign?” This is the code of the samurai, not the intellectual, and it privileges the campaign loyalist over the expert.
Don’t agree with everything he’s said there (he’s brought up the BS about people being anonymous) but he does make a few good points such as the above quote and his paragraph on the Dunning-Kruger Effect.. That said he does seem to dismiss the self-taught as a matter of course. He seems to think that the only way to learn is through formal education.
Some of the most qualified from some of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions are the exact same people who have led western nations to the fucked up place they’re at today. So not a great advertisement.
Ann Tolley making much of being an electorate MP. Metiria Turei is a list MP, no doubt a sore point with a reactionary, revisionist, backward NACT MP. She doesn’t like the extra M before MP. NACTs still get away with lots that lot, but they want it all, and it rubs that people can get to Parliament on a list position. Always NACTs are trying to pull rank for their uppity and force majeure ways eh!
Might I not be able to turn to stuff to get the Dom Post’s version of the ‘clothes joust’ when they go behind a firewall? That will be so sad – being shut out of the important news they carry.
I find they are getting very slow to load at stuff, too much stuff, and not enough substance perhaps.
Marlborough Express reported and also had this –
>It is not the first time National MPs have attacked Turei’s choice of clothing. Justice Minister Judith Collins said last year on Twitter that a speech by Turei was “vile, wrong and ugly, just like her jacket today”.
Hayden
Aren’t they her mates? I take it you mean Judith Collins or Anatolldyah? You don’t stick your fingers in your own side’s eyeballs in the scrum. Waddarrryah.
H.
Right, I mean left. I can’t tell the difference between the NACT females mentioned, to tell the truth they all seem so similar in some ways, that is their superiority and meanness. I know who is Paula Bennett because she is brown and fat and Maori, but the others seem to be blonde and skinny, and white plastic with a touch of lippie and rouge, though Tolley does have brown hair in the news photo though I thought she was blonde. (And she looked as if she had an expensive outfit on in the news photo too. Perhaps one of the women’s mags, or perhaps a press gallery sartorial assessor, could give us an off-the-cuff valuation).
I suppose I have achieved racism, sexism, fatism, and shallowism in the above. I’m (not very) sorry.
Does that describe you marty mars? Be proud of who you are girl. There is nothing derogatory in those words unless you think it. Has that occurred to you ever.
I’m really only one of those but thanks for your platitude. I guess i just can think of so many descriptors for paula bennett that don’t relate to her colour, weight or cultural background, yet convey my dislike and contempt for her – but you know i’d have to burn some very small amount of brain calories to come up with them, and it does take a teeny, tiny, little effort so i can understand why some can’t be bothered.
I just heard another worried report about overfishing of tuna by Chinese funded boats by specialist reporter Michael Field.
Something about where they used to be able to catch 22, they are now catching 5.
And this is following a long period of decline. I helped one of my sons to do a school project on tuna catches and they were noting the devastating decline in the 1980’s. Woe is me. All the learning that I’ve and they have done, added to all the learning crammed into all the heads up to high levels, above the eyeballs, has not been sufficient to stand firm against the deterioration of our own persons, our countries and our planet. Fu.k – F..k – F..k – F..k – F..k – F..k — F..
Let’s be grateful that advanced learning has been put to good use by the corporate machine in order to fish, mine, exploit far more efficiently and profitably.
CV
Well that’s very nice. And it shows how modern and advanced we are. We’re up with the technology and can match anyone in the world. We’re just amazing. And I am sure all those
industries you mentioned will do everything in the most modern way. (They have given up the idea of blasting holes using nuclear power now haven’t they. That worried me a bit, but that was a while ago. I am sure we have moved on to better things now.)
Yes I know that these young men and women too, these days, use all that wonderful expertise they learned in university. And they will do it well and cleanly. Fisher and Paykel exported new models of dishwashers to the USA did you know that? Some of the young people come and stay with me you know, and they always hang up their towels after showers, and help with the dishes as I haven’t bothered with a dishwasher myself. Such nice young people and doing so well for themselves too.
Just having a brain storm CV being Mrs Houswoman at home blathering on. It’s about the level of many older and comfortably off in our society.
Hi Warbly. I’ve been watching a series about the Indian Ocean which has been QI. The narrator has been visiting East African countries so far on his journeys. One common theme has been the effect of commercial fishing on local indigenous communities. The people of the Maldives for example can only get a few tiddly fish via their traditional methods, and only enough to feed themselves a meagre amount and not enough to sell and make money from, as they had been previously doing for generations The culprits are the massive factory boats that scoop up everything in the ocean. There is no regulation and stock are in a sharp decline.
Same story in the Atlantic Ocean on a series about the British Atlantic coastline It was a repeat scenario off the coast of Ireland (crap or was it Scotland? It was a few weeks ago) Although it wasn’t a factory boat, a local had purchased a huge trawler, crewed it with (no doubt underpaid) Ukrainians and once again phenomenal amounts of fish were being taken, that severely disadvantaged traditional fisher people.
What they were doing was so depressing and made it look like we have at least given some thought to how our commercial fishing is regulated, which really is saying something!
Yeah Rosie
I used to think we did good with the quotas . But truth to tell they were just a stop gap measure to get our breath until we ploughed on to a more robust fishing policy which required some deep breaths and chest thumping by an intelligent, determined government to look after our assets present and future.
But, the great untold exploration story – a group was sent out to look for the i,d, gummint, and they still haven’t come back. We have had to make do with the ones that we have managed to scrape up. The news is that the past exploratory group perished and another one is being formed to go and search for the former one. It’s a slow process, but there are hopes that it will have formed, reconnoitred, and be returning a full report before the end of 2014.
So let’s hold hands Rosie and keep hoping for something to happen. You might let me know if there is something I should be doing, and vice versa if you like. Cheers.
Yes, well we’ve really been mucking about for ages re caring for our fish stocks and have been slow to implement new measures to reduce harm in the marine environment. For instance those new types of nets that allow the little tiddlers out so only the fully grown catch can remain in the net won’t be phased in until 2016. I recall the gummit you mention above wanted to give the industry a chance to get its shit together.
Please bear in mind I am dredging this from my increasingly dimming memory so this may not be entirely accurate, but it will be along those compromised routes.
Anywaaay, speaking of hope, we can only hope the Greens get enough influence in the next gummint to improve the sustainability of our fishing industry via better regulation.
I would be the last person to let you know what you should be doing, especially as I have taken up eating fish in recent years and have relinquished my vego status of 30 years. I am now part of the problem. What I do do is eat farmed salmon from a sustainable source (Aoraki brand) and not that shitty equivalent to battery farmed salmon (Regal brand) from Marlborough. I don’t eat tinned tuna but there are a few cans in the emergency kit for the cat in case of natural disaster. Occasionally I eat fresh white fish caught from the cook strait close to home but it’s not line caught. You can only get that in fancy restaurants or unless you know a fisher person
I still buy tins of tuna that Sealord cans, and use occasionally. But I am always slightly guilty about it. Perhaps the French could talk to the Chinese and ask them to stop putting out fishing boats for tuna. They used to be in Indo-China so maybe they still have some diplomatic cred. I wonder if the UN has discussed the problem of sustainability of the tuna fishery with them. Perhaps they have a fishy roving ambassador who could try to break up this self-satisfied little fiefdom of fishy pirates. I understand they are wedged into islands like Mauritius very deeply and profitably.
Perhaps we should go out saving tuna instead of whales. We could offer the Japanese all the whales that get washed up on our beaches each season instead. Maori could take a few ceremonial jawbones and other parts. And we could ask them to publish their scientific findings from all the years back. They must be mounting up now, and the world is waiting for the useful data and findings. Do we believe that there is any? Or is it some deeply connected counteraction of the dignity of Japan affected by the shock of defeat in WW2? When the leaders keep going to that shrine that upsets the Chinese, are they thumbing their nose at the world,. and retaining their whale eating habits is a comfort to them?
I think I am getting tired and depressed. This isn’t cheering you up either Rosie. So I’ll stop and do some useful gardening tomorrow.
The NZ Conservatives have expressed admiration for the UK Independence Party. Who are UKIP and to what extent do they parallel Colin Craig and his faithful?
This is a shocker – why shame the kids – it is just cruel.
“Whangaparaoa Primary School gave out the “2014 Donation Paid” tags upon payment of the (voluntary) donation.”
and this is a classic
“Mr Dean said the school recognised that some families couldn’t afford to pay a donation.
“It was always the intention that if any such families felt that they wanted a tag for any reason, they could confidentially contact anyone at the school and receive one, no questions asked.”
Up to 40 students at a Utah elementary school watched as their lunches were taken and thrown away on Tuesday because their parents owed money to the school, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
This whole “donation” thing has become a farce. This is yet another example. Good policy would be to introduce school fees on a sliding scale depending on school decile.
Defacto fee regimes lead to the crap we see with this school.
‘Contact the school ” So an underpaid and overworked group of parents have to spend some of their precious time discussing their poverty with a group of people who have absolutely no right to have this information and who make these social rules to disadvantage them.
There is no obligation to pay and therefore no obligation to justify the non payment to a group of people who set themselves in judgement over them. Tossers.
” So an underpaid and overworked group of parents have to spend some of their precious time discussing their poverty with a group of people ”
The people who are tossers are the ones who clearly can pay and won’t on some principle that education should be “free”. They make their kids look like idiots and aggravate other parents. Stop bludging and pay up.
The people who are tossers are the ones who clearly can pay and won’t on some principle that education should be “free”.
A principle somewhat undermined by these same tossers usually taking advantage of every method going to weasel out of paying the taxes that fund this “free” education.
In the interest of informed public debate on this issue – because so much of it is NOT.
Penny Bright
[lprent: Nothing unusual about it. It’d get moderated on any site for its length. I was thinking about moderating it out myself. And did so after I discovered you now have a website of your
Have you ever tried making your views known in “short” come-ons to your own site rather than at “length” on ours ]
Graph, categories for not voting, 2008 and 2011 general elections.
The main reason people gave for not voting in the 2011 General Election was they ‘didn’t get round to it, forgot or were not interested’ to vote. This accounted for 21 percent of the non-voters (and is included in the ‘disengaged’ category). Another 7.1 percent of the non-voters said they did not think their vote would have made a difference. This is a big increase from 3.9 percent in the 2008 election.
Ten percent of non-voters were ‘overseas or away on the election day’. This was the most frequently selected reason in the ‘perceived barriers’ category.
Over 12 percent of non-voters said they did not register for the 2011 election, which equates to just over 2 percent of the total population aged 18 years and over. About 15 percent of non-voters cited ‘other’ reasons for not voting in the 2011 election, including not being eligible because of their visa status, or for religious reasons.
No worries. I was so annoyed with the idiocy of the Stuff article that I tracked it down. Turns out the Stuff article was a press release from Stats NZ. No idea why a journalist would attach their name to it.
MEMO to Len Brown.
Hi Len. If you want to know how to deal with hecklers then send out for a copy of Keith Richards “Life” where he describes exactly how to deal with them.
Lolz, i was amused to read in yesterdays Herald online that Penny Bright,(a regular here at the Standard), after being refused permission to address the Auckland City Council took the floor and did so anyway,
The Herald didn’t say for how long Penny harangued and chastised Len Brown and other’s about the breaking of council rules but the Councillors abandoned their meeting over formal business for the duration,
Gotta ask right, Penny Bright after being refused permission to speak at the council meeting disregards the rules making an elongated speech about the Mayor and some employees breaking the rules???,
There’s a word commonly used to describe such behavior,or lack of it…
Watching the video I thought the references to the book of wisdom were part of the piss take but no, it’s a fine example of racist colonialism all wrapped up in a bundle of Qallunaat paternalism.
“Lots of members of Parliament, on both sides of the House live in actually, much better conditions than a lot of other New Zealanders, and buying much more expensive clothes, so it was a bit rich of Metiria Turei having a go at the minister,” he said.
“But I don’t think it’s racism.”
The Greens were often among the most personal in their attacks on the Government Key said, citing the number of times they called for ministers to be sacked.
“They go hard, they really go hard,” Key said.
TV3 News tonight had Key saying that last line about the Greens going hard. That came after clips of Key’s sneering in parliament. And it gave the impression that the Greens were as nasr=ty and sneering as Key.
In fact, saying a government should be sacked is not a personal attack, unlike the slams at Turei’s clothes. And the Greens actually do avoid the nastiness of Key and some Labour MPs, especially the personal attacks – they attack policies, Nat values, and MP’s performances.
Indeed!!!, the Green Party MP’s in the House are probably more disciplined than any other restraining from interjections and barracking,
Knowing where to really hurt the Tory’s tho, who get their kicks from being either feared or loathed you will often see either Metiria Turei or Russell Norman having a chuckle at the answer they have received from one of Slippery’s Ministers during question time as they rise to ask a Supplementary…
It was ludicrous enough for Tolley to claim you can’t talk about starving unless you’re starving but then to see Collins rush in to do the real ugly and then The Ponce witter on in support ???
Can’t be pleasant Metiria but you can take solace in this – I reckon across the spectrum, yeah even amongst Tories, there’s bugger all see you as the ugly one here.
I think if you are grossly fat, wear expensive clothes, have an enormous carbon footprint, and live in a large house, you are skating on thin ice bleating about “poverty”, or more correctly claiming that you are morally and politically superior to the Government in terms of commentary. The Government is doing more than any other government in 30 years to lift prosperity for everyone.
The answer of the Greens – more taxation, more spending and dependency on the State, together with a return to an agrarian economy will impoverish everyone – we can be poor together I guess.
