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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TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
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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:
bad12″ – I still am in a bit of a dispute, I like your staunch views on certain issues, but at times you lash out, as you accused me of doing. Maybe reflect and get back, we may be fighting the same enemy, but with different approaches and so, but good luck, mate, I wish you well.
As for the rest, NZers must bloody wake up, as you are taken for a bloody ride, 24/7, and I can tell you more, we need to deal to lies and shit from the US, but ALSO to lies and crap happeing here. I have heaps of the latter, it is all documented, so I will refrain from feeding it here, but some pollies and especially admin nazis, you will get dealt to very soon, good luck!
Apart from all this, VUELVO is the message, and we have revolutionary spirit in other quarters, I only wish, even in moderate level, NZers would endeavour to do the same. We will wait and see: VUELVO!
Speaking to heaps of people today in Central Auckland, all good people, I ask, what is going on in NZ, to ridicule and dismiss what we know. Take care and take a bloody stand, against all this spy and surveillance crap we get told and sold, I will be back, as I have heaps of info none of you know, but stand up and fight it, fight it, all along:
This is PUBLIC TV in Chile!!!
Why can NZ not deliver the same? Are we primitive or backward? But Martyn Bradbury raised it just recently, So do I here, it is time to get real and inform, educate, and to report fairly on things in the media, we are waiting.!
Why can this not be done here?
Yeah, no, what about the olds who don’t like forests, and so won’t use the monorail.
Where’s the chair lift to the top of Mt.Cook!
How are we to get older kiwis to protect and revere the environment if they can’t travel to the top of MT.Cook in a warm cozy air conditioned chair lift.
I mean think about the old people, they used to be hard core environmentalists some of them, now they want to scare a pristine forest so they can travel in private luxury.
How are is the environment to be protected if Moro makes the case that in order to protect the environment we have to destroy it, the power lines alone, the fire risk, the cost of placing all that concrete (and funding its eventual removal), and lets not even start on the mining companies who will use the opportunity to…