The Dom Post looks back to 1935:
The Dominion ran a series of political adverts warning about the consequences of a vote for Labour. One just before the election said: “Vote Sane, Vote Safe, Vote National.“
Wouldn’t that have been a great slogan for the 2014 campaign?
The SSC has released details of senior level pay in the public sector.
Also 159 non CEO public sector staff get paid more than a cabinet minister, and 96 tertiary institute staff (excluding CEOs) get paid more than a cabinet minister.
The bill will be voted on in the next day or so. If it doesn’t pass there is the risk of another US government shutdown. The Washington Post outlines what is in the bill. Their list is quite long but here are some of the more interesting parts. Unless indicated the spending provisions run until September 2015.
ABORTION: The bill once again bans using federal funding to perform most abortions; blocks the use of local and federal funding for abortions in the District of Columbia; and blocks the use of federal dollars for abortions for federal prisoners.
AFFORDABLE CARE ACT: The law is still funded, but there’s no new money for it. There’s also no new ACA-related funding for the Internal Revenue Service and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the two agencies most responsible for implementing the law. The bill also would cut the budget of the Independent Payment Advisory Board — what Republicans have called “the death panel” — by $10 million.
AFGHANISTAN: Congress withholds funding for the Afghan government “until certain conditions are met,” including implementing the bilateral security agreement reached with the United States.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY: The agency gets $8.1 billion, down $60 million from the last fiscal year. The agency’s budget has been slashed by $2.2 billion, or 21 percent, since fiscal 2010, according to GOP aides. The cuts mean that EPA will have to reduce its staffing to the lowest levels since 1989.
DODD-FRANK: Democrats agreed to make some of the biggest changes yet to the 2010 financial regulatory reforms. In a deal sought by Republicans, the bill would reverse Dodd-Frank requirements that banks “push out” some of derivatives trading into separate entities not backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations. But in exchange, Democrats say they secured more money for the enforcement budgets at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
IMMIGRATION: The bill only funds the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees most immigration policy, until February [2015].
INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE: One of the GOP’s favorite targets will see its budget slashed by $345.6 million. The nation’s tax agency also would be banned from targeting organizations seeking tax-exempt status based on their ideological beliefs.
Stats NZ reports:
In November 2014, food prices fell 0.5 percent, Statistics New Zealand said today. This follows no change overall in October and a 0.8 percent fall in September.
“Seasonally lower vegetable prices and lower prices for bread, cheese, and chocolate contributed to the latest fall,” prices manager Chris Pike said.
That’s all good for households. And how are prices compared to a year ago?
In the year to November 2014, food prices increased 0.6 percent …
Fruit and vegetable prices increased 0.7 percent. Higher prices for lettuce, potatoes, apples, and carrots were partly offset by lower prices for tomatoes, kumara, and avocados.
This means that as people get wage and salary increases, they get to keep more of it, rather than have it chewed up by inflation.
The Herald reports:
There’s no doubt that Uber, a car-sharing service launched in San Francisco in 2009, is a booming business. With billions in estimated revenues, it’s now set up in more than 200 cities in 51 countries.
It’s equally sure, however, that the company has had its share of domestic controversies, from accusations of sabotage against competitors to suggestions that they would threaten journalists. Internationally, when dealing with different laws and cultures, the potential for new controversies is likely even higher.
It’s worth pointing out, of course, that Uber has often been welcomed in countries, and sometimes is viewed as a positive force (in Saudi Arabia some see it as helping women, barred from driving, become more independent).
The company has also shown a remarkable willingness to engage in lengthy legal and publicity battles to win over courts and the public.
But can any one company win so many battles? Below, we’ve listed some of the controversies the American company has found itself in around the world.
The taxi industry is facing what the music industry faced 20 years ago – a threat to their traditional business model from the Internet. They will try to do what they can to stop progress, but they will ultimately fail.
Uber cuts out the traditional middle man – the taxi company. It allows passengers and drivers to connect directly. This is great for consumers and also an opportunity for good drivers to build reputations and clients outside a company.
The Dom Post editorial:
Wellington faces a large earthquake-strengthening bill for many of its best-known buildings, none more so than the Town Hall.
Work on the ornate municipal building ground to a stop earlier this year after the projected cost ballooned to $60 million. When first mooted in 2011, it had been supposed to cost $34m. That hike saw some Wellington City Council leaders question whether saving the building was worth it.
We are a small city of just 75,000 ratepayers. The cost is likely to end up at around $1,000 per ratepayer. That is way too much.
Some stats for the 2014 parliamentary year.
UPDATE: And 879 references to Cameron Slater in search results on the parliamentary website!
