She went on to pass law, I think, and become a MP. Are you suggesting WINZ will find a reason to turn her success into a fail, criminalize the good account she has made. Obviously her actions will be private and she can goto a review of decision that will just accentuate the political story which was the point. That you cannot buy the political, economic, social life of a citizen for a paucity amount. Even CEOs paid millions have more freedom.
Our first meet the candidates event has been advertised in the local paper for the end of the month, looking forward to it. Being held by the Grey Power, I hope the public are allowed to ask questions.
That’s a tough one Cinny. I went to a greypower meeting and couldn’t believe the inanity of the raucous mob with their questions/diatribes. I hope your meeting has a competent chairman.
I see this as a problem with old people (I am not being ageist – one can criticise anyone provided it is done fairly and also I am in my 70’s).
The old have a feeling of entitlement, also a concentration on themselves and their needs. And they often abdicate their responsibilities and behave like children, demanding, irritated, hence they can become very raucous when roused about politics and money
Herald is really taking a turn for the worst if today’s stories are anything to go by.
“They were found near Lake Tutira, between Napier and Wairoa, in a hunt sparked by contact with a psychic, but Mr Vining said a forensic psychiatrist verified yesterday that the remains were not human.”
Well I guess some people find that reassuring. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11898178
This was my instinct years back, and now it’s being formally supported:
Extreme heatwaves that kill even healthy people within hours will strike parts of the Indian subcontinent unless global carbon emissions are cut sharply and soon, according to new research.
Even outside of these hotspots, three-quarters of the 1.7bn population – particularly those farming in the Ganges and Indus valleys – will be exposed to a level of humid heat classed as posing “extreme danger” towards the end of the century.
The new analysis assesses the impact of climate change on the deadly combination of heat and humidity, measured as the “wet bulb” temperature (WBT). Once this reaches 35C, the human body cannot cool itself by sweating and even fit people sitting in the shade will die within six hours.
Good article – I wish the people in those areas the best of luck. I also worry about storm asthma and things like that. Too often the west thinks it is somehow insulated from all this – major part of the problem imo.
It’s 1.7 bn living there now, but those areas currently have high population growth. There’s areas of Africa that will likely get the same kind of lethal heatwaves, but aren’t mentioned presumably because there aren’t the big numbers of people living there now. But those areas of Africa have very high population growth. So by the time the lethal heatwaves start hitting, the numbers at risk are likely to be around 2.5bn to 3bn.
I think the air might be drier in Africa, it looks like it’s the combination of heat and humidity that is dangerous. The Swedes love their saunas, when someone tipped a pail of water on the hot rocks there were times when it felt like there just wasn’t any oxygen to breath.
A lot of western Africa is quite humid. Most of what’s south of Mali/Niger and north of Namibia is pretty sweltering. Southern Tanzania through Malawi and northern Zimbabwe were pretty sticky too when I went through 20 years ago and it’s already warmed since then.
When the WBT (Wet Bulb Temperature) goes over 35 degC not only can the body no longer cool itself by sweating … but the surface of your lungs now becomes a surface on which moisture starts to condense.
Slowly but surely you drown or die of pneumonia.
And yes this kind of heat stress is already lethal:
i was in France during the heatwave of 2003. It killed an about 14000 people that summer, mainly elderlies.
We literally lived at night and stayed indoors during the day. Madness really. Luckily i lived in the South of France in St. Paul de Vence a very old place with houses old several hundred years so the walls are build of solid river rocks. Which kept the houses around a balmy 30 degrees during the day. Utter madness. Elsewhere especially in the North it must have been horrendous.
It is standard for families in Paris or in the North to holiday on the country side in August, it is the summer holiday there.
What was not expected was the heatwave, and the fact that houses in the North are not equipped to deal with such a heat wave.
Also, a lot of old people do like to live on their own very happily.
In fact, when i first came to NZ i was living in Wellington, and one day i asked my then spouse ‘where are all the old people’ and i was told they live in Oamaru (hahaha) or in retirment homes on the country side. which to this european whose Nana died at home, whose Mother died at home seemed cruel. what you mean they don’t live at home? what do they do in Oamaru? lol.
Different Culture really, but no Grandma was not abandoned by their families.
A friends sister has just gone to Spain. Apparently (this is only what I was told) Spanish people now take a break from the Spanish summer and head off to more northern climes. If true, do I need to explain how odd that is in terms of European summer holiday destinations?
(I know southern France, Portugal and Spain have been on fire this year, but the impression I was given was that going north was not a ‘one off’ flowing from the back of just this years summer)
We’ll be seeing more of the ‘friendly’ Australians then, who will have to take us over wholly or suck up to us a bit more so they can get away from their central heartless desert which will be spreading.
I wonder if Aborigines will be able to manage as they will have lost much of their original culture though enough may still remain. But they may have to defend their territories against new colonial civil invasions so they aren’t over-run again and get ‘white-anted’.
Will we be like Mars in the end? With a few people living underground and coming out at night and in winter? I guess I will hold onto my board games and packs of cards for light relief – but without electricity? I think th SADD syndrome might hit.
the fire season in the south of france is bad this year. Very very bad.
and not getting better anytime.
i expect more then just damage to houses soon as the area is densely populated.
Is there a possible scenario where, if Labour get into the low 30s, Greens mid teens, and the Maori Party a couple of seats, that Winston can be cut out altogether?
Nicer if the greens stay mid teens (or higher), labour get mid thirties, so there’s no need to have a three term nat propping party in coalition being kept on life support by the people they’ve been voting against for nine years.
I think we have a really opportunity here. Little said a few days before his resignation that Labour needed to go for NZF votes. Hope Ardern takes the same view (and then backs it up with policy).
And as I indicated a while back, if TOP can get over the line as well then a Lab/Grn/TOP/MP coalition is also a real possibility. There’s a lot of policy synergy in that grouping.
But the point is that TOP will attract votes from across the spectrum. By no means all of that ‘sub 5%’ risk sits with the left.
There are at least four ways TOP can benefit the left if we are smart.
1. They will get a solid share of existing conservative votes. Their economic agenda is framed in terms they see sense in.
2. Gareth absolutely makes his core pitch at youth voters. Much of the intergenerational unfairness, education, UBI, cannabis and environment policies are pitched directly to their interests
3. Their ToW, Democracy Reset and Water policies have very close synergy with Maori interests. The MP should be paying close attention.
4. And being new and ‘non-tribal’ they stand a fair shot at getting previously unmotivated non-voters to give them a go.
I haven’t seen any polling that tells us where the TOP vote might come from, but going by some lefties’ arguments, the idea is that TOP are more likely to support Labour than National given a choice. It’s the same old shit that Peters does, no-one actually knows. It’s power play 101. People can vote for whoever they like, but it’s still a risk to vote TOP.
As for policy I don’t see anything particularly great that the Greens aren’t already moving on.
Well they’ve gone from 0.8% to 2% in the past two weeks. The next few polls might be interesting.
But yes getting over 5% the first time out the gate is a tough ask.
It’s almost impossible unless you have wealthy backer and a good reason to argue the threshold needs to be a little lower. Because at 5% it’s just a guaranteed cosy sinecure for the Establishment parties when everyone applies the ‘wasted vote’ logic to any new party.
When an election looks this tight, even 2% wasted vote can swing it. I’d love our threshold to be way lower, but I’m sure we all recall the Nats were having none of that when it was recommended.
Best way is to start putting scenarios into the MMP calculator. It’s somewhat clunky, but I just open multiple tabs of it and start putting the numbers in to compare what happens when you take electorate MPs in and out.
“overhang with the Mp “.
What overhang are you expecting? You don’t think the MP are going to win 3 or 4 electorates do you?
If they do the Labour Party are going to need a new deputy leader I would say.
“Davis is on the list”
I have just seen that. No wonder he was looking so happy when he was announced as deputy. With the Labour polling numbers he must have been getting very worried. Labour are still going to have to get up a bit even if he is the effective number 1 on the list.
Meanwhile though how many electorates do you expect the Maori Party to get? The look as if they will be entitled to a couple so if there are going to be any overhang seats they are going to have to win 3 or 4 electorates. What do you think they will be, and which Labour MPs are going to be left out in the cold?
Very good book.
Ruth, Roger and Me
Debts and Legacies
“In Ruth, Roger and Me, Andrew Dean explores the lives of the generation of young people brought up in the shadow of the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, those whom he calls ‘the children of the Mother of All Budgets’. Drawing together memoir, history and interviews, he explores the experiences of ‘discomfort’ and ‘disconnection’ in modern Aotearoa New Zealand.”
Bupa rest home in Cambridge failed to provide proper care to Robert Love’s mum, even though he was topping up the government subsidy. Complaints met with the usual corporate speak fob off we have all encountered.
And although she was no longer in charge when the complaints were made…the immediate former Big Boss of Bupa NZ (and hence she must take responsibility for much of the current culture) is none other than Grainne Moss who now has charge of creating a better and safer culture within the Ministry for Vulnerable Children.
I thought bet this is an immigrant come to take our jobs.
Right. This is a perverse cultural cringe we have. And to keep on voting for a political party like National Party to keep this up and dumbing down NZ is such a cringe that it becomes grotesque. Where are the gutsy NZs who want to run our own country and see our own people rise and use their abilities. Why keep importing everything. Quelle horreur. Merde etc. We are already international and can do as well as internationals given a chance, education, encouragement and opportunity.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11492534 Irish-born champion swimmer Grainne Moss is one of a small number of female chief executives in New Zealand. The mother of four runs Bupa, the country’s largest aged-care home provider.
1. You were the first Irish woman to swim the English Channel, when you were 17. What lessons have you taken from that into the business world?
Don’t look back. I made that mistake during the channel crossing. The conditions were so rough that my father and brother had to get tied to the boat for their own safety and they’d emptied their entire stomachs. I’d been swimming for three hours and I looked back at the White Cliffs of Dover, which were absolutely massive. It was a devastating moment because I thought, “I’ve got nowhere”. Looking back has got very limited value.
(And another fact that may prove to be be interesting is that she is a practising Catholic. And my own feeling that champion sports people are very individualistic, and can be very system-focussed for outcomes, rather than human-focussed with tolerance.)
