The Coal Miners march to parliament tomorrow will be a political test for New Zealand’s Parliamentary Environmental Party the Greens.
Will they be up for the challenge?
Can the Greens make common cause with these workers?
Or will the Green Party MPs stand on the sidelines, defensive and impotent and leave the field free for the venal and opportunist, drill it, mine it, frack it lobby, to co-opt this workers movement for justice to their profit driven anti humanity ends?
Spring Creek miner and union delegate Trevor Bolderson said the plan showed the West Coast mine was viable, but the Government would need to provide some financial support to get the mine through the next couple of years.
“We’re travelling to Wellington because we want the Government to understand what closing Spring Creek will mean for the local community.”
The plan was not just about saving jobs, it was about “providing a future for Greymouth”, he said.
“We’re hoping to make them see that the economic and human cost of closing Spring Creek would be unconscionable.”
Huntly East miner and union delegate Brian Lynch said the long-term damage to his community could be just as great if the Government did not step up.
“Solid Energy’s proposal to cancel the Huntly East ventilation project is a very risky and short-term cost-saving strategy that could force the mine to stop production within two years.
“If Huntly East closes the community will suffer a body blow, and the downstream effects on the Glenbrook steel mill could be even greater . . . we’ll be encouraging the Government to see the bigger picture.”
The miners will arrive at Parliament at 12pm tomorrow.
Will the Greens be on the steps of parliament tomorrow at lunchtime to greet the miners and their representatives?
Will the Greens stand with these workers in demanding that the government put serious money into investing in these workers and their families and saving their communities from the failure of the coal industry?
Will the Greens go further and confidently speak from the platform to argue the case that these communities are finished anyway if they stick with coal, and that this money would better instead be used to support these workers into long term viable above ground green industry jobs?
Will the Green MPs have the courage to stand up before this hard and admittedly sceptical audience to expose the coal industry’s lies that the enviromental movement is the anti-jobs and anti-worker lobby?
Will the Greens take this unique opportunity to point out to these mine workers facing unemployment and hardship for their families, that it is a glaring self evident fact, that it is the fossil fuel lobby that cares nothing for jobs or workers? (Just as the fossil fuel lobby couldn’t care less about the environment or even these workers safety if it gets in the way of making profits out them).
Jenny, what is your gripe with the Greens? You sure do appear to be prejudging them. Are you implying that Labour (whom you omit to mention) will be “on the job in force”? How about we wait until tomorrow comes!
Terry I have no gripe with the Greens. In fact I sincerely hope that they do very well tomorrow.
As for not mentioning Labour, (or National). When it comes to, deep sea drilling, or coal mining, or fracking, you could slip a cigarette paper between party policy between these two when it comes to supporting these outmoded and dangerous climate damaging industries. I expect them both to try to make political capital in promising these workers huge future expansion in coal mining in this country, when the facts are, that such promises are simply not sustainable.
As the parliamentary party for the environment, the Greens must have a different approach – Care for the natural environment, balanced with protection of the human environment.
My fear is that in a highly charged emotional atmosphere like this protest at the steps of parliament is likely to be, that the Greens may be intimidated in not even trying to make common cause with these workers. The danger being – if the Greens let their voice be pushed to the sidelines tomorrow, they will be made a scapegoat for the fossil fuel industry’s own inability to provide secure employment.
At the very least, the Greens need to be there, to be able to defend themselves from any attempts at low political misdirection and dishonest scapegoating, by political opportunists of the rightwing fossil fuel lobby.
Even better if the Greens can forcefully make their case for permanent and secure sustainable future proofed jobs that can give these communities a real future in a rapidly changing world.
In the War Against Poverty meet a real Kiwi battler.
Mid-afternoon on RadioLive I caught up with Sam, a “first-time caller” from Kaikohe. Sam told us he’d smashed the windows of his local Work and Income office with a hammer after the staff refused to give him a food parcel. He has been trespassed from the Winz office……
Matt McCarten Herald on Sunday Sept. 9, 2012
Read the full story on the Herald website on WHY why this man twice rode 4Km on a mobility scooter to smash WINZ’s office windows. He is a multiple-amputee publicising his hunger-strike, after brutal WINZ policies resulted in his starvation.
Unfortunately being the technophobe I am having had trouble finding the proper way to link to Matt McCarten’s full article.
So help me out here people…
Believe me – ya gotta read this story.
It has everything, Pathos, Bathos, drama, indomitable courage, and the overcoming of all obstacles to make a life.
Sam did not commit a meaningless act of vandalism, instead he decided to make a political statement.
Read why WINZ were too cowardly to lay charges against Sam, which is what he wanted, least his cause get the oxygen of publicity. Instead WINZ in continuing their policy of silently starving him, (and others), to death in quiet desperation, having trespassed him from their office.
Forget the Para-Olympians this guy is a real Kiwi hero. He deserves to be celebrated in verse and song.
His marathon should be rerun every year so that his campaign against injustice perfidy and greed in a land of plenty is never forgotten.
“Can you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men…..”
So Paul said, “I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than receive.'”
yeah, his story ran on 3news last night, what a trooper… whoever his case manager is, and the centre manager should face disciplinary hearings for cruelty and neglect… winz on the whole have a peculiar way of making you feel second class and it is unacceptable
Yeah but they will probably get a bonus usually. But someone will have to pay the piper for this getting out into the eyes of the public, probably the lowest on the totem pole, on to the dole with them, and not replaced due to savings target, so therefore making a saving at the same time. So really a win win for WINZ.
A University of Otago study using seven years of longitudinal survey data shows that the longer children are living in poor households the more vulnerable they are to poor social and health outcomes.
“The sad reality is that far too many Maori and Pasifika children are affected by poverty and a sure sign in our schools is kids not having lunch or unable to concentrate because they are hungry.
…
“Labour will work alongside community groups to tackle this issue …
…
“I want to encourage principals, parents and community groups to engage with the submission process on the Expert Advisory Group for the Children’s Commission – Solutions to Poverty Report.
– Julie Anne Genter on #justspeak camp for young people wanting a better justice system.
18 hours ago, Kevin Hague was grumpy because: While I’ve been away someone has borrowed my bike, meaning I’ve spent 2hrs putting another one together for my ride
An NZ Greens tweet on marriage equality: Marriage equality sacking is discrimination http://t.co/FBLVFKmA #nzpol
And Kevin Hague on the tobacco industry: The more tobacco industry anti-plain packaging advertising I see, the more excited I am that we are onto a winner
On the NZ First site, Barbara Stewart has a post from a few days about students with disabilities.:
New Zealand First is calling on the Government to urgently amend the criteria so that all students with reading and writing disabilities are able to access extra assistance to sit NCEA exams.
The call comes after it was revealed today that students with “invisible disabilities” such as dyslexia, ADHD and autism are being denied exam assistance by NZQA.
I’m reposting my comment from Bloggers and ripping off content because I posted it late last night, I put a lot of work into it and I want as many people on here to see it as possible. I won’t make a habit of this:
I entered the text of each of the last five posts (skipping the General Debates, Open Mikes, Mental Health Breaks and re-posts of YouTube clips etc) on a number of blogs into this readability index calculator. I didn’t include the blog comments. Wikipedia gives a good explanation of what the Flesch-Kincaid test measures. The lower the reading ease, the more complex. A reading ease score of 0.0-30.0 is best understood by university graduates, while 60.0-70.0 should be easily understood by 15 year-olds and 90.0-100.0 by 11 year-olds. The grade level corresponds to the number of years of education required by a reader to understand a passage.
There seems to be a correlation between the level of comprehension required to understand a post and where the author sits on the political spectrum. It should be remembered, though, that simplicity is not necessarily a vice. Especially when trying to communicate with a large community and trying to persuade them to a particular point of view. Hemmingway, for example, liked short bold sentences.
