General Debate 29 August 2012

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hj

Uptake of insulation subsidy by landlords only 15%. This could be because as Sir Robert Jones says; “you put one coat of paint on not two. You only get paid for one”.
Heatley says “we don’t want to drive landlords out of the market because they provide housing for a whole lot of people” presumably he thinks landlords will mothball their properties?

http://tvnz.co.nz/close-up/tackling-sub-standard-homes-video-5050352
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August 29, 2012 8:01am
my 2 cents

Thats what he does!
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August 29, 2012 8:01am
Pete George

On Breakfast this morning Bob McCoskrie talked again about the slippery slope of marriage equality. If marriage is redifined to include all people, what next? Anything including the kitchen sink? Marriage equality slippery slope.
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August 29, 2012 8:03am
big bruv

Government made easy.

http://clintheine.blogspot.co.nz/
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August 29, 2012 8:17am
Sonny Blount

A new paper on the effects of school choice and charter schools:

http://www.nber.org/papers/w18324

[W]e use unique daily data on individual-level student absences and suspensions to show that lottery winners have significantly lower truancies after they learn about lottery outcomes but before they enroll in their new schools. The effects are largest for male students entering high school, whose truancy rates decline by 21% in the months after winning the lottery.

We interpret this as students exerting more effort towards academics at their current school due to an increase in intrinsic motivation from knowing that they will be able to attend a school of their choice in the subsequent school year.

We then examine the impact attending a chosen school has on student test score outcomes. We find substantial test score gains from attending a charter school and some evidence that choosing and attending a high value-added magnet school improves test scores as well. Our results contribute to current evidence that school choice programs can effectively raise test scores of participants. Our findings suggest that this may occur both through an immediate effect on student behavior and through the benefit of attending a higher-performing school.
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August 29, 2012 8:20am
Sonny Blount

For those that don’t understand the lottery.

Successful applications to the charter schools are awarded by lottery, not by ‘creaming’ the top students. Unsuccessful applicants are no different in their backgrounds and choices to successful applicants.
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August 29, 2012 8:30am
Puzzled in Ekatahuna

At the moment a bride has a list of people, mainly close relatives, who she may not marry, and likewise an intending groom has a list of forbidden women. In gay marriage will these lists just be swapped in respect to either male / male or female / female weddings to become the list of illegal surrogates who may provide children for prospective couples , if they prefer that to adoption?
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August 29, 2012 8:30am
Manolo

This highly-skilled pair should start by losing some weight: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/7566697/Key-rejects-report-as-working-poor-struggle
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August 29, 2012 8:32am
Fletch

Excellent opinion piece in today’s Herald re marriage –

Same sex marriage is not an issue of equality nor the success of any couple’s marriage. It is not about the value or validity of homosexuality. The issue is about the link between the state and marriage in civil society. Who decides what marriage is and what it’s for?

Marriage is neither essentially religious nor a product of tradition. It is not the child of the state.

Neither is marriage what Lynne Featherstone the British Equalities Minister claims. “Marriage is a right of passage for couples who want to show they are in a committed relationship, for people who want to show they have found love and wish to remain together until death do them part.” Her historical vision is limited; her logic is deficient and her fusion of the Anglican Prayer Book with modern idiom disingenuous.

Marriage is the consequence of who we are. We do not make it; it makes us. Marriage would not exist if there were not two complementary sexes. And that’s why it does exist.

We are male and female. In the simple and hopeful business of being alive we have children in a union of consenting responsibility, love and thankfulness.

It is the fusing of two opposite halves of the human being through which new life may be created.

That some couples decide not to get married does not change the biology. That some cannot have children or decide not to is beside the point.

The so-called conservative case for same-sex marriage favoured by the British Prime Minister (and apparently by our own Prime Minister) tumbles out of a category error. “Marriage is a good thing. It stabilises the lives of those who participate; especially men. Therefore they should be able to marry each other if they are committed.”

But as soon as same-sex marriage is granted, marriage has been changed to something profoundly different; from an institution prior to the state to one determined by the state.

