Stephen Franks, Jim Mora and Brian Edwards are all having a moan on National Radio about Franks not being elected in Wellington Central – and blaming the Standard!. It was the nasty lefties’ fault, nothing to do with his homophobia (what homophobia?)
Can any one comment on why there appears to be a complete purge of all historical mentions of Winston Peters? I’m trying to find the post where Farrar derides, what he calls an ‘unusual constitutional setup’ or something, about how the government shouldn’t be having ministers outside of cabinet.
Franks wasn’t elected to Wellington Central because the people didn’t want him elected. It’s called democracy and is something Franks is going to have to come to terms with eventually.
Thanks you guys!!! You’ve kept an old leftie sane over the last couple of weeks. And now I’ve had my first chuckle in 4 days. Steve Braunias in the SST was a giggle too.
Never thought I’d have to get out and campaign for MMP …. AGAIN! Keep up the Great Work.
I hope the Standard doesn’t become the KiwiBlog of the left for the next 3 years. It has been home to reasoned debate of fact, policy and issues. It’s cheap to take a shot, it will be hard work holding the government accountable.
The affable guy routine is already an embarrassment. Is he acting goofy or is he actually goofy. Tonight on the news Key and English arrive early for coalition talks with media at the ready. Key goofs his way through while English clears out of the room quickly and returns when he realises Key didnt follow him out. English is viewed peering thru the glass door while Key eventually figures it out and leaves.
It was a minor moment but suggests a serious lack cohesion and trust between the two men. English should have stayed and supported key through the Media comment or waited for key to initiate the next move, instead of ducking for cover.
Alexandra – I love it how Wodney kept Key waiting coming up the stairs , i’m sure it was a calculated entrance by him, almost dancing with the stars drama like, did anyone ever track down the women he asked to sit in her seat directly behind Winston at the privileges committee, was just curious.
I wonder if you guys will give John Key any sort of break and give him a few months to see how he pans out as Prime Minister.
Or will your ideaological distatse of anything to the right of the Labour / Greenies mean that any thing he says does, mutters, dresses walks, looks, meets, writes, answers, will be immediate cause for derission. If that is the case then I suggest you get a life.
John Key has inherited a very difficult economy, and to get through the tough times ahead, this new National Government is going to have to make some very hard calls. How bad a state is the economy really in – or is that something you do not want to know about? Or the day after the new Natonal Government is sworn in will you be blaming him for the state of the economy.
The negative campaign was a major contributing factor to Labour’s Loss. Maybe the straategy going forward is to try and be a bit more positive and constructive?
Monty: As far as I’m concerned, if he can see his way through the coming years without fucking up the economy, selling off the family silver, sending anyone to the poorhouse, getting us embroiled in any foreign wars, causing deep demographic or ethnic rifts, subsuming our national sovereignty to any third party groups (governments or corporates), going back on a bunch of his promises, or ruining the future of NZ democracy, he fully deserves to be PM.
I don’t mean this in a cynical way at all. He’s got a huge job ahead of him, and if he’s up to it, more power to him.
Monty Get a grip!! Labour’s negative campaign I am so tired of this mantra! The economy is in better shape than it was in 1984,1990 and 1999. thanks to Cullen’s stewardship.The much vaunted “third way”Same system of steady responsible management Blair used in the UK. Foreign business analysts describe NZ’s economy as “being very sound” and” well placed to weather the storm” I suggest you start reading the business pages.We are at the beginning of the biggest Global economic collapse since 1929 due to the irresponsible right wing free market policies of the USA ,the huge tax cuts given by Bush administration to his scumbag corporate mates,and Cheney’s gouging of the US Treasury to fund the illegal Iraq invasion. If you are willing to be educated and informed I have a list of book titles worth reading on the subject.None of what is happening is news to me nor is the the weak ruse of inheriting a poor economy . IT IS LIE! Pray for a wet summer for the Dairy farmers and NZ will be insulated from the worst of it. We are one drought away from serious social decline as we have an incompetent leader. Or hadn’t you worked that out yet? He was a currency speculator for Merril Lynch who are now bankrupt. He wouldn’t know which way the ground is pointing.
He can have exactly as much of a break as Helen Clark was given.
What’s that, Lassie? Headlines screaming “BUSINESS CONFIDENCE PLUMMETS” within days of Labour gaining power in 99? He may pleasantly surprise us, sure, but if he wasn’t ready to be PM he shouldn’t have kept assuring us he was.
Yeah, what a selfish b’stard. Here I was thinking if I studied and then worked real hard in life I could make something for my me and my family, but I see your point. thats just soooooo selfish. If I finally own a business then create more jobs for more people thats just soooo selfish – I’m just a lousy capitalist and only think about the harder and smarter you work, the more you advance…..but nope – you’ve got me!!! People like me – the job creators should leave the country – or stay and share our hard earned dollars with the parasites!
you make a strong case Lampie. I’m only glad the majority really understood your thinking last Saturday
Why exactly did business confidence dip early after the election in 1999? Maybe it had something to do with the anti-business policies of the Labour Government. They had left wingnut partners such as the now defunct Alliance – Anderton being the only relic of that error and it was a vengeful government – determined to implement policies that would have plumeted the country into recession had it not been for the wonderful ad solid economic foundations laid by Ruth, Jenny and of course the 1984 to 1987 Labour Government.
So concerned was Clark about her policies she held a conference with Business where business outlined the economic impacts of their policies. Labour at that point severly moderated their anti-business agenda.
What mess has Cullen left the economy in this time that will require firm action. How bad is the economy that Cullen has left in his wake. I supppose over the coming weeks we will find out how much Cullen has squandered the good years.
Assume Key lives up to his campaign rhetoric. Those ‘hard choices’ that he makes end up being to abandon right wing adventurism in favour of Keynesian orthodoxy.
I’m guessing the rabid right, will have all sorts of things to say. I doubt they’ll be original, but you mock the right you have, not the right you wish you had.
My guesses for what they call John the Moderate’s shiny new Keynesian National Party are:
National in Name Only (NINO), BlueCommunists, National Socialists (too easy), and Snifters.
The Thatcherite ‘wets’ goes without saying.
I look forward to seeing you defending him, and explaining that he did what he had to do. It would have been stupid to cut spending. Social spending levels needed to be raised, and so on and so forth.
“What mess has Cullen left the economy in this time that will require firm action. How bad is the economy that Cullen has left in his wake. I supppose over the coming weeks we will find out how much Cullen has squandered the good years.”
hahahahaaaahh you are a complete muppet aintcha Monty!! Now we’ve got the dipshit from dipton back as finance minister things are gonna be just peachy! A dunce who so quickly fucked up the portfolio the first time he took it that Bill Birch had to take it back in less than a year!
A cretin of your calibre is such a liability to the right that you’d be doin them a huge favour by s.t.f.u.
Also, Cullen was a fucking great keynsian minister, take off your inverse reality goggles, noddy.
[lprent: Tell me have you been taking lessons from the trolls of the right? Read the policy]
The new National Party-led government should draw on the expertise of Sir Roger Douglas, according to the New Zealand Business Roundtable.
Prime Minister-elect John Key is meeting ACT leader Rodney Hide and United Future leader and the party’s sole MP Peter Dunne today.
Business has welcomed the election of a centre-right government and market traders are relieved there is a clear result.
Mr Key has ruled out ACT MP Roger Douglas being a minister but Mr Hide has said the issue is not dead.
Bill English, who is expected to be finance minister, said there would be no cabinet position for Sir Roger but the Government would be open to advice from a wide range of people, Radio New Zealand reported.
Business Roundtable executive director Roger Kerr said he did not want to get into the debate about cabinet positions, but Sir Roger should be called on to help with the current economic crisis.
“There is a lot of nonsense about extreme policies,” he said.
A number of Sir Roger’s policies had been tinkered with but they were still largely in place. Sir Roger was an extremely experienced person whose expertise ought to be drawn on.
“It is high time that Roger’s role was recognised as almost saving the economy so to speak and he would have a lot to contribute in the current environment.”
The roundtable has congratulated Mr Key on his conclusive victory in the election.
The roundtable wants policies to improve productivity and address the country’s large current account deficit.
It is in favour of privatisation and freeing up the private sector to undertake commercial activity to grow the economy.
“We’d say it is fiscal policy and regulatory policies that should be the top priorities,” said Mr Kerr.
