Ahead of the New Zealand premiere of his new film The Coming War on China tonight, Pilger said New Zealand was precariously placed in its dealings with the US and China.
Just last week, the Government made ambitious new economic commitments with China, now New Zealand’s biggest trading partner.
Yet New Zealand was undermining this relationship through its growing support for American provocations in the disputed South China Sea, Pilger said.
“This film carries an urgency for New Zealand, which appears to be playing a precarious game,” he told the Herald via email.
I used to laugh at my Dad back in the Vietnam war days, when he had this bee in his bonnet about China ultimately planning to invade NZ. That was part of his and many others’ domino theory back then – first they’ll take Nam, then, before you know it, NZ.
My Dad used to quote Nostradamus about the next big world war including us against China. Pilger now seems to be sounding a bit like my Dad.
Pilger can go stuff himself. He’s concerned about NZ undermining its relationship with China, yet doesn’t seem to have any concern about NZ undermining its relationship with the US.
That shows a fundamental ignorance about the options little powers have with big powers – unless he straight comes out and says “NZ should align with China against the US”.
There’s a Chinese saying “when elephants fight, the grass gets trampled”. NZ is a blade of grass. What we need to do is be small and out of the way enough that nobody wants to stamp on us, and then pivot to the side of the winners at the last minute.
The two opposition parties sit at the same position as they did before the 2014 election, at which Labour plummeted to 25 percent.
Labour’s polling average is up 4 percentage points on its December average, to 30.6 percent, but its running mate, the Greens, fell two points to 11.3 percent.
At the same time National is down three points to 45.7 percent.
That leaves the gap between National and the combined Labour and Greens at 3.8 percentage points, down from 9.4 points in December and 7.4 in February.
The poll keeps New Zealand First, with a March average of 8.7 percent, as the potential kingmaker
“National went on….to cruise back into government [in the 2014 election]”
This is bollocks. Despite massive and disingenuous media coverage in their favour and a disastrous “Moment of Truth” the Nats scraped back in.
As the article says, their current polling leaves them in trouble and the English honeymoon is coming to an end. The Nats can’t get more than 40% under English which leaves them in trouble.
They scraped back in by an act with ACT and United Future. Not a resounding win. Unless as friends of ours who like to just compare National with Labour 2014 as though no other parties matter.
But don’t forget the 4% of wasted votes that went Conservative. It’s fairly safe to say that few of those would otherwise have gone to Labour, most would have otherwise gone Nat or maybe Winnie.
+1 – The Chairman – like the ‘trickle down’ theory – years of the ideology of fake trade, massive reliance on external factors and countries has made little difference to most business but a hell of a mess to local living standards and affordability, and one of our biggest exports… is now profits not goods or services.
Part of the issues is that the people doing the calculations are not looking past the sticker prices and are foolishly and slavishly taught to exclude other factors, jobs, wages, welfare payments, homelessness and crimes (when people have no jobs), etc
Thatcher famously said there is not such thing as society. Labour and Greens need to bring back ‘society, aka community, in their calculations.
Because money is just a commodity, and being loved, accepted, healthy, safe and free to make your own decisions as an individual, community and country and influence those decisions and be listened too, is more important than money for most people.
Caring about local people is now labeled as ‘harmful protectionism’ to be avoided.
I just don’t think Labour has really been able to message that in a modern way.
Their previous messages of tax rises and declining levels of social security with free trade and foreign investment not having to pay their taxes, is not the same message. It’s an unpopular message.
I seem to recall that Paul Holmes thought it would be good for his olive oil business…and everyone was very excited to get those cheap deals on garden furniture at the Warehouse…we’re an easily distracted bunch really….
Seventy-one percent of respondents say the new Kapiti Expressway has either made no difference, or made things worse.
Funny, that’s exactly what local and overseas experience said would happen. Still, I suppose, at least some National Party donors made lots and lots of money.
Have nzta ever solved any long term traffic issues? You think building two highways means bottlenecks just disappear, no they just get shifted somewhere else. I hope that was worth the almost $2 billion dollar spend.
Exactly maui, all it does is shift the traffic jam down the road a bit further.
It is like this farce we have going on with the Waikato Expressway, Hamilton section 17 bridges in a 22 k length of road
nzta are crowing that it will knock 33 minutes off the journey. No it won’t all it will do is to get to the traffic parking area known as the Southern Motorway 33 minutes earlier.
Bottlenecks tend to shift elsewhere when one is playing catch up and construction of the overall roading network has failed to keep up with growth, thus is vastly insufficient. Not to mention, dangerous.
“I hope that was worth the almost $2 billion dollar spend.”
That depends on how much one values life, thus the added safety value the new and improved highway provides.