Read the whole thing

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10829995
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August 29, 2012 8:34am
Pete George

Puzzled in Ekatahuna – interesting point. Close relative restrictions are for genetic reasons that shouldn’t be an issue for homosexuals, but for equality they will have the same rules as everyone else?
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August 29, 2012 8:43am
boredboy

Oh yes, Fletch, good old Bruce Logan.

Nice to see how he has signed himself as a ‘New Zealand schoolteacher living in France’.

Rather than the truth which is:

‘Former conservative christian think-tank chief executive who was forced to resign following academic misconduct and plagurism.’

If you like, you can read the editorial for today’s paper: Editorial: Society more relaxed over gay marriage

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10830115

In the meantime though, it is just dishonest for this ‘man’ to present his opinion as that of a ‘New Zealand schoolteacher living in France’ considering his background.
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August 29, 2012 8:49am
Elaycee

@Manolo – (8.32am): Thanks for the link – in the photo I couldn’t help but also notice the presence of the (obligatory) Sky TV dish on the roof.

Now, before the panty waists emerge and start bleating, I should point out that the Sky dish could be a remnant from a previous tenant, but if this couple are actually Sky subscribers who have now decided to take in a niece and a grand niece, then perhaps their fiscal priorities are all wrong. Indeed, perhaps the niece (and the grand niece) should be back living with the niece’s own parents?

Of course, if they can’t make ends meet (for whatever reason), this family still has the option of returning to whence they came a decade ago….

3, 2, 1….
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August 29, 2012 8:50am
Griff

No sky tv in the islands they will stay only to end up in hospital with diabetes from all the kfc they stuff into their fat faces
and its all the rich pricks fault
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August 29, 2012 9:05am
Martin Gibson

Labour and the Greens seem to be signalling that they can work together in perfect harmony with each other and with Maori here on the East Coast — through gritted teeth, of course.

A feast of female Kiwi woman righteous indignance.

http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/article/?id=29136
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August 29, 2012 9:07am
Griff

Look F undies the end is near

Three-person civil union sparks controversy in Brazil
Public Notary Claudia do Nascimento Domingues has said the man and two women should be entitled to family rights.
She says there is nothing in law to prevent such an arrangement.
But the move has angered some religious groups, while one lawyer described it as “absurd and totally illegal”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19402508
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August 29, 2012 9:09am
dave53

Well there is a Sky dish on our roof and we don’t have Sky. It was there when we bought the place.
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August 29, 2012 9:11am
Keeping Stock

Much as we hate to even ask the question, is Martyn Bradbury right about Michael Laws?

http://keepingstock.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/fb-status-of-day.html
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August 29, 2012 9:12am
Weihana

Pete George (14,365) Says:
August 29th, 2012 at 8:03 am

On Breakfast this morning Bob McCoskrie talked…

Damn it was hard to sleep-in with Bob and Lousia talking over each other. Gaffer tape for the both of them!
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August 29, 2012 9:13am
Martin Gibson

Pete George, Weihana . . . why watch Breakfast? It’s kind of the news in a What Now? format. Myself, I watch Three News; here’s what I learned this morning in the brief time I watched it:

1. So, when you want to sound intelligent and in command of the facts you say “So”, as if it were an patient sigh.

2. Don’t mess with the Israelis, they will poison your bearded ass.

3. The calm before the storm is like the calm before the storm.
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August 29, 2012 9:16am
kowtow

PG, PIE

Louisa Wall on tv using all the leftist claptrap dictionary to justify her tiny constituency personal interest Bill!

Anyway it’s not about equality or 2 loving adults. It’s about redefining a key societal institution to give homosexuals everything they demand.

Wall even used the language of discrimination to McCroskie saying in NZ marriage is defined as being between 2 people . Yeah always understood as between man and woman.And restricted.

In todays ODT 2 loving ,consenting adults convited of incest crime. They are being discriminated against and instead of being convicted should be allowed to marry ,under Walls’ rationale,but wont. See Schedule 2 of marriage Act.

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1955/0092/latest/DLM292639.html

This should be repealed if discrimination and equality are truely the intent of her homosexual bill.

