Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike…
Fairly obvious that the questions are not answered / stats taken in Manukau or Porirua. Of course if NZ had Bill Gates living here to skue the averages we could all live in a cave and come out as number one. Its what I describe as a Goebbels article.
According to Wiki our GINI co-efficient, or level of inequality, was 0.488 in mid-90’s;
0.484 around 2000; 0.473 in mid-2000’s and 0.455 in late 2000’s, which is their most recent dataset. So on that measure inequality is reducing.
You neglected to add 0.408 in the mid-80s (at the very beginning of Rogernomics), increasing dramatically to 0.468 around 1990, and further up to 0.488 in the mid-90s.
The decrease was primarily during the Clark government of the 2000s, which saw a break from the neo-liberal policies and thus a slight decrease in the inequality levels. However, we’re still nowhere near the pre-Rogernomics error levels. Undoubtedly, if they did another measurement around now, the level will have increased again.
I should add that the post-tax trends are even worse, with 0.271 pre-Rogernomics, up to a high of 0.339 when the Clark government was first elected. The decrease that the Clark government managed was tiny: down by only 0.009 to 0.330.
Thanks for intention Seti but some wikipedia ones suggest waiting for a purge, and the BBC has lost its bit on being a woman. (Probably not allowed under Cameron’s government. Dirty smelly things who are often unskilled wastrels.)
The Legatum Institute, dedicated to liberty and freedom, but whose symbol is a chariot from a slave owning society that tortured people to death publicly for entertainment? Excuse me if I don’t take this rubbish seriously.
from Forbes
Age 53 Christopher Chandler founded Dubai-based Legatum Capital after splitting off from his brother, Richard, in 2006 to invest on his own. Legatum is a private, multibillion-dollar investment firm that puts money into companies in developing countries as well as the world’s capital markets.
The son of a beekeeper from North Island, New Zealand, Chandler and his brother first started taking proceeds from the sale of their parents’ department store and investing in Hong Kong real estate. The siblings then formed investment firm Sovereign Global in Monaco to focus on transitioning industries in Russia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. In April 2012, Legatum acquired its own building in the Dubai International Finance Centre.</i
Like most of the wealthy in the world now, it seems, this man is living on the finances from his parents ventures. They made the money, and their children are the chariot drivers.
Broad wide deep economies with lower inequality rise in rankings while under Key inequality has grown and we begin falling. Its hard to see how NZ would fall far given our bountiful nation. We export as much oil as we import… …the question has always been about redistribution and how Kiwis hate the idea of other kiwis have easier lives than their forefathers.
“Legatum was founded in December 2006 by Christopher Chandler, Chairman of Legatum Global Holdings. Chandler was formerly President of the holding company for the Sovereign Global group of companies (“Sovereign”), which he co-founded with his older brother Richard Chandler (businessman) in 1986. From 1986 to 2006, Sovereign provided capital to companies and governments in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe, and to industries including telecommunications, electric utilities, steel, oil and gas, banking and oil refining.”
according to rnz the fonterra trucks were contaminated by waste from oil & gas? sounds a bit feked! & in the next story is the nz oil & gas voting 99% against paying more reparations (as advised by the judge) to the pike river families. but hey, drill it & we will all be rich they say!
of the tory papers? On the yes column, labour dropped a point. On the no column, it still thinks national will lose the election.
The augeries are unclear…
This monorail is really all about allowing some rich prick to play with (and not share) his toys in an area of New Zealand that should be enjoyed by all. And trash the place in the process. I doubt it would make much of a profit anyway…
Another view would point out to Fiordland tunnellers, road builders and mono-railers that there is already a train on the other side of Wakatipu (Kingston Flyer) and it is again for sale because it doesn’t attract enough custom to keep it going….
And there is already a tunnel through mountains (Homer tunnel) and it gets closed every few days due to the heavy environment with avalanche, rockfall etc….
And there are already roads through the place (Haast Pass, Milford Road, Hollyford Road) and we can’t even keep them opened such is the heavy environment and slips and rockfall and snow and avalanche….
Pete
I guess that a quote from Homer’s great adventure with Big Business in The Simpsons?
It is very good. Unfortunately I can feel my brain patterning setting in place just reading the repetitions of ‘monorail’. The human mind is so plastic!
Xox
Looks like business is more of the problem than the solution these days. The haves will have to consume less, play more , and do less damage to mother earth. As Paul Ehlrich (population bomb) said in Wellington last night, as a neocon would, “you can’t negotiate with nature”. To a packed auditorium he gave mankind a 10% chance of avoiding collapse. This was much higher than other estimates! Now is the time to act folks. For the benefit of John Keys offspring, now is the time for informed and practical action. 😉
Phil, nice comment! I have read too much Orlov, Greer, etc and understand implicitly that “collapse” (maybe irregular decline is a better description) is inevitable. I bet that the people of the packed auditorium either ignored / denied the message OR put all of their faith in the 10% chance….some techno fantasy or similar will save their world.
It is a depressing subject and it challenges us on all levels: I cannot see a way through BUT I do accept that we are on course to a very changed and potentially lethal future. So what to do? Dont really know BUT stay positive and do the things you have to do to adjust.
So much for John Banks’ attempts to get an urgent judicial review of the District Court decision to commit the case on his electoral returns for trial.
The first High Court hearing on the judicial review was supposed to have been today at the Auckland HC (see Penny Bright’s comment at 28 in OM 30/10/13).
The HC daily list for today make no mention of the case; and both the Herald and TV3 News have reported this morning that the first hearing on a possible judicial review has now been set for November 28
“The Herald has been granted access to the court file which reveals the details of Mr Banks’ claim for the first time.
Mr Banks’ lawyer, David Jones QC, has filed a detailed memorandum which says that Mr Banks had been “vilified” in Parliament and the media as a result of Judge Gittos’ ruling, which he described as “fundamentally misstated and misdirected itself both on the evidence and law”.
He wrote that the “factual findings made, the analysis of the evidence and the resulting process by which the court came to its decision were wrong”.
While Judge Gittos’ decision appears to include a number of factual inaccuracies (eg implying that Banks went by helicoptor to the meeting with Dotcom at which the splitting of the donation was discussed), I would hope the judicial review would focus on the legal reasons for Gittos’ decision to commit the case to trial, rather than these ancillary matters.
I also hope that any judicial review also covers the decisions of Judge Mill of the Wellington DC on 7 Nov 2012 and 16 April 2013, where he also considered that there was sufficient evidence to allow the case to proceed.
I read Judge Mill’s April decision at that time and the reason I hope that it will also be taken into consideration in the judicial review is that it includes references to relevant case law etc not covered by Judge Gittos’ decision – and considerable analysis/dissection of the arguments put forward by Banks’ lawyer against the case going to trial.
The focus recently has been on Gittos’ decision, but in fact two DC judges ruled that the case should proceed, which IMO should give more weight to the prosecution proceeding (although I personally still have qualms about Crown Law taking over).
If Graeme Edgeler is correct that the HC judicial review and the DC trial will proceed concurrently, then Banks has effectively not gained anything timewise with his arrogant call for HIS case to be settled forthwith (ie thrown out). The next DC hearing is set for Dec 12, while the HC first hearing is now only two weeks earler on Nov 28 and presumably the latter proceedings will not be finished in one hit. So, the overall effect of the HC judicial review will be to keep the case and Banks even more in the public eye …
Labour MP Shane Jones was in attendance, and said, “With the high percentage of women on council perhaps their motherly instinct will come together with the custodial role of local Māori, which could bring prosperity to Whangarei.”
(source: Māori Television website story on Whangārei Council)
There was a faint glimmer of hope during the Leadership Contest that he would be more of an asset than a liability but it is time to start questioning his senior role in the Labour caucus.
Is that a totally bad remark by Shane Jones? There is nothing bad about having motherly instincts. We are all here and healthy because of them on an individual scale.
That remark seems to imply that the men on council are less likely to do a good job than the women, and that they need to have fatherly instincts equal to the motherly ones to do well for Whangarei.
And Shane is no doubt right – if they consider their role is to husband resources and provide good policy outcomes and for all the people dependent on them, they could do well with a fatherly bent. These outcomes should benefit all, and not just be tailored for the individual man personally.
Nor for their mates the property speculators, their mates the water monopolisers, their mates the sports stadium builders. All using Council assets and resources to further their own projects.
Neoliberalism is slippery. Economic historian Philip Mirowski pulls historical and philosophical perspective in this excerpt from his new book.
Read this and think about the Reserve Bank Act, the TPPA, etc
The Thirteen Commandments of Neoliberalism
By Philip Mirowski.
Neoliberals are not fundamentalists. But they approach crises with a certain logic—one that is directly relevant to comprehending neoliberalism’s unexpected strength in the current global crisis.
It is very important to have some familiarity with neoliberal ideas, if only to resist simple-minded characterizations of the neoliberal approach to the financial crisis as some form of evangelical “market fundamentalism.”
Just read today’s DominionPost editorial…it was having a go at the upcoming Labour Party conference where there is “ a proposed rule change requiring the party to “fairly represent” gays and lesbians on its candidate list.
The Dom is wrong: the remit should be debated. It is part of the party becoming representative of its members democratically.
Should it become policy? Consider this, it would legislate and mandate something that should not have to be mandated / enforced. In an open grown up accepting society it should not matter what gender / sexuality people are. I consequently think that it reflects badly on all parties when you have to enforce equality. Labour needs to project an image of openly embracing inclusion without having to enforce it. That just sends a message of coercion and entrenchment of “special rights”, Nanny State on steroids.
Labour is already a party that is widely representative of all citizens in this country. It includes among its membership a solid cross section of ethnic groups, and its caucus is close to becoming evenly gender balanced. There is still a way to go before gender balance is complete and a debate on the issue to send the message home how important it is to achieve that balance is desirable. But to apply ‘enforcement’ by way of a rigid party rule change is NOT the way to do it.
It irritates me when a group of Labour members become so immersed in an issue that they can’t see the electoral consequences of their ‘selected’ course of action. I have seen it happen time and again over the decades where Labour has adopted rigid policies which allows their opponents to bury them alive and destroy their prospects of electoral success. Have we not learned anything from the successful “Nanny State” campaign of 2007/2008?
As Ennui implies: you don’t have to apply coercion and entrenchment to achieve a laudable goal. Encouragement and enlightenment is a much better way to go…
Consider this, it would legislate and mandate something that should not have to be mandated / enforced.
You know what else shouldn’t have to be mandated? Murder, assault, theft, fraud. And yet they are. Because our society has figured out that some shit doesn’t magically take care of itself.
A theme park ride, that will cut a privately run monorail
through a national park, despoiling that park for everyone.
Now, there won’t be a fence blocking people from crossing,
so what’s actually to stop people from crossing? Now, let’s
just think about this, a private consortium will own a
exclusive path through a National Park, and public can
cross it for free but not ride it. And the Minister cannot
see the down stream political outrage, another example
of Key’s destroying our pristine image.
Why would any reasonable person think the monorail won’t become
the poster child for anti-protest? Look, and its worse, why would
tourists want to travel on a theme park ride that destroys what they
came to experience. Leave no litter behind, oh, but a monorail
is okay. What in all of Christidom was the Minister thinking,
the comedians will have a field day; the world came to see the
pristine environment, but the mountains and forests slowed
them down, it was a easy choice, remove forest and tunnel the
mountains, or safe guard the pristine world heritage.
Also, NZ Oil and Gas shareholders have voted against compensation for Pike Mine families.
You can only imagine how much they care for the environment, and what would happen in an event of an oil spill here.
I knew someone at the meeting and only shareholders at the meeting could vote. 99% of the shares were voted against but there is no figure for the number of shareholders (not shares) that voted for it, which might be interesting because these would be the “mom and pop” shareholders. Wonder if someone will ask the coy?
anyway the thing is why is DOC approving the slash and burn in the fiordland national park so the noo noo heads can have their own little private electric train set.
DOC has become obsessed with fiddling about with birds and they are ready and willing to sell off anything so they can get their names in the paper or on teevee fondling a bundle of fluff.
yes, I watched a lot of documentaries on the US Incarceration machine.
Was saddened to hear the frequency, severity and total quantity of domestic / family violence figures gathered through the NZPolice trial of an assessment tool, 4 incidents attended per hour, around 80,000 per year. Furthermore, some goes on next door from time-to-time. Incarceration / Revenge justice promotes a vicious cycle.
from the vid
-offering a Bachelor of General Studies
-a Graduate Diploma in Tertiary Education introduced the following year.
