62 Comments

Stupidity needs no identification, but Shane Jones keeps putting his hand up.

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Am interested in Shane Jones and how he charges around in vapours with his Maori whakapapa. I don't see so much of his also strong Dalmation heritage. I have no knowledge of Croation strengths but in Shane I keep seeing Peter Talley also an enthusiastic raper of our collective resources - also with Croation heritage. I don't want to be racist but might this be where his business alliances are enabled?

i fear I've said this all wrong but can't think how to do it. Sorry because I've probably offended someone but all kiwis are connected elsewhere and its the combination of us that creates where we live.

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I’ve never visited Croatia, but I understand it has beautiful coastlines, historic cities, and a rich culture. Also, many scenes from the popular TV series “Game of Thrones” were filmed there.

I looked up 'Dalmatians' and found that it refers to people from the Dalmatia region, which is located along the Adriatic coast of Croatia. I noted that the name is also associated with the breed of dog known as the Dalmatian, famous for its distinctive black-spotted coat. This dog can't change its spots, but it can learn new tricks. Apparently, Shane Jones can do neither.

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Turns out when I google search that you lovely picture of Croatia has some relevance to my pondering - btw I did know where it is :-)

https://ahi.auckland.ac.nz/2021/07/27/between-two-worlds-dalmatian-aucklanders/

And that further search confirms why I might think Peter Talley when I hear Shane Jones. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96106426/fishing-company-talleys-bankrolling-shane-jones-nz-first-campaign.

Talley's was our local fish and chip shop when I was a kid in Motueka - excellent food! Peter's father created the business but as far as I can see someone attached a torpedo to Peter and he went wild. Perfect backer for Shane Jones.

Old petition https://www.change.org/p/governor-general-of-new-zealand-remove-peter-talley-s-knighthood-for-services-to-business.

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I admire Shane Jones mastery of English and his mastery of Maori (he often requires mental gymnastics to comprehend), and I like some of his beliefs BUT some of his beliefs and utterances are detestable.

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It’s tempting to be critical of personalities rather than policies. But, as you point out, an individual can hold and express some ideas that we agree with and some that we don’t. We have to keep reminding ourselves to focus on the ideas rather than the person promoting them. Players eventually leave the stage, but ideas, and their harms or benefits, persist.

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Both hands! And his feet, if he could.

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Jun 9Liked by Bernard Hickey

The terrible onslaught continues. Restarting oil and gas? Sprinting to the apocalypse

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One of the posters at the protest march on Saturday reminded us 'There is no economy on a dead planet', which I took to mean 'There is no economy when human life can no longer be sustained on our planet'.

Of course the billionaires are welcome to escape on a fat-ass rocket heading to space, and when they get there, they're welcome to keep on going (As 'First dog on the moon' so eloquently suggested).

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Jun 9Liked by Bernard Hickey

I’m speechless, we have gone from world leading during Covid to laggards in a matter of years. New Zealanders will look back on this period with shame.

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Shame Jones is his full name.

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There were quite a few 'Shame Jones' posters at the protest march on Saturday!!

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Ha! I would love to have been there. There was no protest against the Fast Track bill down here in Dunedin (although we had our weekly ‘Ceasefire Now’ Rally).

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We’re in an era led by reactionaries and their ideological revanchism.

Jones’ epitomise it. He verges on flat out admitting his main reason for supporting extraction is ‘owning the libs’ and their petty concerns with “the environment” and “extremely endangered native species”.

It certainly sounds like his goal is smashing conservation and protection for personal satisfaction rather than demonstrating that extraction-based economic policy is itself a net-benefit.

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27,000 people submitted on the Fast Track Bill, many of them expressing concerns about its anti-democratic nature. Those people will have taken little comfort from Shane Jones this morning on RNZ when he said "I know that people pride themselves on enjoying our democratic rights but that depends on economic solvency, that depends on exports, that depends on certainty, confidence and investment....we need to mine our way to the future."

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I think what Shane Jones really meant was “The future is mine and I will sell it to the highest bidder”.

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Or 'my mate's. I'm not sure I'd even trust him to even sell it for the highest price.

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Why is Winston Peters keeping a low profile, is Shame Jones drawing the media attention, while Peters is plotting?

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Hi Alex

Winston wants to be able to deny his involvement if things go south, and it is for raising Jones' profile for when he inherits the leadership.

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Word from a friend re Matua Shane is that NOTHING happens without Winston giving it the all-clear.

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what about the purchase of porn videos?

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Jun 9Liked by Bernard Hickey

Share this one, Bernard. The tax analysis alone shows how shameless this so-called government is.

Those of us on the hikoi in Auckland on Saturday were many and varied and there for many reasons for marching. This will increase. Get the message out.

Also where are the political polls? Last year they arrived all the time.

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Jun 9Liked by Bernard Hickey

I noticed that there was a lot of money clawed back from all the farming emissions projects in budget 2024. Agriculture having no cost to their emissions indefinitely is going to be disastrous!

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Excluding non-pastoral reps from the new group is a problem, too. "Feeding the world" is a myth, and we do need more focus on food security at home - that means all-of-agriculture, not just those on four legs.

