Anzac Day 2016

Written By: - Date published: 6:06 am, April 25th, 2016 - 62 comments
Categories: Anzac Day, history, war - Tags:

Today is Anzac Day, 101 years since ANZAC forces began the Gallipoli campaign.

The RSA lists ANZAC Day services here.

Peace Movement Aotearoa lists peace events here (see also the World War One Centenary Peace Project).

For last year’s centenary The Herald ran an excellent piece featuring letters from ANZAC soldiers to their loved ones at home – Letters From Hell. Well worth reading again.

62 comments on “Anzac Day 2016 ”

  1. RTM 1

    One hundred and one years since Anzac Day, and almost one hundred and fifty-three years since the beginning of the Waikato War, where some of the first Anzacs fought and died. The myth that the Anzacs had their origins has been debunked by scholars – there are two full-length books on the massive Australian contribution to the New Zealand Wars, and the camarederie that developed as men from the two settler nations fought alongside each other against Maori nationalists in the Waikato and Taranaki – but it persists in the popular imagination.
    http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2009/05/from-gallipoli-to-drury_17.html
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/culture/books/general-non-fiction/2358872/Blood-Brothers-The-Anzac-Genesis

    • One Anonymous Bloke 1.1

      The problem with your borrowed narrative is that far fewer people want to celebrate their “achievements”. Thanks for exposing your character, though.

    • peterlepaysan 1.2

      Australian New Zealand Army Corps were first deployed by the British Imperial Army.
      The Anzacs were cannon fodder for british imperial interests.

      Anzac is an acronym stemmed from WW 1.

      There was no anzac behaviour prior to (or post gallipoli,and there was fa then.

      Australians have always regarded kiwis as pathetic also rans.
      Ex convicts always have to sledge others to make themselves look important.

      Yeah, sure the Maori/ Pakeha wars are important. They had no anzac signifance.

      Go away, grow up, get an education, and read some history.

      • Thom Pietersen 1.2.1

        Many of those ex convicts settled in NZ – before we start pointing fingers

  2. Ad 2

    Lovely set of interviews on National Radio at the moment on the 1860s Land Wars.

  3. RTM 3

    I had the opportunity to walk up the Great South Road, the route built to send conquering troops into the Waikato Kingdom in the 1860s, last year, and talk about the history of the NZ Wars with the people who lived over old battlesites and redoubts and march routes (cfhttp://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/standing-room-only/audio/201781685/fragments-of-the-great-south-road). There’s certainly a real interest in that part of NZ’s past building. The Otorohanga-based campaign to create a national holiday for the Wars and the development of information centres at Queens Redoubt in Pokeno and at Orakau battlefield reflects this. Time now to get rid of the myth of the Anzac genesis occurring in 1915.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 3.1

      We should include wars of colonisation as part of the ANZAC spirit? You can’t see what the problem is with that?

      • Wainwright 3.1.1

        If we didn’t include wars of colonisation we wouldn’t include WWI, WWII, Vietnam, or Afghanistan either. All wars fought for colonial powers. That’s why some of us don’t celebrate this ‘ANZAC spirit’ with tubthumping patriotism.

        • One Anonymous Bloke 3.1.1.1

          See my response to RTM at 5.1.

          • Colonial Viper 3.1.1.1.1

            WWII was not an exception to Wainwright’s comments. A war of the elite, for the elite, where as usual the ordinary man was used as cannon fodder killing other ordinary men that they had no quarrel with.

      • Thom Pietersen 3.1.2

        It was a war of colonisation (The Great War) – that of the British Empire v the Ottoman in fact, in this particular case. We might not now want to bow to a royal overlord, but please don’t be revisionist about how NZ’ers thought in the past.

        The ANZAC spirit in its original form does not exist to many people anymore – back then we (of euro origin) were the colonists – end of.