I think if you are grossly stupid & vile; and live in another country from that which would suffer the consequences of your suggestions, you should find somewhere else to spew your bile. The Government is doing more than any other government in 30 years to enrich themselves and their mates. As I can’t conceive of you actually having any friends, I am left with the conclusion that you are a paid by the word for spouting your repulsive nonsense.
Farrar did some posts over the last 2 years or so on urgency use. Does anyone know if finlaysons claim is factually correct?
” He said that the Law Society had ignored the work that all parties had done to reduce the use of urgency, and that the rate that it had been used was the lowest in years. “
Fundamentally the report by the supposed ‘watchdog’ made some completely ridiculous assumptions that guaranteed the result would be that ‘retail customers historically underpaid’ primarily:
-That 10% per annum return on capital since the ’70s is a reasonable number to aim for!!!
-That the wholesale rate at the market since the ‘free market’ reforms definitively represents a fair value of the actual cost of generation O_O
-That somehow the current gentailers are saddled with the capital debt supposedly caused by the construction of the dams/generators & are expected to pay it back. (They aren’t & they aren’t, taxpayers paid for the construction, gentailers got assets not debts)
-That water has a ‘fuel’ cost to the Generators which is reflected in the cost charged to customers, WTF!
-Summary averages Residential with Commercial/Industrial to come up with ‘its about the same in Real $’ when the whole point of Geoff Bertrams’ original analysis was that **Residential customers** have paid a disproportionally high % since the reforms vs **Commercial/Industrial** who have had big discounts, which is clearly agreed with in the data on the EA report.
The whole thing is a blatantly pro-gentailer biased hack-job by the EA to support the status quo.
EA is supposed to be a neutral overseer to protect the consumer not a partisan PR wing.
In my opinion EA head should apologize to the country & resign for such blatant bias.
But media is too busy with ‘important’ stuff like Meteria Tureis’ jacket/possible flag change/baby bonus/anything else.
Something I’ve been keeping an alarmed eye on but there is scarcely a blip about in our media is the increasing military craziness between China & Japan/US over uninhabited islands/EEZ that may include oil/gas.
At Davros G20 (or whatever it is happening over there) http://ex-skf.blogspot.de/2014/01/ot-echo-of-past-world-wars-from-davos.html
Chinese senior business guy casually suggests a war between China & Japan over this is almost inevitable.
Japan prime minister essentially agrees, likening it to the build up to WWI.
Meanwhile apparently US gave Japan 300KG of weapons-grade Plutonium in the ’60s, supposedly for ‘Research’ purposes (enough for 50-60 nukes ie about as ‘research’ as ongoing Arctic Ocean whaling) but Obama has in recent months demanded it be returned to US. http://ex-skf.blogspot.de/2014/01/the-obama-administration-demands-japan.html
I believe has been some recentish hinting from senior Japanese guys that Japan is & has been capable of producing nukes in a short time.
In that context its probably a good thing that Obama is demanding it back as it should help prevent any Japan vs China war from going Nuke, but still pretty terrifying stuff.
The blog both those came from http://ex-skf.blogspot.de/ is one I’ve been following regarding the incredibly serious & increasingly degrading status of Fukushima Dai-ichi since mainstream media is basically not covering it at all.
3 years on and many decades from actually being under control we have something like 3,000 tanks full of highly radioactive water they can’t clean in temporary tanks that will fall apart completely within a few years.
Amongst other issues, a request from Tepco to the whole global Nuke industry on how to deal with Tritium contamination in the water basically came back with ‘only thing you can do is release it into the sea gradually so it can be diluted’…
They built a big plant that was supposed to decontaminate the water but its only operated for a couple of months total between failing due to rust/leaks & membranes being clogged.
Apparently the whole system was predicated on the idea that most contaminants are deposited from fallout but its actually diluted into the water via direct contact with the corium -> produces vast amounts of highly contaminated slurry that would need to be ‘stored’ somewhere for some stupidly big number of years while still not cleaning the Tritium.
They have been so busy dealing with contaminated water, patching leaks in tanks with duct tape & rubbish bags that they have only recently started managing to get a few mins at a time of footage of the outside of the primary containments, mostly confirming stuff that has been blatantly obvious but nuke apologists have refused to believe as even slightly possible: ie there are 3 fully melted down cores that have breached containment and nobody knows where the ~100tons of corium actually is (like 90% chance its well underground directly contaminating groundwater &/or tidal water). http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/newsline/201401291315.html
They are still concentrating on trying to find leaks in the primary containment though, not even close to being able to find where the hell the Corium is, let alone knowing what temperature its at, probably decades from having a plan to stop just throwing more water at it, pumping out more contaminated water into tanks (they have actually run out of space for new tanks, also run out of tanks to put the daily 300tons into!).
Somewhere in the future they expect someone to invent some magic tech that will enable them to actually decommission & clean it up, probably about the same time that Global Free Market Capitalism makes us all billionaires & eliminates poverty/disease…
Until then we can expect them to be both leaking and storing about 300 tons of ‘guaranteed to kill you in a few hours’ level contaminated water per day.
A big problem they are currently facing is the contaminated water in the tanks causes 2ndary Xrays to be generated by the metal walls of the tanks…
Its well known that the corium almost certainly melted through the steel primary containment within a few hours of the tsunami.
Also well known that corium makes a pretty violent chemical attack on concrete so probably ate through the concrete 2ndary containment also within a few days max.
Saw a recent reference to a pressured expulsion where the molten corium gets squirted out through a small hole at the bottom of the containment vessel at high pressure if the primary containment hadn’t been breached/vented higher up first -> even more quickly cuts through the concrete & also raises the issue of high surface area of a lot of small bits of corium sprayed around rather than the generally expected big, dry blob as seen at Chernobyl.
Yep, the flag: No need for a debate. Change it to Silver Fern (yes it will damn well stick out vs every other flag! Silver fern is universally recognised NZ symbol & very unique) or drop the idea outright. We have more important topics to talk about & I don’t mean Meteria Tureis’ clothes taste.
There are much more important things
Local body voting papers went in the post on Friday, and should be arriving over the course of this week (mine arrived today). And if you care about climate change, I urge you to vote. While local government seems irrelevant and out of touch (like a whine of old white ...
Like many people, my submission on the Zero Carbon Bill urged more ambitious targets. And if the select committee was in any doubt, they're needed:An assessment backed by the world’s major climate science bodies has found commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions must be at least tripled and increased by ...
NZ Energy and Environment Business Week reports (in Scoop) that the government is finally moving on reforming the Crown Minerals Act, including banning mining on conservation land and repealing the hated Anadarko Amendment:The Government is planning to change the Crown Minerals Act’s purpose from “promoting” mining in light of changing ...
Anti-fluoride campaigners think a new Canadian fluoride IQ study is the best thing since sliced bread but the scientific critiques warn they are wrong. Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty The new Canadian ...
Reprinted from Jacobinmag by Jane Slaughter and Chris Brooks Almost 50,000 UAW workers are on strike against GM and a two-tier labor system that undermines worker solidarity. But members may need to wage a battle on two fronts — against the company, but also against their own union leadership. Forty-nine ...
Before Jacingrant There Was Gracinda: Grant Robertson and his 2014 running mate, Jacinda Ardern. She stood at his side: loyal and obliging, as she had ever been. The media dubbed this duo “Gracinda” – a sort of political “Brangelina”. The other young people who worked alongside Robertson were also ambitious ...
. . Just when you thought Simon Bridges couldn’t sink any lower – he has. After the March 15th Christchurch terror attack, the (current) Leader of the National Party issued strong committments to support urgently needed gun law reform; “We will be ready and prepared to be constructive and to ...
We all know that bad parents simply don’t care about their children’s education. Most truants have loser parents, and grow up to be involved with crime, or in low paid employment usually like their parents. The nonsense so-called “climate strike” coming up will be attended mostly by the least intelligent ...
Is the terrorist Organisation Greenpeace and the loony Green parties around the World hiring professional internet trolls? I have noticed a trend lately where if you post research, news articles or even comments that show the manmade climate change scam to be just that, you are immediately attacked, often within ...
Today is the first day of the global climate strike. Led by schoolkids, people all around the world are going to protest to demand action on climate change. New Zealand isn't doing it till next Friday (join us!), but if you want to get active early, there's plenty to do ...
The Herald has a story today about the 400 MW of wind power currently under construction. Good news, right? Except that none of it is being driven by policy (instead, its about replacing Contact Energy's Taranaki Combined Cycle gas-fired power plant, due to shut down in 2022), and most of ...
To Protect and Serve: When the Prime Minister finds herself enmeshed in the coils of a full-blown political scandal, her colleagues and party comrades have only one priority: to release her as swiftly – and with as little lasting injury – as possible. Is this what Jacinda Ardern’s colleagues and ...
When military leaders cover up and lie to elected civilian authorities, the foundation of democratic civil-military relations is undermined because it is those authorities who are entrusted to hold the military accountable to the public that they mutually serve. But this is only true if civilian political authorities take their ...
The Make It 16 campaign to lower the voting age is launching this afternoon, and they have already announced plans to challenge the law in court:The campaign, named "Make it 16" will launch at Parliament on Friday, with plans to take their case to the High Court, testing the rights ...
by Daphna Whitmore The long years of Netanyahu’s reign are drawing to an end. For years he has epitomized reactionary zionism as he oversaw hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers seize land in the West Bank. There are now 700,000 settlers, putting an end to the myth that Israel was ...
BP, Z and Mobil all insist that petrol price hikes are temporary, “in a very literal sense.” The nation’s major petrol providers are trying to allay customer fears over prices, promising that they’ll move to lower them again “immediately” when the Middle East is returned to its formerly peaceful state. ...
South African coach Rassie Erasmus says he has no idea what they’re going to do about the boat. In a highly anticipated press conference this afternoon, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has finally unveiled the team’s boat for its Rugby World Cup 2019 campaign. In a press conference that went ...
The Operation Burnham inquiry continued to question senior NZDF staff today, and their shoddy coverup over their knowledge of civilian casualties continue to fall apart. If you recall, first, we were asked to believe that it was all a series of "mistakes and errors": a senior officer with multiple degrees ...
The Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill (No 2) had part of its committee stage yesterday. its a generally tedious bill about the nitty-gritty of local government reorganisation. But it includes a clause making the Local Government Commission subject to the Ombudsmen Act, and hence the OIA. Great! Except of ...
Yesterday Ihumātao's mana whenua reached a consensus that they would like their land back, and asked the government to negotiate with Fletcher's for its return. The government's response? Try and undermine that consensus, while talking about how doing anything would undermine existing Treaty settlements. The first is just more bad ...
Its Suffrage Day, the 126th anniversary of women winning the right to vote (but not stand in elections) in New Zealand. And to celebrate, the government has bought Kate Sheppard's house in Christchurch:The government has bought Kate Sheppard's former home in Christchurch for more than $4 million. The Ilam villa ...
The UN climate summit is happening in new York next week, and unlike previous years, coal-burners and denier-states are not being invited to speak:Leading economies such as Japan and Australia will not be invited to speak at next week’s crunch UN climate change summit, as their continued support for coal ...
Get Back Jojo! The elation in Mayor Phil Goff’s camp may be easily imagined as they watched social media light up in indignation at challenger John Tamihere’s "Sieg Heil to that" quip. Just when JT’s notoriously right-wing, sexist and homophobic stains were beginning to fade back into his ‘colourful’ past, ...
Patrick Gower is good value when he's high. Not that I've ever, you know, got stoned with him. But in the second part of his documentary Patrick Gower on Weed, he does what you'd expect in a modern weed documentary and immerses himself – first with a doctor, then a ...
We surveyed candidates on their attitudes to issues facing the Western Bay Region, find out what they think: “Closing the Gap” Tauranga, one of the area groups of Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc., has surveyed all candidates in the three local body elections to discover attitudes to some basic issues ...
Please spread widely, and sign, to support science and rationalism over the new irrationalism sweeping universities and institutions. PROJECT NETTIE Sexual reproduction, the generation of offspring by fusion of genetic material from two different individuals, evolved over 1 billion years ago. It is the reproductive strategy of all higher animals ...
Just when I was thinking that Palmerston North's mayoral race (which includes a convicted child molester / public wanker and a convicted child beater) was the worst in the country, Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere opened his mouth:Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere is being slammed for using the words "sieg ...
We reprint below an article from the excellent website the Economics of Imperialism by Tony Norfield This is an update of the statistics for my Index of Power, using data for 2018-19 and discussing what a country’s ranking reflects. The major change is that China’s rank has shifted up and ...
The All Blacks have been, for more than a century, arguably the most successful International sports team in the world. But they are more than that; even for those Kiwis who are immune to the charms of rugby (and there are more than a few), the All Blacks are ambassadors ...
Alone, Alone, All, All, Alone: To argue that the Prime Minister is the victim of her advisers’ failure to keep her informed may offer Jacinda some measure of exoneration – but only at the cost of casting her as a hopeless political ingénue. A star-dusted muppet, whose only purpose is to ...
In times of hysteria about the “World coming to an end” and “rising sea levels” so-called ‘Journalists’ who can barely spell words longer than four letters are having a ball! Though the majority of the Public have worked out that manmade climate change is nothing short of pseudo-science, and the ...
I don't want to give pblicity to certain parts of the internet that are better left to fester in their own irrelevance (I know, a bit like this place) but the listing of Chris Trotter as a 'author' on Cameron Slater's spinoff website, the BFD requires some explanation.Now, I don't ...