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/223647/incest-couple-were-abused-children
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August 29, 2012 9:17am
Pete George

I read the whole thing by Bruce Logan, ex school teacher (by the way I’m an ex fruit picker amongst many other things). He claimed:

If same sex marriage is granted, marriage will have been changed to something profoundly different; from an institution prior to the state to one determined by the state.

That’s bollocks. ‘The state’ is not determining anything. It never can.

MPs (representatives of the people) are going to debate a change that appears to have popular and growing support, especially amongst younger age groups. It is reflecting a changing, more inclusive and tolerant society.
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August 29, 2012 9:18am
kowtow

elaycee

technical question

What’s the square thing on the back of a Sky dish?

A state house.
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August 29, 2012 9:20am
kowtow

pg

You’re talking bollocks mate. The state determines all sorts of things.And is now redefining marriage which under the 1955 Act took for granted it was between a man and woman.

The “state” through written constitutions is constsantly determining.

We need referenda on these important issues. Today is likely to be close and as such that is not a satisfactory way of determining huge change in society.
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August 29, 2012 9:26am
Pete George

Marty – I rarely watch Breakfast, I hate the folksy inane chat stuff, I just wanted to watch that particular ‘debate’.

I vowed not to watch any morning TV unless it was sport, but have started watching TV3’s Frontline almost regularly, it’s far more serious and useful than Breakfast which is usually as substantial and with as much snap as rice bubbles soaked overnight.

BTW, there is no way that Marty can know if my arse is beared or not.
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August 29, 2012 9:27am
Weihana

Fletch,

That some couples decide not to get married does not change the biology. That some cannot have children or decide not to is beside the point.

Why is it beside the point? If you start off saying that baby-making is the point, then it is contradictory to say that people getting married for reasons other than baby-making is “beside” the point. One could just as easily say “That some gays get married is beside the point”. That you tolerate heterosexuals who get married for reasons other than procreation whilst not tolerating homosexuals who want to get married for the same reason is simply arbitrary.
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August 29, 2012 9:29am
Puzzled in Ekatahuna

School to pay $10k to man living in van. Friedrich Fehling was staying in his van parked on South Westland Area School’s grounds when he was given a trespass order in January 2009.

How much will Stewart Wilson be able to sue Whanganui Council for when they trespass him against using their public library, or other of his freedoms are limited, mainly, it seems, by the unlawful urgings of Michael Laws?
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August 29, 2012 9:31am
Hamnida

Sonny Blount – It isn’t a straight “lottery”, as you have to opt into the lottery to start with. This requires a certain amount of effort. A true lottery would involve extracting the names of all students from a database and randomly selecting them.

The form of “lottery” described is more like an application process.
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August 29, 2012 9:31am
Pete George

The state determines all sorts of things.

‘The state’ is not capable of determining anything. Parliament (comprising about 120 MPs and many support people who also consult with many more people) determines things.
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August 29, 2012 9:40am
Griff

http://news.yahoo.com/arctic-ice-melts-record-low-us-researchers-171243395.html
The sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has melted to its smallest point ever in a milestone that may show that worst-case forecasts on climate change are coming true, US scientists said.
“There are a number of areas where in fact climate change seems to be proceeding faster and with a greater magnitude than what the models predicted,” Mann told AFP.

“The sea ice decline is perhaps the most profound of those cautionary tales because the models have basically predicted that we shouldn’t see what we’re seeing now for several decades,” he added.
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August 29, 2012 9:42am
Elaycee

kowtow:

technical question

What’s the square thing on the back of a Sky dish?

A state house.

Yup…. It is pity that many of those seeking (more and more) taxpayer handouts haven’t thought of applying spending priorities to their own wages.

