Syrian did not consider a damn what would happen in Lebanon, the destruction of that society…
…so why would they sudden care if they did the same to their own country. I had been
wary of Israeli claims to self-defense, but seeing what Syria is, without remorse, killing
children… …time will tell, if Egypt goes right wing fanatical religious, we may yet be all
drawn into a war with at least half of Islam.
Oh fuck off Jenny. Your endless one-sided diatribe about Syria and lack of willingness to listen to anyone else presenting a balanced viewpoint that the Syrian situation isn’t as cut and dried as you make it out to be, has worn thin.
To misquote Les Miserables in this context would be laughable if it wasn’t so ill-informed.
Over the past ten years, the neo-liberal policies implemented by the Assad regime have collapsed the public sector and weakened the whole economy. Society has been impoverished, with 60 percent of Syria’s population below or just above the poverty line. The Assad clan, especially around the person of Rami Makhlouf, used the privatisation process to accumulate more than 60 percent of Syria’s economic wealth.
Syria Freedom Forever
The Syrian revolutionary process is a real popular and democratic movement that mobilises the exploited and oppressed classes against the capitalist elite linked to the global order.
Syria Freedom Forever
We say with full candour: those who deny popular revolutions like Syria’s thereby set themselves against emancipation from below by the people. They cannot be seen as being on the left.
lolz yes Syria was a neoliberal banksters paradise…dreaming mate, just dreaming. Western corporates are just sore that they were never allowed carte banche in Damascus. Which is the opposite of your claims.
In my latest essay in this space I mentioned two phenomena worth fighting for: the living planet and freedom based in anarchy. I surrender. I no longer believe the struggle matters on either front.
I no longer think we’ll save the remaining shards of the living planet beyond another human generation. We’ll destroy every — or nearly every — species on Earth when the positive feedbacks associated with climate change come seriously into play (and I’ve not previously considered the increasingly dire prospects of methane release from Antarctica or the wildfire-induced release of carbon from Siberian peat bogs).
The climate-change data, models, and assessments keep coming at us, like waves crashing on a rocky, indifferent beach. The worst drought in 800 years in the western United States is met by levels of societal ignorance and political silence I’ve come to expect. I would be stunned if this valley — or any other area in the interior of a northern-hemisphere continent — will provide habitat for humans five years from now. And climate change is only part of the story.
My trademark optimism vanishes when I realize that, in addition to climate chaos, we’re on the verge of tacking on ionizing radiation from the world’s 444 nuclear power plants. L
The worst drought in 800 years in the western United States is met by levels of societal ignorance and political silence I’ve come to expect. I would be stunned if this valley — or any other area in the interior of a northern-hemisphere continent — will provide habitat for humans five years from now.
I’m glad he has put a specific year prediction out. In five years we will be able to see if he is overstating things (I think he is). I’ve seen other intelligent eotwawki luminaries make this mistake (Sharon Astyk springs to mind), and I suspect it comes from getting tied up too closely up with their own circles of information and discussion.
As for his own part of the world… 800 years ago, there were people living there successfully in that worst drought. Why is that? How is that? From what I know, periodic drought is normal in that part of the world. Is it possible that the people who lived there farmed by taking that into account?
McPherson links to a MSM report about the worst drought in 800 years that mentions the midwest dust bowl, but that, and the current crop failures there, are due to bad farming practices. Yes, there is a drought, but that’s not the real problem here. The real problem here is that agribusiness is not adaptable to its environment, and by its very nature ignores nature and what is happening with things like climate and weather. It has no resiliency. Worse, agribusiness and even most modern traditional farming decreases soil fertility over time and lessens the land’s ability to adapt to drought.
Unlike other systems of food production. Here is a permaculture classic. It’s a small project done in Jordan in 2000. Jordan has a similar amount of rainfall as Arizona, but the place where this project happened has much lower rates than where McPherson lives. This ten minute video shows how food production was established quickly using polyculture techniques that are sustainable over time, that build soil fertility, make best use of water resources, and don’t make the mistakes of conventional agriculture like salinating the soil.
McPherson will be aware of all of this. So it begs the question of why he misuses information. I’m guessing he is trying to scare people into waking up.
Guy may be right, he may be wrong, he has certainly got our attention. I listened to him several times over the last few years, he tends toward the “precautionary” principle. Maybe Guy is involved countering misinformation in a “misinformation world war”.
On whether Guy is deliberately overstating things maybe this headline might make people think.. http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ As the ice melts, and the jet stream moves south, and methane starts bubbling up maybe a precautionary approach should be recommended. I hope Guy keeps calling for that as much as I hope he is wrong. Polar bears might prefer we were not having this debate.
ooohh Robert. Always a pleasure to read your predicitions.
As the struggles no longer matter we may as well give up. I may as well be selfish, forget about society, climb over my mates on the work ladder, avoid paying all tax, vote for oil loving right wing parties, buy a V8, drive really fast, and then go whale hunting.
We are all doomed so lets have some fun in our final year on this earth…
Your messages of utter desolation and hopelessness are a hōhā. If Māori thought as you we would be extinct already. Quite frankly, if stuck on a waka with you heading into a perfect storm and you started opining ‘we are all doomed’ I would toss you overboard.
Rather than waste C02 spreading negativity, be more constructive, plant another native tree.
My focus is Indigenous
meaning natives not exotics
I am not shy just adverse
to populating the Southern
Hemisphere with Northern
Hemisphere plants.
Call me hemispherically challenged
if not biased but I have no affinity
to the Northern Hemisphere and
will continue to reinforce the
unique character of our lands
through native plantings
and spurn the exotics
.
I am an optimist generally. I am blind to the problems of the world but realistic to the problems that I am able to positively influence within my own whanau, community, and society in general. My focus is also confined to the environment of Aotearoa and its surrounding oceans.
The reality as I understand it is that life as we know it now may become extinct but life itself will continue – albeit most likely in a different form. The Earth has been witness to at least five extinction events. In the aftermath, new life forms have eventually emerged in all cases. Also, would the human species have emerged without the extinction of the dinosaur?
Humanity has the potential to prevent its own extinction – that it might become extinct speaks to a complete waste of evolutionary advantage found in human intelligence. Perhaps human intelligence is an evolutionary dead-end and in the next iteration we become as bacteria once more.
Humanity has the potential to prevent its own extinction – that it might become extinct speaks to a complete waste of evolutionary advantage found in human intelligence.
Perhaps, but it does suggest an answer to the Fermi Paradox 😈
I suppose this is really just whistling in the dark but the NZ Herald is running a poll on whether NZ should go GE or not….You could go vote against on the grounds that its just a couple of mouse clicks worth of effort and then go back to giving all your energy over to despair….
@ Adele. Your comment reminded me of the Ingham twins busy swimming with one other person ( a boyfriend of one I think) through shark infested seas to the far off coast of Western Oz after they somehow ended up in the water. One twin was constantly whining away that it was impossible etc so they cut the rope and let her drift off. When she promised to shut up and keep paddling (or they’d do it again presumably) they hooked her back up…and all made it ashore and got on with their (colourful) lives…..
Its good to see the GE discussion happening. Last week we talked about the govt funded biotech agri business meeting that went ahead in Akld. Later that week that Dominion Post published a pro GE article that was reasonbly flawed in its argument. I posted that article open mike last week. Then on Sunday (at least I think it was Sunday), TV3 News had a peice covering a meeting of scientist who were pro GE. It was a very one sided peice. Now we have a counter argument published in the Dom Post on line today. It’s a good solid argument against the push to introduce GE food crops to NZ
NZ had and still has a great opportunity to be a GE free exporter of goods to Europe. That was the vision of the organic industry back in the 90’s, included within the vision of Organic NZ 2020 but it got lost among the powerful influence that agri business has upon Government. With Tim Groser saying recently that we are focusing less on trade with Europe and more on trade with Asia theres not a snowflakes chance that we can achieve the trade of GE food that we are capable of with Europe. A tragic lost opportunity.
Evolution has had eternity to come up with the right answer: GE is a feeble attempt to specifically imitate without consideration of the whole. The sooner it is removed from commercial interests the better.
Yep and you can even speed evolution up by through cross pollination… The seed banks will be invaluable going forward. Modern breeding is focused on appearance vs yield if we went back to species and early cultivars it’s highly likely that much hardier cultivars can be developed.
GE is not required and will end in tears one way or another, the perils of monoculture have been long known…
New Zealand has been issued an ultimatum by GM heavyweights – change our tune on genetically modified food or watch our exporting lifeblood lag behind the rest of the world.
The warning was delivered yesterday by a high-powered panel including the US Government’s bio-tech trade envoy and the vice-president of US giant DuPont Agricultural Biotechnology
The panel pitched crop-enhancing bio-technology as the world’s best hope of feeding a population expected to double by 2050 – and said that if New Zealand failed to buy in, our crops could become quickly out-dated
What, the worlds population is going to double….Are they still peddling these blatant lies! Even the UN don’t make those claims anymore. The statement, along with what is a clear threat to our exports, should have alarm bells ringing, because that is blatant propaganda/threats of the highest order!
Du Pont – Argh, Monsanto are involved then of course. I wonder how they will ensure that their threats are answered favourably by “our decision makers”!
This is an issue which NZ MUST hold out on, that can’t be emphasised enough!
Couldn’t agree more that our GE feee status remains. You’re right, we must hold out on this issue. But you know, those bully boys aren’t known for backing down, they always get their way. I’m sure “their threats will be answered favourably by our decision makers”.
As we all know we have weak leadership in NZ and its a leadership that only listens to lobby groups that represent their ideology (short term profit at any cost). We know that the National govt doesn’t refer to evidence and research to create policy and shape legislation. So I’d say we’d pretty stuffed if the biotech groups keep up the bullying and pressure.
Even if we did have a change of govt in 2014 it may too late. The Nat govt doesn’t even listen to the authors of reports commissioned by them (eg addressing child poverty) or the industries it should be supporting (eg horticulture NZ as referred to in the Dom Post article posted above). I wouldn’t trust a Labour led govt to keep our land free of GE crops either.
Best case scenario may be that the introduction of GE was delayed and we got a new govt where the voices of the Greens, Mana and even NZ First where strong. Old war dog Winnie may make ones eyes roll but at least he is protective of NZ’s interests. Many years ago I was interested to see him at the book launch of “The poisoning of New Zealand” by Merial Watts. The book discussed the ways in which we are damging our natural environment due to the over use of toxic agricultural pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. You can’t have that conversation without reffering to Monsanto. So our natural environment may be of importance to him. Who knows.
I do know that Monsanto have influenced councils in NZ. Once again I’m referring to the 90’s. Akld council had introduced safe chemical free weed control in the form of the waipuna steam method. It was a win for everyone. Not one to be pushed aside Monsanto immediately cut their wholesale price of roundup, undercutting the waipuna system costs (the costs had previously been the same) and hey presto, back in business with the round up. Thats just a local example from a couple of decades ago. Imagine what they’re capable of now? Sadly, the spectre of GE coming to our shores has arisen again. I don’t think anyone can trust our govt from keeping NZ GE free.
There are a few key topics, where the rubber hits the road, and this is certainly one of the most important.
The GM issue is not about money, it is about gaining total control of the food supplies by way of patents and exclusions, the ramifications for humanity should this happen, are not the sales pitches peddled by these toxic, poisonous, polluting monstrosities!
Think of it this way, the control over food prices etc already happens via commodity exchanges and the like, and used as a weapon against nations around the world. Imagine what can be achieved once human beings are no longer able to grow their own food using natural resources.
NZ’s future well being relies on a number of factors, one of them is that being that we must not allow GM inside our shores, because once that happens, it will be a matter of time before it is used as a weapon against us too.
Food Safety/security Bills/Natural Health Products Bill (who actually writes these anyway?) etc, TPPA….Its about time people started seeing the links, and for that matter the links between industries, for what they are!
Totally hear you Muzza and I fully agree that that control of global food chains is a priority for biotech groups. If they can make a good tidy profit along the way, that will and they do. The ultimate prize is the endless source of profit in food production when all natural methods of cropping plant propagation have been made redundant by gene technology.
And yes, the food bill, no matter how much its implications are played down are a massive threat to our ability to retain personal and community autonomy over food production and seed collection. Over arching that, the TPPA and its consequences for industrial food production in NZ would mean we are rooted as an independant GE free food producing nation. We lose our sovereignty, our access to safe food and our trading advantages.
But we are asleep and the right wing in is the ascendant. So what are our chances to keep our GE status? Pretty slim I’d say.
But we are all Genetically Modified, whether Maori, Pacifica, Pakeha, or any other race in New Zealand.
We cannot stop human modfication.
Should we vote to stop it ?