-“cost recovery” for assessment.
from the Press
-a course in Regional Economics in the Asia and Pacific region.
I was just listening to a group of Chinese or Japanese college students going by talking in their language. And I thought how determined and stoic these parents and kids are to advance themselves, learn about the different culture that will be useful to them, and go far away from their own country and food. (A Butanese here had digestion troubles for some time – food and sort of reverse altitude sickness apparently.)
How many NZ families are sending their kids away from the cows, and over to Chinese Universities, after learning Cantonese or Mandarin of course? The Chinese and Japanese have ancient cultures that have been through the processes of the modernising machine, a process like a long. scary ghost tunnel ride with real blood. They have come out the other side, let’s not see them fight over a group of islands in their waters, as that will cause a silly blip in the preparation for the new Millenium which has only just started.
We need to relate to the Chinese now we have signed up, and be prepared to flip the TPPP down the toilet despite nasty teeth-baring from the New World (that is just the old one, with new hot chilly sauce) and the Mother of All of whom it was said ‘Perfidious Albion.’
Strangely I have a great deal of difficulty relating to harvesting organs from prisoners, enforced abortions and sterilisations, widespread bureaucratic corruption, sweatshops, and god knows what else.
Are you sure these students weren’t from Moldova , Brazil, Comoros , Germany, Ukraine, Australia, Tajikistan, Peru, Burkina Faso, Benin, Fiji , Canada..?
How did you pick their nationality?
Did you actually go outside and ask these students face to face where they were from in order to “relate” to them ? ( it has been over 5 years since “We need to relate to the Chinese now we have signed up” and about 40 years since there has been a ‘relationship’ with China.)
Do “Butanese” come from Lithospere(ania)?
What’s wrong with cows? Is it all right if my kids speak Portuguese and attend UNICERP ( there was real blood there too) to learn culture?
If I fly into Lijiang, head to Yulong will Naxi be ok ?
What does “that is just the old one, with new hot chilly[sic] sauce” infer ? The “New World” was ‘discovered’ (colonists world view) as early as the 11th century so do you think indigenous cultures already in the New World feel grateful and did they get a fair trade price for their hot chili?
The “Old World” was China so where does NEW hot chili sauce come from?
What does “the modernising machine” do? Was it like the tunnel one in “The Sneetches” where your stars are better than theirs?
What does this mean “let’s not see them fight over a group of islands in their waters, as that will cause a silly blip in the preparation for the new Millenium [sic] which has only just started.” ?And which “new “Millenium” ” are we preparing for?
An opportunity to meet 1:1 in a short meeting with your choice (subject to availability) of Members of Parliament and senior Party officials (further information regarding this will be sent to you on payment).
– At $1500 I think thats pricing themselves out of the market 🙂
DimPost hack Vernon Small (Venally Small Minded) went on vacuously today about Cunliffe “verging on self-parody” and “talking tough instead of just being tough” whatever the hell that means… Most of his collumn was a waste of paper and ink but he did mention interestingly that Cunliffe hasn’t yet appointed a Chief Press Secretary, and that his staff was “light on political advisors”.
A bit concerned about this, and it does tee up with a lack of press and announcements from our man Cunliffe over the last couple of weeks. He’s not staying on the radar as much as I expected him to. Perhaps I shouldn’t have, he wasn’t frequently in the public eye before becoming Labour leader.
Still, what’s going on? It seems some momentum has been lost.
“verging on self-parody” and “talking tough instead of just being tough” whatever the hell that means
– I think he means Cunliffe is all fire and brimstone when talking to the unions and then changes the message when talking to thew media or business and whenever he says what hes going to do he always adds a get out clause
Well, he could be right, in that this is what Vernon Small is pointing to.
Which to an extent is right – but doesn’t logically reach the conclusion that Small Minded inarticulately jumps for: Cunliffe says different things to different crowds. But his message is never conflicting, he never contradicts himself, and it’s perfectly natural to say the part of the message that is relevant to the crowd you are talking to.
Easily misinterpreted as inconsistency when EVERYTHING you say happens to be broadcast to the media.
Still, what’s going on? It seems some momentum has been lost.
Cunliffe has spent the last 2 to 3 weeks touring the regional provinces. Labour lost all but two of their provincial seats and they need to get them back again. I think that’s an important piece of strategy because the regional towns house many potential Labour voters who have been turned off in recent elections. These country-side forays don’t get national coverage but that makes them no less important. He’s back on the job this coming weekend at the ChCh conference, so expect to see him burst back on to our TV screens with a vengeance.
Get the feeling this next election is going to be hotlly contested… (and don’t worry about that nagging deja vu feeling you’re getting I’m sure its nothing :))
chris73 seems to be under the impression that people shopping in a mall on a week day are somehow representative of the working people of Christchurch.
I can see from the photo with that article that Key is lucky to still have the clothes on his back. Clearly the shoppers can hardly contain themselves wit their rock star-like mobbing of him. Many just can’t keep their eyes or hand off him.
Yes karol, and that well built jeaned young woman in the empty centre of the photo looks like she thinks its hilarious that she’s been caught on camera close to John Key.
don’t worry about that nagging deja vu feeling you’re getting I’m sure its nothing
Yes, you’ll soon be hearing the old classic …
“We won, you lost, eat that.” Can’t wait.
Funny thing is, whenever the Righties pop up and say “we’re gonna win in 2014”, they never stick around to say how it’s going to happen. I’d really love to know.
C’mon Chris, show your working. Is your faith based on Winston, Colin or drugs?
“Shoppers in central Christchurch gave Prime Minister John Key a rock-star-like welcome when he visited the Palms Shopping Centre this morning.”
Looking at the photo, I am thinking that John Key is about as popular a rock star as Gary Glitter.
Of all the photos they could choose to illustrate his popularity you’d think they would choose one where there is an actual mob of supporters doing stuff like throwing underpants his way or trying to hump his leg. But no, we have a mum and a toddler – who is most likely thinking “this old dude isn’t a wiggle, mum lied.”
Every other person in the photo is looking away from him. A big hit, I don’t think so.
Thats ok because the more good news stories that come in the more it counteracts the spin and negativity from Labour and reinforces the notion that National is governing well
Meanwhile from Mt Albert David Shearer reacts to the news that Cunliffes honeymoon is over:
This’ll be why RWNJ’s think school vouchers are such a great idea.
Nearly three-fourths of Wisconsin students attending private schools using new taxpayer-funded vouchers were already attending them, according to enrollment figures released Tuesday by the Department of Public Instruction.
The statewide voucher program, in its first year, is at capacity, with about 500 students receiving vouchers statewide, according to the department. Of those, 79 percent did not attend a Wisconsin public school last year.
In other words john nothing to hide nothing to fear banks is kind of back door appealing instead of letting his glowing innocence shine at a substantive hearing.
Wouldn’t have a problem with all of this if the testing actually tested impairment. But it doesn’t. It tests whether the person has smoked cannabis pretty much anytime over the previous 3 weeks, which has nothing at all to do with being impaired.
Would drivers be happy if they were tested for alcohol being consumed at any time in the previous 3 weeks and losing their licence over it? No, they would not.
Up front, in-depth and in tune, Radio New Zealand’s new online network, THEWIRELESS, delivers multi-platform public service media to a generation of New Zealanders who have grown up in a digital age.
THEWIRELESS marks a significant break from the past for public broadcasting in this country with Radio New Zealand using video, text, and audio content to take its informative, insightful and entertaining storytelling to a new generation.
The innovative online approach developed from an original concept for a youth radio network which has been kicked around in New Zealand for the past 20 years. But the time for a traditional radio network has passed says project leader, Marcus Stickley: “We live in an age where you can tell a story any way you want on one platform – the internet. THEWIRELESS is online only and has been designed with mobile phones in mind, as well as tablets, laptops and desktops with stories told in video, photos, audio and text. Some will be told in two types of media, some will be told in all four, or maybe more depending on where technology takes us.”
Asks people to share their stories or tips.
Hmmm… looks interesting, but I’m not sure of the visual presentation.
Basically a website with content aimed at young people. When I first heard about it, I thought it would be a YRN which was streamed online.
If RNZ were really smart, they would also hand over station time in RNZ National (or Concert) to The Wireless.
Anyway, lets see how it goes. Hopefully Labour will actually get round to introducing a YRN, and The Wireless would be in place and ready to take that task on.
So the Aussie Government has been outed spying on it’s hosts from embassies around the world as part of Echelon-Five Eyes.
Not hard to guess who else is doing that and the Key response: No comment on intelligence matters.
Which leaves an alert opposition with some interesting options.
If I had David Cunliffe’s ear I’d suggest the party develop a policy of no progress on trade talks (TPP) until the negotiators had an even playing field. Why neogtiate with governments that are listening to every word out negotiators are saying privately?
Naomi Klein on Climate Change science and the need for active resistance to the dominant economic paradigm. I don’t agree with everything she is saying, and it’s light on specific solutions. It’s also not news. But the reframing looks useful to me. Would undermining capitalism quickly enough give us a chance at avoiding complete catastrophe?
but what Werner is doing with his modelling is different. He isn’t saying that his research drove him to take action to stop a particular policy; he is saying that his research shows that our entire economic paradigm is a threat to ecological stability. And indeed that challenging this economic paradigm – through mass-movement counter-pressure – is humanity’s best shot at avoiding catastrophe.
That’s heavy stuff. But he’s not alone. Werner is part of a small but increasingly influential group of scientists whose research into the destabilisation of natural systems – particularly the climate system – is leading them to similarly transformative, even revolutionary, conclusions. And for any closet revolutionary who has ever dreamed of overthrowing the present economic order in favour of one a little less likely to cause Italian pensioners to hang themselves in their homes, this work should be of particular interest. Because it makes the ditching of that cruel system in favour of something new (and perhaps, with lots of work, better) no longer a matter of mere ideological preference but rather one of species-wide existential necessity.
So it stands to reason that, “if we’re thinking about the future of the earth, and the future of our coupling to the environment, we have to include resistance as part of that dynamics”.
Just for a start, perhaps abolish “private” schools, “private” medical insurance, stop “private” charter schools and so much else “private” (apart from “privacy” on the web, mobile phone and other phone use), as such “private” style of “division” is undermining collective social cohesion.
Of course much more would need to be done, like bringing back true public broadcasting, so we get more balanced reporting and more quality programs on television and radio again (it also being offered via the web).
New Zealand is “corrupted” by too much “private interest”, and it is disgusting what goes on, sadly people do not realise this, that is too many do not.
On 07 Oct. 1980 “marxist” musicians from Chile went into exile. now they are back. Celebrate, I say, but many are not, and in NZ few do not even comprehend, this is nothing really but a fascist society, as few if any get what matters. But just for the sake of music, I load this here:
bad12″ – I still am in a bit of a dispute, I like your staunch views on certain issues, but at times you lash out, as you accused me of doing. Maybe reflect and get back, we may be fighting the same enemy, but with different approaches and so, but good luck, mate, I wish you well.
As for the rest, NZers must bloody wake up, as you are taken for a bloody ride, 24/7, and I can tell you more, we need to deal to lies and shit from the US, but ALSO to lies and crap happeing here. I have heaps of the latter, it is all documented, so I will refrain from feeding it here, but some pollies and especially admin nazis, you will get dealt to very soon, good luck!
Apart from all this, VUELVO is the message, and we have revolutionary spirit in other quarters, I only wish, even in moderate level, NZers would endeavour to do the same. We will wait and see: VUELVO!
Speaking to heaps of people today in Central Auckland, all good people, I ask, what is going on in NZ, to ridicule and dismiss what we know. Take care and take a bloody stand, against all this spy and surveillance crap we get told and sold, I will be back, as I have heaps of info none of you know, but stand up and fight it, fight it, all along:
Why can NZ not deliver the same? Are we primitive or backward? But Martyn Bradbury raised it just recently, So do I here, it is time to get real and inform, educate, and to report fairly on things in the media, we are waiting.!
Yeah, no, what about the olds who don’t like forests, and so won’t use the monorail.
Where’s the chair lift to the top of Mt.Cook!
How are we to get older kiwis to protect and revere the environment if they can’t travel to the top of MT.Cook in a warm cozy air conditioned chair lift.
I mean think about the old people, they used to be hard core environmentalists some of them, now they want to scare a pristine forest so they can travel in private luxury.
