Today on TV 1 Q + A said” Police under section 116 (say’s Mathew Hooten today on TV1 Q+A) should be entering bee hive today to seize all computers and all records in Key’s offices, Collins, & Kaye and other minister’s implicated.
This is urgently needed, and this should check any further damage, and send a shiver down the spines of those who destroyed our clean Government and corrupted the whole system.
Then we THE VOTER AND CITIZEN can finally see justice being done.
1. IMPORTANT, – URGENT.
Today we call officially on all opposition parties.
They must join together and must meet in an emergency forum to set the discussion surrounding the whole matter of political corruption within the Hager book and the laying of the grounds for the public interest in a truly independent commission of enquiry into the whole Slater gate affair with Team Key and His “black ops” “Dirty Politics” scandal reaching right back to when the records start with the Key Government and before.
116 Conspiring to defeat justice
Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who conspires to obstruct, prevent, pervert, or defeat the course of justice in New Zealand or the course of justice in an overseas jurisdiction.
Compare: 1908 No 32 s 137
Section 116: amended, on 18 June 2002, by section 6(1) of the Crimes Amendment Act 2002 (2002 No 20).
In fact, the newspaper did not have that particular incriminating email, and the hacker known as Rawshark said yesterday he did not have it either. “That email wasn’t leaked by me, I had nothing to do with it,” said Rawshark, who was also the source for Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics.
But the newspaper did have a large tranche of emails that inform an in-depth investigation revealing Hotchin’s apparent backing for the smear campaign.
[…]
The new documents obtained by the Star-Times appear to show PR consultant Graham paid Slater and Odgers to write dozens of posts attacking regulators and a possible witness.
In one email, Odgers said: “Remind him [Hotchin] he pays cam n I to f— w FMA so he can focus on important things.”
Another email appears to discuss plans to undermine the credibility of a potential witness in the Hanover investigation, property developer Tony Gapes.
Graham wrote in one email: “Just off ph to MH . . . Seems our friend Tony Gapes is thinking he’s a bit of a star witness for the SFO against our man.”
He added that Gapes “should have some sunlight shone on him. Enough to raise questions of credibility with the SFO”.
I’m sort of thinking that none of this implicates Collins. Did Key and Collins do a deal on the resignation? Of all the things she might have done that are corrupt this is not one of them so an investigation will clear her and pave the way for the Crusher to return to cabinet? (note that I only have web access – maybe there’s more in the printed SST?)
Collins needs to be investigated for releasing a public servant’s information to a blog knowing he would be threatened. Plus her input into Slater’s ‘tip line’. Not to mention Oravida.
I think Key and Collins chose this for her to resign on exactly because it doesn’t implicate her. That way Key can run an inquiry with narrow terms of reference. This will be designed to clear Gusher, but maybe throw Blubber Boy, Carrick Graham (that apple didn’t fall far from the tree), and that Cactus thing to the wolves. This will be the first sinking ship that the rats actually have to be kicked off.
Key will then shout from the rooftops that Collins has been shown to be squeaky clean, and they’ll be back to business as usual, but with Farrar or someone else doing their dirty work. It’s as predictable as the day is long.
“They hate livestock almost as much as they hate people,” Mr English said of the Labour and Green parties – Wairararpa Times Age – Bill English sharing the hate at a public meeting in Masterton last Thursday.
Don’t worry yourself too much. The Internet Party campaigns for Hover boards, and none really believes that. There is no question that farming communities are often “tight-knit”, if you know what I mean. Of the “farmers” I’ve known, they have sometimes said some interesting things that would at face value appear to agree with English about this or that Eco-friendly policy. But I also knew them well enough to know that under the surface, you couldn’t sway them with basic unsupportable claims like “The Greens hate you and your cows”. Stuff at that level just will not penetrate the cranium with the desired effect. My guess is that more than a few eyebrows would have been raised.
“They hate livestock almost as much as they hate people,”
Hard now, all things considered, to not see this as part of more Dirty Politics. Thurs English says that, on Thurs night Key tried to hammer the message in the debate that Labour were responsible for crazy and dangerous GP policy. And voila, yesterday, billboards started appearing using Ansell-esque PR techniques to connect Labour with the GP, and smear the both of them with anti-environmental, anti-people lies. The billboard owners have connections with both ACT and Federated Farmers.
“They hate livestock almost as much as they hate people,”
Hard now, all things considered, to not see this as part of more Dirty Politics. Thurs English says that, on Thurs night Key tried to hammer the message in the debate that Labour were responsible for crazy and dangerous GP policy. And voila, yesterday, billboards started appearing using Ansell-esque PR techniques to connect Labour with the GP, and smear the both of them with anti-environmental, anti-people lies. The billboard owners have connections with both ACT and Federated Farmers.
Odgers was a figure in the Dirty Politics book and last week her Hong Kong-based employer Jeeves Group confirmed she was no longer a consultant for them “by mutual consent”.
It is understood that decision was linked to emails being released by the hacker today, which are expected to show the bloggers were being paid to discredit Feeley.
hotchins must have been paying her a fuck of alot given she would be on megabucks as a hong kong tax consultant. Lots is never enough to people like this.
Meanwhile colins party has some nutjobs who should worry us. SST reports one who is speechifying in south auckland about a link between removing s59 defence and youth suicide, despite all evidence to the contrary and south auckland kids are going on the game for pocket money and getting Std… All cos od decriminalisation of prostitution.
Fun as yesterday was, we still have an election to win. Today, I’m walking the streets of Patea and Waverley to help Labour and my mate Hamish McDouall. Less than 3 weeks to go, comrades, and there’s work to be done.
Booze is no laughing matter, it’s a killer and it’s amazing that weed is demonised from within a booze- soaked culture, but it is no way at all more dangerous than heroin. You are such a debatemonger, Phillip.
It’s sort of a mixed bag with heroin. Theoretically, if your Heroin is clean and you always practice proper hygiene, not sharing needles and being careful with the dosage Heroin is extremely well tolerated by the body and will cause no lasting damage. The danger with heroin is the dose to over-dose ratio which is extremely thin not to mention impurities in the cook and that junkies tend to practice dangerous habits like needle sharing etc.
I agree with you. The scenario was not defined, which is why the ambiguous “more dangerous than…” was so obviously a bit of exaggeration for debate’s sake. Right now Phillip is sitting back having a good old chuckle…
If you’ve got kidney problems, heroin can make them worse. I can’t see how the appropriate medical treatment for this is a prison sentence, but then I’m probably a bit slow.
LPrent .. looks like you have been working through the night resolving the issues for TS .. thank you for looking after us all as this history unravels. I would be lost without you.
San-serif fonts are also called “grotesque”, so you are not far wrong in a way, lol.
San-serif fonts are slightly harder to read in big blocks without proper kearning and line spacing (that’s one of the reasons serifs exist!) but as I said below, they are friendlier.
Some advice, if I may, to those writing large amounts is to paragraph diligently in order to avoid big blocks of text.
Open Sans. The main reason for going to it was that it is available across all devices (gets rid of nitpicky layout issues using a common font) and is very clear on small hires devices like tablets where the available serif fonts look clunky, dark, and unclear.
As usual it is a tradeoff. In this case lower res large screens look better in the times roman. But there are fewer of those around every year.
Sorry Lynn, but it is bloody terrible. I am a Typographer by trade and would rather crawl over broken glass than use Open Sans for comments on a website. But then, I am a purist.
There is a reason that serif fonts are used for this type of work and it is because they are easier on the eye and the kerning is optimised for reading rather than display.
According to Matthew Hooton, he was told (yesterday?) that the Prime Ministers office received the letter containing the email on WEDNESDAY. Therefore the PM knew about this on Wednesday (don’t try to tell me he didn’t). but chose not to do anything with it.
I wonder why? Surely he did’nt think it would affect the leaders debate? If he won the debate, which he clearly didn’t, he could have ignored it. Because he lost he now chooses to use it to show how Prime Ministerial he is?
Kenny-Don’t buy any gospel according to Matthew Hooten.
I’d bet Key has had the email since 2011-not Wednesday. But what else has he in his ‘top drawer’? He’s admitted he’s got a drawer full of useful incriminating stuff.
Hi Rodel – I buy into it precisely because it is from Hooton. If you saw him on Q & A this morning you would know that the shit is about to hit the fan. He’s in utu mood.
yes but thats his office. He didnt see it til friday night. I am not sure if by “I” he meant him. Wayne Eagleston would be out and about with Key wouldnt he, not in the office. SO wayne eagleston withheld it from key for two days…
Interesting. If that’s so, then Key would have known about it before the Leaders’ debate on Thursday night. Many people said he was off his gamer then. And Cunliffe did put some pressure on him re-Colllins.
Andrew Geddis essentialises perfectly in Blue on Blue at Pundit ( link on right hand side of this page):
“Just so we’re absolutely clear about this: Judith Collins didn’t resign because of anything Nicky Hager did. Rather, she resigned because Cathy Odgers gave the PM’s office an email that neither Nicky Hager nor the hacker who stole a bunch of other information had seen, in which a certain blogger whom we don’t name said some stuff about Judith Collins that she claims is absolutely false.
Is this is the best political scandal ever, or what?”
Further evidence of the corporates attacking Science ( as shown in Dirty Politics) to maximise their profits! Supported by Slater, his cabal, the media and members of our government.
It’ll be interesting to see Latta’s look at sugar in his excellent series this week.
“The NZ Food & Grocery Council has flown in British anti-tax campaigner Chris Snowdon to lobby against soft drink taxes, in a move described by health researchers as suspicious.
Following Dirty Politics’ allegations that the council ran sponsored posts on the Whale Oil blog, the industry group has drawn further controversy for inviting Snowdon to give a speech titled “growing calls for taxes on sugar and why such taxes do not work”.
The moderators over at the other place are going nuts. Sit there and watch the adverse comments coming up, then minutes later dissappear….they cant keep up though….so they sit there for a few minutes before they can get to them. Hilarious.
Lots of questions being asked by the “army”….but the high priest isnt answering them!
A liar. That is all he is. Problem being, I think he may well have to state that under oath sometime in the near future along with JC also under oath.
Truth always prevails Cam!
..parker said this the other day..and i said nothing..tongue bleeding from biting it..
..but here he is now repeating it..
..he seems determined to push this bullshit..that somehow labour last time promising to include welfare-families in working for familes..by fucken 2018..(!)..
..was the reason labour lost the last election..
..and he is arguing this is why he is giving his baby-bonus to people earning a hundred grand a year..
..so..summary:..
..labour are promising to do absolutely nothing for the childless poor..
..but are promising a $60 per wk ‘bonus’..for those earning $100,00..
..does any of this sound at all familiar..?
..clarks’ crocodile-tears over families ‘struggling’ on seventy grand a year..to justify giving them middle-class welfare..?
..all the while she resolutely ignored those families/children living in real poverty..?
Yep. It’s getting hard to be around the seemingly nice folks at the Labour stand at the local market without rushing over to… have a “robust discussion”. Do those volunteers know what they’re championing? Dispensing Slow Death, the cowards way. I have to keep telling myself they’re just plain ig’nant and to just ignore them. What makes me maddest is the total betrayal. National don’t care, that was always a given, but Labour lied and betrayed when they knew they were the only alternative. With about 20 days to go, I’ll have to stop going to get my noodles. There were four cops standing ten metres away from them this week. Not such a co-incidence.
Has Steven Joyce had a breakdown of some kind? It is not unheard of in the last weeks of a campaign when candidates disappear for a few days for a “rest”.
I think you will find he is staying right out of it, and when all is revealed and his Nat. Party opponents have one by one been exposed… he will reappear with his personal halo glowing like a newly minted golden orb.
Yes Come back Chooky. Just pick out the choice worms to feed us and get us interested and give us the links for further info. Some here seem to read everything but I am pleased to sample some of the linked item as chances are I won’t have seen it otherwise.
And put your thoughts beside link – they are informative as well.
John Key has raised the subject of the flag before, I think it is time again to raise this serious political issue, but this time as to where on our flag we put the Banana!
“However, with an orchestrated attack on John Key started by Crim Dotcon and with the compliant media, the only way John Key can survive is if people completely ignore the media and trust John Key.”
Hope Kathryn Ryan starts asking Hooton a lot tougher questions on 9 to Noon. Otherwise remove him from his privileged position on a public broadcaster to propagate his extreme viewpoints.
Hope Jim Mora also bothers to ask Jordan Williams and David Farrar a lot of difficult questions on the Panel in return for giving them free publicity to air their noxious views on the world.
Joyce controls our public broadcasting, as his distant relative William Joyce et al Lord Haw Haw did on NAZI Germany 1942 radio to demoralise the allied forces. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joyce
We need a wide ranging immediate enquiry into right wing political use of our public broadcaster during this the most corrupted election in NZ history.
RNZ shouldn’t be using Hooton at all. He has a clear conflict of interest (between being involved both professionally and personally, and being asked to comment independently). RNZ also have a clear conflict of interest and their independent commentator spot is now compromised. If they want to talk to him, they should be interviewing him.
When asked if he had anything to do with dirty trick he kept shifting the subject!
and face kept getting redder!
Machiavellian Henchman is in on every level no way he isn’t !
Saying he got tipped off by low level staffer yeah right!
Defending Jason Ede yeah right
Every opportunity Hooton shifted the blame away from Key !
So Hooton knows how deep Keys is in this !
Key is in this right up to his eyeballs !
Even Hooton trying to inoculate Key!
By predicting Facebook may prove Collins was involved in undermining Feely!
Hootons blood pressure hit the roof as he spun himself out of I predict collusion with Slater!
Key is running out of friends rapidly!
