The link is a comic which makes the correct point that the right to free speech is not the right to not be criticized or to have others protest against you. It is the right not to have the government throw you in jail for saying something
Basically if you go around being an arrogant arsehole, don’t be surprised when people tell you to STFU and GTO
The Nats under Key ear earmarked up to $10billion for a road rail tunnel under the Waitemata.
For that much money, you could replace the whole current Auckland bus fleet with these electric vehicles, and run them fare free for twenty years.
Now there is an incentive to get people out of their cars, and completely doing away with the need for another hugely expensive new harbour crossing.
As a further incentive to get people out of their cars. take the two east lanes of the Auckland Harbour and extend the North Shore busway right into the city.
At 80 passengers per bus this would hugely increase the commuter density of Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Permit Patty is alive and well in Rotorua where the night shelter has been bared from housing homeless.
Four weeks after the opening of Rotorua’s night shelter the homeless have been told they can no longer sleep there overnight.
Rotorua Lakes Council staff inspected the property yesterday and found the site was being used for overnight sleeping, a breach of the agreement between the council and organiser Tiny Deane, of Visions of a Helping Hand.
God save the citizens of Rotorua from their elected officials.
Councils need to reigned in as this is one of many incidents where humanity seems to be their lowest priority.
Then there’s the property developments that get bailed out (Tauranga), Sewage that can’t be stopped from entering harbours (Waikato), expensive redevelopments of already adequate facilities (Hamilton).
All that and those convention centres as it’s almost as if everyone has one white elephant convention centre now.
The strangest council experience I ever had was when I rang Porirua City Council to report a dog on the loose.
It was mid morning, under the canopies (cbd) so lots of foot traffic and close to a childrens play area and cars.
Council response was they would only send someone if I restrained the dog first, or it was a waste of their time.
Watching the thing bounding across the courtyard, I turned and went home before the asked me to desex or deflea it, and possibly insist I prove I didn’t actually own the thing. Who knows with councils?
If we are ever to become carbon neutral by 2050, then we really have to stop building huge and expensive motorway infrastructure, like the proposed Waitemata Road/Rail Tunnel, which encourages more car use, and do more of this instead.
And I’m in favour of getting rid of them. They were put in place because the voting system at the time only allowed propertied men to vote and māori didn’t own land and thus were excluded from voting. Now that we have Universal Suffrage they’re not needed and could be considered divisive of our society.
Robert and friends were discussing tribalism yesterday – i’d like to add a thought.
Tribalism is not inherently a ‘bad thing in my view. In fact it is needed so that a synthesis can be made. A synthesis isn’t capulation from one side – it is using the dialectic positions from each side to create a UNIQUE solution – a solution that is made from the opposing sides.
Tribalism is a positive not negative however fundamentalism is not positive and we see a lot of that. The ideas above are based on WANTING to find solutions and many fundys dont want that.
I see tribalism as blindly following a group- at the TS it’s the red, green or blue team, and ignoring or remaining mute when your team misses the mark. Not a lot of thinking.
For me a funny is like an extreme tribalist, in that they are more likely to criticize their ‘team’ because they don’t go far enough. Too much thinking.
I am nearly always looking for a common ground to proceed on but must admit to getting frustrated when the Tories come to TS with their lies, obfuscation and derailing pedantry.
(Like yesterday when Wayne ‘reckoned’ nurses earn $90,000).
“Tribalism is a positive not negative however fundamentalism is not positive and we see a lot of that. ”
Yeah that maybe a better way of putting it
To Robert:
“How are you going about your detribalising?”
Its not easy because I guess the first thing you need to look it is why and then having to admit that “your” tribe does have its faults and if you tie yourself to that tribe then does that mean you have to admit to your own faults (or at least blindness to those faults?)
