We just got our household census form… It is online again. FFS. It was a disaster last time. Why did they think it would be any better this time, especially with a world full of post-pandemic cookers who will think it is all part of a deep state conspiracy? And they’ve been well funded this time so there is no excuses for an incompetently run census.
Huge sections of the most vulnerable parts of our population have no regular internet access. The government bureaucracy has made no provision for these people.
There will be a disastrous response on census night – which has been barely advertised despite a 126 million dollar budget – because a lot of people will either forget about it, lose the code, ignore it, be butt hurt over some question that doesn't affect them but they've been told on SM is a new front in the culture wars, or have no idea it is even happening. Then they’ll call a helpline which will of course have only three people and only be available 9-5 and the media will report on horrendous wait times and Luxon will excoriate the government on yet another failure to deliver.
What will happen is after a welter of scandal over the incompetent waste of 126 million dollars on effectively nothing tens of millions of more money will be required to pay to hire people to follow up all the people didn't fill out their forms, and the data will dribble in over six months, be incomplete and undercount crucial sections of society. WTF is wrong with just hiring an army of student census takers in the first place and sending them out to collect the forms like they did twenty years and that actually worked?
If we are going to have so much virtual government then the corporeal government needs to do something like set up it's own ISP & require all ISPs to zero rate traffic to any .govt.nz domain. At least give people access – and for God's sake, tell when it is happening and why and do SOMETHING to counteract the absolute torrent of conspiracy theory nonsense flying around about the census.
We had our pac hand delivered by a young person who explained every thing and was given the option of doing it online or filling out the form and posting it back in the enclosed addressed envelop. We live in the suburbs.
Being a literate (in English) and technologically literate and wealthy enough to afford telecoms infrastructure household – we filled it out (mostly in advance) with no problems.
[In advance because my teen was super-interested in the process and wanted to do it a.s.a.p – I'll do mine on census night]
I don't think that will be the case for many of our neighbours. Range of issues from: English as a second-language, and limited literacy in English; floating population of students in short-term rent-a-room (or garage) accommodation; elderly and decidedly non-tech savvy people; people in transition between houses (couch or spare-room surfing) following the Auckland flooding; hyper-busy people who've just shoved the info packet on a shelf to 'do later' (and will probably forget).
That seemed to have enough ''reckons'' to qualify as a Hoskins rant, and enough dog-whistles for a Farrar-go Kiwiblog post. No I am not interested in learning more about uninformed opinions. I have received my papers, and I see they give me the option of on line or paper. I haven't looked through them yet as I intend to complete them on the 7th or 8th March – probably on-line. Yes some will have difficulties, but I see nothing wrong at this stage. I suspect I will as usual wish that they had asked questions about some issues that did not make the cut, but that is normal as well. I do encourage all readers of The Standard to honestly and promptly complete their return, in whichever way they prefer, and get it in without needing assistance, but I am sure there will be good plans in place for providing assistance where needed.
Or, you can access a free Internet hub (local library is the most common one). They'll be spending a lot of time working with non-tech-savy individuals in completing it online.
Of course, this does nothing for those sections of the population which are still cut off (or substantially cut off) from the rest of the country, following Cyclone Gabrielle. I would hope that StatsNZ has an active plan to follow up in these communities.
Same, 2 letters, 2 "private access codes" – presumably both unique to our household.
1st letter – "Please follow the instructions below to complete your census forms"
2nd letter – "Census Day is Tuesday, 7 March" [this must be the "reminder letter"]
Phoned the census help line number [ 0800 236 787 ], and, after selecting a language [option 2], a recorded message said that I could use either online access code:
If your question is about a reminder letter you received from us, you can use the access code on this letter, or a previous letter you have received.
Also, on the back of the (1-page) reminder letter, there’s an answer to the question "Why does my household have multiple online access codes?" It's for privacy reasons.
If we are going to have so much virtual government then the corporeal government needs to do something like set up it's own ISP & require all ISPs to zero rate traffic to any .govt.nz domain.
what does "require all ISPs to zero rate traffic to any .govt.nz domain" mean?
So there would be an ISP called, I don't know, Kiwinet or something. It would be free to join. Once you have kiwinet as a provider you can navigate to any .govt.nz domain with zero data charges, because all the ISP or mobile providers have been instructed to zero rate data usage for those sites.
kiwinet would also potentially be able run a white list of approved websites, such as RNZ news, which the network providers would also be required to zero rate. That woyuld mean you might be able to read an RNZ story or listen to their live radio feed but an embedded youtube video wouldn't work – for that you would need to buy data from your commercial ISP and/or mobile service provider.
My ex so, is doing cencus work, she's going to ever house, and was telling me that because of one place being a Maori house/area(not sure of exact detail) is getting a Maori census worker to ream up and go there, doesn't sound half arsed to me.
They didn't leave their bubble but they did leave their house, trailing the hearse as a final farewell because lockdown rules meant they weren't allowed into the crematorium.
Parsons learnt on Tuesday that on that same weekend, the Health Minister flouted the rules.
"There's no way you can now tell people what to do when literally that weekend that I had to follow a hearse and couldn't get out of the car… he was driving to the beach with his family," she told Newshub.
Eh? Kim said, and I quote "Meeting organiser, and founding member of the Sensible Sentencing Trust Louise Parsons" when introducing her. I suggest you go listen to the audio. 22 seconds in.
