The MP that Clutha-Southland could have had

Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, June 30th, 2017 - 33 comments
Categories: election 2017, labour, national, the praiseworthy and the pitiful - Tags: , , , , , ,

It’s week 2 of the tape that may not have existed and that no one could have known was illegal and that English forgot until he remembered. Now it turns out that a minister may have listened to it, but not in a “ministerial capacity”. Yes it’s the “Game of Hats” play so beloved of Bill’s more brazen predecessor. Same old National.

Meanwhile, even as the vultures potential candidates circle over the remains of Todd B in Clutha-Southland, his zombie vote is exploited in Wellington to squeak through contentious legislation by a majority of 1. Classy.

It could all have turned out so very differently if the good voters of Clutha-Southland had elected the best candidate back in 2014. Remember this?

Clutha- Southland and the stark contrast in NZ politics
…
Todd Barclay at 23 (apparently his age was misreported at first), in case you’ve missed it, is a young man whose work since leaving university consists almost entirely of working in cabinet minister’s offices and as a corporate lobbyist for Philip Morris, the big tobacco people. Factual experience and the effects of policy don’t matter in this world: what matters is the ability to access cabinet ministers and make sure policies don’t affect your corporate’s bottom line. At 23, Todd is already a mid-career insider in this game, personally well connected, increasingly versed in the arts of influence, and, no doubt, of corporate campaign contributions. As he himself put it yesterday, Todd “took the [Philip Morris lobbyist] job to give me the experience I needed to enter politics”. Indeed, says Todd, “It taught me some very valuable skills really, in the corporate sector and taught me about how corporates operate in New Zealand.” So, perhaps he won’t be funding his campaign with sausage sizzles. And he already seems a little confused by the experience, doublespeaking about questions (or not questions?) of ethics: “Obviously, fairly, there is a question around my ethics, with regards to working for a tobacco company [but]…I don’t believe it does call into question my ethics, my views are strong, and they’re against smoking. I don’t encourage people to smoke, but it is a job”. No doubt being a Nat MP, where those same skills will be handy, will also be ‘a job’, subject to similar ethical quandaries.

On the other hand, Labour’s candidate is Liz Craig, twenty five years working as a doctor and in public health, researching and addressing issues in New Zealand and Australia. She’s been a leader in the tracking the effects of child poverty, and in advocating for action to give kids a better start in life. Liz confesses that “Of all the child health issues I’ve reported on over the past 10 years, the one that saddens me the most (and there are many) is the 40-60 babies we are losing each year from Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI or cot death). Behind these deaths is the bigger puppeteer of nicotine addiction, and the role smoking in pregnancy plays in increasing the risk of SUDI. ” Liz with others kicked off the monitoring of child health in the early 2000s, going door to door to DHBs to sign them up for their own child health reports. Over the years she and her team have produced literally thousands of graphs and hundreds of reports pulling together data, showing how kids from the worst off neighbourhoods have worse health outcomes, worse educational outcomes, worse lifecourse outcomes across the board. Labour’s turn to addressing child poverty and giving kids a Best Start was built from the outset on this evidence, and on the policy necessities which flowed straight it. You’ll see Liz acknowledged in the front of all the major reports of the period, from the Public Health Advisory Committee’s 2010 report The Best Start in Life: Achieving effective action on child health and wellbeing, to the Children’s Commissioner’s 2008 report A Fair Go for All Children: Actions to Address Child Poverty in New Zealand.
…

Craig was by far the better candidate. If she had been elected the proportionality / balance of power in Parliament would have changed not at all, and Clutha-Southland would have had an excellent MP.  More to the point from National’s point of view, this spectacular flaming Barclay scandal would have not spent the last 2 weeks burning down their party and exposing Billshit English. Ooops.  Such are the perils of blindly voting the party line.

Well, Todd Barclay blew it, the Nats lost out, Clutha-Southland lost out.  But it’s Invercargill’s gain – Liz Craig in 2017!

33 comments on “The MP that Clutha-Southland could have had ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Ad 1
    30 June 2017 at 8:30 am

    If Liz Craig doesn’t get in this time it will only be because the Labour campaign and vote failed to get her up there. I think on her list placing they would need to get 29-30%.

    Liz Craig would be a seriously interesting Minister of Health, with on-ground experience in general practice, mental health, O and G, public health, epidemiology, statistics, policy formation, and bunches of other good stuff.