The text below is a Twitter thread by Heather Heying that explains the essence of sexual reproduction and it long evolutionary history. She is an evolutionary biologist and a “professor-in-exile” after she and her husband, Bret Weinstein, stood up to supporters of an enforced “Day of Absence” for white staff and teachers ...
With crunch time for new Zealand climate policy approaching, most of the New Zealand media have got on board with a global reporting effort to cover the issue. There's one strand of stories today about polling and what it shows about changing public attitudes to the crisis, but the strand ...
Dangerous Foes: For those readers of Bowalley Road who feel disposed to dismiss any prospect of an Israeli destabilisation of New Zealand politics, the example of the United Kingdom repays close attention. Ever since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour Party, the Israelis have sanctioned, funded and ...
Make It 16, the youth-led campaign to lower New Zealand's voting age, is holding an official campaign launch at Parliament this Friday from 16:30. If you'd like to attend, you can register using EventBrite here. ...
by Don Franks It was a lovely sunny Wellington afternoon with blue skies above the beaches. In Courtenay Place, political activists packed out a stuffy upstairs room for an important meeting. The assembled pacifists, anarchists, communists and independent young radicals of Peace Action Wellington felt the need for a mission ...
Current and former NZDF top brass are being publicly grilled this week by the hit and run inquiry over their public responses to allegations of civilian casualties. Previously, they've claimed there were no casualties, a position which led them to lie to Ministers and to the public. Now, they're saying ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Private prisons are a stain on humanity. Prison operators explicitly profit from human misery, then lobby for longer prisons terms so they can keep on profiting. And in the US, prison companies run not only local and state prisons, but also Donald Trump's immigration concentration camps. Faced with this moral ...
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 ...
The media is reporting that the (alleged) Labour party sexual assaulter has resigned from their job at Parliament, which means hopefully he won't be turning up there making people feel unsafe in future. Good. But as with everything about this scandal, it just raises other questions. Most significantly: why the ...
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 ...
Property developers think there is an "oversupply" of houses in Auckland:High turnover rates and falling prices may be a sign that there are too many new houses going in to some parts of Auckland, commentators say. [...] Property developer David Whitburn said there was a "bit of an oversupply" in ...
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 ...
Two-Faced? Labour insiders' commitment to the neoliberal status quo puts them at odds with their party’s membership; its trade union affiliates; and a majority of Labour voters, but this only serves to strengthen the perception they have of themselves as a special elite. Among the lesser breeds, they’ll talk up a ...
There has been a lot of talk about Boris Johnson wanting an election, and he has blustered with great gusto about 'chicken' Jeremy Corbyn refusing one, but I think there are many reasons why he is secretly glad he has been refused the opportunity:The Tories are an utter rabble,tearing themselves ...
Scottish appeal court judges have declared that Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament in the run-up to the October Brexit deadline is unlawful. The three judges, chaired by Lord Carloway, Scotland’s most senior judge, overturned an earlier ruling that the courts did not have the powers to interfere in the prime ...
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 ...
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) says that if the Deputy Prime Minister has indicated progress is slow for welfare reform, an appropriate and timely response would be for the Government to urgently adopt the simple and effective changes outlined in ...
Leading accounting software provider MYOB has welcomed the Coalition Government’s focus on innovation with the announcement of new tax incentives and investment rules targeted at small business. ...
IrrigationNZ welcomes the Government’s Economic Plan for a productive, sustainable and inclusive economy released today, but says a comprehensive, nationwide strategy for New Zealand’s water is missing, and could underpin the country’s well-being. ...
International Day of Older Persons is a day to celebrate older people – to highlight the value of all older people and to promote dignity and respect. The 2019 international theme is “The Journey to Age Equality“. ...
One in six New Zealanders did not complete the 2018 Census - a result which has already led to the resignation of the Government's chief statistician. ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has cautioned the nation and policy makers on the 2018 Census figures released today and indicated that while some work has been done the fact that Maori remained unrepresented as a national figure in the tally on the day ...
A ground-breaking study which looks at how Māori and Samoan peoples describe their experience of youth justice across three different but comparable countries is calling for participants. ...
New Zealand’s 34th Census of Population and Dwellings was held on 6 March 2018. We combined data from the census forms with administrative data to create the 2018 Census dataset, which meets Stats NZ’s quality criteria for population structure ...
Results from the 2018 Census show New Zealand’s cultural make-up is becoming more diverse after high population growth in the past five years, Stats NZ said today. ...
Population growth since 2013 has resulted in one new general electorate in the North Island but no change to the number of Māori electorates for the next general election, Stats NZ said today. ...
As the public submissions process draws to a close, and with more than 900 submissions received to date, the Royal Commission is still urging people to come forward if they have information which may help with its inquiries. “We have twice extended ...
Amending the rules on black hole expenditure and loss continuity shows excellent judgment from the Government, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . ...
If we want New Zealand to be the best place in the world to be a child, the Government needs to increase benefits, remove sanctions, individualise benefits, and fix abatement rates now, says Child Poverty Action Group and ActionStation . ...
Today the we have another chance to do the right thing to really lift incomes for thousands of people in this country who are missing out, says The Salvation Army Te Ope Whakaora. ...
Saving the ocean’s environment continues tomorrow as Ngati Ruanui Iwi takes on Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) who wish to mine iron sand off the South Taranaki Bight in the Tasman Sea in what has been a five-year battle. ...
Wellington - 23 September 2019 -- Kiwis Against Seabed Mining (KASM) and Greenpeace are in the Court of Appeal in Wellington this week, defending last year’s High Court ruling that quashed Trans-Tasman Resources’ (TTR) consent to mine the South ...
“Climate change is here - we all need to do our part.” Monday 23rd September 2019. Press Release: Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre Climate change is happening. CEAC – compendium facts tribute to ‘Climate Change Week’ https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/115098866/exceptionally-rare-warming-above-antarctica-may-be-affecting-nzs-weather ...
Criminal law changes are now increasingly being used by politicians as a vote gathering tool pandering to lynch mob special interest groups. To look tough against crime, govts constantly increase penalties, create new crimes, and make it harder to get ...
It has been two years since Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called climate change her generation's nuclear free moment. And on Monday, against a backdrop of global climate protest, she will give the opening speech at the United Nation's climate ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson is under intense scrutiny. New figures show economic growth has slowed to levels not seen for six years. And he has chosen not to answer questions about when he heard about serious allegations of a sexual assault cover-up ...
NZDF Attends Commemorations to Mark International Mission in East Timor A New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) contingent participated today in the 20th anniversary commemorations of the International Force East Timor (INTERFET) mission in Dili. The commemoration ...
They’ve only been up and running for a few months, but a New Zealand not-for-profit has already made a big impact on period poverty in New Zealand. ...
The allocation of money for publicly funded broadcasting for election campaigns should be turned on it's head according to Massey University professor of communication design Claire Robinson. ...
Disappointment expressed by Fletcher Building CEO, Ross Taylor, reflects the increasing frustration held by many with this Government’s failure to protect private property rights.[1] ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee today launched an eight-week, nationwide call for evidence on options available to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ...
Social Credit has lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman over the way the Overseas Investment Office is handling its official information request for disclosure of documents on the sale of Westland Milk Products to Chinese company Inner Mongolian ...
This Friday in Solidarity with the Global Climate Strike All of the SodaStream’s e-commerce platforms and head office operations will be closed to kick-off the week-long event, and employees will march the #CLIMATESTRIKE in Auckland on 27 September. ...
Federated Farmers congratulates the Auditor-General’s office on its release today of its report Managing Freshwater Quality: Challenges and Opportunities. ...
Growth has now slowed to a 6-year low, and downside risks are dominating. June quarter GDP growth came in at 0.5%qoq, in line with our expectation, and slightly above consensus. Although there were a few sensational reports of the chance of a negative print. ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) is calling the release of the National Climate Change Risk Assessment (NCCRA) framework a good first step in balancing New Zealand’s response to climate change. ...
Family First NZ says that a new Colorado report compiled by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area finds marijuana-positive traffic fatalities, hospitalisations, marijuana use, and illegal market activity have exploded since marijuana legalization. ...
This year’s Ratepayers’ Report , local government league tables released yesterday, reveals which local councils owe the most and which owe the least. ...
Rachel MacGregor welcomes the decision released today by Justice Hinton. The key issue on which all the various litigation has been based is the question, did Colin Craig sexually harass Rachel. That question has been answered – he did. Justice ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has told world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit that New Zealand is "determined" to be the most sustainable food producer in the world. ...
The scandals plaguing two formerly untouchable progressive heroes has them crashing back down to earth where they must wade through the same political muck as everyone else. ...
There hasn't been a confirmed sighting in decades, but that's not stopping the South Island kōkako from entering NZ's annual native bird popularity contest. ...
We continue our series on the stories behind NZ bookstores as Lincoln Gould tells of realising his dream to open a military bookshop in Featherston. ...
The strange story of how two men on opposite sides of the Whale Oil saga bizarrely ended up on the same team defending a wily property developer and landlord. ...
Could Spark’s Rugby World Cup streaming failure force a pragmatic alliance with Sky? Trevor McKewen asks what this would mean for each of the corporate giants – and NZ Rugby.Spark Sport has just dumped incoming New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson with his first serious challenge. The streaming platforms ...
Fonterra has delayed its walk up the annual results aisle by two weeks, after earlier warning it will make a multi-million dollar loss. Peter Fraser traces the events leading up to the surprise decision and considers whether there is more to it than meets the eye.For Fonterra, September 12 2019 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marissa Parrott, Reproductive Biologist, Wildlife Conservation & Science, Zoos Victoria, and Honorary Research Associate, BioSciences, University of Melbourne Australia’s water rats, or Rakali, are one of Australia’s beautiful but lesser-known native rodents. And these intelligent, semi-aquatic rats have revealed another talent: they ...
Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters says the government has had "meaningful" discussions with Fletchers on how to resolve the situation at Ihumātao. ...
Joan Fleming on Wild Honey: Reading New Zealand Women’s Poetry, the humming, house-like opus by poet and champion of poets, Paula Green. When Miranda July came to Melbourne in 2016, she did something that I have found difficult to forget. She told us that she was going to stage a conversation ...
By Jamie Tahana of RNZ Pacific Taiwan suffered two major diplomatic blows in the Pacific this week with both the Solomon Islands and Kiribati severing their ties in favour of China. In just four days, Taiwan’s diplomatic allies fell from 17 to 15, further isolating the island as Beijing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lara Farrell, Associate Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Griffith University If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.Where do phobias come from? – Olivia, age 12, Strathfield, Sydney. Phobias are an intense fear ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Rogers, Senior lecturer, School of Law and Justice, Southern Cross University The phrase “climate emergency” became part of the political lexicon this year. Governments at all levels made declarations of a climate emergency, as did various organisations such as the Australian ...
Following serious allegations emerging online, episode two of New Zealand Today has been removed from ThreeNow along with all relevant clips. Mediaworks have removed episode two of Guy Williams’ comedy series New Zealand Today from its streaming platform ThreeNow after being informed that there were serious allegations involving a person briefly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marcus Luigi Spiller, Associate Professor (Urban Planning) – honorary , University of Melbourne Labor’s Rudd-era National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) has come under attack just when it might be needed. The Abbott government stopped funding new deals under the scheme in 2014, ...
It’s Spinoff Youth Voting Week, where old people aren’t allowed to vote*. To celebrate, Tamsyn Matchett has written on a civics education programme giving teenagers a first sweet taste of local democracy before they’re legally permitted to vote for real.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff ...
Carla van Zon, former artistic director of the Auckland Arts Festival, issues a call for artists to make their voices heard in the battle against climate change.I am passionate about the arts and believe art can change lives, attitudes and even the world, individual by individual. I also believe that ...
Christchurch City Councillor Deon Swiggs has identified himself as the person at the centre of a complaint of inappropriate behaviour, but denies he has done anything wrong. ...
Reporters have been denied any access to the prime minister's meeting with US President Donald Trump tomorrow, but Jacinda Ardern says it wasn't her decision. ...
New Zealand businesses will benefit from tax breaks worth at least $80 million over five years, to encourage them to spend more on research and innovation. ...
Nerds, rejoice. The day of reckoning is finally upon us, with the release of the data from the 2018 census. So what are some of the interesting facts and figures?Forget about how badly this Census was botched. Forget about how there are concerns over how accurate the response data is, ...
A perfectly preserved set of Big Fresh Animatronic Fruit and Veges went on sale this week. Hayden Donnell delivers an exclusive update on their fate.Everyone remembers their first encounter with Junk & Disorderly’s set of Big Fresh Animatronic Fruit & Veges. There’s something overpowering about the experience. The Butter looms ...
In our latest local elections 2019 race briefing (read the rest here), Don Rowe looks at the two horse race to control the tourism capital of New Zealand.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.Where?Queenstown, ...
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.Foreign affairs and trade Derek Cheng (Herald): Jacinda Ardern to take climate change stage in ...
The Government has included two small tax changes with its 32 page 'Economic Plan' that paints a big picture for economic and wellbeing transformation. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simone Casey, Research Associate, Future Social Service Institute, RMIT University In all Australia’s capital cities, average share-house rents in the inner suburbs (where jobs are concentrated) leave people without enough money for food and other basics, new research shows. This research, for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Lenten, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics and Finance, La Trobe University Tonight is the AFL’s annual night of nights, the red-carpet spectacular known as the Brownlow Medal vote count. The Brownlow is awarded to the season’s “fairest and best” player. But ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gianluca Demartini, Associate professor, The University of Queensland The information we encounter online everyday can be misleading, incomplete or fabricated. Being exposed to “fake news” on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter can influence our thoughts and decisions. We’ve already ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Howard Manns, Lecturer in Linguistics, Monash University Not to put a damper on things, but Australian food hasn’t always made us happy little Vegemites. One needn’t look further than the humble meat pie to see how our love/hate relationship with Aussie tucker ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirrie J Ballard, Professor, Speech Pathology, University of Sydney Sam is a high school drama teacher — articulate, funny, smart. It’s an ordinary day and she isn’t feeling great, but pushes through. At morning tea, she spills coffee down her shirt; at ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Penelope Carroll, Researcher in Public Health, Massey University Our research project explored the everyday lives of disabled young people, aged from 12 to 25 years, with mobility, vision and hearing impairments. We measured and asked them about factors that enabled or constrained ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jagannath Adhikari, Sessional Lecturer, UNSW Reducing emissions from deforestation and farming is an urgent global priority if we want to control climate change. However, like many climate change problems, the solution is complicated. Cutting down forests to plant edible crops feeds some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margaret Kristin Merga, Senior Lecturer in Education, Edith Cowan University Reading aloud can help young children learn about new words and how to sound them. There’s great value too in providing opportunities for children to enjoy regular silent reading, which is sustained ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lili Pâquet, Lecturer in Writing, University of New England In Dervla McTiernan’s book, The Scholar, published earlier this year, women are consistently used as the “fall guys” for men with high aspirations. Two young women are killed when they uncover fraud. Another ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Indonesia to send contaminated recycling back to NZ, LAWA report shows water quality dropping at more sites than not, and Spark Sport suffers harsh weekend.Shipping containers full of contaminated recycling could be shipped back to New Zealand, Anna Whyte from One News reported ...
Solomon Islands and Kiribati last week dramatically switched diplomatic allegiances from Taiwan to China, a shift with possibly wide-ranging implications writes Stephen Hoadley of the University of Auckland. ...
Jacinda Ardern has a busy agenda for her second trip to the annual leaders' week, not least a high-profile sit-down with US President Donald Trump. ...
An Auckland mayoral candidate has reacted furiously to an advertising approach from Māori Television, which he says was a pay-for-play offer of coverage. Alex Braae reports. Craig Lord, a long-shot candidate for the Auckland mayoralty, has described an advertising offer from Māori Television as inappropriate, and close to “extortion.”In an email ...
Open mike 31/01/2014 
Local body voting papers went in the post on Friday, and should be arriving over the course of this week (mine arrived today). And if you care about climate change, I urge you to vote. While local government seems irrelevant and out of touch (like a whine of old white ...15 hours ago
Anti-fluoride campaigners think a new Canadian fluoride IQ study is the best thing since sliced bread but the scientific critiques warn they are wrong. Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty The new Canadian ... 19 hours ago
Reprinted from Jacobinmag by Jane Slaughter and Chris Brooks Almost 50,000 UAW workers are on strike against GM and a two-tier labor system that undermines worker solidarity. But members may need to wage a battle on two fronts — against the company, but also against their own union leadership. Forty-nine ...1 day ago
Before Jacingrant There Was Gracinda: Grant Robertson and his 2014 running mate, Jacinda Ardern. She stood at his side: loyal and obliging, as she had ever been. The media dubbed this duo “Gracinda” – a sort of political “Brangelina”. The other young people who worked alongside Robertson were also ambitious ...2 days ago
. . Just when you thought Simon Bridges couldn’t sink any lower – he has. After the March 15th Christchurch terror attack, the (current) Leader of the National Party issued strong committments to support urgently needed gun law reform; “We will be ready and prepared to be constructive and to ...3 days ago
We all know that bad parents simply don’t care about their children’s education. Most truants have loser parents, and grow up to be involved with crime, or in low paid employment usually like their parents. The nonsense so-called “climate strike” coming up will be attended mostly by the least intelligent ...3 days ago
To Protect and Serve: When the Prime Minister finds herself enmeshed in the coils of a full-blown political scandal, her colleagues and party comrades have only one priority: to release her as swiftly – and with as little lasting injury – as possible. Is this what Jacinda Ardern’s colleagues and ...4 days ago
When military leaders cover up and lie to elected civilian authorities, the foundation of democratic civil-military relations is undermined because it is those authorities who are entrusted to hold the military accountable to the public that they mutually serve. But this is only true if civilian political authorities take their ...4 days ago
BP, Z and Mobil all insist that petrol price hikes are temporary, “in a very literal sense.” The nation’s major petrol providers are trying to allay customer fears over prices, promising that they’ll move to lower them again “immediately” when the Middle East is returned to its formerly peaceful state. ...4 days ago
South African coach Rassie Erasmus says he has no idea what they’re going to do about the boat. In a highly anticipated press conference this afternoon, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has finally unveiled the team’s boat for its Rugby World Cup 2019 campaign. In a press conference that went ...4 days ago
Get Back Jojo! The elation in Mayor Phil Goff’s camp may be easily imagined as they watched social media light up in indignation at challenger John Tamihere’s "Sieg Heil to that" quip. Just when JT’s notoriously right-wing, sexist and homophobic stains were beginning to fade back into his ‘colourful’ past, ...5 days ago
Patrick Gower is good value when he's high. Not that I've ever, you know, got stoned with him. But in the second part of his documentary Patrick Gower on Weed, he does what you'd expect in a modern weed documentary and immerses himself – first with a doctor, then a ...5 days ago
We surveyed candidates on their attitudes to issues facing the Western Bay Region, find out what they think: “Closing the Gap” Tauranga, one of the area groups of Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc., has surveyed all candidates in the three local body elections to discover attitudes to some basic issues ...6 days ago
Why is New Zealand climate change policy so crap? The Herald this morning has a long article on the twists and turns of climate change policy in New Zealand [paywalled / depaywall script], which shows where we've been. The short version is that the government first began worrying about this ...6 days ago
The All Blacks have been, for more than a century, arguably the most successful International sports team in the world. But they are more than that; even for those Kiwis who are immune to the charms of rugby (and there are more than a few), the All Blacks are ambassadors ...6 days ago
7 days ago
1 week ago
Dangerous Foes: For those readers of Bowalley Road who feel disposed to dismiss any prospect of an Israeli destabilisation of New Zealand politics, the example of the United Kingdom repays close attention. Ever since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour Party, the Israelis have sanctioned, funded and ...1 week ago
Make It 16, the youth-led campaign to lower New Zealand's voting age, is holding an official campaign launch at Parliament this Friday from 16:30. If you'd like to attend, you can register using EventBrite here. ...1 week ago
by Don Franks It was a lovely sunny Wellington afternoon with blue skies above the beaches. In Courtenay Place, political activists packed out a stuffy upstairs room for an important meeting. The assembled pacifists, anarchists, communists and independent young radicals of Peace Action Wellington felt the need for a mission ...1 week ago
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 ...1 week ago
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 weeks ago
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 ...2 weeks 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 ...2 weeks ago
Two-Faced? Labour insiders' commitment to the neoliberal status quo puts them at odds with their party’s membership; its trade union affiliates; and a majority of Labour voters, but this only serves to strengthen the perception they have of themselves as a special elite. Among the lesser breeds, they’ll talk up a ...2 weeks ago
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 ...2 weeks ago
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 ... 2 weeks ago
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 ...2 weeks ago
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 ...2 weeks ago
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, ...2 weeks ago
The Council of Trade Unions has applauded todays announcement by the Government that wellness is a feature of their Economic Plan. ...11 hours ago
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has told world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit that New Zealand is "determined" to be the most sustainable food producer in the world. ...58 mins ago
The scandals plaguing two formerly untouchable progressive heroes has them crashing back down to earth where they must wade through the same political muck as everyone else. ...1 hour ago
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care allowed a convicted child sex offender to sit in meetings with survivors of child sexual abuse. ...1 hour ago
There hasn't been a confirmed sighting in decades, but that's not stopping the South Island kōkako from entering NZ's annual native bird popularity contest. ...1 hour ago
We continue our series on the stories behind NZ bookstores as Lincoln Gould tells of realising his dream to open a military bookshop in Featherston. ...1 hour ago
The strange story of how two men on opposite sides of the Whale Oil saga bizarrely ended up on the same team defending a wily property developer and landlord. ...1 hour ago
Lisa Adams has turned her life around to smash world records in Para shot put, with the help of her Olympic champion sister. ...1 hour ago
Could Spark’s Rugby World Cup streaming failure force a pragmatic alliance with Sky? Trevor McKewen asks what this would mean for each of the corporate giants – and NZ Rugby.Spark Sport has just dumped incoming New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson with his first serious challenge. The streaming platforms ...2 hours ago
Fonterra has delayed its walk up the annual results aisle by two weeks, after earlier warning it will make a multi-million dollar loss. Peter Fraser traces the events leading up to the surprise decision and considers whether there is more to it than meets the eye.For Fonterra, September 12 2019 ...2 hours ago
The sudden and surprising ditching of a plan that's been years in the making, to move some of the nation's cultural treasures to Manukau. ...2 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marissa Parrott, Reproductive Biologist, Wildlife Conservation & Science, Zoos Victoria, and Honorary Research Associate, BioSciences, University of Melbourne Australia’s water rats, or Rakali, are one of Australia’s beautiful but lesser-known native rodents. And these intelligent, semi-aquatic rats have revealed another talent: they ...12 hours ago
Joan Fleming on Wild Honey: Reading New Zealand Women’s Poetry, the humming, house-like opus by poet and champion of poets, Paula Green. When Miranda July came to Melbourne in 2016, she did something that I have found difficult to forget. She told us that she was going to stage a conversation ...13 hours ago
By Jamie Tahana of RNZ Pacific Taiwan suffered two major diplomatic blows in the Pacific this week with both the Solomon Islands and Kiribati severing their ties in favour of China. In just four days, Taiwan’s diplomatic allies fell from 17 to 15, further isolating the island as Beijing ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lara Farrell, Associate Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Griffith University If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au. Where do phobias come from? – Olivia, age 12, Strathfield, Sydney. Phobias are an intense fear ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Rogers, Senior lecturer, School of Law and Justice, Southern Cross University The phrase “climate emergency” became part of the political lexicon this year. Governments at all levels made declarations of a climate emergency, as did various organisations such as the Australian ...14 hours ago
Following serious allegations emerging online, episode two of New Zealand Today has been removed from ThreeNow along with all relevant clips. Mediaworks have removed episode two of Guy Williams’ comedy series New Zealand Today from its streaming platform ThreeNow after being informed that there were serious allegations involving a person briefly ...15 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marcus Luigi Spiller, Associate Professor (Urban Planning) – honorary , University of Melbourne Labor’s Rudd-era National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) has come under attack just when it might be needed. The Abbott government stopped funding new deals under the scheme in 2014, ...15 hours ago
It’s Spinoff Youth Voting Week, where old people aren’t allowed to vote*. To celebrate, Tamsyn Matchett has written on a civics education programme giving teenagers a first sweet taste of local democracy before they’re legally permitted to vote for real.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff ...16 hours ago
Carla van Zon, former artistic director of the Auckland Arts Festival, issues a call for artists to make their voices heard in the battle against climate change.I am passionate about the arts and believe art can change lives, attitudes and even the world, individual by individual. I also believe that ...16 hours ago
An online data collection company says property owners should make onsite hazards publicly available, so outsiders are better protected. ...16 hours ago
Nerds, rejoice. The day of reckoning is finally upon us, with the release of the data from the 2018 census. So what are some of the interesting facts and figures?Forget about how badly this Census was botched. Forget about how there are concerns over how accurate the response data is, ...17 hours ago
A perfectly preserved set of Big Fresh Animatronic Fruit and Veges went on sale this week. Hayden Donnell delivers an exclusive update on their fate.Everyone remembers their first encounter with Junk & Disorderly’s set of Big Fresh Animatronic Fruit & Veges. There’s something overpowering about the experience. The Butter looms ...18 hours ago
In our latest local elections 2019 race briefing (read the rest here), Don Rowe looks at the two horse race to control the tourism capital of New Zealand.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.Where?Queenstown, ...18 hours ago
An essay and review by Russell Brown in response to a newly-published guide to the future: medical cannabis. ...20 hours ago
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.
