Archive for May, 2005

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  Chinese censor PM - by frog

  
  
  
  This just in from NZPA: Prime Minister Helen Clark became a victim of China’s censorship regime when she did an interview on international broadcaster CNN today. Miss Clark was doing an interview summarising her talks with China’s political leaders when the CNN interviewer asked her about human rights in the region. Despite Miss Clark consistently [...] read more
  May 31, 2005 6:19 pm - 2 Comments
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  United in terrorism - by frog

  
  
  
  United’s attacks on the Greens are almost always vicious. But this one is particularly so. The following is an exchange between Peter Dunne and Agenda host Simon Dallow: Simon Dallow: The reality of MMP is you are going to probably have to work with some parties with whom you have fundamental differences … One MP [...] read more
  May 31, 2005 4:37 pm - 8 Comments
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  Flying away with our future - by frog

  
  
  
  The Independent in Britain recently printed this excellent article about the environmental cost of the cut-price airline fad (hattip, bloggreen). It begins: It might be cheap, but it’s going to cost the earth. The cut-ptrice airline ticket is fuelling a boom that will make countering global warming impossible. The article includes some eye-popping “facts about [...] read more
  May 31, 2005 1:47 pm - 12 Comments
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  Labour fudgery - by frog

  
  
  
  Last Friday, I noted that Labour had announced increased funding for solar water heating the day after we launched our energy policy, which included a plan to get 500,000 solar water heating panels into Kiwi homes within five years. What a coincidence, I mused. Well, not so much. The extra funding had actually been announced [...] read more
  May 31, 2005 1:00 pm - No Comments
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  The state of the environmental movement - by frog

  
  
  
  Colin James is respected around Parliament as someone who, more than most people who write on politics, takes the long view. He is perceptive and, generally, fair. That’s why all parties take his prognosis seriously. His column in the Herald this morning about the state of the environmental movement deserves to be read, by Greens [...] read more
  May 31, 2005 11:52 am - 2 Comments
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  Clean cars - by frog

  
  
  
  Cleaning up our vehicle fleet is a vital step towards doing our bit to combat climate change. There’s currently a debate happening in Britain about how to go about this. Some of the options: Have a compulsory traffic light labelling scheme on cars. vehicles would have green, amber or red labels which tell you how [...] read more
  May 30, 2005 10:57 am - 18 Comments
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  Turning the other cheek - by frog

  
  
  
  United’s been having some fun attacking the Greens at its conference at the weekend. As the Dominion Post reports, the insults included “irrelevant”, “distraction”, “fringe element”, “ideological”, and “nature-worshipping”. I could be facetious and ask why a party that considers us “irrelevant” and a “distraction” would spend so much time bagging us, but I shan’t [...] read more
  May 30, 2005 10:56 am - 1 Comment
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  The USA leading the way - by frog

  
  
  
  Trying to get junk food and soft drinks out of our schools should be a no-brainer. The Government is perfectly within its rights to decide the kind of food and drink that is sold in state schools, just as it decides what is taught. So, why won’t the Government act? The only plausible reason seems [...] read more
  May 30, 2005 9:40 am - 6 Comments
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  All problems have been solved - by frog

  
  
  
  All political parties have mantras. Can I suggest that Labour’s is: “Under this government, all problems have been solved!” By which I mean, whenever a problem is raised – no matter from which place on the political spectrum – Labour’s response to is say, “Don’t worry. We’re on it. Either we’ve already solved that problem [...] read more
  May 29, 2005 3:22 pm - 1 Comment
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  Guarding NZ’s reputation - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s a fun game: pick which party individual newspapers’ editors vote for. In England, they make it easy – the editorial line is clear and partisan, and widely-trumpeted. Here, where papers tend to be single players in local markets, there is a greater need to straddle the middle so as not to offend big chunks [...] read more
  May 29, 2005 2:41 pm - No Comments
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  Joining the dots - by frog

  
  
  
  Reading newspapers in the traditional way – sitting down at a table, with a hot drink, and slowly turning the pages – does have its attractions, especially at the weekend. And, if you do it this way, rather than through the organised chaos of the Internet, then strange patterns can start to emerge from the [...] read more
  May 29, 2005 2:21 pm - No Comments
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  Desperate spies, desperate measures - by frog

  
  
  
  So, it seems the SIS is at it again. Its case against Ahmed Zaoui is so embarrassingly weak that it’s started interviewing his friends in the Algerian refugee community to see if they can get some dirt that way. It’s the SIS’ job to gather information on individuals it considers a danger to New Zealand’s [...] read more
  May 29, 2005 1:45 pm - 1 Comment
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  Ejecting the squinty-eyed - by frog

  
  
  
  Winston Peters is at it again. His immigration policy, released yesterday, makes for depressing reading for anyone who believes in an open-minded, open-armed, and compassionate New Zealand. In his speech launching the policy, he said: In 2005, we struggle to know what a New Zealander really is because over the past fourteen years National and [...] read more
  May 28, 2005 4:16 pm - 5 Comments
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  Sprolling around the world - by frog

  
  
  
  “The things you guys talk about are just too big for voters to handle,” someone was telling me the other day. “While other parties are talking bread-and-butter, you’re talking about the planet.” Well, this is partly true: the Greens do take a broader view than most other parties. This doesn’t prevent us, however, from coming [...] read more
  May 28, 2005 4:15 pm - 1 Comment
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  Amazonia - by frog

  
  
  
  The women are coming! The latest issue of Investigate magazine talks darkly about a lesbian/feminist (same thing, apparently) plot that infiltrated the Labour Party in the 1970s and then set about feminising New Zealand society, crushing the nuclear family, and taking ownership of children from parents and giving it to the state. However, as feminists [...] read more
  May 28, 2005 11:54 am - No Comments
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  Killing me swiftly - by frog

  
  
  
  A frogblog reader has asked me whether I have any comment to make on this “frog blender” animation. Basically, it allows you to watch one of my kind get spun around in water at various speeds. At speed one, the poor, lone froggie dies a slow death, agonised by the anticipation of being carved up [...] read more
  May 27, 2005 6:00 pm - 1 Comment
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  Praise on Tibet protest - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s gratifying that Rod‘s Tibet protest is getting praise from people who usually have very little time for the Greens. Yes, some right-wing bloggers and the editorial writers at the Dominion Post have found space to praise yesterday’s protest. Says the Dominion Post: There is a fine line between politeness and cravenness, and between good [...] read more
  May 27, 2005 5:17 pm - No Comments
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  Sort it out, fellas - by frog

  
  
  
  First, it was race relations. Then, it was welfare. Now, it’s tax cuts. National seems to be having a recurring problem. They can’t get their spokespeople to sing from the same song sheet as their leader on the issues they’re supposed to be campaigning on. It lead to Georgina te Heuheu and Katherine Rich being [...] read more
  May 27, 2005 11:08 am - No Comments
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  Labour in the Greens’ shadow over solar - by frog

  
  
  
  As sure as the sun shines, Labour likes to borrow the Greens’ ideas on energy and make a cut-price gesture to the issues we raise. But we could be charitable and say that it is surely a coincidence that the day after Jeanette launches our policy to really rev up the solar water heating industry [...] read more
  May 27, 2005 10:56 am - 1 Comment
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  Covering the Earth - by frog

  
  
  
  If you get most of your information about from TV, you probably don’t know that much about the grave environmental challenges we face. That’s the thesis forwarded by Ian Spellerberg, a professor of nature conservation at Lincoln University, in an op-ed in the Herald this morning. It reads: It is difficult to see how society [...] read more
  May 26, 2005 1:07 pm - 3 Comments