Bob Edlin: Middle East ceasefire is widely celebrated.....

Middle East ceasefire is widely celebrated – but Peters notes that the pro-Palestine protesters have been silent

Come in Chloe and your fellow champions of Palestinian statehood and tell us what you think of happenings in the Middle East in recent days.

There was widespread celebration – not only in Israel and Gaza but around the world – of news of a cease-fire and that the hostages taken by Hamas terrorists two years ago would be freed.

Bob Edlin: The Palestine decision

 

Polls suggest PoO reader who protested to the PM about Palestine decision has substantial Kiwi voter support

A PoO reader – riled by the Government’s decision not to recognise the state of Palestine – sent messages to the Prime Minister, to Foreign Minister Winston Peters and to his local MP.

He reckons they need to know that voters strongly disagree with their position.

Bob Edlin: Peters and Palestine....

Peters and Palestine: the challenge includes weighing how Trump will react to NZ’s decision

New Zealand is among a dwindling group of nations that have not yet taken steps to formally recognise a Palestinian state, RNZ reported today.

That means we are among a dwindling number of nations to avoid the prospect of American reprisals.

Bob Edlin: Stanford and an unavoidable clash......

Stanford and an unavoidable clash – but maybe this was a case of snub or be snubbed

Remember this?

It happened just a few days ago.

Bob Edlin: Plenty of advice for NZ’s Minister for Growth......

Plenty of advice for NZ’s Minister for Growth – from reducing Govt deficits and debt to handing in her resignation

It’s great to see former ministers of finance and a former prime minister offering advice on how to turn the Government’s “going for growth” rhetoric into GDP growth and a lift in our general well-being.

They have all chipped in after New Zealand’s economy shrunk by 0.9% in the June quarter – 

Bob Edlin: Simmonds wriggles when quizzed about spending cuts and apprenticeship numbers

Penny Simmonds, Minister of Vocational Education, was asked this week if she stood by her statement that there is “more concern that we need to be focused on around the actual completions of apprentices”?

Simmonds did stand by it:

Bob Edlin: Oh dear: look what the Government has done to the wananga..........

Oh dear: look what the Government has done to the wananga – but what about the cutbacks in humanities at Vic?

A tertiary education organisation with around 1,500 staff is about to cut its work force by 4 per cent.

We learned this from the Tertiary Education Union which identified the reason: it is citing “the National-led government’s assault on Māori as the underlying cause of a proposed net loss of 60 jobs at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa”.

An assault on Māori has triggered the wananga’s staff cuts?

Really?

Bob Edlin: Collins fluffed her teacher pay figures.....

Collins fluffed her teacher pay figures but has paved the way to protecting the PM from prickly probing about directors fees

A question about teachers’ pay was among the more awkward questions put to the PM at Question Time in Parliament in recent weeks.