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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This post is a mix of a few recent reports on trends, recent discoveries or developments. Topics covered are the future of work, the geopolitical shift from oil to semiconductors, transition to low carbon futures, disappearing Artic sea ice, and AI in health care. Yesterday’s Gone A Canadian report ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson One of the hottest years in U.S. history, 2020 was besieged by a record number of billion-dollar disasters, led by two of the most dangerous phenomena with links to climate change: wildfires and hurricanes. In its initial U.S. climate summary for 2020, ...
Just because something is bad, doesn’t mean it’s easy to criminalise. Graham Adams argues that the proposed ban on gay conversion therapy is messier than many realise, and he delves into some of the difficulties facing the Government in their promise to legislate. A highly successful petition has inadvertently ...
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... ‘Absolutely ridiculous’: top scientist slams UK government over coalmineExclusive:Prof Sir Robert Watson says backing of ...
Over the weekend we learned that Turkey plans to deport a New Zealand woman and her children who had fled Syria after previously joing the Islamic State. Which means that Andrew Little's tyrannical Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Act 2019 - rammed through under all-stages urgency on the basis of an ...
While it has made a lot of noise about inequality, Labour has resolutely avoided reversing the 1990 benefit cuts and improving living standards for the poorest in our society. Meanwhile, 70% of kiwis think they should: A survey has found seven out of 10 New Zealanders believe the government ...
Anti-Philosopher President? Emmanuel Macron and his party’s reaction to the terrorist atrocities committed on French soil targets the very same philosophical movements excited and emboldened by New Zealand’s own terrifying tragedy.IT IS NOT the sort of thought experiment New Zealanders are encouraged to conduct in these culturally sensitive times. Even ...
If Jacinda Ardern or ay of her Auckland-based cabinet ministers stepped outside this weekend, they would have realised that this afternoon’s cabinet decision on whether to move Auckland back to Level 1 has already been made. The residents of our biggest city have voted with their feet.While some places where ...
According to epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker, the decision to end the second Auckland lockdown after just three days was a ‘calculated risk’. The possibility of undetected community transmission cannot be ruled out. In the United States, modelling by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that the ...
As I rose for the first time to speak from the Despatch Box in the House of Commons, I had the comfort of seeing that the Despatch Box had on it the inscription “A Gift from the People of New Zealand”. But I was also a little daunted, like so ...
This article is by Laura Biggs, from the Marxist-Feminist blog On the Woman Question. The term ‘sex work’ has come to replace the word ‘prostitution’ in contemporary discussions on the subject. This is not accidental. The phrase ‘sex work’ has been adopted by liberal feminists and powerful lobbyists in a ...
Sometimes it’s smaller, intensive studies that shed light on issues. Just reported results of daily sampling of COVID-19 patients indicate patients with the B.1.1.7 variant first observed in Kent, UK may have a longer infection compared to patients infected with non-B.1.1.7 variants. This is the variant seen in NZ’s most ...
Redline has just passed one million views – as I start writing this we have reached 1,000,015 views. It took us nearly seven years to reach our first 500,000 and just three months short of three years to reach our second 500,000, with 2019 being our best year, with over ...
. . As the rest of the world was perceived to be “going to hell in a handbasket with an out-of-control pandemic; ructions in Europe as Britain copes with “Brexit” chaos; Trumpism in the United States climaxing with the 6 January mob-led coup attempt in Washington’s Capitol; a deadly ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Feb 14, 2021 through Sat, Feb 20, 2021Editor's ChoiceQ&A: Is Elizabeth Kolbert’s New Book a Hopeful Look at the Promise of Technology, or a Cautionary Tale?The Pulitzer Prize-winning ...
Session Thirty-Five. We have had some in-game and out-of-game indication that we are drawing to the end of the Dreamland adventure… which has lasted since the fourth session. Getting back to the Waking World will require some mental adjustment, especially considering that Annalax has spent thirty-odd sessions not ...
A Friend In Need: I have grown up, and grown old, within earshot of New Zealand’s public broadcaster. Through times of peace and plenty, through days of tumult and recrimination, it has been a constant and reliable presence. The calm and authoritative voices of Radio New Zealand kept their fellow ...