“The last thing we should be doing at the moment is following these ideas that have been doing the rounds of spending up yet further. That is a sort of mistaken Keynesian idea,” he said.
killinginthenameof back at 6:02pm – look at his archives for Oct 2005 – there are several posts where he quotes the Cabinet Manual. ACT’s press releases in the same month are also interesting.
Oh, Monty. Thanks for making my point for me – if Labour deserved no “break” because of their “anti-business policies”, then John Key, pay-no-attention-to-the-policies-behind-the-curtain certainly doesn’t.
KITNO: Re Ministers outside cabinet, today John Key has said they’re a good idea (despite criticising them as a strange constitutional anomaly for the past three years) because they allow heterodox politicians to criticise the government while still serving it.
It’s convenient and self-serving to change his tune now, but I agree with him. It’s MMP in practice.
I wonder if you guys will give John Key any sort of break and give him a few months to see how he pans out as Prime Minister.
I’m sure if we look back through your comments over the last few months, we wont find one sympathetic comment for Helen Clark. And comments from the KBR tended more to be about Helen’s face, teeth, billboard photo, or rich pricks rather than any substantive policy difference – maybe excepting tax prior to Nats tax plans being released.
The centre-left currently should aim to keep its achievements intact, and so any time NUFACT decides to invoke hard conservative or libertarian rhetoric or policies, you can be sure that the Standard will keep them disHONEST.
Actually, I think we really ought to save our serious attacks for his coalition partners in a few months when cracks appear in his team. Key is a crass buffoon with little political nous. He’ll dig his own grave.
Still, an odd shovel-full here and there won’t hurt us.
Lefties really are little children aren’t they? Too immature even to recognise their own failings they lash out at others – ooh it was an evil biased media, ooh it was an awful conservative conspiracy against poor widdle Winston.
No recognition of reality.
Hey lefties, this is why you lost. You’re fucked in the head. You don’t understand life, people, societies or economics. In addition, you come across as arrogant – you appear to really imagine you alone have the heart and wisdom to realise “justice’ in this fallen world.
You seem to think you deserve to win because you’re such super people with such pure humanitarian motives. That’s why you never criticised the abrogation of fair play represented by the EFA, because it was for the cause and everything is justified by the cause.
You stupid pricks haven’t even learned the elementary fact of life – that the secret to life is giving others meaningful value so that they can then transfer that value to others along the way. You teach someone how to fish and they will teach others. You give someone a fish and they will eat it and ask for another. By denying them this you degrade their humanity and prevent them from obtaining meaning in their lives by giving them the ability to help others and furthermore, you treat them like an idiot so they think they are.
Lefties do this all the fucking time the world over and for a short time people appreciate the fish. Problem is the only way lefties can get the fish is by taking it off others because they’re too fucking stupid to pull it in themselves (i.e. lefties never actually grow any economy they control because they focus almost entirely on redistributing the fish rather than helping people who are good at catching it to catch even more. Lefties appear to imagine that situation would be weally weally awful because that would mean those awful tewwible people would have far too many fish and we can’t have that can we. That wouldn’t be super at all.)
Moving away from fish to just one of many examples from the real world, where is the education system after nine years of you? Fucking nowhere you stupid fuckhead losers. I bet Te Tiriti is a big part of it but where are the business courses? Nowhere. Lots of courses however on how to get along with others and how to avoid thinking you’re a fucking loser. Yeh that’ll really help people when they start learning how to compete in the real world. Oh right, that’s another maxim from lefty philosophy isn’t it. There are no losers. Hey fuckheads, what’s the point of lying to school children about the way the world works? Isn’t that really really really cruel and indeed, evil? Of course it is.
When things turn to shit as they have, lefties have no answer, simply because the only thing they know how to do is to re-distribute. If no-one else is creating the wealth, they have no fucking ideas at all. That’s why you were dumped you execrats, the country doesn’t trust you because it knows we’re heading into some serious shit where there’s not going to be too many fucking fish and the last thing we wanted was to have a bunch of lefties at the helm giving us no fresh perspectives but still more of the same. Cullen has known about this for several years, bet on it. What has he done? Nothing. Case closed. You lost not because of the media, not because of Hulun’s laughably flawed campaign strategy (snigger), it was because you just don’t get life. You’re actually the worst people in the world, you arrogant naive fuckhead moron fucks.
Kind regards,
reid
[lprent: Despite appearances this is not a graffitti troll. Previous comments have been rational.]
Sheesh why the pity attacks on each others. The election is done and dusted. For the right they need to work out how to keep power. For the left they have to re-organise.
The left need to stop expecting a National led government to stuff up. It may happen but in New Zealand we tend to keep governments for more than one term. We don’t know if that will happen in this case. But I do suggest that rather than waiting for National to stuff up. Why not organise yourselves on policy and strategies to get back in power.
For National and Act and United Future. It would not take a big swing back to the centre-left for them to regain power in 2011.So make sure policies are on the right track to get the voters that voted in 2008 for them to vote Centre-right again.
“And comments from the KBR tended more to be about Helen’s face, teeth, billboard photo, or rich pricks rather than any substantive policy difference”
And comments from this site and the left tended to be more about how slippery and untrustworthy Key is, rather than anything actually grounded in reality – just like the much lauded neutron bomb, it failed to deliver.
There’s an old saying about people in glass houses with stones in their hand, PP, and you really ought to think about it before you get in the saddle of your high horse again.
Wow Ried, that’s like 3 years of worth of kiwiblog’s hatred, misinformation, delusions and lies all wrapped up into one post, what a pity that reality entirely contradicts what your claiming, then again given your perspective of reality we can hard blame you. Oh and limiting educational opportunities is a policy of the right, helps them keep themselves and their families in positions of privilege.
Hey lefties, this is why you lost. You’re fucked in the head. You don’t understand life, people, societies or economics. In addition, you come across as arrogant
What a gem! I think I’ll get it printed and framed.
Ried, next time you write a comment on here can you use something other than fish. Seriously while i was reading your comment i kept feeling hungry, which meant i couldn’t give your fine penmanship the attention it deserves. Maybe next time you could use a pie, or a cake – oh see know i’m getting hungry again. Oh, tell you what, i’m allergic to nuts, use nuts in your next comment.
Keith- while monty may see things differently than you, that’s no excuse for behaving so poorly. I’d say “grow up”, but I know from experience that doing so simply doesn’t work for everyone to gain the maturity they need đ
Why exactly did business confidence dip early after the election in 1999? Maybe it had something to do with the anti-business policies of the Labour Government. They had left wingnut partners such as the now defunct Alliance – Anderton being the only relic of that error and it was a vengeful government – determined to implement policies that would have plumeted the country into recession had it not been for the wonderful ad solid economic foundations laid by Ruth, Jenny and of course the 1984 to 1987 Labour Government.
Perhaps it did. Perhaps it didn’t. But if Key slips up at the beginning of his term, wouldn’t it be equally as fair to be judgemental of his policies and leadership in the same way? Let’s face it Monty- we have a fundamental disagreement on economics. The Left thinks we should spend more during a downturn, the Right thinks we should spend less. If we lose our economic momentum that is all that’s keeping us from REALLY feeling this global recession, then I hope you’ll be ready to admit that something went wrong.
Keith- while monty may see things differently than you, that’s no excuse for behaving so poorly. I’d say “grow up’, but I know from experience that doing so simply doesn’t work for everyone to gain the maturity they need
fuck off! đ
[lprent: Banned 2 weeks. Read the policy. I’m always happy to increase it if you want to argue.]
Mike “I know what I’m doing” Williams has just declared a $100,000 donation from fishing magnate Peter Vela yet disclosed this after the election. Labour also received $60,000 from the EPMU yet disclosed this before the election.
Both donations were apparently received on the same day.
Is he working for the National party?
What is really impressive is the fact that he is clinging on to his directorships. Employment with Owen Glenn beckons.
Labour lost because
1) as Steve Pierson noted they spent political capital on very expensive low return projects like the anti smacking bill. Either a bad assessment of the political cost or a bad assessment of the value of the law.
2) The attacks on key. They effectively advertised Key, without sticking much mud to the Teflon boy. (I might put this down to being out of touch with the views of swing voters).
3) Poor advertising – take a leaf from the green booklet – the Mary add was particularly bad and depressing. It amazes me that parties in NZ have such mediocre ads and billboards.