  2. Robert Guyton 2
    30 June 2017 at 8:42 am

    Liz has to topple Sarah Dowie, Todd Barclay’s “good mate” who stood beside him during his difficult time. I asked Dowie if she’d been talking with Simon Lusk during her lead-up to getting elected in Invercargill and she said yes, she had.
    Who was the MP who heard the Todd tapes, I wonder? What responsibility did they have to report a crime? Dowie’s husband is a policeman. Liz Craig is an intelligent, trustworthy woman, in my opinion.

    • Leon Hartnett 2.1
      30 June 2017 at 8:47 am

      Well said.

    • ianmac 2.2
      30 June 2017 at 9:58 am

      Robert: “Who was the MP who heard the Todd tapes,….”
      The question was about “Minister listening” not MP.

      • Robert Guyton 2.2.1
        30 June 2017 at 12:22 pm

        “SOUTHLANDER says:
        JUNE 30, 2017 AT 11:49 AM
        I have seen this question asked elsewhere!
        “And if they weren’t acting in their ministerial capacities, how did they get their hands on the PM’s slush fund to pay for the cover-up?
        Would that then be embezzlement?”

        Quoted from The Daily Blog comments section.

        • Red Rosa 2.2.1.1
          30 June 2017 at 12:46 pm

          This latest Joyce statement puts a whole new slant on the affair. Were the tapes played in Wellington to ministers (and Key, as he was PM then?), months ago, as background to the Glenys Dickson payout? Yet Bill English has had the nerve to tell us he was not sure the tape(s) even existed? Early on, this seemed a purely local affair. But it goes right to the top – PM, cabinet, and the Nat Board. Maybe Bill English kept clear, thinking he would be in the clear…not so.

          Shortly there will be an ‘aha!’ moment and it will be fun to watch.

    • Robert Guyton 2.3
      30 June 2017 at 3:39 pm

      My bad. Dowie’s husband is not a policeman. Both her parents were, but her man is not.

    • Michael 2.4
      30 June 2017 at 7:25 pm

      Robert Guyton: “Liz has to topple Sarah Dowie,” – no she doesn’t, although it would be nice if she did. Instead, Labour has to score 32 percent of the Party Vote on 23 September for Dr Craig to make it into Parliament. That target is not impossible but looks increasingly unlikely, as Labour runs another flat-footed campaign.
      “Dowie’s husband is a policeman.” Bullshit: he’s just resigned from his job running Southport and is “off to see the world” without his wife. Draw whatever inferences from that statement you care to.
      “Liz Craig is an intelligent, trustworthy woman, in my opinion.” And in mine. However, those attributes do not entitle Dr Craig to a $180,000 a year (plus perks) taxpayer-funded job for the next three years. If Labour really wanted her in its caucus it would have given her a higher list ranking. Instead, it ranked her slightly below the cut-off point (judging from the running average of its poll results in recent months).

      • Robert Guyton 2.4.1
        30 June 2017 at 9:34 pm

        Michael – see my mea culpa above. Sarah Dowie must be very familiar with the world of the police, having been raised a daughter of police people, I expect. I also expect she’ll have plenty of contacts in the police force as a result, though mine’s purely speculation. I didn’t know of Mr Dowie’s peregrinations. Liz, by winning the Invercargill seat, will likely become an MP in the next government, MP for Invercargill, that is. I believe she can do just that. For one thing, she doesn’t, as Sarah Dowie does, find herself perilously close to a scandal involving all sorts of actions that voters might find distasteful.

        • Michael 2.4.1.1
          1 July 2017 at 2:22 am

          Dowie will retain her seat with a majority of at least 10,000; I predict she will score a roughly equivalent level of Party Votes too. Ria Bond will score next highest – with a few votes from the Nats but more from Labour. The biggest vote of all will be the non-voters.

  3. Robert Guyton 3
    30 June 2017 at 8:48 am

    Mary-Jane Thomas, Invercargill lawyer and race-horse breeder, wrote this (link below) article in The Southland Times today;

    “Against the backdrop of a culture where we are constantly glued to our phones, a recent scandal sparks the query: when is it illegal to record a conversation?

    Under the Crimes Act, it is a crime to record a private conversation that you are not a party to.

    The offence requires that you have deliberately recorded people, in conversation, who believe that they have an expectation of privacy.

    It is not, however, an offence to record a conversation that you are a party to.

    Despite this, the legality of recording conversations where only one party knows they are being recorded does get hazy in the employment sphere.”

