One way of looking at it is that perhaps the thugs police should be grateful to the Freedom Villagers for presenting them with an ideal opportunity to test out their new kit.
The document states police have 17 Lrad units, bought incrementally since 2016, and that a tactical options report must be completed for the use of an Lrad.
The manufacturer's specifications for the Lrad model 100x used by police says the devices can project 140dB, about the sound level of a gunshot, to a maximum range of 600m.
The devices have the potential to cause permanent hearing damage, which has led to the device being limited in several jurisdictions in the United States following lawsuits.
It is understood the deployment on March 2 was the first use of the Lrads to disperse a crowd in New Zealand.
Lrads might be the weapon of choice for bringing out- of- control crowds into line, but its such a pity about the devastating effects they can have on the targets.
These sonic weapons are capable of inflicting severe, debilitating, permanent harm on U.S. citizens in the form of irreversible hearing loss, tinnitus, vestibular dysfunction, and barotrauma.
But what would a bunch of audiology professionals know?
And the thugs police also had a chance to deploy the new Sabre Red Mk 9 pepper spray. (There's a gag in there somewhere but it escapes me at the moment.) They had to rush the order through…and aren't the good folk of Wellington lucky that the rules were changed to allow the use of pepper spray on crowds just a day before they violently drove out the protesters and trashed their gear?
Yes…I know the good folk from the Left here will say that any 'force' used by the Police during the protest was justified and proportionate. Dragging naked women by their hair then kneeling on their head, planking with the porky cop's full weight on a seventeen year old's head, breaking the sternum of another female protestor...
Yes well… just of course to happily meet your prejudices. In my opinion, good on the Police for using whatever means necessary to evict the law breaking occupiers protestors. They had 20 or so days to stop breaking the law and chose not to. No sympathy at all for your naked idiot and sniveling 17 year old.
I added a working link. In the clear. So you can see that yet again the broken link is in the embed. Please stop embedding, I'm sick of having to sort this out.
My suggestion is don't embed any. This isn't the first time they've failed. Embedding increases the chances of the link breaking. Putting them in the clear also makes it much easier to see what the link is to.
I know the good folk from the Left here will say that any 'force' used by the Police during the protest was justified and proportionate.
Or, some of us believe that if you out yourself into specific kinds of protests, you can expect the police to use force of some kind, and what they use needs to be carefully critiqued.
I disagree with the use of the Lrads (sorry to disappoint you). Can't remember the details of the pepper spray. The naked woman didn't deserve force, but she didn't leave the police many choices. She intentionally covered her body in oil so they couldn't get a good hold of her. Short of using her hair, how else could they have removed her? I'm all ears on suggestions. From memory she later said fair dos about the police action.
Your link says she was treated for a sternum injury, not a broken sternum. Your points are well enough made without exaggerating.
I'm still pissed that it was the Freedom crowd that occupied parliament and not climate protestors. Their tactics about using vehicles to block the streets were impressive. Likewise their functional camp and that they lasted so long. I also think they lost mana in a number of areas, repeated death treats towards MPs and then moaning that the MPs wouldn't meet with them (this is just stupid tactics), not distancing themselves from the white supremacists and the alt right, being dickheads to the locals (again really stupid tactics), and the whole general mess of messaging and confused politics. I have some sympathy for them, hard to sustain a lot.
oh, and the last day, there was heaps of warning of what was about to go down. Those that chose to stay made a choice, and cannot cry unfair later. Again, the police should be closely scrutinised in how they did that operation, but it's silly to think that they weren't going to use force and shut down the protest.
Your link says she was treated for a sternum injury, not a broken sternum. Your points are well enough made without exaggerating.
No, it doesn't. It says…
One elderly woman had ribs broken and is now in hospital; a friend was elbow punched in the chest; she collapsed shortly after, and was treated for a sternum injury;
He goes on to say that the naked woman had her dress ripped off…that's not correct, she was intentionally disrobed. I heard from numerous sources that a woman had a cracked/broken sternum after being knelt on by the cops. I think this fellow writing is quite understandably a little muddled. It was a very difficult day.
…repeated death treats towards MPs and then moaning that the MPs wouldn't meet with them (this is just stupid tactics), not distancing themselves from the white supremacists and the alt right, being dickheads to the locals (again really stupid tactics), and the whole general mess of messaging and confused politics.
You were there weka? At the protest? In the Freedom Village? You were up close and personal with all the fucking filth? I hadn't realized that your knowledge was so first hand for you to be so sure of what was what, who was up who and who was paying.
You must have been at a different protest to the one close friends and whanau attended because they had an altogether experience. You speak of "tactics." And "a mess of messaging" and "confused politics". Hmmm. I don't think you get what most I've spoken to were there for. It wasn't political, per se.
It is now, however, so I guess that's a win. A whole lot of folk have been radicalized…and not in the way I guess you would approve of.
Tell me weka, oh you wise in the way of politics and protest, did you not experience one little worm of fear when Ardern made her …
"Do feel free to visit covid19.govt.nz – otherwise dismiss anything else. We will continue to be your single source of truth.
