Lmao !! A friend was taught woodwork by brownlee, he said that brownlee was a useless bully of a teacher who spent most of his time in his office chasing political dreams.
Cheers, Cinny – I’m well aware Brownlee was hopeless in the classroom – but worse than as the minister in charge of the ChCh rebuild? Or as foreign minister?
No, I think with his experience he could just about manage to fuck up teaching apprentices!
Apologies in advance (I withdraw and unreservedly apologise Mr Speaker).
He’s quite good at balancing a Metroliner (pencil plane) when seat allocations have gone awry and caused most passengers to be placed on the same side.
Thankfully Metroliners have already been phased out, and hopefully Brownlee soon will be.
Carbon dioxide levels grew at record pace in 2016, U.N. says
ReutersOctober 30, 2017
By Tom Miles
GENEVA (Reuters) – The amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere grew at record rate in 2016 to a level not seen for millions of years, potentially fuelling a 20-metre rise in sea levels and adding 3 degrees to temperatures, the United Nations said on Monday.
Related SearchesCarbon DioxideWhat Is Carbon DioxideCo2 LevelsCarbon Dioxide Levels In BloodCarbon Dioxide Poisoning
Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main man-made greenhouse gas, hit 403.3 parts per million (ppm), up from 400.0 in 2015, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
That growth rate was 50 percent faster than the average over the past decade, driving CO2 levels 45 percent above pre-industrial levels and further outside the range of 180-280 ppm seen in recent cycles of ice ages and warmer periods.
“Today’s CO2 concentration of ~400 ppm exceeds the natural variability seen over hundreds of thousands of years,” the WMO bulletin said.
The latest data adds to the urgency of a meeting in Bonn next month, when environment ministers from around the world will work on guidelines for the Paris climate accord backed by 195 countries in 2015.
The agreement is already under pressure because U.S. President Donald Trump has said he plans to pull the United States out of the deal, which seeks to limit the rise in temperatures to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.
Human CO2 emissions from sources such as coal, oil, cement and deforestation reached a record in 2016, and the El Niño weather pattern gave CO2 levels a further boost, the WMO said.
As far as scientists can tell, the world has never experienced a rise in carbon dioxide like that of recent decades, which has happened 100 times faster than when the world was emerging from the last ice age.
Scientists know prehistoric levels from tiny air bubbles found in ancient Antarctic ice cores, and they can derive even older data from fossils and chemicals trapped in sediment.
The last time carbon dioxide levels reached 400 ppm was 3-5 million years ago, in the mid-Pliocene era.
“During that period, global mean surface temperatures were 2–3°C warmer than today, ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica melted and even parts of East Antarctica’s ice retreated, causing the sea level to rise 10–20 m higher than that today,” the WMO bulletin said.
Since 1990, the global warming effect of CO2 and other long-lived greenhouse gases has risen by 40 percent. The two other main gases – methane and nitrous oxide – also grew to record concentrations last year, although at a slower rate of increase than carbon dioxide.
(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Well now this will be interesting, is this the marker that will determine how this government goes?
Meaning theres a lot of people that support the TPP (mostly on the right) but a lot of Labour/NZFirst/Green supporters didn’t so it’ll be interesting to see how large a rat Jacinda is willing to swallow…or how much slack the left will give her if she fails
…or how accurately the media will present this story of Labour once again having to clean up after the Tory fuckwits. From the linked story:
Essentially, the pair will be asserting their country’s right to prevent foreign speculators from purchasing urban property and farmland within its borders. A right the previous National Government, for reasons it never adequately explained, failed to assert. A right reserved by just about every other signatory to the TPP agreement.
Yet another example of those sharp negotiation skills National brought to the Warner Bros deal and the Auckland convention centre. What will genuinely be interesting is the limits on the ability of a competent government to correct the egregious failures of an incompetent predecessor. My money’s on “strong limits.”
Chris73…………….Finlayson, you sold us out when you allowing your national Party to sign TPPA in Auckland against the will of the people, and was that a “good thing”??????????
“… A right the previous National Government, for reasons it never adequately explained, failed to assert…”
I know a guy who is/was part of the negotiating team for TPP, a very short fellow with an enormous short man syndrome. He started life a self-interested liberal and rapidly shifted to full blown free market ideology fanatic. These days spends his time doing his best to channel the distainful and dismissive arrogance of Chris Finlayson to anyone who questions the NZ bureaucratic establishments absolute commitment to free market ideology.
The signing away of our rights to control who can buy land is typical of the sort of attitude of this guy and his ilk, a class of diplomats and officials who consider themselves global Galtians above the petty interests of the grubby people who live in anachronistic nation states.
Nothing incompetent with National’s negotiating here. Seems clear that this was a deliberate block to stop future governments doing what this government now wants to do.
“A right the previous National Government, for reasons it never adequately explained, failed to assert.”
During the Leaders Debate Jacinda asked Bill several times why not? Bill mumbled that it was just not a concern for them.
Yes, I have read the claims from David Parker that the changes that can be made to the TPP11 may be limited. We have the key elements that need to be addressed to make the document attractive to NZ. Things like:
• Removal investor state dispute resolution through a non-court environment
• Land and home ownership restrictions being introduced
• IP protections being toned down from USA demands
But the over-riding issue is that the Treaty should leave NZ better off. To do this the cost benefit analysis needs to be done and it needs to stack up. Last year’s run through with the full TPPA (with the USA included) gave a net benefit to NZ that was well within the margins of error. Removing the USA may well remove the net upside of the proposed TPP11, if so why are we even going there.
Somehow this TPP Agreement seems to have got a life of its own. The pressure to do the deal appears to outweigh the benefits of the deal: negotiators have the equivalence of Gold Fever.
Pressure on NZ to sign a deal is manufactured. Most of the other participants will realize that there has been a recent election in NZ that produced a Government whose members have reservations about the existing construct of the document and we a body politic that does not support the concept. Pressure to sign is created by the bureaucrats – it has all the signs of being something straight out of “Yes Minister.”
Grant Roberstson’s backsliding recently has revealed him as the self-serving managerialist and self-serving careerist he always has been, and just now this morning David Parker has been backsliding and being tricky on the TPP.
Labour needs to understand they were elected on a change platform. If the likes of Parker and Robeertson are allowed to let Labour slip into business as usual, neoliberal managerialism they will lose – and lose badly – in 2020.
The only extra votes that Labour can get have to come from National. They will not be won by a hard left programme. They will only be persuaded if the govt is seen as reasonable. Anyone voting National does not want increased taxes, they do not want hard left radicalism. They expect a reasonably moderate government. That is true even of soft National voters.
So they will give credit to Jacinda when she gets things like TPP done. If she is seen as fixing the things that concern New Zealanders, without embarking on a revolution she will probably win over some of the soft National voters.
Your approach will mean she would only have one three year term. Some of the NZF vote and in fact some of the right end of Labour vote would swing back to National. It has happened before, as in 1975.
It does rather look like Labour is going to end up spending some of is time battling against Standardnistas, just as they had to in respect of New Labour and the Alliance.
It’s true that we did increase voter turnout (and the number of enrolled voters) this time, OAB, and that definitely seems to have favoured the left. In my electorate (Dunedin North) a lot of younger voters signed up and voted during the two weeks before election day and the Labour vote went up significantly (a bit more than 15%). Having said that, there’s an element of truth in what Wayne says – any major party that wants to increase its vote needs to be acceptable to ordinary, non-political NZers. In particular, on the left, people with strong left wing views are likely to favour the Greens, and pulling them away to Labour only rearranges the left vote, rather than increasing it. The people on this site who constantly campaign to “turn Labour left” need to think through some political realities.
That doesn’t mean that Labour shouldn’t be a party of the left (it is) or that it shouldn’t be true to its principals and to its election promises (it should), but a hard left agenda isn’t likely to win the day with middle of the road voters, and they’re the ones who decide the government, when push comes to shove.
I agree with some of what you say Wayne. Jacinda and co. will be given credit if they are seen to be “fixing the things that concern New Zealanders without embarking on a revolution….“. I am in no doubt that will be the approach of this Labour-led government because – contrary to the attempt by National to paint them otherwise – they have always been reasonable and moderate in government but with a more socially responsible bent.
As for 1975. This isn’t the first time you have raised the spectre of the 72/75 Labour govt. as being “radical and hard left prompting the voters to swing back to National.” They swung to National because Muldoon dangled the biggest election bribe in NZ’s history in front of their middle-aged noses. I refer to the reduction of the age of Super entitlement to 60 years and increasing the amount to 80% of the average wage – a bribe we’re still paying dearly for today.
It is time you stopped peddling that myth. It does not become your elder statesman persona.
I agree with your last sentence – the comments do reveal the truth rather than the crafted image, bit like hootons slip ups, and is therefore valuable. It is too easy to think other people are as nice as us when they aren’t imo ☺
They swung back to National, when they introduced “hard left” type welfare policies, like lowering the super age. Funny that. Doesn’t exactly agree with Wayne’s take on things.
Again, this election, National tried to hide the poverty and unemployment figures. Each election National pretend to be more “left” than they are. Because National, and Crosby Textor, know what voters want.
moderate people do not engage in actions which result in child killing ….not even for trade deals, Wayne.
Racist dishonest warmongers like yourself can not actually be termed ‘moderate’.
If we were to Fix up John Keys and your National party tax segregation laws ……. then everyone who does not use creative accounting or tax havens would pay less tax.
