Housing crisis, what housing crisis. The inquiry into homelessness? Yawn. That didn’t tell John Key anything he didn’t already know.
By now, we shouldn’t be surprised by the Beehive’s disinterest in the country’s social problems. You can track for days, months, years across the tundra of its policy agenda and never see a plan or visible trace of a robust fresh idea about anything...
Finally now, everyone has got sick of waiting for the Key government to do something about student debt. A month ago, Labour suggested wiping student debt in return for putting graduates to work within a bonded scheme of public service out in the regions. More>>
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PM's Press Conference: Not Blaming, Just Saying
Prime Minister John Key began today's press conference by discussing Civil Defence, ACC, and Youth Minister Nikki Kaye taking leave from her portfolios while undergoing treatment for breast cancer. He also discussed NZ's diplomatic plans at the US for encouraging nations to commit to and end to the war in Syria, and letting the Security Council be more active at preventing major conflicts. More>>
Health: Nikki Kaye To Take Leave From Ministerial Portfolios
Civil Defence, ACC, and Youth Minister Nikki Kaye will be taking leave from her Ministerial portfolios to deal with a health issue. Ms Kaye was diagnosed with breast cancer on Friday and will shortly begin undergoing treatment. More>>
Greens: Kevin Hague To Leave Parliament
Green MP Kevin Hague is to leave Parliament to take up a new role as CEO of Forest and Bird. “Kevin has made a huge contribution to the Green Party and the green movement and we are truly sorry he is leaving Parliament,” said Green Party Co-Leader ... More>>
Wellington Election: Justin Lester Commits To Establishing Wet House
Wellington mayoral candidate Justin Lester has today committed to ending rough sleeping in the city and will start by establishing New Zealand’s first “wet house” for homeless alcoholics. More>>
Gordon Campbell: On Apple’s Unpaid Tax Issues
Reportedly, Apple owes Ireland $US14 billion in unpaid taxes, plus interest. Not that Ireland seems to want the reputational risk involved in the terrifying role that the European Commission has just landed it with. Yikes. More>>
Earthquake - Tsunami Threat Cancelled: Communities Congratulated For Quick Response
Tairawhiti Civil Defence Emergency Management controller John Clarke congratulates all the people who chose to self-evacuate from their homes after Friday’s earthquake, especially the Hicks Bay and Te Araroa communitie… More>>
Gordon Campbell: On The Challenges Of Keytruda Funding
All year, the availability of the new generation of anti-cancer drugs in New Zealand has been driven by political decisions, as much as by medical ones... More>>
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Taxing Multinationals: EU Ruling Sours Apple
Shares of Apple slid, down 0.9 percent as of 3.08pm in New York, after the European Commission ruled that Ireland granted the company undue tax benefits of up to 13 billion euros (US$14.5 billion)—"illegal aid” under EU rules that the commission says Ireland now must recover from Apple. More>>
NZX Review: Best Practice Code Recommends Code Of Ethics
NZX, the sharemarket operator, is seeking feedback on proposed changes to its corporate governance best practice code including a published code of ethics, rules about share trading and continuous disclosure, and more transparency over board appointments and chief executive pay. More>>
Signs Of Life? SETI On Russian Space(?) Signal
A star system 94 light-years away is in the spotlight as a possible candidate for intelligent inhabitants, thanks to the discovery of a radio signal by a group of Russian astronomers... Could it be a transmission from a technically proficient society? At this point, we can only consider what is known so far. More>>
Post-Post: Brian Roche To Step Down As NZ Post CEO
Brian Roche will step down as chief executive of New Zealand Post in April 2017, having led the state-owned postal service's drive to adjust to shrinking mail volumes with a combination of cost cuts, asset sales, modernisation and expansion of new businesses. More>>
Company Results: Air NZ Rides The Tourism Boom With Record Full-Year Earnings
Air New Zealand has ridden the tourism boom and staved off increased competition to deliver the best full-year earnings in its 76-year history. More>>
New PGP: Sheep Milk Industry Gets $12.6M Crown Funding
The Sheep - Horizon Three programme aims to develop "a market driven, end-to-end value chain generating annual revenues of between $200 million and $700 million by 2030," according to a joint statement. More>>
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Werewolf: Living With Rio’s Olympic Ruins
Mariana Cavalcanti Critics of the Olympic project can point a discernible pattern in the delivery of Olympics-related urban interventions: the belated but rushed inaugurations of faulty and/or unfinished infrastructures... More>>
Live Blog On Now: Open Source//Open Society Conference
The second annual Open Source Open Society Conference is a 2 day event taking place on 22-23 August 2016 at Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington… Scoop is hosting a live blog summarising the key points of this exciting conference. More>>
Gordon Campbell: On The Politicising Of The War On Drugs In Sport
It hasn’t been much fun at all to see how “war on drugs in sport” has become a proxy version of the Cold War, fixated on Russia. This weekend’s banning of the Russian long jumper Darya Klishina took that fixation to fresh extremes. More>>
Binoy Kampmark: Kevin Rudd’s Failed UN Secretary General Bid