The NZEI announced:
NZEI Te Riu Roa and the Ministry of Education have agreed to work together on a new initiative that will support children’s education at every level of their learning.
The agreement was reached yesterday and follows the overwhelming rejection by primary principals and teachers of the government’s $359m Investing in Educational Success scheme.
“This new initiative is a great win for children and for good education policy,” says NZEI Te Riu Roa National President Judith Nowotarski.
“It represents a positive way forward and has come about because teachers and principals kept true to our values of quality public education for all children.
“The agreement means we will now work with the Ministry in a genuine, collaborative way to identify and support locally-driven initiatives that put children at the centre of teaching and learning.
“Instead of a top down, one-size-fits-all initiative which is the IES, we will be going out to schools and early childhood education centres and actively finding out what works.
A member of the public could read the above and actually believe the spin about a new initiative and rejecting the IES. In reality this is window dressing, and the NZEI has done a not very graceful u-turn as scores of primary schools were signing up to the IES without their endorsement, and they were getting angry calls from members about not only missing out on the new positions, but also realising that they were unlikely to get any pay increases in the foreeseable future having rejected a $359 million package of extra funding for (mainly) salaries.
The IES which was agreed to by the PPTA, is significantly different from the original proposal in January. The Government and the PPTA negotiated in good faith on changes, and there were many (but not around the core principle). This so called new initiative will be close to a clone of the IES which they claim they rejected.
Labour of course campaigned against the IES, and are also trying to pretend this is not a backdown by the NZEI, but by the Government. Chris Hipkins said:
News that the Government has backed down and returned to the drawing board on its flagship ‘expert teacher’ policy will come as a welcome Christmas present to schools and teachers, Labour’s Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins says.
“Teachers throughout New Zealand will be pleased to hear the Ministry of Education is engaging with the profession on issues like increasing collaboration, improving student transitions and developing better career pathways.
“If the Government had taken this approach in the first place, there probably wouldn’t have been such strong opposition to their Investing in Educational Success (IES) plan.
“The NZEI should be congratulated for holding out for a better deal.
This is so amusing, it could be in a George Orwell book, alongside the declaration we have always been at war with Eurasia.
I’m glad the NZEI have seen sense. If they need to pretend that what they have agreed is something different to the IES so they don’t look silly, then that’s fine. The important thing is that great teachers and principals will have an opportunity to share their skills beyond their classrooms and schools, and be able to earn more money for doing so.
Yahoo News reports:
The Mana Movement is planning for the 2017 election and Kim Dotcom could be involved, leader Hone Harawira says.
That would be superb. Please make it so.
Louise Upston has announced:
The Government has agreed to continue work to enable a small number of local authorities to trial online voting, Associate Minister of Local Government Louise Upston said today.
“The agreement to continue work is in response to requests from local government to trial online voting at the October 2016 local authority elections. The councils that may participate in a trial are still to be determined.”
Ms Upston said it is important to ensure the trial process is secure and fair so public confidence in the integrity of local elections can be maintained.
“It will be up to local councils to ensure the necessary groundwork is in place before any trial can go ahead. Any participating local authority will need to ensure governance and funding arrangements are in place, and ensure their communities are consulted with.”
Ms Upston said central government will maintain some oversight and will work with local government to establish the security requirements for an online voting technology solution.
“I’ve asked the Department of Internal Affairs to continue to work closely with the local government sector to develop the necessary policy and technical requirements so that online voting could be trialled safely and securely.
Good to see progress on this issue. It would be good to have some local authorities trialling online voting in 2016, so people have the choice of returning their ballot paper by post or via the Internet.
The Herald reports:
Nearly every cancer patient will have to receive treatment within 62 days under an ambitious three-year plan outlined by the Government today.
Health Minister Jonathan Coleman released the planning document for 2015-2018 at Wellington Hospital this afternoon.
At the heart of the plan was a faster cancer treatment programme, originally announced during the election campaign by former health minister Tony Ryall.
It would create a new national health target for 90 per cent of patients to receive their first cancer treatment within 62 days of being referred “with high suspicion of cancer”.
An initial target of 85 per cent would be set for July 2016.
The 62-day deadline was considered the international “gold standard” for cancer treatment.
The Government has already met its previous targets for cancer treatment times, so it is good to see them not rest on the laurels, but continue to set more demanding targets. This is such a contrast to previously, when scores of people had to fly to Australia to get timely treatment.
The real credit should go to the staff in the health system, who have done what is necessary to make these targets. They do matter, and probably literally save lives.
The Baptist Churches of NZ has said:
The Baptist Churches of NZ are in no way connected with or affirm in any way the comments made by the self-proclaimed pastor, Logan Robertson of Westside Bible Baptist Church. The NZ Baptist Union of Churches are appalled by the comments of hatred and evil made by pastor Robertson towards the gay community.
Unfortunately, the “Baptist” name is not a franchise. The name can be taken by any group or person who wishes to use this longstanding name to identify themselves. In the case of Pastor Logan Robertson, he is not an ordained or registered pastor of any denomination. He does not have a congregation or a church building or meeting space. He has established a church website thereby claiming to be a church. Therefore his desire to call himself a pastor is entirely fraudulent.
NZ Baptists cannot take responsibility for Mr Robertson’s actions. Yet we are deeply disturbed by any pain that Mr Robertson has caused the gay community. Equally the NZ Baptist churches have been demeaned by his vitriol, leaving many of our Baptist church members and pastors wrongly implicated by Robertson’s actions.
It’s understood that Mr Robertson has had a recent history of mental illness. For this reason we need to pray for his well being to see him get through the difficulties he has brought upon himself and his family.
The mental illness comment would explain a lot. I don’t think any sane person would say what he said. His ex brother-in-law has said that he once kidnapped his kids and was diagnosed with religious delusions of grandeur and schizophrenia. Basically he is not a person of any religious authority, just a mentally unwell individual who needs help.
As expected the release of the US Senate report on interrogation techniques used by the CIA has caused a political firestorm.
The actual report can be found here.
I’ve decided to cite two sources, one the Washington Post the other the Wall Street Journal
The Washington Post article gives a long overview of the report and provides comments from various sources. This is their initial description of the report:
An exhaustive, five-year Senate investigation of the CIA’s secret interrogations of terrorism suspects renders a strikingly bleak verdict of a program launched in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, describing levels of brutality, dishonesty and seemingly arbitrary violence that at times brought even agency employees to moments of anguish.
The report by the Senate Intelligence Committee delivers new allegations of cruelty in a program whose severe tactics have been abundantly documented, revealing that agency medical personnel voiced alarm that waterboarding methods had deteriorated to “a series of near drownings” and that agency employees subjected detainees to “rectal rehydration” and other painful procedures that were never approved.
So what was the White House response to the report (from the Washington Post)?
In a statement from the White House, Obama said the Senate report “documents a troubling program” and “reinforces my long-held view that these harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as nation, they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security interests.” Obama praised the CIA’s work to degrade al-Qaeda over the past 13 years, but said its interrogation program “did significant damage to America’s standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners.”
Part of the CIA response (from the Washington Post):
“The intelligence gained from the program was critical to our understanding of al-Qaeda and continues to inform our counterterrorism efforts to this day,” CIA Director John Brennan, who was a senior officer at the agency when it set up the secret prisons, said in a written statement. The program “did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives.”
The Wall Street Journal op-ed agrees with the CIA and also the minority report released by Republicans who are members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
First, its claim that the CIA’s interrogation program was ineffective in producing intelligence that helped us disrupt, capture, or kill terrorists is just not accurate. The program was invaluable in three critical ways:
It led to the capture of senior al Qaeda operatives, thereby removing them from the battlefield.
It led to the disruption of terrorist plots and prevented mass casualty attacks, saving American and Allied lives.
It added enormously to what we knew about al Qaeda as an organization and therefore informed our approaches on how best to attack, thwart and degrade it.
This is a highly emotive issue that will continue to divide opinions sharply. On one hand some will claim that Feinstein is just being open about the truth, whilst others will say its all just playing politics.
The Herald reports:
Parliament’s Speaker David Carter today announced that the traditional prayer he uses to open daily sittings of Parliament will remain as is, with its Christian references.
He undertook a very low-key consultation process with MPs and offered an alternative that would remove religious references to “Almighty God” and “Jesus Christ our Lord” from the English version.
The National caucus said they did not want change, so at that point it was not going to happen.
I think the current prayer is inappropriate. If we have a prayer, it should be a multi-faith prayer. However the suggested replacement was less than ideal also. So inertia wins.
Patrick Gower makes his picks for Politician of the Year. They are:
Photo: Murielle Baker, Radio NZ
This is Phillip Smith in court yesterday, without his hairpiece which he is claiming is a breach of human rights to have had confiscated.
What strikes me is how different he looks, and if he had ditched the hairpiece in Brazil, he would have never been recognised and arrested. A high price for vanity!
Stuff reports:
NZ First decided not to give their support at the last moment, with leader Winston Peters proposing an amendment that would re-enact sedition laws repealed seven years ago. It was defeated.
Good God. The sedition laws were repealed unanimously by Parliament after a report from the Law Commission showing their long history of abuse, where people were jailed for what they said, not what they did. Much of the work the Law Commission did, came from a series of posts by No Right Turn on the issue.