I was not going to engage with you. However, I consider I must on the basis of defending New Zealand soldiers. No-one in the New Zealand Defence Force would ever deliberately undertake an action that they knew was likely to result in the death of civilians.
Recall in this instance the overall mission to Baghlan province was specifically approved by Sir Jerry Mateparae, the Chief of the Defence Force at the time. He is a man of integrity.
As has been explained numerous times, what happened was an accident, being the result of a faulty weapon in a US helicopter.
And New Zealand is not in Afghanistan because of trade deals. That is a slander on Helen Clark and her government, as much as it on National.
Both governments have been part of the overall Afghanistan mission because both thought it the right thing to do. It does, after all, have its origins in the Al Quaeda attack on the World Trade Centre. President Obama referred to Afghanistan as the right war, as opposed to Iraq, which was the wrong war. Helen Clark as PM agreed with that.
The only extra votes that Labour can get have to come from National. They will not be won by a hard left programme. They will only be persuaded if the govt is seen as reasonable. … That is true even of soft National voters.
So they will give credit to Jacinda when she gets things like TPP done.
(1) While it would certainly be a bonus, there is no absolute necessity for Labour to make further in-roads into National support in order to remain in Govt
(2) Winning Elections & maintaining your Party Vote are as much about holding on to your own voters as winning over new ones
An overwhelming 73% of Labour voters opposed TPP in one of the last Polls on the issue (3 News Reid Research) along with 87% of NZ First Supporters & 84% of Greens
(3) Even 23% of intending Nat voters were opposed – probably the more softly-aligned ones
A Colmar Brunton published around the same time suggested a similarly large-ish minority of Nat opposition at 26% (with another 37% Unsure)
The only extra votes that Labour can get have to come from National.
And Labour teaming up with National will have them losing pretty much all their votes.
They expect a reasonably moderate government.
Translation: They expect a Labour led government that kowtows to National’s radical right-wing ideology.
If she is seen as fixing the things that concern New Zealanders, without embarking on a revolution…
She can’t do it that way but I don’t think she, and the rest of Labour/NZ1st, realise that yet.
Capitalism doesn’t work as history has proven time and time again thus we need to shift away from capitalism.
It has happened before, as in 1975.
Ah yes, National’s first truly successful scare campaign of dancing cossacks followed by the biggest electoral bribe ever. A bribe that we’re still paying for.
It does rather look like Labour is going to end up spending some of is time battling against Standardnistas
That’s better than the sycophantic following of the RWNJs for whatever their leader of the time says.
@Sanctuary, totally agree about Robertson, I think hes a very weak link in the chain, but unfortunately holds a most powerful portfolio. He doesnt give me the impression that he has a clear understanding of Finance…..I am probABLY wrong.
Interesting that the WhiteHouse is desperately trying to deflect from the Manafort indictment by replaying the greatest hits from “but Hill-a-reeee”. That’s sooo 2016.
Hillary is a fading has-been that will never again do anything significant. t-Rump is where the action is now. He da man making da decisions that actually affect people.
While I doubt Tyrannosaurus Arse is aware of Shrub’s popularity boost after 9/11 or its relevance to his situation, no doubt “they” are. So it’s a definite worry.
I have only recently become aware of Paul Mannafort after watching ‘Get me Roger Stone’.
A doco on a political insider who started out in the Nixon years.
Amongst other things, Stone got trump to stand against Buchanan in a third party leadership challenge for the presidency. Thus discrediting the third party and ensuring a win for the republicans (Bush snr.)
Looks like the old it wasn’t me, ref, it must have been some other bloke won’t wash.
In fact, Papadopoulos’ crime relates expressly to campaign activity, specifically, offers of meetings w/Russians offering “dirt” on Clinton https://t.co/S09lvchQuP— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) October 30, 2017
President Trump’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen will be a deputy national finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, the RNC announced on Monday.
Cohen served as executive vice president special counsel to Trump at the Trump Organisation and sat on multiple boards of other Trump corporations.
The RNC said in the press release that Cohen has “been an active spokesperson and advisor for the President during his interest in seeking office since 2011.”
A company listed in the Monday indictment of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates received funds from the Republican National Committee for work done in coordination with Donald Trump’s election campaign.
Bade LLC, listed in the indictment among 17 domestic entities that Manafort and Gates are alleged to have used to hide foreign earnings, particularly from Ukraine, was paid a total of $70,000 in three payments by the Republican National Committee in September 2016, October 2016 and January 2017.
The payments, all for “political strategy services,” each list an address associated with Gates.
President Donald Trump dismissed the indictment in a Monday morning tweeting, saying the activities were “years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign.
But the first page of the grand jury indictment charges that “In order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities, from approximately 2006 through at least 2016, Manafort and Gates laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts.”
attorney-client privilege might be a solid firewall
Or not.
Prosecutors convinced a federal judge to require a lawyer for Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates to testify before the grand jury investigating Russian involvement in the 2016 election, a court ruling unsealed on Monday showed.
The unusual move is an indication of the aggressiveness of special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecution team as they prepared to indict Manafort and Gates on charges of money laundering and failing to register as foreign agents. The 12-count indictment was made public on Monday.
Lawyers for Manafort and Gates fought the prosecution’s drive to intrude on attorney-client communications. But Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that an exception, which involves using a lawyer to commit crime or fraud, applied to contacts with an attorney who helped respond to inquiries about why the pair had not filed foreign-agent lobbying registrations with the Justice Department.
Leighton Smith says the Russian thing is a Democratic Party conspiracy to save face for their loss of the elections.
And all his callers agree with him.
Leighton Smith is an idiot, who has been spouting the pro-Trump line for some time on his morning radio show. I am really surprise that he is able to dominate his show with biased right-wing rhetoric. He needs to go back to Sydney taxi driving as a job, just to get that reality check back.
I’d think the desperation, if there is any, might have more to do with the realisation they’ve been had. It’s looking more and more like the ‘russia investigation’ was a complete sham, intended only to provide the means by which they could shake the tree until things started falling out.
The US is tearing itself apart, not sure that’s a good thing either.
Perhaps it’s significant in your fevered imagination, it means little to me. They never did get any dirt on Clinton so all the claims of collusion on that point are rather moot. If there’s a smoking gun it’s unlikely to be about dirt on Clinton, I’d think the best they could come up with there would be intent to collude.
These indictments could just be the beginning with more to come, who knows, but so far they haven’t been for colluding with Russia and that’s what the investigation began as.
I don’t see it as earth shattering. It would be similar to having an employee repeatedly emailing the boss asking that the company should work with the competition. Haven’t seen much sign of what the bosses thoughts on that were yet. One Washington Post article I’ve read says the bosses thought it was a pretty dumb idea.
See my comment below – Papadopolous has cut a plea deal in exchange for his cooperation. They don’t do plea bargains with people who have nothing to offer.
so far they haven’t been for colluding with Russia
Dude pleaded guilty to lying about his involvement in the tRump campaign’s attempts to collude with a foreign government.
And he’s going to finger the rest of the crew.
Papadopoulos, who was arrested in late July, pled guilty to making false statements to the FBI. That plea was unsealed on Monday—as were court paper showing that Papadopoulos, the professor, and the so-called “niece” had been part of an effort to establish a back channel between Trump and the Kremlin, and to obtain thousands of Clinton emails before anyone knew those messages had been hacked.
I suspect any “grassing” will already have occurred.
Edit:
The Government agrees to bring to the Court’s attention at sentencing the defendant’s efforts to cooperate with the Government, on the condition that your client continues to respond and provide information regarding any and all matters as to which the Government deems relevant.
Yep the slippery slope for the mango Mussolini has just got slipperier. The dominos will fall – he might have to invent another pizza pedo scandal or watch out nth Korea, war is coming. False flag radar engaged – anything could happen and it could be right now!
“Money talks truth walks.” We have this here with National Party lies and deceit so we will never fing the real truth what happend during “the dirty tricks campaigns of 2011 Phil Goff, or “The Panama Papers” and the latest issue of the 300 texts Bill English sent to Todd Barclay’s secretary either, so we have the same “swamp” that Washington has don’t we.
But now we have our ex Finance Minister Steven Joyce falsly claiming we are his “members or suppoorters” that is a bloody lis as we hate him, expecially now he is asking his ememies like us for money to fight against the labour “coatition experiment” Joyce calls them just take a look at this;
Ha ha Steven Joyce wants a donation!!!!!!!!
After he lied to our community he can take a hike he tried to destroy our rail the creep.
From: Steven Joyce [mailto:hq@national.org.nz]
Sent: Tuesday, 31 October 2017 2:03 PM
To: janet
Subject: Fighting fund
j———,
As we prepare to return to the new Parliament next week, National’s 56 MPs will make up the largest opposition in New Zealand’s history. We will be working hard to hold the new government to account, and ensure they don’t squander the progress that New Zealanders have worked so hard to achieve.
Donate to our Fighting Fund today.
Labour and its coalition partners are planning a huge number of policy changes, and there are very few details available. However it is clear that many of them would take New Zealand backwards from our strong economic position which is currently the envy of much of the western world.
They also haven’t been upfront on the costs for their coalition agreements – these are the bills that hardworking taxpayers, like you, will have to cover out of your collective back pockets.
In the last week the coalition has also announced a Regional Fuel Tax, a potential Sugar Tax, removing standards and accountability in our schools, and scrapping the tax threshold changes due from April 1 in our Family Incomes Package.
