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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Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre.(Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...
Ruth Cunningham, Charlotte Paul, Andrew MoorePublic health responses to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 require us to draw on our common humanity and be explicit about our values. Recognising this will help us make good decisions in difficult situations so that, for example, the need to impose restrictive measures ...
The Helen Clark Foundation has released its report on the housing crisis, and found that house-hoarders are to blame for it:Property investors are to blame for New Zealand's high house prices, a new research paper published by the Helen Clark Foundation says. [...] McArthur said previous attempts to address housing ...
The Abortion Legislation Committee has reported back on the Abortion Legislation Bill and recommended that it be passed with some amendments. Unfortunately, the latter include even more hoops to jump through for those seeking abortions after 20 weeks, including a time-wasting requirement to consult a second doctor. No-one casually seeks ...
Brexit is likely to be a disaster for the UK (how sad, never mind). But now that they're out of the EU, the latter has finaly taken the opportunity to blacklist one of their key tax havens:The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is to be put on an EU ...
I’m not quite sure of what to make of the new figures for COVID-19 (as we must now call the novel coronavirus – though I’m not sure the capitalisation is correct) from Hubei province:Image from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51495484The spike yesterday is a consequence of a using a different way of ...
Bob Jones has dropped his defamation case against Renae Maihi. Good. But at the same time, it perfectly exposes what the case was all about: not protecting Jones' reputation, but punishing someone who had dared to criticise him, and deterring others from doing the same. This rich pompous asshat dragged ...
As I've done for the past few years, I'm curating and presenting The Listening Lounge, the talk programme at Splore. On the morning of Saturday the 22nd at the Living Lounge stage, the korero goes like this.Yes, we're talking about drugs again, not just because I'm professionally interested in drug ...
What Were They Thinking? RNZ's CEO Paul Thompson (left) and Jim Mather, Chairman of the RNZ Board of Governors, attempt to justify the debacle arising out of their attempt to downgrade RNZ Concert to the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Select Committee at Parliament on Thursday, 13 February 2020.WHAT IS ...
Dame Tariana Turia with former PM John KeyWhat is it about Tariana Turia’s grudge against the Labour Party? Not content with attacking the Government over Whānau Ora funding, which was increased by $80 million in 2019, she has now made it personal by saying that Jacinda Ardern is out of her ...
Back in 2017, right after being elected, Jacinda Ardern promised that there would be no new mines on conservation land. Since then, her government has done nothing to make that happen, and now the policy has been officially "parked" for the election:West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O'Connor says the "no new ...
So the guy who advocated for public burning and beheading feels offended because someone called him a racist!Perhaps Bob Jones hasn't heard of the very old saying; Live by the sword, die by the sword?I mean for someone who often writes opinionated nonsense about Maori; this is a ridiculous case ...
The government today announced a major support package aimed at reducing homelessness. A thousand new transitional housing places, more support for people to find homes (or not lose them in the first place), all good stuff. The one problem with it is that they're going to start charging people in ...
Courtroom Drama: There is no off-switch in a courtroom. Neither is it possible to turn the page in disgust. Ill-formed and ill-defended opinions will be exposed ruthlessly and unapologetically. As Shakespeare put it: “Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.” Sometimes the ...
As of today, the novel coronavirus spreading in China is called COVID-19. Why does it matter? Around the office, we’ve had several conversations over the past few weeks about how 2019-nCoV needed its own name. First, it was getting annoying calling it by the above designation, and ‘novel coronavirus’ doesn’t ...
by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Arms (Firearms Prohibition Orders) Amendment Bill (No 2) (Brett Hudson)Its basicly more "tough on crime" nonsense (its already illegal for unlicensed people to own guns) designed to wedge NZ First against its arsehole base. ...
In 2015 the world agreed to the Paris Agreement to fight climate change. Each country would offer a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) "that it intends to achieve", and "pursue domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving [it]". And every five years, they'd improve on it, ratcheting up ambition until ...
In theory, the emissions trading scheme should reduce emissions. Making polluters pay for permits to pollute lets them save money by reducing pollution, giving them a financial incentive to do the right thing. But right from the start the ETS was broken with a system of free allocation, so polluters ...
Irish voters went to the polls on Saturday in parliamentary elections, and perhaps delivered a political revolution. Since independence, Irish politics has been dominated by two parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Basicly patronage networks with indistinguishable policies, their cleavage isn't ideology, but who killed whose father or grandfather in ...
Once again the Aotearoa Bike Challenge is on us, and once again I’m participating. In principle this is not hard because it does not represent a significant switch in behavior for me. I already bike nearly every day. The Bicycle The fascinating thing about cycling is the realisation that this ...
Lately there has been a great deal of misinformation regarding the origins and purpose of Skeptical Science. As John Cook wrote nearly a decade ago, Skeptical Science is primarily a website that debunks climate misinformation with peer-reviewed science. Despite the ever-worsening impacts from climate change, with record after record being broken in ...
Under Attack: By sacking not only RNZ Concert’s presenters, but also its producers and librarians, and reducing the station to an automated purveyor of classical music in-between parliamentary broadcasts, RNZ’s CEO, Paul Thompson, wasn’t simply announcing an operational shake-up, he was declaring war on one of the most important guardians of ...
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Australian smoke plume sets recordsThe recent wildfires in Australia sent one of ...
The Global Protest to #FightInequality was powerful – thankyou and what next? Dear allies, We started the decade with a huge protest to #FightInequality that was heard around the world, including the 1% at Davos. Watch and share the highlights on facebook and twitter. A huge thank you. Together we ...
The Ministry of Health have announced a package that might ensure NZ will never experience another measles epidemic. While at the time of writing the details are still limited it appears that the important limitations in our current programme have been acknowledged and the intent is to address them. Great ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Michael BakerIn this blog we briefly summarise our assessment of the highly uncertain new coronavirus threat. Given its potential to become a severe and prolonged global pandemic, a precautionary response now means activating all components of our pandemic plan, with a particular focus on ‘keep ...
When Labour was running for election, Jacinda Ardern famously said that climate change was "my generation's nuclear free moment". The implication was that her government would take the problem seriously, and act swiftly to reduce emissions. The reality:New Zealand will emit a million more tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2020 ...
James Renwick is Professor of Physical Geography at Victoria University of Wellington. He studied at Canterbury and the University of Washington and has worked on diverse aspects of climate science, including global atmospheric circulation and Antarctic sea ice. In December 2019 he was appointed to the New Zealand Climate Change ...
by Philip Ferguson Exit polls are showing a three-way virtual tie between the main parties in the south of Ireland. Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are all on just over 22%. FG on 22.4, SF on 22.3, FF on 22.2. Exit polls indicate that over 30% of 18-24 ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 2, 2020 through Sat, Feb 8, 2020 Editor's Pick New Report Details How Fossil Fuel Industry's Climate Destruction Also Exacerbates Human Rights Abuses"Even in the face of the ...
In a previous post I described briefly when and how the Starlink satellite chains – recent launches by Space-X in a scheme to bring 5G internet connectivity to the whole globe – could be seen from New Zealand with the naked eye. Here I provide an update and predictions for ...
Keeping The Faith: This Government’s broad, new, heavily moderated, progressive faith does not require a prime minister with the powers of a medieval pope. Jacinda’s regime has no need of subterranean torture chambers to ensure compliance. A gift for diplomacy and the ability to inspire her fellow human-beings is all ...
Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...
Tonight’s news suggests the coronavirus outbreak may have originated from pangolins. Details are very sketchy, almost nothing at all beyond a claim of high similarity. My impression is this claim comes from a press release by South China Agricultural University. Initial discussion online suggests this is a more likely candidate ...
by Susanne Kemp The Fire and Emergency service (FENZ) has recently asked firefighters in Auckland Areas 3, 4 and 5 to take on an additional duty that has rather ominous implications. Namely, to collect names and addresses of everyone on the premises of fires they attend. The firefighters’ union, the ...
Part of the story of the Nazis' rise to power in Germany was the willingness of mainstream right-wing parties to work with them to keep out the left. Because of this, one of the fundamental rules of postwar German politics has been "do not work with Nazis". As a result, ...
There has long been a truism in public broadcasting: don't mess with Concert FM. The theory was that although the station has been in a long-term audience decline, and that audience is steadily ageing out, it has powerful establishment support – and any threat to it would provoke a fury.As ...