Edit, you’ll notice up above that some things appear out of order by reading ease level. I sorted the spreadsheet by grade. So obviously the two measures of grade and reading ease aren’t in exact alignment.
Lets not get too smart: if the “left” has to be more educated / literate / intelligent (whatever) to understand our blogs then just maybe we have cut out a large part of the audience we need?
Now thats interesting; Draco keeps referencing Bowally Road and having just read his article on
“Tolerating Islam” i am presently impressed; march on the fifth column
(people may consider the general abstinence from ethanol amongst followers as a Strength)
Josie Pagani for the left and Deborah Coddington for the right on pollie talk after 11am this morning radionz. Listen to the girls mud wrestle – just have to use your imagination. There might be nothing much that’s cerebral and illuminating from this two.
Radio NZ’s political spot just finished and I give credit where credit is due. Josie Pagani out-classed Deborah Coddington on all fronts. Some might say that wouldn’t be hard, but I was still impressed with the depth of her arguments. Deb baby came across quite shallow in comparison.
While I’ve contributed my share of criticism towards the Paganis, you have to be fair to Josie… she has been in a difficult place trying to debate on an equal footing with that bully boy Hooton.
Anne 7.1
Yes I was impressed with the points that Josie Pagani made. Deborah C was as expected. Didn’t she get in the news a decade ago for being actually chased by some Roundtable Romeo? Pity he didn’t catch her and haul her off to his lair permanently.
Didn’t she get in the news a decade ago for being actually chased by some Roundtable Romeo?
Yes, it was the one that died about six months ago. Forgotten his name already. He married the
former ACT president (forgotten her name too) who is currently running the Charter School programme set-up by Banksie boy.
She’s currently married to some fancy Wellington lawyer whose name also escapes me… 🙂
China’s in trouble currently. Ongoing social unrest in the interior which is very rarely reported upon. Overoptimistic economic statistics unashamedly falsified. Western consumer demand for Chinese made products nosediving. And then there seem to be a massively wealthy Chinese elite class, a large number of whom seem to be little more than spendthrift kleptocrats. But it looks like the good times are ending as major Chinese frauds are coming to light.
And of course its the ordinary people – even the younger well educated ones – who are getting the shaft from the people in charge. Tricking a younger generation with aspirational talk and then throwing them away.
sorry D. i know it shows my comparative ignorance, i only know how to copy and paste a link and i do not understand “this” instructions (all computerese to me)
if a helpful person with the time could iterate the necessary steps, i will be your friend long time 🙂
i only studied IT during a second degree (nursing; incomplete due to sociopolitical objections -they tend to bash medical doctors a bit which i found to be unbalanced, all things considered; anti-credentialism is merely a political position for me, i am a realist, most of the time anyway)
I just tried to post a step by step explanation of how to do it, but it is difficult to do because as soon as I put in the codes, the words turn blue and it doesn’t make sense.
I only learnt how to do this a month or so ago, I found this web page easy to understand…keep trying, once you get it, it is easy.
Just so you know…your post will look very messy before you post it, but once you click ‘submit comment’ the jumble disappears and your chosen words turn neatly blue.
Bastard thing, c what i mean that was 6 of them sheez ur mean M8
No 4 did not work, ur steakling them M8!
If I didn’t know better , i’d guess @ the author of that script
From now on I’m gonna delimit with …..
‘skdlthewryijgoehwsjgkphsdfg;phsetor8ghs//////\\***&&&&*!$#$@%#$#!^~(*’
That’ll catch it M8!
Try spaces instead M8!
I just realiased that one worked M8! 🙂
Hey heres an idea for ya, might save ya some grief
Why don’t u use an xml object layer to catch the A tag, it returns and error etc it’s just a comment.
If ya want a hand just mail me the script
write in 20 dif languages
do regexp in my sleep M8!
is it C?, looks like strtok gone wrong too me.
if(*(stringvar)==’ ‘){} help much?
or …
/* a basic strtok, non destructive */
while( *(stringvar++)!=0 ) { /*null term*/
if((char) *(stringvar)==’ ‘){} help much?
}
anyway,
from the CNBC coverage of World Economic Forum: China: The Road Ahead (weather forecast)
(recently moved to an uninsulated house, and man, does it get cold quickly when the clouds come)
Martin Sorrell-2012 5-yr Plan about domestic consumption (market research emphasized)
Lee Kai-Fu-social media instrumental role in China’s reforms-“Schrodingers Cat”
(the authorities do permit freedom of speech on their version of Twitter) and watch it “underwater”
-the projection of colonialist past by the West will stoke fires of ultra-nationalism
(“The Rape of Tokyo”?)
Interesting: Li Daoku-social media disciplining the behaviour of officials and bureaucrats
China’s “Soft Power”-securing food and resources from areas like Latin America, Africa and M.E
Ramzan Kadyrov; now there is an interesting man (u gotta long way to go to approach him Gerry)
“Accent of Money” was excellent imo; plenty of Tulips being erected in Auckland
“Accent of Money”..Ferguson is a total apologist and poster boy for the status quo. Read his book on Empire, he contends that the benefits outweigh the pain. He is of course seeing it from top down, it is mighty murky looking down to the slaves level.
Can someone explain the gap in realities that a western mind can’t see, in a way that a western mind can understand, that the justifiable reply to Innocence of the Muslims is rioting and killing? I understand the basic insults, I don’t understand how they translate into the reaction we’re seeing.
There are also geo-political reasons for the recent violence – long-enmity to the West, economic and social unrest, and agent provocateurs in the Muslim world who are trying to destabilise new Arab leadership. Muddying the water may be these provocateurs’ main game, using the film is just a catalyst for their violence.
Ordinary citizens, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, are caught between these extremes and left shocked by the sudden outpouring of violence, dousing for many what had been the hope of the Arab Spring.
Many Muslims are genuinely incensed by the “Innocence of Muslims”. They see it as blatant attack on their beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and as part of a series of “attacks” and hatred for their religious sanctity.
…
In fact, the overwhelming majority of Muslims do keep away from violence, even if their hearts are torn by deliberate denigration of their Prophet. Britain’s largest Muslim umbrella body, the Muslim Council of Britain (of which I was once head), has called on all parties to halt violence.
Unfortunately, it is the hotheads and idiots, those who act only from heart and not from head, who fall prey to the agent provocateurs.
Uturn: the western media driven propaganda (directed at us) says that the Muslim reaction is all around this video.
Of course that’s bullshit. As Carol suggests this is massively more complicated and has been simmering away close to a boil for many months. The much vaunted “Arab Spring” has left disillusionment and disarray while ongoing US support for dictators (and their replacements) as well as continual use of drone strikes and western military personnel in Muslim countries has angered.
Carol, this is good stuff. The only point I would make is that rather than acting from the heart (so often a caring thing), they are understandably reacting out of raw, bloody, and long frustrated emotion.
Perhaps Uturn we in the “west” being very used to a cultural and lingual tradition that includes such things as “enlightenment thinking”. Logic based upon our cultural framing / premises are where we view this from. It makes no sense to me that because some “western” trouble maker insults the Prophet that a number of Islamics get beaten / killed, but obviously to them it makes sense. So perhaps the frame of reference for Islamics is different to us and we should be very aware of it when blundering into this type of scenario.
Have a read of some European Reformation history, you will not be surprised we used to burn heretics alive, and persecute on a faith basis up until the late 1700s. We in the “west” (despite the “Enlightenment”, and probably because of it) sent millions to the gulag or the death camps based upon some skued logic less than 60 years since. Maybe we examine ourselves a little?
How about the gap in peopl’es minds that they can’t understand just how “mapped” out all this “chaos” is.