I don’t think so Fortran. Not unless you’ve been to a laboratory, provided samples of your DNA, had your genetic material spliced with that of another species, lets say a toad, for arguments sake, and then had that new genetic material returned to your body. Thats genetic modification for ya, not the process of breeding.
The group called AntiSec, linked to the hacking collective known as Anonymous, posted one million Apple user identifiers on Monday purported to be part of a larger group of 12 million obtained from an FBI laptop.
In the posting, AntiSec said the original file “contained around 12,000,000 devices” and that “we decided a million would be enough to release”.
The group said it “trimmed out other personal data as, full names, cell numbers, addresses, zipcodes, etc”
Hackers will always be able to outsmart any govt agency or any private or public organisation or social media. Thats why I don’t use face palm or twatter or online banking. I try to minimise my online transactions as much as possible. I know my attempts to protect my privacy aren’t water tight in any way because the sheer amount of information on individuals can’t be contained by the individual themselves.
But still, I’d trust the smarts of hackers over the smarts of agencies, organisations and social media any day.
The main point that AntiSec is making is that warrantless eavesdropping and data collection by the US gov – a complete antithesis to the principles of the democratic republic – appears to be in full swing.
And we know from Wikileaks – and that bad man Julian Assange – that this information is also gathered and used against foreign states, foreign nationals and foreign companies.
Dont know how you read it Weka but here is what I read…(Klein) In the Assange case, the Swedish police supported the accusers in legally unprecedented ways – for example, by allowing them to tell their stories together and by allowing testimony from a boyfriend. But other alleged victims of gender-based abuse, sometimes in life-threatening circumstances, typically receive very different treatment.
I endorse Kleins writing because it is typically well researched, accurate and impartial. In this one she quite correctly points out that:
1. Rape is not taken seriously by the Swedish authorities, they fail to pass muster in any respect to the rights of victims.
2. For some reason the Swedish authorities stood this usual stance on its head for Assange.
3. There is a corrupted standard here (Klein) Let me be clear: I am not saying that Assange…..committed no crime against women. Rather, Assange’s case,… is being handled so differently from how the authorities handle all other rape cases that a corrupted standard of justice clearly is being applied.
So to summarise Klein rightly points out that the Swedish authorities are failing rape victims badly, and she points out that she is not convinced of his innocence nor guilt but suspects some other driver for the authorities interest.
So to what you call “Assange Fanboys” (a term pregnant with implications)….does that include those of us who think that Assange should be considered innocent until proven guilty? Does that include us who say if there if a case to answer Assange should definitely face trial? Does it include us who say beware the real motives of the Swedish authorities?
Bored, I don’t know if you are a Fanboy or not, that’s up to you to say.
What I meant was that Wolf was able to talk about the issue without saying that the women are lying.
She was able to point out that there is something wrong with the investigation into Assange without accusing the women of anything. She is able to do this without engaging in rape myths like consent given once is consent for all time. Or that sex with a sleeping woman without her consent is ok. She doesn’t have to deny the possibility of rape in order to point out that there is something highly unusual with how the authorities are handling this case.
That was my point in the previous discussion on this. I wasn’t saying that Assange is guilty, I was saying that you don’t have to sacrifice the women complainants nor the larger issues around rape in order to talk about the Assange case.
“does that include those of us who think that Assange should be considered innocent until proven guilty?”
I have no idea if Assange is guilty or not. I don’t feel under any obligation to assume either way. The only people who have to assume innocence until proven guilty are the judge and jury and Assange’s lawyers. The media too I guess, but I think it’s more a case of not assuming guilt unless proven, than assuming innocence.
I find the whole innocent until proven guilty thing interesting because people speculate about guilt in public cases all the time. What’s so different about this one?
Fraudian on Klein and Wulf, both brilliant women. Maybe I react harshly to tags like Fanboys….they provoke a reaction, you got one.
I thoroughly agree with you that “you don’t have to sacrifice the women complainants”, and I respect you have no opinion on Assange guilt. What drives my reaction on this case is that regardless of the crime I always believe in “innocence before proven otherwise”. A recent classic was the recent Scott Guy murder case where the accused was found not guilty despite being overwhelmingly convicted in the court of public opinion. (For the record I think Ewen did it but the jury got it right….there was doubt).
To address what I think might be the major gripe on the Assange case with women is that their complaints are not being taken seriously. That is manifestly obvious. We quite correctly throw everything at murder cases, I cannot see why we don’t do the same with rape, domestic violence, common assault. My belief is that they should attract a zero tolerance reaction, and I don’t believe they do. And in all cases the process also brutalises the complainant (that’s another nasty issue).
Bored 9 1 1
Thank you for the good excerpt from Naomi Wolf. It seems to be very measured and reasoned. An excellent comment in the sticky tar patch of emotion aroused from fundamentalists..
ShonKey’s divide and rule strategy of five meetings with specific Iwi on water may be looking a bit sick by end of next week. Interesting how the piece is lurking in business section online rather than front page given the significance.
Not enough on the real elephant in the room being Rio Tinto’s threatened closure of Tiwai point if they don’t get even more heavily subsidied power.
The party of big business is getting screwed by one while trying to flog off the silverware , but blaming the Maori’s for the delay is a PR gift from above.
It might save the environment: it is blatantly obvious that capitalism requires growth, and that means that it is at odds with the environment. Land guardianship as opposed to ownership is the only solution I can think of. Interestingly medieval land tenure was based upon sustained productivity and output: the job of the farmers was to retain soil fertility as well as produce, otherwise everybody suffered. Maybe we should nationalise all land and base the rental on retained soil fertility.
Josh, you have to realise that Maori have been trying for over 150 years to have their treaty rights honoured. If that had happened, and Maori had had access to their land and resources for all those years, been able to rebuild wealth for their people from that, they wouldn’t need to be going after money now (they might still choose to, but that’s a different argument).
European society force Maori to drop their own model of resource management and adopt the capitalist one. They’re just playing pakeha at their own game now. To paraphrase Bill, the easiest way to fix this mess is for pakeha to change how resources are understood, valued and managed. At the moment we use an exploitation model, is there any reason why Maori should not use that too?
Exactly weka. Good on Maori for shoving the game into John Key’s smug mug. They are entirely justified in playing the capitalist game of greed and self and maximising and bugger the rest back at Key. I guess though in playing that game they should realise that if they do what capitalists do they will end up like capitalists – and do they really want to be like that?
As vto illustrates, this is a fishing expedition from Josh the, concerned-for-us-all, racist fisherman. A couple of things should alert the cautious reader:
It’s a press release.
The name and history of the person making the release.
The potential for contentious framing of the claim.
Lack of verifiable facts (see: press release)
Motivation for claim (see: name and history of person making release)
Right now, Josh is sitting back chuckling to himself saying: I knew it, maori are just as bad as capitalists, which means their claims are baseless and we are totally justified in oppressing and dismissing all further concerns.
Russel Norman on the government’s cosy relationship with Westpac, and the failure to fulfill it’s promise to put the government’s banking contract up for tender:
“Ideally, our Government’s banking should eventually be done by our New Zealand bank, Kiwibank,” Dr Norman said.
“Australian-owned banks control 95 per cent of our banking industry and this Government has done nothing to stop the massive capital drain that results from these banks repatriating their record profits offshore each year.
“The inclusion of a national interest test in the tender process will ensure that New Zealand banks like Kiwibank can get at least some of the Government contract in the short term.”
On the Labour website, Clare Curran has a good piece on the lack of FTA TV coverage of the paralympics, something that a public service broadcaster would provide. I heartily agree.
Andrew Little provides some good info on the makeup of the ACC board as announced yesterday, and says it is hardly going to oversee a positive culture change:
“Paula Rebstock’s track record demonstrates no empathy or understanding of the social insurance model ACC represents. It is interesting to note – given Ms Collins said former chair John Judge was stepping down as he would be too busy with his new role as chair of ANZ – that Ms Rebstock currently holds 12 positions.
“Professor Gorman has been a senior medical adviser to ACC for many years and has given some of the most retrograde advice on claimants’ files I’ve known. He was the subject of many complaints over his advice about occupational overuse syndrome in the 1990s.
“While publicity material doesn’t mention it, ‘new’ board member Trevor Janes was a director of the Corporation at the time it was being lined up for privatisation by National in the late 90s
Mana doesn’t have any new posts up, but Hone’s piece on asset sales, from a couple of days ago, is worth a read if you haven’t already seen it:
weka, thanks for the link which features the bit on Key’s latest speech. I watched the interview on TV News, and I have perfectly adequate hearing. What I heard, in spite of his adenoidal tones, was “we welcome the opportunity to co-operate with the US in the next conflicts”, which made me recoil in horror. Thank God, then, for convenient rewrites, now I know what I am “supposed” to believe!
Lol times. Wonder when its all over for Key if someone will produce a little book like “Bad President”? Its a book of bushisms. We could have “Bad P.M”. It would be a laugh a minute.
Yep Rosie, perfect. Would be like Bob Jones’ book called, I think, “The achievements of the Third Labour Government” which was a couple of hundred blank pages ha ha ha – think it sold out.
Great news from Paula Bennett
Benefits stopped for those with arrest warrants
by Paula Bennett on Wednesday, 5 September 2012 at 12:03 ·
People with outstanding arrest warrants will no longer receive a benefit while evading Police says Social Development Minister Paula Bennett.
“Of the approximately 15,000 people with a current arrest warrant, around 8,200 are on benefits,” says Mrs Bennett.
“If someone has an unresolved arrest warrant we will stop their benefit until they do the right thing and come forward to the authorities.”
“In exceptional circumstances where someone poses a danger to the public, their benefit can be stopped immediately at the request of the Police Commissioner,” says Mrs Bennett.
Around 58 per cent of people clear their arrest warrants within 28 days. Those who don’t will be given 10 days to clear or challenge the warrant before their benefit is stopped, or reduced by fifty per cent if they have dependent children.
People will still be able to apply for hardship assistance for themselves and their children.
“Most people clear their warrants within a month, so 38 days is a reasonable amount of time to step forward and straighten things out,” says Mrs Bennett.
“Once someone has come forward their benefit can be reinstated but there will be clear consequences for people who continually refuse to acknowledge or resolve arrest warrants.”
Yeah, I’m with you fisiani. In fact we should just stop all benefits. Let the useless fuckers shrivel up and die. After all, if they can’t get a job then they shouldn’t be on the dole smoking drugs, boozing up and getting pregnant. Bloody useless no hopers. I think I’m coming around to your way of thinking. If I have to pay them my hard-earned taxes then they can bloody well wash my undies. Usless pricks.
Or if thats a bit beyond even you fisiani then the dole should be cut when the following occurs. After all, it’s my bloody money they’re spending. If they have got the time or money for any of these things then they don’t deserve the dole.
1. smoking drugs.
2. arrest warrant.
3. speeding ticket.
4. parking ticket.
5. drinking beer.
6. drinking rtds.
7. swearing.
8. being maori or pacific island.
9. wearing hoodies.
10. voting labour.
11. downloading porn.
12. being a gamer.
13. not washing my undies.
14. eating kfc.
like tax doging Act supporters ponzi schemers who are locked up at our expense while still having a luxury life style.
The likes of banks and brash who are on the board of a ponzi scheming company and get off scott free
Man this is dumb. I can just see Paula jerking off on this as much as Fis obviously does.
Most people with arrest warrants against them have no idea that the police had even laid a charge against them. They don’t exactly exert effort finding people with traffic violations (the most common reason). The address on the court paperwork is whatever was on their file at the time the charge sheet was made out and is never changed. That has been the case with most of the people I’m run across who have been arrested with an outstanding warrant. Mostly for speed cameras.
And of course the Paula Bennett appears to be too stupid to do the obvious. With the exception of people on superannuation, other people receiving benefits are required to talk to WINZ periodically at pre-arranged meetings otherwise they lose their benefits. If they are going to do the data matching, then why don’t they simply tell them that the police are looking for them rather than turning off the benefits. After all they’re going to have to do that anyway when a person trying to find out why the benefit has been stopped calls them.
But nope. Being Paula Bennett, they will do it the STUPID and inefficient way that just increases the costs to all concerned.
Except that once their benefit has been stopped and there is no income they might get hungry fisiani. You better hope that you don’t live next door to a criminally inclined hungry person. They might just want to come and bust your door down and raid your fridge and pantry.
So tell us, this new development helps society how?
Here we have the fisiani in his natural habitat demonstrating the tendency of all fisiani to defer to the dominant male. Without the inducements of the head male, no single fisiani dare act alone and the group is helpless to understand even the basics needs of life. This often leads to an almost fascist state of organisation among the rodent-like fisiani, where the young and vulnerable of these burrow dwelling creatures are often left to die and are then eaten by others.
