Podcast appearances and mentions of David Shearer

Former Labour leader and United Nations worker David Shearer joins Nights to explain the latest in Syria. 

The Labour Party wrapped up its conference yesterday, was a big deal because it was the first time the members had got together since losing the election last year. And if you listen to Andrew Little and Chris Hipkins with Mike this morning, you would hear from them that the conference went very well, the party is in good heart and Chris Hipkins is going to lead the Labour Party to victory in 2026. Will he be able to do that based on the promises he made at the conference? This was Chris Hipkins talking to Mike Hosking on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning: CH: I think AUKUS ultimately is a nuclear submarine pact, if you look at Pillar 2 of AUKUS it's not something that we think is going to be in New Zealand's best interest to be involved with and you know ultimately we've made the decision that New Zealand's best interests will be best be served through our existing international arrangement, including things like the five country partnership that we have (Five Eyes) and any access to things like new technology should come through that avenue not the AUKUS arrangement. MH: Dunedin Hospital – to what extent will you build it no matter what the bill? CH: We said that we'll build it to the specification that we agreed to at the last election or before the last. MH: No matter what the cost? CH: Well, I mean, bearing in mind that the current government before the election was saying we're going to build a hospital that was even bigger than the one that we were committing to. MH: Yeah, but forget that, this is your promise, at no matter what cost, you were, whatever it was going to be specification-wise, you will pay that bill. CH: We will build a hospital to the spec that we had agreed to before the last election, that's right. So that's pretty much at whatever cost. So, what did you make of it? If you were one of those who are middle-of-the-road voters, you'll go where the policies are, you're not absolutely tribal, you're one of the 30 percenters – you'll go if you think that there is a vision that party has, be they Labour or National. If you like the cut of the leaders jib, if you find policies that resonate with you, you can swap your vote between blue and red. So among the promises: Labour will build the new Dunedin hospital as you heard. Pledge to keep New Zealand out of AUKUS, announced Kieran McAnulty as the party's 2026 campaign chairman. Good idea keeping him close. And promised a publicly owned InterIsland ferry connection, including some form of rail transport. Is that enough to turn dissatisfied Labour and centrist voters away from National and NZ First and towards Labour? I wouldn't have thought so, but I would say I wouldn't have thought so yet. We all know that parties seldom give away their big policies two years before an election, so it is very early days. But there's going to have to be a little bit more forward-thinking than what they came up with at the conference. Willie Jackson when he spoke, criticised the coalition leaders for their respective roles in the Treaty bill. But he did say that there needs to be, an appeal to middle New Zealand. He said that the Labour Party conferencegoers had to remind their friends and fellow members that Labour was not under the influence of the Māori Party. He said working-class Labour values are to work together, not just for one's own interests, but everybody's interests. He said a middle-class New Zealand would support some policies from the Greens and Te Pati Māori, but they'd never agree he said about a Māori Parliament. He said we need to have Māori and Pakeha and middle New Zealand together with us so we can be the next government. Which is remarkably conciliatory for Willie Jackson, I think you'll agree. So they understand they need to appeal to the middle, they need to appeal to that 30 percent, those people that will switch where they see the best policies for New Zealand or for themselves where they see the most sensible and capable members of Parliament will be. And hopefully though, the issue of who is going to lead the Labour Party to the next election is done and dusted. Because we do not want to see a repeat of the David Shearer, David Cunliffe, Andrew Little, Jacinda Ardern shenanigans. Because it still blows me away that Chris Hipkins said, yeah, we weren't really ready for Parliament. After nine years in opposition you're not ready to be in Parliament? What were we paying for? Why were we funding your wages? If you're going to use all of your taxpayer-funded salaries to faff around and spend the time trying to find a leader that is not money well spent, that is not a good return on investment for the taxpayer. So if what they're going to be doing is looking at flaws in the Coalition Government's plan for New Zealand and coming up with a better alternative, if they're looking at bold, innovative ways to grow the economy, to protect vulnerable New Zealanders, to create a more robust health system, great. But if all you're doing is faffing around doing third-form schoolyard politics to choose your leader, that is not a good return on investment. So, so far so good. Chris Hipkins said well, yes, I might be tainted by the last regime, but hey, I'm here for the long haul, I'm basically the best guy for the job, prove otherwise. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Let's talk politics, specifically the latest Taxpayers Union Curia poll. It showed a firming up of support for the Coalition Government and the parties that make that up, but Labour leader Chris Hipkins has lost support as preferred Prime Minister and the party is languishing. The party vote changes were all within the margin of error in this latest poll, but the preferred prime minister stakes saw Chris Hipkins dropping 6.1 percentage points.   When you compare the previous Taxpayers Union Curia poll, which was in July, two months prior, so comparing apples with apples, National was up 1.4% to 39. Labour was 25.9%, that was up 0.8, but 25.9% is nothing to crow about. The Greens finally saw some downward movement after all their goings on, they seemed to be absolutely Teflon coated, but finally saw some movement down 1.5 on 11%. ACT, 8.8% around about what they got on election night, NZ First, 6.8%. Te Pati Māori 5%, up 1.5.   Now parties do have a hard time after a trouncing in a general election and they generally look to the to the leader as the sacrificial lamb. Get rid of the leader, sacrifice them to the political gods, we can start afresh and we haven't got the bad juju from the previous election. Look at National – they had five leaders in five years before settling on Christopher Luxon. Labour after the Helen Clark years saw Phil Goff, David Shearer, David Cunliffe, Andrew Little, then finally Jacinda Ardern. Andrew Little made the call to resign just seven weeks out from the 2017 election, and history will reflect that Little's call was one of New Zealand political leadership's gutsiest. Cunliffe, Shearer and Little all went when the polls fell too low for comfort, and that was around the 24 to 25% mark.   So here we've got Labour sitting on 26%, that is dangerously close to the knives being sharpened. Again, I think the only thing that's saving him is what saved previous political leaders from both parties: the fact that there is no obvious choice to replace him. When the party's been decimated and all the pretenders to the throne have been turfed out of office, your options are few. Chris Hipkins, when I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago was all Chipper Chippy.    “So you will be leader leading Labour into the next election against Christopher Luxon?” “Absolutely.”  Yep, absolutely. He was confident on-air. He was confident off-air. Looking forward to it. Had a big think, have I got in in me? Yes I have. Didn't really get a chance to do what I wanted to do when I took over from Jacinda Ardern.  She said I can't do it, I said, well, I will, and I'll take us up to the election. Not really me, he said. It wasn't really my party. There was a lot of Sergeant Schultz, I see nothing, wasn't me, didn't do it. But he was there all the way through the last Labour administrations regime, he was there front and centre. So, he might not have been Prime Minister, but he certainly was a key figure in that administration.   He may be the obvious choice at the moment, but is he ever going to be able to lead Labour back to victory? There is a strong core of electors who don't want a centre right Coalition Government. You know you've got a good block of Greens and Labour and Te Pati Māori, and then you've got the swinging voters, those in the middle, those who voted National last time but could be persuaded. Is Chris Hipkins the man to galvanise those voters or is he yesterday's man? Too much associated with the past, with the Covid years? There were some die hards who say they saved lives, who will think that by being there his reputations enhanced. I think the majority say no. When you look at him you see the Covid years, you see enormous waste of taxpayer money.   When he said, oh yes, we want to borrow more and tax more, I almost fell off my chair. You seriously expect the electorate to trust you with more money? You have got to be kidding. So, 24-25% is when the previous Labour leaders have been goneburger, have been asked to look at other options within the job market, perhaps their talents could be better served elsewhere. Labour's on 26%. Is Chris Hipkins the man to lead Labour into the next election or does he need to make room for new ideas, fresh ideas, a new Labour leader?   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour's Trade Spokesperson comments government's decision to keep agriculture out of the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) and the official disestablishment of the He Waka Eke Noa Primary Sector Climate Action Partnership.  We also reflect on David Shearer, Fieldays, Shane Jones and the pros and cons of an FTA with India. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Lorimer's  guest today is Professor Frédérique Apffel-Marglin, who is Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology at Smith College. She founded the Sachamama Center for Biocultural Regeneration in the Peruvian High Amazon in 2009 where she works with indigenous communities as well as several High Schools in the province, regenerating the most sustainable and climate reducing pre-Columbian anthropogenic soil known as Terra Preta do Indio (black earth of the Indians). Her more recent books are: Subversive Spiritualities: How Rituals Enact the World (2011); Sacred Soil: Biochar and the Regeneration of the Earth with Robert Tindall and David Shearer, (2017); Contemporary Voices from Anima Mundi edited with Stefano Varese, (2020). Her latest book is written with Randy Chung Gonzales who has worked in SCBR for decades: Initiated by the Spirits: Healing Ills of Modernity through Shamanism, Psychedelics and the Power of the Sacred (2022).   Imaginal Inspirations is hosted by David Lorimer, Programme Director of the Scientific and Medical Network and Chair of the Galileo Commission, an academic movement dedicated to expanding the evidence base of a science of consciousness. Imaginal cells are responsible for the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a butterfly, which is the Greek symbol for the soul. These cells are dormant in the caterpillar but at a critical point of development they create the new form and structure which becomes the butterfly. scientificandmedical.net galileocommission.orgbeyondthebrain.org Works and links mentioned:https://asociacionsachamama.org/https://sophia.smith.edu/anthro/Marglin.htmlBooks by Frédérique Apffel-Marglin https://uk.bookshop.org/search?keywords=Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9rique+Apffel-MarglinThe Death of Nature Carolyn Merchant https://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Nature-Ecology-Scientific-Revolution/dp/0062505955https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/cosmogenesis-an-unveiling-of-the-expanding-universe-brian-thomas-swimme/7534509?ean=9781640096172 Production: Martin RedfernArtwork: Amber HaasMusic: Life is a River, by Magnus Moone

