Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Essay Question

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  • Sacha,

    I don't know about this particular negotiation, but isn't it possible that we aren't offering much because Roger Douglas and co gave it all away for nothing already? Hard to trade off tariff reductions when ours are already at zero.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Kyle Matthews,

    They both sound like the kind of idiots who pretty much put me off politics as anything other than a spectator sport.

    I know nothing about her at all.

    Him? Either pretending to be, or actually being, someone's partner for the purposes of passing information about what groups they're involved with are doing to the police for money. That's pretty scumbag.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • jon_knox,

    Happend to hear Mediawatch (cut & paste link) from a few weeks back, NBR fulla Neville Gibson harping on that the media in NZ is...um (cough) left-leaning. I see comment was made at kiwiblog regarding the bias of the interviewer.

    Suspect it's a case that everyone naturally has a bit of a persecution complex regarding the media's treatment of their party.

    I see the "Rupert Brown" rumour has again surfaced and despite the denial upthread, RB probably doesn't own just one TV station, one radio station, one media empire...

    Belgium • Since Nov 2006 • 464 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Either pretending to be, or actually being, someone's partner for the purposes of passing information about what groups they're involved with are doing to the police for money. That's pretty scumbag.

    Meh... so tapping someone's phone and diverting their e-mail isn't pretty scumbag as well? I don't know about anyone else, but sometimes I wonder if you have, at the fringes, groups who on the surface are antagonistic but are weirdly parasitic on each other. How does the old joke go: You're not paranoid if they're really out to get you.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • HenryB,

    Simon: that link from Felix in yr blog of john Key as Tourism Minister talking up NZ as a wonderful holiday destination - come on down, folks! - is pretty bloody stunning

    I couldn't agree more. It is almost as priceless as this.

    Palmerston North • Since Sep 2008 • 106 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    Interesting read about Indonesia - i confess I know SFA about it - and, yeah, it looks a mingey (mingy?) offer from us.

    It's wose than that, it's absolutely insulting and quite condescending. And being seen that way here, hence the front page of the biggest English language paper and similar placing in Bahasa papers (more to the point of course) I'm told. Offering to train Halal butchers? There are 210m Moslems here? You don't think they have some experience in this. Or 100 Chefs? I'm thinking there is little NZ could teach Indonesia about cuisine at any level, or the preparation of it.

    And since Indonesia, with a middle class who love to consume and number 40m or so, is expected to grow 4% next year despite the global FUBAR, it makes sense not to piss them off too much.

    Hard to trade off tariff reductions when ours are already at zero.

    I think there is a duty of between 5 and 7% on homewares and furniture into NZ..or at least there used to be about five years back when I was importing directly into the country. I'm sure the Indonesian government wouldn't be expecting NZ to waive something that wasn't charged.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Don Christie,

    I'm sorry. I've been out of the country a few weeks and may have missed something. Can I ask, has Bill Ralston gone mad? Or, as they say here in London, stark raving bonkers?

    I suppose democracy has always been a little tedious for, you know, dictators.

    What a dolt.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1645 posts Report

  • BenWilson,

    It would be messy, though, and I can't see the Police pursuing it with any real vigour unless he complains loudly, and then goes public when they do a half-arse job and don't really push the matter.

    I suspect the biggest brake will be the emails themselves. If he was actually using email to discuss his surveillance, then she has a lot of power if she has these mails and can leak them.

    I'm reminded of a friend of a friend who lived and worked with her boyfriend, then decided to cheat on him with someone else in the office. He hacked into the email system and read enough of their correspondence to realize he was being made a fool of, confronted her with it and they broke up.

    Now of course what he did was both against company policy and totally illegal. But it was never going to be raised by her, since the mails themselves were extremely dodgy.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    My question yesterday was not so much absurd, as hyperbole. Mike Williams has reluctantly taken his nose from the trough and following the money is always a good starting point.

    When does complanency become a complicit act?

