Who are the most influential in Wellington now?
Congratulations to our new Government.
I was wondering about the crowd too – can't recall that happening before? And her speech on the steps to the crowd instead of inside the Beehive – already this feels like a sea change and I'm really starting to get excited about what could happen with new vision and passion in the halls of power.
Its called having an economy that's equitable and that works for us and our own country back again.
This is NOT somebody else's country , – its bloody ours , – and so is our democracy and so is our economy and so is the right under that democracy to have representatives who actually do what the electorate bids.
Its been so long it almost seems like a foreign concept.
I can understand the relief people feel when a war is finally over ,… it takes time for that to sink in.
The war is not over by any stretch of the imagination. If anything it is going to get dirtier.
I am optimistic too. But remember the hope for Barack Obama, big crowds and celebration…and then a few years later we have no real progress in the USA and the likes of Trump lying about the crowds at his own vile inauguration.
I hope this current lot can actually pull it off!!! They are sounding great so far, and unlike Obama, they aren't a single person trying to work against another layer of government that is resolutely obstructive and set against them.
Same Cinny. I would have loved to have been there. An historic day!!!
Likewise. It hit me today (even though ministers were only sworn in today) that we have a New Zealand Government again after nine long, dark years of being led by corrupt muppets.
Already there have been a number of instances of minsters doing, or committing to do, the right thing – inflation adjusting Teina Pora's comensation; bringing in a regional transport tax for Auckland; setting up a independent inquiry into the ECQ's performance in Christchurch; splitting up MPI and so on.
Challenging days ahead but our new political leadership has got off to a roaring start as a "government for all New Zealanders".
Based on 54 submissions from governments, academics and non-government organisations, the report asserts that religious and non-religious extremist agendas are undermining women's liberties around the world, including in Australia.
In a submission to the report, the NGO Australian Lawyers for Human Rights said the mainstreaming of extremist ideas in the nation's public discourse was a threat to women.
Professor Karima Bennoune, UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights and author of the report, said Australian Lawyers for Human Rights had raised particular concerns over a rise in "populist ultra-nationalism".
RWNJs: – A threat the world over.
Was uplifting to see the excited crowds waiting to see our new PM on her return to Parliament, not something I recall before.
4.1Reality, Apparently 800+ there, shades of Auckland Town Hall.
People want to show their support in the face of Media stories.
In the last three months, 14,724 people had their benefit sanctioned by Work and Income. The Green Party campaigned on removing excessive benefit sanctions as part of making the most significant change to our welfare system in a generation. Now that we are backing the Government, there is agreement that these excessive benefit sanctions have to go.
Our welfare system has been failing already disadvantaged communities. More than half of people having their benefits sanctioned are Māori and Pasifika. Benefit sanctions punish families who are already struggling to get by, and punish them by pushing them further into poverty. This becomes a self-defeating trap.
For the people out there who have been struggling so much, we will be taking action to ensure you get the help you need. The Green Party is committed to ensuring poverty is never used as a weapon against any of us. We will all benefit from a Government that supports people in tough times.
Sepuloni also has supported this guy.
Fingers crossed the review works for him.
You can read that Tui poster two ways.
ii) scoffing at English's BS message only (my preferred take).
Definitely number two in every way!! Fitting for Billshit!!
The Herald has an unhealthy obsession with North Korea.
Are they trying to scare their readers?
The war scenarios: This is how conflict between the US and North Korea would unfold.
Some of their readers/supporters are investing in the arms race??
That was originally from RT. NK is pushing the US.
'As the euphoria of victory wears off, and the sheer enormity of the challenge confronting progressive New Zealand reveals itself, it would be foolish not to feel just a little bit daunted. We face an economic system without the slightest idea how to solve the problems created by its discredited policies and practices. Nevertheless, the Neoliberal Establishment remains very strong, and just as soon as it settles upon an effective strategy of resistance, the fightback will begin.
Two principle lines of attack present themselves. The first, sketched out in this morning's NZ Herald editorial, is to paint the new Labour-led coalition as little more than a pink-tinted continuation of Bill English's National Government.…….
….The most obvious deficiency with this "demoralisation" strategy is that it leaves the Opposition with very little room in which to manoeuvre politically. If the Labour-NZ First-Green Government is really just a slightly pinker version of its pale-blue predecessor, then how can National attack it with any credibility – or success?
To raise a political storm violent enough to reclaim the Treasury Benches requires the red-hot passion of the fanatic – not the lofty sneers of the neoliberal intellectual who recognises kindred economic spirits when he sees them.