The Government has included two small tax changes with its 32 page 'Economic Plan' that paints a big picture for economic and wellbeing transformation. ...21 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simone Casey, Research Associate, Future Social Service Institute, RMIT University In all Australia’s capital cities, average share-house rents in the inner suburbs (where jobs are concentrated) leave people without enough money for food and other basics, new research shows. This research, for ...22 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Lenten, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics and Finance, La Trobe University Tonight is the AFL’s annual night of nights, the red-carpet spectacular known as the Brownlow Medal vote count. The Brownlow is awarded to the season’s “fairest and best” player. But ...22 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gianluca Demartini, Associate professor, The University of Queensland The information we encounter online everyday can be misleading, incomplete or fabricated. Being exposed to “fake news” on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter can influence our thoughts and decisions. We’ve already ...22 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirrie J Ballard, Professor, Speech Pathology, University of Sydney Sam is a high school drama teacher — articulate, funny, smart. It’s an ordinary day and she isn’t feeling great, but pushes through. At morning tea, she spills coffee down her shirt; at ...22 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Penelope Carroll, Researcher in Public Health, Massey University Our research project explored the everyday lives of disabled young people, aged from 12 to 25 years, with mobility, vision and hearing impairments. We measured and asked them about factors that enabled or constrained ...22 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jagannath Adhikari, Sessional Lecturer, UNSW Reducing emissions from deforestation and farming is an urgent global priority if we want to control climate change. However, like many climate change problems, the solution is complicated. Cutting down forests to plant edible crops feeds some ...22 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margaret Kristin Merga, Senior Lecturer in Education, Edith Cowan University Reading aloud can help young children learn about new words and how to sound them. There’s great value too in providing opportunities for children to enjoy regular silent reading, which is sustained ...22 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lili Pâquet, Lecturer in Writing, University of New England In Dervla McTiernan’s book, The Scholar, published earlier this year, women are consistently used as the “fall guys” for men with high aspirations. Two young women are killed when they uncover fraud. Another ...22 hours ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Indonesia to send contaminated recycling back to NZ, LAWA report shows water quality dropping at more sites than not, and Spark Sport suffers harsh weekend.Shipping containers full of contaminated recycling could be shipped back to New Zealand, Anna Whyte from One News reported ...24 hours ago
The Chinese NZ Herald is in the spotlight for its operational arrangements China, which experts say amount to CCP state control. ...1 day ago
Luisa Avaiki may be ruing the missed opportunity, but her Warriors women still made history - twice - at Mt Smart Stadium. ...1 day ago
An Auckland mayoral candidate has reacted furiously to an advertising approach from Māori Television, which he says was a pay-for-play offer of coverage. Alex Braae reports. Craig Lord, a long-shot candidate for the Auckland mayoralty, has described an advertising offer from Māori Television as inappropriate, and close to “extortion.”In an email ...1 day ago
The Greens will not take votes from National; they will take them from Labour
National will not take votes from the Greens; they will take them from Labour
Labour will take votes from National by distancing itself from the Greens
Labour will take votes from the Greens by steering clear of any and all National policies
Therein lays the problem for Labour. Cosy up to the Greens and be seen as nutty or agree with some National policies and be seen as pragmatic. The Greens are poison no matter which way you look at it.
Thanks for letting all of us know that it’s the Greens that National are currently shitting their pants over. Also that National have so few routes left to forming a Government. Appreciated.
+1 smirk
Your dreaming the Melons are doing National a favour
They can only take Labour votes. Labour need to grow some balls and ditch the Melons
A vote for the Melons is a vote for massive job loses and real poverty in this country
Laughable comment Tacky-man, check out the Auckland City electorates held by National between elections 2008 and 2011, the Green Party sucked party votes out of these National held electorates by the truckload…
Check out the last couple of general elections in NZ
Yeah National won the last one by 75,000 votes.
is that including the party that voted against asset sales?
you know, the key policy that required the support of an [accused] electoral shenaniganiser
‘..mmm!!!!’..greens-slagging retro/nostalgia….!
..’melons’..!
..y’know what naki-man..?
..i reckon you have grey shoes..with velcro instead of laces..
..eh..?
..and pants with a crease that never ceases..?
..phillip ure..
😆
You don’t like hearing about the Green Taliban aye
You smoke to much weed and the heroin hasn’t helped either
Try jandals shorts and a tee shirt
You need a good steak and cheese sandwich your brain is fading
a pasted-down comb-over..?..there..?..naki-man..?
..a few strands steadfastedly holding-out..?
..old man nappies..?
..and i’ll put my fading/pot/smack-impaired brain (where did i put my keys..?..)..up against yr booze-addled empty-section..
..any time..
..eh..?
..and how many high-blood-pressure/diabetes/etc-meds are you knecking every day there..?..naki-man..
(and i don’t mean to be picky there..naki-man..but to make any sense..’to’ in that context is ‘too’..eh..?..
..and (ahem..!..punctuation..)..
..now..some may ask who am i to critique punctuation..
..but..you really should endeavour to …or – or even that sniveling-excuse for punctuation..the cowering-comma..
..’cos youse ain’t making any sense..eh..?
..are ‘jandal shorts’ a brand of jandals or shorts..?
..and..horror of horrors..
..in yr very first line..you miss-spelt ‘eh?’..
..eh..?
phillip ure..
“in yr very first line..you miss-spelt ‘eh?’..
..eh..?
phillip ure..”
As I have pointed out below…………….
Whoah! GoNaddy Man might even have a pair of sansa belt slacks to go with those grey velcro strap shoes!! (as part of the pants collection with the perfect crease)
http://beltlesspants.com/contents/media/z3204343pfr_01.jpg
And akshuly (to quote your guy) Go Naddy Man, way back in ’08 when you bought those shoes (they were still available then) I attended a pub meeting of Left Candidates which incidentally Labour weren’t invited to and Sue Bradford said to the crowd that she didn’t feel particularly offended by the watermelon tag and said ” I am after all red to my very core” or words to that effect.
And it “eh” not aye. Aye is the Scots word for yes and pronounced eye.
Stubbies shorts with those grey velcro shoes
STUNNING
Te Papa want some stubbie shorts for the collection. Perhaps they’ll add you too ‘Naki Man. in the endangered section
+1
NM
I get the melon reference to an extent; though, perhaps because it is such a straight copy from Australian RWNJ spin (akin to the hollow men/ brethren pamphlets), it doesn’t translate so well to a NZ context. Or perhaps it’s merely your ineptitude.
First of all you have to say what kind of melon you’re referencing. My preference would be honeydew; green on the outside with a delectable taste inside, nurturing the seeds of the future in it’s innermost heart.
Also; “Labour need to grow some balls and ditch the Melons”, seems to be implying that Green Party members have bigger (metaphorical) balls than Labour. This may be true; at least when it comes to opposing deep-sea oil, but hard to see how it helps your cause of discrediting the Greens.
However the metaphor you seem to be running with (having been passed a used sweaty baton, but then running off in the wrong direction) is that of the watermelon. Green exterior, red centre, black pips haphazardly arranged probably going for some racist dogwhistle, not sure what the white pith represents… In the hands of a proficient propagandist, that could almost work in Aotearoa – with you spinning this shit; there’ll be no sign of your relay team on the winner’s podium post-election.
And no understanding of the role of turnout …
+1
It serves the left for the GP to take Labour votes. Labour takes some middle votes and picks up much of the last election non-vote (assuming they keep left). This builds a very strong left, esp if Mana do well.
Sure ain’t Labour quaking at the knees for coalition partners.
Pop back to the Act leader conference, y’hear now.
Apparently there are ACT voters shifting their votes to the GP 😀
sure they’re not national voters who completely misunderstood MMP strategic voting? 🙂
and yr thoughts on ‘chem-trails’ col..?
phillip ure..
Steve James wins the award for Dumb comment of the day without a competition having to be held…
he deserves something for his efforts
Nope and nope. The Greens aren’t seen as nutty by anyone except the hard right National Party and it’s becoming obvious that agreeing with National isn’t pragmatic but delusional.
BTW, There was ~800k people who didn’t vote at the last election. If they vote then they’ll most likely vote for a left party. National are a minority party and always have been. The only way that they’ve been able to get power is due to the vagaries of FPP and/or people not voting.
Lol
tvone breakfast reach a new nadir with their coverage of the teina pora privy council story..
..they seize upon the superficialities/inanities of the story..
..clasp them to their bosoms..
..and then just repeat them..repeat them..
..who writes this fucken dross..?
..and who allows this fucken dross to go to air..?
..that guy tims’ follow-up.. roundup of old/dated internet-clips..
..is dostoevsky vs. supermarket-giveaway in comparison..
..whoar..!
(sample dialogue..in ‘live-cross’..to reporter..standing somewhere/anywhere..)
‘when will he wash his hair?’-‘rawdy’..sez:
“..where exactly will the hearing be held?”
..reporter:
..’i dunno rawdy..in a room in london’….
..phillip ure..
Phil U, it’s self inflicted torture mate. I wouldn’t waste my time watching these highly paid twits.
@phil.j..
i dunno…it’s descended into black-farce..eh..?
..half the time i am laughing my tits off at them..
..so many sharks have done so many jumps..they are now jumping thru hoops..and smiling for the camera..eh..?
..watching the exquisite car-crash that is the (non)-relationship between the co-comperes..
..(‘that-was-an-awkward-moment!) on steroids…that is..
..watching ‘rawdy’..like a guppy out of water..
..serially opening his mouth..gasping/grasping for ideas/thoughts/words..and finding none..
..the badly-fumbled cross-overs..
..their steadfast march onwards as the banner-carriers for that (oh! so 2013!) lacquered-helmet/dirty-hair-look..(and good on them..!..eh..?..someone has to..)
..the famous-netballer(i think?)/sports-person doing business-news..
..the words-from-the-mount from aged-(some say ‘addled’) sage/golf-expert/expert-on-everything peter williams..
..it just goes on and on..giving and giving..
..when yr weather-guy paddling over the harbour on a paddle-board while reading the weather..
(wot..!..no rubber-ball balanced on nose..?..for shame..!..for shame..!)
..when that paddle-board-exercise is the nearest the whole show gets to ‘serious’..?
..whoar..!
..eh..?
..i keep watching..thinking..can it get worse..?
..and yes..dear readers..yes it does..
..phillip ure..
Danish Government sells out renewable power assets to Goldman Sachs over objections of 2/3 of citizens
MPs working for the banksters.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-30/socialists-furious-denmark-lets-goldman-have-dong
As I understand it, the company needs to reduce debt. It also needs capital for planned oil and gas exploration. The Danish government sell down is to 60%, so it maintains control.
It is a non story. What would your advice be on the debt restructuring? No idea. Yeah thats what I thought.
And what the hell is a “bankster”? Do you mean banks?
It’s a government and thus can print the money.
BS and for the exact same reason that selling 49% takes control of our assets away from us – the majority owner can’t do anything that lowers the minorities profits.
You’re too stuck in your ideology to see reality.
S
Bankster; a fraudster who uses financial systems to disguise their theft. Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfein is a prime example. Another example is the collusion with Greek MPs around the time of the Athens Olympics via credit default swaps leading to their current economic woes.
But you’ll know all this already, and I’m just wasting my time attempting to inform one who is so determinedly ignorant about everything.
According to you, a government voting against the express wishes of its own citizens is a “non-story”?
What are you, some kind of corporate apologist?
To me it’s a blatant betrayal of the people.
Easy mate, issue power bonds to the people who would gladly have supported their own sovereign industries.
You really are a dick
That photo of Obama at Mandela’s funeral now has 7 photos in the sequence leading to the switch in seating and boy when the wife of the President looks like that, then you MOVE. Will try to forward the email I received to the CONTRIBUTE section.
Would love the link to those photos. According to many insiders Obama and wife are now sleeping in separate rooms. 😆
Isn’t that standard practice for all occupants of the White House?
Rather disappointingly the answer is apparently yes.
The only one who didn’t maintain a separate bedroom, at least in the last hundred years was Gerald Ford.
The Bartlet’s shared a room. Which has about as much relevancy as the Obamas’ sleeping arrangements.
Well… yes and no.
In France the first “partner” was unceremoniously dumped after the relationship with the French President ended because she was living of the taxpayers wallet and in France the taxpayer still has something to say.
Previous French presidents were bonking all over the place of course but they did so out of their own pocket and their wives did not, like Michelle Obama, command ridiculous entourages on the tax payers dime.
American presidents such as JFK were also known for having a very loosely zipped zipper but the women involved also did not claim tax payers expenses and the first wives gain did not command Michelle’s royal court or her traveling expenses for that matter.
As a tax payer I would like to be kept abreast of those we pay and the people being financially dependent on them and while I don’t need to know the intimate details such as they want to know from us, if it is OK to spy on tetraplegic people on benefits as to whether they have a live in companion and chuck them out of their home if they lie about it, it’s OK to demand the same of the richest of us who get paid from our hard earned money as far as I am concerned.
Still not sure how whether they sleep in the same room or not has any bearing on that. Sleeping in separate rooms is not necessarily a sign of a broken marriage. And even if their marriage doesn’t fit your idea of what a proper marriage should be, surely the issue is whether Michelle Obama is doing a good job or not. Or are you saying that she has to be having sex with her husband to do that?
She may well be rorting the US taxpayer, but are you saying that as long as the marriage is ‘good’ that that is ok?
Some it seems are more equal then others eh? That poor tetraplegic woman was hauled to every front page because she had dared to keep from us that maybe she had a person sharing what can’t have been fun for her and not a peep from you but when I dare to ask questions about the behavior of the people we have elected to do a job for us wow!!!!! you can’t do that! Well actually yes I can and you should too.
so because Housing NZ is [possibly] being dickish, we should make snide innuendo about the Obama’s sex life?
That’s very special.
Ev, I’m not saying don’t ask questions about Michelle Obama. By all means question how much money she gets and what she does with it. I just don’t know why you think that where she sleeps has anything to do with that. You still haven’t explained.
Great to see you buying into the racist TeaBagger attacks on Michelle Obama, that uppity black who has ideas above her station. “As a taxpayer”..what taxes do you pay in the US and A?
What about Metiria Turei and her fancy jacket? Any comment on that?
🙄 Sorry to disappoint you M,
I’m an equal opportunity politician hater and think that the whole upper echelon of global politicians and their hangers on is long overdue for a nice Guillotine party. The only exception so far, as far as I am concerned, is Hone Harawira whom I recently met and had the honor to shake hands with after an excellent impromptu speech on our Raglan Whale bay shores. He is my hero, black ass and all!
Did you count your fingers after the hand shake?
He is still a politician you know and I have always thought the only safe thing to do is to put on heavy gauntlets before shaking hands with any of them.
Funny you should say that but I’m sure you’re not saying that because he’s Maori and, dare I say it, of a darker skin than your pasty Pakeha, university subsidized, skin. That would not be you at all!
1. And what makes you think that I have “pasty pakeha” skin?
2. You noticed that I did say “any of them”, I suppose?
It doesn’t have a damn thing to do with him being Maori.