It’s all too easy…. unless, of course you’re the long suffering taxpayer expected to pick up the tab. 🙁
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August 29, 2012 9:45am
Longknives

Classy!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10830158
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August 29, 2012 9:46am
kowtow

pg

pedantic george.
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August 29, 2012 9:46am
Longknives

Bonkers!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10830154
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August 29, 2012 9:47am
boredboy

“Classy!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10830158”

Hehe yes that picture is now on my hard drive for use in workplace email replies.
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August 29, 2012 9:48am
Weihana

kowtow,

In todays ODT 2 loving ,consenting adults convited of incest crime. They are being discriminated against…

Discrimination is not the issue. People can be discriminated against for legitimate reasons. Arguably an incestuous relationship deserves the discouragement of the state as compared to other relationships. However, I see no justification in imposing a criminal sanction against adults for incest no matter how repulsive (although having a child is certainly not fair on that child). As an analogy I would say that the state should discourage smoking because it is unhealthy, but it has no business imposing sanctions against people to force them to change their behaviour if it is not imposed on anyone else. But therein lies the reason why many gays are offended at the comparisons with incestuous relationships because the implication is that their relationship is morally wrong and thus deserving of such discouragement.
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August 29, 2012 9:56am
Falafulu Fisi

Manolo said…
This highly-skilled pair should start by losing some weight

What has their weight got to do with their being on low income and don’t rely on state welfare? The couple don’t claim any benefits. Your beef is with the politicians who want to take more from the rest of NZ taxpayer and give it to the low income like them.

Direct your anger at politicians who allow the increase on state welfare, like the National Party, Greens, Labour.
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August 29, 2012 9:57am
kowtow

Wei

Discrimination is the issue,Wall said so.
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August 29, 2012 10:05am
Sonny Blount

Hamnida (522) Says:
August 29th, 2012 at 9:31 am
Sonny Blount – It isn’t a straight “lottery”, as you have to opt into the lottery to start with. This requires a certain amount of effort. A true lottery would involve extracting the names of all students from a database and randomly selecting them.

The form of “lottery” described is more like an application process.

Keep up Hamnida, I said applicants.
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August 29, 2012 10:18am
Pete George

Felix Marwick is like a good old fashioned journalist, he’s one of the better ones to follow on Twitter, providing reliable and balanced coverage.

Breaking with habit he has temporarily come out of the opinion closet.

Political Report: The many opinions on marriage inequality

Generally I steer clear of taking a position on political matters. I’ve always been of the view that it’s my job to report what’s going on at Parliament, but not to take sides.

However when it comes to Louisa Wall’s Marriage Amendment Bill, I’m going to temporarily suspend my objectivity and say I support gay marriage.

It’s pretty simple really. If people want to get married then I say all power to them and I don’t care if you’re straight, gay, or bisexual. If people want to commit to one another as an expression of their love, then I don’t see what right I have, or anyone else has, to stand in their way.

So that is stating a clear position. And while on a roll he takes a shot:

But the thing that annoys me the most is the argument that’s been put by the likes of Colin Craig that gay couples aren’t as good role models for parents as heterosexual couples are.

Excuse me while I call bullshit on that theory. As the son of a gay father I know from personal experience that a parent’s sexuality has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of child rearing.

My father’s performance as a parent was exemplary and I owe much of what I am today to the lessons he taught me.

To suggest that having gay parents makes a child lesser or disadvantaged is insulting, unfounded, and the largest steaming pile of shite I’ve ever had the misfortune to come across. Those that peddle such nonsense should be given a swift kick to the backside.

And for those who’d suggest allowing gays to marry will lead to incest, polyamory, or paedophilia I say this:

There’s probably more chance that you’d be interfered with by a priest.

He’s probably right.
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August 29, 2012 10:20am
flipper

Of more importance….. The following from today’s Sydney Morning Herald.

One wonders how long it will be before New Zealand pantywaist bureaucrats produce copy cat moves for NZ:

“Internet data tracking proposal seen as ‘a police state’
Date
August 29, 2012
Bianca Hall, Ben Grubb, Lucy Battersby

Law enforcement wants telcos to store vast amounts of data they currently don’t keep on us.
PROPOSED laws that would allow the web and telecommunications data of all Australians to be stored for two years have been dubbed ”characteristic of a police state”.

The federal government has sent its contentious discussion paper on changes to the national security legislation to a parliamentary inquiry rather than introduce it as legislation. In July, the Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, acknowledged the privacy and financial costs of the scheme, saying ”the case has yet to be made” for the controversial plan.