How are is the environment to be protected if Moro makes the case that in order to protect the environment we have to destroy it, the power lines alone, the fire risk, the cost of placing all that concrete (and funding its eventual removal), and lets not even start on the mining companies who will use the opportunity to…
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That was clearly a huge explosion. Just after the explosion, we see a cloud of ‘fog’ moving outwards at high speed. This is a shockwave, rather similar to that which causes a sonic boom. The ‘fog’ is caused by water condensing from the atmosphere in areas of intense low pressure ...
Can we postpone this year’s election? Quite frankly, the political parties don’t seem ready for it, and aren’t about to offer voters the necessary policy choices for the unprecedented times we’re in. We’ve ended up with a campaign focused on scandal, personality and leadership, with a policy void that’s worse ...
It is the last sitting day of Parliament, and the last question time before the House is dissolved. So, are there any questions about the damning findings of the Hit and Run inquiry, and how the government plans to bring the military back under democratic control? Of course not. ...
Property speculator - John KeyThe National Party must be in dire straits to have to rely on John Key to campaign on their behalf. Not only has the former PM been in the news claiming the recently released unemployment figures aren’t accurate, the fool has also been promoting the opening ...
Nothing Too Drastic: Few would dispute that the Left, today, are few in number. Is their failure to make the public aware of and act upon the manifest failures of the present system attributable to their lack of active energy and intelligence? Or, is it simply because the Left’s ideas ...
by Don Franks This talk was given to the Wellington Anti Capitalist Alliance, fifteen years ago. The ultimate weapons of mass destruction so far seen on this planet have been used just twice, 60 years ago this month. August 6 and August 9 1945 witnessed the US atomic bombing ...
After I noticed that my name had been taken yet again in vain by my friendly antagonist Tom Hunter over at No Minister, I went over to see what the fuss was about. Nothing much, but then I discovered a post about the Operation Burnham Inquiry by Psycho Milt. I ...
The COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 was extended today, until December 1st or the tenth sitting day following the resumption of Parliament after the election. It seems like a necessary extension. While we currently have eradicated the virus in New Zealand, it is still banging at the door, and ...
One of the government's key policies - extracted by NZ First as part of its coalition agreement - is the "Provincial Growth Fund": $1 billion a year spent on creating jobs in rural New Zealand. Yesterday the Auditor-General issued a report on the fund, finding that it lacks transparency, and ...
The Warehouse, one of New Zealand's biggest retailers, has decided to stop selling coal. Good. Coal is a dirty, polluting fossil fuel, and the less of it we have out there, the better. Retailers choosing not to sell it sends a clear message that this is not a fuel we ...
The labour market statistics have been released, and they show that unemployment actually dropped last quarter. All told, there are 111,000 unemployed - 15,000 fewer than when the government took office. But before anyone thinks that the pandemic hasn't put people out of work, remember that this is for ...
Judy KavanaghI’m OK with wearing a CovidCard. But are you? There’s no point me doing it alone.The author modelling a (fake) CovidCard. I didn’t know much about the CovidCard proposal until I read Dave’s latest blog post. You would wear the card visibly on your person. It ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy can’t I use the battery from my electric car ...
As many good things come in threes (as the saying goes), we are happy to announce a third partnership between Skeptical Science and other websites. Fakebook.eco in Brazil is joining Klimafakten.de in Germany and Nauka o Klimacie in Poland to leverage translated rebuttal material and to make the information readily available in other ...
This interview on RNZ with Ross Tucker, the scientist who headed a review of transgender athletes playing in women’s rugby, discusses the findings of the review and what it means for women in sports. The review that World Rugby undertook had a broad range of independent experts and included a ...
Siouxsie WilesThe restrictions in place for metropolitan Melbourne now are in some ways stricter than those that were in force during New Zealand’s COVID-19 lockdown. A curfew is in place and most people have to wear masks when they leave their home – neither of which happened in New ...
On Friday the Hit and Run inquiry delivered a devastating report which found that NZDF had systematically misled Ministers over civilian deaths. The report called into question civilian control of the military (and indeed, military control of the military), a fundamental principle of our democracy. So you'd expect our politicians ...
Let's Do This Again: What else can Jacinda do in a political environment so bereft of imagination and courage but seek a continuance? If she trades upon the extraordinary personal qualities that she has, miraculously, carried with her into the office of Prime Minister, then I, for one, will offer ...
How corrupt are the New Zealand Police? This corrupt: On 10 February 2019, Police attended a family harm incident. The suspect attempted to run the attending officers over in a driveway with his car, narrowly missing them, before fleeing the scene. A short pursuit followed, ending when the suspect stopped ...
Parliament's triennial Review of Standing Orders was released today, and it contains a number of welcome, if minor, improvements. The ones that caught my are: A move to encourage "pre-legislative engagement" - the government consulting widely on legislation before it is introduced - by promising easier passage (e.g. with ...
Lauren Vargo, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonGlaciers around the world are melting — and for the first time, we can now directly attribute annual ice loss to climate change. We analysed two years in which glaciers in New Zealand melted the most in at least four ...
Caroline Shaw, Anja MizdrakE-bikes are everywhere. Sales are booming and predicted to overtake sales of new cars in a few years. There were three times as many e-bikes and e-scooters imported into NZ in 2019 alone as there are e-cars in the entire country. You can’t go out in ...
New Zealand First is facing a difficult struggle to get re-elected, but Josh Van Veen, who was once a researcher for Winston Peters, argues that there is still a very significant section of cultural conservatives who oppose mass immigration and political correctness and might yet be won back over to ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk Many Americans these days seem unable to avoid controversy on practically any topic, so why not embrace the discord and wade into the especially volatile arena of nuclear energy? Advocates claim it’s the only way to meet global climate goals, ...
Can we trust New Zealand’s military? There must now be serious doubt, given the landmark report released on Friday concluding the investigation into allegations made in the book Hit and Run by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson about a 2010 SAS killing raid in Afghanistan. The most recent Colmar Brunton ...
In New Zealand, we've just had the report of the Hit and Run inquiry, which found that a New Zealand led raid had accidentally killed civilians, including a child. meanwhile, around the same time, the British SAS was conducting its own raids in Afghanistan, and theirs were a hell of ...
In addition to establishing a process for setting emissions reductions plans, the Zero Carbon Act established a process for managing the risks of climate change. The first part of this is the preparation of regular risk assessments, looking at the risks to our economy, society, environment, and ecology. The first ...
Over on The spinoff, Amnesty International's Meg de Ronde has a response to Friday's release of the Hit and Run report. And in response to Attorney-General David Parker's claim that the government was being "transparent" by releasing the report, its titled "we shouldn’t have to work this hard to get ...
Story of the Week... Opinion of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Rising Seas Could Menace Millions Beyond Shorelines, Study FindsAs climate change raises sea levels, storm surges and high tides will ...
There's an election next month, so you'd be expecting political parties to be telling us what they stand for and what they'd do if they'd win. But while the Greens have given us a detailed policy platform, and National has talked about roads and austerity, Labour, currently leading the polls ...
"Who's youse accusin' of innference?" Without the timely intervention of a team of top American political consultants and campaign experts, Boris Yeltsin would never have won his second term as President of the Russian Federation. The Russians waited 20 years to return the favour.WHEN IT COMES to the disinformation game, ...
As polling day in the American presidential election draws closer, things are looking bad for Donald Trump. The polls show that he is tracking well behind his Democrat rival. Most people assume that the President will be striving might and main to avoid what looks increasingly likely to be a ...
Our health professionals do an amazing job. Image credit: Wikipedia – Cardiac surgery. Finally, I have got back to these rankings. A long period in hospital and computer problems meant the June 2020 rankings were abandoned. Now, with a new personal defibrillator implanted in my chest and a new hard ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, July 26 through Sat, Aug 1, 2020Editor's ChoiceThe four types of climate denier, and why you should ignore them allThe shill, the grifter, the egomaniac and the ideological ...
Over the last few days, reports have emerged of people travelling from New Zealand and testing positive for Covid-19 upon arrival at their destination. First in South Korea and now in Australia. What might these positive tests mean?They’re false-positives As Toby Morris and I have explained before, there are ...
Former National Minister - Wayne MappYou could tell that the Hit and Run book by investigative journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson was right on the money by the way former National Party Minister of Defence, Wayne Mapp, reacted to its now largely vindicated claims.Even though the recent inquiry into ...
So, the Hit and Run inquiry has reported back, and found some appalling shit at NZDF and NZSIS. And while they quibble a few of the details - the name of a dead child - they basicly uphold Hager and Stephenson's version of events. The SAS went to those villages. ...
We are failing to think though the interdependencies in an economy. We miss economist Bryan Philpott (1921-2000). I miss him personally – we used to have such great discussions – but this column is about how the nation misses his economic experience and wisdom. We tend to ...
Michelle Boag - LeakerThe Heron report (PDF) was released yesterday, and it was a bit disappointing to say the least. It correctly found that former National Party president Michelle Boag and National Party MP Hamish Walker were politically motivated in leaking peoples private medical information, but didn’t look further into ...
Adam Smith, Massey UniversityA recent global assessment of shark populations at 371 coral reefs in 58 countries found no sharks at almost 20% of reefs and alarmingly low numbers at many others. The study, which involved over 100 scientists under the Global FinPrint project, gave New Zealand a good ...
On different trajectories and from different ends of the political spectrum, last night’s One News/Colmar Brunton poll has the Green Party and ACT converging around the five percent mark. And, as odd as it may sound, they head into the election campaign with a lot in common.Putting the Greens and ...
Janet Stephenson, University of OtagoA proposed multibillion-dollar project to build a pumped hydro storage plant could make New Zealand’s electricity grid 100% renewable, but expensive new infrastructure may not be the best way to achieve this. New Zealand’s electricity generation is already around 80% renewable, with just over half ...
Truth In Advertising: Labour, it would seem, is the party that knows nothing about running the economy right up until the moment that it does. HOW DID LABOUR acquire its reputation for being a poor economic manager? As with most things political and historical, it’s a long story.In the beginning, the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Government rulemakers looking to decide how much money to spend to avoid adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere need a good estimate of what a warming climate will cost in social damages, for example through more extreme weather events. That point makes ...
Below is the list of gender-critical material which appeared on Redline from October 1, 2019 to October 31, 2019. Rainbow Tick threatens to pull Massey’s tick if lesbians are allowed to speak Freer Lives – a gender-critical Marxist site Freer Lives on Violence, debate and Britain’s Gender Recognition Act British ...
Fact Check: New Zealand’s own relationship with China might, however, be salvageable if our own Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was willing to equip its minister, Winston Peters, with a few facts. Legislating for the protection of national security – the very action our Foreign Minister is decrying – ...
I hope we can all agree that charging only certain returning expats for isolation costs is the right call. Instead of a blanket fee, which may have resulted in a small number of Kiwis deciding not to return home because of financial reasons, the Government has chosen to implement a ...
Back at the beginning of this government, the Greens made a foolish decision to support the Electoral Integrity Act - demanded by Winston Peters to keep his own backbench in line as part of his coalition deal with Labour - as an act of good faith within the coalition. It ...
SATURDAY AUGUST 1Artefact (Prime, 7.30pm). The series presented by Dame Anne Salmond screened on Māori Television, but is totally worth revisiting if you saw it the first time. Dame Anne tells the stories of taonga that highlight the history of Aotearoa. Further reading: this 2013 interview with Dame Anne by the lovely ...
Have unions and the Government sold workers short with their attempt at fixing the so-called “Hobbit Law”? Unionist Ian Powell argues that the union movement has been outmanoeuvered, and the Government has agreed to a new piece of anti-worker legislation that retains the principles of the previous National Government’s hated ...
Most of the claims made by anti-fluoride propagandists are simply wrong. Image source:Fluoridation and the ‘sciency’ facts of critics Anti-fluoride propagandists continually cite studies from areas of endemic fluorosis in their arguments against ...
An article in the EETimes suggests that advances in autonomous vehicles are not moving as quickly as expected because those working on them have confused complicated problems with complex ones. Engineering can only take you so far in complex worlds. Complicated systems tend to have fairly predictable inputs, processes and outputs. Complex systems (like ...
Last week, after Judith Collins announced that National would be cruel and vicious to kiwis caught overseas by the pandemic, and rob them at the border if they returned home, Labour looked like it was falling all over itself to cry "me too". But now, it looks like kindness has ...
