States of it – Turei and Shearer
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2:35 pm, January 27th, 2013 - 93 comments
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Metiria Turei and David Shearer have today given their State of the Planet and State of the Nation speeches respectively. There’s a lot of commonality, which is good. A critique of the government is solidifying and it’s centred on jobs, housing, and the environment. The Greens’ policy agenda looks heftier than Labour’s but both are heading the right way.
| E rere haere ana ōku mihi ki ngā tangata whenua o tēnēi rohe, ki Ngāti Whātua. He tino nui tō manaakitanga ki a mātou i tēnēi rā.Ki te maunga i tū mai nei, Maungawhau, tēna koe.E kī ana te korero, whāia te iti kahurangi, ki te tuohu koe me he maunga teitei Our challenge is to build a movement of like-minded New Zealanders who share our vision for a better future. And that work starts today. If we want to change the world we need to build the political machine to deliver it.He hari tō tātou ngākau ki te hui i roto i tēnēi rohe ataahua.I send my greetings to the people of this land, to Ngāti Whātua. You have shown great hospitality to us today.Greetings to the mountain that stands here, Maungawhau. It is said, pursue that which is precious, and do not be deterred by anything less than a lofty mountain. Our hearts are happy to meet in this beautiful region. So how great is it to be here under the beautiful Maungawhau? I’ve spent a lot of time, climbing up and down this maunga, coming here to Tahaki for parties and picnics and late night frolicking. This maunga has been welcome respite for generations of Māori and Pakeha alike. Yet, beneath this cool, green surface lies a heart of fire, a powerful force for change waiting to be unleashed. Today I want to issue a call to action to unleash the passion and the power of the new Aotearoa New Zealand, those who care for our children and their birthright. There is much to do because our children face real challenges in this 21st century world. Global Snapshot The world faces the toughest challenges we have seen in a long time. The effects of the global financial crisis still echo around the world Income inequality in OECD countries is at its highest level for the past 50 years. The planet is suffering massive bio-diversity loss. Eco-systems are under more pressure than ever. The hurt of climate change is biting. Extreme weather events, storms, cyclones, droughts and fires are getting worse. I want to acknowledge the people of Samoa, Fiji and Australia who have suffered for extreme weather over this summer. The people of the Pacific can realistically wonder if their islands will even exist in a few years; threatened by a problem they did not create. It’s terrifying. But the tide is beginning to turn on the destructive thinking that has led to climate change. Here in New Zealand the will of the people has turned it already. Successes of 2012 When you elected a record 14 Green MPs into Parliament in 2011, it was the growing Green movement making its voice heard loud and very clear. In 2012 our new and bigger team held the Government to account and delivered good green change. We are still working with Government where we can. The home insulation scheme, a truly transformative legacy from Jeanette Fitzsimons, has insulated about 200,000 homes and we are working to continue it. We have worked to clean up toxic sites throughout Aotearoa New Zealand and have secured $10 million dollars to clean up the old tui mine near Te Aroha. And we continue to work on Ngā Haerenga, the Aotearoa New Zealand Cycle Trail, 18 Great Rides that will take cyclists through some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most iconic and picturesque country. But you’ve also made it clear that the National Government’s business-as-usual, lazy thinking is facing extinction. You’ve made it clear you want us to tackle that old ostrich thinking head on and be a strong opposition to the Government’s destructive agenda. Under National over 40,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost. So we launched a manufacturing inquiry, with the Labour, New Zealand First and Mana parties. It will report on solutions for working people in Aotearoa this year. Finding ways to get New Zealanders, especially young New Zealanders, back into work is a critical priority for us this year and unlike the Government we are looking at new ideas to do something about it. We put child poverty on the political agenda while National blames everyone else but their own indifference for the 270,000 kids trapped in poverty. We have pressured the New Zealand Superannuation Fund into higher ethical standards. We had the Fund drop mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper&Gold after Amnesty International reported torture and killings in West Papua by the mining company’s security as thousands of mine workers were striking over their wage of less than NZ$2.50 an hour. We asked the Auditor-General to investigate National’s dirty deal with Sky City for a convention centre. It’s just plain wrong for John Key to get a convention centre paid for with the crime and misery driven by problem gambling. We held the Government to account over the privacy debacle at ACC, and forced the authorities to investigate the breaches. We have made Parliament more accessible for those with disabilities and continue to fight for a genuinely accessible Parliament for all citizens. The Greens belong to what’s been called the ‘new majority’ – the new consciousness of environmental issues, human rights, fairness and the need for good change. Green is good, and it’s getting bigger and better every day. The future Aotearoa New Zealand The future Aotearoa New Zealand will look and feel different to the New Zealand of today. It will be more ethnically diverse with growing Māori, Pacifica and Asian communities. It will be older, with more opportunities for older people and more innovative, better educated young New Zealanders than ever. Our ways of living are changing too. Women who marry do it later. We work more, parent older, and demand safe homes and relationships. We are becoming a more tolerant society. While a majority support marriage equality, young New Zealanders do so overwhelmingly. To them the notion that their gay friends and family should be denied their equal rights is unthinkable. The future Aotearoa New Zealand does not fear diversity – it embraces it. The future Aotearoa New Zealand values service to our communities and allows everyone to find decent work that pays a living wage. The future Aotearoa New Zealand doesn’t see one person’s human rights as a threat to another’s. The environmental challenges and the economic uncertainties that we all face generates a new appreciation of two ideals lost in the last three decades: • Solidarity – we are all in this together • Democracy – governing under shared values and through dialogue These are weft and weave of the fabric of a fair society. Together they have given us a great school system, fine tertiary institutions, hospitals and community health care, hydropower, roads and trains, communications: the platform for individual achievements, innovation and entrepreneurship. The political question is; who speaks to this future Aotearoa New Zealand? To this new, tolerant, diverse majority, to this recognition that we are in this together? What party speaks to the aspirations of the Aotearoa New Zealand of tomorrow? The Greens. The Green Party is an agent of hope for a new Aotearoa New Zealand. An Aotearoa New Zealand whose smart economy is built from our clean green brand and natural advantages. An Aotearoa New Zealand that is inclusive and progressive. An Aotearoa New Zealand where we are environmental champions at home and abroad. But being just an agent for hope is not enough. We need to back our hope and aspiration with action. The Greens have always been a thought leader, ahead of the curve on the critical issues of our time. And as a political force we have become better at turning our ideas into action. At Ratana this week, I announced our Home for Life plan to help families achieve the Kiwi dream of owning their own home, and being more secure in a rental home. We have offered to New Zealanders a progressive ownership scheme that will get young families on the ladder to home ownership through a deposit and mortgage free rent to own system – affordable and accessible to young families. We have offered better tenancy security and a warrant of fitness so that those who rent can stay in their homes longer, have greater certainty over rent increases, and know that the homes they pay good money to live in are warm and dry and won’t make their kids sick. We have made the dream of home ownership into a plan of action for whānau, for families. But no New Zealander will receive the benefits of this housing plan if we don’t build community support for it and if we don’t get elected. The challenge I set out today is to redouble our efforts, to make our movement the most effective on the ground political force in Aotearoa New Zealand. I’m in. Are you? I’m in – for the future Today I’m launching our plan to give all Kiwis who care about tomorrow the chance to shape political outcomes today. Called “I’m in – for the future”, the Green Party will offer anyone who wants to, the opportunity to be part of our campaigns to change Aotearoa New Zealand for the better. Our challenge is to build a movement of like-minded New Zealanders who share our vision for a better future. And that work starts today. If we want to change the world we need to build the political machine to deliver it. We will back ideas with action to make them a reality. Just go to www.greens.org.nz and signup. I’m in and I hope you will join me. Last year 3264 New Zealanders signed up to be Green Party Asset Keepers in the Keep Our Assets campaign. That is 3264 volunteers around the country working to stop asset sales. Of those, around two thirds were not our members. This new model of organising, of giving everyone a political voice and the opportunity to support our campaigns is working. I am proud to say that the Greens have collected over 185,000 Keep Our Assets signatures – more than half of the coalition total despite being the smallest of the coalition partners. “Im in – for the future” extends this opportunity across all of our campaigns. In 2013 we will back our ideals with our actions. I’m in. I hope you are too. In 2013 more people will have a chance to win on the things they care about and that are important to our country. Our first priority in 2013 is to stop asset sales. The Keep Our Assets petition is close to completion. We want to collect the remaining signatures by the end of February. I am asking every Green member and every New Zealander who supports public ownership of our profitable and strategically important power companies to sign up now for one final push to force an asset sales referendum. Throughout February we have collection events planned around the country. We need more volunteers and helpers. I’m in, and I need you to join me in getting those last signatures now. New Zealanders oppose asset sales. The Government is in a mad rush to get rid of two power companies this year. We can build an even stronger public campaign to force a referendum and we will deliver a stinging rebuke to this policy when we vote in a referendum. But we need your help. The signatures won’t magically appear on the petition, the leaflets won’t just arrive in letter boxes, the phone calls to coordinate volunteers won’t be made unless we are all in together. And once we stop the Government selling our assets we need to turn our energy to building new ones. In 2013 another priority will be our campaign to get the CBD rail link in Auckland built. Yes, we need a Mayor and a council elected in Auckland committed to building the rail link. But we have that already and the link isn’t getting built. We need to build pressure on the Government in Wellington to deliver the public transport Aucklanders want and need. In 2013 we will campaign for the survival of our public schools. Schools are the hubs of our communities, where the bodies and minds of future New Zealanders are nurtured and set on a path to realise their full potential. Make no mistake, our schools have never felt so unsupported, so threatened as they do under this Government and this Minister. If the Government keeps attacking schools and kids, they’ve got a fight on their hands. 2014 is election year. And the Government is going to fight the 2014 election with fear and money. They will scare monger about the Greens and they will throw every cent from their very deep pockets so they can stay in power to deliver more of the same failures. And we will fight their fear and money with people and passion. What we lack in dollars we will make up for with action. Conclusion Our coalition of supporters, dedicated to building a modern and progressive Aotearoa New Zealand will be unstoppable because we will be on the right side of history and represent the best of our country. The Green Party will offer New Zealanders policies full of opportunities to build a better Aotearoa New Zealand, to give everyone a decent start in life, a good job with a living wage and an abundant environment to be proud of. Together we are powerful and passionate. Together, we will build a caring country that honours our past, makes good green change in the present and has our gaze set firmly on the opportunities of the future. This is a rally cry for a new year, crisp with fresh promise. So, I’m in – are you? |
Tēnā koutou katoa.Greetings everyone and thank you for being here together on a Sunday. It’s great to see so many friendly faces.It’s wonderful to see so many of you prepared to give up some of your summer break to talk about the future of our country.There is nothing more important. And nothing more urgent. I can tell you that today I’m refreshed, I’m fired up, and I’m raring to go.This year will be a big year for Labour – a year where we not only hold the government to account, but also show there’s a better way.A way of hope, where there is a place for everyone and where we fight for a world class NZ that we can all be proud of.