  4. North 4

    But without Anzac Day as we know it where would be fake Churchill, fake soldier, fake patriot, fake All Black, fake truth teller, fake man, fake ladies’ hairdresser, fake ‘have a beer with guy’, John Key ?

    And judging by Rawdon Christie’s not fake, extended orgasm as he interviewed Fake Key on TV One’s Breakfast this Anzac morning, what would dear Rawdon do with his tongue ?

  5. RTM 5

    ‘We should include wars of colonisation as part of the ANZAC spirit? You can’t see what the problem is with that?’

    The Anzac tradition began in NZ in the nineteenth century, not at Gallipoli. You can’t understand NZ’s role in the wars of the 20th century without understanding the NZ Wars of the 19th century. The army that fought in WW1 had its origins in the Waikato conflict. Maori attitudes to and roles in WW1 and WW2 were the direct result of the paths that the 19th century wars took.

    Most of the wars of the 20th century in which NZ took a role were in one way or another wars of colonisation. Even in WW2, which is in some ways the exception to that rule, the Pacific campaign was largely an exercise in recolonisation.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 5.1

      It is the ways in which WWII is the exception to that rule that forms a large part of public sentiment in response. It can be seen in the different way in which that war’s veterans are received.

      The jingoism and out-right racism inherent in colonisation sit uncomfortably in such company.

  6. RTM 6

    Public sentiment isn’t homogenous or static, and Anzac Day has meant different things to different people at different times. Talked about this a while back http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2016/03/rethinking-anzac-day.html

    By all means celebrate the anti-imperialists who died in WW2. John Mulgan and Gordon Watson were two of the most extraordinary. The history of the NZ 2nd division, which seems to have gone rogue and sided with the insurrectionary Indo-Fijian sugar workers when it was stationed in Fiji in ’43 and ’44, has yet to be told properly.

    • GregJ 6.1

      I think you mean the Pacific Section, 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force later re-formed as the 3rd (NZ) Division which saw action in the Solomon Islands Campaign.

      Although the New Zealand Ground Forces in Fiji were relieved by the US 37th Division in May-July 1942 and the sent back to NZ to reorganise as the 3rd Division and then shipped to New Caledonia and then to Guadalcanal and the Solomons in 1943-1944 before the Division was disbanded in October 1944.

  7. Penny Bright 7

    Ever read this 50 page, in my view, stunning, ‘insider / whistleblower’ account of who benefited from WW1?

    (I first read it last year – and was amazed / horrified that I had never previously heard of it. Seriously – it is a GREAT read – from someone who REALLY knows what he’s talking about.)

    “War is a racket” – by Major-General Smedley Butler – America’s ‘most decorated soldier’.

    https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/115545.Smedley_D_Butler

    “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.

    In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

    I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914.

    I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.

    I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.

    I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912.

    I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916.

    I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903.

    In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.

    Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints.

    The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts.

    I operated on three continents. ”

    Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America’s Most Decorated Soldier
    _______________________________________

    Penny Bright
    2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.

    • Colonial Viper 7.1

      According to some, WWII is an exception because it wasn’t a war born of colonisation or economic hegemony. That’s rubbish of course.

      • One Anonymous Bloke 7.1.1

        That’s right, social democracy is exactly the same as fascism.

        • Colonial Viper 7.1.1.1

          Ahhh of course, we were fighting for democracy and freedom.

        • adam 7.1.1.2

          Actually One Anonymous Bloke – the question is has social democracy delivered on what it said it would? If not – then is it any different from communism or fascism in practical application? Because Franco’s Spain was not Hitlers Germany, and both were fascist. Again Ho Chi Minh’s Vietnam, was not Stalin’s Russia

          But, but, but…

          Yes we have freedom of a sort, we have liberty or a sort, fraternity, not so much. It is better that totalitarianism sure – but it is nowhere near the socialist ideas of freedom, liberty, and fraternity – nor do we have more democracy.