That Richard Prebble recognised this in an instant is unsurprising. Few living New Zealand politicians can claim a better rapport with the dark animal spirits needed to rouse this country's right-wing voters. It was Prebble who recognised the futility of Act attempting to sell pure free-market policies to an electorate that wasn't buying them. It was only when he identified the party with law and order, crime and punishment, environmental scepticism, and the deep anti-Maori prejudices of rural and provincial New Zealand that Act was able to lift itself up and over the 5 percent MMP threshold. Like Rob Muldoon before him, Prebble understands that to make right-wing Kiwis angry enough to destroy the Left, you first have to frighten them out of their wits.
Hence Prebble's outrageous claim that Winston Peters is guilty of mounting a coup d'etat against Kiwi democracy.
It is not his purpose, and neither, I suspect, does he believe it should be National's, to convince New Zealanders that they have nothing to fear from what, in all likelihood, will prove to be a pretty mild and responsible Labour-led Government. His aim, and almost certainly the aim of most of the National Party caucus (and their surrogates in the mainstream news media) is to splash as much red paint over Jacinda Ardern, Winston Peters and James Shaw as is humanly possible.
The Labour-NZ First-Green Government will be presented by these hard-line rightists as an illegitimate and dangerously anti-capitalist regime. Its anti-business and anti-farming policies, they will argue, are not only incompatible with genuine Kiwi democracy, but also constitute a direct attack on the sanctity of private property. As such, it will not be enough to merely oppose this far-left government; it will be necessary to fight it head-on.
Interviewed on RNZ's "morning Report" this morning, Ken Shirley, CEO of the Road Transport Forum (and former right-wing comrade-in-arms with Richard Prebble and Roger Douglas in both the Labour and Act parties) reminded listeners of the massive truck-owners protest in the dying days of Helen Clark's government. If Jacinda's government went ahead with its plans to use the Road User Charges collected from the RTF's members for purposes other than the maintenance and construction of roads, then similar protests could be expected.
Prior to the coup that toppled the left-wing "Popular Unity" government of Salvador Allende in 1973, the country's economy had been made to "scream" by a nationwide strike organised by the right-wing truckers' union and supported by the bosses of Chile's biggest trucking companies. The ensuing shortages brought thousands of angry, middle- and working-class women onto the streets, banging their pots and pans in protest. The right-wing newspapers maintained a relentless barrage of criticism against the "anti-democratic" and "incompetent" government of Chile's self-proclaimed Marxist president. Calls for Allende's forcible removal grew louder and more frequent until, on 11 September 1973, General Pinochet was obliged to overthrow the "communist dictator".
A very similar project of economic destabilisation and political mobilisation was set in train by the right-wing opponents of the left-wing Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, in 2002.
This documentary should be compulsory viewing for all New Zealanders who care about their country.
This should also be viewed if you want to be ready for the neo-liberal resistance.
And to keep shoving it RIGHT UNDER THEIR NOSES relentlessly that WE KNOW who is responsible for the poverty in this country , we know it was a deliberate ploy , – and furthermore WE KNOW the real reasons it was done.
Speaking at you , #New Zealand Initiative , – aka the former Business Roundtable.
And lets also not forget this from the late Hugh Price exposing not only these treasonous economic thugs for who they were and are , – but also their direct links to the London based Mont Pelerin Society ( for whom they work and are subservient to ), financed originally by the German Thule society , – the self same society that set up a ' workers wing ' called the NASDAP ,- which went on to become known as the NAZI party.
Thank you very much for this Ed – I have taken some time out this afternoon to watch this in its entirety.
I agree with you that this should be compulsory viewing!
'In a case being heard in the High Court, the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) is arguing that a sole mother who took out loans to pay for her home repairs and to support her children – because she could not otherwise afford to on the benefit – should have to repay more than $120,000 in so-called 'over payments'.
There's been a post up about this all day Ed.
The owners of the Herald really don't like this government.
They will do anything to unseat it.
This morning, the new Government was sworn into office and a new era for New Zealand began. It's official now – and we did this together.
Our Government will be one that faces up to and addresses the biggest issues facing our country. We will fix the housing crisis, make sure Kiwis get the healthcare they need, clean up our rivers, take serious action on climate change and rebuild our regions.
We will put people first. We won't try and gloss over bad bits and turn a blind eye when things aren't going as well as they could. Instead, we will use our resources and initiative to fix them. Because that's fundamentally what our Government is about: making New Zealand better. And it's about making it better for everyone.
I am incredibly honoured and proud to be leading our country, alongside a fantastic team of Ministers and MPs. I am so very grateful to every single person who helped us get here. This is your day, and your Government.
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Jacinda Ardern addressed the hundreds of supporters who turned out for her first speech to the public, after being sworn in as Prime Minister of New Zealand.