In a heated submission to that inquiry, Victoria’s Acting Privacy Commissioner, Anthony Bendall, dubbed the proposals ”characteristic of a police state”, arguing ”it is premised on the assumption that all citizens should be monitored”.
”Not only does this completely remove the presumption of innocence which all persons are afforded, it goes against one of the essential dimensions of human rights and privacy law: freedom from surveillance and arbitrary intrusions into a person’s life,” he said.

The government says its proposals are under consideration only, and it has sought the views of the multi-party inquiry on the plans in its discussion paper.
These include allowing authorities to access anyone’s computer to get to a suspect’s device, or to ”enter a third-party premises for the purposes of installing a surveillance device”.
It is also considering increasing the scope of search warrants from 90 days to six months and establishing an ”authorised operations scheme” to protect ASIO officers from civil or criminal liability.

The government says telecommunications intercept laws, which date from 1979, have become hopelessly outdated.
But civil liberties groups and telcos have slammed the proposals in submissions to the inquiry.

The Law Council of Australia said if the wide range of proposals were adopted, they would ”constitute a very significant expansion of the powers of Australia’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies”. It questioned whether this was necessary given the ”extensive catalogue” of powers the agencies already had.

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre said the legislation was unnecessary and posed a threat to privacy rights.
”Extension of these powers to people not suspected of any crime who, for example, happen to live in property adjoining that of a suspect, is disproportionate to the purpose that covert search warrants are intended to achieve and is an unjustifiable incursion of the right to privacy,” the centre said.

The internet provider iiNet said the government had failed to demonstrate how current laws were failing or how criminals and terrorists posed a threat to networks, and said asking carriers to intercept and store customers’ data for two years could make them ”agents of the state” and increase costs.

A joint submission from telco industry groups said companies were ”naturally predisposed to protecting [their] infrastructure” without government requiring them to do so. Further, it argued, it would cost between $500 million and $700 million to keep data for two years. It called for full compensation from the government’s security agencies.
The Australian Federal Police and the Australian Taxation Office were among the few supporting the proposal to retain all telecommunications data.

The ATO said the proposal would be consistent with European practices and that being able to access real-time telecommunications data would allow it to ”respond more effectively” to attempts to defraud the Commonwealth.
The AFP said interception capabilities were increasingly being ”undermined” by fundamental changes to the telecommunications industry and communications technologies.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/internet-data-tracking-proposal-seen-as-a-police-state-20120828-24yvn.html#ixzz24sipgWgv
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August 29, 2012 10:20am
Kiwi Dave

Yesterday, Hamnida told us that people who use ‘Maoris’ instead of ‘Maori’ were butchering Te Reo. Quite why we should use Maori plural conventions instead of English plural conventions with borrowed words in English sentences wasn’t explained.

I’m curious to know if Hamnida also regards these words and phrases as butchering English – ‘tiriti’, ‘Wikitoria te Kuini o Ingarani’, ‘Nu Tirani’, ‘Wiremu Hopihona he Kapitana i l e Roiara Nawi’?
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August 29, 2012 10:26am
Weihana

I was watching a stand-up comic last night making the joke that whenever another driver cuts you off you just have to see who it was and to confirm if they are like you or not. If they aren’t like you you think “typical bloody [insert group here]”. If they are like you, you assume they had good reason.. must’ve been an emergency.

So of course when we see a couple of islanders who are poor and have a sky TV dish we just have to assume they have a SKY account despite an inability to afford medical bills. Because Islanders just must be dumb and stupid and irresponsible. 🙂

Similarly if we drive through South Auckland and see SKY dishes we assume “bloody benefit bludger wasting tax dollars on SKY”. Of course they couldn’t afford it on their own paycheck. They MUST be on a benefit. They’re in South Auckland after all?