Most human beings just want to get along, and exist in peace, while being able to provide some sene of security for themselves/family etc. Those with the guns, money and the ability to reek havoc in such ways to “attempt” to make it to look like its “organic” = That’s your gap!
Our Corporate Media lenses have been honed closely into every detail of chaos, but little discussion in the mainstream around all of those who haven’t reacted that way, the development this weekend of the militia’s being turfed out of their bases by more moderate groups, the mascinations going on in a play for the Western created power vacuum – vested interests made sure the right groups saw this obscure clip, or the fact that again we’re dealing with blowback, the people we armed turning the guns on us once we’ve helped them achieve their / our short term goal or the IMF’s Shock Doctrine agenda in these countries and how these populations feel about the same economic “liberalisation” (read theft) they thought they’d thrown out.
This is seems to be closer to the mainstream view from where I am in the Middle East:
‘Sheikh Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt and one of the world’s most respected Islamic jurists, has called for greater dialogue and tolerance over the growing challenges created by the explosive growth of social-networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
Too often, Sheikh Ali said, internet users trusted the information they were given without checking the facts and the authenticity of sources.’
and
‘He has called for fellow believers to respond to recent controversial portrayals of Mohammed — which he said “spread hatred” — just like the prophet himself would, “through patience and wisdom.’
Watched Keiser interview Mr Stallman re Open Source and what it really means. It is fascinating watching if you are attuned to the “corporate takeover” of our freedom.
1. Banks are “debanking” in the US the bottom 20% of people as they “cost too much to service”…the same is probably happening here. So “Why did we the taxpayer worldwide bail out the banks, yes all 100% of us?????”
2. ISPs are being forced by legislation in the US which we agree to through our trade agreements etc to suspend users “suspected” of breaking the regs / law. So “Are we guilty until proven innocent, guilty but uncharged etc (all sorts of permutations)? ” All sort of adds up to having our freedoms removed with no redress…..
Seems to me the corporatist dictatorship has arrived, not a “black shirt” required. Enforced by legislation through the democratic process, our representatives too gullible or too compliant to resist.
Its a corporate kleptocracy. It been around for a while, but in the last 10 years it has taken on mammoth proportions. In the US there is no division between the political class and the corporate class.
All sort of adds up to having our freedoms removed with no redress…..
Correct, but the redress we have, seems to have been “bred” out of people, they seem to not see/want to see or understand what is going on around them, and what it will mean in coming years.
Seems to me the corporatist dictatorship has arrived, not a “black shirt” required. Enforced by legislation through the democratic process, our representatives too gullible or too compliant to resist.
And all the while people nerdle about hoping that one day it will all miraculously change, without them having to get off their arses.
Correct, but the redress we have, seems to have been “bred” out of people, they seem to not see/want to see or understand what is going on around them, and what it will mean in coming years.
IMO, one of the downsides to an overly complex society is that people really don’t know what’s going on around them because it is too complex. This opens the way for the corruption and dictatorship we see today* as these immoral actions can easily be hidden within the complexity.
* We see it today because it’s become so commonplace over the decades that it can no longer be hidden.
Bored 11
Being compliant and being corrupt – there is probably not a great degree between them. The hint of an after politics directorship, consultancy etc may be enough to sway the decision in favour of the corporate and bye bye first thoughts of service to the people and the country.
Not really! Key has only launched an investigation by the Government Communications Security Bureau because he has to do something. The GCSB is his baby and any results could be highly questionable. As Ira Rothken said; “It all depends on what the results are,” and I wouldn’t be surprised if there is little to no transparency involved at all.
you may have considered my poetic emphasis on the primacy of Prophets then
(blessings and peace be upon their names)
Prophecy-meta-physics-values-ethics-behaviour-ethics-values-metaphysics-Prophecy
(well, i am still at peace with that, although “true” philosophers may find it too simple)
i am only a gardener, after all, which is what i am off to do now 🙂
Will wonders never cease! Lunch ended up all over my keyboard, when I read the Stuff article on this, still laughing but not really surprised having had some dealings with people from that agency.
“He is responsible as Prime Minister for signing off all intercept warrants by GSCB. While it’s been revealed that ‘some’ bugging was done illegally, it is not credible to think that other monitoring by the agency was not signed by the Prime Minister before the raid was carried out.
“This is not about national security. This is about John Key’s own word and whether he has told the truth to New Zealanders,” said David Shearer.
As you say, for once Shearer is quick of the mark and a well worded press release which gets right to the heart of the matter – the fact that Key as PM is the responsible Minister and is supposed to sign off on all intercepts.
Question Time tomorrow will be interesting, but I expect that Key will try and fob off questions on the grounds that it is a matter before the High Court and/or an investigation is underway. Hopefully Key’s claim to have know nothing until the day before the raid in his interview on Campbell Live will come back to haunt him. Must watch CL tonight – Campbell’s quisical look at the end of that interview has always had me wondering what else he knew but was holding back on.
Hope the “Ignorance gets us nowhere” line is also played back on Key!
Also liked the NZF press release which takes a different tack to Shearer’s. Peters will be loving it – and yet some people think that NZF could work with National next term – don’t think so, imo.
Exactly. Stuff now has an updated article saying the Dotcom’s lawyers say it is too early to know how this will affect his case. Halfway down the article also states the Judge Winklemann has called another hearing on Wednesday on the search warrants….
Already it does not ring true that Key had not heard about dot com. He has to be fibbing, big ones too, in the vicinity of liar liar pants on fire fibs …
“Mr Key appears not to care about the security of New Zealanders, and is instead more concerned with photo opportunities, three-way handshakes at rugby games, and prancing down fashion runways.”
This is going to be bigger then Ben Hur its being picked up US blogs (faster the mainstream it seems) it will go viral. Key needs a distraction ( A trade off ) Solid Energy perhaps? it needs equivalence weighting.To much negative news and its only Monday.
Another issue is that during the cross examination of the Police task force officer in charge of the operation,Davidson (dc lawyer) asked what was the ongoing inter officer communications,and from where was the operation being directed from ,he refused to answer and the reasons (where adjourned to chambers) and subsequently suppressed.
Frustratingly, it will be unlikely that we will know the full story. But Hager does say that Key has been a willing partner with the US on security issues.
Can’t wait to hear policy of the next Labour/Greens/Winston Government as to who is going to pay for all the largess once the TOW deals have been settled, so far and in the future.
This will be along with more money for everybody by way of new Winz benefits, along with new child benefits.
School meals (not only breakfast)
Keeping coal mines open (and not earning).
Keeping Railways and workshops open..
New minimum wage –
Keeping all schools open and reducing class ratio.
Reducing the exchange rate by control.
Paying for water, air, and flora and fauna.
No fracking or mineral exploration (no new coal mines).
Changing the fishing quota and not allowing foreign crewed vessels.
Paying for Auckland’s rail links and new lines.
Reducing fuel costs.
Getting rid of Overseas Banks.
And continuing to fund taxpayer money to Christchurch (to those uninsured also).
Am sure other expectations can be explored.
Well, we could stop borrowing $330 million a week to subsidise the rich for starters. Then we can probably afford most of the things on your list, Fortran.
Also please add buying Fisher & Paykal appliances and maybe the crafar farms after sale and also buying back the public share of the any assets. Quite a bit really.
Fartrain! It will work better than the brighter future
School meals < $19million
Railway work shops open< $20million
New minimum wage will increase job numbers treasury figures and increase tax take!
Reducing exchange rate will increase jobs profits and tax take
Paying for water right wing councils already want to some are!
Why have new coal mines when you are closing them now!
Fish and crews means our fish stocks will stay higher making them more sustainable more money for our economy in the long run!
Rail links and line will mean we can keep Infrastructure costs down and are between 18 and 50 times cheaper than private cars that's not including the cost of owning and maintaining a car!