True vto. I usally don’t get invloved with folks like fisiani but I was weak and responded to a trolly type. I think folks like fisiani who get all excited about outmoded authoritarian measures being metred out to those they believe are beneath them don’t get past the smug glee part to the ‘what are the consequences of these measures?” part. They just get stuck at smug glee.
Speaking of trolls, where’s PG these days, did he get a ban? Or did the new approach of non responsiveness of other posters discourage his commenting?
[lprent: Permanent ban. He was doing an circumlocutory attempt to try to tell us how we should run our site yet again. He obviously hasn’t figured out that I (in particular) and the other moderators look at people’s intent rather than the “wording of the law”. Sneaking intending to skirt the intent of our rules just irritates us. Because we’ve all seen how those discussions go in the past and rehashing the usual silly conversation about what the letter of the policy says that follows is too boring to be bothered with. We only give indications of what we’d look for and why we do so. It isn’t a rulebook.
It is actually a lot lot safer to just come out and say “I know that this is probably going to get me banned but I’m going to say it anyway… “. Much of the time when we see that people have thought about and accepted the risk we will leave it up. But of course like all of our policies this is merely a guideline. We like people to assess their own levels of risk. After all they may meet Irishbill who is generally agreed to have the shortest moderating fuse in his sweeps…. ]
Yes David. And about 25 years ago there were plans to also make the Levin Area a major Commercial/Industrial Zone. Rail a key element. Flat ground. Main Highway. Water. Improved commuter access and freight access.
Instead of crowding more and more “stuff” into hilly Wellington why not decetralise?
OH I agree whole heartedly with you as someone who actually lives in Levin. and the article in the local paper has some good ideas. but as usual Nathan Guy is deaf as usual.
Mystery benefactor funds the crafar bid.
Chinese bid to go all the way to the suprime court.
This headline is on the herald site.
Headaches not over for jk and his friends.
cha noe?
-moderation
-noisy apparently
-might get in to trouble….again
imo, RNZ not helpful at times. net helpful.(though i will never forget Kim Hill introducing a musical tribute to a particularly Wonderful New Zealand poet
nothing learns ya like a little bitter experience
now, back to that stoning, could be anywhere These Days (Unknown Pleasures, Closer, Still)
cos u noe wat?…Love will certainly Tear Us Apart
Spread the Love (i confess a fondness for breaking fast every morning with vegemite on wholegrain Burgen)
….o sinner man, where ya gonna run to, o sinner man, where ya gonna run to…..
….When the Stars begin to fall…
Good article in The Guardian explaining the monetary system:
Why, then, are liberals and conservatives alike so fervent in their pursuit of growth?
The reason is that our present money system can only function in a growing economy. Money is created as interest-bearing debt: it only comes into being when someone promises to pay back even more of it. Therefore, there is always more debt than there is money. In a growth economy that is not a problem, because new money (and new debt) is constantly lent into existence so that existing debt can be repaid. But when growth slows, good lending opportunities become scarce. Indebtedness rises faster than income, debt service becomes more difficult, bankruptcies and layoffs rise.
Reckon Jesus had one thing right when he got rid of the money-lenders, even though they got the ultimate revenge.
I believe that many immigrant families finance each other into business virtually interest free but always to mutual benefit.
But hey! What would they know!
they very wise and we trade with by preference where possible
the history of “yellow peril” in this country is shocking
lovely people, go with the flow
At least bankruptcies would destroy debt. Banks are being bailed out at tax payer expense instead of being allowed to go bankrupt. And in the US, declaring bankruptcy does not remove student debt, private or public. You can never escape the debt, in other words = debt servitude.
And in the US, declaring bankruptcy does not remove student debt, private or public.
Doesn’t in NZ either.
You can never escape the debt, in other words = debt servitude.
That’s the way that the financial system has been set up. Even if you don’t have any debt yourself you’re still in debt because the government will be and you’ll be paying the interest of everyone else’s debt as well and all that interest just goes to the few who get to make the loans.
Up again.
Maybe the server had an attack of conscience and killed itself, so they replaced it with one that has a floating morality processor that accepts null values.
Apparently they forgot to renew their familyfirst.co.nz url, so someone else bought it. Now people going to that url are being redirected to a marriage equality site. FF, still own the site that ends in .org.nz
Judith Collins (ACC Minister) has just yesterday announced that Rebstock, former head of the Welfare Working Group, “specialist” trouble shooter in many matters for the Key led government, is going to head the board of ACC for 3 years.
That is very interesting, and one wonders, how that will improve the “culture” that went wrong over recent years, leading to many claimants being presented bizarre decisions and having to rather end up on WiNZ benefits than getting ACC. The mainstream media and government want to pretend to us it was all just an issue re “privacy” of information and NOTHING else. That is total distraction and humbug, as the biggest breach of rights was that ACC relies on biased, not acceptable consultants and assessors, thus breaching natural justice and even statutory law!
There are also other “interesting” persons on that ACC board now. A Dr Des Gorman, also a staunch advocate to enforce a tight regime and to ensure that people do all to try and get back into work, he is also now member of the board of ACC. Once he was in some cases a “consultant” or similar for ACC. He also is a leader of Health Workforce NZ, an organisation within the Ministry of Health, tasked with applying a more “business like” and efficiency driven approach in health care.
Health Workforce also works with the Medical Council and the Royal NZ College of General Practitioners, as I heard. Des Gorman has heaps of influence- this man, being a supposed “professor”, but putting his weight behind what this government wants to force through: Getting sick and disabled to WORK! Not just “roof painting” by the way, real “OPEN employment” (market type jobs on minimum wage or so forth).
A brief documentary screened by TV3 some time ago presented him as a rather unsympathetic medical expert, who apparently wrongly assessed a person with serious disability. Well, he later said, his assessment was not wrong, only ACC interpreted it somewhat incorrectly.
It is worth having a look at this short video on YouTube, and in it also features another “advisor” or “spokesperson” for ACC, who once also worked for MSD or WINZ – alongside Principal Health Advisor Dr Bratt. Both were involved in the “training” of the “designated doctors” that WINZ uses to re-examine and assess sick and disabled applying for benefits.
It’s quite strange, how these familiar faces pop up again and again. With Rebstock at the helm things do not look that great for future claimants to ACC. I would be quite worried.
If there’s one thing that’s holding this country back, it’s that the people who can’t afford to pay the fines they got because they couldn’t afford to pay their car rego because they don’t have a job are missing their court appearances.
Yep that’s the big issue, it just takes a special kind of moron like you to get it all in the right order so it makes sense.
YEAH, WE are all CRIMINALS, ARE WE NOT? WE CANNOT ANY LONGER afford the extortion, so we will ALL one day or later end up at Court, for failing to pay our slavery dues.
That is the ultimate goal of this fucked up society we live in!!!
Typical nat policy: nice bumper sticker, shame the real world is different.
Basically, the bumper sticker is if someone is one the run taunting the cops, then they’re going to miss $200p.w..
Problem: if they do want the money, they’ll access it via eftpos or ATM. Kind’ve tells people exactly where you are. If they don’t want the money, it will have no effect (except for their dependents who are not on the run).
Problem 2: what if the ability to data-match and cut off benefits is greater than the ability or effort to tell a poor person to come in to face some accusations? E.g. tickets, fines or petty complaints, and the person doesn’t have a phone and wasn’t home when someone came knocking? Or can’t read the letters that were sent?
Problem 3: What about their dependents who do not have warrants but do have bills, and the subject has gone bush? Positive effect = zero, negative “collateral” effect = significant.
Stupid policy. But a good bumper sticker for the easily impressed.
Ridiculous
It’s madness to build a system on exceptions. It’s your type of thinking that has this country as benefit dependent as we are.
This is good policy.
Instead of sticking the knife in just because it has a National signature on it – lets applaud it as a step in the right direction, and then look to propose constructive ideas on how the savings this will generate can be used to help those that ACTUALLY need it.
It’s your type of thinking that has this country as benefit dependent as we are.
No, that’s the result of the capitalist free market. Unemployment is, quite literally, used to keep wages down. ~6% is the amount supposedly needed to prevent wage driven inflation.
This is good policy.
No it’s not as what it will do is increase poverty and crime.
…and then look to propose constructive ideas on how the savings this will generate can be used to help those that ACTUALLY need it.
It won’t produce any. In fact, just like all NACT policies, it will cost a tremendous amount and achieve nothing of any good.
Ahh – so we continue to pay criminals to prevent further crime. – Nice one Draco!
The problem with looking at unemployment numbers is that it is a completely different statistic to what is actually available. It constantly frustrates me that there is a belief amongst some that they should earn more from a job than they get on a benefit. I have a family member that I constantly argue with over this.
Ahh – so we continue to pay criminals to prevent further crime.
Yep. You don’t reform criminals if you continue kicking them when they’re down – you hardened criminals instead.
It constantly frustrates me that there is a belief amongst some that they should earn more from a job than they get on a benefit.
That wouldn’t surprise me in the least. You’re obviously the type that thinks people should go to work despite the fact that the job is paying less than what it costs to go to work.
“You’re obviously the type that thinks people should go to work despite the fact that the job is paying less than what it costs to go to work.”
Yep. Tell me what the future prospects are for somebody on the benefit? Surely it would be better to take a job, learn skills, and then perhaps get a raise or promotion? 11 years ago I took a job earning $23k pa that was essential to me improving my position today.
” It constantly frustrates me that there is a belief amongst some that they should earn more from a job than they get on a benefit. ”
vs
” 11 years ago I took a job earning $23k pa that was essential to me improving my position today. ”
More dissonance.
Check out the StatsNZ table builders.
In 2001 the median weekly income was $353, or $18k a year.
For employed people it was $566, or $29k.
The median income for unemployed people was $118 p.w., or $6100p.a.
You took employment in the lower half of the payscales, but it was hardly close to the same rate as being unemployed. You could talk with experience if you worked for $6k a year, not 4 times that.
For a start my two comments that you pasted together below were completely independent to each other. I never suggested I earned less than the benefit – I was merely suggesting that I worked hard in a low paying role to give myself the opportunity to earn a higher wage later on.
Secondly – the unemployment benefit in 2001 was $151 per week – and this was excluding supplements like the accommodation supplement. So your cute little $6k pa comment is completely misleading.
Take it up with stats NZ. Maybe their table builder income stats are wrong. God forbid that maybe people weren’t getting their full entitlement from WINZ.
The point was that you ask more of people today than you were prepared to do yourself. Your anecdote of personal hardship is irrelevant, because it isn’t anywhere near the hardship you would inflict on people who are unemployed today.
In other words you took a job that paid far more than unemployment both then and now, and 11 years later you are still moaning about it. Have you ever looked at what you can actually get from WINZ? Calculate it as a single person in Auckland renting. Maybe 10-11k pa with the best housing tops. Usually more like 8k.
I tell people with serious problems getting employed to move out of Auckland and find a provincial city with seasonal labour. They will halve their costs and can wait for the economy to turn (ie for National to get the boot). I used to tell them to train. But the shutting down of the support for night classes, lack of support from WINZ and the eventual costs of student loans makes that too difficult and risky.
Perhaps your ‘balance’ should involve doing some work – research something perhaps.
I’m may be out of date. But I suspect it is mostly because the last person I helped with with this was under 18. And was that before or after tax – chopping even the lowest rate of tax tends to eat into it.
But in any case it is a bloody far cry from the wealth of 23k 11 years ago – which was the point of my homily….
Quite simply you just have no frigging idea of what people live on. Nor do I particularly. But I do wind up dealing with it periodically with family and friends of friends.
However I try not to make half arsed assertions – the net is always there to do some quick lookups. In fact about the only time I do make assertions is when I am needling someone who is. They always seem to love it when I mix in some educational sarcasm.
And working does lead to opportunity. However you have to be able to get work first. With about 300k effectively unemployed or underemployed there are usually 200 applicants for any kind of unskilled work. It is not quite double what it was in 2001. And proportionally it is something like 3 times the level it wa then amongst 15-25 yo. If you have experience around then why pay for inexperience.
Um – the proposed policy is being built on exceptions: beneficiaries who have outstanding arrest warrants for more than 30 or 40 days.
15,000 warrants.
8k are beneficiaries.
58% of warrants are sorted before the deadline.
So around a quarter to a third of warrants will be affected. Warrants that fit very narrow criteria. Exceptions.
Stupid policy with minimal positive impact but definite negative impact on dependents. Doesn’t seem to “balanced” to call it a step in the right direction.
Nice work in fudging numbers to suit.
The policy is very specific in targeting the beneficiaries that have outstanding warrants. I’m suggesting that the exceptions are those that fall within this group that may have a genuine case as you’ve outlined in your problem 2 and 3 above.