    Russell, you have mused here in the past that you don't have the face for TV (few of us do) and yet you have gained a show on a govt funded station with little TV time yourself and a station with little appeal in general.
    This after an unprecedenced act in modern times, but with considerable historic resonance. That you still support the action taken here ( I'm hesitant to use the word Police,as this action in all likelyhood involved anyone with tax paid fire arms) as opposed to the local cops picking up a couple of rifles from unlicened owners without any fuss.

    Like the inbedded reporter, do you even know when you have been bribed?

    As for Gilchrist & Rees, I think it's worth remembering he is 40yrs and she is 22yrs.

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia,

    As for Gilchrist & Rees, I think it's worth remembering he is 40yrs and she is 22yrs.

    And you point is?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Deborah,

    As for Gilchrist & Rees, I think it's worth remembering he is 40yrs and she is 22yrs.

    And your point is?

    There's a big power dynamic in greater age. I know they're both over the legal age of consent, but even so, a 22 year old usually has far less social and economic power than a 40 year old.

    New Lynn • Since Nov 2006 • 1447 posts Report

  • Ryan Nielson,

    Good post Russell. Who to believe eh?

    Another way to frame your question might be.

    Identify:

    1. Which of these articles is the most evidence based

    2. Which of these articles sets out with an audience and purpose

    3. Which of these articles took on a life of its own once the writer started doodling and joining dots on the page.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2008 • 3 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia,

    There's a big power dynamic in greater age. I know they're both over the legal age of consent, but even so, a 22 year old usually has far less social and economic power than a 40 year old.

    Deborah: Acknowledging the response, but that's a subject I'm going to break with tradition and leave the hell alone.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Rich of Observationz,

    And considering what a shitpile the last round of spying allegations that appeared under the by-line of Messers Hubbard and Hager, I certainly hope the SST's new editor is a little less credulous than his predecessor. This is one story that better be absolutely water-tight.

    Well Gilchrist is a real person and activist, he admitted spying for the cops as well as being implicated by the evidence on Rochelle Hume's computer.

    I think this story is pretty watertight. Also, given that this pretty much proves that the police *do* spy on legitimate political groups (up to and including elected MPs) it does beg the question of whether the original allegations were in fact true. A vehement denial from the authorities doesn't a disproof make.

    gathered evidence by tapping his phone and installing a script on his computer that forwarded his emails to her

    I don't really see what else she could have done to prove his activities, given that one couldn't exactly trust the authorities to investigate. There's every difference between the state or large corporations spying on individuals and individuals defending themselves against state action.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Paul Litterick,

    I know they're both over the legal age of consent, but even so, a 22 year old usually has far less social and economic power than a 40 year old.

    In this case, Rochelle is the exception that proves the rule.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1000 posts Report

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Meh... so tapping someone's phone and diverting their e-mail isn't pretty scumbag as well?

    Given what he was doing, I don't have a problem with it. I don't think many other people will either. I also wouldn't have minded if she eavesdropped on him, or followed him around and got the same information.

    If she'd been wrong, and he wasn't being a shithead, well it would have been a bad move on her part. She was right, and good on her for finding out and outting him and the police.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Kerry Weston,

    Offering to train Halal butchers? There are 210m Moslems here? You don't think they have some experience in this. Or 100 Chefs? I'm thinking there is little NZ could teach Indonesia about cuisine at any level, or the preparation of it.

    And since Indonesia, with a middle class who love to consume and number 40m or so, is expected to grow 4% next year despite the global FUBAR, it makes sense not to piss them off too much.

    But wouldn't there have been some discussion around what each party wanted - why offer to train Halal butchers otherwise? I agree, it's sending coal to Newcastle and seems pitiful on the face of it. I would have thought that Indonesia fitted the criteria for nearby Asian nation with growing m/c likely to want our stuff. Maybe the China deal precludes it somehow or NZ govt thinks we don't need more than the China deal?