You please easily – a highway is “fantastic”? There are many adjectives to use, some of them even approving, but if a highlight of your day is the motorway to work then you’re doing life wrong.
We know there are some decent ones because they approached Nicky Hager with their stories and I’m sure the soldier in the item was a decent one too. But there are the other sort too. Around 15 years ago an ex SAS soldier did some computer repair work for me. He took advantage of my next to nothing knowledge of computers to charge me more than an arm and a leg. I’m talking around $200 dollars for a job I later learned was worth less than $50.
“The ethnic makeup of New Zealand’s new intakes of prisoners has set new records.
Maori now make up a higher proportion of all new prisoners than at any time in recorded history.
Ministry of Justice figures released last week showed 56.3 per cent of people imprisoned last year were Maori – the highest proportion since records were available from 1980.”
Unbelievably bad and in so many interconnected and intergenerational ways.
“…Auckland University of Technology law lecturer Khylee Quince said New Zealand courts were “incredibly punitive”. “About half of people in prison in New Zealand are there for property and drug offending. Very few Western nations send people to prison for those types of offences.
the sick thing is Māori will be blamed for it and for not fixing it!!! When clearly the bias is shown and known throughout all stages of the process – from racial profiling, to not enough diversity on the bench, to ingrained systemic bias against Māori, to politicians saying little and doing even less even while they build MORE prisons and let serco-like scum run them.
Oh well keep supporting the Maori party if you think they are working for Maori! Statistic’s show they are not, but hey, if you want to call everyone racist to stop questions being asked about their conduct…..
“Oh well keep supporting the Maori party if you think they are working for Maori! Statistic’s show they are not, but hey, if you want to call everyone racist to stop questions being asked about their conduct…..”
Citation needed for the stats that show the Mp aren’t working for Māori.
So how to get the 2017 edition English and Collins to pay attention to the 2011 versions?
“And he has a surprising ally in Corrections Minister Judith Collins who, on TV3’s The Nation last month, joined Finance Minister Bill English in describing prisons as a “moral and fiscal failure”.
English had said: “Prisons are a fiscal and moral failure. And building more of them on a large scale is something I don’t think any New Zealander wants to see. They want a safer community and they want protection from the worst elements of criminal behaviour, but they don’t want to be a prison colony … It’s the fastest rising cost in government in the last decade and my view is we shouldn’t build any more of them.” ”
Well, I’m a quant guy, so the stats like life expectancy, educational attainment, avoidable hospital admissions, unemployment rates (most socio-economic indicators, really) tell me “yes”, but qualitatively I also have a certain “yes” impression. Even in the deep south.
I’m only guessing here, but II think’s it’s more a cultural/mental issue, 150-200 years ago Maori had to be hard warriors to survive in Aotearoa, only the toughest and hardest Maori survived and prospered.
I do believe that this sort of mindset is still mentally ingrained within Maori today that comes out at times of intense emotional situations(“the red mist”) which leads to all these bad scenarios that end up putting so many Maori behind bars.
I wonder if the answer is eventually over time like the Scots the Maori will just eventually mellow lose that initial fight response and develop other avenues to deal with issues.
I know, right? It was like he distilled fuckedinthehead into such a concentrated form that any possible response was woefully inadequate to the level of pointlessness.
Can’t remember the initial cost kiwi rail put on the repairs to the Gisborne/Wairoa rail line but my maybe was around $4 mil ?
Far too much for this govt! so it set about widening roads/adding passing lanes so those required extra freight trucks could beat the road into gravel, and now this announcement that the rail-bike business deal is all go ahead.
But, but, but………. what about the proposal from the Gisborne business community and the logging company that had freight stacked up just waiting for the line to come back into service?
And the roads, what has been the increase in costs of road repairs since all freight has been on trucks? (never mind the costs of passing lanes etc).
Were Iwi whose land sections of the line are built on consulted? What about the HBRC and the local businesses that had their proposal shat down the crapper?
My only consolation is the barstads haven’t started ripping out the lines already, but the whole sorry saga gets me very, very angry at this govts poor vision and constant fall back position of taking the option that enriches their mates, fuck everyone else.
I guess you’d be thinking of a Friedlander in all of that.
They really do seem to have a ‘grab it while you can’ attitude. Which is why, when we do eventually get a change in government, it’ll be important to just take it all back with no, or little compensation for those involve in what is effectively theft.
(After all ……… “the market the market” etc.)
Flynn’s own words then: “I mean, five people around her have had, have been given immunity, including her former chief of staff,” Flynn told Chuck Todd. “When you are given immunity, that means that you have probably committed a crime.”
“Lookups for immunity spiked over 2500% over the hourly average after The Wall Street Journal reported that a recent national security adviser was interested in the subject.”
