Iwi and the riverbeds
The only remaining possible legal threat to the Nats’ plans to sell off our power companies is a Treaty based claim to water rights or riverbeds.
National has no intention of ever enforcing ETS
As many of us expected, National has no intention of ever enforcing the ETS in the area where it makes the most difference to NZ emissions – agriculture.
Open mike 03/07/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Compliance not for banks
Compliance is not high on the agenda for interest-rate rigging banks, who are even now resisting any further regulation. Tapu Misa has the full story, and the right approach in today’s Herald. Alex also puts his finger on the problem in his Telegraph cartoon.
Exxon continues denier tactics
The Exxon Mobil CEO now acknowledges that the world is warming, but claims that there will be an “engineering solution”. This glib reassurance is simply the next phase of Exxon’s well funded and carefully planned denier tactics.
Sale of the century
So – what kind of person does well out of asset sales?…
Property rights should not trump human welfare
I/S at No Right Turn on Pita Sharples’ suggestion that Christchurch’s homeless squat in abandoned red-zone properties rather than sleeping in their cars.
The cost of sprawl
House prices and rents are rising quickly in Auckland. The reason is pretty simple: from 2008 to 2011, it added 70,000 people and only 10,000 houses. The shortfall will have been worsened by the exodus from Christchurch since then. While the population’s growing, more houses are needed. But is the Right’s answer – more sprawl – the way to provide them?
What did Key really know about Dotcom?
We know that the Police overstepped their authority following their Hollywood wannabe raid on Dotcom’s home. They used invalid warrants to take property of Dotcom’s that they weren’t entitled to, and gave that data to the FBI. Now, we learn that Key’s office was involved in advising the Department of Labour on shutting down a leaked email.
Open mike 02/07/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Making it here
SST Business Editor Rob O’Neill said today: “There is a great deal of lip-service paid to “innovation” in business. What is not often acknowledged is how embedded innovation can be in manufacturing. Making stuff, or being able to talk freely with the people who do, can be a source of inspiration and great ideas for companies.” I got a lot of inspiration from Swedish Academic Goran Roos on this topic in Auckland on Friday. South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill has asked him to head up their manufacturing strategy next year. We could do with someone like him too.
Rate-swapping
Another British bank scandal – interest rate-swapping on small business loans. Banks offered small businesses supposedly low hedging insurance on interest rate movements, knew they could get cheaper rates themselves because they had better market information, and pocketed the difference as guaranteed profit. It would be interesting to know if the same thing happens here.
Sunday Reading
I’m going to try and put up a piece each Sunday 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: Feminism, capitalism & resource depletion.
The price of National’s politicking
In a desperate effort to hang on to a few red-neck votes, National keeps on ramping up rhetoric against solo mums. There was talk of compulsory contraception or sterilisation. National played up those ideas, even though it hasn’t followed through. Is it any surprise, then, that poor mums, who don’t follow the news closely, just hear the rumours, are being scared into abortions?
Open mike 01/07/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Target practice
Just before the parliamentary recess National released its latest set of Laura Naude targets. They will join all the others – catching up with Australia, jobs from the cycleway, government surplus by 2014, yadda yadda yadda. I can’t think of a single target National has actually met. These targets aren’t real; they are just there to provide fodder for uncritical media.
Heroes of capitalism
Banks engaged in market fixing. What a surprise. No doubt someone will be held to account…
Parata was briefed on teacher cuts
It seems that Parata was fully briefed on teacher cuts after all, but she somehow “did not have enough time to mention it”. The government’s most recent humiliating bungle just got worse.
Open mike 30/06/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Wrong headed _and_ incompentent
So here is the story that will probably summarise this government in the history books. The whole cabinet delegated responsibility to John Key and Bill English to achieve their promised land of surplus in 2014/15. They defined themselves as the only party that could deliver this goal, they jettisoned all other goals in pursuit of a single number, and they can’t even achieve it…
TVNZ7 Funeral March tomorrow
Patsy of the year
Such is the abundance of talent in the National Party that they can’t even ask a patsy question right…
Weekend social 29/06/2012
Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no […]
Pengxin’s outrageous profiteering attempt
Shanghai Pengxin’s bid to buy the Crafar Farms was accepted the 2nd time on promises it would invest in building the farms’ productivity in a way a New Zealand buyer couldn’t. Instead, they immediately turned around and tried to sell 3 of the farms at an outrageous profit. Pengxin has shown it has no intent of being bound to the commitments it has made.
Time for Govt to bring the cops to heel
Looks like the Police have cost us a fortune in an inevitable lawsuit from Kim Dotcom. Not only were the warrants they used to raid his house illegal, they took things they weren’t entitled to even under those illegal warrants. They aggravated this by playing FBI wannabes, causing distress and public humiliation. Then they gave their illegally obtained information to the Yanks.
What’s Bill smoking?
We’re getting used to the Nats running bash the beneficiary /poor /Maori /unemployed /criminal /etc distractions but it’s getting pretty bad when Bill English gets in on the act. Weirdly his idea of drug-testing beneficiaries seems to have been picked up from a Daily Show piece on how it failed in Florida – costing money, not saving it, and proving beneficiaries use drugs less than the rest of the population.
Tariana’s final days?
Tariana Turia’s privatisation by stealth of welfare for Maori, known as Whanau Ora, was an open invitation to fraud. Money was signed over to groups with no track record and no plan. It’s finally caught up with her as New Zealand First, Women’s Refuge, and the Greens team up to reveal Turia’s lies and willful blindness over reported fraud in Palmerston North.
Open mike 29/06/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Funding fraud
It’s not acceptable for the government to keep funding a service provider after fraud has been clearly reported. It’s not acceptable for a Minister to be aware of “problems” and not even read the audit report before allocating further funding. Will anyone be held to account?
A poor investment
Now the legislation to sell our assets has passed, the question on lefties’ minds is whether it’s more principled to refuse to buy them or to spend the money to ensure they don’t get sold offshore.
What’s not getting a lot of attention is whether they’re actually the great investment our Prime Minister keeps insisting they are…
Katherine Rich on the Health Promotion Board: The next outrageous piece of Nat cronyism
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.
The end of Back Benches
Back Benches was a brilliant show. A lovely amateur air that never became awkward thanks to the unflappable humour of Wallace Chapman and Damian Christie. I never got along in person but it was a great watch. And it was clear that it was the audience that made it. They brought a vibrancy and a direct interaction for the politicians that no other show has.
When spin backfires
John Key has this weird defence when challenged over the number of Kiwis who will buy and retain shares in his asset sales, given that shareholders in Contact have plummeted from 225,000 at point of listing to 78,000 now. He cites a single article by a single journalist that says Contact is widely-held. Yesterday, Key quoted at length from the year-old article. And walked straight into David Shearer’s trap.
Open mike 28/06/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
R.I.P Uncle Jack
My uncle Jack Fleming joined the RNZAF two weeks after his brother Andy was killed flying a biplane against Zeros in Malaya. Jack’s first and last operational flight was in a Stirling bomber shot down over Germany; only one of the crew baled out and survived. Jackwas one of the 1861 New Zealanders who did not return home. Today a memorial will be unveiled in London’s Green Park to all those brave men.
Stealing Heritage – Scott free
