@miravox "Politicians and policy advisors aren’t specialist technical staff." Sure, but this hypothetical national-level, central government could employ actual technical staff too, and provide that as a resource to the regions. Traditionally, that's what ...
@miravox Great idea. We could pay a tithe or tax to some sort of central national level organisation responsible for large-scale infrastructure. This organisation could employ specialists who could assist the regions; we could group the specialists into ...
Right. So, we are so militarily valuable to Australia there shouldn't really be any problem with us getting rid of our intelligence agencies. You seem to be saying that Australia would want/need to keep us in ANZUS, even if we got rid of the GCSB? ...
@Wayne "Australia has 12 Hercules, we have five." Sure, and, for example, Google tells me that the US Air Force has 428 Hercules (and I guess other US military branches might have some). So, it isn't like what we offer matters a great deal from a military ...
@Wayne "There would be ... no engagement with any of our usual partners on anti-terror issues, or indeed on most security issues." Even if we had no intelligence agencies, there could still be engagement on anti-terror / security issues. The engagement ...
@b waghorn "The most likely place i see a home grown terror attack coming from in nz is from a young maori who has grown up on a diet of being told we are victims..." The consequences of Maori land/culture loss etc. could be a potential source of terrorism...
Ad: "What can we do more of, that makes such attacks here so unlikely?" Terrorist attacks are most likely in countries that suffer from interference by Great/Global/Super powers. There is also a very small chance of terrorist attacks in countries that are ...
@Gosman: "the mainstream interpretation of Islam wants nations to adopt Sharia law..." It is a bit more nuanced than that. The mainstream idea is more that Islamic nations should have legal systems based on modern interpretations of Sharia law. Which is ...
Of course you can.
The difference is more that Cameron resigned and (presumably) has co-operated with the process to replace him (to the extent that he has anything to do with it). Whereas UK Labour's leadership contest against Corbyn is against a standing (and seemingly ...
The help Nui has given to the police would probably have been around facilitating mediation and arranging meetings and so forth. That is, stuff that other black power members would already know all about.
@Greg What's your point? That Farmers don't have jobs? Also, I'm not certain that Federated Farmers is a union in the legal Registered Union sense. Doesn't seem to be on the Register of Unions.
@Chris Unions are by definition for people who have a job. Which isn't to say that unions should be (or are) insensitive to the concerns of the unemployed, but the unemployed is hardly the unions' core purpose and never has been.
Exactly. It is totally insane to think that the KKK is a sensible interpretation of Christian belief; and yet the KKK thought it was. Likewise, ISIS is a totally insane interpretation of Islam. But it isn't the mainstream.
@Brutus Iscariot "But Islam, practiced correctly according to its founder, involves the death or conversion of every human being on the planet. No other ideology is anywhere near that." That's an extreme, minority interpretation. That's not what mainstream...
Steve, bigotry is universal. As is tolerance and kindness. ISIS et al are to Islam as the KKK is to Christianity.
@srylands "... If we can’t identify them, and what determines their negative trajectory" Poverty.
@Enough is Enough "Then it is clearly not a blind trust…" Exactly. It's impossible to design a system whereby the trust is truly blind to the minister. Hence, blind trusts are not the solution to preventing conflicts of interest.
@Enough is Enough "What I am arguing is a blind trust removes corruption from government." But because "blind" trusts are not really blind to the minister, it only provides an illusion of this.
@Enough is Enough "What time of long term investment are you suggesting that would not require constant monitoring." Non-speculative investments. Commercial/industrial property, forestry, non-speculative shareholdings, etc. It's not that they would require...
@Enough is Enough "You would have a fairly negligent trustee if he sat on the day 1 investments and did nothing with them to take into account fluctuations in the market." Depends on the nature of the investments doesn't it? Long term investments will ...
@McFlock Yes, the only "problem" with the "recuse yourself" method of dealing with conflicts of interest is if the minister does want to take advantage of the conflict. Which, of course, is exactly why Key et al never recuse themselves. They just "note" ...
On Monday, you have a trust. On Tuesday, you are going to become a minister, so late Monday afternoon you move your assets in the trust into a blind trust. On Wednesday, you still know what assets are in the blind trust.
@Enough is Enough "And your solution is what?" That ministers recuse themselves from decisions that would create a conflict of interest.
@Enough is Enough "Key’s blind trust is obviously not blind. That’s the point!!!!" And that's also the default case for any blind trust owned by a minister. Any minister with a blind trust will know exactly what assets they originally put into it. Hence "...
Yes, but your children are (presumably) not ministers of parliament. If your children were ministers they would need to declare that they had a beneficial interest in your family trust (and that declaration would be a public document).
Of course, reality is nothing like this. The reality is that the Minister knows exactly what is in the blind trust. It contains the assets he put into it when he set it up. The only purpose of a blind trust is to hide from the public what the minister owns...
Sure, it's hyperbole to claim that every single iota of government messaging is minutely focus grouped and surveyed. Sometimes, the delay is simply because Key/Joyce et al are struggling to dream up any suitable angle at all. And / or are hoping the issue ...
@BM "Quite a few of the herald articles are just repeats of articles posted elsewhere, I don’t see a problem." The problem, for the Herald, is that they (the Herald's editors) decide when they are syndicating content from elsewhere (and pay accordingly). ...
There must be some in ERO who really believed in their work...I imagine it would be a good case for blowing a whistle. Presumably this is exactly why Kirsty Johnson OIAed the documents in the first place.
If information is property of the "toothbrush kind", can the police then seize it as "the proceeds of crime"?
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