Had to look up the controversy about Metiria Turei and her fancy jacket. I don’ t see what I would have to say about her clothes. She is perfectly free to wear whatever clothes she wants. I don’t understand what all the fuss is about and perhaps her opponents are baiting her and that of course would be very easy to do. All they have to do is insinuate that she is spending money on clothes which as a black greeny she shouldn’t and if she reacts… BOOM!
Michelle on the other hand pretends to be a hands on greeny with and for the people while she and her husband cater only for the rich and might I add WHITE bankers like good little slaves, while raking in the perks of the job much, by the way, George W Bush another stooge for the WHITE bankers cartel, did when he was in office. Last time I looked he was also WHITE.
Mind you his wife didn’t gallivant off to exotic places on her own for a bit of a girls thang travellng on Airforce one. So hmm…..
Passed it on as an email because that is how I came to see it. Up to the Editor now.
Xox
Phil u. Thanks for your review. Breakfast to replace Seven Sharp @7 PM? Haha. Still switching TV off, watching DVD’S.
Twitter feed for the day:
Judith Collins: I’m back
Grant Robertson: Thought so, I did feel a chill in the air
Judith Collins: That, dear Grant, is fear running up and down your spine
Ain’t she good at it.
Shes wonderful 🙂
The Replicant series 6 is the pinnacle of robotics. Shame the Collins model still can’t pass a standard void/conf test though…
Collins is a wonderful example of an anemic, pale-faced subterranean cave dwelling cellulite infested lard ass insensitive burst sausage 😀
And Tolley is just a dried prune desperately in need of hydration, not a kaleidoscopic nana frock
I didn’t realise how shallow you are, I truly feel bad for you.
You and your old ducks wanna get nasty then the shit should be returned with bells on.
lol
why didn’t robertson go all ad-hom..?
..and say:..
..’no..that ‘chill’ is from the fumes from the petro-chemical-mixes/concotions cementing yr helmet-head hair-do in place’..
..eh..?..
(btw..i am available as a gun-for-hire for people seeking quick/instant authorship of twit-responses..eh..?..
..and very reasonable fees are charged for this v.fast-turnaround-service..
..y’know..?..for when you are searching for that devastating-riposte..?..and it just won’t come..?
..who d’ya call..?
..ya call phil..!
..(contact-details @whoar.co.nz..)
phillip ure..
Because Labour are running scared:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/john-armstrong-on-politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502865&objectid=11193367
” If things are going as badly wrong in New Zealand as Cunliffe claims, why are Key and National still so popular?”
because of the biased drivel espoused by sycophantic parasites like John Armstrong and the cabal of press release parrots we call mainstream journalism ?
just a wild guess
Hope that makes you feel better because it still doesn’t change National being popular
and ballistic forensics in a murder case don’t stop people still being dead but it helps convict those responsible
David Bain would disagree
touché, mon aime 🙂
You start off saying reasonably truthful things phil.
Those like “i am available” and “quick authorship”
Then you drift off into fantasyland with things like.
“devastating-riposte”
@ alwyn..
..nah..!..got nothing..
(.i am doing rawdon christie impersonations here..mouth-action and all..)
yr point..q.e.d..i guess..?
phillip ure..
Can my comment come off moderation – see 12.16pm no number. (I’ve hung this on yours phillip u – thanks for the seat.)
Further to the above about moderation. I have put comment again, realised my error in using the t. word and reshaped the mud ball. So I’m happy for you to wipe this one if you wish plus these other two hangers on about it. Won’t do it again, promise!
Who is duty right wing troll for today? Steve James?
(freedom’s tribute at 1 5 1 is very tasteful)
Naki Man giving his version of reasoned analysis?
srylands Still waiting to come into his estate somewhere?
Robertson should not engage with her on non policy matters.
Engaging in belt-way tittle tattle reinforces the negative view of Robertson as a Beehivecentric pol and does not help the Party.
I have no interest in becoming a member of the Judith Collins CBT club, thank you very much. She is not wonderful at all and should be trying to learn how to do her job, not causing priapism in the likes of Chris73.
What’s “CBT”? Do I want to know?
@ cbt..it’s an esoteric s& m practice..long favoured by tories..
..i understand umbrellas have a role to play..
..phillip ure..
p.u.
Is CBT sort of political fencing?
Is there a prize for getting the right answer?
Will someone play my choice of the Greatest Song of All Time?
You probably don’t want to know. It’s something Tories seem to like. Not for our side of the divide at all.
And she’s proud of that. What a piece of shit she is.
Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson has reacted with renewed anger with news having ‘leaked’ that HousingNZ is negotiating to sell the Gordon Wilson housing complex which housed 100+ low income tenants to Victoria University,
Located within walking distance of the Uni the Gordon Wilson apartments were closed earlier this year because of what many saw as minor safety concerns which should have taken mere months to remedy and i commented at the time of the closure that ‘the plan’ was to flick the apartments off on the cheap to the University,
There are two major concerns here, one being while there are 100’s of people on the HousingNZ waiting list all over New Zealand the HousingNZ estate is being ransacked by this Government with no replacements in sight anywhere which simply puts more demand on the housing ‘market’ to provide what is in most cases barely affordable rental accommodation which also pushes demand and prices up in the private housing market,
The second concern, is the wholesale sell-off of the HousingNZ estate an Asset Sale as large, if not larger than the sell off of the Electricity Generators???,
My view is Yes, with the HousingNZ estate valued at some 50 billion dollars and Un-Housing Minister Nick Smith and HousingNZ CEO Sowry,(a National Party Puppet),making statements ”My plan is for HousingNZ to supply 20% less of social housing in the future”, and, ”If a HousingNZ property is worth 700,000 and is empty it will be sold”, you don’t have to be a mathematical genius to work out how much of the estate will be flicked off to private interests,
As HousingNZ have shown no intention of building any replacement stock for what has already been sold,(some 500 homes last year), it is becoming obvious that it is not that organization which is receiving the monies from this mass sell off of social housing, just where is the money going,
My view is that such monies are in fact being use by Slippery’s National Government in it’s efforts to declare a budget surplus and the bigger the hole in their projected finances the more of the States social housing stock they will sell…
Well bad12, looks like SSLands will have to share that Idiot of the Day trophy with Steve James (freedom’s image above) after his reply to you at 11. (9.59am)
Lolz Rosie, i just came back to ‘Open Mike’ and as it’s grown since this morning i read it from the bottom and got to SSlands really dumb comment befor yours,
Thought to myself ”damn i have already given away an award for dumbest comment of the day”, which means your spot on, the ‘Two Ronnies’ can share the award and i am really sure market forces will sort out the division of it…
I have to put a plug in for chris73 – he’s really trying hard and in some ways he has at least caught up with the other two and he really is giving it a good go…
When he starts waxing lyrical about collins I get the distinct impression that his fanfic blog is called “Fifty Shades of Blue”.
Yep his skinsuit is slipping, maybe it’s “Fifty shades of moo”
ha
Shes a marvelous women
Lolz Marty, you do that well, sorry tho i am outta awards for the day….
c’mon..!
..ol’ polyester-pants naki-man has to be in with a chance..?
..surely..?
..phillip ure..
Recently I rediscovered Backlight a series of Dutch public service TV documentaries. The series which is still being made today takes on subjects such as banking and the hideous consequences of an out of control banking system on the global economy amongst others.
Here is the first installment of a two part series on the mindset of your average investment banker/trader and with John Key and his asset selling, NZ economy trashing, privatizing ways in mind I thought I’d provide the link here. (For subtitling of the few Dutch spoken parts turn the captions settings to on)
I wouldn’t worry. The complex is ugly. VUW can fix it up for student accommodation.
As I understand it HousingNZ is simply trying to lift the value they deliver by adjusting their housing stock to better meet the needs of prospectuve clients. It doesn’t matter who owns the house. The market wil sort out any issues anyway.
I think you should disclose you live in a State house. That colours your judgements.
Maybe everyone should disclose where they live, all the time. I’ll give you a hand:
Source: /buy-meridian-shares-mrp/#comment-687282
S
I think you should disclose you live in Australia. That colours your judgements.
[Edit] Looks like Hayden beat me to the button (which he hit right on).
I think srylands should disclose that they don’t live in a State house. That colours their judgement.
Hi srylands – lol
Ah, the blind faith of the zealot.
“The market wil sort out any issues anyway.”
You truly are an ideological muppet aren’t you..
Muppet – who? You tguy? You have yourself chosen one for your gravatar or whatever.
And remember it takes an ideological muppet, to recognise another.
As Johnny Cash and Pete Seeger sang, It Takes a Worried Man – to really see who’s who.
(Listen on the links we put up for Pete Seeger death if you know who he was. Now he knew what ideological was.)
Interesting view GW. I ordinarily agree with a lot of what you say but you seem to have got a bit tangential on this one.
Public debate is about to heat up in Dunedin, come along & take a stand:
“Protesters are vowing to ”peacefully confront” Anadarko’s drill ship when it arrives off Otago’s coast, but another seismic survey vessel working for oil giant Shell has already slipped into the area… The survey ship’s arrival came as Anadarko’s drill ship, [ig]Noble Bob Douglas, was due to begin drilling a test well 60km off the Otago Peninsula coast, at the bottom of the Canterbury Basin, next month. ”
Veteran protester Henk Haazen, on board his sailing ship SV Tiama, was due in Dunedin this morning to discuss plans with [Oil Free Otago]… former anti-nuclear protester, was also involved in protests against Petrobras’ deep-sea oil drilling plans off the North Island’s East Coast, in 2010, and more recently drilling by Anadarko off Raglan”
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/289952/protests-planned-against-drill-ship
Prostituting Otago Oil’s response has been typically corporate from such a bought&sold lobby group:
“City councillor Andrew Whiley [Coyote], a vocal supporter of exploratory drilling off the Otago coast, was yesterday named as the spokesman for Pro Gas Otago. The supporters’ group was launched last month as Pro Oil and Gas Otago, but announced a ”restructure” yesterday.”
Hilary Calvert was the only person I ranked lower on last year’s STV councillor election than that oil-sands-land “golf professional”.
I have been looking at the drilling question and its validity in New Zealand.
I came across the following comment.
The Gorgon project got under way in 2009. It is Australia’s largest ever natural resource investment and one of the biggest oil and gas projects in the world. Gorgon’s total gas reserves amount to 40 trillion cubic feet. …It is believed it will last for 40 years and yield a total sales revenue of US$500 billion.
Still – makes you think what may be available after test drilling.
PapaMike
Will Oz then want to trade us for water, barrel for barrel. Still – it makes you think. They wouldn’t bother, they would just buy up the country, own the land, and the water they could utilise at will except for troublesome negotiations over long-term water licences the previous Free NZ Gummint had set up.
In yesterday’s parliamentary Q and A, I found this exchange and especially Mr Winston Peters’ point of order at the end very amusing :
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. The difficulty I have is that the member Mr Brownlee has not actually raised any new points at all. He has just asked me to reflect on the matter. I am happy to reflect on the matter and I will come back to not only Mr Brownlee but also to the House, if that is so required.
Hon David Parker: Speaking to that point, how could the Speaker be willing to reconsider the matter without being willing to consider the Opposition’s view on that? There are points to be made here, arising out of the Leader of the House’s submission to you, that I think are germane and I think I should have the opportunity to do that.
Mr SPEAKER: If the member can succinctly put his point of view, I am happy to hear it.
Hon David Parker: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The problem with the Leader of the House’s position, set out in his submission to you, is that it is within the right of the Opposition not to have confidence in the Government and Ministers, as we do in respect of motions such as the motion on the Prime Minister’s statement. That same ruling applies to questions such as Mr Mallard’s question, and therefore your original ruling is correct and Mr Brownlee is incorrect.
Mr SPEAKER: I will hear from the Rt Hon Winston Peters.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: In consideration of the request by Mr Brownlee, in your further consideration, as he has invited you to undergo, do you want to know the date, the time, and the room where the leak took place?
Mr SPEAKER: And the member should go back to his office and practise raising relevant points of order.
——
That was Q # 11.
Here is the video :
http://inthehouse.co.nz/node/22769
Yes Clemgeopin. An interesting set of exchanges. And the Winston point at the end capped the whole issue of who did the leaking and it is still deeply suspicious and must be a concern for the PM.
Serialiarandfraudster
Does he work for Crosby Textor or thr Center for Idependent Studies or both.
Some good news, because each little step towards sanity makes the journey ever shorter http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2014/shell-ices-plans-to-drill-in-america-s-arctic-sea
How appropeeit to see DonKeyotee at the dunny paper factory on teevee last night. He is full of shit so I hope they gave him plenty of free samples.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9670970/Collins-jumps-in-racist-clothes-fight
– “Oh my goodness, isn’t she a sensitive wee sausage?”
Judith Collins knows just how to cut someone off at the knees and make them look petty.
Zip it sweety
Bennets good but Judith Collins is in a class of her own which is why I don’t want her to be the next leader of National.
In all honesty, I no longer understand what is going on here. Obviously (from yesterday’s Open Mike), my viewpoint of the situation aligns with Metiria Turei’s.
However, if one were to characterize this as a mud fight, why the hell is Collins now jumping in? No matter what she said, she was going to come away muddy…
Well you might be able to tell me how Tolleys comment could be considered racist, no one else has bothered to explain.
I think it wasn’t racist and Tureis playing the race card.
And whys Collins jumping in? Because its teamwork and because she can I suppose…a guy wouldn’t want to jump into this one.
Turei explained it right at the outset you numpty
Yes but Tureis playing the race card and looking for sympathy
🙄
“no one else has bothered to explain.”