Even within pastoral, we're likely to see non-dairy edged out in favour of the export heavy-hitters (who don't actually seem to be making a great deal of profit, and wouldn't make any at all if they had to account for environmental externalities).

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Jun 9Liked by Bernard Hickey

Was anyone actually saying there was not (short term) economic opportunity cost to environmental protections? I thought we'd collectively agreed that the foregone short term economic windfalls were worth it to save taonga and long term prosperity. What a straw man.

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When did "we collectively" agree that?! Not at the last election. Thank goodness it's only a three-year term, but still long enough to irreparably destroy our country as we know it .

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Jun 9Liked by Bernard Hickey

I’m of an age to remember the pall of consternation and disease that seemed to hang in the atmosphere in the last years of the Muldoon Prime Ministership.

This lot a beginning to engender a similar feeling. This time with more anger.

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Jun 9Liked by Bernard Hickey

We are going from 100 days of action to 100 days of broken election promises.

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Jun 9Liked by Bernard Hickey

Shane Jones couldn't help incessantly mentioning Saturday's protest on RNZ this morning; methinks it's afraid... We ARE banshees, Shane! Hear us shrill!! 😱

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I would have thought it was PR 101 NOT to keep referring to a mass march that took place in opposition to your pet policy.

It was kinda funny how many insults he worked in to his little rant "Bambi" "unicorn fairy dust" "Venezuelan lotus eaters" "Green politburo" etc. He must lie awake at night, festering, a bit like his orange role model.

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Yes, he'd be quite entertaining to listen to if his fundamentals weren't so utterly deranged

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Wow! So he really loves us and can't get us out of his mind.

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I wonder what he'd do/think if he met us in person? Probably bitterly disappointed to find us boringly normal.....

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Charlotte Cook’s interview with Shane Jones on Morning Report this today (Monday. June10) is a textbook example of “I’m glad you asked that question” journalism. She began by asking Shane Jones “Why is this a necessary move?”, which set the stage for one of her laziest interviews (matched only by her interview with David Seymour on Midday Report a few weeks ago). She fed him sympathetic questions and accepted everything he said without raising any criticisms or contrary views. He relished the opportunity to reply to the massive protest on Saturday with insults that managed to be both childish and arrogant. The man who loves to hear the sound of his own voice has found a journalist who is happy to promote and amplify his poisonous purple prose.

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purple is a beautiful colour

you have maligned the colour purple :-)

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You’re right, purple deserves better.

If Shane Jones had his colours done, he’d likely be an Autumn, but without the vibrant yellows, oranges and reds — nothing but the deep, dead, blackness of soot that blocks out the sun and in which nothing can grow.

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Yes, I had to switch off the Radio this morning. What a shocker - an arsehole being interviewed by the least prepared person, just providing a platform.

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I didn’t hear the interview but it was maybe another example of the paucity of interviewing abilities in RNZ .

Most of what I hear seems to be either too much Patsy or too much hectoring or badgering.

I hope they’ve cloned Jim Mora!

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I’m with you, Dave. I’m listing to podcast episodes of Jim Mora from Sunday Morning as I type this. He always does his research, he draws attention to the content of the interview not to himself, and he’s always a gentleman.

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👍

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Labour tried to steer investment away from renting houses to each other and into job creating enterprises. But this coalition spent $2.9B reversing that ambition.

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Jun 9Liked by Bernard Hickey

So many of these issues are showing Christopher Luxon’s political incompetence. A poor leader. He should be reining-in the minor coalition parties. The coalition agreement formulated in the post-election huddle should never be seen as such a widespread

“mandate” to circumvent proper democratic process. Bring on a leadership change if not yet a government change. But who as a National leader might we have a little more confidence in?

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Luxon is still in CEO mode, working for a select group, with no interest in the whole population, but as PM he is responsible for collective behaviour of the coalition, whether he likes it or not. He is already trying to restrict media access because he doesn’t like to be challenged. It is not acceptable.

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Jun 10Liked by Bernard Hickey

Like many thousands, I attended the protest march on Saturday, I haven't protested since my University days but felt compelled to attend. Unlike Jones' description of people attending as "Shrill Banshees" what I saw were most people listening and walking peacefully recognising the utter stupidity in Shane Jones theory in mining our way to a future. Also, what I observed and surprised me (and Luxon should take note) were the huge numbers of older people and families attending. These people should be his bread and butter supporters but they are miles away from supporting this government. It did give me some hope that there are many older people who have begun to show a huge concern for future generations rather than focussing on short-term politics.

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I think you will find that the ‘older’ people you saw were also protesting in the 1970s and 80s, challenging the injustices of that time, just as they are doing today.

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So true Alex. I think some younger folk are wrong in their assumptions about 'older' people. Heaps and heaps of us were never National's people! Never.

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Absolutely! Fifty-five years of marching and we’re still having to fight the government on behalf of the environment that supports us all!

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Jun 10Liked by Bernard Hickey

Never getting sick of the dog, Bernard 🐶😍

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author

Thanks Maisie! Tim says thanks too!

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It is obvious that this goverment has absolutely no intention to meet the paris agreement as they don’t believe that climate change will affect them adversely and I have heard many who think it will be advantageous to NZ

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