    Read more…

    https://i.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/opinion/94223156/who-is-recording-you

    • Graeme 3.1
      30 June 2017 at 10:29 am

      Is the Southland Times showing leadership around this issue, or following community sentiment?

      • Michael 3.1.1
        30 June 2017 at 7:28 pm

        The latter. One of its most pro-Barclay hacks (a woman) no longer covers this story. I don’t know how close the two were but this particular hack seemed more like a media spindoctor than a dispassionate journalist. That said, most Southland Times readers are Nats (if not ACT).

  4. Stunned Mullet 4
    30 June 2017 at 9:51 am

    Didn’t Tat Loo run in Clutha for Labour at one stage ?

    • bwaghorn 4.1
      30 June 2017 at 11:07 am

      it shows extreme cowardice to attack a man on a forum he can’t defend himself on

    • DS 4.2
      30 June 2017 at 11:53 am

      He ran in 2011. Don Pryde was 2008.

    • Graeme 4.3
      30 June 2017 at 12:01 pm

      Yeah, he was candidate against Bill in 2011. Result was in the normal range for electorate and time in electoral cycle % at around 16% for both candidate and party.

      It’s a really tough electorate for a left leaning candidate being physically huge, very blue and with a Wakatipu rump that has virtually nothing in common with the rest of the electorate.

      • Andre 4.3.1
        30 June 2017 at 12:05 pm

        “left-leaning”

        Not to mention his … ahhh…other views, that would hardly endear him to that particular electorate.

      • McFlock 4.3.2
        30 June 2017 at 1:53 pm

        yep. Didn’t do too badly given the electorate and the opposition, really.

  5. Red Rosa 5
    30 June 2017 at 9:53 am

    The internal National Party machinations in the whole affair are slowly coming to light, and they are quite ugly. Clearly the Nat Board heavies put the hard word on the locals to support Barclay, or else. Local chairman Stuart Davie resigned in disgust. The position Bill English is in now can only be imagined, or possibly judged by the extraordinary Radio NZ interview earlier in the week. His hardworking secretary sacked and loyal supporters resigning … now what?

    But it is far from a local Southland Nat Spat. Extraordinary admission by Joyce that ‘ministers’ listened to the tapes. Who? When? They allowed Barclay to lie for months about their existence, and must have encouraged their PM to let the matter drift, when clearly it was due to blow up any time. ‘A very kiwi coup’ certainly seems likely… shades of the Jim Bolger dumping?

    Possibly a genuine police enquiry will lead to criminal charges, not just the taping but obstruction of justice. But we have yet to see the full extent of the internal Nat divisions.

    • greywarshark 5.1
      30 June 2017 at 4:08 pm

      Official Gnashional position: Nothing to see here. Just an internal organisational matter, misunderstanding really. Move along.

  6. Heather Grimwood 6
    30 June 2017 at 9:56 am

    Liz is everything said about her above AND MORE. Her ambition has for some years to be in parliament to implement her research in epidemiology, and this work has been given unstintingly to Labour policy making, and to the feet-on-ground mechanics to ensure its implimentation.
    Liz through years of lecturing and because she ‘knows her stuff’ speaks well to audiences large or small and importantly shows mana in that she is never aggressive. Yes…Invercargill’s treasure in next government.

    • Michael 6.1
      30 June 2017 at 7:31 pm

      Then it’s a shame Dr Craig wasn’t given a list ranking that would guarantee her a seat, especially when some higher-ranking people are much less distinguished. Perhaps that reflects the degree to which Head Office respects the calibre of the Party’s southern region these days?

  7. DS 7
    30 June 2017 at 11:51 am

    There was a Clutha-Southland polling booth in 2008 where the Bill & Ben Party got more votes than Labour. Clutha-Southland will never vote for a Labour candidate no matter how qualified, and they will vote for even the most dire National candidate under any circumstances. “Gumboot with blue rosette” doesn’t begin to describe it.

    • tc 7.1
      30 June 2017 at 12:03 pm

      Yes national rely on their rural electorates effectively voting whoever they put up as its been a great way to flush out the old hands for the hollowmens chosen ones.

    • Graeme 7.2
      30 June 2017 at 12:41 pm

      Invercargill has been Labour (Mark Peck), and Queenstown was part of Otago which David Parker held until it disappeared in boundary adjustments. So around the edges change is possible. There will be more boundary changes coming up with the huge population growth happening in Central Otago and Queenstown.