“Operation Burnham: the cover-up continues
by Nicky Hager”
Has this been aired?
“Jon Stephenson and I, the authors of Hit and Run, have now had time to study the defence chief’s statements. Our conclusion is that the NZDF criticisms are wrong – with one exception – and that they have failed to address almost everything of substance in the book. This is what a cover up looks like.
1. The raid described in the book “is not an operation the NZSAS conducted”: INCORRECT
“The information presented in Keating’s press conference leaves no doubt that the book and the defence chief are talking about the same raid. Keating gave the name of the raid (Operation Burnham), the times and date (12.30-3.45am on 22 August 2010), the location in the Tirgiran Valley, and said the SAS arrived in two Chinook helicopters, used SAS snipers, found a quantity of ammunition in one building and had one SAS trooper injured by falling debris. All of these are details of the SAS raid publicised first in chapter 3 of the book. There were not two different raids with the same operation name at the same time in the same valley. It is obviously the same raid…….” http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/operation-burnham-the-cover-up-continues
Mr Buchanan has it correct, but if this inquiry is to succeed it has to make sure that the people right at the top who made the decisions are brought to account and not the service personnel who were doing their job at the front line who are punished and made accountable for what happened.
Always the same all through history – no wonder Key did a bunk – slimy toad – of course it was always going to be a bad decision made right at the top of the tree, they are never made accountable. Look at Bush – he has never been made accountable for the terrible decision he made to be the big boy and invade Iraq, how he sleeps at night beggars belief.
Hager and Stephenson need to stay strong and keep on the course and make sure this sees the light of day. Our servicemen men need more support and they never get it – that report on the tours of Afghanistan show how much was lacking in their support, lack of equipment and lack lustre treatment of our service personnel who died out there.
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Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
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). ...
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 ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
In a sitdown interview ahead of his final day at Parliament this week, the former Green Party co-leader tells RNZ about his lowest point during 2017's rough election campaign. ...
Is the fringe radio station really in a financial crisis, or is it just running a hyped-up donation drive? Fringe internet radio station Reality Check Radio was launched by the anti-vaccine mandates group Voices for Freedom in March 2023. For the next year, it undertook probably the most aggressive promotional ...
Above the Fold: On Monday, the biggest Māori screen production company faced down the biggest funder of Māori content at the High Court. It was an incredibly tense moment – then, just as quickly, it resolved. Duncan Greive breaks down a strange day in the screen sector.Yesterday morning, Māori ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 30 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When it comes to talking about the Government’s controversial fast-track consenting process, political scientist Richard Shaw refers to the famous Chinese sci-fi novel Three-Body Problem, while RNZ’s In Depth journalist Farah Hancock talks about zombie projects. Shaw is referring to the three-party coalition Government and how the proposed legislation is ...
Opinion: The debate over single gender versus co-educational schooling has long been controversial. I went to a co-ed school and was inspired by a remarkable woman who was my maths teacher, and because of her deep knowledge and passion for the subject, I knew that maths was definitely an option ...
He won everything and he earned a knighthood and he was a senior literary figure to the point that he was a living monument to himself until his death in the weekend at 86, but there was something about Vincent O’Sullivan that flew under the radar, that was independent and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia The rate of women killed by their partners in Australia grew by 28% from 2021–22 to 2022–23, according to new statistics released today by the Australian Institute of Criminology ...
Ministry of Disabled People employees were promised a permanent role, but were told to start packing three weeks before their fixed term contract finished, says a former employee. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Blakers, Professor of Engineering, Australian National University Clean Energy Council / Neoen As Australia’s rapid renewable energy rollout continues, so too does debate over land use. Nationals Leader David Littleproud, for example, claimed regional areas had reached “saturation point” and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan C. Walsh, Sessional Academic, The University of Queensland Arrest for witchcraft (1866) by John PettieNGV, CC BY-NC In recent decades, governments the world over have increasingly taken action to address the dark history of witch-hunting. In western Europe, memorials to ...
By Mark Rabago, RNZ Pacific Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas correspondent The US Department of Justice is being urged to condemn and cease its reliance on the “Insular Cases” — a series of US Supreme Court opinions on US territories, which have been labelled racist. Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kara Dadswell, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Victoria University Ask your son or daughter, niece, or nephew to draw you a picture of a sport coach. They will most probably draw a man. Why? Our latest research published in the Psychology of Sport ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Rinehart, Professor, Child and Adolescent Psychology, Director, Krongold Clinic (Research), Monash University Shutterstock/Brian A. Jackson “Charlie” is an eight-year-old child with autism. Her parents are worried because she often responds to requests with insults, aggression and refusal. Simple demands, such ...