The numbers were in the article linked to in comment 29. If you weren’t easily pleased by bumper stickers, you might have looked at them.
Those “specific” targets are a minority of warrants. Exceptions.
Funnily enough, the article did not have any numbers on e.g. how many warrants were intentionally evaded for more than long enough, vs how many simply went to the wrong address, were not in a form that the subject could understand, or otherwise never reached the attention of the subject. That would have been useful to know, how many people living hand to mouth are suddenly going to lose their income because the system is incompetent at telling them they had a warrant outstanding.
I’m not suggesting the numbers were wrong – just your use of them was misleading.
Why stop there?
Total beneficiaries in NZ at 320k – the 3k targeted are truly the exception.
or
Total population in NZ of 4.5m – the 3k targeted are truly the exception.
The fact is that this policy will target those beneficiaries that have outstanding warrants. The few that have genuinely been unable to present themselves through lack of notice or physical impediment will soon have their situation resolved.
You’re the one who said that “It’s madness to build a system on exceptions”.
Now you’re saying “The few that have genuinely been unable to present themselves through lack of notice or physical impediment will soon have their situation resolved”. Do you have any basis for assuming that? Was it outlined in the article? Have national demonstrated brilliance at forestalling or quickly resolving unexpected policy problems?
Nope. You have blind faith and a love of bumper stickers to reassure yourself that families won’t experience severe hardship as a result of basic administrative failures.
Although digressing do you think that the 1% at the “bottom” echelon of society that this supposedly targets are any more culpable or worse members of society than the “top” 1% that pay next to no tax due to trusts, businesses et al?
Sorta makes for an interesting scenario when looked at through a slightly different lens no?
“Do you have any basis to suggest its the other way like you have?”
Yes.
National have a track record of fucking up implementation of policy, e.g. asset sales, mining, roads, rail.
Bennett is one of their biggest idiots.
WINZ used to (no idea if they do now) not differentiate between bureaucratic errors that resulted in accidental overpayments, and fraud by beneficiaries. To the point of charging people even though the beneficiary had repeatedly tried to give the money back.
There is no differentiation in the bumper sticker between evading fugitives and bureaucratic error / failed to serve or notify of bench warrant.
All of that together does not to me seem to bode well for a collateral-free policy implementation process.
Hi Thatguy – to answer your question – yes I do believe that anybody that has an arrest warrant on them is a worse member of society than someone that is law abiding.
And my answer here in no way suggests that the current laws allowing for the loopholes the rich use are correct.
We should ABSOLUTELY be targeting every NZer and NZ businesses to pay their fair share of tax – especially the top 1% of earners.
But just because the rich are still getting away with it doesn’t mean that this policy doesn’t have merit.
I am happy for there to be a reasonable amount of short term collateral to clear out those abusing the system.
Yep, that’s the difference between us.
Because that collateral damage is food for kids, homes for people who did nothing to bring homelessness upon themselves, and failure to attain the essentials of life.
All to get 3,000 people.
And you know what? If any of those 3,000 had actually done anything serious (more serious than speeding tickets), great effort would have been made by police to arrest them and they would have been snapped up inside a week.
The policy you support, and the collateral damage you accept, is to abuse children in the hope of catching a few people who, even if guilty, didn’t do anything particularly bad.
“A further 1397 people were wanted for failing to appear on violence charges, including various assaults and other acts intended to cause injury, and 152 were wanted on sexual assault charges.”
1: how many of those 1400 have been on the run for 30 days? Oh, the information wasn’t in your link? So the link wasn’t relevant then.
2: how many of those are beneficiaries? Oh, the information wasn’t in your link? So the link wasn’t relevant then.
3: wouldn’t it be cool if the police got an update on the fugitives’ or their aiders and abetters’ locations every benefit pay day? It would give them somewhere to look, down to the ATM. Oh, that would be too sensible? We probably wouldn’t want to let effective criminal pursuit get in the way of poorly-considered vindictiveness.
It’s late, fair enough. But that was a stupidly irrelevant link. You’re grasping or delusional. See you tomorrow.
Usually the ones who have been unable to present themselves are the ones who get screwed over the most. Typically they seem to get picked up on a Friday, sometimes get stashed in cells over the whole weekend, and get absolutely no useful documentation before they hit court on the first sitting day. Most of the time they find out who made the accusation minutes before going into court.
Frequently they will get remanded at the court because they don’t return to court (because someone had their address that was current when they dealt with them but they moved). They will often be lucky to get bail unless someone is willing to organize it for them. That often depends simply on who they can get hold of (which is where I usually get called).
Most of the time the evidence and detail of the charge is in another city. More often than not whatever the issue is, it turns out to be a screwup in the charge. And of course the worst organisation for doing this is WINZ. They routinely overpay, refuse to fix it (or forget that they have been repaid), discover it when they audit years later, and then lay charges.
So by the time it gets “cleared up”, they have probably spent more than a few days in jail, quite a few days in court in status hearings while the file regarding the warrants is resurrected and dusted off and someone found who is prepared to say that the picture of the person in the car was male while the person charged was female… Or that while the warrant has been out for 5 years, but in fact it was a cockup in accounting by WINZ because the money was paid back 6 years ago.
Don’t believe me. Ask any duty lawyers at a busy district court. They see them all of the time. Or talk to police. They do the arresting for the court because they are required to do it even when they know that the warrant is likely to be bogus, but they certainly don’t like it. Or just ask here. There are many who have dealt with this stuff before professionally…
But do some research rather than pulling fairy tales out of your arse – it really just makes you look like a bit of a dork to be so far out of touch with the way society actually operates. At least it does to me and several others I have noted starting to try to educate you.
I’d suggest doing a expedition to your local social work office – the local MP’s electorate office staff. They see the ones that aren’t easy and are snafu’ed to classic proportions. But i’d suggest a Labour MP. The National ones usually aren’t that interested at tht end of the job from what I see from pople migrating across electorates.
The most effective thing that could be done is to force the person making the charge to have to reapply every 6 months to stop the arrest warrant going stale. At present the damn things are never reviewed by the people making the accusations or by the police or court. Frequently you could have things happen like paying a fine but having the warrant still valid. Then be arrested for not paying the fine on a extant warrant. They badly need expiry dates.
“Felix – Surely you’re not against these changes?”
Why yes I am! Do you know why? Because it will achieve nothing apart from the following:
1) Causing further hardship to the vast majority of those with warrants i.e. people with outstanding traffic fines, many of whom will have no idea there has been a warrant issued.
2) Driving the handful of serious offenders with warrants further underground and potentially making them more dangerous, none of whom are going to turn themselves in anyway.
3) Giving idiots like you a tickle.
4) Getting John Key’s massive fail out of the headlines for a few days.
All counterproductive to a better society. Nothing positive achieved. An entirely cynical move by Bennett for the entertainment of fools and bastards.
1) So lets fix the “problem” you believe there is of warrant issuing – rather than being defined by it.
2) So you want to pay the criminals to stop them committing more crime. Terrible idea.
3) I like to be tickled
4) Good point – let’s not do anything productive so we can concentrate on something negative
And I love how everyone has to be defined as left or right and neither side will ever admit that the other does anything positive – no matter how much sense it makes
Yes McF that is a good thing. But it’s not much of a slogan so the slow kids will never get it.
And notice how no-one wants to answer the question of what the policy will actually achieve?
Even BV isn’t quite stupid enough to say that these dangerous violent crims (who tend to be pretty good at making money) are going to volunteer for a long prison sentence for the sake of the pittance of the dole.
I’m pretty sure the line “1981 – Everyone knew what side they were on” is a subtle dig at the PM. Good on them.
Nowadays as a business owner, I tend to lean to the right. But as a 10 year old in ’81 I knew which side I was on. As the child of mixed-race parents I was definitely against the tour. Key’s nonchalant responses to questions about his views on the tour (when he was 20) is something that sticks in my craw.
An NZ Herald ad making a subtle dig at Key like that? Hmmmm. I think, unlikely. NZ Herald top management have had one long JK love-fest.
More likely that the NZ Herald promo people didn’t realise the irony in their construction of NZ identity for the Herald bosses. And the bosses must have OKed the ad.
Sorry to bother, but this (with subtitles) seems to be the hottest hits of the emerging markets, somehow. Really bizarrre, but a bloody good alternative to Hollywoood and Bollywood dumb down wood, I suppose:
as much as Michel Telo as a genious Brasilian musician excites and convinces me, there is a “deficiency” of sorts. And that appears to be beyond repair, he may get young kids sing his songs, but he has to answer, where is YOUR loyalty? That is in a social and collective sense:
So I will stick with the Andean revolution down in South America, to be more faithful of sorts. Nevertheless, never neglect the good music from all quarters!
Obrigador only lost the last Mexican elections to mass media manipulation and fraud!
Mexico could well be another socialist country setting an example against the imperial dominator up north by now, had it not been for media manipulation. We have the same shit in NZ by the way!
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Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Stokan, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County If you live in one of the most economically deprived neighborhoods in your city, you might think the government is directing a smaller share of public funds to your community. ...
Wansolwara The news media’s crucial role in climate change and environment journalism was the focus of The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme 2024 World Press Freedom Day celebrations. The European Union Ambassador to the Pacific, Barbara Plinkert, and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna were the chief ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Adams, Professor of Corporate Law & Academic Director of UNE Sydney campus, University of New England Last August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched legal proceedings against Qantas. The consumer watchdog accused the airline of selling thousands of tickets ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Nasser, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important ligament in the knee. It runs from the thigh bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia) and helps stabilise ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
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The spirit of Syria has his throat cut and his vocal cords ripped out but his song lives on
Time for you to go Bashar
It is the song of a people who will not be slaves again.
Syrian did not consider a damn what would happen in Lebanon, the destruction of that society…
…so why would they sudden care if they did the same to their own country. I had been
wary of Israeli claims to self-defense, but seeing what Syria is, without remorse, killing
children… …time will tell, if Egypt goes right wing fanatical religious, we may yet be all
drawn into a war with at least half of Islam.
Oh fuck off Jenny. Your endless one-sided diatribe about Syria and lack of willingness to listen to anyone else presenting a balanced viewpoint that the Syrian situation isn’t as cut and dried as you make it out to be, has worn thin.
To misquote Les Miserables in this context would be laughable if it wasn’t so ill-informed.
lolz yes Syria was a neoliberal banksters paradise…dreaming mate, just dreaming. Western corporates are just sore that they were never allowed carte banche in Damascus. Which is the opposite of your claims.
Exhibit B….
,
Yala erhal ya Bashar! (Aotea Square)
Amandla Ngawethu! Matla Ke A Rona!
Yawn.
Guy McPhersons latest …. he told ya so as well )
What are we fighting for?
Thu, Aug 30, 2012
http://guymcpherson.com/2012/08/what-are-we-fighting-for/
In my latest essay in this space I mentioned two phenomena worth fighting for: the living planet and freedom based in anarchy. I surrender. I no longer believe the struggle matters on either front.
I no longer think we’ll save the remaining shards of the living planet beyond another human generation. We’ll destroy every — or nearly every — species on Earth when the positive feedbacks associated with climate change come seriously into play (and I’ve not previously considered the increasingly dire prospects of methane release from Antarctica or the wildfire-induced release of carbon from Siberian peat bogs).
The climate-change data, models, and assessments keep coming at us, like waves crashing on a rocky, indifferent beach. The worst drought in 800 years in the western United States is met by levels of societal ignorance and political silence I’ve come to expect. I would be stunned if this valley — or any other area in the interior of a northern-hemisphere continent — will provide habitat for humans five years from now. And climate change is only part of the story.
My trademark optimism vanishes when I realize that, in addition to climate chaos, we’re on the verge of tacking on ionizing radiation from the world’s 444 nuclear power plants. L
The worst drought in 800 years in the western United States is met by levels of societal ignorance and political silence I’ve come to expect. I would be stunned if this valley — or any other area in the interior of a northern-hemisphere continent — will provide habitat for humans five years from now.
I’m glad he has put a specific year prediction out. In five years we will be able to see if he is overstating things (I think he is). I’ve seen other intelligent eotwawki luminaries make this mistake (Sharon Astyk springs to mind), and I suspect it comes from getting tied up too closely up with their own circles of information and discussion.
As for his own part of the world… 800 years ago, there were people living there successfully in that worst drought. Why is that? How is that? From what I know, periodic drought is normal in that part of the world. Is it possible that the people who lived there farmed by taking that into account?
McPherson links to a MSM report about the worst drought in 800 years that mentions the midwest dust bowl, but that, and the current crop failures there, are due to bad farming practices. Yes, there is a drought, but that’s not the real problem here. The real problem here is that agribusiness is not adaptable to its environment, and by its very nature ignores nature and what is happening with things like climate and weather. It has no resiliency. Worse, agribusiness and even most modern traditional farming decreases soil fertility over time and lessens the land’s ability to adapt to drought.
