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Scheduled Maintenance
There will be some scheduled maintenance tommorrow from about 10am for an hour or so. This is to move the site to a new server. I'll be glad to get out of the 100% CPU that the current server is having.
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Archives · 2010-04-01 to 2010-04-30 · Page 4
Find articles and conversations by date, subject or search expression.
Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 91–120 of 168
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C&R’s takeover attempt
Voters of the North Shore, Waitakere, Manukau and Franklin will be very concerned with the announcement that Auckland City based Citizens & Ratepayers is going to run a single slate(r) of candidates across the region at this year's supercity election. The reason? Auckland City Council…
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Anyone else make a connection?
Last year, Telecom screws over its engineers. Decides to make them dependent contractors. EPMU wins real jobs for most of them. Better contract conditions for others. But a sh*tload of experienced engineers say screw Telecom and leave the industry. Then the faults start. XT becomes…
privatisation telecommunications Unions wages workers' rights
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Renewed questions over Sensible Sentencing Trust & GEO Group
Given National's announcement of the first private prison, it's appropriate to renew the questions about links between the leading advocates of harsher prison sentences in New Zealand, the Sensible Sentencing Trust and GEO Group, a US private prison operation that changed its name after its…
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Davis on iwi-run prisons
Labour's Kelvin Davis is a hell of a writer and he unleashes on iwi corporates looking to profit off running prisons: So a private prison is going to be built at Wiri. I see some iwi are rubbing their hands together in glee at the…
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Restart Cullen Fund payments
A year after National canned contributions to the Cullen Fund, Vernon Small slams the decision: it was a dumb, short-sighted decision that has cost the fund heaps in the long run. It will rate as National's biggest economic gaffe Of course, some of us knew…
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Open mike 16/04/2010
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Pig Code of Welfare – last day to send submissions
Today is the last day to send in your submission on NAWAC's draft Code of Welfare for Pigs. New Zealand Open Rescue have put out a new video containing footage from many different farms around the country, to remind you why it is important to…
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When did telling the truth become a mistake?
In Phil Goff's shoes, would I promise to reverse National's GST hike, even knowing that National might leave me in a position where that isn't possible? If I was an unprincipled character, yes. In fact, it would be a classic John Key move: make a…
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Goff slams Nats’ record
We all know that this has been a government that has failed to do anything apart from favours for its rich mates. But it's still startling to see it all laid out. In his speech to the Grey Power AGM, Goff went through the failures…
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Nats: economically illiterate
I thought the Nats were meant to be good with money. You know, they're all ex-currency traders and Treasury officials, and one of the reasons people went over to National at the last election was the promise that National would deliver a 'brighter future' via…
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PPPs don’t make economic sense
With echoes of the mining debate, the Government's apologists on private prisons say 'sure, in principle we shouldn't do this, punishing criminals is the job of the state, but we've got to balance that against all the money we will save... money!!' and we know…
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Journos on the declining state of journalism
A mate sent me this screen grab: "Gov-Gen to attend PM's funeral". To me, it says a hell of a lot about the state of the media in this country that a sub-editor, or whoever they have writing headlines these days, does not know the…
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Open mike 15/04/2010
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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The privatisation push
National has announced the location for its first private prison on the same day we find out that they want their working group to look at privatising welfare. Frankly neither of these moves have provided any real gains elsewhere in the world and both have…
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Don’t undermine New Zealand
I hear that the Government's proposal to allow mining on specially set aside conservation land has already attracted a staggering 10,000 submissions, the vast, vast bulk of which are opposed to this short-sighted, stupid idea. A coalition of groups who care about our environment has…
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Couldn’t organise a piss-up on Queens Wharf
'Party Central' was a typical John Key move like 'north of $50', 'balancing our economic opportunities with our environmental responsibilities', 'national cycleway', 'ending whaling', 'jobs summit' - catchy phrase, big promise, no follow through. Key and Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully have been at…
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Whaling comic
Have you heard of Cyanide and Happiness? A web-comic that walks the line of funny and too far. More popular, according to Alexa, than the NZ Herald. Anyway. They have an annual 'depressing comics' week. No punch lines. Given our Prime Minister's aim to restore…
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The next step on smacking
Smacking and the reform of Section 59 was one of the big political issues of the last few years. Key's position on facing down the appallingly worded "smacking referendum" remains one of the very few things that I can respect and applaud him on. Key…
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Mr Key’s exciting Washington adventure
Following this masterpiece from Rabid Fire on Key's F#ck Everybody policy, here's a lovely summary of Mr Key's exciting Washington adventure. ... the PM soon brightened, opening the Prime Ministerial lunchbox to show the press gallery his special lunch. "Look! Look! Bronagh's made me special…
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Open mike 14/04/2010
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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NZ should be a proud world leader on nukes
What an amazing thing it is to have an American President campaigning to get rid of nuclear weapons. And he is being so clever about it. I believe his opposition to nukes comes from a personal belief that these weapons are abhorrent and their use…
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Meanwhile, in the provinces
The biggest story of the day according to Stuff comes from the Taranaki Daily News: "Cruel taggers deface old goat" I love that headline. I think it's the fact that they've emphasised that the goat is old to make it a more pitiful character. Or…
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Key accidentally calls open season on whales
We know from leaks in MFAT that when John Key told the country that he had a plan to end whaling back in January there actually was no plan at all. It was just a stunt ahead of the expected visit by Hillary Clinton (that…
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English should follow Bennett’s lead
Well, I'm pleasantly surprised. For once, Paula Bennett has played it straight on the benefit numbers. Usually, the monthly figures are an exercise in self-congratulation from our Social Development Minister with the over-inflated ego, even though the numbers have been uniformly bad since she took…
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Big win for apple exporters
Over the decades Labour has had the guts to take some hard decisions with benefits off in the future. ACC, ETS, WFF, Cullen Fund, anti-smacking, gay rights, social welfare, public health. Even not so hard decisions like the Rugby World Cup show Labour's focus isn't…
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Who Said That?
Who suggested that the mining industry in New Zealand needed to be reinvigorated and should put more emphasis on marketing its fundamentally strong geological resource, telling the NZ Herald that gold mining prospects in New Zealand were at least as good as anywhere in the…
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Open mike 13/04/2010
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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John Carter: sleeper-agent for the Left?
The last time John Carter did anything memorable was in 1995. He was National's senior Whip. One night, perhaps feeling tired and emotional, he called up a talkback show hosted by then minister John Banks "impersonating a workshy MÄori called Hone, causing widespread offence" (as…
activism democratic participation greens health housing labour national nz first progressives
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McVicar interview misses mark
Russell Brown's interview with the Sensible Sentencing Trust's Garth McVicar on Media 7 the other night demonstrates exactly what a charlatan McVicar is. When confronted with his racist near-endorsement of the stabbing of Pihema Cameron all McVicar could do is continually repeat the a pathetic line about…