Today I want to lay out the challenges before us, the need for change and our focus for the year. NEW ZEALANDERS WHO INSPIRE US ALL A book I was given for Christmas tells the stories of 50 inspiring New Zealanders – artists, scientists, musicians, business people, some well-known, some less so. Reading about their lives, they share the same passion and pride in their work and in their country. The ambition to be world class. As scientist Ray Avery says: ‘we have no respect for the status quo’. These people never say it’s too hard – we’re not big enough, we’re too isolated, we don’t have enough money. Instead they say, “To hell with it, I’m going to do it anyway”. New Zealanders have always achieved what wasn’t supposed to be possible. Sir Edmund Hillary’s idea of what was possible took him to the very top of the world. Kate Sheppard’s idea of what was possible made New Zealand the first country to give women the vote. Alan MacDiarmid’s idea of what was possible took him from Masterton to winning the Nobel Prize. We’ve always dreamed big and succeeded. I see that same attitude in families and schools, businesses and sports teams as I travel up and down the country. People overcoming adversity, dreaming of something better. When I see a single mum put herself through polytech to build a better future for her kids, I’m inspired. When I meet New Zealanders well into their retirement, who after a lifetime of service are the first to volunteer come Daffodil Day, I’m inspired. When a kid, who the stats say should fail, becomes the first member of their family to graduate from university, I’m inspired. It’s inspiring because Kiwis don’t lie down. From the most famous to the most humble, courage and determination is the common bond. They deserve a Government that backs their hopes and inspires them to succeed. A Government that says: you do your bit, we’ll do ours. That’s what a Labour Government will do. That’s what a government I lead will do. NATIONAL’S EXCUSES ARE HOLDING US BACK But this Government’s low expectations are holding us back. For 4 years we’ve been fed skilfully spun excuses for why we can’t get ahead. It’s the Global Financial Crisis, the Canterbury earthquakes, the global outlook that is the problem. We are told we have to accept second best. There is always an excuse for why we can’t get ahead. For why we can’t be a leader in this field or that. For example, the National government aspires to being a fast follower when it comes to climate change. Hold that thought. What is a fast follower exactly? Does it mean that if we follow too fast we become … what…an accidental leader? But a leader with no clue about where they’re going. That’s not good enough with an issue that is so important to our planet, and our country. We deserve better than that. I refuse to accept that for New Zealand. And so do the Kiwis I meet. FORGOTTEN NEW ZEALANDERS But this Government has forgotten the hard-working and inspiring people I come across every day. In a pub in Napier, a guy came up and said to me “I’m working harder than ever, I pay my taxes, we’re trying to bring up our kids the best we can, but we simply can’t seem to get ahead”. He went on to say: “I just feel nobody is standing up for me”. So many others I have met feel the same. They’re busy helping organise school galas, donating their time to charities, running the sausage sizzle to fundraise for local sports clubs. They are at the heart of our communities helping make our country the great one it is. I’ve run into that spirit amongst many small business owners. They’re the kind of people who pay themselves for 40 hours but work 80 just to keep the doors open. They’re not asking for an easy ride or a hand-out. But like thousands of others across this country, they’ve been taken for granted. They feel the Government has forgotten them. Kiwis across the country are working harder than ever. They’re doing their fair share. Playing their part. We all have that responsibility. But they feel let down. My promise to you as Prime Minister is that I will always stand up for the hardworking, forgotten New Zealanders. You’re doing your bit, it’s time you had a Government that did its bit too. NEW ERA – HANDS ON GOVERNMENT We desperately need real leadership now more than ever. The Global Financial Crisis has exposed the frailties of the old economic wisdom. The National Party believes the financial crisis is just a blip to get over. Their solution is to apply their failed ideas of the past over and over. They are wrong. The hands-off, simply leave it to the market approach has failed all over the world. We are on the cusp of a new era – when new thinking and leadership is needed to build wealth we can all share in. The world has changed. National hasn’t. It’s stuck in the past. We need a government that recognises times have changed. We need a Government that finds the courage to act, not better excuses for why we can’t. We need a government prepared to stand up for hardworking forgotten Kiwis. We need a smart, hands-on Government. A government that is prepared to be a player, not a spectator. That will be a Labour Government, and the Government I will lead. It’s about getting our priorities right, being thrifty about our economy. Bringing our debt under control. But being smart about how we tackle the massive challenges ahead. Above all, this country needs a government that chooses to act. Let me tell you what I mean. When a young couple is putting off having kids until they buy a house, and yet despite saving hard, prices always slip beyond their reach, it’s time to act. That’s why I’m committed to putting 100,000 families into new homes. It’s ambitious, but New Zealanders can see right through the Government’s hands off approach that leaves it to the market. They see through the tinkering with the RMA. They see through the latest excuse – to blame the local Council. It’s just not credible. It’s also why Labour will introduce a Capital Gains Tax to move investment into business and away from property speculation that is pushing house prices through the roof. When a student graduating from university faces 7.3% unemployment and little chance of getting a job, it’s time to act. They’ve done their bit, we need to do ours. It’s heart-breaking watching parents waving goodbye to their kids at our airports. People want to work – they just need the jobs. Two days ago, John Key had an epiphany: We have a youth unemployment problem – we need apprentices. Good on him. I thank the focus group that brought that to his attention. There are now 20 per cent fewer apprentices today than when he took office. We are now importing foreign labour to meet skills shortages in the biggest rebuild in our history in Christchurch. Is he just waking up to this now? Is this government asleep at the wheel, completely out of touch? You don’t need to answer that. The answer is obvious. I have been serious about youth unemployment from the day I was elected leader. Labour’s plans are out there. I’d be delighted if this government picked them up and ran with them. For example: We’ll pay employers the equivalent of the dole to take on apprentices. We’ll back Kiwi businesses to get their slice of the $30 billion dollars the Government contracts out every year – but we will require them to take on apprentices and trainees in return. We’ll give tax breaks to companies doing world-leading research and development, so the innovations – and the jobs – they create stay right here in New Zealand. Another thing. When I see talented people forced to leave their home town because there’s nothing on offer for them, it’s time to act. That’s why we’ll work with councils on projects that support their provinces. Projects like the Gisborne to Napier rail link to boost economic development and create jobs. When I hear of high value manufacturers shedding jobs because our high dollar cuts them off at the knees, it’s time to act. We’ll make changes to monetary policy so that our job-creating businesses aren’t undermined by our exchange rate. When a 5 year old girl falls asleep in class because she had no breakfast before she left home, it’s time to act. Labour will put food in schools, to make sure all our kids get the same chance to learn. When a mum and dad work long hours but still can’t afford healthy food for their kids, it’s time to act. We’ll lift the minimum wage and champion a living wage to make sure hard work can provide a decent living. This is what I mean when I say we need a smart Government prepared to act. A Government that says we will back you if you’re prepared to do your best. Yes, we face huge challenges, but by being hands on we can turn our biggest challenges into opportunities for the future. Since we announced KiwiBuild last year, excitement is growing. Architects, construction companies and designers around NZ have been in touch. They see an opportunity to build affordable, energy-efficient – even energy generating – houses. Houses that use home grown sustainable materials. Houses that families will be proud to call home. This is an idea the country is embracing. More than 70 per cent of Kiwis support our KiwiBuild programme to build 100,000 first homes. New Zealanders are also behind our other new ideas and those numbers are growing. Most people see the need for a Capital Gains Tax on investment properties. Nearly six in every ten New Zealanders support our idea to make KiwiSaver universal. And nearly two-thirds of you back our pledge to protect universal superannuation for future generations by gradually lifting the age of eligibility. The forces of conservatism said that reforming Super wasn’t the right thing to do. It wouldn’t be popular – so we shouldn’t do it. They were wrong. New Zealanders are forward thinking and are prepared to do what it takes to create a better future. National has a big idea of course – it’s to sell our best assets. And, with them, goes another chunk of our future. That is their plan. Most Kiwis hate it. And we are behind them fighting that idea all the way. HANDS ON – A GLOBAL TREND Labour isn’t alone in knowing the time has come for active government. A movement of leaders and people across the