Unlike other systems of food production. Here is a permaculture classic. It’s a small project done in Jordan in 2000. Jordan has a similar amount of rainfall as Arizona, but the place where this project happened has much lower rates than where McPherson lives. This ten minute video shows how food production was established quickly using polyculture techniques that are sustainable over time, that build soil fertility, make best use of water resources, and don’t make the mistakes of conventional agriculture like salinating the soil.
McPherson will be aware of all of this. So it begs the question of why he misuses information. I’m guessing he is trying to scare people into waking up.
Guy may be right, he may be wrong, he has certainly got our attention. I listened to him several times over the last few years, he tends toward the “precautionary” principle. Maybe Guy is involved countering misinformation in a “misinformation world war”.
On whether Guy is deliberately overstating things maybe this headline might make people think.. http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ As the ice melts, and the jet stream moves south, and methane starts bubbling up maybe a precautionary approach should be recommended. I hope Guy keeps calling for that as much as I hope he is wrong. Polar bears might prefer we were not having this debate.
ooohh Robert. Always a pleasure to read your predicitions.
As the struggles no longer matter we may as well give up. I may as well be selfish, forget about society, climb over my mates on the work ladder, avoid paying all tax, vote for oil loving right wing parties, buy a V8, drive really fast, and then go whale hunting.
We are all doomed so lets have some fun in our final year on this earth…
Robert
Your messages of utter desolation and hopelessness are a hōhā. If Māori thought as you we would be extinct already. Quite frankly, if stuck on a waka with you heading into a perfect storm and you started opining ‘we are all doomed’ I would toss you overboard.
Rather than waste C02 spreading negativity, be more constructive, plant another native tree.
Thank you and well said.
(PS what’s a hoha ?)
The Māori dictionary is your friend.
thanks for that
Yeah, Adele.
Never give up, never surrender…..
after all, we may be facing extinction,
but in that case,
what have we got to lose by continuing to try to do something?
That dire individual that was Martin Luther stated “if I knew the world would finish tomorrow I would still plant this sapling today”.
adele.
plant any tree.
pecans.
chestnuts.
oaks.
hickory.
don’t be shy!
Captain
My focus is Indigenous
meaning natives not exotics
I am not shy just adverse
to populating the Southern
Hemisphere with Northern
Hemisphere plants.
Call me hemispherically challenged
if not biased but I have no affinity
to the Northern Hemisphere and
will continue to reinforce the
unique character of our lands
through native plantings
and spurn the exotics
.
Adele
There is realistic optimism and then there is blind optimism.
One looks at the reality, understands the challenge, assesses your resources and cautiously devises some plans to respond.
The other simply attempts to wriggle one’s head a little further up one’s arse.
Looking about the world and the response to the facts Guy is presenting … which one of these two modes do you see dominating?
I try for realistic optimism – I think NZ will be OK if we put in the necessary changes. I think the rest of the world is fucked.
Tēnā koe, Redlogix
I am an optimist generally. I am blind to the problems of the world but realistic to the problems that I am able to positively influence within my own whanau, community, and society in general. My focus is also confined to the environment of Aotearoa and its surrounding oceans.
The reality as I understand it is that life as we know it now may become extinct but life itself will continue – albeit most likely in a different form. The Earth has been witness to at least five extinction events. In the aftermath, new life forms have eventually emerged in all cases. Also, would the human species have emerged without the extinction of the dinosaur?
Humanity has the potential to prevent its own extinction – that it might become extinct speaks to a complete waste of evolutionary advantage found in human intelligence. Perhaps human intelligence is an evolutionary dead-end and in the next iteration we become as bacteria once more.
Ye gods, we all become colonisers.
Perhaps, but it does suggest an answer to the Fermi Paradox 😈
Aye: that technology tends to advance more quickly than a species’ ability to accurately identify the dangers of that technology.
Heh
excellent reference D. drop that bomb on a few more posts
I suppose this is really just whistling in the dark but the NZ Herald is running a poll on whether NZ should go GE or not….You could go vote against on the grounds that its just a couple of mouse clicks worth of effort and then go back to giving all your energy over to despair….
@ Adele. Your comment reminded me of the Ingham twins busy swimming with one other person ( a boyfriend of one I think) through shark infested seas to the far off coast of Western Oz after they somehow ended up in the water. One twin was constantly whining away that it was impossible etc so they cut the rope and let her drift off. When she promised to shut up and keep paddling (or they’d do it again presumably) they hooked her back up…and all made it ashore and got on with their (colourful) lives…..
Poll is here –
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10831507
57% against GE, 32% for, 11% don’t know, so far…
Its good to see the GE discussion happening. Last week we talked about the govt funded biotech agri business meeting that went ahead in Akld. Later that week that Dominion Post published a pro GE article that was reasonbly flawed in its argument. I posted that article open mike last week. Then on Sunday (at least I think it was Sunday), TV3 News had a peice covering a meeting of scientist who were pro GE. It was a very one sided peice. Now we have a counter argument published in the Dom Post on line today. It’s a good solid argument against the push to introduce GE food crops to NZ
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/7612107/GM-free-means-good-sales-for-NZ
NZ had and still has a great opportunity to be a GE free exporter of goods to Europe. That was the vision of the organic industry back in the 90’s, included within the vision of Organic NZ 2020 but it got lost among the powerful influence that agri business has upon Government. With Tim Groser saying recently that we are focusing less on trade with Europe and more on trade with Asia theres not a snowflakes chance that we can achieve the trade of GE food that we are capable of with Europe. A tragic lost opportunity.
Evolution has had eternity to come up with the right answer: GE is a feeble attempt to specifically imitate without consideration of the whole. The sooner it is removed from commercial interests the better.
+1
Yep and you can even speed evolution up by through cross pollination… The seed banks will be invaluable going forward. Modern breeding is focused on appearance vs yield if we went back to species and early cultivars it’s highly likely that much hardier cultivars can be developed.
GE is not required and will end in tears one way or another, the perils of monoculture have been long known…
32% for !!!
What, the worlds population is going to double….Are they still peddling these blatant lies! Even the UN don’t make those claims anymore. The statement, along with what is a clear threat to our exports, should have alarm bells ringing, because that is blatant propaganda/threats of the highest order!
Du Pont – Argh, Monsanto are involved then of course. I wonder how they will ensure that their threats are answered favourably by “our decision makers”!
This is an issue which NZ MUST hold out on, that can’t be emphasised enough!
Hey Muzza,
Couldn’t agree more that our GE feee status remains. You’re right, we must hold out on this issue. But you know, those bully boys aren’t known for backing down, they always get their way. I’m sure “their threats will be answered favourably by our decision makers”.
As we all know we have weak leadership in NZ and its a leadership that only listens to lobby groups that represent their ideology (short term profit at any cost). We know that the National govt doesn’t refer to evidence and research to create policy and shape legislation. So I’d say we’d pretty stuffed if the biotech groups keep up the bullying and pressure.
Even if we did have a change of govt in 2014 it may too late. The Nat govt doesn’t even listen to the authors of reports commissioned by them (eg addressing child poverty) or the industries it should be supporting (eg horticulture NZ as referred to in the Dom Post article posted above). I wouldn’t trust a Labour led govt to keep our land free of GE crops either.
Best case scenario may be that the introduction of GE was delayed and we got a new govt where the voices of the Greens, Mana and even NZ First where strong. Old war dog Winnie may make ones eyes roll but at least he is protective of NZ’s interests. Many years ago I was interested to see him at the book launch of “The poisoning of New Zealand” by Merial Watts. The book discussed the ways in which we are damging our natural environment due to the over use of toxic agricultural pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. You can’t have that conversation without reffering to Monsanto. So our natural environment may be of importance to him. Who knows.
I do know that Monsanto have influenced councils in NZ. Once again I’m referring to the 90’s. Akld council had introduced safe chemical free weed control in the form of the waipuna steam method. It was a win for everyone. Not one to be pushed aside Monsanto immediately cut their wholesale price of roundup, undercutting the waipuna system costs (the costs had previously been the same) and hey presto, back in business with the round up. Thats just a local example from a couple of decades ago. Imagine what they’re capable of now? Sadly, the spectre of GE coming to our shores has arisen again. I don’t think anyone can trust our govt from keeping NZ GE free.
Hi Rosie,
There are a few key topics, where the rubber hits the road, and this is certainly one of the most important.
The GM issue is not about money, it is about gaining total control of the food supplies by way of patents and exclusions, the ramifications for humanity should this happen, are not the sales pitches peddled by these toxic, poisonous, polluting monstrosities!
Think of it this way, the control over food prices etc already happens via commodity exchanges and the like, and used as a weapon against nations around the world. Imagine what can be achieved once human beings are no longer able to grow their own food using natural resources.
NZ’s future well being relies on a number of factors, one of them is that being that we must not allow GM inside our shores, because once that happens, it will be a matter of time before it is used as a weapon against us too.
Food Safety/security Bills/Natural Health Products Bill (who actually writes these anyway?) etc, TPPA….Its about time people started seeing the links, and for that matter the links between industries, for what they are!
Totally hear you Muzza and I fully agree that that control of global food chains is a priority for biotech groups. If they can make a good tidy profit along the way, that will and they do. The ultimate prize is the endless source of profit in food production when all natural methods of cropping plant propagation have been made redundant by gene technology.
And yes, the food bill, no matter how much its implications are played down are a massive threat to our ability to retain personal and community autonomy over food production and seed collection. Over arching that, the TPPA and its consequences for industrial food production in NZ would mean we are rooted as an independant GE free food producing nation. We lose our sovereignty, our access to safe food and our trading advantages.
But we are asleep and the right wing in is the ascendant. So what are our chances to keep our GE status? Pretty slim I’d say.
Monsanto- a bit of greed in every seed.
Excellent
(Terminator seeds-they wont be back and Skynet checking out IP addresses)
u could make this up
Sunny
But we are all Genetically Modified, whether Maori, Pacifica, Pakeha, or any other race in New Zealand.
We cannot stop human modfication.
Should we vote to stop it ?
I don’t think so Fortran. Not unless you’ve been to a laboratory, provided samples of your DNA, had your genetic material spliced with that of another species, lets say a toad, for arguments sake, and then had that new genetic material returned to your body. Thats genetic modification for ya, not the process of breeding.
Technology will set you free….. or not. Is big brother watching you?
Hackers claim to have accessed I-gadget ID’s from FBI computers:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/09/201294155021237214.html
Feds can find me, i am an open book now
Hackers will always be able to outsmart any govt agency or any private or public organisation or social media. Thats why I don’t use face palm or twatter or online banking. I try to minimise my online transactions as much as possible. I know my attempts to protect my privacy aren’t water tight in any way because the sheer amount of information on individuals can’t be contained by the individual themselves.
But still, I’d trust the smarts of hackers over the smarts of agencies, organisations and social media any day.
The main point that AntiSec is making is that warrantless eavesdropping and data collection by the US gov – a complete antithesis to the principles of the democratic republic – appears to be in full swing.
And we know from Wikileaks – and that bad man Julian Assange – that this information is also gathered and used against foreign states, foreign nationals and foreign companies.
Sorry Northern Oz. When they got ashore it wasn’t all roses either….
Naomi Wolf on Assange
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Commentary/2012/Sep-04/186637-assange-aside-swedens-rape-suspects-are-often-left-untouched.ashx#axzz25Stb7LWw
[lprent: Banned for 3 weeks for idiotic link-whoring across posts. ]
Take note Assange Fanboys… that’s how you write about the issue without sacrificing the concerns of women or supporting rape culture.
Dont know how you read it Weka but here is what I read…(Klein) In the Assange case, the Swedish police supported the accusers in legally unprecedented ways – for example, by allowing them to tell their stories together and by allowing testimony from a boyfriend. But other alleged victims of gender-based abuse, sometimes in life-threatening circumstances, typically receive very different treatment.
I endorse Kleins writing because it is typically well researched, accurate and impartial. In this one she quite correctly points out that:
1. Rape is not taken seriously by the Swedish authorities, they fail to pass muster in any respect to the rights of victims.
2. For some reason the Swedish authorities stood this usual stance on its head for Assange.
3. There is a corrupted standard here (Klein) Let me be clear: I am not saying that Assange…..committed no crime against women. Rather, Assange’s case,… is being handled so differently from how the authorities handle all other rape cases that a corrupted standard of justice clearly is being applied.
So to summarise Klein rightly points out that the Swedish authorities are failing rape victims badly, and she points out that she is not convinced of his innocence nor guilt but suspects some other driver for the authorities interest.