By any measure, it's been a volatile start to the new parliamentary term. The new Coalition government's decision to scrap Labour's smokefree policy has proved highly contentious amid a suite of significant policy announcements. Alongside that has been deputy prime minister Winston Peters' allegations that the media was bribed by the former Government's $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund. These issues overshadowed prime minister Christopher Luxon's first post-cabinet media session yesterday, when he unveiled the government's 100-day plan. We're joined by two political commentators. Brigitte Morten is a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government and is a National Party member. Lamia Imam worked for two years for the Labour Party in the Leader of the Opposition's office, under Phil Goff and David Shearer. Morten and Imam spoke to Corin Dann.

Mount Albert's Greens candidate says the narrow margin in the seat shows elections are no longer two-horse races. Labour's Helen White has won on early numbers by just over 100 votes. It's traditionally a Labour stronghold, previously held by Jacinda Ardern, David Shearer, Helen Clark - and Michael Savage. White's blaming her slim-win on the Greens splitting the vote. Ricardo Menendez-March says his Party's proud of its record result. "No one, not the Greens, not National or Labour, can take any electorate for granted." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join host Dr. Joe Patterson as he moderates a discussion on how to build a research program in an academic setting. Guests include Drs. Ashley Levack, David Shearer, & Paul Matuszewski. For additional educational resources visit https://ota.org/ Looking for CME?  OTA Podcast CME only on the free ConveyMED Podcast App: Apple Store click here Google Play click here

Political commentators Lamia Imam and Brigitte Morten join Kathryn to talk about the latest political poll, which shows the two main parties neck and neck. How important are the minor parties this year, particularly Te Pati Maori, and does Christopher Luxon ruling out any arrangement open National up to focus on a two-standards of citizenship-style campaign? And the countdown is on to Budget Day, they'll look at the pre-positioning from Grant Robertson and what's already been announced. Lamia Imam worked for two years for the Labour Party in the Leader of the Opposition's office under Phil Goff and David Shearer. She also worked for the Ministry of Justice, before gaining a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently works for a large technology company in Wellington. Brigitte Morten is a director with public and commercial law firm Franks Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government, a National Party member and currently volunteering for the party's deputy leader, Nicola Willis.

Political commentators Lamia Imam and Brigitte Morten join Kathryn to talk about the latest political poll, which shows the two main parties neck and neck. How important are the minor parties this year, particularly Te Pati Maori, and does Christopher Luxon ruling out any arrangement open National up to focus on a two-standards of citizenship-style campaign? And the countdown is on to Budget Day, they'll look at the pre-positioning from Grant Robertson and what's already been announced. Lamia Imam worked for two years for the Labour Party in the Leader of the Opposition's office under Phil Goff and David Shearer. She also worked for the Ministry of Justice, before gaining a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently works for a large technology company in Wellington. Brigitte Morten is a director with public and commercial law firm Franks Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government, a National Party member and currently volunteering for the party's deputy leader, Nicola Willis.

Brigitte and Lamia join Kathryn to look at Labour's continuing slide and the polls and a weekend win for National in Hamilton West. Which portfolios are continuing to give the Government a headache and could a cabinet reshuffle planned for early next year make a difference? Three Waters has passed, but questions remain over the entrenchment clause and has co-governance been put on ice? Brigitte Morten is a director with public and commercial law firm Franks & Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government. Lamia Imam worked for two years for the Labour Party in the Leader of the Opposition's office under Phil Goff and David Shearer. She also worked for the Ministry of Justice, before gaining a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently works for a large technology company in Wellington.

Brigitte and Lamia join Kathryn to look at Labour's continuing slide and the polls and a weekend win for National in Hamilton West. Which portfolios are continuing to give the Government a headache and could a cabinet reshuffle planned for early next year make a difference? Three Waters has passed, but questions remain over the entrenchment clause and has co-governance been put on ice? Brigitte Morten is a director with public and commercial law firm Franks & Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government. Lamia Imam worked for two years for the Labour Party in the Leader of the Opposition's office under Phil Goff and David Shearer. She also worked for the Ministry of Justice, before gaining a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently works for a large technology company in Wellington.

Lamia and Brigitte join Kathryn to talk about Labour's annual conference this weekend, and the extension to the childcare subsidy. The changes kick in from next April - will it ease the squeeze on households...and the polls? The inflation bogeyman remains, while Labour is gunning for National's taxcut package. Meanwhile National's candidate selection is facing scrutiny. Brigitte Morten is a director with public and commercial law firm Franks & Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government. Lamia Imam worked for two years for the Labour Party in the Leader of the Opposition's office under Phil Goff, David Shearer and David Cunliffe. She also worked for the Ministry of Justice, before gaining a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently works for a large technology company in Wellington.

Lamia and Brigitte join Kathryn to talk about Labour's annual conference this weekend, and the extension to the childcare subsidy. The changes kick in from next April - will it ease the squeeze on households...and the polls? The inflation bogeyman remains, while Labour is gunning for National's taxcut package. Meanwhile National's candidate selection is facing scrutiny. Brigitte Morten is a director with public and commercial law firm Franks & Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government. Lamia Imam worked for two years for the Labour Party in the Leader of the Opposition's office under Phil Goff, David Shearer and David Cunliffe. She also worked for the Ministry of Justice, before gaining a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently works for a large technology company in Wellington.

Kathryn, Brigitte and Lamia discuss National holding firm on tax cuts, constant pressure on the Government over social housing and what the latest political poll shows. Brigitte Morten is a director with public and commercial law firm Franks & Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government. Lamia Imam worked for two years for the Labour Party in the Leader of the Opposition's office under Phil Goff, David Shearer and David Cunliffe. She also worked for the Ministry of Justice, before gaining a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently works for a large technology company in Wellington.

Kathryn, Brigitte and Lamia discuss National holding firm on tax cuts, constant pressure on the Government over social housing and what the latest political poll shows. Brigitte Morten is a director with public and commercial law firm Franks & Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government. Lamia Imam worked for two years for the Labour Party in the Leader of the Opposition's office under Phil Goff, David Shearer and David Cunliffe. She also worked for the Ministry of Justice, before gaining a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently works for a large technology company in Wellington.

What a pointless exercise the Tauranga by-election was and what a waste of taxpayers' money.National is keeping the seat, hardly a surprise.But the turnout was awful.40 percent, about 20,000 votes cast and cost the taxpayer - roughly $50 a vote according to the Electoral Commission's figure of about a million to run a by-election.Of course, we wouldn't have needed to go through that whole process if Simon Bridges had been a list MP, just ring up the next person on the party list.And maybe, maybe that could work in constituencies too, given we have a general election every three years.Do we really need to go through all that process just to find someone for the seat for say, half a term?Here are some of the characters who've snuck into Parliament in by-elections the last few years:David Shearer, Kris Faafoi, Jami-Lee Ross that name alone shows you what a shonky process it is. Poto Williams, Winston, the Prime Minister and a few others.Now, if we just left it to the party of the outgoing MP to pick a successor, we'd save all that money and aggravation...you'd get some continuity on the ground locally, and it wouldn't change the proportionality of Parliament.Or maybe, maybe as a way of discouraging MPs from walking out on their contracts part way through, whoever came second at the previous election could be offered the seat.That might save us a few million.In saying that, we've had about ten by-elections in the last decade, so does it really matter?To me it does, waste is waste after all.