A rare opportunity to join our team of award-winning journalists. The Spinoff is advertising for a staff writer for the first time in… maybe ever? This is an extremely rare opportunity to join our small team of award-winning writers, covering a range of topics and tones, from the most serious ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hendri Yulius Wijaya, PhD Student in Political Science (Joint Supervision with Business School), The University of Melbourne witsarut sakorn/Shutterstock Around the world, more and more companies are publishing sustainability reports – public scorecards detailing their impacts on society and the environment. ...
News that the great writer Vincent O’Sullivan has died has spurred a wave of tributes. Here, fellow writer Emma Neale remembers her friend and colleague. I have a bright string of memories of Vince. The earliest moments are of sitting as a young student in his lectures on Katherine Mansfield, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natali Pearson, Senior Lecturer, Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, University of Sydney Hence Kertajaya/Shutterstock A lot of the recent talk about maritime issues in Southeast Asia has focused on issues such as security, the Blue Economy, law enforcement and climate change. But ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Ziegler, Collection Manager, Vertebrate Palaeontology, Museums Victoria Research Institute The fossil skeleton in a secluded alcove of the cave.Rob French/Museums Victoria Pitch-black darkness. Crushing squeezes, muddy passages, icy waterfalls. Bats and spiders. Abseiling over ledges into the unknown. How far ...
We remember one of Aotearoa’s towering literary figures, who died on Sunday 28 April. Sir Vincent O’Sullivan, one of Aotearoa’s most prolific writers, has died in Dunedin at the age of 87. His son, Dominic O’Sullivan, shared the news on social media on Sunday 28 April: “Hei aitua hoki, kua ...
Ariana Stevens founded Reo Māori Mai in 2018 to help people connect with te ao Māori through the reo. On Friday she was awarded Tū Rangatira, the supreme award at the Ngā Tohu Reo Māori awards.Te Tai Poutini (the South Island’s West Coast) is often characterised by its remote ...
Bad, bad records are going to be broken this year, and it’s time for business leaders to accept that the transition to a low-carbon economy is going to be spiky, writes business leader Dame Therese Walsh. When I was on the board of the stock exchange, the NZX, a gentleman ...
1 May marks a year since New Zealand’s world-leading ban on live exports by sea came into effect. Instead of it being cause for celebration the anniversary is marred by the Government’s plan to restart the unpopular trade. ...
More than a thousand claims have been lodged with ACC over children, some younger than a year old, being injured by shopping trolleys in the last five years. Stewart Sowman-Lund looks at why.Madeleine Holden was at her local Countdown when she heard something no mother wants to hear: her ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nalini Joshi, Professor of Mathematics, University of Sydney Tavrius / Shutterstock Imagine the tap of a card that bought you a cup of coffee this morning also let a hacker halfway across the world access your bank account and buy themselves ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brigid McCarthy, Lecturer in Journalism, La Trobe University Sports media misogyny was alive and well this month. In just the few short weeks it took for star United States basketball players Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese to shoot their way from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacob Crouse, Research Fellow in Youth Mental Health, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock The core experiences of depression – changes in energy, activity, thinking and mood – have been described for more than 10,000 years. The word “depression” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Wilson, PhD Candidate in Quantum Technology & Innovation Governance, Institue for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney EdBelkin/Shutterstock A landmark legal settlement has once again focused our attention on the dangers of “forever chemicals”. This class of chemicals, technically ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amanda Davies, Professor and Head of School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Australians are having fewer babies, so many fewer that without international migration our population would be on track to decline in just over a decade. In most ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Oscar, Senior Lecturer, Visual Communication, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney /imagine a photograph of a Thai woman, pregnant in a green and white dress with luggage at an airport departure terminal in Bangkok in 1974 with her eyes closed ...
The justice minister will be grilled on NZ’s human rights record at the UN later today, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. NZ’s turn in front of the class At 7pm ...
This week marks the return of Newsroom’s chart-topping investigative podcast, The Boy in the Water, when investigations editor Melanie Reid will take listeners inside the courtroom during the coronial inquest into the death of three-and-a-half year old Lachlan Jones. Lachie was found floating face up in an oxidation pond on the ...
It took Act’s arts spokesman Todd Stephenson 20 minutes to think of a single New Zealand author and a single New Zealand book. The only artistic experience he could think of is that he went to see Hamilton in New York. His only press release on the arts has been ...
If the council isn’t sure if it wants a bigger airport, it probably shouldn’t own hundreds of millions of dollars worth of airport shares. Any fan of a professional sports team, especially in the big-money US and European leagues, knows how much team success relies on the right owner. Good ...