National are in massive trouble the SFO has been compromised over Hotchin and possibly SCF as was alluded to in recent court case saying their is something dodgy about the govts rushing through the govt deposit guarantee scheme costing taxpayers $1.6 billion.
Because of the size and fraud around SCF ,plus now we know at the same time Collins and Slaters undermining of the SFO happened at the same time the SFO were looking into SCF an open inquiry is necessary!
The Blue stool got banned from a NZ design competition because it is ‘too similar’ to the older Red/Black ones.
After reading the first few paragraphs then looking at the pics I was like ‘yeah they are pretty similar’ but then I looked a bit closer and really they are very significantly different.
The structure & proportions of the blue one are fundamentally completely different to the red/black.
The blue one has a kinda similar seat with angled back but even that has at least 3 quite significant differences.
I’d argue that if the blue is infringing the IP of the red/black one, then the latter has at least as much IP conflict with the common wire dish drying rack.
Perhaps this unravelling of Collins might also see fresh sunshine in to the messes she made trying to dismantle ACC.
John Judge might be smiling this morning, along with the Canadian judge and Joe Karam, and who knows how many others she has quietly punched out along her bruising and bullying way.
Mr Key has a lot of questions to answer,clearly he has mismanaged this atrocious greedy government.His ability to hoodwink the MSM has been clearly established and surely it’s time for the MSM to call him and his shonkey team to account.Can’t wait to hear how his poodle Mike Hosking can find more wiggle room.
I can’t let that comment go by Tommo – Poodles all over the world will be HORRIFIED at being compared to Mike Hosking!! Everyone knows that a poodle would have a much classier haircut than Hosking and a greater amount of class and brains too! Hosking looks much more like Stan Laurel!!
Henchman Hooton is rapidly becoming a massive liability for National!
Given his close association with Key Odgers Slater .
Who he now claims he has virtually no connections with just shows how Team Key can LIE their way through anything!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joyce
See History of Steven Joyce’s relative who conspired against us and joined Germany to spread propaganda, so be warned you don’t want Joyce as Prime Minister, Read the link.,
Don’t want a liar called Steven Joyce anywhere near the prime ministerial job, he is behind the National dirt campaign entirely and needs investigating also under Crimes act 116.
Joyce used phoney taxpayer studies to kill BERL GDC studies proving Gisborne rail was viable.
He is like his distant relative William Joyce that switched to NAZI sympathiser by beaming NAZI radio propaganda to Britain and the allies during WW2.
This one is his copy, a NATIONAL propaganda minister.
Wallace Chapman’s simpering interview with Lee Child
Radio NZ National, Sunday 31 August 2014
A good deal of this morning’s programme has been taken up with analysis of the floundering National Party campaign, which is sinking after one of its dirty bombs backfired on it. But no doubt a lot of listeners would have been tuning in for the interview, after the ten o’clock news, with best-selling thriller writer Lee Child.
I’ve heard Child talking before, and I wasn’t exactly expecting a liberal or a deep thinker. But I didn’t think he’d be quite as depraved as he turned out to be. And true to form, Wallace Chapman acted like a slavering fanboy instead of a journalist. Following are some of the lowlights….
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Born Jim Grant, he became Lee Child, best-selling author. His hero Jack Reacher travels light, armed with a toothbrush, a fierce sense of combat, and dishing rough justice, occasionally cropping up to help solve a crime. He is back, with a new book, called Personal. Reacher is on a mission to hunt down a sniper….
The first part of the interview concerns Child’s former job, working as a union organizer at Granada Television. According to Jim Grant himself, he was a real tough guy….
LEE CHILD: In a way we were like Reacher, you know, no holds barred, we did what we needed to do. WALLACE CHAPMAN: Hm hm hm hm hm!
Later…..
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Where does the character of Jack Reacher come from? LEE CHILD: I just closed my eyes and typed the story, and Reacher is what came out. On reflection, clearly, he’s an ancient character. This is the mysterious stranger, the knight errant who shows up in the nick of time, solves the problem and then rides off into the sunset. We’ve seen this story over and over again through the centuries and I think Reacher is just a modern version of one of those guys. WALLACE CHAPMAN: He’s a Robin Hood character, and obviously he must have some resonance. The people I’ve talked to here in New Zealand admire him. It’s almost like they KNOW Jack Reacher, including the CEO of this company, ha ha ha ha! He’s a —ha ha ha!—huge fan of the Jack Reacher character. People love it! I’m just wondering, is it also a little bit about the man against the world, or the person against the world? The fact that he is beholden to no one, kind of a warrior of justice, standing up for the little person. LEE CHILD: I think that’s exactly what it is, and I’ve noticed that too, I mean New Zealand is the absolute world capital of Reacher madness. WALLACE CHAPMAN: IS it? LEE CHILD: Yeah, I have more fans there per head of population than anywhere, I think. And I think that must be because New Zealanders see themselves the same way, you know, rough and tough, wanting to stay out of trouble, but if the chips are down, they will do the right thing. And I think that’s really what resonates around the world. We would all like to do the right thing, we would like to be brave, and of course most of the time we CAN’T be, because you know you see some injustice at work and you can’t really do anything about it otherwise you’ll get fired too. Everybody is a little inhibited, scared here and there, and so to read in a book, this character doing what you’d really like to do yourself I think is inspiring. WALLACE CHAPMAN: Hmmmm. But it’s also that type of character who not only has a sense of fair play but oh my God is he tough! I’m just reading Reacher’s Rules, including: “Use a switchblade to slice the web of a guy’s thumb”… phwoar…. LEE CHILD: Ha ha ha ha ha! WALLACE CHAPMAN: Ha ha! I mean: “Painful and real disincentive against holding pistols again until they have healed, which could be a long time depending on their approach to nutrition and antisepsis.” [nervously] Ha ha ha ha ha ha! LEE CHILD: Ha ha ha ha! Well, that’s the thing with Reacher. He’s got a heart of gold, but he’s not a goody-goody. You know, he will get the job done in the most brutal way imaginable. Which I think also resonates with people. WALLACE CHAPMAN: Ha ha ha! LEE CHILD: I mean, people are FED UP with all these rules— WALLACE CHAPMAN: Ha ha! LEE CHILD: I mean, if you want to do something, just DO it. WALLACE CHAPMAN:[laughing timidly] Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. …. Another thing is the finely honed information that you have in your books. For instance I learned a lot about AK-47s, just a quote here, it’s fascinating: “What does the panicky grunt do under fire? He grabs his rifle and pulls the trigger. Our guns go from Safe to Single Shot to Full Auto, which is nice and linear and logical, but they knew that 99 times in a hundred, their guys would panic and ram the selector all the way home and thereby empty a whole magazine in a single hasty shot. So the AK’s selector goes SAFE then FULL AUTO, then SINGLE SHOT. Not linear, not logical, but certainly practical. …..[Pause to convey wonderment]….Who would have known?
Later….
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Tell me, Lee, why did you choose an American anti-hero?.. You’ve really taken America and American culture to heart, haven’t you! LEE CHILD: I like America and I like American people. ….
A little later….
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Of all the fans the world over, Bill Clinton is a huge fan! LEE CHILD:[reverently] He’s a huge reader of all sorts of books, a man of big appetites…..
The fan interview continues for another fifteen minutes, but I’ll spare you the rest.
I just had to send Wallace Chapman the following email…..
Lee Child’s casual contempt for law and human rights
Dear Wallace,
After you quoted a nasty torture scene from one of his books, Lee Child chortled and replied: “Well, that’s the thing with Reacher: he’s got a heart of gold, but he’s no goody-good. He does whatever it takes to get the job done. People are tired of rules.”
That’s a casual endorsement of violent, lawless thuggery—and it’s especially ironic coming in the middle of a morning dominated by the revelations about the flagrant contempt for rules by our government and its henchmen.
I was concerned that you did not even so much as demur at what Lee Child said.
Live pregnant cow shipments to China by Fonterra … thousands of the poor beasties going to live in Chinese conditions .. story yesterday overlooked by many I suspect.
What a foul and awful trade to sell and ship pregnant cows into conditions that are illegal in this country. Bloody bloody awful,
Another thing that worries me is why the hell are we selling cows to foreign countries, instead of selling the dairy products? Stupid move! it is selling the goose that lays the golden eggs! Just sell the eggs and keep the geese! sell the wool and keep the sheep. Sell the kiwi fruit and keep the trees.
Despite there being a downward trend in youth suicide statistics since “anti-smacking” law change in 2007, Conservative Idiot Party candidate lies about increase in youth suicide due to law change
Note to “George”: She’s gone. She’s no longer “in the team”.
Who said Judith Collins has no friends left? The dear old bewildered regulars over at Blubber Blog are all dying to express their love for her. My favorite is this one by “George” (possibly Cameron Slater himself) which right now has garnered 52 Up votes:
“Judith we could fill Eden Park 50 times over with people who love you and your dynamic personality and gutsiness. You have taken one for the team. You’re on the bench but still in the squad. You’ll be back. Take a rest and then let us witness you in full flight soon. Thank goodness you’re in the team….”
Don’t worry, Paul, they’re here all right. They’re just regrouping. This has been a very bad two weeks for them, and it just keeps getting worse.
If Slater had any common sense, leave alone decency or ethics, he would slither away under a rock for a month or so, and refrain from commenting on politics. Since he has none of those traits, it’s worth keeping an eye on him, if only for the dubious pleasure of watching the most foul-mouthed suicide note in history.
I see what you’ve done there, Kiwiri, and I’m impressed. But I can’t understand why you’ve done it. Is there a problem with giving the Blubber Blog link direct?
Judith Collins has done good work-and this man likes nothing better that Women on the front foot for Freedom. Magnificent to watch at work are the Judith Collins of our day. Taking on the Socialist-Communist-Left establishment has its risks: Anna Stepanova Politkovskaya, born 30th August 1958, Moscow, was an outstanding writer, journalist, and lady of compassion and bravery…
Urge to repeatedly kick this moron in the nuts is high.
1) Suicide risk is linked to stress, particularly in low income situations or unemployment (NB: issues with LGBT individuals in pacifica community? Known driver of suicide), so yes, suicide rates would have climbed with rising unemployment etc. More so in maori and pacific island groups due to them being hit my unemployment far more significantly than europeans in NZ.
2) Other issues “cited” by Saafi are also linked to deprivation and poverty, resulting from stress driving people into short term, high gain activities, while discounting long term costs completely, or are so stressed out they are easily taken advantage of by shitlords.
3) ” “Once you pass it, children, rather than doing what mum and dad says, they go and commit suicide. It opens up another thing they could do,” Saafi, who holds a doctorate in biomedicine, said.”
= pure rage inducing stupidity, and for someone holding a university degree, a sign the individual might have the ability to pass, but that sure as hell haven’t learnt anything, making them a learned idiot, aka a morosoph. More so given there is a body of research on this subject said idiot is conveniently ignoring despite having a science degree…
4) Claiming smacking has been banned is fractally wrong. The changes to the legislation basically made it possible for the police to prosecute cases of violence against children that before were defended by claiming it was “discipline”. And I’m not talking about smacks, more hitting kids hard enough to leave bruises via cords, metal tubes, riding crops, sticks and fists, the sort of stuff that any person with normal empathy responses would look at in horror. Ye olde hand/hairbrush to the butt however is still legal, but hey, why bother with the legal reality when you can spin a disgusting lie instead?
So yeah, fuck Edward Saafi for this bullshit and fuck the conservatives for thinking this sort of mindless bullshit is even acceptable.
What you say is true, from your point of view, and I agree with you. The trouble is that it is also “racist”, in the way that any enforcement of a cultural view onto Tongan matters from outside of any variation of Tongan family culture might be. If he gets any traction for his ideas, it’ll be for reasons unknown to outsiders. Telling people that bashing their kids is wrong, is as good on as many levels as it is wrong. But don’t worry, I’m not calling you racist, that’s why it’s in inverted commas. It might be frustrating, but the world does not revolve around what the government of yesteryear or tomorrow thinks best.
Bonus dormitat Homerus
Taking an uncharacteristically thoughtless Gordon Campbell to task
The normally excellent Gordon Campbell let himself down earlier this year by foolishly repeating a key trope of the pathetic, confused, failed Gore presidential campaign. He did this while struggling to analyse the potential impact of Kim Dotcom’s new party. I wrote a reply on his blog, but he ignored it.
It seems to me, however, that the objection I raised still stands—now more than ever…..
CAMPBELL: “Dotcom has the potential to split the existing anti-Key, centre left vote – in much the same way that Ralph Nader did in the 2000 US election….”
BREEN: That statement concerns me very much. You seem to be buying into the Democratic Party line of blaming Nader for “spoiling” Al Gore’s chances in 2000. Of course, it was not Ralph Nader who told Gore to pointedly stay away from union meetings, to continue the anti-Cuban rhetoric and to express his endorsement of the regimes in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Israel (amongst others). As Nader himself pointed out, he gave Al Gore a program, and Gore and his ingenious “strategy” team were free to take as much of it into their own campaign as they liked.
Similarly, the Labour Party could take up Dotcom’s entirely mainstream views-–free and open internet, freedom from government and corporate snooping and censorship—and get all those Dotcom supporters voting Labour. It’s up to Labour, of course—but if they choose to ignore what Dotcom’s saying, they have only themselves to blame.
The fault for Gore’s defeat lies squarely with Gore and his fantastically weak-kneed advisers—in particular Warren Christopher, who decided not to demand a recount after the Bush team had stolen thousands of votes in Florida.
Nader, one of the few genuinely decent and intellectual people to have ever run for the Presidency, ran because Gore had ignored, indeed shunned, the traditional Democratic Party base.