      The gumboot with a blue rosette is true, but there’s a presumption that the gumboot is a genuine Red Band and isn’t stuffed with odour eaters. Also helps that it’s a local rosette, not an Auckland one. Even a Queenstown one will need careful packaging.

      Invercargill will be interesting because it will likely become a three way race with Ria Bond there as well. Last time I was down there I noticed she was marking her territory around the town.

      • Michael 7.2.1
        30 June 2017 at 7:36 pm

        The biggest vote of all in the Invercargill electorate will be the non-vote, as it has been for the last couple of elections. Labour puts little effort into contesting the seat and receives the corresponding reward. OTOH, those who do vote do so reliably for National and less so for Winston. I predict Winston will score higher, in electorate and party vote, this time but that the Nats will retain the seat comfortably (ie majority over 10,000). The fact that Labour does not want to contest a blue colllar electorate (albeit with pockets of middle class pretension) speaks volumes for its commitment to its founding principles. I will be a non-voter this year, too, after voting for Labour at every election from 1990 onwards.

  8. Heather Grimwood 8
    1 July 2017 at 10:44 am

    Proof of your statements please Michael.

    • Michael 8.1
      2 July 2017 at 4:37 pm

      Heather – Dr Craig’s list ranking, relative to more mediocre candidates, speaks for itself, as does the steadily falling voter turnout in the Invercargill electorate in successive elections (see: the E9 polling booth data published as appendices to Hansard). The same source demonstrates that people are not voting at all in parts of the electorate where Labour traditionally received most support. By contrast, the Nats retain their support, while NZ First support is growing slowly but surely (I predict it will score considerably better in both both electorate and Party Vote this time). Otherwise, you seem to be asking me to prove facts from values, something that David Hume teaches us is impossible.

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    Who’s At The Wheel? The electorate’s message, as aggregated in the polling booths on 14 October, turned out to be a conservative political agenda stronger than anything New Zealand has seen in five decades. In 1975, Bill Rowling was run over by just one bus, with Rob Muldoon at the wheel. In ...
    Bowalley Road
    5 days ago

  • Sanity break
    Cheers to reader Deane for this quote from Breakfast TV today:Chloe Swarbrick to Brook van Velden re the coalition agreement: “... an unhinged grab-bag of hot takes from your drunk uncle at Christmas”Cheers also to actual Prime Minister of a country Christopher Luxon for dorking up his swearing-in vows.But that's enough ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • Sanity break
    Cheers to reader Deane for this quote from Breakfast TV today:Chloe Swarbrick to Brook van Velden re the coalition agreement: “... an unhinged grab-bag of hot takes from your drunk uncle at Christmas”Cheers also to actual Prime Minister of a country Christopher Luxon for dorking up his swearing-in vows.But that's enough ...
    More than a fieldingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • National’s murderous smoking policy
    One of the big underlying problems in our political system is the prevalence of short-term thinking, most usually seen in the periodic massive infrastructure failures at a local government level caused by them skimping on maintenance to Keep Rates Low. But the new government has given us a new example, ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • NZ has a chance to rise again as our new government gets spending under control
    New Zealand has  a chance  to  rise  again. Under the  previous  government, the  number of New Zealanders below the poverty line was increasing  year by year. The Luxon-led government  must reverse that trend – and set about stabilising  the  pillars  of the economy. After the  mismanagement  of the outgoing government created   huge ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    5 days ago

  • KARL DU FRESNE: Media and the new government
    Two articles by Karl du Fresne bring media coverage of the new government into considerations.  He writes –    Tuesday, November 28, 2023 The left-wing media needed a line of attack, and they found one The left-wing media pack wasted no time identifying the new government’s weakest point. Seething over ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • PHILIP CRUMP:  Team of rivals – a CEO approach to government leadership
    The work begins Philip Crump wrote this article ahead of the new government being sworn in yesterday – Later today the new National-led coalition government will be sworn in, and the hard work begins. At the core of government will be three men – each a leader ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • Black Friday
    As everyone who watches television or is on the mailing list for any of our major stores will confirm, “Black Friday” has become the longest running commercial extravaganza and celebration in our history. Although its origins are obscure (presumably dreamt up by American salesmen a few years ago), it has ...
    Bryan GouldBy Bryan Gould
    5 days ago

  • In Defense of the Media.
    Yesterday the Ministers in the next government were sworn in by our Governor General. A day of tradition and ceremony, of decorum and respect. Usually.But yesterday Winston Peters, the incoming Deputy Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister, of our nation used it, as he did with the signing of the coalition ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago

  • Top 10 news links at 10 am for Tuesday, Nov 28
    Nicola Willis’ first move was ‘spilling the tea’ on what she called the ‘sobering’ state of the nation’s books, but she had better be able to back that up in the HYEFU. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of top 10 news links elsewhere at 10 am ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago

  • PT use up but fare increases coming
    Yesterday Auckland Transport were celebrating, as the most recent Sunday was the busiest Sunday they’ve ever had. That’s a great outcome and I’m sure the ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    5 days ago

  • The very opposite of social investment
    Nicola Willis (in blue) at the signing of the coalition agreement, before being sworn in as both Finance Minister and Social Investment Minister. National’s plan to unwind anti-smoking measures will benefit her in the first role, but how does it stack up from a social investment viewpoint? Photo: Lynn Grieveson ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago

  • Giving Tuesday
    For the first time "in history" we decided to jump on the "Giving Tuesday" bandwagon in order to make you aware of the options you have to contribute to our work! Projects supported by Skeptical Science Inc. Skeptical Science Skeptical Science is an all-volunteer organization but ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago

  • Let's open the books with Nicotine Willis
    Let’s say it’s 1984,and there's a dreary little nation at the bottom of the Pacific whose name rhymes with New Zealand,and they've just had an election.Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, will you look at the state of these books we’ve opened,cries the incoming government, will you look at all this mountain ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago

  • Climate Change: Stopping oil
    National is promising to bring back offshore oil and gas drilling. Naturally, the Greens have organised a petition campaign to try and stop them. You should sign it - every little bit helps, and as the struggle over mining conservation land showed, even National can be deterred if enough people ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • Don’t accept Human Rights Commission reading of data on Treaty partnership – read the survey fin...
    Wellington is braced for a “massive impact’ from the new government’s cutting public service jobs, The Post somewhat grimly reported today. Expectations of an economic and social jolt are based on the National-Act coalition agreement to cut public service numbers in each government agency in a cost-trimming exercise  “informed by” head ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • The stupidest of stupid reasons
    One of the threats in the National - ACT - NZ First coalition agreements was to extend the term of Parliament to four years, reducing our opportunities to throw a bad government out. The justification? Apparently, the government thinks "elections are expensive". This is the stupidest of stupid reasons for ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • A website bereft of buzz
    Buzz from the Beehive The new government was being  sworn in, at time of writing , and when Point of Order checked the Beehive website for the latest ministerial statements and re-visit some of the old ones we drew a blank. We found ….  Nowt. Nothing. Zilch. Not a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • MICHAEL BASSETT: A new Ministry – at last
    Michael Bassett writes – Like most people, I was getting heartily sick of all the time being wasted over the coalition negotiations. During the first three weeks Winston grinned like a Cheshire cat, certain he’d be needed; Chris Luxon wasted time in lifting the phone to Winston ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • Luxon's Breakfast.
    The Prime Minister elect had his silver fern badge on. He wore it to remind viewers he was supporting New Zealand, that was his team. Despite the fact it made him look like a concierge, or a welcomer in a Koru lounge. Anna Burns-Francis, the Breakfast presenter, asked if he ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago

  • LINDSAY MITCHELL:  Oranga Tamariki faces major upheaval under coalition agreement
     Lindsay Mitchell writes – A hugely significant gain for ACT is somewhat camouflaged by legislative jargon. Under the heading ‘Oranga Tamariki’ ACT’s coalition agreement contains the following item:   Remove Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 According to Oranga Tamariki:     “Section ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • BRIAN EASTON:  Peters as Minister
    A previous column looked at Winston Peters biographically. This one takes a closer look at his record as a minister, especially his policy record. Brian Easton writes – 1990-1991: Minister of Māori Affairs. Few remember Ka Awatea as a major document on the future of Māori policy; there is ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • Cathrine Dyer's guide to watching COP 28 from the bottom of a warming planet
    Is COP28 largely smoke and mirrors and a plan so cunning, you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel? Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: COP28 kicks off on November 30 and up for negotiation are issues like the role of fossil fuels in the energy transition, contributions to ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • Top 10 news links at 10 am for Monday, Nov 27
    PM Elect Christopher Luxon was challenged this morning on whether he would sack Adrian Orr and Andrew Coster.TL;DR: Here’s my pick of top 10 news links elsewhere at 10 am on Monday November 27, including:Signs councils are putting planning and capital spending on hold, given a lack of clear guidance ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell on the new government’s policies of yesteryear
    This column expands on a Werewolf column published by Scoop on Friday Routinely, Winston Peters is described as the kingmaker who gets to decide when the centre right or the centre-left has a turn at running this country. He also plays a less heralded but equally important role as the ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    6 days ago