Plagued by industry lobbying and design flaws, the system may be on the chopping block under National. Is it delivering what it says on the box?At the supermarket, a woman with a baby strapped to her front pushes a trolley piled high with groceries, and two young children sit ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 29 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Crown research institute GNS Science is about to officially open its new green hydrogen lab in Lower Hutt. One day it could contribute to making sure that small rural communities cut off by disaster can still power through, with stored green hydrogen used to establish a kind of micro-grid. Michelle ...
Opinion: Artificial intelligence is increasingly part of life, and so are anxieties about how it will change life as we know it. How it will change our jobs is just one aspect of the dystopian future we imagine it is creating. Some, if not many, of these concerns warrant serious ...
Asia Pacific Report A score of Palestine solidarity protesters draped themselves in white shrouds with mock blood in a sombre “die-in” demonstration at Te Komitanga Square — the heart of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city — today as speakers urged people to take a stronger boycott against Israeli products. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Tackling violence against women will be the sole agenda item for a national cabinet meeting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has convened for Wednesday. The meeting, held remotely, follows thousands of Australians attending rallies across ...
The protest outside the White House correspondents’ dinner hotel. Image: Anatolu video screenshot APR More than two dozen Palestinian journalists had called for a boycott of the dinner, writing an open letter urging their American colleagues not to attend. “You have a unique responsibility to speak truth to power and ...
“Our exporters should, therefore, be deeply concerned that the Fast-track Approvals Bill was not assessed for consistency with any of our free trade commitments prior to being introduced to the House,” says Gary Taylor, Chief Executive of the Environmental ...
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff is calling on all political parties to support the new Member’s Bill from Labour’s workplace relations and safety spokesperson Camilla Belich MP that would ensure negligent companies are held accountable when their employees ...
A historian with an uncanny track record of predicting US election winners tells RNZ's Sunday Morning that President Biden looks to be on track for another term, but things could still go very wrong for him. ...
A historian with a track record of predicting US election winners tells RNZ's Sunday Morning that President Biden looks to be on track for another term, but things could still go wrong for him. ...
Ngaio Marsh House is one of Christchurch’s best kept secrets – and contains more than a few mysteries of its own.Trust Ngaio Marsh to leave more than a few mysteries scattered through her house long after her departure. For a start, there’s the curious concrete portal in the garden, ...
Appointment viewing has been lost to the mists of time, but memories of Montana Sunday Theatre can still be conjured by hitting play on a particular piece of classical music. “You’re not going to be able to sell it.” Over 30 years on, Karen Bieleski still recalls how the task ...
Performance Review King Luxon sat behind His massive polished oak desk. It is Performance Review time. There is a knock on the door. “Enter!” says the King. In steps Minister of Disabilities and Carer Pedicures, Penny Simmonds. “I can explain everything …” she begins. “Fine,” says King Luxon, pressing the ...
The pair opened their first fully collaborative exhibition, Nina for Flowers, last Saturday. Gabi Lardies visited their studio to find out who Nina is and what working together was like.‘It didn’t start out like, ‘This is a show about Nina,’” says Josephine Jelicich, gripping a thermos of peppermint tea. ...
Thank you, Dr Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, for your brilliant invention. I’m another mid-20s Kiwi who had an OE last year. I hopped on my bicycle where France meets the Atlantic and cycled east. I pedalled through the Loire Valley, down rivers lined with willows and ancient wisteria-draped chateaus. I relished ...
“Mr Mark John Taylor”, of Hamilton.
A New Zealand citizen who is now classified by the US as a terrorist.
For fighting in Syria and making videos for several years.
Quite a first for us.
Greens’ rivers PR a car crash
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/03/opinion-greens-rivers-pr-a-car-crash.html
That’s a shocking, yet utterly amateurish hatchet job by Isobel Ewing. Just plain stupid.
It does sound like it could have been better planned and organised – seems like a PR screwup for a number of reasons.
John Pilger’s doco is screening soon in NZ (The Coming War with China) .
Pilger says the NZ government is playing a dangerous game – doing war exercises with the US, while also courting China.
I used to laugh at my Dad back in the Vietnam war days, when he had this bee in his bonnet about China ultimately planning to invade NZ. That was part of his and many others’ domino theory back then – first they’ll take Nam, then, before you know it, NZ.
My Dad used to quote Nostradamus about the next big world war including us against China. Pilger now seems to be sounding a bit like my Dad.
Pilger can go stuff himself. He’s concerned about NZ undermining its relationship with China, yet doesn’t seem to have any concern about NZ undermining its relationship with the US.
That shows a fundamental ignorance about the options little powers have with big powers – unless he straight comes out and says “NZ should align with China against the US”.
There’s a Chinese saying “when elephants fight, the grass gets trampled”. NZ is a blade of grass. What we need to do is be small and out of the way enough that nobody wants to stamp on us, and then pivot to the side of the winners at the last minute.
