Mike King calls alcohol a solution to mental health anguish. But evidence shows alcohol is linked to a 94% increase in suicide and has links to family violence. So what is happening with King and the $24m this government handed him in a highly “irregular” contract process?
Simon Bridges’ twitter account has been tweeting about unusual subjects lately.
One of the Roastbusters this week has talked publicly about what happened in an apparent attempt to start a music career. And John Tamihere has started his Mayoral campaign having to answer questions about his attitude to what happened.
Police Minister Stuart Nash has said publicly that he wants to see all New Zealand music festivals to have drug testing kits by next summer.
A new political party has emerged with what could be loosely described as a stunning website.
New Zealand First at its conference on the weekend passed a remit to calling for immigrants and refugees to “respect New Zealand values” which are founded on Christianity.
Dame Margaret Beazley has concluded in her report into Russell McVeagh, New Zealand’s Goldman Sachs, that it has serious problems including instances of excessive drinking and in some instances crude, drunken, and sexually inappropriate behaviour, a failure of governance and pockets of bullying.
Do we have a sexual assault problem in New Zealand, or an alcohol problem? The media has decided for you. (Content warning: Sexual assault, rape culture, discussion of problematic news coverage thereof)
The whitewash of the rugby players who assaulted a woman at a post season piss up has been released. A mightily relieved rugby boss Steve Tew can now go into the rest of the season knowing that the All Black squad will not be affected by the loss of any players to suspension. The only person to have lost their job over the incident is the victim. How cool is that?
How many more lies will John Key tell today in his so-called State of the Nation address? Virtual chocolate fish to whomever guesses the closest number.
Judith Colllins & the PM are probably toasting Shane Jones (and Murray McCully) right now: the heat around the Oravida controversy has been pushed off the front pages. Information and marginalised news don’t easily disappear off the web – or Wikipedia. Collins quietly slipped out a press release on the delay of her decision on alcohol pricing – media shy suddenly?
The big story for the day is the likely change in press regulation as the Leveson Report on questionable media ethics is about to released. But the next couple of stories are also interesting with similar (unresolved) stories here this year: Minimum Price for Alcohol, and Caps on Payday Loans
So apparently John Key failed to be “precise enough” when he said he voted for the drinking age to be 20, and actually voted for it to be 18. But then this is all the fault of opposition MPs being ‘pedantic’ with the fact that true doesn’t equal false.
Key’s just straight up lying to the media now on easily verifiable facts. A 3news poll shows 57% said Parliament got it wrong keeping the drinking age at 18%. Key says: “That’s one of the reasons I voted for it to go to 20 – in line with what the public thought – but Parliament didn’t vote that one.” In reality, he voted split age and, then, to keep it 18.
Soon, a 18-year old gay man will be able to get married and, then, celebrate by having a drink. If Jacinda Ardern’s Bill passes, he’ll be able to adopt his husband’s child. And, if David Clark’s Bill passes – he can then earn $15 an hour at his minimum wage job! It really is the conservative’s nightmare at the moment. I’m loving it.
The alcohol reforms miss the real issues and focuses on wowserism over teens drinking, instead. The Hospitality Association will be rubbing its hands at the split age suggestion. But there ins’t a growing problem with booze. Alcohol consumption is falling. 25 years ago, we consumed 140 litres of alcoholic beverages per person (including children!) per year. Today, that number is 105 litres.
Today MPs will have a conscience vote on the drinking age. But National won’t be moving on anything that will hurt the alcohol industry, even though action on price and advertising is what’s really needed to make a difference to New Zealand’s alcohol problem.
Update: And remain at 18 it is.
Two high-profile conscience votes are coming up in Parliament over the next two days. It will be interesting to see the breakdown of who votes which way on the issues. But the level of malice expressed by some of those opposed to marriage equality is disturbing.
What a craven cave-in. Lobbied by big booze, Collins has given in. Alco-pops will be left to the industry to regulate. It’s not a good look. Key wants to give the pokie industry free rein, and Collins wants to give the booze industry free rein, which means more families suffer, and more hospitals are overrun. As leaders they both get a fail.
Last month, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne told us “I don’t support a minimum pricing regime … a lot of the material that I’ve seen from other jurisdictions raises more doubts than support for the issue of minimum alcohol pricing“. Now, an OIA reveals the actual advice to Dunne was that the international evidence shows minimum alcohol pricing works.
A cynic might ask if Peter Dunne is out to eliminate the competition of his mates and (it is widely thought) donors in […]
The Government announced that it was withdrawing its Alcohol Reform Bill today and introducing prohibition after it realised that alcohol was used by the ‘Beast of Blenheim’ to stupefy young girls. “It’s what we’d do if it was any other drug, particularly as it’s associated with the ‘Beast of Blenheim’,” said Justice Minister Judith Collins.
All the evidence (eg) shows that increasing the price of harmful substances is the best way to decrease their use and, particularly, their abuse. Minimum pricing is one effective measure to do that for alcohol. But John Key disagrees. Based on … nothing. He hasn’t even taken the time to understand what minimum pricing is.
Putting the CEO of the leading lobbying agency and industry promotional group for companies promoting sales of sugar, fat and alcohol on the Board of the public health agency supposed to prevent harm to young NZers is an outrageous act of cronyism.
Peter Dunne has – according to Alcohol Action NZ spokesperson Professor Doug Sellman – “deliberately suppressed” the biggest and best survey on Kiwi attitudes to drink legislation this country has (not) seen.
OIA papers show Key blocked lowering the drink-drive level fearing an anti-‘PC’ backlash. Officials warned “Drivers with a blood-alcohol content of [80mg], who are legally entitled to drive, are significantly impaired”. But Key’s office was worried about votes. So Joyce kicked for touch – commissioned 2 years of research. While we wait, more lives are lost.
There’s an ad campaign at the moment about how DB Export was supposedly created in reaction to the Black Budget. It’s full of lies and a lot of people see it as a slur on Arnold Nordmeyer and Labour in general. In fact, this odd campaign under the slogan ‘how to lose an election’ isn’t about Labour. It’s a warning to National.
The Key government doesn’t want to act on advice that would reduce deaths due to drunk drivers. The latest tactic is an attempt to divert attention to the worst “hard core” offenders. This is “ambulance at the bottom of the cliff” foolishness. Why wait until we have problem drunk drivers and then try and pick up the pieces? Wouldn’t it be better to try and prevent people from becoming problem drivers in the first place?
The latest drink-drive crash has reignited the debate over the legal blood/alcohol level. It’s clear from John Key’s excuse-making on Breakfast this morning that the Nats have no intention of reducing the limit from 0.8 to 0.5. The argument that most drink-drivers have accidents when they are well over 0.8 misses the point.
The Sunday show last week featured the Prescription for Change campaign of Dr Albert Makary. Dr Makary has set out on a mission to drive social change surrounding the culture of binge drinking within our country. He hits his audience with hard facts, some disturbing trends, and presents everything in a way worth listening to.
The government was told that lowering the drink-drive limit would save 33 lives and $238 million a year. They ignored it. Why? I reckon the only money they were worried about was donations from the booze barons. These idiots don’t bother with basic cost vs benefit analyses. It’s all about pay-offs for their mates. And donation kickbacks.
So National are to kick lowering the legal blood-alcohol level into the long grass by having 2 years of “research”. This whilst telling […]