Stereotypes are an interesting thing. They generally emerge from real life anecdotes which makes them both true and utterly false at the same time.
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August 29, 2012 10:27am
Brian Smaller

Manolo said…
This highly-skilled pair should start by losing some weight

the FF said

What has their weight got to do with their being on low income and don’t rely on state welfare? The couple don’t claim any benefits. Your beef is with the politicians who want to take more from the rest of NZ taxpayer and give it to the low income like them.

Direct your anger at politicians who allow the increase on state welfare, like the National Party, Greens, Labour.

It shows that despite being on low incomes they make poor spending choices when it comes to food. Perhaps a lot of their other spending choices are poor as well. These sorts of stories NEVER tell the full story. IE. How much do they tithe away? How much do they send back to family at home? Unless they are independently audited I call bullshit on this bleeding heart article.
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August 29, 2012 10:32am
Weihana

kowtow (2,675) Says:
August 29th, 2012 at 10:05 am

Wei

Discrimination is the issue,Wall said so.

I was referring to the incest couple. I have no problem with the government discriminating against them within reason based on the incestuous nature of their relationship. But I do not agree with criminal sanctions for consenting sex between adults of any kind. But my point is that discrimination against homosexual relationships is not reasonable as their relationships can be just as healthy and stable as any other.
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August 29, 2012 10:38am
kowtow

pg

your reliable and balanced journo proved to be otherwise with his disgusting anti cleric comment.

these people remind me of the French terrorists ,deeply anti clerical haters pretending to act out of noble sentiments of equality etc all the while harbouring a hate filled and violently advanced agenda.

The Soviets, Maoists, Khmer Rouge ,all the same.
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August 29, 2012 10:43am
Pete George

…all the while harbouring a hate filled and violently advanced agenda.

I think you’re overstating a tad there. He expressed his opinion – seemed to be strong and heartfelt, but much different to the hate filled and violently advanced agendas that fly around here at times.
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August 29, 2012 10:56am
Weihana

Brian Smaller,

It shows that despite being on low incomes they make poor spending choices…

An assumption which may or may not be true.
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August 29, 2012 11:00am
Brian Smaller

@Weihana –

Brian Smaller,

It shows that despite being on low incomes they make poor spending choices…

An assumption which may or may not be true.

I am sticking with true.
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August 29, 2012 11:02am
dime

Anyone know how Obama oil is today? What pro-obama, romney is stupid story is he running today?

Very strange dude for a right winger
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August 29, 2012 11:09am
vto

So I pointed out on the Foreign INvestment thread that nobody in this government has outlined how having foreign landlords is good for NZ.

Similarly, nobody in this government has outlined the answers to the major issues around the sale of the assets. The simple questions are put here http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10829989 but of course English and key will not answer these issues.

This government are truly untrustworthy. I would not trust them with anything. And to think I voted for them first time around – more fool me. Bunch of wankers.
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August 29, 2012 11:24am
dime

“And to think I voted for them first time around – more fool me.” LMAO, yeah thats believable
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August 29, 2012 11:29am
Elaycee

Weihana:

So of course when we see a couple of islanders who are poor and have a sky TV dish we just have to assume they have a SKY account despite an inability to afford medical bills. Because Islanders just must be dumb and stupid and irresponsible.

Comprehension still not your strong point, Weihana?

I said:

Now, before the panty waists emerge and start bleating, I should point out that the Sky dish could be a remnant from a previous tenant, but if this couple are actually Sky subscribers who have now decided to take in a niece and a grand niece, then perhaps their fiscal priorities are all wrong.

The only assumptions were (as usual), your own and (as usual), incorrect.

But I was correct in my prediction about panty waists…. 😀
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August 29, 2012 11:33am
Sonny Blount

But the thing that annoys me the most is the argument that’s been put by the likes of Colin Craig that gay couples aren’t as good role models for parents as heterosexual couples are.

Excuse me while I call bullshit on that theory. As the son of a gay father I know from personal experience that a parent’s sexuality has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of child rearing.

My father’s performance as a parent was exemplary and I owe much of what I am today to the lessons he taught me.

To suggest that having gay parents makes a child lesser or disadvantaged is insulting, unfounded, and the largest steaming pile of shite I’ve ever had the misfortune to come across. Those that peddle such nonsense should be given a swift kick to the backside.