This article, authored by Dr Lisa Schipper, Dr Morgan Scoville-Simonds, Dr Katharine Vincent and Prof Siri Eriksen, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Feb 10, 2021. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments posted on Carbon Brief. Photo by ...
. . As the rest of the world was perceived to be “going to hell in a handbasket with an out-of-control pandemic; ructions in Europe as Britain copes with “Brexit” chaos; Trumpism in the United States climaxing with the 6 January mob-led coup attempt in Washington’s Capitol; a deadly resurgent ...
by Georgina Blackmore Instead ask the government to separate the two issues caught under the heading of “Conversion Therapy”. 1) Gay Conversion Therapy which is what 99.9% of people believe this petition is about. It is a ban I personally support. 2) Gender Identity Conversion Therapy which doesn’t have any ...
The burning of books has a long history. That it no reason why we should add to it.If you want to get Burning of the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack from the National Library you may have to hurry. It is in the overseas nonfiction section; many books ...
by Daphna Whitmore After promising to tackle poverty, housing, transport, and climate issues in 2017, and failing on all these measures, Labour has moved to a Helen Clark “promise little and disappoint less” style of government. Poverty – perversely called “child poverty” by Ardern – has worsened under Labour. Much ...
This is one of those subject matters better suited to a thesis than a blog post, and far smarter people than I have tackled the question in a more detailed and accurate manner. But it’s a question that’s been running around in my brain for a fortnight or so. ...
Chris Fogwill, Keele University; Alan Hogg, University of Waikato; Chris Turney, UNSW, and Zoë Thomas, UNSWThe world experienced a few centuries of apocalyptic conditions 42,000 years ago, triggered by a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles combined with changes in the Sun’s behaviour. That’s the key finding of our ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jan Ellen Spiegel Colorado is no stranger to drought. The current one is closing in on 20 years, and a rainy or snowy season here and there won’t change the trajectory. This is what climate change has brought. “Aridification” is what ...
Sweet Surrender: By 1933, Adolf Hitler was the last political leader left standing, and his Nazis the only party Germany had yet to try. It was ever thus. Dictators and dictatorships succeed by being the only medicine a desperately sick nation hasn’t swallowed; the only strength that hasn’t failed.NOT ALL ...
"I know what you're not thinking!" Thanks to their polling agency and the participants in its focus-groups, the Labour leadership possesses a great deal more information about the Kiwis clamouring for action on the housing and inequality fronts than most journalists and lobbyists.ACCORDING TO PEOPLE “in the know”, Labour is ...
James Higham, University of OtagoThe Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s second tourism report urges the government to take advantage of the disruption caused by COVID-19 to transform the tourism industry. Titled “Not 100% – but four steps closer to sustainable tourism”, it builds on commissoner Simon Upton’s 2019 “Pristine, ...
My column over at Newsroom this week points out the fairly obvious. The government can add daily saliva testing for everyone at the border to the existing testing regimen. If daily testing winds up proving the swab tests to be redundant, ditch the swab tests when we find that out. ...
Geoengineering heats up Sorry, that was irresistible. By chance in this edition of New Research are two intriguing papers including different perspectives on the subject of geoengineering, a topic increasingly arousing emotions. Happily both of these papers are open access and free to read. A third article underlines that enthusiasm ...
Tamra Burns Loeb, University of California, Los Angeles; AJ Adkins-Jackson, Harvard University, and Arleen F. Brown, University of California, Los AngelesRacial and ethnic minority communities that lack internet access have been left behind in the race to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The average monthly cost of internet access, about ...
Zach St. GeorgeThe first and only time Steve Jackson spoke to Bill Critchfield was in the late 1980s. Critchfield, an authority on the conifers of North America, was at home recovering from a heart attack. Jackson, then a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University, had called looking for advice on how ...
Richelle Butcher, Massey University; Britta Denise Hardesty, CSIRO, and Lauren Roman, CSIROPlastic in the ocean can be deadly for marine wildlife and seabirds around the globe, but our latest study shows single-use plastics are a bigger threat to endangered albatrosses in the southern hemisphere than we previously thought. You ...