The new government is already bloated, with an executive of 31 Ministers and Undersecretaries.
Hard-working New Zealanders can’t afford this coalition Government.
We’ve heard from thousands of New Zealanders like you over the last few weeks, wanting to know how you can help.
So today we’re launching our Fighting Fund – chip in $15, $25, $50 or whatever you can and it’ll help us as we begin taking on this Labour-Greens-NZ First political experiment. We need you with us.
Donate
National is the only party with the policies to deliver a strong and stable economy that really works for New Zealanders. We are confident and optimistic about the future our country. Let’s not let Labour take us backwards.
Thanks,
Steven
________________________________________
This email was sent to ———————–
We believe that email is one of the best ways to stay in touch with our members & supporters, but you can click here if you would like to unsubscribe from these messages.
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Authorised by G Hamilton, 41 Pipitea St, Wellington.
I especially liked Bill English’s reasoning that Dr Jian Yang couldn’t be a spy, or involved in spying, because he was a NZ citizen, and also a “satisfactory” MP. (On RNZ morning report.)
Further, Bill English would not say why Jian Yang was removed from the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. It was a backdown from English firstly saying there are so many changes he could not remember, to ultimately that English was not 100% certain why he was swapped out so would not comment.
All this ignores why Jian Yang has not had his citzenship reviewed on the basis that he failed to disclose his employment at at the Spy School/Military University in his residency visa application.
In my view It is obvious that the TPP 11 trade deal OUR new coalition goverment is analyzing has details that make it to negative to our future to walk away from IT.
I still prefer to spend on advertising but we are a small nation whom has to go with the flow or we could damage our future’s earning . Many thanks to Europe for there trade deal. I no have changed my opinion on this but the Europeans could have many negative effects from climate change so they have backed mitigating against climate climate change for years they are leader’s in this industry and we can learn a lot from them. And we should always team up with our Australian cousins when we negotiate trade deal’s our two Society have a lot in common and the old saying many hands make light work Its logical
{ It’s Assume to see these People making these super power full people accountable for there action’s we are all human being’s and demanded to be treated humanly and equally} That newly born Kiwi was beautiful a new life born in Rotorua we have all our living animals future in our hands. And this is one reason why We need to invest in OUR bio security to protect there future our future and our future earning’s there are to many threats to our future to take this{ subject to lightly }.is not intelligent.
If I was a bystander analyzing my situation I would be asking a lot of questions like would I like to leave this state service to look after my Moko’s future I would not like to think that this type of service that I’m receiving could be dished out to my Moko.
Everyone can see that they are breaching all of my rights as a human being They are using the courts to stop me from defending my future and my moko’s future .
But this situation I find my self in is my fate and I will correct the wrongs that this state orgnization has dished out to me and my whano . This is why I wrote about the power that this state service has over US ALL and I think that there should be checks and balances forced on this state institution so no one is ever treated like I am being treated at the minute because not everyone is like me to have the ability to counter there propaganda and have moral the support of our nation And I will fight for equality for US ALL. I just thought I was just a ordinary half caste Maori man but analyzing my past and what’s happening now and I have come to the conclusion that I’m a leader and that all the people that have attached me and my family have underestimated me and have and will pay the consequences for there assumption. Sorry thats heavy but that had to be told . The Zane and Duncan drive home show gives me a sore face and Jen ads a good ladys touch to the morning Rumble I no whom has my back kia Kaha
You said “I have come to the conclusion that I’m a leader and that all the people that have attached me and my family have underestimated me and have and will pay the consequences for there assumption”
How are you planning to make these people pay? Have you decided yet?
Today is the mid way point between the Equinox and the Solstice. In the northern hemisphere it’s Halloween (Samhain), and here in the south it is Beltane.
We’ve two massive spiders on the roof, a grim reaper by the letterbox and a witch cooking in a cauldron on the front lawn to lure in the ‘trick or treaters’.
If kids want to brave the garden path to ask for a treat, best they beware of our tricks that await. Looking forward to jumping out of the bushes and freaking out the older kids.
I’be been getting the news before it is the news!!
The interesting Louise Mensch has been publishing stories long before the NYT, WSJ , MSNBC et al have secured sufficient corroboration. Here is her list of who is going to be charged and just about the whole Whitehouse is on the list!
The most left–field one the the GOP itself!
“The Republican Party as a body is under investigation for RICO for accepting Russian money. The GOP itself is being considered to be a corrupt organization under the RICO statutes. Sources were firm that the GOP, as it is presently known, may no longer exist after this investigation and a new party of the right may have to form. Sources did not say if charges or indictments had been returned against the party however.”
Her product mostly appeals to a nutty segment of the moonbat left in the same way that Jones’ product mostly appeals to a nutty segment of the wingnut right.
What has ‘good reporting’ got to do with being left or right?
I pointed to her writing as much of what she has been saying for the past while about the Russia scandal has been found to be correct.
I’ve no interest in defending her or the NYT WSJ et al. Read widely and form your own opinions.
Screenjunkies is my most favourite thing to watch on youtube and it made me really…sad I guess for the victims because the victims were mostly, but not all, fans of the show
Yeah although with him its a bit more difficult. I mean I believe him but hes coming across as a bit…unhinged…which is probably a result of what happened to him and Corey Haim
Damnit, I go to the movies and watch movie news to escape from reality 🙁
Well whats interesting, to me anyway, is the way Hollywood has torn into Trump and yet the casting couch isn’t exactly a secret, that Meryl Streep can give Roman Polanski a standing ovation, that Woody Allen still gets the a listers, that Casey and Ben Affleck get Oscars, Bill Cosby was at it for decades etc etc
Not really related imo. For instance do you think every police investigator doesn’t have skeletons in their closets?
Sadly holywood revelations are just a visible aspect of a sick widespread integral aspect of patriarchy – the abuse and subjugation of women – that shit has to stop NOW!
Well sure closets ok but Casey Affleck paid off women, Roman Polanski plead guilty, Woody Allen was accused so these are not hidden they’re out in the open and were known to a lot of people and yet the biggest stars want to work with them and they still win oscars
Even muggins here in NZ heard a lot of these stories so how could some of these A-listers plead ignorance is beyond me
But yes there is a power imbalance and when you have young, super-attractive people who really, really want something and these old men can give it to them somethings going to happen
But hopefully something good will come out of all this badness
I hope you’re not implicating the victims or saying it was their own fault because they knew there was a concept of casting couch because that would need to be addressed…
Nope I’m not saying that at all, what I’m saying is these stars (male and female) will have heard the same stories I’ve heard yet choose to appear in their films thereby legitimising them however they also condemn the behaviour of Trump, Weinstein etc
House of cards cancelled now – spacey will be really thinking about ‘all those rumours’ as he put it.
The point you are making puck is directly related to the massive power imbalance in these abuses – it can barely be understood unless you’ve gone through it and sadly in all endeavours where the imbalance is there, this shit happen. Business, politics, entertainment – all of them from big to small.
I thought that the two series were both good but also both different enough to stand on their own
Not quite, I’m talking about those actors that are already at the top of the tree. The ones that can turn down roles, the ones like Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep, Matt Damon etc etc
They heard what was happening but they turned a blind eye to what was happening to the young up and comers and even if they didn’t speak out they still accepted the roles
What is your actual point on that? I think it is too much to offer judgment on that personally – the power imbalance is one aspect amongst so many. You really are just speculating and moving into areas fraught with difficulties. A lot of shaming occurs for women that supposedly don’t act or react to abuse in the ways some men expect.
Edit – I see in rereading that your point is a bit more nuanced – I will let this go now because I just feel uncomfortable offering judgments around this.
Strap yourself in tightly dearie and stay sober: the weirdness is about to get a whole lot weirder! Rainbows End Rollercoasters and wild mushrooms have nothing on what is about to happen.
Constitutional Roller Coaster #1
If Trump goes, Pence becomes president: if Pence is under investigation it goes to Ryan; if Ryan is under investigation it goes to Orrin Hatch; if Hatch is under investigation it goes to Rex Tillerson; if Tillerson is under investigation it goes to Mnunchin; if he is under investigation is goes to General James Mattis.
I think Mattis is the next president! Robert H. Scales, a retired United States Army major general, described him as “… one of the most urbane and polished men I have known.” Reinforcing this intellectual persona was the fact he carried a copy of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius throughout his deployments.=wiki
btw Ben Carson is no 13 and de Vos is no 15!
Constitutional Roller Coaster #2
The Prime minister in London is having a nervous breakdown. The EU are trying hard to keep her stable because the alternative is the bumbling idiot person Boris Johnson. Another General Election could deliver Jeremy Corbyn, another little england nationalist, to No 10. It will also probably deliver a united Ireland and and independent Scotland, both within the EU.
The entertainment never ceases…..
Just in case anyone thinks Pence being under investigation would keep him from the presidency, nope. His status as elected Vice-President is independent of the Chump’s shenanigans.
That means that at the moment Trump becomes an early ex-President, the only thing that will prevent Pence from becoming president is if he’s already resigned, or been impeached and convicted. As I understand it, he could have already been impeached by the House and be partway through his trial in the Senate, and he would still be sworn in as president. (although I’d imagine the Senate would seriously hurry-up the trial in that circumstance).
He will offload his staff to the prosecutors like White Russians throwing relatives one at a time, off the back of the sleigh, to fast-encroaching wolves. Even his daughter isn’t safe.
