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The next round of secretive TPP negotiations is in Auckland next week, 3-12 December. There will be a National Day of Action on Saturday 8 December. It looks like it will be part of a world wide protest march. There are important issues involving NZ's…
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100% Pure no joke Like most Kiwis I’m proud of New Zealand’s strong tradition of conservation and environmentalism. From the heroic efforts to save the Chatham Islands’ Black Robin, to our world-leading Nuclear Free stance and our opposition to whaling, New Zealand has always fought…
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Weekend social is for non political chat. What's on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can't we all just get along?
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Over the past four years 40,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost (and over a thousand manufacturing companies have shut up shop). The government is in full denial, so the opposition parties have set up their own inquiry. The Labour Party, the Green Party, New Zealand…
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From the indefatigable I/S at No Right Turn... Taking on our local tax cheats overseas, governments and media are asking increasingly annoyed questions about tax cheating by multinational companies such as Starbucks,Apple, and Facebook. Now Labour joined the campaign, and has taken up the cry locally: Facebook New Zealand paid…
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Labour may still be well below its 2008 election result, when it was chucked out after 3 terms, but, thanks to the doubling of Greens support, Labour+Green is level pegging with National in the latest Roy Morgan. Add New Zealand First, and the opposition is…
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Here's a solution to the Novopay fiasco. Move all National MP's pay on to that system. Let them go for months with random pay, if they get paid at all. Then you'll see it fixed real fast...
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Chris Trotter, like myself, was at the Labour party conference a week and a half ago. Like myself and damn near every left wing blogger who was there, he saw a massive discordance between what was being reported and what was actually happening in the conference.…
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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. Firstly the Tory Government…
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Anthony has already mentioned the amazing record of us winning both first and second prize in the first Fossil of the Day awards at the Doha climate talks - quite a remarkable achievement, particularly for a nation that trades on its "100% Pure" environmental credentials.…
climate change Conservation Environment farming national sustainability water
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Interesting piece in today's Glasgow Herald on the appointment of Mark Carney as the new governor of The Bank of England. It's what you might call 'out of step'. For most of this week, UK press commentary on his appointment has been fairly gushing. But…
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Attacks on the “anonymity" of bloggers by some MPs and journalists, are a symptom of change that threatens to make political participation more democratic. Until the early 20th century journalists were largely anonymous. The rise of “name” journalism and infotainment have increased voter dis-engagement. A critical, independent…
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With unemployment grinding upwards, the economy stagnant, the education system in turmoil, and the exodus to Australia at record levels, the Nats must have thought that at least they had a success story to tell on health. Here's a press release from back in August:…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Government has a central role in job creation. Just ask National. They'll tell you it's not true, and then proudly proclaim that they got The Hobbit made here (ie. bent to hollow threats from Hollywood), creating 3,000 temporary jobs. According to the New York Times,…
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Earlier this month yet another report on the looming catastrophe of climate change was published. What was particularly notable about this one was that is was from the World Bank (not exactly a hotbed of lefties or environmentalists). The report is called "Turn Down The…
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The relationship between media and politicians in this country has become incestuous and toxic. For much of the time they confine themselves to merely slanting the game with spin and framing language. We've learnt to live with that. But increasingly we are witnessing instances where…
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Dr Russel Norman: Does it not all boil down to the fact that whichever way you cut it, whichever statistics you care to choose, the Government has failed on jobs, unemployment has grown in New Zealand, and the number of jobs in the manufacturing sector…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Brian Edwards is the latest to wade into the "anonymous bloggers" debate. I've previously posted about the reasons people use pseudonyms, and my personal "justifications" for arguing that a pseudonym does not automatically render a person's statements worthless. But there's the other side to it, the side I…
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David Shearer had Key on the back foot today in the House over Labour's housing policy. It's a good policy, and Key's long-winded explanations didn't answer Shearer's pointed questions; even Speaker Lockwood Smith sat Key down for going on too long and off the point.…
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One the eve of The Hobbit premier the employment dispute is revived, exposing gaps between principle and practice. In a Stuff article Jackson is still claiming there was a very real threat of the filming being done in the UK; some of the Labour's ABC club…
brand key Environment film greens labour slippery tourism workers' rights
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KiwiBuild has the Nats rattled. It's difficult to oppose a program that creates both affordable housing and jobs, but they're doing their best. One of the lines that has got the most traction amongst their drone repeaters on the blogs comes, of course, from Kiwiblog:…
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Like everyone else, I find you can get better political analysis from chicken entrails than from Claire Robinson. But it seems she can count and use a ruler and what she discovered is interesting. In last year's election campaign, the four biggest newspapers featured 138…
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I'm tired of watching Labour flounder over how it will build $300K homes in Auckland. The answer's simple: they'll mostly be apartments, units, and townhouses. Not much land cost. Reduced build cost per dwelling. Check out Trade Me, houses for sale in Auckland, 2 bedrooms+,…
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Reading the comment swarm in OpenMike last night, it was clear that someone wasn't doing their job in briefing. Sure a section of land sufficient to build a traditional 3 bedroom house in Auckland is bloody expensive and would cost as much as Labour's budgeted…
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There are some similar things between McDonald's and New Zealand - they're both currently run by a clown at any rate - but I didn't think cynical marketing was one of them. Apparently Key is "lovin' it" how our rivers and lakes are far from…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Last week's Labour conference was quite a revelation in the degree that spin can overcome reality. The degree that that the political media are willing to swallow up almost anything if it makes for a simpler and more dramatic story was rather frightening. There were…