On Monday, the US Congress failed to hold former President Donald Trump accountable for inciting an attempted coup against the US constitution. So now someone is doing it privately, in the traditional American way: suing him: Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, the former president’s personal lawyer, have been accused ...
The media this morning was full of hopeful stories about how the current lockdown may have been a "false alarm" and an over-reaction and how it would all be over soon (I bet those journalists and editors all feel pretty stupid now). But along the way, National's Michael Woodhouse let ...
Jen Purdie, University of OtagoAs fossil fuels are phased out over the coming decades, the Climate Change Commission (CCC) suggests electricity will take up much of the slack, powering our vehicle fleet and replacing coal and gas in industrial processes. But can the electricity system really provide for this ...
Nearly twenty years after they first arrived, the last New Zealand troops will finally be leaving Afghanistan in May: New Zealand troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by May 2021. The current deployment consists of six Defence Force personnel - three deployed to the Afghanistan National Army Officer Academy, ...
I’m a bit of an ETS-absolutist. Or at least a carbon-pricing absolutist, in a place the size of NZ. I think the Weitzman reasons for preferring a carbon tax to an ETS are second-order relative to political economy considerations, and any weight at all put on switching costs makes it ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson Despite the speed bump posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is rolling toward completion of its Sixth Assessment Report, the latest in a series that began in 1990. IPCC’s assessments, produced by many hundreds of scientists volunteering countless hours, ...
On Friday (5 February) we went for a walk in the Karangahake Gorge, and were very happy to discover (during the Windows Walk) that there are glow-worms in the darker parts of the mine workings. (Strictly speaking they’re glow-maggots as they’re the larvae of small flies/midges, but that is perhaps ...
Alysha JohnsonThey say a good day is a busy day, and aboard the R/V Falkor (Seafloor to Seabirds in the Coral Sea – Schmidt Ocean Institute), almost every day is busy! On this particular day, we deployed a CTD, which stands for Conductivity, Temperature and Density. It is ...
This is a transcript of a speech by developmental biologist Dr Emma Hilton delivered at on 29 November 2020 for the ‘Feminist Academics Talk Back!’ meeting. This talk was originally published by womentalkback.org Sex denialists have captured existing journals We are dealing with a new religion Thank you for the ...
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway wallsAnd tenement halls"Paul Simon, The Sound of Silence, 1963-64 BOMBER’S RIGHT about Adam Curtis’s latest offering, Can’t Get You Out of My Head, it is brilliant. You can tell it’s a work of genius by the ...
Familiar Excuses: Those wondering why our Prime Minister was so willing to countenance a reputationally damaging breaking of Air New Zealand's contract with the Saudi Arabian navy should wonder no longer. Pieces are in motion on the Middle East chessboard. The interests of the majority shareholder in Air New Zealand ...
Three new community cases of Covid-19 and an unknown source have plunged Auckland into lockdown and the rest of the country into alert level two. Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles tackles some of the critical questions we now face. Could we be looking at a situation as worrying as last August in ...
Over the years, members from our team have published several handbooks providing information about how to successfully counter misinformation and conspiracy theories. These include The Conspiracy Theory Handbook and The Debunking Handbook 2020, both published in 2020. In addition, we have our list of rebuttals as well as our MOOC Denial101x to specifically ...
Story of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... SkS Spotlights... Video of the Week... Reports of Note... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Article Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... IEA: India is on ‘cusp of a solar-powered ...
Government data today shows that the wealthiest New Zealanders aren’t paying their fair share of tax, whilst everyone else chips in, Green Party spokesperson on Finance Julie Anne Genter said today. ...
The Green Party welcomes the change in the Reserve Bank’s remit to consider the impacts on housing when making financial decisions, but housing affordability shouldn’t be left to the Reserve Bank, Green Party Co-leader and Housing spokesperson Marama Davidson said today. ...
The Green Party welcomes the passing of the Local Electorate Act Māori Wards Amendment Bill which ensures Māori have a say on local issues across Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
New UMR research reveals that 69 percent of New Zealanders agree that the government should increase the amount if income support paid to those on low incomes or not in paid work. ...