world have realised the old hands-off solutions take us nowhere. It’s a new way of thinking and it’s evolving. New Zealanders are looking to a government that will roll up its sleeves and back them. You do your part, and we the government will do ours. In 2014 that’s the Government I will lead. AGENDA FOR 2013 Kiwis won’t have to wait until the election to find out what I stand for and what I’ll do about the issues that matter to them. I’ve already put clear stakes in the ground on housing affordability, quality education, growing jobs and the economy. There’s more to come. For Labour, this year is about preparing for Government. We want New Zealanders to know that we’re ready to govern. That’s why today I’m setting out my agenda for the year. Number one is jobs. It is our most urgent priority and cuts across everything we do. Labour’s plan to build new affordable homes will create thousands of new jobs and apprenticeships. A job is more than a weekly wage, it’s gives people a purpose and pride in themselves. That’s why I’m focussed on jobs. Our housing proposals are at the cutting edge of urban design and energy efficiency. This year we will bring together the best ideas of architects, designers, urban planners and others to a housing conference. I want KiwiBuild ready to roll on Day 1 when we take office. First-home buyers shouldn’t have to wait. Jacinda Ardern, my Social Development spokesperson, will produce an alternative white paper this year, setting out our direction to help lift kids out of poverty. There are 270,000 children in hardship in this country, and the government is failing them. Kids deserve the best chance in life regardless of their parents’ wealth, and with Labour they will get that. Their best opportunity is from a world-class education system. We’ve already set out our plan to put food in schools and extend reading recovery so our kids aren’t destined to be drop outs from their first day at school. This year I’m asking my education team to look at ways to improve transitions from school to further training and high-skill jobs. 85,000 young New Zealanders are not in work, education or training. It’s a flaw in our system. I want to see our schools seamlessly connect to further training opportunities. I want every child to go through school with a purpose and plan of where they’ll end up. Because every young Kiwi deserves a shot at a career that excites and motivates them. Without this we’ll continue to see kids, without the right skills to get a job, falling through the cracks. And our employers will continue to struggle to find the skills they need. That’s not a future I want for my kids or yours. I’ve spoken of a clean, green, clever economy many times. We need our environment to drive our economic success and our economy to keep our environment clean. The reality is we will not create more better paying jobs by simply exporting more milk powder. We’ve been talking about it since Mike Moore invented lamb burgers. Our future prosperity will be carved out by backing the talent of businesses working in high tech, or the innovations of those adding value to our natural resources. It will be built by those that see the promise and opportunity of a clean, green future. Great ideas are emerging from organisations like Pure Advantage, and from thousands of innovative can-do Kiwis. A thriving manufacturing sector is at the heart of my vision. That’s why our manufacturing inquiry that starts tomorrow is an important first step. But the commitment is lacking from government. Well I am committed to this future. There is simply no other option. That is why I have asked my colleagues to develop a clear plan to diversify our economy. A plan we can put in front of New Zealanders, not airy fairy concepts. All of these areas – jobs, education, housing and building a new economy – are critical to rebuilding our second largest city. I am committed to rebuilding Christchurch from the grassroots up, not the Beehive down. That’s why I’ll be talking to Cantabrians about how they see their future. To ensure their voices are heard. That’s what we’ll work on in the coming months. These ideas will make a difference. These are ideas National simply can’t see. CONCLUSION The difference between the forces of conservatism and the need for change has never been wider. Come 2014, New Zealanders will face a choice more stark than any in a generation. A choice in the direction of their country. A choice between staying as we are and managing our decline, or being part of a hands-on Government that’s backing hardworking New Zealanders. A government that chooses action over excuses. A government that understands the world is entering a new era and we need to change with it. One that shares the determination and passion of those Kiwis who inspire us most. That’s the Labour Government I will lead. But I can’t do it alone. Today, I am asking for your help. I want you to be part of my team and play a part in the next government. I want to hear your hopes for this country and your ideas of how we get there. I want each of you to take the Labour message out to your neighbours, your co-workers, your congregation, and your friends. Tell them yes, we in the Labour Party are committed to making a real difference in people’s lives. We will not accept the status quo. A tide for change is building. Change that guarantees everyone gets ahead, not just those at the top. Change so we once again stand tall as a country. A country where we strive to be a leader – not a follower. A country where the Government is hands-on and backs its people. A country we can be proud of. Friends, join with me to build that future. Because, together, that’s what we will do in 2014. Thank you. |
It’s interesting to see the Greens looking to leverage the contacts they’ve gained through the asset sales CIR into a wider movement. Having collected over half the signatures, they’re well placed. If I were to nitpick, I find it strange that Shearer doesn’t even mention the referendum, which will be held this year. And the bit about being a climate change fast follower confuses me. The problem with National on climate is that they’re not even a fast follower, they’re a farce.
While both parties talk about jobs and the need for more government action on the issue, they haven’t really elucidated the bounds of the action that they’re talking about. It’s not that I expect them to give policy detail, but I would like more of a feel for how much they’re prepared to increase the government’s intervention in the economy to create jobs – will they have the government itself do the work that the private sector fails to do, or will they stick to trying to incentivise action from the private sector?
What about investment in upgrading the capital that the Crown already owns – schools, hospitals, state houses, public transport and rail, even roads – surely there’s a lot of work that can be done making that stuff more cost-effective, which will actually save the government money. Or are we just talking tax credits? Again, Shearer seems reticent to actually put any government money behind his words but the Greens, too, have yet to show whether they still think jobs is a ‘market knows best’ thing at the end of the day or whether full employment should be a goal and government investment should be used to achieve it.
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I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...2 days ago - Austerity thumps GDP most since 1991
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...2 days ago
- Weekly Roundup 20-December-2024
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...2 days ago - The Hoon around the year to December 20, 2024
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...2 days ago
- The baby-boomers’ last gasp
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...3 days ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #51 2024
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment: Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...3 days ago
- Join us at 5pm for 2024’s last Hoon
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...3 days ago - Christmas Gifts: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...3 days ago
- GDP Figures No Christmas Present for New Zealand
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...3 days ago
- Cheeseburgers and Stunt Monkeys
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...3 days ago - MSD rejecting 220 pleas for food grants each day
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...3 days ago
- The Wing Parties’ Economic Policies.
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...3 days ago - Back on Track
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...3 days ago - Book Review: How Big Things Get Done
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner Want to know how to do something big? Ask someone who has done it before! Professor Bent Flyvbjerg has spent his career studying megaprojects. In 2023, ...3 days ago
- Gordon Campbell On Why We Can’t Survive Two More Years Of This
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...4 days ago - Dragging our way towards the finish line, the end of this year can’t come soon enough for many…
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...4 days ago - Handling Democracy.
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...4 days ago
- Open letter to the Minister of Dwindling Finances
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...4 days ago - Open Government: The joke ends
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...4 days ago
- An unusual sort of press conference
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...4 days ago - This substack has talked about this government’s seeming corruption & pro-corporate issues...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...4 days ago - NZCTU: Minister needs to listen to the evidence on engineered stone ban
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...4 days ago
- Wednesday 18 December
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...4 days ago
- Can the government change its mind on the ferries?