This is a re-post from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The heat absorbed in Earth’s oceans reached a new record in 2019, found a recent study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. Despite the fact that this has been the case for almost every year over the past decade, this information ...
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics.Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...
by Don Franks Under a government claiming empathy with the fine arts, Radio New Zealand ( RNZ) is poised to cut back its classical music station, RNZ Concert. The plan is replacing it on FM radio with music “for a younger audience” as part of a new multimedia music brand. ...
More Thwaites This past week we heard disturbing news about Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier. Helping to fill in the longer term history of Thwaites' behavior and especially helpful in interpreting results of the recent drilling project and what it may say about the future of this unstable mass of ice is Revealing the ...
Inaccuracies are very common in scientific paper abstracts. Image credit:Science in the Abstract: Don’t Judge a Study by its Cover I have come to accept anti-fluoride campaigners will never stop cherry-picking research and findings ...
“The scene is set, the players met…”. And what players they are in this farce of an Election coming up in the United States this year. There is a multi-faceted anger in the broader situation the world finds itself in, in which the false promises of so-called “moderates” find themselves ...
A few years ago, a company lowballed a contract to dispose of toxic waste from the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. So, they dumped it in a disused paper mill in Mataura, then went into liquidation - effectively dumping the problem on local councils. The waste is dangerous - it releases ...
Unhappy with the demonisation of Iran in Western media, I was fortunate to have the Australian Institute of International Affairs invite me to write an alternative analysis for their on-line journal Australian Outlook. I did, and they serialised it into two parts. The essays are short, so I did not ...
Over on The Good Society, Max Rashbrooke suggests that its time to start directly taxing wealth:A wealth tax would be levied on net wealth – that is, the value of people’s assets once their debts have been subtracted. Such a tax would be highly redistributive. Levied at 1% on wealth ...
The quarterly labour market statistics have been released, and unemployment has dropped to 4%. There are now 111,000 unemployed - 15,000 fewer than when Labour took office. Its not the performance we had under Clark (when unemployment was ~3.3%), but its still a reasonable improvement over prevailing conditions under National. ...
Prof Michael Baker, Prof Nick Wilson, Louise Delany, Prof Richard Edwards, Prof Philippa Howden-ChapmanThe current national measles epidemic in New Zealand is amongst the largest we have experienced in the last 40 years. It can be linked to the problems created by long-term erosion and fragmentation of national public health ...
I’m about to start teaching science communication to tertiary students, which is equally hilarious and terrifying to me. (Hi to my students who have Googled me and found this post.) I loved English at high school, but we spent most of our time reading The Outsiders, discussing the differences between metaphors and ...
Space-X has started launching its Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit with a plan to use some tens of thousands of these to deliver 5G wifi to the whole globe. Chains of these satellites can be seen in the evening or before-dawn skies, through the sunlight they scatter. Here I provide ...
New Zealand was the first country to decriminalise prostitution and it was promoted as a progressive move. Yet survivors of the sex trade say that pimps and johns are emboldened operating within the law, and that the women are treated more like a piece of property to be used and ...
An obscene 12 percent pay jump for already overpaid CEOs last year reveals a willful ignorance from much of corporate New Zealand to the on-going harm inequality is causing the very society they live in, said Peter Malcolm, spokesperson for the income equality project Closing the Gap. In its annual ...
One thing I remember about the interview I did with Rex Halliday for Planet magazine in 1992 was a couple of times being on the verge of tears.Rex was reflecting on the community effort that went into the second Hero party at the old Princes Wharf building – and the ...
Something you don't see: Malawi's constitutional court has annulled fraudulent elections and ordered new ones:Judges in Malawi have annulled last year’s elections and called for a new ballot within 150 days. In a landmark judgment that experts hailed as a step forward for democracy, the country’s constitutional court found that ...
Our Scibloggers have been providing updates on the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. This page will be updated as more posts are published. 3 February 2020 Coronavirus ‘infodemic’ The WHO has called the coronavirus outbreak an ‘infodemic’, with information spreading rapidly – and sometimes incorrectly – online. Sarah-Jane O’ConnorLately, in Science 2 ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...