Maybe the use of a bunch of students to take census forms around in person (seems sensible) was seen as too risky, given the likelihood of a violent reaction from those in the anti-vax mob or others with a grudge against the authorities.
And any incident could have led to a lawsuit by the students against Statistics NZ for sending them into a dangerous situation.
Separate comment: Rob Campbell might lose 2 government posts but probably has nothing to worry about for lolly. He seems well connected with Maori groups so it's my guess he will pick up a lucrative post on one of their health organisations.
At $30 an hour it is more than students who will be delivering the Census. We got a bunch of forms in the mail, and 3 days later an envelope with a code for doing it online, so we have options. I will do it in the paper form so I can best register my objection to being assigned an identity in which I do not believe.
I delivered the Census for the one before the last one. We got good H&S briefings about standing well back from front doors and not going into a dwelling. I understand that this time they are issuing personal alarms for deliverers.
Sanctuary, with all that has happened over the last three years, feeling pressured is almost a normal condition. Melting moments are becoming common. Incognito's suggestion sounds good.
The self appointed grand poobah of socialist thought Chris Trotter didn't leave the left, it left him. It is a boomer thing to be utterly convinced it is the children who are wrong.
"We believe there has been too little scrutiny of the affordability of the perceived NZ$120 billion to $180 billion investment in the Three Waters reforms," the reports conclude."
"No matter who delivers the required infrastructure, the cost of such investment is astronomical. If councils fund the investment, general property and targeted rates will likely soar to record levels. If water services entities fund the investment, water charges will likely soar instead."
From day one the claim has been the reforms will spare the user from unaffordable water services of the necessary quality that were undeliverable under the status quo when the reality is and always was that we got what we were prepared (able) to pay for.
"But Mahuta says the reforms will save Auckland ratepayers from higher water costs in the coming years.
"Within the next two years Auckland's water bills will at least double and under the reform proposals that we are making Auckland ratepayers will benefit significantly in terms of reduced costs."
If we take these projections too seriously the country could easily be talked out of maintaining acceptable water infrastructure.
Thing is a lot of those figures are talking about cost projections which should be in proportion to the entire NZ economy. After all the water infrastructure needs to be maintained and suitable for the whole economy and country. To place a reasonable scale on those things we might compare them to NZs projected GDP at the same time. This would indicate (maybe) how much of the nations income (a close proxy for effort) goes towards maintaining the countries essential water infrastructure. My suggestion would be its bugger all on that scale, even if looking at the most lavish water infrastructure available.
If you look at the figures without that context they are going to get quite intimidating quite quickly however. With that context in mind however we might move on to how much of that is user pays, how much is on council balance sheets and how much should be central government. Also the council choice comes with the disadvantage that individual councils might get into competitive cost avoidance and maintenance deferral strategies (as we have seen). Mr Milne kind of skirted over that bit inferring instead that there was gold plating going on.
Over all I don't think overseas credit rating agencies have much productive to say about the kind of water infrastructure NZ should be developing, investing in and providing.
"Over all I don't think overseas credit rating agencies have much productive to say about the kind of water infrastructure NZ should be developing, investing in and providing."
Unfortunately the Government forming the policy to safeguard that future appear to be of the opposite persuasion
Really? I had taken Mahuta's statements to mean central government would take on some of the costs to relieve rate payers while still maintaining a good water infrastructure.
You appear to be taking this as, 3 waters means the country will have to make do with inferior infrastructure because credit ratings.
Then your interpretation would be incorrect….we can have the desired (possibly) water infrastructure at a price…and that price has little to do with ratings agencies (or money)….the truths that politicians dare not speak (if they even understand it)
If we dedicate 1 in 200 hours to water infrastructure then the budget is half a percent of GDP or about $1.875 billion annually. Is that ball park for the price? Or should it be more like 1% GDP or 3.6 billion?
If the numbers used for the policy formation are anywhere close then we are talking in excess of 5% of current Gov revenues…and as anyone dealing with infrastructure knows those numbers are likely to be underestimated. Crucially much of what is required cannot be sourced domestically.
Problem with amortising the costs that way it that way is it makes the whole question about the accuracy of the inflation forecast used.
The statements about cost have reasonable meaning giving annual spending numbers and then assuming similar real expenditures follow. But I suspect this doesn't generate suitably imposing nominal sums.
The statement that the resources to do this firstly exist overseas seems to suggest they need to be developed domestically.
If your not depressed and want to feel that way, the ICIJ, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, have launched a new way for you to get your daily dose of depression.
Jokes aside, this is some very impressive journalism and well worth your time to read. Like many of their other series this one will expand.
They are literally small babies, the event looks like it is really just a bit of adulting time for their Mums. And anyway, it is a free world and people can decide where they want to take their kids.
People are free to ignore basic safeguarding and expose their children to men balancing on their penises and displaying less gymnastic ability than a seven-year old gymnast, and no redemptive factor of artistic quality, in order to indulge in a performative act of progressive ideology.
That is why I put an adjective at the beginning of my comment.
Twitter apparently now labelling this "potentially sensitive content".
If babies are the target audience, does this mean sensitive for those who as yet unborn? Or is it deemed sensitive because of the visual dissonance of seeing sexual performances in front of young babies?
I am pretty sure you are overthinking this. What do you expect for the price? Cirque du Soleil?