If entry into New Zealand from abroad is safe, it should be allowed. People arriving from places that are Covid-free, or no more risky than New Zealand, and who get here on flights that do not intersect with risky places, should return to normal travel arrangements. Currently, the Cook ...
Liz SlootenScientists from the University of Otago, working with colleagues from around the world, have found that New Zealand right whales are doing much better than right whales in other parts of the world. The research was published as the feature article in the journal Marine Ecology Progress ...
We've announced that we will expand the Flexi-wage programme to support up to 40,000 more people into work, or to help them start their own business. It's yet another way we're helping keep our economy moving by getting people into work and training. Read on to find out more ...
Business subsidy of on average $7500, and up to $22,000, to hire unemployed New ZealandersUp to 40,000 jobs to be supported by $311 million investment in keeping New Zealanders off the unemployment benefitRing-fenced fund to help unemployed start their own business ...
This week was the last of the 52nd Parliament: a major milestone for our Government and a great opportunity to look back at all the progress we've made for New Zealanders. This week, we increased support for businesses to take on apprentices, improved access to hospital care in Northland, and ...
Kia orana and kia ora koutou katoa. It is a privilege to be able to speak in this adjournment debate and to mark and acknowledge the fact that we are now two years and 10 months into the conclusion of a parliamentary term that has been extraordinary in so many ...
On 1 August, we marked the anniversary of Jacinda Ardern becoming the Leader of the Labour Party. On that day in 2017, Leader Andrew Little nominated Jacinda Ardern to succeed him and lead the party to victory.Now, three years on, we look back at some of the key moments ...
With the June 2020 quarter showing underemployment increasing, the Green Party is calling for a Guaranteed Minimum Income and an increase to the abatement threshold to ensure everyone has a dignified income. ...
We went hard and we went early in our health response to COVID-19, and we did everything we could to cushion the economic impact too. In fact, we can fill every letter of the alphabet with the steps we took to fight COVID-19 and ensure we were in a position ...
Investing in our people, backing businesses, and upgrading infrastructure and housing throughout the country - it's been another week of progress for New Zealanders as we deliver our plan to recover and rebuild. ...
July was another busy month, packed with key investments aimed at progressing our economic recovery as we rebuild New Zealand. We extended support for businesses, helped create jobs through local infrastructure projects, and kept working to clean up our waterways so Kiwis can access safe clean water. Check out the ...
The Green Party is calling for the Defence Force Chiefs in place between 2010-2017 to front up and explain how dishonesty, process and policy failures within the Defence Force led to ‘a series of incorrect statements in briefings to ministers and public releases’ regarding alleged breaches of international torture prevention ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
The Government is stepping up action to deal with environmentally harmful products – including plastic packaging, tyres and e-waste – before they become waste. ...
The Green Party are ensuring that New Zealanders who were overseas when COVID-19 hit will not be charged for the cost of isolation or quarantine if they return home to live. ...
It's been another week of creating jobs, supporting local businesses, and investing in infrastructure up and down the country - all of which are helping to keep our economy moving post-COVID-19. ...
Law changes to end tenure review and provide for better management of Crown pastoral lands in the South Island high country were considered by Parliament today with the first reading of the Crown Pastoral Land Reform Bill says Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage. ...
The Green Party have secured legislative amendments in a bill expected to pass third reading this week, to ensure better rules for school teachers and staff, so they can de-escalate children with diverse needs and cognitive differences, such as autism, rather than using unnecessary and often traumatising force. ...
New Zealand needs to be more aggressive in pursuing economic opportunities and resist the short-term thinking affecting some of its major industry, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says.Mr Peters told Wellington Chamber of Commerce members this morning that the planned closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will have ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has ridiculed the National Party "circus", with the politician saying it was in "chaos" after the resignation of another MP.Rangitata MP Andrew Falloon announced on Monday he would retire from politics after he allegedly sent inappropriate pornographic images to a young woman. Following a ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters today outlined what he saw as the requirements to re-open New Zealand's borders for tourists and travellers. If New Zealand was dealing solely with an Australian state such as Tasmania, we wouldn't need a vaccine, said Mr Peters, but these moves were complicated by the ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters appears to have prompted last-minute alterations to proposed legislation for commercial landlords and their tenants. Mr Peters told reporters on Wednesday said that he was making sure the proposed bill was in step with what the parties had actually agreed to. He said he ...
Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprise and New Zealand First List MP Shane Jones attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the new NZ Post "super depot" in Wellington. The state-owned postal service, which got $280 million from the Coalition Government last month, is expanding its operations to handle surging parcel volumes. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First CHECK AGAINST DELIVERYIntroduction Good afternoon. Welcome to you all here today and party supporters watching from around the country. We appreciate your hard work keeping New Zealand First strong; thank you for keeping the faith. Sixty-three days out from Election Day, ...
The diversity of conservation boards around Aotearoa is increasing with 47 appointments to 14 of the 15 conservation boards across New Zealand announced today by the Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage. ...
The Green Party is honoured to be remembering former co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons today at a public memorial service in the heart of Wellington at the Cathedral of St. Paul’s. Following her passing in March, this celebration of her life brings together her friends, family and colleagues to honour her life ...
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has announced a $2.5 million boost for South Westland to help a regional alliance of local businesses and government agencies provide nature based jobs. ...
The Government has re-affirmed its commitment to supporting the hosting of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, which the ICC has delayed from 2021 to 2022. “This is obviously a disappointing decision for cricket players and fans around the world and for the White Ferns and their supporters here at ...
Cyclists and walkers will now have a safer way to get around Taupō, Tūrangi, and between Hamilton and Cambridge, with funding for shared paths and Te Awa River Ride, Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter announced today. “The Te Awa River Ride is the latest part of massive growth ...
Six major cycle routes will be completed in Christchurch thanks to funding from the Government’s investment in shovel-ready infrastructure as part of the COVID-19 recovery Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter announced today. $125 million will be invested to kick-start construction and fund the completion of the following cycleway ...
Plans are underway for a brand new state-of-the-art hub for Whanganui’s justice and social agencies, following confirmation the ageing Whanganui Central Police Station is to be replaced. Police Minister Stuart Nash has announced $25 million in new infrastructure spending to improve facilities for the wider community, and for staff who ...
An adjustment payment has been made to Waikato-Tainui and Ngāi Tahu under the relativity mechanisms in their 1995 and 1997 Treaty of Waitangi settlements, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little announced today. The latest payments to Waikato-Tainui and Ngāi Tahu are $2,700,000 and $2,600,000 respectively to ensure the ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off the start of the Auckland NZ Upgrade Programme rail projects which will support over 400 jobs and help unlock our biggest city. Both ministers marked the start of enabling works on the third main rail line project ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment of $3.78 million in Wairoa will create much needed economic stimulus and jobs, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. PGF projects announced today include: $200,000 loan to Nuhaka Kiwifruit Holdings Ltd (operated by Pine Valley Orchard Ltd) to increase the productivity ...
Tenants in public and Māori housing may be benefiting from their own affordable renewable energy in future – a fund to trial renewable energy technology for public and Māori housing has today been announced by Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods and Associate Minister for Housing (Māori Housing) Nanaia Mahuta. ...
Hokianga will receive $2.7 million to redevelop four of its wharves and upgrade its water supply, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Far North District Council will receive $1.8 million from the Provincial Growth Fund for the work on the wharves. “The work will include the construction of ...
A $350 million Residential Development Response Fund is being established to support the residential construction sector and to minimise the economic impact from COVID-19, the Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods has announced. “The Residential Development Response Fund will help to progress stalled or at-risk developments that support our broader housing ...
As part of a broader plan to divert waste from landfill, the Government today announced $10.67 million for new infrastructure as part of the Resource Recovery Network across the Auckland region. “This key investment in Auckland’s community recycling network is part of the Government’s Infrastructure Reference Group ‘shovel ready’ projects ...
The Government is investing $45 million in the first stage of an ambitious urban development project for Tauranga that will employ up to 250 people and help the region grow, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says the funding has been allocated out of the $3 billion ...
Getting low-emission trucks on the road is a step closer with investment in infrastructure to support hydrogen vehicles, the Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods has announced. The Infrastructure Reference Group has provisionally approved $20 million for New Plymouth company Hiringa Energy to establish a nationwide network of hydrogen-fuelling stations. ...
A new trades training centre to upskill the local workforce will be built in the South Waikato town of Tokoroa through funding from the Government’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. The Government will contribute $10.84 million from ...
The Government has agreed to repeal part of the Oranga Tamariki Act subsequent children provisions, Minister for Children Tracey Martin announced today. “There are times when children need to go into care for their safety – the safety and care of children must always be paramount,” Minister Martin said. “But ...
A $1.5 million boost to grow primary mental health and addiction services for Pacific peoples in Auckland, Hamilton and Canterbury will lead to better outcomes for Pacific communities, Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa says. Pasifika Futures has received funding to expand services through The Fono, Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest by ...
Twenty-two projects to boost the sustainability and climate resilience of New Zealand’s food and fibres sector have been announced today by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. The $18m funding will deliver practical knowledge to help farmers and growers use their land more sustainably, meet environmental targets, remain prosperous, and better understand ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson welcomes an initiative that assists employers to get mature workers into New Zealand small businesses. The disadvantages that older people face in the workplace was highlighted in the whole of Government Employment Strategy. In order to address this, a Mature Workers Toolkit has been developed and ...
New Zealand and Australia reaffirmed today the need for the closest possible collaboration as they tackle a global environment shaped by COVID-19, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said. “In these challenging times, our close collaboration with Australia is more vital than ever,” said Mr Peters. Mr Peters and his Australian ...
The recovery and forensic examination of the loader driven by survivor Russell Smith means the underground team are now moving into an area of the Pike River Mine that has not been seen since the explosion, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little said. “The fifth and last robot ...
The Government has confirmed a community-wide trial of CovidCard technology as it explores options for COVID-19 contact tracing. “Effective contact tracing is a vital part of the COVID-19 response,” Minister of Health Chris Hipkins said. “While manual processes remain the critical component for contact tracing, we know digital solutions can ...
The government is proposing changes to aquaculture legislation to improve the process for allocating and transferring aquaculture assets to iwi. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash has introduced the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Amendment Bill to Parliament. It proposes a limited new discretionary power for Te Ohu Kaimoana Trustee Limited (ToKM). ...
The Minister of Justice has today introduced the Family Court (Supporting Children in Court) Legislation Bill – the next step in the ongoing programme of work to fix the failed 2014 Family Court reforms led by then Justice Minister Judith Collins. The Bill arises from the report of the Independent ...
A new Department of Conservation (DOC) action plan tackles the impacts of climate change on New Zealand’s biodiversity and DOC managed infrastructure including tracks, huts and cultural heritage. Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage says extreme weather events around the country have really brought home our vulnerability to changing weather patterns. ...
A heavily scaled back international Antarctic season will commence this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods have confirmed. “Antarctica is the only continent that is COVID-19 free,” Mr Peters said. “Throughout the global pandemic, essential operations and long-term science have continued at ...
The Government is providing up to $30 million to help fund the NZ Campus of Innovation and Sport in Upper Hutt - an investment that will create 244 jobs. “The sports hub is designed to be a world-leading shared service for a range of sports, offering the level of facilities ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today transport projects currently in construction will continue at pace due to extra Government support for transport projects to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. To keep the $16.9 billion 2018-21 National Land Transport Programme going the Government has allocated funding from the COVID Response and ...
$50 million for further rural broadband digital connectivity has been allocated from the $3 billion infrastructure fund in the COVID Response and Recovery Fund has been announced by Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure and Kris Faafoi, Minister for Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media. The investment will go to boosting broadband ...
The Minister for Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media has congratulated the Ultra-fast Broadband (UFB) programme on its major milestone of connecting more than 1 million New Zealand households and businesses to UFB. “This milestone has been 10 years in the making and demonstrates the popularity of the UFB network. “Uptake ...
Landmark legislation passed today puts New Zealand on track to saving thousands of lives and having a smokefree generation sooner rather than later, Associate Health Minister, Jenny Salesa says. The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Bill regulates vaping products and heated tobacco devices. “There has long been concern ...
A discriminatory law that has been a symbol of frustration for many people needing and providing care and support, has been scrapped by the Government. “Part 4A of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill (No 2) was introduced under urgency in 2013 by a National Government,” Associate ...