If Gore and his high-powered advisers had possessed an ounce of common sense, they would have taken many, or indeed all, of Nader’s policies. They chose not to, and even tried to have Nader excluded from the ballot in many states.
What is it about Gore that leads you to believe he would have presided over a regime significantly better than the Bush regime? Has Obama done that?
“The campaign included attacks on the credibility of the Financial Markets Authority and the Serious Fraud Office, as well as attacks on Hanover critic and then-Shareholder’s Association head Bruce Sheppard. At the time of the campaign, Sheppard was a defendant in a now-settled defamation suit brought by Hotchin.”
“How much the trio were paid for their role in the campaign is not made clear in the documents, but in a 2012 email to Taxpayers Union head Jordan Williams discussing how much he charged for his services, Slater implied the sums involved would be substantial.”
“One piece of chaos and mayhem cooked up by Graham, Slater and Odgers involved the latter writing an op-ed for the New Zealand Herald in April 2012.”
Boag vs Hooton on Radio Live this morning on Mark Sainsbury’s show (Sunday)
Explosive 10.10 to 10.15 a.m. http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Audio.aspx
The National Party descending into Civil War
So many things mentioned here it’s worth a post on its own.
That was intense. Hooton is fired up. Boag doesn’t seem to care one jot about the direction Key’s office has taken the country.
Eagleson seems to have a lot to answer for. A lot.
Just can’t see how Boag and co can just sweep this under the carpet. Surely the dirty ops culture of this government is unprecedented in New Zealand’s modern history. The strategy of these enablers seems to be, “it’s minor, I don’t care, nobody cares”.
I read a comment on another forum from one of these #Teamkey apologists stating that the 95% of kiwis who have no interest in politics will not have the faintest idea what is going on and will not be swayed by this “left wing conspiracy”. It is beltway, that person said.
That’s the thing, the national party, and their supporters including Boag above have an agenda to not educate the 95% on what happens in parliament. They are most interested in keeping this explosive detail in the beltway thereby ensuring a culture of corruption in the New Zealand government is of no importance to anyone in the public at large.
I don’t believe it and think it is convenient myth-making propaganda for the right (and sometimes the left).
This from today’s Colmar Brunton suggests quite a high level of understanding the political issues (by high I mean for the general public, not the people that have been living on the internet since DP came out)
The latest poll also asked if people respondents believe John Key when he says he was not personally informed about the release of SIS information to blogger Cameron Slater.
While 41% said they do believe him, 44% say they don’t and 14% said they didn’t know.
And I agree a post of it’s own. Michelle asking Mathew what he is taking.
Mathew is going on about the beehive interfering in contracts awarded to him by government through the correct government procurement contract and then the experiences of others in the same area. So Michelle asks him to be more specific and he goes, oh that one was Steven Joyce’s office.
Coffee everywhere I’m afraid. Just how far does this extend.
“Prime Minister John Key has confirmed he has received a subpoena to appear before the Inspector General of Security and Intelligence for a closed hearing nine days before the election.”
Forgive my cynicism, but he is trying to do his laundry and get it dry before the election.
Behind closed doors, and no word as to whether evidence will be given under oath, or even the terms of it. smells bad to me; and run by a Key appointee. I feel a Tui ad coming on.
[The new Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security
April 24th, 2014 at 11:00 am by David Farrar
The Herald report:
Experienced lawyer Cheryl Gwyn will be put in charge of monitoring New Zealand’s spying and intelligence activities, Prime Minister John Key revealed this morning.
Ms Gwyn will take over the job of Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security to replace Andrew McGechan QC, a former High Court Judge who was appointed on an interim basis in July.
She is the deputy Solicitor-General at Crown Law, and has previously been a partner at two legal firms, Deputy Secretary for Justice, Acting Solicitor General and chief executive at Crown Law.
Her office will have a larger, more proactive role as a result of Government Communications Security Bureau reforms which passed into law last year.
The reforms increased the scope and resourcing of the oversight regime, and widened the pool of candidates for the Inspector-General role beyond former High Court judges.]
———
David Farrar’s comment:
The combination of Kitteridge becoming SIS Head and Gwyn becoming Inspector-General is a clear sign that the Government is very focused on ensuring the intelligence agencies act within both the letter and spirit of the law, and that there are no more stuff ups such as occurred at the GCSB.
Retired judges have tended to be not particularly pro-active as Inspector-General. I think Ms Gwyn will be a very pro-active Inspector-General – in line with her new powers.
was she CEO or deputy Solicitor General at Crown Law when this happened ? With the greatest respect to Ms Gwyn, there are so many ways she is compromised. We had a post a week or so ago about it, but I can’t find it again. But look at her CV … she has worked in all of the offices of the people involved in this, except PM. I don’t have high hopes, unless she is the bravest and brightest woman possible !
She was recently appointed by the Prime Minister, is it not? That casts doubts and negates full confidence in this inquiry. I think an independent JUDICIAL inquiry by a high court or supreme court Judge is more appropriate!
Did she call for this inquiry on her own or did Key himself ask her to hold one? Who is she answerable to? Who can oversee or review the inquiry to make sure this isn’t all just a jack up?
Greatly needed: independence of the inquiry – a panel of people whose ongoing employment would not have been or would not be dependent on or related to the government who has been in deep shit over this.
A judge, a fiercely intelligent and independent legal and jurist, who has retired (retired, i.e. has security of pension and has had a career record that cannot or will not be under pressure or jeopardised by virtue of involvement in the inquiry) needs to lead this.
As this is a small country and given our closely interconnected professional, personal and political relationships, it would be very challenging to find such a person who would not be beholden or biased to the government that has been implicated. A legal mind from overseas may be required.
no word as to whether evidence will be given under oath
with the gang involved and what Dirty Politics reveal, would anyone who has been closely following the scandals actually believe those involved would tell the truth and provide full disclosure even if they give their evidence under oath??
the truth will be in the evidence that can be found and their digital footprints before those get destroyed.
No. Key is not down to appear. His office is but so far not including Key. In Paul’s link. Remember Key is Office but not really. Separate from Key. Weird.
I don’t think you’re being cynical, yeshe – I think you’re being realistic. I’m betting this closed doors hearing won’t have an outcome until after the election.
Another poll, another non event from mip, languishing on or around 2%.
What happened to the 10% some were talking up?
The reality is, that’s a bit sh!t.
So far it seems 3mil buys 1%. That’s not a good return, even colin has got better from his ‘investment’.
hone throwing a strop over policy announcements won’t be helping the unified mip message.
No agenda other than comment wryly about the non event that is the mip surge as predicted by some, but worry not weepus beard, it’s all fair in love and war and politics.
There’s plenty of thoroughbred horse bashing going on, so no worries if I have a little poke at the donkey and ass.
That’s fine if you want to talk in riddles. Some of the finest literary creative people spoke in riddles.
While I’m sure I will not be voting IMP party vote, I think they are a very important part of this election. They are energising the youth vote.
The traditional Mana vote may have suffered recently because Hone Harawira seems to have gone awol after his car accident but I still don’t see the point in attacking them.
I don’t think the numbers support the claim mip are energising the young voters, let alone mobilising them, but always happy to be corrected by data.
I’m not talking in riddles, but if you need clues, the thoroughbred stable mates are the greens and labour, the donkey and ass, well, you get the idea.
That’s a couple of outright lies, love, and if I may say, a little beneath you and the quality expected at ts.
I don’t hate anyone, including kim, and have never said or written that mana isn’t legitimate or of the left.
Shame on you for resorting to lying to do your bidding, but then that says more about you than I.
Your antipathy towards KDC is evidenced in many comments on ts over much time. You can say it’s not ‘hate’, so let’s call it something else then. Loathe? Detest? Abhor?
“and have never said or written that mana isn’t legitimate or of the left.”
Maybe, but you’re comment here supports what I said about who you consider IS the legitimate left,
I would happily have settled for ‘hostility, antagonism, animosity, aversion, opposition, enmity and distaste, but hatred oh no, that’s just a dreadfully incorrect assumption on your part. I also suggest loathe, detest and abhor, your second effort, are way of the mark too, so that’s a negative, metaphoric and literal.
“Maybe”
Well make quick with the sorry, and we’ll forget about the attempted character assassination, and even the p!ss poor attempt at trying to save face when caught cold.
That link says nothing about being legitimate or otherwise, just them not being very well supported given the money, the hype and the fanbois and girls who dish it but on here but can’t take a little push back.
Cry, rant, ignore or scheme harder if you want, but if you tell lies – You lose. The end.
Oh, and I’m proudly anti semantic. 😉
What about you?
“He feels hostility towards KDC and by extension the IMP”
Better?
“He seems to think that only Labour and the GP are legitimate left wing parties, and Mana would be one too if it wasn’t part of the IMP”
Better?
The difference between hate and feeling hostility towards someone obviously makes a difference to you, and fair enough, but the fact that it’s just semantics to me doesn’t make me a liar. My characterisation is still pretty close to reality.
Give it some context like given the shoddy shenanigans of kdc and because of hone’s dash for his cash, “he feels aversion and distaste for those involved” is close enough.
“He seems to think that Labour and the GP are legitimate left wing parties and would form a better government if Mana and the mip have nothing to do with it”
That’s sounds pretty consistent, credible and believable.
“My characterisation is still pretty close to reality.”
Nope, it’s not. It’s as off as your first smear attempt, just dressed in slightly less contemptuous words.
But still, your off target lies and my honest sensibilities aside, that 2%, it’s a shocker given the spend up.
Yeah, nah. Your behaviour isn’t that of someone who feels distaste. It’s the behaviour of someone who feels something much stronger.
You really dislike KDC and that affects everything you say about the IMP (or everything I’ve seen you say). And IMP have no left wing legitimacy in your view. Pretty much what I said at the start.
Behavioural analysis on the web to someone on the web you don’t agree with. That’s a shocker, call the Times of London and tell them to hold the front page.
I don’t care too much for the semantic argument, sweetheart, mainly ’cause it relies on your interpretation, which may or not be up to scratch, but bottom line, if you can’t post an “I hate” quote, you shouldn’t really be posting “he hates”.
Shame on you The Allen. If you are going to diss the parties in a confused rhetorical way, it isn’t helpful to the close election effort. You appear to be adopting the annoying mosquito persona. Have you a serious one for this important time?
You must have missed the other posts slagging the greens and the labour party recently, but that’s okay, maybe you missed them with your eyes open?
And my comment wasn’t even to balance for redress, it was just a laugh at 3 mil buying not a lot but a few die hards.
Poor point, piss poorly made – Are you – cnrjoe?
But really, let’s not get into criticising peoples language and culture, that smacks of all sorts of wrong, worse than dirty politics.
National the One Man Band!!! Where is Joyce?And the rest of the National rabble,what are they up to?
JK is looking more than a little bit CRUSHED.The boat is taking on water,the crew all looking at protecting their backs.
Are the chickens coming home to roost?
Joyce is generally immersed in Nova pay ….but now may be indulging in some quiet but serious zen meditation about the state of the unexpectedly opened pandora box of the National party stink affairs.
The One News Colmar Brunton poll mentioned above is a shocker for the Nats. It appears to be only the second time they’ve ever reported the Key Government below 50%. At the last election, they overestimated them by 2.5% and we know close the actual result was. Now, at 48%, they’re in deep shit.
Bonus result: The poll also asked if people believe Key when he says he was not personally informed about the release of SIS info to Slater.
Only 41% said they do believe him, 44% say they don’t (14% said they didn’t know).
Just had a skim through NZF’s policy manifesto. Nothing much in there the left would object to, that I can see. Or to put it another way, not much that would be deliverable inside a Tory Government.
One thing I noted – and it is only the Ipsos data, so not sure whether this is accurate enough to take seriously – is that there has been a huge jump in preference for JK over Cunliffe for those voting NZ First in the last poll
I agree re Peters getting to choose, and what I am implying is that if National voters are leaving National and going to NZ First, then there is more chance he will choose a right wing government.
Yes, I understood that, thanks. My position I guess is that it’s irrelevant who Peters might go with (although I agree your analysis is interesting), because he could go either way, so the message really needs to be pushed that voting for him is not a vote for change. I’m not sure if your analysis would help people vote left instead, because to be honest I don’t really understand what goes on in the minds of people that vote NZF 😉
The NZ First sample size is about 35 and, in the previous poll, about 27.
The shift in Key as preferred PM was from about 14.5% (4 people) in the previous poll to 33.2% (about 11 or 12 people) in the latest Ipsos poll.
The numbers are too small to draw any conclusions about changes in sentiment but the data points do make for a steep increase in the graph-line between polls.
It is always the same thing, isn’t it; we don’t actually have enough good information to work with 🙁
Still, I couldn’t help noticing that National had been the second-most preferred PM (Winston the most preferred) and then National and Labour became second equal – yet the last poll National rose to a clear second again. This probably does indicate that people were leaving National to vote for NZ First.
It gave me the idea that as NZ First rise (if they do) then there may be more likelihood that they go with National – because Winston would have to take the political persuasions of who is supporting him into account. I presume NZ First would have more accurate data on what type of voter is supporting them.
Yep. Plus he can pop in, say g’day, then shoot through. He’s not committed to actually try and do a deal with National. And given the stink around them, plus his ego driven need to be the one who finishes Key, why would he bother?
Nah, my gut feeling is Deputy PM (the Greens copping that sweet for the wider good). A 3 party coalition, maybe a minority or with C&S from AN Other.
“Nah, my gut feeling is Deputy PM (the Greens copping that sweet for the wider good). A 3 party coalition, maybe a minority or with C&S from AN Other.”
Didn’t follow that. Do you mean your gut feeling is that it’s either L/NZF/GP coalition with Peters as DPM, or L/GP minority govt, or L/GP govt with IMP?
The former (L/NZF/G). Winston has been repeatedly asked if he is ruling the Greens out this time and he refuses to answer. I’m optimistic about what that means.
Ok, so this is the hope that Peters chooses Labour, but it’s still hope. It’s not something reliable. Hence, a vote for NZF is not a vote to change the govt. He might, but for anyone wanting a left wing govt, or even wanting to get rid of Key and National, voting for NZF is at best a risk (significant IMO).
And vice versa at previous elections. I’m not saying that Peters will choose National. I’m saying that none of us know who he will choose, and our personal feelings aside about which is most likely, there is no evidence to support knowing anything other than that he is historically unpredictable.
This is why IMO the left outside of Labour and the GP, should be pushing hard the message that a vote for Peters is not a vote for a change in govt (Peters could for instance argue easily that National under a different PM is a different govt). Too many people who want change seem to think NZF is a viable vote for the left.
Put it this way, if Winston gets numbers that, in the circumstances, inclines him towards National Party, or would make it a bit challenging for him to go with Labour (or would not give him enough ‘incentives’ to do so), Winston will surely of course go with National.
There is a real opportunity coming up, almost 20 years since we adopted proportional representation, to evolve to Cabinet arrangements that would more truly reflect the MMP system that we operate and are continuing to develop.
It is for Labour, Greens, NZ First and IMP, collectively speaking, to encourage that to happen. Their leaders, members, and the wider public – all have the responsibility to foster this.
He has shown from time to time that he doesn’t believe in it. But he cannot repudiate his participation in the MMP system. If he does, then the other parties must go forward together and Peters should be left to his own ‘special speak’ and be left to play his kingmaker, tail-waving-the-dog routine.
Peters appears to believe that because he sits in the middle, he can reject the votes for people on the edges. That’s not what MMP should be about, but the system does allow that. If the threshhold lowers, it might take some of that power away from him, but at the moment, he gets to be kingmaker and respresentative democracy be damned. He thinks the mainstream should rule and that he gets to choose which side of the mainstream.
The poll was conducted from 23-27 August (27th was last Wednesday).
That means it did not include the debate or, of course, this weekend’s events. It was the period when the campaign was being claimed to be ‘getting back on track’ for National after their campaign launch on 24 August.
All in all, one of the better periods for National over the last few weeks.
The ‘median day’ was Monday (i.e., that’s when 50% of the sample was reached).
843 gave a party vote preference (c.f., 824 in last poll). Undecideds and refusers down to 12% (from 15%).
I can’t find pre-2011 (0r 2008) data or reporting which includes the undecideds from Colmar Brunton polls on the internet (I could request but might have to pay).
That looks very bad for National. Worse is that they have another two weeks and six days of what will be relentlessly negative publicity. I noticed that TV3 news is now openly using the term “corruption”, and the guilty parties have all turned on each other today.
Wonder what Ede will say, if he’s not already wearing a concrete overcoat.
For some time now I have been puzzled as to who Judith Collins reminds me of , especially when she puts on that rictus grin. So I have just googled Chucky, thinking it was him , and yes there is a resemblance but I was gobsmacked at the images of Bride of Chucky. An absolute dead spit of Judith! Hairstyle, eyebrows, eye makeup, EVERYTHING! So spooky.
Ms Gwyn Solicitor General to hold closed hearing with PM and staffers?
If it smells like a rat and acts like a rat, – it is a rat.
Government investigating Government well we all know the outcome right?
Well we know a Key jack up coming now with a closed hearing!
Another Key lie.
Remember he said;
“we will run an open, transparent Government”
We have been duped unless opposition files there own legal charges, to have a real hearing as we saw Nixon go through or just call this another banana republic.
Key: “It’s about accountability. I think if I’d said the Justice Minister’s resigned but I’m not going to give you the information why, we would have spent lots and lots of days talking about the rational for that. It’s much better to put it in the public domain, I’m confident we’ve taken the right steps,”
So why did Richard Worth lose his job again? Oh that’s right, we weren’t allowed to know.
Does Mr Key have to front up for questioning?
No according to the Herald
” She confirmed a letter was received in the prime minister’s office on Friday August 29.
“It advised the Prime Minister of the Inspector-General’s intention to interview a number of staff in connection with her inquiry into the release of information by the NZSIS to Cameron Slater.
“There was no indication in the letter that the Prime Minister would be called personally and the Prime Minister’s office is not aware that would be the case. In terms of Prime Minister’s office staff, no date was given in the letter for the interviews to take place.”
Seriously folks .. why would we expect anything to be different from Key ?? He is a joke isn’t he ? smile and wave, smile and wave, oh look, over there …..
Please, let this change for the sake of dear NZ.
He is making Nixon look good and us out to be fools.
Key has to go! His whole department is fatally compromised by the Dirty Politics book.
It reminds me of the final act of Der Rosenkavalier, when Baron Von Ochs has been caught at his dirty intentions and the Marshallin says:
MARSCHALLIN: Leave well alone, and ere I count to three, withdraw!
(The Baron turns round and stares at her.)
BARON: What mean you?
MARSCHALLIN: (gaily, sure of victory): Think of your dignity and take your leave.
BARON von OCHS How?
MARSCHALLIN: If you would still preserve your name
As gentleman, make virtue of necessity.
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 29 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
test.
Today on TV 1 Q + A said” Police under section 116 (say’s Mathew Hooten today on TV1 Q+A) should be entering bee hive today to seize all computers and all records in Key’s offices, Collins, & Kaye and other minister’s implicated.
This is urgently needed, and this should check any further damage, and send a shiver down the spines of those who destroyed our clean Government and corrupted the whole system.
Then we THE VOTER AND CITIZEN can finally see justice being done.
1. IMPORTANT, – URGENT.
Today we call officially on all opposition parties.
They must join together and must meet in an emergency forum to set the discussion surrounding the whole matter of political corruption within the Hager book and the laying of the grounds for the public interest in a truly independent commission of enquiry into the whole Slater gate affair with Team Key and His “black ops” “Dirty Politics” scandal reaching right back to when the records start with the Key Government and before.
There will never be a more correct urgent time to jump on this issue and destroy the cancer before it destroys us all.
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1961/0043/latest/DLM329005.html
116 Conspiring to defeat justice
Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who conspires to obstruct, prevent, pervert, or defeat the course of justice in New Zealand or the course of justice in an overseas jurisdiction.
Compare: 1908 No 32 s 137
Section 116: amended, on 18 June 2002, by section 6(1) of the Crimes Amendment Act 2002 (2002 No 20).
Dear gods!
So Odgers trawled through her email, and found what she thought was the smoking gun, because she knew Fairfax had something as a result of their investigation into the Hotchin issue and Slater being paid to run Hotchin’s lines.
The emails Sunday Star Times has are from whaledump/rawsark.
The “smoking gun” was provided by Odgers herself, who has now been sacked from her job.
Someone needs to get her disbarred.
That’s what I’ve been thinking for a couple of weeks now. I do hope the appropriate authority has that in motion.
Probably have to make a formal complaint.
Where does it say she was sacked?
Left by “mutual consent”.
Yeah, right.
Being here on this morning, our lives have become a sequel to Peter Sellars’ “Being There”.
And kudos to Ant yesterday spotting it was Hotchin very early in the day. Don’t we love the internet ?
Gonna win this one and get our country back.
Every week John Key had a private conversation with a man being paid to undermine a criminal investigation.
Good show, John.
Cunliffe needs to hammer him on this.
Good point Tom.
Yep, Odgers blinked first 😆
I wonder if she’s angling for a plea bargain.
did you mean flea bargain ? nom nom nom 😀
But I am wondering what they can be charged with ?
Fleas? Corrections mattresses might be too thin for KIm, I didn’t realise they were insect infested too 😀
I’m sort of thinking that none of this implicates Collins. Did Key and Collins do a deal on the resignation? Of all the things she might have done that are corrupt this is not one of them so an investigation will clear her and pave the way for the Crusher to return to cabinet? (note that I only have web access – maybe there’s more in the printed SST?)
Collins needs to be investigated for releasing a public servant’s information to a blog knowing he would be threatened. Plus her input into Slater’s ‘tip line’. Not to mention Oravida.
There must be something else.
There probably is which is why we need a full investigation, one that looks into all the connections.
South Canterbury Finance’s entry into the retail deposit guarantee scheme ….. the nations biggest ever fraud
+1000% vto
I think Key and Collins chose this for her to resign on exactly because it doesn’t implicate her. That way Key can run an inquiry with narrow terms of reference. This will be designed to clear Gusher, but maybe throw Blubber Boy, Carrick Graham (that apple didn’t fall far from the tree), and that Cactus thing to the wolves. This will be the first sinking ship that the rats actually have to be kicked off.
Key will then shout from the rooftops that Collins has been shown to be squeaky clean, and they’ll be back to business as usual, but with Farrar or someone else doing their dirty work. It’s as predictable as the day is long.
Yes that idea has passed across my mind too 🙁
Yeah, minimising the terms of inquiry around an email with no conclusive proof is how I read it too.
Btw, I wonder how proud Doug Graham is of his son in his chosen profession?
Labour and Greens need to win the election, and then they can set more suitable terms of reference for the Inquiry.
“They hate livestock almost as much as they hate people,” Mr English said of the Labour and Green parties – Wairararpa Times Age – Bill English sharing the hate at a public meeting in Masterton last Thursday.
http://apnregionalnz.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/iphone/showpage.aspx?issue=60722014083000000000001001&page=1&returnUrl=http%253a%252f%252fapnregionalnz.newspaperdirect.com%252fepaper%252fiphone%252fhomepage.aspx%2523_title60722014083000000000001001%252fwatitle60722014083000000000001001%252f6072%252f60722014083000000000001001%252f1%252ftrue&x=0.36774193548387096&y=0.6864988558352403
This is the link to thar article in the Wairapra Age Times. Bill English is a bigot.
http://apnregionalnz.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/iphone/showpage.aspx?issue=60722014083000000000001001&page=1&returnUrl=http%253a%252f%252fapnregionalnz.newspaperdirect.com%252fepaper%252fiphone%252fhomepage.aspx%2523_title60722014083000000000001001%252fwatitle60722014083000000000001001%252f6072%252f60722014083000000000001001%252f1%252ftrue&x=0.36774193548387096&y=0.6864988558352403
Bill English is a bigot.
Don’t worry yourself too much. The Internet Party campaigns for Hover boards, and none really believes that. There is no question that farming communities are often “tight-knit”, if you know what I mean. Of the “farmers” I’ve known, they have sometimes said some interesting things that would at face value appear to agree with English about this or that Eco-friendly policy. But I also knew them well enough to know that under the surface, you couldn’t sway them with basic unsupportable claims like “The Greens hate you and your cows”. Stuff at that level just will not penetrate the cranium with the desired effect. My guess is that more than a few eyebrows would have been raised.
“They hate livestock almost as much as they hate people,”
Hard now, all things considered, to not see this as part of more Dirty Politics. Thurs English says that, on Thurs night Key tried to hammer the message in the debate that Labour were responsible for crazy and dangerous GP policy. And voila, yesterday, billboards started appearing using Ansell-esque PR techniques to connect Labour with the GP, and smear the both of them with anti-environmental, anti-people lies. The billboard owners have connections with both ACT and Federated Farmers.
Trotter and co were on it,
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/08/30/breaking-update-on-dirt-alert/
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/08/30/exclusive-dirt-alert-are-the-greens-and-labour-about-to-become-the-targets-of-a-major-negative-advertising-campaign/
thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/08/31/third-party-propaganda-attacks-incoming-labour-led-government/
Looks like the dirty dozen (or two) got their timing wrong with Kategate though.
Ansell confirms his involvement (see comments)
bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/dirt-alert-are-greens-and-labour-about.html
“They hate livestock almost as much as they hate people,”
Hard now, all things considered, to not see this as part of more Dirty Politics. Thurs English says that, on Thurs night Key tried to hammer the message in the debate that Labour were responsible for crazy and dangerous GP policy. And voila, yesterday, billboards started appearing using Ansell-esque PR techniques to connect Labour with the GP, and smear the both of them with anti-environmental, anti-people lies. The billboard owners have connections with both ACT and Federated Farmers.
Trotter and co were on it,
thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/08/30/breaking-update-on-dirt-alert/
thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/08/30/exclusive-dirt-alert-are-the-greens-and-labour-about-to-become-the-targets-of-a-major-negative-advertising-campaign/
thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/08/31/third-party-propaganda-attacks-incoming-labour-led-government/
Looks like the dirty dozen (or two) got their timing wrong with Kategate though.
Yep, all part of the same Dirty Politics plan. Nasty and vindictive from National as per normal. They really are a nasty bunch.
How fantastic that yesterday’s email wasn’t part of the #whaledump haul. The VRWC is eating itself.
Nom nom nom Prime Minister. Jason (my office) Ede’s up next 😈
Let The Hunger Games begin….
more is promised today .. facebook twixt collins and slater. and there is a special edition of The Nation at 10 am TV3.
Ah, well, I’m working today. Will catch up on it later.
And it seems Odger lost her Hong Kong job as a result of the latest revelations.
All the financier’s men
Those emails I suspect.
hotchins must have been paying her a fuck of alot given she would be on megabucks as a hong kong tax consultant. Lots is never enough to people like this.
Meanwhile colins party has some nutjobs who should worry us. SST reports one who is speechifying in south auckland about a link between removing s59 defence and youth suicide, despite all evidence to the contrary and south auckland kids are going on the game for pocket money and getting Std… All cos od decriminalisation of prostitution.
God save NZ from the right wing christians
Getting paid while also getting to play at being powerful? I’d say that it’s got everything your average, run of the mill psychopath wants in a job.
Fun as yesterday was, we still have an election to win. Today, I’m walking the streets of Patea and Waverley to help Labour and my mate Hamish McDouall. Less than 3 weeks to go, comrades, and there’s work to be done.
+1
+1,000 so how do we do this
“..5 Reasons Booze Is Deadlier than Heroin and Other Drugs That’ll Land You in Jail.
No other drugs even come close..”
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/5-reasons-booze-deadlier-heroin-and-other-drugs-thatll-land-you-jail
U like lee childs on pot? I likE
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20147816
he talks about pot @ approx 21 mins in..
Booze is no laughing matter, it’s a killer and it’s amazing that weed is demonised from within a booze- soaked culture, but it is no way at all more dangerous than heroin. You are such a debatemonger, Phillip.
It’s sort of a mixed bag with heroin. Theoretically, if your Heroin is clean and you always practice proper hygiene, not sharing needles and being careful with the dosage Heroin is extremely well tolerated by the body and will cause no lasting damage. The danger with heroin is the dose to over-dose ratio which is extremely thin not to mention impurities in the cook and that junkies tend to practice dangerous habits like needle sharing etc.
I agree with you. The scenario was not defined, which is why the ambiguous “more dangerous than…” was so obviously a bit of exaggeration for debate’s sake. Right now Phillip is sitting back having a good old chuckle…
I wonder if Phil chuckles, or talks, the way he writes?
If you’ve got kidney problems, heroin can make them worse. I can’t see how the appropriate medical treatment for this is a prison sentence, but then I’m probably a bit slow.
Bryan Gould would be an ideal member of The radio New Zealand panel on Jim Mora’s Afternoon show.
Too informed and not right wing enough for Mora’s producers.
Yep
Agree with TRP there.
Entertaining yesterday but…
Focus on getting out the vote people.
LPrent .. looks like you have been working through the night resolving the issues for TS .. thank you for looking after us all as this history unravels. I would be lost without you.
Still can’t get the auto spam. Fixed some other niggly issues.
Yes good job but why the new font?
Liking the new font, Lprent, much easier on the eyes.
And here’s me thinking it was bloody horrible.
San-serif fonts are also called “grotesque”, so you are not far wrong in a way, lol.
San-serif fonts are slightly harder to read in big blocks without proper kearning and line spacing (that’s one of the reasons serifs exist!) but as I said below, they are friendlier.
Some advice, if I may, to those writing large amounts is to paragraph diligently in order to avoid big blocks of text.
looks all washed out and patchy to me. Sorry to say. But an adjustment of the Cleartype makes it a little better. my res is 1366×768 on an Asus Laptop
+1. It looks great.
Open Sans. The main reason for going to it was that it is available across all devices (gets rid of nitpicky layout issues using a common font) and is very clear on small hires devices like tablets where the available serif fonts look clunky, dark, and unclear.
As usual it is a tradeoff. In this case lower res large screens look better in the times roman. But there are fewer of those around every year.
“But there are fewer of those around every year.”
Do you know what the percentages are roughly?
Sorry Lynn, but it is bloody terrible. I am a Typographer by trade and would rather crawl over broken glass than use Open Sans for comments on a website. But then, I am a purist.
There is a reason that serif fonts are used for this type of work and it is because they are easier on the eye and the kerning is optimised for reading rather than display.
What were the serif options?
According to Matthew Hooton, he was told (yesterday?) that the Prime Ministers office received the letter containing the email on WEDNESDAY. Therefore the PM knew about this on Wednesday (don’t try to tell me he didn’t). but chose not to do anything with it.
I wonder why? Surely he did’nt think it would affect the leaders debate? If he won the debate, which he clearly didn’t, he could have ignored it. Because he lost he now chooses to use it to show how Prime Ministerial he is?
How cynical is he!
Just ’cause the PM’s office knows something, doesn’t mean the PM himself does…
Puleeeeze!
Kenny-Don’t buy any gospel according to Matthew Hooten.
I’d bet Key has had the email since 2011-not Wednesday. But what else has he in his ‘top drawer’? He’s admitted he’s got a drawer full of useful incriminating stuff.
Hi Rodel – I buy into it precisely because it is from Hooton. If you saw him on Q & A this morning you would know that the shit is about to hit the fan. He’s in utu mood.
yes but thats his office. He didnt see it til friday night. I am not sure if by “I” he meant him. Wayne Eagleston would be out and about with Key wouldnt he, not in the office. SO wayne eagleston withheld it from key for two days…
Interesting. If that’s so, then Key would have known about it before the Leaders’ debate on Thursday night. Many people said he was off his gamer then. And Cunliffe did put some pressure on him re-Colllins.
Andrew Geddis essentialises perfectly in Blue on Blue at Pundit ( link on right hand side of this page):
“Just so we’re absolutely clear about this: Judith Collins didn’t resign because of anything Nicky Hager did. Rather, she resigned because Cathy Odgers gave the PM’s office an email that neither Nicky Hager nor the hacker who stole a bunch of other information had seen, in which a certain blogger whom we don’t name said some stuff about Judith Collins that she claims is absolutely false.
Is this is the best political scandal ever, or what?”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-31082014/#comment-876768
miravox has it in a nutshell
Camoron Slater will be rushing down to the police station to have Odgers and Key charged with stealing private emails!
Slater has already laid a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner about Key releasing his email.
Biggest joke of course is Collins was Minister charged with overseeing the Privacy Commission !
Further evidence of the corporates attacking Science ( as shown in Dirty Politics) to maximise their profits! Supported by Slater, his cabal, the media and members of our government.
It’ll be interesting to see Latta’s look at sugar in his excellent series this week.
“The NZ Food & Grocery Council has flown in British anti-tax campaigner Chris Snowdon to lobby against soft drink taxes, in a move described by health researchers as suspicious.
Following Dirty Politics’ allegations that the council ran sponsored posts on the Whale Oil blog, the industry group has drawn further controversy for inviting Snowdon to give a speech titled “growing calls for taxes on sugar and why such taxes do not work”.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/wellbeing/10443122/Anti-sugar-campaigners-wowsers
@ paul..
..and the name behind this is ..ta-daa..!
..katherine rich..
She is mentioned in Dirty Politics book.
The moderators over at the other place are going nuts. Sit there and watch the adverse comments coming up, then minutes later dissappear….they cant keep up though….so they sit there for a few minutes before they can get to them. Hilarious.
Lots of questions being asked by the “army”….but the high priest isnt answering them!
A liar. That is all he is. Problem being, I think he may well have to state that under oath sometime in the near future along with JC also under oath.
Truth always prevails Cam!
exactly I made a quick post about the connection between Slater and Hotchin within 2 minutes it was gone ,the house of cards is falling down.
Nice new font. Very modern and much friendlier.
i am getting really interested in the second-tier players in this most-welcomed brouhaha..
..the edes/lusks/farrars/richs..
..and all of those craven media-trouts who have been doing the bidding of these grotesques..
parker hoisted on the petard of his own bullshit…
..parker said this the other day..and i said nothing..tongue bleeding from biting it..
..but here he is now repeating it..
..he seems determined to push this bullshit..that somehow labour last time promising to include welfare-families in working for familes..by fucken 2018..(!)..
..was the reason labour lost the last election..
..and he is arguing this is why he is giving his baby-bonus to people earning a hundred grand a year..
..so..summary:..
..labour are promising to do absolutely nothing for the childless poor..
..but are promising a $60 per wk ‘bonus’..for those earning $100,00..
..does any of this sound at all familiar..?
..clarks’ crocodile-tears over families ‘struggling’ on seventy grand a year..to justify giving them middle-class welfare..?
..all the while she resolutely ignored those families/children living in real poverty..?
..those really ‘struggling’..?
..i’m getting deja vu flashbacks here..
Yep. It’s getting hard to be around the seemingly nice folks at the Labour stand at the local market without rushing over to… have a “robust discussion”. Do those volunteers know what they’re championing? Dispensing Slow Death, the cowards way. I have to keep telling myself they’re just plain ig’nant and to just ignore them. What makes me maddest is the total betrayal. National don’t care, that was always a given, but Labour lied and betrayed when they knew they were the only alternative. With about 20 days to go, I’ll have to stop going to get my noodles. There were four cops standing ten metres away from them this week. Not such a co-incidence.
Susan Woods on Q and A. She looks like she has been crying…
So, anyone now think Trevor Mallard’s bike race stunt with Cameron Slater was a good idea? Did any sane person think so at the time?
No, and no.
Mallard can not now get the Speaker role. Nor a sweet ambassadorial role. Poor Trev. Talkback host maybe?
Or Clare Curran’s guest post up on Slater’s blog.
Well, he made Slater look like a numpty. That’s a good idea in my book. Can’t say I’m really too bothered what happens to Mallard.
Has Steven Joyce had a breakdown of some kind? It is not unheard of in the last weeks of a campaign when candidates disappear for a few days for a “rest”.
I think you will find he is staying right out of it, and when all is revealed and his Nat. Party opponents have one by one been exposed… he will reappear with his personal halo glowing like a newly minted golden orb.
a seagull called Rawshark might have some deposits to spoil that freshly minted golden orb … weeks to go …
Too early to Re-Joyce you think?
😀
( and greywarbler, I miss chooky ! Time to come back.)
what happened to the chook..?
..i am noticing the absence of the ‘bad’…
..he was a major contributor to any quality discourse..
(two comments in a row have ‘worked’..is it fixed..?..)
@phillip ure
Why don’t you and bad have some dingdongs on whoar eh! Or is bad too erratic to want something that would be beneficial to both of you?
Yes Come back Chooky. Just pick out the choice worms to feed us and get us interested and give us the links for further info. Some here seem to read everything but I am pleased to sample some of the linked item as chances are I won’t have seen it otherwise.
And put your thoughts beside link – they are informative as well.
the golden orb will contrast nicely with the novopay millstone around his neck
Joyce,Goebbels?
We don’t want that liar to come within earshot of the media.
He is a spin doctor of the highest order, that conspired by using taxpayers money to lie with phoney studies, when he destroyed Gisborne rail.
He needs to be investigated under Crimes act 116, as Hooten suggested be done to Collins, Kaye and PM.
He is resting in the large intestines of the large bureaucratic whale he created?
John Key has raised the subject of the flag before, I think it is time again to raise this serious political issue, but this time as to where on our flag we put the Banana!
😈
Ladies and gentlemen, i give you, blind faith:
“However, with an orchestrated attack on John Key started by Crim Dotcon and with the compliant media, the only way John Key can survive is if people completely ignore the media and trust John Key.”
(36 upticks at you know where)
Matthew Hootons face turned bright red when asked if he was involved .
Hope Kathryn Ryan starts asking Hooton a lot tougher questions on 9 to Noon. Otherwise remove him from his privileged position on a public broadcaster to propagate his extreme viewpoints.
Hope Jim Mora also bothers to ask Jordan Williams and David Farrar a lot of difficult questions on the Panel in return for giving them free publicity to air their noxious views on the world.
RNZ facing spotlight if this does not happen.
Joyce controls our public broadcasting, as his distant relative William Joyce et al Lord Haw Haw did on NAZI Germany 1942 radio to demoralise the allied forces.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joyce
We need a wide ranging immediate enquiry into right wing political use of our public broadcaster during this the most corrupted election in NZ history.
RNZ shouldn’t be using Hooton at all. He has a clear conflict of interest (between being involved both professionally and personally, and being asked to comment independently). RNZ also have a clear conflict of interest and their independent commentator spot is now compromised. If they want to talk to him, they should be interviewing him.
Ditto DPF.
and twice when asked, he closed his eyes as he said: “No” .. classic ‘tell’ for lying.
When asked if he had anything to do with dirty trick he kept shifting the subject!
and face kept getting redder!
Machiavellian Henchman is in on every level no way he isn’t !
Saying he got tipped off by low level staffer yeah right!
Defending Jason Ede yeah right
Every opportunity Hooton shifted the blame away from Key !
So Hooton knows how deep Keys is in this !
Key is in this right up to his eyeballs !
Even Hooton trying to inoculate Key!
By predicting Facebook may prove Collins was involved in undermining Feely!
Hootons blood pressure hit the roof as he spun himself out of I predict collusion with Slater!
Key is running out of friends rapidly!
National are in massive trouble the SFO has been compromised over Hotchin and possibly SCF as was alluded to in recent court case saying their is something dodgy about the govts rushing through the govt deposit guarantee scheme costing taxpayers $1.6 billion.
Because of the size and fraud around SCF ,plus now we know at the same time Collins and Slaters undermining of the SFO happened at the same time the SFO were looking into SCF an open inquiry is necessary!
Hope something comes out about the lack of oversight of SCF and the rushed payments to SCF investors. What happened to buyer beware?
Hooton spinning himself into his own web!
Hooton on Q+A (ch501)
“Well he’s [Slator] threatened to burn my house down….”
And Slator is deemed to be a fit and proper person to own/use firearms?
awe but gee wizz, he was only joking eh?
Exactly. With the number of threats he has made and allowed to be made on his blog he simply must have any firearms licences revoked.
It will be very interesting to see where what the fat slug is in another couple of years.
Prison.
Israel. Unless something there drastically changes, they have the only government foul enough to want anything to do with him.
Is Brook Sabin just another example of a compromised member of the media?
Carrack Graham, Cameron Slater, Brook Sabin…all sons of National MPs.
Mmmmm
pushes away plate of schadenfreude
I can’t… I couldn’t possibly eat any more…
well maybe just a little bite..
pace yrslf..!
..there is still that assange/greenwald/dotcom spook-dump feast five days out from the election to be savoured..
..you wouldn’t want to be already over-fed when that rolls around..
An odd & frankly very troubling example of the extremes of Intellectual Property protectionism
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10443229/Stools-don-t-sit-comfortably-together
The Blue stool got banned from a NZ design competition because it is ‘too similar’ to the older Red/Black ones.
After reading the first few paragraphs then looking at the pics I was like ‘yeah they are pretty similar’ but then I looked a bit closer and really they are very significantly different.
The structure & proportions of the blue one are fundamentally completely different to the red/black.
The blue one has a kinda similar seat with angled back but even that has at least 3 quite significant differences.
I’d argue that if the blue is infringing the IP of the red/black one, then the latter has at least as much IP conflict with the common wire dish drying rack.
This is a good example of how intellectual property laws are preventing people from being creative and innovative.
Perhaps this unravelling of Collins might also see fresh sunshine in to the messes she made trying to dismantle ACC.
John Judge might be smiling this morning, along with the Canadian judge and Joe Karam, and who knows how many others she has quietly punched out along her bruising and bullying way.
Mr Key has a lot of questions to answer,clearly he has mismanaged this atrocious greedy government.His ability to hoodwink the MSM has been clearly established and surely it’s time for the MSM to call him and his shonkey team to account.Can’t wait to hear how his poodle Mike Hosking can find more wiggle room.
Hoskings will construct a sentence which includes the words conspiracy, left wing and john key I love.
I can’t let that comment go by Tommo – Poodles all over the world will be HORRIFIED at being compared to Mike Hosking!! Everyone knows that a poodle would have a much classier haircut than Hosking and a greater amount of class and brains too! Hosking looks much more like Stan Laurel!!
Henchman Hooton is rapidly becoming a massive liability for National!
Given his close association with Key Odgers Slater .
Who he now claims he has virtually no connections with just shows how Team Key can LIE their way through anything!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joyce
See History of Steven Joyce’s relative who conspired against us and joined Germany to spread propaganda, so be warned you don’t want Joyce as Prime Minister, Read the link.,
Don’t want a liar called Steven Joyce anywhere near the prime ministerial job, he is behind the National dirt campaign entirely and needs investigating also under Crimes act 116.
Joyce used phoney taxpayer studies to kill BERL GDC studies proving Gisborne rail was viable.
He is like his distant relative William Joyce that switched to NAZI sympathiser by beaming NAZI radio propaganda to Britain and the allies during WW2.
This one is his copy, a NATIONAL propaganda minister.
Wallace Chapman’s simpering interview with Lee Child
Radio NZ National, Sunday 31 August 2014
A good deal of this morning’s programme has been taken up with analysis of the floundering National Party campaign, which is sinking after one of its dirty bombs backfired on it. But no doubt a lot of listeners would have been tuning in for the interview, after the ten o’clock news, with best-selling thriller writer Lee Child.
I’ve heard Child talking before, and I wasn’t exactly expecting a liberal or a deep thinker. But I didn’t think he’d be quite as depraved as he turned out to be. And true to form, Wallace Chapman acted like a slavering fanboy instead of a journalist. Following are some of the lowlights….
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Born Jim Grant, he became Lee Child, best-selling author. His hero Jack Reacher travels light, armed with a toothbrush, a fierce sense of combat, and dishing rough justice, occasionally cropping up to help solve a crime. He is back, with a new book, called Personal. Reacher is on a mission to hunt down a sniper….
The first part of the interview concerns Child’s former job, working as a union organizer at Granada Television. According to Jim Grant himself, he was a real tough guy….
LEE CHILD: In a way we were like Reacher, you know, no holds barred, we did what we needed to do.
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Hm hm hm hm hm!
Later…..
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Where does the character of Jack Reacher come from?
LEE CHILD: I just closed my eyes and typed the story, and Reacher is what came out. On reflection, clearly, he’s an ancient character. This is the mysterious stranger, the knight errant who shows up in the nick of time, solves the problem and then rides off into the sunset. We’ve seen this story over and over again through the centuries and I think Reacher is just a modern version of one of those guys.
WALLACE CHAPMAN: He’s a Robin Hood character, and obviously he must have some resonance. The people I’ve talked to here in New Zealand admire him. It’s almost like they KNOW Jack Reacher, including the CEO of this company, ha ha ha ha! He’s a —ha ha ha!—huge fan of the Jack Reacher character. People love it! I’m just wondering, is it also a little bit about the man against the world, or the person against the world? The fact that he is beholden to no one, kind of a warrior of justice, standing up for the little person.
LEE CHILD: I think that’s exactly what it is, and I’ve noticed that too, I mean New Zealand is the absolute world capital of Reacher madness.
WALLACE CHAPMAN: IS it?
LEE CHILD: Yeah, I have more fans there per head of population than anywhere, I think. And I think that must be because New Zealanders see themselves the same way, you know, rough and tough, wanting to stay out of trouble, but if the chips are down, they will do the right thing. And I think that’s really what resonates around the world. We would all like to do the right thing, we would like to be brave, and of course most of the time we CAN’T be, because you know you see some injustice at work and you can’t really do anything about it otherwise you’ll get fired too. Everybody is a little inhibited, scared here and there, and so to read in a book, this character doing what you’d really like to do yourself I think is inspiring.
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Hmmmm. But it’s also that type of character who not only has a sense of fair play but oh my God is he tough! I’m just reading Reacher’s Rules, including: “Use a switchblade to slice the web of a guy’s thumb”… phwoar….
LEE CHILD: Ha ha ha ha ha!
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Ha ha! I mean: “Painful and real disincentive against holding pistols again until they have healed, which could be a long time depending on their approach to nutrition and antisepsis.” [nervously] Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
LEE CHILD: Ha ha ha ha! Well, that’s the thing with Reacher. He’s got a heart of gold, but he’s not a goody-goody. You know, he will get the job done in the most brutal way imaginable. Which I think also resonates with people.
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Ha ha ha!
LEE CHILD: I mean, people are FED UP with all these rules—
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Ha ha!
LEE CHILD: I mean, if you want to do something, just DO it.
WALLACE CHAPMAN: [laughing timidly] Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. …. Another thing is the finely honed information that you have in your books. For instance I learned a lot about AK-47s, just a quote here, it’s fascinating: “What does the panicky grunt do under fire? He grabs his rifle and pulls the trigger. Our guns go from Safe to Single Shot to Full Auto, which is nice and linear and logical, but they knew that 99 times in a hundred, their guys would panic and ram the selector all the way home and thereby empty a whole magazine in a single hasty shot. So the AK’s selector goes SAFE then FULL AUTO, then SINGLE SHOT. Not linear, not logical, but certainly practical. …..[Pause to convey wonderment]….Who would have known?
Later….
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Tell me, Lee, why did you choose an American anti-hero?.. You’ve really taken America and American culture to heart, haven’t you!
LEE CHILD: I like America and I like American people. ….
A little later….
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Of all the fans the world over, Bill Clinton is a huge fan!
LEE CHILD: [reverently] He’s a huge reader of all sorts of books, a man of big appetites…..
The fan interview continues for another fifteen minutes, but I’ll spare you the rest.
I just had to send Wallace Chapman the following email…..
Lee Child’s casual contempt for law and human rights
Dear Wallace,
After you quoted a nasty torture scene from one of his books, Lee Child chortled and replied: “Well, that’s the thing with Reacher: he’s got a heart of gold, but he’s no goody-good. He does whatever it takes to get the job done. People are tired of rules.”
That’s a casual endorsement of violent, lawless thuggery—and it’s especially ironic coming in the middle of a morning dominated by the revelations about the flagrant contempt for rules by our government and its henchmen.
I was concerned that you did not even so much as demur at what Lee Child said.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
Whaledump is back. First twitter post for over a week (no releases as yet) but its funny as are the comments.
https://twitter.com/whaledump/status/505867707020226560
Live pregnant cow shipments to China by Fonterra … thousands of the poor beasties going to live in Chinese conditions .. story yesterday overlooked by many I suspect.
What a foul and awful trade to sell and ship pregnant cows into conditions that are illegal in this country. Bloody bloody awful,
http://m.tvnz.co.nz/news/business/6067933
Makes me sick to my stomach. Where are the SPCA on this issue? Nowhere to be seen as usual.
Another thing that worries me is why the hell are we selling cows to foreign countries, instead of selling the dairy products? Stupid move! it is selling the goose that lays the golden eggs! Just sell the eggs and keep the geese! sell the wool and keep the sheep. Sell the kiwi fruit and keep the trees.
Despite there being a downward trend in youth suicide statistics since “anti-smacking” law change in 2007,
ConservativeIdiot Party candidate lies about increase in youth suicide due to law changelink
More Dirty Politics from the right…….
John Ansell confirms his participation in anti-Green’s billboard campaign.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/08/31/exclusive-deja-vu-all-over-again-john-ansell-confirms-his-participation-in-anti-greens-billboard-campaign/
Note to “George”: She’s gone. She’s no longer “in the team”.
Who said Judith Collins has no friends left? The dear old bewildered regulars over at Blubber Blog are all dying to express their love for her. My favorite is this one by “George” (possibly Cameron Slater himself) which right now has garnered 52 Up votes:
“Judith we could fill Eden Park 50 times over with people who love you and your dynamic personality and gutsiness. You have taken one for the team. You’re on the bench but still in the squad. You’ll be back. Take a rest and then let us witness you in full flight soon. Thank goodness you’re in the team….”
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2014/08/face-day-352/
They are certainly not here today.
Don’t worry, Paul, they’re here all right. They’re just regrouping. This has been a very bad two weeks for them, and it just keeps getting worse.
If Slater had any common sense, leave alone decency or ethics, he would slither away under a rock for a month or so, and refrain from commenting on politics. Since he has none of those traits, it’s worth keeping an eye on him, if only for the dubious pleasure of watching the most foul-mouthed suicide note in history.
I thought he was the rock that they slithered under!!!
eeek … not that
use this? http://www.donotlink.com/bf80
I see what you’ve done there, Kiwiri, and I’m impressed. But I can’t understand why you’ve done it. Is there a problem with giving the Blubber Blog link direct?
The way it boosts his revenue stream. Also it feels dirty.
Hello Morrissey,
Some info at:
http://www.donotlink.com/dnl/faq
http://skeptools.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/do-not-link-donotlink-ethically-criticize-seo-nofollow/
Hope that helps.
Thanks very much Kiwiri. Very interesting indeed.
The effigy burns 4pm our time.
ustream.tv/burningman
Math according to Whaleoil regular: “Judith Collins = Anna Politkovskaya”
LOON WATCH No. 3: Wild Colonial Man
For sheer unhinged madness, the place to go is still the hilariously deranged Blubber Blog….
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Judith Collins has done good work-and this man likes nothing better that Women on the front foot for Freedom. Magnificent to watch at work are the Judith Collins of our day. Taking on the Socialist-Communist-Left establishment has its risks: Anna Stepanova Politkovskaya, born 30th August 1958, Moscow, was an outstanding writer, journalist, and lady of compassion and bravery…
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2014/08/face-day-352/#comment-1566985584
More lunacy if you can bear it….
No. 2 Illegal “settlers” in the Occupied West Bank
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15122013/#comment-745176
No. 1 Philippe Karsenty
http://thestandard.org.nz/26052011/#comment-334310
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10443905/Smacking-bans-suicide-link
/facepalm
Urge to repeatedly kick this moron in the nuts is high.
1) Suicide risk is linked to stress, particularly in low income situations or unemployment (NB: issues with LGBT individuals in pacifica community? Known driver of suicide), so yes, suicide rates would have climbed with rising unemployment etc. More so in maori and pacific island groups due to them being hit my unemployment far more significantly than europeans in NZ.
2) Other issues “cited” by Saafi are also linked to deprivation and poverty, resulting from stress driving people into short term, high gain activities, while discounting long term costs completely, or are so stressed out they are easily taken advantage of by shitlords.
3) ” “Once you pass it, children, rather than doing what mum and dad says, they go and commit suicide. It opens up another thing they could do,” Saafi, who holds a doctorate in biomedicine, said.”
= pure rage inducing stupidity, and for someone holding a university degree, a sign the individual might have the ability to pass, but that sure as hell haven’t learnt anything, making them a learned idiot, aka a morosoph. More so given there is a body of research on this subject said idiot is conveniently ignoring despite having a science degree…
4) Claiming smacking has been banned is fractally wrong. The changes to the legislation basically made it possible for the police to prosecute cases of violence against children that before were defended by claiming it was “discipline”. And I’m not talking about smacks, more hitting kids hard enough to leave bruises via cords, metal tubes, riding crops, sticks and fists, the sort of stuff that any person with normal empathy responses would look at in horror. Ye olde hand/hairbrush to the butt however is still legal, but hey, why bother with the legal reality when you can spin a disgusting lie instead?
So yeah, fuck Edward Saafi for this bullshit and fuck the conservatives for thinking this sort of mindless bullshit is even acceptable.
What you say is true, from your point of view, and I agree with you. The trouble is that it is also “racist”, in the way that any enforcement of a cultural view onto Tongan matters from outside of any variation of Tongan family culture might be. If he gets any traction for his ideas, it’ll be for reasons unknown to outsiders. Telling people that bashing their kids is wrong, is as good on as many levels as it is wrong. But don’t worry, I’m not calling you racist, that’s why it’s in inverted commas. It might be frustrating, but the world does not revolve around what the government of yesteryear or tomorrow thinks best.
Bonus dormitat Homerus
Taking an uncharacteristically thoughtless Gordon Campbell to task
The normally excellent Gordon Campbell let himself down earlier this year by foolishly repeating a key trope of the pathetic, confused, failed Gore presidential campaign. He did this while struggling to analyse the potential impact of Kim Dotcom’s new party. I wrote a reply on his blog, but he ignored it.
It seems to me, however, that the objection I raised still stands—now more than ever…..
CAMPBELL: “Dotcom has the potential to split the existing anti-Key, centre left vote – in much the same way that Ralph Nader did in the 2000 US election….”
BREEN: That statement concerns me very much. You seem to be buying into the Democratic Party line of blaming Nader for “spoiling” Al Gore’s chances in 2000. Of course, it was not Ralph Nader who told Gore to pointedly stay away from union meetings, to continue the anti-Cuban rhetoric and to express his endorsement of the regimes in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Israel (amongst others). As Nader himself pointed out, he gave Al Gore a program, and Gore and his ingenious “strategy” team were free to take as much of it into their own campaign as they liked.
Similarly, the Labour Party could take up Dotcom’s entirely mainstream views-–free and open internet, freedom from government and corporate snooping and censorship—and get all those Dotcom supporters voting Labour. It’s up to Labour, of course—but if they choose to ignore what Dotcom’s saying, they have only themselves to blame.
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2014/01/16/gordon-campbell-on-dotcom-and-recent-events-at-scoop/
@morrissey..
..i wd question yr contention that nader didn’t give the world bush jnr..and the assorted clusterfucks that flowed from that..’serious’ clusterfucks..
..the election result numbers blow yr theory out of the water..
..tho’ i agree that many of the internet/mana policies are sensible/mainstream/logical..
..and yes..labour should have already gone with them..
..tho’ i don’t agree with campbells’ contention that int/mana will ‘split’ the left vote..(?!)..
..he is talking apples and oranges..’
..we have mmp..those votes are not lost to the progressive-camp..
..under f.p.p…as in america..nader split the vote..and gave us ‘the shrub’..
..the numbers don’t lie..
“tho’ i don’t agree with campbells’ contention that int/mana will ‘split’ the left vote..(?!).”
Agreed, at the moment they don’t poll enough to split a banana.
The fault for Gore’s defeat lies squarely with Gore and his fantastically weak-kneed advisers—in particular Warren Christopher, who decided not to demand a recount after the Bush team had stolen thousands of votes in Florida.
Nader, one of the few genuinely decent and intellectual people to have ever run for the Presidency, ran because Gore had ignored, indeed shunned, the traditional Democratic Party base.
If Gore and his high-powered advisers had possessed an ounce of common sense, they would have taken many, or indeed all, of Nader’s policies. They chose not to, and even tried to have Nader excluded from the ballot in many states.
What is it about Gore that leads you to believe he would have presided over a regime significantly better than the Bush regime? Has Obama done that?
i agree with all you say about nader/gore/failures of democrat party..
..and the post-election debacle/clusterfuck in florida..
..but the mathematical realities of first past the post electoral systems..
..mean that nader running gave us bush jnr..and all that he wrought..
..and you claim..that one of the first warners on global warming..
..would have been a worse president than one of the worst american presidents ever..?
.whoar..!
..that’s some serious disconnection/revisionism you’ve got going on there..!
Hearing on Dirty Politics to be held 9 days BEFORE the election.
Dynamite….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11316940
All the financier’s men
Some excerpts…
“The campaign included attacks on the credibility of the Financial Markets Authority and the Serious Fraud Office, as well as attacks on Hanover critic and then-Shareholder’s Association head Bruce Sheppard. At the time of the campaign, Sheppard was a defendant in a now-settled defamation suit brought by Hotchin.”
“How much the trio were paid for their role in the campaign is not made clear in the documents, but in a 2012 email to Taxpayers Union head Jordan Williams discussing how much he charged for his services, Slater implied the sums involved would be substantial.”
“One piece of chaos and mayhem cooked up by Graham, Slater and Odgers involved the latter writing an op-ed for the New Zealand Herald in April 2012.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/10442831/All-the-financiers-men
Given Odgers Jeeves group has connection to huge money laundering and organized crime!
This whole right wing need investigating!
security watchdog is to hold a hearing nine days b4 the election..into the sis-file..
..slater has been subpoenaed today – to appear..
..and key says he has also been subpoenaed..
Whoever writes the new poll on Yahoo!NZ is at it again:
Today’s question.
“What do you think?
Can National win the election given Collins’ resignation?”
Yes
73%(1847)
No
22%(565)
I don’t know
5%(133)
Related Link
John Key hoping Dirty Politics saga has ended.
The results will not alter by more than 1 or 2 % points no matter how many votes are cast.
It poll HAS to be rigged. Yesterday’s question was: ‘Are prisoners in NZ prisons treated well enough? (OWTTE)
87% YES.
Anyone know how to get in touch with a human being involved with Yahoo?
Boag vs Hooton on Radio Live this morning on Mark Sainsbury’s show (Sunday)
Explosive 10.10 to 10.15 a.m.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Audio.aspx
The National Party descending into Civil War
So many things mentioned here it’s worth a post on its own.
That was intense. Hooton is fired up. Boag doesn’t seem to care one jot about the direction Key’s office has taken the country.
Eagleson seems to have a lot to answer for. A lot.
Just can’t see how Boag and co can just sweep this under the carpet. Surely the dirty ops culture of this government is unprecedented in New Zealand’s modern history. The strategy of these enablers seems to be, “it’s minor, I don’t care, nobody cares”.
that is a must-listen..
..and make sure you skip thru the ads..
..radio live really soaks their listeners in ads..
..(which is why i never listen to it..’till now..)
..and hoots doing his nut/losing his rag at boag..
..really is a treat for sore ears..
I read a comment on another forum from one of these #Teamkey apologists stating that the 95% of kiwis who have no interest in politics will not have the faintest idea what is going on and will not be swayed by this “left wing conspiracy”. It is beltway, that person said.
That’s the thing, the national party, and their supporters including Boag above have an agenda to not educate the 95% on what happens in parliament. They are most interested in keeping this explosive detail in the beltway thereby ensuring a culture of corruption in the New Zealand government is of no importance to anyone in the public at large.
I don’t believe it and think it is convenient myth-making propaganda for the right (and sometimes the left).
This from today’s Colmar Brunton suggests quite a high level of understanding the political issues (by high I mean for the general public, not the people that have been living on the internet since DP came out)
The latest poll also asked if people respondents believe John Key when he says he was not personally informed about the release of SIS information to blogger Cameron Slater.
While 41% said they do believe him, 44% say they don’t and 14% said they didn’t know.
And I agree a post of it’s own. Michelle asking Mathew what he is taking.
Mathew is going on about the beehive interfering in contracts awarded to him by government through the correct government procurement contract and then the experiences of others in the same area. So Michelle asks him to be more specific and he goes, oh that one was Steven Joyce’s office.
Coffee everywhere I’m afraid. Just how far does this extend.
Yeah, I had to say I enjoyed that bit, and Hooton just dropping Joyce’s name in like that was a delight.
The rest of the time, it’s starting to make me feel sick.
And Duncan Garner being quite happy not to interrupt. Pam was amateur hour compared to this.
YAY! I’m no longer being spam-dunked. And for the record I like the look of the new font but find reading large blocks of print a bit hard.
+1. Let’s promote paragraphs 🙂
“Prime Minister John Key has confirmed he has received a subpoena to appear before the Inspector General of Security and Intelligence for a closed hearing nine days before the election.”
And so the focus turns to the PM…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11316940
Forgive my cynicism, but he is trying to do his laundry and get it dry before the election.
Behind closed doors, and no word as to whether evidence will be given under oath, or even the terms of it. smells bad to me; and run by a Key appointee. I feel a Tui ad coming on.
Definitely smells
Here is David Farrar’s endorsement of the Inspector General.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/tag/cheryl_gwyn.
[The new Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security
April 24th, 2014 at 11:00 am by David Farrar
The Herald report:
Experienced lawyer Cheryl Gwyn will be put in charge of monitoring New Zealand’s spying and intelligence activities, Prime Minister John Key revealed this morning.
Ms Gwyn will take over the job of Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security to replace Andrew McGechan QC, a former High Court Judge who was appointed on an interim basis in July.
She is the deputy Solicitor-General at Crown Law, and has previously been a partner at two legal firms, Deputy Secretary for Justice, Acting Solicitor General and chief executive at Crown Law.
Her office will have a larger, more proactive role as a result of Government Communications Security Bureau reforms which passed into law last year.
The reforms increased the scope and resourcing of the oversight regime, and widened the pool of candidates for the Inspector-General role beyond former High Court judges.]
———
David Farrar’s comment:
The combination of Kitteridge becoming SIS Head and Gwyn becoming Inspector-General is a clear sign that the Government is very focused on ensuring the intelligence agencies act within both the letter and spirit of the law, and that there are no more stuff ups such as occurred at the GCSB.
Retired judges have tended to be not particularly pro-active as Inspector-General. I think Ms Gwyn will be a very pro-active Inspector-General – in line with her new powers.
So they are asking Kiwis to believe this secret hearing can do anything real?
Secret hearings, secret testimony, secret findings. What could possibly go wrong?
Secret hearings, secret testimony, secret findings – these are exceedingly conducive factors for dirty politics to thrive.
Secret hearings must be rejected.
Secret testimony must be rejected.
Secret findings must be rejected.
Greatly needed: independence of inquiry, full transparency and public hearings, as well as open disclosure and public scrutiny.
was she CEO or deputy Solicitor General at Crown Law when this happened ? With the greatest respect to Ms Gwyn, there are so many ways she is compromised. We had a post a week or so ago about it, but I can’t find it again. But look at her CV … she has worked in all of the offices of the people involved in this, except PM. I don’t have high hopes, unless she is the bravest and brightest woman possible !
She was recently appointed by the Prime Minister, is it not? That casts doubts and negates full confidence in this inquiry. I think an independent JUDICIAL inquiry by a high court or supreme court Judge is more appropriate!
Did she call for this inquiry on her own or did Key himself ask her to hold one? Who is she answerable to? Who can oversee or review the inquiry to make sure this isn’t all just a jack up?
Greatly needed: independence of the inquiry – a panel of people whose ongoing employment would not have been or would not be dependent on or related to the government who has been in deep shit over this.
A judge, a fiercely intelligent and independent legal and jurist, who has retired (retired, i.e. has security of pension and has had a career record that cannot or will not be under pressure or jeopardised by virtue of involvement in the inquiry) needs to lead this.
As this is a small country and given our closely interconnected professional, personal and political relationships, it would be very challenging to find such a person who would not be beholden or biased to the government that has been implicated. A legal mind from overseas may be required.
YesYeshe. I believe that the poachers are there to turn a blind eye to the other poachers.
no word as to whether evidence will be given under oath
with the gang involved and what Dirty Politics reveal, would anyone who has been closely following the scandals actually believe those involved would tell the truth and provide full disclosure even if they give their evidence under oath??
the truth will be in the evidence that can be found and their digital footprints before those get destroyed.
No. Key is not down to appear. His office is but so far not including Key. In Paul’s link. Remember Key is Office but not really. Separate from Key. Weird.
The picture grows.
https://twitter.com/architectus33/status/505942677868019712
I don’t think you’re being cynical, yeshe – I think you’re being realistic. I’m betting this closed doors hearing won’t have an outcome until after the election.
Slater’s colostomy bag appears to have burst. He’s now attacking the prime minister directly in defence of himself and his friend Judith.
quote of the day:
key:..’i’ve got standards to a certain level..’
..(i dunno about you..but i guffawed..)
“to a certain level”
That is the moot point!
He snarled that one. I’m pretty shocked at how often he snarls and yet can still get away with the ‘good man, John’ schtick.
Another poll, another non event from mip, languishing on or around 2%.
What happened to the 10% some were talking up?
The reality is, that’s a bit sh!t.
So far it seems 3mil buys 1%. That’s not a good return, even colin has got better from his ‘investment’.
hone throwing a strop over policy announcements won’t be helping the unified mip message.
Not sure what your agenda is but there’s not need to attack your stable mates, is there?
No agenda other than comment wryly about the non event that is the mip surge as predicted by some, but worry not weepus beard, it’s all fair in love and war and politics.
There’s plenty of thoroughbred horse bashing going on, so no worries if I have a little poke at the donkey and ass.
That’s fine if you want to talk in riddles. Some of the finest literary creative people spoke in riddles.
While I’m sure I will not be voting IMP party vote, I think they are a very important part of this election. They are energising the youth vote.
The traditional Mana vote may have suffered recently because Hone Harawira seems to have gone awol after his car accident but I still don’t see the point in attacking them.
I don’t think the numbers support the claim mip are energising the young voters, let alone mobilising them, but always happy to be corrected by data.
I’m not talking in riddles, but if you need clues, the thoroughbred stable mates are the greens and labour, the donkey and ass, well, you get the idea.
Golden rule don’t believe in polls.
It was always don’t trust the polls ’cause they’re just like the Russians.
“Not sure what your agenda is but there’s not need to attack your stable mates, is there?”
He hates KDC and by extension the IMP. He seems to think that only Labour and the GP are legitimate left wing parties.
That’s a couple of outright lies, love, and if I may say, a little beneath you and the quality expected at ts.
I don’t hate anyone, including kim, and have never said or written that mana isn’t legitimate or of the left.
Shame on you for resorting to lying to do your bidding, but then that says more about you than I.
Your antipathy towards KDC is evidenced in many comments on ts over much time. You can say it’s not ‘hate’, so let’s call it something else then. Loathe? Detest? Abhor?
“and have never said or written that mana isn’t legitimate or of the left.”
Maybe, but you’re comment here supports what I said about who you consider IS the legitimate left,
http://www.thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-31082014/#comment-877195
As far as I can see your response to my comment is just semantics.
I would happily have settled for ‘hostility, antagonism, animosity, aversion, opposition, enmity and distaste, but hatred oh no, that’s just a dreadfully incorrect assumption on your part. I also suggest loathe, detest and abhor, your second effort, are way of the mark too, so that’s a negative, metaphoric and literal.
“Maybe”
Well make quick with the sorry, and we’ll forget about the attempted character assassination, and even the p!ss poor attempt at trying to save face when caught cold.
That link says nothing about being legitimate or otherwise, just them not being very well supported given the money, the hype and the fanbois and girls who dish it but on here but can’t take a little push back.
Cry, rant, ignore or scheme harder if you want, but if you tell lies – You lose. The end.
Oh, and I’m proudly anti semantic. 😉
What about you?
“He feels hostility towards KDC and by extension the IMP”
Better?
“He seems to think that only Labour and the GP are legitimate left wing parties, and Mana would be one too if it wasn’t part of the IMP”
Better?
The difference between hate and feeling hostility towards someone obviously makes a difference to you, and fair enough, but the fact that it’s just semantics to me doesn’t make me a liar. My characterisation is still pretty close to reality.
Give it some context like given the shoddy shenanigans of kdc and because of hone’s dash for his cash, “he feels aversion and distaste for those involved” is close enough.
“He seems to think that Labour and the GP are legitimate left wing parties and would form a better government if Mana and the mip have nothing to do with it”
That’s sounds pretty consistent, credible and believable.
“My characterisation is still pretty close to reality.”
Nope, it’s not. It’s as off as your first smear attempt, just dressed in slightly less contemptuous words.
But still, your off target lies and my honest sensibilities aside, that 2%, it’s a shocker given the spend up.
🙄
Yeah, nah. Your behaviour isn’t that of someone who feels distaste. It’s the behaviour of someone who feels something much stronger.
You really dislike KDC and that affects everything you say about the IMP (or everything I’ve seen you say). And IMP have no left wing legitimacy in your view. Pretty much what I said at the start.
Like I said, semantics.
Behavioural analysis on the web to someone on the web you don’t agree with. That’s a shocker, call the Times of London and tell them to hold the front page.
I don’t care too much for the semantic argument, sweetheart, mainly ’cause it relies on your interpretation, which may or not be up to scratch, but bottom line, if you can’t post an “I hate” quote, you shouldn’t really be posting “he hates”.
Shame on you The Allen. If you are going to diss the parties in a confused rhetorical way, it isn’t helpful to the close election effort. You appear to be adopting the annoying mosquito persona. Have you a serious one for this important time?
You must have missed the other posts slagging the greens and the labour party recently, but that’s okay, maybe you missed them with your eyes open?
And my comment wasn’t even to balance for redress, it was just a laugh at 3 mil buying not a lot but a few die hards.
Shame on me, don’t be an arse. That’d never work.
Sweetheart, lovey, are you – A1ien – Odgers?
No, isn’t she in prison or something?
Poor point, piss poorly made – Are you – cnrjoe?
But really, let’s not get into criticising peoples language and culture, that smacks of all sorts of wrong, worse than dirty politics.
National the One Man Band!!! Where is Joyce?And the rest of the National rabble,what are they up to?
JK is looking more than a little bit CRUSHED.The boat is taking on water,the crew all looking at protecting their backs.
Are the chickens coming home to roost?
Looking for an overseas job?
Tommo
Where is Joyce and the others?
It’s not about chickens coming home to roost.
It’s the ships leaving the sinking rat.
Joyce is generally immersed in Nova pay ….but now may be indulging in some quiet but serious zen meditation about the state of the unexpectedly opened pandora box of the National party stink affairs.
The One News Colmar Brunton poll mentioned above is a shocker for the Nats. It appears to be only the second time they’ve ever reported the Key Government below 50%. At the last election, they overestimated them by 2.5% and we know close the actual result was. Now, at 48%, they’re in deep shit.
Bonus result: The poll also asked if people believe Key when he says he was not personally informed about the release of SIS info to Slater.
Only 41% said they do believe him, 44% say they don’t (14% said they didn’t know).
http://tvnz.co.nz/vote-2014-news/national-slips-in-poll-before-latest-revelations-6068275
NZF cannabilising the left and the right vote. But who will they go with?
Just had a skim through NZF’s policy manifesto. Nothing much in there the left would object to, that I can see. Or to put it another way, not much that would be deliverable inside a Tory Government.
http://nzfirst.org.nz/sites/nzfirst/files/manifesto_2014_final_version_3.pdf
So you think despite Peters saying they will talk first to the party with the largest vote, it’s not going to work out because of policy differences?
One thing I noted – and it is only the Ipsos data, so not sure whether this is accurate enough to take seriously – is that there has been a huge jump in preference for JK over Cunliffe for those voting NZ First in the last poll
http://origin-interactives.stuff.co.nz/polling/
[You have to go to the preferred PM tag and then select NZ First]
I would guess Peters might take into account that type of information too i.e. whether his supporters are of the right or left persuasion (?)
Is there anyone else doing these types of breakdowns?
no, but I just did the one where the left could govern without Peters 😉
http://thestandard.org.nz/well-that-deteriorated-quickly/#comment-877231
A vote for NZF is a vote for letting Peters choose between left and right.
I agree re Peters getting to choose, and what I am implying is that if National voters are leaving National and going to NZ First, then there is more chance he will choose a right wing government.
+1
Presently too risky for voters wanting to see a change in government to trust Winston not to go with National.
Yes, I understood that, thanks. My position I guess is that it’s irrelevant who Peters might go with (although I agree your analysis is interesting), because he could go either way, so the message really needs to be pushed that voting for him is not a vote for change. I’m not sure if your analysis would help people vote left instead, because to be honest I don’t really understand what goes on in the minds of people that vote NZF 😉
The NZ First sample size is about 35 and, in the previous poll, about 27.
The shift in Key as preferred PM was from about 14.5% (4 people) in the previous poll to 33.2% (about 11 or 12 people) in the latest Ipsos poll.
The numbers are too small to draw any conclusions about changes in sentiment but the data points do make for a steep increase in the graph-line between polls.
Ah thanks Puddleglum!
It is always the same thing, isn’t it; we don’t actually have enough good information to work with 🙁
Still, I couldn’t help noticing that National had been the second-most preferred PM (Winston the most preferred) and then National and Labour became second equal – yet the last poll National rose to a clear second again. This probably does indicate that people were leaving National to vote for NZ First.
It gave me the idea that as NZ First rise (if they do) then there may be more likelihood that they go with National – because Winston would have to take the political persuasions of who is supporting him into account. I presume NZ First would have more accurate data on what type of voter is supporting them.
Yep. Plus he can pop in, say g’day, then shoot through. He’s not committed to actually try and do a deal with National. And given the stink around them, plus his ego driven need to be the one who finishes Key, why would he bother?
Nah, my gut feeling is Deputy PM (the Greens copping that sweet for the wider good). A 3 party coalition, maybe a minority or with C&S from AN Other.
In the absence of a straight Labour/Green government, that would be my next preferred choice.
“Nah, my gut feeling is Deputy PM (the Greens copping that sweet for the wider good). A 3 party coalition, maybe a minority or with C&S from AN Other.”
Didn’t follow that. Do you mean your gut feeling is that it’s either L/NZF/GP coalition with Peters as DPM, or L/GP minority govt, or L/GP govt with IMP?
The former (L/NZF/G). Winston has been repeatedly asked if he is ruling the Greens out this time and he refuses to answer. I’m optimistic about what that means.
Ok, so this is the hope that Peters chooses Labour, but it’s still hope. It’s not something reliable. Hence, a vote for NZF is not a vote to change the govt. He might, but for anyone wanting a left wing govt, or even wanting to get rid of Key and National, voting for NZF is at best a risk (significant IMO).
Dead right! I’m not suggesting anybody vote for NZF, but the last time Winston got to choose, he backed Labour. He could have gone with Brash.
And vice versa at previous elections. I’m not saying that Peters will choose National. I’m saying that none of us know who he will choose, and our personal feelings aside about which is most likely, there is no evidence to support knowing anything other than that he is historically unpredictable.
This is why IMO the left outside of Labour and the GP, should be pushing hard the message that a vote for Peters is not a vote for a change in govt (Peters could for instance argue easily that National under a different PM is a different govt). Too many people who want change seem to think NZF is a viable vote for the left.
Put it this way, if Winston gets numbers that, in the circumstances, inclines him towards National Party, or would make it a bit challenging for him to go with Labour (or would not give him enough ‘incentives’ to do so), Winston will surely of course go with National.
Duh.
which circumstances?
There is a real opportunity coming up, almost 20 years since we adopted proportional representation, to evolve to Cabinet arrangements that would more truly reflect the MMP system that we operate and are continuing to develop.
It is for Labour, Greens, NZ First and IMP, collectively speaking, to encourage that to happen. Their leaders, members, and the wider public – all have the responsibility to foster this.
I completely agree with this sentiment. The problem is that Peters doesn’t believe in it. So how would that work?
He has shown from time to time that he doesn’t believe in it. But he cannot repudiate his participation in the MMP system. If he does, then the other parties must go forward together and Peters should be left to his own ‘special speak’ and be left to play his kingmaker, tail-waving-the-dog routine.
Peters appears to believe that because he sits in the middle, he can reject the votes for people on the edges. That’s not what MMP should be about, but the system does allow that. If the threshhold lowers, it might take some of that power away from him, but at the moment, he gets to be kingmaker and respresentative democracy be damned. He thinks the mainstream should rule and that he gets to choose which side of the mainstream.
The poll was conducted from 23-27 August (27th was last Wednesday).
That means it did not include the debate or, of course, this weekend’s events. It was the period when the campaign was being claimed to be ‘getting back on track’ for National after their campaign launch on 24 August.
All in all, one of the better periods for National over the last few weeks.
The ‘median day’ was Monday (i.e., that’s when 50% of the sample was reached).
843 gave a party vote preference (c.f., 824 in last poll). Undecideds and refusers down to 12% (from 15%).
Pg, do you know if 12% is high or low compared to this time usually before an election?
Sadly, no.
I can’t find pre-2011 (0r 2008) data or reporting which includes the undecideds from Colmar Brunton polls on the internet (I could request but might have to pay).
Or you could just get the reports from the National Library.
That looks very bad for National. Worse is that they have another two weeks and six days of what will be relentlessly negative publicity. I noticed that TV3 news is now openly using the term “corruption”, and the guilty parties have all turned on each other today.
Wonder what Ede will say, if he’s not already wearing a concrete overcoat.
843 gave a party vote preference and were likely to vote.
For some time now I have been puzzled as to who Judith Collins reminds me of , especially when she puts on that rictus grin. So I have just googled Chucky, thinking it was him , and yes there is a resemblance but I was gobsmacked at the images of Bride of Chucky. An absolute dead spit of Judith! Hairstyle, eyebrows, eye makeup, EVERYTHING! So spooky.
Separated at Birth?
http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/bride-of-chucky/images/29213993/title/bride-chucky-screencap
Aside from rankings for that film on Rotten Tomatoes,
Collins and Key should presently be stratospheric on the Rotten Politicians ratings.
She’s The Joker for me (probably more Nicholson than Ledger).
Ms Gwyn Solicitor General to hold closed hearing with PM and staffers?
If it smells like a rat and acts like a rat, – it is a rat.
Government investigating Government well we all know the outcome right?
Well we know a Key jack up coming now with a closed hearing!
Another Key lie.
Remember he said;
“we will run an open, transparent Government”
We have been duped unless opposition files there own legal charges, to have a real hearing as we saw Nixon go through or just call this another banana republic.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10443712/Judith-Collins-inquiry-details-due-Monday
Key: “It’s about accountability. I think if I’d said the Justice Minister’s resigned but I’m not going to give you the information why, we would have spent lots and lots of days talking about the rational for that. It’s much better to put it in the public domain, I’m confident we’ve taken the right steps,”
So why did Richard Worth lose his job again? Oh that’s right, we weren’t allowed to know.
Does Mr Key have to front up for questioning?
No according to the Herald
” She confirmed a letter was received in the prime minister’s office on Friday August 29.
“It advised the Prime Minister of the Inspector-General’s intention to interview a number of staff in connection with her inquiry into the release of information by the NZSIS to Cameron Slater.
“There was no indication in the letter that the Prime Minister would be called personally and the Prime Minister’s office is not aware that would be the case. In terms of Prime Minister’s office staff, no date was given in the letter for the interviews to take place.”
Senior staff in Key’s office are expected to be called including his chief of staff Wayne Eagleson and former aide Jason Ede. ”
Last updated 17:55
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10444294/PM-may-not-have-to-front-at-hearing
Seriously folks .. why would we expect anything to be different from Key ?? He is a joke isn’t he ? smile and wave, smile and wave, oh look, over there …..
Please, let this change for the sake of dear NZ.
He is making Nixon look good and us out to be fools.
Key has to go! His whole department is fatally compromised by the Dirty Politics book.
It reminds me of the final act of Der Rosenkavalier, when Baron Von Ochs has been caught at his dirty intentions and the Marshallin says:
MARSCHALLIN: Leave well alone, and ere I count to three, withdraw!
(The Baron turns round and stares at her.)
BARON: What mean you?
MARSCHALLIN: (gaily, sure of victory): Think of your dignity and take your leave.
BARON von OCHS How?
MARSCHALLIN: If you would still preserve your name
As gentleman, make virtue of necessity.
Key should take her advice!