“Turei explained it”
“Yes but Tureis playing the race card and looking for sympathy”
You’re an idiot
Ok then Tolley explained why it wasn’t racist so they’ve each cancelled each other out and neither of them would have ulterior motives
you’re an idiot
Why? People here seem to be accepting its a racist comment simply because Turei says it is
Thats idiotic (or lazy)
you’re an idiot because you’ve reduced your assessment of the question to how many people explain in favour one way or the other, rather than looking at the quality of those explanations.
because you’ve been bleating on how nobody has explained it, McFlock showed that Turei had, and you agreed! So your whole line is exposed for the idiocy it always was. But still you’ll argue like a fool…
Better then being lazy. Let me break down the lefts side in all this: I don’t like Anne Tolley, Turei says Tolley said something racist there Tolley did say something racist.
you’re an idiot.
And the latest of the many reasons for this assessment is because your summary of “the lefts side” demonstrates just how oblivious you are to the slightly more complex nuances of comments like this.
i don’t think it was a racist attack on turei..
..i see it more as the tories trying to portray turei to her voter-base as a compromised sell-out..
..this is an old-skool tory political-tactic..
..and turei needs to toughen-up..
..the nats see attacking the greens as a top-priority this election-year..
..so she is facing a year of this..
..would turei prefer the greens go back to being studiously ignored..
..(and as an aside..i wonder if turei reckons my go’s at her over/for her (oh! so green..!..) penchant of hanging around bbq’s..while wrapped in dead-animal skins..
..i wonder if she construes those critiques as ‘racist’..?..)
..and are my piss-takes of kate willamsons’ wholehearted support for the nz collar-manufacturing industry..
..are they somehow ‘racist’..?
phillip ure..
This is a great laugh, anyone wanting to know the genesis of the fight between Tolley and Metiria only need cast their minds back to a RadioNZ National pre-election debate in 2011 where tired of Tolley’s puerile interjections while She was trying to make Her point Mets let go a blast at Tolley that resembled nicely many of the power tools i have working at full capacity,
That shut Tolley’s mouth for the remainder of the debate and hardened Slippery the Prime Minister’s resolve to give Tolley the kick from the education portfolio, since then Tolley, septic at the best of times, has had a huge hate on for Metiria which dwarfs the usual Tory hate for the Green Party by a country mile,
Metiria is simply playing Tolley like a fish, Collins a slow swimmer has just decided to make it a ‘school’ and anyone thinking that Metiria Turei need ‘harden up’ is deluded,
The longer Metiria can make Tolley and now Collins spit venom the better, ‘wing-nuts’ everywhere are of course going to leap about with glee in the belief that Tolley/Collins are giving Mets a serve, Party members like myself are going to watch this quietly laughing because we know that young born to rule National Party voters with a strong ecological/conservationist leaning are going to hear this vicious rubbish being spewed by Tolley/Collins and quietly think to themselves,like they did in droves last election, yeah why not follow my heart and give the Green Party a vote…
Lolz, as an afterthought all the Green Party MP’s should attend the Chamber on the next sitting day of the Parliament dressed in suits made of sack-cloth and spend question time quizzing Tolley on the appropriateness of their attire…
Morgan Godfery did bother to explain:
bad12:
That would be just so hilarious. I could see it bringing in a lot of young voters for the Greens too.
Judes is jumping in because she’s good at this sort of catfight.
They remind me of the Nat. Party equivalent of those vicious teenage girls who hang around waiting for some ‘normal’ teenager to wander by and then beat them up. The kids only no one way to bully and demean and that is with their fists. Bennett, Tolley and Collins can use the power of their political office to do the same thing without using fists.
Jacinda Ardern better watch out because when jealousy is involved it can get really nasty.
It’s petty schoolgirl stuff and will be seen as such. Metiria’s not going to convince anyone it’s racism. The boys in parliament do the same sort of thing in their own way. We’ve been tolerating such childish behaviour from MPs for so long now it’s hardly a surprise the girls have at last descended to cattiness about clothes.
Metiria has already convinced me that it’s part of a well orchestrated litany of racist attacks undertaken by the Tories against herself and Hone Harawira. It is not an isolated event. The pattern has been established.
Fair enough. I thought the same thing when those UK journos all went bananas when Helen Clark wore a pants suit to meet the quoon. Racist blighters I thought.
jeepers girl – read your comms before submitting. It’s:
the kids only know one way to bully….
Anne
We knew what you meant and that you would know that we would know and there was no way we could get the wrong message.
😀
Pedantic me.
Quite right Anne – Collins is like every girl’s school bully, demeaning personal comments to prevent anyone criticising her in-crowd. OTOH I don’t think that comment will have made her any new friends
No c73
It makes Collins look petty and shallow. Also Ann Tolley. We already know that. And we are not impressed. But apparently you are. You perhaps are drawn to the aggressive people that say the things you would never dare.
You’re right, as a guy I don’t make comments on what women are wearing unless its positive.
The Death Of Expertise
Don’t agree with everything he’s said there (he’s brought up the BS about people being anonymous) but he does make a few good points such as the above quote and his paragraph on the Dunning-Kruger Effect.. That said he does seem to dismiss the self-taught as a matter of course. He seems to think that the only way to learn is through formal education.
Some of the most qualified from some of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions are the exact same people who have led western nations to the fucked up place they’re at today. So not a great advertisement.
Sounds like this school board needs to go down to the library and check out “The Sneetches”:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11194809
Ann Tolley making much of being an electorate MP. Metiria Turei is a list MP, no doubt a sore point with a reactionary, revisionist, backward NACT MP. She doesn’t like the extra M before MP. NACTs still get away with lots that lot, but they want it all, and it rubs that people can get to Parliament on a list position. Always NACTs are trying to pull rank for their uppity and force majeure ways eh!
Might I not be able to turn to stuff to get the Dom Post’s version of the ‘clothes joust’ when they go behind a firewall? That will be so sad – being shut out of the important news they carry.
I find they are getting very slow to load at stuff, too much stuff, and not enough substance perhaps.
Marlborough Express reported and also had this –
>It is not the first time National MPs have attacked Turei’s choice of clothing. Justice Minister Judith Collins said last year on Twitter that a speech by Turei was “vile, wrong and ugly, just like her jacket today”.
I hope she’s telling Steven Joyce, Hekia Parata, Chris Finlayson and Tim Groser to fuck right off as well.
Hayden
Aren’t they her mates? I take it you mean Judith Collins or Anatolldyah? You don’t stick your fingers in your own side’s eyeballs in the scrum. Waddarrryah.
I mean Anne Tolley, referring to list MPs as having “no constituents”.
H.
Right, I mean left. I can’t tell the difference between the NACT females mentioned, to tell the truth they all seem so similar in some ways, that is their superiority and meanness. I know who is Paula Bennett because she is brown and fat and Maori, but the others seem to be blonde and skinny, and white plastic with a touch of lippie and rouge, though Tolley does have brown hair in the news photo though I thought she was blonde. (And she looked as if she had an expensive outfit on in the news photo too. Perhaps one of the women’s mags, or perhaps a press gallery sartorial assessor, could give us an off-the-cuff valuation).
I suppose I have achieved racism, sexism, fatism, and shallowism in the above. I’m (not very) sorry.
” I know who is Paula Bennett because she is brown and fat and Maori”
Yep I find that offensive. Are you alright?
Does that describe you marty mars? Be proud of who you are girl. There is nothing derogatory in those words unless you think it. Has that occurred to you ever.
I’m really only one of those but thanks for your platitude. I guess i just can think of so many descriptors for paula bennett that don’t relate to her colour, weight or cultural background, yet convey my dislike and contempt for her – but you know i’d have to burn some very small amount of brain calories to come up with them, and it does take a teeny, tiny, little effort so i can understand why some can’t be bothered.
Who is duty right wing lurker-under-the-bridge for today? Steve James?
(freedom’s tribute at 1 5 1 is very tasteful)
Naki Man giving his version of reasoned analysis?
srylands Still waiting to come into his estate somewhere?
(Realised why I was in moderation. I had used the t. word.)
I just heard another worried report about overfishing of tuna by Chinese funded boats by specialist reporter Michael Field.
Something about where they used to be able to catch 22, they are now catching 5.
And this is following a long period of decline. I helped one of my sons to do a school project on tuna catches and they were noting the devastating decline in the 1980’s. Woe is me. All the learning that I’ve and they have done, added to all the learning crammed into all the heads up to high levels, above the eyeballs, has not been sufficient to stand firm against the deterioration of our own persons, our countries and our planet. Fu.k – F..k – F..k – F..k – F..k – F..k — F..
Let’s be grateful that advanced learning has been put to good use by the corporate machine in order to fish, mine, exploit far more efficiently and profitably.
CV
Well that’s very nice. And it shows how modern and advanced we are. We’re up with the technology and can match anyone in the world. We’re just amazing. And I am sure all those
industries you mentioned will do everything in the most modern way. (They have given up the idea of blasting holes using nuclear power now haven’t they. That worried me a bit, but that was a while ago. I am sure we have moved on to better things now.)
Yes I know that these young men and women too, these days, use all that wonderful expertise they learned in university. And they will do it well and cleanly. Fisher and Paykel exported new models of dishwashers to the USA did you know that? Some of the young people come and stay with me you know, and they always hang up their towels after showers, and help with the dishes as I haven’t bothered with a dishwasher myself. Such nice young people and doing so well for themselves too.
Just having a brain storm CV being Mrs Houswoman at home blathering on. It’s about the level of many older and comfortably off in our society.
Hi Warbly. I’ve been watching a series about the Indian Ocean which has been QI. The narrator has been visiting East African countries so far on his journeys. One common theme has been the effect of commercial fishing on local indigenous communities. The people of the Maldives for example can only get a few tiddly fish via their traditional methods, and only enough to feed themselves a meagre amount and not enough to sell and make money from, as they had been previously doing for generations The culprits are the massive factory boats that scoop up everything in the ocean. There is no regulation and stock are in a sharp decline.
Same story in the Atlantic Ocean on a series about the British Atlantic coastline It was a repeat scenario off the coast of Ireland (crap or was it Scotland? It was a few weeks ago) Although it wasn’t a factory boat, a local had purchased a huge trawler, crewed it with (no doubt underpaid) Ukrainians and once again phenomenal amounts of fish were being taken, that severely disadvantaged traditional fisher people.
What they were doing was so depressing and made it look like we have at least given some thought to how our commercial fishing is regulated, which really is saying something!
Yeah Rosie
I used to think we did good with the quotas . But truth to tell they were just a stop gap measure to get our breath until we ploughed on to a more robust fishing policy which required some deep breaths and chest thumping by an intelligent, determined government to look after our assets present and future.
But, the great untold exploration story – a group was sent out to look for the i,d, gummint, and they still haven’t come back. We have had to make do with the ones that we have managed to scrape up. The news is that the past exploratory group perished and another one is being formed to go and search for the former one. It’s a slow process, but there are hopes that it will have formed, reconnoitred, and be returning a full report before the end of 2014.
So let’s hold hands Rosie and keep hoping for something to happen. You might let me know if there is something I should be doing, and vice versa if you like. Cheers.
Yes, well we’ve really been mucking about for ages re caring for our fish stocks and have been slow to implement new measures to reduce harm in the marine environment. For instance those new types of nets that allow the little tiddlers out so only the fully grown catch can remain in the net won’t be phased in until 2016. I recall the gummit you mention above wanted to give the industry a chance to get its shit together.
Please bear in mind I am dredging this from my increasingly dimming memory so this may not be entirely accurate, but it will be along those compromised routes.
Anywaaay, speaking of hope, we can only hope the Greens get enough influence in the next gummint to improve the sustainability of our fishing industry via better regulation.
I would be the last person to let you know what you should be doing, especially as I have taken up eating fish in recent years and have relinquished my vego status of 30 years. I am now part of the problem. What I do do is eat farmed salmon from a sustainable source (Aoraki brand) and not that shitty equivalent to battery farmed salmon (Regal brand) from Marlborough. I don’t eat tinned tuna but there are a few cans in the emergency kit for the cat in case of natural disaster. Occasionally I eat fresh white fish caught from the cook strait close to home but it’s not line caught. You can only get that in fancy restaurants or unless you know a fisher person
I still buy tins of tuna that Sealord cans, and use occasionally. But I am always slightly guilty about it. Perhaps the French could talk to the Chinese and ask them to stop putting out fishing boats for tuna. They used to be in Indo-China so maybe they still have some diplomatic cred. I wonder if the UN has discussed the problem of sustainability of the tuna fishery with them. Perhaps they have a fishy roving ambassador who could try to break up this self-satisfied little fiefdom of fishy pirates. I understand they are wedged into islands like Mauritius very deeply and profitably.
Perhaps we should go out saving tuna instead of whales. We could offer the Japanese all the whales that get washed up on our beaches each season instead. Maori could take a few ceremonial jawbones and other parts. And we could ask them to publish their scientific findings from all the years back. They must be mounting up now, and the world is waiting for the useful data and findings. Do we believe that there is any? Or is it some deeply connected counteraction of the dignity of Japan affected by the shock of defeat in WW2? When the leaders keep going to that shrine that upsets the Chinese, are they thumbing their nose at the world,. and retaining their whale eating habits is a comfort to them?
I think I am getting tired and depressed. This isn’t cheering you up either Rosie. So I’ll stop and do some useful gardening tomorrow.
Lol, I like your idea’s. And yes, what about about all that “scientific data” on whales?