The Green Party are celebrating the Labour Government bringing forward the timeline to ban conversion therapy, and will push to ensure any draft bill properly protects all of our Rainbow communities. ...
The Green Party is joining the call for ‘brave policy action’ to address rapidly increasing inequality in New Zealand, which is likely to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
Green MPs currently in Auckland, Marama Davidson, Chlöe Swarbrick and Golriz Ghahraman, will remain in Auckland for the next 72 hours. Those in Auckland today for Big Gay Out who have flown home will self-isolate for 72 hours. These decisions will be subject to any new information that may arise ...
It’s Pride month, and as we celebrate our LGBTIA+ community, we’re taking the next steps towards a more inclusive Aotearoa. From investing in mental health services to banning harmful conversion therapy, we’re building a New Zealand where everyone can be safe, healthy and happy. ...
The Green Party strongly condemns the revelation that Air New Zealand may have provided assistance and maintenance to Saudi Arabian vessels involved in committing atrocities in Yemen. ...
This week, Labour MPs headed north to take part in Waitangi events, and acknowledge Aotearoa’s shared history. Here’s a quick look at what our team got up to at Waitangi, and how we’re working together with Māori to build a better future for us all. ...
Attorney-General David Parker today announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges. Two of the appointees will take up their roles on 1 April, replacing sitting Judges who have reached retirement age. Kirsten Lummis, lawyer of Auckland has been appointed as a District Court Judge with jury jurisdiction to ...
Government announces list of life-shortening conditions guaranteeing early KiwiSaver access The Government changed the KiwiSaver rules in 2019 so people with life-shortening congenital conditions can withdraw their savings early The four conditions guaranteed early access are – down syndrome, cerebral palsy, Huntington’s disease and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder An alternative ...
The Reserve Bank is now required to consider the impact on housing when making monetary and financial policy decisions, Grant Robertson announced today. Changes have been made to the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee’s remit requiring it to take into account government policy relating to more sustainable house prices, while working ...
The Labour Government will invest $6 million for 70 additional adult cochlear implants this year to significantly reduce the historical waitlist, Health Minister Andrew Little says. “Cochlear implants are life changing for kiwis who suffer from severe hearing loss. As well as improving an individual’s hearing, they open doors to ...
The Government has added 1,000 more transitional housing places as promised under the Aotearoa New Zealand Homelessness Action Plan (HAP), launched one year ago. Minister of Housing Megan Woods says the milestone supports the Government’s priority to ensure every New Zealander has warm, dry, secure housing. “Transitional housing provides people ...
A second batch of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines arrived safely yesterday at Auckland International Airport, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. “This shipment contained about 76,000 doses, and follows our first shipment of 60,000 doses that arrived last week. We expect further shipments of vaccine over the coming weeks,” Chris Hipkins said. ...
The Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni has today announced $18 million to support creative spaces. Creative spaces are places in the community where people with mental health needs, disabled people, and those looking for social connection, are welcomed and supported to practice and participate in the arts ...
Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little today welcomed Moriori to Parliament to witness the first reading of the Moriori Claims Settlement Bill. “This bill is the culmination of years of dedication and hard work from all the parties involved. “I am delighted to reach this significant milestone today,” Andrew ...
22,400 fewer children experiencing material hardship 45,400 fewer children in low income households on after-housing costs measure After-housing costs target achieved a year ahead of schedule Government action has seen child poverty reduce against all nine official measures compared to the baseline year, Prime Minister and Minister for Child Poverty ...
It’s time to recognise the outstanding work early learning services, kōhanga reo, schools and kura do to support children and young people to succeed, Minister of Education Chris Hipkins says. The 2021 Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards are now open through until April 16. “The past year has reminded us ...
Three new Jobs for Nature projects will help nature thrive in the Bay of Plenty and keep local people in work says Conservation Minister Kiri Allan. “Up to 30 people will be employed in the projects, which are aimed at boosting local conservation efforts, enhancing some of the region’s most ...
The Government has accepted all of the Holidays Act Taskforce’s recommended changes, which will provide certainty to employers and help employees receive their leave entitlements, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood announced today. Michael Wood said the Government established the Holidays Act Taskforce to help address challenges with the ...
The Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and faster than expected economic recovery has been acknowledged in today’s credit rating upgrade. Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) today raised New Zealand’s local currency credit rating to AAA with a stable outlook. This follows Fitch reaffirming its AA+ rating last ...
Tena koutou e nga Maata Waka Ngai Tuahuriri, Ngai Tahu whanui, Tena koutou. Nau mai whakatau mai ki tenei ra maumahara i te Ru Whenua Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga mate ki te hunga mate Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga ora ki te hunga ora Tena koutou, Tena ...
The Minister of Justice has reaffirmed the Government’s urgent commitment, as stated in its 2020 Election Manifesto, to ban conversion practices in New Zealand by this time next year. “The Government has work underway to develop policy which will bring legislation to Parliament by the middle of this year and ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage and Social Development Hon Carmel Sepuloni today launched a new Creative Careers Service, which is expected to support up to 1,000 creatives, across three regions over the next two years. The new service builds on the most successful aspects of the former Pathways to ...
Overseas consumers eager for natural products in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic have helped boost honey export revenue by 20 percent to $425 million in the year to June 30, 2020, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says. “The results from the latest Ministry for Primary Industries’ 2020 Apiculture Monitoring ...
Thanks to more than $10-million in new services from the Government, more rangatahi will be able to access mental health and addiction support in their community. Minister of Health Andrew Little made the announcement today while visiting Odyssey House Christchurch and acknowledged that significant events like the devastating earthquakes ten ...
Two month automatic visitor visa extension for most visitor visa holders Temporary waiver of time spent in New Zealand rule for visitor stays Visitor visa holders will be able to stay in New Zealand a little longer as the Government eases restrictions for those still here, the Minister of Immigration ...
The Tourism and Conservation Ministers say today’s report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) adds to calls to overhaul the tourism model that existed prior to COVID19. “The PCE tourism report joins a chorus of analysis which has established that previous settings, which prioritised volume over value, are ...
The Government is providing certainty for the dietary supplements industry as we work to overhaul the rules governing the products, Minister for Food Safety Dr Ayesha Verrall said. Dietary supplements are health and wellness products taken orally to supplement a traditional diet. Some examples include vitamin and mineral supplements, echinacea, ...
The Government is joining the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (the Budapest Convention), Justice Minister Kris Faafoi and Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications Dr David Clark announced today. The decision progresses a recommendation by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch terror attack to accede to ...
Attorney-General David Parker announced today that an appointment round for Queen’s Counsel will take place in 2021. Appointments of Queen’s Counsel are made by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Attorney-General and with the concurrence of the Chief Justice. The Governor-General retains the discretion to appoint Queen’s Counsel in ...
The new Resurgence Support Payment passed by Parliament this week will be available to eligible businesses now that Auckland will be in Alert Level 2 until Monday. “Our careful management of the Government accounts means we have money aside for situations like this. We stand ready to share the burden ...
A dry run of the end-to-end process shows New Zealand’s COVID-19 vaccination programme is ready to roll from Saturday, when the first border workers will receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. “The trial run took place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch yesterday afternoon, ahead of the ...
From June this year, all primary, intermediate, secondary school and kura students will have access to free period products, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti announced today. The announcement follows a successful Access to Period Products pilot programme, which has been running since Term 3 last ...
The latest update shows the Government’s books are again in better shape than forecast, meaning New Zealand is still in a strong position to respond to any COVID-19 resurgence. The Crown Accounts for the six months to the end of December were better than forecast in the Half-year Economic and ...
The Department of Conservation’s (DOC) new Heritage and Visitor Strategy is fully focused on protecting and enhancing the value of New Zealand’s natural, cultural and historic heritage, while also promoting a sustainable environmental experience, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “It has been a quarter of a century since DOC first developed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Defence Minister Peeni Henare have announced that New Zealand will conclude its deployment of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) to Afghanistan by May 2021. “After 20 years of a NZDF presence in Afghanistan, it is now time to conclude ...
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. This is a special time in our country. A little over a week ago, it was the anniversary of the signature by Māori and the British Crown of Te Tiriti O Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi), a founding document in ...