Fox News keeps the sleigh speeding along.
Now that a few have been turned, blood’s in the water and will keep pouring.
He will hang in to the end of the term, bloodied but unbowed.
A fairly high bar must be set for WINZ to prosecute. Contributing factors are length of time not complying, severity of offending, acceptance/confession, amounts involved, repayments/ability to recover debt, subsequent life position, and the strength of WINZ’s case in the first place.
My guess is that Turei’s case did not meet the bar.
In Barclay’s case the complainant appears to have been bought off by the National Party in the form of John Key’s prime ministerial services account, and soothing late night texts from the twice failed Bill English.
I don’t listen to newstalk zb from about 5 to 6 in the morning because that’s when Hosking comes on. Often in the hour before that the teeth have to be gritted.
Now they have the quinella.
“Kate Hawkesby to host Newstalk ZB’s Early Edition”
If her rant on the decision of Peters to go how he did is any indication, the one household can unload all it’s bile in one place in the same sort of time slot.
ZB doubling down on their right wing hosts. Mark Dye (along with Tim Roxborogh) was probably the only out and out leftie on ZB and he’s quit/been fired.
The line up is now fully RWNJ from 0500 to 1900 every single day.
So the Stepford Wife is joining the awful man who does the ZB Breakfast. Nepotism at work here. Thankfully for most people it is not a station they tune into. It probably will be more of the same garbage like her column she does in a womens’ rag. All the enlightening stuff about how to be a mother and a wife – as if all the other wonderful mothers and wives don’t already know about how to glue a household together. Does she think she is the expert in this for god’s sake. Being on the gravy train will enable her to get a really good nanny in to do all her housewifely chores and dropping kids off to school ec. Yawn yawn.
And to be really bitchy – she needs to get out of this 1970’s time warp and do something with her bloody hair.
I think his crazed serialised rant in the NZH in the week following NZ1’s decision to opt for Labour has cooked his goose in the eyes of many – or at least those that live outside the rarified climes of Remmers …
Yeah somehow a bunch of apathetic right wingers like yourself know so much more about mine safety and re-entry than the former UK principal mine inspector and former head NZ mines inspector Tony Forster who says it’s entirely possible and is happy to go in himself.
“I’ve read two comprehensive reports so far both say yes there are risks, but yes this is possible…You’ve just got to manage those risks, so let’s find a way to do that.
Every undertaking such as re entering the mine has a risk involved. The question is not just about rationality but humanity.
As for the argument of risk per se I belief the workers have shown the ultimate willingness on that point to their employer and we should at least support all endeavors to retrieve the bodies so that the families can have closure.
Where’s your concern about every other place that safety cannot be “guaranteed”?
Little’s main objectives in that interview were: the families would be listened to and geniunely consulted with; and that risks can be mitigated.
If risks cannot be mitigated down to a reasonable level and the families still want them to go in, there might be a law change in this case. The thing is, I think the perception of many people (definitely my perception, anyway) is that “health and safety” is being used as a handy excuse to hide behind in order to excuse inactivity.
If that were removed as an excuse, and the families were genuinely consulted with, I think you’ll still find that they wouldn’t want people to die trying to recover their loved ones and evidence. They just want an honest appraisal of the situation.
I wouldn’t accept anything from Dr. Sir John Key that hadn’t first been through an extreme vetting and fact-checking process. That’s a consequence of his well-earned reputation for lying through his teeth.
The issue around H&S is a red herring, so far. There might be genuine reasons not to go in, but the previous regime were pretty bloody quick to go ‘oh gosh, H&S ties our hands in this situation, how sad, problem over’.
I suspect that you will find that they change the law to allow sort of “good samaritan” efforts to rescue/recover evidence and people. I hope they make it a systemic change, not restricted to Pike River Mine. People should not be “sent” down if it’s unsafe – but if the reason is strong enough, they should be allowed to go, and not be held back by a paper-pusher worried about their own personal legal liability.
There were so many violations of safe practice identified by the Royal Commission that I’ll guess if the cause is tracked down it’ll just be one of the problems already identified. Shit like methane sensors getting covered over, failure to use explosion-proof motors, workers smuggling in unsafe equipment etc.
I would hope that “we don’t exactly know what caused Pike River” hasn’t been a hold-up in sorting that shit out at other mines.
Here's George Papadopoulos. In London. Five days ago. Wearing a wire. So..any idea who he met?? https://t.co/dXb0mAEni8— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) October 30, 2017
I’d love it if a law was set requiring that policies be supported by facts where such are available. That’d pretty much kill all National Party policies.
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
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For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
If building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...
Comment: The debate over the future relationship between news and social media is bringing us closer to a long-overdue reckoning. Social media isn’t trying to kill journalism, because social media has never really cared about journalism. Social media is resolutely in the attention business. News propels some attention — perhaps ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A new Commonwealth Prac Payment will provide students with $319.50 a week when they are on clinical and professional placements. The payment will be means tested and start from July 1 next year, which ...
Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
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Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
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Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
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Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
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Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
7am RNZ news – NZ wide shortage of woodwork teachers!
Offer Brownlee a worthwhile job doing something to help this country!
Lmao !! A friend was taught woodwork by brownlee, he said that brownlee was a useless bully of a teacher who spent most of his time in his office chasing political dreams.
Cheers, Cinny – I’m well aware Brownlee was hopeless in the classroom – but worse than as the minister in charge of the ChCh rebuild? Or as foreign minister?
No, I think with his experience he could just about manage to fuck up teaching apprentices!
Apologies in advance (I withdraw and unreservedly apologise Mr Speaker).
He’s quite good at balancing a Metroliner (pencil plane) when seat allocations have gone awry and caused most passengers to be placed on the same side.
Thankfully Metroliners have already been phased out, and hopefully Brownlee soon will be.
Carbon dioxide levels grew at record pace in 2016, U.N. says potentially fuelling a 20-metre rise in sea levels and adding 3 degrees to temperatures,
https://www.yahoo.com/news/carbon-dioxide-levels-grew-record-pace-2016-u-100129353.html
We are toast, as no there s no political will for us to change our ways now so we are doomed.
This is what we are now facing.
PM Jacinda Ardern said “climate change is the nuclear event of her gerneration” so they had better get serious about it now.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/carbon-dioxide-levels-grew-record-pace-2016-u-100129353.html
Carbon dioxide levels grew at record pace in 2016, U.N. says
ReutersOctober 30, 2017
By Tom Miles
GENEVA (Reuters) – The amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere grew at record rate in 2016 to a level not seen for millions of years, potentially fuelling a 20-metre rise in sea levels and adding 3 degrees to temperatures, the United Nations said on Monday.
Related SearchesCarbon DioxideWhat Is Carbon DioxideCo2 LevelsCarbon Dioxide Levels In BloodCarbon Dioxide Poisoning
Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main man-made greenhouse gas, hit 403.3 parts per million (ppm), up from 400.0 in 2015, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
That growth rate was 50 percent faster than the average over the past decade, driving CO2 levels 45 percent above pre-industrial levels and further outside the range of 180-280 ppm seen in recent cycles of ice ages and warmer periods.
“Today’s CO2 concentration of ~400 ppm exceeds the natural variability seen over hundreds of thousands of years,” the WMO bulletin said.
The latest data adds to the urgency of a meeting in Bonn next month, when environment ministers from around the world will work on guidelines for the Paris climate accord backed by 195 countries in 2015.
The agreement is already under pressure because U.S. President Donald Trump has said he plans to pull the United States out of the deal, which seeks to limit the rise in temperatures to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.
Human CO2 emissions from sources such as coal, oil, cement and deforestation reached a record in 2016, and the El Niño weather pattern gave CO2 levels a further boost, the WMO said.
As far as scientists can tell, the world has never experienced a rise in carbon dioxide like that of recent decades, which has happened 100 times faster than when the world was emerging from the last ice age.
Scientists know prehistoric levels from tiny air bubbles found in ancient Antarctic ice cores, and they can derive even older data from fossils and chemicals trapped in sediment.
The last time carbon dioxide levels reached 400 ppm was 3-5 million years ago, in the mid-Pliocene era.
“During that period, global mean surface temperatures were 2–3°C warmer than today, ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica melted and even parts of East Antarctica’s ice retreated, causing the sea level to rise 10–20 m higher than that today,” the WMO bulletin said.
Since 1990, the global warming effect of CO2 and other long-lived greenhouse gases has risen by 40 percent. The two other main gases – methane and nitrous oxide – also grew to record concentrations last year, although at a slower rate of increase than carbon dioxide.
(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/98377913/trade-negotiations-will-test-parker-and-arderns-mettle
Well now this will be interesting, is this the marker that will determine how this government goes?
Meaning theres a lot of people that support the TPP (mostly on the right) but a lot of Labour/NZFirst/Green supporters didn’t so it’ll be interesting to see how large a rat Jacinda is willing to swallow…or how much slack the left will give her if she fails
…or how accurately the media will present this story of Labour once again having to clean up after the Tory fuckwits. From the linked story:
Essentially, the pair will be asserting their country’s right to prevent foreign speculators from purchasing urban property and farmland within its borders. A right the previous National Government, for reasons it never adequately explained, failed to assert. A right reserved by just about every other signatory to the TPP agreement.
Yet another example of those sharp negotiation skills National brought to the Warner Bros deal and the Auckland convention centre. What will genuinely be interesting is the limits on the ability of a competent government to correct the egregious failures of an incompetent predecessor. My money’s on “strong limits.”