In a heated debate in Parliament, National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett claimed that “nearly 1600 patched gang members have been added” since the Coalition Government took power. To illustrate her point, she altered a chart used by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to show her government’s progress in housing to instead ...
Speech by the Rt Hon Winston Peters at Parliament’s Opening 2020 "We all need insurance" This year New Zealanders are going to have a clear choice to make That choice is between: Optimism versus pessimism; More progress versus back to the future; Investment versus divestment; Unity versus division. New Zealand ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has slammed the Board of Auckland Airport following the airport's runway closing twice within two weeks due to maintenance. Around 2,000 passengers were affected by last week’s runway closures, according to 1NEWS. Another maintenance closure on January 24 saw two international flights and three domestic flights ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Broadcasting New Zealand First supports the commissioning of a business case to assess the viability of a new public media entity. “A strong media environment is critical for a healthy democracy. New Zealand First is a strong supporter of a diverse, independent media,” New Zealand First broadcasting spokesperson ...
Pounamou and technology industries in the West Coast region are set to receive more than $2 million in Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding. This was announced by the Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau during Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika. He said $800,000 would be given to Development West ...
Clayton Mitchell MP, New Zealand First spokesperson for Labour and Industrial Relations Unemployment and wage growth numbers released by Stats NZ today demonstrate a labour market in good shape with unemployment falling to 4.0%, the underutilisation rate falling to an 11 year low, and wage growth at a 10-year high ...
Hon. Ron Mark, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence Ron Mark, welcomes the official opening of Te Rau Aroha, a new museum at Waitangi Treaty Grounds as part of our Coalition Agreement. “It is a great honour to be part of an effective Government ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterGood morning,Let us start with important acknowledgements.First, this special day, in remembrance of the 28th Maori Battalion, is also to honour all those men and women who have risked their lives in the service of our country.Second, special guest Robert ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand will look to build on its relationship with the United Kingdom and recommit to the European Union, after the country officially left the continental union recently. The Minister said New Zealand already cooperates closely with Britain on defence and security issues and has ...
Today, our Government announced the biggest infrastructure investment in a generation.We’re investing $12 billion to upgrade and build rail, roads, schools and hospitals across the country – modernising our infrastructure, preparing for climate change and helping to future-proof our economy.Find out everything you need to know about the ...
Today the Government is making progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the introduction of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in Parliament. “This Bill includes a series of reforms to improve the wellbeing of the 609,700 households that live in rented homes, and ...
A Government programme to wipe out pea weevil has achieved a world first, with Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor today announcing the successful eradication of the noxious pest from Wairarapa. This means the nearly four-year ban on pea plants and pea straw was lifted today. Commercial and home gardeners can again grow ...
Southland residents hit by flooding caused by heavy rainfall can now access help finding temporary accommodation with the Government activating the Temporary Accommodation Service, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare announced today. “The Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) has been activated by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to help ...
“Is that it?” That’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s response to Simon Bridges’ much-hyped economic speech today. “Simon Bridges just gave the most over-hyped and under-delivered speech that I can remember during my time in politics,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s not surprising. Simon Bridges literally said on the radio this morning ...
A trial deployment of the Police Eagle helicopter in Christchurch will test whether the aircraft would make a significant difference to crime prevention and community safety. “The Bell 429 helicopter will be based in Christchurch for five weeks, from 17 February to 20 March,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. “The ...
The Government has kept up the pace of its work to promote New Zealand’s trade interests and diversify our export markets, with visits to Fiji and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker. Building momentum to bring the PACER Plus trade and development agreement ...
The Coalition Government’s investment in a strong border and disrupting transnational organised crime produced record results for stopping drugs in 2019, says Minister of Customs Jenny Salesa. The illegal drugs were seized at the New Zealand border by Customs, and overseas by Customs’ international border partners before the drugs could ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off construction of a separated cycleway alongside Tamaki Drive. A two-way separated cycleway will be built along the northern side of Tamaki Drive, between the Quay Street Cycleway extension and Ngapipi Road. There will be a separate walking path alongside. Phil Twyford said giving ...