The Government is in contact with relevant authorities in Turkey following the arrest of a former Australian and New Zealand dual citizen there, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “Contingency planning for the potential return of any New Zealander who may have been in the conflict zone has been underway for ...
Figures released today by Stats NZ show there was strong growth in median household incomes in 2020, before surveying was halted due to COVID-19. Stats NZ found the median annual household income rose 6.9 percent to $75,024 in the year to June 2020 compared with a year earlier. The survey ...
Legislation will be introduced under urgency today to set up a new Resurgence Support Payment for businesses affected by any resurgence of COVID-19. “Since the scheme was announced in December we have decided to make a change to the payment – reducing the time over which a revenue drop is ...
Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor congratulated Nigeria’s Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on her ground-breaking selection as the next Director General of the World Trade Organization last night. Dr Okonjo-Iweala will be the first female and first African Director General of the organisation. She has a strong background in international ...
From 1 April 2021, people getting a benefit will be able to earn more through work before their benefit payments are affected, Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni has announced. “Overall, around 82,900 low-income people and families will be better off by $18 a week on average,” says Carmel ...
The first batch of COVID-19 vaccine arrived in New Zealand this morning, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has confirmed. The shipment of around 60,000 doses arrived as airfreight at Auckland International Airport at 9.34am today. “The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine’s arrival allows us to start New Zealand’s largest-ever immunisation programme,” Jacinda Ardern said. ...
Good evening Cabinet has met this evening to make decisions on our response to the three cases reported earlier within a household in Auckland. Shortly I will ask Dr Bloomfield to set out some further information we now have relating to these cases. New Zealanders have enjoyed more freedoms for ...
For the first time, the Government will provide targeted nationwide funding to services that provide mental health support to Rainbow young people Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced. The announcement fulfils an election commitment to allocate $4 million specifically targeted to Rainbow mental wellbeing initiatives aimed at young people. There ...
A significant milestone in support to the regions has been passed with more than one billion dollars pumped into economic development projects to back local jobs and businesses. Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash says the Provincial Development Unit (PDU) has now invested $1.26 billion in regional projects since ...
Jobs for Nature funding will provide much-needed work for Northland locals, and contribute to the ongoing restoration of the Waipoua River awa, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “Led by Te Roroa Environs, the $760,000 Taiaororoa o Waipoua project will create meaningful nature-based employment and training opportunities for nine people from ...
Our Beehive Bulletin … It’s all go – well, sort of – on the housing front. The Nats yesterday were scoring brownie points by scoffing at the state’s spending on a professional promotional video, including drone footage, celebrating a housing scheme that has helped only 12 families. But Housing Minister ...
The Spinoff’s cricket podcast is back! Join Simon Day and Alex Braae on the road to Lord’s with special guest, White Fern Frankie Mackay.With the Blackcaps headed for the final of the inaugural ICC World Test Championship at Lord’s in June, Simon Day and Alex Braae have successfully appealed to ...
University of Otago public health experts Michael Baker, Amanda Kvalsvig and Nick Wilson ponder what we’ve learned about the pandemic over the past 12 months, and how we can improve our response in the future.Exactly one year ago tomorrow (February 26) the first confirmed case of Covid-19 arrived in Aotearoa ...
The SpinoffBy Michael Baker, Amanda Kvalsvig and Nick Wilson
A crowdfunding campaign for a ‘tool’ that attaches to the back of the neck is abhorrent to people with lived neurodivergent experience, writes ADHD and Autism advocate Rory McCarthy.Just over a fortnight ago, I discovered a device on Kickstarter that was being marketed as a treatment for children and adults ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Baker, Professor of Public Health, University of Otago Exactly one year ago tomorrow (February 26) the first confirmed case of COVID-19 arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand. Identified only as “a person in their 60s recently returned from Iran”, the case marked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nichola Shelton, PhD candidate, University of Sydney Tens of thousands of Australian teenagers live with a communication disability, meaning they struggle with speaking, listening, reading, writing, and/or social skills. Communication disability can include It can start in early childhood and much of ...
Senior National Party MP Simon Bridges has continued his attack on Police Commissioner Andrew Coster in a fiery Justice Select Committee this morning. ...