Lamia, Brigitte and Kathryn discuss the latest Kantar Public poll, Labour's turn towards negative attack ads, Three Waters legislation reaches the house and the PM's White House meeting. Brigitte Morten is a director with public and commercial law firm Franks & Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government. Lamia Imam worked for two years for the Labour Party in the Leader of the Opposition's office under Phil Goff, David Shearer and David Cunliffe. She also worked for the Ministry of Justice, before gaining a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently works for a large technology company in Wellington.

Lamia, Brigitte and Kathryn discuss the latest Kantar Public poll, Labour's turn towards negative attack ads, Three Waters legislation reaches the house and the PM's White House meeting. Brigitte Morten is a director with public and commercial law firm Franks & Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government. Lamia Imam worked for two years for the Labour Party in the Leader of the Opposition's office under Phil Goff, David Shearer and David Cunliffe. She also worked for the Ministry of Justice, before gaining a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently works for a large technology company in Wellington.

Welcome David Shearer aka Davidtheartist, we had a great conversation about him working in the digital marketing field and his passion in drawing. Also His book on drawing and taking a different take on how to draw. By having you trace a picture that is completed. Go print a free page and find your way back to the artist in you.Hit play and Enjoy.CHECK HIS WORK or Connect him if you need art in your business/ life.Www.davidtheartist.comWww.cultadventures.comWww.kopialine.comhttps://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/Davidtheartistprintshttps://www.instagram.com/cult_adventures/https://www.instagram.com/theartofoneness/

David James Shearer .. spent over 20 years working for the UN, managing the provision of aid to countries including Somalia, Rwanda, Liberia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iraq. He was a member of Parliament for the Labour Party from 2009 to 2016, and of course leader of the Opposition from 2011 to 2013. He then left to work for the UN again in South Sudan for four years. He returned a few months back and is mulling his next steps. He catches up with Anna about the last four years and what the future might hold.

While we've been wrapped up in our Covid worries and woes, across the world in Africa a catastrophe of immense proportions is unfolding - putting our problems into stark perspective. 

In our next episode, we explore the clean energy market in Uzbekistan. Hosted by Simmons & Simmons partner David Shearer, we talk to Umid Aripdjanov from Centil Law Firm.

David's career has largely been in foreign aid, coordinating humanitarian aid programmes and initiatives for the United Nations and other organisations in a host of countries including Rwanda, Somalia, Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Israel and Lebanon.In 1993 he was named “New Zealander of the Year” by the New Zealand Herald for his work in Somalia and awarded an MBE in the British 1993 New Year Honours List.David's first active role in New Zealand politics was as an advisor to Foreign Affairs Minister, Phil Goff from 2000 to 2002. Elected MP for Mt Albert in June of 2009, David stood forward to lead the Labour Party when Phil Goff stepped down after the 2011 election. Since leaving NZ politics, he's been working with the United Nations, most recently in the South Sudan, where he was in charge of a 20,000-strong peacekeeping force.David is married to Anuschka and they have two children.

Today on Newshub Nation Pacific Peoples Minister Aupito William Sio joins us live. David Shearer, fresh from the UN talks Israel, Palestine and NZ's response. Also what happens to a country when half its jobs disappear? Newshub Nation investigates the harrowing effect on Fiji of a year without tourists.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The more peace becomes enduring, the less protection civilians need: that's been one of the key measures by which the UN mission chief in South Sudan – who left the UN's top job in the country last Thursday - David Shearer, has judged his four-plus years in charge of the 20,000-strong peacekeeping force, UNMISS. UN News's Matt Wells, began by asking him to describe the state of the world's youngest country, when he first arrived in the capital Juba.

The more peace becomes enduring, the less protection civilians need: that’s been one of the key measures by which the UN mission chief in South Sudan – who left the UN’s top job in the country last Thursday - David Shearer, has judged his four-plus years in charge of the 20,000-strong peacekeeping force, UNMISS. UN News’s Matt Wells, began by asking him to describe the state of the world’s youngest country, when he first arrived in the capital Juba.

Christopher Luxon "tested the waters" this week with his maiden speech in Parliament. The former Air New Zealand CEO turned Botany MP told Parliament: "It seems it has become acceptable to stereotype those who have a Christian faith in public life as being 'extreme', so I will say a little about my Christian faith."It has anchored me, given my life purpose and shaped my values – and it puts me in the context of something bigger than myself," he said.His faith had a strong influence on who he was and how he related to people."I see Jesus showing compassion, tolerance and care for others. He doesn't judge, discriminate or reject people. He loves unconditionally."Former Minister Peter Dunne told The Weekend Collective that Luxon handled the issue well in his speech. "In a way, that's a little bit of signalling to that evangelical Christian base in the National Party that he's one of them, while flagging to everyone else that he's not a threat." If it means that he is looking to make a go for National's leadership, Dunne says that his business experience will tell him not to make an attempt until he has the numbers."That means make sure you have the numbers in the caucus, and make sure you can win the election."He says that David Shearer and Don Brash are two examples of former party leaders who were promoted too early based on promise and crashed - so Luxon will need to get some experience under his belt first. LISTEN ABOVE

Christopher Luxon "tested the waters" this week with his maiden speech in Parliament. The former Air New Zealand CEO turned Botany MP told Parliament: "It seems it has become acceptable to stereotype those who have a Christian faith in public life as being 'extreme', so I will say a little about my Christian faith."It has anchored me, given my life purpose and shaped my values – and it puts me in the context of something bigger than myself," he said.His faith had a strong influence on who he was and how he related to people."I see Jesus showing compassion, tolerance and care for others. He doesn't judge, discriminate or reject people. He loves unconditionally."Former Minister Peter Dunne told The Weekend Collective that Luxon handled the issue well in his speech. "In a way, that's a little bit of signalling to that evangelical Christian base in the National Party that he's one of them, while flagging to everyone else that he's not a threat." If it means that he is looking to make a go for National's leadership, Dunne says that his business experience will tell him not to make an attempt until he has the numbers."That means make sure you have the numbers in the caucus, and make sure you can win the election."He says that David Shearer and Don Brash are two examples of former party leaders who were promoted too early based on promise and crashed - so Luxon will need to get some experience under his belt first. LISTEN ABOVE

“I remember sitting on the porch… with the local principal and I said, ‘You need food and you need medicines. Why exam papers?’ And he said, ‘Look, that's for now. But the exam papers are our future. Our kids are our future. This is more important to us than food and medicines.’”   David Shearer is the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for South Sudan but has also served in crisis areas across the Middle East and Afghanistan. He shares his captivating career stories from a posting in an occupied Palestinian territory, the nerve-wracking negotiations to release his wife from gunpoint in Somalia, and his incredible work entering behind Sri Lankan government lines to deliver exam papers to its schools. He also recalls how he narrowly missed out on becoming the Prime Minister in his home country of New Zealand. 

David Shearer has just delivered his final briefing to the UN Security Council as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General United Nations Mission in South Sudan, capping off a remarkable four-year tenure in Juba.

David Shearer has just delivered his final briefing to the UN Security Council as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General United Nations Mission in South Sudan, capping off a remarkable four-year tenure in Juba.

Mwakilishi Maalum wa Katibu Mkuu wa Umoja wa Mataifa nchini Sudan Kusini, ambaye pia ni mkuu wa ujumbe wa Umoja wa Mataifa nchini humo, UNMISS, David Shearer, akizungumza na vyombo vya habari katika mji mkuu Juba, ameonya kuwa utekelezaji polepole wa makubaliano ya amani yaliyosainiwa mnamo mwaka 2018 unaleta tishio moja kwa moja kwa amani ambayo tayari ni dhaifu katika taifa hilo jipya zaidi ulimwenguni.

