We should all know by now that climate change is the most pressing issue the world is facing. Not only is increased severe weather patterns causing unprecedented flooding and droughts around the globe mean substantial disruptions to our way of life, the cost to our ecosystem and economy is also extensive and can no longer be ignored.
That’s why it’s so good to see grassroots activism confronting businesses that are still supporting the fossil fuel industry.
Protesters storm Dunedin bank and sing Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up
Dozens of climate change protesters stormed into a Dunedin bank and sung the Rick Astley classic Never Gonna Give You Up.
Friday's light hearted protest by 350 Aotearoa was in stark contrast to a similar protest a year ago, where people, including the elderly, were stopped from entering the George St ANZ branch.
This time about 30 protesters went into the branch and began singing the 80s song, in a move known as 'Rick-rolling'.
Peaceful protest is the way to go people. Therefore 350 Aotearoa has won this weeks Hero Award. Keep up the good work.
I've often wondered why an employer should be able to dismiss an employee within 90-days of employment without good reason? Allowing employers carte blanche to dismiss an employee willy-nilly is just asking for the system to be abused.
A long-serving primary school principal who never intended to enter politics says she changed her mind after an ex-student committed suicide.
Labour candidate Jan Tinetti, the principal of Merivale School in Tauranga, said the 20-year-old man had just been fired from a factory job.
"He was employed under the 90-day [trial] bill and lost that job on about day 88 or 89. He thought he'd brought shame on his whanau.
"That was the point that it hit me and I thought education is massively important, but it's not the whole story. And we need to be advocating for people into better lives. That's when I decided to stand."
This is a clear indication that National policy is causing social harm. The 90-Day fire at will law is obviously being abused by a number of deadbeat employers who appear to have no moral values at all. But does the National government give a damn? Apparently not!
Finding good workers is all about helping people to develop skills and allowing them to gain confidence in the job. With a 90-Day contract hanging over new employees heads and clear-cut cases of employers abusing the law, New Zealand cannot hope to increase production or efficiency, two areas which could do with a large amount of improvement.
Unfortunately National is ensuring through their destructive policies that a large sector of the potential work force never gets the opportunity for further on the job training let alone a career that would benefit not only employees and employers personally but society in general as well.
13.6% of youth are now unemployed thanks in part to archaic laws like the 90-Day bill. The National led Government have had nine years to come up with solutions but instead have just made things worse. That's a pretty good reason to vote Bill English and his cronies out this September.
The 90-Day bill should be scrapped along with the idiots who voted for it.
We all know that the National party prescribes to the ethos that doing less is more. They’re unfortunately stuck in a quagmire of neoliberal dogma that is ensuring increased social dysfunction.
Clearly inequality is directly related to the population’s health and wellbeing, so it’s little wonder that New Zealand’s mental health statistics are worsening.
Don’t confront those who’ve caused this increase in societal harm though. Providing information about the stark realities of National’s anti-New Zealand agenda is a good way to get harassed by a minister who’s legally protected by parliamentary privilege.
On Tuesday, the current Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman went on the attack and tried to discredit an organisation called Action Station who are the authors of a report that details what’s going wrong with the mental health system.
With an attitude like Jonathan Coleman's you can really see why there’s little cross party cooperation going on. Coleman has simply dismissed the report outright and the five hundred submitters to it because he believes it's all somehow a big left wing conspiracy. What a complete moron!
Coleman accused ActionStation of being a group of “anti-government protesters”, and implied that the fact we campaign on a wide range of issues is the problem. Because the only appropriate way to engage in human rights and environmental advocacy is by choosing one issue and sticking with it?
We’re guided by the priorities of our community members, and people don’t exist in silos. Many of the people who want better mental health services in New Zealand are the same people who want to make sure that their KiwiSaver funds are not invested in cluster munitions or land mines. Go figure.
Nope, we’re not anti-government, even when our members think the government could be doing better, or more. But we are pro-democracy, and we think in healthy democracies there is space for debate, critique and, yes, protest. Although protest isn’t a tactic our community employs often. Generally we prefer to start, at least, by using the pathways built into our democratic processes, like making submissions to select committees and presenting petitions to MPs.