When did RNZ start doing political polling? – Oh – it doesn’t. It does a poll of polls average.
This article on the RNZ website, posted today, has Nats down 3, Labour up 4, Greens down 2 and NZ First the Kingmaker – in their poll of polls.
@Carolyn Thanks for that. From the article:
“National went on….to cruise back into government [in the 2014 election]”
This is bollocks. Despite massive and disingenuous media coverage in their favour and a disastrous “Moment of Truth” the Nats scraped back in.
As the article says, their current polling leaves them in trouble and the English honeymoon is coming to an end. The Nats can’t get more than 40% under English which leaves them in trouble.
“the Nats scraped back in”. Now that really is hilarious.
What parallel universe do you inhabit?
They scraped back in by an act with ACT and United Future. Not a resounding win. Unless as friends of ours who like to just compare National with Labour 2014 as though no other parties matter.
But don’t forget the 4% of wasted votes that went Conservative. It’s fairly safe to say that few of those would otherwise have gone to Labour, most would have otherwise gone Nat or maybe Winnie.
Yes, it’s been consistent over the last three elections that the country is around 7% to the right
It’s you in the parallel universe. Really, check the ejection results. National needed three support parties rather than just one.
Can Labour afford to win the next election?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/91039043/labour-amps-up-pressure-on-donors-warning-campaign-may-be-scaled-back
So what? We all know that Labour is short of funds and we all know that National have many dubious big donors.
“We all know that Labour is short of funds…”
“So what? “
Do you think it will be another nail in their coffin when it comes to the election? Funding is not all they’re short on.
You seem desperate for Labour to fail.
Not at all. But I would prefer to see them move more to the left.
I’d prefer them to nail their colours to the mast.
As the government sets out to renegotiate the China free trade agreement, a survey of businesses found most businesses see no benefit from FTAs.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/91042376/most-businesses-see-no-benefit-from-ftas-many-prefer-protection
+1 – The Chairman – like the ‘trickle down’ theory – years of the ideology of fake trade, massive reliance on external factors and countries has made little difference to most business but a hell of a mess to local living standards and affordability, and one of our biggest exports… is now profits not goods or services.
“One of our biggest exports… is now profits not goods or services”
Indeed, saveNZ. And it seems more company profits are about to head offshore.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/91046612/dunedin-city-council-dumps-councilowned-company-from-20-million-rubbish-contract
Part of the issues is that the people doing the calculations are not looking past the sticker prices and are foolishly and slavishly taught to exclude other factors, jobs, wages, welfare payments, homelessness and crimes (when people have no jobs), etc
Thatcher famously said there is not such thing as society. Labour and Greens need to bring back ‘society, aka community, in their calculations.
Because money is just a commodity, and being loved, accepted, healthy, safe and free to make your own decisions as an individual, community and country and influence those decisions and be listened too, is more important than money for most people.
Caring about local people is now labeled as ‘harmful protectionism’ to be avoided.
I just don’t think Labour has really been able to message that in a modern way.
Their previous messages of tax rises and declining levels of social security with free trade and foreign investment not having to pay their taxes, is not the same message. It’s an unpopular message.
I seem to recall that Paul Holmes thought it would be good for his olive oil business…and everyone was very excited to get those cheap deals on garden furniture at the Warehouse…we’re an easily distracted bunch really….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10502493
Seventy-one percent of respondents say the new Kapiti Expressway has either made no difference, or made things worse.
Funny, that’s exactly what local and overseas experience said would happen. Still, I suppose, at least some National Party donors made lots and lots of money.
One Anonymous Bloke – not surprising at all.
I drove on it last weekend and it was fantastic.
NZTA have always said there would be bottle neck issues until Transmission Gully is completed. It is a great start though.
Have nzta ever solved any long term traffic issues? You think building two highways means bottlenecks just disappear, no they just get shifted somewhere else. I hope that was worth the almost $2 billion dollar spend.
Exactly maui, all it does is shift the traffic jam down the road a bit further.
It is like this farce we have going on with the Waikato Expressway, Hamilton section 17 bridges in a 22 k length of road
nzta are crowing that it will knock 33 minutes off the journey. No it won’t all it will do is to get to the traffic parking area known as the Southern Motorway 33 minutes earlier.
Bottlenecks tend to shift elsewhere when one is playing catch up and construction of the overall roading network has failed to keep up with growth, thus is vastly insufficient. Not to mention, dangerous.
“I hope that was worth the almost $2 billion dollar spend.”