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...4 days ago
- Notes from Afar: Will Luxon Attend Waitangi Day? And Opposition Calls Out Nicola Willis for “C...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...4 days ago - Member’s morning
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...4 days ago
- Going Backwards
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...4 days ago - Blaming Treasury & Labour, Willis looks for even more Austerity
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...4 days ago
- December-24 AT Board Meeting
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...4 days ago
- The Making of a Mental Health Rockstar
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...4 days ago - It could have been worse
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...5 days ago
- The Deep Divisions of Local Government
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...5 days ago - Willis’ austerity strategy just isn’t working
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...5 days ago
- Sabin 33 #7 – Are solar projects hurting farmers and rural communities?
On November 1, 2024 we announced the publication of 33 rebuttals based on the report "Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles" written by Matthew Eisenson, Jacob Elkin, Andy Fitch, Matthew Ard, Kaya Sittinger & Samuel Lavine and published by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia ...5 days ago
- Join us for a pop-up Hoon at 5pm on HYEFU
5 days ago - ‘Ideas Worth Saving’: A Call for Papers
Some years ago, I found myself pondering the power of literature to endure. Or at least the power of some of it to endure, while the rest vanishes in mere decades: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2019/08/07/look-on-my-works-ye-mighty-and-despair-the-literary-future/. I have similarly had fun with the subject in some of my short stories, such as Another Alexandria ...5 days ago - Corrections is torturing prisoners again
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...5 days ago
- HYEFU and BPS data shows New Zealand is way off track
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...5 days ago
- “Better economic management”
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...5 days ago
- Shameless, clueless
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...5 days ago - Minimum wage ‘increase’ is an effective cut
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...5 days ago
- Crazy ’bout a Sharp-dressed Man
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...5 days ago - How much should you worry about a collapse of the Atlantic conveyor belt?
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson In this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...5 days ago
- 8% ACT Party Creates One Ring To Rule Them All
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...5 days ago - When austerity worsens public debt & cuts GDP
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...5 days ago
- Govt to double number of toll roads
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...5 days ago
- Luxon’s pre-emptive strike
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...6 days ago
- Gordon Campbell On The Coalition’s Empty Gestures, And Abortion Refusal As The New Slavery
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...6 days ago
- More public service contempt of parliament
Back in 2023 the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties raised concerns about the inherent conflict of interest involved in public service agencies supporting parliamentary select committees. Our parliament is run on a shoestring, so depends on the public service for advice. But public service agencies work for Ministers, not ...6 days ago
- If There Is A God
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...6 days ago - A Lipstick Government
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...6 days ago - NZCTU open letter to Treasury on undue restrictions on restricted briefings
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...6 days ago
- Why you won’t hear me advocate for electric cars
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate. I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...6 days ago
- Coalition forced to back down on tolling Pahiatua track
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...6 days ago
- Thank You
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...7 days ago - 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #50
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...7 days ago
- Making Gravy
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...1 week ago - Nothing here but the shadows
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...1 week ago - The United Right: the FSU’s Continued Efforts to Undermine Academia
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...1 week ago
- Showing the Americans how to do it
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...1 week ago
- 2 Men, 1 Haircut
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...1 week ago - Chris Penk’s Hate Parade
What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...1 week ago - Tell me a story
All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...1 week ago - As Our Power Lessens: Accepted
2024 is now officially my best-ever year for short stories. My 1,850-word dark fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens, has been accepted for the upcoming solstice edition of Eternal Haunted Summer (https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/), thereby making that six published short stories for the calendar year. As always, see the Bibliography page for ...1 week ago
- National’s Greatest Misses 2023-4
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...2 days ago - Release: Minister’s plan for tertiary sector a backwards step
Returning to the model that was failing for most polytechnics and Institutes of Technology is not the answer. ...2 days ago
- Release: National buries 1019 planned homes
It’s been revealed that National has cancelled 60 percent of its housing projects planned before mid-2025 amidst housing woes. ...2 days ago
- Release: Rule-Czar bill a right-wing power grab
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...2 days ago
- Release: Why not both? Luxon shuns Waitangi celebrations
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is running away from problems of his own creation, with his decision not to go to Waitangi. ...3 days ago
- Govt’s ‘free speech’ legislation stokes fear, not freedom
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...3 days ago - Release: Nicola Willis spirals country deeper into recession
The economy shrank 1% this quarter and New Zealand has tumbled into the depths of a recession of Nicola Willis’ making. ...3 days ago
- Release: Hikes for company directors but not ordinary Kiwis
Working people are going backwards while company directors are being given huge pay hikes. ...4 days ago
- ECE no place to cut corners
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...4 days ago
- Release: Strengthening Justice Services for New Zealanders
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...4 days ago
- Release: Labour will continue fight against destructive projects
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...5 days ago
- Green Government will revoke dodgy fast-track projects
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...5 days ago
- Government for the wealthy keeps pushing austerity
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...5 days ago
- Release: Visa changes let migrant workers be paid less
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...5 days ago
- Release: Nightmare before Christmas for Nicola Willis
With more debt and a larger deficit, Nicola Willis’ reputation is in tatters after her failure to return the Government’s books to surplus. ...5 days ago
- Warning to Fast-Track Applicants – ‘Exploit the Whenua, Face the Consequences’
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...5 days ago
- Release: Govt cuts wages for lowest paid NZers… again
For the second year running, the government has effectively cut wages for the lowest paid workers in New Zealand. ...5 days ago
- Govt’s miserly 1.5% minimum wage will take workers backwards
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...5 days ago
- Release: Govt shirking responsibility for rate hikes
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...5 days ago
- Luxon’s ‘localism’ strikes again
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...6 days ago
- Release: Govt breaks promise on EV chargers
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...6 days ago
- Greens call for end to subsidies for Methanex
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...6 days ago
- Govt child poverty targets allow for increase in poverty
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...1 week ago
- Release: Four weeks annual leave under threat
The Government’s attack on workers continues with news it is scrapping work on the Holidays Act. ...1 week ago
- Govt’s emissions plan for measly 1% reduction
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...1 week ago
- Greens stand in solidarity with Whakaata Māori on sad day
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...1 week ago
- Sanctions regime to create more hardship for families
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...1 week ago
- Govt gifts renters housing anxiety for Christmas
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...1 week ago
- Release: National Party urged to support modern slavery legislation
Labour is urging the Prime Minister to walk the talk and support legislation combating modern slavery. ...1 week ago
- Release: Labour has lost confidence in the Speaker
The Speaker of the New Zealand Parliament made an unprecedented decision on the government amendment to the Fast Track Approvals Bill last night. ...1 week ago
- One year on, still no progress on new ferries
Today’s announcement from the Government on its plan for new ferries throws more uncertainty on the future of the country’s rail network. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Nicola Willis’ smaller ferries will cost more
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...2 weeks ago
- Bill to sanction unlawful occupation of Palestine
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour fully supports greyhound racing ban
The Government has done the right thing in moving to ban greyhound racing. ...2 weeks ago
- Greyhound racing industry ban marks new era for animal welfare
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...2 weeks ago
- Rangatahi voices must be centred in Government’s Relationship and Sexuality Education refresh
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt introduces archaic anti-worker legislation
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...2 weeks ago
- Winston Peters – Kinleith Mill Speech
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...2 weeks ago - Swarbrick calls on Auckland Mayor to end delay of revival of St James Theatre
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...2 weeks ago
- He Ara Anamata: Greens launch Emissions Reduction Plan
Today, the Green Party of Aotearoa proudly unveils its new Emissions Reduction Plan–He Ara Anamata–a blueprint reimagining our collective future. ...2 weeks ago
- Internationally-trained doctors jump at chance to boost health workforce
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...8 hours ago - PM appoints business leader to APEC Business Advisory Council
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...2 days ago
- New intelligence oversight appointments
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...2 days ago
- New housing developments able to progress more quickly
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...2 days ago
- Actions to speed up air travel delivering results
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...2 days ago
- Ending contracted emergency housing in Rotorua
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...2 days ago
- Vocational education and training decisions support return to regions
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Not a very substantive comment, but is anyone else sick of that stock photo of Shearer against the Green background? Something about it rings very hollow. Then again, I suppose its not like he can really claim to be a red.
As speeches go and as articulating vision goes and as offering promise and being inclusive goes, Metiria’s speech is absolutely streets ahead. And whereas she speaks to me and invites me to agree with her, David’s speaking at me and assigning attitudes and ways of thinking to me. And well, I don’t like feeling condescended to or patronised or any blanket assumptions being made about how I ought to think or perceive things.
And…I would have really liked to have seen an up front and unequivocal acknowledgement of Green Party initiatives and some indication that the Labour Party was going to stop trying to assign itself the role of ‘appropriate adult’ in the Green/Labour political relationship.
But hey.
Sorry to be a pain EDDIE. But I couldn’t help noticing that in your summing up of both party’s policies you never mentioned Climate Change.