It’s unfortunate that things like incarceration and suicide rates have also increased markedly under a National government. Both of these are directly linked to mental health services or the lack thereof.
Sadly prisons are being used as a proxy for our closed mental health institutions and a lack of frontline services, which is giving rise to headlines like this:
Prisoner at risk of self-harm tied down for 37 consecutive nights, investigation finds
The use of restraints on mentally ill prisoners amounts to torture and undermines New Zealand's status as a civilised country, a leading lawyer says.
Nigel Hampton, QC, said a damning investigation into tie-down beds and waist restraints in jails showed the Corrections Department did not appear to have learned from previous inquiries into the care of severely ill people behind bars.
"It's inhumane and it's small wonder that it can be described as torture," he said.
National’s lack of any proper planning and policy implementation concerning our mental health services is a travesty that should not be so easily dismissed by an old throwback like Jonathan Coleman.
Providing a small amount of funding increase in election year (funding that was previously cut) isn’t a long-term solution to New Zealand’s societal problems. The dysfunction of National’s penny pinching and cuts to frontline services will cost the government and tax payers much more in the long run.
Jonathan Coleman’s arrogance and outright dismissal of Action Station’s unbiased report on mental health services clearly shows that he’s part of the problem and not part of the solution. The right wings blinkered view and head in the sand attitude is why Coleman wins this weeks Asshole award. What a prized prick!
You would think that the High Court would be a place of serious consideration that should be respected by applicants, respondents judges and lawyers alike. Unfortunately that’s no longer the case in New Zealand:
Colin Craig has defended a controversial "sauna interview" with former TV3 journalist David Farrier, telling a court he thought viewers would find it entertaining.
In the 2015 interview, played in the Auckland High Court on Thursday, the increasingly sweaty duo sat in a hot sauna and discussed a range of topics, including the moon landing and junk food.
Farrier gradually stripped off items of clothing before he and Craig showered together.
How the fuck is this bullshit even relevant to the claims of defamation?
Yesterday, Stuff also reported from the High Court about a poem Colon Craig had written to his former press secretary Rachel MacGregor:
New love poem by Colin Craig revealed
"You are beautiful because your eyes are lovely," is the opening line of the poem, titled Beautiful.
"You are beautiful because you look unbelievably good in your new dress," it continues.
"You are beautiful because your lips are so amazing to kiss,
"You are beautiful because you are fearfully and wonderfully made,
"You are beautiful because your skin is so soft,
"You are beautiful because you have the most perfect... (LOL .. OK I deleted a couple of lines and stopped this section),
"Please know you are beautiful," it finishes.
Well thank god Colon’s tawdry little vignettes about sexual harassment finished there. It almost made me puke.
But if that wasn't enough of a High Court farce over the last few days...
National Party's Eminem rap battle has reached John Oliver
John Oliver says watching footage of Eminem's court battle against New Zealand's National Party is "everything I need right now".
The news comedian opened the latest episode of his hit HBO show Last Week Tonight by addressing the court battle playing out in the High Court in Wellington.
Lawyers are arguing whether a rip-off of Eminem's Lose Yourself was used for a National Party campaign ad in the 2014 general election.
Oliver quickly found the funny side.
It would be funny if these clowns weren’t wasting precious court time and resources that could be better spent on more worthwhile endeavours. If you think about these ridiculous cases they’re tragic to the point of absurdity! Why on earth the High Court has allowed such spectacles to progress this far is beyond me. Perhaps they simply don’t want the publics respect anymore?
It is unfortunate that the High Court of New Zealand has turned into a circus full of self-important clowns and posturing buffoons! The court system is clearly a bad joke and being abused by right wing sycophants searching for relevance all the while being aided and abetted by unscrupulous lawyers hungry for their cash.
In a country with one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world, one would think that the High Court would have better things to do than pander to the whims of sexist defamers and copyright infringers.
We should all know by now that climate change is the most pressing issue the world is facing. Not only is increased severe weather patterns causing unprecedented flooding and droughts around the globe mean substantial disruptions to our way of life, the cost to our ecosystem and economy is also extensive and can no longer be ignored.