That depends on how much one values life, thus the added safety value the new and improved highway provides.
lol
You please easily – a highway is “fantastic”? There are many adjectives to use, some of them even approving, but if a highlight of your day is the motorway to work then you’re doing life wrong.
http://bv.ms/1JudYgT
Greece’s Highways Are Smoother Than Its Finances
By Marc Champion
Oh look, Herald journos (with probable exception of David fisher) are on an SAS charm offensive.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11829109
We know there are some decent ones because they approached Nicky Hager with their stories and I’m sure the soldier in the item was a decent one too. But there are the other sort too. Around 15 years ago an ex SAS soldier did some computer repair work for me. He took advantage of my next to nothing knowledge of computers to charge me more than an arm and a leg. I’m talking around $200 dollars for a job I later learned was worth less than $50.
Charming.
Dairy is Scary
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/30/dairy-scary-public-farming-calves-pens-alternatives
There was talk of a Chinese company wanting to do this down South a few years back. Does anyone know if they succeeded? God I hope not.
“The ethnic makeup of New Zealand’s new intakes of prisoners has set new records.
Maori now make up a higher proportion of all new prisoners than at any time in recorded history.
Ministry of Justice figures released last week showed 56.3 per cent of people imprisoned last year were Maori – the highest proportion since records were available from 1980.”
Unbelievably bad and in so many interconnected and intergenerational ways.
“…Auckland University of Technology law lecturer Khylee Quince said New Zealand courts were “incredibly punitive”. “About half of people in prison in New Zealand are there for property and drug offending. Very few Western nations send people to prison for those types of offences.
“It’s outrageous.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11828500
the sick thing is Māori will be blamed for it and for not fixing it!!! When clearly the bias is shown and known throughout all stages of the process – from racial profiling, to not enough diversity on the bench, to ingrained systemic bias against Māori, to politicians saying little and doing even less even while they build MORE prisons and let serco-like scum run them.
You have to ask though, why do the Maori party continue to support the Natz in their right wing policies…
Clearly whatever Maori party bribes they are getting are not working out for most Maori…
Oh look marty mars the very next comment by saveNZ fits you prediction “sick thing is Māori will be blamed for it and for not fixing it!!! ”
Gotta love NZ racism, so predictable it hurts
sadly it is very predictable adam
Oh well keep supporting the Maori party if you think they are working for Maori! Statistic’s show they are not, but hey, if you want to call everyone racist to stop questions being asked about their conduct…..
What have you done to help reduce the number of Māori in prison?
He has criticised the elite-favouring Maori party, the reps of the ultra-rich Maori minority who are happy with neo-liberalism.
How has that helped reduce the number of Māori in prison?
A small start…
I don’t see how.
“Oh well keep supporting the Maori party if you think they are working for Maori! Statistic’s show they are not, but hey, if you want to call everyone racist to stop questions being asked about their conduct…..”
Citation needed for the stats that show the Mp aren’t working for Māori.
So how to get the 2017 edition English and Collins to pay attention to the 2011 versions?
“And he has a surprising ally in Corrections Minister Judith Collins who, on TV3’s The Nation last month, joined Finance Minister Bill English in describing prisons as a “moral and fiscal failure”.
English had said: “Prisons are a fiscal and moral failure. And building more of them on a large scale is something I don’t think any New Zealander wants to see. They want a safer community and they want protection from the worst elements of criminal behaviour, but they don’t want to be a prison colony … It’s the fastest rising cost in government in the last decade and my view is we shouldn’t build any more of them.” ”
http://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2011/the-problem-with-prisons/
Yep, but what is English’s solution?
To just make criminals ‘disappear’ like pollution, homelessness and unemployment when their policies are creating them in increasing numbers.
What an illusionist the Natz are…
Billions have been targeted at Maori to improve these sort of terrible statistics yet it’s not improving it’s getting worse, why?
What’s going on? why are Maori fighting society?
Because society is fighting them?
Do you think society is anti-Maori?
Well, I’m a quant guy, so the stats like life expectancy, educational attainment, avoidable hospital admissions, unemployment rates (most socio-economic indicators, really) tell me “yes”, but qualitatively I also have a certain “yes” impression. Even in the deep south.
Do you think it isn’t anti-Māori ?
Big questions with a variety of answers. What do you think the issue is?
I’m only guessing here, but II think’s it’s more a cultural/mental issue, 150-200 years ago Maori had to be hard warriors to survive in Aotearoa, only the toughest and hardest Maori survived and prospered.
I do believe that this sort of mindset is still mentally ingrained within Maori today that comes out at times of intense emotional situations(“the red mist”) which leads to all these bad scenarios that end up putting so many Maori behind bars.
I wonder if the answer is eventually over time like the Scots the Maori will just eventually mellow lose that initial fight response and develop other avenues to deal with issues.
Can’t believe that comment has stood for over an hour and no-one has called you on it by way of simply telling you to fuck off.
“Red mist”? Mellowed Scots? “Initial fight response.”
