Jim Anderton Archive

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  Clowns to the left of me, racists to the right… - by frog

  
  
  
  Something ugly crawled out from under a rock this week. In response to the Government’s proposals to repeal the Foreshore and Seabed Act, some strange bedfellows have established the Coastal Coalition. It is a blatantly racist campaign, but is unfortunately supported by some who perceive themselves on the left of the political spectrum. They need to think again. read more
  August 19, 2010 6:19 pm - 93 Comments
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  The farcical debate - by frog

  
  
  
  Political scientist Jon Johansson is calling Helen Clark and John Key’s debate arrangement arrogant.  Interestingly, we had a debate about the televised debates last election too, with Peter Dunne and Jim Anderton taking Canwest Media to court to win their right to appear on the leaders debate.  At the time the conflicting issues were essentially [...] read more
  September 28, 2008 1:58 pm - 31 Comments
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  Challenge on Auckland mental health services - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  On Tuesday this week I  used Question Time in the House to ask Health Minister David Cunliffe about Auckland Hospital’s psychiatric acute unit Te Whetu Tawera, as I had just heard that Selwyn Wallace, the man whose body was found floating under Wynyard Wharf in mid-August, had  been released from the unit just prior to his death.  [...] read more
  September 4, 2008 9:17 am - 9 Comments
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  The inalienable right to free rugby - by frog

  
  
  
  I see Jim Anderton has found his own little election niche by calling for compulsory free-to-air rugby.  Now I’m a cricket fan, and not against the concept of free to air sports.  But I’m not really convinced that if we were to sit down and draw up a list of events and programmes that needed [...] read more
  July 10, 2008 9:44 am - 26 Comments
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  Russel rattles another - by frog

  
  
  
   Yesterday Winston, unsurprisingly, made an ethnic and not so oblique reference to Australians, in response to Russel’s first question in the house.  Today it became clear that what parliament has acquired is not just an Australian, but a Little Aussie Battler who is going to stand up for ordinary kiwis.  Check out this exchange between [...] read more
  July 2, 2008 9:44 pm - 10 Comments
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  The water debate - by frog

  
  
  
  Russel has spent yesterday pointing out that the newly released and misnamed ‘Plan for Action‘ on water quality is quite a different sort of document to the one that might have been drafted if it had been based on consultation with iwi, environmental groups and ordinary people as the Ministry for the Environment had been [...] read more
  June 11, 2008 8:12 am - 3 Comments
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  Sue Kedgley on Peak Food - by frog

  
  
  
  Sue Kedgley spoke at the Farmers Market Biennial Conference yesterday on Peak Food: We are in danger of becoming a cash crop nation –producing dairy and to a lesser extent meat for export –while other sectors are being eroded by cheap imports. We import 2.8 million tonnes of food each year — bananas from Equador, [...] read more
  May 31, 2008 7:38 am - 39 Comments
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  Carbon fin prints - by frog

  
  
  
  Jeanette’s question this afternoon on the Government’s claim to be the first carbon neutral country in the world resulted in the usual banter with the Michael Cullen, who was answering on behalf of the Prime Minister. Even National’s Nick Smith got in on the game, asking much the same as what many Green supporters have [...] read more
  May 29, 2008 9:15 pm - 17 Comments
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  Russian milk, Kiwi cows - by frog

  
  
  
  Yesterday New Zealand First’s Doug Woolerton took an opportunity to ask the Minister of Finance about Russian company Nutritek being allowed to create New Zealand’s first totally foreign-owned dairy producer and whether the Overseas Investment Act should have stepped in to do something about this takeover.  Foreign investment generally and the Overseas Investment Act in [...] read more
  May 29, 2008 9:58 am - 11 Comments
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  A saga about bees, biosecurity and GE - by frog

  
  
  
  There was an article in the Gisborne Herald over the weekend where Gisborne beekeepers argued that the Government is sacrificing New Zealand’s environment and biosecurity in order to promote free trade. Beekeepers were protesting about the Biosecurity and Hazardous Substances Legislation Amendment Bill, which passed last week despite opposition from the Greens and the Maori [...] read more
  April 10, 2008 4:18 pm - 5 Comments
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  Dolphins not winning with Minister of Fish - by frog

  
  
  
  The Minister of Fisheries has just congratulated the winners of the Fisheries Ministry Photograph Competition. I guess it’s lucky for the Minister that the Ministry did not enter one of its own photographs, such as this one below or the featured in the Herald today about the destruction that our current commercial fishing practices cause. [...] read more
  March 20, 2008 12:21 pm - 6 Comments
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  Russel’s reponse to the State of the Environment Report - by frog

  
  
  
  From his media release this afternoon: “Not only [has the Government] failed to solve the problems threatening New Zealand’s biodiversity which were the key problems identified in the 1997 report, we now have the addition of major problems of environmental degradation caused by land use intensification and increased roading transport, which are also driving water [...] read more
  January 31, 2008 5:04 pm - 3 Comments
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  Anderton chooses squid over sea lions - by frog

  
  
  
  In the 1970s New Zealand started to let squid trawlers fish for squid around the subantarctic Auckland Islands. However each year the timing and location of this fishing happens to coincide exactly with the pupping and lactating season for New Zealand sea lions resulting in significant numbers of sea lions being killed in the squid [...] read more
  November 22, 2007 1:37 pm - No Comments