Owner-occupiers of unit and apartments living in earthquake-prone buildings will have certainty about the financial support they’ll be eligible for with the release of criteria for an upcoming assistance scheme, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. The Residential Earthquake-Prone Building Financial Assistance Scheme will help unit owners facing ...
Temporary restrictions on travel from China will remain in place as a precautionary measure to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The restrictions which prevent foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through, mainland China from entering New Zealand have been extended for a further 8 days. This position ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today that Tairāwhiti rangatahi will benefit from an investment made by the Government’s He Poutama Rangatahi (HPR) scheme. The funding will go to the Tautua Village, Kauneke programme and the Matapuna Supported Employment Programme which will fund 120 rangatahi over two years. “Both programmes work ...
All parents and caregivers need to ensure that their children go to school unless they are sick, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin said today. “The school attendance results for 2019 show, across the board, a drop in the number of students going to school regularly,” the Minister says. “Apart from ...
A Deed of Settlement agreeing redress for historical Treaty claims has been signed by the Crown and Moriori at Kōpinga Marae on Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) today, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little has announced. Moriori have a tradition of peace that extends back over 600 years. This settlement ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today with Māori King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII officially opened the country’s newest road, the $384 million Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway. The 15km four-lane highway with side and central safety barriers takes State Highway 1 east of Huntly town, across lowlands and streams ...
The rapid uptake of life-saving new hepatitis C medicine Maviret since it was funded by PHARMAC a year ago means the elimination of the deadly disease from this country is a realistic goal, Health Minister David Clark says. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus which attacks the liver, proving fatal ...
Kaupapa Māori will underpin the Government’s new plan to deal with homelessness announced by the Prime Minister in Auckland this morning. “Māori are massively overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness, so, to achieve different outcomes for Māori, we have to do things very differently,” says the Minister of Māori Development ...
1000 new transitional housing places delivered by end of year to reduce demand for emergency motel accommodation. Introduce 25% of income payment, after 7 days, for those in emergency motel accommodation to bring in line with other forms of accommodation support. Over $70m extra to programmes that prevents those at ...
Clear requirements for ensuring customers are treated fairly by banks, insurers and other financial service providers are included in new financial conduct legislation that passed its first reading today. “The recent reviews, by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and Reserve Bank of New Zealand, into the conduct of banks and ...
Applications are now open for the fifth round of the Regional Culture and Heritage Fund Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Grant Robertson announced today. “I am delighted to open this year’s fund which has some $7 million available to support performing arts venues, galleries, museums and whare ...
The Minister of Māori Development, Hon Nanaia Mahuta today congratulated Associate Professor Amokura Kawharu on her appointment as the next President of the Law Commission. “Amokura Kawharu will be a standout in her new role, leading in an innovative and forward looking approach to the law reform process. She will ...
Auckland University legal academic Amokura Kawharu has been appointed as the next President of the Law Commission, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Associate Professor Kawharu will take up her new appointment on 11 May 2020. “I would like to congratulate Associate Professor Kawharu on her appointment,” Andrew ...
A programme for employers to help them engage effectively with younger employees was launched today by Minister of Employment, Willie Jackson. The Youth Ready Employer Programme contains a range of on-line templates that employers can easily access to help with employing and retaining young people in their businesses. The programme ...
Budget 2020 will be delivered on Thursday 14 May, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “This year’s Budget will continue the Coalition Government’s focus on tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand while also preparing the economy for the future. “Those challenges and opportunities cannot be resolved in one budget, ...
I move, That this House place on record its appreciation and thanks for the devoted and distinguished service to New Zealand by the late Rt Hon Michael Kenneth Moore, member of the Order of New Zealand, a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, an Honorary Member of the ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has today classified the drought conditions in Northland as an adverse event for the primary sector, unlocking $80,000 in Government support. “This is recognition that the extreme and prolonged nature of this dry spell is taking its toll on our farmers and growers and additional support ...
The Minister of Police says an operation to smash a trans national drug smuggling ring today will make a significant impact on the methamphetamine trade fuelling harm in our communities. Police have announced 10 arrests and the seizure of up to five million dollars’ worth of illicit drugs after an ...
The Government’s books are in a strong position to withstand global headwinds, with the accounts in surplus and expenses close to forecast, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown accounts for the six months to December. The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) was above ...