Where in the name of fuck are you dredging this shit up from?
I started to write something and then decided there was no point. There’s a whole post worth of things to pull apart there.
Yep I wrote a couple of replys but decided it wasn’t worth it.
I know, right? It was like he distilled fuckedinthehead into such a concentrated form that any possible response was woefully inadequate to the level of pointlessness.
Useful tool for debates, especially with those trying to deflect or muddy the waters – http://www.krisconstable.com/logical-fallacies/
Kiwi rail, kiwi rail, kiwi rail………… sigh!
Can’t remember the initial cost kiwi rail put on the repairs to the Gisborne/Wairoa rail line but my maybe was around $4 mil ?
Far too much for this govt! so it set about widening roads/adding passing lanes so those required extra freight trucks could beat the road into gravel, and now this announcement that the rail-bike business deal is all go ahead.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/91041334/new-railbike-tourism-venture-for-mothballed-gisbornewairoa-train-line
But, but, but………. what about the proposal from the Gisborne business community and the logging company that had freight stacked up just waiting for the line to come back into service?
And the roads, what has been the increase in costs of road repairs since all freight has been on trucks? (never mind the costs of passing lanes etc).
Were Iwi whose land sections of the line are built on consulted? What about the HBRC and the local businesses that had their proposal shat down the crapper?
My only consolation is the barstads haven’t started ripping out the lines already, but the whole sorry saga gets me very, very angry at this govts poor vision and constant fall back position of taking the option that enriches their mates, fuck everyone else.
I guess you’d be thinking of a Friedlander in all of that.
They really do seem to have a ‘grab it while you can’ attitude. Which is why, when we do eventually get a change in government, it’ll be important to just take it all back with no, or little compensation for those involve in what is effectively theft.
(After all ……… “the market the market” etc.)
hey, cheers john, for highlighting this.
well said, too, once…
bloody rogues the lot of ’em.
kick the lobbyists out
Flynn’s own words then: “I mean, five people around her have had, have been given immunity, including her former chief of staff,” Flynn told Chuck Todd. “When you are given immunity, that means that you have probably committed a crime.”
It seems he now wants immunity…
http://www.vox.com/2017/3/30/15132280/michael-flynn-immunity-testify
Flynn protegees named as the source of Nunes’ revelation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/politics/devin-nunes-intelligence-reports.html
edit:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8M_IkzXkAEw5c6.jpg
heh
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8NNBfVUIAAEmtR.jpg
“Lookups for immunity spiked over 2500% over the hourly average after The Wall Street Journal reported that a recent national security adviser was interested in the subject.”
https://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/flynn-offers-to-testify-in-exchange-for-immunity-20170330
looks like all of the dumps staff are looking it up
“Operation Burnham: the cover-up continues
by Nicky Hager”
Has this been aired?
“Jon Stephenson and I, the authors of Hit and Run, have now had time to study the defence chief’s statements. Our conclusion is that the NZDF criticisms are wrong – with one exception – and that they have failed to address almost everything of substance in the book. This is what a cover up looks like.
1. The raid described in the book “is not an operation the NZSAS conducted”: INCORRECT
“The information presented in Keating’s press conference leaves no doubt that the book and the defence chief are talking about the same raid. Keating gave the name of the raid (Operation Burnham), the times and date (12.30-3.45am on 22 August 2010), the location in the Tirgiran Valley, and said the SAS arrived in two Chinook helicopters, used SAS snipers, found a quantity of ammunition in one building and had one SAS trooper injured by falling debris. All of these are details of the SAS raid publicised first in chapter 3 of the book. There were not two different raids with the same operation name at the same time in the same valley. It is obviously the same raid…….”
http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/operation-burnham-the-cover-up-continues
And Paul Buchanan in SpinOff has added this :
http://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/31-03-2017/an-inquiry-into-the-hit-and-run-claims-is-now-essential-and-there-is-an-obvious-person-to-lead-it/
Where did all the honest people go?
I think I’m getting jaded.
Mr Buchanan has it correct, but if this inquiry is to succeed it has to make sure that the people right at the top who made the decisions are brought to account and not the service personnel who were doing their job at the front line who are punished and made accountable for what happened.
Always the same all through history – no wonder Key did a bunk – slimy toad – of course it was always going to be a bad decision made right at the top of the tree, they are never made accountable. Look at Bush – he has never been made accountable for the terrible decision he made to be the big boy and invade Iraq, how he sleeps at night beggars belief.
Hager and Stephenson need to stay strong and keep on the course and make sure this sees the light of day. Our servicemen men need more support and they never get it – that report on the tours of Afghanistan show how much was lacking in their support, lack of equipment and lack lustre treatment of our service personnel who died out there.