Few sights are sadder in international diplomacy than seeing an aging figure desperate for honours. In a desperate effort to net them, he scurries around, cultivating, prodding, wishing to be noted. Finally, such an honour is netted, in all likelihood just to shut that overly keen individual up. More>>
Open Source / Open Society: The Scoop Foundation - An Open Model For NZ Media
Access to accurate, relevant and timely information is a crucial aspect of an open and transparent society. However, in our digital society information is in a state of flux with every aspect of its creation, delivery and consumption undergoing profound redefinition... More>>
Keeping Out The Vote: Gordon Campbell On The US Elections
I’ll focus here on just two ways that dis-enfranchisement is currently occurring in the US: (a) by the rigging of the boundary lines for voter districts and (b) by demanding elaborate photo IDs before people are allowed to cast their vote. More>>
Ramzy Baroud: Being Black Palestinian - Solidarity As A Welcome Pathology
It should come as no surprise that the loudest international solidarity that accompanied the continued spate of the killing of Black Americans comes from Palestine; that books have already been written and published by Palestinians about the plight of their Black brethren. In fact, that solidarity is mutual. More>>
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Gordon Campbell: On The End Game In Spain (And Other World News)
The coverage of international news seems almost entirely dependent on a random selection of whatever some overseas news agency happens to be carrying overnight... Here are a few interesting international stories that have largely flown beneath the radar this past week. More>>
Amnesty/Human Rights Watch: Appalling Abuse, Neglect Of Refugees On Nauru
Refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru, most of whom have been held there for three years, routinely face neglect by health workers and other service providers who have been hired by the Australian government, as well as frequent unpunished assaults by local Nauruans. More>>
Gordon Campbell: On The Censorship Havoc In South Africa’s State Broadcaster
Demands have included an order to staff that there should be no further negative news about the country’s President Jacob Zuma, and SABC camera operators responsible for choosing camera angles that have allegedly made the President ‘look shorter’ were to be retrained... More>>
Gordon Campbell: On A Bad Week For Malcolm Turnbull, And The Queen
Malcolm Turnbull’s immediate goal – mere survival – is still within his grasp... In every other respect though, this election has been a total disaster for the Liberals. More>>
Gordon Campbell: On Bidding Bye Bye To Boris
Boris Johnson’s exit from the contest for Conservative Party leadership supports the conspiracy theory that he never really expected the “Leave” option to win the referendum – and he has no intention now of picking up the poisoned chalice that managing the outcome will entail... More>>
Mexico: Violence And Repression Of Teachers
The member organizations of Network for Peace express our indignation over the acts of repression that the Mexican State has carried out, through the police forces... In Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca, the conflict has resulted in murders of teachers and civilians as well as hundreds of wounded and dozens of people arrested. More>>
Gordon Campbell: On Britain's Pleas For Mercy
So… Boris Johnson is promising that he won't be holding a snap general election, if he's chosen as the next UK Conservative Party leader. Reportedly, he is even making that promise a feature of his leadership campaign, since a vote for Boris would therefore mean (wink wink) that his colleagues wouldn't have to risk their jobs and face the wrath of the British public until 2020. More>>
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Review: Henry Rollins Burning Down The House
With his lantern jaw, close-cropped hair, and muscle-bound physique, Henry Rollins could not be further from the US Marine image his appearance might suggest. More>>
A Series Of Tubes: 150 Years Of The Cook Strait Cable
“It was a momentous achievement for its time. The successful connection came on the third attempt at laying the cable, and followed a near disaster when the first cable snapped - almost destroying the ship Weymouth in the process,” says Ms Adams. More>>
February 2017: Guns N' Roses - New Zealand Dates Announced
Founder Axl Rose and former members, Slash and Duff McKagan have regrouped for one of the century’s most anticipated tours... Rolling Stone said: "This was the real thing, the thing we'd all been waiting for: the triumphant return of one of the most important bands to cross rock music history. And it happened in our lifetime.” More>>
Werewolf: Brando, Peckinpah And Billy The Kid
Gordon Campbell: Initially, One-Eyed Jacks was supposed to have been directed by Stanley Kubrick from a script by Sam Peckinpah – yet it quickly became Brando’s baby... More>>
Book Awards: ANZAC Heroes Wins Margaret Mahy Book Of The Year
“Simply stunning, with gold-standard production values,” say the judges of the winner of this year’s Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award in the prestigious New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. ANZAC Heroes is also the winner of the Elsie Locke Award for the Best Book in the Non-Fiction category. More>>
Baby Animals: Hamilton Zoo Rhino Calf Named
Hamilton Zoo’s latest rhino calf has been named Samburu and he's being celebrated with a unique zoo experience... Samburu arrived after his mother Kito’s 16-month pregnancy and the calf brings the number of white rhinos at Hamilton Zoo to six. More>>
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