Race courses can improve safety with this year’s second round of funding from the Racing Safety Development Fund. Minister for Racing Winston Peters has announced the second funding round of 2019/20 is open with $347,875 available for distribution. “The racing industry is integral to the economic and social fabric of ...
The Government is committing $300,000 to fund research to update behavioural information to make sure HIV and STI prevention services are targeted appropriately in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson made the announcement at today’s Big Gay Out in Auckland. “There is much talk about ...
The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media has announced work will begin on a business case to assess the viability of forming a new public media entity. “The Government must ensure New Zealanders have a strong independent public media service for decades to come, which means ensuring public ...
Minister of Civil Defence Hon Peeni Henare announced today that the Government will contribute $100,000 to the Southland regional Mayoral Relief Fund, to support communities impacted by the recent flooding in Southland. Mr Henare says this week’s flooding has caused significant disruption to communities in the lower South Island. ...
Heritage buildings throughout New Zealand will benefit from the $1.1 million in Heritage EQUIP funding grants announced today. “These grants for seismic strengthening projects help private building owners get the advice they need to start building work or to get the work completed,” Grant Robertson says. “Timaru’s Grosvenor Hotel has ...
A new survey has found New Zealand’s game development sector has grown beyond expectations and is on track to becoming a billion dollar industry in 2025, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford says. “New Zealand’s interactive media sector grew by 42 per cent in last financial year to $203.4 million, according ...
Te Tii, the lower marae at Waitangi, is among more than 70 marae now connected to broadband internet thanks to the Provincial Growth Fund’s marae connectivity scheme, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said today. In February 2019, the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) allocated $21 million to connect rural towns ...
The West Coast has had a funding injection of over $1.2 million from the Provincial Growth Fund, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced at Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika today. The PGF projects announced are: $800,000 to Development West Coast for a Grey District Regional Digital Hub ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has declared an adverse event for the Southland and Otago regions, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers. “Widespread flooding has resulted in severe disruption, with many people evacuated from their homes and many farms being affected by flood waters. It’s putting pressure on our farmers, ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced a funeral service for former Labour Prime Minister the Rt Hon Mike Moore, ONZ, AO. A public service will be held on Friday 14 February at 2pm at Dilworth School senior campus, 2 Erin Street, Epsom, Auckland. “The service will be a celebration of ...
Today’s news of low unemployment, rising wages and record numbers of Maori in work shows the economy is in good shape and that the Government is delivering better outcomes across New Zealand. “The Coalition Government has overseen a strong economy. Our investments in infrastructure, our focus on lifting wages of ...
Opening of Waitangi Museum Te Rau Aroha 9.30am, 5 February 2020 [CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] Good morning, Let us start with important acknowledgements. First, this special day, in remembrance of the 28th Maori Battalion, is also to honour all those men and women who have risked their lives in the service ...
The government has agreed to help crayfish exporters to minimise the impact of trade disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak in China. Between 150 and 180 tonnes of live rock lobster are currently held in New Zealand in pots and tanks, at sea and on land, after export orders were ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By S. Anna Florin, PhD candidate, The University of Queensland Australia’s first people ate a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and other plant foods, many of which would have taken considerable time and knowledge to prepare, according to our analysis of charred ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Biddle, Associate Professor, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University Last month, the Australian National University contracted with the Social Research Centre (SRC) to survey more than 3,000 Australian adults about their experiences and attitudes related to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan Davis, Professor of Law, UNSW In his Closing the Gap speech to parliament last week, the prime minister injected some order and transparency back into the constitutional recognition process. The PM anchored his government’s work on the co-design of a Voice ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Woods, Professor of Health Economics, University of Technology Sydney Heavily subsidised aged care services used to be seen as a right and entitlement for all older Australians. But as aged care demand grows and costs rise, it’s becoming increasingly clear the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carla Liuzzo, Sessional Lecturer, School of Business, Queensland University of Technology As a parent, I find it so frustrating to take my children shopping, reusable bags in hand, only to be offered plastic toys at the checkout. It’s an incredibly confusing message ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gary Mortimer, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Queensland University of Technology The jingle used to tell us we loved “football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars”. These days we love Japanese utes and small Toyotas, Hyundais and Mazdas more. Monday’s announcement ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Donna Mazza, Senior Lecturer in Creative Arts, Edith Cowan University Warning: this piece features frequent coarse language that may offend some readers. Since Adam Mansbuch’s 2011 bestseller, Go the Fuck to Sleep, book titles have been swearing profusely to grab audience attention. ...
