Insulting

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 4:58 pm, October 1st, 2008 - 139 comments
Categories: crime, dpf - Tags:

David Farrar really is a disgusting person at times. He writes that we shouldn’t look at overall crime rates (although he made a big fuss when the overall recorded crime rate went up because of changes in recording practice in 2006). Instead we should just look at violent crime, after all “having 1,000 less [sic] cannabis crimes and 500 more rapes is a net decrease in crime, but would be a worrying trend”. He then goes on to act all shocked over the recorded violent crime stats. First, he’s trying to make you think there are more rapes (in fact, the number is down and he’s hardly one to fret about rape when he’s good mates with a pornographer). Secondly, this professional statistician is deliberately trying to mislead you regarding the change in the crime stats. He knows that the explanation from the professionals is reporting of domestic crime is up but he hopes you don’t.

Crime is down because poverty and the conditions that breed crime have been reduced. At the same time, reporting of crimes is up. Thefts, car thefts, and burglaries (together, the largest group of crimes) have halved in the last ten years. Homicides are down. In fact, all classes of crime are down except two. Recorded violent crime is up because reporting is up. Recorded property damage offences have climbed in the last three years thanks to the moral panic over tagging. But those rises are attributed (not by me, by the Police) to higher reporting.

Farrar needs to misrepresent the statistics to create the impression of a wave of crime where there is none. It’s all part of National’s ‘New Zealand sucks’ campaign. It disrespects his readers and the victims of crime. Disgusting.

[crime stats]

139 comments on “Insulting ”

Comments are now closed

randal 1

1 October 2008 at 5:09 pm

farrar is a windbag and a fool with oversize dewlaps but we have to put up with him because we live in a democracy. anywhere else and he would be laughed out of town!
Robinsod 2

1 October 2008 at 5:11 pm

To be fair to david his audience is really only the MSM and his retarded chimp commenters so it’s not like he can expect to be caught out…
Phil 3

1 October 2008 at 5:12 pm

Anywhere else and you would have been sent to a re-education camp
Hamish 4

1 October 2008 at 5:17 pm

That is the worst article I have ever seen.

I’m not going to comment at this time on his “apparent” mis-use of crime statistics because i’m not going to pretend that I know anything about it. But personally attacking Farrar by calling him disgusting just makes you look like a prick.

And how is the fact that he is friends with a pornographer even relevant to his mis-use of crime statistics? Never a dull moment for the standard when it can use cheap shots at it’s opposition.

Your link to the stats doesn’t work as well. So basically you’ve made a variety of claims but not backed them up with any evidence.

[try here. It’s the Stats table builder, you can find the number of offences down to a hundred-odd sub-catagories. SP]
higherstandard 5

1 October 2008 at 5:20 pm

Evidence Hamish damn you eyes Sir !

Don’t you know that any stats that reflect poorly on the present government are lies.

The real question is where was John Key when all those thefts and car conversions were going on !
gobsmacked 6

1 October 2008 at 5:22 pm

SP, why do you keep doing this?

Yet again, you make a valid argument about the facts and figures, and then you chuck a totally gratuitous self-destruct line in there along with it. A gift to those who don’t want to debate the issue. If they then seize upon your stupid comment, that’s nobody’s fault but yours. And another opportunity goes begging.

Try this in future: write the post, step away from it, read it again, and then ask yourself what you want people to discuss. Anything that distracts from the issue: delete. And if you can’t hear the alarm bells, ask someone who can.
Steve Pierson 7

1 October 2008 at 5:28 pm

gobs. the lines are there on purpose and with a mind to the consequences. And they’re not just rhetoric. I mean every word
travellerev 8

1 October 2008 at 5:32 pm

Dewlaps. LOL. I actually had to google that one.
Being a tulip I didn’t know the man so I looked him up and he has them too.LLOL
Hamish 9

1 October 2008 at 5:35 pm

Got them working now. Thanks!
Pete 10

1 October 2008 at 5:35 pm

in fact, the number is down and he’s hardly one to fret about rape when he’s good mates with a pornographer).

I love this line from a person that obviously supports a party that legislated to legalise prostitution. Afterall, pornography is just videotaped prostitution for the mass market.

Steve you’ll next be espousing a Clintonesque line like “I’ve watched pornography once but I didn’t touch myself”
Steve Pierson 11

1 October 2008 at 5:35 pm

HS. don’t be a dick, you’re better than this. Read the stats, read the Police analysis. It’s not me who’s lying, I’m just relaying the stats and telling you what the experts say.
Steve Pierson 12

1 October 2008 at 5:38 pm

Pete. Prostitution happened anyway, so the sensible question is ‘how can we make the best of an undesirable situation?’ decriminalising prostitution was the best way to help minimise the dangers to prostitutes. I support that, doesn’t mean I think prostitution is a good thing. You need to start thinking in terms other than black and white.
travellerev 13

1 October 2008 at 5:44 pm

HS,

Probably buying and selling railway shares and lying about it while he was making a fast buck on his own shares and using his political position to help out mates. Ooh oops, who were caught insider trading and had to buy themselves out of the crapper with 20 million.

It’s called white collar crime. The difference with rich white men committing “white collar” crime and burglary is that the burglar goes to jail when caught and when you’re rich you get elected prime minister by idjiets like you so you can bamboozle some more.

[let’s not get personal in our criticisms. That goes for me too. Sorry for before HS. SP]
Pete 14

1 October 2008 at 5:45 pm

Steve I’m all shades of grey and usually a little green on a Sunday morning 😉

But I’d like to know how you link being a pornographer with being a rapist? Moreover how you link having a pornographer friend makes a person any less able to find rape repugnant?

Or were you just attempting a nice disgusting smear?

[being friends with a pornographer shows a disrespectful attitude to women at least. Many feminists argue porn promotes rape – so associating with someone like that while writing beat up stories abotu rape is pretty awful in my books. Of course, that’s just one element of Farrar’s misogyny and I have a problem with misogynists trying to make political capital off rape. SP]
spot 15

1 October 2008 at 5:50 pm

I’m rubbish on stats, so I’ll ask the “idiots guide” question.

How do the reported/recorded crime stats (and any increase) stack up against the crime which is actually occuring as a whole? Eg, how do you distinguish between the capturing of the data (increase) and any actual lift in “real world” crime activity.

Does that question make sense, probably not – but strikes me that assessement against these sorts of stats must be a bl**dy nightmare unless you have a rock solid baseline.
travellerev 16

1 October 2008 at 5:55 pm

Without disrespecting your request for decent debate what is personal about my response Steve. Ah, the “idjiet”, I get it.

HS, Is pretty personal too Steve.

“Birds of a feather” “I hope they don’t procreate”. Pretty insulting.
And he may not agree with my ideas about 911 but his constant dogwistling about paranoia is and hinting at conspiracies is also pretty nasty and stigmatising.
sean 17

1 October 2008 at 6:01 pm

Unless you have hardcore proof, then violent crime has increased – harping on about someone who claims to be an expert saying that they know it all and its really just better reporting is just hot air and smoke and mirrors.

The cold facts are that there are more reported violent crimes – therefore, it is safe to assume that more violent crimes are happening. No matter what statements you throw up around this, you are just clutching at straws as it is the logical hypothesis.

How on earth can someone claim to know that while reporting has improved, actual violent crime has decreased – unless they know what happens in every single household in New Zealand?

Words of advice: never try getting a statistical or operational research type job – you would fail big time.
Steve Pierson 18

1 October 2008 at 6:05 pm

yeah. ev. I know. The request goes for all of us.

spot. victimisation surveys are one attempt to capture the actual crime rate. But it is important that we acknowledge there are three elements that could vary the recorded crime stats –
– actual crime level changes
– changes in reporting levels
– changes in recording practice (that happened between 2005 and 2006)

So, when we see a change we ask which of these could be the explanation. Have we seen an worsening of the conditions that lead to crime (more poverty, unemployment, fewer police etc)? That may mean the increase is due to an actual increase in crime. We haven’t seen those conditions worsen signficantly in the last year, in fact most of them have improved.

Have we seen an improvement in the conditions for reporting? Yes, the family violence campaign too place and we had a 30% increase in the reporting of family crime. Unlikely to be a coincidence. Note, you take out family violence and crime has dropped several percent. If crime was rising, it would be unlikely it would confined to this single type of crime.
r0b 19

1 October 2008 at 6:08 pm

Unless you have hardcore proof, then violent crime has increased – harping on about someone who claims to be an expert saying that they know it all and its really just better reporting is just hot air and smoke and mirrors

Yeah sean, what do those police “experts” know about crime eh. Not as much as you right?
Pete 20

1 October 2008 at 6:10 pm

Steve bro you need to get out more. Many women enjoy watching porno alone or with their partners. Sex toy sales are on the up and up. Quite frankly I find it rather disgusting that you suggest a woman that enjoys these things isn’t really a “woman” but some man toy. Of course there are problems within the industry – there always have been and always will be – much like any other industry.

Your perspective is just another form of misogyny – one which suggests that a woman is not capable of looking after herself or intelligent enough to select things that are pleasurable to her. Nice one…

Remember all the freaky people make up the beauty of the world.

[bro, I know plenty about the freaky side of things and I know well there are many empowered women who are into all kinds of things but I also know that the pornography industry is primarily disempowered women being used by men. SP]
ghostwhowalks 21

1 October 2008 at 6:10 pm

There was Farrars mock umbrage today over the Brash emails saga with this comment
..The alleged theft was notified to Police in August 2005
The Police did not begin their investigation until September 2006 – 13 months later!

But Hootens comment put the formal complaint laid by Brash was September 2006. Of course Brash was making noises before this but didnt want to complain until he realised his political career was over.

Some stats about Farrars results from election campaigns he has had a formal role.
Wellington Regional Vice Chair- lost all seats except 1
Wellington Central- campaign manager, lost , even with dream candidate of ex mayor
Steve Pierson 22

1 October 2008 at 6:11 pm

r0b. Sean’s a genius he knows everything. No, he doesn’t need to look anything up, do any research, rely on the findings of experts – he already knows all the answers, he’s just waiting for the questions.
Being an ignorant conservative means never having to say ‘I don’t know’
r0b 23

1 October 2008 at 6:15 pm

r0b. Sean’s a genius he knows everything.

What a terrible burden that must be for him. And so misunderstood.
spot 24

1 October 2008 at 6:31 pm

All fair points SP, guess one of the things I was trying to get at was (as you note) the coincidence vs causal relationships.

Never fails to dissapoint me where the cheap point scoring gets the coverage, or how far they lot of em will actually go to push a line they know really doesn’t stand scrutiny, but by which time it matters it’s “yesterdays fish n chips wrapping” etc.

Politics though huh, elections and desperation (to get in, and to stay) will always make for a good hunk of “conservative truth telling” and definitely cheapshot campaigning.
Ben R 25

1 October 2008 at 6:34 pm

“Crime is down because poverty and the conditions that breed crime have been reduced.”

Labour also deserve credit for the Sentencing Act 2002 which has lead to longer sentences. Also since the Parole Act 2002 people are serving a greater proportion of their sentences.

This, together with increased police numbers has probably also helped reduce the overall crime rate.
Ag 26

1 October 2008 at 6:38 pm

Why does anyone think this will make any difference? The conservative movement abandoned truth a long time ago. Truth only matters to them when it accidentally agrees with them. Otherwise they don’t care about it. That’s what happens with a faith-based (in the broad sense) political movement.

Hell, I remember the Herald once having a headline about the increase in crime over an article that described the decrease in crime. Words start to lose their meanings when this becomes prevalent.
Ben R 27

1 October 2008 at 6:42 pm

“That’s what happens with a faith-based (in the broad sense) political movement.”

I thought a conservative was by nature skeptical & wanted to see evidence before making changes?
Ag 28

1 October 2008 at 6:49 pm

“I thought a conservative was by nature skeptical & wanted to see evidence before making changes?”

Would that it were still so. I actually liked those people, since you could at least talk to them and they had some sense of shame. I guess there are still some of them left, but today’s self-appointed “conservatives” are a misnomer. They espouse what seems to be a radical faith-based politics driven by some sort of primal rage against “socialists” or “liberals” (where those words lack their customary meaning).

They’re like the reporters from 1984: “The chocolate ration has been increased this week from 25 grams to 20 grams. All praise Big Brother!”

Captcha: Casual reports. 😉
outofbed 29

1 October 2008 at 6:52 pm

I can never understand why Farrar hangs out with Slater He would garner a modicum of respect from me he didn’t hang out with that nasty misogynist pornographer.
They say You can judge a man by the company he keeps.
RedLogix 30

1 October 2008 at 6:52 pm

And I suppose it would be tiresomely technical of me to point out that this report uses absolute numbers… uncorrected for population increase.
bustedblonde 31

1 October 2008 at 7:12 pm

Common boys – leave my mates alone. Or are you going to have a wack at me for putting up pics of naked men bums?

I can’t see how you can support legislation decriminalising prostitution and yet get rabid about porn.

There is a big range of porn from erotica – which is what most people tolerate to the hard ass stuff I had to put up with for four years in a medium security jail.