COMMENT:Where’s ‘Crusher’ gone?What’s happened to Judith Collins now that she’s hit the campaign trail?I fear the same people who muzzled Muller to the point of blanc mange are still in the same jobs and now muzzling Judith.Think back to pre-campaign Judith. Fiesty.Sassy slap-downs and witty one liners.She had an “I don’t care what anyone thinks” vibe which was part of her appeal.Not fitting into anyone’s pre-ordained box, just being herself. And it’s part of why she got the leadership job. People loved her for it.And now I worry that she’s taking too much advice. That the people around her are clipping her wings, trying to trim her attitude, talking too much to her about “optics” and “tone”. She may be drowning in a sea of too much ‘woke’.Word of advice you didn’t ask for Judith, if anyone’s mentioning the words ‘optics’ and ‘tone’ to you - run a mile.Nobody wins friends or votes by being boring. Just ask the long lineup of Labour leaders before they landed on Jacinda.David Shearer, David Cunliffe, Andrew little - I rest my case.To be a truly engaging leader, you need to be yourself. You need to have a personality. You need to speak from the heart or the gut.. more than you do from the bureaucrats spreadsheet notes.For all the advice Jacinda takes from her army of “experts” you still get the sense that what she’s saying comes from her.She doesn’t always get it right, “Sanzaar politics” being hastily thrown out as an excuse for why we lost the rugby championship being case and point. She fluffed that - panicked, made something up which is patently untrue and in doing so only inflamed Rugby management more. Big mistake. And one National should be capitalizing on - so why aren’t they?Trying to be kinder, or softer, or Jacinda 2.0 won't work, don't even try. Be the opposition. Say what you think.Pounce on the government's mistakes and failures - the rugby championship blunder is huge - Nationals leadership should be all over this like a rash - millions lost to our economy, a slap in the face for our All Blacks, slap in the face for tourist operators, a ball dropped by a government incapable of getting back to people on time, far less making any bold decisions.This was ripe for the picking.While Simon Bridges was accused of barking at every passing car, I do wonder if we could do with some of that now, given there is after all, an election in a few weeks, and that is, after all, the oppositions job.The media advisors who diminished Todd Muller into looking like nothing more than a mealy mouthed robot, should be held at arm’s length by Collins. We need less of a softly softly, yawn yawn approach, and more opposition.Get the attitude back. Bring back Crusher.

Mwakilishi Maalum wa Katibu Mkuu wa Umoja wa Mataifa nchini Sudan Kusini, David Shearer, amesema hakuna mtu yeyote atakayefurushwa kwenye vituo vya  ulinzi wa raia, POC,  vilivyofungua milango yake wakati ghasia zilipozuka nchini humo mwaka 2013 kunusuru raia waliokuwa wanasaka maeneo salama. John Kibego na taarifa zaidi. 

The UN mission in South Sudan will set up a peacekeeping base in Lobonok, where six bodyguards of Vice-President James Wani Igga were killed last month.The mission cited other attacks on civilians and humanitarian convoys in the region as the reason for setting up the new base.The head of the mission, David Shearer, said the new base will enable them to provide a protective presence in the area".According to the UN mission, there have been several attacks on aid workers in the last few days in the area.The group wasn't part of the peace deal between the government and armed opposition groups signed in 2018 that ended years of violence.--- This episode is sponsored by · Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WASupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

The UN mission in South Sudan will set up a peacekeeping base in Lobonok, where six bodyguards of Vice-President James Wani Igga were killed last month. The mission cited other attacks on civilians and humanitarian convoys in the region as the reason for setting up the new base. The head of the mission, David Shearer, said the new base will enable them to provide a protective presence in the area". According to the UN mission, there have been several attacks on aid workers in the last few days in the area. The group wasn't part of the peace deal between the government and armed opposition groups signed in 2018 that ended years of violence. --- This episode is sponsored by · Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WA Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

David Shearer is an artist and freelance Graphic Designer from Abbotsford, BC, Canada with over 30 years of experience. He's spent his life in the pursuit of drawing and in so developed a way for everyone to draw, the "reverse colouring book" - Köpialine. He lives with his fiancé and their 4-year-old daughter with a new baby girl expected within a month. David loves the expression of art and the never-ending mystery of its secrets. David and Aaron discuss a variety of topics. Topics include the commitment people have to their identities, the value in drawing and artistic endeavours, family life, responsibility and meaning and personal growth.Check out Köpialine by David:https://kopialine.com/Find Köpialine on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/kopialine/Find Köpialine on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/kopialine/Find Köpialine on Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCirpY9yPsvJtgLmC7Qn7xbQVisit the Bigger Than Me Website:https://biggerthanmepodcast.buzzsprout.com/Visit the Bigger Than Me Facebook Page:https://www.facebook.com/BIGGERTHANMEPODCAST/?modal=admin_todo_tourVisit the Bigger Than Me Facebook Community Group:www.facebook.com/groups/biggerthanmecommunity/Visit the Bigger Than Me Instagram Page:https://www.instagram.com/biggerthanmepodcast/Visit the Bigger Than Me Youtube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyVyWQLX8ThXnx8G9Bu_EYg?view_as=subscriberVisit the Bigger Than Me LinkedIn Page:https://www.linkedin.com/company/bigger-than-me-podcast/about/?viewAsMember=trueVisit the Bigger Than Me Twitter Page:https://twitter.com/biggerthanmepodSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=35374462&fan_landing=true)

South Sudan's vice president, Riek Muchar and his wife, Angelina Teny have both tested positive for the coronavirus. There are now 290 cases of Covid-19 in South Sudan, and four people have died. Cases have been detected in two overcrowded camps which house internally displaced people. Former Labour leader David Shearer is the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for South Sudan. He told RNZ Worldwatch reporter Annabel Reid, the coronavirus is adding yet more strain on a health system that's already in a desperate state.

US crude oil prices fell below $20 a barrel on Monday, close to their lowest level in 18 years, as traders bet production would have to shut to prevent a glut in the markets. The situation is particularly bleak for high-cost wells in the world's largest producer: the US. We talk to Ellen Wald, from the Atlantic Council, in Florida, and Tom Adshead, a director of Macro Advisory in Moscow. Meanwhile, the Coronavirus outbreak has caused a rather startling change in fish consumption in Kenya. Instead of importing stocks from China, Kenyans have refound their taste for local catches, boosting incomes within the industry. And what do you do when you're in lock down? We interview David Shearer, who runs the UK puzzle exchange. He's seeing a resurgence in demand for jigsaws! (Picture description: Woman on a street in Moscow walks past live oil prices, showing the plunge due to Covid-19. Picture credit: Getty Images)