(I hope you don’t mind me pointing this out. I previously copped a lot of swearing, verbal abuse and threats of deletion of my comments for doing so for pointing out a similiar omission by QoT.
(But I think it is important that the Left engage in this issue relentlessly. In the coming years and decades it will be the one issue that all political parties or commenters will be judged on.)
What comparison do you make of the respective two leaders remarks on this issue?
Metiria talks about it extensively. Indeed, it’s the first thing she really talks about because it’s the biggest problem in the world.
As I mentioned, Shearer made a passing comment that I didn’t really understand
I have gone to the trouble of extracting their comments possibly relating to the climate, to compare them. (Unfortunately I don’t know how to set them side by side like you have done with the full transcripts.)
When set out like this, EDDY can you tell if your above statement is still correct.
For added interest I have omitted to identify who said what. Without referring back;
1/ Who is the speaker?
2/ Who in your opinion talked more “extensively“?
3/ Who in your opinion made “a passing comment“?
Put your pens down, and bring your paper with your answers to the front of the class.
Jenny – You will well know that NZ, no matter what past government, has largely only paid lip service to climate change, environmental and alternative energy issues.
I would recommend every Kiwi, to make a trip to Central Europe, to Germany, Holland, Denmark and other places, and see with their own eyes, what highly industrialised and developed countries there are doing in that regards.
Sadly few are able to, few know what goes on (even in other countries, incl. the UK, yes even Mainland China now), so we have this endless continuation of the buy and turf mentality, use and abuse mentality, of driving cars everywhere, so actually NZ is one of the highest per capita carbon emitters in the whole world. Education may help, information may help, but sadly governments and the people in general, they do not seem to be much aware, concerned and do not give a damn about the future.
It is always someone else’s fault, and it would not make a difference, if little NZ may do more, is the common excuse. Others flatly deny it, along the thinking of the flat earth society minded.
NZ though could be a stunning success, also for developing, and exporting, environmentally friendly technology and services. It would be seen in the world as a great example for the better change, for enlightenment and progress. Sadly, too few here in NZ are aware, interested and care.
So no wonder Shearer only makes some comments in passing. Metiria is more sincere and committed, as that is what a Green Party member bloody should be. I only wish they push more for the economic and business feasibility of projects, and then it will take off something huge. Ideas are good, but without realising them, to put them into practice, there is a risk of losing credibility.
I though give Shearer little credit, he does NOT convince me. Someone else wrote his speech for him anyway. He is just like one of the old men on the balcony of the Muppets Show.
Apart from relatively oblique comments from the Greens leader about home insulation and cleaning up toxic waste sites, it was stark that New Zealand’s environmental political party barely mentioned New Zealand’s environment at all.
The best environmental example Helen Clark made to environmental awareness, quite oddly, was Nordic skiing. She showed she was ready to push into the environment herself – notably hunkered in a snow cave for a few days. That did more for her environmental positioning than bunches of speeches.
Mere allusion from either Greens or Labour to “clean” or “green” in any variant seem to miss how we are viewed by the world. Our entire economy now depends on that. I’m not asking for more holiday snaps of course, I’m merely expecting the Greens to show why their environmental policies are important to New Zealand. Otherwise, as Metiria does in this speech, the Greens are merely positioned like Anderton and New Labour did; simply Labour with stronger policies and a higher moisture content.
Labour’s Shearer went for populist allusions to more mythical hard done by workers; good. The Greens need to speak as the Lorax said, for the trees.
“I couldn’t help noticing”
Please try harder. For all our sakes. Reducing every discussion to the same topic is not helpful.
I couldn’t help noticing… that you can’t say the name of the topic we are not discussing.
We are in a war. Don’t forget that.
We have always been at war with Eurasia.
We are at war with the climate and if we don’t do something soon it will start killing us.
I thought the anonymized quotes made the point well enough, Jenny.
Sorry to be a pain, Jenny, but you “copped” a warning for derailing my post and telling me what I should write about. That’s probably why you didn’t provide a link, because once again your allegations don’t stand up to the evidence.
I am far to civil to air your foul mouthed abuse and uncalled for threats. And if I may say without having to endure another threatening and foul mouthed response. In my genteel and humble opinion, such behaviour exposes the weakness of your position.
In my opinion, attacking a woman’s use of unladylike language is a bullshit patriarchal derail, and trying to make yourself out as superior because you’re “genteel” is wonderfully classist, which puts your continuing crusade to demand that everyone pay attention to your favourite issue and ONLY your favourite issue into a fucking interesting context.
We shall have cucumber sandwiches at the next Country Womens Institute bash.
As long as they’re properly prepared. Can you believe that at the last Institute meeting the cucumbers had not even been seeded? The audacity quite affronted one.
So hard to get good help nowadays.
Shearer has made clear that merely exporting milk powder is not enough. But if National are prepared to become shareholders in irrigation companies, will Labour propose to be a shareholder in milk processing companies? Each step deeper into the commercial world gets more fraught and hotter as taxpayer funds compete more directly against private investors. This is the right fight to have; what is the nature of agency and intervention into promoting higher value from New Zealand products. I sincerely hope Shearer has the team to to it – this challenge was largely absent in the Greens address.
Shearer has laid a major challenge at the feet of Jacinda Ardern there with Social Welfare. The policy generation beyond Working for Families is one which needs to aggregate into the public mind all social welfare – including retirement welfare – as the full sum of what a collective progressive government can afford from what we all collectively provide. This does not divide us into “makers”and “takers”, but summarises precisely the ambit and affordability of a new and much smaller state than even the one Clark left.
In that sense, he was fully right to direct attention beyond state agency to local heroes who have inspired and changed this country for good. Transformation will take far more than the state itself can foreseeably ever do.
If housing construction itself is Shearer’s one great roll of the dice for the first term, however, he consigns our urban economies into yet another sugar-rush, culminating in yet another economic binge-purge cycle. Whether Labour’s tax modelling shows a government can simultaneously temper real estate capitalism and redirect the productive economy remains, of course, to be seen. Big horses need strong reins.
For me the main virtue of the Greens speech was to call out the NGOs who have been inspired by the Referendum petition. There is more to politics in this country than the Beehive and parliament. Progressive movements need to aggregate in order to sustain positive change beyond one (maybe two) heroic interventionist term. Auckland’s government is now the second government of New Zealand, even though Christchurch is getting full and deserved attention. Auckland’s social welfare, transport, and housing needs will shortly be 40% of New Zealand’s needs, by population.
I would have liked either of them to say properly whether they could work together; every poll says they are going to need each other. A little generosity is not hard.
I also wanted something deeper out of them: why are they in this fight as people, what drives them on, how are they inspired, what is their grounding. Thank God neither of them went for cheap jokes. Neither reached like Obama, but they were a country mile from the facile Mr Key.
Shearer has made it more than clear that he is going to attack primary industry. This will kill off Labour. How the fuck can you get votes by attacking the basis of what made New Zealand great, Talk about a clusterfuck. Historically I was a Labour voter and the puppets that follow Helen Clark just would make me want to cry if I wasn’t the type to have a strong whisky instead.
http://nowoccupy.blogspot.com/2013/01/shearer-wages-war-on-primary-industry.html
So you think that farmers should be given free reign to poison our water ways then. Fucking bitch.
IF I SEE YOU TRY AND POLLUTE OUR WATER WAYS I WILL MAKE SURE YOU ARE PUNISHED. I WILL MAKE YOU DRINK THE WATER
No
What, you wont drink it, or you dont think our farmers should pollute our water ways.
I don’t think farmers should pollute our waterways and I’ll drink anything made with grey goose vodka, a maraschino cherry and a small colorful umbrella.
Mix the cow manure and piss with your vodka then, must be a real good kicking cocktail that!?
How does investing in more modern industries mean “attacking” older ones?
There are four industrial sectors. Historically the primary sector was – and remains – important to this country. We also have a large tertiary sector providing services. But there’s scope for growth in the secondary sector, processing primary products and in the quaternary sector creating valuable intellectual property and doing the R&D to create a better return in the other sectors.
Sticking to our knitting in the primary sector is not going to serve us well in the long run, especially when volatile commodities prices and the high dollar means that the prosperity generated in the primary sector is unpredictable. Diversification of our economy into a 21st century entity, rather than a 19th century one, offsets those risks and it also makes use of the surplus of human capital we have at our disposal.
Yes there was that strange comment a while ago by Nash about whether farmers pay their dues in taxes. Shearer should be razor-focussed that the primary industries are where we are economically set (supported together with some creative and niche manufacturing) for the foreseeable future. Can’t see any from the full set of blue regional seats won back yet.
This is an idiot comment, excuse me. Shearer only made clear that a focus on primary industry, which happens to now largely be dairy production, cannot be enough to move NZ into better economic circumstances. That is a fair statement by Shearer, and while I do not think much of him, I must defend him on that.