Like the above reducing fuel costs will bring down our balance of payments deficit making our currency cheaper and more competitive!
Getting rid of overseas banks that won't happen they are way to powerful
We are already paying for CHCH we are also paying the interest on the $10 billion bill!
Im constantly amazed as to how Keys govt in the house refer to the faults of the previous govt as being Labours when they ,National, are the previous govt or was the election such a non event that they still feel no sense of responsibility for the shit they are dumping on those who have no way forward under this second term of right wing bullshit that is so far out of date in its policies that america will probably have to take us over to make sure we are still on the page over where we live in the world .
How can Key profess that he has not read the police report on Banks , is he not the minister in charge of the SIS ? Hello .
Then we have Bennett and her continual bee in her bonnet policies .Does she forget that poor people need a break from their toddlers as we as the rich and being poor walkin them to a child care and broadening the kids outlook cant be too costly because it only takes seven years to set a childs behaviour for life
How fucked up is her sense of values ?
Interesting that Phil Goff reckons that NZ should not give up the independence developed since the nuclear free stance. And he reckons the National government won’t go that far either:
Building on progress over the last decade, it was a welcome further move. A strong and warm relationship with the US makes sense given its influence in the world and shared commitments on values like democracy and human rights.
But from my and Labour’s perspective, it does not place us on a path to resume alliance commitments, or nuclear ship visits.
New Zealand has moved on from there. Labour’s strong belief in speaking with an independent voice based on our values and interests has become part of the mainstream New Zealand belief system.
That’s why even though it might prefer to do so, National won’t openly signal a move back to alliances and nuclear ship visits.
As a small country, New Zealand gains respect and influence not by echoing anyone else’s voice but by taking considered and principled stands on international issues.
Nuclear ship visits, return to ANZUS or permanent stationing of US troops here would not be compatible with New Zealand’s desire to be seen as having an independent voice.
Rejecting permanent stationing is good, but it leaves things open to temporary stationing of US troops here.
Building on progress over the last decade, it was a welcome further move. A strong and warm relationship with the US makes sense given its influence in the world and shared commitments on values like democracy and human rights.
Democracy and Human Rights….Phil shows he has actually lost his mind completely!
Send in the drones Goff they call him these days….Thats what Phil means when he refers to democracy and human rights.As I have posted some time back, Phil was on the radio saying that America should drone Syria, he was positively begging them to do so!
Piss off Phil you career leech, have the UN not offered you the crony career politician role yet!
I urge readers to take half an hour and read journalist Keith Hunter’s website story COUQ and his invitation to ex- Detective inspector Bruce Hutton to sue.
very sad this matter ( i choose not to watch the “investigator ” . his delivery puts me off
(same as that fool minority-basher Wishart; read a couple of his books and thought puh lease already!)
Agreed re Wishart, but Wishart is a serial conspiracy theorist, this appears to be a deliberate attempt to seriously mislead the NZ public, using public money, and the most likely instigators would appear to be the NZ police.
Unless you’re an Ostrich with your head firmly buried in the sand, you’ll be aware that New Zealand has a pervasive and growing poverty problem that is largely being ignored by the current government…
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Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shireen Morris, Associate Professor and Director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School, Macquarie University Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock Foreign interference in Australian democracy poses a growing risk to our national sovereignty. It refers to coercive, corrupt or ...
A defendant charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing has been scheduled for 14 August 2024. ...
What to say when pesky journalists ask gotcha questions like ‘can you name a single book you’ve ever read?’ and ‘did you read it, or did you just see the movie?’This week, Act Party arts spokesperson Todd Stephenson foolishly agreed to an interview with Newsroom’s Steve Braunias regarding his ...
Explainer - What will a ban on cellphones in schools achieve? Can students use them during lunch breaks? And what happens if you need to contact your child? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum, UNSW Sydney Jodi Rowley, CC BY-NC-ND In winter 2021, Australia’s frogs started dropping dead. People began posting images of dead frogs on social media. Unable to travel to investigate the deaths ...
In the year ended March 2024, 0.4 percent of home transfers were to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship or a resident visa, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wasay Majid, Research Assistant , University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau New Zealand’s accommodation supplement scheme is facing scrutiny, with Social Development Minister Louise Upston recently saying “there is merit in considering whether the current settings are fair and sustainable long-term”. The ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor The first prime ministerial candidate has been announced in Solomon Islands and it is not Manasseh Sogavare. The man of the hour is Jeremiah Manele, the MP for Hograno/Kia/Havulei constituency in Isabel Province, who served as minister of foreign affairs in the last government. ...
Protesting the removal of bins by leaving piles of your dog’s shit for others to deal with doesn’t make you a hero – it’s precious and entitled behaviour. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve stood on the shoreline of Auckland’s Cheltenham beach, desperately trying to scoop increasingly liquid dog shit ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon will be alert to the factors driving the dire polling, but won't be waving the white flag just yet, RNZ political editor Jo Moir writes. ...
Writer, teacher and academic Vincent O’Sullivan died on Sunday 28 April. Here we gather tributes from friends, colleagues, and students who remember his extraordinary contributions. I went down to the garage tonight. There was a bird shrieking out in the bush, in the dark, maybe a kākā. Miraculously, through the ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a burnt-out corporate escapee explains how she gets by ‘working as little as possible’. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 31 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Contractor in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Schmidt, Professor of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney Albert Russ / Shutterstock The icebreaker of many a barbeque conversation is something like “what do you do for a crust?” “I teach chemistry at university,” is what we usually reply. Then silence. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology, Monash University Shutterstock Sexual harassment is often considered to be a person-to-person act, but new research shows Australians are also experiencing and perpetrating workplace harassment in large numbers through technology. Our latest study shows one ...
A petition signed by more than 16,500 people, demanding the government take stronger action to halt the genocide of Palestinians by the State of Israel, is being presented to the House of Representatives today by Hon Phil Twyford. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University jenmartin/Shutterstock April has been a bad month for the Australian environment. The Great Barrier Reef was hit, yet again, by intense coral bleaching. And Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek delayed ...
Winston Peters might not give a ‘rat’s derriere’ about last night’s poll, but it revealed the unusual absence of a honeymoon period and little payoff for the government’s action plan approach, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco de Jong, Lecturer, Law School, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Details released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act reveal New Zealand officials have been considering involvement in AUKUS from the outset. ...
The government's treatment of Māori raised eyebrows, with countries saying New Zealand needed to do more to reduce health, education and justice inequities. ...
The age of criminal responsibility was one of numerous human rights issues raised during Aotearoa New Zealand’s UPR. Other key themes were racism and discrimination, the disproportionate representation of Māori in prison, and to uphold the UN Declaration ...
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 ...
It’s a ride that’s lasted almost 30 years for mother and daughter BMX riders Nancy and Toni James, and the next stop is the World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Almost 27 years ago, Nancy and her husband Gerrard took their oldest child, Daniel, to the Waitākere BMX Club. ...
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 ...
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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 ...
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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, ...
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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 ...
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The Coal Miners march to parliament tomorrow will be a political test for New Zealand’s Parliamentary Environmental Party the Greens.
Will they be up for the challenge?
Can the Greens make common cause with these workers?
Or will the Green Party MPs stand on the sidelines, defensive and impotent and leave the field free for the venal and opportunist, drill it, mine it, frack it lobby, to co-opt this workers movement for justice to their profit driven anti humanity ends?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7719822/Last-ditch-bid-to-save-mine-jobs
Will the Greens be on the steps of parliament tomorrow at lunchtime to greet the miners and their representatives?
Will the Greens stand with these workers in demanding that the government put serious money into investing in these workers and their families and saving their communities from the failure of the coal industry?