The world is not black and white boys its many hues of grey.

BTW – Farrars right about the stats, thats why its called right wing politics we tend to be, well right. And at the moment you guys are being left in the dust..

The truth is our lovely country is less safe than it once was.

So instead of trying to defend the stats, which are quitefrankly appalling, think about the one thing that can be done to help to make it a little bit safer and do us a favour and blog about that…
Draco T Bastard 32

1 October 2008 at 7:23 pm

Ben R

I thought a conservative was by nature skeptical & wanted to see evidence before making changes?

Nope, a conservative is someone who wants things to stay the same because they’re too terrified of change.
Draco T Bastard 33

1 October 2008 at 7:27 pm

RedLogix:

And I suppose it would be tiresomely technical of me to point out that this report uses absolute numbers uncorrected for population increase.

Corrected for population increase – crime has decreased.

The figures showed 107 more offences were recorded in the year than in the June 2007 year. Adjusted for the population increase in the same period, it was a 1 per cent decrease, police said.
RedLogix 34

1 October 2008 at 7:32 pm

The truth is our lovely country is less safe than it once was.

More likely:

1. You know more about life than you did once.

2. You’ve become more risk-averse than you were when you were young.

3. As a result your perceptions about ‘safety’ have changed.

The truth is complex. NZ has always had a dark violent underbelly; but mostly it was confined and hidden away from middle-class sensibilities. Our mean streets were always.. well mean.

Two things have changed. We are less tolerant of violence than we once were; while at the same time P has changed our crime/drug underworld from sad and thuggish… to freaky and brutal.

think about the one thing that can be done to help to make it a little bit safer and do us a favour and blog about that

What exactly do you have in mind?
vto 35

1 October 2008 at 7:53 pm

ha ha, putting aside the actual topic, this is a bwilliant example of pots and kettles SP.

But I gotta say that on average Farrar’s threads and topics are more balanced, bipartisan (where appropriate) and researched than your own by a country mile. And he gives kudos to the left where deserved etc too.

Re this actual topic, it seems he may have stepped a bit too far in his interpretations and conclusions, but that is not common imo.
bustedblonde 36

1 October 2008 at 7:57 pm

Well one thing that gets me going is seeing people like Eugene Ryder parading around in gang colours saying he is working to stop kids from getting into gangs . He should not get any money until he stops advertising black power. what is needed is for the ex gang leaders to drop the colours and explain why they have to the young ones contemplating getting involved. Older guys like Denis O’Reilly and Harry Tam who have walked away from the old life but who have a history of turning kids lives around.

I saw too many like Ryder inside the jail. They still glory in the colours and the creed and that is not the way to go.

I am also a firm believer in keeping the little buggers busy.. It is labour and cost intensive but again it works..

Everything has to be about giving them hope and opening their eyes to the possibilities in the world.

But it should be against a backdrop of near zero tolerance..

I speak from some experience but I also know that youth crime is one of the most difficult problems to solve. If I had my way I would work for a cross party accord – a few ideas from here and there – the will and buy in from everyone and then maybe we could get some programmes going that work. That being said there will be some out there that do work – the trick is replicating them.

Hell it might even happen if the Maori Party and the Nats have a little korero after the election..

BB
randal 37

1 October 2008 at 8:04 pm

so the question is: is farrar going to call 0800newcop or just hang around blagging about it?
travellerev 38

1 October 2008 at 8:09 pm

bustedblonde, now there’s a name for ya. I’ve seen that tag somewhere before but is had a different name attached to it, I think.
burt 39

1 October 2008 at 8:23 pm

Steve P.

being friends with a pornographer shows a disrespectful attitude to women at least. Many feminists argue porn promotes rape – so associating with someone like that while writing beat up stories abotu rape is pretty awful in my books. Of course, that’s just one element of Farrar’s misogyny and I have a problem with misogynists trying to make political capital off rape. SP

Feminists have also said in the past that all men are rapists. Are you a rapist Steve?

I like porn, I’ve never raped – never would rape. I know plenty of woman who like porn as well.

I suggest it’s you trying to make political capital off rape.
Chris 40

1 October 2008 at 8:41 pm

Yeah, come on steve, as a social liberal leave the porn out of it! remember, we’re pro-choice? Or are you one of those social liberal till it crosses your values type guys?
Brett Dale 41

1 October 2008 at 8:55 pm

I don’t think David is a disgusting person, but the fact that you would call someone a disgusting person says a lot about you.

I said it a thousand times, walk thru Christchurch at night during any day of the week, and you will see what effect a soft approach to crime has.
slightlyrighty 42

1 October 2008 at 8:57 pm

Great. Shoot the messenger as opposed to a constructive debate. Keep it up cos it’s working really well isn’t it!

(captcha hysterical an. appropriate isn’t it!)
Dean 43

1 October 2008 at 9:20 pm

“First, he’s trying to make you think there are more rapes (in fact, the number is down and he’s hardly one to fret about rape when he’s good mates with a pornographer).”

I’m not sure why you’re trying to make yourself seem stupid SP but I’m sure you’re aware that:

a. Porn does not equal rapist and
b. Many feminists don’t have a problem with porn

Perhaps it’s the sheltered world you live in.
GPT 44

1 October 2008 at 9:25 pm

This blog claims to have “standards” for commentators and seems very quick to ban any and all for anything deemed a personal attack and yet you find it necessary to call Farrar “a disgusting person” and intimate that b/c he is apparently friends with a pornographer (how is this relevant?) that he somehow condones rape?

Is their one rule for you and one rule for everyone else?

Hypocracy of a Winston Peters level.

[lprent: What the posters write is their own opinion. The blog site doesn’t have an opinion – it is a program running on a machine. Read the About. ]
Dean 45

1 October 2008 at 9:26 pm

“[bro, I know plenty about the freaky side of things and I know well there are many empowered women who are into all kinds of things but I also know that the pornography industry is primarily disempowered women being used by men. SP]”

This is even better.

I don’t think you know much about the modern day porn industry, SP. But as always you’ll speak out against it because you’re looking to score points. Have you considered activism for the EBs? You know it makes sense.
Tony Norriss 46

1 October 2008 at 9:34 pm

I heard the deputy commissioner talking to Larry Williams on ZB today. He said that only 30% of crime is reported. He gave me the impression that he thought that was great!! However, it seems that the low level of reporting makes comparisons with previous years fairly meaningless unless the level of non-reporting can be accurately estimated for the previous years as well. If the level of non-reporting has been steadily increasing, as many believe, then the stats may indeed be misrepresenting the figures.

In any case, it is misleading to state that the increase in violent crime is due to the increase in domestic offences. The stats show that many other aspects of violent offending have also increased.
RedLogix 47

1 October 2008 at 9:36 pm

As with SP I don’t get overwrought by the freaky side of life; it exists and all sorts of people have all sorts of predilictions in their private lives, and I’m not about to come over judgemental about it.

But Farrar is no longer an altogether private person, he’s spent years working assiduously to make himself a public person. As such his open friendship with the odious Slater is a mistake; the sort of mistake if say for instance John Key was mates with Steve Crow.

It’s poor judgement and not a good look, whatever position you want to take on the politics of porn.
Dean 48

1 October 2008 at 9:42 pm

redlogix:

“But Farrar is no longer an altogether private person, he’s spent years working assiduously to make himself a public person. As such his open friendship with the odious Slater is a mistake; the sort of mistake if say for instance John Key was mates with Steve Crow.”

And that makes him A-OK with rape?

You need to get a grip on reality and leave the politics behind.

“It’s poor judgement and not a good look, whatever position you want to take on the politics of porn.”

You couldn’t have said it better yourself. I suggest that you and SP have a good long think about that.
RedLogix 49

1 October 2008 at 9:52 pm

And that makes him A-OK with rape?

I’ll add that to my barn full of strawmen.

Slater is slime. And his creepy and demeaning porn exudes slime… the kind that sticks to everyone around it.
Disengaged 50

1 October 2008 at 10:15 pm

I’m sorry Steve but once again you have me confused. DPF has put a different slant on the figures than you. There is no suprise in that. One is looking from the left, the other the right. I fail to see how that makes him disgusting.

More importantly I fail to see how just because he knows a pornographer means that he condones rape. One of my friends from school was arrested for armed robbery, does that mean that I condone violent crime? No.

As to your statements about porn being responsible for rape, I think that you are being deliberately obtuse. Perhaps you and your significant other should check out some of the erotica for couples available on the market and see if you think that is encouraging rape. Also tell me another industry where women routinely get paid five times (if not more) as much as their male counterparts?

Capture: Stock Problem – Tell me about it!!!
Bryan Spondre 51

1 October 2008 at 10:29 pm

Hmm, I detect significant anger being directed at the right side of the blogo-sphere. Including a (deleted) post by Irishbill directed at one of my colleagues. Does this indicate panic on the left that the election campaign is not going well ?
Tane 52

1 October 2008 at 10:36 pm

You want to talk anger, Bryan, have a look at some of the hatemail we receive from your friends on the right.

In any case, no, what that post indicates is that your colleague is being somewhat less than honest in his dealings. But that’s what we’ve come to expect from his blog posts.

While we’re on the topic, Bryan, I might as well point out that you and Matthew are both in breach of policy.net’s Privacy Policy. You might want to check that out.
Anita 53

1 October 2008 at 10:41 pm

Probably the Privacy Act as well.
Bryan Spondre 54

1 October 2008 at 10:53 pm

I will take that as “Yes,things are not going well!!!!”.
Pascal's bookie 55

1 October 2008 at 10:56 pm

Is Tame Wilson a colleague? Will he be commenting again?
burt 56

1 October 2008 at 10:59 pm

randal

so the question is: is farrar going to call 0800newcop or just hang around blagging about it?

Excellent point. He could start up KiwiPlodBlog.
GPT 57

1 October 2008 at 11:01 pm

Ah Tane. Moral relativism at its best. It’s ok to say vile things about Farrar b/c he’s wrong.

lprent – so posters can be as insulting and vile as they like but commentators cannot?

[lprent: I agree with SP on this about DPF’s use of statistics. Have a look at the analysis on 08wire

http://08wire.org/2008/10/02/farrar-vs-the-standard-on-massaging-crime-statistics/

The point is that DPF was doing the classic focus on the crime stats by only reporting them in a way to show conclusion that he wished to it to show. I’ve read DPF’s response and it is pathetic because he hasn’t even acknowledged his manipulative bias. Good on SP for pointing out the DPF’s lack of statistical integrity.

The comment about Whale is actually unrelated and probably detracted from SP’s post. However I’d also describe Whale in similar terms because of his habit of pasting kids heads onto porn and then publishing them on the net, plus many other instances. The pornographer even boasts about his ability on photoshop.]
Bryan Spondre 58

1 October 2008 at 11:05 pm

So why has the post by IrishBill about Matthew been taken down ?
Tane 59

1 October 2008 at 11:10 pm

GPT. I don’t know what you think I’m referring to, but you sound like you’ve got it all backwards.

Bryan. I took it down because while not in breach of our policy, upon further reflection and reader feedback I decided it wasn’t the kind of thing we should be engaging in.

In any case, you haven’t addressed my point. Are you planning to make your site compliant with your privacy policy, or is it just there for a laugh?
Bryan Spondre 60

1 October 2008 at 11:17 pm

Given that I am a 100% sure that Lynn is correct about the static IP’s matching it looks like someone was pretending to be Matthew Hooton pretending to be Tame. The comments by the person purporting to be Matthew Hooton don’t look as if they were written by the real Matthew Hooton.

Has the real culprit been identified and was this the reason for IrishBill’s post being pulled ?

Fascinating, better than Coronation Street!!!!
burt 61

1 October 2008 at 11:23 pm

Retrospective validation at the standard.
Bryan Spondre 62

1 October 2008 at 11:32 pm

When someone impersonates me I insist they spell my name correctly, have a look at Robinsods blog for an example of what not to do.

burt- I guess retrospective validation is what the left does best 😉
Bryan Spondre 63

1 October 2008 at 11:33 pm

Tane – “I took it down because while not in breach of our policy, upon further reflection and reader feedback I decided it wasn’t the kind of thing we should be engaging in.”

I applaud your decision to adhere to a higher standard.
GPT 64

1 October 2008 at 11:38 pm

Apologies if I got it backwards Tane – you were referring to a “colleague” (of Bryan’s) being less than honest in his blog posts. I took that as referring to DPF and, given your reference to the ‘hatemail from the right’ I took your comment as justifying the tenor of this post.
Carol 65

1 October 2008 at 11:44 pm

On Checkpoint Mary Wilson interviewed the police spokesperson. He compared the reported statistics with the Crime Survey. This is a anonymous survey of a large number of people about their experiences of crime. Apparently this survey shows about one third of violent crimes are not reported. He says that the increase in violent crime is solely accounted for by domestic violence. He also said that the increase in youth violence is also in this category:i.e. more violence from young people in domestic contexts.