I’m guessing there’ll be a lot of hot air and bluster but mostly it’ll go through as planned and thats a good thing
So you’re saying it won’t go through as planned. I’m guessing you didn’t mean to say that, but then you also said Winston would choose National.
We need better wingnuts.
Chris73…………….Finlayson, you sold us out when you allowing your national Party to sign TPPA in Auckland against the will of the people, and was that a “good thing”??????????
The government going against the wishes of the people to make rich people richer is considered a Good Thing by National.
“… A right the previous National Government, for reasons it never adequately explained, failed to assert…”
I know a guy who is/was part of the negotiating team for TPP, a very short fellow with an enormous short man syndrome. He started life a self-interested liberal and rapidly shifted to full blown free market ideology fanatic. These days spends his time doing his best to channel the distainful and dismissive arrogance of Chris Finlayson to anyone who questions the NZ bureaucratic establishments absolute commitment to free market ideology.
The signing away of our rights to control who can buy land is typical of the sort of attitude of this guy and his ilk, a class of diplomats and officials who consider themselves global Galtians above the petty interests of the grubby people who live in anachronistic nation states.
Nothing incompetent with National’s negotiating here. Seems clear that this was a deliberate block to stop future governments doing what this government now wants to do.
Hmmm yes, on second thoughts incompetence probably comes in way behind ideology on this one.
“A right the previous National Government, for reasons it never adequately explained, failed to assert.”
During the Leaders Debate Jacinda asked Bill several times why not? Bill mumbled that it was just not a concern for them.
Yes, I have read the claims from David Parker that the changes that can be made to the TPP11 may be limited. We have the key elements that need to be addressed to make the document attractive to NZ. Things like:
• Removal investor state dispute resolution through a non-court environment
• Land and home ownership restrictions being introduced
• IP protections being toned down from USA demands
But the over-riding issue is that the Treaty should leave NZ better off. To do this the cost benefit analysis needs to be done and it needs to stack up. Last year’s run through with the full TPPA (with the USA included) gave a net benefit to NZ that was well within the margins of error. Removing the USA may well remove the net upside of the proposed TPP11, if so why are we even going there.
Somehow this TPP Agreement seems to have got a life of its own. The pressure to do the deal appears to outweigh the benefits of the deal: negotiators have the equivalence of Gold Fever.
Pressure on NZ to sign a deal is manufactured. Most of the other participants will realize that there has been a recent election in NZ that produced a Government whose members have reservations about the existing construct of the document and we a body politic that does not support the concept. Pressure to sign is created by the bureaucrats – it has all the signs of being something straight out of “Yes Minister.”
Grant Roberstson’s backsliding recently has revealed him as the self-serving managerialist and self-serving careerist he always has been, and just now this morning David Parker has been backsliding and being tricky on the TPP.
Labour needs to understand they were elected on a change platform. If the likes of Parker and Robeertson are allowed to let Labour slip into business as usual, neoliberal managerialism they will lose – and lose badly – in 2020.
Sanctuary
You need to swot up in electoral mathematics.
The only extra votes that Labour can get have to come from National. They will not be won by a hard left programme. They will only be persuaded if the govt is seen as reasonable. Anyone voting National does not want increased taxes, they do not want hard left radicalism. They expect a reasonably moderate government. That is true even of soft National voters.
So they will give credit to Jacinda when she gets things like TPP done. If she is seen as fixing the things that concern New Zealanders, without embarking on a revolution she will probably win over some of the soft National voters.
Your approach will mean she would only have one three year term. Some of the NZF vote and in fact some of the right end of Labour vote would swing back to National. It has happened before, as in 1975.
It does rather look like Labour is going to end up spending some of is time battling against Standardnistas, just as they had to in respect of New Labour and the Alliance.
The only extra votes that Labour can get have to come from National.
…and from increasing turnout again… don’t “forget” turnout, Wayne.
battling
I realise it’s difficult for an authoritarian follower to understand, but debate is a sign of robust good health.
It’s true that we did increase voter turnout (and the number of enrolled voters) this time, OAB, and that definitely seems to have favoured the left. In my electorate (Dunedin North) a lot of younger voters signed up and voted during the two weeks before election day and the Labour vote went up significantly (a bit more than 15%). Having said that, there’s an element of truth in what Wayne says – any major party that wants to increase its vote needs to be acceptable to ordinary, non-political NZers. In particular, on the left, people with strong left wing views are likely to favour the Greens, and pulling them away to Labour only rearranges the left vote, rather than increasing it. The people on this site who constantly campaign to “turn Labour left” need to think through some political realities.
That doesn’t mean that Labour shouldn’t be a party of the left (it is) or that it shouldn’t be true to its principals and to its election promises (it should), but a hard left agenda isn’t likely to win the day with middle of the road voters, and they’re the ones who decide the government, when push comes to shove.
I agree with some of what you say Wayne. Jacinda and co. will be given credit if they are seen to be “fixing the things that concern New Zealanders without embarking on a revolution….“. I am in no doubt that will be the approach of this Labour-led government because – contrary to the attempt by National to paint them otherwise – they have always been reasonable and moderate in government but with a more socially responsible bent.
As for 1975. This isn’t the first time you have raised the spectre of the 72/75 Labour govt. as being “radical and hard left prompting the voters to swing back to National.” They swung to National because Muldoon dangled the biggest election bribe in NZ’s history in front of their middle-aged noses. I refer to the reduction of the age of Super entitlement to 60 years and increasing the amount to 80% of the average wage – a bribe we’re still paying dearly for today.
It is time you stopped peddling that myth. It does not become your elder statesman persona.
I agree with your last sentence – the comments do reveal the truth rather than the crafted image, bit like hootons slip ups, and is therefore valuable. It is too easy to think other people are as nice as us when they aren’t imo ☺
They swung back to National, when they introduced “hard left” type welfare policies, like lowering the super age. Funny that. Doesn’t exactly agree with Wayne’s take on things.
Again, this election, National tried to hide the poverty and unemployment figures. Each election National pretend to be more “left” than they are. Because National, and Crosby Textor, know what voters want.
A 3 News Reid Research poll showed that overall 54% of voters oppose the TPP.
Interestingly enough, Wayne, 23% of National supporters oppose it too.
Therefore, there is plenty of voter support for Labour to oppose the TPP.
moderate people do not engage in actions which result in child killing ….not even for trade deals, Wayne.
Racist dishonest warmongers like yourself can not actually be termed ‘moderate’.
If we were to Fix up John Keys and your National party tax segregation laws ……. then everyone who does not use creative accounting or tax havens would pay less tax.
Your a bent part of the problem Wayne ……………..
Reason,
I was not going to engage with you. However, I consider I must on the basis of defending New Zealand soldiers. No-one in the New Zealand Defence Force would ever deliberately undertake an action that they knew was likely to result in the death of civilians.
Recall in this instance the overall mission to Baghlan province was specifically approved by Sir Jerry Mateparae, the Chief of the Defence Force at the time. He is a man of integrity.
As has been explained numerous times, what happened was an accident, being the result of a faulty weapon in a US helicopter.
And New Zealand is not in Afghanistan because of trade deals. That is a slander on Helen Clark and her government, as much as it on National.
Both governments have been part of the overall Afghanistan mission because both thought it the right thing to do. It does, after all, have its origins in the Al Quaeda attack on the World Trade Centre. President Obama referred to Afghanistan as the right war, as opposed to Iraq, which was the wrong war. Helen Clark as PM agreed with that.
Wayne
(1) While it would certainly be a bonus, there is no absolute necessity for Labour to make further in-roads into National support in order to remain in Govt
(2) Winning Elections & maintaining your Party Vote are as much about holding on to your own voters as winning over new ones
An overwhelming 73% of Labour voters opposed TPP in one of the last Polls on the issue (3 News Reid Research) along with 87% of NZ First Supporters & 84% of Greens
(3) Even 23% of intending Nat voters were opposed – probably the more softly-aligned ones
A Colmar Brunton published around the same time suggested a similarly large-ish minority of Nat opposition at 26% (with another 37% Unsure)
And Labour teaming up with National will have them losing pretty much all their votes.
Translation: They expect a Labour led government that kowtows to National’s radical right-wing ideology.
She can’t do it that way but I don’t think she, and the rest of Labour/NZ1st, realise that yet.
Capitalism doesn’t work as history has proven time and time again thus we need to shift away from capitalism.
Ah yes, National’s first truly successful scare campaign of dancing cossacks followed by the biggest electoral bribe ever. A bribe that we’re still paying for.
That’s better than the sycophantic following of the RWNJs for whatever their leader of the time says.
@Sanctuary, totally agree about Robertson, I think hes a very weak link in the chain, but unfortunately holds a most powerful portfolio. He doesnt give me the impression that he has a clear understanding of Finance…..I am probABLY wrong.
Interesting that the WhiteHouse is desperately trying to deflect from the Manafort indictment by replaying the greatest hits from “but Hill-a-reeee”. That’s sooo 2016.
Hillary is a fading has-been that will never again do anything significant. t-Rump is where the action is now. He da man making da decisions that actually affect people.
https://thinkprogress.org/following-news-of-mueller-charges-white-house-desperately-tries-to-shift-focus-to-clinton-7b27d39e7060/
And I’m just gobsmacked at how many lunatic fringe commenters here are running the exact same diversion strategy.
Bad enough to push them/him to push the button and create the ultimate diversion?
While I doubt Tyrannosaurus Arse is aware of Shrub’s popularity boost after 9/11 or its relevance to his situation, no doubt “they” are. So it’s a definite worry.
I have only recently become aware of Paul Mannafort after watching ‘Get me Roger Stone’.
A doco on a political insider who started out in the Nixon years.
Amongst other things, Stone got trump to stand against Buchanan in a third party leadership challenge for the presidency. Thus discrediting the third party and ensuring a win for the republicans (Bush snr.)
Thoroughly recommend the doco.
Are you talking about Trump’s attempt to win the 2000 nomination against Buchanan for the Reform party?
That year it wasn’t George Hands’a Wanderin’ Bush that was the Repug, it was his sprog.
True Andre, I started on a sentence and wasn’t sure of the ending and bluffed.
My apologies.
Looks like the old it wasn’t me, ref, it must have been some other bloke won’t wash.
https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/925055378433478662
An election campaign adviser to Donald Trump has confessed to lying to the FBI about the timing of his meetings with alleged go-betweens for Russia.
George Papadopoulos admitted the meetings happened while he was working for the campaign, and not before, unsealed court documents reveal.
He said he had been told the Russians possessed “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41808227
Would it happen here? Would National find some dirt during an election and use it against a person or Party? Surely not? Bennett? Joyce?
Another good piece about the whataboutery getting sprayed around right now.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/donald-trumps-america/98388213/trump-runs-amok-with-clinton-whataboutism–and-that-tells-us-a-lot
And a special treat for anyone about to whine “whaddabout the other dodgy Dems?”. They’re copping it too.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mueller-probe-appears-to-hit-democratic-powerhouses-too
Oh boy….
President Trump’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen will be a deputy national finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, the RNC announced on Monday.
Cohen served as executive vice president special counsel to Trump at the Trump Organisation and sat on multiple boards of other Trump corporations.
The RNC said in the press release that Cohen has “been an active spokesperson and advisor for the President during his interest in seeking office since 2011.”
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-rnc-finance-executive-2017-4?r=US&IR=T
A company listed in the Monday indictment of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates received funds from the Republican National Committee for work done in coordination with Donald Trump’s election campaign.
Bade LLC, listed in the indictment among 17 domestic entities that Manafort and Gates are alleged to have used to hide foreign earnings, particularly from Ukraine, was paid a total of $70,000 in three payments by the Republican National Committee in September 2016, October 2016 and January 2017.
The payments, all for “political strategy services,” each list an address associated with Gates.
President Donald Trump dismissed the indictment in a Monday morning tweeting, saying the activities were “years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign.
But the first page of the grand jury indictment charges that “In order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities, from approximately 2006 through at least 2016, Manafort and Gates laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article181708151.html
It’ll be fun to watch Cohen get nailed, if it happens. But attorney-client privilege might be a solid firewall for stubbyfingers to hide behind.
The mention of laundered money and the RNC in the same article is rather delicious, though.
Or not.
Prosecutors convinced a federal judge to require a lawyer for Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates to testify before the grand jury investigating Russian involvement in the 2016 election, a court ruling unsealed on Monday showed.
The unusual move is an indication of the aggressiveness of special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecution team as they prepared to indict Manafort and Gates on charges of money laundering and failing to register as foreign agents. The 12-count indictment was made public on Monday.
Lawyers for Manafort and Gates fought the prosecution’s drive to intrude on attorney-client communications. But Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that an exception, which involves using a lawyer to commit crime or fraud, applied to contacts with an attorney who helped respond to inquiries about why the pair had not filed foreign-agent lobbying registrations with the Justice Department.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/30/mueller-manafort-gates-testimony-244339
Holy crap! Mueller does not piss around.
This is going to make a great movie!
titles?
All the President’s Mendacity
From Russia with Lobbyists
The Tower of Babble
The Pelicanovich Brief
Indepen-dunce Day
The Putarian Candidate
The sum of all smears
Goodby Gorky Lies
Just off the top of my head ☺
Leighton Smith says the Russian thing is a Democratic Party conspiracy to save face for their loss of the elections.
And all his callers agree with him.
Move on, nothing to see here.
Leighton Smith is an idiot, who has been spouting the pro-Trump line for some time on his morning radio show. I am really surprise that he is able to dominate his show with biased right-wing rhetoric. He needs to go back to Sydney taxi driving as a job, just to get that reality check back.
I’d think the desperation, if there is any, might have more to do with the realisation they’ve been had. It’s looking more and more like the ‘russia investigation’ was a complete sham, intended only to provide the means by which they could shake the tree until things started falling out.
The US is tearing itself apart, not sure that’s a good thing either.
So Papadopoulos pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia on behalf of the campaign is a big nothing? Ah-huh…
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/30/politics/george-papadopolous-trump-guilty/index.html
Sure it’s a big nothing… so far. He was stupid enough to lie under oath and now he’s paying for it.
What he lied about is significant.
Perhaps it’s significant in your fevered imagination, it means little to me. They never did get any dirt on Clinton so all the claims of collusion on that point are rather moot. If there’s a smoking gun it’s unlikely to be about dirt on Clinton, I’d think the best they could come up with there would be intent to collude.
These indictments could just be the beginning with more to come, who knows, but so far they haven’t been for colluding with Russia and that’s what the investigation began as.
Clinton…Clinton…
In my fevered imagination, the FBI is investigating the Trump campaign.
…and then there’s this (from the link at 3.6.1):
Collusion: secret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose.
…Clinton…Clinton…Clinton… 😆
I don’t see it as earth shattering. It would be similar to having an employee repeatedly emailing the boss asking that the company should work with the competition. Haven’t seen much sign of what the bosses thoughts on that were yet. One Washington Post article I’ve read says the bosses thought it was a pretty dumb idea.
See my comment below – Papadopolous has cut a plea deal in exchange for his cooperation. They don’t do plea bargains with people who have nothing to offer.
Dude pleaded guilty to lying about his involvement in the tRump campaign’s attempts to collude with a foreign government.
And he’s going to finger the rest of the crew.
Papadopoulos, who was arrested in late July, pled guilty to making false statements to the FBI. That plea was unsealed on Monday—as were court paper showing that Papadopoulos, the professor, and the so-called “niece” had been part of an effort to establish a back channel between Trump and the Kremlin, and to obtain thousands of Clinton emails before anyone knew those messages had been hacked.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/putins-niece-catfished-george-papadopoulos-offered-kremlin-meeting
Him being charged does kinda suggest he won’t be grassing anyone up. Maybe he cut a deal for lesser charges, I guess we’ll find out in due course.
I suspect any “grassing” will already have occurred.
Edit:
Stuff.
So much to look forward to.
We look forward to telling all of the details of George’s story at that time.
https://twitter.com/politiCOHEN_/status/925041547594395648
Yep the slippery slope for the mango Mussolini has just got slipperier. The dominos will fall – he might have to invent another pizza pedo scandal or watch out nth Korea, war is coming. False flag radar engaged – anything could happen and it could be right now!
Who can we believe now?
“Money talks truth walks.” We have this here with National Party lies and deceit so we will never fing the real truth what happend during “the dirty tricks campaigns of 2011 Phil Goff, or “The Panama Papers” and the latest issue of the 300 texts Bill English sent to Todd Barclay’s secretary either, so we have the same “swamp” that Washington has don’t we.
But now we have our ex Finance Minister Steven Joyce falsly claiming we are his “members or suppoorters” that is a bloody lis as we hate him, expecially now he is asking his ememies like us for money to fight against the labour “coatition experiment” Joyce calls them just take a look at this;
Ha ha Steven Joyce wants a donation!!!!!!!!
After he lied to our community he can take a hike he tried to destroy our rail the creep.
From: Steven Joyce [mailto:hq@national.org.nz]
Sent: Tuesday, 31 October 2017 2:03 PM
To: janet
Subject: Fighting fund
j———,
As we prepare to return to the new Parliament next week, National’s 56 MPs will make up the largest opposition in New Zealand’s history. We will be working hard to hold the new government to account, and ensure they don’t squander the progress that New Zealanders have worked so hard to achieve.
Donate to our Fighting Fund today.
Labour and its coalition partners are planning a huge number of policy changes, and there are very few details available. However it is clear that many of them would take New Zealand backwards from our strong economic position which is currently the envy of much of the western world.
They also haven’t been upfront on the costs for their coalition agreements – these are the bills that hardworking taxpayers, like you, will have to cover out of your collective back pockets.
In the last week the coalition has also announced a Regional Fuel Tax, a potential Sugar Tax, removing standards and accountability in our schools, and scrapping the tax threshold changes due from April 1 in our Family Incomes Package.
The new government is already bloated, with an executive of 31 Ministers and Undersecretaries.
Hard-working New Zealanders can’t afford this coalition Government.
We’ve heard from thousands of New Zealanders like you over the last few weeks, wanting to know how you can help.
So today we’re launching our Fighting Fund – chip in $15, $25, $50 or whatever you can and it’ll help us as we begin taking on this Labour-Greens-NZ First political experiment. We need you with us.
Donate
National is the only party with the policies to deliver a strong and stable economy that really works for New Zealanders. We are confident and optimistic about the future our country. Let’s not let Labour take us backwards.
Thanks,
Steven
________________________________________
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.
Hillary card – for when you have no actual argument:
https://i.imgur.com/XiTmEWF.jpg
Liddle’ hands Gallup daily approval rating suck to a new low of 33% percent over the weekend… SO SAD!
http://news.gallup.com/poll/201617/gallup-daily-trump-job-approval.aspx
But the the White house care givers turn the graph upside down when they show it to him so it’s all good.
Blinglish struggling on MORNING REPORT re chinese spies in the nest….
Struggling? He started smooth and self righteous then turned back into his duplicitous lying self.
Exactlycgaribaldi ,
He (English) sounded weak and was intentionally thinking up lies ) when I heard him speak; — the bloody liar.
I especially liked Bill English’s reasoning that Dr Jian Yang couldn’t be a spy, or involved in spying, because he was a NZ citizen, and also a “satisfactory” MP. (On RNZ morning report.)
Further, Bill English would not say why Jian Yang was removed from the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. It was a backdown from English firstly saying there are so many changes he could not remember, to ultimately that English was not 100% certain why he was swapped out so would not comment.
All this ignores why Jian Yang has not had his citzenship reviewed on the basis that he failed to disclose his employment at at the Spy School/Military University in his residency visa application.
In my view It is obvious that the TPP 11 trade deal OUR new coalition goverment is analyzing has details that make it to negative to our future to walk away from IT.
I still prefer to spend on advertising but we are a small nation whom has to go with the flow or we could damage our future’s earning . Many thanks to Europe for there trade deal. I no have changed my opinion on this but the Europeans could have many negative effects from climate change so they have backed mitigating against climate climate change for years they are leader’s in this industry and we can learn a lot from them. And we should always team up with our Australian cousins when we negotiate trade deal’s our two Society have a lot in common and the old saying many hands make light work Its logical
{ It’s Assume to see these People making these super power full people accountable for there action’s we are all human being’s and demanded to be treated humanly and equally} That newly born Kiwi was beautiful a new life born in Rotorua we have all our living animals future in our hands. And this is one reason why We need to invest in OUR bio security to protect there future our future and our future earning’s there are to many threats to our future to take this{ subject to lightly }.is not intelligent.
If I was a bystander analyzing my situation I would be asking a lot of questions like would I like to leave this state service to look after my Moko’s future I would not like to think that this type of service that I’m receiving could be dished out to my Moko.
Everyone can see that they are breaching all of my rights as a human being They are using the courts to stop me from defending my future and my moko’s future .
But this situation I find my self in is my fate and I will correct the wrongs that this state orgnization has dished out to me and my whano . This is why I wrote about the power that this state service has over US ALL and I think that there should be checks and balances forced on this state institution so no one is ever treated like I am being treated at the minute because not everyone is like me to have the ability to counter there propaganda and have moral the support of our nation And I will fight for equality for US ALL. I just thought I was just a ordinary half caste Maori man but analyzing my past and what’s happening now and I have come to the conclusion that I’m a leader and that all the people that have attached me and my family have underestimated me and have and will pay the consequences for there assumption. Sorry thats heavy but that had to be told . The Zane and Duncan drive home show gives me a sore face and Jen ads a good ladys touch to the morning Rumble I no whom has my back kia Kaha
Be the warrioor you need to be eco Maori/kiwi,
We need to rid our lives of lying right wingnuts andd neoliberal arseholes.
Hey eco Maori / kiwi
You said “I have come to the conclusion that I’m a leader and that all the people that have attached me and my family have underestimated me and have and will pay the consequences for there assumption”
How are you planning to make these people pay? Have you decided yet?
A.
Court
Thats good I was worried you were going to go postal (no offence)
I like the Break fast show a lot of laughs it’s just every time i see a opening for my defence they close it up WTF Ka pai
Today is the mid way point between the Equinox and the Solstice. In the northern hemisphere it’s Halloween (Samhain), and here in the south it is Beltane.
We’ve two massive spiders on the roof, a grim reaper by the letterbox and a witch cooking in a cauldron on the front lawn to lure in the ‘trick or treaters’.
If kids want to brave the garden path to ask for a treat, best they beware of our tricks that await. Looking forward to jumping out of the bushes and freaking out the older kids.
Imported American consumerism, which NZ could do without, and has no historical links to..
I’be been getting the news before it is the news!!
The interesting Louise Mensch has been publishing stories long before the NYT, WSJ , MSNBC et al have secured sufficient corroboration. Here is her list of who is going to be charged and just about the whole Whitehouse is on the list!
https://patribotics.blog/2017/10/29/exclusive-mueller-has-dozens-of-sealed-indictments-including-on-donald-trump/
The most left–field one the the GOP itself!
“The Republican Party as a body is under investigation for RICO for accepting Russian money. The GOP itself is being considered to be a corrupt organization under the RICO statutes. Sources were firm that the GOP, as it is presently known, may no longer exist after this investigation and a new party of the right may have to form. Sources did not say if charges or indictments had been returned against the party however.”
Too good to be true.
Oh Christ. Louise Mensch, huh? The left’s Alex Jones…
“Unhinged British witch” “a textbook succubus”- Russian Insider.
They are better jibes: from the profile of her Twitter page.
Her stories have foreshadowed the same corroborated stories in the big newspapers.
She is an ex-Tory MP. How is she left?
Her product mostly appeals to a nutty segment of the moonbat left in the same way that Jones’ product mostly appeals to a nutty segment of the wingnut right.
What has ‘good reporting’ got to do with being left or right?
I pointed to her writing as much of what she has been saying for the past while about the Russia scandal has been found to be correct.
I’ve no interest in defending her or the NYT WSJ et al. Read widely and form your own opinions.
…based on bogus information from a hoaxer who falsely claimed to work in law enforcement.
Beware the Jabberwock.
Lots of fun there thanks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11938743
Damn…always one of my favourite actors
Spaceys response not good. I agree with rosie he’s just reinforced the gay predator bulllshit and hate thought.
That’s true, he probably wasn’t intending it but that’s how its coming across.
Mind you something that went beneath the radar that affected me even more was this: http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/honest-trailers-creator-andy-signore-fired-for-egregious-and-intolerable-sexual-behavior-1202583996/
Screenjunkies is my most favourite thing to watch on youtube and it made me really…sad I guess for the victims because the victims were mostly, but not all, fans of the show
Corey Feldman must be making some people nervous too.
Yeah although with him its a bit more difficult. I mean I believe him but hes coming across as a bit…unhinged…which is probably a result of what happened to him and Corey Haim
Damnit, I go to the movies and watch movie news to escape from reality 🙁
These revelations from movie land will make you believe ☺
Well whats interesting, to me anyway, is the way Hollywood has torn into Trump and yet the casting couch isn’t exactly a secret, that Meryl Streep can give Roman Polanski a standing ovation, that Woody Allen still gets the a listers, that Casey and Ben Affleck get Oscars, Bill Cosby was at it for decades etc etc
Hell look up some of the Shirely Temple Baby Burlesks from the 30s http://time.com/12851/before-the-good-ship-lollipop-shirley-temple-did-baby-burlesks/ and its been going on a very long time
Like I’m not saying Hollywood shouldn’t say anything about Trump but maybe sort their own house in order first
Not really related imo. For instance do you think every police investigator doesn’t have skeletons in their closets?
Sadly holywood revelations are just a visible aspect of a sick widespread integral aspect of patriarchy – the abuse and subjugation of women – that shit has to stop NOW!
Well sure closets ok but Casey Affleck paid off women, Roman Polanski plead guilty, Woody Allen was accused so these are not hidden they’re out in the open and were known to a lot of people and yet the biggest stars want to work with them and they still win oscars
Even muggins here in NZ heard a lot of these stories so how could some of these A-listers plead ignorance is beyond me
But yes there is a power imbalance and when you have young, super-attractive people who really, really want something and these old men can give it to them somethings going to happen
But hopefully something good will come out of all this badness
I just hope nothing comes up about Keanu Reeves
I hope you’re not implicating the victims or saying it was their own fault because they knew there was a concept of casting couch because that would need to be addressed…
Nope I’m not saying that at all, what I’m saying is these stars (male and female) will have heard the same stories I’ve heard yet choose to appear in their films thereby legitimising them however they also condemn the behaviour of Trump, Weinstein etc
House of cards cancelled now – spacey will be really thinking about ‘all those rumours’ as he put it.
The point you are making puck is directly related to the massive power imbalance in these abuses – it can barely be understood unless you’ve gone through it and sadly in all endeavours where the imbalance is there, this shit happen. Business, politics, entertainment – all of them from big to small.
I thought that the two series were both good but also both different enough to stand on their own
Not quite, I’m talking about those actors that are already at the top of the tree. The ones that can turn down roles, the ones like Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep, Matt Damon etc etc
They heard what was happening but they turned a blind eye to what was happening to the young up and comers and even if they didn’t speak out they still accepted the roles
What is your actual point on that? I think it is too much to offer judgment on that personally – the power imbalance is one aspect amongst so many. You really are just speculating and moving into areas fraught with difficulties. A lot of shaming occurs for women that supposedly don’t act or react to abuse in the ways some men expect.
Edit – I see in rereading that your point is a bit more nuanced – I will let this go now because I just feel uncomfortable offering judgments around this.
Thanks for that
Well, the gay predator meme is not going away any time soon – clearly.
We have had an enormous amount of women talking about heterosexual male predators. One gay male predator, and people invoke that old stereotype.
Yup its not a good look
the biggest fear of a heterosexual male, that they may be treated by some ‘predatory’ male they way they treat women every day.
I am no longer sure what US political reality is right now, or even which one I favour.
My favourite show since the West Wing is cancelled because of alleged sexual misconduct by the person playing the President, or …
…. the actual-world President’s closest allies getting indicted by the FBI with a whole brown torrent more of them to come.
I’m going to have to start binge-watching Fox News interviews with the President to get my US political fix …
… or maybe Jacinda and Gayford will finally get married and have children and get divorced and then she remarries Winston Peters, or something.
Yeah its like Hollywood lied to me or something 🙁
I’ll have to go into a kind of odd binge-purge-binge cycle from fiction to reality and back again.
Strap yourself in tightly dearie and stay sober: the weirdness is about to get a whole lot weirder! Rainbows End Rollercoasters and wild mushrooms have nothing on what is about to happen.
Constitutional Roller Coaster #1
If Trump goes, Pence becomes president: if Pence is under investigation it goes to Ryan; if Ryan is under investigation it goes to Orrin Hatch; if Hatch is under investigation it goes to Rex Tillerson; if Tillerson is under investigation it goes to Mnunchin; if he is under investigation is goes to General James Mattis.
I think Mattis is the next president! Robert H. Scales, a retired United States Army major general, described him as “… one of the most urbane and polished men I have known.” Reinforcing this intellectual persona was the fact he carried a copy of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius throughout his deployments.=wiki
btw Ben Carson is no 13 and de Vos is no 15!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_line_of_succession
Constitutional Roller Coaster #2
The Prime minister in London is having a nervous breakdown. The EU are trying hard to keep her stable because the alternative is the bumbling idiot person Boris Johnson. Another General Election could deliver Jeremy Corbyn, another little england nationalist, to No 10. It will also probably deliver a united Ireland and and independent Scotland, both within the EU.
The entertainment never ceases…..
Just in case anyone thinks Pence being under investigation would keep him from the presidency, nope. His status as elected Vice-President is independent of the Chump’s shenanigans.
That means that at the moment Trump becomes an early ex-President, the only thing that will prevent Pence from becoming president is if he’s already resigned, or been impeached and convicted. As I understand it, he could have already been impeached by the House and be partway through his trial in the Senate, and he would still be sworn in as president. (although I’d imagine the Senate would seriously hurry-up the trial in that circumstance).
Ditto Ryan and Hatch.
Trump will deal himself through this and succeed.
He will offload his staff to the prosecutors like White Russians throwing relatives one at a time, off the back of the sleigh, to fast-encroaching wolves. Even his daughter isn’t safe.
Fox News keeps the sleigh speeding along.
Now that a few have been turned, blood’s in the water and will keep pouring.
He will hang in to the end of the term, bloodied but unbowed.
Mm. Hows the Turei prosecution coming along?
A.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Didn’t he go to London to avoid the police?
he?
dv is talking about Todd Barclay
A.
Not sure what that has to do with Turei but thanks for clearing that up
A fairly high bar must be set for WINZ to prosecute. Contributing factors are length of time not complying, severity of offending, acceptance/confession, amounts involved, repayments/ability to recover debt, subsequent life position, and the strength of WINZ’s case in the first place.
My guess is that Turei’s case did not meet the bar.
In Barclay’s case the complainant appears to have been bought off by the National Party in the form of John Key’s prime ministerial services account, and soothing late night texts from the twice failed Bill English.
Sorry mate, you just seem to be trying to rationalize a double standard to me
A.
I know which one cost the taxpayer more!
I don’t listen to newstalk zb from about 5 to 6 in the morning because that’s when Hosking comes on. Often in the hour before that the teeth have to be gritted.
Now they have the quinella.
“Kate Hawkesby to host Newstalk ZB’s Early Edition”
If her rant on the decision of Peters to go how he did is any indication, the one household can unload all it’s bile in one place in the same sort of time slot.
ZB doubling down on their right wing hosts. Mark Dye (along with Tim Roxborogh) was probably the only out and out leftie on ZB and he’s quit/been fired.
The line up is now fully RWNJ from 0500 to 1900 every single day.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11938800
So the Stepford Wife is joining the awful man who does the ZB Breakfast. Nepotism at work here. Thankfully for most people it is not a station they tune into. It probably will be more of the same garbage like her column she does in a womens’ rag. All the enlightening stuff about how to be a mother and a wife – as if all the other wonderful mothers and wives don’t already know about how to glue a household together. Does she think she is the expert in this for god’s sake. Being on the gravy train will enable her to get a really good nanny in to do all her housewifely chores and dropping kids off to school ec. Yawn yawn.
And to be really bitchy – she needs to get out of this 1970’s time warp and do something with her bloody hair.
I think his crazed serialised rant in the NZH in the week following NZ1’s decision to opt for Labour has cooked his goose in the eyes of many – or at least those that live outside the rarified climes of Remmers …
This is interesting:
“Andrew Little says the Government may waive health and safety laws for a manned re-entry to Pike River”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/98390520/andrew-little-govt-may-waive-health-and-safety-laws-for-pike-river-reentry
Given Health and Safety laws are there to ensure the protection of workers – I find this a strange and dangerous precedent
“He said an independent third party could be made responsible for the operations, but he was prepared to take responsibility himself. ”
All credit that he is willing to take responsibility. But given that nobody can guarantee it safe – I really hope that this does not end badly.
Yeah somehow a bunch of apathetic right wingers like yourself know so much more about mine safety and re-entry than the former UK principal mine inspector and former head NZ mines inspector Tony Forster who says it’s entirely possible and is happy to go in himself.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/98252389/pike-river-families-back-andrew-littles-appointment-to-lead-reentry
Even Andrew Little says there are risk.
“I’ve read two comprehensive reports so far both say yes there are risks, but yes this is possible…You’ve just got to manage those risks, so let’s find a way to do that.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/10/we-ve-waited-nearly-seven-years-for-this-pike-river-widow.html
Dont get me wrong – Kudos for him taking responsibility, and Im happy for the families if they get their loved ones home for a proper burial.
But again – I think changing the Health and Safety laws to enable it is a issue and a dangerous precedent.
One thing that I think we can all agree on – nobody wants anyone else to get hurt there.
Every undertaking such as re entering the mine has a risk involved. The question is not just about rationality but humanity.
As for the argument of risk per se I belief the workers have shown the ultimate willingness on that point to their employer and we should at least support all endeavors to retrieve the bodies so that the families can have closure.
Where’s your concern about every other place that safety cannot be “guaranteed”?
Little’s main objectives in that interview were: the families would be listened to and geniunely consulted with; and that risks can be mitigated.
If risks cannot be mitigated down to a reasonable level and the families still want them to go in, there might be a law change in this case. The thing is, I think the perception of many people (definitely my perception, anyway) is that “health and safety” is being used as a handy excuse to hide behind in order to excuse inactivity.
If that were removed as an excuse, and the families were genuinely consulted with, I think you’ll still find that they wouldn’t want people to die trying to recover their loved ones and evidence. They just want an honest appraisal of the situation.
“If risks cannot be mitigated down to a reasonable level and the families still want them to go in, there might be a law change in this case”
and thats what I have issue with.
So IF they cannot mitigate the risk – they will change the law to send people down there actively knowing that there is risk to them.
You would not accept that from John Key – esp if there was a further accident from the unmitigated risk they knew about.
I wouldn’t accept anything from Dr. Sir John Key that hadn’t first been through an extreme vetting and fact-checking process. That’s a consequence of his well-earned reputation for lying through his teeth.
Dunnokeyo was last years’ problem.
The issue around H&S is a red herring, so far. There might be genuine reasons not to go in, but the previous regime were pretty bloody quick to go ‘oh gosh, H&S ties our hands in this situation, how sad, problem over’.
I suspect that you will find that they change the law to allow sort of “good samaritan” efforts to rescue/recover evidence and people. I hope they make it a systemic change, not restricted to Pike River Mine. People should not be “sent” down if it’s unsafe – but if the reason is strong enough, they should be allowed to go, and not be held back by a paper-pusher worried about their own personal legal liability.
I just hope that when they go back in a full investigation is done. We need to know what happened to those people so we can act to correct it.
^ I would agree with that also.
There were so many violations of safe practice identified by the Royal Commission that I’ll guess if the cause is tracked down it’ll just be one of the problems already identified. Shit like methane sensors getting covered over, failure to use explosion-proof motors, workers smuggling in unsafe equipment etc.
I would hope that “we don’t exactly know what caused Pike River” hasn’t been a hold-up in sorting that shit out at other mines.
http://pikeriver.royalcommission.govt.nz/Volume-One—What-Happened-at-Pike-River—Part-Two
Going large.
https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/925144729548935169
Yep – gonna take the nuclear option for t.rump to get outta this – you can be on top until below you starts moving.
Hey, why can’t this work for National Party policies?
I’d love it if a law was set requiring that policies be supported by facts where such are available. That’d pretty much kill all National Party policies.
Breaking news. Foreign speculators to be banned from buying NZ residential housing from early 2018. Legislation to be introduced before Christmas.
Apart from Australians, I expect a number of businesses to now be set up to purchase on behalf of foreign buyers..all ‘legal’ of course.
Excellent. Now to stop offshore speculators using resident proxies to act as buyers for them.
Jacinda also said (if I heard it right) that instructions would be given to NZ negotiators that NZ will not agree to ISDS clauses in TPP.