Health officials have contacted attendees of a Papatoetoe home viewing for a property in which a tenant later tested positive for Covid-19. Alex Braae reports. An open home took place at a Papatoetoe address on Saturday while a tenant who had been deemed a “causal-plus contact” was present. The tenant later ...
New Zealand rhythmic gymnast Angela Walker’s sporting career ended with her winning a gold medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games. It was the culmination of a dream that started 14 years earlier.I remember the day I set my heart on going to the Olympics. I was a little kid watching ...
Now the honeymoon is over, it’s down to hard work for American President Joe Biden and his new administration. Only a handful of his Cabinet nominees have been approved in Congress and he faces the prospect that up to three candidates may fail to pass muster. This will test his ...
E tū is calling on the country’s national carrier to ensure it rebuilds better than before, after the half-year announcement of a profit loss of $185 million, before other significant items and taxation. E tū Head of Aviation, Savage, says the announcement ...
Treasury’s research on the ‘economic income’ of high-wealth individuals is voodoo economics, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “David Parker has commissioned research from Treasury estimating ...
The Reserve Bank is now required to consider the impact on housing when making monetary and financial policy decisions, Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced. ...
Nevada Wolfgramm, a year 13 student at Mount Aspiring College in Wānaka, has been repeatedly censured by the school for breaching its dress code, told by teachers that what she’s wearing is distracting boys and male teachers. Here, she explains why it must stop. The first time I was “dress coded” ...
The Reserve Bank – Te Pūtea Matua welcomes the direction it has received today from the Minister of Finance. The Bank is tasked with considering how it can contribute to the Government’s housing policy objectives, consistent with its financial stability ...
As reports pile up on the success of vaccines against Covid 19, is it time for New Zealand to think of how it will return to normal? The vaccines will not simply eradicate the virus, so governments will need to start thinking about how to live with it. The London ...
Before his passing in 2020, Weta frontman Aaron Tokona initiated the vinyl reissue of the band’s sole album Geographica. Released last week, it’s a poignant reminder that the band were on the cusp of cracking Australia 20 years ago. Rock bands in Australia reside at one of two poles, according ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denise Thwaites, Assistant Professor in Digital Arts and Humanities , University of Canberra Since May 2007, US-based digital artist Mike Winkelmann (who goes by the name Beeple) has posted a new artwork online every day. He posted the 5,000th one in January, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Holcombe, Senior Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Just as the parliamentary inquiry into Rio Tinto’s destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters was reconvening in Canberra, another culturally significant site was damaged at one of BHP’s iron ore mines in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Farr-Wharton, Associate Professor in Management, Edith Cowan University The aged care royal commission is due to hand down its final report on February 26, and it will be tabled in parliament in the days after that. The long-term sustainability of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Nelson, Associate Professor of Economics, Griffith University The US state of Texas has this month experienced some of its coldest weather on record. Houston recorded a temperature of -10.6℃, which is around 20℃ below average. And Dallas-Fort Worth recorded its lowest-ever ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mengbi Li, Lecturer in Built Environment (Architecture), First Year College and Research Fellow, ISILC, Victoria University The coronavirus has been escaping with distressing frequency from quarantine hotels, threatening serious outbreaks. To make things worse, multiple variants of the virus, possibly more infectious ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland The fight between Facebook and the Morrison government is over almost before it began. Having drastically overplayed its hand by banning a vast range of content, Facebook has been forced to settle ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Hesketh, ARC Future Fellow and Association Professor, The University of Queensland When Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was first published in On the Origin of Species in 1859, the book was conspicuously silent about how his theory applied to humans. ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for February 25. All the latest news from New Zealand, updated throughout the day. Reach me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nzOur Members make The Spinoff happen. Every dollar contributed directly funds our editorial team – click here to learn more about how you can support us from ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Corrections minister picks fight with activist groups, Foster calls in independent Wellington Council governance review, and OCR kept unchanged.For a lead story today, a confrontation that has been brewing for a while, with several flashpoints along the way. Corrections minister Kelvin ...
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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:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGxFJ5nL9gg
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:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV9rBs_4Ifg
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!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGkmZCHZUOk
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:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W24WHbzQYE
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?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W24WHbzQYE
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…