          Don’t know about you but, but I’d like more democracy not less. I’d also like to live in a socialist society, not in a perpetual quasi democratic one.

          • One Anonymous Bloke 7.1.1.2.1

            No, that wasn’t the question. Nor was a question asked. I responded to CV’s assertion and that’s all. If you want to read a bunch of other things I didn’t say into it that’s up to you.

          • Colonial Viper 7.1.1.2.2

            Actually One Anonymous Bloke – the question is has social democracy delivered on what it said it would? If not – then is it any different from communism or fascism in practical application?

            OAB posited WWII as a fight with black-hat fascism on one side and white-hat social democracy on the other.

            This is propagandistic nonsense, as you know.

            The west has always been fine with fascism, with dictatorships, with bastard strongmen regimes – as long as they were regimes that were pliable and compliant and not threatening the geopolitical interests of the west.

            The American moneyed and industrial elite were very supportive of Hitler for many years as you know. And not just ideologically supportive, but also materially supportive with finances, with industry, with technology.

            But you know how the story goes. Today Eurasia are our faithful friends and allies but tomorrow they are suddenly our deadly and dastardly enemies, and yesterday disappears down the memory hole.

            • One Anonymous Bloke 7.1.1.2.2.1

              OAB posited WWII as a fight with black-hat fascism on one side and white-hat social democracy on the other.

              Nope. I simply noted that fascism and social democracy are different things, you recidivist liar.

          • Psycho Milt 7.1.1.2.3

            So, you’d like to live in a socialist society, just not one that ends up as a totalitarian nightmare run by murderous criminals for their personal benefit. We’d all like to live in societies that are so good they don’t actually exist – I’d like to live in a hedonist society, just not one in which no-one does the actual work.

            • adam 7.1.1.2.3.1

              So why even both writing on the standard then Psycho Milt? I mean if the world is to much of a bother, and any sort of hope or desire for a better future is just too much? Would it not be better to just shut up, and accept your lot?

      • Sanctuary 7.1.2

        Why is it rubbish? You blithe dismissal of so much historiography intrigues me.

        The whole point of Nazi ideology was to use the wealth of the recently mass murdered Jews to fund a war of genocide designed to depopulate Eastern Europe and then create a new economic hegemony dominated by a Germany run by murderous racist gangsters, and the Japanese sought to control all the resources of South East Asia so they wouldn´t have to put up with those pesky Americans telling them off for murdering untold millions of Chinese whenever the fancy took them, but I somehow think this isn´t what you had in mind.

        • Colonial Viper 7.1.2.1

          So according to you WWII was definitely a war of imperial colonisation and economic hegemony?

          You’ve just confirmed my point from 7.1, have you not?

          • Sanctuary 7.1.2.1.1

            I don´t understand your point. And anyway, you appear to have little idea about what you are talking about other than in terms of bumper sticker slogans.

            C.V. Wedgewood said that for us, history is where we start at the end and look back knowing the finish. But for the people at the time, they only know the beginning. And so it was with Hitler. The thing is, no one realised Hitler was an actual, bone fide mad and bad racist and genocidal mass murderer until 1935, the window between everyone slowly realising Hitler was a major league crazy guy and war was less than three years and hindsight is always 20/20. So of course business initially supported him, they had no idea what he was going to turn out like.

            The Nazi regime was parasitic, it´s initial confiscation of Jewish property was as much an act of economic desperation as anything else and as Adam Tooze convincingly argues, the logic of Nazi aggression contained a significant thread of economic opportunism to plunder other economies in order to prop up the German economy for another year or two.