“Have you other examples of something you’ve identified and adjusted;”
I’m not sure, I mean if any of the previous dealings are found to be illegal then i think that whoever is involved should be punished to the fullest extent of the law but then the difficulty of proving that may well be a cop-out (like washing my hands kind of thing)
I’ve yet to find a tribe, Pucky, that isn’t mistaken in some it’s positions. Often, an individual within the tribe pointing out those mistakes, is reviled/mocked/dismissed as a threat to the tribe; it’s been that way since forever, I guess; Nicky Hager, Mike Joy et al are those sorts of figures, I reckon and it irks me to see them so quickly and comprehensively ‘taken down’ by New Zealanders who don’t recognise their roles. I see both as New Zealanders, not Right or Left wingers; sorting them like that just makes the demonisation automatic. Key is a clear example of someone who used tribalism as a weapon against those sorts of commentators; it’s possible he didn’t believe what he was saying; certainly I didn’t 🙂 What do you reckon about that, Pucky? In any case I enjoy having my own ‘tribal’ beliefs pointed out to me and having a go at getting my head around the claim and if possible, revising/reversing them; it’s refreshing to do so; liberating even 🙂
I guess, Marty, if you wanted to change something the tribe does or believes, there’d have to be an agreed process to enable that. I bet there are communities around the world where that process is superior to ours here on the political blogs. It would be useful to include some sort of “quality control” over practices that develop over time; are they valid aside from their bonding function, that sort of thing.
This is priceless! So, as long as there is a government that stops people from having the individual freedom to run monopolies, then you don’t have capitalism? Could it be that capitalism has absolutely nothing to do with individual freedom, despite its constant propaganda claims that it does, because monopolies and the mass tyranny that comes with them are its natural outcome?
Capitalism has never been about freedom. It’s only ever been about ownership and the control of society through that ownership.
Just wanted to say, I’m so very proud of the kids at our local school. We’ve just finished the school production and it was outstanding.
Some of our year 7 and 8 students may not be that great at core subjects, life may not be that great at home for them either, but the production gave them a chance to shine, and shine they did. My face is still aching from smiling and laughing.
So proud 🙂 So happy for them 🙂 No amount of money can buy those feelings. What a way to end the term 🙂
I wonder if Laurel Hubbard would qualify for an appointment?
After all she was allowed to compete in the Women’s weightlifting at the Commonwealth games.
Are you transphobic? You are sounding that way. For non transphobic people there is no issue. Time to look in the mirror al and see the real you warts and all.
Another stupid idea. I mean why only half? If appointments are based on merit, whose to say there shouldn’t be more women than men? Or more men than women?
When you look at the shambling buffoons there now a change in the process of appointment is likely to freshen things up. We’ve had decades of going backwards, time for some folk who live in this century instead of dragging us back to the 19th.
‘It stoopiddd’ is the level of debate i’d expect from some but i thought you were going to try and be original in your thinking and utterances – you’ve let yourself down badly.
Exactly – which is changeable so therefore subjective. It means different things to different people depending, and therefore can be described as anyrhing you want – therefore it is.meaningless in effect.
If Boards and Shareholders are stupid enough to not appoint on merit, that’s their loss. If we are stupid enough to create a construct based on genitalia, then that is our loss.
If we could judge merit perfectly, your argument would be arguable.
But we can’t.
Quite obviously, we don’t. Otherwise a statistical gender parity would already exist on boards.
As it is, either selectors erroneously believe that men have more merit than women, or the selectors are biased towards male candidates when roughly equivalent candidates apply for the same job.
The barriers we face when judging merits of candidates is like judging the accuracy of different shooters. If all the shooters are using a rifle with an accuracy of 1 minute of angle at 100yds, then any single perfect shot will be within an inch of the 100yd aiming point.
So if you have twenty shooters bunging in their CV, the top five might all be within an inch of what you want. But who has the most merit? Hell, some of them might have been aiming almost two inches away from your ideal point and just got lucky.
Statistically-speaking, off that sample there’s no way of truly judging merit. So you might as well make diversity the deciding factor, because variability creates strength in an organisation.
My argument is that appointments should not be made by quota, which is by definition NOT on merit, and is patronising to those it is designed to benefit.
oh, you’re concerned about women being patronised, lolz
Appointments made “on quota” are only not merit based if there aren’t enough people from the “quota” groups to be appointed on merit.
If ten candidates are all pretty equivalent, and one is a woman, and there are no women on the board, one could argue that the diversity she begins to give the board actually increases her merit above the other candidates.
And it would be entirely their business for a Board to make an appointment on such a basis. But a quote, per se, just patronises the people it seeks to benefit. I have worked alongside plenty of terrific women on boards – they don’t need your help McFlock, they can make it entirely on their own.