Kiwi motorists are set to reap the benefits of a more competitive fuel market following the passing of the Fuel Industry Bill tonight, Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods says. “This Act is where the rubber meets the road in terms of our response to the recommendations made in the ...
The Government has delivered on its promise to New Zealanders to modernise tenancy laws with the passing of the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill 2020 today, says Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing), Kris Faafoi. “The Residential Tenancies Act 1986 was out-dated and the reforms in the RTA modernise our ...
New rules to protect and restore New Zealand’s freshwater passed into law today. Environment Minister David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor welcomed the gazetting of the new national direction on freshwater management. “These regulations deliver on the Government’s commitment to stop further degradation, show material improvements within five years and ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced the appointment of Jeremy Clarke-Watson as New Zealand’s new Consul-General in Los Angeles. “New Zealand and the United States share a close and dynamic partnership, based on a long history of shared values and democratic traditions,” Mr Peters said. “Mr Clarke-Watson is a ...
Victims of family violence can end a tenancy with two days’ notice Landlords can terminate tenancies with 14 days’ notice if tenants assault them Timeframe brought forward for limiting rent increases to once every 12 months Extension of time Tenancy Tribunal can hear cases via phone/video conference Reform of New ...
Two employment schemes – one new and one expanded – going live today will help tens of thousands of people continue training on the job and support thousands more into work, the Government has announced. Apprenticeship Boost, a subsidy of up to $12,000 per annum for first year apprentices and ...
The Government is funding a significant infrastructure package at Omokoroa which will create 150 new jobs and help transform the Western Bay of Plenty peninsula, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says the Government is investing $14 million towards the $28 million roading and water package. This ...
The Bill allowing the Government to recover some costs for managed isolation and quarantine passed its third reading today, with charges coming into force as soon as regulations are finalised. Putting regulations into force is the next step. “The COVID-19 Public Health Response Amendment Bill and its supporting regulations will ...
Today’s unemployment data shows the Government’s plan to protect jobs and cushion the blow for businesses and households against the economic impact of COVID-19 was the right decision, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ said today that New Zealand’s unemployment rate in the June quarter – which includes the ...
Judith Collins is still shy of a month into the job but in her media blitz she and her arched eyebrows are everywhere, along with the party slogan "Strong team, More Jobs, Better Economy". ...
New Zealand First is pleased to announce the next tranche of candidates that will represent our values and spread our message across the country at this year’s election. We thank these hardworking New Zealanders for putting their hand up to take on the ...
A high-ranking Chinese candidate promoted over more than a dozen incumbent MPs is the biggest surprise in an otherwise orthodox National Party list for the 2020 election, as Sam Sachdeva reports The National Party has released its list rankings for the 2020 election, with the ascent of new candidate Nancy ...
The National Party is pleased to announce the appointment of Nancy Lu to the National Party’s List for the 2020 General Election, President Peter Goodfellow says. “Nancy Lu is a Chartered Accountant with a background in accounting and business working ...
Headline: A crisis of governance. – 36th Parallel Assessments [embedded content] The Port of Beirut warehouse explosion, involving 2.7 kilotons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate negligently stored in an unsecured area, crystalizes in one national tragedy a much wider trend: the crisis and decline of democratic governance world-wide.For a ...
National’s 2020 Party List is a strong mix of experience coming up through our Caucus, and new and exciting talent joining our team from communities across New Zealand, Party President Peter Goodfellow says. “The National Party is incredibly ...
Latest from the Beehive – It looked (at first blush) like Christchurch would gobble up around half the money earmarked by the government for projects to get us on our bikes. Julie Anne Genter, Associate Minister of Transport and a Green with a fondness for two-wheeled, pedal-driven transport, today banged ...
The suggestion of putting border exemptions up for auction so large companies can bring in overseas executives and key workers is naïve and totally unfair,” says Ms June Ranson, chair of the New Zealand Association of Migration and Investment ...
Looking for a wonderfully trashy movie to watch? TVNZ OnDemand now have some of Lifetime’s best dramas for your viewing pleasure. In a world of serious and credible television, the arrival of Lifetime to TVNZ OnDemand is joyous news. Lifetime is an American cable channel that churns out emotional drama after emotional drama, ...
The introduction of a $3,100 fee for returning New Zealanders will disadvantage Māori disproportionately, Phoebe Carr (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe)and Max Harris argue.The government has once again failed to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi by rushing through legislation to introduce exorbitant managed isolation fees for returning New Zealanders. This ...
7 August 2020: The Team of Six Million, a campaign group established to oppose the imposition of quarantine fees by the New Zealand Government, has expressed disappointment at the Government's urgent passing of the Public Health Response Amendment Bill to ...
In July support for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party was at 53.5% down 1% since June, but still more than double the support for National on 26.5%, down 0.5%, with just over a month to go before the election in mid-September. If ...
Welcome to Election Live for August 7, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other breaking news. For key dates in the election season click here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Policy launching soon. Get in touch ...
After initial concerns about low testing rates in South Auckland, Counties Manukau DHB has the second-highest testing rate in the country. Ōtara Health chief executive Sosefina Paletaoga explains her organisation’s role in achieving this. Covid-19 has affected us all in different ways, and for us in Ōtara, it has highlighted existing ...
Oranga Tamariki's Chief Executive appeared before the Waitangi Tribunal a day after a report from the Chief Ombudsman found the agency had used its draconian powers to uplift babies too readily in many cases A Waitangi Tribunal hearing has seen Oranga Tamariki chief executive Gráinne Moss concede her organisation harmed families during ...
"A resident of the boarding house disappeared the same day Mrs Bethany’s body was discovered": provincial gothic, with astrology, by Auckland writer Mandy McMullin. I moved into the tearooms the day I turned sixteen, 23 December 2006. The same day I met Garth. It was Saturday, a lucky day for ...
The resignation of Westland Milk Products chief executive Tony Brendish almost a year to the day the company was sold to Chinese conglomerate Yili makes a mockery of assurances that there was no conflict of interest in top management preparing ...
On this week's Extra Time podcast: After significant investigations into cycling, football and hockey in New Zealand, now gymnastics is in the spotlight around their athletes' welfare. Allegations of multiple New Zealand gymnasts suffering from verbal and physical abuse, bullying and unsafe training methods have surfaced over the past week. And ...
*Watch the video in the player below*The wheels of progress turn frustratingly slow in Christchurch’s Red Zone. Frank Film asks, is anything going to happen? Hayley Guglietta is honest about her group’s activities on vacant land bordering Christchurch’s Avon River. She admits the groundwork was commenced without official ...
She’s a lone wolf, a team player, a rebel, a leader and the nicest lady around. But what combination of those do you need to survive in government?On a cold July morning, I found myself driving around Totara Park in Manurewa in the dark. I had been invited to a ...
All around the country, people are asking ‘what’s going to happen in the 2020 general election campaign?’ That’s because they haven’t read this guide, which reveals exactly what will happen in the 2020 general election campaign.Someone has finally put this term of parliament out of its misery. We’ve had three ...
The UK car industry has run a good race in the post-Brexit lobbying stakes. But Britain’s chemical industry looks to be making a late run, if recent coverage in the Financial Times is accurate.The issue for the industry is the post-Brexit regulatory regime and how this is to be ...
Latest from the Beehive – We had just finished digesting an outpouring of announcements from the Beehive over the previous 24 hours or so when the Point of Order Trough Monitor shrieked an alert. A new trough had been established. While we were inspecting the contents of this new trough, ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Chart 1, Historical: Australian much lower than Spain, Belgium and Sweden. Chart by Keith Rankin. The known incidences of Covid19 in Spain, Belgium and Sweden are similar, although Sweden lagged for a while before overtaking the other two. In deaths, Sweden is slightly lower than ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The good news in the Reserve Bank’s latest quarterly set of forecasts is that the recession won’t be as steep as it thought last time. The bad news is it ...
Analysis: National entices voters with big infrastructure projects, Judith Collins rips into Jacinda Ardern and Parliament passes a bill that could affect every tenant in the country. ...
By RNZ Pacific France’s new overseas minister Sebastien Lecornu says New Caledonia’s restrictions over the covid-19 pandemic will not affect the preparations for the October referendum on independence. Lecornu gave the assessment during a visit to New Caledonia House in Paris. Paris is expected to send dozens of officials and ...
Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa descendants are overjoyed they can do up their wharenui, while also attracting their rangatahi back to their marae, with more than $1.5 million from the Provincial Growth Fund. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith University National crises, like the pandemics that can provoke them, come in stages. Each stage presents leaders with unique problems that require mental, moral and emotional agility to manage. Change is the only constant, as ...
How is New Zealand faring in during the Covid-19 pandemic? Newsroom is taking a weekly look at the latest numbers related to the virus and the impact on the economy.Excess deaths Overseas the death toll in some countries has risen sharply, with the ...
Justice campaign organisation JustSpeak has outlined a vision for a society without prisons in its 2020 election campaign ‘ Our Justice Our Future ’. The campaign was launched last night in Wellington, to a sold out audience of supporters and volunteers. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vasso Apostolopoulos, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research Partnerships, Victoria University During the COVID-19 pandemic we’re constantly being reminded to practise good hygiene by frequently washing our hands and regularly cleaning the spaces where we live and work. These practices aim to remove or kill ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and University of Canberra Assistant Professor Caroline Fisher discuss the week in politics. This week Michelle and Caroline discuss the closure of ‘non-essential’ businesses in Melbourne under stage ...
Labour's campaign slogan "Let's Keep Moving" is hardly the most inspirational but reflects the conservative game plan - trade on the Covid response and stay on track. ...
By granting a permit to OceanaGold to mine under DOC land in the Coromandel, the government is not only threatening an endangered species, says Catherine Delahunty – it’s threatening future generations.I woke up angry. The government has given a 40-year permit to OceanaGold to mine under DOC land behind Whangamatā. ...
How come, after numerous condemnatory reports, Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss holds on to her job? Aaron Smale wonders if those harmed by her tenure aren't a big enough voting bloc So, what happens when a government department breaks the law and breaches its own policies? Nothing, apparently. The latest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia Review: The Meddler, screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival For movie scholars and enthusiasts, one of the worst things about the COVID-19 pandemic has been the shutting down of ...
The combination of solar panels, electricity storage batteries, smart household gadgets, and a boring looking black box is set to change forever how our electricity system works. But do we need subsidies? ...
The New Zealand Bar Assocation says misinformed criticism of a South Island judge’s sentencing of a sex offender has the potential for disturbing consequences for the justice system and society generally. The Bar Association’s President Kate Davenport ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Royal Commission into Aged-Care Quality and Safety delivered it’s interim report in October 2019. Titled ‘Neglect’, it provided a scathing insight into the aged care industry – finding it centred around transactions not care. ...
By Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group More than one year after the March 15, 2019 terrorist attack, an official inquiry into the mass shooting that killed 51 people and injured 49 in two Christchurch mosques has still not released any information ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Damien Manuel, Director, Centre for Cyber Security Research & Innovation (CSRI), Deakin University Australia’s long-awaited cybersecurity strategy, released yesterday, pledges to spend A$1.67 billion over the next ten years to improve online protection for businesses, individuals and the country as a whole. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roxana Diamond, PhD Candidate, Flinders University This article has links that contain graphic content Many industries and employees have been hurt by COVID-19. But sex workers, who face stigma and discrimination at the best of times, have been hit particularly hard by ...
By Lulu Mark in Port Moresby Port Moresby may need to expand its covid-19 isolation facilities quickly and effectively in case a big spike in cases occurs, a doctor says. Rita Flynn isolation facility manager Dr Gary Nou said it would be a disaster if the spread of covid-19 in ...
Paige Tapara is a fast-rising young singer-songwriter whose debut EP explores themes of sexuality, coming of age, mental health and relationships. We asked her how it came together, and why she thinks it’s so important for NZ music to include voices like hers.Paige swoops into the room, a cream doughnut in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cathy Foley, Chief Scientist, CSIRO Universities and other research organisations in Australia have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In May, a group led by Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel forecasted severe impacts for our research workforce. These included the loss ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Carnt, Scientia Senior Lecturer, School of Optometry and Vision Science, UNSW, Sydney, UNSW You’re rushing and accidentally drop a contact lens on the bathroom floor. Should you: a) run it under the tap and pop it in? b) spit on it ...
The Māori Party is celebrating World Indigenous Day the Māori way, surrounded by friends and whānau at a Meet-the-Candidates at the Third Place Café in Rotorua this weekend. To mark World Indigenous Day, the Māori Party wants to remind Aotearoa ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Wayland, Lecturer, University of Sydney As part of new research into missing persons in Australia, I have been asking people who return after disappearing what they needed or wanted. Mary, who has gone missing four times in the last few years, ...
Forest & Bird is calling for all political parties to back an end to mining conservation land, after a permit was issued to mine the home of a critically-endangered native animal. This week Oceana Gold was granted a 40-year mining permit from the ...
Here’s a snapshot of a single day in parliament. A day where changes were made to laws that govern everything from the milk in your refrigerator to the speed you can drive your car, and to Netflix, and war crimes, and who tests your water. It was a big day.The ...
*This article was first published on RNZ and is republished with permission* Māori leaders say they have no faith in Oranga Tamariki and the chief executive needs to go after the latest report into the organisation found it was routinely taking newborns without whānau consultation. The Chief Ombudsman's report He Take Kōhukihuki, ...
So is the government succeeding in steering the country through the Covid-19 crisis and what it calls a “one-in-100-year shock”. And just what is it costing? These are questions which will be uppermost in the minds of voters when they cast their ballots in next month’s general election. Finance Minister ...
Peddlethorp calls on other businesses that cancelled events due to Covid to donate now when need is greatest Peddlethorp Architects is calling on businesses that cancelled events due to Covid-19 to donate event catering or funding to those in need, if circumstances ...
A poem by Rhian Gallagher from her new collection Far-Flung.At the Boatshedfor Sonja MitchellWe carried the day through the door the harbour had earned its keep light laid its hands on each contourthe shed held abreast with the shore spreading the waves in pleats we carried the day through the ...
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 Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man by Mary L. Trump ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alistair Sisson, Postdoctoral Research Associate, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Social and public housing is intensely stigmatised in Australia and has been for several decades. Estates in particular are often labelled “ghettos”, framed as places of danger, drugs and vice. This stigma ...
National is promising to spend $20 million over four years on increasing testing rates and accessibility to clinical trials for gynaecological cancer if elected. ...
The National Party is criticising the government's list of "shovel-ready projects", meant to kickstart the economy, for not generating enough jobs for women. ...
Wedged between punitive commercial law and an ineffective government, a once-thriving business is dying a slow and expensive death.It was one of the most acclaimed backpackers in New Zealand.Perched at the top of the Elliot Stables building in central Auckland, it was voted by Hostelworld as the city’s most popular ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW One of the many things COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on is the way many of us work. Those fortunate enough to be able to work from home have been able to adapt to this ...
When Covid-19 forced New Zealanders to live most of their lives online it exacerbated the effects of digital exclusion. Jean Teng spoke to the organisations that kept vulnerable communities connected during the pandemic. From job hunting and banking to watching TV and scrolling through the news, there is hardly a ...
Bernard Hickey writes this election's argument over who will repay Government debt faster is a dangerous and pointless replay of a 30-year old debate rendered obsolete by today's financial facts Often the myths and legends of the past are more powerful in the minds of politicians, bureaucrats and voters than the reality. Just the fear ...
Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki says the Government has utterly betrayed the public by allowing MBIE to grant a 40 year mining permit to Oceana Gold on Dept of Conservation land at Wharekirauponga near Whangamata this week. " It is appalling that this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Moffat, ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow in Archaeological Science, Flinders University How did the first person evolve? Mabel, age 7, Anglesea, Victoria. Hi Mabel, what a great question! We know humans haven’t always been around. After all, we ...
Open mike 31/10/13 
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*Watch the video in the player below* The wheels of progress turn frustratingly slow in Christchurch’s Red Zone. Frank Film asks, is anything going to happen? Hayley Guglietta is honest about her group’s activities on vacant land bordering Christchurch’s Avon River. She admits the groundwork was commenced without official ...16 hours ago
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Good news about New Zealand
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11149067
But slips two places since 2009 …
I love how the MSM can spit this stuff out with a straight face and not choke on their own hypocrisy.
Prosperous for whom?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv/9074283/Mind-the-Gap-Why-most-of-us-are-poor
Listed under ‘entertainment’.
Fairly obvious that the questions are not answered / stats taken in Manukau or Porirua. Of course if NZ had Bill Gates living here to skue the averages we could all live in a cave and come out as number one. Its what I describe as a Goebbels article.
I’m not feeling that prosperous, and I have dropped more than 2 places since 2009.
There’s more to being the 5th most prosperous –
3rd Global Peace Index
6th on Human Development Index
1st on Freedom Index
4th on Economic Freedom Index
1st (Least corrupt) Corruption Index
7th OECD Economic Growth
3rd Ease of Doing Business
7th OECD Employment Rate
7th Best Country to be a Woman
4th Equal Life Expectancy for non-Maori (82yrs)
1st Education Index (2007 last Wiki entry)
“87% of population satisfied or very satisfied with their lives overall”
So it’s not quite the Niger many posters on TS make it out to be.
Trouble is, Seti, that most of those were established when Helen Clark was leading NZ to Sodom and Gomorrah. Or so it was claimed by the Right.
Not all of us have amnesia, you know. Try harder.
Ah, so every positive stat is from a government from 5 years ago and every negative one reflects squarely on the encumbent. Gotcha.
Unfortunately most here are trying to discredit the prosperity story rather than claiming it was spawned by the left.
and Level of Inequality?
According to Wiki our GINI co-efficient, or level of inequality, was 0.488 in mid-90’s;
0.484 around 2000; 0.473 in mid-2000’s and 0.455 in late 2000’s, which is their most recent dataset. So on that measure inequality is reducing.
More relevant than an economist’s abstraction is this:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10830335
Some More Perspective on ‘wealth’, ‘income’ the exclusion of capital gains and ‘housing costs’, for a start.
and, some Employee perspective.
You neglected to add 0.408 in the mid-80s (at the very beginning of Rogernomics), increasing dramatically to 0.468 around 1990, and further up to 0.488 in the mid-90s.
The decrease was primarily during the Clark government of the 2000s, which saw a break from the neo-liberal policies and thus a slight decrease in the inequality levels. However, we’re still nowhere near the pre-Rogernomics error levels. Undoubtedly, if they did another measurement around now, the level will have increased again.
I should add that the post-tax trends are even worse, with 0.271 pre-Rogernomics, up to a high of 0.339 when the Clark government was first elected. The decrease that the Clark government managed was tiny: down by only 0.009 to 0.330.
Thanks for intention Seti but some wikipedia ones suggest waiting for a purge, and the BBC has lost its bit on being a woman. (Probably not allowed under Cameron’s government. Dirty smelly things who are often unskilled wastrels.)
The Legatum Institute, dedicated to liberty and freedom, but whose symbol is a chariot from a slave owning society that tortured people to death publicly for entertainment? Excuse me if I don’t take this rubbish seriously.
+1
from Forbes
Age 53
Christopher Chandler founded Dubai-based Legatum Capital after splitting off from his brother, Richard, in 2006 to invest on his own. Legatum is a private, multibillion-dollar investment firm that puts money into companies in developing countries as well as the world’s capital markets.
The son of a beekeeper from North Island, New Zealand, Chandler and his brother first started taking proceeds from the sale of their parents’ department store and investing in Hong Kong real estate. The siblings then formed investment firm Sovereign Global in Monaco to focus on transitioning industries in Russia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. In April 2012, Legatum acquired its own building in the Dubai International Finance Centre.</i
Like most of the wealthy in the world now, it seems, this man is living on the finances from his parents ventures. They made the money, and their children are the chariot drivers.
Broad wide deep economies with lower inequality rise in rankings while under Key inequality has grown and we begin falling. Its hard to see how NZ would fall far given our bountiful nation. We export as much oil as we import… …the question has always been about redistribution and how Kiwis hate the idea of other kiwis have easier lives than their forefathers.
“The institute’s parent company was founded by Kiwi billionaire Christopher Chandler in 2006.”
‘Nuff said.
It’s like telling Oliver Twist not to worry because the streets of London really are paved with gold.
An example of the perspective of the institute – social capital is all about the trust levels between and entrepreneur and investor.
You have to ask yourself, how narrow these moran’s view of the universe is. It’s like waking up on a planet run by Ferengi.
It’s a planet Tiberias loves.
Speaking of which, anyone notice how much Rodney Hide looks like a Ferengi?
He is the spitting image of a Ferengi. No two ways about it.
“Legatum was founded in December 2006 by Christopher Chandler, Chairman of Legatum Global Holdings. Chandler was formerly President of the holding company for the Sovereign Global group of companies (“Sovereign”), which he co-founded with his older brother Richard Chandler (businessman) in 1986. From 1986 to 2006, Sovereign provided capital to companies and governments in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe, and to industries including telecommunications, electric utilities, steel, oil and gas, banking and oil refining.”
Sounds like a source without any agendas.
Look at all that great background info and context provided with the piece by the NZ Herald. Not.
Someone should research editors Murphy and Roughan and find out why they write what they do.
Who pays the bills?
Legatum, a gift with no agenda.
according to rnz the fonterra trucks were contaminated by waste from oil & gas? sounds a bit feked! & in the next story is the nz oil & gas voting 99% against paying more reparations (as advised by the judge) to the pike river families. but hey, drill it & we will all be rich they say!
Will the Morgan make the front page?
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/5269-new-zealand-voting-intention-october-2013-201310300521
of the tory papers? On the yes column, labour dropped a point. On the no column, it still thinks national will lose the election.
The augeries are unclear…
Close enough to the front page –
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9346241/Labour-Greens-take-edge-in-poll
Stop the Queenstown/Milford Monorail
Good front foot strategy here by Federated Mountain Clubs, by a mate Peter Wilson.
http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/outdoors-groups-doubts-monorail-economics-video-5664788
+1 TL (CV)….good interview
This monorail is really all about allowing some rich prick to play with (and not share) his toys in an area of New Zealand that should be enjoyed by all. And trash the place in the process. I doubt it would make much of a profit anyway…
Well, sir, there’s nothing on earth
Like a genuine, bona fide
Electrified, six-car monorail
What’d I say?
Monorail
What’s it called?
Monorail
That’s right! Monorail
Monorail
Monorail
Monorail
I hear those things are awfully loud
It glides as softly as a cloud
Is there a chance the track could bend?
Not on your life, my Hindu friend
What about us brain-dead slobs?
You’ll be given cushy jobs
Were you sent here by the Devil?
No, good sir, I’m on the level
The ring came off my pudding can
Take my pen knife, my good man
I swear it’s Springfield’s only choice
Throw up your hands and raise your voice
Monorail
What’s it called?
Monorail
Once again
Monorail
But Main Street’s still all cracked and broken
Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken
Monorail!
Monorail!
Monorail!
Monorail!
Mono, d’oh!
Yep, that’s about it…
Another view would point out to Fiordland tunnellers, road builders and mono-railers that there is already a train on the other side of Wakatipu (Kingston Flyer) and it is again for sale because it doesn’t attract enough custom to keep it going….
And there is already a tunnel through mountains (Homer tunnel) and it gets closed every few days due to the heavy environment with avalanche, rockfall etc….
And there are already roads through the place (Haast Pass, Milford Road, Hollyford Road) and we can’t even keep them opened such is the heavy environment and slips and rockfall and snow and avalanche….
the folly of man eh
Pete
I guess that a quote from Homer’s great adventure with Big Business in The Simpsons?
It is very good. Unfortunately I can feel my brain patterning setting in place just reading the repetitions of ‘monorail’. The human mind is so plastic!
:-D. (the vulgar mob broken).
It was on the front page of the ODT alongside their April fools article I think this year.
I honestly had no idea which one was the joke.
http://boingboing.net/2013/10/29/church-resembles-penis.html
Google Earth shows church is shaped like a giant penis. Their slogan? “Rising Up”.
Church then quips on FB page in what is obviously a response to the story, “Giant fig leaf coming soon”
Lots to cover up
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/crime/news/article.cfm?c_id=30&objectid=11149395
Xox
Looks like business is more of the problem than the solution these days. The haves will have to consume less, play more , and do less damage to mother earth. As Paul Ehlrich (population bomb) said in Wellington last night, as a neocon would, “you can’t negotiate with nature”. To a packed auditorium he gave mankind a 10% chance of avoiding collapse. This was much higher than other estimates! Now is the time to act folks. For the benefit of John Keys offspring, now is the time for informed and practical action. 😉
Phil, nice comment! I have read too much Orlov, Greer, etc and understand implicitly that “collapse” (maybe irregular decline is a better description) is inevitable. I bet that the people of the packed auditorium either ignored / denied the message OR put all of their faith in the 10% chance….some techno fantasy or similar will save their world.
It is a depressing subject and it challenges us on all levels: I cannot see a way through BUT I do accept that we are on course to a very changed and potentially lethal future. So what to do? Dont really know BUT stay positive and do the things you have to do to adjust.
sigh, some depressive realism required indeed.
So much for John Banks’ attempts to get an urgent judicial review of the District Court decision to commit the case on his electoral returns for trial.
The first High Court hearing on the judicial review was supposed to have been today at the Auckland HC (see Penny Bright’s comment at 28 in OM 30/10/13).
The HC daily list for today make no mention of the case; and both the Herald and TV3 News have reported this morning that the first hearing on a possible judicial review has now been set for November 28
http://www.3news.co.nz/Banks-judicial-review-date-set/tabid/1607/articleID/319477/Default.aspx
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11148990
According to the Herald article:
“The Herald has been granted access to the court file which reveals the details of Mr Banks’ claim for the first time.
Mr Banks’ lawyer, David Jones QC, has filed a detailed memorandum which says that Mr Banks had been “vilified” in Parliament and the media as a result of Judge Gittos’ ruling, which he described as “fundamentally misstated and misdirected itself both on the evidence and law”.
He wrote that the “factual findings made, the analysis of the evidence and the resulting process by which the court came to its decision were wrong”.
While Judge Gittos’ decision appears to include a number of factual inaccuracies (eg implying that Banks went by helicoptor to the meeting with Dotcom at which the splitting of the donation was discussed), I would hope the judicial review would focus on the legal reasons for Gittos’ decision to commit the case to trial, rather than these ancillary matters.
I also hope that any judicial review also covers the decisions of Judge Mill of the Wellington DC on 7 Nov 2012 and 16 April 2013, where he also considered that there was sufficient evidence to allow the case to proceed.
Links from Penny Bright’s websites
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Banks-summoned-on-election-
return-19-4-13.pdf
Oops – that last link doen’t work here or on Penny’s site.
I get both. The second link is Here.
Thanks DTB.
I read Judge Mill’s April decision at that time and the reason I hope that it will also be taken into consideration in the judicial review is that it includes references to relevant case law etc not covered by Judge Gittos’ decision – and considerable analysis/dissection of the arguments put forward by Banks’ lawyer against the case going to trial.
The focus recently has been on Gittos’ decision, but in fact two DC judges ruled that the case should proceed, which IMO should give more weight to the prosecution proceeding (although I personally still have qualms about Crown Law taking over).
If Graeme Edgeler is correct that the HC judicial review and the DC trial will proceed concurrently, then Banks has effectively not gained anything timewise with his arrogant call for HIS case to be settled forthwith (ie thrown out). The next DC hearing is set for Dec 12, while the HC first hearing is now only two weeks earler on Nov 28 and presumably the latter proceedings will not be finished in one hit. So, the overall effect of the HC judicial review will be to keep the case and Banks even more in the public eye …
Latest on the Banks case – and I was wrong on a couple of points.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9347204/ACTs-Banks-gets-hearing-date
There was a hearing today in the Auckland HC, which has set a full hearing for Nov 27 – and it is to be a one day hearing only.
Shane Jones being sexist:
Labour MP Shane Jones was in attendance, and said, “With the high percentage of women on council perhaps their motherly instinct will come together with the custodial role of local Māori, which could bring prosperity to Whangarei.”
(source: Māori Television website story on Whangārei Council)
There was a faint glimmer of hope during the Leadership Contest that he would be more of an asset than a liability but it is time to start questioning his senior role in the Labour caucus.
Is that a totally bad remark by Shane Jones? There is nothing bad about having motherly instincts. We are all here and healthy because of them on an individual scale.
That remark seems to imply that the men on council are less likely to do a good job than the women, and that they need to have fatherly instincts equal to the motherly ones to do well for Whangarei.
And Shane is no doubt right – if they consider their role is to husband resources and provide good policy outcomes and for all the people dependent on them, they could do well with a fatherly bent. These outcomes should benefit all, and not just be tailored for the individual man personally.
Nor for their mates the property speculators, their mates the water monopolisers, their mates the sports stadium builders. All using Council assets and resources to further their own projects.
There is nothing bad about having motherly instincts.
Assuming all women having motherly instincts and are guided by them, on the other hand …
Shane Jones is a nasty prick.
But properly harnessed, his nastiness could be a useful weapon for Labour.
” … properly harnessed, his nastiness could be a useful weapon for Labour ”
Indeed. Against the other side of the House.
And not crap on the benches of his own party’s side in the House.
Where’s the sexism? It reads like a very positive affirmation of the role of women and Māori to me. Kaitiaki?
And, also, Joss Whedon’s on the money as usual:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/28/joss-whedon-equality-now-acceptance-speech_n_4169800.html
This.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/26/marty-sullivan-figured-out-how-the-worlds-biggest-companies-avoided-billions-in-taxes-heres-how-he-wants-to-stop-them/
nice one joe 90..
..i’ve hooked it for whoar..
..phillip ure..
Here it is via a long google link https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CD8QFjAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fnewzealandjustice.com%2Fattachment.php%3Fattachmentid%3D544%26d&ei=YXpxUrX2FsbGkQWT2AE&usg=AFQjCNEUJdywm77nb61-aZ7ASBmqpqOOwQ&sig2=KcmVVCqAw3cKW-IM5TbWXQ
OOPs – this should have come up as 9.1.1
Neoliberalism is slippery. Economic historian Philip Mirowski pulls historical and philosophical perspective in this excerpt from his new book.
Read this and think about the Reserve Bank Act, the TPPA, etc
The Thirteen Commandments of Neoliberalism
By Philip Mirowski.
Neoliberals are not fundamentalists. But they approach crises with a certain logic—one that is directly relevant to comprehending neoliberalism’s unexpected strength in the current global crisis.
It is very important to have some familiarity with neoliberal ideas, if only to resist simple-minded characterizations of the neoliberal approach to the financial crisis as some form of evangelical “market fundamentalism.”
http://www.the-utopian.org/post/53360513384/the-thirteen-commandments-of-neoliberalism
Don’t know what happened there, but the previous post about Philip Mirowski is from me
Don’t know what happened there, but the previous post about Philip Mirowski is from me
Understatement of the year:
Fascinating article. Tempted to write out Mirowski’s commandments here but they need the context of his discussion.
Just read today’s DominionPost editorial…it was having a go at the upcoming Labour Party conference where there is “ a proposed rule change requiring the party to “fairly represent” gays and lesbians on its candidate list.
The Dom is wrong: the remit should be debated. It is part of the party becoming representative of its members democratically.
Should it become policy? Consider this, it would legislate and mandate something that should not have to be mandated / enforced. In an open grown up accepting society it should not matter what gender / sexuality people are. I consequently think that it reflects badly on all parties when you have to enforce equality. Labour needs to project an image of openly embracing inclusion without having to enforce it. That just sends a message of coercion and entrenchment of “special rights”, Nanny State on steroids.
Agree Ennui.
Labour is already a party that is widely representative of all citizens in this country. It includes among its membership a solid cross section of ethnic groups, and its caucus is close to becoming evenly gender balanced. There is still a way to go before gender balance is complete and a debate on the issue to send the message home how important it is to achieve that balance is desirable. But to apply ‘enforcement’ by way of a rigid party rule change is NOT the way to do it.
It irritates me when a group of Labour members become so immersed in an issue that they can’t see the electoral consequences of their ‘selected’ course of action. I have seen it happen time and again over the decades where Labour has adopted rigid policies which allows their opponents to bury them alive and destroy their prospects of electoral success. Have we not learned anything from the successful “Nanny State” campaign of 2007/2008?
As Ennui implies: you don’t have to apply coercion and entrenchment to achieve a laudable goal. Encouragement and enlightenment is a much better way to go…
I’m sure this issue won’t help Colin Craig at all…
that Preacher script sure is engrossing
Its his best work, The Boys is equally entertaining but not quite in the same vein
Consider this, it would legislate and mandate something that should not have to be mandated / enforced.
You know what else shouldn’t have to be mandated? Murder, assault, theft, fraud. And yet they are. Because our society has figured out that some shit doesn’t magically take care of itself.
A theme park ride, that will cut a privately run monorail
through a national park, despoiling that park for everyone.
Now, there won’t be a fence blocking people from crossing,
so what’s actually to stop people from crossing? Now, let’s
just think about this, a private consortium will own a
exclusive path through a National Park, and public can
cross it for free but not ride it. And the Minister cannot
see the down stream political outrage, another example
of Key’s destroying our pristine image.
Why would any reasonable person think the monorail won’t become
the poster child for anti-protest? Look, and its worse, why would
tourists want to travel on a theme park ride that destroys what they
came to experience. Leave no litter behind, oh, but a monorail
is okay. What in all of Christidom was the Minister thinking,
the comedians will have a field day; the world came to see the
pristine environment, but the mountains and forests slowed
them down, it was a easy choice, remove forest and tunnel the
mountains, or safe guard the pristine world heritage.
Its a joke, a monrail in the wilderness.
If I hear anyone mentioning mum and dad investors again, I’ll barf:
New York bank snaps up Meridian shares
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/9346647/New-York-bank-snaps-up-Meridian-shares
Also, NZ Oil and Gas shareholders have voted against compensation for Pike Mine families.
You can only imagine how much they care for the environment, and what would happen in an event of an oil spill here.
Why would shareholders vote to decrease their own dividends?
Shareholders: Biggest bunch of bludgers in the world.
I knew someone at the meeting and only shareholders at the meeting could vote. 99% of the shares were voted against but there is no figure for the number of shareholders (not shares) that voted for it, which might be interesting because these would be the “mom and pop” shareholders. Wonder if someone will ask the coy?
Why did National Radio just now keep referring to “the central bank” instead of to “the Reserve Bank”?
Something is pretty fucked up.
Same thing, isn’t it?
they think they are being clever and know something that everybody else doesn’t.
try some mineyooshie e.g.
anyway the thing is why is DOC approving the slash and burn in the fiordland national park so the noo noo heads can have their own little private electric train set.
DOC has become obsessed with fiddling about with birds and they are ready and willing to sell off anything so they can get their names in the paper or on teevee fondling a bundle of fluff.
Ban the box.
http://bantheboxcampaign.org/?p=20
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/target-bans-the-box/?_r=0
encouraging joe90
Seems they’ve realised that there’s a downside to locking people up on an industrial scale.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/us/nearly-a-third-of-americans-are-arrested-by-23-study-says.html
yes, I watched a lot of documentaries on the US Incarceration machine.
Was saddened to hear the frequency, severity and total quantity of domestic / family violence figures gathered through the NZPolice trial of an assessment tool, 4 incidents attended per hour, around 80,000 per year. Furthermore, some goes on next door from time-to-time. Incarceration / Revenge justice promotes a vicious cycle.
But a profitable enterprise for the Sercos of the world.
Free University
Press release
At the Otago Polytech.
from the vid
-offering a Bachelor of General Studies
-a Graduate Diploma in Tertiary Education introduced the following year.
-“cost recovery” for assessment.
from the Press
-a course in Regional Economics in the Asia and Pacific region.
very interesting Draco
I was just listening to a group of Chinese or Japanese college students going by talking in their language. And I thought how determined and stoic these parents and kids are to advance themselves, learn about the different culture that will be useful to them, and go far away from their own country and food. (A Butanese here had digestion troubles for some time – food and sort of reverse altitude sickness apparently.)
How many NZ families are sending their kids away from the cows, and over to Chinese Universities, after learning Cantonese or Mandarin of course? The Chinese and Japanese have ancient cultures that have been through the processes of the modernising machine, a process like a long. scary ghost tunnel ride with real blood. They have come out the other side, let’s not see them fight over a group of islands in their waters, as that will cause a silly blip in the preparation for the new Millenium which has only just started.
We need to relate to the Chinese now we have signed up, and be prepared to flip the TPPP down the toilet despite nasty teeth-baring from the New World (that is just the old one, with new hot chilly sauce) and the Mother of All of whom it was said ‘Perfidious Albion.’
The Angels Weep Still.