            Roosevelt in particular was deeply opposed to Nazism, and was determined to bring the US into the war as soon as he could re-arm and get the American people onside. For example, the US Navy sortied a battle squadron in 1941 with the express purpose of provoking an engagement with the Bismark. As luck would have it, damage forced the Bismark to break off it´s planned sortie into the Atlantic and a likely encounter with several US battleships it would not have survived, so the British got the sink her instead. Had the US Navy sunk the Bismark, the US would probably have formally entered the war in May 1941, since it is difficult to imagine that Hitler would have just let having his battleship sunk just pass on by. As it was, the US and Germany were at war in the Atlantic in all but name from the middle of 1941 onwards. The Japanese just made it that much easier for Roosevelt.

            The second world war was a crusade because the virulence of the Nazis made it that way. They were in every way an evil regime, and destroying them was as just a cause as any history can provide.

            • Colonial Viper 7.1.2.1.1.1

              And the wealthy American bankers and wealthy American industrialists who supported Hitler and his regime?

              I am also interested in how you described the American leadership trying to engineer the American people into a war.

              Having said that, the US left the Soviet Union to do all the work in that war, supporting Stalin with money and materiel.

              If the US had not turned up at Normandy when they did, we would have been looking at Soviet occupied France.

  8. Foreign waka 8

    War and the celebration of it is the ultimate perversion of the understanding of honor, country and fellow man. No war has ever been fought without having it instigated to someones gain. The solders indoctrinated to make it “their” cause giving their lives being cannon fodder for the powers to be with the hope that their battle is not in vain. And has anything really changed? Has the war or all wars brought peace and freedom for all?

    So lets remember the man that died believing that their lives spent was for a good cause and thank them for being brave but lets remember too that, a repeat with the same fate for another generation will not cut it.
    Their fate should not be seen as a celebration of war and fighting on some side for someones gain but a reminder that wars are not the answer. We do owe them that much. Otherwise their sacrifice was in vain.

  9. Penny Bright 9

    Another direct quote from Major General Smedley Butler – “War Is A Racket”.

    Why am I choosing to draw this to your attention?

    Because it’s ANZAC day – (lest we forget) – and this book was written by someone whose opinion, as America’s most decorated soldier, in my view, is worthy of consideration.

    You don’t have to agree with what Major General Smedley Butler is saying, you don’t have to like what he’s saying, but I respectfully suggest that you don’t ignore it?

    http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

    CHAPTER ONE

    War Is A Racket

    WAR is a racket. It always has been.

    It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.

    It is the only one international in scope.

    It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

    A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people.

    Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about.

    It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many.

    Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

    In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict.

    At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War.

    That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns.

    How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

    How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle?

    How many of them dug a trench?

    How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out?

    How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets?

    How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy?

    How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

    Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious.

    They just take it.

    This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few — the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war.

    The general public shoulders the bill.

    And what is this bill?

    This bill renders a horrible accounting.

    Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.

    For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.

    ……”
    ________________________

    Penny Bright
    2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.

  10. Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster) 10

    I was born nine months to the day almost from VE day, so I’ve got a pretty fair idea how my mother and father celebrated!

    My father was killed in a railway accident some years after the war, but, from what my mother told me, he was rather severely shaken up by his war experiences – in Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy. She told me he had sworn to take me into the bush if ever another was broke out – rather than have me experience what he went through.

    That message, received second hand but from an impeccable source, has coloured my views all my life. If ANZAC day teaches us anything, it is that war solves nothing.

    We should never have become involved in America’s imperialist wars!

    • One Anonymous Bloke 10.1

      “War solves nothing”.

      Ceding military matters to the Right is a mistake, for they will not hesitate to use violence when it suits them.

      • weka 10.1.1

        That’s a bit of a non sequitur

        • One Anonymous Bloke 10.1.1.1

          “War, what is it good for?” Well, defending us against fascist violence, for one thing. That being so, to refuse to study or understand its uses might seem, to paraphrase Sun Tzu, “the height of inhumanity”.

          • weka 10.1.1.1.1

            Sure, and I can’t say I’m a total pacifist myself (although definitely more pro peace than most). But I didn’t see Tony’s comment as ceding anything to the right.

