John Key’s claim that Labour and Greens support the rapists on Christmas Island has struck a snag. There are none. And the brave action of progressive women MPs talking publicly about the sexual abuse they have suffered has shown how morally bankrupt Key’s politics are.
New Zealand’s bloody awful parliamentary debacle.
Was Key’s “outburst” in Parliament yesterday an outburst, or was it a strategy?
The barbaric treatment of New Zealand citizens by the Australian Government ought to attract condemnation and urgent diplomatic representations. But nothing is happening. Surely this is a time that John Key should get some guts. But instead of this he has accused the opposition of supporting rapists. Updated with video from Question one in Parliament today.
Kelvin Davis showed this video to the Labour Party conference on the weekend. Following news of the riot it has become a must watch.
The text of the TPPA has finally been released to the plebs – i.e. we the people. Too little too late.
“‘Unless the world acts decisively in coming weeks, the Pacific as we know it is doomed,’ says Fijian prime minister Frank Bainimarama”. Odds of the world acting decisively in the coming weeks – effectively nil.
Boots on ground.
The US has been invited to send a ship to NZ. One News has a headline about a “nuclear ship”. Explosive if true, but I think this is an error. There is some confusion on the matter, let’s hope it is cleared up fast.
Amnesty International has published a report “By Hook or by Crook: Australia’s Abuse of Asylum-Seekers at Sea” which has rightfully been described as a damning indictment of Australia’s handling of the refugee crisis. But New Zealand benefitted from payments of money to people smugglers. What did the Government know?
Fascinating developments in British politics as The House of Lords opposes Cameron’s cuts to tax credits and chooses instead to protect the poor. Cameron is incensed.
This is going to end well…
Kelvin Davis’s recent visit to Christmas Island has revealed that New Zealand citizens are living in shocking conditions. And meanwhile John Key’s talk of giving the Australians a “blunt message” appears to have had negligible effect.
Will the Liberals’ victory yesterday result in Canada dropping out of the TPP? Probably not. But Canadian farmers are going to push hard, creating an interesting opportunity for the Liberals.
Today Key is trying to dress up Aussie platitudes (on detained Kiwis) as scraps of progress. But Labour MP Kelvin Davis is taking action…
There are a lot of canaries giving warning in the world’s economic coal mine just now.
Key has failed to budge Australia on the detention and deportation of Kiwis. Apart from the photo ops and the mutual admiration society, our actual influence is zero.
John Key seems to prefer that New Zealand provides leadership in entertainment than in the areas that really matter.
So John Key and the new Oz PM are having a chat today and good ol’ JK will be mentioning the issue of “New […]
“Throughout the TPPA negotiations Minister Groser sought to justify their obsessive secrecy with a mantra that ‘it’s always done this way’. That was parroted unquestioningly by every fellow travelling journo and politician, and others who were unwilling to challenge the Minister, despite being told that was untrue.
Groser changed his tune during the case, arguing that ‘every agreement is different’ and the TPPA is special. Why the shift?
The Nats changing lines on the Taji report look like just another routine coverup of just another routine lie. At least, I hope so, because not knowing / caring about the report would be worse.
Today, Labour showed the commercial world that its non-negotiable “bottom lines” are actually very negotiable, and even disposable.
Briefing Papers have been busy recently, check out some recent articles. How long can wealth keep sucking up before a society breaks down completely?
An American report which came out shortly before Key’s visit to our troops at Taji camp in Iraq is strongly critical of conditions there, and of the efficacy of the training process. Key claims he didn’t know, yet another of his outbreaks of “convenient ignorance”.
Terrible news from Turkey where over a hundred protesters have been killed by explosions at a peaceful protest organised to seek an end to the violence between the Kurdish separatist PKK militants and the Turkish government.
Rod Oram’s Sunday Star-Times column, as made available on Facebook, is a level-headed evaluation of the TPP. He lists five points of concern…
Great post on the UK based NEF Blog: Don’t be fooled, dismantling the rights of workers is not good for you, or for the economy.
The proposed TPP is a protection racket – not a trade deal.
According to the EFF “The Final Leaked TPP Text is All That We Feared”…
A march of solidarity for refugees is planned for today at Auckland.
Will New Zealand (John Key), as a signatory to the Geneva Convention Protocol I, support Medecins sans Frontieres call for an independent fact finding commission into the bombing of their hospital, and the deaths of Doctors and children and 37 injured? Or will he pretend he never got the letter?
Associated Press: BREAKING: Hillary Clinton says she opposes Pacific Rim trade deal, breaking with Obama.
Bryan Gould on the TPP: “…it is about managed, not free, trade – and trade that is managed in the interests of large, international, and mainly US corporations.”
If this report is accurate it opens an interesting can of worms!
A roundup of the best analysis of and reaction to the TPP. The gains are minor and delayed, the losses are real. In NZ we don’t have any democratic input into ratification, but the US does, and the deal may fall there.