4) too much defense of Winston – no issue with not firing him – but why spend political capital actively defending the anti-asian immigration man? And getting Glen upset…
Whoar also raises an interesting option of selling Cullen as the man for a crisis. Risky – but much better than just negative campaigning against Key.
“you make a strong case Lampie. I’m only glad the majority really understood your thinking last Saturday”
What a great comeback, take your little bleeding heart act to kiwiblog. You shelfishly went on about taxes are too high. No compelling argument on why, just your individualist thinking.
Education is within reach because of the last administration. This country IS one of the best business environments to start and operate SMEs hence why we have a very high number of entrepreneurs compared with most countries. You will find that in your OECD stats!!!!
Don’t tell me about business as I will shove my commerce degree up your arse!!!
Good on you for taking up/doing studies though. Take advantage of the loans scheme if you are working full time and doing part time studies, this spreads out payments over the years for you with slight admin cost of $50 (might be cheaper with paying up front depending on fees)
Wow, that was a lot of anger.
I hope that after your rant you feel a whole lot better because it looked like you had a lot of pain and frustration pent up in that head of yours.
Also from your writing it seems you are very scared and you have every reason to be because we are heading for a terribly scary time. We are heading for a depression far more dangerous and deep than the 1929 recession. In fact you might find that we are heading for the collapse of the US empire leaving us stranded on an island very far from the rest of the world.
You might find that export will cease, money will dry up totally and tourism (Is John Key really going to be the minister of Tourism? Well be prepared for rich pricks to buy up great swaths of land) will be a thing of the past. No more stuff coming in and no more stuff going out. Very scary indeed.
So while your all relieved and happy about having dumped that heavy load let’s see who created the economic hardship that is coming our way.
Let’s start with the first possible culprit you point at: Labour and more specifically Cullen because he according to you knew about it three years ago.
Three years ago when I first arrived here my husband and I decided not to buy property and go off the grid because we saw the writing on the wall and since I have to assume that if a little person like me can see it coming a man like Cullen and even more so an intelligent women such as Helen Clark must surely have known. What could they have done about it?
Well, they could have been frugal, Oh oops they were. No big tax cuts for the rich like in the US. (Does it mean the rich got poorer and the poor richer under Labour well actually no, the rich grew richer and the poor poorer under Labour though so your fish thingy goes a tad awry there. This is a rapport on income distribution in NZ I found, it’s from 2004 but it hasn’t gone any better fro the workers who’s job’s went overseas so I think it only went down hill from there.)
They could save our tax dollars so when the time came they could make sure the workers and little people of this country were protected, Ooh oops they did.
They could have public free healthcare in place so the little people could afford to see a doctor too when they needed it, Ooh oops they did.
So you can’t really blame Labour.
So what did cause the coming collapse of our financial system, if it wasn’t Labour or this countries workers?
Well, it started with the subprime crisis. Somewhere along the line banks decided that is would be a good idea to give money to people who had no money to pay back their loans. That started around about 1987-1988.
And while they gave money they created out of thin air to poor people to buy houses they collected those mortgages and told dimwits like New Zealand investments firm owners that they could buy slices of the derivatives they created on top off that and told them that this was a good idea because “house prices would always go up” (remember that one?)
So banks created this crisis and who have we voted in? Ooh oops John Key.
One of those selfsame bankers who was involved in exactly the trade which is causing the financial collapse.
John Key who headed a department in Merrill Lynch in the late nineties which developed innovative and complex new products.
John Key who was shocked at Merrill Lynch’s exposure to the subprime crisis in October 2007 and didn’t get back to Cullen about it in order to save NZ in a bipartisan way.
John Key who never created any wealth other than parasitical money creation out of thin air.
John Key who thinks nothing of almost collapsing his own countries currency and to lie about it twenty years later.
You know what Reid? If Cullen was supposed to know that I’m sure John Key was in an even better position to know what was coming. Hell, he was at the very root of it. So what you reckon should he have done something to prevent it from happening? Or is he exempt from having to deal with the consequences of his own behaviour.
And for those of you thinking that I accuse John Key from being the sole perpetrator of the subprime crisis, think again. No, of course JK was not the sole perp but he was heading the department of debt from one of the most aggressive parasitical subprime and derivative banks ever.
Nice to know that the fox is going to run the hen house, eh Reid?
He was the managing director of debt, Global head of foreign exchange and European head of bonds and derivatives. That is an awesome level of seniority in a bank such as Merrill Lynch and with it comes a huge level of responsibility and control over it’s finances. He was not the boss of Merrill Lynch but in his position and as an upon invitation only advisor to the Federal Reserve of New York it is save to say he knew exactly what he was doing and how it would pan out in the end.
It was the same speculative bubble/burst mechanism that caused the first great depression after all.
You are absolutely right about the Glass Steagall act being repealed in 1998 under Clinton.
As far as I’m concerned the Dems and the GOP are just two head of the same dragon though. Nothing lefty about Clinton. Just another pawn for the banksters and the military industrial complex.
The joke’s all wrong, anyway – John’s already had access to the BMWs, as leader of the opposition – and used them 5% more in the last year than our outgoing PM herself.
Of course you can blame the scheisters who lobbied for neigh on 11 years spending between 100 to 200 million dollars to have the act repealed so they could go on a rampage. They are nasty, greedy and dangerous individuals who for their own greedy benefit destroyed our economies, waged two wars and made a killing in the process.
reid, not that such a comment deserves a response, but I’ll give a short one.
Your analogy used ‘fish’, showing that redistributive politics get people fed, and that’s it. I don’t imagine that you actually believe this to be the case, as it was an analogy. So what if you used something like… doctor visits. Redistribution doing something that increases productivity, reduces long-term costs and means those who ‘create the weath’ have a wealthier society to which they can sell goods and services, and a healthier population which will better be able to be gainfully employed.
I could give another dozen examples that illustrate the same if you need them – and I think you do.
I reckon you haven’t spent a lot of time thinging about any of this, your whole comment (17-year-old tantrum vitriol ignored) was exceedingly one-dimensional and simplistic.
Travellev: Again an interesting simplified run-down, that I can understand. (I cannot think that Reid would read it as he is not able to be objective. When I stripped away Reid’s invective there was nothing much left except Key-like slogans.)
It will be interesting if History will eventually enlighten the populance in a credible way ?
Travellev: By the way, I paste your assessments onto my own file because it would be a pity for it to be lost in the archives. In due course they could be valuable.
Reid, Reid, Reid… (Comment: November 11, 2008 at 12:30 am)
Wow! us Lefties are arrogant? You should really re-read your own rant.
Anyone would think your man, your saviour hadn’t won, anyone would think you didn’t get just exactly what you wanted.
Hmmm not very gracious of you.
Please come back and comment when your right-wing ‘fishing teachers’ have lost the next election. Because I’d looove to hear how angry you are when you don’t get what you want.
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When National first proposed its Muldoonist "fast-track" law, they were warned that it would inevitably lead to corruption. And that is exactly what has happened, with Resources Minister Shane Jones taking secret meetings with potential applicants:On Tuesday, in a Newsroom story, questions were raised about a dinner Jones ...
Buzz from the Beehive One day â hopefully – we will push that Russian rascal, Vladimir Putin, beyond breaking point. Perhaps it will happen today, when he learns that Foreign Minister Winston Peters is again tightening the thumbscrews. Peters announced further sanctions, this time on 28 individuals and 14 entities ...
How Labourâs and Nationalâs failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought New Zealand to the brink of economic and cultural chaos.TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition Governmentâs failure to retain, and build upon, the public ...
âMembers of Parliament donât work for us, they represent us, an entirely different thing. As with so much that has turned out badly, the re-organising of MPsâ responsibilities began with the Fourth Labour Government. Thatâs when they began to be treated like employees â public servants â whose diaries had ...
Itâs becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client â the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a third medical school in New Zealand, ...
Time To Choose: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into AUKUSâs âPillar 2â â or they are going to China.HAD ZHENG HEâS FLEET sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks ...
Henry Ergas writes –Â When in Randall Jarrellâs Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novelâs narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge ...
David Farrar writes –Â Radio NZÂ reports: The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs. In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready. ...
New Zealand’s economic performance and the PM’s vision  Michael Reddell writes – When I wrote yesterday morningâs post, highlighting how poorly both New Zealand and its Anglo peer countries have been doing in respect of productivity in recent times (ie, in the case of New ...
