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The ability of doctors to refuse to provide proper healthcare if God says it's bad is again in the spotlight, with a Blenheim GP refusing to prescribe the Pill to a patient because he decided she needed to have babies, and her views on the…
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NZ signed a new trade agreement with Taiwan this week. For the first time the reference to labour standards is squarely in the agreement rather than as a separate memorandum. "Each party shall respect, promote, and recognise in its laws, regulations, policies and practices, the…
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A significant proportion of the media is now heavily invested in the narrative that David Shearer is about to be rolled as Labour leader. In particular Patrick Gower and Duncan Garner have become so obsessed that they have become the object of regular satire. Matt…
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My semi-regular Sunday piece of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn’t fit in anywhere (no linkwhoring). This week: the problem…
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A Sunday feature - each week a random section scanned from a copy of The Standard, September 15th, 1938. Find out more here. Click on the image for a bigger version.
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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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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYJZ7A_Qcdw Rosy commented this morning about the amazing speech that Malala Yousafzei has made to the United Nations. Malala is the young woman who was shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for education for young women. She had advocated publicly for the…
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In Poverty Watch 34 I had a detailed look at the government's "response" to the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) 2012 report "Child Poverty in New Zealand evidence for action". The response could best be described as pathetic. Here's an interesting piece published in the Huffington Post…
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A correspondent on Al Jazeera NewsHour this morning claimed that, while the polls are all over the place, US-ians tend to see Edward Snowden as more traitor than whistleblower. She also said that in the US, there is a lack of widespread outrage at the…
accountability human rights Spying telecommunications us politics
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Five and a half years ago, Labour's Electoral Finance Bill was subject to strong criticism, including from the Human Rights Commission, which said it was an unwarranted impingement on freedom of expression. The Herald launched its 'Democracy Under Attack' campaign to drive Labour from office.…
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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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An article about the editing of Judith Collins Wikipedia page has just been published on the NZ Herald site. Author Phil Taylor makes a creditable effort to maintain some balance, pointing out the apparent biases of both Brooking and Clarke43. He is asking for the…
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John Key does not seem to have a very high opinion of law. He thinks that legal opinions are something that can shopped around for and if he does not like an opinion he just needs to go out and get another one. The Human…
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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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The excellent journalism of the Campbell Live segment (Wednesday July 10, 2013) on the changes to the GCSB bill, and the Key government-Dotcom-GCSB timeline, brought the role of Eric Holder to the fore. Eric Holder's connections with his New Zealand counterparts shows how much Holder's…
accountability capitalism child abuse democracy under attack john key Spying us politics
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The knuckleheads (tm John Key) in the parliamentary press gallery are concerned about their privacy: Parliamentary press gallery raises concerns over swipe card data Representatives from the parliamentary press gallery have raised concerns with Speaker David Carter over Parliamentary Service releasing the swipe card information…
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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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Robert Wade will speak on "Inequality and the We st" in Christchurch tomorrow Friday - 4pm in Lecture Hall A3, Arts Centre, University Drive, Christchurch. His lectures in Auckland and Dunedin have been packed - had to move the venue in Dunedin and could have…
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Today, a passenger on the bus I was travelling on, had a fit or seizure of some description. Luckily for them, they slumped sideways into the recovery position and the bus was stationery, having just pulled into a bus stop. The driver and another passenger…
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This is incredibly stupid PR of a quality we have not seen for a while. Sky City has threatened to pack up all its toys and go home if the pokie machines and human misery bill, also known by its subtitle of "a bill to…
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One of the Nat/SkyCity (same thing?) lines in the pokies debate was that the new machines would be in a monitored and controlled environment. That appears to be bullshit: #SkyCity #dirtydeal allows pokies to be installed in Auckland InterCity Bus Terminal. http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2013/0140/latest/DLM5362254.html … Pokies in bus…
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I/S at No Right Turn on Transmission Gully... Transmission Gully: A $2 billion scam Last year, the government announced that doing Transmission Gully using a Public-Private partnership would cost $300 million more than if the government built it. That's bad enough, but it's worse than that.…
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Excellent reporting on Campbell Live last night, with a detailed look at the timeline of events surrounding the GCSB Bill, the Kim Dotcom raid, the appointment of Key's school chum to head the GCSB, and certain visits between Washington and NZ. See the video here…
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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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I am doing a speech on health and safety tomorrow. Been thinking about Pike. Bernie Monk rang yesterday. Bridges is in Gisborne Herald today saying all the reports needed on Forestry have been written. In my speech tomorrow I Will read this bit out from…
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There is clear evidence that a full, independent inquiry of the GCSB is needed before the law/s related to NZ intelligence gathering are changed. The Green Party called for such an inquiry in May 2013. They argued that the inadequate report by Paul Neazor indicated…
accountability democracy under attack greens human rights internet john key labour slippery spin Spying telecommunications
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Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here.
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Multiple reports on Twitter that Key's grubby Sky City Bill will be a conscience personal vote. If true, I'm surprised, given the fragile majority Key has on this issue. Now I guess we get to see if any Nat MPs have a conscience: Thousands more…
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Apparently there was a coup in Labour last night. Missed it? So did Labour. The coup seems to have taken place largely in the mind of Duncan Garner, with the assistance of well-known Labour insider Cameron Slater. Let Twitter tell the tale: Duncan Garner 9:05pm:…