Simon Bridges says National would cut taxes and invest much more than Labour in infrastructure, and with less waste. But he's holding back the detail, and got a key figure wrong. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Creative accounting around the ETS explored, Ardern goes to ground on Peters, and ACT criticised for keeping donation from extremist.Often when reporting on technical and thorny pieces of legislation, it helps to have a specialist reporter looking into it. Stuff’s Charlie Mitchell ...
Planners and hazard experts talk to Newsroom’s Eloise Gibson about how climate change will impact Auckland, and how good planning can help the city adapt. ...
No matter how you measure it, science remains systematically biased against women – and ethnically diverse women even more so, writes Dr Hinemoa Elder.Women and girls in science, this is a public health announcement. You are entering unfriendly territory.Kia mataara, be vigilant. Keep your wits about you.There is irrefutable data ...
When it signed onto the Paris Climate Agreement, New Zealand pledged to increase its net greenhouse gas emissions by 10% across the 25 years to 2030. The latest government report shows with current policy settings it is on track to increase them by more than 20%. The challenge is acute ...
How are the children and grandchildren of Asian immigrants treading the line between immersion in a kiwi culture, and holding on to family traditions? ...
The $11 million tourism package announced after today’s Cabinet is a positive response. Auckland Business Chamber head Michael Barnett said possibly more important in the Prime Minister’s announcement was that further support was possible, as ...
By Joenner Paulo L. Enriquez and Ma. Alena O. Castillo in Manila Thomasian Jesuit priests Fr Albert Alejo and Fr Flaviano Villanueva have posted P10,000 (NZ$310) bail each after a judge issued a warrant of arrest in connection with their sedition case. “Nag-piyansa na kami Fr Flavie at sumama ...
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Dr Bryce Edwards.NZ First is facing the boot at this year’s election, especially as it’s now embroiled in an unfolding donations scandal, which comes on top of low poll ratings. But what effect will the scandal have on NZ First’s government coalition colleagues? And is Labour and the Greens’ ...
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The Tauranga-based power company Trustpower has cut its earnings expectations by as much as 14 percent because of lower power prices and pressure on margins. ...
It’s not worth putting much credence in Simon Bridges’s complaints about the current Government’s piling on hikes in petrol taxes until he commits to reversing them, says the Taxpayers’ Union . Spokesman Louis Houlbrooke said, “It’s not ...
Researchers say councils need to be doing much more to ensure homes and buildings aren't wiped out when a mega-tsunami eventually strikes the east coast of the North Island. ...
Water utilities right across the country face major challenges to upgrade and maintain their underground three waters network. Water New Zealand’s Technical Manager, Noel Roberts says Wellington’s waste water woes are not unique to the capital city. ...
With more than a thousand locations in 250 cities worldwide, UK company Stasher is allowing travellers to store their luggage while offering local businesses a way to earn extra cash. Having recently launched in New Zealand, co-founder and CEO Jacob Wedderburn-Day explains how the business works. How did Stasher start and ...
National's deputy leader Paula Bennett says if Winston Peters had any involvement in covert photographs of journalists meeting a source, he is not fit to be deputy prime minister. ...
ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa is co-sponsoring a National Day of Action – Our Bodies, Our Choices, with Fem Force, Victoria University Feminists Organisation, NCW, and HELP. “Now is the time for people who care about women and pregnant people ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentPolitical donations Danyl Mclauchlan (Spinoff): The donations mess reveals a vacuum in our political system. Who will fill it? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Robinson, Lecturer, Department of Occupational Therapy, Monash University When people think about Australian Rules Football injuries, they tend to think about head injuries and the long-term effects of concussion. Or they might think of the potentially lengthy recoveries after hamstring, shoulder ...
Simon Bridges reckons those on the average wage shouldn’t be hit by a 33-cents-in-the-dollar tax. And they’re not. Not even close. Alex Braae explains. It takes an incredible political talent to announce that you disagree with a policy setting, and have that critique be so powerful that it retroactively becomes government ...