It looks like a potentially fundraising event for Mums with small kids where they can natter at some local amateur stuff. It is unlikely any babies were harmed.
I mean, it isn't Iris Stoddard of the CWI doing a talk on her recent trip to the flower gardens of Bulgaria, but it least it has got Mum out of the house.
the debate that's been happening particularly in the UK (where it's left and right engaged, rather than conservative as in the US), there have been many analyses of safeguarding, what it is, how it gets breached or eroded.
A feature of that is lefties/progressives saying there's no big deal with mixing adult sexuality with children. But generally the people saying that don't understand what safeguarding is, how it works, and why it matters even in liberal spaces.
They are literally small babies, the event looks like it is really just a bit of adulting time for their Mums.
Looking at what they are wearing and the location/props, my guess is that it's a uterus-haver-gestators and babies class that does various forms of movement practices.
I'm curious at what age babies and young kids should start to be protected from expressions of adult sexuality. Would it be ok for strippers to demonstrate a workout in work gear and using work actions? How about pup fetishists? Or adults involved in dressing up as babies as part of their sexuality? (the last two examples are from Pride parades, and the baby/fetish involved engaging with kids in the baby fetish tent)
And anyway, it is a free world and people can decide where they want to take their kids.
WTF are you on about? Honestly all this reductio ad absurdum hysterical nonsense on behalf of other people who don't appear to be traumatised in any way whatsoever. Pornhub? Get.A.Fucking.Grip.
Honestly no one is covering themselves in glory in that particular debate, I just ignore them all. I just haven't got the time or energy for a debate characterised by zero common sense, zero good faith and an unreasoned screaming at and past each other.
Good point, it is like wrestling with pigs – you just get covered in mud and pig gets nothing out of it except the chance to squeal a lot. No more from me!
Neither of us appear to be screaming, so I have some faith.
WTF are you on about?
I'm glad you asked, because lefties and liberals seem largely unaware of what is going on.
Pornhub exists because it's a free world and people can decide where they want to spend their time. Pornhub traffics in the worst sexual violence humans do, including rape, snuff, and child rape and sexual abuse. There's been some societal push back against this where major payment businesses (credit card companies, paypal) have withdrawn their services. But before that there were activists with less power and reach trying to get society to do something about it.
Few people listened, and part of that is because liberal culture and parts of the left won't do a critical analysis of porn that shows how much of the industry includes abuse of women and children.
Feminists are well familiar with this, we're just prudes or whatever. Unsurprisingly, this is the same argument run when feminists start objecting to adult entertainment involving children. It's just some mums and bubs having some time out.
Hence we have a major liberal political commentator in NZ posting this on twitter, than then stopping people from reply and telling them to "Why don't you go and fuck your own face"
This on the same twitter day that the video Molly posted appeared. The progressive position on the event Cormack is referring to is that all performers, including queer/rainbow/drag, should have child safeguarding ahead of all other concerns. Instead we have a dominant narrative driven on the left that all drag done in kids' spaces is safe and appropriate for kids. It's not, it's not hard to find the evidence that it's not, and yet liberals appear to be saying protecting drag queens from some societal restrictions is more important than child safeguarding.
People like David have had the issues pointed out to them before, but remain wedded to an ideology that both suppresses any critique and continues to hide the erosion of safeguarding. Most of that comes from ignorance but some of it is intentional. It's pretty much the same dynamic as to why rapists are now self-IDing into women's prisons, a thing that liberals either say doesn't happen, or women already get raped so why does it matter. Trans rights are more important than women's or children's.
I've been watching the erosion of safeguarding in the UK for probably five years. The whole pup fetish and child sex play fetish thing at Pride should have been sending out alarm bells. Rainbow butt dildo monkey is a bit harder for progressives to get their head around (if you make something a rainbow, surely it is good), but it's still an erosion of boundaries that we should be debating.
The incursion of MAP (minor attracted persons aka usually men who want to have sex with children) into queer and then rainbow culture likewise should be a concern, as should the tolerance by twitter of MAP content. React against this all you like as if I'm making shit up or being hysterical and need to get a grip, but the same forces in society that drive pornhub are going to be supporting the erosion of boundaries around children and women's safety, for obvious reasons. And liberals are holding the door open for them.
I asked you the question of where the boundaries are. If the drag performance is ok, is stripping? How about simulating sexual acts between adults? Is it ok for children to take part in the drag act?
I had unexpected visitors arrive who've just left, and returned to find several comments from you that outline salient discussion points on this topic.
"Rachael Wong, CEO of Women’s Forum Australia, believes this case is an opportunity to resolve the conflict between sex and gender protections in law, and will be the test to determine whether sex is still a "protected attribute" in Australia.
"If the laws that undermine sex-based rights are found to be unconstitutional or otherwise unlawful it could invalidate laws across the country providing protection for gender identity," Wong told the Daily Mail.
"As a result the sex-based protections for women and girls would be reinstated when it comes to their rights to female-only spaces, services, sports and so on. Any other case of a man trying to force himself into a female-only space would be seen as wildly inappropriate," she added."
They are both defending the same set of 'universals' (something about the immutability of biological sex) against what they see as relativist (or post modernist) erosions. But for quite different reasons of course – even though the rhetoric about protecting children can sometimes sound oddly similar.
feminists are well used to this. Activism against porn meant feminists were often on the same side as conservative/religious women. It's a tired old argument from trad lefties, that seeks to obscure feminist concerns by painting them as regressive.
The new version is that the only people objecting to drag are right wing US allied conservatives. Which neatly removes the obligation to address feminist concerns about the inherent sexism in drag, as well as the safeguarding concerns.
Needless to say, much of that argument has come from men, who have an obvious conflict of interest when it comes to porn.
These 'new' response/critiques are depressingly familiar to someone involved with Women's issues since the 1970s.
Couple that with the 'transwomen are real women' or 'let's fool our faces and let anyone who fancies it free access to womens safe spaces'
and letting genuine safe guarding issues be dismissed (from Weka)
React against this all you like as if I'm making shit up or being hysterical and need to get a grip, but the same forces in society that drive pornhub are going to be supporting the erosion of boundaries around children and women's safety, for obvious reasons. And liberals are holding the door open for them.
'evangelical Taliban intersect with feminism'.
Reduction ad absurdum is a form of argument powerfully used against all sorts of rubbish. Just because someone does not share the view that the action being directed against is rubbish or harmful etc does not mean that the form of logical argument should not be used.
The Taliban snipe is particularly telling, given what's happening to women in Afghanistan. Sanctuary often brings intelligent political critique to TS, even stuff I disagree with. But the response here is reactionary and not well thought through. Always interesting to see the blind spots of smart people.
far more men than women use porn. There is an obvious sex class difference in power and abuse within porn, in who makes porn and how, as well as how women are portrayed and how this feeds back into society (eg compare the impact of porn on the understanding and experience of teen girls vs teen boys, it's the girls feeling pressured to give blow jobs or to let their boyfriend choke them or degrade them).
Women are more likely to act on safeguarding concerns of women and children politically. Men are more likely to resist or actively block safeguarding concerns.
Many men will act when it's women and children they know or know about. The politics is a different matter, I've had too many arguments with men who think porn is benign and won't address the issues of the industry having major problems. Left wing men too, who wouldn't argue such if it were about their areas of interest. Hence my point about conflict of interest.
I choose not to watch pornography or buy sex because it would break me if my children were to choose those occupations
Exactly (or god forbid be coerced into those occupations, which is a lot of women). I don't understand why this isn't the position of more men.
It would be interesting to compare responses if there was a "Minstrel Show" going around libraries etc doing performances by people dressed as a parody of African Americans. I have never yet seen a convincing arguement that says that "Womanface" is different from "Blackface" and should be acceptable.
There would be zero issue with the performers 'dressing up' as fairies, mermaids, princesses, etc – in fact, the library staff (including male and gay staff) have been doing so for years, at story times and at events like Santa Parades.
The issue is with hyper-sexualized dressing and (potentially) performance – to a child audience.
Yep. All that has to happen in NZ is for drag queens and allies to front up and take the issues seriously. There's still going to be some push back from feminists about the stereotyping and ridiculing of women that happens in drag, but it's pretty easy to ensure that the sexualised stuff just never happens (and I don't mean drag performers issuing press statements that they are safe, I mean society looking at the issue and talking about what needs to be done in an open and adult way).
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Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
If building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...
Comment: The debate over the future relationship between news and social media is bringing us closer to a long-overdue reckoning. Social media isn’t trying to kill journalism, because social media has never really cared about journalism. Social media is resolutely in the attention business. News propels some attention — perhaps ...
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For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A new Commonwealth Prac Payment will provide students with $319.50 a week when they are on clinical and professional placements. The payment will be means tested and start from July 1 next year, which ...
Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
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We just got our household census form… It is online again. FFS. It was a disaster last time. Why did they think it would be any better this time, especially with a world full of post-pandemic cookers who will think it is all part of a deep state conspiracy? And they’ve been well funded this time so there is no excuses for an incompetently run census.
Huge sections of the most vulnerable parts of our population have no regular internet access. The government bureaucracy has made no provision for these people.
There will be a disastrous response on census night – which has been barely advertised despite a 126 million dollar budget – because a lot of people will either forget about it, lose the code, ignore it, be butt hurt over some question that doesn't affect them but they've been told on SM is a new front in the culture wars, or have no idea it is even happening. Then they’ll call a helpline which will of course have only three people and only be available 9-5 and the media will report on horrendous wait times and Luxon will excoriate the government on yet another failure to deliver.
What will happen is after a welter of scandal over the incompetent waste of 126 million dollars on effectively nothing tens of millions of more money will be required to pay to hire people to follow up all the people didn't fill out their forms, and the data will dribble in over six months, be incomplete and undercount crucial sections of society. WTF is wrong with just hiring an army of student census takers in the first place and sending them out to collect the forms like they did twenty years and that actually worked?
If we are going to have so much virtual government then the corporeal government needs to do something like set up it's own ISP & require all ISPs to zero rate traffic to any .govt.nz domain. At least give people access – and for God's sake, tell when it is happening and why and do SOMETHING to counteract the absolute torrent of conspiracy theory nonsense flying around about the census.
We had our pac hand delivered by a young person who explained every thing and was given the option of doing it online or filling out the form and posting it back in the enclosed addressed envelop. We live in the suburbs.
Ours arrived in the mail.
Being a literate (in English) and technologically literate and wealthy enough to afford telecoms infrastructure household – we filled it out (mostly in advance) with no problems.
[In advance because my teen was super-interested in the process and wanted to do it a.s.a.p – I'll do mine on census night]
I don't think that will be the case for many of our neighbours. Range of issues from: English as a second-language, and limited literacy in English; floating population of students in short-term rent-a-room (or garage) accommodation; elderly and decidedly non-tech savvy people; people in transition between houses (couch or spare-room surfing) following the Auckland flooding; hyper-busy people who've just shoved the info packet on a shelf to 'do later' (and will probably forget).
That seemed to have enough ''reckons'' to qualify as a Hoskins rant, and enough dog-whistles for a Farrar-go Kiwiblog post. No I am not interested in learning more about uninformed opinions. I have received my papers, and I see they give me the option of on line or paper. I haven't looked through them yet as I intend to complete them on the 7th or 8th March – probably on-line. Yes some will have difficulties, but I see nothing wrong at this stage. I suspect I will as usual wish that they had asked questions about some issues that did not make the cut, but that is normal as well. I do encourage all readers of The Standard to honestly and promptly complete their return, in whichever way they prefer, and get it in without needing assistance, but I am sure there will be good plans in place for providing assistance where needed.
It doesn't addressed the hairbrained insistence on doing it online since 2013 despite knowing that it suppresses the response.
Land mail delivery is not what it used to be
that's definitely a problem which also need to be sorted out by requiring NZPost to function as an essential public service again.
I have had two packs delivered with links
I am looking on line on what to do.
would you be able to complete the census if you didn't have internet access?
Technically, yes:
You can opt in for a print version (I can't find out exactly how – it's probably an 0800 number)
https://www.census.govt.nz/how-to-do-the-census/how-to-do-the-census-on-paper/
Or, you can access a free Internet hub (local library is the most common one). They'll be spending a lot of time working with non-tech-savy individuals in completing it online.
Of course, this does nothing for those sections of the population which are still cut off (or substantially cut off) from the rest of the country, following Cyclone Gabrielle. I would hope that StatsNZ has an active plan to follow up in these communities.
+1 Weka
My (2) papers delivered to me both give me the option of requesting a paper form to fill in if I do not want to/can't do the online version.
We have received two forms, each with a different private access code, delivered to the same household, but on different dates.
Sorry didn't see this before bursting into print above. same for us.
Same, 2 letters, 2 "private access codes" – presumably both unique to our household.
1st letter – "Please follow the instructions below to complete your census forms"
2nd letter – "Census Day is Tuesday, 7 March" [this must be the "reminder letter"]
Phoned the census help line number [ 0800 236 787 ], and, after selecting a language [option 2], a recorded message said that I could use either online access code:
Also, on the back of the (1-page) reminder letter, there’s an answer to the question "Why does my household have multiple online access codes?" It's for privacy reasons.
what does "require all ISPs to zero rate traffic to any .govt.nz domain" mean?
So there would be an ISP called, I don't know, Kiwinet or something. It would be free to join. Once you have kiwinet as a provider you can navigate to any .govt.nz domain with zero data charges, because all the ISP or mobile providers have been instructed to zero rate data usage for those sites.
kiwinet would also potentially be able run a white list of approved websites, such as RNZ news, which the network providers would also be required to zero rate. That woyuld mean you might be able to read an RNZ story or listen to their live radio feed but an embedded youtube video wouldn't work – for that you would need to buy data from your commercial ISP and/or mobile service provider.
There is already a NZ Gov/Realme login that is super safe and relatively easy to join. I wonder why they don't try to link in with this?
My ex so, is doing cencus work, she's going to ever house, and was telling me that because of one place being a Maori house/area(not sure of exact detail) is getting a Maori census worker to ream up and go there, doesn't sound half arsed to me.
If would have been nice if Radio NZ had mentioned just now that Louise Parsons is the national secretary of the sensible sentencing trust.
I suspect Lulu has an axe to grind.
They didn't leave their bubble but they did leave their house, trailing the hearse as a final farewell because lockdown rules meant they weren't allowed into the crematorium.
Parsons learnt on Tuesday that on that same weekend, the Health Minister flouted the rules.
"There's no way you can now tell people what to do when literally that weekend that I had to follow a hearse and couldn't get out of the car… he was driving to the beach with his family," she told Newshub.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/04/health-minister-david-clark-s-covid-19-rule-flouting-a-slap-in-the-face-mourner.html
Eh? Kim said, and I quote "Meeting organiser, and founding member of the Sensible Sentencing Trust Louise Parsons" when introducing her. I suggest you go listen to the audio. 22 seconds in.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018880100
Perhaps Kim should have appraised Louise of Section 18 (1) of the Bill of Rights Act 1990.
Maybe the use of a bunch of students to take census forms around in person (seems sensible) was seen as too risky, given the likelihood of a violent reaction from those in the anti-vax mob or others with a grudge against the authorities.
And any incident could have led to a lawsuit by the students against Statistics NZ for sending them into a dangerous situation.
Separate comment: Rob Campbell might lose 2 government posts but probably has nothing to worry about for lolly. He seems well connected with Maori groups so it's my guess he will pick up a lucrative post on one of their health organisations.
At $30 an hour it is more than students who will be delivering the Census. We got a bunch of forms in the mail, and 3 days later an envelope with a code for doing it online, so we have options. I will do it in the paper form so I can best register my objection to being assigned an identity in which I do not believe.
I delivered the Census for the one before the last one. We got good H&S briefings about standing well back from front doors and not going into a dwelling. I understand that this time they are issuing personal alarms for deliverers.
Well I have had a great start to my day. Wrong twice. Still, thats my quota so the rest of the day perfection will be resumed.
fresh coffee?
Sanctuary, with all that has happened over the last three years, feeling pressured is almost a normal condition. Melting moments are becoming common. Incognito's suggestion sounds good.
No worries – most things are excusable if the prose is good.
Nice to see Chris Trotter has finally completed his journey to National voting racist boomer. Good for him.
Although I respect Chris Trotter's work as a historian, I have to agree that he has moved considerably towards the right over the last decade.
The self appointed grand poobah of socialist thought Chris Trotter didn't leave the left, it left him. It is a boomer thing to be utterly convinced it is the children who are wrong.
"We believe there has been too little scrutiny of the affordability of the perceived NZ$120 billion to $180 billion investment in the Three Waters reforms," the reports conclude."
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/credit-agency-warns-nzers-are-blind-to-astronomical-costs-of-fixing-three-waters
"No matter who delivers the required infrastructure, the cost of such investment is astronomical. If councils fund the investment, general property and targeted rates will likely soar to record levels. If water services entities fund the investment, water charges will likely soar instead."
Jacinda kept saying that the costs would be huge. Rates would rise about 8%. But National is saying that some rates might rise a little bit.
I read Mr Milne's Newsroon piece this morning and it was terrifying!
From day one the claim has been the reforms will spare the user from unaffordable water services of the necessary quality that were undeliverable under the status quo when the reality is and always was that we got what we were prepared (able) to pay for.
"But Mahuta says the reforms will save Auckland ratepayers from higher water costs in the coming years.
"Within the next two years Auckland's water bills will at least double and under the reform proposals that we are making Auckland ratepayers will benefit significantly in terms of reduced costs."
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/10/the-reason-jacinda-ardern-nanaia-mahuta-think-three-waters-will-be-a-success.html
If we take these projections too seriously the country could easily be talked out of maintaining acceptable water infrastructure.
Thing is a lot of those figures are talking about cost projections which should be in proportion to the entire NZ economy. After all the water infrastructure needs to be maintained and suitable for the whole economy and country. To place a reasonable scale on those things we might compare them to NZs projected GDP at the same time. This would indicate (maybe) how much of the nations income (a close proxy for effort) goes towards maintaining the countries essential water infrastructure. My suggestion would be its bugger all on that scale, even if looking at the most lavish water infrastructure available.
If you look at the figures without that context they are going to get quite intimidating quite quickly however. With that context in mind however we might move on to how much of that is user pays, how much is on council balance sheets and how much should be central government. Also the council choice comes with the disadvantage that individual councils might get into competitive cost avoidance and maintenance deferral strategies (as we have seen). Mr Milne kind of skirted over that bit inferring instead that there was gold plating going on.
Over all I don't think overseas credit rating agencies have much productive to say about the kind of water infrastructure NZ should be developing, investing in and providing.
"Over all I don't think overseas credit rating agencies have much productive to say about the kind of water infrastructure NZ should be developing, investing in and providing."
Unfortunately the Government forming the policy to safeguard that future appear to be of the opposite persuasion
Really? I had taken Mahuta's statements to mean central government would take on some of the costs to relieve rate payers while still maintaining a good water infrastructure.
You appear to be taking this as, 3 waters means the country will have to make do with inferior infrastructure because credit ratings.
Then your interpretation would be incorrect….we can have the desired (possibly) water infrastructure at a price…and that price has little to do with ratings agencies (or money)….the truths that politicians dare not speak (if they even understand it)
Maybe some budget estimates?
If we dedicate 1 in 200 hours to water infrastructure then the budget is half a percent of GDP or about $1.875 billion annually. Is that ball park for the price? Or should it be more like 1% GDP or 3.6 billion?
If the numbers used for the policy formation are anywhere close then we are talking in excess of 5% of current Gov revenues…and as anyone dealing with infrastructure knows those numbers are likely to be underestimated. Crucially much of what is required cannot be sourced domestically.
Problem with amortising the costs that way it that way is it makes the whole question about the accuracy of the inflation forecast used.
The statements about cost have reasonable meaning giving annual spending numbers and then assuming similar real expenditures follow. But I suspect this doesn't generate suitably imposing nominal sums.
The statement that the resources to do this firstly exist overseas seems to suggest they need to be developed domestically.
If your not depressed and want to feel that way, the ICIJ, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, have launched a new way for you to get your daily dose of depression.
Jokes aside, this is some very impressive journalism and well worth your time to read. Like many of their other series this one will expand.
https://www.icij.org/investigations/deforestation-inc/
(Idiotic) Parents in the UK paying £22.50 for their babies to attend Caba Baba Rave.
https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1631004465129029642?s=20
They are literally small babies, the event looks like it is really just a bit of adulting time for their Mums. And anyway, it is a free world and people can decide where they want to take their kids.
Yes.
People are free to ignore basic safeguarding and expose their children to men balancing on their penises and displaying less gymnastic ability than a seven-year old gymnast, and no redemptive factor of artistic quality, in order to indulge in a performative act of progressive ideology.
That is why I put an adjective at the beginning of my comment.
Twitter apparently now labelling this "potentially sensitive content".
If babies are the target audience, does this mean sensitive for those who as yet unborn? Or is it deemed sensitive because of the visual dissonance of seeing sexual performances in front of young babies?
I am pretty sure you are overthinking this. What do you expect for the price? Cirque du Soleil?
It looks like a potentially fundraising event for Mums with small kids where they can natter at some local amateur stuff. It is unlikely any babies were harmed.
I mean, it isn't Iris Stoddard of the CWI doing a talk on her recent trip to the flower gardens of Bulgaria, but it least it has got Mum out of the house.
the debate that's been happening particularly in the UK (where it's left and right engaged, rather than conservative as in the US), there have been many analyses of safeguarding, what it is, how it gets breached or eroded.
A feature of that is lefties/progressives saying there's no big deal with mixing adult sexuality with children. But generally the people saying that don't understand what safeguarding is, how it works, and why it matters even in liberal spaces.
Looking at what they are wearing and the location/props, my guess is that it's a uterus-haver-gestators and babies class that does various forms of movement practices.
I'm curious at what age babies and young kids should start to be protected from expressions of adult sexuality. Would it be ok for strippers to demonstrate a workout in work gear and using work actions? How about pup fetishists? Or adults involved in dressing up as babies as part of their sexuality? (the last two examples are from Pride parades, and the baby/fetish involved engaging with kids in the baby fetish tent)
The owners of Pornhub salute you.
"…The owners of Pornhub salute you…"
WTF are you on about? Honestly all this reductio ad absurdum hysterical nonsense on behalf of other people who don't appear to be traumatised in any way whatsoever. Pornhub? Get.A.Fucking.Grip.
Honestly no one is covering themselves in glory in that particular debate, I just ignore them all. I just haven't got the time or energy for a debate characterised by zero common sense, zero good faith and an unreasoned screaming at and past each other.
"I just ignore them all."
Without attributing intention to the web-site, but "the standard" says you don't at 10.1.
Good point, it is like wrestling with pigs – you just get covered in mud and pig gets nothing out of it except the chance to squeal a lot. No more from me!
Neither of us appear to be screaming, so I have some faith.
I'm glad you asked, because lefties and liberals seem largely unaware of what is going on.
Pornhub exists because it's a free world and people can decide where they want to spend their time. Pornhub traffics in the worst sexual violence humans do, including rape, snuff, and child rape and sexual abuse. There's been some societal push back against this where major payment businesses (credit card companies, paypal) have withdrawn their services. But before that there were activists with less power and reach trying to get society to do something about it.
Few people listened, and part of that is because liberal culture and parts of the left won't do a critical analysis of porn that shows how much of the industry includes abuse of women and children.
Feminists are well familiar with this, we're just prudes or whatever. Unsurprisingly, this is the same argument run when feminists start objecting to adult entertainment involving children. It's just some mums and bubs having some time out.
Hence we have a major liberal political commentator in NZ posting this on twitter, than then stopping people from reply and telling them to "Why don't you go and fuck your own face"
https://twitter.com/David_Cormack/status/1630776467847266304
This on the same twitter day that the video Molly posted appeared. The progressive position on the event Cormack is referring to is that all performers, including queer/rainbow/drag, should have child safeguarding ahead of all other concerns. Instead we have a dominant narrative driven on the left that all drag done in kids' spaces is safe and appropriate for kids. It's not, it's not hard to find the evidence that it's not, and yet liberals appear to be saying protecting drag queens from some societal restrictions is more important than child safeguarding.
People like David have had the issues pointed out to them before, but remain wedded to an ideology that both suppresses any critique and continues to hide the erosion of safeguarding. Most of that comes from ignorance but some of it is intentional. It's pretty much the same dynamic as to why rapists are now self-IDing into women's prisons, a thing that liberals either say doesn't happen, or women already get raped so why does it matter. Trans rights are more important than women's or children's.
I've been watching the erosion of safeguarding in the UK for probably five years. The whole pup fetish and child sex play fetish thing at Pride should have been sending out alarm bells. Rainbow butt dildo monkey is a bit harder for progressives to get their head around (if you make something a rainbow, surely it is good), but it's still an erosion of boundaries that we should be debating.
The incursion of MAP (minor attracted persons aka usually men who want to have sex with children) into queer and then rainbow culture likewise should be a concern, as should the tolerance by twitter of MAP content. React against this all you like as if I'm making shit up or being hysterical and need to get a grip, but the same forces in society that drive pornhub are going to be supporting the erosion of boundaries around children and women's safety, for obvious reasons. And liberals are holding the door open for them.
I asked you the question of where the boundaries are. If the drag performance is ok, is stripping? How about simulating sexual acts between adults? Is it ok for children to take part in the drag act?
for those that don't understand the rainbow butt dildo monkey reference, here's Cormack's response when presented with this link about it,
https://thepostmillennial.com/watch-man-buttless-rainbow-monkey-costume-literacy
https://twitter.com/David_Cormack/status/1415064584663101441
Gormless.
twitter algorithm making my job easier.
https://twitter.com/fem_mb/status/1631074151413735428
Thanks, weka.
I had unexpected visitors arrive who've just left, and returned to find several comments from you that outline salient discussion points on this topic.
It will be interesting to see the outcome of this case. May give some clarity on what few sex based rights and protections (if any) women still have.
https://thepostmillennial.com/tickle-v-giggle-trans-identified-roxanne-tickle-sues-founder-of-female-only-social-media-app-after-being-barred-from-platform-in-australia?utm_campaign=64470&fbclid=IwAR0ngWu3azHLE6pwGzUEw8IBtYEZnCELYhM0zzWwxR0SktuHkCTd-NW7B-4
"Rachael Wong, CEO of Women’s Forum Australia, believes this case is an opportunity to resolve the conflict between sex and gender protections in law, and will be the test to determine whether sex is still a "protected attribute" in Australia.
"If the laws that undermine sex-based rights are found to be unconstitutional or otherwise unlawful it could invalidate laws across the country providing protection for gender identity," Wong told the Daily Mail.
"As a result the sex-based protections for women and girls would be reinstated when it comes to their rights to female-only spaces, services, sports and so on. Any other case of a man trying to force himself into a female-only space would be seen as wildly inappropriate," she added."
I hope Rachael Wong is right, and it determines that sex is still a protected characteristic.
Yes so do I.
That's a demonstration of multiple poor decision making (organisers, drag performers, parents).
Ah, that glorious Venn diagram where the evangelical Taliban intersect with feminism.
They are both defending the same set of 'universals' (something about the immutability of biological sex) against what they see as relativist (or post modernist) erosions. But for quite different reasons of course – even though the rhetoric about protecting children can sometimes sound oddly similar.
feminists are well used to this. Activism against porn meant feminists were often on the same side as conservative/religious women. It's a tired old argument from trad lefties, that seeks to obscure feminist concerns by painting them as regressive.
The new version is that the only people objecting to drag are right wing US allied conservatives. Which neatly removes the obligation to address feminist concerns about the inherent sexism in drag, as well as the safeguarding concerns.
Needless to say, much of that argument has come from men, who have an obvious conflict of interest when it comes to porn.
Good points Weka.
These 'new' response/critiques are depressingly familiar to someone involved with Women's issues since the 1970s.
Couple that with the 'transwomen are real women' or 'let's fool our faces and let anyone who fancies it free access to womens safe spaces'
and letting genuine safe guarding issues be dismissed (from Weka)
'evangelical Taliban intersect with feminism'.
Reduction ad absurdum is a form of argument powerfully used against all sorts of rubbish. Just because someone does not share the view that the action being directed against is rubbish or harmful etc does not mean that the form of logical argument should not be used.
The Taliban snipe is particularly telling, given what's happening to women in Afghanistan. Sanctuary often brings intelligent political critique to TS, even stuff I disagree with. But the response here is reactionary and not well thought through. Always interesting to see the blind spots of smart people.
I don’t understand why men would have any more conflict of interest than women when it comes to porn
far more men than women use porn. There is an obvious sex class difference in power and abuse within porn, in who makes porn and how, as well as how women are portrayed and how this feeds back into society (eg compare the impact of porn on the understanding and experience of teen girls vs teen boys, it's the girls feeling pressured to give blow jobs or to let their boyfriend choke them or degrade them).
Women are more likely to act on safeguarding concerns of women and children politically. Men are more likely to resist or actively block safeguarding concerns.
#notallmen obviously.
Thanks for the explanation Weka
l really hope that you are wrong about men being less likely to act on safeguarding the concerns of women and children
I choose not to watch pornography or buy sex because it would break me if my children were to choose those occupations
Many men will act when it's women and children they know or know about. The politics is a different matter, I've had too many arguments with men who think porn is benign and won't address the issues of the industry having major problems. Left wing men too, who wouldn't argue such if it were about their areas of interest. Hence my point about conflict of interest.
Exactly (or god forbid be coerced into those occupations, which is a lot of women). I don't understand why this isn't the position of more men.
It would be interesting to compare responses if there was a "Minstrel Show" going around libraries etc doing performances by people dressed as a parody of African Americans. I have never yet seen a convincing arguement that says that "Womanface" is different from "Blackface" and should be acceptable.
you still haven't answered the question of whether it would be ok for strippers to run events for mums and babies and perform sexually.
And, it's all so unnecessary.
There would be zero issue with the performers 'dressing up' as fairies, mermaids, princesses, etc – in fact, the library staff (including male and gay staff) have been doing so for years, at story times and at events like Santa Parades.
The issue is with hyper-sexualized dressing and (potentially) performance – to a child audience.
Yep. All that has to happen in NZ is for drag queens and allies to front up and take the issues seriously. There's still going to be some push back from feminists about the stereotyping and ridiculing of women that happens in drag, but it's pretty easy to ensure that the sexualised stuff just never happens (and I don't mean drag performers issuing press statements that they are safe, I mean society looking at the issue and talking about what needs to be done in an open and adult way).
RNZ online doco of removal of anti-vax, anti-government protesters from Parliament Grounds a year ago.
YouTube RNZ doco Boiling Point
A much needed dose of logic and reality
https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/120142/murray-grimwood-argues-its-time-some-serious-systems-thinking-making-sense
Unfortunately (as I am sure Mr Grimwood all too well recognises) it will be Cassandra revisited
One of the only reasons I bother coming back to the Standard, some great links.
thanks pat.
You're welcome…its good to know that someone views the links I post