            • One Anonymous Bloke 10.1.1.1.1.1

              The sentiment involved is that it is better to hide than fight, because fighting is useless. If fighting is useless and we’re not doing it anyway, what’s the point of studying it?

              The Left-wing response to war is the UN. Those peace-keeping troops need training too.

              • weka

                I always find it interesting that two people can read the same thing and come away with such different interpretations of what was said. I didn’t take it as a nation having to hide. There are more options than fighting wars on the other side of the world or hiding. I liked the story Tony told about his mother, and took it as a sensibility about the impact of war and wanting to protect children rather than being a head in the sand of kind thihg (which is what I think you are implying).

                “If fighting is useless and we’re not doing it anyway, what’s the point of studying it?”

                Er, because other people are doing it? I don’t vote on the right, but I still want to understand those that do.

                “The Left-wing response to war is the UN. Those peace-keeping troops need training too.”

                That’s one of the responses. Others are the peace movement, conscientious objectors, and peace activism. I don’t think that ‘war solves nothing’ is inherently incompatible with peace keeping troops.

    • “war solves nothing.”

      It did a pretty good job of solving the “what to do about fascism?” problem.

      • Bill 10.2.1

        Did it? Sheesh! Must have missed that one. Nothing much was done about fascism.

        A couple of leaders and their particular brands of fascism were defeated in war. But nothing was done about Franco. Nothing was done about Salazar. Apart from promoting and installing fascists all over the show (eg – Pinochet in Chile), fascism as it expressed itself through the market, was ‘kept at bay’ in Social Democracies by tacking somewhat towards the statist expression of it (and that was all the voting choice we’ve ever had – should a balance be maintained by moving towards state fascism or towards market fascism). Fascism has essentially been habilitated by social democracies.

        Until now.

        Christ. Even Mussolini thought that corporations should ultimately serve the needs of the state. Not how it is now though, is it? The corporations have broken away from any state tethers that might have tied them and are now running amok.

  11. Penny Bright 11

    Ever wondered why Gallipoli was such a military series of ‘cock ups’?

    Why did so many ANZACs die at Gallipoli?

    What if the Gallipoli campaign was never intended to succeed?

    A very controversial opinion – “Gallipoli: one great deception?”

    “The proposition is that it was the intention of the British and French Governments of 1915 to ensure that the Dardanelles and the Gallipoli Campaign would not succeed and that it was conceived and conducted as a ruse to keep the Russians in the war and thus the continuation of the Eastern Front.”

    http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2009-04-24/30630

    “… It then occurred to me that the under-resourcing, informing the enemy five months in advance of the intention to attack, the hurried and inadequate planning, the overly complicated landing plan on exposed and difficult beaches with no initial massive bombardments to pulverise enemy defences, selection of the most incompetent and timid commanders for a difficult operation and apparent constant bungling that characterised the Allied conduct of the campaign may be attributed to something more than ineptitude.

    My detractors on this issue, however, tell me I should never dismiss incompetence in military defeats.

    But such a consistent level of stupidity?

    Respected Australian military historian, Professor Robin Prior, in his new book, Gallipoli, the end of a myth, lists a series of decisions and events that he describes as puzzling or incomprehensible.

    These become less puzzling if the intention of the operations is to guarantee a stalemate and maintain a campaign as ‘demonstration’ rather than a successful invasion.

    The desired result will be the same without the need to deliver on promises.

    Two hundred years or so of British and French foreign policy, which include support for the Ottoman Empire against Russia, make it clear that the Allies would try anything to stop Russia gaining Istanbul and the Bosphorus.
    …..”

    _______________________

    Penny Bright
    2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.

  12. Halfcrown 12

    As it is Anzac day I thought I would share some of my army experiences.
    When I got my call up papers to do my National Service I had to report to Catterick Camp in Yorkshire.

    The train arrived at Catterick packed with other new recruits and we all piled out of the train in our stove pipe trousers, long jackets with the velvet collars and long Elvis type hair styles, commonly known as the teddy boy style.

