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The Herald has an article on the government investigating the mining potential of seamounts. These are extinct underwater volcanoes, which are rich in unique sea life and ecologies that include some of our most important fisheries, and minerals. We know that on-shore mining is environmentally…
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Prime Minister John Key has released a multimedia demonstration prepared by his Technical Advisory Panel to explain why, despite election 'promises', New Zealand will not be getting ultra-fast broadband any time soon under National. Yes folks, like John Key's Magical Cycleway To Salvation, there are…
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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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One thing that the election in Britain brought home to me, was how much I'm grateful for having Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation here. I didn't start that way. In 1993, I was probably leaning towards Single Transferable Vote (STV) or even retaining First Past…
election 2011 First Past the Post humour interweb MMP political education referendum Supplementary Member
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An informative quote from Bill English trying to assuage National Party member who are concerned that the Party is betraying its principles (ha!) and giving too much to the Maori Party: "On any given day over the next period, as you start thinking about the…
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Today, all the Herald's political commentators talk about Key's decision to come back from his Middle East trip after the ANZAC Day helicopter crash. The Sprout's already cited approvingly the criticism of John Langley, a businessman who was on the tour of the Gulf Co-operation…
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In the wake of an uncertain UK election outcome, the BBC's Nick Bryant writes that Britain could learn from New Zealand in the art of forming coalition governments. The article is fascinating from a Kiwi perspective, because it shows just how far we've come in…
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In other cheery news this morning: Euro crisis goes global as leaders fail to stop the rot The growing crisis in the eurozone threatened to undermine the global economic recovery as markets plunged across the world on fears that European leaders may not be able…
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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 UK election has delivered a complex hung parliament and almost anything seems possible. At time of writing The Guardian is reporting that David Cameron will soon be making an announcement on "plans to form a strong and stable government" (according to Sky News), and…
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It's puzzled me for some years how few people bat and eye at the countless portrayals of violent death and brutality we see every night on TV, while anything that portrays acts of physical intimacy are carefully vetted in case they cause anyone offence. This…
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The other day I wrote about pay rises for workers. 75% of non-union workers took a pay cut last year. Seems their bosses made off a lot better. Despite all the business collapses and the 21,000 lost jobs, half of all CEOs got a pay…
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A place to discuss the UK election and the results as they emerge. Follow The Guardian's election blog: 5.17am: This is what Gordon Brown told reporters on the flight down to London. I am the leader of the Labour, but I have also got a…
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In the process of saving capitalism (again) from itself, governments around the world have taken on huge amounts of debt and some are running large deficits. Sovereign debt crises are popping up among countries that were being managed as if the good times would never…
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We're in the middle of another slowly unfolding oil disaster. On April 20 the "Deepwater Horizon", a British Petroleum oil rig, exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and starting what is fast becoming the the largest oil spill in history.…
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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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Press release, New Zealand Government Prime Minister John Key explained today that there are two Paula Bennetts and he is unsure which one is Minister of Social Development. The two are easily confused. The first Paula Bennett is a solo mum who relied on the…
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The budget for Whanau Ora, which has been billed as a magical, ineffable revolution in social welfare will be just $33 million a year. What a joke. Whanau Ora's budget will be less than twice that of that other great fizzer, the John Key Memorial…
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The unemployment rate has fallen to 6%, that is something to celebrate. It really is great news for all those Kiwi workers who have gotten back into a job, their families, and their communities. Manufacturing has led the way, another positive. But it's not time…
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I'm glad to see Labour is stealing a march on the lazy Nats and building an alternative economic vision ahead of the Budget. It looks to be just the vision New Zealand needs, built on the twin planks of economic sovereignty and a fairer distribution…
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Short fix for those following the British election - just updated from the Guardian: The Conservatives appear to be on the brink of regaining power at the end of one of the most tumultuous and tightly fought general election campaigns since the second world war.…
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"This is a question of basic fairness, and it's the Kiwi way is to treat people fairly, particularly when they're vulnerable" - Darien Fenton Yesterday, Fenton's Redundancy Protection Bill was voted down by National and ACT. National showed its utter contempt for workers by having…
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The March quarter unemployment rate is out today. It should be back down below 7% from the appalling 7.3% that National let it rise to. My hope is to see it fall to at most 6.8%, that'll represent 10,000 Kiwis back into work. But there's…
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I don't read Kiwiblog often. DPF is capable of interesting political commentary or detailed policy wonkery on occasion, but most of the time it is editorial cut and paste jobs, troll farming, or postcards from his latest holiday. Ho hummm. Even a casual reader such…
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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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So, Paula Bennett appointed this guy Peter Saunders to her Welfare Working Group. He's an English guy living in Aussie and tied in with the extreme Right Centre for Independent Studies. A wannabe fiction author, he penned a xenophobic book called The Versailles Memorandum set…
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[ This comment from gobsmacked needs to be posted! -- r0b ] [Update - frog has more details] Question Time was just hilarious today. Or it would be, if these clowns weren't running the country. There was Wayne Mapp floundering, and Gerry Brownlee ... well,…
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The Right is all about short-term thinking. That's why National has never understood the value of education. The First National Government, when faced with budget troubles responded by cutting the education budget and raising the school age to 6. This latest National Government is attacking…
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It was particularly telling that both Justice Minister Simon Power and Attorney-General Chris Finlayson failed to front to speak for the 3 strikes Bill when its second reading was debated last night. But ahead of that debate, Labour's Rick Barker took Judith Collins to task:…