It’s bad enough that Winston tried to reintroduce discredited sedition laws, but even worse he tried to do it at the committee of the house stage, which would have been incredibly undemocratic to have such a significant law change occur with basically no public notification and consultation.
Once again I am so pleased the Government is not reliant on him.
Voting is now open in the 2014 Kiwiblog Awards. The nominees (selected by readers, not me) who made the ballot are:
2014 National MP of the Year
2014 Labour MP of the Year
2014 Minor Party Politician of the Year
2014 MP of the Year
2014 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year
Voting will close on Friday.
Stuff reports:
Fonterra focused on profits at the expense of a food-safety culture, the damning final report into a botulism scare that damaged New Zealand’s international reputation has found.
Earlier this year, Fonterra was fined $300,000 for the incident, which saw milk-products pulled off shelves when it emerged they were potentially contaminated with Botulism.
Fonterra was late in notifying the correct authorities and it caused an international scare, particularly in China, with Fonterra unable to confirm for several days where the products, which had been produced more than a year earlier, were around the world.
Further testing showed that the risk of botulism never existed, although the false alarm prompted a review of New Zealand’s food-safety system.
The last of a series of independent reports was released today, and the inquiry, led by Queen’s Council Miriam Dean, found a number of errors were made.
While food-safety protocols were in place, the culture of care around food safety had not been fostered.
Problems dated back to May 2012, when Fonterra reworked some of its concentrated whey using temporary pipes and hoses at the Hautapu plant in Waikato in a way not approved by regulators, which increased the risk of bacteria.
Hoses were cleaned using a caustic (rather than acid) solution, which failed to eliminate all contamination.
The report also found that having notified the ministry, days late in August 2013, Fonterra had no well-prepared group crisis plan to implement, including crisis communications (particularly in social media).
“Fonterra took until 18 August to trace all the affected products, a seriously deficient effort.
A pretty damning report. We were very lucky that it turned out to be a false alarm.
The full report is here.
NBR reports:
Freelance cameraman Bradley Ambrose is seeking $1.25 million in damages from John Key, claiming the Prime Minister defamed him.
The action has been taken at the High Court in Auckland, according to an RNZ report.
Mr Ambrose made news in the lead up to the 2011 election when he left a switched-on recording device on a cafe table after reporters withdrew and Mr Key began a private conversation with then ACT leader John Banks.
The freelancer has always denied he purposefully recorded the conversation.
As this is the subject of defamation, I’d advise commenters to be mindful in their comments.
Mr Ambrose is asking for:
$500,000 dollars in aggravated damages relating to comments made by the Prime Minister at a media conference three days after the cup of tea meeting
$500,000 for an interview Mr Key have to TV3’s Firstline the following day
$250,000 for comments the PM made to journalists at a stand-up press conference in Upper Hutt two days after the incident
I thought when you sued for defamation you couldn’t seek specific damages? Am I wrong, or has the law changed?
Stuff reports:
Who knew looking so fed up could be quite so profitable? Most of us have been doing it since birth for free.
However internet sensation Grumpy Cat has proved that malevolence is really quite marketable after amassing a staggering $NZ129.5m (£64m) fortune for her American owner in just two short years. …
Her impressive earnings trump that of Hollywood stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicole Kidman, Cameron Diaz and Matthew McConaughey, according to Forbes.
And what’s more, the melancholy moggy’s fame has allowed her owner, 28-year-old Tabatha Bundesen of Arizona, to give up her waitressing job.
I hope she shares the money with her cat!
The Herald editorial:
It lies in a sharp drop in this country’s 15-year-old pupils’ position in mathematics, reading and science in the 2013 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) rankings. This led the Government to seek the insights of the highly influential OECD survey’s designer, Andreas Schleicher.
His key finding is that top-performing countries ensure their most talented school leaders and staff are in the most needy schools. The Government’s means of achieving this involves spending $359 million over four years, some of which will pay the best principals and teachers more to spend time in other schools, and some of which will be used by struggling schools to attract these mentors.
The use of Dr Schleicher’s ideas presented a difficulty for the teacher unions. How could they oppose the prescription of such an acknowledged educational expert? Sensibly, the secondary teachers’ union, the Post Primary Teachers Association, decided to support the programme. So, too, did the Secondary Principals Association. While some PPTA members may have had qualms about this being performance pay in another guise, most clearly saw that it offered a strong incentive for good candidates to enter the teaching profession and remain there.
Regrettably, however, the primary teachers’ union, the NZEI, has remained opposed to the programme. Unconvincingly, it maintains the Government’s money would be better spent helping struggling schools cope with children impaired by poverty and neglect. That overlooks the increasing awareness of the importance of excellent teaching and school leadership.
The NZEI are passionately fighting against their own members being able to earn more money.