Hi all,Firstly - thank you! You guys are awesome. The response I’ve received to last night’s mail has been quite overwhelming. It’s a ghastly day outside, but there are no clouds in here.In case you didn’t read my email and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about you can ...
If there was still any doubt as to who is actually running this government â and it isnât the buffoon from Botany â then this weekâs announcement of a huge spend up on charter schools has settled the matter. While jobs and public services continue to be cut in the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gaye Taylor As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate. No longer quenched by winter, nor quelled by the ...
Half of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd’s directors and its chair resigned en masse last night in protest at Christchurch City Council’s demand to front-load dividends File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The chair of Christchurch City Council’s investment company and four of its independent directors resigned in protest last ...
The University of Waikato has reworded an advertisement that begins the tender process for its new $300 million-plus medical school even though the Government still needs to approve it. However, even the reworded ad contains an architectâs visualisations of what the school might look like. ACT leader David Seymour told ...
As a follow-up to the Rings of Power trailer discussion, I thought I needed to add something. There has been some online mockery about the use of the same actor for both the Halbrand and Annatar incarnations of Sauron. The reasoning is that Halbrand with a shave and a new ...
This isn’t quite as dramatic as the title might suggest. I’m not going anywhere, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about.Let’s start with a typical day.Most days I send out a newsletter in the morning. If I’ve written a lot the previous evening it might be ...
Buzz from the Beehive The promise of tax relief loomed large in his considerations when  the PM delivered a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber. The job back in Wellington is getting government spending back under control, he said, bandying figures which show that in per capita terms, the ...
Yesterday de facto Prime Minister David Seymour announced that his glove puppet government would be re-introducing charter schools, throwing $150 million at his pet quacks, donors and cronies and introducing an entire new government agency to oversee them (the existing Education Review Office, which actually knows how to review schools, ...
Seeing that, in order to discredit the figures and achieve moral superiority while attempting to deflect attention away from the military assault on Rafa, Israel supporters in NZ have seized on reports that casualty numbers in Gaza may be inflated … Continue reading → ...
David Farrar writes – Newstalk ZBÂ report: The man responsible for a horror hit and run in central Wellington last year was on a suspended licence and was so drunk he later asked police, âDid I kill someone?â Jason Tuitama injured two women when he ran a red ...
Muriel Newman writes –Â Former US President Ronald Reagan once said, âFreedom is a fragile thing and itâs never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.â The fight for ...
Why Courts should have said Waitangi Tribunal could not summons Karen Chhour Gary Judd writes – In the High Court, Justice Isacs declined to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal to compel Minister for Children, Karen Chhour, to appear before it to be ...
Bryce Edwards writes –Â The number of voices raising concerns about the Governmentâs Fast-Track Approvals Bill is rapidly growing. This is especially apparent now that Parliamentâs select committee is listening to submissions from the public to evaluate the proposed legislation. Twenty-seven thousand submissions have been made to Parliament ...
An average of 166 New Zealand citizens left the country every day during the March quarter, up 54% from a year ago.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy and housing market is sinking into a longer recession through the winter after a slump in business and consumer confidence in ...
The government has made it abundantly clear they’re addicted to the smell of new asphalt. On Tuesday they introduced a new term to the country’s roading lexicon, the Roads of Regional Significance (RoRS), a little brother for the Roads of National (Party) Significance (RoNS). Driving ahead with Roads of Regional ...
School is outAnd I walk the empty hallwaysI walk aloneAlone as alwaysThere's so many lucky penniesLying on the floorBut where the hell are all the lucky peopleI can't see them any moreYesterday morning, I’d just sent out my newsletter on Tama Potaka, and I was struggling to make the coffee. ...
Hi,I wanted to check in and ask how you’re doing.This is perhaps a selfish act, of attempting to find others feeling a similar way to me — that is to say, a little hopeless at the moment.Misery loves company, that sort of deal.Some context.I wish I could say I got ...
I have hitherto been fairly quiet on the new season of Rings of Power, on the basis that the underwhelming first season did not exactly build excitement – and the rumours were fairly daft. The only real thing of substance to come out has been that they have re-cast Adar ...
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 ...
“The thing is,” Chris Luxon says, leaning forward to make his point, “this has always been my thing.”“This goes all the way back to the first multinational I worked for. I was saying exactly the same thing back then. The name of our business needs to be more clear; people ...
Buzz from the Beehive Itâs been a momentous few days for Childrenâs Minister Karen Chhour. The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court decision which blocked a summons order from the Waitangi Tribunal for her. And today she has announced the Government is putting children first by introducing to ...
In 2014 former Australian army lawyer David McBride leaked classified military documents about Australian war crimes to the ABC. Dubbed "The Afghan Files", the documents led to an explosive report on Australian war crimes, the disbanding of an entire SAS unit, and multiple ongoing prosecutions. The journalist who wrote the ...
Rob MacCulloch writes –Â According to the respected Pew Research Centre, “In seven of eight [European] countries surveyed, the most trusted news outlet asked about is the public news organization in each country”. For example, “in Sweden, an overwhelming majority (90%) say they trust the public broadcaster SVT”. ...
David Farrar writes – Kata MacNamara reports:  Details of Tony Blakelyâs involvement in the New Zealand Governmentâs response to the pandemic raise serious questions about the work of the Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry over which he presides. It has long been clear that Blakely, a ...
Chris Trotter writes – Are you a Brahmin or a Merchant? Or, are you merely one of those whose lives are profoundly influenced by the decisions of Brahmins and Merchants? Those are the questions that are currently shaping the politics of New Zealand and the entire West. ...
RNZ reports –Â It’s supposed to be a haven of healing and spiritual awakening but residents of the Kawai Purapura community say they’ve been hurt and deceived. It’s the successor to the former Centrepoint commune, and has been on the bush block opposite Albany shopping centre since 2008. It ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. Usually we have a video chat to go with this wrap, but were unable to do one this week. We’ll be back next week.Several reports ...
The Transport Minister has set a hard 'fiscal envelope' of $6.54 billion for transport capital spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy is settling into a state of suspended animation as the Government’s funding freezes and job cuts chill confidence and combine with stubbornly high interest rates to ...
To be precise, the term âanti- Zionismâ refers to (a) criticism of the political movement that created a modern Jewish state on the historical land of Israel, and to (b)the subjugation of Palestinians by the Israeli state. By contrast, the term âanti-Semitismâ means bigotry and racism directed at Jewish people, ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Because hurricanes are one of the big-ticket weather disasters that humanity has to face, climate misinformers spend a lot of effort muddying the waters on whether climate change is making hurricanes more damaging. With the official start to the hurricane ...
Yesterday the Mayor released what he calls his “plan to save public transport” which is part of his final proposal for the Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP). This comes following consultation on the draft version that occurred in March which showed, once again, that people want more done on transport, especially ...
And it's a pleasure that I have knownAnd it's a treasure that I have gainedAotearoa’s coalition government is fragile. It’s held together by the obsequious sycophancy of Christopher Luxon, who willingly contorts his party into the fringe positions of his junior coalition partners and is unwilling to contradict them. The ...
The Select Committee hearing submissions on the fast-track consenting legislation is starting to become a beat-up of regional councils. The inflexibility and slow workings of the Councils were prominent in two submissions yesterday. One, from the Coromandel Marine Farmers Association, simply said that the Waikato Regional Council’s planning decisions were ...
Back in April, the High Court surprised everyone by ruling that Ministers are above the law, at least as far as the Waitangi Tribunal is concerned. The reason for this ruling was "comity" - the idea that the different branches of government shouldn't interfere with each other's functions. Which makes ...
Buzz from the Beehive Tolling was mentioned when Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced the government was re-introducing the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme, with 15 âcrucialâ projects to support economic growth and regional development across New Zealand. All RoNS would be four-laned, grade-separated highways, and all funding, financing, and ...
or the past 14 years, ever since the Spanish government cheated on an autonomy deal, Catalonia has reliably given pro-independence parties a majority of seats in their regional parliament. But now that seems to be over. Catalans went to the polls yesterday, and stripped the Catalan parties of their majority. ...
David Farrar writes –Â Radio NZÂ report: Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said the Electoral Commission should make sure the system ran smoothly and âtaking away the right of thousands of people to voteâ was not the answer. âThousands of people enroled and voted on the day. If ...