We are experiencing an intesification of agriculture, that is resulting in levels of pollution, due to intensive fertiliser use, pesticide and herbicide use, increased affluents from more intense use of cattle farms, and so forth. There are natural limits to what the environment can handle. I come from a farming background myself, and I witnessed the radical changes due to intensification of industrialised farming in Europe. Wildlife largely disappeared, insects and flowers and so forth disappeared, that used to be around for centuries, and the increased monoculture destroyed heaps.
Only over the last 10 to 20 years have governments in Europe slowly started to realise the immense damage to nature there, so they are now all pro environmental measures, which shows positive results.
It utterly dismays me, that NZ wants to go down a way, that has done so much environmental damage overseas, and intensify, so that we have more cows, cattle, more dairy production, to earn dollars for farmers and exporters, but that ruins the land, rivers and lakes. It is insane and bloody stupid. I also think you live overseas, in California, and the Central Valley agriculture there has also led to immense environmental damages.
It seems you are all for high incomes, exports, no matter what, and that is while only a selected few will benefit anyway. You better get a reality check and have a look at intensive farming, horticulture and fisheries to learn what is really going on, before you slag off with cheap comments here, dear Monique.
Further to my comment, what NZ must do is to develop quality products from primary farming products. You can do much more with milk solids and ingredients, than to turn it into milk powder and baby formula. I suggest NZ dairy industry do a study tour around various contries in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere, to see what else can be produced.
Although there has over years been a good improvement in dairy production, diversification and better quality, I think much more needs and can be done, to produce highest quality end products here, which could and should develop quality brands and could earn top dollars overseas.
What about Emmental Cheese, other cheeses common in Europe, about curd, custards of different kinds, cheeses of many facets and types, better, more diverse yoghurt ranges, milk that also includes “butter milk”, and so forth. There are dairy products in Easter Europe and Russia that are not even known here. There are markets that can be gained access to, but without the product and quality, they will not even look at NZ.
OK we got further from the 3 types of cheddar and the blocks of fake Edam here, but most is produced at inferior levels, highly expensive and is not meeting the international demand. So wake up, dairy sector, get cracking, talk to overseas specialists, hire them and produce stuff that is sellable and earns us.
Asia is growing, and I am sure they want more than baby formula.
With quality rather than quantity, NZ would become a Switzerland of dairy production, rather than a US type mass production of low and basic level products. That is what I can see and expect. But does anybody in government or for that sake the opposition have such vision???
A++++ So glad that someone is saying what needs to be said. Unfortunately, with the parochial attitude that is the same as 100 years ago, we have to wait for the next generation to get things rolling. “good things take time”
CT: I also wanted something deeper out of them: why are they in this fight as people, what drives them on, how are they inspired, what is their grounding.
We’ve already heard that sort of thing on more than one occasion from Turei – her working class background, her father etc. The latest mention was at Ratana this week:
I’ve yet to hear anything from Shearer that indicates what drives him, or what his core values are.
The more I hear from the Greens, the more I like them. I’m trying hard to like Labour but the message still isn’t quite resonating with me although I do agree with a lot of what they’re proposing. I guess I feel as though I need Labour to show a little more mongrel and bear its teeth more often than not to send a message to Key and his cronies that being smug is as good as poking the angry mutt with a stick and that it probably aint such a good idea. I don’t know if I articulated that point very well but I guess I expect to see a little more menace in Labour and a greater sense of determination to tear the mask from Key’s true face and expose the wolf behind the sheep’s clothing once and for all. Compared to Key’s speech the Greens speech was leagues ahead as was Labour’s but the Greens had this one hands down – easily.
And why would you not instead expect this mythical “mongrel” from the Greens, who as a permanent minority party have the width to be more radical? Or have the wild Greens wilted?
They are both good speeches and I think the parties will complement each other. I’m not awfully keen on the hints at austerity from Shearer, but Labour is going to have to find a way to counter the meme that they are spendthrifts that Key will inevitably use as a cudgel.
I don’t think they are spendthrifts, I just think they hate the idea of a successful New Zealand. Daft wankers
No Monique. They want to tax rich bitches like you so people who aren’t rich bitches like you can have schools, housing and hospitals so fuck off back to the filthy stinking dirty shithole you came from. Why do you want the poor on the streets????!!!!!!
You daft cunt. The filthy stinking shithole I came from was abject poverty where my Mum fed four children out of a food bank. Ever eaten from a foodbank, fuckwad?
Thats the thing about people like you. You rise from poverty and then when you get to the top, you do your best to kick the poor people. You support cutting the DPB, and americanising our health care, dismantling labour protections, holding wages down, getting rid of state housing (so you can have bigger returns for your ‘portfolio’).
People like you should have empathy for those at the botton, and have no objection for paying taxes for things like state housing hospitals, working for families, etc, but oh no, you want to get rid of it all lock stock and barrell.
Plus you hate rail.
You are just like Key and Bennett.
List of hospitals you want to close please. Right here, right now.
No I don’t kick poor people. I don’t support cutting the DPB. I don’t support dismantling labour protections. You can’t hold wages down in a free market with worker protections and I don’t know fuck all about state housing. Anything else?
Your blog suggests otherwise.
Anyway, im done with arguing with you. Im too hot. Been slogging my guts out all afternoon building a fishpond in my back yard in the 30 degree heat.
Um Monique I am really confused. Are you a communist?
No, she is a professional opportunist, who chooses what benefits her, when it is convenient. So when Labour may have given her the “perks” she wanted and needed, she was happy with that. When she was not qualifying, the turned nasty on them.
That is what you call an opportunistic, self serving “swing voter”.
She left NZ for that reason, to have a better life and make more money, and she resents the thought of being associated with a country and goverment, that may ask her to contribute.
Sometimes those from tough, poor background turn right against others in similar circumstances, as they judge them, seeing themselves as “strugglers” and survivors, having no mercy for the ones less resilient and capable.
To judge on it is difficult, as much subjectivity and also a difficulty to understand all details of individuals may fog capability to judge fairly.
Rest my case on this.
You feel really angry and inferior about your background, aye? I have cousins like that, I know where you come from. To rubbish the ones that are there where you come from is not a good look though. Grow up, dear lady, that is my advice. Those that cannot accept where they come from, they carry a huge chip on their shoulders all their lives.
Best of luck though, while you may enter a learning curve.
relax mate, Monique’s just taking the piss. I hope.
Shes not. Ice queen she is. A poor woman’s Judith Collins (who is herself a poor woman’s Margaret Thatcher).
“(who is herself a poor woman’s Margaret Thatcher).”
Who is herself a poor woman’s woman.
http://www.isthatcherdeadyet.co.uk/
“Vulgar” – The Conservative Party
😆
e-petition
Take no mind of Millsy – completely inappropriate language and tone.
It is all bullshit and it is all fucked up
And we got the theme song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdn3O6aaMNc
From Monique Watsons blog
……….””I’ve spoken of a clean, green, clever economy many times.
We need our environment to drive our economic success and our economy to keep our environment clean.”
That is a rubbish statement first off. China has not needed their environmental record to drive their economic success. “………….
Monique Watson fully endorses the lowering of environmental standards. This will include:
1) The discharge of toxic waste into our rivers
2) The discharge of toxic fumes into our air, causing smoking thick smog and respitory illnesses
3) The destruction of our national parks for mining
[deleted]
Fucking [deleted] why does she want to rob the earth from our children, perhaps she should dump toxic waste in her back yard
She also wants to get rid of state housing and public healthcare
MEAN HORRIBLE NASTY PERSON
Monique, I think you should take a swim in some Chinese rivers, feed your children a meal cooked with produce grown next to a Chinese industrial park, and go for a run in Beijing on a smoggy day.
In summary, Chinese and international corporations have made money through destroying the environmental commons of that country. Not a good example for NZ to follow.
“Economic success is not driven by an environmental record.” I stand by that statement. This is not the same as saying I believe in polluting rivers. In fact I think Fed Farmers should be ashamed of it’s track record I am merely pointing out the inconsistencies in Shearers speech. Fuck you’re a touchy bunch.
How many children do you have Millsey?
How many children do you have Millsey?
Having children, especially under 10, just makes you out to be another fool who leaps before looking.
Nah I’m a caring person. I volunteer 20 hours a week of my time to non profit initiatives and sponsor five children through world vision. Doe that blow your mind sweetheart?
You should volunteer more time
You clearly have too much on your hands still
Touche’
Real angry women are a turn on to some. Monique you may appeal to some, keep it up, let off your steam. I disagree with a lot you comment, and I do not think that most here are too touchy, so do not turn against TS, there are many of us here, and even if we firmly disagree with you, it is always good to hear another view or side of the story. We surely can “handle” you.
Have a nice bath in your spa tonight, and we will hear from you again. That means also, we will tell you what we think!