(She also went to a ‘finishing school’ in Switzerland. Mrs Moss holds a Masters of Business Administration (with honours) from the prestigious IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland.)
Now – State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes has today announced the appointment of Gráinne Moss as establishment Chief Executive of the new Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki….
“Too many of our children and young people are being abused and neglected,” said Mr Hughes.
“(She also went to a ‘finishing school’ in Switzerland. Mrs Moss holds a Masters of Business Administration (with honours) from the prestigious IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland.)”
Incubator for neo-libs?
I sometimes despair, greywarshark, despair.
Good luck to Robert Love…attempting to hit them in their bank balance is probably the only way of hurting them.
(I never used to think that way…but one must keep up with the times and accept that the $$$ is All.)
Ardern back tomorrow with a plan for Labour. Greens this week had a standing room only campaign launch in Auckland where they said they’re going for bold.
Why are you hostile to The Opportunities Party? They have excellent policies. Their chief of staff and Wellington Central candidate is brilliant. I hope he is the next Minister for the Environment.
Not sure if a comparison of UF’s utter lack of meaningful policy with TOP’s very clear and distinct positions stacks up much.
And quite explicitly Morgan has come out and repudiated the electorate seat ‘coat-tailing’ which has kept the UF and ACT zombies in govt long after the electorate walked away.
Gaming the voting process is the epitome of tribal, partisan politics which delivers us mediocre Establishment party governments that represent sector constituencies only and increasingly have been failing to work in the interests of all voters. Mr English calls this “stable” government, I call it stagnant, mediocre and unenlightened. It’s precisely this type of behaviour from Establishment parties that is alienating so many voters from the democratic process and to be frank, putting our democracy at risk.
Nah. People across the spectrum agreeing with a single party either means its policy platform is too narrow or that the actual implementation of those policies hasn’t been signalled.
And when one of those supporters is so far right that they don’t believe there are any right wing people in NZ, that rings some pretty huge alarm bells.
Bullshit. When the Greens criticise TOP’s environmental and climate change policy as ‘too extreme’, while at the same time a right-winger can see the sense of their tax reform policy … you’re outta the park labelling this ‘narrow’.
And if you’re worried about their implementation, go do your own homework. TOP has a big website and you should be able to find it on your own. Lazy insinuations are just that … lazy and self-serving.
And while you’re at it, if you think it so important, ask srylands why he’s interested in TOP’s policies.
And yes, their implementation is pretty bloody vague. I’ve read a few of their policies, and there’s a shitload of fluff, some managerialist bullshit (like shared services for school administration) and bugger-all substance. Their tax policy doesn’t even have any even illustrative tax rates or firm claims for one or two affected groups like the greens do, and they don’t have a fiscal plan like Labour.
And I don’t give a shit about why srylands is interested in anything. The only relevant point is that with someone like him agreeing with something, it pays to double-check how it would fuck things up for most people. It is not “a good sign”, any more than an endorsement from the KKK.
So you give a shit about sryland’s opinion when it suits your argument , and don’t give a shit when it doesn’t.
That’s not what he said. It’s that srylands stated beliefs indicate that him agreeing with something would indicate that that something is probably badly wrong.
The party is well financed and employs experienced media folk for their communications.
Why the hell should anyone have to ask them to provide policy specifics rather than waffle?
They want teachers to be repested and better qualified. Fair enough. What about pay, numbers and conditions? The greens at least mention those in their policy, and lots more. TOP manage to announce a small fraction of the number of policies across the same sector, but in the same number of pages as the Greens.
So now suddenly srylands beliefs are going to be the yardstick by which you determine what you believe in?
No. That’s not what either of us said.
You started this line with the sentence: “Here we have both a RW and a LW endorsing TOP at the same time … I would say that’s a pretty good sign something is good about TOP.”
All I’ve said is that no, srylands agreeing with something is a bad sign. It doesn’t determine my beliefs. It raises my suspicions.
TOP’s lack of details also raises my suspicions.
You have presented nothing to allay those suspicions. Like maybe a fiscal plan that has more figures than “80:20”.
So now suddenly srylands beliefs are going to be the yardstick by which you determine what you believe in?
Nope.
It means that I’m going to take what he says as bollocks until proven otherwise as you would do with any proven liar.
All this and you still haven’t asked him why?
Have you considered what I said about Morgan being a traditional economist with all the inherent failings in regards to what srylands often says? They’re birds of a feather although Morgan does seem to have a higher social conscience.
If I was wrong about TOP being vague on implementation of their finance policy (rich for an economist), feel free to point out their specifics rather than misrepresenting what I said about some tory trool.
I said that I don’t give a shit why srylands would profess to have an opinion on TOP. But the opinions srylands has are usually pretty fucked up, and therefore best avoided.
Similar to real alarm bells – I might not know why the fire alarm is going off, but the area is usually best avoided for the duration that they’re going off.
I find TOP’s policies surprisingly vague too. How hard would it have been to include examples? And asking them to clarify is so fraught that I think that alone makes them untrustworthy to govern.
Personally, I don’t see Gareth Morgan as a Messiah. I see him as a naughty boy who knows damned well that he screwed both an unfair system and many people in order to become rich. But he puts that down to talent, and now he tries to atone with fairy-tale solutions.
Srylands has lost it, is obfuscating, or is a complete fool. Probably all three.
Yesterday he said there was no need for a reset economically, then promptly proposed deliberately crashing the housing market and paying the banks for their loss.
I’m guessing he’s doing some astroturfing/trolling. I haven’t looked too closely (don’t read their comments a lot tbh), but it all looks like ways to undermine the left. Yawn 😉
I’ve no problem with disagreeing with RW opponents ideas most of the time. But unless they are trolling or arguing in bad faith, I usually attempt to treat them with the ordinary respect we all owe to our fellow humans.
If there is one thing which REALLY irks me is watching a bunch of so-called lefties mobbing someone in an ugly display of mindless gang bullying. It happens far too often and I loath it with a passion. It’s the one thing which repeatedly drives me to question my ongoing participation here.
For a start it’s a matter of simple dignity and decency. Then there’s the ugly, smug assertions of moral superiority, the unquestioned assumptions and the short-circuiting of intellectual curiosity.
Conservative thinking people comprise at least 40% of our fellow citizens; sneering at them, actively refusing to listen, engaging in bad faith will assuredly reinforce their prejudices about progressive politics.
And most fatally of all … it leads us to persistently underestimate them.
I imagine that theres more than a few folk in the various parties trying to figure out what this all mean to them – both positive and negative.
Meanwhile, theres also a bunch of journos trying to second guess the NZ voters and what this will mean come 24 September. They are writing articles which in many cases (tho we dont know which ones yet) will be 100% wrong.
My prediction is that we wont end up with a “threeway coalition of equals” as I think that Labour are on the up, and that it will be at the expense particularly of the Greens as they will both be strong and chasing voters in the same “urban liberal” part of voterland.
And I have absolutely no idea what will now happen in the Maori seats, but I wouldnt be at all surprised to see the end of the Maori Party in Parliament.
Yes and then there is winnie and that stuff from down south. I’m sure i predicted Paula going in as leader to the election – might happen. But possibly only for a short time as her chickens come home to roost soon.
Kelvin’s promotion to deputy and his declining to be on Labour’s list might make it tougher for Hone. That’s a bit of an offset to the Mana-Maori deal to not run a Maori party candidate in TTT.
Anyone recall what Ardern had to say about Davis running hard against Harawira in 2014? Since Davis is now going on the list, I’ve certainly got hopes for a bit more electoral pragmatism from Labour in TTT this time around.
“Anyone recall what Ardern had to say about Davis running hard against Harawira in 2014?”
Do you mean at the time?
I thought the Mp announcement the other day where they basically said the antagonism came from Little was interesting. I find Labour so confusing, lol, like how do they even make decisions?
If you follow Māori politics (as I do) you would know that most of the antagonism has come from the Māori Party since Tuku Morgan became president. There has been some really nasty stuff, including from media darling Marama Fox. They have demonised Andrew Little at every opportunity and have also told a lot of lies about him – and Tuku Morgan has led the charge.
When they voted for the sell off of state houses they lost me forever. Hone Harawira lost my support when he decided Singapore was a good model for drug policy and that Chinese drug dealers deserved the death penalty.
The Māori Party are desperate as they know they face oblivion if (as is possible) Te Ururoa Flavell loses his seat.
Fair points, and Tuku Morgan is one of the people I least trust in politics. It’s up to Māori I guess, so if they vote Mp back in, then I’d like to see co-operation between Labour and the Mp, so am interested in the shifting dynamic and Labour also appear now to be keeping the door open (which is a change from Little).
“Hone Harawira lost my support when he decided Singapore was a good model for drug policy and that Chinese drug dealers deserved the death penalty.”
I missed the interview, but read the transcript of that and it seemed to me that he was referring to sending any offenders back to China – where – of course, if convicted they would face a death penalty.
Small distinction, but different to advocating for a death penalty as such. (He does have a seriously unflinching attitude to drugs in all forms though, which is most likely a result of the effects on his local community up North.)
Not for Labour, but there was for the left, which in turn would have helped Labour now if they wanted to shift NZ leftwards.
Mana fucked it up, the whole KDC thing, and I’m with you on the racist drug dealer thing. I used to think parliament would be better with him in it, but he’s blown his chances. I guess if he gets in this time we’ll see.
Excellent. I see that The Opportunities Party has offered to share its policy ideas with Jacinda. Gareth makes exactly the same point that I posted here yesterday. There is simply not enough time to develop the required policies without a lot of help.
I suggest that the offer of Gareth and Geoff be taken up. Today.
I imagine a lot of older lefties still remember what happened last time someone with a strong economic agenda got their hands on the levers of power. Douglas’ toxic legacy still lingers in many nostrils.
Still Morgan is an entirely different critter to Douglas; his social agenda is distinctly left wing, and TOP’s environmental policy criticised by the Greens as ‘too radical’. Nor does he have any ambitions to hang around long enough to become a Minister of anything.
I think Sir Roger Douglas is the greatest living New Zealander. I also think that most of TOP policies are exactly what New Zealand needs. They are not inconsistent views.
We need a comprehensive capital tax, urban planning reform and an end to poverty traps. I don’t know what Roger Doug thinks of TOP policies.