Will the Greens go further and confidently speak from the platform to argue the case that these communities are finished anyway if they stick with coal, and that this money would better instead be used to support these workers into long term viable above ground green industry jobs?
Will the Green MPs have the courage to stand up before this hard and admittedly sceptical audience to expose the coal industry’s lies that the enviromental movement is the anti-jobs and anti-worker lobby?
Will the Greens take this unique opportunity to point out to these mine workers facing unemployment and hardship for their families, that it is a glaring self evident fact, that it is the fossil fuel lobby that cares nothing for jobs or workers? (Just as the fossil fuel lobby couldn’t care less about the environment or even these workers safety if it gets in the way of making profits out them).
Jenny, what is your gripe with the Greens? You sure do appear to be prejudging them. Are you implying that Labour (whom you omit to mention) will be “on the job in force”? How about we wait until tomorrow comes!
Terry I have no gripe with the Greens. In fact I sincerely hope that they do very well tomorrow.
As for not mentioning Labour, (or National). When it comes to, deep sea drilling, or coal mining, or fracking, you could slip a cigarette paper between party policy between these two when it comes to supporting these outmoded and dangerous climate damaging industries. I expect them both to try to make political capital in promising these workers huge future expansion in coal mining in this country, when the facts are, that such promises are simply not sustainable.
As the parliamentary party for the environment, the Greens must have a different approach – Care for the natural environment, balanced with protection of the human environment.
My fear is that in a highly charged emotional atmosphere like this protest at the steps of parliament is likely to be, that the Greens may be intimidated in not even trying to make common cause with these workers. The danger being – if the Greens let their voice be pushed to the sidelines tomorrow, they will be made a scapegoat for the fossil fuel industry’s own inability to provide secure employment.
At the very least, the Greens need to be there, to be able to defend themselves from any attempts at low political misdirection and dishonest scapegoating, by political opportunists of the rightwing fossil fuel lobby.
Even better if the Greens can forcefully make their case for permanent and secure sustainable future proofed jobs that can give these communities a real future in a rapidly changing world.
It will be interesting to see what transpires.
Speaking truth to power
Matt McCarten hits one out of the park.
In the War Against Poverty meet a real Kiwi battler.
Read the full story on the Herald website on WHY why this man twice rode 4Km on a mobility scooter to smash WINZ’s office windows. He is a multiple-amputee publicising his hunger-strike, after brutal WINZ policies resulted in his starvation.
Unfortunately being the technophobe I am having had trouble finding the proper way to link to Matt McCarten’s full article.
So help me out here people…
Believe me – ya gotta read this story.
It has everything, Pathos, Bathos, drama, indomitable courage, and the overcoming of all obstacles to make a life.
Sam did not commit a meaningless act of vandalism, instead he decided to make a political statement.
Read why WINZ were too cowardly to lay charges against Sam, which is what he wanted, least his cause get the oxygen of publicity. Instead WINZ in continuing their policy of silently starving him, (and others), to death in quiet desperation, having trespassed him from their office.
Forget the Para-Olympians this guy is a real Kiwi hero. He deserves to be celebrated in verse and song.
His marathon should be rerun every year so that his campaign against injustice perfidy and greed in a land of plenty is never forgotten.
“Can you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men…..”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz-government/news/article.cfm?c_id=144&objectid=10835837
Hi Jenny,
I hope the above link to Matt’s column about Sam, from yesterday’s Herald works.
This article provides a bit of direct input from Sam.
http://www.northernadvocate.co.nz/news/hunger-strike-a-protest/1554152/
great post Jenny
oops, forgot (before a warming shower, brrrrgh!)
So Paul said, “I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than receive.'”
Thanks, Jenny, now you are getting back on track!
yeah, his story ran on 3news last night, what a trooper… whoever his case manager is, and the centre manager should face disciplinary hearings for cruelty and neglect… winz on the whole have a peculiar way of making you feel second class and it is unacceptable
Yeah but they will probably get a bonus usually. But someone will have to pay the piper for this getting out into the eyes of the public, probably the lowest on the totem pole, on to the dole with them, and not replaced due to savings target, so therefore making a saving at the same time. So really a win win for WINZ.
As for the rest of us? whats next?
‘eres wots next; closing the likes of McKenzie Residential School (along with disability exam support)-eugenics by a 1000 cuts?
Not a lot on new on the opposition parties websites since yesterday morning.
Nanaia Mahuta on the Labour Party site has a statement about the links between poverty and education:
http://www.labour.org.nz/news/poverty-hurting-our-kids%E2%80%99-education
No new posts on the Greens site, though the Green Feed on the right side of the screen has recent tweets
http://www.greens.org.nz/
– Julie Anne Genter on #justspeak camp for young people wanting a better justice system.
18 hours ago, Kevin Hague was grumpy because:
While I’ve been away someone has borrowed my bike, meaning I’ve spent 2hrs putting another one together for my ride
An NZ Greens tweet on marriage equality:
Marriage equality sacking is discrimination http://t.co/FBLVFKmA #nzpol
And Kevin Hague on the tobacco industry:
The more tobacco industry anti-plain packaging advertising I see, the more excited I am that we are onto a winner
On the NZ First site, Barbara Stewart has a post from a few days about students with disabilities.:
http://nzfirst.org.nz/news/students-learning-disabilities-snubbed-government
It is happening to students with disabilities in Aus too-Naplan test
Running late for a job, but here’s a good summary + link-fest on the major issue with the recent ENCODE paper:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/09/23/the-encode-delusion/
(Which I didn’t pick up fully as I skimmed the paper /herpderp)
Also I haz another science gripe, but work is at 9am.
I’m reposting my comment from Bloggers and ripping off content because I posted it late last night, I put a lot of work into it and I want as many people on here to see it as possible. I won’t make a habit of this:
I entered the text of each of the last five posts (skipping the General Debates, Open Mikes, Mental Health Breaks and re-posts of YouTube clips etc) on a number of blogs into this readability index calculator. I didn’t include the blog comments. Wikipedia gives a good explanation of what the Flesch-Kincaid test measures. The lower the reading ease, the more complex. A reading ease score of 0.0-30.0 is best understood by university graduates, while 60.0-70.0 should be easily understood by 15 year-olds and 90.0-100.0 by 11 year-olds. The grade level corresponds to the number of years of education required by a reader to understand a passage.
There seems to be a correlation between the level of comprehension required to understand a post and where the author sits on the political spectrum. It should be remembered, though, that simplicity is not necessarily a vice. Especially when trying to communicate with a large community and trying to persuade them to a particular point of view. Hemmingway, for example, liked short bold sentences.
Anyway, ranked from most complex to least:
Bowalley Road Grade: 15.8; Reading ease: 20
The Standard Grade: 14.4; Reading ease: 36.6
Gordon Campbell Grade: 14.2; Reading ease: 34.2
Bryce Edwards Grade: 13.8; Reading ease: 35.2
Frogblog Grade: 13.2; Reading ease: 38.8
Public Address Grade: 13; Reading ease: 40.2
Pundit Grade: 13; Reading ease: 41.2
Red Alert Grade: 13; Reading ease: 41.2
Tumeke Grade: 12.6; Reading ease: 40.6
John Armstrong Grade: 12.4; Reading ease: 40.2
John Roughan Grade: 12.4; Reading ease: 41
Whale Oil Grade: 11.6; Reading ease: 49.4
Kiwiblog Grade: 9.4; Reading ease: 53.8
A spreadsheet with links to the individual posts and their scores is here.
Pete also did a nice comparison example out of the Herald Online and Stuff 🙂
http://thestandard.org.nz/bloggers-and-ripping-off-content/comment-page-1/#comment-525188c
Lets not get too smart: if the “left” has to be more educated / literate / intelligent (whatever) to understand our blogs then just maybe we have cut out a large part of the audience we need?
workin on me parsimony
good to know. will keep short in time to come.
[ Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 1. Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 101.]
Now thats interesting; Draco keeps referencing Bowally Road and having just read his article on
“Tolerating Islam” i am presently impressed; march on the fifth column
(people may consider the general abstinence from ethanol amongst followers as a Strength)
Josie Pagani for the left and Deborah Coddington for the right on pollie talk after 11am this morning radionz. Listen to the girls mud wrestle – just have to use your imagination. There might be nothing much that’s cerebral and illuminating from this two.
Radio NZ’s political spot just finished and I give credit where credit is due. Josie Pagani out-classed Deborah Coddington on all fronts. Some might say that wouldn’t be hard, but I was still impressed with the depth of her arguments. Deb baby came across quite shallow in comparison.
While I’ve contributed my share of criticism towards the Paganis, you have to be fair to Josie… she has been in a difficult place trying to debate on an equal footing with that bully boy Hooton.
Anne 7.1
Yes I was impressed with the points that Josie Pagani made. Deborah C was as expected. Didn’t she get in the news a decade ago for being actually chased by some Roundtable Romeo? Pity he didn’t catch her and haul her off to his lair permanently.
Didn’t she get in the news a decade ago for being actually chased by some Roundtable Romeo?
Yes, it was the one that died about six months ago. Forgotten his name already. He married the
former ACT president (forgotten her name too) who is currently running the Charter School programme set-up by Banksie boy.
She’s currently married to some fancy Wellington lawyer whose name also escapes me… 🙂
Anne
Got all of that. 😛
When China Rules The World
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_China_Rules_the_World:_The_End_of_the_Western_World_and_the_Birth_of_a_New_Global_Order
(testing link moderation)
China’s in trouble currently. Ongoing social unrest in the interior which is very rarely reported upon. Overoptimistic economic statistics unashamedly falsified. Western consumer demand for Chinese made products nosediving. And then there seem to be a massively wealthy Chinese elite class, a large number of whom seem to be little more than spendthrift kleptocrats. But it looks like the good times are ending as major Chinese frauds are coming to light.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-09-03/thieving-thieves
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/how-chinas-rehypothecated-ghost-steel-just-vaporized-and-what-means-world-economy
And of course its the ordinary people – even the younger well educated ones – who are getting the shaft from the people in charge. Tricking a younger generation with aspirational talk and then throwing them away.
http://www.economywatch.com/economy-business-and-finance-news/ant-tribe-china-university-grads-not-finding-jobs.16-02.html
The auto-moderator doesn’t like raw links which means you should be reading this.
sorry D. i know it shows my comparative ignorance, i only know how to copy and paste a link and i do not understand “this” instructions (all computerese to me)
if a helpful person with the time could iterate the necessary steps, i will be your friend long time 🙂
i only studied IT during a second degree (nursing; incomplete due to sociopolitical objections -they tend to bash medical doctors a bit which i found to be unbalanced, all things considered; anti-credentialism is merely a political position for me, i am a realist, most of the time anyway)
I just tried to post a step by step explanation of how to do it, but it is difficult to do because as soon as I put in the codes, the words turn blue and it doesn’t make sense.
I only learnt how to do this a month or so ago, I found this web page easy to understand…keep trying, once you get it, it is easy.
Just so you know…your post will look very messy before you post it, but once you click ‘submit comment’ the jumble disappears and your chosen words turn neatly blue.
I see what u mean , hey lp , i can’t ev
//(0-0)\\\
Bastard thing, c what i mean that was 6 of them sheez ur mean M8
No 4 did not work, ur steakling them M8!
If I didn’t know better , i’d guess @ the author of that script
From now on I’m gonna delimit with …..
‘skdlthewryijgoehwsjgkphsdfg;phsetor8ghs//////\\***&&&&*!$#$@%#$#!^~(*’
That’ll catch it M8!
Try spaces instead M8!
I just realiased that one worked M8! 🙂
Hey heres an idea for ya, might save ya some grief
Why don’t u use an xml object layer to catch the A tag, it returns and error etc it’s just a comment.
If ya want a hand just mail me the script
write in 20 dif languages
do regexp in my sleep M8!
Fixed a Chinese char laptop by pure feel once
It was all menu driven
is it C?, looks like strtok gone wrong too me.
if(*(stringvar)==’ ‘){} help much?
or …
/* a basic strtok, non destructive */
while( *(stringvar++)!=0 ) { /*null term*/
if((char) *(stringvar)==’ ‘){} help much?
}
copy to null…
while( *(var1) != 0 ) *(var2) = *(var1++);
Thankyou. will look into it. 🙂
anyway,
from the CNBC coverage of World Economic Forum: China: The Road Ahead (weather forecast)
(recently moved to an uninsulated house, and man, does it get cold quickly when the clouds come)
Martin Sorrell-2012 5-yr Plan about domestic consumption (market research emphasized)
Lee Kai-Fu-social media instrumental role in China’s reforms-“Schrodingers Cat”
(the authorities do permit freedom of speech on their version of Twitter) and watch it “underwater”
-the projection of colonialist past by the West will stoke fires of ultra-nationalism
(“The Rape of Tokyo”?)
Interesting: Li Daoku-social media disciplining the behaviour of officials and bureaucrats
China’s “Soft Power”-securing food and resources from areas like Latin America, Africa and M.E
Ramzan Kadyrov; now there is an interesting man (u gotta long way to go to approach him Gerry)
“Accent of Money” was excellent imo; plenty of Tulips being erected in Auckland
“Accent of Money”..Ferguson is a total apologist and poster boy for the status quo. Read his book on Empire, he contends that the benefits outweigh the pain. He is of course seeing it from top down, it is mighty murky looking down to the slaves level.
and “they” intend to keep the slaves heads down, nose to the grindstone
Can someone explain the gap in realities that a western mind can’t see, in a way that a western mind can understand, that the justifiable reply to Innocence of the Muslims is rioting and killing? I understand the basic insults, I don’t understand how they translate into the reaction we’re seeing.
Try here Uturn. It’s a complex situation with various interwoben tensions and power-plays and strands of resistance:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/09/2012918112920274722.html
Extract from the article:
Uturn: the western media driven propaganda (directed at us) says that the Muslim reaction is all around this video.
Of course that’s bullshit. As Carol suggests this is massively more complicated and has been simmering away close to a boil for many months. The much vaunted “Arab Spring” has left disillusionment and disarray while ongoing US support for dictators (and their replacements) as well as continual use of drone strikes and western military personnel in Muslim countries has angered.
i am not worthy 🙁
Carol, this is good stuff. The only point I would make is that rather than acting from the heart (so often a caring thing), they are understandably reacting out of raw, bloody, and long frustrated emotion.
Perhaps Uturn we in the “west” being very used to a cultural and lingual tradition that includes such things as “enlightenment thinking”. Logic based upon our cultural framing / premises are where we view this from. It makes no sense to me that because some “western” trouble maker insults the Prophet that a number of Islamics get beaten / killed, but obviously to them it makes sense. So perhaps the frame of reference for Islamics is different to us and we should be very aware of it when blundering into this type of scenario.
Have a read of some European Reformation history, you will not be surprised we used to burn heretics alive, and persecute on a faith basis up until the late 1700s. We in the “west” (despite the “Enlightenment”, and probably because of it) sent millions to the gulag or the death camps based upon some skued logic less than 60 years since. Maybe we examine ourselves a little?
Uturn,
How about the gap in peopl’es minds that they can’t understand just how “mapped” out all this “chaos” is.
Most human beings just want to get along, and exist in peace, while being able to provide some sene of security for themselves/family etc. Those with the guns, money and the ability to reek havoc in such ways to “attempt” to make it to look like its “organic” = That’s your gap!
interpretation of the scripture and latent hostility to US/Western oppression?
“Lawyers, Guns and Money”-Warren Zevon
Our Corporate Media lenses have been honed closely into every detail of chaos, but little discussion in the mainstream around all of those who haven’t reacted that way, the development this weekend of the militia’s being turfed out of their bases by more moderate groups, the mascinations going on in a play for the Western created power vacuum – vested interests made sure the right groups saw this obscure clip, or the fact that again we’re dealing with blowback, the people we armed turning the guns on us once we’ve helped them achieve their / our short term goal or the IMF’s Shock Doctrine agenda in these countries and how these populations feel about the same economic “liberalisation” (read theft) they thought they’d thrown out.
http://world.time.com/2012/09/22/the-revolt-of-benghazis-moderates-will-the-rest-of-libya-follow/
http://www.juancole.com/2012/09/free-libya-crowds-in-benghazi-rally-against-militias-drive-al-qaeda-out-of-city.html
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/NI14Dj01.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/sep/21/egypt-turmoil-distraction-imf-economic-agenda?CMP=twt_gu
this is an interesting video of a Muslim talking about the reaction from his perspective
http://www.juancole.com/2012/09/calm-muslim-berates-violent-muslims-for-defaming-islam-and-being-suckers.html
Greenwald on spin
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/20/obama-officials-spin-benghazi-attack
and another Muslim on the Salifist extremism fanning the flames
http://www.juancole.com/2012/09/tunisian-muslim-leader-warns-of-dangers-of-violent-fundamentalism.html
Some one insulted their Father bud.
Happens in a war torn country when you lose all your family.
Thanks for the links and insight, guys. Who needs the MSM when the TS team is on the case?
This is seems to be closer to the mainstream view from where I am in the Middle East:
‘Sheikh Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt and one of the world’s most respected Islamic jurists, has called for greater dialogue and tolerance over the growing challenges created by the explosive growth of social-networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
Too often, Sheikh Ali said, internet users trusted the information they were given without checking the facts and the authenticity of sources.’
and
‘He has called for fellow believers to respond to recent controversial portrayals of Mohammed — which he said “spread hatred” — just like the prophet himself would, “through patience and wisdom.’
http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/grand-mufti-calls-for-dialogue-about-the-internet
http://updatednews.ca/2012/09/23/egyptian-sunni-islam-leader-calls-for-peace/
excellent. social-networking nonsense will become increasingly state-moderated in our lifetimes, imo. What is going on at present is outraging
I like this video about the work of Edward Said and his concept of Orientalism.
Watched Keiser interview Mr Stallman re Open Source and what it really means. It is fascinating watching if you are attuned to the “corporate takeover” of our freedom.
http://maxkeiser.com/category/keiser-report-2/
A couple of questions / concepts from the show:
1. Banks are “debanking” in the US the bottom 20% of people as they “cost too much to service”…the same is probably happening here. So “Why did we the taxpayer worldwide bail out the banks, yes all 100% of us?????”
2. ISPs are being forced by legislation in the US which we agree to through our trade agreements etc to suspend users “suspected” of breaking the regs / law. So “Are we guilty until proven innocent, guilty but uncharged etc (all sorts of permutations)? ” All sort of adds up to having our freedoms removed with no redress…..
Seems to me the corporatist dictatorship has arrived, not a “black shirt” required. Enforced by legislation through the democratic process, our representatives too gullible or too compliant to resist.
Its a corporate kleptocracy. It been around for a while, but in the last 10 years it has taken on mammoth proportions. In the US there is no division between the political class and the corporate class.
The introduction of account fees in the 90s was a form of ‘debanking’. Pay your way or go somewhere else was the philosophy.
All sort of adds up to having our freedoms removed with no redress…..
Correct, but the redress we have, seems to have been “bred” out of people, they seem to not see/want to see or understand what is going on around them, and what it will mean in coming years.
Seems to me the corporatist dictatorship has arrived, not a “black shirt” required. Enforced by legislation through the democratic process, our representatives too gullible or too compliant to resist.
And all the while people nerdle about hoping that one day it will all miraculously change, without them having to get off their arses.
IMO, one of the downsides to an overly complex society is that people really don’t know what’s going on around them because it is too complex. This opens the way for the corruption and dictatorship we see today* as these immoral actions can easily be hidden within the complexity.
* We see it today because it’s become so commonplace over the decades that it can no longer be hidden.
Bored 11
Being compliant and being corrupt – there is probably not a great degree between them. The hint of an after politics directorship, consultancy etc may be enough to sway the decision in favour of the corporate and bye bye first thoughts of service to the people and the country.
Elected dictatorship. Our representatives no longer represent us – if they ever did. They now represent the rich and the corporates.
BTW, which actual post were you referring to?
Oh, it was this one.
The downward spiral of our education system continues: http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/national-standards-defy-logic.html
Thanks DK, an excellent link.
The page just vanished before – closed by remote server and a list of addresses with the word standard in them.
And on Stuff comes the headline, Key: ‘Ignorance takes us nowhere’ Just for a moment I was thinking he was talking about the government’s policy on poverty, or climate change, or maybe John Banks….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7721069/Key-on-National-Standards-Ignorance-takes-us-nowhere
Even Peter Williams (MSM) has been instructed to utter-“Oil prices are set to double in the next decade” …ridin’ along on my push-bike baby…
The Rebels have moved their Command Centre from the Turkish border into Syria
“Revolution” – John Butler Trio
“Walk the World”- Heather Nova
suns out, better do some gardening. Have a great day, wherever you all are (unless you are a Nact supporter, then Just do the best you can i s’pose)
BREAKING NEWS: GCSB intercepted Dotcom’s communications:
PM launches inquiry saying he was only informed of this a couple of days ago. I thought the PM was always kept informed of such things?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7722082/PM-orders-Dotcom-spy-inquiry
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10836179
Is this a movie Sir PJ will be rushing to direct for his Warners’ mates?
Key being transparent for a change.
Not really! Key has only launched an investigation by the Government Communications Security Bureau because he has to do something. The GCSB is his baby and any results could be highly questionable. As Ira Rothken said; “It all depends on what the results are,” and I wouldn’t be surprised if there is little to no transparency involved at all.
The finger can only be pointed at Key. I now know where the threshold is with Key. I do not think it is the diversion Key wants concerning Banks.
I do not disagree with your comment either.
you may have considered my poetic emphasis on the primacy of Prophets then
(blessings and peace be upon their names)
Prophecy-meta-physics-values-ethics-behaviour-ethics-values-metaphysics-Prophecy
(well, i am still at peace with that, although “true” philosophers may find it too simple)
i am only a gardener, after all, which is what i am off to do now 🙂
Will wonders never cease! Lunch ended up all over my keyboard, when I read the Stuff article on this, still laughing but not really surprised having had some dealings with people from that agency.
The Herald has a longer article – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10836179
As Poisson says at 17 below, what a mad hatters tea party!
And Shearer is calling Key on it – for once pretty quick off the mark:
http://www.labour.org.nz/news/key-must-come-clean-on-his-knowledge-of-dotcom
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1209/S00364/key-must-come-clean-on-his-knowledge-of-dotcom.htm
And NZ First also has a press release out.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1209/S00362/pm-shows-mega-disregard-to-ministerial-roles.htm
As you say, for once Shearer is quick of the mark and a well worded press release which gets right to the heart of the matter – the fact that Key as PM is the responsible Minister and is supposed to sign off on all intercepts.
Question Time tomorrow will be interesting, but I expect that Key will try and fob off questions on the grounds that it is a matter before the High Court and/or an investigation is underway. Hopefully Key’s claim to have know nothing until the day before the raid in his interview on Campbell Live will come back to haunt him. Must watch CL tonight – Campbell’s quisical look at the end of that interview has always had me wondering what else he knew but was holding back on.
Hope the “Ignorance gets us nowhere” line is also played back on Key!
Also liked the NZF press release which takes a different tack to Shearer’s. Peters will be loving it – and yet some people think that NZF could work with National next term – don’t think so, imo.
Yes, it’s either, Key was not telling the truth (Labour) or he has been slack and failed to carry out effective oversight of the GCSB (NZ First)
Exactly. Stuff now has an updated article saying the Dotcom’s lawyers say it is too early to know how this will affect his case. Halfway down the article also states the Judge Winklemann has called another hearing on Wednesday on the search warrants….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7722082/Dotcom-lawyers-eye-spy-inquiry
Key will probably have to resort to the “bit sloppy” line.
There’s no way he’ll admit lying when he said he’d never heard of Dotcom. Even though that’s the more likely reason.
Already it does not ring true that Key had not heard about dot com. He has to be fibbing, big ones too, in the vicinity of liar liar pants on fire fibs …
Big ups to you mickysavage, for picking the clusterfuck potential in this right from the start.
I think both Labour and NZ First are right.
Remember back to the Goff situation (about the Mossad briefing in August 2011) and the SIS; Key is the SIS minister. Key just does not learn
Winston wins Quote of the Day:
“Mr Key appears not to care about the security of New Zealanders, and is instead more concerned with photo opportunities, three-way handshakes at rugby games, and prancing down fashion runways.”
This is going to be bigger then Ben Hur its being picked up US blogs (faster the mainstream it seems) it will go viral. Key needs a distraction ( A trade off ) Solid Energy perhaps? it needs equivalence weighting.To much negative news and its only Monday.
Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread.
Surely the question is – Why now, and where is the pressure coming from.
Carol, a man who does not “read” important reports is just as likely to “hear nothing” (unless selecting only that which is complimentary).
He is as the PM is the head of the intelligence services in NZ.
Also both bomber and Idiot/Savant have asked on Twitter if our Governor General has responsibility as he was in charge of GCSB at the time.
http://www.tumeke.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/was-our-new-governor-general-involved.html
key said no at the press conference.
Another issue is that during the cross examination of the Police task force officer in charge of the operation,Davidson (dc lawyer) asked what was the ongoing inter officer communications,and from where was the operation being directed from ,he refused to answer and the reasons (where adjourned to chambers) and subsequently suppressed.
Curiouser and curiouser!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7722082/PM-orders-Dotcom-spy-inquiry
There is a lot more to come on this or to put it another way the saga of mad hatters tea party is a feast to be had.
Interview with Nicky Hager on Checkpoint this evening, in which he gives his assessment of the issue:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2533518/john-key-says-a-top-level-inquiry-is-under-way.asx
Frustratingly, it will be unlikely that we will know the full story. But Hager does say that Key has been a willing partner with the US on security issues.
Can’t wait to hear policy of the next Labour/Greens/Winston Government as to who is going to pay for all the largess once the TOW deals have been settled, so far and in the future.
This will be along with more money for everybody by way of new Winz benefits, along with new child benefits.
School meals (not only breakfast)
Keeping coal mines open (and not earning).
Keeping Railways and workshops open..
New minimum wage –
Keeping all schools open and reducing class ratio.
Reducing the exchange rate by control.
Paying for water, air, and flora and fauna.
No fracking or mineral exploration (no new coal mines).
Changing the fishing quota and not allowing foreign crewed vessels.
Paying for Auckland’s rail links and new lines.
Reducing fuel costs.
Getting rid of Overseas Banks.
And continuing to fund taxpayer money to Christchurch (to those uninsured also).
Am sure other expectations can be explored.
Well, we could stop borrowing $330 million a week to subsidise the rich for starters. Then we can probably afford most of the things on your list, Fortran.
Also please add buying Fisher & Paykal appliances and maybe the crafar farms after sale and also buying back the public share of the any assets. Quite a bit really.
1billion for scf
Actually, that’s quite easy. Print the money and tax appropriately.
Mmmm. Tax cuts for the rich versus all the items on your list. Let me think. Mmmmm
Sounds OK to me.
Fartrain! It will work better than the brighter future
School meals < $19million
Railway work shops open< $20million
New minimum wage will increase job numbers treasury figures and increase tax take!
Reducing exchange rate will increase jobs profits and tax take
Paying for water right wing councils already want to some are!
Why have new coal mines when you are closing them now!
Fish and crews means our fish stocks will stay higher making them more sustainable more money for our economy in the long run!
Rail links and line will mean we can keep Infrastructure costs down and are between 18 and 50 times cheaper than private cars that's not including the cost of owning and maintaining a car!
Like the above reducing fuel costs will bring down our balance of payments deficit making our currency cheaper and more competitive!
Getting rid of overseas banks that won't happen they are way to powerful
We are already paying for CHCH we are also paying the interest on the $10 billion bill!
Im constantly amazed as to how Keys govt in the house refer to the faults of the previous govt as being Labours when they ,National, are the previous govt or was the election such a non event that they still feel no sense of responsibility for the shit they are dumping on those who have no way forward under this second term of right wing bullshit that is so far out of date in its policies that america will probably have to take us over to make sure we are still on the page over where we live in the world .
How can Key profess that he has not read the police report on Banks , is he not the minister in charge of the SIS ? Hello .
Then we have Bennett and her continual bee in her bonnet policies .Does she forget that poor people need a break from their toddlers as we as the rich and being poor walkin them to a child care and broadening the kids outlook cant be too costly because it only takes seven years to set a childs behaviour for life
How fucked up is her sense of values ?
America take us over? Who knows? It looks very much like they will have troops stationed here soon.
Interesting that Phil Goff reckons that NZ should not give up the independence developed since the nuclear free stance. And he reckons the National government won’t go that far either:
http://blog.labour.org.nz/2012/09/24/visit-by-leon-panetta/
Rejecting permanent stationing is good, but it leaves things open to temporary stationing of US troops here.
Democracy and Human Rights….Phil shows he has actually lost his mind completely!
Send in the drones Goff they call him these days….Thats what Phil means when he refers to democracy and human rights.As I have posted some time back, Phil was on the radio saying that America should drone Syria, he was positively begging them to do so!
Piss off Phil you career leech, have the UN not offered you the crony career politician role yet!
Please, nooooooooooooooooooooo! That just must not happen…
I urge readers to take half an hour and read journalist Keith Hunter’s website story COUQ and his invitation to ex- Detective inspector Bruce Hutton to sue.
http://www.hunterproductions.co.nz/?page=news#COPS1
The really murky stuff begins at episode 10.
Hunter’s book should be getting nationwide attention.
Something is very wrong here. Our media are suspiciously silent on recent developments in NZ’s greatest judicial disgrace.
very sad this matter ( i choose not to watch the “investigator ” . his delivery puts me off
(same as that fool minority-basher Wishart; read a couple of his books and thought puh lease already!)
Agreed re Wishart, but Wishart is a serial conspiracy theorist, this appears to be a deliberate attempt to seriously mislead the NZ public, using public money, and the most likely instigators would appear to be the NZ police.
Ignoring child poverty won’t make it go away
Unless you’re an Ostrich with your head firmly buried in the sand, you’ll be aware that New Zealand has a pervasive and growing poverty problem that is largely being ignored by the current government…
350 jobs gone at Spring Creek, 65 at Huntly East. Bastards.
Your too kind TRP. Soon according to RWNJ’s a large part of the west coast will be useless blugers.
When there are no jobs it makes it very easy to control the movement of people out of an area you might want them gone from eh!
very insightful muzza
Infographic: Financialised Pretend and Extend described in one easy picture
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2012/09-2/20120923_cric.png