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • Rich of Observationz,

    The article actually said:

    financial assistance for three years to improve the skills of Indonesians working in the dairy and beef industries and visas for 100 Indonesian chefs, ... and 20 halal butchers.

    That looks to me that there are two different things:
    - training for people in the meat industry. We do have quite a lot of expertise in export meat processing which I guess would be quite useful to an overseas nation.

    - visas for halal butchers to come *to* NZ. Which seems to be just a migration concession and separate from the training aspect.

    I'm unconvinced of the benefits of any and all free trade deals, just because most of the things (computer software, movies, jetpacks) that NZ's economic growth is in aren't really affected by them.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Kerry Weston,

    I'm unconvinced of the benefits of any and all free trade deals, just because most of the things (computer software, movies, jetpacks) that NZ's economic growth is in aren't really affected by them.

    I hereby sentence you to a week with Federated Farmers. They'll soon correct your thinking, boy.

    [{http://www.fedfarm.org.nz/n1116.html}]

    "Federated Farmers is encouraged by a new government that values the real builders of the economy and seeks to serve those builders, vice-president, Frank Brenmuhl said today after the new government gave its Speech from the Throne. "It is great that the government is showing commitment to supporting the productive side of the economy. The primary sector of course earns 65 percent of New Zealand's export receipts so is a crucial factor in New Zealand's future economic wellbeing," Mr Brenmuhl said."

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • BenWilson,

    Heh, I'd think that farmers are not the builders of the economy but the owners of it. But their share is declining, as it must. So long as the population increases, our economy will move gradually away from agrarian. Which will be good news for the majority of people, and not particularly bad news for farmers (who will still be rich).

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    I love his effortless conflation of current earnings and future wellbeing.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    @Shep:

    When does complanency become a complicit act?

    And when does your "hyperbole" progress beyond mere idleness and become really, really offensive?

    Russell, you have mused here in the past that you don't have the face for TV (few of us do) and yet you have gained a show on a govt funded station with little TV time yourself and a station with little appeal in general.

    You appear to be seriously suggesting that my fairly mainstream blogging view on the police raids and the activities of those arrested -- which was hardly laudatory of either side -- and my willingness to host discussions in which a wide range of views on the issue were expressed ... was somehow rewarded with the commissioning of a low-budget TV show on a minor digital channel.

    This being, by necessity, a conspiracy that would have involved dozens of people, including the programme commissioners and the independent production company that makes the programme.

    Do you realise how fucking stupid that is?

    Is it not vastly more likely that, having been banging away at this sort f thing since you were in short pants, I worked with an independent producer to put together a programme proposal that fit the frame for TVNZ 7 -- based on experience I developed in hosting NatRad's Mediawatch and staging and presenting a series of live Great Blend events?

    Can you see why, having worked really hard at doing my own thing for years, I would find your imaginings actually very insulting?

    And don't you think you've got a bit of a nerve asserting that the police have baselessly smeared those arrested when you're prepared to just make up this sort of shit about me? Would you like to think about that a little?

    I won't bother requesting an apology (although you're free to offer one if you come to your senses) but I actually don't have to tolerate that sort of disrespect from someone not even posting under their real name. If you try and come again with this bullshit, I will ban you.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Heather W.,

    "These promises are like green grass to farmers but proof of the pudding will be in the eating; let us see what happens over the next 100 days," Mr Brenmuhl said. "Federated Farmers looks forward to working with government to ensure delivery of these priorities. Without them, New Zealand will not reach its economic potential," he concluded.

    It's the green grass pudding that has me concerned or slightly lol-ing.

    North Shore • Since Nov 2008 • 189 posts Report

  • Sam F,

    It's the green grass pudding that has me concerned or slightly lol-ing.

    I'm sure you'll appreciate this if you haven't seen it already.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Kerry Weston,

    Green Grass Pudding. I think Shep might have overdosed on some of that.

    Maybe The Feds are going in for massive value-added product development and turning all that good green grass into Tranquil Baked Goods for stressed out Money Mongrels?

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

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