So to what you call “Assange Fanboys” (a term pregnant with implications)….does that include those of us who think that Assange should be considered innocent until proven guilty? Does that include us who say if there if a case to answer Assange should definitely face trial? Does it include us who say beware the real motives of the Swedish authorities?
(It’s Wolf not Klein 😉 ).
Bored, I don’t know if you are a Fanboy or not, that’s up to you to say.
What I meant was that Wolf was able to talk about the issue without saying that the women are lying.
She was able to point out that there is something wrong with the investigation into Assange without accusing the women of anything. She is able to do this without engaging in rape myths like consent given once is consent for all time. Or that sex with a sleeping woman without her consent is ok. She doesn’t have to deny the possibility of rape in order to point out that there is something highly unusual with how the authorities are handling this case.
That was my point in the previous discussion on this. I wasn’t saying that Assange is guilty, I was saying that you don’t have to sacrifice the women complainants nor the larger issues around rape in order to talk about the Assange case.
“does that include those of us who think that Assange should be considered innocent until proven guilty?”
I have no idea if Assange is guilty or not. I don’t feel under any obligation to assume either way. The only people who have to assume innocence until proven guilty are the judge and jury and Assange’s lawyers. The media too I guess, but I think it’s more a case of not assuming guilt unless proven, than assuming innocence.
I find the whole innocent until proven guilty thing interesting because people speculate about guilt in public cases all the time. What’s so different about this one?
Very good article and one that explains the issue in a way that makes sense to me.
Hi Weka, Where is the link to John Key’s support the next conflict gaffe?
Fraudian on Klein and Wulf, both brilliant women. Maybe I react harshly to tags like Fanboys….they provoke a reaction, you got one.
I thoroughly agree with you that “you don’t have to sacrifice the women complainants”, and I respect you have no opinion on Assange guilt. What drives my reaction on this case is that regardless of the crime I always believe in “innocence before proven otherwise”. A recent classic was the recent Scott Guy murder case where the accused was found not guilty despite being overwhelmingly convicted in the court of public opinion. (For the record I think Ewen did it but the jury got it right….there was doubt).
To address what I think might be the major gripe on the Assange case with women is that their complaints are not being taken seriously. That is manifestly obvious. We quite correctly throw everything at murder cases, I cannot see why we don’t do the same with rape, domestic violence, common assault. My belief is that they should attract a zero tolerance reaction, and I don’t believe they do. And in all cases the process also brutalises the complainant (that’s another nasty issue).
“Maybe I react harshly to tags like Fanboys….they provoke a reaction, you got one.”
Sorry about that, I was in a hurry and the phrase just jumped out at me. You could always choose to not associate yourself with the term 😉
Bored 9 1 1
Thank you for the good excerpt from Naomi Wolf. It seems to be very measured and reasoned. An excellent comment in the sticky tar patch of emotion aroused from fundamentalists..
thoughts come thoughts go
-Brer Rabbit
And what is it which remains? That’s wisdom.
wikiped Susan Faludi
coded elitist language
Ipso facto has an entry as well
Yeah, pity she didn’t think to try it back in 2010 when she wrote this. I guess the silver lining is that online feminist backlash sometimes works?
ouch
thorny.
That’s fucking bad. I see she even links to the Daily Mail as her source of information about what happened.
In the article Tom linked you can still see the vestiges of the Huffington Post one – she uses the terms ‘accusers’ instead of ‘complainants’.
It casts new light on the Assange situation as a number of posters agree.
ShonKey’s divide and rule strategy of five meetings with specific Iwi on water may be looking a bit sick by end of next week. Interesting how the piece is lurking in business section online rather than front page given the significance.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10831805
Not enough on the real elephant in the room being Rio Tinto’s threatened closure of Tiwai point if they don’t get even more heavily subsidied power.
The party of big business is getting screwed by one while trying to flog off the silverware , but blaming the Maori’s for the delay is a PR gift from above.
That’s John Key telling business owners that Maori concerns will be ignored.
I know a lot of people on here were supportive of maori claiming their water rights, but was it just the beginning? When does it go too far?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1209/S00042/wind-to-be-subject-of-next-treaty-claim.htm
When all resources have been returned to the commons, then that will be far enough.
Wow! it sure is Windy here in Hawkes Bay Aotearoa New Zealand
(“tents”-natural falls regretably)
That’s what needs to happen. The capitalists won’t like it though as it means that they will lose control of the people.
It might save the environment: it is blatantly obvious that capitalism requires growth, and that means that it is at odds with the environment. Land guardianship as opposed to ownership is the only solution I can think of. Interestingly medieval land tenure was based upon sustained productivity and output: the job of the farmers was to retain soil fertility as well as produce, otherwise everybody suffered. Maybe we should nationalise all land and base the rental on retained soil fertility.
they have their own gates
Josh, you have to realise that Maori have been trying for over 150 years to have their treaty rights honoured. If that had happened, and Maori had had access to their land and resources for all those years, been able to rebuild wealth for their people from that, they wouldn’t need to be going after money now (they might still choose to, but that’s a different argument).
European society force Maori to drop their own model of resource management and adopt the capitalist one. They’re just playing pakeha at their own game now. To paraphrase Bill, the easiest way to fix this mess is for pakeha to change how resources are understood, valued and managed. At the moment we use an exploitation model, is there any reason why Maori should not use that too?
Exactly weka. Good on Maori for shoving the game into John Key’s smug mug. They are entirely justified in playing the capitalist game of greed and self and maximising and bugger the rest back at Key. I guess though in playing that game they should realise that if they do what capitalists do they will end up like capitalists – and do they really want to be like that?
+1 100%
As vto illustrates, this is a fishing expedition from Josh the, concerned-for-us-all, racist fisherman. A couple of things should alert the cautious reader:
It’s a press release.
The name and history of the person making the release.
The potential for contentious framing of the claim.
Lack of verifiable facts (see: press release)
Motivation for claim (see: name and history of person making release)
Right now, Josh is sitting back chuckling to himself saying: I knew it, maori are just as bad as capitalists, which means their claims are baseless and we are totally justified in oppressing and dismissing all further concerns.
larf? larf i did. wotta u like, aye, aye?
Rankin couldn’t keep a straight face on Radiolive this morning, pretty funny. Said John Key has let the genie out, it’s all on.
Wow, good on you Uturn, read me like an open book, must know my whole life story by the sounds of it.
Great way to engage with new posters.
“lookin for a hard-headed woman”?
I just did my morning round of the opposition parties’ website news (most articles posted yesterday). The following are of interest to me:
NZ First on the government’s problems with asset sales, saying now is the time for NZers to apply more pressure:
http://nzfirst.org.nz/news/complete-government-back-down-asset-sales-still-possible
Russel Norman on the government’s cosy relationship with Westpac, and the failure to fulfill it’s promise to put the government’s banking contract up for tender:
http://www.greens.org.nz/press-releases/national-s-cosy-relationship-westpac-needs-end
On the Labour website, Clare Curran has a good piece on the lack of FTA TV coverage of the paralympics, something that a public service broadcaster would provide. I heartily agree.
http://www.labour.org.nz/news
David Shearer has a post on asset sales.
Andrew Little provides some good info on the makeup of the ACC board as announced yesterday, and says it is hardly going to oversee a positive culture change:
Mana doesn’t have any new posts up, but Hone’s piece on asset sales, from a couple of days ago, is worth a read if you haven’t already seen it:
http://mana.net.nz/2012/09/govt-backdown-a-victory-for-the-people/
And if you had followed the links to the Written questions that were put to the govt, the answers make interesting reading.
http://www.greens.org.nz/misc-documents/transcript-westpac-questions-written-answer
Well, Simon Power certainly made use of his time as a Minister, cronying up to those Westpac folks!
weka, thanks for the link which features the bit on Key’s latest speech. I watched the interview on TV News, and I have perfectly adequate hearing. What I heard, in spite of his adenoidal tones, was “we welcome the opportunity to co-operate with the US in the next conflicts”, which made me recoil in horror. Thank God, then, for convenient rewrites, now I know what I am “supposed” to believe!
Interesting. Must check out the vid later.
Help link please?
Yeah, I don’t think that was posted by me.
Bugger just found a youtube NZ herald posting with a clearly audible cut in the audio track after “we welcome….
yes, KEYISMS like Bushisms (george dubya is into cycle-ways as well)
Lol times. Wonder when its all over for Key if someone will produce a little book like “Bad President”? Its a book of bushisms. We could have “Bad P.M”. It would be a laugh a minute.
Yep Rosie, perfect. Would be like Bob Jones’ book called, I think, “The achievements of the Third Labour Government” which was a couple of hundred blank pages ha ha ha – think it sold out.
‘Bad Santa’ claws/clause
Sounds like “in that context” to me…. unless the vid’s been doctored.
http://www.3news.co.nz/John-Key-misquoted-by-US-State-Department/tabid/370/articleID/268018/Default.aspx
Get your hearing checked then
Great news from Paula Bennett
Benefits stopped for those with arrest warrants
by Paula Bennett on Wednesday, 5 September 2012 at 12:03 ·
People with outstanding arrest warrants will no longer receive a benefit while evading Police says Social Development Minister Paula Bennett.
“Of the approximately 15,000 people with a current arrest warrant, around 8,200 are on benefits,” says Mrs Bennett.
“If someone has an unresolved arrest warrant we will stop their benefit until they do the right thing and come forward to the authorities.”
“In exceptional circumstances where someone poses a danger to the public, their benefit can be stopped immediately at the request of the Police Commissioner,” says Mrs Bennett.
Around 58 per cent of people clear their arrest warrants within 28 days. Those who don’t will be given 10 days to clear or challenge the warrant before their benefit is stopped, or reduced by fifty per cent if they have dependent children.
People will still be able to apply for hardship assistance for themselves and their children.
“Most people clear their warrants within a month, so 38 days is a reasonable amount of time to step forward and straighten things out,” says Mrs Bennett.
“Once someone has come forward their benefit can be reinstated but there will be clear consequences for people who continually refuse to acknowledge or resolve arrest warrants.”
Yeah, I’m with you fisiani. In fact we should just stop all benefits. Let the useless fuckers shrivel up and die. After all, if they can’t get a job then they shouldn’t be on the dole smoking drugs, boozing up and getting pregnant. Bloody useless no hopers. I think I’m coming around to your way of thinking. If I have to pay them my hard-earned taxes then they can bloody well wash my undies. Usless pricks.
Oh I feel so enlightened now
Or if thats a bit beyond even you fisiani then the dole should be cut when the following occurs. After all, it’s my bloody money they’re spending. If they have got the time or money for any of these things then they don’t deserve the dole.
1. smoking drugs.
2. arrest warrant.
3. speeding ticket.
4. parking ticket.
5. drinking beer.
6. drinking rtds.
7. swearing.
8. being maori or pacific island.
9. wearing hoodies.
10. voting labour.
11. downloading porn.
12. being a gamer.
13. not washing my undies.
14. eating kfc.
you’re a wanker fisiani
So vto you support the state supporting those who break our laws?
So TightyRighty, you support the extreme opposite of implied meaning to avoid understanding?
name people who don’t get state support
like tax doging Act supporters ponzi schemers who are locked up at our expense while still having a luxury life style.
The likes of banks and brash who are on the board of a ponzi scheming company and get off scott free
Insider trading PMs as well Fisanal
Double dipping dipstick finance minister who gets the tax payer to fund his dairy farm expansion
Who was it yesterday that predicted that Key’s announcement of the delay with asset sales would be closely followed by a dog whistle from Bennett?
Man this is dumb. I can just see Paula jerking off on this as much as Fis obviously does.
Most people with arrest warrants against them have no idea that the police had even laid a charge against them. They don’t exactly exert effort finding people with traffic violations (the most common reason). The address on the court paperwork is whatever was on their file at the time the charge sheet was made out and is never changed. That has been the case with most of the people I’m run across who have been arrested with an outstanding warrant. Mostly for speed cameras.
And of course the Paula Bennett appears to be too stupid to do the obvious. With the exception of people on superannuation, other people receiving benefits are required to talk to WINZ periodically at pre-arranged meetings otherwise they lose their benefits. If they are going to do the data matching, then why don’t they simply tell them that the police are looking for them rather than turning off the benefits. After all they’re going to have to do that anyway when a person trying to find out why the benefit has been stopped calls them.
But nope. Being Paula Bennett, they will do it the STUPID and inefficient way that just increases the costs to all concerned.
Except that once their benefit has been stopped and there is no income they might get hungry fisiani. You better hope that you don’t live next door to a criminally inclined hungry person. They might just want to come and bust your door down and raid your fridge and pantry.
So tell us, this new development helps society how?
Shearer and Robertson are not opposed to the new plan.