Also note that TOP rejects the ridiculous antiquated notion that policies and people are “left” or “right”. It is just embarrassing. There are only good policies and bad ones.
Douglas admitted years later that they got the order of things wrong. They believed if they imposed radical neo-liberal economic shock therapy on the economy they could tidy up the social mess later.
They believed if they imposed radical neo-liberal economic shock therapy on the economy they could tidy up the social mess later.
The problem being that it’s capitalism, of any stripe, that’s causing the economic and social problems. You can’t solve either of them by having more of it.
I think he is the worst New Zealander, and should be deknighted and thrown in prison for the rest of his days.
His economic vandalism is at the root of everything that has gone wrong for New Zealand since the 1980s.
Roger Douglas was OK. The policies he implemented were Blairite “third way” policies, which were considered Orthodox at the time. The Labour Party’s “sin” was not to disown them when they turned out badly, and change tack.
No, the Third Way was recognition that the move to radical capitalism under Douglas/Reagan/Thatcher was bad and causing problems and that we needed to move slightly back to Keynesianism while still continuing to prop up radical ‘free-market’ capitalism.
Roger Douglas adopted the new economics in the most extreme way and at the fastest pace of any country in the world. He was drunk with his own cleverness along with his ratpack, and no doubt got accolades from overseas which our wealthy men are always striving for. Treasury prepared the papers lauding neo liberalism. How many are there to be held to account for this treason of economic vandalism? We should have a list.
Exactly. Douglas was in many ways a creature of his time, and in some ways I can see why he pursued this shiny new economic idea with such zeal. And absolutely you are on the money gw; NZ was the most extreme outlier of this very unfortunate experiment.
In reality Douglas had very little public policy experience and his family background in the unions, the drama of Muldoon’s exit and Lange’s charisma, effectively camouflaged his intentions from the voting public.
None of his agenda was put to scrutiny or debate before it was hurriedly imposed on us. There was no research, no planning, no recognition of the need to lay the ground, or put in place transitional arrangements. Just a mono-maniacal belief that the magical market would sort out the mess.
Unfortunately the political trauma of this folly has adhered to the NZ left’s subconscious for generations since. We abandoned the economic argument, retreated into worthy, valuable ‘identity’ issues and refused to challenge the now established orthodoxy. The Fifth Labour govt marked a low point in this respect.
For example one bad experience with a medical doctor should not prevent you from every seeing a medic ever again … a reasonable person learns from the experience and returns better informed, more aware. More than anything else the left in this country needs a solid economic agenda to work with, a credible alternative to a now stale, dysfunctional neo-lib orthodoxy.
In my mind TOP is putting up a researched, costed and transparent place to start that journey.
A month or so ago Douglas came out and pubicly expressed a hope that Labour would be leading the next government. Seems like he has had a political epiphany of some kind.
Actually this current bunch clowns have been transferring defence housing as a part of the treaty settlements and then the local iwi leases back the former defence houses back the MOD at commercial rates so guess what happens when the lease runs out?
Was living in the army housing in Papakura when the decision to sell was made.
The houses were kept in great condition by the MoD, and the servicemen and women had families that were all in one community, and helped each other through deployments.
Instead of offering those homes to the army tenants who lived there, they were sold off as one lot to a developer who then broke up the houses and offered them at a considerable markup.
Many of the houses were bought as investments, and while some have been looked after, some have not.
Yeah heard about what happen at Papakura and I believe it’s the same over at Hobbie as well for the RNZAF personal, but the one to watch is going to the old Navy Housing quarters in the North Shore as some of those houses are on prime land from what my cousin has said to me. (She’s in the Navy)
So god only knows what’s going to happen there with the Navy personal? Unlike us here in Oz where we pay 50% of the rent in a Defence house and the Government pays the other 50%. The NZDF personal now pay 100% rent at the going commercial rate and its no longer subsidise by the government from what I’ve been told.
Yes, I understand the same about the Hobsonville project, and the Navy Housing on the Shore will be worth a lot in this market. Any sale will help prop up the budget.
The Papakura sell-off was even more interesting as they had just spent millions doing up the SAS unit there, and almost immediately decided to close it down and relocate.
IIRC, the SAS now has a presence back in the old Papakura Military Grounds, but that required further capital investment to reinstate.
The gains seem to be only in the books and from only one perspective.
Seriously couldn’t the government have at least got a discount – also why don’t iwi use the houses to house iwi – and at least if they do that they are easing the housing problem for Maori?
If they sell them off, especially to an overseas buyer then NZ don’t even get the taxes – like in the UK – massive profits from the houses went offshore to a tax haven and they posted local tax losses.
From what I understand that those defence houses that were part of any treaty settlement with the local iwi’s were to lease back to defence for 10yrs. Now the problem going be what happens after the 10yrs are up?
1) Where are the defence families going to live if the houses are not lease back to defence?
2) Most of the defence housing in the Auckland are in prime real estate areas for example the former Navy housing in the North Shore area.
When RNZAF Base Wigram closed under National the former defence housing wasn’t use by the local iwi to house it own people, but resold or lease out on to rental market and its for the new housing development on the former airfield.
As you said the local iwi should be looking after it own people, but appears they are not and like all property owners are after the dollars and bugger anyone else.
I was thinking about people and how many are involved in abusive behaviour and suicides are growing.
I thought of the Hawthorne effect which was name for a study of workers and how their behaviour changed when lighting and other things were being altered ostensibly to make their work easier.
Perhaps this should be considered when working with parents having difficulties and be an attempt to aid them in their work bringing up their children and trying to find a little work so they can not be excluded from the workplace.
[Care and attention effect –
The original research at the Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois, on lighting changes and work structure changes such as working hours and break times was originally interpreted by Elton Mayo and others to mean that paying attention to overall worker needs would improve productivity. Later interpretations such as that done by Landsberger suggested that the novelty of being research subjects and the increased attention from such could lead to temporary increases in workers’ productivity. This interpretation was dubbed “the Hawthorne effect”…
Although illumination research of workplace lighting formed the basis of the Hawthorne effect, other changes such as maintaining clean work stations, clearing floors of obstacles, and even relocating workstations resulted in increased productivity for short periods. Thus the term is used to identify any type of short-lived increase in productivity.[4][7][8]
(I would think that the boring aspects of work would result in a fall-back in effect, and that having some enlivening thing happen every few days would stop the fall.
So if this was transferred to taking an interest in people in a listen to and carry forward the parent’s own wishes and needs where it would most enable their parenting and in-training role.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
No matter what ails ya, the stupidity of bigots is a marvelous tonic.
An overly zealous group of Norwegian nationalists is facing online ridicule after mistaking a photo of seats on a city bus for women wearing burqas.
Screenshots from the Norwegian Facebook group Fedrelandet Viktigst, which translates to “The Fatherland, Most Importantly,” show members of the group expressing xenophobic fears in response to the photo. The image depicts several darkly-coloured seats on a city bus, lit in such a way that some might mistake it for rows of women in burqas.
The Facebook group is labelled as meant for “anyone who loves Norway, and appreciates what our ancestors have been fighting for!”
The only time I’ve ever seen my partner visibly angry and shaking in public was the first time we encountered a burka in public in a Melbourne shopping mall.
I gotta admit burqas induce a massive cognitive dissonance for me.
On one hand they’re a massive symbol of institutionalised oppression of women.
On the other hand, at least some burqa wearers genuinely freely choose to do so and would be genuinely uncomfortable about not wearing it in public. Whether that situation is the product of a messed-up oppressed upbringing is kind of a separate topic.
So my disgust at what the burqa represents is at serious war with my libertarian instincts that people should be free to do what they want (up to the point that they interfere with other people doing what they want).
But yeah, there’s nothing but delight in obnoxious morons mistaking bus seats for burqas and publicly making themselves idiots over it.
What fascinates me about burqa wearers is many that I have seen overseas especially at Dubai Airport are glamorous (from what you can see). Lots of jewellery on their fingers, red nail polish, one had sky high red strappy shoes on carrying very expensive bags from designer stores.
The paradox of this fascinates me, I thought it was to keep women demure, pious, subdued and submissive. I wouldn’t mind betting they are hell on wheels in their own environment and its obvious their menfolk like them dressed in racy lingerie under all the voluminous robes.
The paradox of this fascinates me, I thought it was to keep women demure, pious, subdued and submissive.
No, it’s to mark them as being owned by men and that other men are therefore not allowed to look/converse with without the express permission of the man.
i have met quite a few girls in France and Germany who would wear not the burka but the Abaya with a Hijab – a headscarf with long coat/dress when going out. Underneath these girls are as modern and flamboyant as any other girls/women elsewhere.
the point about dressing in the headscarf and long coat outfit is simply to not ‘seduce’ men, but to portray an image of ‘modesty’.
at home these women wear regular clothes.
I sat in quite a few kitchens in Germany with turkish women/girls while the men sat in the living room. The ladies have no issues discussing boys/ men in no uncertain terms. Let me rest it at that. 🙂
Good fun, good food and much tea was consumed.
and while some be forced to wear this, many choose it on their own and make it fashion. and its not up to us to judge these choices.
For me it is the oppressive, sexist and deeply damaging purdah culture these dress forms represent which I passionately object to. Yes they are a dress choice, but then so is a skinhead making a ‘dress choice’ if they wear a swastika in public. It’s the symbolism that matters here.
What most westerners don’t realise is that originally these walking tents had almost nothing to do with Islam. Purdah culture thoroughly pre-dates Islam, and the first 500 years or so these dress forms were completely unknown and discredited. IIRC they only appeared in Islam around AD 1300 or so inside some extremist cult and spread from there.
Purdah, or the strict social segregation of men and women, is an ancient practise that has no place in the modern world. It roughly falls into the same basket of horrors such as genital mutilation and foot binding.
I do agree with weka on the point she makes above; but at the same time I will never feel under any obligation to tolerate or condone it.
“I deeply regret and apologise for the fraud that was committed,” he said in a written statement.
“I wished it had never happened but I accept I am accountable for everything done in and by the Ministry when I was CEO and I am ultimately responsible.
“I feel as angry and aggrieved as anyone about [Harrison’s] stealing and breaches of trust.”
He was told that the fraud was being committed by several people and did nothing. He doesn’t seem to realise that this is a breach of trust by him to the employees and to the people of NZ.