IntroductionThank you Beth and thank you to our wonderful ACT Party volunteers and President. Did you know our online donations averaged a thousand dollars per day for the hundred days before the election was called? ACT has its best momentum and support in a decade.I want to thank Sang Cho and the team at Eden Bistro for opening up especially in Waitangi. Eden Bistro is a new business, and I think it’s going to be a big success. Here in the north of Mt Eden is one of the Epsom Electorate’s most exciting up-and-coming neighbourhoods.Many people here are from the Epsom Electorate. I’m proud to represent you as your local MP. This month marks six years since I started my campaign to represent Epsom in 2014. This year I will be campaigning anew for my neighbours to send me to Wellington for a third time.The state of Our Nation is strong. We are a democracy with a diversified free market economy. We have a rich civil society with voluntary organisations of every kind.We saw in the aftermath of our nation’s tragedy in Christchurch that we may be the warmest people on earth. We are lively, entrepreneurial people who moved further than anyone for a better tomorrow.We live on the greatest piece of physical real estate on earth.The State of our Nation is strong. Our strength has been built up by generations. The question we need to ask ourselves is: Are we adding to or subtracting from the legacy we inherited up until today?I want to talk about some issues we face as a country.Erosion of Rights and FreedomsFree SpeechThe number one political issue is the erosion of freedom under this Government. The foundational freedom of any free society if freedom of speech. It is a good place to start.The ACT Party says it’s a sacred right to think our thoughts and share our views. Freedom of speech allowed Galileo to say the Earth goes around the Sun. It allowed Kate Shephard to say Women have equal rights. Every chance of a better tomorrow depends on people thinking and speaking freely.The current Government thinks free speech is dangerous. It doesn’t want you involved in planning tomorrow. If you are allowed to just think whatever you want, you might think the wrong thing!That’s why they want so called hate speech laws. Someone, somewhere, will be employed by you to decide what you can say. If that sounds nuts, it is. But don’t blame me, I’m just describing their proposal honestly.Normally when the state comes after you, you’re allowed to defend yourself with facts. You can’t be convicted of theft if you didn’t actually take something. When charged with hate speech, no fact can come to your defence. The question is simply whether you said something unpopular, it is mob rule at its worst.It gets worse. Imagine a job that lets you punish the unpopular. Who would apply? Bad people, of course. The worst. We already have a guy called Paul Hunt in charge of the Human Rights Commission who thinks Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-Semitism is okay. That’s the sort of person we’re talking about giving the power to persecute.The ACT Party says hate speech laws are wrong. A government dependent on ACT will never pass laws that restrict your speech. We will expect National to join with us in repealing any hate speech laws introduced in the dying days of this Government.Firearm LawsFree speech allowed ACT to point out that the Government’s firearm laws wouldn’t work, couldn’t work, and haven’t worked. Make no mistake, we are now less safe from gun violence than we were on the 14 March. For three reasons.One. The buy-back failed. It didn’t just fail to get three quarters of the prohibited firearms; it got the least powerful firearms from the most honest people. Incidentally, they took the money and spent it on more firearms. Firearm retailers just had their best Christmas period since Jesus was a boy.Two. Good policing relies on trust. The police are the public and the public are the police. Trust in the law and Police is at an all-time low amongst licensed firearm owners because of the rushed legislation. Most people follow laws they disagree with because they trust the process. They believe in parliamentary democracy. It’s difficult to describe how much our Parliament’s rushed gun laws have damaged the dignity of our democracy.Three. They missed the real problem. How did an Australian weirdo on the wrong side of the Tasman get off a plane and buy an AR-15 with 3,000 rounds of ammo? A single male. Living alone. In another country. Who’d travelled to North Korea and Saudi Arabia. Where were the alarm bells going ding ding ding?Now you understand why the Government and National rushed through their crazy laws. They’d done nothing about the woeful state of New Zealand’s firearm laws for a generation. They knew the public would soon turn on them if they didn’t act immediately, so they practiced collective punishment for the worst crime in our nation’s history on a group of people who’d done nothing wrong.This election will decide whether we fix it, or things get worse. The Government can legislate a register before the election but they cannot implement one. ACT in Government would insist on reversing the second tranche of firearm laws, reintroducing the E-category, and getting the woeful Police out of firearm licensing and administration.That’s the only way to solve the real problems that the Royal Commission will unveil, after the Government’s legislation.The assault on firearm owners and free speech got attention because they made up the Government’s response to the Christchurch terror attacks.Zero Carbon ActThe Zero Carbon Bill give more power to Government Ministers than any legislation since Muldoon. What’s worse, it will do nothing about its stated goal of reducing climate emissions. The legislation is so filled with escape hatches that it will never actually reduce emissions. How do I know this? The British have had the same law for over a decade. Their emission reductions per dollar of GDP have been no better than ours.But it’s given a Minister the undemocratic ability to set plans for whole industries. A Government Minister setting carbon budgets will have the power to effectively decide whether steel, or aluminium is profitable or even if it survives.ACT put up amendments that would remove those Ministerial Powers, making them come to Parliament before setting any kind of industrial plan. We also put up amendments saying New Zealanders should be able to use foreign carbon credits if they’re cheaper.The Parliament, including National, voted against our proposed changes, so we didn’t support the bill.Oil and Gas ExplorationSpeech, firearms, and climate change are issues that get attention, but the erosion of freedom has happened in almost every policy area.New Zealand is already a hostile environment for energy and mineral investment. This is crazy. There are probably more New Zealanders working in Australian mines than New Zealand ones.The ban on oil and gas exploration is nuts. Announcing that the Government will allow no more exploration permits without Cabinet papers or consultation is a sure way to scare away the investment we need to raise worker productivity and wages.The Environmental Protection Agency was supposed to make scientifically robust decisions about who could mine. They’ve been disastrous, preventing environmentally sound projects that could bring investment jobs and growth.This is why we can’t have nice things.The next Government will have to start taking an objective approach to the benefits of the energy and mineral sectors.LandlordsSecond only to licenced firearm owners, landlords are the most persecuted group under this Government.The Government is so opposed to anyone who’s worked, saved and invested, that they have actually hurt tenants in their rush to attack landlords.Landlords perform an incredible service. If you don’t want to save, purchase, do maintenance, pay rates and insurance, and generally be responsible for a property, guess what? Landlords will do it for you. Often they charge rent that doesn’t even cover the mortgage interest rate on the property they’re renting out.You might think that landlords are the greatest benefactors in our society. As a renter myself I’m thrilled that someone is kind enough to do all the work and take all the risk for me. The weekly fee amounts to barely 2 per cent return on equity but hey, that’s their problem.Yet, somehow, landlords have become the whipping boys and girls of this Government. Letting fees are banned, tenants are given even more rights to occupy their property against their will, constant regulatory upgrades add to their cost.The result is predictable enough. If you make it harder to be a landlord, you get fewer landlords. If you raise their costs, they put up rents.Because the Government doesn’t understand the relationship between landlords and tenants, because they see the world through a hundred-year-old lens of class warfare, they’ve kneecapped the very people they’re trying to help.Employment LawEmployment is another relationship this Government fundamentally doesn’t understand. You can either take the risk of putting together capital, ideas, and customers for the privilege of giving other people jobs, or you can just work for someone else made enough to do it.Like landlords, this Government thinks employers are a cash cow, there to be milked for better pay and conditions. That’s why we see the highest minimum wage in the world going up a dollar at a time. That’s why we see the threat of national awards, where wages get negotiated for whole industries from Wellington.What this Government doesn’t understand is that people respond to incentives. If you make it less attractive to employ people, guess what? Less people get employed.We are starting to see the evidence. New Zealand’s terms of trade have never been better, and some industries are desperate for workers, but somehow welfare rolls continue to increase. Since this Government took office, the number of people on welfare has gone up by 25,000. There are over 300,000 working aged New Zealanders on a benefit.ACT stands for the simple idea that employers need workers as much as workers need employers, and bureaucracy is ultimately bad for both of them.The Rural SectorNot so long ago, the farmers were proud to be the backbone of the economy, today the whole of rural New Zealand is under constant assault by Government.Once again the problem is a misunderstanding of the people being governed. Just like firearm owners, landlords, and employers, rural folk are the Government’s ‘bad people.’Bad people, they think farmers are, who want to make money by damaging the environment. They don’t know how to think win-win. It doesn’t occur to them that people who make a living off the land might be the country’s most motivated environmentalists.So they pile on regulations that will drive up costs for little environmental benefit. The one-size-fits-all freshwater regulations will impose costs much larger than the environmental benefits. They will impose standards that urban councils do not meet, and you start to understand why rural New Zealand is angry with this Government.Every Party except ACT supported the Zero Carbon Bill. It may be unavoidable that one day there will be a charge for carbon produced by agriculture. But it remains debatable how a short-lived gas such as methane should be compared with an inert gas such as carbon dioxide. The problem is our Government isn’t debating it. At the very least, our Government should be making the case internationally that methane is not a permanent greenhouse gas and should not be compared with them.None of that is to mention the unending compliance burden placed on farmers, or the Government’s support of a Reserve Bank Governor who has just put up capital costs for no good reason whatsoever.So, the biggest political issue we face right now is a slow erosion of your basic rights and freedoms. We have shown that we are prepared to fight for them.Sleaze in WellingtonIt’s a point of pride that we are the least corrupt country in the world. It’s something we should jealously guard.We should be a country where the rules are the same no matter who you are, and the real process is the same as the advertised one. That’s a fundamental building block of a free and prosperous society.We need to take stock of the sleaze in Wellington. Right now:• Two political parties are under investigation for irregular donations• Two lobbyists have been employed as Ministerial staffers with full access to Cabinet papers while remaining directors of their lobbying firms• The Speaker is being sued over allegations he wrongly slandered a parliamentary staffer as being a criminal• The Deputy Prime Minister can’t competently fill out his Superannuation forms, and there’s the uncomfortable mystery of how this fact -as secret as your tax records- became public• The Provincial Growth Fund is practically an invitation to corruption. There is no real public purpose for taxing some businesses and giving money to others. Shane Jones openly says people must vote for him to get the money, and conveniently forgets he met close associates who applied for the money.In March last year, ACT broke the story about Shane Jones helping to get $4.6 million through the Provincial Growth Fund for an organisation he once chaired. Of course, Jacinda Ardern looked the other way. But what NZ First’s slush fund really means is that you don’t get rich by creating products people want to buy at prices they can afford. No. Instead, you either need connections in the Beehive, or they need to come to Wellington and beg for largesse. These are not the values of a free and prosperous society.This is not a picture of the world’s least corrupt country. The problems lie almost exclusively with the three Governing parties. One reason we need to change the Government is to restore the standards of the world’s least corrupt country in Wellington. And by the way, if it’s legal for two companies controlled by one person to donate more than the declaration limit on the same day, then our electoral laws need to change.Spin Over SubstanceUnder Jacinda Ardern we live in the age of gesture politics. One well-meaning policy after another is marketed brilliantly, but does not work.You just have to ask how the Prime Minister got to be the Prime Minister. Marketing. She has a degree in marketing. She became Prime Minister by selling the same policies that David Shearer, David Cunliffe, and Andrew Little couldn’t sell.The lesson she took is that good marketing can cover off bad policy. Jacinda Ardern has invented the politics of gesture.Banning Plastic bags will not reduce the amount of plastic going into the ocean. Plastic bag litter from New Zealand is not the source of ocean plastic – but it is a fantastic gesture.Doing a market study into petrol companies will not reduce the price of petrol -the petrol companies’ slice is tiny compared with the price of oil and government taxes – but bashing big business is a great gesture.Having the Government build houses will not solve the shortage of housing -the real problem is a shortage of land to build houses on – but it is a great gesture.Buying the least powerful firearms off the most law abiding New Zealanders will not stop the next terrorist, but it is a great gesture.Reporting income statistics, as required by the Child Poverty Reduction Bill, will not reduce child poverty. The real problem is child neglect, but passing a Child Poverty Reduction Bill is a great gesture.I’m sure there’s a phrase used to describe people who are content with simply signalling their virtues.Taken together, the Prime Minister is tackling the housing crisis, saving the oceans from plastic waste, making petrol more affordable, protecting us from terrorism, and fighting child poverty. That’s why she has fans.The only problem is that every initiative is an empty gesture. None of it will actually make New Zealanders’ live better.But we shouldn’t place the blame entirely on the Prime Minister. We’re unable to have a serious discussion about policy in New Zealand. The standard of political debate is woeful. There is no substance. We are focussed on personalities rather than policies. At Waitangi, Winston Peters won’t stand next to Simon Bridges, so he got James Shaw to stand between them. Jacinda Ardern and Marama Davidson giggled during Simon Bridges speech. This is the level of debate. We could instead be talking about how Jacinda Ardern ended charter schools and sent Maori students back to the state school system that had failed them. But it is easier not to address the difficult issues. If we didn’t cheekily adopt Donald Trump’s slogan for today’s event, we wouldn’t have the company of our friends from the media!The other political parties prioritise spin over substance. We at ACT have a core set of beliefs and we’re prepared to put them into action. We are principled and we’re effective.This year the whole country will vote on the End of Life Choice Act. If a majority make it into a law, it will be a great triumph for human compassion and human freedom. It will mean that a person suffering at the end of their life need not suffer to fit in with someone else’s reality. It will be your life, your choice. That’s what a single ACT MP can achieve. That achievement is why we need more ACT MPs in Parliament.Confronting our Long Term ChallengesBeing unable to have serious discussions about which policies are best for New Zealand means we’re less able to solve our long-term challenges.ProductivityIt seems like nearly every week another group of patients and their families petition Parliament for new pharmaceuticals. Of course people are upset that their loved ones are dying, but what has made it a political issue? If I was dying Parliament’s the last place I’d spend my time, believe me.It’s a political issue for one very simple reason. The Australians get the good drugs. Maybe they pay higher taxes and give up other stuff to get the drugs? Nope, they pay lower taxes. They just have more money.This issue is one of productivity. So is keeping the next generation in New Zealand. So is inequality, because when people get left behind in a more and more competitive world we’re really saying they are suffering low productivity.Unfortunately we’re in the lower left corner of the productivity charts. Left because we started low. Lower because we’ve made little progress in productivity growth this century.Some countries started high and cruised along. Others started low and grew quickly. We have the worst of all worlds. Low productivity growth from a low starting point.When you look at the priorities of this Government, and the previous one, low productivity growth is no surprise because productivity growth has not been a priority.Successive governments have ignored policies that harm our productivity and favoured policies that do nothing for it.Having a wellbeing budget. Does nothing for productivity.Government building homes in competition with the private sector?Paying people more to stay home? Doesn’t help productivity.Being the highest taxed country in the Asia pacific region? Doesn’t make people want to work, save and invest.Having the fourth highest company tax rate in the developed world? Doesn’t help productivity.Cancelling basic infrastructure projects for two years then admitting they’re a good idea after all because there’s an election? Doesn’t help productivity.Building regulations where getting permission to build something often takes longer than actually building it? Does not help productivity.Cancelling charter schools that were working because other schools didn’t like losing their students? Doesn’t help productivity.Giving taxpayer money to kids from high decile schools wo were going to high school anyway? Doesn’t help productivity.Banning oil and gas exploration with no consultation or even a Cabinet paper? Scares the living daylights out of investors and doesn’t help productivity.This is insane. We have a Government that does everything but help raise productivity, and lots of things that will actively harm it.ACT in government will make productivity growth a priority. We need to stop taxing and regulating for the sake of it. We need to create the environment for investment, jobs and growth. If we fail, the consequences will be more and more serious over time.We will struggle to keep the promise of New Zealand Superannuation. Younger taxpayers will seek greener pastures. Those without skills will be left stranded, competing with those who lack skills in poor countries around the world. It is a recipe for division and conflict in our society.HousingNot far behind weak productivity is housing. Quite simply it is the biggest public policy failure of the last thirty years.I try not to fill my speeches with numbers but here are three. Since the early nineties, inflation has gone up 60 per cent. The cost of building per square metre has gone up 240 per cent. The price of the median Auckland section has gone up 900 per cent.Let me put that in context, that’s almost as much as shares in Apple. Apple in that time revolutionised the music industry, the personal computer, and the cell phone. Auckland sections were just made scarce by red tape and regulation.Anyone who doesn’t think there’s a problem needs to ponder those numbers. They need to ponder how a country that’s practically uninhabited can run out of sections because of bureaucracy.The consequences are many and dire. Overall home ownership rates are falling, but taking the overall rate masks the much greater declines that are occurring amongst younger, poorer, browner New Zealanders. If we wanted to set up a divided society of haves and have nots, our RMA, Local Government Act, and Building Act are the right way to go about it.It’s also a problem for productivity. It’s hard to attract global talent to your firm if they can’t afford to live here. Every New Zealand firm is paying a hidden tax. That’s the extra wage bill going to its employees’ mortgages.Unless we change our land use planning, our infrastructure funding, and our building consents, we will become a poorer and more divided society.ACT has the answers. People in the building industry quietly tell me they’re the only answers that will get more houses built.First we need to replace the Resource Management Act in urban areas. The Productivity Commission has already produced an excellent report ‘Better Urban Planning’ that lays out how planning could be done in urban areas if we wanted to actually build homes.Second we need to give councils a cut of the central Government’s taxes on new builds. If councils have to give consent and build the infrastructure for new developments, then they need money and they need incentives. ACT’s policy of giving the consenting council half the GST on new builds in their territory would not only give them money, it would dramatically change their incentives.Third, we need to get councils out of the building consent business. They should have been sacked from this role after leaky buildings. Instead, ACT would implement a regime of mandatory private sector insurance on new builds.Our goal should be that anyone who does the right things, works hard and saves their money, can own their own stake in New Zealand. It’s in all our interests to live in such a country.EducationThe final big issue facing this country is education.We spend $15 billion dollars on education, and we have some of the best schools in the world. But overall our education outcomes are highly unequal and slowly declining.The PISA study, which compares the reading, maths and science abilities of 15-year-olds across the world, shows our test scores are falling. A 2014 government report found 40 per cent of Year 12 students failed to meet literacy and numeracy standards even though they had NCEA Level 2.Large numbers of our children are leaving school unprepared for work and life. This is a disaster for our society and our economy. When it comes to the students who leave school without basic skills, our education system is – to borrow a phrase – a moral and fiscal failure.ACT wants to break up the government’s monopoly on education by giving educators freedom, and by giving parents choice.A one-size-fits-all education system doesn’t work and cannot work. The needs of students are diverse and our schools must also be diverse. All children - not just the well-off - should have a choice in education.Partnership Schools were an example of this philosophy in action. Schools had the freedom to innovate and families could vote with their feet by taking their children to a school that better met their needs.Any future government that ACT is part of will bring back Partnership Schools in even greater numbers.But freedom in the classroom is just the start. We also need to put power in the hands of parents.The issue of who should control education funding comes down to this: Do we trust the bureaucrats or the parents?Taxpayers will spend $250,000 on education over the life of every baby born this year, but parents have little control over how it is spent. We could get much better value for that money for all children - but especially disadvantaged children - if it was used to empower families to choose their school, public or private.ACT says that taxpayer education funding should be placed into student education accounts to be controlled by parents. Those who want to continue at their current school will be able to do so, however those who don't will have greater choice.ACTThe good news is ACT is in place to push back the incursions on our freedoms, push out the sleaze, and replace the politics of gesture with the politics of real policy that actually solves real problems.Every poll in the last three months has shown that, if an election were held tomorrow, Beth would be an MP. She’d make a great MP. She is an award-winning businesswoman. A former sheep and beef farmer. A mother of two. A three times elected member of the Rodney Local Board and elected Chair of that Board. Beth would be a better MP than 90 per cent of them on her first day.But there are other polls that haven’t been widely reported. When I tell you what they say you’ll understand why. Multiple sources have told me that Labour’s poll at the end of last year, Labour’s poll had ACT on 3.5 per cent. That’s five ACT MPs.Why is this happening? Because ACT is the only party working hard for a better New Zealand. If that sounds simple, it is.ACT is constructive. We worked with every party to pass the End of Life Choice Act.ACT is also principled. When it matters, we stand alone against every other party.The common theme is that ACT alone works issue by issue for a better New Zealand. Every other party is operating on the politics of gesture.The ACT Party stands to hold the balance of power after this election. How would we use that position?Again, very simple. We stand for people who want to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of those they care about. We stand against politicians with grand Government schemes to buy us a better tomorrow, with our own money.Let me put it his way. The ACT Party stands for those who do. We believe that the world is made a better place by human action. We oppose the marketing led gesture politics that makes us feel good but leaves us all the poorer.We are campaigning to roll back government incursions on our freedom and deliver practical policies that solve real long-term problems with productivity growth, homebuilding, and educational inequality.I hope you will join us in this fight for a Free New Zealand.Free SpeechACT New ZealandPolitics in Full Sentences - Podcasts NZSchool of Practical Politics

In this episode we talk to David Shearer, VP Marketing at Looker. David shares 4 steps to developing a fantastic customer experience, including: Don't abandon early adopters Consider establishing a Department of Customer Love Don't ignore internal company culture Recognize consumer expectations of B2B buyers Connect with David on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrshearer

So if you’ve noticed that the world seems peaceful and springlike lately it might be because parliament is in recess.Our MPs have vacated Wellington and spread to all four corners of the Earth. Yesterday we learnt that Mark Mitchell is spending the break  in South Sudan. Of course South Sudan is right beside Somalia and is the world’s youngest declared country coming into existence in 2013. Since then dozens of factions have been fighting for control wand the fights have killed thousands and displaced millions. And when they’re fighting they neglect to make food so a fair few South Sudanese are starving even though it’s a fertile place with loads of land.There’s a peace deal floating around but just an hour ago it started to fall apart again. Former Labour leader David Shearer is running the UN peacekeeping operation there with a handful of Kiwis and so Mark Mitchell is going to have a look see. I guess he wanted to go somewhere less stressful than the Beehive.The Speaker of the House, Trevor Mallard is having a more traditional break. He’s in Cornwall on a cycling holiday. Which it makes it remarkable that he had the time to call off the Simon Bridges leak inquiry.  His press release came out mid afternoon saying that somehow Mr Mallard has figured out who the leader and texter was. That the person is linked to the National Party and that’s that. He must be very dedicated to the job to send that statement out at 2am Cornwall time in the middle of a holiday. Curious really, it’s almost like someone else made his decision for him.And then there’s Shane Jones who seems to have decided that he would spend the recess giving media entertaining sound bites.Yesterday he got stuck into the the councillors and ratepayers of tasman who pulled the plug on the Waimea Dam. Notably he railed against the idiotic lotus eaters of Tasman. Of course lotus eaters refers to a tale out of Greek mythology written by Homer in The Odyssey. Odysseus comes across a tribe on an island who spend their whole time eating lotus plants which is a narcotic which leaves them drowsing in a drugged out peaceful apathy. Nice image of Motueka stoners Shane but not quite right.Firstly, the greenies at the council meeting were not peaceful or apathetic. In fact they were more like shrieking banshees.And secondly the Dam’s biggest problem was that the councillors of Tasman were just cheap people looking after their self interest by keeping rates down at the cost horticulture which seems a bit self defeating.And now today Shane Jones has said people on the dole and those before the courts could provide some of the labour needed to implement the Government's One Billion Trees project.  The verbose MP told a public meeting at the Tauranga Citizens Club . ''If you can get up and go to work you should be made to do it.''He’s said it before of course but this time he’s made a bit of a boo boo. The problem with forcing people before the court to get out and plant some trees is that until you’re proven guilty, you’re innocent.  So now we have a Minister wanting to shanghai innocent people into working gangs.I don’t know about you but I think it’s time for the MPs to come back to Wellington and do some real work.  At least that way we know where they are and we can keep an eye on them.

In the first episode of the Forgotten Darkness podcast, we examine the brutal murder - or was it? - of David Shearer in 1915 Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and also hear a bizarre tale of a new type of phantom limb pain.   Sources "Eyes cut out in brutal tragedy," Wilkes-Barre Evening News, June 12, 1915.  Find a Grave: David Miles Shearer.  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37990945/david-miles-shearer  "In other counties," Altoona Tribune, June 16, 1915.  "Man found dead a case of murder and not suicide," Lock Haven Express, June 11, 1915.  "Probing murder," New Castle Herald, June 12, 1915.  "Tale of a severed arm," Philadelphia Inquirer, December 2, 1896.

The advent of modern technology within deeply misguided institutions and cultures has accelerated the near-demise of the biosphere. Our guest today argues that coupled with a deep awareness of ecological realities, visionary technology can benefit nature and society, and perhaps even help avert a worst-case climate disaster. Dr. Shearer is co-founder and CEO of Full Circle Biochar. Prior to launching Full Circle Biochar, Dr. Shearer was Chief Scientist at California Environmental Associates and Principal Environmental Scientist at AeroVironment Inc., where he worked in the next-generation transportation, energy, carbon mitigation, and information technology space. In addition to his private sector activities, Dr. Shearer has directed groundbreaking work in both public policy and philanthropic investment for climate change mitigation. Dr. Shearer sits on several nonprofit and educational boards including SkyTruth and Black Rock Labs (formerly Black Rock Solar). He has a Ph.D. in Environmental Epidemiology and a M.S. in Environmental Microbiology from the University of California, and B.S. in Biology from the University of Oregon.

In this week's episode Robert Tindall and David Shearer speak with Joanna about: the pre-Columbian Amazonian high civilizations that left their lands more fertile than when they arose; reintroducing ancestral wisdom in the 21st century; biochar, charcoal used for agricultural regeneration; the suppression of the indigenous ways of consciousness in Europe;  bridging the scientific and the indigenous views of the world;  biochar, biomimicry of fire;  "shamanic archaeology"; re-encountering the animistic, multidimensional mode of perception; a vision about the missed possibilities of the meeting of two cultures and the future; the Amazon women of the Amazon. The post Sacred Soil appeared first on Future Primitive Podcasts.

What hope is there for the people of South Sudan? HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to the head of the United Nations mission in South Sudan, David Shearer. South Sudan's lethal cocktail of civil war, ethnic division, failed governance, widespread hunger and disease threatens millions of lives. It represents a tragic failure on the part of the rulers of Africa's newest country, and on the part of the United Nations mission there which has brought neither peace nor protection.(Photo: David Shearer, Head of the United Nations mission in South Sudan)

What hope is there for the people of South Sudan? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to the head of the United Nations mission in South Sudan, David Shearer. South Sudan's lethal cocktail of civil war, ethnic division, failed governance, widespread hunger and disease threatens millions of lives. It represents a tragic failure on the part of the rulers of Africa's newest country, and on the part of the United Nations mission there which has brought neither peace nor protection. (Photo: David Shearer, Head of the United Nations mission in South Sudan)

Dr. David Shearer with SSM Health Dean Group talks about diabetes.

David Shearer talks about his childhood living in New Brighton, PA. He talks about rationing, cigarettes, and the town of New Brighton during the war. He talks about how the war changed the town and talks about the coal mining strikes that affected Western Pennsylvania during wartime.

In this episode, David Shearer, VP of Marketing at Elevaate, on designing a brand strategy that scales within a startup environment.

In this episode... David Shearer, Executive Director for ISC2 joins us to talk about the results of the ISC2 2015 Information Security Workforce Study We ask David to highlight some of the results We discuss how malware and application security were identified as top threats 3 years in a row -- and what's to be done about this We discuss the major discrepancy between priorities from this survey and recent CIO surveys We discuss the importance of communication skills (identified in the survey) while leadership and business management are far down the scale We discuss with David how under his leadership ISC2 can build a much tighter alignment to business -- not just more security certifications Guest David Shearer - David Shearer has more than 27 years of business experience including the chief operating officer for (ISC)², associate chief information officer for International Technology Services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the deputy chief information officer at the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the executive for architecture, engineering and technical services at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Shearer has been responsible for managing and providing services via international IT infrastructures, and he has implemented large-scale SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects. Shearer holds a B.S. from Park College, a M.S. from Syracuse University, management and technical certificates from the U.S. National Defense University, and he is a U.S. federal executive presidential rank award recipient. As (ISC)² Executive Director, Shearer is responsible for the overall direction and management of the organization.  

The question as to why the leaders of the Soviet Union murdered hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens during the Great Purges is one of the most important of modern history, primarily because it shapes what we are likely to think about communism. There are two schools of thought. On the one hand, there are those who feel Stalin launched the Great Purges because “social cleansing” was (and is) intrinsic to communist ideology and practice. On this gloss, communism itself is responsible for Stalin's bloodletting. On the other hand, there are those who hold that Stalin launched the Great Purges in response to a momentary crisis, or perceived crisis, that had little to do with building communism per se. On this understanding, Stalin and his colleagues believed that the destruction of the Soviet Union, either by internal or external enemies, was an imminent possibility. Thus they felt they had to act, and act decisively. By the mid-1930s, all the top Bolsheviks were truly frightened. They thought the end might well be nigh, and they knew that something had to be done about it. Who's right? In his path-breaking Policing Stalin's Socialism: Repression and Social Order in the Soviet Union, 1924-1953 (Yale UP, 2010) David Shearer offers the most nuanced answer yet. He argues that the Bolsheviks believed class war was an essential and unavoidable part of building communism. The logic here is simple: if you are going to build a classless society, you have to destroy existing classes. This is precisely what the Bolsheviks did, and said they were doing, during the mass repression campaigns–especially de-kulakization–of the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Great Purges, however, were different. Here Stalin was not building communism via class war, but preparing the Soviet Union for what he believed would be a decisive battle with capitalist states without and “socially harmful elements” within. By the mid-1930s, all the top Bolsheviks were truly frightened. They thought the end might well be nigh, and they knew that something had to be done about it. In desperation (delusional though it may have been), they used the police organs developed during the the period of class war (the NKVD, the GUGB) to root out any potential opponents of the regime. Who were they? Basically anyone who had run afoul of the law or was a member of a suspect political class or ethnic group. Stalin ordered the police to tally these “socially harmful elements” and transmit the results to Moscow. On the basis of the tallies, Stalin issued arrest quotas and commanded that they be filled and over-fulfilled. The Great Purges began. And then, after roughly 17 months, they stopped. The Germans invaded, were defeated, and the Bolsheviks set about rebuilding the country. The repression continued during this period, but, as Shearer shows, it was different from what had come immediately before. The political police were no longer rounding up masses of potential counter-revolutionaries (except in the newly occupied territories such as the Baltic States, Eastern Poland, and Western Ukraine; there class war and social cleansing still had to be undertaken). Instead, the civil police arrested and exiled hundreds of thousands because they had abused socialist propriety by pilfering food, refusing to work, or committing one or another crime. What Shearer demonstrates is that while Soviet communism was inherently oppressive, it was not inherently murderous. Communism did not uniquely cause the Great Purges; Stalin's paranoia and power did. Please become a fan of “New Books in History” on Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The question as to why the leaders of the Soviet Union murdered hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens during the Great Purges is one of the most important of modern history, primarily because it shapes what we are likely to think about communism. There are two schools of thought. On... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The question as to why the leaders of the Soviet Union murdered hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens during the Great Purges is one of the most important of modern history, primarily because it shapes what we are likely to think about communism. There are two schools of thought. On the one hand, there are those who feel Stalin launched the Great Purges because “social cleansing” was (and is) intrinsic to communist ideology and practice. On this gloss, communism itself is responsible for Stalin’s bloodletting. On the other hand, there are those who hold that Stalin launched the Great Purges in response to a momentary crisis, or perceived crisis, that had little to do with building communism per se. On this understanding, Stalin and his colleagues believed that the destruction of the Soviet Union, either by internal or external enemies, was an imminent possibility. Thus they felt they had to act, and act decisively. By the mid-1930s, all the top Bolsheviks were truly frightened. They thought the end might well be nigh, and they knew that something had to be done about it. Who’s right? In his path-breaking Policing Stalin’s Socialism: Repression and Social Order in the Soviet Union, 1924-1953 (Yale UP, 2010) David Shearer offers the most nuanced answer yet. He argues that the Bolsheviks believed class war was an essential and unavoidable part of building communism. The logic here is simple: if you are going to build a classless society, you have to destroy existing classes. This is precisely what the Bolsheviks did, and said they were doing, during the mass repression campaigns–especially de-kulakization–of the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Great Purges, however, were different. Here Stalin was not building communism via class war, but preparing the Soviet Union for what he believed would be a decisive battle with capitalist states without and “socially harmful elements” within. By the mid-1930s, all the top Bolsheviks were truly frightened. They thought the end might well be nigh, and they knew that something had to be done about it. In desperation (delusional though it may have been), they used the police organs developed during the the period of class war (the NKVD, the GUGB) to root out any potential opponents of the regime. Who were they? Basically anyone who had run afoul of the law or was a member of a suspect political class or ethnic group. Stalin ordered the police to tally these “socially harmful elements” and transmit the results to Moscow. On the basis of the tallies, Stalin issued arrest quotas and commanded that they be filled and over-fulfilled. The Great Purges began. And then, after roughly 17 months, they stopped. The Germans invaded, were defeated, and the Bolsheviks set about rebuilding the country. The repression continued during this period, but, as Shearer shows, it was different from what had come immediately before. The political police were no longer rounding up masses of potential counter-revolutionaries (except in the newly occupied territories such as the Baltic States, Eastern Poland, and Western Ukraine; there class war and social cleansing still had to be undertaken). Instead, the civil police arrested and exiled hundreds of thousands because they had abused socialist propriety by pilfering food, refusing to work, or committing one or another crime. What Shearer demonstrates is that while Soviet communism was inherently oppressive, it was not inherently murderous. Communism did not uniquely cause the Great Purges; Stalin’s paranoia and power did. Please become a fan of “New Books in History” on Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The question as to why the leaders of the Soviet Union murdered hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens during the Great Purges is one of the most important of modern history, primarily because it shapes what we are likely to think about communism. There are two schools of thought. On the one hand, there are those who feel Stalin launched the Great Purges because “social cleansing” was (and is) intrinsic to communist ideology and practice. On this gloss, communism itself is responsible for Stalin’s bloodletting. On the other hand, there are those who hold that Stalin launched the Great Purges in response to a momentary crisis, or perceived crisis, that had little to do with building communism per se. On this understanding, Stalin and his colleagues believed that the destruction of the Soviet Union, either by internal or external enemies, was an imminent possibility. Thus they felt they had to act, and act decisively. By the mid-1930s, all the top Bolsheviks were truly frightened. They thought the end might well be nigh, and they knew that something had to be done about it. Who’s right? In his path-breaking Policing Stalin’s Socialism: Repression and Social Order in the Soviet Union, 1924-1953 (Yale UP, 2010) David Shearer offers the most nuanced answer yet. He argues that the Bolsheviks believed class war was an essential and unavoidable part of building communism. The logic here is simple: if you are going to build a classless society, you have to destroy existing classes. This is precisely what the Bolsheviks did, and said they were doing, during the mass repression campaigns–especially de-kulakization–of the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Great Purges, however, were different. Here Stalin was not building communism via class war, but preparing the Soviet Union for what he believed would be a decisive battle with capitalist states without and “socially harmful elements” within. By the mid-1930s, all the top Bolsheviks were truly frightened. They thought the end might well be nigh, and they knew that something had to be done about it. In desperation (delusional though it may have been), they used the police organs developed during the the period of class war (the NKVD, the GUGB) to root out any potential opponents of the regime. Who were they? Basically anyone who had run afoul of the law or was a member of a suspect political class or ethnic group. Stalin ordered the police to tally these “socially harmful elements” and transmit the results to Moscow. On the basis of the tallies, Stalin issued arrest quotas and commanded that they be filled and over-fulfilled. The Great Purges began. And then, after roughly 17 months, they stopped. The Germans invaded, were defeated, and the Bolsheviks set about rebuilding the country. The repression continued during this period, but, as Shearer shows, it was different from what had come immediately before. The political police were no longer rounding up masses of potential counter-revolutionaries (except in the newly occupied territories such as the Baltic States, Eastern Poland, and Western Ukraine; there class war and social cleansing still had to be undertaken). Instead, the civil police arrested and exiled hundreds of thousands because they had abused socialist propriety by pilfering food, refusing to work, or committing one or another crime. What Shearer demonstrates is that while Soviet communism was inherently oppressive, it was not inherently murderous. Communism did not uniquely cause the Great Purges; Stalin’s paranoia and power did. Please become a fan of “New Books in History” on Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The question as to why the leaders of the Soviet Union murdered hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens during the Great Purges is one of the most important of modern history, primarily because it shapes what we are likely to think about communism. There are two schools of thought. On... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices