Scoop: Top Scoops + Just Politics
TODAY’S TOP SCOOPS:
Jane Kelsey Reports: GATS A Deal Breaker At Hong Kong WTO Summit
Photo-Essay: Event Of The Week - King Kong Premieres In Wellington
Tax: Dunne Seeks Small Business Tax Change Delay
Judge Rules For Snail – Now Minister Must Act
Media: Nats Lure Herald Gallery Reporter Over As Senior Press Secretary
Bill English Announces His Annual Awards!
Cunliffe Introduces SPAM Bill To House
MORE HEADLINES
Israel Continues Its Bulldozer Demolishing Homes Policy
Scoop Audio: United Nations News (Friday)
MORE INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
SCOOP COLUMNS:
Public Address: Keith Ng's WTO and More!
Jason Miller: No, not in His name
Martin LeFevre on Facing Up to Torure
Richard S. Ehrlich Inside China
MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY
OTHER NEWS (Just Politics):
Election Spending: Are Spending Loopholes Big Enough For A Stock Car?
Rongo Wetere Resigns From Wananga
Parliament: Dirty Harry And The Inbox Of Secrets!
POLITICAL HEADLINES
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TODAY’S TOP SCOOPS
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Jane Kelsey Reports: GATS A Deal Breaker At Hong Kong WTO Summit
Negotiations on the WTO’s agreement on ‘trade in services’ (the GATS) have taken a controversial turn at the 6th ministerial conference in Hong Kong. In the giant chess game of the Doha round, services have tended to have a low profile. Now it seems they may become the deal-breaker at Hong Kong. At the end of this week’s meeting, the 149 trade ministers are supposed to agree on a text that sets out their decisions on the negotiations to date and the pathway for the future. These range across agriculture, non-agricultural market access, services, intellectual property and other rules. See... Jane Kelsey WTO: Standoff on Services [1] ALSO:Jane Kelsey WTO: Development Deceits [2]
Photo-Essay: Event Of The Week - King Kong Premieres In Wellington
Courtenay Place Wellington was packed to the gills this week with thousands of good citizens eagerly trying to catch a glimpse of the stars on the red carpet outside the Embassy Theatre for the premiere of Peter Jackson's King Kong. Occasional Scoop contributor Karim Sahai was there with his lenses of power and managed to snap a number of high quality images of this great yet rather muggy and humid day of patriotic kiwi film pride. See... Karim Sahai: Images Of the Final King Kong Preview [1]
Tax: Dunne Seeks Small Business Tax Change Delay
- Revenue Minister Peter Dunne has recommended delaying the 1 April application date of three small-business tax
changes in a bill under consideration by Parliament's Finance and Expenditure Committee. In a letter to the chairman of
the committee, Mr Dunne explains that businesses need more time to prepare for the changes, given that the proposed
legislation was not enacted this year as originally anticipated, and is not expected to be enacted until March. See... Minister wants later small-business tax changes [1]
Judge Rules For Snail – Now Minister Must Act
- The threatened giant land snail may be one step further away from extinction thanks to the tenacity of Forest and
Bird and the commonsense of a High Court judge, the Green Party says. Conservation Spokesperson Metiria Turei today
congratulated the environmental group for winning its landmark High Court case against State Owned Enterprise Solid
Energy, and thanked the judge for his reasoned decision. See... Snails' extinction lies in hands of ministers [1] ALSO:Procrastination will not save the albatross [2]
Media: Nats Lure Herald Gallery Reporter Over As Senior Press Secretary
- National Party Leader Don Brash has announced the appointment of Kevin Taylor to the position of senior press
secretary in his office. In this role Kevin will work alongside current senior press secretary Jason Ede in directing
National’s media team. Kevin joins National from the New Zealand Herald, where he is currently a political reporter
based in the Press Gallery at Parliament. See... National makes new media appointment [1]
Bill English Announces His Annual Awards!
- Biggest Winners: NZUSA scooped the pool with interest-free loans. Now there's no money for anyone. So much for
Labour's commitment to quality education. See... Bill English's 2005 Annual Awards [1]
Cunliffe Introduces SPAM Bill To House
- In just a few years, unsolicited commercial e-mail - generally known as “Spam” -has gone from being a minor nuisance
to becoming a significant social and economic issue. It is also a drain on the business and personal productivity of New
Zealanders. Mid-2005 data from an anti-Spam software company indicated that unsolicited bulk mail volumes accounted for
approximately 65% of all email traffic on the Internet, up from just 8% of traffic in mid-2001. See... Cunliffe: Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill [1] ALSO:InternetNZ welcomes anti-spam bill [2]
MORE HEADLINES:
NUPE congratulates MPs on their pay rise... [1] Hoggets Boost Sheep Numbers [2] Sanctuary wins international ecotourism award [3] Security Tips For The Festive Season [4]
Israel Continues Its Bulldozer Demolishing Homes Policy
- The Israeli authorities are preparing to demolish the house of an elderly couple in East Jerusalem, on the grounds
that it was built without a permit. Mohammad and Zarifa Abbasi are in poor health, and there are serious concerns that
if they were made homeless this could have dire consequences. The Jerusalem Municipality issued an order for the
destruction of their home, in the Silwan neighbourhood, earlier this year. The couple have attempted to block the order
through the courts, so far without success. They may have one more court hearing at which to challenge the demolition
order, to be held later this year. They have little hope of success. See... Israel Prepares To Demolish Elederly Couple's Home [1] ALSO: Israel: Farmers March For Their Lives [2]
Scoop Audio: United Nations News (Friday)
- Iraqi elections; UN security council warns on Eritrea's stance; Trade Barriers for Processed Agricultural Products
encouraged; Emergency Humanitarian Relief Fund created; WMO Says 2005 Set to Be Second Warmest Year on Record...
MORE INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES:
Healthy corals fared best against tsunami [1] COHA Examines Bolivia’s Sunday Presidential Elections [2] Security Council Demands Syrian Cooperation Hariri Probe [3] Balkan War Crime Tribunals Demand Cooperation for Arrests [4] Support for Sudan Humanitarian Operations Urged [5]
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SCOOP COLUMNS
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Keith Ng's WTO and More!
- Just a quick update from the Eastern Front. All my photos from Tuesday are up here, as well as some excellent shots
from Sam Graham, a local journalism student. The past two days has been more of the same: Wheeling and dealing inside
the conference, scuffling and swimming outside. Local media has been giving a lot of coverage to the proto-violence. And
fair enough - it's not everyday that you have a week-long mini-riot in Hong Kong. See... Public Address 16/12/05 - Stories and Orcas [1] .ALSO:Public Address 15/12/05 - Various Amusements [2]
Jason Miller: No, not in His name
- How much damage will men like George Bush, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Sam Brownback, Ralph Reed, and Rick Santorum
inflict before reason prevails and they are unmasked as the twisted, malevolent charlatans that they are? Fundamentalist
Christians, adherents to a nauseating perversion of Christianity (conjured from their twisted imaginations and their
distorted interpretations of the Bible) wield a significant amount of power in the United States, socially and
politically. See... Jason Miller: The Iron Fist of Jesus [1]
Martin LeFevre on Facing Up to Torure
- Some years ago I met an Argentine man who had been arrested during the 'Dirty War' in the 1970's and was slated to be
tortured. His story is the most graphic example of the wrongful use of thought, as well as the potential for
transcending thought, that I've ever heard. See... Meditations: A Tale of Torture [1]
Richard S. Ehrlich Inside China
- Punk fashions, shopping malls and Mandarin-language rap are helping China create a sanitized, communist-controlled,
parallel universe which mimics the outside world. The apparent goal is a nationwide cocoon displaying the West's popular
archetypes, but cloned and manufactured locally, so Chinese will perceive their society as open and prosperous, and not
be attracted to free speech, political parties and other taboos. See... Richard S. Ehrlich: Letter from Jinghong [1]
MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:
Australian Freedom of Speech and sedition laws [1] Ramzy Baroud: Bush’s New Strategy Hastens Defeat [2] The January Night Sky [3] Marc My Words - 16 December 2005 [4] News: Pacific Airlines CEO Resigns [5] Lebanon: Bomb aims to silence independent media [6] PDA Report: London International Peace Conference [7] Reshuffling the Cabinet in Nepal [8] Nepal: Why I Support The King [9]
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OTHER NEWS (JUST POLITICS)
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Election Spending: Are Spending Loopholes Big Enough For A Stock Car?
- The Rt Hon Winston Peters has said that he is disappointed with the Judges' findings in relation to the electoral
petition for the seat of Tauranga, as there now appear to be no rules to limit candidate expenditure. "This development
means that we have taken the first steps down the slippery slope of US style politics in which wealthy candidates are
able to buy their way into politics. "I commenced my action because, like others, I believed that there was gross over
expenditure in this case. See... Peters Declares The Law On Expenditure Now Void [1] ALSO:National - National pleased with Tauranga decision [2] National - Bob Clarkson delighted at result [3] High Court Decision - Judgment: Clarkson Wins Tauranga (PDF) [4]
Rongo Wetere Resigns From Wananga
- Rongo Wetere’s decision to resign as chief executive of Te Wananga o Aotearoa was today welcomed by Tertiary
Education Minister Michael Cullen. “Dr Wetere’s contribution to the wananga and to Maori education in general was large
but his departure will make it easier for the wananga to move on. “The current wananga council and the Crown Manager
have made huge progress in dealing with the governance and management failures highlighted in the Auditor-General’s
report. See… Wetere’s resignation welcomed [1]
Parliament: Dirty Harry And The Inbox Of Secrets!
- Parliamentary Questions 13/12/05 Q12 - Winston Peters: "Oh, I know what those members are thinking: they are wondering whether I have one telephone book full of those emails,
or 10. Well, I have to tell those members that, in all this excitement, I myself clean forgot to count them. But given
that this is the most damaging information seen in the Western World, and could blow their political heads clean off,
they have to ask themselves whether they feel lucky. Well, do they—punks?" See transcripts… Winston Peters vs Gerry Brownlee [1] & Peters & Cullen vs Don Brash [2] ALSO:Peters: General Debate, 7 December [3]
POLITICAL HEADLINES:
Govt - Government more responsive to disability issues [1] Govt - Vessels sighted on Antarctic patrol flight [2] Govt - Barker no scrooge – celebrating community spirit [3] Govt - Draft report on electricity transmission under RMA [4] Govt - NZ seeks timber products trade liberalisation [5] Govt - NZ welcomes Tonga, Saudi Arabia to WTO [6] Nats - No Reason For SDHB To Withhold Hospice Funding [7] Nats - Survey a cry for help from frontline police [8] Nats - NCEA: Ministry gave no advice on changes [9] Greens - Report adds little to carbon tax debate [10] Maori Party - Maori Party: Resignation of Dr Rongo Wetere [11]
POLITICAL COLUMNS:
Nats - www.mccully.co.nz 16 December 2005 [1]