Gardening is useful and uplifting. Enjoy your day 🙂
The NZ Conservatives have expressed admiration for the UK Independence Party. Who are UKIP and to what extent do they parallel Colin Craig and his faithful?
“UKIP: Colin’s Cousins???”
http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/31/printer_14528.php
This is a shocker – why shame the kids – it is just cruel.
“Whangaparaoa Primary School gave out the “2014 Donation Paid” tags upon payment of the (voluntary) donation.”
and this is a classic
“Mr Dean said the school recognised that some families couldn’t afford to pay a donation.
“It was always the intention that if any such families felt that they wanted a tag for any reason, they could confidentially contact anyone at the school and receive one, no questions asked.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11194809
I’m bloody pleased we democratically homeschool our son.
Bet the many Tories on the Board of Trustees thought this was just fine.
Anything they can do…
Up to 40 students at a Utah elementary school watched as their lunches were taken and thrown away on Tuesday because their parents owed money to the school, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/school_lunches_thrown_away_debt
This whole “donation” thing has become a farce. This is yet another example. Good policy would be to introduce school fees on a sliding scale depending on school decile.
Defacto fee regimes lead to the crap we see with this school.
Primary and secondary education in NZ should be completely free.
And foreigners who have never lived in NZ and never intend to live here like yourself should butt out.
Good policy is to adequately fund education so extorted “donations” are not needed.
How can they call that a donation??
‘Contact the school ” So an underpaid and overworked group of parents have to spend some of their precious time discussing their poverty with a group of people who have absolutely no right to have this information and who make these social rules to disadvantage them.
There is no obligation to pay and therefore no obligation to justify the non payment to a group of people who set themselves in judgement over them. Tossers.
” So an underpaid and overworked group of parents have to spend some of their precious time discussing their poverty with a group of people ”
The people who are tossers are the ones who clearly can pay and won’t on some principle that education should be “free”. They make their kids look like idiots and aggravate other parents. Stop bludging and pay up.
The people who are tossers are the ones who clearly can pay and won’t on some principle that education should be “free”.
A principle somewhat undermined by these same tossers usually taking advantage of every method going to weasel out of paying the taxes that fund this “free” education.
Interesting – this ‘comment’ is currently (unusually) being ‘moderated’ on Kiwiblog!
Apologise in advance for the length – but I’m sure some of the more independently-minded will appreciate the quality? (As it were …..;)
_____________________________________________________________________________
[deleted]
link: http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz/?p=250
_____________________________________________________________________________
In the interest of informed public debate on this issue – because so much of it is NOT.
Penny Bright
[lprent: Nothing unusual about it. It’d get moderated on any site for its length. I was thinking about moderating it out myself. And did so after I discovered you now have a website of your
Have you ever tried making your views known in “short” come-ons to your own site rather than at “length” on ours ]
Right wing wet dream:
“People who feel they don’t have enough money to meet their daily needs are also less likely to vote,” Walker said
That looks very interesting.
Scoop put up a link to the actual report
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/Well-being/civic-human-rights/non-voters-2008-2011-gen-elections.aspx
Graph, categories for not voting, 2008 and 2011 general elections.
The main reason people gave for not voting in the 2011 General Election was they ‘didn’t get round to it, forgot or were not interested’ to vote. This accounted for 21 percent of the non-voters (and is included in the ‘disengaged’ category). Another 7.1 percent of the non-voters said they did not think their vote would have made a difference. This is a big increase from 3.9 percent in the 2008 election.
Ten percent of non-voters were ‘overseas or away on the election day’. This was the most frequently selected reason in the ‘perceived barriers’ category.
Over 12 percent of non-voters said they did not register for the 2011 election, which equates to just over 2 percent of the total population aged 18 years and over. About 15 percent of non-voters cited ‘other’ reasons for not voting in the 2011 election, including not being eligible because of their visa status, or for religious reasons.
Ta Weka. I really should (and will) spend more time sourcing news from Scoop rather than the stuffed and herald sites.
No worries. I was so annoyed with the idiocy of the Stuff article that I tracked it down. Turns out the Stuff article was a press release from Stats NZ. No idea why a journalist would attach their name to it.
MEMO to Len Brown.
Hi Len. If you want to know how to deal with hecklers then send out for a copy of Keith Richards “Life” where he describes exactly how to deal with them.
Lolz, i was amused to read in yesterdays Herald online that Penny Bright,(a regular here at the Standard), after being refused permission to address the Auckland City Council took the floor and did so anyway,
The Herald didn’t say for how long Penny harangued and chastised Len Brown and other’s about the breaking of council rules but the Councillors abandoned their meeting over formal business for the duration,
Gotta ask right, Penny Bright after being refused permission to speak at the council meeting disregards the rules making an elongated speech about the Mayor and some employees breaking the rules???,
There’s a word commonly used to describe such behavior,or lack of it…
Take the time to watch this, painful, hilarious and sobering.
http://www.nfb.ca/film/qallunaat_why_white_people_are_funny
Awesome and inspiring Joe, keep em coming and thanks so much
Watching the video I thought the references to the book of wisdom were part of the piss take but no, it’s a fine example of racist colonialism all wrapped up in a bundle of Qallunaat paternalism.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/books/review/Royte.t.html?pagewanted=all
another lie for BLiPs list of jk lies, on radio nz news 5pm john key said the greens make the nastiest comments.
Heard that, and the kid pretending to be a journalist didn’t even ask for an example of such comments.
i know, like, “can i have an example” would have been useful.
He did give an example as reported on Stuff.
TV3 News tonight had Key saying that last line about the Greens going hard. That came after clips of Key’s sneering in parliament. And it gave the impression that the Greens were as nasr=ty and sneering as Key.
In fact, saying a government should be sacked is not a personal attack, unlike the slams at Turei’s clothes. And the Greens actually do avoid the nastiness of Key and some Labour MPs, especially the personal attacks – they attack policies, Nat values, and MP’s performances.
Indeed!!!, the Green Party MP’s in the House are probably more disciplined than any other restraining from interjections and barracking,
Knowing where to really hurt the Tory’s tho, who get their kicks from being either feared or loathed you will often see either Metiria Turei or Russell Norman having a chuckle at the answer they have received from one of Slippery’s Ministers during question time as they rise to ask a Supplementary…
Collins does ugly so so well !
It was ludicrous enough for Tolley to claim you can’t talk about starving unless you’re starving but then to see Collins rush in to do the real ugly and then The Ponce witter on in support ???
Can’t be pleasant Metiria but you can take solace in this – I reckon across the spectrum, yeah even amongst Tories, there’s bugger all see you as the ugly one here.
Herald called it a continuing tit for tat but is it really? Turia calls them on poverty they comment on her clothes.
Where are all the righties who claim nats dont do personal attacks.
I think if you are grossly fat, wear expensive clothes, have an enormous carbon footprint, and live in a large house, you are skating on thin ice bleating about “poverty”, or more correctly claiming that you are morally and politically superior to the Government in terms of commentary. The Government is doing more than any other government in 30 years to lift prosperity for everyone.
The answer of the Greens – more taxation, more spending and dependency on the State, together with a return to an agrarian economy will impoverish everyone – we can be poor together I guess.
Yeah rave on delusional Nazi pig SSLands. You really are.
S
I think if you are grossly stupid & vile; and live in another country from that which would suffer the consequences of your suggestions, you should find somewhere else to spew your bile. The Government is doing more than any other government in 30 years to enrich themselves and their mates. As I can’t conceive of you actually having any friends, I am left with the conclusion that you are a paid by the word for spouting your repulsive nonsense.
Farrar did some posts over the last 2 years or so on urgency use. Does anyone know if finlaysons claim is factually correct?
” He said that the Law Society had ignored the work that all parties had done to reduce the use of urgency, and that the rate that it had been used was the lowest in years. “
What was the law society commenting on?
Apparent there has been a change in rules that helps to limit the abuse of urgency. Of course that’s limiting it but not preventing it.
Dr. Jeff Masters – warming and North America’s big freeze.
Worked to death.
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/making-pictures-finding-solutions-in-nicaragua/
http://laislafoundation.org/epidemic/
Dunno if this stuff has been covered elsewhere but: (& apologies for length)
Geoff Bertram reply http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11193859
to the completely rubbish Electricity Authority report http://www.ea.govt.nz/dmsdocument/16346
Fundamentally the report by the supposed ‘watchdog’ made some completely ridiculous assumptions that guaranteed the result would be that ‘retail customers historically underpaid’ primarily:
-That 10% per annum return on capital since the ’70s is a reasonable number to aim for!!!
-That the wholesale rate at the market since the ‘free market’ reforms definitively represents a fair value of the actual cost of generation O_O
-That somehow the current gentailers are saddled with the capital debt supposedly caused by the construction of the dams/generators & are expected to pay it back. (They aren’t & they aren’t, taxpayers paid for the construction, gentailers got assets not debts)
-That water has a ‘fuel’ cost to the Generators which is reflected in the cost charged to customers, WTF!
-Summary averages Residential with Commercial/Industrial to come up with ‘its about the same in Real $’ when the whole point of Geoff Bertrams’ original analysis was that **Residential customers** have paid a disproportionally high % since the reforms vs **Commercial/Industrial** who have had big discounts, which is clearly agreed with in the data on the EA report.
The whole thing is a blatantly pro-gentailer biased hack-job by the EA to support the status quo.
EA is supposed to be a neutral overseer to protect the consumer not a partisan PR wing.
In my opinion EA head should apologize to the country & resign for such blatant bias.
But media is too busy with ‘important’ stuff like Meteria Tureis’ jacket/possible flag change/baby bonus/anything else.
Something I’ve been keeping an alarmed eye on but there is scarcely a blip about in our media is the increasing military craziness between China & Japan/US over uninhabited islands/EEZ that may include oil/gas.
At Davros G20 (or whatever it is happening over there)
http://ex-skf.blogspot.de/2014/01/ot-echo-of-past-world-wars-from-davos.html
Chinese senior business guy casually suggests a war between China & Japan over this is almost inevitable.
Japan prime minister essentially agrees, likening it to the build up to WWI.
Meanwhile apparently US gave Japan 300KG of weapons-grade Plutonium in the ’60s, supposedly for ‘Research’ purposes (enough for 50-60 nukes ie about as ‘research’ as ongoing Arctic Ocean whaling) but Obama has in recent months demanded it be returned to US.
http://ex-skf.blogspot.de/2014/01/the-obama-administration-demands-japan.html
I believe has been some recentish hinting from senior Japanese guys that Japan is & has been capable of producing nukes in a short time.
In that context its probably a good thing that Obama is demanding it back as it should help prevent any Japan vs China war from going Nuke, but still pretty terrifying stuff.
The blog both those came from http://ex-skf.blogspot.de/ is one I’ve been following regarding the incredibly serious & increasingly degrading status of Fukushima Dai-ichi since mainstream media is basically not covering it at all.
3 years on and many decades from actually being under control we have something like 3,000 tanks full of highly radioactive water they can’t clean in temporary tanks that will fall apart completely within a few years.
Amongst other issues, a request from Tepco to the whole global Nuke industry on how to deal with Tritium contamination in the water basically came back with ‘only thing you can do is release it into the sea gradually so it can be diluted’…
They built a big plant that was supposed to decontaminate the water but its only operated for a couple of months total between failing due to rust/leaks & membranes being clogged.
Apparently the whole system was predicated on the idea that most contaminants are deposited from fallout but its actually diluted into the water via direct contact with the corium -> produces vast amounts of highly contaminated slurry that would need to be ‘stored’ somewhere for some stupidly big number of years while still not cleaning the Tritium.
They have been so busy dealing with contaminated water, patching leaks in tanks with duct tape & rubbish bags that they have only recently started managing to get a few mins at a time of footage of the outside of the primary containments, mostly confirming stuff that has been blatantly obvious but nuke apologists have refused to believe as even slightly possible: ie there are 3 fully melted down cores that have breached containment and nobody knows where the ~100tons of corium actually is (like 90% chance its well underground directly contaminating groundwater &/or tidal water). http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/newsline/201401291315.html
They are still concentrating on trying to find leaks in the primary containment though, not even close to being able to find where the hell the Corium is, let alone knowing what temperature its at, probably decades from having a plan to stop just throwing more water at it, pumping out more contaminated water into tanks (they have actually run out of space for new tanks, also run out of tanks to put the daily 300tons into!).
Somewhere in the future they expect someone to invent some magic tech that will enable them to actually decommission & clean it up, probably about the same time that Global Free Market Capitalism makes us all billionaires & eliminates poverty/disease…
Until then we can expect them to be both leaking and storing about 300 tons of ‘guaranteed to kill you in a few hours’ level contaminated water per day.
A big problem they are currently facing is the contaminated water in the tanks causes 2ndary Xrays to be generated by the metal walls of the tanks…
Its well known that the corium almost certainly melted through the steel primary containment within a few hours of the tsunami.
Also well known that corium makes a pretty violent chemical attack on concrete so probably ate through the concrete 2ndary containment also within a few days max.
Saw a recent reference to a pressured expulsion where the molten corium gets squirted out through a small hole at the bottom of the containment vessel at high pressure if the primary containment hadn’t been breached/vented higher up first -> even more quickly cuts through the concrete & also raises the issue of high surface area of a lot of small bits of corium sprayed around rather than the generally expected big, dry blob as seen at Chernobyl.
Yep, the flag: No need for a debate. Change it to Silver Fern (yes it will damn well stick out vs every other flag! Silver fern is universally recognised NZ symbol & very unique) or drop the idea outright. We have more important topics to talk about & I don’t mean Meteria Tureis’ clothes taste.
There are much more important things