Could be a number of reasons. Sexism. Stupidity. Not enough women putting their names forward. I don’t care about the gender of people I sit alongside on management teams or boards. I only care about competence.
And yet you want to keep the same bigoted and stupid system you currently have. No surprises- it’s the system that put you on a board in the first place
“This Government is now waving something in front of them that they may or may not be able to get – but certainly the Government’s giving the impression they can get.
Expectations are being raised. If you raise expectations, you have to manage them, and you have to manage the inevitable fallout when people get disappointed.
Really good on this Government for having a go at this.
But I do fear there’s a huge streak of naivety at the core of KiwiBuild and the way it’s being put together.
The next part of the process – defining eligibility, and making it clear just how long people might have to wait – is going to be crucial..
Turned off and disillusioned
If people get turned off or disillusioned by the KiwiBuild process, well, that’s going to blow up in this Government’s face quite quickly, and at the ballot box.”
“The basic principle is simple: buy at a discount, sell at the same discount.
Here’s roughly how it would work. When Bob decides to sell his house, he can either sell it in the open market or sell it to another KiwiBuild qualified buyer in the KiwiBuild secondary market.
In the first case, the new buyer pays the full market price; but Bob receives only half of it, with the other half (the originally discounted proportion) returned to the Government.”
I dunno. If it is all framed through ‘return’ then it is distorted from the get go whether a secondary market exists or not. A bit like – if you really are a long term house owner then short term market fluctuations are less than meaningless. The point is to get more people into houses not create more wealth for property investors – at least in my view.
However, should there be a time period (say 15 years opposed to 3) where if owned for longer buyers of kiwibuild homes get to keep all the capital gain?
Yes Ad, it good see Climate Change and also a focus on International Base rules in today’s policy. Also the. future Defence Prourement Policy was release as well and I wouldn’t be able to read the full atm as I’m out bush until next week as I’m getting married after 9yrs, also if this post appears to all over place is because I left my glasses behind (I’m blind as bat atm) and had wild a night the pub as some locals brought their pets aka snakes, a snapping hand bag with big some reptiles aka lizards etc as well, a buffalo and a kangaroo.. This pub isn’t for the faint hearted as it’s one of last old school pubs in theNT.
Ad, this there anyway that we can chat offline IRT to theses policy releases and your post about climate change IRT NZDF and Climate Change?
Exkiwiforces
I wish you a happy marriage day and the years beyond. That pub night sounds good enough to be the central point of a movie about the outback.
And by the way can anyone tell me where Rod Oram is? I didn’haven’t found him in his usual haunt at Radionz? Don’t say they have lost him as well as John Campbell?
three goes in one week. greedy old fossil barry soper had three op-ed pieces in the Wairarapa Times Age this week. none of them original. all copies of the crap the nationals are peddling in parliamentary question time. swingeing attacks on kiwibuild, winston, and hauahama. No facts. Just opinion. This is kiwi politics at its sleaziest and apart form the content it says something about the avariciousness and greed of the author of this garbage. there is no right of reply and the nationals are getting nationwide syndicated free goes so so much for the free press. soper is going to seed but he is still vicious and dangerous.
Good evening Newshub I the Rotorua Lakes Council should work with the people running that Building to get the work done to get its fire safety permits .
One would think that councils would look after there Tangata No that would be a wise way to solve that problem.
The Rugby and Rugby League is quite exciting at the minute.
Im A bit tired at the minute the writing skills are on siesta.
So looks like a day of rest apoapo with the wet weather thats being forcaste
Ka kite ano
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The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
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. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
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 ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
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I see a pair of hard right Canadian racists are coming to NZ.
The appropriate solution would be to go along and set the fire alarm off.
Link?
The appropriate solution would be, to not turn up…
If it’s an event which you’re not going to be morally aligned with…
No form of censorship is acceptable!
https://xkcd.com/1357/
Acceptance of racism is unacceptable.
Acceptance of racism…
Where/who…
I’m not clicking your link with no explanation…
Unless your illogical comment was the explanation…
The link is a comic which makes the correct point that the right to free speech is not the right to not be criticized or to have others protest against you. It is the right not to have the government throw you in jail for saying something
Basically if you go around being an arrogant arsehole, don’t be surprised when people tell you to STFU and GTO
Mind saying who, or is this some kind of “in club” news?
^^^
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/361220/controversial-speaker-lauren-southern-going-to-insult-all-of-us-islamic-community-leader
Why aren’t we getting these in Auckland.
“Fully-electric double-decker buses hit Wellington’s streets for the first time”
Damion George – The Dominion Post, Thursday, July 5, 2018
The Nats under Key ear earmarked up to $10billion for a road rail tunnel under the Waitemata.
For that much money, you could replace the whole current Auckland bus fleet with these electric vehicles, and run them fare free for twenty years.
Now there is an incentive to get people out of their cars, and completely doing away with the need for another hugely expensive new harbour crossing.
As a further incentive to get people out of their cars. take the two east lanes of the Auckland Harbour and extend the North Shore busway right into the city.
At 80 passengers per bus this would hugely increase the commuter density of Auckland Harbour Bridge.
You’ll find the new Chief Executive at Auckland Transport pretty receptive if you just email him.
Note also that Auckland Transport as of this weekend completes a revolution in bus frequency across most of Auckland.
Fully electric buses are a fairly new technology and they need significant infrastructure to put in place before they can be used effectively.
Or May be you could run wires for the buses to attach to the power!!!!
Which would be infrastructure and takes time to install.
As some who lives in Wellington and had to put up with cable buses, please please don’t even go there
Permit Patty is alive and well in Rotorua where the night shelter has been bared from housing homeless.
Four weeks after the opening of Rotorua’s night shelter the homeless have been told they can no longer sleep there overnight.
Rotorua Lakes Council staff inspected the property yesterday and found the site was being used for overnight sleeping, a breach of the agreement between the council and organiser Tiny Deane, of Visions of a Helping Hand.
God save the citizens of Rotorua from their elected officials.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12083679
Councils need to reigned in as this is one of many incidents where humanity seems to be their lowest priority.
Then there’s the property developments that get bailed out (Tauranga), Sewage that can’t be stopped from entering harbours (Waikato), expensive redevelopments of already adequate facilities (Hamilton).
All that and those convention centres as it’s almost as if everyone has one white elephant convention centre now.
Reign and rein. One of these things is what horsey looking people do, the other is how you control them.
Just saying, in a spirit of dictionary fascism.
The strangest council experience I ever had was when I rang Porirua City Council to report a dog on the loose.
It was mid morning, under the canopies (cbd) so lots of foot traffic and close to a childrens play area and cars.
Council response was they would only send someone if I restrained the dog first, or it was a waste of their time.
Watching the thing bounding across the courtyard, I turned and went home before the asked me to desex or deflea it, and possibly insist I prove I didn’t actually own the thing. Who knows with councils?
If you’d hinted you were ready to shoot it, somebody would’ve shown up pretty smartly.
Yep – hopefully with a gun to help him stop the rabid mutt from biting children’s faces off. But probably not.
There’s always the library
https://youtu.be/StNfkQrdoGM
If we are ever to become carbon neutral by 2050, then we really have to stop building huge and expensive motorway infrastructure, like the proposed Waitemata Road/Rail Tunnel, which encourages more car use, and do more of this instead.
https://at.govt.nz/projects-roadworks/new-public-transport-network/new-network-for-the-central-suburbs/
By 2020 our vehicle fleet will mainly be electric.
pardon?
Two years away… you’re a bit optimistic.
Hey Winnie – keep your hands off the Māori seats or your legacy will be spit on.
Oh now it’s his fault.
You forget he announced this as a bottom line coalition requirement.
So it’s not Winnie – it’s this coalition that will be putting it to the vote.
It is they who deserve their legacy judged on it.
Yes James the legacy judging will be wide – no one will be left out. Glad to allay your fears there.
What’s actually happening with that?
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/361175/winston-peters-wants-two-part-referendum-on-maori-seats
Seems a reasonable position.
And I’m in favour of getting rid of them. They were put in place because the voting system at the time only allowed propertied men to vote and māori didn’t own land and thus were excluded from voting. Now that we have Universal Suffrage they’re not needed and could be considered divisive of our society.
Yes well good for you.
Robert and friends were discussing tribalism yesterday – i’d like to add a thought.
Tribalism is not inherently a ‘bad thing in my view. In fact it is needed so that a synthesis can be made. A synthesis isn’t capulation from one side – it is using the dialectic positions from each side to create a UNIQUE solution – a solution that is made from the opposing sides.
Tribalism is a positive not negative however fundamentalism is not positive and we see a lot of that. The ideas above are based on WANTING to find solutions and many fundys dont want that.
I see tribalism as blindly following a group- at the TS it’s the red, green or blue team, and ignoring or remaining mute when your team misses the mark. Not a lot of thinking.
For me a funny is like an extreme tribalist, in that they are more likely to criticize their ‘team’ because they don’t go far enough. Too much thinking.
I am nearly always looking for a common ground to proceed on but must admit to getting frustrated when the Tories come to TS with their lies, obfuscation and derailing pedantry.
(Like yesterday when Wayne ‘reckoned’ nurses earn $90,000).
“Tribalism is a positive not negative however fundamentalism is not positive and we see a lot of that. ”
Yeah that maybe a better way of putting it
To Robert:
“How are you going about your detribalising?”
Its not easy because I guess the first thing you need to look it is why and then having to admit that “your” tribe does have its faults and if you tie yourself to that tribe then does that mean you have to admit to your own faults (or at least blindness to those faults?)
“Have you other examples of something you’ve identified and adjusted;”
I’m not sure, I mean if any of the previous dealings are found to be illegal then i think that whoever is involved should be punished to the fullest extent of the law but then the difficulty of proving that may well be a cop-out (like washing my hands kind of thing)
I’ve yet to find a tribe, Pucky, that isn’t mistaken in some it’s positions. Often, an individual within the tribe pointing out those mistakes, is reviled/mocked/dismissed as a threat to the tribe; it’s been that way since forever, I guess; Nicky Hager, Mike Joy et al are those sorts of figures, I reckon and it irks me to see them so quickly and comprehensively ‘taken down’ by New Zealanders who don’t recognise their roles. I see both as New Zealanders, not Right or Left wingers; sorting them like that just makes the demonisation automatic. Key is a clear example of someone who used tribalism as a weapon against those sorts of commentators; it’s possible he didn’t believe what he was saying; certainly I didn’t 🙂 What do you reckon about that, Pucky? In any case I enjoy having my own ‘tribal’ beliefs pointed out to me and having a go at getting my head around the claim and if possible, revising/reversing them; it’s refreshing to do so; liberating even 🙂
Hi Robert, good questions but unfortunately I’m knocking off early but i’m sure someone else might be able to have a go at answering them 🙂
Maybe next week, Pucky; enjoy your weekend.
I guess, Marty, if you wanted to change something the tribe does or believes, there’d have to be an agreed process to enable that. I bet there are communities around the world where that process is superior to ours here on the political blogs. It would be useful to include some sort of “quality control” over practices that develop over time; are they valid aside from their bonding function, that sort of thing.
Has Trotter finally crossed the Rubicon? One can hope.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/07/05/keeping-power-homeless/
This is a good question from Danyl Strype:
Capitalism has never been about freedom. It’s only ever been about ownership and the control of society through that ownership.
Just wanted to say, I’m so very proud of the kids at our local school. We’ve just finished the school production and it was outstanding.
Some of our year 7 and 8 students may not be that great at core subjects, life may not be that great at home for them either, but the production gave them a chance to shine, and shine they did. My face is still aching from smiling and laughing.
So proud 🙂 So happy for them 🙂 No amount of money can buy those feelings. What a way to end the term 🙂
Fantastic Cindy. Great for kids and all of us to get joy out of these endeavors…..no big budgets involved. Fab
Good this is being implemented imo. It really is pathetic if someone opposes this – I hope we all support it.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/105284096/women-must-make-up-half-of-all-state-sector-boards-govt
I wonder if Laurel Hubbard would qualify for an appointment?
After all she was allowed to compete in the Women’s weightlifting at the Commonwealth games.
Of course she would.
What are you trying to say?
Are you transphobic? You are sounding that way. For non transphobic people there is no issue. Time to look in the mirror al and see the real you warts and all.
I know where they could start 😉
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_Labour_Government_of_New_Zealand#/media/File:New-govt-2017.jpg
Lol – good one.
Ha ha!
Another stupid idea. I mean why only half? If appointments are based on merit, whose to say there shouldn’t be more women than men? Or more men than women?
If appointments were made on merit virtually none of the incumbents would be there.
Even if you’re right (and I doubt you are) appointing people on a quote just makes that worse.
When you look at the shambling buffoons there now a change in the process of appointment is likely to freshen things up. We’ve had decades of going backwards, time for some folk who live in this century instead of dragging us back to the 19th.
Most organisations have (or have had) their share of fools at the helm. Remember Labour had Andrew Little, David Cunliffe and Phil Goff. But when you move away from merit based appointments, you get this http://sandrarose.com/2018/03/diversity-fail-women-engineering-team-behind-collapse-miami-pedestrian-bridge/.
‘It stoopiddd’ is the level of debate i’d expect from some but i thought you were going to try and be original in your thinking and utterances – you’ve let yourself down badly.
‘Stupid’ is an apt description of such quota’s. I gave my reason. Merit.
merit?
Imo that attribute is constructed by the dominant view and/or culture and therefore it really doesn’t exist in actuality.
No, merit is constructed toward the best person for the job.
Exactly – which is changeable so therefore subjective. It means different things to different people depending, and therefore can be described as anyrhing you want – therefore it is.meaningless in effect.
Actually, you gave your lack of reason.
Or, perhaps, that should be your excuses for there being a discrepancy between the population demographics and the number of men on boards.
If Boards and Shareholders are stupid enough to not appoint on merit, that’s their loss. If we are stupid enough to create a construct based on genitalia, then that is our loss.
You do understand that, statistically speaking, would be impossible right?
No. If appointments were on merit, there could be more men appointed than women, or more women appointed than men.
If we could judge merit perfectly, your argument would be arguable.
But we can’t.
Quite obviously, we don’t. Otherwise a statistical gender parity would already exist on boards.
As it is, either selectors erroneously believe that men have more merit than women, or the selectors are biased towards male candidates when roughly equivalent candidates apply for the same job.
I guess we need an independent panel to adjudicate merit, otherwise we end up with people like this:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-05/qatars-ceo-says-only-a-man-can-lead-his-company/9837312
A firearms analogy came to mind.
The barriers we face when judging merits of candidates is like judging the accuracy of different shooters. If all the shooters are using a rifle with an accuracy of 1 minute of angle at 100yds, then any single perfect shot will be within an inch of the 100yd aiming point.
So if you have twenty shooters bunging in their CV, the top five might all be within an inch of what you want. But who has the most merit? Hell, some of them might have been aiming almost two inches away from your ideal point and just got lucky.
Statistically-speaking, off that sample there’s no way of truly judging merit. So you might as well make diversity the deciding factor, because variability creates strength in an organisation.
My argument is that appointments should not be made by quota, which is by definition NOT on merit, and is patronising to those it is designed to benefit.
oh, you’re concerned about women being patronised, lolz
Appointments made “on quota” are only not merit based if there aren’t enough people from the “quota” groups to be appointed on merit.
If ten candidates are all pretty equivalent, and one is a woman, and there are no women on the board, one could argue that the diversity she begins to give the board actually increases her merit above the other candidates.
And it would be entirely their business for a Board to make an appointment on such a basis. But a quote, per se, just patronises the people it seeks to benefit. I have worked alongside plenty of terrific women on boards – they don’t need your help McFlock, they can make it entirely on their own.
Then why aren’t half of NZ board positions already filled by women?
Could be a number of reasons. Sexism. Stupidity. Not enough women putting their names forward. I don’t care about the gender of people I sit alongside on management teams or boards. I only care about competence.
Then this rule won’t bother you then.
Unless you’re lying.
And yet you want to keep the same bigoted and stupid system you currently have. No surprises- it’s the system that put you on a board in the first place
Nobodie’s making appointments by quota.
“Then this rule won’t bother you then.”
Quota’s may lead to a less competent person being nominated because of their genitals. So yes, that bothers me.
“Nobodie’s making appointments by quota.”
That’s what is being proposed.
“The Government has set a compulsory target that would have women make up half of the directors on all state sector boards and commmittees by 2021.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/105284096/women-must-make-up-half-of-all-state-sector-boards-govt.
So that quota will determine the appointments. Keep up.
Unlikely.
No it’s not. What’s being proposed is that boards of directors have 50/50 split of male/female.
No it won’t.
Double jackpot for KiwiBuild winners is wrong
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/105278941/double-jackpot-for-kiwibuild-winners-is-wrong
“This Government is now waving something in front of them that they may or may not be able to get – but certainly the Government’s giving the impression they can get.
Expectations are being raised. If you raise expectations, you have to manage them, and you have to manage the inevitable fallout when people get disappointed.
Really good on this Government for having a go at this.
But I do fear there’s a huge streak of naivety at the core of KiwiBuild and the way it’s being put together.
The next part of the process – defining eligibility, and making it clear just how long people might have to wait – is going to be crucial..
Turned off and disillusioned
If people get turned off or disillusioned by the KiwiBuild process, well, that’s going to blow up in this Government’s face quite quickly, and at the ballot box.”
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/94662/governments-willingly-put-itself-under-enormous-pressure-inviting-registrations
This could have (and should have) been structured so much better.
A good win for the taxpayers union. And well done David Parker for making the right noises.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/105253796/council-releases-12m-cost-of-library-touch-wall-as-attorneygeneral-demands-urgent-action-over-secrecy
Read this yesterday and thought it had some merit:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/105278941/double-jackpot-for-kiwibuild-winners-is-wrong
“The basic principle is simple: buy at a discount, sell at the same discount.
Here’s roughly how it would work. When Bob decides to sell his house, he can either sell it in the open market or sell it to another KiwiBuild qualified buyer in the KiwiBuild secondary market.
In the first case, the new buyer pays the full market price; but Bob receives only half of it, with the other half (the originally discounted proportion) returned to the Government.”
I dunno. If it is all framed through ‘return’ then it is distorted from the get go whether a secondary market exists or not. A bit like – if you really are a long term house owner then short term market fluctuations are less than meaningless. The point is to get more people into houses not create more wealth for property investors – at least in my view.
I highlighted the same article above at 10.
It raises a valid point.
However, should there be a time period (say 15 years opposed to 3) where if owned for longer buyers of kiwibuild homes get to keep all the capital gain?
Good to see the New Zealand Defence Forces recognising their role in responding to the risks of climate change.
https://defence.govt.nz/publications/publication/strategic-defence-policy-statement-2018
Accompanying statement from the Minister:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1807/S00074/strategic-defence-policy-statement-2018-launched.htm
I recall making some suggestion like this in a post a while back.
Yes Ad, it good see Climate Change and also a focus on International Base rules in today’s policy. Also the. future Defence Prourement Policy was release as well and I wouldn’t be able to read the full atm as I’m out bush until next week as I’m getting married after 9yrs, also if this post appears to all over place is because I left my glasses behind (I’m blind as bat atm) and had wild a night the pub as some locals brought their pets aka snakes, a snapping hand bag with big some reptiles aka lizards etc as well, a buffalo and a kangaroo.. This pub isn’t for the faint hearted as it’s one of last old school pubs in theNT.
Ad, this there anyway that we can chat offline IRT to theses policy releases and your post about climate change IRT NZDF and Climate Change?
Exkiwiforces
I wish you a happy marriage day and the years beyond. That pub night sounds good enough to be the central point of a movie about the outback.
And by the way can anyone tell me where Rod Oram is? I didn’haven’t found him in his usual haunt at Radionz? Don’t say they have lost him as well as John Campbell?
Exkiwiforces “Good luck and Best wishes”.
three goes in one week. greedy old fossil barry soper had three op-ed pieces in the Wairarapa Times Age this week. none of them original. all copies of the crap the nationals are peddling in parliamentary question time. swingeing attacks on kiwibuild, winston, and hauahama. No facts. Just opinion. This is kiwi politics at its sleaziest and apart form the content it says something about the avariciousness and greed of the author of this garbage. there is no right of reply and the nationals are getting nationwide syndicated free goes so so much for the free press. soper is going to seed but he is still vicious and dangerous.
Good evening Newshub I the Rotorua Lakes Council should work with the people running that Building to get the work done to get its fire safety permits .
One would think that councils would look after there Tangata No that would be a wise way to solve that problem.
The Rugby and Rugby League is quite exciting at the minute.
Im A bit tired at the minute the writing skills are on siesta.
So looks like a day of rest apoapo with the wet weather thats being forcaste
Ka kite ano