Strangely I have a great deal of difficulty relating to harvesting organs from prisoners, enforced abortions and sterilisations, widespread bureaucratic corruption, sweatshops, and god knows what else.
Gerygone-
Are you sure these students weren’t from Moldova , Brazil, Comoros , Germany, Ukraine, Australia, Tajikistan, Peru, Burkina Faso, Benin, Fiji , Canada..?
How did you pick their nationality?
Did you actually go outside and ask these students face to face where they were from in order to “relate” to them ? ( it has been over 5 years since “We need to relate to the Chinese now we have signed up” and about 40 years since there has been a ‘relationship’ with China.)
Do “Butanese” come from Lithospere(ania)?
What’s wrong with cows? Is it all right if my kids speak Portuguese and attend UNICERP ( there was real blood there too) to learn culture?
If I fly into Lijiang, head to Yulong will Naxi be ok ?
What does “that is just the old one, with new hot chilly[sic] sauce” infer ? The “New World” was ‘discovered’ (colonists world view) as early as the 11th century so do you think indigenous cultures already in the New World feel grateful and did they get a fair trade price for their hot chili?
The “Old World” was China so where does NEW hot chili sauce come from?
What does “the modernising machine” do? Was it like the tunnel one in “The Sneetches” where your stars are better than theirs?
What does this mean “let’s not see them fight over a group of islands in their waters, as that will cause a silly blip in the preparation for the new Millenium [sic] which has only just started.” ?And which “new “Millenium” ” are we preparing for?
What is “gerfuffle” (your spelling) ?
, 無厘頭尻, 死鬼佬
always a stimulating read.
ps. maybe kerfuffle (dictionary spelling) 🙂
An opportunity to meet 1:1 in a short meeting with your choice (subject to availability) of Members of Parliament and senior Party officials (further information regarding this will be sent to you on payment).
– At $1500 I think thats pricing themselves out of the market 🙂
DimPost hack Vernon Small (Venally Small Minded) went on vacuously today about Cunliffe “verging on self-parody” and “talking tough instead of just being tough” whatever the hell that means… Most of his collumn was a waste of paper and ink but he did mention interestingly that Cunliffe hasn’t yet appointed a Chief Press Secretary, and that his staff was “light on political advisors”.
A bit concerned about this, and it does tee up with a lack of press and announcements from our man Cunliffe over the last couple of weeks. He’s not staying on the radar as much as I expected him to. Perhaps I shouldn’t have, he wasn’t frequently in the public eye before becoming Labour leader.
Still, what’s going on? It seems some momentum has been lost.
“verging on self-parody” and “talking tough instead of just being tough” whatever the hell that means
– I think he means Cunliffe is all fire and brimstone when talking to the unions and then changes the message when talking to thew media or business and whenever he says what hes going to do he always adds a get out clause
But I could of course be wrong
You absolutely are.
Well, he could be right, in that this is what Vernon Small is pointing to.
Which to an extent is right – but doesn’t logically reach the conclusion that Small Minded inarticulately jumps for: Cunliffe says different things to different crowds. But his message is never conflicting, he never contradicts himself, and it’s perfectly natural to say the part of the message that is relevant to the crowd you are talking to.
Easily misinterpreted as inconsistency when EVERYTHING you say happens to be broadcast to the media.
Cunliffe has spent the last 2 to 3 weeks touring the regional provinces. Labour lost all but two of their provincial seats and they need to get them back again. I think that’s an important piece of strategy because the regional towns house many potential Labour voters who have been turned off in recent elections. These country-side forays don’t get national coverage but that makes them no less important. He’s back on the job this coming weekend at the ChCh conference, so expect to see him burst back on to our TV screens with a vengeance.
I doubt he needs many advisers.
Perhaps Vernon Small would have preferred another winner to the leadership battle.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9347781/Warm-welcome-for-Prime-Minister
NZ rated highly in places to live
Cunliffes honeymoon well and truly over
Get the feeling this next election is going to be hotlly contested… (and don’t worry about that nagging deja vu feeling you’re getting I’m sure its nothing :))
I opened that story, spurred on by the talk of a “rock-star-like welcome”.
Then I read the whole article.
And I thought… is this really what news journalism has come to?
And I paused for a moment of reflection.
chris73 seems to be under the impression that people shopping in a mall on a week day are somehow representative of the working people of Christchurch.
Which speaks volumes about chris’ relative social position.
I can see from the photo with that article that Key is lucky to still have the clothes on his back. Clearly the shoppers can hardly contain themselves wit their rock star-like mobbing of him. Many just can’t keep their eyes or hand off him.
Yes karol, and that well built jeaned young woman in the empty centre of the photo looks like she thinks its hilarious that she’s been caught on camera close to John Key.
don’t worry about that nagging deja vu feeling you’re getting I’m sure its nothing
Yes, you’ll soon be hearing the old classic …
“We won, you lost, eat that.” Can’t wait.
Funny thing is, whenever the Righties pop up and say “we’re gonna win in 2014”, they never stick around to say how it’s going to happen. I’d really love to know.
C’mon Chris, show your working. Is your faith based on Winston, Colin or drugs?
Well the economy is going well
theres finally more balanced reporting from the media and not just faithfully repeating labour/green press releases
The honeymoon is over for Cunliffe
National is still well over 40% (no I don’t think they’re at 50%)
Labours stagnating
All in all not a bad places for National to be in the run up to the election (and don’t forget the bribes to come)
Chris73
“Shoppers in central Christchurch gave Prime Minister John Key a rock-star-like welcome when he visited the Palms Shopping Centre this morning.”
Looking at the photo, I am thinking that John Key is about as popular a rock star as Gary Glitter.
Of all the photos they could choose to illustrate his popularity you’d think they would choose one where there is an actual mob of supporters doing stuff like throwing underpants his way or trying to hump his leg. But no, we have a mum and a toddler – who is most likely thinking “this old dude isn’t a wiggle, mum lied.”
Every other person in the photo is looking away from him. A big hit, I don’t think so.
Thats ok because the more good news stories that come in the more it counteracts the spin and negativity from Labour and reinforces the notion that National is governing well
Meanwhile from Mt Albert David Shearer reacts to the news that Cunliffes honeymoon is over:
http://images.tvnz.co.nz/tvnz_images/shared/2011/david_shearer_234_smiling_labour_leader__n2.jpg 🙂
This’ll be why RWNJ’s think school vouchers are such a great idea.
Nearly three-fourths of Wisconsin students attending private schools using new taxpayer-funded vouchers were already attending them, according to enrollment figures released Tuesday by the Department of Public Instruction.
The statewide voucher program, in its first year, is at capacity, with about 500 students receiving vouchers statewide, according to the department. Of those, 79 percent did not attend a Wisconsin public school last year.
http://host.madison.com/news/local/education/local_schools/dpi-percent-of-statewide-voucher-students-already-enrolled-in-private/article_fc6e1559-46c7-5875-8ba6-280d58f10b49.html
In other words john nothing to hide nothing to fear banks is kind of back door appealing instead of letting his glowing innocence shine at a substantive hearing.
solicitor general substituting
More drug testing being called for … http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9346751/Balloon-tragedy-report-sparks-drug-testing-call
Wouldn’t have a problem with all of this if the testing actually tested impairment. But it doesn’t. It tests whether the person has smoked cannabis pretty much anytime over the previous 3 weeks, which has nothing at all to do with being impaired.
Would drivers be happy if they were tested for alcohol being consumed at any time in the previous 3 weeks and losing their licence over it? No, they would not.
It is bloody hogwash.
I agree
RNZ’s new online radio, wireless.
Press release on it.
Asks people to share their stories or tips.
Hmmm… looks interesting, but I’m not sure of the visual presentation.
The “hip” and “funky” font (yeah! we’re young and cutting edge – barf) they are using gets tedious to read after about … 5 seconds
Yes.
And I’m not sure about the selection of topics/sections, presumably based on the assumptrion that young people will like them.
However, I have been enjoying couple of the Lou Reed vids linked to by the music woman.
Basically a website with content aimed at young people. When I first heard about it, I thought it would be a YRN which was streamed online.
If RNZ were really smart, they would also hand over station time in RNZ National (or Concert) to The Wireless.
Anyway, lets see how it goes. Hopefully Labour will actually get round to introducing a YRN, and The Wireless would be in place and ready to take that task on.
So the Aussie Government has been outed spying on it’s hosts from embassies around the world as part of Echelon-Five Eyes.
Not hard to guess who else is doing that and the Key response: No comment on intelligence matters.
Which leaves an alert opposition with some interesting options.
If I had David Cunliffe’s ear I’d suggest the party develop a policy of no progress on trade talks (TPP) until the negotiators had an even playing field. Why neogtiate with governments that are listening to every word out negotiators are saying privately?
” … probably the real reason bank stocks are on a roll.”
http://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/the-real-reason-bank-are-on-a-roll-20131029-2wcoy.html
Naomi Klein on Climate Change science and the need for active resistance to the dominant economic paradigm. I don’t agree with everything she is saying, and it’s light on specific solutions. It’s also not news. But the reframing looks useful to me. Would undermining capitalism quickly enough give us a chance at avoiding complete catastrophe?
http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/science-says-revolt
Thanx weka
Agree or disagree, at least very interesting:
Russel speaks out, and where are others, who should speak out also!?
Enough is enough, of all the BS that goes on in this screwed up world!
You might like the link then xtasy , to the context of that Paxman interview. Brand as guest editor “New Statesman” It was posted the other day on TS.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/10/russell-brand-on-revolution
‘Russell Brand on revolution: “We no longer have the luxury of tradition”
And then he has replied
“Russell Brand’s replies to contributors: From Russell with love ”
http://www.newstatesman.com/media/2013/10/russell-brands-replies-contributors-russell-love
What do you visualise as a “revolution”, xtasy in NZ?
Just for a start, perhaps abolish “private” schools, “private” medical insurance, stop “private” charter schools and so much else “private” (apart from “privacy” on the web, mobile phone and other phone use), as such “private” style of “division” is undermining collective social cohesion.
Of course much more would need to be done, like bringing back true public broadcasting, so we get more balanced reporting and more quality programs on television and radio again (it also being offered via the web).
New Zealand is “corrupted” by too much “private interest”, and it is disgusting what goes on, sadly people do not realise this, that is too many do not.
On 07 Oct. 1980 “marxist” musicians from Chile went into exile. now they are back. Celebrate, I say, but many are not, and in NZ few do not even comprehend, this is nothing really but a fascist society, as few if any get what matters. But just for the sake of music, I load this here:
bad12″ – I still am in a bit of a dispute, I like your staunch views on certain issues, but at times you lash out, as you accused me of doing. Maybe reflect and get back, we may be fighting the same enemy, but with different approaches and so, but good luck, mate, I wish you well.
As for the rest, NZers must bloody wake up, as you are taken for a bloody ride, 24/7, and I can tell you more, we need to deal to lies and shit from the US, but ALSO to lies and crap happeing here. I have heaps of the latter, it is all documented, so I will refrain from feeding it here, but some pollies and especially admin nazis, you will get dealt to very soon, good luck!
Apart from all this, VUELVO is the message, and we have revolutionary spirit in other quarters, I only wish, even in moderate level, NZers would endeavour to do the same. We will wait and see: VUELVO!
Speaking to heaps of people today in Central Auckland, all good people, I ask, what is going on in NZ, to ridicule and dismiss what we know. Take care and take a bloody stand, against all this spy and surveillance crap we get told and sold, I will be back, as I have heaps of info none of you know, but stand up and fight it, fight it, all along:
This is PUBLIC TV in Chile!!!
Why can NZ not deliver the same? Are we primitive or backward? But Martyn Bradbury raised it just recently, So do I here, it is time to get real and inform, educate, and to report fairly on things in the media, we are waiting.!
Why can this not be done here?
Yeah, no, what about the olds who don’t like forests, and so won’t use the monorail.
Where’s the chair lift to the top of Mt.Cook!
How are we to get older kiwis to protect and revere the environment if they can’t travel to the top of MT.Cook in a warm cozy air conditioned chair lift.
I mean think about the old people, they used to be hard core environmentalists some of them, now they want to scare a pristine forest so they can travel in private luxury.
How are is the environment to be protected if Moro makes the case that in order to protect the environment we have to destroy it, the power lines alone, the fire risk, the cost of placing all that concrete (and funding its eventual removal), and lets not even start on the mining companies who will use the opportunity to…