And for those who’d suggest allowing gays to marry will lead to incest, polyamory, or paedophilia I say this:

There’s probably more chance that you’d be interfered with by a priest.

He’s probably right.

Empirically he is wrong Pete.
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August 29, 2012 11:45am
Weihana

Elaycee,

I don’t recall speaking to you or about you. If you see yourself in what I have described I can’t help that. 🙂
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August 29, 2012 11:45am
publicwatchdog

Tony Molloy QC has made some very interesting comments published in the NBR ‘subscriber-only’ section:

“New Zealanders shafted by fraudulent justice system, says top QC”

My comment (we’ll see how long it stays up 🙂

“Combine the lack of legally qualified ‘horses for courses’ (including the lack of specialised Judges) with the FACT that our NZ judiciary is effectively ‘out of control’ – with NO enforceable ‘Code of Conduct’ for NZ Judges, no Register of Pecuniary Interests for NZ Judges and Court proceedings regularly not being recorded – then ask yourself – how on EARTH is New Zealand ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt country in the world’?

Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’

http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com “
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August 29, 2012 12:08pm
Elaycee

@Weihana – as I said, comprehension isn’t your strong point. And I’d explain it to you but I don’t think you’d understand…

Indeed, given your status as a holder of a lifetime achiever award from the bleeding heart and panty waist club, I should have anticipated your obtuse response.

After all, obfuscation is your normal modus operandi. 😀
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August 29, 2012 12:11pm
Viking2

“It is a credit to Port of Tauranga’s staff and stakeholders and the can-do culture that is at the heart of our business, that we were able to respond to such a dramatic increase in container volumes,” says Mark.

“Our long-term business partner KiwiRail was pivotal to this success. At short notice, it stepped up increasing services from MetroPort in Auckland to Sulphur Point from four to six trains per day giving us capacity of up to 636 TEUs per day each way. It continues to offer this service.”
Mark says although the Ports of Auckland industrial dispute resulted in a level of container traffic that stretched the Port, it demonstrated the ease with which it can deploy the extensive latent capacity at our Sulphur Point and MetroPort container terminals in Tauranga and Auckland.

http://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/30687-another-record-ptl-profit.html
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August 29, 2012 12:35pm
Pete George

Solving child poverty – make the fat kids give half their school lunch to the impoverished kids, and solve the obesity problem at the same time.
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August 29, 2012 12:41pm
Pete George

Call it a consumption tax.
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August 29, 2012 12:50pm
vto

Sheesh Pete, that’s an out there thing to say. I think the bad smells of this place are infiltrating your clothes.
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August 29, 2012 1:24pm
Hair Removal Specialist

Pete George @ 12.41 and 12.50 pm – very good!
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August 29, 2012 1:44pm
b1gdaddynz

I hate when they do articles about people struggling to make ends meet without actually telling us any actually finacial information; it makes it hard to form an opinion rather than jumping to a conclusion. It would be useful if they actually stated what there income actually was and what their fixed costs and budget for other costs was. Then we could actually work out if they weren’t managing their money or if they had a genuine difficulty. This article is a complete waste of time that is clearly biased and an attempt at stirring.
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August 29, 2012 1:49pm
dime

http://www.theonion.com/articles/gay-marine-beaten-to-bloody-pulp-to-fire-up-rnc-cr,29352/
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August 29, 2012 1:50pm
Manolo

Barack Obama was born in 1961, the location marked by the appearance of a new star in the East. His mother lived on food stamps and his grandmother owned Hawaii. Between them, their son averaged out as middle-class.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100178348/the-real-obama-is-humble-high-achieving-and-way-cooler-than-mitt-romney-just-ask-david-brooks/
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August 29, 2012 2:44pm
b1gdaddynz

Sorry people I just actually re-read my post and I actually realised that I should actually get another word than actually or I should actually concentrate more on what I actually write 🙂

If you can’t laugh at yourself….
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August 29, 2012 2:51pm
Pete George

Actually b1gdaddynz I agree with you.

It’s also farcical talking about labels like ‘fair minimum wage’ when there’s so many variables.
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August 29, 2012 3:10pm
Manolo

How more moronic can a political party get? http://www.theblaze.com/stories/dnc-announces-2-hour-islamic-jumah-prayers-after-rejecting-cardinals-blessing-and-you-wont-believe-whos-invited/#
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August 29, 2012 4:16pm
Longknives

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/7571962/Convictions-put-Tysons-NZ-visit-in-doubt

Then how in the hell did Rubin Carter get into New Zealand a few years ago??

And what about this guy?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10761687
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August 29, 2012 4:29pm
Elaycee

THANK YOU TO THE MARITIME UNION

Due to your militant strike action last year at the Ports of Auckland, I accepted advice and bought more shares in the Port of Tauranga.

Today the Port announced record profits and a final dividend per share of 27c (total for the year is 39c per share). Shares closed yesterday at a record high: $12.25!

Thank you, MUNZ – please keep up the good work. I really appreciate it! 😀

https://zen.nzherald.co.nz/media/webcontent/document/pdf/201235/POT.pdf
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August 29, 2012 6:19pm
Manolo

Two fine citizens: http://news.msn.co.nz/worldnews/8523953/times-square-crutch-duel-caught-on-camera
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August 29, 2012 6:21pm
Manolo

The quote is decades old and still true: http://www.lindsaymitchell.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/quote-of-day_29.html
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August 29, 2012 6:54pm
Fletch

It’s interesting that today August 29th, on which the same-sex marriage bill is being read, is also the feast day in the Catholic Church of the beheading of John the Baptist, who was killed because he dared to tell King Herod that a marriage between him and his brother’s wife would not be legitimate.
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August 29, 2012 6:57pm
Steve (North Shore)

Black Power member shuns bill to ban gang patches.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10830320&ref=rss

“Labour MP Andrew Little said Wanganui District Council had banned gang insignia in 2009 and it had failed to stop the town’s gang problem.

“This bill is a joke, it will achieve nothing,

“Punishing a gang member who turns up at a public library to return there books is not going to stop the gang problem,” he said.”

Andrew, Gang Members can’t read, and if they could they would not read books from the Library.
Herald Reporter Kate Shuttleworth – it is ‘their’ not ‘there’
Is this country full of fuckwits? gang members and reporters?
They can read Black Power coz their mummys made it for them
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August 29, 2012 7:15pm
kowtow

Belgium suffering from the crap “justice” malaise that is so much a part of the progressive agenda.A third of the sentence is all they have to do there.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/08/2012828112017246666.html
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August 29, 2012 7:26pm
Longknives

So Labour believe that patched gang members from Black Power, Mongrel Mob etc are the sort of quiet, decent civilians who return their library books on time…

My god- could Labour lose their grasp on reality any more?? I’d expect this sort of drivel from the Gweens but….
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August 29, 2012 7:57pm
nasska

A bloke notices his neighbour putting a ‘Princess On Board’ sign in his car window.

“Alright mate” he said, “I didn’t realise you had a daughter.”

“We don’t”, the neighbour replied, “our son came out as gay this morning.”
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August 29, 2012 8:00pm
Fletch

Winston Peters just made the case for a referendum on same sex marriage – questioning why it is that 121 parliamentarians who never campaigned on same sex marriage at the last election, think they can represent what Kiwis think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axtcS-p8EyY
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August 29, 2012 9:01pm
kowtow

fletch

I have a new respect for Winston.McIndoe,and Sio all good, Hayes bloody brilliant.

Wall couldn’t help having a dig at the churches. naughty girl.
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August 29, 2012 9:29pm
Tauhei Notts

Nasska;
The one advantage the Maori people have over the Gay community is that if you are Maori you do not have to tell your parents about it.
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August 29, 2012 9:33pm
Manolo

So true of Minto, the obnoxious professional protester:
But here’s Mr Minto’s problem: he’s now such a familiar, predictable fixture at demonstrations that it’s hard to take him seriously.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/columnists/karl-du-fresne/7559572/Be-careful-what-you-wish-for
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August 30, 2012 6:59am

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