Here's what a seasoned protester and former MP had to say on RNZ this arvo:
I’ve been thinking that it’s a shocker that Auckland mayoral candidate Efeso Colins, and his family, were dangerously cut off by two cars while driving in west Auckland on Monday. The drivers then went on to verbally abuse the family who were driving in a car with campaign colours on it. And it’s reprehensible I reckon that in this country we’ve reached a point where people think it’s OK to physically endanger and threaten people standing for public office, and their [ah] partners and children.
Um, we really need to think about what instances like this and others mean for any sense of democracy. The anti-vax protests at parliament earlier this year took overt misogyny – hatred of women – and racism to another level. Um I know the Prime Minister’s been particularly impacted by death threats and abuse but so have other MPs and a lot of journalists as well. Then six days ago in Tauranga a building housing a Rainbow Youth and Transgender support service was burnt down after other anti-queer incidents in that district.
I think that the anti-vax occupation of Parliament was instigated and fuelled by various far-right groups, and while that occupation is over, the malevolent culture that it embodies seems to have become even more emboldened and enabled. I really hope Efeso and his family are OK [yeah] and I also hope that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again to anyone standing for election this year or next, because this is the slippery road to Fascism, and I don’t know how many people realise that. – Sue Bradford @ 8:40 minutes
"I've been watching for some days—and this is not unique to New Zealand—that, in the midst of what is a global issue, as you would expect, there are a number of rumours that circulate. I am present on social media; I see it myself. I cannot go round and individually dismiss every single rumour I see, as tempted as I might be. So, instead, I want to send a clear message to the New Zealand public: we will share with you the most up-to-date information daily. You can trust us as a source of that information. You can also trust the Director-General of Health and the Ministry of Health. For that information, do feel free to visit at any time—to clarify any rumour you may hear—thecovid19.govt.nzwebsite. Otherwise, dismiss anything else. We will continue to be your single source of truth. We'll provide information frequently. We will share everything we can. Everything else you see—a grain of salt."
– PM Jacinda Ardern
At it again I see Rosemary. Dragging naked women by their hair... one woman who was wandering around without a stich on – which is a punishable offence – was resisting arrest and had to be restrained before being carefully removed without causing injury to her.
Summaries of the incidents leading to hospitalisations show officers were knocked out after being struck down by attackers, and some required head scans and stitches for their open wounds.
One officer was struck down from behind and sprayed with a substance, causing them to lose consciousness and suffer temporary blindness.
Another officer was attacked by a protester and tore their Achilles tendon, while another was thrown into a post, suffering a dislocated shoulder and tendon damage.
Another officer was taken to hospital with breathing issues after taking a concrete paver to the chest, being sprayed in the eyes and having something thrown at their face. They also inhaled smoke from the fires.
Officers were knocked unconscious, tore tendons, and suffered dislocations in the wild melee of the protest, but the unseen mental hits are also widespread…….
…one woman who was wandering around without a stich on – which is a punishable offence – was resisting arrest and had to be restrained …
No Anne. She was not wandering around. She was sitting down with her back to the police line. You are making this up, or you have been lied to.
I guess if one is in the thrall of the (government funded) MSM one is going to only see what the Paymasters allow.
You really need to broaden your horizons….just a tad.
Tell me. Just for shits and giggles. Do you know of anyone who took the Pfizer product who experienced side effects such as chest discomfort, irregular heartbeat, nausea or shortness of breath? Or 'flu like symptoms' that had them bedridden for days?
You exaggerate everything pertaining to the Covid vaccine in an attempt to create a false image of severe consequences. The Pfizer vaccine has no more side effects than other vaccines going back many decades to the smallpox vaccine. A very small percentage of the population can be more seriously affected but that does not mean the rest of us have to be denied them.
I know of no-one who has experienced any bad side-effects. Some have reported fatigue or a sore arm for a day or two and that's it. I experienced a sore arm.
"I need to broaden my horizons"? You're a joke sometimes
If you want to be taken seriously then stop twisting and embellishing the truth.
The Pfizer vaccine has no more side effects than other vaccines going back many decades to the smallpox vaccine.
Can you provide evidence to support this statement? Un- referenced statements on government or pharmaceutical industry funded sites do not constitute "evidence" btw.
On average for every 10,000 people who are vaccinated 55 people report an AEFI.
Check my maths…that's 16.9 (out of 100,000 doses) reports of adverse effects for the flu jab in 2019 compared to 550 reports of adverse effects (out of 100,000 doses) for the Pfizer product.
32 x higher rate of reporting for the Pfizer product.
The evidence of the efficacy of vaccines has been around for effing decades.
That wasn't the question.
You said…The Pfizer vaccine has no more side effects than other vaccines going back many decades to the smallpox vaccine. … and I asked you to provide evidence of this.
On average for every 10,000 people who are vaccinated 55 people report an AEFI.
Check my maths…that's 16.9 (out of 100,000 doses) reports of adverse effects for the flu jab in 2019 compared to 550 reports of adverse effects (out of 100,000 doses) for the Pfizer product.
32 x higher rate of reporting for the Pfizer product.
Rosemary – at risk of sounding indelicate, the young woman revealed, at her post arrest return to Parliament grounds and a chance to take up the microphone, that she was in fact doing something to the police et al that she had been taught to do by bold (Maori women) protesters, involving a part of her anatomy that isn't usually deployed in such circumstances. If you review her address to the crowd, and the video of her arrest, you'll perhaps see what I mean.
Robert. I am not quite sure what you are saying. Can I assume that since the woman deliberately chose this method of protest and resistance, and she was not surprised at the actions of the police…that dragging her by her hair, smothering her with a blanket and kneeling on her head were acceptable? Bearing in mind she was not committing any acts of violence and was very obviously a threat to no one. By design.
You're ok with these tactics….the heavy duty pepper spray, the LRAD, the sponge bullets, the extremely violent arrest and restraint methods deployed by the police (especially on February 10th) to be used on any and all protestors that out stay their welcome? Bearing in mind these people were not being violent…they were resisting attempts by the police to forcibly move them out. By design.
If the police employed the same methods on persistent climate change or environmental protestors would you also take the 'they are asking for it' line?
I don't know anyone who experienced side effects such as chest discomfort from the Pfizer product, but I do know people going about their lives who were treated like shit by arsehole arrogant protestors.
I do know people who had their freedom and choice taken away from them by people who were wielding signs about people's right for freedom and choice.
guess if one is in the thrall of the (government funded) MSM one is going to only see what the Paymasters allow.
You really need to broaden your horizons….just a tad.
“Paymasters” ?I dont know what “Horizon” you see? As you are so far down the rabbit hole….you’re in the depths of the warren. Sad that. I just really hope you arent influencing any Vulnerable people.. Particularly Maori and their Tamariki.
While I detest, anti-science, anti-public health, anti-enlightenment, anti-vax, anti-govt. covid denier sentiments of these fanatics.
I support the right to protest.
Speaker of the House, Trevor Mallard, history of violence and confrontational way of handling these right wing protesters made a violent confrontation inevitable.
In my opinion Mallard has set a very bad precedent.
Trevor Mallard's orders and ham fisted approach and direction to the police which led to the violence has made all protesters vulnerable to harsher policing.
If the Left wing protesters who occupied Rugby Park in Hamilton in 1981 had suffered the same sort of heavy handed policing to clear them off the field. What would have been the result?
Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed.
But as I said, going forward a very bad precedent has been set.
I know for instance that before the last lockdown Extinction Rebellion had been planning to blockade parliament with a Hands Around the Beehive protest occupation.. If they continue with their plan, Mallard's precedent leaves little doubt that the XR protesters will be dealt with possibly even harsher than the Right Wing anti-vaxxers.
Cops were heavy handed with the anti tour protesters. I knew many with injuries including an over seventies Presbyterian Minister who couldn't be threatening if he tried. Watched one of the squad batton charges, myself. Similarly with student protesters in Auckland.
They were, in reality, much more patient and gentle, with the pro plague fools. After weeks of them harrassing and attacking the public. Something Extinction rebellion, Anti TPPA protesters and Gen X do NOT do.
The anti-apartheid protesters have been vindicated and proven to be on the right side of history.
"Cops were heavy handed with the anti tour protesters. I knew many with injuries including an over seventies Presbyterian Minister who couldn't be threatening if he tried." KJT
Of course you are right, KJT. However, it is my opinion, that the failure of the heavy handed policing of anti-racism protesters during the 1981 Springbok tour. Plus the later vindication of their stand by the people of South Africa expressed personally to the protesters by President Nelson Mandela when he visited this country, led to a reappraisal by the police of these sorts of tough anti-protester methods. Which in my opinion was to the betterment and strengthening of our democracy.
The Right have even accused our police force of being 'too woke'.
….National's justice spokesman Simon Bridges says police head Andrew Coster is a "wokester commissioner" and isn't fit for the job.
Bridges accused Coster of putting "being nice" ahead of applying the law.
If that is woke, then I can't get enough of it. Unfortunately my fear is that the actions of these Right Wing anti-vax protesters, aligned as they were to violent far-right neo nazis, and anti-government conspiracy theorists, have set back the latter more tolerant police approach to protest action.
Coster dialing back the overzealous disregard for the law, of a significant proportion of our police, is a plus in my book. And makes police more effective in getting community co-operation and consequently reducing crime in the community.
Of course the "tough on crime" "small dicks" will object, even though evidence shows they are counterproductive.
The response to the many vandels, in the pro plague demonstrations, is restrained compared to responses to way less law breaking demonstrations.
More than a few paying ticket holders and fans at the recent 2022 European Cup final were treated to tear gas and riot control measures, this was mostly due to local authorities not really being prepared to run the event. Some of them have even suggested this has put them off attending live football in future.
And in NZ were complaining about sprinklers getting protesters wet just before they were drenched by a significant storm.
I don't agree with his words, but to be fair I believe he was in Christchurch Airport about to head to Singapore so his surroundings were probably limited. 😉
Quite funny exert of a longer CGTN program called The Heat .In this abbreviated version two panelists voice their diametrically opposed opinions on Ukraine .An analysis from the Ukrainian who is apparently an adviser to Zelensky's gov would have done Goebbels himself proud so distorted is his view of reality , he doesnt fool many of the 150 or so commenters under the vid though .
This is the full version of the above news piece and covers the G7 meeting in full .Watch the clowns great leaders caper and fawn for the cameras against the backdrop of the Bavarian alps while they dream up more silly schemes to squander vast sums of taxpayers money !! For MSM this is actually pretty good and produces lots of facts from a fairly lively panel .Once again the commenters below ar'nt fooled by any bullshit !!
For those who want to stay/become informed about Ukraine etc Brian Berletic of The New Atlas is well worth a look in this his latest he goes over some of the recent msm stories that have been pretty much been regularly regurgitated every week since the start of the conflict .He's on a par with Alexander Mercouris i think and can fill in some of the technical aspects of the war and the fact he's an ex marine gives him a bit of extra credibility not that he needs it imo at least he's right on the money !
Update for the Russian missile attack on the 'Shopping Centre " .According to Defense Politics Asia the shopping center had been closed for some months and had apparently been used for 'other' purposes which mite account for it burning so fiercely ?.Anyway its very unlikely there were one thousand shoppers or indeed any shoppers in the building .Ive read other similar accounts to DPA's but we'll prob have to wait for the dust to settle to know what really happened .
Just for you joe Graham phillips filming in donestk about a week ago while Ukraine was busy shelling the civilians that live there ….again
[lprent: For the benefit of anyone who wants to know what is in the video, it appears to be a gormless dickhead walking and talking, displaying pretty minor damage and a burning building (cause unclear). It isn’t a scene of shelling, and most of it apart from the burning building appears to be pretty old (and possibly staged in the case of broken van). The burning building isn’t displayed enough to indicate eitehr shelling or a legitimate military target. This appears to be just stupid deliberately produced propaganda for the weak-minded. ]
Now do the execrable video the vatnik simp posted of himself crashing a POW swap to abuse and torment a visibly distressed, maimed and disfigured Ukrainian soldier who had been blinded, badly burned, and had lost both arms.
Why dont you post a link joe should be easy for a dirt digging ferret who cant seem to put togeather any sort of reasonable argument himself but has to copy an paste every one else's ….
Dude, you've repeatedly posting the vile propaganda of an alleged war criminal and confirmed hebephile, and regurgitated terror state lies and dezinformatsiya as commentary on a genocidal war.
The Russian Federation is commanding the grunting Donetsk separatists and their impressed conscript slaves to attack Ukrainian civilians with the assistance of the atrocity war criminals of the Wagner mercenary, you find this surprising?
Not to mention that the gutless cowards of the Russia Federation forces stand back and fire missiles at Ukrainian schools and shopping malls because they can’t accurately target anything.
(You see, it is easy to add hyperbole – doesn’t help any rational argument that much. weston – could you possibly be a little less of a mindless raving fuckwit. Your comments are getting pathetic.)
For the benefit of anyone who wants to know what is in the video, it appears to be a gormless dickhead walking and talking, displaying pretty minor damage and a burning building (cause unclear).
Brian Berletic is a joke, a true tankie in love with authoritarian regimes. His rabid defense of the Thai coup makers and the murderous king demonsrtates his unsuitability as a source.
Strange your link contains nothing but a rather good compendium of Brian Berletic's rather excellent work exposing false narratives , the joke is you !!
Really : The report cites a Reuters article [15] in which a Facebook spokesman is quoted as saying that this and other account deletions were for "coordinated inauthentic behavior". It is a detailed account of the methods being employed by the Fake news campaign to censor platforms that effectively challenge western official narratives.
'BANGKOK — The anonymous blogger known for his prolific anti-Western conspiracy theories and unfounded accusations against the pro-democracy movements in Thailand is no longer anonymous.'
Well if Brian Berlitic's work exposes fake western narratives then i salute him for it .Ive no idea what's happening in Thailand and neither am i interested a.t.m. there's only so much world politics i can wrap my head around !!
If you dont like the man bruce stick with BBC an CNN im sure its much easier .
Speaking of China watch lying snake Mike Pompeo field questions from a brain dead fox news presstitute and then read the comments he's obviously not fooling the american public at least !!
[lprent: Having just spent time to read over your comments over the last few days, you don’t appear to be adding anything to a robust debate. You appear to just be dumping shit comments without bothering to engage in a robust debate.
Linking to pretty stupid propaganda and attacking other commentators when they point it out isn’t debate – it is just acting like a troll. If you don’t stop acting like a internet fuckwit, I will simply ban you until after peace settlement is reached.
Fix your behaviour and start acting like someone engaged in robust debate pronto. This is your only warning. ]
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Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
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 ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
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For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
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One way of looking at it is that perhaps the
thugspolice should be grateful to the Freedom Villagers for presenting them with an ideal opportunity to test out their new kit.https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/revealed-police-used-sound-cannons-against-parliament-protesters/PIBFZEHRIOEADS7SK4Y4SWM464/
[working link added]
The document states police have 17 Lrad units, bought incrementally since 2016, and that a tactical options report must be completed for the use of an Lrad.
The manufacturer's specifications for the Lrad model 100x used by police says the devices can project 140dB, about the sound level of a gunshot, to a maximum range of 600m.
The devices have the potential to cause permanent hearing damage, which has led to the device being limited in several jurisdictions in the United States following lawsuits.
It is understood the deployment on March 2 was the first use of the Lrads to disperse a crowd in New Zealand.
Lrads might be the weapon of choice for bringing out- of- control crowds into line, but its such a pity about the devastating effects they can have on the targets.
These sonic weapons are capable of inflicting severe, debilitating, permanent harm on U.S. citizens in the form of irreversible hearing loss, tinnitus, vestibular dysfunction, and barotrauma.
But what would a bunch of audiology professionals know?
And the
thugspolice also had a chance to deploy the new Sabre Red Mk 9 pepper spray. (There's a gag in there somewhere but it escapes me at the moment.) They had to rush the order through…and aren't the good folk of Wellington lucky that the rules were changed to allow the use of pepper spray on crowds just a day before they violently drove out the protesters and trashed their gear?Yes…I know the good folk from the Left here will say that any 'force' used by the Police during the protest was justified and proportionate. Dragging naked women by their hair then kneeling on their head, planking with the porky cop's full weight on a seventeen year old's head, breaking the sternum of another female protestor...
Yes. Well.
While were just spit balling equipment for the police to try out.
What would the effects of cluster munitions be on the protesters?
Yes well… just of course to happily meet your prejudices. In my opinion, good on the Police for using whatever means necessary to evict the
law breaking occupiersprotestors. They had 20 or so days to stop breaking the law and chose not to. No sympathy at all for your naked idiot and sniveling 17 year old.I added a working link. In the clear. So you can see that yet again the broken link is in the embed. Please stop embedding, I'm sick of having to sort this out.
It was only the Herald link that failed. All the others are working fine. Should I just not embed Herald links, or do you not want any links embedded?
My suggestion is don't embed any. This isn't the first time they've failed. Embedding increases the chances of the link breaking. Putting them in the clear also makes it much easier to see what the link is to.
Or, some of us believe that if you out yourself into specific kinds of protests, you can expect the police to use force of some kind, and what they use needs to be carefully critiqued.
I disagree with the use of the Lrads (sorry to disappoint you). Can't remember the details of the pepper spray. The naked woman didn't deserve force, but she didn't leave the police many choices. She intentionally covered her body in oil so they couldn't get a good hold of her. Short of using her hair, how else could they have removed her? I'm all ears on suggestions. From memory she later said fair dos about the police action.
Your link says she was treated for a sternum injury, not a broken sternum. Your points are well enough made without exaggerating.
I'm still pissed that it was the Freedom crowd that occupied parliament and not climate protestors. Their tactics about using vehicles to block the streets were impressive. Likewise their functional camp and that they lasted so long. I also think they lost mana in a number of areas, repeated death treats towards MPs and then moaning that the MPs wouldn't meet with them (this is just stupid tactics), not distancing themselves from the white supremacists and the alt right, being dickheads to the locals (again really stupid tactics), and the whole general mess of messaging and confused politics. I have some sympathy for them, hard to sustain a lot.
oh, and the last day, there was heaps of warning of what was about to go down. Those that chose to stay made a choice, and cannot cry unfair later. Again, the police should be closely scrutinised in how they did that operation, but it's silly to think that they weren't going to use force and shut down the protest.
" From memory she later said fair dos about the police action."
She certainly did.
Your link says she was treated for a sternum injury, not a broken sternum. Your points are well enough made without exaggerating.
No, it doesn't. It says…
One elderly woman had ribs broken and is now in hospital; a friend was elbow punched in the chest; she collapsed shortly after, and was treated for a sternum injury;
He goes on to say that the naked woman had her dress ripped off…that's not correct, she was intentionally disrobed. I heard from numerous sources that a woman had a cracked/broken sternum after being knelt on by the cops. I think this fellow writing is quite understandably a little muddled. It was a very difficult day.
…repeated death treats towards MPs and then moaning that the MPs wouldn't meet with them (this is just stupid tactics), not distancing themselves from the white supremacists and the alt right, being dickheads to the locals (again really stupid tactics), and the whole general mess of messaging and confused politics.
You were there weka? At the protest? In the Freedom Village? You were up close and personal with all the fucking filth? I hadn't realized that your knowledge was so first hand for you to be so sure of what was what, who was up who and who was paying.
You must have been at a different protest to the one close friends and whanau attended because they had an altogether experience. You speak of "tactics." And "a mess of messaging" and "confused politics". Hmmm. I don't think you get what most I've spoken to were there for. It wasn't political, per se.
It is now, however, so I guess that's a win. A whole lot of folk have been radicalized…and not in the way I guess you would approve of.
Tell me weka, oh you wise in the way of politics and protest, did you not experience one little worm of fear when Ardern made her …
"Do feel free to visit covid19.govt.nz – otherwise dismiss anything else. We will continue to be your single source of truth.
"Everything else you see, a grain of salt."
…statement way back in March?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Wellington_protest#Violence
Radicalised to do… what? We need calm, not the civil war some would forment.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/covid-19/07-01-2022/the-protest-that-revealed-a-new-ugly-dangerous-side-to-our-country
Here's what a seasoned protester and former MP had to say on RNZ this arvo:
Aggressive drivers nearly force Auckland mayoral candidate Efeso Collins and his family off the road [29 June 2022]
At it again I see Rosemary. Dragging naked women by their hair... one woman who was wandering around without a stich on – which is a punishable offence – was resisting arrest and had to be restrained before being carefully removed without causing injury to her.
Who did you say were the thugs?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/parliament-protest-prompts-more-than-750-police-referrals-to-wellness-advisers/SQZDYPDITNEK4I3ULWYZ3WFZMU/
Summaries of the incidents leading to hospitalisations show officers were knocked out after being struck down by attackers, and some required head scans and stitches for their open wounds.
One officer was struck down from behind and sprayed with a substance, causing them to lose consciousness and suffer temporary blindness.
Another officer was attacked by a protester and tore their Achilles tendon, while another was thrown into a post, suffering a dislocated shoulder and tendon damage.
Another officer was taken to hospital with breathing issues after taking a concrete paver to the chest, being sprayed in the eyes and having something thrown at their face. They also inhaled smoke from the fires.
Officers were knocked unconscious, tore tendons, and suffered dislocations in the wild melee of the protest, but the unseen mental hits are also widespread…….
…one woman who was wandering around without a stich on – which is a punishable offence – was resisting arrest and had to be restrained …
No Anne. She was not wandering around. She was sitting down with her back to the police line. You are making this up, or you have been lied to.
I guess if one is in the thrall of the (government funded) MSM one is going to only see what the Paymasters allow.
You really need to broaden your horizons….just a tad.
Tell me. Just for shits and giggles. Do you know of anyone who took the Pfizer product who experienced side effects such as chest discomfort, irregular heartbeat, nausea or shortness of breath? Or 'flu like symptoms' that had them bedridden for days?
You exaggerate everything pertaining to the Covid vaccine in an attempt to create a false image of severe consequences. The Pfizer vaccine has no more side effects than other vaccines going back many decades to the smallpox vaccine. A very small percentage of the population can be more seriously affected but that does not mean the rest of us have to be denied them.
I know of no-one who has experienced any bad side-effects. Some have reported fatigue or a sore arm for a day or two and that's it. I experienced a sore arm.
"I need to broaden my horizons"? You're a joke sometimes
If you want to be taken seriously then stop twisting and embellishing the truth.
The Pfizer vaccine has no more side effects than other vaccines going back many decades to the smallpox vaccine.
Can you provide evidence to support this statement? Un- referenced statements on government or pharmaceutical industry funded sites do not constitute "evidence" btw.
"Only references from "alternative health " funded and alt right funded antivaccers allowed". Right?
Here you are….https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/PUArticles/March2020/Influenza-vaccine-2019-what-to-expect-this-year.html
Estimated reporting rate per 100,000 doses 16.9
and…. https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/safety-report-41.asp#top10_bar
On average for every 10,000 people who are vaccinated 55 people report an AEFI.
Check my maths…that's 16.9 (out of 100,000 doses) reports of adverse effects for the flu jab in 2019 compared to 550 reports of adverse effects (out of 100,000 doses) for the Pfizer product.
32 x higher rate of reporting for the Pfizer product.
If you cannot understand that reporting rates, are not the same as, actual harm rates, then I can't help you.
Many reasons, including greater public concern due to rabid pervasive anti vacc bullshit, can cause higher reporting rates.
"Can you provide evidence to support this statement?"
The evidence of the efficacy of vaccines has been around for effing decades.
Un-referenced? That planet of yours? Where is it?
Time somebody banned it. 🙄
The evidence of the efficacy of vaccines has been around for effing decades.
That wasn't the question.
You said…The Pfizer vaccine has no more side effects than other vaccines going back many decades to the smallpox vaccine. … and I asked you to provide evidence of this.
To assist you…
Here you are….https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/PUArticles/March2020/Influenza-vaccine-2019-what-to-expect-this-year.html
Estimated reporting rate per 100,000 doses 16.9
and…. https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/safety-report-41.asp#top10_bar
On average for every 10,000 people who are vaccinated 55 people report an AEFI.
Check my maths…that's 16.9 (out of 100,000 doses) reports of adverse effects for the flu jab in 2019 compared to 550 reports of adverse effects (out of 100,000 doses) for the Pfizer product.
32 x higher rate of reporting for the Pfizer product.
https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-29-06-2022/#comment-1897907
….that does not mean the rest of us have to be denied them.
Who is trying to deny anyone the Pfizer jab?
Rosemary – at risk of sounding indelicate, the young woman revealed, at her post arrest return to Parliament grounds and a chance to take up the microphone, that she was in fact doing something to the police et al that she had been taught to do by bold (Maori women) protesters, involving a part of her anatomy that isn't usually deployed in such circumstances. If you review her address to the crowd, and the video of her arrest, you'll perhaps see what I mean.
Robert. I am not quite sure what you are saying. Can I assume that since the woman deliberately chose this method of protest and resistance, and she was not surprised at the actions of the police…that dragging her by her hair, smothering her with a blanket and kneeling on her head were acceptable? Bearing in mind she was not committing any acts of violence and was very obviously a threat to no one. By design.
You're ok with these tactics….the heavy duty pepper spray, the LRAD, the sponge bullets, the extremely violent arrest and restraint methods deployed by the police (especially on February 10th) to be used on any and all protestors that out stay their welcome? Bearing in mind these people were not being violent…they were resisting attempts by the police to forcibly move them out. By design.
If the police employed the same methods on persistent climate change or environmental protestors would you also take the 'they are asking for it' line?
I recognise that you are not quite sure what I am saying, Rosemary. Feel free to consider my comments no further.
You ask, can you assume..?
I would suggest that you don't, as your assumptions have no connection with my position on this matter.
I don't know anyone who experienced side effects such as chest discomfort from the Pfizer product, but I do know people going about their lives who were treated like shit by arsehole arrogant protestors.
I do know people who had their freedom and choice taken away from them by people who were wielding signs about people's right for freedom and choice.
“Paymasters” ?I dont know what “Horizon” you see? As you are so far down the rabbit hole….you’re in the depths of the warren. Sad that. I just really hope you arent influencing any Vulnerable people.. Particularly Maori and their Tamariki.
NZ Doctors Stand up for Vaccination
https://www.doctors-stand-up-for-vaccination.com/
While I detest, anti-science, anti-public health, anti-enlightenment, anti-vax, anti-govt. covid denier sentiments of these fanatics.
I support the right to protest.
Speaker of the House, Trevor Mallard, history of violence and confrontational way of handling these right wing protesters made a violent confrontation inevitable.
In my opinion Mallard has set a very bad precedent.
Trevor Mallard's orders and ham fisted approach and direction to the police which led to the violence has made all protesters vulnerable to harsher policing.
If the Left wing protesters who occupied Rugby Park in Hamilton in 1981 had suffered the same sort of heavy handed policing to clear them off the field. What would have been the result?
Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed.
But as I said, going forward a very bad precedent has been set.
I know for instance that before the last lockdown Extinction Rebellion had been planning to blockade parliament with a Hands Around the Beehive protest occupation.. If they continue with their plan, Mallard's precedent leaves little doubt that the XR protesters will be dealt with possibly even harsher than the Right Wing anti-vaxxers.
Cops were heavy handed with the anti tour protesters. I knew many with injuries including an over seventies Presbyterian Minister who couldn't be threatening if he tried. Watched one of the squad batton charges, myself. Similarly with student protesters in Auckland.
They were, in reality, much more patient and gentle, with the pro plague fools. After weeks of them harrassing and attacking the public. Something Extinction rebellion, Anti TPPA protesters and Gen X do NOT do.
The anti-apartheid protesters have been vindicated and proven to be on the right side of history.
"Cops were heavy handed with the anti tour protesters. I knew many with injuries including an over seventies Presbyterian Minister who couldn't be threatening if he tried." KJT
Of course you are right, KJT. However, it is my opinion, that the failure of the heavy handed policing of anti-racism protesters during the 1981 Springbok tour. Plus the later vindication of their stand by the people of South Africa expressed personally to the protesters by President Nelson Mandela when he visited this country, led to a reappraisal by the police of these sorts of tough anti-protester methods. Which in my opinion was to the betterment and strengthening of our democracy.
The Right have even accused our police force of being 'too woke'.
woke
/wəʊk/
If that is woke, then I can't get enough of it. Unfortunately my fear is that the actions of these Right Wing anti-vax protesters, aligned as they were to violent far-right neo nazis, and anti-government conspiracy theorists, have set back the latter more tolerant police approach to protest action.
Coster dialing back the overzealous disregard for the law, of a significant proportion of our police, is a plus in my book. And makes police more effective in getting community co-operation and consequently reducing crime in the community.
Of course the "tough on crime" "small dicks" will object, even though evidence shows they are counterproductive.
The response to the many vandels, in the pro plague demonstrations, is restrained compared to responses to way less law breaking demonstrations.
Jenny – you say, "… I detest, anti-science, anti-public health, anti-enlightenment, anti-vax, anti-govt. covid denier sentiments of these fanatics".
Fair enough. Others detest them also.
Maybe Trevor Mallard shares your sentiment..
If so, his music-sharing and clothes-laundering response ought not seem too foreign, nor extreme to you and others of your ilk.
More than a few paying ticket holders and fans at the recent 2022 European Cup final were treated to tear gas and riot control measures, this was mostly due to local authorities not really being prepared to run the event. Some of them have even suggested this has put them off attending live football in future.
And in NZ were complaining about sprinklers getting protesters wet just before they were drenched by a significant storm.
https://twitter.com/wekatweets/status/1542025339450232834
I don't agree with his words, but to be fair I believe he was in Christchurch Airport about to head to Singapore so his surroundings were probably limited. 😉
lol. He's on a hiding to nothing. Needs to go watch some Mick Lynch videos.
Or put on Barry White and get the LadyLerrrrve goin on.
Looks like an undertaker's ad on here.
He's pandering. I didn't see him try to give me a tax cut from his man cave even once.
He looks like a nightclub bouncer!
At a funeral
Is Luxton saying women are not New Zealanders?
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/06/29/national-a-party-for-women-christopher-luxon/
Deeper and deeper. "By their words will we know them…."
Him indoors said "Lack of sleep? or Hungover?" I say gimlet eyes.
"Beware the slithy toves do gyre and gimble in the wabe". Apologies to Lewis Carroll.
Quite funny exert of a longer CGTN program called The Heat .In this abbreviated version two panelists voice their diametrically opposed opinions on Ukraine .An analysis from the Ukrainian who is apparently an adviser to Zelensky's gov would have done Goebbels himself proud so distorted is his view of reality , he doesnt fool many of the 150 or so commenters under the vid though .
This is the full version of the above news piece and covers the G7 meeting in full .Watch the
clownsgreat leaders caper and fawn for the cameras against the backdrop of the Bavarian alps while they dream up more silly schemes to squander vast sums of taxpayers money !! For MSM this is actually pretty good and produces lots of facts from a fairly lively panel .Once again the commenters below ar'nt fooled by any bullshit !!For those who want to stay/become informed about Ukraine etc Brian Berletic of The New Atlas is well worth a look in this his latest he goes over some of the recent msm stories that have been pretty much been regularly regurgitated every week since the start of the conflict .He's on a par with Alexander Mercouris i think and can fill in some of the technical aspects of the war and the fact he's an ex marine gives him a bit of extra credibility not that he needs it imo at least he's right on the money !
Update for the Russian missile attack on the 'Shopping Centre " .According to Defense Politics Asia the shopping center had been closed for some months and had apparently been used for 'other' purposes which mite account for it burning so fiercely ?.Anyway its very unlikely there were one thousand shoppers or indeed any shoppers in the building .Ive read other similar accounts to DPA's but we'll prob have to wait for the dust to settle to know what really happened .
What, no report from your favourite sex tourist?
Just for you joe Graham phillips filming in donestk about a week ago while Ukraine was busy shelling the civilians that live there ….again
[lprent: For the benefit of anyone who wants to know what is in the video, it appears to be a gormless dickhead walking and talking, displaying pretty minor damage and a burning building (cause unclear). It isn’t a scene of shelling, and most of it apart from the burning building appears to be pretty old (and possibly staged in the case of broken van). The burning building isn’t displayed enough to indicate eitehr shelling or a legitimate military target. This appears to be just stupid deliberately produced propaganda for the weak-minded. ]
Now do the execrable video the vatnik simp posted of himself crashing a POW swap to abuse and torment a visibly distressed, maimed and disfigured Ukrainian soldier who had been blinded, badly burned, and had lost both arms.
Why dont you post a link joe should be easy for a dirt digging ferret who cant seem to put togeather any sort of reasonable argument himself but has to copy an paste every one else's ….
Dude, you've repeatedly posting the vile propaganda of an alleged war criminal and confirmed hebephile, and regurgitated terror state lies and dezinformatsiya as commentary on a genocidal war.
Do fuck off with your every one else's ….bleat.
/
The Russian Federation is commanding the grunting Donetsk separatists and their impressed conscript slaves to attack Ukrainian civilians with the assistance of the atrocity war criminals of the Wagner mercenary, you find this surprising?
Not to mention that the gutless cowards of the Russia Federation forces stand back and fire missiles at Ukrainian schools and shopping malls because they can’t accurately target anything.
(You see, it is easy to add hyperbole – doesn’t help any rational argument that much. weston – could you possibly be a little less of a mindless raving fuckwit. Your comments are getting pathetic.)
For the benefit of anyone who wants to know what is in the video, it appears to be a gormless dickhead walking and talking, displaying pretty minor damage and a burning building (cause unclear).
Trying to compare it with the shelling scenes from places like (to take an arbitary city) Kherson. Well that goes from beyond pathetic, and more into the realms of weston being somewhat divergent from reality.
Brian Berletic is a joke, a true tankie in love with authoritarian regimes. His rabid defense of the Thai coup makers and the murderous king demonsrtates his unsuitability as a source.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Brian_Berletic
Strange your link contains nothing but a rather good compendium of Brian Berletic's rather excellent work exposing false narratives , the joke is you !!
Really : The report cites a Reuters article [15] in which a Facebook spokesman is quoted as saying that this and other account deletions were for "coordinated inauthentic behavior". It is a detailed account of the methods being employed by the Fake news campaign to censor platforms that effectively challenge western official narratives.
'BANGKOK — The anonymous blogger known for his prolific anti-Western conspiracy theories and unfounded accusations against the pro-democracy movements in Thailand is no longer anonymous.'
https://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2020/11/04/conspiracy-blogger-tony-cartalucci-reveals-his-identity/
Well if Brian Berlitic's work exposes fake western narratives then i salute him for it .Ive no idea what's happening in Thailand and neither am i interested a.t.m. there's only so much world politics i can wrap my head around !!
If you dont like the man bruce stick with BBC an CNN im sure its much easier .
Hey Minister Mahuta, if you want to be taken seriously in efforts to prize China out of the Pacific, you can now only do it by paying their debts off:
China insists Tonga loans come with ‘no political strings attached’ | Tonga | The Guardian
Speaking of China watch lying snake Mike Pompeo field questions from a brain dead fox news presstitute and then read the comments he's obviously not fooling the american public at least !!
[lprent: Having just spent time to read over your comments over the last few days, you don’t appear to be adding anything to a robust debate. You appear to just be dumping shit comments without bothering to engage in a robust debate.
Linking to pretty stupid propaganda and attacking other commentators when they point it out isn’t debate – it is just acting like a troll. If you don’t stop acting like a internet fuckwit, I will simply ban you until after peace settlement is reached.
Fix your behaviour and start acting like someone engaged in robust debate pronto. This is your only warning. ]
see my mod note.