[deleted]
Steady on millsy. If I spewed ad hominem invective at every Randroid I encountered on the forums I visit, I’d give myself a heart attack. I’m sure every reader of the comments here is dismissing her but threats of violence – even in jest – reflect badly on the rest of us.
Calmed down now. I think I’m going to exiled for a bit for that particular outburst.
[B: – Glad to hear it. Was just in the process of moderating you then. Caps? nah. Bold caps? Definately no. And the level of abuse… You might notice that your comments have been reformatted and subjected to some deletions. That took time. yYu’ve pissed me off no end and I’m suggesting you pull your head a long, long way in.
Lunatic: (historic definition) a person who is emotionally affected by the full moon.
The moon was full at 5:39 pm today.
Maybe that explains this series emotional diatribes and personal attacks. For me, they contributed nothing to intelligent discussion.
A note for the moderators. Our next full moon will be at 9:27 a.m. on Tuesday, 26 February. Hopefully people will be at work so we won’t have this scene again.
Bosses beware 🙂
Drivel, drivel, drivel.
“We are going to protect the environment by chopping down trees, building houses and stimulating manufacturing.”
Plus a bit of ‘better, brighter future’ borrowed from National.
They must think we are as stupid as they are.
They must think we are as stupid as they are.
No they know we are as stupid as they are ….. well at least the ones that vote and hope.
The above did get a little ‘intense’ didn’t it, my view of the speeches to day from Labour and the Green Party,
Here i will stick my neck out and give Dave Shearer a ++ now your talking from within a framework that us lot on the left can appreciate,
National are weak on both jobs and housing and your speeches as Leader should center around exposing these weaknesses both of which are at the heart of economy and society,
I used to play rugby league years ago and my team mates reckoned that i never quite switched on and played to my full potential until the opposition put a low or high shot on me, perhaps Dave Shearer like Phill Goff befor Him performs at His best when He is provoked to anger,
I do tho think that Dave should lay off of the Dairy industry until He has got that message into a full narrative that the average middle class voter can understand, having said that the message is correct but needs a bit more polish,
The Green Party speech, good to see the Green Leaders having a day in the sun, well earned and when the OneNews at 6.00 starts airing praise for the Green Party i need say no more except that it looks like a good Green year,
In conclusion, pluses all round for both Party’s and a good weekend for the left…
Shearer says, ‘A Government that says: you do your bit, we’ll do ours. That’s what a Labour Government will do. That’s what a government I lead will do.’
I am so, so inspired.
John Kirwan reckons that a good swim as part of an exercise regime is good for depression…
Yeah, I forgot to mention: It reminds me of the “sickness benefit roof painter story” all along once again.
Now Paula Bennett chose a similar tone when justifying her welfare reforms, read:
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/speech-medical-professionals
So where does Shearer stand on Bennett and her comments?
He NEVER makes any excuses or statements on his roofpainter story, so I do NEVER trust the man either, nor his caucus.
I am pleased to see that Shearer is giving some support for Jacinda Ardern working on policies to lift children out of poverty. Shearer links that to education and food in schools – all very important areas, and provisions.
I hope also Shearer gives Ardern scope to work on returning social security to it’s original form and doesn’t continue down NAct’s punitive, service and benefit-cutting path. Ardern’s performance so far has been mixed. however, there have been times when she has passionately expressed a desire to end NAct’s nasty policies and do something more beneficial for those on low incomes. i’ll be interested to see if she can become a more consistent performer on such issues.
Yeah definitely agree with you there karol, unemployment as far as i am concerned is simply the score card of the effectiveness or not of Government economic policies and if there’s jobs out there for other than the university educated they are snapped up real quick so punishing the unemployed is just pathetic bullshit employed by politicians that have no other policy and such punishments simply take the place of actually trying to increase the number of jobs in the economy,
‘Child poverty’ the next biggie on the social policy agenda for me at least is in fact not a hard fix at all, as a minimum a comprehensive food in schools program starting with the lower decile schools and serving a bit of breakfast plus a comprehensive nutritious lunch along with the removal of income tax from those beneficiaries with dependent children would be a great start,
i can’t help when supporting calls for food in schools programs feeling like i am buying into the nutjobs narrative of the beneficiaries blowing all their cash on the pokies and then having none left over to feed the kids, but, that couldn’t be further from the truth, my actual wish is for the Working for Families tax credit to be extended to all beneficiary families who have children,
i cannot tho see middle class Labour having the will to make amends with WFF so being a realist would settle for the lessor of the amounts and while i decry the bad parent slur used against beneficiary parents i will happily admit there are the odd ones just as there are bad parents at all levels of economy within society, so ‘food in schools’ means that we all ‘know’ that all the kids are getting a couple of meals a day….
Karol: Child abuse and child poverty have become the “pet topic” of Bennett and even some on the opposition benches (Ardern and Shearer for example). What the root cause is is disputed. Bennett denies poverty is the reason for child abuse.
What pisses me off something HUGE is, that nobody talks about the lot of sick and disabled! As if they either do not exist, do not deserve attention, and are just mainly maligners. That is to my impression where Bennett comes from. Shearer with his “roof painter bene” speech is not much different, I am afraid.
So people that have serious health issues, unless it is terminal or wheel-chair stuff, are just dodging work, it seems. I wonder what is going on in Labour on this, and I am furious about what Labour do not answer to, as I and others raised their introduction of a system of Health and Disability Advisors (we know highly biased Dr David Bratt!) in 2007.
I see a Grand Coalition of agreement between Labour and National, and if that is so, I would want to be dead soon, rather than face yet another medical review under either government. I narrowly survived the last harassment, honestly!!!
There is nothing new from the Shearer chap. It all the same as the Goff chap was offering.
The nation said nae.
Suspect this is caused by having the same expert team of advisors in Mallard, King, Hippkins, Goff etc, if changes aren’t made then nothing changes!
Labour needed to announce another big Policy. Shearer needed to build on the momentum from the Housing policy announcement, he needed something to grab the headlines. This was a wasted opportunity, this speech of Shearers is similar to his other speeches earlier last year. A wasted opportunity in my opinion….but I’m sure his advisor’s know what they are doing.
.
Saarbo: Instead Shearer has exposed the initial announcement on housing as a bit of a “sell line”, not based much on fact and truth.
Now the $ 300 k homes are no longer “houses” anymore, while after the original speech he and Goff and King and Sua went around ground level, basically quarter acre section style homes in Mangere and other areas, suggesting that is what voters can expect.
Shearer has been disingenious, to be honest, he misled the public and media.
Now the story is that those homes are likely to rather be apartments or town-houses (on shared land). And for those that want a 3 or 4 brm family home the price is now about 550 k.
That seems to be for such in remote suburbs, far away from public transport and even motorways.
Now David Shearer has proved to be as dodgy as can be, and his speech, more a general repetition of what Labour propagated during the last election, must be seen as a bit of a hollow exercise.
I am NOT impressed at all, but then I did not expect anything else. Shearer talked about being “fired up”, but he looked very much like talk not action on that.
Labour is lost with this leader, it is a dismal situation, and the members must see to it, to rid themselves of this lot at at the top. Do you want to wait for another 2 terms for a chance and change, I ask?
Yes agree Xtasy, my view is that Shearer doesnt do the mahi required before announcing policies, I get the impression he isnt the sort of person that can get his head around a lot of detail. He needed the stuff he is now releasing on the Housing Policy, in November. Now National/NZ Herald are on a mission to dis-credit the Policy and in most peoples eyes they are doing a reasonable job. Labour have to work a lot harder than National because National have the backing of much of the MSM, personally I dont understand why…because National are not only a hopeless government they are also hopeless at running the economy, you only have to look at our Unemployment figures to work that out.
A few days ago I posted that I do not know if David Shearer is being used or if he is just a Nat in a mustache disguise.
I am sad that I have my answer. I will not be delivering pamphlets for a while now!
Mr Shearer should have manned up and called a leadership election.
Shearer can not pretend that he does not know what members have been saying on blogs because the sprout has told us that Mike Smith who writes articles on The Standard is PAID by Shearer.
GUTLESS.
D. Shearer:-
“New Zealanders have always achieved what wasn’t supposed to be possible. ….. We’ve always dreamed big and succeeded ….. People overcoming adversity…. &tc.” So if you tried and failed, or didn’t get a chance to try, you’re a loser ‘cos you didn’t try hard enough or dream big enough.
“It’s about getting our priorities right, being thrifty about our economy. Bringing our debt under control.” Ah yes, IMF song-sheet page 4. Clearly our priorities cannot be counter-cyclical Government spending to create jobs and repair/boost the infrastructure.
“We’ll give tax breaks to companies doing world-leading research and development,..” Gonna be interesting to read the Tax regulation that defines ‘world-leading research and development’. And the regulation that stops any company with an office overseas utilising its research overseas, although presumably any international company that sees this as a problem won’t do the research here in the first place.
“My promise to you as Prime Minister is that I will always stand up for the hardworking, forgotten New Zealanders.” Show me any politician from any party in the last 50 years that has said he wouldn’t.
“It’s also why Labour will introduce a Capital Gains Tax to move investment into business and away from property speculation that is pushing house prices through the roof.” Now that is real news. I wonder if anyone else in the Labour caucus knew that. ‘Course a capital gains tax would generally also capture gains on shares and business investments, too, and so push investment overseas although you can try to limit it to bricks and mortar – as long as you also plug the myriad of loopholes tax specialists come up with the help the professional investor.
“Labour will put food in schools, to make sure all our kids get the same chance to learn.” That’s more than a tid-bit, too. Most kids don’t need it and it hasn’t worked very well where it’s been tried unless you’re going to do cooked meals, which means kitchens and staff. Or is it just a return to free school milk?
“Most Kiwis hate it. And we are behind them fighting [asset sales] all the way.” Can’t say I’ve noticed, but maybe that’s just me. But if you really meant ‘all the way’ you could kill asset sales dead today by announcing you’ll renationalise them at cost immediately after being elected.
“New Zealanders are forward thinking and are prepared to do what it takes to create a better future.” Link, please? Certainly assumes that “New Zealanders” will all agree with you about what it will take.
“We’ll make changes to monetary policy so that our job-creating businesses aren’t undermined by our exchange rate.” Didn’t work the last time the Central Bank tried to intervene whle bigger, richer countries than us have failed to manipulate their exchange rates and lost fortunes trying. talk to the Governor of the Bank of England about their 1993 experience. Or are you suggesting the Chinese model of subsidising your job-creating businesses? In any case, bringing the exchange rate down is going to have very nasty effects on the debt you’re so worried about. That’s why National isn’t doing very much about it.
Didn’t bother analysing any more. Platitudes, meaningless feel-good phrases and general politician’s kiss-the-baby crap.
5/10. Must try harder.
I heart Meteria. She is so good. I can’t wait for NZ’s main export to be windmills for wind farms. I can’t wait to get a house for $300k in Auckland. I cannot wait for our macroeconomic woes to be cured by printing money. I’m really looking forward to all the job growth that will come from a ‘clean green economy’. I’m stoked that a Wellington lawyer is going to ‘pick all the winners’ in our economy. It will be great when the DPB is ramped up, I might quit my job, why bother, I’ll do some fishing in Gizzy. I can’t wait for a capital gains tax, I mean, what a boost for small investors who can’t afford a house but who might buy some shares. It will be excellent when an oz union representing a few dozen members can derail an entire NZ industry. It will be great when the next transmission Gully gets held up another 25 years because a local taniwha didn’t like the smell of cordite. It will be so good not having to employ migrant workers because kiwis won’t do a job that me and my family did for years. I’m looking forward to a return to 1970’s industrial law, because boy that was excellent. I look forward to the repoliticisation of the public service – and my, the job growth that will come from this! I’m buying shares in Fletcher building, because 100000, or was it one billion? houses practically for free is going to need a bit of investment I suppose. I can’t wait for the status quo to be maintained in education – talking to people from Hamilton will be wonderful. They’ll use complete sentences that don’t involve the All-Blacks.
Yay for the left in NZ.
F you, you distorter, liar and manipulator, I do not buy into such crap being allowed here.
It was pretty comical, from start to finish.
FYI
See ‘Monique Angel’ aka ‘Monique Watson’, and what she posted on Kiwiblog yesterday ato 05:10 pm on 27 January:
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2013/01/shearers_state_of_the_nation_speech.html#comments
She is only here to do some “stirring”, for those that do not know her!
I quite liked what she had to say about me on Tumeke.
By the looks of it, Monique had “had a few” before that post, QoT. A bit of a pattern from what I’ve seen of her posts on “left” blogs (here, Red Alert and elsewhere).
No doubt, despite her professed AD&D alignment, she was feeling passed over on Tumeke… nary a mention, even after the charming backstory she spun one hazy frisco mid-afternoon of having once been a homeless P addict.
What I really can’t handle though, even more than the Cameron Slaters off the world, are those who position themselves as “centrists” but then espouse right-wing rubbish, because it allows them to shift the political goalposts for the whole political conversation.
I’m not sure it matters why she’s here. I didn’t read her comments as trolling. And if she was trolling, the number 1 rule of the internet is “Do not feed the trolls”. A lot of people bring baggage with them if they have built up an identity online. It’s far better just to address their comments – not of the baggage they carry, rather than try to shut them down in such an objectionable fashion. Heck, I even regret calling her a “Randroid” upthread. I’m sorry for that, Monique.
I get the same feeling when Matthew Hooten comes on here too. I know he can handle it, but it derails discussion. We’re supposed to be a compassionate movement of ideas. The best way to counter positions we object to is by detailing better ideas, not by brow-beating people in the hopes they’d just go away.
The trouble is Turei and Shearer are just shills for the destruction of the planet we live on by corporations and money-lenders, shills for the maintenance of the slave state. That is the REAL state of the nation……. a nation that is a slave of the international money-lenders and corporations (both overseas and local). And the people are just the slaves who wreck the environment on their behalf. Political parties are just the overseers and facilitators of the destruction of the planet we live on.
Obviously this despotic system will keep going till there is insufficient fossil fuel to run the machines,, insufficient soil or water to feed the people, air so polluted people drop like flies, an epidemic of preventable disease (preventable by having a healthy environment, clean air and water), nutritional foods etc.). Of course that is already happening around the world but not yet in NZ……so it must all be rosy.
This despotic system certainly won’t end by people waking up to reality in time to prevent catastrophe. Most people would rather die a horrible way and destroy their children’s future than become informed and do something to save themselves. Most people look to someone else, i.e. a party leader, to do something for them. And it’s not going to happen because, as I said at the start, party leaders are just shills for corporations and money-lenders.
See ya all at the bottom of the cliff. By the way, the cliff edge is now crumbling.
It hurts my eyes trying to read this.
I find the two speeches in combination very promising. It appears that the 2 parties (or parties’ strategists) are working together. It appears that Labour are aiming to target small business owners (a very forgotten constiuency) and farmers, hence the repetitive use of “hard-working”; having met these types they do pride themselves on their “hard-working” characters. The Greens are targeting a different range of people, [obviously] those with environmental awareness, urbanites, the younger generation (well done!!), probably Labour’s traditional supporters, and [hopefully] some of the non-voters.
Based on these speeches, I would fit in much more to the Greens target audience, and therefore the approach in their speech “works” more for me than Labour’s. (n.b. I have to date never voted Greens) Having noted my bias, and even taking account of it, I view the Greens speech as stronger. They were able to list what they have DONE recently including the tangible opposition they have [consistently] applied toward this [joke of a] Government. Labour was unable to do this because their opposition has been weak. This gave Greens the edge because it wasn’t all about “we will do…”, “we promise to do…”; it was “this is our stance, here is our aim, look, we can show we mean it because we have already achieved this”
Yeah, so Mr Shearer may not be reading the blogs, yet I would consider it foolhardy that his strategists would turn down the free source of feedback that blogs can be, so Strategists reading this, I suggest you pay some attention to creating clearer, louder and thus more effective opposition to this crazy government this year, not doing so is creating doubts in many as to what Labour’s real stance is, and whether they are capable of acting on their aims. Without doubt Labour will be losing potential votes if this weak opposition carries on. Let’s not forget there is a duty (and a purpose to that duty) to oppose a government, when in opposition and this government provides you unbelievable opportunities to do so, so please get to it.
I think your scenario of high level tactical co-operation between the Greens and Labour is a nice one to have, but from what I hear, the two parties have difficulties getting together on even basic operational matters. For that a small number of staffers on either side are to blame.
What I think you are actually seeing is Labour staying appealing to a centrist, pragmatic swing voting constituency and the Greens deliberately targetting Labour’s traditional working class, Left Wing constituency. So it looks and smells like side by side co-operation, but isn’t really. They’ve picked their markets and are pitching at them. Labour (the NZ Liberal Party) has vacated the Left and the Greens see a gap to grow into, one which includes the 800,000 non-voters from 2011.
Lets pretend Turei and Shearer are good honest people who have a clear understanding that at some stage in the life of the average young Kiwi Saver, the fund is going to go tits up.
This blog has some very aware contributes, my question is to them
I’m sure most of you would say the KS will not be around in 47 years, yet Turei and Shearer are telling all 18 yo’s that KS is a sure bet, I think telling 50yo’s is way to hopeful, so at what stage should these honest upright ‘leaders’ come clean?
Is it right for these so called honest people to keep this lie alive?
Are they trustworthy?