Don Brash writes –Â There was a rather revealing headline in the Herald on Sunday today (12 May). It read âOne in 8 Auckland homes on market were bought during boom, may now sell for lossâ. The first line of text noted that âNew data shows one in ...
Mike Grimshaw writes –Â At a time when universities are understandably nervous regarding the establishment of the University Advisory Group (UAG) and the Science System Advisory Group (SSAG) it may seem strange â or even fool-hardy â to state that there are long-standing issues in the tertiary sector ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes –Â A lack of perspective can make something quite large or important seem small or irrelevant. Against a backdrop of high-profile, negative statistics it is easy to overlook the positive. For instance, the fact that 64 percent of Maori are employed is rarely reported. For ...
Earlier this year, the Herald ran a series of articles amounting to a sustained campaign against raised pedestrian crossings, by reporter Bernard Orsman. A key part of that campaign concerned the raised crossings being installed as part of the Pt Chevalier to Westmere project, with at least 10 articles over ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 19 include:PM Christopher Luxon is expected to hold his weekly post-cabinet news conference at 4:00pm on Monday.Parliament is not sitting this week. It resumes next week for a two-week sitting session up to and ...
Hi,Thanks to all the beautiful Worms who came to the LA Webworm popup on Saturday.It was a way to celebrate the online store we launched last week — and it was super special.As I talk about a lot, I really value our community here — and it was a BLAST ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 5, 2024 thru Sat, May 11, 2024. (Unfortunate) Story of the week "Grief that stops at despair is an ending that I and many others, most notably ...
More than 4,500 jobs are set to go as the National Government continues its deep cuts to services to pay for irresponsible and ill-timed tax cuts. Â ...
The Governmentâs introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Todayâs justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Governmentâs misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
âWith Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,â Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said.  ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te PÄti MÄori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Memberâs Bill that will protect womenâs spaces. The âFair Access to Bathrooms Billâ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Wattsâ continuation of Hon. James Shawâs cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
This morningâs pre-Budget speech from the Minister of Finance offered no âmeaningfulâ news on the Governmentâs trickle-down economics based plans. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Councilâs District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion âThis House Believes British Museums are not Very Britishâ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP HĆ«hana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of MÄori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of MÄori land. ...
A senior, highly respected Kingâs Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga MÄori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealandâs growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesnât know or care about the frontline cuts sheâs making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. Â ...
Todayâs Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and itâs only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. âThis is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. âThe government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicineâ, said Ayesha Verrall âThis is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoonâs interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour childrenâs spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Departmentâs correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,â says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. âI raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachersâ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on studentsâ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools.⯠âŻÂ âThe PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stoboâs appointment is for a five-year term. âThe FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. âHeading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. âNew Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,â says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. âIt is my pleasure ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoaâs O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. âHis Highness and I reflected on our two countriesâ extensive community links, with SamoanâNew Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. âIsland Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russiaâs invasion of Ukraine. âRussia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. âI want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Governmentâs first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges â Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich â Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.  âIt is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealandâs relationship with Vanuatu,â Mr Peters says.  âThis ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). âI am looking forward to sharing this Governmentâs education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. âTracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,â Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Callâs work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.  This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leadersâ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People â Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Todayâs announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Governmentâs pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. âThe National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Koreaâs aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. âNew Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,â Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Billâs introduction reaffirms the Coalition Governmentâs commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. âWhile section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. âI am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
âThe results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,â Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. âWe heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tÄna koutou, apinun tru  Itâs a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. Â âPapua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,â Mr Peters ...
The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. âThe Roads of National Significance (RoNS) built by the previous National Government are some of New Zealandâs ...
A high-level New Zealand political delegation in Honiara today congratulated the new Government of Solomon Islands, led by Jeremiah Manele, on taking office.  âWe are privileged to meet the new Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet during his governmentâs first ten days in office,â Deputy Prime Minister and ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestineâs participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.  âThe resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. Itâs a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. âOur servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealandâs ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Governmentâs focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. âAn enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. âA key part of the coalition Governmentâs plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. âDespite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Governmentâs approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me.  Iâd like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Â Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Â Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Â Ladies and gentlemen -Â Â In diplomacy, we often speak of âcloseâ and âlong-standingâ relations. Â ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. âThe medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. âWellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. âWith 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Benjamin, Professor in Art History, University of Sydney âSheâs no oil paintingâ. Those were the unkind words of a colleague commenting on the subject of Vincent Namatjiraâs acrylic painting, Gina. Every one of the prominent Australians and cultural heroes in Namatjiraâs ...
Government plans to require local councils hold a referendum on whether to have MÄori wards breaches the Treaty of Waitangi, a Waitangi Tribunal report has found. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, Industry Professor and Chief Economist, University of Technology Sydney This year the National Rugby League (NRL) opened its season in Las Vegas. It was an audacious move by the leagueâs ambitious head honcho Peter VâLandys to showcase the game in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Strong, Associate Professor, Music Industry, RMIT University Leading music organisations have praised the federal budget for its investment in the live music sector. The budget includes A$8.6 million for a program called Revive Live: to provide essential support to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marnee Shay, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, The University of Queensland The 2024 federal budget contains A$110 million for Indigenous education. This includes funding for various different organisations to represent and help Indigenous people as well as scholarships in a bid to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Linley, PhD Candidate in Ecology, Charles Sturt University Grant Linley Australiaâs unprecedented Black Summer bushfires in 2019â20 created ideal conditions for misinformation to spread, from the insidious to the absurd. It was within this context that a bizarre story ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marcel Scharth, Lecturer in Business Analytics, University of Sydney OpenAI executive Mira Murati launching GPT-4o.OpenAI Earlier this week OpenAI launched GPT-4o (âoâ for âomniâ), a new version of the artificial intelligence (AI) system powering the popular ChatGPT chatbot. GPT-4o is promoted ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Treasure McGuire, Assistant Director of Pharmacy, Mater Health SEQ in conjoint appointment as Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Bond University and as Associate Professor (Clinical), The University of Queensland Speedkingz/Shutterstock Menopause is a natural biological process that marks the end of a ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aruna Sathanapally, Chief Executive, Grattan Institute, Grattan Institute A central focus of this weekâs budget is the treasuryâs forecast for inflation. By this time next year, inflation is projected to be back within the Reserve Bankâs 2-3% target range. Inflation has ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 17 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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This’ll be the first of many.
L
oh yai! Fun times ahead.
now now guys, lets not stoop to Farrars level.
Could someone PLEASE decrypt Key’s jargon ?
kitno: It’s just a bit of fun bro. Start pulling us up when we’re replaying videos of him tripping over in a shopping mall.
Let us hope, he never never never has to give a speech at the UN or talk to the Yanks
Lampie: Or APEC, where he wants to represent us on his maiden voyage as PM, next week? (Which is a good call, in my view).
L
Stephen Franks, Jim Mora and Brian Edwards are all having a moan on National Radio about Franks not being elected in Wellington Central – and blaming the Standard!. It was the nasty lefties’ fault, nothing to do with his homophobia (what homophobia?)
Ok Tane, fair enough.
Can any one comment on why there appears to be a complete purge of all historical mentions of Winston Peters? I’m trying to find the post where Farrar derides, what he calls an ‘unusual constitutional setup’ or something, about how the government shouldn’t be having ministers outside of cabinet.
Franks wasn’t elected to Wellington Central because the people didn’t want him elected. It’s called democracy and is something Franks is going to have to come to terms with eventually.
LOL
http://www.img-bin.com/pthumbs/large/801/John.jpg
How adorable, a kitten and a little ethnic kid.
Yeah the election is over can we be spared the cutesy campaign stuff now..
Prediction – Key gets rolled by English while overseas on trip to Apec đ
“How adorable, a kitten and a little ethnic kid’
Did the kid get the Lockwood pass test?
“Lampie: Or APEC, where he wants to represent us on his maiden voyage as PM, next week? (Which is a good call, in my view).”
Think he needs your skills Lew.
I am sure the new incoming National / Act Ministers appreciate the new BMWs that have hadly been run in yet.
Of course a BMW wil be a step up for John – I think he drives a commodore although he could of course dfrive any car he wants.
Thanks you guys!!! You’ve kept an old leftie sane over the last couple of weeks. And now I’ve had my first chuckle in 4 days. Steve Braunias in the SST was a giggle too.
Never thought I’d have to get out and campaign for MMP …. AGAIN! Keep up the Great Work.
“Prediction – Key gets rolled by English while overseas on trip to Apec”
Ah damn, had $50 on English just before Xmas
Lampie – I didn’t say which year though đ
Bobo – do you think it could be more embarrassing if photos of Helen holding a pussy were published?
LOL
haha bobo, yes I would be pushing hard for 2008 (patience, you must learn patience)
John, no
It is our turn to poke fun at YOU!!!!
John – hehe yeah I dunno who’s bright idea it was to take the photo op but politicians should never work with animals n children , 100% cheese đ
Lampie. Well I thought you guys had been for the last 9 years anyway. My taxes were so high they could only have been a sick joke
I hope the Standard doesn’t become the KiwiBlog of the left for the next 3 years. It has been home to reasoned debate of fact, policy and issues. It’s cheap to take a shot, it will be hard work holding the government accountable.
TimeWarp, as I said to my bro Kitno, it’s a bit of fun. Let the jokers have a laugh, there’s plenty of time for analysis and action.
The affable guy routine is already an embarrassment. Is he acting goofy or is he actually goofy. Tonight on the news Key and English arrive early for coalition talks with media at the ready. Key goofs his way through while English clears out of the room quickly and returns when he realises Key didnt follow him out. English is viewed peering thru the glass door while Key eventually figures it out and leaves.
It was a minor moment but suggests a serious lack cohesion and trust between the two men. English should have stayed and supported key through the Media comment or waited for key to initiate the next move, instead of ducking for cover.
My taxes were so high
Another myth in the making.
Define right level then, define too low, then go to the IRD and ask them to go through ALL the models that they have
typical right wing individualist thinking
Alexandra – I love it how Wodney kept Key waiting coming up the stairs , i’m sure it was a calculated entrance by him, almost dancing with the stars drama like, did anyone ever track down the women he asked to sit in her seat directly behind Winston at the privileges committee, was just curious.
Does John Drive a Commodore?
I wonder if you guys will give John Key any sort of break and give him a few months to see how he pans out as Prime Minister.
Or will your ideaological distatse of anything to the right of the Labour / Greenies mean that any thing he says does, mutters, dresses walks, looks, meets, writes, answers, will be immediate cause for derission. If that is the case then I suggest you get a life.
John Key has inherited a very difficult economy, and to get through the tough times ahead, this new National Government is going to have to make some very hard calls. How bad a state is the economy really in – or is that something you do not want to know about? Or the day after the new Natonal Government is sworn in will you be blaming him for the state of the economy.
The negative campaign was a major contributing factor to Labour’s Loss. Maybe the straategy going forward is to try and be a bit more positive and constructive?
Wheeling out excuses already Monty? đ
I primarily want to see whether he keeps his promises. Nothing unfair about that.
Monty: As far as I’m concerned, if he can see his way through the coming years without fucking up the economy, selling off the family silver, sending anyone to the poorhouse, getting us embroiled in any foreign wars, causing deep demographic or ethnic rifts, subsuming our national sovereignty to any third party groups (governments or corporates), going back on a bunch of his promises, or ruining the future of NZ democracy, he fully deserves to be PM.
I don’t mean this in a cynical way at all. He’s got a huge job ahead of him, and if he’s up to it, more power to him.
L
Monty Get a grip!! Labour’s negative campaign I am so tired of this mantra! The economy is in better shape than it was in 1984,1990 and 1999. thanks to Cullen’s stewardship.The much vaunted “third way”Same system of steady responsible management Blair used in the UK. Foreign business analysts describe NZ’s economy as “being very sound” and” well placed to weather the storm” I suggest you start reading the business pages.We are at the beginning of the biggest Global economic collapse since 1929 due to the irresponsible right wing free market policies of the USA ,the huge tax cuts given by Bush administration to his scumbag corporate mates,and Cheney’s gouging of the US Treasury to fund the illegal Iraq invasion. If you are willing to be educated and informed I have a list of book titles worth reading on the subject.None of what is happening is news to me nor is the the weak ruse of inheriting a poor economy . IT IS LIE! Pray for a wet summer for the Dairy farmers and NZ will be insulated from the worst of it. We are one drought away from serious social decline as we have an incompetent leader. Or hadn’t you worked that out yet? He was a currency speculator for Merril Lynch who are now bankrupt. He wouldn’t know which way the ground is pointing.
He can have exactly as much of a break as Helen Clark was given.
What’s that, Lassie? Headlines screaming “BUSINESS CONFIDENCE PLUMMETS” within days of Labour gaining power in 99? He may pleasantly surprise us, sure, but if he wasn’t ready to be PM he shouldn’t have kept assuring us he was.
“typical right wing individualist thinking”
Yeah, what a selfish b’stard. Here I was thinking if I studied and then worked real hard in life I could make something for my me and my family, but I see your point. thats just soooooo selfish. If I finally own a business then create more jobs for more people thats just soooo selfish – I’m just a lousy capitalist and only think about the harder and smarter you work, the more you advance…..but nope – you’ve got me!!! People like me – the job creators should leave the country – or stay and share our hard earned dollars with the parasites!
you make a strong case Lampie. I’m only glad the majority really understood your thinking last Saturday
Why exactly did business confidence dip early after the election in 1999? Maybe it had something to do with the anti-business policies of the Labour Government. They had left wingnut partners such as the now defunct Alliance – Anderton being the only relic of that error and it was a vengeful government – determined to implement policies that would have plumeted the country into recession had it not been for the wonderful ad solid economic foundations laid by Ruth, Jenny and of course the 1984 to 1987 Labour Government.
So concerned was Clark about her policies she held a conference with Business where business outlined the economic impacts of their policies. Labour at that point severly moderated their anti-business agenda.
What mess has Cullen left the economy in this time that will require firm action. How bad is the economy that Cullen has left in his wake. I supppose over the coming weeks we will find out how much Cullen has squandered the good years.
“Maybe the straategy going forward is to try and be a bit more positive and constructive?”
Are you kidding Monty – Lefties are born bitter and naturally hate everything above them and patronise everything below them.
[lprent: Please read my new post. The section at the bottom refers to you.]
Monty,
Assume Key lives up to his campaign rhetoric. Those ‘hard choices’ that he makes end up being to abandon right wing adventurism in favour of Keynesian orthodoxy.
I’m guessing the rabid right, will have all sorts of things to say. I doubt they’ll be original, but you mock the right you have, not the right you wish you had.
My guesses for what they call John the Moderate’s shiny new Keynesian National Party are:
National in Name Only (NINO), BlueCommunists, National Socialists (too easy), and Snifters.
The Thatcherite ‘wets’ goes without saying.
I look forward to seeing you defending him, and explaining that he did what he had to do. It would have been stupid to cut spending. Social spending levels needed to be raised, and so on and so forth.
Imprent – you spelt anti-socialists wrong
Lighten up a little too.
“What mess has Cullen left the economy in this time that will require firm action. How bad is the economy that Cullen has left in his wake. I supppose over the coming weeks we will find out how much Cullen has squandered the good years.”
hahahahaaaahh you are a complete muppet aintcha Monty!! Now we’ve got the dipshit from dipton back as finance minister things are gonna be just peachy! A dunce who so quickly fucked up the portfolio the first time he took it that Bill Birch had to take it back in less than a year!
A cretin of your calibre is such a liability to the right that you’d be doin them a huge favour by s.t.f.u.
Also, Cullen was a fucking great keynsian minister, take off your inverse reality goggles, noddy.
[lprent: Tell me have you been taking lessons from the trolls of the right? Read the policy]
This group of Nazis haven’t wasted any time!
Use Roger Douglas’ expertise say Business Roundtable group
http://www.3news.co.nz/News/BusinessNews/Use-Roger-Douglas-expertise-say-Business-Roundtable-group/tabid/421/articleID/79176/cat/52/Default.aspx
The new National Party-led government should draw on the expertise of Sir Roger Douglas, according to the New Zealand Business Roundtable.
Prime Minister-elect John Key is meeting ACT leader Rodney Hide and United Future leader and the party’s sole MP Peter Dunne today.
Business has welcomed the election of a centre-right government and market traders are relieved there is a clear result.
Mr Key has ruled out ACT MP Roger Douglas being a minister but Mr Hide has said the issue is not dead.
Bill English, who is expected to be finance minister, said there would be no cabinet position for Sir Roger but the Government would be open to advice from a wide range of people, Radio New Zealand reported.
Business Roundtable executive director Roger Kerr said he did not want to get into the debate about cabinet positions, but Sir Roger should be called on to help with the current economic crisis.
“There is a lot of nonsense about extreme policies,” he said.
A number of Sir Roger’s policies had been tinkered with but they were still largely in place. Sir Roger was an extremely experienced person whose expertise ought to be drawn on.
“It is high time that Roger’s role was recognised as almost saving the economy so to speak and he would have a lot to contribute in the current environment.”
The roundtable has congratulated Mr Key on his conclusive victory in the election.
The roundtable wants policies to improve productivity and address the country’s large current account deficit.
It is in favour of privatisation and freeing up the private sector to undertake commercial activity to grow the economy.
“We’d say it is fiscal policy and regulatory policies that should be the top priorities,” said Mr Kerr.
“The last thing we should be doing at the moment is following these ideas that have been doing the rounds of spending up yet further. That is a sort of mistaken Keynesian idea,” he said.
killinginthenameof back at 6:02pm – look at his archives for Oct 2005 – there are several posts where he quotes the Cabinet Manual. ACT’s press releases in the same month are also interesting.
Oh, Monty. Thanks for making my point for me – if Labour deserved no “break” because of their “anti-business policies”, then John Key, pay-no-attention-to-the-policies-behind-the-curtain certainly doesn’t.
KITNO: Re Ministers outside cabinet, today John Key has said they’re a good idea (despite criticising them as a strange constitutional anomaly for the past three years) because they allow heterodox politicians to criticise the government while still serving it.
It’s convenient and self-serving to change his tune now, but I agree with him. It’s MMP in practice.
L
Key’s first action as PM will be to skip the country leaving Bill English in charge. If that’s not foreshadowing I don’t know what is.
You reckon that was Key’s idea or English’s?
Maybe he thinks being minister of tourism means lots of free trips overseas.
“Lew
It’s convenient and self-serving to change his tune now, but I agree with him. It’s MMP in practice.
L”
Same here, I don’t have a problem the arrangement, just seems like a classic “it’s ok when we do it”
“Monty
November 10, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Does John Drive a Commodore?”
2 by the looks, unimpressed, considering what he can afford, you’d think he would have slightly better taste than that, perhaps something European?
I still can’t make out what the damned text on the picture says.
The problem with being born in the 70s I suppose…
I wonder if you guys will give John Key any sort of break and give him a few months to see how he pans out as Prime Minister.
I’m sure if we look back through your comments over the last few months, we wont find one sympathetic comment for Helen Clark. And comments from the KBR tended more to be about Helen’s face, teeth, billboard photo, or rich pricks rather than any substantive policy difference – maybe excepting tax prior to Nats tax plans being released.
The centre-left currently should aim to keep its achievements intact, and so any time NUFACT decides to invoke hard conservative or libertarian rhetoric or policies, you can be sure that the Standard will keep them disHONEST.
Actually, I think we really ought to save our serious attacks for his coalition partners in a few months when cracks appear in his team. Key is a crass buffoon with little political nous. He’ll dig his own grave.
Still, an odd shovel-full here and there won’t hurt us.
Lefties really are little children aren’t they? Too immature even to recognise their own failings they lash out at others – ooh it was an evil biased media, ooh it was an awful conservative conspiracy against poor widdle Winston.
No recognition of reality.
Hey lefties, this is why you lost. You’re fucked in the head. You don’t understand life, people, societies or economics. In addition, you come across as arrogant – you appear to really imagine you alone have the heart and wisdom to realise “justice’ in this fallen world.
You seem to think you deserve to win because you’re such super people with such pure humanitarian motives. That’s why you never criticised the abrogation of fair play represented by the EFA, because it was for the cause and everything is justified by the cause.
You stupid pricks haven’t even learned the elementary fact of life – that the secret to life is giving others meaningful value so that they can then transfer that value to others along the way. You teach someone how to fish and they will teach others. You give someone a fish and they will eat it and ask for another. By denying them this you degrade their humanity and prevent them from obtaining meaning in their lives by giving them the ability to help others and furthermore, you treat them like an idiot so they think they are.
Lefties do this all the fucking time the world over and for a short time people appreciate the fish. Problem is the only way lefties can get the fish is by taking it off others because they’re too fucking stupid to pull it in themselves (i.e. lefties never actually grow any economy they control because they focus almost entirely on redistributing the fish rather than helping people who are good at catching it to catch even more. Lefties appear to imagine that situation would be weally weally awful because that would mean those awful tewwible people would have far too many fish and we can’t have that can we. That wouldn’t be super at all.)
Moving away from fish to just one of many examples from the real world, where is the education system after nine years of you? Fucking nowhere you stupid fuckhead losers. I bet Te Tiriti is a big part of it but where are the business courses? Nowhere. Lots of courses however on how to get along with others and how to avoid thinking you’re a fucking loser. Yeh that’ll really help people when they start learning how to compete in the real world. Oh right, that’s another maxim from lefty philosophy isn’t it. There are no losers. Hey fuckheads, what’s the point of lying to school children about the way the world works? Isn’t that really really really cruel and indeed, evil? Of course it is.
When things turn to shit as they have, lefties have no answer, simply because the only thing they know how to do is to re-distribute. If no-one else is creating the wealth, they have no fucking ideas at all. That’s why you were dumped you execrats, the country doesn’t trust you because it knows we’re heading into some serious shit where there’s not going to be too many fucking fish and the last thing we wanted was to have a bunch of lefties at the helm giving us no fresh perspectives but still more of the same. Cullen has known about this for several years, bet on it. What has he done? Nothing. Case closed. You lost not because of the media, not because of Hulun’s laughably flawed campaign strategy (snigger), it was because you just don’t get life. You’re actually the worst people in the world, you arrogant naive fuckhead moron fucks.
Kind regards,
reid
[lprent: Despite appearances this is not a graffitti troll. Previous comments have been rational.]
Sheesh why the pity attacks on each others. The election is done and dusted. For the right they need to work out how to keep power. For the left they have to re-organise.
The left need to stop expecting a National led government to stuff up. It may happen but in New Zealand we tend to keep governments for more than one term. We don’t know if that will happen in this case. But I do suggest that rather than waiting for National to stuff up. Why not organise yourselves on policy and strategies to get back in power.
For National and Act and United Future. It would not take a big swing back to the centre-left for them to regain power in 2011.So make sure policies are on the right track to get the voters that voted in 2008 for them to vote Centre-right again.
Policy Parrot:
“And comments from the KBR tended more to be about Helen’s face, teeth, billboard photo, or rich pricks rather than any substantive policy difference”
And comments from this site and the left tended to be more about how slippery and untrustworthy Key is, rather than anything actually grounded in reality – just like the much lauded neutron bomb, it failed to deliver.
There’s an old saying about people in glass houses with stones in their hand, PP, and you really ought to think about it before you get in the saddle of your high horse again.
Wow Ried, that’s like 3 years of worth of kiwiblog’s hatred, misinformation, delusions and lies all wrapped up into one post, what a pity that reality entirely contradicts what your claiming, then again given your perspective of reality we can hard blame you. Oh and limiting educational opportunities is a policy of the right, helps them keep themselves and their families in positions of privilege.
Hey lefties, this is why you lost. You’re fucked in the head. You don’t understand life, people, societies or economics. In addition, you come across as arrogant
What a gem! I think I’ll get it printed and framed.
Ried, next time you write a comment on here can you use something other than fish. Seriously while i was reading your comment i kept feeling hungry, which meant i couldn’t give your fine penmanship the attention it deserves. Maybe next time you could use a pie, or a cake – oh see know i’m getting hungry again. Oh, tell you what, i’m allergic to nuts, use nuts in your next comment.
Keith- while monty may see things differently than you, that’s no excuse for behaving so poorly. I’d say “grow up”, but I know from experience that doing so simply doesn’t work for everyone to gain the maturity they need đ
Perhaps it did. Perhaps it didn’t. But if Key slips up at the beginning of his term, wouldn’t it be equally as fair to be judgemental of his policies and leadership in the same way? Let’s face it Monty- we have a fundamental disagreement on economics. The Left thinks we should spend more during a downturn, the Right thinks we should spend less. If we lose our economic momentum that is all that’s keeping us from REALLY feeling this global recession, then I hope you’ll be ready to admit that something went wrong.
Keith- while monty may see things differently than you, that’s no excuse for behaving so poorly. I’d say “grow up’, but I know from experience that doing so simply doesn’t work for everyone to gain the maturity they need
fuck off! đ
[lprent: Banned 2 weeks. Read the policy. I’m always happy to increase it if you want to argue.]
Mike “I know what I’m doing” Williams has just declared a $100,000 donation from fishing magnate Peter Vela yet disclosed this after the election. Labour also received $60,000 from the EPMU yet disclosed this before the election.
Both donations were apparently received on the same day.
Is he working for the National party?
What is really impressive is the fact that he is clinging on to his directorships. Employment with Owen Glenn beckons.
Labour lost because
1) as Steve Pierson noted they spent political capital on very expensive low return projects like the anti smacking bill. Either a bad assessment of the political cost or a bad assessment of the value of the law.
2) The attacks on key. They effectively advertised Key, without sticking much mud to the Teflon boy. (I might put this down to being out of touch with the views of swing voters).
3) Poor advertising – take a leaf from the green booklet – the Mary add was particularly bad and depressing. It amazes me that parties in NZ have such mediocre ads and billboards.
4) too much defense of Winston – no issue with not firing him – but why spend political capital actively defending the anti-asian immigration man? And getting Glen upset…
Whoar also raises an interesting option of selling Cullen as the man for a crisis. Risky – but much better than just negative campaigning against Key.
Vinsin,
I think it may have said something about left leaning governments not being able to deal with great depressions….
“you make a strong case Lampie. I’m only glad the majority really understood your thinking last Saturday”
What a great comeback, take your little bleeding heart act to kiwiblog. You shelfishly went on about taxes are too high. No compelling argument on why, just your individualist thinking.
Education is within reach because of the last administration. This country IS one of the best business environments to start and operate SMEs hence why we have a very high number of entrepreneurs compared with most countries. You will find that in your OECD stats!!!!
Don’t tell me about business as I will shove my commerce degree up your arse!!!
Good on you for taking up/doing studies though. Take advantage of the loans scheme if you are working full time and doing part time studies, this spreads out payments over the years for you with slight admin cost of $50 (might be cheaper with paying up front depending on fees)
Dear Reid,
Wow, that was a lot of anger.
I hope that after your rant you feel a whole lot better because it looked like you had a lot of pain and frustration pent up in that head of yours.
Also from your writing it seems you are very scared and you have every reason to be because we are heading for a terribly scary time. We are heading for a depression far more dangerous and deep than the 1929 recession. In fact you might find that we are heading for the collapse of the US empire leaving us stranded on an island very far from the rest of the world.
You might find that export will cease, money will dry up totally and tourism (Is John Key really going to be the minister of Tourism? Well be prepared for rich pricks to buy up great swaths of land) will be a thing of the past. No more stuff coming in and no more stuff going out. Very scary indeed.
So while your all relieved and happy about having dumped that heavy load let’s see who created the economic hardship that is coming our way.
Let’s start with the first possible culprit you point at: Labour and more specifically Cullen because he according to you knew about it three years ago.
Three years ago when I first arrived here my husband and I decided not to buy property and go off the grid because we saw the writing on the wall and since I have to assume that if a little person like me can see it coming a man like Cullen and even more so an intelligent women such as Helen Clark must surely have known. What could they have done about it?
Well, they could have been frugal, Oh oops they were. No big tax cuts for the rich like in the US. (Does it mean the rich got poorer and the poor richer under Labour well actually no, the rich grew richer and the poor poorer under Labour though so your fish thingy goes a tad awry there. This is a rapport on income distribution in NZ I found, it’s from 2004 but it hasn’t gone any better fro the workers who’s job’s went overseas so I think it only went down hill from there.)
They could save our tax dollars so when the time came they could make sure the workers and little people of this country were protected, Ooh oops they did.
They could have public free healthcare in place so the little people could afford to see a doctor too when they needed it, Ooh oops they did.
So you can’t really blame Labour.
So what did cause the coming collapse of our financial system, if it wasn’t Labour or this countries workers?
Well, it started with the subprime crisis. Somewhere along the line banks decided that is would be a good idea to give money to people who had no money to pay back their loans. That started around about 1987-1988.
And while they gave money they created out of thin air to poor people to buy houses they collected those mortgages and told dimwits like New Zealand investments firm owners that they could buy slices of the derivatives they created on top off that and told them that this was a good idea because “house prices would always go up” (remember that one?)
So banks created this crisis and who have we voted in? Ooh oops John Key.
One of those selfsame bankers who was involved in exactly the trade which is causing the financial collapse.
John Key who headed a department in Merrill Lynch in the late nineties which developed innovative and complex new products.
John Key who was shocked at Merrill Lynch’s exposure to the subprime crisis in October 2007 and didn’t get back to Cullen about it in order to save NZ in a bipartisan way.
John Key who never created any wealth other than parasitical money creation out of thin air.
John Key who thinks nothing of almost collapsing his own countries currency and to lie about it twenty years later.
You know what Reid? If Cullen was supposed to know that I’m sure John Key was in an even better position to know what was coming. Hell, he was at the very root of it. So what you reckon should he have done something to prevent it from happening? Or is he exempt from having to deal with the consequences of his own behaviour.
And for those of you thinking that I accuse John Key from being the sole perpetrator of the subprime crisis, think again. No, of course JK was not the sole perp but he was heading the department of debt from one of the most aggressive parasitical subprime and derivative banks ever.
Nice to know that the fox is going to run the hen house, eh Reid?
travellerev, was Mr Key ever self-employed during his career in the money industry? or just worked for others?
travellerev,
“somewhere along the line” = when the “leftie” Clinton Administration told them to.
So it WAS a leftie’s fault!
You can’t blame a market for a faliure caused by regulation.
Lampie,
He was the managing director of debt, Global head of foreign exchange and European head of bonds and derivatives. That is an awesome level of seniority in a bank such as Merrill Lynch and with it comes a huge level of responsibility and control over it’s finances. He was not the boss of Merrill Lynch but in his position and as an upon invitation only advisor to the Federal Reserve of New York it is save to say he knew exactly what he was doing and how it would pan out in the end.
It was the same speculative bubble/burst mechanism that caused the first great depression after all.
theodoresteel,
You are absolutely right about the Glass Steagall act being repealed in 1998 under Clinton.
As far as I’m concerned the Dems and the GOP are just two head of the same dragon though. Nothing lefty about Clinton. Just another pawn for the banksters and the military industrial complex.
The joke’s all wrong, anyway – John’s already had access to the BMWs, as leader of the opposition – and used them 5% more in the last year than our outgoing PM herself.
theodoresteel,
Of course you can blame the scheisters who lobbied for neigh on 11 years spending between 100 to 200 million dollars to have the act repealed so they could go on a rampage. They are nasty, greedy and dangerous individuals who for their own greedy benefit destroyed our economies, waged two wars and made a killing in the process.
And we just put one of them in power.
reid, not that such a comment deserves a response, but I’ll give a short one.
Your analogy used ‘fish’, showing that redistributive politics get people fed, and that’s it. I don’t imagine that you actually believe this to be the case, as it was an analogy. So what if you used something like… doctor visits. Redistribution doing something that increases productivity, reduces long-term costs and means those who ‘create the weath’ have a wealthier society to which they can sell goods and services, and a healthier population which will better be able to be gainfully employed.
I could give another dozen examples that illustrate the same if you need them – and I think you do.
I reckon you haven’t spent a lot of time thinging about any of this, your whole comment (17-year-old tantrum vitriol ignored) was exceedingly one-dimensional and simplistic.
With much sympathy,
Matthew Pilott
Travellev: Again an interesting simplified run-down, that I can understand. (I cannot think that Reid would read it as he is not able to be objective. When I stripped away Reid’s invective there was nothing much left except Key-like slogans.)
It will be interesting if History will eventually enlighten the populance in a credible way ?
Travellev: By the way, I paste your assessments onto my own file because it would be a pity for it to be lost in the archives. In due course they could be valuable.
Reid, Reid, Reid… (Comment: November 11, 2008 at 12:30 am)
Wow! us Lefties are arrogant? You should really re-read your own rant.
Anyone would think your man, your saviour hadn’t won, anyone would think you didn’t get just exactly what you wanted.
Hmmm not very gracious of you.
Please come back and comment when your right-wing ‘fishing teachers’ have lost the next election. Because I’d looove to hear how angry you are when you don’t get what you want.
Hugs