Sam Brooks heads along to Meatstock 2020, and finds himself questioning the symbiotic relationship between meat-eating and machismo.As I entered Auckland’s ASB Showgrounds for the first day of Meatstock 2020, a girl was exiting. Trucker cap on, eyes hidden behind aviators, manicured fingers wrapped around a can, itself wrapped in ...
Today’s launch of the Ngati Porou treaty settlement documentary is significant for the iwi and for all New Zealanders as we further our understanding of the journey to Te Tiriti o Waitangi settlements, Bernadette Cavanagh CE Manatū Taonga Ministry ...
Why don’t Western democratic governments typically regulate the porn industry, internet service providers (ISPs) or other internet services who make pornographic content accessible to children? And how is a change in the idea of what it means ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Ministry of Health to demand back the $319,000 of taxpayers spent on a flawed study suggesting a weekly lotto ticket is as harmful as an amputated leg and that occasional gambling is comparable to having a heart ...
Across the prime minister’s Monday morning broadcast interviews, there was one overwhelming theme: the behaviour of NZ First and Winston Peters, who happens also to be the deputy prime minister.With turmoil engulfing government coalition partner NZ First and deputy PM Winston Peters, the logical next person to ask for a ...
By Michael Norris in Wellington After a week-long controversy, New Zealand’s public broadcaster Radio New Zealand (RNZ) has withdrawn a proposal to axe its classical music station RNZ Concert. But despite the sudden backtrack, RNZ Concert isn’t safe yet. Whatever the final outcome of RNZ’s rethink, it is clear ...
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the New Zealand First Foundation - which faces investigation from the SFO - has nothing to do with her or Winston Peters' role in her Cabinet. ...
The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been speaking with her Australian counterpart about options to evacuate New Zealanders stuck on a cruise ship, quarantined in Japan. ...
Government seeks power to seize reins over electricity industry; and property investors to blame for NZ's high house prices, not lack of supply, researcher says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bénédicte Cenki-Tok, Associate professor at Montpellier University, EU H2020 MSCA visiting researcher, University of Sydney As the world shifts away from fossil fuels, we will need to produce enormous numbers of wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles and batteries. Demand for the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Salisbury, Research Associate, School of Political Science & International Studies, The University of Queensland With cries of “Quexit!” still echoing faintly in our ears, Queenslanders head towards a state election in October. For many, interest lies in whether federal Labor’s poor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susanne Becken, Professor of Sustainable Tourism and Director, Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University If you’re a traveller who cares about reducing your carbon footprint, are some airlines better to fly with than others? Several of the world’s major airlines have announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University Every year, the Australian Taxation Office releases a report that includes the highest earning occupations in Australia. These are mostly in the medical, legal and financial sectors. This information is commonly used ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Pawson, Professor of Housing Research and Policy, and Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Despite two years of housing market cooling in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia stayed near the top of the global unaffordability league in 2019. And with prices ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Diane Kraal, Senior Lecturer, Business Law and Taxation Dept, Monash Business School, Monash University So worried is the government about the meagre income it is getting from gas during the middle of Australia’s biggest gas export boom that it asked an independent ...
NZ's effective policy of tempting guest workers here with the chance of permanent residency and then quietly withdrawing that chance has become a damaging economic addiction that is mean and fraudulent, Bernard Hickey argues. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Bridges gives signal of tax cuts, police under pressure over family violence problem, and condemnation rains down over Peters scandal.Expect plenty of news today about National’s economic manifesto to take into the next election. From Simon Bridges’ appearance on Q+A yesterday (welcome back ...
A "surreptitious" conspiracy to introduce special NZ gold kiwifruit plants into China could cost a Chinese-born local grower $15m for breaches of intellectual property laws. ...
Maia Wilson is being tipped as the next Maria Folau in the Silver Ferns shooting circle, but she wants to stamp her own unique footprint on netball history. ...
Dental decay is NZ's most common chronic disease, yet it is not covered by the health system. Cat McLennan explains why we should introduce free dental care for adults. ...
Open mike 31/10/13 
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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/2012/11/McCready-Banks.pdf
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…