(0) tear along now
And Shearer and Robertson are paragons of rationality.. Really?
Did you not tune in to Shearer’s recently espoused views of beneficiaries?
*best Attenborough voice*
Here we have the fisiani in his natural habitat demonstrating the tendency of all fisiani to defer to the dominant male. Without the inducements of the head male, no single fisiani dare act alone and the group is helpless to understand even the basics needs of life. This often leads to an almost fascist state of organisation among the rodent-like fisiani, where the young and vulnerable of these burrow dwelling creatures are often left to die and are then eaten by others.
Excellence, naturally
(hows that recursion coming along)
sorry for butting in again, me and my big mouth But
U-Turn: imo, just may be Very Excelllent,i dont want to appear shouting so Very Excellllent
Wow! sister may be too kind
me freakin heart is just gonna leap out one of these days
now i better do something else……Wow……..wow………..
see. is not Time Wonderful-space-time and all that jazz
appeeared to be One hour exactly
Wow! Time
-The White Rabbit
And like I said Fisiani, “this new development helps society how?”
I couldn’t care less what Shearer and Robertson say. They’ve shown their true colours.
Rosie, it is impossible to discuss things with people like fisiani.
They are only capable of shouting useless one-liners from the sideline. And then running away.
They really are pathetic little creatures.
True vto. I usally don’t get invloved with folks like fisiani but I was weak and responded to a trolly type. I think folks like fisiani who get all excited about outmoded authoritarian measures being metred out to those they believe are beneath them don’t get past the smug glee part to the ‘what are the consequences of these measures?” part. They just get stuck at smug glee.
Speaking of trolls, where’s PG these days, did he get a ban? Or did the new approach of non responsiveness of other posters discourage his commenting?
[lprent: Permanent ban. He was doing an circumlocutory attempt to try to tell us how we should run our site yet again. He obviously hasn’t figured out that I (in particular) and the other moderators look at people’s intent rather than the “wording of the law”. Sneaking intending to skirt the intent of our rules just irritates us. Because we’ve all seen how those discussions go in the past and rehashing the usual silly conversation about what the letter of the policy says that follows is too boring to be bothered with. We only give indications of what we’d look for and why we do so. It isn’t a rulebook.
It is actually a lot lot safer to just come out and say “I know that this is probably going to get me banned but I’m going to say it anyway… “. Much of the time when we see that people have thought about and accepted the risk we will leave it up. But of course like all of our policies this is merely a guideline. We like people to assess their own levels of risk. After all they may meet Irishbill who is generally agreed to have the shortest moderating fuse in his sweeps…. ]
Thanks for the explaination Lprent……..
Cool fis you’ll be voting for them then
speak for yourself.
tick-tock. Time for stoning
Bill tries to take credit where it definitely isn’t due…
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/bill-gets-d-for-science-technology.html
Levin for a rail hub??? Not such a silly idea..
http://horowhenuachronicle.apn.co.nz/
Yes David. And about 25 years ago there were plans to also make the Levin Area a major Commercial/Industrial Zone. Rail a key element. Flat ground. Main Highway. Water. Improved commuter access and freight access.
Instead of crowding more and more “stuff” into hilly Wellington why not decetralise?
OH I agree whole heartedly with you as someone who actually lives in Levin. and the article in the local paper has some good ideas. but as usual Nathan Guy is deaf as usual.
Also good for that inevitable magnitude 7
Mystery benefactor funds the crafar bid.
Chinese bid to go all the way to the suprime court.
This headline is on the herald site.
Headaches not over for jk and his friends.
newsflash: Jim Mora,” pet shop boys bigger than simon and garfunkel”.
I dont think so Jim.
Play some music whydoncha?
cha noe?
-moderation
-noisy apparently
-might get in to trouble….again
imo, RNZ not helpful at times. net helpful.(though i will never forget Kim Hill introducing a musical tribute to a particularly Wonderful New Zealand poet
nothing learns ya like a little bitter experience
now, back to that stoning, could be anywhere These Days (Unknown Pleasures, Closer, Still)
cos u noe wat?…Love will certainly Tear Us Apart
Spread the Love (i confess a fondness for breaking fast every morning with vegemite on wholegrain Burgen)
….o sinner man, where ya gonna run to, o sinner man, where ya gonna run to…..
….When the Stars begin to fall…
Good article in The Guardian explaining the monetary system:
Reckon Jesus had one thing right when he got rid of the money-lenders, even though they got the ultimate revenge.
I believe that many immigrant families finance each other into business virtually interest free but always to mutual benefit.
But hey! What would they know!
therein lis the answer.
tis why usury is banned in so much of the world. it is a system that leads directly to poverty and failure.
they very wise and we trade with by preference where possible
the history of “yellow peril” in this country is shocking
lovely people, go with the flow
At least bankruptcies would destroy debt. Banks are being bailed out at tax payer expense instead of being allowed to go bankrupt. And in the US, declaring bankruptcy does not remove student debt, private or public. You can never escape the debt, in other words = debt servitude.
Doesn’t in NZ either.
That’s the way that the financial system has been set up. Even if you don’t have any debt yourself you’re still in debt because the government will be and you’ll be paying the interest of everyone else’s debt as well and all that interest just goes to the few who get to make the loans.
Any idea why the National Party site is down?
Up again.
Maybe the server had an attack of conscience and killed itself, so they replaced it with one that has a floating morality processor that accepts null values.
It had a worm Peter dunne was using it.
More like his insidious offsider PG, recently banned form Red Alert, I think.
Family_first…. not that vigilant, it seems.
Apparently they forgot to renew their familyfirst.co.nz url, so someone else bought it. Now people going to that url are being redirected to a marriage equality site. FF, still own the site that ends in .org.nz
http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/2/article_12242.php
haha…that’s awesome
Kweewee didn’t look all that gay on the news tonight either.
hey macflok.
whats the theme music for the Null values party this year.
FREEFALLING?
Oh dear.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/rnc-primetime-speaker-gave-extensive-powerpoint-on
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/new-zealand-delays-plans-to-sell-stakes-in-energy-companies-after-maori-threaten-legal-action/2012/09/03/c5dbee80-f593-11e1-863c-fe85c95ce4ed_story.html
I was just send this url
Semmes Key has been caught lying again
Talk about conniving and being a liar
I am shocked > NOT
What are you shocked by?
HAS ANYBODY NOTICED what is going on at ACC?
For your information:
Judith Collins (ACC Minister) has just yesterday announced that Rebstock, former head of the Welfare Working Group, “specialist” trouble shooter in many matters for the Key led government, is going to head the board of ACC for 3 years.
That is very interesting, and one wonders, how that will improve the “culture” that went wrong over recent years, leading to many claimants being presented bizarre decisions and having to rather end up on WiNZ benefits than getting ACC. The mainstream media and government want to pretend to us it was all just an issue re “privacy” of information and NOTHING else. That is total distraction and humbug, as the biggest breach of rights was that ACC relies on biased, not acceptable consultants and assessors, thus breaching natural justice and even statutory law!
There are also other “interesting” persons on that ACC board now. A Dr Des Gorman, also a staunch advocate to enforce a tight regime and to ensure that people do all to try and get back into work, he is also now member of the board of ACC. Once he was in some cases a “consultant” or similar for ACC. He also is a leader of Health Workforce NZ, an organisation within the Ministry of Health, tasked with applying a more “business like” and efficiency driven approach in health care.
Health Workforce also works with the Medical Council and the Royal NZ College of General Practitioners, as I heard. Des Gorman has heaps of influence- this man, being a supposed “professor”, but putting his weight behind what this government wants to force through: Getting sick and disabled to WORK! Not just “roof painting” by the way, real “OPEN employment” (market type jobs on minimum wage or so forth).
A brief documentary screened by TV3 some time ago presented him as a rather unsympathetic medical expert, who apparently wrongly assessed a person with serious disability. Well, he later said, his assessment was not wrong, only ACC interpreted it somewhat incorrectly.
It is worth having a look at this short video on YouTube, and in it also features another “advisor” or “spokesperson” for ACC, who once also worked for MSD or WINZ – alongside Principal Health Advisor Dr Bratt. Both were involved in the “training” of the “designated doctors” that WINZ uses to re-examine and assess sick and disabled applying for benefits.
It’s quite strange, how these familiar faces pop up again and again. With Rebstock at the helm things do not look that great for future claimants to ACC. I would be quite worried.
You Tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCecwuwCHb4
Now are you supposedly “sick” and “disabled” not just FAKING IT, or “imagining it”, he and his mates David Bratt, same as Rankin would ask?
Get a wake up call, media and public, this is very, very serious stuff, which is a matter that should be dealt with by a court!
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/benefits-stopped-those-arrest-warrants
About time
If there’s one thing that’s holding this country back, it’s that the people who can’t afford to pay the fines they got because they couldn’t afford to pay their car rego because they don’t have a job are missing their court appearances.
Yep that’s the big issue, it just takes a special kind of moron like you to get it all in the right order so it makes sense.
YEAH, WE are all CRIMINALS, ARE WE NOT? WE CANNOT ANY LONGER afford the extortion, so we will ALL one day or later end up at Court, for failing to pay our slavery dues.
That is the ultimate goal of this fucked up society we live in!!!
Hatred is bloody well growing by the day!!!
Felix – Surely you’re not against these changes?
Typical nat policy: nice bumper sticker, shame the real world is different.
Basically, the bumper sticker is if someone is one the run taunting the cops, then they’re going to miss $200p.w..
Problem: if they do want the money, they’ll access it via eftpos or ATM. Kind’ve tells people exactly where you are. If they don’t want the money, it will have no effect (except for their dependents who are not on the run).
Problem 2: what if the ability to data-match and cut off benefits is greater than the ability or effort to tell a poor person to come in to face some accusations? E.g. tickets, fines or petty complaints, and the person doesn’t have a phone and wasn’t home when someone came knocking? Or can’t read the letters that were sent?
Problem 3: What about their dependents who do not have warrants but do have bills, and the subject has gone bush? Positive effect = zero, negative “collateral” effect = significant.
Stupid policy. But a good bumper sticker for the easily impressed.
Ridiculous
It’s madness to build a system on exceptions. It’s your type of thinking that has this country as benefit dependent as we are.
This is good policy.
Instead of sticking the knife in just because it has a National signature on it – lets applaud it as a step in the right direction, and then look to propose constructive ideas on how the savings this will generate can be used to help those that ACTUALLY need it.
“It’s madness to build a system on exceptions.”
Well said. Its madness to build our welfare system on exceptions. So you must be against this policy and the drug testing policy too?
Completely agree with this policy.
Completely disagree with the drug testing policy.
No, that’s the result of the capitalist free market. Unemployment is, quite literally, used to keep wages down. ~6% is the amount supposedly needed to prevent wage driven inflation.
No it’s not as what it will do is increase poverty and crime.
It won’t produce any. In fact, just like all NACT policies, it will cost a tremendous amount and achieve nothing of any good.
Ahh – so we continue to pay criminals to prevent further crime. – Nice one Draco!
The problem with looking at unemployment numbers is that it is a completely different statistic to what is actually available. It constantly frustrates me that there is a belief amongst some that they should earn more from a job than they get on a benefit. I have a family member that I constantly argue with over this.
Yep. You don’t reform criminals if you continue kicking them when they’re down – you hardened criminals instead.
That wouldn’t surprise me in the least. You’re obviously the type that thinks people should go to work despite the fact that the job is paying less than what it costs to go to work.
“You’re obviously the type that thinks people should go to work despite the fact that the job is paying less than what it costs to go to work.”
Yep. Tell me what the future prospects are for somebody on the benefit? Surely it would be better to take a job, learn skills, and then perhaps get a raise or promotion? 11 years ago I took a job earning $23k pa that was essential to me improving my position today.
” It constantly frustrates me that there is a belief amongst some that they should earn more from a job than they get on a benefit. ”
vs
” 11 years ago I took a job earning $23k pa that was essential to me improving my position today. ”
More dissonance.
Check out the StatsNZ table builders.
In 2001 the median weekly income was $353, or $18k a year.
For employed people it was $566, or $29k.
The median income for unemployed people was $118 p.w., or $6100p.a.
You took employment in the lower half of the payscales, but it was hardly close to the same rate as being unemployed. You could talk with experience if you worked for $6k a year, not 4 times that.
Misleading with numbers again Flockie.
For a start my two comments that you pasted together below were completely independent to each other. I never suggested I earned less than the benefit – I was merely suggesting that I worked hard in a low paying role to give myself the opportunity to earn a higher wage later on.
Secondly – the unemployment benefit in 2001 was $151 per week – and this was excluding supplements like the accommodation supplement. So your cute little $6k pa comment is completely misleading.
Nice try though.