The police guy said that the stat that points to more domestic violence being reported, is the one that shows more reporting of low level domestic disputes. He says this indicates that people are more aware of the importance of reporting domestic disputes/violence.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint
Checkpoint NZ Crime Reporting: 18.11 hrs.
Steve Pierson 66

2 October 2008 at 12:08 am

I have no regrets about calling Farrar disgusting. He’s purposely misrepresenting crime stats for political gain. The fact is crime was much worse when his ilk were in power and it would get worse again if they got back into power but Farrar and National aren’t actually concerned about the victims of crime, they just want to run their NZ sucks campaign and get back into power. It’s disgusting.
QoT 67

2 October 2008 at 12:12 am

Steve … sure, you’ve made concessions and elaborations in response to comments on this thread, but at the end of the day, you’re the one who said “being friends with a pornographer” = “unlikely to care about rape”.

It doesn’t matter what “many feminists say” about the pornography industry.

It doesn’t matter that “this is only part of Farrar’s misogyny”.

Because your post still says “Farrar cannot actually care about rape because he’s friends with a pornographer”, and the clear insinuation is that we’re meant to say, “Yes, Steve, you’re totes right, befriending pornographers means not caring about rape”. It’s a cheap shot, it’s judgemental, it’s an inaccurate generalization, it’s not backed up by anything in your original post.

Admitting this, and not making excuses in the comments, would be a great thing for you to do.

If you want this thread to stay on-track with regard to Farrar’s misuse of crime statistics, you can be the one to not make bullshit personal attacks in the original post.
rave 68

2 October 2008 at 1:01 am

I’m happy to accept that Farrar gets worried about rape. I’ll take his word for it. But he gives a different impression with his dismissive attitude towards family violence as accounting for the increase in violent crime in the last year. He doesnt think that the police explanation is ‘credible’ because he cannot conceive of an increased reporting of serious and grievous family assault. This is the old ‘just a domestic’ in new guise.

He and his rightie mates seem to be more worried about pinning the increase on violent crime on the Labour led government rather than accept that the police may be right and that family violence accounts for the increase in violent crime.

Myself I’m not inclined to take the Police testimony on anything for very different reasons. But when they adopt a serious attitude towards family violence compared to the kneejerk blaming of a criminal underclass created by Labour welfarism I’m inclined to believe them.

I would say that the “It’s not OK” campaign needs to be widened from the ‘domestic’ to the ‘global’. The real perpetrators of family violence are people like Key’s mate Lord Ashcroft ripping money intended for slum renewal off the people of Belize or Key’s former associates at Merrill Lynch getting rich off subprime mortgages that are making millions homeless in the US.
A National government cutting taxes by cutting social spending will make life much worse for low income people in NZ and lead to a growth in family violence.
JG 69

2 October 2008 at 1:31 am

Articles like this – completely detached from reality and laced with personal insults – demonstrate how unreasonable and ill-informed the commentators (using the term loosely) on this blog are.

It’s obvious that National wiping people like you out of positions of authority is the only thing that will shut you up. Not long now.

[lprent: You are a complete dork. Are you suggesting that the Nay’s will be trying to censor a blog site paid for and run by an individual and written by other individuals? Or are you stupid enough to believe Whale who technically couldn’t find his arse without access to a mirror. He lies when he doesn’t have enough ‘evidence’ to justify his preconceptions. That is the basis of most of his assertions about this site.]
r0b 70

2 October 2008 at 1:56 am

Articles like this – completely detached from reality and laced with personal insults – demonstrate how unreasonable and ill-informed the commentators (using the term loosely) on this blog are.

Comments like this – completely detached from reality and laced with vague threats – demonstrate how unreasonable and violent the commentators (using the term loosely) on the right wing are.

It’s obvious that National wiping people like you out of positions of authority is the only thing that will shut you up. Not long now.

Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! We’re being repressed!
mattyroo 71

2 October 2008 at 4:10 am

Any of you losers that are saying that actual crime has decreased in relative terms to population, are by extension saying that this crime is alright. This may well be true that it has decreased relatively, however on the whole violent crimes are on the increase, and probably more so in the areas of society, where the population, is not increasing as proportionately as the crime.

clinton, I can only hope that next time you are out of your house, some asshole comes round and steals everything you own. Being a loser socialist though, you probably don’t own anything, as you’ve never got off your pimply ass to actually earn a respectable living and get ahead.

Having been the victim of two significant crimes this year, this is right now a hot issue for me. Having lived in the same place for a long time and not had any crime ever, for me personally it has increased tremendously.

And worse still, I had one of your horrible ilk tell me recently that one of these crimes was ok, as these “down and outs” “need these chances to get ahead”.

I loathe, actually hate, anyone who is defending the current “crime wave” we are having in this country. If I ran into you smith, I would perpetrate some of mine own crime on you, for good measure.

Horrible little puke. Keep defending the undefensible.

IrishBill: that’s a ban for life and I’ll be asking Steve if he wants to lay a complaint with your ISP for threatening him.
Razorlight 72

2 October 2008 at 7:03 am

SP that was the most over the top response I have read on the blogosphere. I have enjoed reading your posts because they challenge my political opinions. I rarely agree with them but I understand where you are coming from.

I have no idea where you are coming from with this garbage though. It simply shows an irrational hatred towards those on the right.

How can you now pretend to hold the moral high ground over people like Whale when you write deeply offensive comments like “and he’s hardly one to fret about rape when he’s good mates with a pornographer” DPF is justifiably offended by this and feels he has been defamed.

I am worried about how wound up and angry you will get in the very probable event that the right sweeps into power in a few weeks time. My suggestion is breath, relax and try to get rid of this hate you have built up inside you. The right are Kiwi’s as well. They aren’t evil. Don’t be afraid.
Anita 73

2 October 2008 at 7:38 am

burt,

Excellent point. He could start up KiwiPlodBlog.

Hee!

This is why I hang out in the comments threads brilliance! 🙂
Santi 74

2 October 2008 at 8:13 am

Travellerv sais “And he may not agree with my ideas about 911…”

Ahhh, the delights of being obsessed with innumerable conspiracy theories and the desire to ram them down on others.

Your imagination knows no bounds Dutch Einstein.
illuminatedtiger 75

2 October 2008 at 8:21 am

Good on ya SP! About time more people took Farrar to task. For too long now he’s been viewed as independent, even as an independent political commentator (which I consider a bit of a joke).
vidiot 76

2 October 2008 at 8:23 am

So it’s OK to adjust the crime rates by allowing for annual population growth, but for some reason this method doesn’t extend to the road toll ? Now what was that again ?

“being friends with a pornographer shows a disrespectful attitude to women at least.”

What happens if he only shot gay pron ? Would that be disrespectful to woman too or is that a double standard ?
travellerev 77

2 October 2008 at 8:29 am

Hey Santi,

vto, HS, Lucas and Billy want you to hang with them. They are starting a club. The “lets keep our fingers in our ears and say,” lalala, I can’t hear you” club.

Feel free to ignore my comments if you don’t like them.

In the mean time you are about to vote for John Key a proven liar who can’t stop gambling and who was the managing director of the debt (bonds and derivatives) for Merrill Lynch. The very products now blowing up the Western financial world. Sucker.
vto 78

2 October 2008 at 8:32 am

travellerev stop attacking me without justification or evidence or this will all end in a very nasty way.

ffs, if you were a rightie you would have been banned some time ago. this is total crap.
lukas 79

2 October 2008 at 8:39 am

vto, HS, Lucas and Billy want you to hang with them.

What the crazy? I havent said boo to you in ages…. its proving good for my sanity levels.

Eve… you always spout on about how many people “read” your blog. With the amount of link whoring you do, anyone could get as many hits as you do. What probably counts more is how many people comment and engage with you on your “blog”, from my visits there (still washing my computer screen from the coffee spouting) the general trend is for there to be a grand total of zero comments.

Eve, as much as you would like for me, HS, VTO etc etc to fit your picture of us all being angry, middle class, middle age white males… we are not (well at least I am not). I am a young, well educated white male just starting out in this world. I work part time for my self and part time for someone else and the other part of my time I volunteer at my local church. I am by no means angry at the world or anyone, infact I just got married this year so am fairly happy with life and the world in general. Yes I am white though… oh well, can’t win them all a?
travellerev 80

2 October 2008 at 9:01 am

vto,

Was that a threat?

I have never pre-emptively attacked you, it was you who started to ridicule me for my views and you did so in a patronising, misogynist way. In fact I never called you personally patronising nor misogynist until you took sides in a confrontation I had with I think HS.

If you do that than don’t expect me to take it lying down.

Evidence? What do I accuse you off that would justify you asking me for evidence.
I only give you my view on you. My opinion. You may not like it but there you have it.
Feel free not to react to my comments and ignore them. I don’t ask you for anything but if you comment expect a reaction.

If you can’t stand the heat I suggest you get out of the kitchen mate.
I react very badly to threats and bullying.
travellerev 81

2 October 2008 at 9:05 am

Lucas,

Congrats with your wedding. Feel free to keep on ignoring me, it proved quit pleasant for me too.

I don’t invite comments to my blog although people seem to do it more.
Added to that a couple of sites are pinging so the information clearly means something to those people as they want to spread it.
vto 82

2 October 2008 at 9:07 am

Shut the fuck up travellerev, I have never ridiculed your views. I actuallyy think they have some substance.

You attacked – first white middle class males and then me.

You have still provided no proof for any of your allegations.

Take that threat any way you want you racist sexist creep.
Matthew Pilott 83

2 October 2008 at 9:26 am

Is anyone else getting really sick of eve’s long-running personal battles?
Vanilla Eis 84

2 October 2008 at 9:35 am

Aye
Pascal's bookie 85

2 October 2008 at 9:39 am

MP

Yep. But she’s not the sole person to blame. Lot’s of commenters go at her with boring, repetitive responses, with equally predictable results.

yawns all round on mulitiple threads, all at the same time.

They should all just quit it, and learn ignore each other. For the rest of our sakes if not their own.
vto 86

2 October 2008 at 9:46 am

Agreed, apologies to you others. I just don’t can’t stand hollow unjustified abuse.

Anyway, back to the boondoxx for me today for a few more daze. Chase them wee fishes and get some sanity back. Or not.
travellerev 87

2 October 2008 at 9:47 am

MP
Go play with the other boys will you.

No vto I called HS a typical middle class Pakeha and you identified with him and joined the fray telling me you were a typical class Pakeha and proud of it and than you told me to get fucked. Which was echoed by T-rex.

Telling me to shut up is not a good look. Freedom of speech and all that. Feel free to ignore me.

But on a positive note I seem to be on good footing with the Rex at the moment. So let me ask you which of my views you think have some merit.
T-rex 88

2 October 2008 at 9:53 am

“In fact I never called you personally patronising nor misogynist until you took sides in a confrontation I had with I think HS.”

Ahhhhhh.

Says it all really.

Matt – Yes. As I said on the other side, it’s embarrassing. I’m sure the mods feel the same way. It’s just harder to kick someone who’s on your side (at least in vague, general ideology terms).
T-rex 89

2 October 2008 at 9:57 am

“MP
Go play with the other boys will you.”

This would be an example of the “abuse by provocation” you’re referring to PB?

As she so wonderfully illustrated above – all that’s actually required is for someone to disagree.
Steve Pierson 90

2 October 2008 at 9:57 am

trav etc. please cool it.

I recommend 08wire’s post on this debate. He does fair and dispassionate much better than I.

And this is my definitive comment on my reference to Farrar’s friendship with Slater the pornographer:

“I admit I hit the line and I did it intentionally. It seriously pisses me off to see a creep try to make political capital out of rape victims and victims of other crimes. Especially when the body of evidence is that it was the policies that he supports from the 1990s that pushed up crime, whereas the full employment polices since 1999 have been instrumental in giving young men constructive activities and a sense of belonging, thereby bringing down crime (and suicide).

To people like Farrar this is all just a game. They don’t actually care about finding ways to bring down crime (or improve living standards for the poor in other ways). If they did care, they wouldn’t misrepresent the stats.

I was prepared to burn a bit of my personal reputation for analysis to call them on it.”
T-rex 91

2 October 2008 at 10:00 am

“But on a positive note I seem to be on good footing with the Rex at the moment.”

We’ve our ups and downs I think it’s probably fair to say 🙂

Just don’t get so mad when you can’t get people to think like you.
higherstandard 92

2 October 2008 at 10:06 am

Clinton does your pomposity and singular occularity know no bounds ?
T-rex 93

2 October 2008 at 10:09 am

“If they did care, they wouldn’t misrepresent the stats.”

Or endorse policies which have been proven to worsen the situation.

re: The homicide stats you had for Auckland in the other post on the topic though, there is a bit of an upward trend there. In mean it’s still no worse than it was at the end of the 90’s, but after a slump early at the start of the decade it’s been rising back up again. (Retracted – went back and reread the point about small numbers: 21 a year is pretty tricky to draw any useful conclusion from considering how few are actually “random acts of violence”)

That said, I don’t think you made enough of the increased rate of resolution. It’s been steadily increasing for some time, there’s not just a step change when those new cops came on board. Food for thought for those who tireless b*tch out our police force – I can’t be bothered going back to that page of stats to check, but wasn’t the resolution rate up around 85%?
Good job, cops.
travellerev 94

2 October 2008 at 10:11 am

MP
Go play with the other boys will you.

No vto, I called HS a typical middle class male Pakeha and you identified with him and joined the fray telling me you were a typical middle class male Pakeha and proud of it and than you told me to get fucked. Which was echoed by T-rex.

Telling me to shut up is not a good look. Freedom of speech and all that. Feel free to ignore me.

But on a positive note I seem to be on good footing with the Rex at the moment. So let me ask you which of my views you think have some merit and see if we can get this back on track in a more positive way.

I’ll start with ignoring the insult “racist sexist creep” how about that for a positive step.

Hello guys,

Why is it with you guys that you always take one of the sides and always that of the male.

All males against one woman for standing up for herself. You clearly aren’t used to that.

Thanks Pascals bookie for pointing the role of the others out.

I’ve invited each and every one of them to ignore because that is just fine with me but I will not be bullied into silence because I say things they do not want to hear.

And as for the ongoing “personal” stuff. This site only gets higher ratings if treats go on longer and since the only people reading these threads who can’t stop reading them while the rest move on to newer and better threats the moderators are probably happy to let it go on for a bit. LOL.

Especially since I do comment pertinent to threads as well and some people actually do want the information I give as I always link to background info.
lukas 95

2 October 2008 at 10:27 am

was that a copy and past re-mix of your previous comments?

Thanks for the congrats on the wedding… was a beautiful day with a beautiful wife. Clever thing was having the wedding on the 29th of February!
travellerev 96

2 October 2008 at 10:45 am

hi T-rex,

I don’t want people to think like me. In fact I invite people not to believe me and do their own research. Please, Please don’t believe me or anyone and do your own research and make up your own mind. That is my advise.

I just present the facts as I see them and they differ vastly from theirs which invites their ridicule and insults.

Whereas I have to say that other than the 911 issue I seem to be seeing eye to eye with you on a lot of issues.

And to get back to the thread compared to the Netherlands this country is crime free. I’m not suggesting that those who are hurt in violent attacks or killed don’t exist and their pain should be ignored but the amount of murders and burglaries and white collar and real estate fraud are massive compared with here.

Nobody can leave their doors unlocked anytime of the day or night, You have to lock your bicycle to Rain pipes with at least three chains and forget about leaving your car radio in your car. And this goes for cities as well as rural areas.

I saw that Holland was on the 7th place of the corruption scale and I’m sad to say I’m not surprised.

The year I left Holland there were 6 broad day Mafia style executions of Real estate agents in streets with children running around alone. One of them being the richest guy in Holland.
Russian mobsters have taken over in many branches of business after the wall came down and I’ve only seen it get worse.

The only thing I found disconcerting when I arrived here was the rape case against those three cops.

And in the three years I’ve been here I’ve seen every major case cracked in remarkably short times where as in the case of the real estate murders they are still investigating in Holland so that’s saying something about the quality of the policing here I reckon.
r0b 97

2 October 2008 at 10:45 am

SP: “I was prepared to burn a bit of my personal reputation for analysis to call them on it.’

Someone needs to call them on it, and while I’m not sure of your method, I do admire your motive.

Those who are self righteously attacking SP on this one would do well to direct their energies to cleaning up the sewer that is the Kiwiblog comments section. The log on your own eye eh?
QoT 98

2 October 2008 at 11:01 am

Steve … I don’t know how this can be explained more clearly.

Your post makes an explicit link between being friends with a pornographer and not caring about rape.

You do not mention Farrar’s history on this issue.

You do not offer any elaboration.

Are we supposed to pat you on the back for the noble sacrifice of your “reputation” just to get off a cheap shot which shreds the credibility of what would otherwise be a really important post?

Are we supposed to be impressed that you think it’s okay to make statements and assumptions about people’s beliefs based on nothing more (and again, this is your post, SP, you wrote it, you chose not to elaborate or provide supporting details) than who they are friends with? Because that is what you did in this post. The problem isn’t Farrar’s personal beliefs. It’s what you have said about them and based your statements on.
Matty K 99

2 October 2008 at 11:11 am

Aside from Farrar’s motivations for pushing his version of the statistics, the fact is that violent crimes have increased under Labour (even as a per-1000 people ratio) and significantly in the past year in some regions. Arguing that it hasn’t is displaying the same sort of blindness that Farrar is accused of by many here.

Disregarding any personal opinion on it, the statistics show violent crime – the one’s which keep people awake at night and have the greatest personal/family effects – is still on the increase. And markedly so in the areas targeted as being the most impoverished.
r0b 100

2 October 2008 at 11:21 am

Matty K, if you read the original post at all, you clearly didn’t understand it.

QoT, please get your self righteous ass on over to Kiwiblog. There is plenty of work for you there.
lprent 101

2 October 2008 at 11:28 am

Matty: As the police have acknowledged, the majority of violent crime probably doesn’t get reported. The usual estimates are that only about a third gets reported because it happens inside the domestic disputes. Over the last few years they have run a active policy and advertising campaign to increase the rate of reporting.

It appears to be working. Consequently the reported violence stats have been increasing. If you look at the violent crimes that always gets reported like murder, they have remained static or reduced when you look at them over a few years. Read the 08wire analysis http://08wire.org/2008/10/02/farrar-vs-the-standard-on-massaging-crime-statistics/

DPF just ignored all of that because it didn’t fit the picture he wished to portray.
Quoth the Raven 102

2 October 2008 at 11:45 am

I said it a thousand times, walk thru Christchurch at night during any day of the week, and you will see what effect a soft approach to crime has.

I don’t see what your problem is Brett as I said earlier I feel perfectly safe in Christchurch. Maybe you’re just paranoid Brett. This government has been much harder on crime than the last government. Its increased sentences to ridiculous levels and given a stupid amount power to the police. What more do you want, a police state?
Matthew Pilott 103

2 October 2008 at 12:14 pm

Eve, just pointing out that a majority of what you say seems to be abuse. Here’s what I’ve seen so far over the last few months:

You will post and link to your blog and articles – all very well and I’m sure many people have popped over to read it and check out the links you suggest (as have I, on several occassions).

Then someone will make a cheap jibe, along the lines of ‘conspiracy theorist’, or some unimaginitave variant.

You generally take the bait and run a mile, but instead of attacking them for being small-minded etc, it’s more of an attack against entire sections of society, which irks people who might fit into the section of society you’re attacking, but haven’t said a single bad thing against you.

For example, there are a fair few white males, aged 20-40 here, if my presumption is correct. Whether I got the wrong end of the stick or not, it seems to me that several times you’ve attacked that group wholesale, because of one person. As evidenced above, that annoys people.

If I can make a request, it would be that you refrain from attacking groups or making assumptions about people – the effects of it are plain to see. The latest is a classic – we’re all attacking you because you’re female, apparently.

I was criticising you because I’m sick of your long-running personal battles – what has that got to do with you being female? Are you implying only females are that annoying? If so, you’re being a bit sexist, towards your own lot.

I’d also be happy if people stopped baiting you, though those who do aren’t likely to listen to me. You have the option of ignoring them though – a lengthy personal attack isn’t exactly likely to change their views!
marco 104

2 October 2008 at 12:34 pm

The actual rate of recorded crime depends on policing methods which vary between districts.

In Auckland police are less likely to prosecute people for minor crimes when they are not currently considered a risk. They perfer warnings but they are now finding that by doing this people are starting to try their luck with more serious crime. What the lack of reporting is doing is lowering the rate of crime when its actually not lowering at all, its increasing.

In Christchurch police take a tougher approach with minor offences. They target the so called gateway crime to get the young offenders into the system in an attempt to ensure they recieve the help they need.

The result is the Christchurch crime rate is accurate. The Auckland crime rate is about 2% lower than it should be in the reported statistic.
weka 105

2 October 2008 at 3:13 pm

For the people that think that Farrar has genuine concern about rape as a politcal issue, please show me where he’s written about this. Of course most men care at some level about rape, but we’re talking about a political context here.

Steve, thanks for making visible the connection between rape and pornography, even in a small way. It’s problematic that it was said in passing, because it’s brought out a large amount of comment negating the connection, by people who don’t understand what the connection even is. But it’s good that it was said, there will women who appreciate that.

all men are rapists

Whoever brought that up as a way of writing off feminist thought, I suggest you go and look up the provenance of that quote and see what it really means.
Ben R 106

2 October 2008 at 4:11 pm

Weka,

“It’s problematic that it was said in passing”

Isn’t that the main problem with SP’s comment? It was dropped in as a personal attack & was not addressing the point Farrar was making. His point was that overall crime rates may not be as useful as the particular type of crimes being committed.
Mike 107

3 October 2008 at 12:01 am

I think all those ads promoting violence on TV are the reason violent crime has gone up so much.

Every night I see so many ads showing you how to swing your child around and bash them into things.

Or showing you how to drink and drive and kill your mates.

I think it’s appalling that good people should be subjected to a constant barrage of this crap. This is punishing the whole country for the crimes of the few.

[I’m not sure whether this is a parody or not. So confused. SP]
Clint Heine 108

3 October 2008 at 5:57 am

[Tane: Heine, you’re still banned. Furthermore, as someone who photoshopped Helen Clark’s head onto a transsexual’s body for kicks I don’t think you’re in any position to moralise.]
Matthew Pilott 109

3 October 2008 at 9:54 am

Mike, you had to watch an ad to figure out how to put a child into a wall while drunk? Comes instinctively to the rest of us.

Just out of interest, I reckon those ads work pretty well: so you’d prefer kids to actually be bashed into walls, because you’re too precious to see a few ads on telly?
QoT 110

3 October 2008 at 11:23 am

Wow, rOb. How about you respect my ability to choose what I want to read, and critique people whose writings I otherwise respect and enjoy reading? Or how about offering an actual response to my point instead of the classic, “but you can’t complain about THIS bad thing unless you also complain about every other bad thing happening” diversion?
QoT 111

3 October 2008 at 11:26 am

Also, @weka – again, missing the point. Nobody here is arguing “Waaa, Steve’s persecuting The Mighty Farrar, champion of womanhood!” and pretending we are in order to yet again turn the thread away from what Steve said is disingenuous.
r0b 112

3 October 2008 at 11:33 am

Wow, rOb. How about you respect my ability to choose what I want to read, and critique people whose writings I otherwise respect and enjoy reading?

Wow, QoT. Sounding a little defensive there. Read what you like, knock yourself out, you don’t need my blessing.

Or how about offering an actual response to my point instead of the classic, “but you can’t complain about THIS bad thing unless you also complain about every other bad thing happening’ diversion?

Selective morality is interesting because of the agenda that it reveals. You appear to me to be on a highly selective crusade against SP, despite the fact that there are other much more worthy targets for your righteous zeal. So you could say I guess that I’m interested in your agenda.
Mike 113

3 October 2008 at 4:32 pm

Matthew

Those ads if anything just make me want to bash the a-holes in them to a pulp – like the guy that shoves the guy with the drinks, then elbows the woman in the face.

How does instilling that feeling in me help me or the country?

What about the rest of the 99% of this country who are decent people and don’t need constant reminders not to get boozed and bash people, or speed, or take drugs. How do these ads make them feel? Do these ads help them? I don’t think so. At best it’s insulting. I think many of them just get what I get out of them – a heightened state of aggression.

You don’t see ads like these in other countries. Come back here from a while overseas and they are a real shock. Personally I think it’s abuse of viewers on an enormous scale.
Matthew Pilott 114

3 October 2008 at 4:48 pm

“What about the rest of the 99% of this country who are decent people and don’t need constant reminders not to get boozed and bash people, or speed, or take drugs.

If only it were 99%… If that’s what you genuinely believe then no wonder their utility is lost on you.

If those ads provoke such a violent response in you, then I hope you are a very moderate drinker. For me, and (I suspect) most other people, they are simply a reminder of the causes and consequences of bad actions. I don’t think they’re terribly relevant to me, but if they reduce the chance of a random assault, for example, then I’m not fussed.

I also suspect most viewers have a bit more ‘toughness’, for want of a better word, than you, and see the usefulness of the ads more than they feel ‘abused’ by them.
Mike 115

3 October 2008 at 5:08 pm

Matthew

what do you believe the proportion is then? You saying more than 1% of the country are crims?
Dean 116

3 October 2008 at 5:58 pm

Qot:

“Also, @weka – again, missing the point. Nobody here is arguing “Waaa, Steve’s persecuting The Mighty Farrar, champion of womanhood!’ and pretending we are in order to yet again turn the thread away from what Steve said is disingenuous.”

You’re wasting your time. A lot of people around here will twist and spin anything and fool themselves into believing it’s justified as long as it involves National, Key, foreign (often American) bagmen, the word “slippery” (because the focus groups told them to use that word) and so on.

If you really want to see them go on the defensive, mention an airport and Peter Davis. r0b just loves that one and I’m sure he will oblige you and call you a disgusting human being for daring to bring a politicians family into focus, while conveniently forgetting Mallard and co over Brash’s extramarital affair.
Matthew Pilott 117

3 October 2008 at 5:58 pm

Gee, I don’t know, Mike. Are you saying that everyone who gets drunk and does something stupid is a criminal?

Is everyone who had a near miss at an intersection a criminal?

The problem is more widespread than those who are officially charged and found guilty.
Matthew Pilott 118

3 October 2008 at 6:00 pm

“You’re wasting your time.”

What’s that about fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me… What are you still doing here then? More ‘m’ than ‘s’ I guess.
Mike 119

3 October 2008 at 7:36 pm

Matthew

Sure, the problem is more wide-spread. I believe people who get drunk and bash people are performing criminal acts, and therefore are criminals, whether or not they get reported.

I think we should be aiming to reduce our tolerance to violence, not increase it by desensitising ourselves with a constant barrage of it on tv, least of all through tax-payer funded ads.
T-Rex 120

3 October 2008 at 10:26 pm

“I think we should be aiming to reduce our tolerance to violence, not increase it by desensitising ourselves with a constant barrage of it on tv, least of all through tax-payer funded ads.”

That’s the whole point of the ads Mike.

Most people are already quite intolerant of violence, however they may be more tolerant of significant factors in violence (e.g. excessive drinking). So, the ads create a direct association between the two.

Clearly they’re not desensitizing YOU to violence, because you think they depict terrible circumstances. Do you know anyone who watches it and goes “hmm, seems like a standup guy to me”?

Having ads like that on TV is just like tax – another part of living in society and trying to develop systems that make it good. I mean I assume you don’t have cancer, yet you’re not complaining about contributing to the healthcare costs of people who do, right?

You watch those ads and think “That is TOTALLY unacceptable”. All the ads are trying to do is create similar feelings in people who may see such behaviour more often than you do. You shouldn’t feel guilty watching them… that is, unless you have a friend who drinks too much and kinda gets out of hand and you never say anything despite feeling you should… in which case I’d say the ads are doing exactly what they should be.

You’re attitude basically takes “It’s not ok” and turns it into “It’s not ok to be reminded about it because I like my fantasy world of denial”.
Dean 121

5 October 2008 at 12:46 am

MP:

“What’s that about fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me What are you still doing here then? More â€˜m’ than ‘s’ I guess.”

I just get a kick of of seeing you quote people selectively and then pretend to have the moral high ground.
Mike 122

5 October 2008 at 10:21 am

There’s the point of something, and then there’s the real effect of something.

Just because the goal of those ads is to do something good, doesn’t mean they achieve it.

We can have the best intentions in the world but we will be judged by the results of our actions. It’s pretty common for an action to have the reverse effect of what was desired.
jh 123

6 October 2008 at 7:39 am

People can’t relate to probabilities or they would never buy lotto tickets, but when an accountant is bashed with a baseball bat as he walks home after a late night bash, this puts others off walking home at night. What people see is heated floors in prison and a society that doesn’t believe in punishment (disincentive)and so they don’t feel safe. The crime we face is largely a product of our liberal establishment.
r0b 124

6 October 2008 at 9:07 am

What people see is heated floors in prison and a society that doesn’t believe in punishment (disincentive)and so they don’t feel safe.

Tougher sentences and nastier prisons do not deter crime. In general crime (apart from “white collar” crime) is committed by people who don’t plan ahead much, who don’t ponder consequences.

The crime we face is largely a product of our liberal establishment.

The crime we face is largely a product of relative poverty. That explains why over the last years, while poverty has been decreasing (and aspects of our establishment getting more liberal?), crime has been decreasing too.
randal 125

6 October 2008 at 9:09 am

jh…lucky we not living in roman times. Julius Ceasar and his mates used to lie in wait and kill anybody coming home latea t night for a bit of practice. Now its just yer typical kiwi bloke full of booze and latent anger and aggression because he didnt get to go to the grand final or doesnt own a xr8. As for heated floors only the crims see them and maybe the visitors and it pays off in the life of the building and the decrease in medical expenditure on prisoners. If you want to make them live in stone age conditions and then release them into fulltime medical care beacuse of complications from the prison environment. and if you are jealous beacause you cant afford underfloor heating yourself and feel somewhat lesser of a man then you can compensate by lying in wait and bashing up someone up who you dont know late at night.
travellerev 126

6 October 2008 at 9:16 am

Randal,

LOL
higherstandard 127

6 October 2008 at 9:34 am

r0b

Poverty is a CONTRIBUTING FACTOR in some criminal behaviour but it is unfair to those millions (may billions) living in relative poverty throughout the world who are not criminals to say that poverty causes crime.

Agree with you though on those that many who commit crime are either unable to fathom the consequences of their actions or simply don’t care.

In my opinion if one would crack the problem of how to make them fathom the consequences (and make sure those consequences occurred) that would be a step in the right direction.
randal 128

6 October 2008 at 9:41 am

hs…we are not talking about the billions somewhere else. we are talking about what happens here in a small country filled with arrogant consumers who love to rub it in the face of the have nots. There is no community spirit not underlying altruism in New Zealand. Only gimme gimme gimme and there is a corollary to conspicuous consumption and a media that works twenty four hours a day ttelling people thaey are no good if the dont have the goods. Now hs. how about addressing income inequality here in new zealand and stop waffling about the uncounted hordes somewhere else or is that too hard?
higherstandard 129

6 October 2008 at 10:08 am

Randal

Not sure what part of the country you are living in but I find there is plenty of community spirit and altruism in NZ.
jh 130

6 October 2008 at 10:16 am

“As for heated floors only the crims see them and maybe the visitors and it pays off in the life of the building and the decrease in medical expenditure on prisoners. If you want to make them live in stone age conditions and then release them into fulltime medical care beacuse of complications from the prison environment.”

A large proportion of our homes are cold and damp so that creates a moral hazard as they will be better off in prison.

“Tougher sentences and nastier prisons do not deter crime. In general crime (apart from “white collar’ crime) is committed by people who don’t plan ahead much, who don’t ponder consequences.”

On the other hand people gain an appreciation of the sort of consequences that their actions will provoke and they will have learned that they live in an environment where the state will do them no harm.
Phil 131

6 October 2008 at 10:45 am

Tougher sentences… do not deter crime

Let me type this slowly, so you can keep up:

When… someone… is… in… prison,… they… are… not… out… on… the… street… committing… other… crimes.

In order for your claim to be true, you have to believe that other criminals commit more crime, in order to keep up the averages.
randal 132

6 October 2008 at 11:11 am

these natoinal business people will do anything except find jobs for these people. get of ya bums ya bums.
bill brown 133

6 October 2008 at 11:13 am

When someone is in prison, it doesn’t stop other.. people.. out in the street committing crimes.

Filling… prisons… with… people… who… have… nothing… to… lose… will… escalate… the… problem…

Perhaps we should just hang ’em, cures problem, provides entertainment.
travellerev 134

6 October 2008 at 11:44 am

I’ve been thinking about the porn/anti porn undercurrent in this thread for a bit and thought to share something with you.

Let me start by stating that Farrar’s friendship with a known pornographer is very revealing and makes me dislike the little turd even more than I already did but that has nothing to do with actual porn but everything with the way porn seems to be perceived in this country.

This is what I have gleaned so far from the previous discussion.

To some of you, it seems, porn=rape.

And some of you pointed out there are women who enjoy porn.

And this gets a funny “male” response. Steve delegates those women to the freaky site of the sex spectrum and this is taken up by other males.

What is telling is the total absence of women in the discussion.

As you know I am from Holland, in fact I’m from big bad Amsterdam.
The big bad super tolerant dope smoking, red light toting, gay, hetero porn capital of the world.

I have been surrounded with “porn” in abundance my entire live and by the reasoning of some of you, rape should be a fixture in the live of Amsterdam women far in excess of anywhere else in the porn free world.

But it isn’t. Does rape never happen in Amsterdam? Sure, but I have seen more rapes and more violent ones being committed here than in a comparable time frame in Amsterdam which like Auckland has more than a million inhabitants but unlike Auckland is build far denser and on perhaps 1/4 of its territory.

There are only 4 million people in this country and in Holland on an area the size of Northland 17 million people have made their homes but contrary to what some of you assert Hollanders would be well and truly shocked with the behaviour of those policemen and their raping orgies.

It would be totally incomprehensible to us that men in places of such delicate power would use that power to subdue and debase women like that, so clearly our exposure to abundant porn has not caused us to think that it is OK for women to be raped or debased, in fact there is less tolerance and exposure to the possibility of being raped.

My whole live, from the tender young age of 14 until the time I left I have as a good Tulip is wont to do bicycled and or walked all over Amsterdam and when the time came that I could decide my own bedtime which was at the tender young age of 16 I did the same at any time of the night. In fact some of the hottest porn free haunts were right in the middle of the red light district and although I have certainly had my moments of fear it was never there and I have always been free and unharmed in my nightly exploits in that big bad city.

(Yeez, I just remembered were I spend my first years. My bohemian artist parents had an apartment next to one of the most beautiful old houses on the oldest canal of Amsterdam, right in the middle of the red light district. In fact my pram came from one of the prostitutes next door. LOL. God see what you guys do to me? That way back down memory lane)

In Amsterdam a group of students researching the function of porn, and whether porn was actually exploitative to women and they decided to do a test. The hypothesis? If porn was exploitative to women than women by and large should be massively turned off by watching it.

They organised two groups. One male and one female. All volunteers but carefully screened to be of the most average middle class/ working class (Not a big distinction in Holland) background.

One by one the members of these groups were exposed to hardcore porn.

They measured the physical sexual response by attaching sensors to their genitals.

After they had watched the movies they gave the participants a questionnaire.
The questions were about what they thought of the movies, how they felt they reacted physically etc.

The result was predictable. The man had mostly enjoyed them and the women rejected them as exploitation and suppression of women.

The test revealed something very significant. Their physical reaction did not support their words. While the bodies of the men supported their statements (Hard to lie about a hard on really)
it revealed that the bodies of the women betrayed their statements for without exception their bodies had exactly the same response to the hardcore video’s as the men. Their bodies were as much exited when they watched porn as the men.

One can draw several conclusions from the test:

Either the researchers had accidentally picked closet case masochists for all of their female subjects and the subjects were all lying or in denial,

or all women secretly want to be raped (which I can assure we don’t) or,

women feel compelled to deny and or lie about how they experience sex in general.

What did become clear is that porn is perceived by both the female and the male body as sexually exiting but while men acknowledge that enjoyment women deny it.

I have met several young kiwi men in the last couple of years and in conversations with them gleaned some of the current youth culture in this country. These were not exceptional kids, they were your average kiwi youngsters, trying to learn a trade and make sense of a confusing world. In fact I really like these kids.
But talking to them about their male female relations proved very shocking to me.

Without exception, while actively pursuing sex as much as they could these kids referred to sexually active young women as slags and hoes and in fact one kid thought all sexually active girls were skanky hoes.

So while these kids acknowledged their own sexuality as totally normal they completely condemned the necessary reciprocal emotion in the other sex.

In fact I bet you that lots of males have a secret stash of hardcore porn somewhere in the shed while they would be appalled if their wives had a similar stash hidden away in her crafts room.

In light of the previous, I have to condemn Steve’s rejection of Farrar’s relationship with a pornographer because he reinforces the myth (as proven wrong by physical evidence) that porn is exploitative and I equally have to condemn his delegation of women who enjoy porn to the sexual fringe.

Both are as sexist as Farrar’s relationship with said Pornographer because both Farrar and Steve use porn as a way of marginalising and denouncing female sexuality.

Farrar by assorting with someone who films the human sex act ( in whatever setting of fantasy) in a country that by enlarge reject the normalcy of female sexuality and Steve for reinforcing the myth that women have to hide behind in order not to be thought of as slags or hoes and which inhibits them from enjoying their sexuality with or without the aid of porn.

(not to mention that it disables both sexes to deal with each others sexuality as a bonding, intimate act with ample space to explore and enjoy.)

One last note: This comment is not in defence of the porn industry which like many industries has it’s share of abuse and exploitation but also has its share of women making lots of money and enjoying a huge fan base while enjoying sex.

And no, I have never been in active in the sex industry and I am probably an exception to the rule as I have never strayed from any monogamous relation I was in and the one I’m in now has lasted 21 years and going.

I apologise for the length but I hope some of you will enjoy it anyway.

Captcha: the Femina. Awesome. I felt the force as I was writing this. Guess the captcha thingy felt it too. LOL.
Phil 135

6 October 2008 at 2:08 pm

Bill,

Continuing the theme:

Crime… tends… to… be… recidivist…
This is simple maths and physics – you can’t be committing a crime if you’re already in jail. I’ll accept that this sometimes doesn’t hold true, and should perhaps be modified to “You’re much less likely”.

Suporting… longer… sentences… does… not… mean… you… always… want… to… throw… away… the… key.
This isn’t a zero sum game, and like all law enforcement needs to include a variety of tools. To paint the argument as such (ie; you’re either for longer sentences, or for rehab, but never both) is deliberately misleading from you.
Mike 136

6 October 2008 at 11:22 pm

I think a major conducive factor to becoming a criminal is lack of hope about any reasonable possible alternative.

I think people don’t really have much hope that they can get ahead any other way, and their expectations about how they should rightfully be living is still shaped by the rest of our society.

Unlike in bangladesh where you consider yourself lucky if you don’t drown in the annual monsoons, and even luckier if you get some food some time, over here, you feel cheated and bitter if you don’t have a 42″ LCD TV.

So there are 2 problems… 1, setting reasonable expectations (and I can’t see that changing, since the rest of us still want our TVs), and 2, having some hope of being able to get ahead.

That’s where people need opportunities. Opportunities to make a decent crust, meet their expectations, and do something worth while. I don’t think even hardened crims want to think of themselves as bad people.

In the end, I think many don’t realise is the people they hurt a huge amount is themselves. Damaging your self image can be a life-long hurt. It’s not like you’re ever going to see someone else looking back out of the mirror at you. If you grow to consider yourself a bad person, you’re in real trouble.

They need to teach that lesson in schools – why it is important to not compromise yourself. Why you shouldn’t do things you consider bad. What happens to you if you do think you’re a bad person etc etc etc…

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This post was originally published on Linked In by Nicolas Reid. It is republished here with permission. Auckland is now just a year or so away from having the keystone of its urban rail network complete. As I wrote about here, the City Rail Link will be a literal game changer for ...

Greater AucklandBy Guest Post

4 days ago
National’s support base is wobbling

If ACT leader David Seymour intended the Treaty Principles Bill to drive a wedge into National’s support base, he may well already be succeeding. By midnight on Thursday after the Maori Party haka in Parliament, National MPs were being deluged with emails and messages from their members calling them out ...

PolitikBy Richard Harman

4 days ago
2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #46

A listing of 33 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, November 10, 2024 thru Sat, November 16, 2024. Story of the week Our Story of the Week is completely "meta" (no, not that Meta). It's about our exploring how ...

Skeptical Science

5 days ago
Grifter Eftpos Tamaki at it again

..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Self-appointed “Bishop” and proto-fascist, Brian Tamaki was at it again on 16 November, blocking Auckland’s southern motorway, SH1.This time, the target of his ire wasn’t the Civil Unions Act; covid lock-downs; mask mandates; or ...

Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy

5 days ago
Rip up a bill, lead a haka are words to live by

I cannot stop grabbing people by the lapels, or shoulders, or similar, and raving at them about the tiny miracles in my ears.I can hear again! There could not be a more satisfied customer in all the world.In a noisy cafe I am even catching words that Karren cannot, she ...

More Than A FeildingBy David Slack

5 days ago
Unintended Consequences

Take the baitYou pay the priceIt's much too lateFor good adviceYou know and I know that our good things' throughBecause there's consequences for what we doConsequences for me and youWriters: Kevin Robert Hayes, David Nagier, Bonnie Adele Hayes.Fallout from the first readingOne News began last night by saying that tens ...

Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel

6 days ago
Thank you, driver!

Today, Saturday 16th of November, is Auckland Transport’s Bus Driver Appreciation Day! Saturday 16 November marks the third annual Auckland Transport (AT) ‘Bus Driver Appreciation Day’, and this year we are encouraging all of New Zealand to thank their driver or let the bus go first if you are in ...

Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland

6 days ago
Totally Normal: Holiday Edition

Hi,If I was to accurately sum up my mental state over the week, I’d just say that I got a huge fright from my own shadow.I’d nipped out for an 11pm neighborhood stroll, just to calm down after a day of stress and screens. The Cure and Fazerdaze’s new record ...

David FarrierBy David Farrier

6 days ago
We Are Not Listening

The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...

PunditBy Brian Easton

7 days ago
More lawlessness from National

On Tuesday, sick of government stonewalling, the Waitangi Tribunal issued a rare court order, ordering the Minister of Health to release unredacted documents within 48 hours showing its reasoning for disestablishing Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority. The government's response to the lawful order of a court? Yeah, ...

No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant

7 days ago
National’s tyrannical “foreign interference” law

Yesterday, under cover the the biggest political fight of the year, National quietly - covertly, even - introduced anti-foreign interference legislation. The bill is the product of a years-long work-program aimed at countering shit like this and this, and there's unquestionably a need to do something to counter foreign states' ...

No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant

7 days ago
The Haka Represents The Best Of Us

A few months ago, I was in an audience watching a Haka-Kapa and as I watched children dance and sing and sway and shout and beat, I couldn’t help but think “The Haka represents the best of us.”Yes, yes - there will be a thousand voices that rush forth to ...

Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui

1 week ago
Adding up the climate cost

St Mary’s Bay housing left hanging: Climate risk is systemically underestimated in the climate scenarios used by central banks, and a new report warns 10,000 houses are set to become uninsurable in Aotearoa. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, here’s the top six news items of note in ...

The KakaBy Bernard Hickey

1 week ago
Auckland chafing at Bishop’s housing intensification orders

One of the major problems the Government has in implementing its ‘going for housing growth’ strategy is that it isn’t giving much funding help to councils. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and ...

The KakaBy Bernard Hickey

1 week ago
Friday 15 November 2024

The Treaty Principles Bill continues to dominate political news, with it passing its first reading in the House. Parliament was briefly suspended and Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke suspended for 24 hours after leading a haka that was joined by opposition MPs and the public in the gallery. Willie ...

NZCTUBy Jeremiah Boniface

1 week ago
Weekly Roundup 15-November-2024

Happy Friday, welcome to another round-up of interesting stories about what’s happening in Auckland and other cities. Feel free to add your links in the comments! This post, like all our work, is brought to you by a largely volunteer crew and made possible by generous donations from our readers ...

Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland

1 week ago
Are We The Waiting?

And screamingAre we we are, are we we are the waitingAnd screamingAre we we are, are we we are the waitingForget me nots, second thoughts live in isolationHeads or tails and fairy tales in my mindAre we we are, are we we are the waiting unknownThe rage and love, the ...

Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel

1 week ago
The Hoon around the week to November 15

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on the latest climate news, including from COP29 this week; on the US Presidential elections, Israel vs Gaza/Iran/Lebanon, Ukraine/Nato vs Russia/North ...

The KakaBy Bernard Hickey

1 week ago
First Tea and Toast, now Milo — why do NZ’s best beverages need so much defending?

Only two months ago, Nicola Willis had to step in to stop Health New Zealand cutting tea and toast for post-birth parents, and now Lester Levy is riding to the rescue with a welcome message for all: our health workers can once again drink Milo, and will no longer need ...

Sapphi’s SubstackBy Sapphi

1 week ago
Gordon Campbell on the folly of making apologies in a social vacuum.

Day One of the Treaty Principles Bill…and everyone got what they wanted, and did what they liked. Heated words were exchanged. Culturally appropriate acts of outrage were performed. David Seymour got to play the victim card. Willie Jackson got kicked out of class. A comically red-faced Mr Speaker bellowed “Order, ...

WerewolfBy ScoopEditor

1 week ago
Skeptical Science New Research for Week #46 2024

Open access notables Microbial solutions must be deployed against climate catastrophe, Peixoto et al., Nature Communications [comment]: The climate crisis is escalating. A multitude of microbe-based solutions have been proposed, and these technologies hold great promise and could be deployed along with other climate mitigation strategies. However, these solutions have ...

Skeptical Science

1 week ago
The PM gets some extremely valuable legal advice for free

You can pay a great deal of money for the services of a KC. So just what would some peerless legal writing from 40 or so of them be worth, do you reckon?Priceless, that’s what. It’s not even the half of it, but this is my favourite part of the ...

More Than A FeildingBy David Slack

1 week ago
D-day for the government

The government's Treaty Principles Bill is up for its first reading today - bought forward in a rush in a desperate effort to avoid the hikoi which is currently marching on Wellington. But the Prime Minister won’t be there for it – he’s literally running away to Peru! But he ...

No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant

1 week ago
97% of submissions did not want no-cause evictions, Trump chooses a Russian spy for US Intelligence ...

Good morning, and I’m sorry I’ve been away for a couple of days.I’ve been focusing on the Hikoi, and also testing out sentiment on the Treaty Principles Bill. It’s complicated, and the Treaty Principles Bill will be debated in the House today. The Government’s own lawyers have told them the ...

Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui

1 week ago
Government must vote down ACT Members Bill that would undermine workers’ rights

NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is calling on the Government to vote down an ACT Party Members Bill that would undermine workers’ rights by making it easier for employers to fire workers. Last week ACT MP Laura Trask’s Employment Relations (Termination of Employment by Agreement) Amendment Bill was ...

NZCTUBy Jeremiah Boniface

1 week ago
Seymour causes thousands of unjustified absences by forcing kids to fight for their rights instead o...

The State would like to remind you that they are in control. They manage your employment prospects, and can destroy the job market you and yours rely on by mass-cancelling construction projects, cutting funding, and firing a good chunk of our public servants. They wield the mechanisms that provide scrutiny ...

Sapphi’s SubstackBy Sapphi

1 week ago
The Weight of the World

As the weight of the world Hangs on your shoulders The weight of the world Starts to take over again And over again All that you once loved, now you hate So slowly relearn how to meditate To have and to hold And never let go Can you feel it ...

Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel

1 week ago
Thursday 14 November 2024

The Treaty Principles Bill is set to have its First Reading in the House today, as the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti continues. More than 40 KCs have written to the Prime Minister and Attorney-General outlining their “grave concerns” about the substance of the Treaty Principles Bill, while an academic and ...

NZCTUBy Jeremiah Boniface

1 week ago
Trump’s return to White House brings the climate’s ‘find out’ phase closer

As we absorb the news of Trump's victory in the US Presidential election, here’s a wrap compiled just before the result of what it might mean for climate action: The UN Secretary General says the prospective departure of the United States would cripple the Paris Agreement, likening it to the ...

The KakaBy Bernard Hickey

1 week ago
Time and Space in the City Centre

Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the City Centre Advisory Panel. The header image is from Walthamstow, London The city centre now has a few stretches of street where the space has been repurposed to a people and place focused design from full time traffic use. These are a great ...

Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds

1 week ago

Release: Government should be transparent on live exports

Targeted consultation on reinstating live cattle exports by sea won’t allow the New Zealand public to have their say. ...

Labour Blog

8 hours ago
NZ’s global climate rankings plummet as Govt removes agriculture from ETS

The Government has passed legislation to remove agriculture from the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) while Aotearoa’s reputation on climate action plummets. ...

Greens

22 hours ago
Failed boot camp experiment must end

As legislation to set up boot camps passed its first reading, the Green Party urged the Government to abandon this failed policy experiment for the good of our rangatahi. ...

Greens

23 hours ago
Gender-affirming care must centre evidence and health needs, not political posturing

The Ministry of Health has today released an evidence brief regarding the use of puberty blockers in gender-affirming healthcare, amid moves by the government to limit access. ...

Greens

24 hours ago
Release: National doesn’t care about manufacturing

The National Government is walking away from our manufacturing sector with constant reports of closures and job losses. ...

Labour Blog

1 day ago
Release: David Parker speech – Piketty, Inequality and Climate Change

David Parker's speech from the University of Auckland's forum on Piketty, Inequality and Climate Change in September 2024. ...

Labour Blog

1 day ago
Release: Youth mental wellbeing no longer a priority for Child Poverty Minister

Louise Upston has revealed her diminished vision for vulnerable youth against a backdrop of snubbed advice, scrapped priorities, shifted goal posts and thousands more children projected to fall into poverty. ...

Labour Blog

1 day ago
Release: National’s lack of climate action taking NZ backwards

National Government’s backward-looking climate policy has seen New Zealand fall seven places on the Climate Change Performance Index to 41 out of 63 countries measured. ...

Labour Blog

1 day ago
Release: Simple reason for drop in emergency housing

When the Government says it has reduced the number of people in emergency housing, what it means is it is stopping people from accessing it in the first place. ...

Labour Blog

1 day ago
Govt’s child wellbeing strategy ‘shallow and shameful’

The Government is turning its back on children by not only weakening child poverty reduction targets, but also removing child mental wellbeing as a priority focus in their Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy. ...

Greens

1 day ago
Release: A historic win for Samoan communities

Labour warmly welcomes the Restoring Samoan Citizenship Bill as it passes its third reading, before becoming law. ...

Labour Blog

1 day ago
Government plan to reinstate live animal exports a “national disgrace”

The Government has taken a giant step backwards by reinstating live animal exports. ...

Greens

2 days ago
Pasifika justice as Member’s Bill passes final reading

Teanau Tuiono’s Member’s Bill, the Citizenship (Western Samoa Restoration) Amendment Bill, has passed its third reading and will become law. ...

Greens

2 days ago
Release: Minister of Education thinks New Zealand ends at the Bombay Hills

The Minister of Education has shown complete disregard for rural communities and their school bus routes in Question Time today. ...

Labour Blog

2 days ago
Economists sound alarm on Government’s slash-and-burn approach

A group of prominent economists has released an open letter to the Government, raising grave concerns about the far-reaching consequences of its fiscal policy. ...

Greens

2 days ago
Release: Smoking numbers up under Costello’s watch

National’s repeal of Labour’s smokefree legislation has taken New Zealand further away from achieving a Smokefree 2025 and a smokefree generation. ...

Labour Blog

2 days ago
Release: Call for Palestine recognition by NZ, Australian and Canadian MPs

Parliamentarians from Australia, Canada and New Zealand have written an open letter to their respective Prime Ministers calling on them to recognise Palestine. ...

Labour Blog

2 days ago
Justice Select Committee opens floor for Treaty Principles submissions

Today, the Justice Select Committee has decided to officially open submissions for the controversial Treaty Principles Bill. ...

Greens

3 days ago
Power of the people on full display as hīkoi approaches Parliament

Today, Hīkoi mō te Tiriti arrived in Wellington, with thousands gathering to march in unity against the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...

Greens

3 days ago
Hypocrisy as Te Whatu Ora contractor bill balloons

Te Whatu Ora’s bill for contracting and consulting staff has ballooned by nearly 20 percent under the National Government, breaking a promise they made during the election campaign to cut contractors. ...

Labour Blog

4 days ago
Release: Growing pressure to scrap Section 7AA Repeal Bill

The newly released Section 7AA Repeal Bill's select committee report is further evidence that the Government should scrap it. ...

Labour Blog

5 days ago
Government’s move to monetise access to nature a slippery slope

The Green Party is voicing serious concerns over the Government’s proposal to charge for access to public conservation land, released today. ...

Greens

1 week ago
Green Party condemns the passage of Treaty Principles Bill

The Green Party condemns the passing of the Treaty Principles Bill at first reading, and is clear that the fight is not over. ...

Greens

1 week ago
Stand Up for Te Tiriti

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is our country’s founding document. It forms the basis of the relationship between Māori and the Crown – and the Aotearoa New Zealand we live in today. ...

Labour Blog

1 week ago
Release: Over 15,000 sign Labour’s open letter to Luxon

As the hīkoi to Parliament continues, Labour has sent an open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in a last-ditch attempt to get him to kill the Treaty Principles Bill. ...

Labour Blog

1 week ago
Fast Track Bill threatens environment, climate and reputation

The fast-track legislation passing its second reading in Parliament is another step towards environmental ruin. ...

Greens

1 week ago
Greens join King’s Counsel in calling for Treaty Principles Bill to be abandoned

The Prime Minister must answer the call from a group of senior lawyers of the King’s Counsel to abandon the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...

Greens

1 week ago
Chris Hipkins’ apology statement to state and faith-based care survivors

...

Labour Blog

1 week ago
Release: Labour formally apologises to state and faith-based care survivors

Labour joins with the Government in unreservedly apologising for the abuse, neglect and trauma including torture in state and faith-based care and for ignoring the voices of survivors for too long. ...

Labour Blog

1 week ago
Green Party stands in support of survivors of abuse in care

Today, the Green Party stands alongside the survivors of abuse in state care and faith-based care as the Government issues an historic apology. ...

Greens

1 week ago
Green Party calls for conscience vote on Treaty Principles Bill

The Green Party has written to the Speaker of the House requesting he enable a personal vote on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago
Govt move to exclude journalist risks chilling effect

The Green Party is alarmed by the Government’s move to exclude a journalist from covering this week’s apology for the survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago
Without action, an apology will be empty air

For tomorrow’s apology to survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care to hold any water, the Government must not pursue the same policies that drove the abuse in the first place. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago
Release: Concerns remain over tobacco interference

Concerns about the tobacco industry’s ability to interfere in government policy making remain, despite the inability of the Office of the Auditor-General to investigate the Government’s decision to halve the excise tax on heated tobacco products. ...

Labour Blog

2 weeks ago
Urgent wake-up call on climate

The Climate Change Commission’s latest advice indicates Aotearoa needs to be stepping up on climate action. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago
Green MP’s Meme-ber’s Bill set to save the world

Break out the punchlines and dust off your meme folder: Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter’s Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill was pulled from the Ballot yesterday. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago
Release: Poroporoaki: Ta Robert (Bom) Gillies

Kua hinga te manawa kairākau o Te Rua Tekau Ma Waru Tiwhatiwha te po! Kakarauru i te po! Ka rapuhia kei hea koe kua riro! Haere e te Ika a Whiro ki o tini hoa kua ngaro atu ki te Pō ...

Labour Blog

2 weeks ago
Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principles Bill

The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago
Release: Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principle...

The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...

Labour Blog

2 weeks ago
NZ must pursue independent foreign policy

The Green Party says the need is greater than ever for Aotearoa New Zealand to pursue an independent foreign policy. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago

Child Protection Investigation Unit established

A new Child Protection Investigation Unit is being established to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children in care, Minister for Children Karen Chhour says. “The report released by the Royal Commission into abuse in state care shows us all the risk of not acting immediately when there are serious ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 hours ago
Speech at United States Business Summit 2024

Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Ka mihi ki te mana whenua ko Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. Kia ora and good morning everyone. Thank you Fran and Simon for inviting me here today, and importantly your leadership of this forum over several years now. I want to acknowledge David Gehrenbeck, Deputy ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 hours ago
Record number of submissions received on granny flat proposal

Nearly 2,000 submissions have been received on the Government’s proposals aimed at making it easier to build a granny flat of up to 60 square metres without a resource or building consent, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk say. “This is the highest number ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 hours ago
District Court Judge appointed

Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Rebecca Guthrie as a District Court Judge. Judge Guthrie was admitted to the bar in 1997 following her graduation from the University of Canterbury in 1996 (LLB, BA). She commenced her legal career in Hastings in 1997 before moving to London in ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

5 hours ago
Appointments strengthen Predator Free 2050

The latest Predator Free 2050 Board appointments will help to strengthen biodiversity efforts across Aotearoa New Zealand, Conservation Minister Tama Potaka says. Mr Potaka today announced two appointments to the Board of Directors of Predator Free 2050 Limited, a key player in the wider Predator Free 2050 Programme. “The Predator ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

6 hours ago
New facility in Christchurch will improve the lives of young New Zealanders

Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey today opened Kahurangi, an innovative and much-needed facility for Canterbury’s Child, Adolescent, and Family Mental Health Services. “The new state of the art outpatient facility opened today will be a gamechanger for the way mental health is delivered for young people in Canterbury,” says Mr ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

6 hours ago
Driver safety screens to be installed on Auckland buses

Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed news from the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) that bus driver protection screens will be installed across Auckland’s bus fleet by 2026.“The Government is committed to improving the safety of working environments for bus drivers, and Budget 2024 allocated $15 million of Crown funding over ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

7 hours ago
Government action provides Southland farmers more time to meet plan requirements

The Government is taking action to ensure Southland farmers and growers are not affected by unreasonable regional farm plan deadlines, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard say.“Cabinet has agreed to provide more time for farmers and growers to comply with regional rules ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

23 hours ago
Bill reaffirms Government’s commitment to crack down on serious youth offending

The Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Bill had its first reading at Parliament today. The Bill reaffirms the Government’s commitment to crack down on serious youth offending, Minister for Children Karen Chhour says. “In recent years we have seen an unacceptable spike in youth offending. “This Bill makes ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

24 hours ago
Critical milestones for earthquake buildings review

Fairer, more sensible rules about managing earthquake risks are a step closer with the passing of legislation and the appointment of an independent chair to provide expert advice, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The Government is committed to reinvigorating our cities and regions to support economic growth, ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

1 day ago
State of the art radiology machine for Auckland

People in Northland and Auckland will benefit from a new machine for cancer treatment installed at the Regional Cancer and Blood Service at Auckland City Hospital. The MV5 linear accelerator, or LINAC machine, officially opened today targets cancer tumours with pinpoint accuracy. Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says this new, ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

1 day ago
Foreign Minister to visit Europe

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Europe for high-level talks with France, Germany and the United Kingdom next week. "Since taking office almost a year ago, the Coalition Government has emphasised the importance we place on New Zealand's traditional and likeminded diplomatic and ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

1 day ago
First arrests made under gang patch ban

Police have made their first arrests under the new gang patch legislation, with two gang members arrested, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. “Just before 11 this morning, Police in Wairoa apprehended a gang member for wearing a patch to the supermarket. He has been arrested and will now face enforcement ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

1 day ago
Better support for victims of sexual violence

The Government is proposing two major changes to name suppression laws that will put the views of victims of sexual violence first, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “We are committed to restoring law and order and these two proposed changes will help ensure the victims of crime are put at ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

1 day ago
Government moving forward with Regional Deals

Cabinet has agreed to invite all regions to submit proposals for Regional Deals between central and local government that drive economic growth and deliver the infrastructure our country needs, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop say. Inviting all regions to propose a Regional Deal that boosts ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

1 day ago
MSA pilot participant update

One of the ten young men selected to participate in the Military-Style Academy Pilot has allegedly reoffended. Children’s Minister Karen Chhour is disappointed but says it would be naïve to think that none of these young men would reoffend. “I’m saddened that this young person has not taken this opportunity ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

1 day ago
Fighting for Kiwis in Trade

Delivered at Auckland Trade and Economic Policy School Good morning and thank you Deputy Vice Chancellor Lithander for your warm welcome and for inviting me to open Auckland Trade and Economic Policy School today. A Special thanks to the University of Auckland, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

1 day ago
Attendance rates increase, again

Associate Education Minister David Seymour says that school attendance is continuing to rise. In Term 3 of 2024 51.3 per cent of students attended school regularly, an increase of 5.3 percentage points from 46 per cent in Term 3 of 2023. “This Government has prioritised student attendance and it is ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

1 day ago
Improving the lives of young New Zealanders

Ensuring New Zealand is the best place in the world for children and young people is the vision at the heart of the Government’s new Child and Youth Strategy, Child Poverty Reduction Minister Louise Upston says. “Childhood represents a huge opportunity to set people on a positive path towards living ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

1 day ago
Government continues work to reinstate livestock exports by sea

The Government is reinstating the trade of livestock exports by sea while ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare, says Associate Minister of Agriculture Andrew Hoggard.“The Government will introduce legislation changes to reinstate the trade, enhance oversight, and strengthen requirements for exporters to identify risks and manage the welfare of ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 days ago
Speech to the National Quality Forum 2024

Tēnā koutou katoa – it is a pleasure to be here today. I would like to begin by acknowledging the important leadership role you all play in ensuring a quality health system New Zealanders can trust. There is enormous clinical expertise in this room covering a wide range of disciplines. ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 days ago
New Zealand’s COP29 National Statement

Tēnā koutou katoa. Mr President, Excellencies, Delegates. New Zealand, and all nations represented here today, are already dealing with the impacts of climate change. Our households, businesses, and economies are bearing the costs of its effects. The choices we make now will shape the severity of these impacts for generations ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 days ago
Latest Quarterly Investment Report released

The Government has released its second Quarterly Investment Report (QIR) which shows substantial work still to be done by agencies to improve investment reporting and meet the Government’s expectations, Infrastructure and Acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “New Zealand has significant infrastructure and investment needs. The Government is determined to get ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 days ago
New Zealand supporting loss and damage fund

Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced New Zealand will contribute NZ$10 million to the new Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage while at the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan. “New Zealand is joining the global effort to address the significant challenge of responding to ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 days ago
Gang crackdown begins at stroke of midnight

The free ride for gangs is over when the clock strikes midnight tonight, with tough new laws officially coming into effect, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Police Minister Mark Mitchell say. “Gang patches will no longer be able to be worn in public. To earn the right to wear a ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 days ago
LGFA increases borrowing capacity to support high growth councils

The Government is welcoming the decision by the Local Government Funding Agency to increase access to financing tools for fast growing councils to support greater investment in critical infrastructure, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says.“Communities across the country are facing an infrastructure deficit and significant population growth is projected in ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 days ago
Temporary Traffic Management costs revealed

The Government has revealed that over the past three years, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has spent an eyewatering $786 million of taxpayers’ money on road cones and temporary traffic management (TTM), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“When I became Minister, I was surprised to learn that that NZTA did ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Jurisdiction of Disputes Tribunal to double

Legislation that will double the financial jurisdiction of the Disputes Tribunal from $30,000 to $60,000 has passed first reading in Parliament today, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith. “We need to improve court timeliness and access to justice so that Kiwis and get on with their lives. Court delays affect everyone, the ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Protecting New Zealand from foreign interference

Legislation that will specifically criminalise foreign interference and strengthen espionage offences has passed first reading in Parliament today, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “It is normal and appropriate for states to interact and work to influence one another. This encourages cooperation and can have mutually beneficial outcomes. “However, the reality ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Significant milestone for Canterbury Road of National Significance

Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed news that the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board has approved funding towards pre-implementation and early works on the State Highway 1 (SH1) Belfast to Pegasus Motorway and Woodend Bypass Road of National Significance (RoNS). “Reaching this significant milestone is a reflection of our Government’s ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Health survey results to help drive change

Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says findings from the annual Health Survey highlight the need to continue driving better health outcomes for New Zealanders. The New Zealand Health Survey is an annual snapshot of key metrics measured from July 2023 – July 2024. Findings released this morning include: In 2023/24, ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Final push needed to get to Smokefree 2025

A renewed effort to get people to quit smoking will build on what has worked to date and target the groups who most need support, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello said today. “The latest New Zealand Health Survey results show the daily smoking rate at 6.9 per cent and we ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
New diplomatic appointments

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced four new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Next steps for Regulatory Standards Bill

Regulation Minister David Seymour has today announced the next steps in the Government’s plan improve the quality of regulation by opening consultation on a proposed Regulatory Standards Bill. “New Zealand's low wages can be blamed on low productivity, and low productivity can be blamed on poor regulation,” says Mr Seymour. ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Red Tape Tipline goes live

Minister for Regulation David Seymour has today announced that the Ministry for Regulation’s Red Tape Tipline is now live. “We want to hear about your red tape horror stories. From today, New Zealanders will have a say on how they are regulated through an online portal,” says Mr Seymour. The ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Youth Parliament 2025 announced

The Minister for Youth Matt Doocey has today announced the eleventh Youth Parliament will be taking place in 2025. “Youth Parliament offers a unique youth development opportunity to young people from across New Zealand to experience the political process and learn about how government works,” says Mr Doocey. “The two-day ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Police stats show promising change

After nearly a year in Government, Kiwis have seen significant change across law and order with promising early results shown across some Police statistics, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. “In August 2023, I told New Zealanders that if they had not started to see a change in public safety within ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Better coordination of anti-scam efforts

With the launch of Fraud Awareness Week, the Government is committing to new coordination efforts across industry and government to combat online scams, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Online financial scams are a growing problem for New Zealand. New data released today shows that Kiwis lost nearly ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Minister to consider 7AA select committee report

Minister for Children Karen Chhour will consider the recommendations made by the Social Services and Community Committee in its report back to Parliament on the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill. “I want to thank the people who made submissions and those who appeared before the committee in ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Defence Minister to attend ASEAN meeting

Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Vientiane, Laos. “We need to take every opportunity to engage with our international partners, given the increasingly unstable geo-political situation,” Ms Collins says. “New Zealand has a long-standing commitment to this ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago

The Friday Poem: ‘Boyhood’ by Art Nahill

A new poem by Art Nahill. Boyhood I hate the way the dog cowers when I raise my voice. After all this time together she’s still not sure what I’m capable of. As kids with too much time we sprinkled salt on slugs plucked from summer gardens watched them shrivel ...

The SpinoffBy Art Nahill

2 hours ago
The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending November 22

The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Jonathan Cape, $26) The slight, superb winner of the Booker Prize ...

The SpinoffBy The Spinoff Review of Books

2 hours ago
‘Wanted’ for war crimes over Gaza: Israel’s Netanyahu, Gallant face ICC arrest warrants

Democracy Now! NERMEEN SHAIKH: In The Hague, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during Israel’s assault on Gaza. In a statement, the ICC said the Israeli leaders had, ...

Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report

3 hours ago
New Child Protection Investigation Unit announced by Children’s Minister

The unit will be up and running by early next year, Children's Minister Karen Chhour says. ...

Radio NZ – political

3 hours ago
In-person submissions on Treaty Principles Bill to be at Parliament or by video call

In-person submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill will all be held at Parliament or by video call. ...

Radio NZ – political

3 hours ago
‘Got my support’ – Christopher Luxon stands by Erica Stanford after ‘stupid ...

The prime minister says it wasn't appropriate behaviour but that Erica Stanford had apologised. ...

Radio NZ – political

3 hours ago
Gang chapter president’s patch seized in first 24 hours of ban

The first arrest was made just three minutes after midnight, with 11 more to come. ...

Radio NZ – political

4 hours ago
Government slammed for pushing on with boot camps amid trial

Labour has accused National of ignoring the evidence. ...

Radio NZ – political

4 hours ago
The unspoken rule of conversation that explains why AI chatbots feel so human

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Celeste Rodriguez Louro, Chair of Linguistics and Director of Language Lab, The University of Western Australia Rroselavy / Shutterstock Earlier this year, a Hong Kong finance worker was tricked into paying US$25 million to scammers who had used deepfake technology to ...

Evening ReportBy The Conversation

4 hours ago
Who were Caracalla and Geta, the cruel and unhinged Roman brother emperors depicted in Gladiator II?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Hanaghan, Senior Research Fellow in Latin Christianity in Late Antiquity, Australian Catholic University Warning: this article contains mild spoilers. When Gladiator I was released in 2000, I was a high school Classics student and the film brought Classical literature to life ...

Evening ReportBy The Conversation

4 hours ago
Gang patch ban: The first 24 hours

The first arrest was made just three minutes after midnight, with 11 more to come. ...

Radio NZ – political

5 hours ago
New Zealand Government Urged To Back ICC Arrest Warrants For Israeli Leaders Without Equivocation

“We are waiting for our government to announce it will arrest Netanyahu and Gallant immediately if they set foot in Aotearoa New Zealand” says PSNA National Chair John Minto. ...

Scoop politics

5 hours ago
Justice Committee Makes Further Decisions About Submissions Process For The Principles Of The Treaty...

The committee plans to hold hearings in the week starting Monday, 27 January and the weeks starting 10, 17 and 24 February 2025. ...

Scoop politics

5 hours ago
Watch live: Christopher Luxon faces questions during power station visit

It comes as Labour accuses National of not listening to evidence about boot camps. ...

Radio NZ – political

5 hours ago
Survivors of abuse in care know how redress should work – will the government finally listen?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Winter, Associate Professor in Political Theory, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images When Prime Minister Christopher Luxon stood in Parliament last week to apologise to survivors of abuse in care, his words were among many fine speeches by ...

Evening ReportBy The Conversation

6 hours ago
Review: The Day of the Jackal is a riveting and ridiculous ride

Eddie Redmayne’s globe-trotting assassin thriller on TVNZ is worth putting your phone down for. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. This is a vulnerable thing to say as someone who often writes about television for a job, but boy am I really ...

The SpinoffBy Alex Casey

6 hours ago
RNA editing is the next frontier in gene therapy – here’s what you need to know

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flora Hui, Research Fellow, Centre for Eye Research Australia and Honorary Fellow, Department of Surgery (Ophthalmology), The University of Melbourne IoanaB/Shutterstock The United States Food and Drug Administration has just approved the first-ever clinical trial that uses CRISPR-Cas13 RNA editing. Its ...

Evening ReportBy The Conversation

7 hours ago
Yes, you still need to use sunscreen, despite what you’ve heard on TikTok

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Lee, PhD Candidate, Dermatology Research Centre, The University of Queensland Karolina Grabowska/Pexels Summer is nearly here. But rather than getting out the sunscreen, some TikTokers are urging followers to chuck it out and go sunscreen-free. They claim it’s healthier ...

Evening ReportBy The Conversation

7 hours ago
Humans are killing off the old and wise animals that hold nature together. Here’s what must change

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keller Kopf, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, Charles Darwin University Laxmikant Ameenagad, Shutterstock In humans and other animals, ageing is generally associated with a decline in biological function. But scientists are now discovering older animals perform vital roles in populations and ecosystems. ...

Evening ReportBy The Conversation

7 hours ago
A man scouring Google Earth found a mysterious scar in the Australian outback – and now scientists...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matej Lipar, Adjunct Research Fellow, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University Author provided/Google Earth Earlier this year, a caver was poring over satellite images of the Nullarbor Plain when he came across something unexpected: an enormous, mysterious scar etched ...

Evening ReportBy The Conversation

7 hours ago
Design as a movement: how First Nations people take ownership of their cultural stories through fash...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Treena Clark, Chancellor’s Indigenous Research Fellow, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney Once located 250 metres to the east of the Art Gallery of South Australia, the grand beaux-arts style Jubilee Exhibition Building was constructed to house the ...

Evening ReportBy The Conversation

7 hours ago
‘We need more doctors’ – Support for new Waikato medical school

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists says a third medical school and more students in Auckland and Otago are both needed. ...

Radio NZ – political

8 hours ago
Cricket balls can concuss and even kill batters – at all levels, helmet use must be taken seriousl...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Annette Greenhow, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Bond University Linda George/Shutterstock The ten-year anniversary of the death of much-loved Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes falls on November 27. The 25-year-old’s life was tragically cut short in 2014 when a bouncer ...

Evening ReportBy The Conversation

8 hours ago
Hold the roosters, no economic dawn yet

Treasury likely to downgrade economic forecast while Chris Bishop says the government won’t be ‘a slave to a surplus’, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Recession will be deeper and last longer — Treasury At a recent Spinoff ...

The SpinoffBy Anna Rawhiti-Connell

8 hours ago
Knowing superstitions aren’t real doesn’t stop us behaving superstitiously – why?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie Gomes-Ng, Senior Lecturer of Psychology, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Former New Zealand prime minister John Key has three white rabbits painted on his helicopter, a nod to his “massively superstitious” habit of repeating “white rabbits” three times at ...

Evening ReportBy The Conversation

10 hours ago
Government slammed for pushing ahead with boot camps while trial still under way

The coalition has "absolutely no intention of listening to the evidence that comes out of their experiment", Labour MP says. ...

Radio NZ – political

10 hours ago
Smoke and mirrors in tobacco debate

Labour claims Government is ‘cherry-picking’ smoking trends data to hide decade-first increase in daily smokers The post Smoke and mirrors in tobacco debate appeared first on Newsroom. ...

NewsroomBy Fox Meyer

10 hours ago
Smoke and mirrors in heated tobacco debate

Labour claims Government is ‘cherry-picking’ smoking trends data to hide decade-first increase in daily smokers The post Smoke and mirrors in heated tobacco debate appeared first on Newsroom. ...

NewsroomBy Fox Meyer

10 hours ago
Treasury bangs the drum on ‘unsustainable’ superannuation

The Government’s economic adviser is sending a message it doesn’t want to hear – superannuation is increasingly unaffordable The post Treasury bangs the drum on ‘unsustainable’ superannuation appeared first on Newsroom. ...

NewsroomBy Tina Morrison

11 hours ago
Victims of sex offending welcome shift on name suppression laws

A man abused by a former political figure is "immensely relieved" at a government proposal to end secrecy around sex offenders' identities. ...

Radio NZ – political

11 hours ago
This week three parties stood together – can they withstand the storm to come?

There is plenty yet to play out, but the next election is at this rate shaping up as trio versus trio, writes Toby Manhire. A subplot of this week’s historic hīkoi mō te Tiriti has been the sight of the three opposition parties presenting a unified front. Te Pāti Māori ...

The SpinoffBy Toby Manhire

11 hours ago
All 33 malls in Auckland ranked from worst to best

From the low lows of abandon empires to the high highs of a mall done just right. This is the second in the Malls of New Zealand series, where we rank the malls in major centres. Next week: Wellington. A note from the editor: This is the hardest ranking we’ve ...

The SpinoffBy Group Think

11 hours ago
The cost of being: A clothes-mad 20-something who walks everywhere

As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a 27-year-old apartment-dwelling marketing exec explains her approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here. Gender: Female. Age: 27. Ethnicity: Pākehā. Role: Marketing exec at ...

The SpinoffBy The Cost of Being

11 hours ago
Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 22 November

Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 22 November appeared first on Newsroom. ...

NewsroomBy Newsroom Puzzles

11 hours ago
Daily crossword, Friday 22 November

The post Daily crossword, Friday 22 November appeared first on Newsroom. ...

NewsroomBy Newsroom Puzzles

11 hours ago
China likely to strengthen regional relationships in response to another Trump term

Opinion: Recent discussions in Shanghai provide some insight into what’s likely to be on the table The post China likely to strengthen regional relationships in response to another Trump term appeared first on Newsroom. ...

NewsroomBy Jason Young

11 hours ago
Nuclear winters know no borders

Opinion: The immediate horror of nuclear weapon explosions – the blinding flash, crushing blast wave, and radioactive inferno – is well documented.But what nuclear-armed nations either don’t grasp or won’t admit, is far more chilling: how their weapons could devastate even countries thousands of kilometres from any mushroom clouds.The collapse ...

NewsroomBy Nick Wilson and Matt Boyd

11 hours ago
This week’s bestselling books – November 22

FICTION1 Kāwai: Tree of Nourishment by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)Sample dialogue, all from one chapter:“That can’t be,” replied Taona doubtfully.“You were right. The pā is unnervingly quiet,” Taona murmured.“The Hākuwai,” Motukia breathed. “Our grandfathers told us they rarely saw the Hākuwai in daylight,” Motukia muttered.“Their fight would have been futile ...

NewsroomBy Steve Braunias

11 hours ago
Burma the flying elephant

After about two and a half years of planning and waiting, New Zealand’s last elephant has moved to her new home at Monarto Safari Park in South Australia.Burma and her “human herd”, that is, her keepers, arrived last week, and she’s settling in well, according to Auckland Zoo’s Andrew Coers.“Something ...

NewsroomBy Gwen McClure

11 hours ago
NZ’s membership of Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance in jeopardy

Senior ministers in the coalition suggested NZ’s membership will be re-evaluated if it restarts offshore oil and gas drilling The post NZ’s membership of Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance in jeopardy appeared first on Newsroom. ...

NewsroomBy Marc Daalder

11 hours ago

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
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