  • The New Government’s Agreements
    Last Friday, almost six weeks after election day, National finally came to an agreement with ACT and NZ First to form a government. They also released the agreements between each party and looking through them, here are the things I thought were the most interesting (and often concerning) from the. ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    6 days ago

  • How many smokers will die to fund the tax cuts?
    Maori and Pasifika smoking rates are already over twice the ‘all adult’ rate. Now the revenue that generates will be used to fund National’s tax cuts. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The devil is always in the detail and it emerged over the weekend from the guts of the policy agreements National ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • How the culture will change in the Beehive
    Perhaps the biggest change that will come to the Beehive as the new government settles in will be a fundamental culture change. The era of endless consultation will be over. This looks like a government that knows what it wants to do, and that means it knows what outcomes ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    6 days ago

  • No More Winnie Blues.
    So what do you think of the coalition’s decision to cancel Smokefree measures intended to stop young people, including an over representation of Māori, from taking up smoking? Enabling them to use the tax revenue to give other people a tax cut?David Cormack summed it up well:It seems not only ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    7 days ago

  • 2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #47
    A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science  Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 19, 2023 thru Sat, Nov 25, 2023.  Story of the Week World stands on frontline of disaster at Cop28, says UN climate chief  Exclusive: Simon Stiell says leaders must ‘stop ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • Some of it is mad, some of it is bad and some of it is clearly the work of people who are dangerous ...
    On announcement morning my mate texted:Typical of this cut-price, fake-deal government to announce itself on Black Friday.What a deal. We lose Kim Hill, we gain an empty, jargonising prime minister, a belligerent conspiracist, and a heartless Ayn Rand fanboy. One door closes, another gets slammed repeatedly in your face.It seems pretty ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago

  • “Revolution” is the threat as the Māori Party smarts at coalition government’s Treaty directi...
    Buzz from the Beehive Having found no fresh announcements on the government’s official website, Point of Order turned today to Scoop’s Latest Parliament Headlines  for its buzz. This provided us with evidence that the Māori Party has been soured by the the coalition agreement announced yesterday by the new PM. “Soured” ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 week ago

  • The Good, the Bad, and the even Worse.
    Yesterday the trio that will lead our country unveiled their vision for New Zealand.Seymour looking surprisingly statesmanlike, refusing to rise to barbs about his previous comments on Winston Peters. Almost as if they had just been slapstick for the crowd.Winston was mostly focussed on settling scores with the media, making ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago

  • When it Comes to Palestine – Free Speech is Under Threat
    Hi,Thanks for getting amongst Mister Organ on digital — thanks to you, we hit the #1 doc spot on iTunes this week. This response goes a long way to helping us break even.I feel good about that. Other things — not so much.New Zealand finally has a new government, and ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    1 week ago

  • Thank you Captain Luxon. Was that a landing, or were we shot down?
    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Also in More Than A FeildingFriday The unboxing And so this is Friday and what have we gone and done to ourselves?In the same way that a Christmas present can look lovely under the ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago

  • Cans of Worms.
    “And there’ll be no shortage of ‘events’ to test Luxon’s political skills. David Seymour wants a referendum on the Treaty. Winston wants a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Labour’s handling of the Covid crisis. Talk about cans of worms!”LAURIE AND LES were very fond of their local. It was nothing ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 week ago

  • Disinformation campaigns are undermining democracy. Here’s how we can fight back
    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Misinformation is debated everywhere and has justifiably sparked concerns. It can polarise the public, reduce health-protective behaviours such as mask wearing and vaccination, and erode trust in science. Much of misinformation is spread not ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • New Zealand welcomes European Parliament vote on the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement
    A significant milestone in ratifying the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was reached last night, with 524 of the 705 member European Parliament voting in favour to approve the agreement. “I’m delighted to hear of the successful vote to approve the NZ-EU FTA in the European Parliament overnight. This is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Further humanitarian support for Gaza, the West Bank and Israel
    The Government is contributing a further $5 million to support the response to urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, bringing New Zealand’s total contribution to the humanitarian response so far to $10 million. “New Zealand is deeply saddened by the loss of civilian life and the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

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