Take it up with stats NZ. Maybe their table builder income stats are wrong. God forbid that maybe people weren’t getting their full entitlement from WINZ.
The point was that you ask more of people today than you were prepared to do yourself. Your anecdote of personal hardship is irrelevant, because it isn’t anywhere near the hardship you would inflict on people who are unemployed today.
In other words you took a job that paid far more than unemployment both then and now, and 11 years later you are still moaning about it. Have you ever looked at what you can actually get from WINZ? Calculate it as a single person in Auckland renting. Maybe 10-11k pa with the best housing tops. Usually more like 8k.
I tell people with serious problems getting employed to move out of Auckland and find a provincial city with seasonal labour. They will halve their costs and can wait for the economy to turn (ie for National to get the boot). I used to tell them to train. But the shutting down of the support for night classes, lack of support from WINZ and the eventual costs of student loans makes that too difficult and risky.
Perhaps your ‘balance’ should involve doing some work – research something perhaps.
lprent
I’m not moaning about it at all.
I have correctly made the point that working leads to opportunity.
And BTW – the WINZ site states that the unemployment benefit would be $10k per year – without any supplements which are also available.
Perhaps you could do some research?
I’m may be out of date. But I suspect it is mostly because the last person I helped with with this was under 18. And was that before or after tax – chopping even the lowest rate of tax tends to eat into it.
But in any case it is a bloody far cry from the wealth of 23k 11 years ago – which was the point of my homily….
Quite simply you just have no frigging idea of what people live on. Nor do I particularly. But I do wind up dealing with it periodically with family and friends of friends.
However I try not to make half arsed assertions – the net is always there to do some quick lookups. In fact about the only time I do make assertions is when I am needling someone who is. They always seem to love it when I mix in some educational sarcasm.
And working does lead to opportunity. However you have to be able to get work first. With about 300k effectively unemployed or underemployed there are usually 200 applicants for any kind of unskilled work. It is not quite double what it was in 2001. And proportionally it is something like 3 times the level it wa then amongst 15-25 yo. If you have experience around then why pay for inexperience.
A damn site better better than paying to go to work which is what you’re demanding of them.
Um – the proposed policy is being built on exceptions: beneficiaries who have outstanding arrest warrants for more than 30 or 40 days.
15,000 warrants.
8k are beneficiaries.
58% of warrants are sorted before the deadline.
So around a quarter to a third of warrants will be affected. Warrants that fit very narrow criteria. Exceptions.
Stupid policy with minimal positive impact but definite negative impact on dependents. Doesn’t seem to “balanced” to call it a step in the right direction.
Nice work in fudging numbers to suit.
The policy is very specific in targeting the beneficiaries that have outstanding warrants. I’m suggesting that the exceptions are those that fall within this group that may have a genuine case as you’ve outlined in your problem 2 and 3 above.
The numbers were in the article linked to in comment 29. If you weren’t easily pleased by bumper stickers, you might have looked at them.
Those “specific” targets are a minority of warrants. Exceptions.
Funnily enough, the article did not have any numbers on e.g. how many warrants were intentionally evaded for more than long enough, vs how many simply went to the wrong address, were not in a form that the subject could understand, or otherwise never reached the attention of the subject. That would have been useful to know, how many people living hand to mouth are suddenly going to lose their income because the system is incompetent at telling them they had a warrant outstanding.
I’m not suggesting the numbers were wrong – just your use of them was misleading.
Why stop there?
Total beneficiaries in NZ at 320k – the 3k targeted are truly the exception.
or
Total population in NZ of 4.5m – the 3k targeted are truly the exception.
The fact is that this policy will target those beneficiaries that have outstanding warrants. The few that have genuinely been unable to present themselves through lack of notice or physical impediment will soon have their situation resolved.
The bad apples however will get what is deserved.
You’re the one who said that “It’s madness to build a system on exceptions”.
Now you’re saying “The few that have genuinely been unable to present themselves through lack of notice or physical impediment will soon have their situation resolved”. Do you have any basis for assuming that? Was it outlined in the article? Have national demonstrated brilliance at forestalling or quickly resolving unexpected policy problems?
Nope. You have blind faith and a love of bumper stickers to reassure yourself that families won’t experience severe hardship as a result of basic administrative failures.
Do you have any basis to suggest its the other way like you have?
Stop being an apologist for poor citizens that fail to comply with societies rules but expect hand outs regardless.
Although digressing do you think that the 1% at the “bottom” echelon of society that this supposedly targets are any more culpable or worse members of society than the “top” 1% that pay next to no tax due to trusts, businesses et al?
Sorta makes for an interesting scenario when looked at through a slightly different lens no?
“Do you have any basis to suggest its the other way like you have?”
Yes.
National have a track record of fucking up implementation of policy, e.g. asset sales, mining, roads, rail.
Bennett is one of their biggest idiots.
WINZ used to (no idea if they do now) not differentiate between bureaucratic errors that resulted in accidental overpayments, and fraud by beneficiaries. To the point of charging people even though the beneficiary had repeatedly tried to give the money back.
There is no differentiation in the bumper sticker between evading fugitives and bureaucratic error / failed to serve or notify of bench warrant.
All of that together does not to me seem to bode well for a collateral-free policy implementation process.
Hi Thatguy – to answer your question – yes I do believe that anybody that has an arrest warrant on them is a worse member of society than someone that is law abiding.
And my answer here in no way suggests that the current laws allowing for the loopholes the rich use are correct.
We should ABSOLUTELY be targeting every NZer and NZ businesses to pay their fair share of tax – especially the top 1% of earners.
But just because the rich are still getting away with it doesn’t mean that this policy doesn’t have merit.
McFlock – I guess your last comment probably sums up nicely the difference between our opinions.
“All of that together does not to me seem to bode well for a collateral-free policy implementation process.”
I am happy for there to be a reasonable amount of short term collateral to clear out those abusing the system.
Yep, that’s the difference between us.
Because that collateral damage is food for kids, homes for people who did nothing to bring homelessness upon themselves, and failure to attain the essentials of life.
All to get 3,000 people.
And you know what? If any of those 3,000 had actually done anything serious (more serious than speeding tickets), great effort would have been made by police to arrest them and they would have been snapped up inside a week.
The policy you support, and the collateral damage you accept, is to abuse children in the hope of catching a few people who, even if guilty, didn’t do anything particularly bad.
Stupid policy.
“A further 1397 people were wanted for failing to appear on violence charges, including various assaults and other acts intended to cause injury, and 152 were wanted on sexual assault charges.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10828060
Flockie – I’m surprised that you are happy to continue paying these offenders each week to be on the run inflicting more pain on society.
lolz.
1: how many of those 1400 have been on the run for 30 days? Oh, the information wasn’t in your link? So the link wasn’t relevant then.
2: how many of those are beneficiaries? Oh, the information wasn’t in your link? So the link wasn’t relevant then.
3: wouldn’t it be cool if the police got an update on the fugitives’ or their aiders and abetters’ locations every benefit pay day? It would give them somewhere to look, down to the ATM. Oh, that would be too sensible? We probably wouldn’t want to let effective criminal pursuit get in the way of poorly-considered vindictiveness.
It’s late, fair enough. But that was a stupidly irrelevant link. You’re grasping or delusional. See you tomorrow.
Ah. Your ignorance and dumb innocence is showing.
Usually the ones who have been unable to present themselves are the ones who get screwed over the most. Typically they seem to get picked up on a Friday, sometimes get stashed in cells over the whole weekend, and get absolutely no useful documentation before they hit court on the first sitting day. Most of the time they find out who made the accusation minutes before going into court.
Frequently they will get remanded at the court because they don’t return to court (because someone had their address that was current when they dealt with them but they moved). They will often be lucky to get bail unless someone is willing to organize it for them. That often depends simply on who they can get hold of (which is where I usually get called).
Most of the time the evidence and detail of the charge is in another city. More often than not whatever the issue is, it turns out to be a screwup in the charge. And of course the worst organisation for doing this is WINZ. They routinely overpay, refuse to fix it (or forget that they have been repaid), discover it when they audit years later, and then lay charges.
So by the time it gets “cleared up”, they have probably spent more than a few days in jail, quite a few days in court in status hearings while the file regarding the warrants is resurrected and dusted off and someone found who is prepared to say that the picture of the person in the car was male while the person charged was female… Or that while the warrant has been out for 5 years, but in fact it was a cockup in accounting by WINZ because the money was paid back 6 years ago.
Don’t believe me. Ask any duty lawyers at a busy district court. They see them all of the time. Or talk to police. They do the arresting for the court because they are required to do it even when they know that the warrant is likely to be bogus, but they certainly don’t like it. Or just ask here. There are many who have dealt with this stuff before professionally…
But do some research rather than pulling fairy tales out of your arse – it really just makes you look like a bit of a dork to be so far out of touch with the way society actually operates. At least it does to me and several others I have noted starting to try to educate you.
I’d suggest doing a expedition to your local social work office – the local MP’s electorate office staff. They see the ones that aren’t easy and are snafu’ed to classic proportions. But i’d suggest a Labour MP. The National ones usually aren’t that interested at tht end of the job from what I see from pople migrating across electorates.
The most effective thing that could be done is to force the person making the charge to have to reapply every 6 months to stop the arrest warrant going stale. At present the damn things are never reviewed by the people making the accusations or by the police or court. Frequently you could have things happen like paying a fine but having the warrant still valid. Then be arrested for not paying the fine on a extant warrant. They badly need expiry dates.
“Felix – Surely you’re not against these changes?”
Why yes I am! Do you know why? Because it will achieve nothing apart from the following:
1) Causing further hardship to the vast majority of those with warrants i.e. people with outstanding traffic fines, many of whom will have no idea there has been a warrant issued.
2) Driving the handful of serious offenders with warrants further underground and potentially making them more dangerous, none of whom are going to turn themselves in anyway.
3) Giving idiots like you a tickle.
4) Getting John Key’s massive fail out of the headlines for a few days.
All counterproductive to a better society. Nothing positive achieved. An entirely cynical move by Bennett for the entertainment of fools and bastards.
1) So lets fix the “problem” you believe there is of warrant issuing – rather than being defined by it.
2) So you want to pay the criminals to stop them committing more crime. Terrible idea.
3) I like to be tickled
4) Good point – let’s not do anything productive so we can concentrate on something negative
I love how the right wing focuses all its time distracting attention on to a few hundred people tops.
And I love how everyone has to be defined as left or right and neither side will ever admit that the other does anything positive – no matter how much sense it makes
As I said, you’re just distracting attention on to a tiny group of people.
A tiny group of violent and sexual offenders that you want the state to continue paying money towards every week.
Of course, paying money into their bank account makes it easier to catch members of that tiny group. Which is a good thing.
Yes McF that is a good thing. But it’s not much of a slogan so the slow kids will never get it.
And notice how no-one wants to answer the question of what the policy will actually achieve?
Even BV isn’t quite stupid enough to say that these dangerous violent crims (who tend to be pretty good at making money) are going to volunteer for a long prison sentence for the sake of the pittance of the dole.
Wow, C73 just proved he’s as intelligent as Fisiani, i.e, as thick two short planks.
Science is awesome.
http://engineering.stanford.edu/news/stanford-biologist-computer-scientist-discover-anternet
Have a watch of this… http://goo.gl/BDLwT
I’m pretty sure the line “1981 – Everyone knew what side they were on” is a subtle dig at the PM. Good on them.
Nowadays as a business owner, I tend to lean to the right. But as a 10 year old in ’81 I knew which side I was on. As the child of mixed-race parents I was definitely against the tour. Key’s nonchalant responses to questions about his views on the tour (when he was 20) is something that sticks in my craw.
Thanks for the link, Beryl.
An NZ Herald ad making a subtle dig at Key like that? Hmmmm. I think, unlikely. NZ Herald top management have had one long JK love-fest.
More likely that the NZ Herald promo people didn’t realise the irony in their construction of NZ identity for the Herald bosses. And the bosses must have OKed the ad.
Sorry to bother, but this (with subtitles) seems to be the hottest hits of the emerging markets, somehow. Really bizarrre, but a bloody good alternative to Hollywoood and Bollywood dumb down wood, I suppose:
as much as Michel Telo as a genious Brasilian musician excites and convinces me, there is a “deficiency” of sorts. And that appears to be beyond repair, he may get young kids sing his songs, but he has to answer, where is YOUR loyalty? That is in a social and collective sense:
So I will stick with the Andean revolution down in South America, to be more faithful of sorts. Nevertheless, never neglect the good music from all quarters!
Obrigador only lost the last Mexican elections to mass media manipulation and fraud!
Mexico could well be another socialist country setting an example against the imperial dominator up north by now, had it not been for media manipulation. We have the same shit in NZ by the way!
Like new work.