    Man did we feel hip, or in today’s language cool

    The first thing we experienced was the Regimental Police screaming at the top of their voices trying to get this mass of humanity into some form of column. When it finally happened with a lot of shouting all the expletives under the sun, one of the corporals Shouted to one fella OY, GIT OUT IN FRONT, and to another, YOU GIT AT THE REAR. He then proceeded to hang notices round the necks of these two guys that said “Danger Marching Troops”. Look, if Hitler was alive we could have won the second world war there and then as he would have died with laughter. I have never seen something so ridiculous and funny in all my life.

    • North 12.1

      Love your recollection there Halfcrown ! As pleasing in the mind picture as the better taking the piss stuff you see on UKTV.

      Actually what I’d logged in for was to say this (at risk of charges of heresy) – I’m not exactly sure that the apparent upsurge of attendance at Dawn Parade particularly by the ‘young’, is anything more than a studied ritual, much in the vein of the carry on we get from Fake Man Key. It’s a thing you ‘do’ on 25 April. And feel warmed and proud as punch that you ‘did’ it.

      While knowing nothing about a few years ago when Fake Man Key chose swanning off to Boston to watch a baseball game, ahead of being present when NZ’s dead military personnel came home. Such a Fake and Gutless Man !

      • North 12.1.1

        Should add this Halfcrown…….my 7 years older brother was what we called a ‘bodgie’……..God was I ashamed of him ! Long pink jacket, fake oscelot collar, corrugated soled shoes, black stovepipes. A ’57 two tone green and white Velox.

        Looking back he was consummate style but I was a little snob 12 year old professor who in short time favoured Viyella button downs, woollen tie, cavalry twill and brown suede shoes. Determined to lift my family from its working class roots. Completely unconscious of my brother’s tremendous good fortune in a following of ‘widgies’.

        Thank God I’ve come home to an appreciation of the beauty of my working class roots. The values imparted. That’s why I have but contempt for the Fake Man Key, replicants and wannabes. The cheapness, the shallowness of the whole fucking lot of them !

        • millsy 12.1.1.1

          In case anyone is wondering, ‘stovepipe’ jeans are similar to the skinny jeans today’s young people (and myself) wear…

          • North 12.1.1.1.1

            Ummh…….Millsy…….how old are you ? I’m possibly being a little bit fashion police here but I recall a coupla years ago seeing a District Court judge in his 60s, demeanour a little bit Star Chamber on a bad day, perambulating around in skinny jeans. I thought to myself …….”For Fuck’s Sake mate…….get your gears right on your six grand a week. You’re looking like a egg !”

  13. Neil 13

    And not to forget our dear leaders relatives fought against kiwis in Austria in WW1 & WW2.

    • Foreign waka 13.1

      Not being a particular fan of Mr Key – but please keep to the facts.
      Firstly, Mr Keys Mum was to my knowledge Jewish and fled to Britain. Many tried the same or went to reach the States. However, not everybody was as lucky to get away. Many, many hundreds of thousands were killed.
      Secondly, Kiwis were certainly not sighted in Vienna, I can wholeheartedly reassure you. Italy and Turkey but not beyond the alps.

  14. RTM 14

    ‘Although the New Zealand Ground Forces in Fiji were relieved by the US 37th Division in May-July 1942 and the sent back to NZ to reorganise’

    But there were still eight hundred NZ troops in Fiji in ’43, and that’s when the interesting folk songs that express solidarity with striking Fijian sugar workers was written. And according to recently declassified US military intelligence reports the Indo-Fijian strikers were getting and using guns from some mysterious force. I reckon there’s some research waiting to be done on that one, especially when we consider that there were a number of very effective left-wing activists, including not only the ill-fated communist leader Gordon Watson but the young Bert Roth, knocking about Fiji and other Pacific islands with the NZ forces.

  15. RTM 15

    ‘Although the New Zealand Ground Forces in Fiji were relieved by the US 37th Division in May-July 1942 and the sent back to NZ to reorganise’

    But there were still eight hundred NZ troops in Fiji in ’43, and that’s when the interesting folk songs that express solidarity with striking Fijian sugar workers was written. And according to recently declassified US military intelligence reports the Indo-Fijian strikers were getting and using guns from some mysterious force. I reckon there’s some research waiting to be done on that one, especially when we consider that there were a number of very effective left-wing activists, including not only the ill-fated communist leader Gordon Watson but the young Bert Roth, knocking about Fiji and other Pacific islands with the NZ forces.

  16. Jenny 16

    Anzac day in Papakura always seems to throw up some surprises. One year a leading senior student from Papakura High School gave an address condemning New Zealand’s involvement in Iraq.

    Judith Collins gives an address every year, this year her theme was there will always be war and we will always need to be prepared and need a defence force. Before she introduced her good friend Major John Cook.

    Major John Cook in uniform began his address in fluent Maori. Before addressing the crowd in English on the current threats we face.

    Isis and climate change.

    • Jenny 16.1

      Why New Zealand military leaders like Major Cook see climate change as a military problem.

      “Social unrest and famine, superstorms and droughts. Places, species and human beings – none will be spared.”

      http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/07/climate-change-violence-occupy-earth

      • Jenny 16.1.1

        Isis or climate change.

        Which is the bigger threat to New Zealand?

        We know about the New Zealand Defence Force deployment to tackle Isis.

        But the public know nothing about what the NZDF is doing about climate change.

        It would be interesting to interview Major Cook and ask him;

        “Major Cook, can you tell us, what is the NZDF doing, (or considering doing), to tackle climate change?”

        And;

        “Can you tell us what you think the NZDF should be doing to take on climate change?”

        Maybe some switched on journalist could could seek an interview with Lieutenant General Keating, head of the New Zealand’s armed forces, And ask him,

        “General Keating, do you agree with the public comments made by Major Cook on Anzac Day, 2016, that climate change is a danger to New Zealand equal to the threat from Isis?”

        “General Keating can you tell us what is the NZDF doing, or considering doing to tackle this threat?”

        And;

        “General Keating, We know that the NZDF has been allocated quite a large budget to fight Isis, is it your opinion that it would be worthwhile for the NZDF to receive an allocated budget to fight climate change?”

        “And, will you be lobbying for this budget?”

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  • At a glance – Does CO2 always correlate with temperature?
    On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
    3 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 hours ago
  • Relentlessly negative
    Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 hours ago
  • Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    Bryce Edwards writes –  It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 hours ago
  • Promiscuous Empathy: Chris Trotter Replies To His Critics.
    Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played. “Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
    6 hours ago
  • Don’t run your business like a criminal enterprise
    The Detail this morning highlights the police's asset forfeiture case against convicted business criminal Ron Salter, who stands to have his business confiscated for systemic violations of health and safety law. Business are crying foul - but not for the reason you'd think. Instead of opposing the post-conviction punishment and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 hours ago
  • Misremembering Justinian’s Taxes.
    Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I - Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
    7 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    8 hours ago
  • Bishop scores headlines with crackdown on unwelcome tenants – but Peters scores, too, as tub-thump...
    Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    9 hours ago
  • Will it make the boat go faster?
    Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    11 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi The fact that a ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    12 hours ago
  • Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    12 hours ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' at 10:10am on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st Century The SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims Stuff Steve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    12 hours ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things on Tuesday, March 19
    It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    13 hours ago
  • New Life for Light Rail
    This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail  Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    14 hours ago
  • Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?
    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    17 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    1 day ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    2 days ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    2 days ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    5 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    6 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    6 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Government moves to quickly ratify the NZ-EU FTA
    "The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 hours ago
  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    10 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    12 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    13 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
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