This is the guy who stood by during the corruption, and during the time the corrupt official hunted down the whistleblowers, while he was Secretary of the Ministry of Transport:
May it be a lesson to whomever runs the State Services Commission – and the Minister of State Services – in future. As well as to ever single head of a government agency.
is there not a tax loop hole here in NZ where a landlord of a residential or commercial property can write of the loss of an untenanted property against income?
maybe just do away with that loophole.
some of the rural townships could actually be quite lovely little hubs if the upstairs of the old fringes were to be residential again instead of ’empty commerical office space to lease’.
We >i>still have landlords of Commercial property, in the Hawkes Bay, putting up rents and forcing out long standing tenants…just for those shops to sit empty, or some brave soul starts up and closes down in the blink of an eye due to the stress of so called ‘market rents’.
If your retail property is empty, or has a constant flow of ‘pop ups’, then its NOT market rent.
And the question is, what are the artificial motivations that make property that is vacant or with high-tenant-turnover viable?.
i know live near a little rural town. lovely actually, but pretty much all the upstairs of the shops are ‘offices ‘ to rent and two thirds of the shops are for lease. . Like really? how many offices can a rural small town have? Put people in to live, create some live in these little towns. Offices! Bullshit.
what ever tax clause it is that makes it more attractive to keep a property empty instead of renting it out needs to be closed, done away with. It is a clause that keeps people on the street homeless and out of earning a living. Stupid.
Such a loophole would be news to me, but then I have little experience in commercial property.
I suspect that what may happening is that in the commercial leasing the book value of the property is directly related to it’s imputed rental value. Often such a property will be tied up as bank collateral for some other project. If it’s then leased for residential for a lower rental than office space, the bank would be in it’s rights to revalue the property downwards.
In this case the owner has every reason to leave a property empty rather than lease it at a reduced rent.
Also in the commercial context, potential tenants are much fewer in number compared to residential, so it’s always anticipated that there can be quite long vacancies between tenancies.
Of course none of this addresses the very real issue you raise.
If it’s then leased for residential for a lower rental than office space, the bank would be in it’s rights to revalue the property downwards.
In this case the owner has every reason to leave a property empty rather than lease it at a reduced rent.
Economics tells us that the value of a thing is how much it can garner upon the open market. It would seem to me that when it’s left empty then the value is zero and the bank should value it at that. If it’s used for commercial or residential should make no difference to the bank.
What you’re describing would seem to be some sort of loophole.
Not really. As I suggested in practise there are often quite large gaps in commercial tenancies, and valuing a property at zero for their unknowable duration is not reasonable.
But the moment you do lease it, regardless of whether it’s commercial or residential, the income is now known and the value of the property becomes determinate again. And that is what the bank cares about.
Besides once it is leased residential, it makes it a lot harder to subsequently place a more attractive commercial tenant.
As I said I’m not an expert here; just pointing out some quite pragmatic reasons why commercial property can lie empty for long periods without any particular tax reason being involved.
Re last paragraph PLUS EFFING 100!
Public Service reform of its senior management and corporatised structure is LONG overdue
Politicised, unaccountable, crony-enabled, and generally dysfunctional.
“Auditor-General Martin Matthews has resigned. Good riddance. Given his woeful performance as chief executive of the Ministry of Transport, where he appears to have repeatedly looked the other way on Joanne Harrison’s fraud, there really was no other option.”
But the peasants don’t need to know what was going on, so no publication of the report. Off you go Martin, here’s a little something to tide you over and Martin, keep your mouth shut.
“Foodstuffs run an operation of using a large amount of labour hire temporary workers. They’ve got hundreds of them, and they use them in permanent positions and exploit the precarious nature of their work.”
First Union transport and logistics secretary Jared Abbott
This should be the topic of the day…its all about the employment issues that have massive effect on the lives of a large number of non voters, tap into that and Labour could turn things around.
sometime ago they had a position that i was much qualified for and i applied.
they were keen to employ me. but the wage was stupid low, so i politely declined.
and that was not a job for a low skilled worker. no, they demanded degrees and work experience and such and still barely wanted to pay 40.000 plus. so much time wasted, my time. Sad!
But The Fight Goes On
There are continual early morning protests to slow contractors from accessing this site on public land and to disrupt the consequent high number of heavy trucks carrying excavated material along the narrow Karangahake Gorge road.
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
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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 ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
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 higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
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Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
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April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
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Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
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. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
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 ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shaun Eaves, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Jamey Stutz, CC BY-SA How often do mountains collapse, volcanoes erupt or ice sheets melt? For Earth scientists, these are important questions as we try ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Most young adult men in Australia reject traditional ideas of masculinity that endorse aggression, stoicism and homophobia. Nonetheless, the ongoing influence of those ideas continues to harm men and the people ...
The NZQA proposal released to staff today would involve a net loss of 35 roles. There are 66 roles being disestablished with 13 of those currently vacant, and 31 new roles proposed, said Fleur Fitzsimons Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga ...
Alex Casey talks to Loren Taylor, the writer, director and star of new film The Moon is Upside Down, about assembling her dream ensemble cast, toilet paper pads and turning literal dreams into reality. There’s a moment in The Moon is Upside Down where frazzled anaesthetist Briar (Loren Taylor) gets ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassy Dittman, Senior Lecturer/Head of Course (Undergraduate Psychology), Research Fellow, Manna Institute, CQUniversity Australia With winter sports swinging into action, adults around the country have volunteered or been volunteered by others (humorously known as being “volun-told”) to coach junior sports teams. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University richardernestyap/Shutterstock Parents are often advised to burp their babies after feeding them. Some people think burping after feeding is important to reduce or prevent discomfort crying, or to ...
Workers at a major ASB contact centre in Auckland have voted to take strike action and withdraw their labour following disappointing pay negotiations with the employer and an "offer" to workers that would leave them worse off than the previous year. ...
As the government tries to get the country back on track with a school phone ban, Tara Ward has an idea for where they should turn their attention to next.New Zealand students returned to school on Monday morning, but their cellphones did not. The government’s new phone ban began ...
The Labour Party is demanding Peters be stood down, saying "he's embarrassed the country" with a "totally unacceptable" attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. ...
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, whose members were victims of a China-backed cyber attack, is discussing forming a standing committee to deal with foreign influence. ...
The PSA is concerned that the voluntary redundancies being offered to staff by Stats NZ will impact on the agency’s ability to deliver on its core functions. ...
Results ranged from surprisingly yum to soul-destroying. I love cooking. The kitchen is a hearth of culinary creation, of sensory delights, of gastronomic poetry. I also can’t afford anything nice. Why does a pack of instant noodles and some milk cost ten bucks? I love you, Aotearoa, but I miss ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Police in Solomon Islands are on high alert ahead of the election of the prime minister today. The two candidates for the top job are former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele at the head of the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation, which is ...
He’s fine but it feels like I’m losing a friend and it’s making me bitter. How do I say ‘enough is enough’? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzHey Hera,I’ve recently moved in with a girlfriend, her partner Steve, and his friend. We all live in a lovely little house. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
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Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
While women’s sport is exploding in Aotearoa and around the world, you still don’t hear a lot of talk about athletes and their periods, RED-S, breastfeeding and visible panty-lines. SASS (Suze and Sez Sports)Talk isn’t afraid to have that kōrero.LockerRoom founder Suzanne McFadden and Olympian broadcaster Sarah ...
On an unusually hot night in January 2019, a little boy’s lifeless body was found face up in a small town’s sewage oxidation pond. To the police, it was an open and shut case: three-year-old Lachlan Jones had run away from his home in the Southland town of Gore, climbed ...
Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has apologised in Parliament after National accused her of intimidating and attacking one of its ministers in the House. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders met on Wednesday as the national cabinet to discuss a crisis gripping Australia – the horrific number of women murdered this year. The killings have shocked ...
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Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
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Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
Lawyers representing two iwi as well as the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn last week’s High Court decision on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to summons Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Tribunal is currently investigating the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will introduce legislation to ban deepfake pornography and provide more funding for the eSafety Commission to pilot age-assurance technologies. The contribution of internet sites to gender-based violence was one major issue ...
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I feel like I should be in continuous prayer for Metiria Turei today during her interview with MSD today.
She is a brave woman, may today go smoothly for her.
They should be interviewing Paula Bennet.
Brave or “courageous” (in the sense that Sir Humphrey Appleby used the word)?
Brave
She went on to pass law, I think, and become a MP. Are you suggesting WINZ will find a reason to turn her success into a fail, criminalize the good account she has made. Obviously her actions will be private and she can goto a review of decision that will just accentuate the political story which was the point. That you cannot buy the political, economic, social life of a citizen for a paucity amount. Even CEOs paid millions have more freedom.
can anyone confirm that Turei is meeting WINZ today? I might put a post up about the benefit issues.
Yes she did Weka
Our first meet the candidates event has been advertised in the local paper for the end of the month, looking forward to it. Being held by the Grey Power, I hope the public are allowed to ask questions.
That’s a tough one Cinny. I went to a greypower meeting and couldn’t believe the inanity of the raucous mob with their questions/diatribes. I hope your meeting has a competent chairman.
Dang Garibaldi 🙂 I’ll bring the popcorn.
I see this as a problem with old people (I am not being ageist – one can criticise anyone provided it is done fairly and also I am in my 70’s).
The old have a feeling of entitlement, also a concentration on themselves and their needs. And they often abdicate their responsibilities and behave like children, demanding, irritated, hence they can become very raucous when roused about politics and money
Herald is really taking a turn for the worst if today’s stories are anything to go by.
“They were found near Lake Tutira, between Napier and Wairoa, in a hunt sparked by contact with a psychic, but Mr Vining said a forensic psychiatrist verified yesterday that the remains were not human.”
Well I guess some people find that reassuring.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11898178
The story below on missing woman Wei Qiujie features a picture of some random guy on a piano and this is followed by a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11898258
In depth interview with Gareth Morgan. Rather long, but stick the wireless headphones on and give the kitchen a spring clean 🙂
This was my instinct years back, and now it’s being formally supported:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/02/climate-change-to-cause-humid-heatwaves-that-will-kill-even-healthy-people
This may well be the first impact of climate change that will hit hard.
Good article – I wish the people in those areas the best of luck. I also worry about storm asthma and things like that. Too often the west thinks it is somehow insulated from all this – major part of the problem imo.
It’s 1.7 bn living there now, but those areas currently have high population growth. There’s areas of Africa that will likely get the same kind of lethal heatwaves, but aren’t mentioned presumably because there aren’t the big numbers of people living there now. But those areas of Africa have very high population growth. So by the time the lethal heatwaves start hitting, the numbers at risk are likely to be around 2.5bn to 3bn.
I think the air might be drier in Africa, it looks like it’s the combination of heat and humidity that is dangerous. The Swedes love their saunas, when someone tipped a pail of water on the hot rocks there were times when it felt like there just wasn’t any oxygen to breath.
A lot of western Africa is quite humid. Most of what’s south of Mali/Niger and north of Namibia is pretty sweltering. Southern Tanzania through Malawi and northern Zimbabwe were pretty sticky too when I went through 20 years ago and it’s already warmed since then.
https://www.populationpyramid.net/western-africa/2016/
https://www.populationpyramid.net/sub-saharan-africa/2016/
When the WBT (Wet Bulb Temperature) goes over 35 degC not only can the body no longer cool itself by sweating … but the surface of your lungs now becomes a surface on which moisture starts to condense.
Slowly but surely you drown or die of pneumonia.
And yes this kind of heat stress is already lethal:
https://robertscribbler.com/2015/06/24/wet-bulb-at-33-c-human-hothouse-kills-nearly-800-in-pakistan/
i was in France during the heatwave of 2003. It killed an about 14000 people that summer, mainly elderlies.
We literally lived at night and stayed indoors during the day. Madness really. Luckily i lived in the South of France in St. Paul de Vence a very old place with houses old several hundred years so the walls are build of solid river rocks. Which kept the houses around a balmy 30 degrees during the day. Utter madness. Elsewhere especially in the North it must have been horrendous.
And no, Air conditioning is not common in europe.
I was there as well, elderly died +++ in Paris because everyone took their summer holidays leaving Grand ma alone at home.
thats a bit rough.
It is standard for families in Paris or in the North to holiday on the country side in August, it is the summer holiday there.
What was not expected was the heatwave, and the fact that houses in the North are not equipped to deal with such a heat wave.
Also, a lot of old people do like to live on their own very happily.
In fact, when i first came to NZ i was living in Wellington, and one day i asked my then spouse ‘where are all the old people’ and i was told they live in Oamaru (hahaha) or in retirment homes on the country side. which to this european whose Nana died at home, whose Mother died at home seemed cruel. what you mean they don’t live at home? what do they do in Oamaru? lol.
Different Culture really, but no Grandma was not abandoned by their families.
“what do they do in Oamaru?”
steampunk, mainly 🙂
and organics 🙂
A friends sister has just gone to Spain. Apparently (this is only what I was told) Spanish people now take a break from the Spanish summer and head off to more northern climes. If true, do I need to explain how odd that is in terms of European summer holiday destinations?
(I know southern France, Portugal and Spain have been on fire this year, but the impression I was given was that going north was not a ‘one off’ flowing from the back of just this years summer)
We’ll be seeing more of the ‘friendly’ Australians then, who will have to take us over wholly or suck up to us a bit more so they can get away from their central heartless desert which will be spreading.
I wonder if Aborigines will be able to manage as they will have lost much of their original culture though enough may still remain. But they may have to defend their territories against new colonial civil invasions so they aren’t over-run again and get ‘white-anted’.
Will we be like Mars in the end? With a few people living underground and coming out at night and in winter? I guess I will hold onto my board games and packs of cards for light relief – but without electricity? I think th SADD syndrome might hit.
the fire season in the south of france is bad this year. Very very bad.
and not getting better anytime.
i expect more then just damage to houses soon as the area is densely populated.
Is there a possible scenario where, if Labour get into the low 30s, Greens mid teens, and the Maori Party a couple of seats, that Winston can be cut out altogether?
That would be nice 🙂
Nicer if the greens stay mid teens (or higher), labour get mid thirties, so there’s no need to have a three term nat propping party in coalition being kept on life support by the people they’ve been voting against for nine years.
You would have to see National and NZ1 come in under 50% combined. On the last few polls that looks unlikely.
Yes but you have to factor in the overhang with the Mp I think.
Governing without NZF is a worthwhile thing to aim for.
We do agree on that !!
Cool!
I think we have a really opportunity here. Little said a few days before his resignation that Labour needed to go for NZF votes. Hope Ardern takes the same view (and then backs it up with policy).
And as I indicated a while back, if TOP can get over the line as well then a Lab/Grn/TOP/MP coalition is also a real possibility. There’s a lot of policy synergy in that grouping.
Morgan doesn’t play well with others IMO. He’s got a good heart but he’s really bad at listening.
And as always, the risk of the sub 5% vote loss for the left.
But the point is that TOP will attract votes from across the spectrum. By no means all of that ‘sub 5%’ risk sits with the left.
There are at least four ways TOP can benefit the left if we are smart.
1. They will get a solid share of existing conservative votes. Their economic agenda is framed in terms they see sense in.
2. Gareth absolutely makes his core pitch at youth voters. Much of the intergenerational unfairness, education, UBI, cannabis and environment policies are pitched directly to their interests
3. Their ToW, Democracy Reset and Water policies have very close synergy with Maori interests. The MP should be paying close attention.
4. And being new and ‘non-tribal’ they stand a fair shot at getting previously unmotivated non-voters to give them a go.
I haven’t seen any polling that tells us where the TOP vote might come from, but going by some lefties’ arguments, the idea is that TOP are more likely to support Labour than National given a choice. It’s the same old shit that Peters does, no-one actually knows. It’s power play 101. People can vote for whoever they like, but it’s still a risk to vote TOP.
As for policy I don’t see anything particularly great that the Greens aren’t already moving on.
I’d rather see young progressive voters get rewarded by representation in parliament than by a wasted sub-5% vote for TOP, thanks.
Well they’ve gone from 0.8% to 2% in the past two weeks. The next few polls might be interesting.
But yes getting over 5% the first time out the gate is a tough ask.
It’s almost impossible unless you have wealthy backer and a good reason to argue the threshold needs to be a little lower. Because at 5% it’s just a guaranteed cosy sinecure for the Establishment parties when everyone applies the ‘wasted vote’ logic to any new party.
When an election looks this tight, even 2% wasted vote can swing it. I’d love our threshold to be way lower, but I’m sure we all recall the Nats were having none of that when it was recommended.
That’s what I was getting at. Just not sure how the overhang will affect the final seat count.
Best way is to start putting scenarios into the MMP calculator. It’s somewhat clunky, but I just open multiple tabs of it and start putting the numbers in to compare what happens when you take electorate MPs in and out.
http://www.elections.org.nz/voting-system/mmp-voting-system/mmp-seat-allocation-calculator
“overhang with the Mp “.
What overhang are you expecting? You don’t think the MP are going to win 3 or 4 electorates do you?
If they do the Labour Party are going to need a new deputy leader I would say.
Davis is on the list
“Davis is on the list”
I have just seen that. No wonder he was looking so happy when he was announced as deputy. With the Labour polling numbers he must have been getting very worried. Labour are still going to have to get up a bit even if he is the effective number 1 on the list.
Meanwhile though how many electorates do you expect the Maori Party to get? The look as if they will be entitled to a couple so if there are going to be any overhang seats they are going to have to win 3 or 4 electorates. What do you think they will be, and which Labour MPs are going to be left out in the cold?
Very good book.
Ruth, Roger and Me
Debts and Legacies
“In Ruth, Roger and Me, Andrew Dean explores the lives of the generation of young people brought up in the shadow of the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, those whom he calls ‘the children of the Mother of All Budgets’. Drawing together memoir, history and interviews, he explores the experiences of ‘discomfort’ and ‘disconnection’ in modern Aotearoa New Zealand.”
http://bwb.co.nz/books/ruth-roger-and-me
Bridget Williams? publication. Some good stuff coming from them.
Andrew Dean’s book gives one a lot to chew over, and is well backed by facts. I endorse savenz’s recommendation.
This is our brighter future….
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
Bupa rest home in Cambridge failed to provide proper care to Robert Love’s mum, even though he was topping up the government subsidy. Complaints met with the usual corporate speak fob off we have all encountered.
And although she was no longer in charge when the complaints were made…the immediate former Big Boss of Bupa NZ (and hence she must take responsibility for much of the current culture) is none other than Grainne Moss who now has charge of creating a better and safer culture within the Ministry for Vulnerable Children.
Heaven help the children.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/82559158/former-private-sector-agedcare-boss-grainne-moss-to-head-new-state-carer
Any opposition politician keen to make some noise about this?
I thought bet this is an immigrant come to take our jobs.
Right. This is a perverse cultural cringe we have. And to keep on voting for a political party like National Party to keep this up and dumbing down NZ is such a cringe that it becomes grotesque. Where are the gutsy NZs who want to run our own country and see our own people rise and use their abilities. Why keep importing everything. Quelle horreur. Merde etc. We are already international and can do as well as internationals given a chance, education, encouragement and opportunity.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11492534
Irish-born champion swimmer Grainne Moss is one of a small number of female chief executives in New Zealand. The mother of four runs Bupa, the country’s largest aged-care home provider.
1. You were the first Irish woman to swim the English Channel, when you were 17. What lessons have you taken from that into the business world?
Don’t look back. I made that mistake during the channel crossing. The conditions were so rough that my father and brother had to get tied to the boat for their own safety and they’d emptied their entire stomachs. I’d been swimming for three hours and I looked back at the White Cliffs of Dover, which were absolutely massive. It was a devastating moment because I thought, “I’ve got nowhere”. Looking back has got very limited value.
(And another fact that may prove to be be interesting is that she is a practising Catholic. And my own feeling that champion sports people are very individualistic, and can be very system-focussed for outcomes, rather than human-focussed with tolerance.)
http://www.ssc.govt.nz/media-release-ministry-vulnerable-children-oranga-tamariki-chief-executive-appointed
Gráinne holds a BSc (Hons) in Human Anatomy and Biology from the University of Liverpool and spent the early years of her career in the UK National Health Service prior to emigrating to New Zealand at the end of the 90s.
(She also went to a ‘finishing school’ in Switzerland. Mrs Moss holds a Masters of Business Administration (with honours) from the prestigious IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland.)
Now – State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes has today announced the appointment of Gráinne Moss as establishment Chief Executive of the new Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki….
“Too many of our children and young people are being abused and neglected,” said Mr Hughes.
A NZHerald item on other imported executives.
“(She also went to a ‘finishing school’ in Switzerland. Mrs Moss holds a Masters of Business Administration (with honours) from the prestigious IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland.)”
Incubator for neo-libs?
I sometimes despair, greywarshark, despair.
Good luck to Robert Love…attempting to hit them in their bank balance is probably the only way of hurting them.
(I never used to think that way…but one must keep up with the times and accept that the $$$ is All.)
Rosemay
Hadn’t seen your name recently, might have missed it.. Hope you are well and got through the winter (most) in good order.
Been on the road in the Far North…. no wifi, no telly, often no cellphone coverage. Living the simplest of lives in a Bus. Bliss. 🙂
Getting most of the news and commentary from RNZ….hence the despair.
I hate elections.
How do we choose when choosing often demands we compromise more than we are comfortable with?
I promised I would vote this year….it’s going to be a struggle.
We will be back in the Far North during the election, so at least we’ll be ringside for the Kelvin/Hone showdown…should be fun.
Trust winter has been kind to you too grey…
Māori Party are scared – labour reciprocity coming.
Opp party – take our policies and we’ll go away – yeah nah you’ll go away soon enough.
Hone may be the only one with enough cutthrough to get over the line but not sure what the point is anymore on that one.
Gnats crapping themselves – justifably so.
And it’s only Thursday – what next?
Ardern back tomorrow with a plan for Labour. Greens this week had a standing room only campaign launch in Auckland where they said they’re going for bold.
Potential.
Why are you hostile to The Opportunities Party? They have excellent policies. Their chief of staff and Wellington Central candidate is brilliant. I hope he is the next Minister for the Environment.
A RW endorsing TOP is a pretty good sign that something is wrong with TOP.
e.g. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-03082017/#comment-1361900
You should definitely vote TOP though.
That kind of tribal thinking really just keeps the left under the 40% mark. Truly successful government looks to serve the whole nation.
Here we have both a RW and a LW endorsing TOP at the same time … I would say that’s a pretty good sign something is good about TOP.
Sounds good until you read drylands other comments.
“Here we have both a RW and a LW endorsing TOP at the same time … I would say that’s a pretty good sign something is good about TOP.”
Um, Peter Dunne.
Not sure if a comparison of UF’s utter lack of meaningful policy with TOP’s very clear and distinct positions stacks up much.
And quite explicitly Morgan has come out and repudiated the electorate seat ‘coat-tailing’ which has kept the UF and ACT zombies in govt long after the electorate walked away.
http://www.top.org.nz/abusing_democracy
“Not sure if a comparison of UF’s utter lack of meaningful policy with TOP’s very clear and distinct positions stacks up much.”
I wasn’t comparing policy, I was critiquing the rationale that having both left and right wing endorsements means something.
It means that your claim that TOP cannot work with a broad range of political perspectives may be a bit tribal on your part.
I haven’t said that TOP can’t work with a broad range of parties.
Nah. People across the spectrum agreeing with a single party either means its policy platform is too narrow or that the actual implementation of those policies hasn’t been signalled.
And when one of those supporters is so far right that they don’t believe there are any right wing people in NZ, that rings some pretty huge alarm bells.
Bullshit. When the Greens criticise TOP’s environmental and climate change policy as ‘too extreme’, while at the same time a right-winger can see the sense of their tax reform policy … you’re outta the park labelling this ‘narrow’.
And if you’re worried about their implementation, go do your own homework. TOP has a big website and you should be able to find it on your own. Lazy insinuations are just that … lazy and self-serving.
And while you’re at it, if you think it so important, ask srylands why he’s interested in TOP’s policies.
I said “either”.
And yes, their implementation is pretty bloody vague. I’ve read a few of their policies, and there’s a shitload of fluff, some managerialist bullshit (like shared services for school administration) and bugger-all substance. Their tax policy doesn’t even have any even illustrative tax rates or firm claims for one or two affected groups like the greens do, and they don’t have a fiscal plan like Labour.
And I don’t give a shit about why srylands is interested in anything. The only relevant point is that with someone like him agreeing with something, it pays to double-check how it would fuck things up for most people. It is not “a good sign”, any more than an endorsement from the KKK.
Make up your mind, if you don’t give a shit about sryland’s opinions, why the hell do they “ring pretty huge alarm bells” for you?
He did explain that fairly clearly:
So you give a shit about sryland’s opinion when it suits your argument , and don’t give a shit when it doesn’t.
Fair enough. Or if it’s that important maybe you could just ask the man to explain a bit more. The we might all learn something.
That’s not what he said. It’s that srylands stated beliefs indicate that him agreeing with something would indicate that that something is probably badly wrong.
The party is well financed and employs experienced media folk for their communications.
Why the hell should anyone have to ask them to provide policy specifics rather than waffle?
They want teachers to be repested and better qualified. Fair enough. What about pay, numbers and conditions? The greens at least mention those in their policy, and lots more. TOP manage to announce a small fraction of the number of policies across the same sector, but in the same number of pages as the Greens.
@ DtB
So now suddenly srylands beliefs are going to be the yardstick by which you determine what you believe in?
Wow … that’s a lot of power you’re giving to the man. All this and you still haven’t asked him why?
Oh I forgot .. you don’t give a shit about that.
No. That’s not what either of us said.
You started this line with the sentence: “Here we have both a RW and a LW endorsing TOP at the same time … I would say that’s a pretty good sign something is good about TOP.”
All I’ve said is that no, srylands agreeing with something is a bad sign. It doesn’t determine my beliefs. It raises my suspicions.
TOP’s lack of details also raises my suspicions.
You have presented nothing to allay those suspicions. Like maybe a fiscal plan that has more figures than “80:20”.
Nope.
It means that I’m going to take what he says as bollocks until proven otherwise as you would do with any proven liar.
Have you considered what I said about Morgan being a traditional economist with all the inherent failings in regards to what srylands often says? They’re birds of a feather although Morgan does seem to have a higher social conscience.
If I was wrong about TOP being vague on implementation of their finance policy (rich for an economist), feel free to point out their specifics rather than misrepresenting what I said about some tory trool.
I said that I don’t give a shit why srylands would profess to have an opinion on TOP. But the opinions srylands has are usually pretty fucked up, and therefore best avoided.
Similar to real alarm bells – I might not know why the fire alarm is going off, but the area is usually best avoided for the duration that they’re going off.
I find TOP’s policies surprisingly vague too. How hard would it have been to include examples? And asking them to clarify is so fraught that I think that alone makes them untrustworthy to govern.
“When the Greens criticise TOP’s environmental and climate change policy as ‘too extreme’, ”
Where have they done that?
Personally, I don’t see Gareth Morgan as a Messiah. I see him as a naughty boy who knows damned well that he screwed both an unfair system and many people in order to become rich. But he puts that down to talent, and now he tries to atone with fairy-tale solutions.
There’s also some pretty interesting class stuff flowing through his progress. He’s not an ally of poor people.
“He’s not an ally of poor people.”
Or the left, like the people intending to vote Top aren’t.
Why would you chose a rich prick over the greens or Jacinda’s labour?
I’ve wondered that myself.
It’s a question needing to be convincingly answered. Not seen shit worth considering yet, even from the now usual subject.
Srylands has lost it, is obfuscating, or is a complete fool. Probably all three.
Yesterday he said there was no need for a reset economically, then promptly proposed deliberately crashing the housing market and paying the banks for their loss.
I’m guessing he’s doing some astroturfing/trolling. I haven’t looked too closely (don’t read their comments a lot tbh), but it all looks like ways to undermine the left. Yawn 😉
I’ve no problem with disagreeing with RW opponents ideas most of the time. But unless they are trolling or arguing in bad faith, I usually attempt to treat them with the ordinary respect we all owe to our fellow humans.
If there is one thing which REALLY irks me is watching a bunch of so-called lefties mobbing someone in an ugly display of mindless gang bullying. It happens far too often and I loath it with a passion. It’s the one thing which repeatedly drives me to question my ongoing participation here.
For a start it’s a matter of simple dignity and decency. Then there’s the ugly, smug assertions of moral superiority, the unquestioned assumptions and the short-circuiting of intellectual curiosity.
Conservative thinking people comprise at least 40% of our fellow citizens; sneering at them, actively refusing to listen, engaging in bad faith will assuredly reinforce their prejudices about progressive politics.
And most fatally of all … it leads us to persistently underestimate them.
And its only Thursday – what next?
Excitement all round.
I imagine that theres more than a few folk in the various parties trying to figure out what this all mean to them – both positive and negative.
Meanwhile, theres also a bunch of journos trying to second guess the NZ voters and what this will mean come 24 September. They are writing articles which in many cases (tho we dont know which ones yet) will be 100% wrong.
My prediction is that we wont end up with a “threeway coalition of equals” as I think that Labour are on the up, and that it will be at the expense particularly of the Greens as they will both be strong and chasing voters in the same “urban liberal” part of voterland.
And I have absolutely no idea what will now happen in the Maori seats, but I wouldnt be at all surprised to see the end of the Maori Party in Parliament.
But I too may be 100% wrong too.
Excitement all round.
Yes and then there is winnie and that stuff from down south. I’m sure i predicted Paula going in as leader to the election – might happen. But possibly only for a short time as her chickens come home to roost soon.
If Hone gets over the line, and brings a couple of others with him, there may be a chance of a deal excluding Winston?
Kelvin’s promotion to deputy and his declining to be on Labour’s list might make it tougher for Hone. That’s a bit of an offset to the Mana-Maori deal to not run a Maori party candidate in TTT.
Saw somewhere that it’s Labour Party policy that as he is now deputy leader, he has to be on the list.
Kelvin will added to the list in line with the Labour constitution – heard him confirm it yesterday on the radio.
Does that give Hone an easier ride in TTT? And subsequent Maori Party seats.
It would be really wise for Labour to consider mending some bridges with Mana and the Mp at this point.
Anyone recall what Ardern had to say about Davis running hard against Harawira in 2014? Since Davis is now going on the list, I’ve certainly got hopes for a bit more electoral pragmatism from Labour in TTT this time around.
“Anyone recall what Ardern had to say about Davis running hard against Harawira in 2014?”
Do you mean at the time?
I thought the Mp announcement the other day where they basically said the antagonism came from Little was interesting. I find Labour so confusing, lol, like how do they even make decisions?
I guess both at the time and the immediate aftermath when it became clear that if Hone had won TTT he would have coat-tailed Laila Harre in as well.
The relevance being that if she had been arguing for electoral pragmatism back then, she’s got a much better platform to argue for it now.
It would be really interesting to know. But would she have said anything publicly? She wasn’t in much position of power then right?
If you follow Māori politics (as I do) you would know that most of the antagonism has come from the Māori Party since Tuku Morgan became president. There has been some really nasty stuff, including from media darling Marama Fox. They have demonised Andrew Little at every opportunity and have also told a lot of lies about him – and Tuku Morgan has led the charge.
When they voted for the sell off of state houses they lost me forever. Hone Harawira lost my support when he decided Singapore was a good model for drug policy and that Chinese drug dealers deserved the death penalty.
The Māori Party are desperate as they know they face oblivion if (as is possible) Te Ururoa Flavell loses his seat.
Fair points, and Tuku Morgan is one of the people I least trust in politics. It’s up to Māori I guess, so if they vote Mp back in, then I’d like to see co-operation between Labour and the Mp, so am interested in the shifting dynamic and Labour also appear now to be keeping the door open (which is a change from Little).
“Hone Harawira lost my support when he decided Singapore was a good model for drug policy and that Chinese drug dealers deserved the death penalty.”
I missed the interview, but read the transcript of that and it seemed to me that he was referring to sending any offenders back to China – where – of course, if convicted they would face a death penalty.
Small distinction, but different to advocating for a death penalty as such. (He does have a seriously unflinching attitude to drugs in all forms though, which is most likely a result of the effects on his local community up North.)
Davis went hard in 2014 as otherwise he wouldn’t have got into parliament.
There is no tactical advantage in letting Hone Harawira win in 2017.
Not for Labour, but there was for the left, which in turn would have helped Labour now if they wanted to shift NZ leftwards.
Mana fucked it up, the whole KDC thing, and I’m with you on the racist drug dealer thing. I used to think parliament would be better with him in it, but he’s blown his chances. I guess if he gets in this time we’ll see.
Labour are for some reason very Hone averse. They’d probably find the Fox/Flavel flexibility easier to accommodate.
To get a new gov’t coalition that excluded NZF, you’d probably need to count on National getting less than 40%.
How likely is that?
Some of the polls have had them down at 42%, so it’s not out of the question.
Excellent. I see that The Opportunities Party has offered to share its policy ideas with Jacinda. Gareth makes exactly the same point that I posted here yesterday. There is simply not enough time to develop the required policies without a lot of help.
I suggest that the offer of Gareth and Geoff be taken up. Today.
http://www.top.org.nz/the_opportunities_party_offers_policy_help_to_jacinda_adern_and_labour
I imagine a lot of older lefties still remember what happened last time someone with a strong economic agenda got their hands on the levers of power. Douglas’ toxic legacy still lingers in many nostrils.
Still Morgan is an entirely different critter to Douglas; his social agenda is distinctly left wing, and TOP’s environmental policy criticised by the Greens as ‘too radical’. Nor does he have any ambitions to hang around long enough to become a Minister of anything.
I think Sir Roger Douglas is the greatest living New Zealander. I also think that most of TOP policies are exactly what New Zealand needs. They are not inconsistent views.
We need a comprehensive capital tax, urban planning reform and an end to poverty traps. I don’t know what Roger Doug thinks of TOP policies.
Also note that TOP rejects the ridiculous antiquated notion that policies and people are “left” or “right”. It is just embarrassing. There are only good policies and bad ones.
Douglas admitted years later that they got the order of things wrong. They believed if they imposed radical neo-liberal economic shock therapy on the economy they could tidy up the social mess later.
The problem being that it’s capitalism, of any stripe, that’s causing the economic and social problems. You can’t solve either of them by having more of it.
“Douglas admitted years later that they got the order of things wrong.”
Where? I’ve never seen the slightest repentance. He was faithfully following the neolib blitzkreig template.
Douglas was a Trojan horse – elected to be left but actually ultra-right. Should have been attainted for treason long ago.
I think he is the worst New Zealander, and should be deknighted and thrown in prison for the rest of his days.
His economic vandalism is at the root of everything that has gone wrong for New Zealand since the 1980s.
Roger Douglas was OK. The policies he implemented were Blairite “third way” policies, which were considered Orthodox at the time. The Labour Party’s “sin” was not to disown them when they turned out badly, and change tack.
No, the Third Way was recognition that the move to radical capitalism under Douglas/Reagan/Thatcher was bad and causing problems and that we needed to move slightly back to Keynesianism while still continuing to prop up radical ‘free-market’ capitalism.
It failed badly.
Roger Douglas adopted the new economics in the most extreme way and at the fastest pace of any country in the world. He was drunk with his own cleverness along with his ratpack, and no doubt got accolades from overseas which our wealthy men are always striving for. Treasury prepared the papers lauding neo liberalism. How many are there to be held to account for this treason of economic vandalism? We should have a list.
Exactly. Douglas was in many ways a creature of his time, and in some ways I can see why he pursued this shiny new economic idea with such zeal. And absolutely you are on the money gw; NZ was the most extreme outlier of this very unfortunate experiment.
In reality Douglas had very little public policy experience and his family background in the unions, the drama of Muldoon’s exit and Lange’s charisma, effectively camouflaged his intentions from the voting public.
None of his agenda was put to scrutiny or debate before it was hurriedly imposed on us. There was no research, no planning, no recognition of the need to lay the ground, or put in place transitional arrangements. Just a mono-maniacal belief that the magical market would sort out the mess.
Unfortunately the political trauma of this folly has adhered to the NZ left’s subconscious for generations since. We abandoned the economic argument, retreated into worthy, valuable ‘identity’ issues and refused to challenge the now established orthodoxy. The Fifth Labour govt marked a low point in this respect.
For example one bad experience with a medical doctor should not prevent you from every seeing a medic ever again … a reasonable person learns from the experience and returns better informed, more aware. More than anything else the left in this country needs a solid economic agenda to work with, a credible alternative to a now stale, dysfunctional neo-lib orthodoxy.
In my mind TOP is putting up a researched, costed and transparent place to start that journey.
A month or so ago Douglas came out and pubicly expressed a hope that Labour would be leading the next government. Seems like he has had a political epiphany of some kind.
Thanks for this Anne. I’m open to that idea.
Ooops… publicly expressed, not pubicly…. 😯
We are all assuming that you meant that in the most innocent manner.
Indeed. 🙂
Assuming that Labour suddenly threw out all their policy because they changed leaders is rather stupid.
Sucking National’s oxygen 100% is hilarious.
Profile shifts percentages in the last month.
Must read for anyone wondering what the future holds for National’s state housing sell offs.
How the MoD’s plan to privatise military housing ended in disaster
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/apr/25/mod-privatise-military-housing-disaster-guy-hands
Actually this current bunch clowns have been transferring defence housing as a part of the treaty settlements and then the local iwi leases back the former defence houses back the MOD at commercial rates so guess what happens when the lease runs out?
Was living in the army housing in Papakura when the decision to sell was made.
The houses were kept in great condition by the MoD, and the servicemen and women had families that were all in one community, and helped each other through deployments.
Instead of offering those homes to the army tenants who lived there, they were sold off as one lot to a developer who then broke up the houses and offered them at a considerable markup.
Many of the houses were bought as investments, and while some have been looked after, some have not.
Yeah heard about what happen at Papakura and I believe it’s the same over at Hobbie as well for the RNZAF personal, but the one to watch is going to the old Navy Housing quarters in the North Shore as some of those houses are on prime land from what my cousin has said to me. (She’s in the Navy)
So god only knows what’s going to happen there with the Navy personal? Unlike us here in Oz where we pay 50% of the rent in a Defence house and the Government pays the other 50%. The NZDF personal now pay 100% rent at the going commercial rate and its no longer subsidise by the government from what I’ve been told.
Yes, I understand the same about the Hobsonville project, and the Navy Housing on the Shore will be worth a lot in this market. Any sale will help prop up the budget.
The Papakura sell-off was even more interesting as they had just spent millions doing up the SAS unit there, and almost immediately decided to close it down and relocate.
IIRC, the SAS now has a presence back in the old Papakura Military Grounds, but that required further capital investment to reinstate.
The gains seem to be only in the books and from only one perspective.
Maybe Michael Portillo was advising?
Seriously couldn’t the government have at least got a discount – also why don’t iwi use the houses to house iwi – and at least if they do that they are easing the housing problem for Maori?
If they sell them off, especially to an overseas buyer then NZ don’t even get the taxes – like in the UK – massive profits from the houses went offshore to a tax haven and they posted local tax losses.
From what I understand that those defence houses that were part of any treaty settlement with the local iwi’s were to lease back to defence for 10yrs. Now the problem going be what happens after the 10yrs are up?
1) Where are the defence families going to live if the houses are not lease back to defence?
2) Most of the defence housing in the Auckland are in prime real estate areas for example the former Navy housing in the North Shore area.
When RNZAF Base Wigram closed under National the former defence housing wasn’t use by the local iwi to house it own people, but resold or lease out on to rental market and its for the new housing development on the former airfield.
As you said the local iwi should be looking after it own people, but appears they are not and like all property owners are after the dollars and bugger anyone else.
https://t.co/V5fVfJm6VI
in the end this is more important than policy, seriously if our government is not in charge then it matters not what policy you vote for.
what is Labour’s stance on the GCSB ? anyone know?
IIRC Andrew Little reaffirmed Labour’s commitment to five eyes and the GCSB.
I was thinking about people and how many are involved in abusive behaviour and suicides are growing.
I thought of the Hawthorne effect which was name for a study of workers and how their behaviour changed when lighting and other things were being altered ostensibly to make their work easier.
Perhaps this should be considered when working with parents having difficulties and be an attempt to aid them in their work bringing up their children and trying to find a little work so they can not be excluded from the workplace.
[Care and attention effect –
The original research at the Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois, on lighting changes and work structure changes such as working hours and break times was originally interpreted by Elton Mayo and others to mean that paying attention to overall worker needs would improve productivity. Later interpretations such as that done by Landsberger suggested that the novelty of being research subjects and the increased attention from such could lead to temporary increases in workers’ productivity. This interpretation was dubbed “the Hawthorne effect”…
Although illumination research of workplace lighting formed the basis of the Hawthorne effect, other changes such as maintaining clean work stations, clearing floors of obstacles, and even relocating workstations resulted in increased productivity for short periods. Thus the term is used to identify any type of short-lived increase in productivity.[4][7][8]
(I would think that the boring aspects of work would result in a fall-back in effect, and that having some enlivening thing happen every few days would stop the fall.
So if this was transferred to taking an interest in people in a listen to and carry forward the parent’s own wishes and needs where it would most enable their parenting and in-training role.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
Sweden – Eg of Second Largest Party on 26% forming Coalition Govt
2006 General Election
Centre-Left Bloc
Social Democrats 35%(Largest Party)
Left Party 6% (Sixth)
Green 5% (Seventh)
Centre-Right Bloc
Moderate 26% (Second Largest Party)
Centre 8% (Third)
Liberal People’s Party 8% (Fourth)
Christian Democrats 7% (Fifth)
Moderates form Centre-Right Coalition Govt
Nice one.
No matter what ails ya, the stupidity of bigots is a marvelous tonic.
An overly zealous group of Norwegian nationalists is facing online ridicule after mistaking a photo of seats on a city bus for women wearing burqas.
Screenshots from the Norwegian Facebook group Fedrelandet Viktigst, which translates to “The Fatherland, Most Importantly,” show members of the group expressing xenophobic fears in response to the photo. The image depicts several darkly-coloured seats on a city bus, lit in such a way that some might mistake it for rows of women in burqas.
The Facebook group is labelled as meant for “anyone who loves Norway, and appreciates what our ancestors have been fighting for!”
http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/ignorance-unveiled-anti-immigrant-group-mistakes-bus-seats-for-burqas-1.3529632
The only time I’ve ever seen my partner visibly angry and shaking in public was the first time we encountered a burka in public in a Melbourne shopping mall.
They are disgusting things.
I gotta admit burqas induce a massive cognitive dissonance for me.
On one hand they’re a massive symbol of institutionalised oppression of women.
On the other hand, at least some burqa wearers genuinely freely choose to do so and would be genuinely uncomfortable about not wearing it in public. Whether that situation is the product of a messed-up oppressed upbringing is kind of a separate topic.
So my disgust at what the burqa represents is at serious war with my libertarian instincts that people should be free to do what they want (up to the point that they interfere with other people doing what they want).
But yeah, there’s nothing but delight in obnoxious morons mistaking bus seats for burqas and publicly making themselves idiots over it.
The way out of that dilemma for me is to support the feminists in those cultures. This ups the rights of women and enables self-determination.
What fascinates me about burqa wearers is many that I have seen overseas especially at Dubai Airport are glamorous (from what you can see). Lots of jewellery on their fingers, red nail polish, one had sky high red strappy shoes on carrying very expensive bags from designer stores.
The paradox of this fascinates me, I thought it was to keep women demure, pious, subdued and submissive. I wouldn’t mind betting they are hell on wheels in their own environment and its obvious their menfolk like them dressed in racy lingerie under all the voluminous robes.
No, it’s to mark them as being owned by men and that other men are therefore not allowed to look/converse with without the express permission of the man.
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-differences-between-a-niqab-a-chador-an-abaya-a-burkha-and-a-hijab
i have met quite a few girls in France and Germany who would wear not the burka but the Abaya with a Hijab – a headscarf with long coat/dress when going out. Underneath these girls are as modern and flamboyant as any other girls/women elsewhere.
the point about dressing in the headscarf and long coat outfit is simply to not ‘seduce’ men, but to portray an image of ‘modesty’.
at home these women wear regular clothes.
I sat in quite a few kitchens in Germany with turkish women/girls while the men sat in the living room. The ladies have no issues discussing boys/ men in no uncertain terms. Let me rest it at that. 🙂
Good fun, good food and much tea was consumed.
and while some be forced to wear this, many choose it on their own and make it fashion. and its not up to us to judge these choices.
For me it is the oppressive, sexist and deeply damaging purdah culture these dress forms represent which I passionately object to. Yes they are a dress choice, but then so is a skinhead making a ‘dress choice’ if they wear a swastika in public. It’s the symbolism that matters here.
What most westerners don’t realise is that originally these walking tents had almost nothing to do with Islam. Purdah culture thoroughly pre-dates Islam, and the first 500 years or so these dress forms were completely unknown and discredited. IIRC they only appeared in Islam around AD 1300 or so inside some extremist cult and spread from there.
Purdah, or the strict social segregation of men and women, is an ancient practise that has no place in the modern world. It roughly falls into the same basket of horrors such as genital mutilation and foot binding.
I do agree with weka on the point she makes above; but at the same time I will never feel under any obligation to tolerate or condone it.
I just saw that Auditor General Matthews is stepping down. (Might be old news now.) To do with Transport Agency and Joanne Harrison I suppose.
Who is next at facing up to the unpleasant and unsavoury?
Yep, he is but he doesn’t seem to have realised the problem:
He was told that the fraud was being committed by several people and did nothing. He doesn’t seem to realise that this is a breach of trust by him to the employees and to the people of NZ.
New tax idea Labour and Greens – help the homeless and yourselves.
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2017/08/dealing-with-ghost-homes.html
excellent, will put that up as a cross-post I think.
Shades of the Land Tax of the Liberal Govt under Minister of Lands, James Mckenzie.
As a result of that tax at least four of my ancestors got a farm from the breaking up of the big estates.
The Auditor General has resigned.
This is the guy who stood by during the corruption, and during the time the corrupt official hunted down the whistleblowers, while he was Secretary of the Ministry of Transport:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95411616/auditorgeneral-resigns-saying-his-position-untenable
Good fucking job.
May it be a lesson to whomever runs the State Services Commission – and the Minister of State Services – in future. As well as to ever single head of a government agency.
is there not a tax loop hole here in NZ where a landlord of a residential or commercial property can write of the loss of an untenanted property against income?
maybe just do away with that loophole.
some of the rural townships could actually be quite lovely little hubs if the upstairs of the old fringes were to be residential again instead of ’empty commerical office space to lease’.
We >i>still have landlords of Commercial property, in the Hawkes Bay, putting up rents and forcing out long standing tenants…just for those shops to sit empty, or some brave soul starts up and closes down in the blink of an eye due to the stress of so called ‘market rents’.
If your retail property is empty, or has a constant flow of ‘pop ups’, then its NOT market rent.
And the question is, what are the artificial motivations that make property that is vacant or with high-tenant-turnover viable?.
i know live near a little rural town. lovely actually, but pretty much all the upstairs of the shops are ‘offices ‘ to rent and two thirds of the shops are for lease. . Like really? how many offices can a rural small town have? Put people in to live, create some live in these little towns. Offices! Bullshit.
what ever tax clause it is that makes it more attractive to keep a property empty instead of renting it out needs to be closed, done away with. It is a clause that keeps people on the street homeless and out of earning a living. Stupid.
Such a loophole would be news to me, but then I have little experience in commercial property.
I suspect that what may happening is that in the commercial leasing the book value of the property is directly related to it’s imputed rental value. Often such a property will be tied up as bank collateral for some other project. If it’s then leased for residential for a lower rental than office space, the bank would be in it’s rights to revalue the property downwards.
In this case the owner has every reason to leave a property empty rather than lease it at a reduced rent.
Also in the commercial context, potential tenants are much fewer in number compared to residential, so it’s always anticipated that there can be quite long vacancies between tenancies.
Of course none of this addresses the very real issue you raise.
Economics tells us that the value of a thing is how much it can garner upon the open market. It would seem to me that when it’s left empty then the value is zero and the bank should value it at that. If it’s used for commercial or residential should make no difference to the bank.
What you’re describing would seem to be some sort of loophole.
Not really. As I suggested in practise there are often quite large gaps in commercial tenancies, and valuing a property at zero for their unknowable duration is not reasonable.
But the moment you do lease it, regardless of whether it’s commercial or residential, the income is now known and the value of the property becomes determinate again. And that is what the bank cares about.
Besides once it is leased residential, it makes it a lot harder to subsequently place a more attractive commercial tenant.
As I said I’m not an expert here; just pointing out some quite pragmatic reasons why commercial property can lie empty for long periods without any particular tax reason being involved.
Re last paragraph PLUS EFFING 100!
Public Service reform of its senior management and corporatised structure is LONG overdue
Politicised, unaccountable, crony-enabled, and generally dysfunctional.
“Auditor-General Martin Matthews has resigned. Good riddance. Given his woeful performance as chief executive of the Ministry of Transport, where he appears to have repeatedly looked the other way on Joanne Harrison’s fraud, there really was no other option.”
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2017/08/good-riddance.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11898467
But the peasants don’t need to know what was going on, so no publication of the report. Off you go Martin, here’s a little something to tide you over and Martin, keep your mouth shut.
“Foodstuffs run an operation of using a large amount of labour hire temporary workers. They’ve got hundreds of them, and they use them in permanent positions and exploit the precarious nature of their work.”
First Union transport and logistics secretary Jared Abbott
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/95401353/supermarket-distribution-workers-strike-for-better-conditions
This should be the topic of the day…its all about the employment issues that have massive effect on the lives of a large number of non voters, tap into that and Labour could turn things around.
sometime ago they had a position that i was much qualified for and i applied.
they were keen to employ me. but the wage was stupid low, so i politely declined.
and that was not a job for a low skilled worker. no, they demanded degrees and work experience and such and still barely wanted to pay 40.000 plus. so much time wasted, my time. Sad!
Great news for the Left
But The Fight Goes On
There are continual early morning protests to slow contractors from accessing this site on public land and to disrupt the consequent high number of heavy trucks carrying excavated material along the narrow Karangahake Gorge road.
Sign the petition here: