'Murica does not deserve AOC. She is truly a goddess when she can wind up Steve King so much he goes and drinks toilet water thinking that's owning the libs.
The fear of exiting Brexit is about the loss to the person producing the product. Some people do well in business, some do not and will not regardless of who they are trading with.
For the business owners/producers who need some help to transition, help needs to be given providing it is viable to do so.
I am in favour of Brexit going forward as Britain has limited economic control with trading within the EU. This is evident due to how hard it is to exit from the EU.
But it's cold outside, and warm inside, and the cat thought it wanted out, so now it's sitting in the open doorway while the European parliament is waiting for the british cat to make up it's damned mind. Sooner or later there will be a helpful foot up the arse in the form of "no extensions", and there'll be a soggy wee moggy wanting back inside.
Oh, and arseholes will be shooting up border stations in Armagh again.
The European Parliament has made up its mind and it ain't changing it. May thought she could change the EU exit and gave up so resigned as prime minister. Boris is decisive he said he would rather die in a ditch than delay leaving.
See what happens when parliament resumes, election or no election.
The European Parliament is the stupid human holding the door open for the cat.
Britain signed up to the method of departure when it signed up to join the EU. Now it wants to leave, it wants to renege on those terms, and actually wants the EU to do it a favour with trade deals..
Reminds me of a drunk in a pub – calls the bouncer rude words when leaving, but then is all "aww mate, do me a favour" when he wants to take the drink with him.
Is there an address I can send a bale of cotton wool to Precious?
I'm doing my best to round up a few troops from around the colonies to ensure Borrie Jo, Little Jo and the Minister for the 18th Century are well protected and that their sight looking downwards is not impaired. Chin up old bean – we'll win out in the end doncha know – and unlike you, we'll FIGHT till the bitter end even if we do have to call in a few of those bloody "Yanks"
I disagree. A viable business competes on innovation and effectiveness to a much greater extent than geography, especially in this connected and mobile age. Brexit is about self-interest of entrenched elites on both sides of the channel.
Schumpeter wrote about Creative destruction (German: schöpferische Zerstörung), sometimes known as Schumpeter's gale who derived it from the work of Karl Marx and popularized it as a theory of economic innovation and the business cycle.
"More than 100,000 people have applied to register to vote since the start of the week, with young people making up the bulk of the surge against the backdrop of a momentous 48 hours in British politics.
On Monday, 52,408 applications were submitted, according togovernment figures, followed by 64,485 on Tuesday.
The figure on both days was significantly above the typical number for weekday applications, which has averaged about 27,000 for the past month.
Parties that have traditionally drawn support from younger people will be most encouraged by the figures, which show that 58% of applications submitted on the two days were from people aged 34 and under. Many of those signing up this week are understood to be students moving into new areas for the start of term, but experts pointed out that others may have put registering on the backburner.
“It’s not surprising that there will be a lot of young people in these figures,” said Dr Toby James, a senior lecturer at the University of East Anglia who has authored reports on Britain’s low levels of voter registrations.
“But I think that there is probably a tidal wave of applications to come. We’re all guilty of leaving things to the last minute.”
Labour, in particular, has been having conversations in recent months with groups behind voter registration drives amid concerns about the limitations in systems or names “falling off” registers.
Hey, if the british people (well, not Scotland but they'll probably do devolution pretty soon after this) want to commit to a bloody stupid decision which will criple their supply lines in the short term and fuck their trade structure in the long term simply because they can't admit they didn't understand the chaos their bloody stupid decision would cause, that's their business.
But what about Northern Ireland? If there's a hard border with checkpoints, the IRA will come back. If there's a soft border people will shoot the cameras on one side and the unionists will screw the system at the other side. And things will escalate.
Scotland voted to stay in the UK parliament. The UK parliament had the mandate to leave the EU.
It is about being no worse off financially and maximising profit. The EU can change terms and this would affect the UK even if there was no Brexit. The terms are not yet in play.
Copy that. Get it over and done with, then have patience.
Sorry, how will you stop Troubles 2: the Brexiting from happening? I keep missing the bit where you describe a border resolution that brings permanent peace to Northern Ireland.
I don't think there will be much difference in day to day life in Ireland. I feel that there is enough stability in Ireland for a Brexit to not become a flash point.
When NZ lamb and dairy got dumped in the mid 1970s by Britain NZ survived. Moyle actually got some new trading deals and look what Muldoon did to him in 1976.
There is a bit of irony as Fonterra might do well in Britain.
Ireland will survive with the assistance of the British parliament working closely with Irish MPs.
The Troubles had nothing to do with trade, and everything about national identity. Hopefully the peace holds, but you're painfully optimistic if you're not worried about it.
Britain was the main trading partner with NZ to sell dairy, beef and lamb. Once Britain joint the EU new trading partners needed to be found.
I know about the troubles IRA and British army. This has been stabilised.
When it comes to national identity the Irish Parliament will need to be carefully listened to by the British Parliament.
Do you know if the Irish Parliament will be able to make trade deals without Britain's consent once the Irish are no longer part of the EU?
I am again optimistic that exiting the EU is the right thing to do.
Time will only tell. You never know what the EU will pull out in the future. Uncertain times globally for trade due to USA and China trade relations. I am not a fan of Trump but he is decisive on trade. Unemployment is the lowest it has been in 50 years in the USA. I do realise that people are needing to pay more for some products. This may only be short term.
I have not even mentioned patent rights/intellectual property when it comes to trade.
Britain and Ireland survived prior to joining the EU and they will survive once no longer an EU trading partner.
With Britain and Eire both being in the EU, everyone could pretend their own acceptable level of fantasy. The Republicans could travel all over Ireland without customs or barriers. The British were part of Britain, even if there was no border, just like the French and Belgians don't have border checkpoints any more, and they're still separate countries, right?.
Brexit fucks this happy compromise up.
The Northern Irish Assembly is already a big compromise by the Unionists and the Republicans. Having it negotiate a free trade and movement agreement with the EU (because Eire can't negotiate a separate agreement by itself) will be seen as further devolution from Britain.
That leads to bang-bangs.
On the flipside, a no-deal brexit means a hard border. Checkpoints in County Antrim again. That means the Republicans will view it as a step back towards Unionism.
That leads to bang-bangs.
Forget trade. How will you stop the Troubles from returning? Do you really expect bojo to "listen carefully"?
… even if practical, it puts the border checks between NI and the rest of the UK. The Unionists call that "devolution". They are adamant that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom.
But the idea of a border checkpoint in the middle of the Irish Sea is a joke, anyway.
Something went very wrong when May spoke with the EU re Brexit situation affecting Northern Ireland. The EU need to take some responsibility for this. EU want the trade border outside of Ireland. Exactly what did EU say?
1. That Northern Ireland is part of Ireland trade system and cannot have separate trade deals and only trade with EU?
2. That Northern Ireland can trade with EU and others?
Northern Ireland and Ireland need to be able to trade with EU and others. Basically immunity from EU restrictions. A time limit of 5 years then a review.
Ireland is not overly populated and the EU could be compensated from Britain.
So risky to get out for Northern Ireland from EU. Some thinker needs to go back to what the deal was when Northern Ireland and Ireland signed up. International trading law might over ride EU decision in insisting a trading border in Ireland.
The Good Friday agreement has held for 20 years. This has been progressive.
Probably the Good Friday agreement did not have a scenario for the EU trade border if either part of Ireland left the EU.
A solution might be found in a Switzerland neutrality. International banking seems to function there.
Are there trade exceptions with Switzerland and the EU. Think Switzerland is part of the EU.
Maybe the EU might need to modernise to avoid a future scenario.
Britain and Ireland joined the EEC in 1973. To put it in partisan terms (to make it clear), British-occupied Ireland has never had independent foreign or trade policy. Look up "Potato Famine" for more information.
Until 1973, independent Ireland and British-occupied Northern-Ireland had a hard border, the result of the 1922 independence treaty. While that unified trade, the British were firmly in control of NI from London. The IRA & co had a problem with this, so the British sent in the Paras who shot some joy-riders, and everything went to shit for twenty years.
After twenty years of murders, bombings, bad movies, depressing but good movies, and okay music, the Good Friday accords fuzzed up the border and created the Northern Irish Assembly.
But if the Republic of Ireland and the United Kindom are under different trade rules, with no border between the two there will be massive amounts of smuggling both ways. The Irish won't get kicked out of the EU, and the Unionists won't let NI be separated from the UK. But if the border gets re-established anywhere, someone with thirty year old semtex will be angry.
This isn't an EU problem. It's a problem caused by the fuckers who put "325 million pounds a week" on the side of a bus rather than actually tell the truth.
If an Irish passport holder needs to cross into Ireland, no worries. A British person would need to satisfy the requirements of any other foreigner entering the EU.
If an Irish person wants to take goods from Belfast to Dublin, they pay EU duties. UK duties the other way. Same as anyone else.
This is a British problem of English construction. They chose it, but without thinking about how to solve it.
At the moment anyone born in NI can move throught the EU, including England and Ireland.
After Brexit, this will devolve into the bounds of the Common Travel Area. So Dubliners can go to Manchester, Mancunians to Dublin, etc. This doesn't include the flow of goods, though. So the problem is if Polish goods go to Ireland and are then on-sold to Belfast and then forwarded to Manchester, at what point are duties paid to Britain and how is it detected? And what about goods travelling the opposite direction?
And NI is just one issue:
what about additional customs checks on cross-channel cargos? How will that affect the logistics chains of factories that run so lean they have to shut the production lines if they don't get replenishment every three hours? What about medications that can't be stockpiled because of their narrow expiry dates, but with no trade deals with nations that can supply them?
All of these factors should have been considered during the referendum, but people were lied to by sociopaths who didn't want to be subjected to EU tax or anti-money-laundering laws.
DUP in Northern Ireland want to Brexit but population of Northern Ireland did not.
May back stop idea was unrealistic and time consuming. EU were unwise to settle with May on a Brexit date until the trade border with Britain and any EU trader with Britain was settled.
So now time has run out to re negotiate. EU became so stubborn and would not renegotiate.
EU needs to renegotiate and Johnson needs to put Brexit date to January.
Very roughly speaking, that's the "Irish backstop" May agreed with the EU, but didn't get through parliament: that the UK and EU stay in a single customs union (except fish: cf: "Cod War") until they figure out what to do.
The bojo cons and the DUP oppose this solution. Bojo cons because they have fantasies about NZ beef and free trade with the USA, DUP because they see it as a concession that Northern Ireland is partly joined to Ireland, not England.
With the letter of withdrawal sent to the EU, Britain is on its way out. Because the Irish Backstop scuppered Britain ratifying the post-EU-membership agreement, it's currently going to be a no-deal brexit with hard borders on the county line.
Treetop – Major surgery? Get it over and done with. If someone's heart is removed, they need a working replacement to help them survive while another one is being fitted. And that had better work when the mechanical one is taken away.
And probably a lot of morphine. The patient might become a drug addict while trying to cope with the trauma.
Anticipation can cause overwhelming anxiety and not change the outcome. British voters voted to leave.
There are going to be interim measures when transitioning. No one knows the fine detail yet.
Like I said above the Good Friday agreement has held for 20 years and is progressive.
It would be interesting to know what dooms day thinking was said back then regarding the agreement.
October 17 Johnson is to attend EU exit talks. The EU better be thinking hard about not having a trade border in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland. Population is 4.88 million.
'Any remaining hopes that an enlightened government would engineer a supply shock to drive home prices down to improve affordability for both renters and first home buyers has just evaporated, if it ever existed to start with.
New Housing Minister Megan Woods did her best on Wednesday to put a brave face on what was easily the worst day politically in this second Labour-led Government post-MMP. Labour deployed Green Co-Leader Marama Davidson and the Green's rent-to-own plan to try to distract from the complete capitulation of abandoning the 100,000 over 10 years target.
It also tried to dress the broken promise by making it easier to use more KiwiSaver money for home deposits and to be able to borrow more to buy a first home.
Neither will sweeten this dead rat much. It's more of a rotting and hairy cat.'..
It looks bad but I still believe we have an over supply (ref Joe Wilkes, DFA channel commentary about NZ on YT). We are one GFC 2.0 away from seeing that.
By failing they will lessen our housing market demise.
Hickey's general thesis suggests that a house-price collapse will be a DISASTER for lower-income earners and young people. Summary:
Baby Boomers own all the property.
Baby Boomers participate in elections far more than young people.
Ergo
The issues that win elections are those that favour the people that already own all the property.
If a house-price collapse happens, the Baby Boomers will demand government action to protect their investments. And they'll get it, no matter the collateral damage to renters, low-wage workers, young people, etc.
i understand that boomers vote more than the young..
but i also think that cd be about to change –
as the urgencies of the climate-change – that will effect them the most – becomes more and more..
in the last 48 hrs there has been the biggest ever surge of young (under 33) voters registering to vote for the first time – in britain…and of course brexit is help driving that..
but the fast-rising extinction rebellion also argues for the power the young have in their hands – at the ballot box..
so for those reasons – i think that young don't vote assumption could soon become passe..
My view of the history of great depressions is that normally the less well-off get hammered and forced into selling off everything, while the ultra-rich go around cherry-picking and buying up everything they like at bargain basement prices.
A housing price collapse will probably result in lower private ownership of houses, and Corporates renting out more of them.
Actually somewhat South of 60% of boomers own their own home. Many with mortgages. Down from the 80%plus in the previous generation who retired with mortgage free houses.
Then there are the large number of boomers who are ending up with a mortgage, on retirement, to help their kids into houses.
Nearly half of boomers do not have a house, let alone housing "investments.
Funny all those inventions over the years based on attempts to find solutions again and again after getting it wrong again and again. The gnat lovers would give up after one or two attempts and run away yapping – meanwhile people that are serious keep on trying. An even funnier thing is that imo many of the inventors and worker outerers in the past were conservative – that was the ethos. Not the quick jammy fix that the gnational party prefers with it's simpleton leader and lackey supporters. Not the party of deep thinkers anymore the gnats, that's for sure.
'Ardern also pointed out that while the government had fallen well short of its initial 100,000 homes target, it was performing “much better” in relation to its target of 100,000 measles cases.'
Of course they want a policy of subsidised housing to keep going.
"Hello first home buyer, would you like a brand new home as your first home, you do well we'll make it cheaper for you"
I'm surprised more people didn't want it to continue but imagine if the question asked was something like: "do you think Labour will be able to build 100 000 homes in ten year"
The fact that people want then to carry on with kiwibuild proves most kiwis see a need for government intervention and despite labours troubles so far the are willing support their attempts to get it right .
If at first you dont succeed try again is far fucking better than anything the fuckwit nats can come up with.
Incorrect. Labours flagship policy, the policy used to discredit National, the policy that got Labour into power was not going to fail.
When critics pointed out it wouldnt work Labour said it would, Twyford insulted Treasury because they said it wouldnt work, Labour convinced enough people it would work, Jacinda was happy to pose for photos so no "If at first you dont succeed try again is far fucking better than anything the fuckwit nats can come up with." is simply not good enough
How well did Nationals cycle ways program work out and the 'big boost ' to the economy and 1000s of new jobs….. oh you like everyone else have forgotten
Just like John Keys promise – no matter what AND dont believe the naysayers- that makes it a double promise to bring the Pike River miners out that was make ( and recorded 11 months after the disaster)
Nationals not in power (if you hadn't noticed) and Kiwibuild was one of, if not the biggest, reasons that Labour got elected and the cycleway certainly wasn't
This is a monumental cock up of Twyford-like proportions and all you've got is 'National cycleways'
But hey as long as its coming from Labour is all good right
Labour do some stupid stuff for which they should be rightly bagged. But at least they do stuff. National spent most of their time arguing semantics in regard to whether the housing crisis was an actual crisis rather than merely a challenge. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.
I'd like to think not everyone here is so blinded by partisan loyalty they're prepared to ignore Labour's failings. But let's be honest, Pucky. National have never been the party of the less fortunate. They'll make a valiant attempt to portray themselves as such every now and then, but scratch the surface and you'll find the usual callous indifference which tends to be their stock-in-trade. Paula Bennett's shameful antics around Te Puea Marae are adequate testimony. National essentially let the wound fester until it erupted in a geyser of pus and maggots, and now the current government is attempting clean up the mess while National jeer and throw rocks from the Opposition benches.
National have zero moral high-ground on this. If anything, they should be standing in a smoking crater.
National discredited itself – that's what happens when for seigneurial reasons you put deadwood like Nick Smith in charge of anything. Even they were too ashamed to call him housing minister in the end.
As for kiwibuild failing, it's like Marengo – Napoleon had lost the battle by 14:00 and won it back by 18:00. Housing is a critical issue and it must be built – giving up like the Gnats did, while it reflects Nick's actual capacity, cannot get the job done.
I think it'll take 'nine long years' and comcomitant jeers.
Seriously though, it would just take as long as the calculated cost of the shortfall in expenditure over those nine years on things that needed expenditure, less the surplus revenue now available to the government minus the willingness of the electorate to apportion blame upon that government of nine long years.
Whichever comes first.
Less the number of dead cats strewn upon the table, global crises, natural disasters, forest fires, possible re-elections of Boris and Donald, China, the cost of fossil fuel and who won the World Cup.
Not necessarily in that order.
I hope that helps.
Oh, and whether Judith makes it or not, or should I say, when?
Housing isn't their screw up yet – though it's true they should have done more about it under Clark. If the Gnats had not been utterly incompetent in that portfolio it would be a different story, but actually it's kind of hard to put your finger on a Gnat area of responsibility where a fairly ineffectual effort doesn't represent a vast improvement – they were rubbish – and that is the baseline against which Coalition performance is measured.
That maybe what Kiwibuild was supposed to be but the message to the people was different.
Basically Labour over promised and under delivered, this would never have happened until Helen Clark so now now Jacinda has to own her, Twyfords and Labours failure over this
I suspect what Kiwibuild was to many varies greatly. Certainly it covered the "housing problems" that were being ignored, but the scalpel of the media and opposition, and possibly insufficient time on setting out its scope, meant that it became just a small part of the "housing problem". I believe priority was rightly given to social housing, to reducing the number in motels and on waiting lists, and these do not seem to be the issues they used to be, although they are not yet totally resolved. That part of the housing problem that affected new home buyers is a problem that is a total market problem; it will not be resolved quickly, but it is not as urgent as reversing the reduction in social housing services. The number I would like to see measured is how many New Zealanders the government has assisted into some form of 'satisfactory' housing, rather than emergency housing.
As for the market failure of the building sector, we have had a serious deterioration in that industry over the term of the Nat-led government; a reliance on imported labour, a reduction in training and youth employment, fragmented small companies that had an incentive to go out of business, matched with too few trading in product supply, and starved local authorities who struggled with infrastructure and planning/ approvals. Leaky building have not helped either.
So yes there was a marketing failure by the government, but I do not think it is clear whether there is any significant failure otherwise. In effect the media and opposition have won the propaganda / lying war, with the only real winners those who are still able to exploit rental shortages . . ..
'arr – arr – i have 'ammered the odd nail – seen the odd bracing wall – and can remember once helping to build a nickel-refinery – and i do have some knowledge of ‘planing’ – i can make my wood smooth – does that count..?'
(said in lancashire accent..)
heh..!..but really – what the fuck has that got to do with anything here..?
you are getting desperate – aren't you..(not waving – flailing..heh..!)
and plse don't try selling some meme that i am/was anti-kiwibuild..
my anger at the failures is from disappointment – not opposition too..mm-kay..?
If the reset was really important our PM would have been present, like many well educated leaders appear to follow … good news be associated with the release, bad news allow others to be seen. Thus protecting the brand.
'it uses a standard chest freezer with added thermal mass, a simple controller, and a photovoltaic panel that effectively stores sunshine as coldness, obviating the need for expensive backup batteries.
The Fridge0 is an advance on traditional off-grid 12v solar fridges that assume that solar panels are expensive and inefficient; by exploiting modern PV technology,
Hess says "A kilowatt of solar panels provides enough power to run a conventional fridge on even most cloudy days, and costs less than a commercial offgrid fridge."
"A kilowatt of solar panels provides enough power to run a conventional fridge on even most cloudy days, and costs less than a commercial offgrid fridge."
Depending on the efficiency of the panels, between 4 and 10 sq m of panels will give you 1 kW peak output.
Given a fridge-freezer or chest freezer only draws around 150W or less when running, I presume putting in 1 kW of panels is so they can run even on really dark cloudy days.
Dunno if they've got anything fancier for their thermal mass than just a jug filled with a 30% propylene glycol solution that freezes around -15 degrees C.That's all a distant rellie needed 25 years ago for their off-grid set-up.
Frequency of the power supply is important too – so an inverter is required to convert solar DC to AC – unless you have a DC fridge.
The 150W 'while running' is about right , but as they stop and start often , you will draw much more for a few secs to spin up the compressor- could be the the 1Kw.
The article talks about having a battery to manage shutting it off. That would be useful to manage the startup surge, as well as managing the power on cloudy days if the output of the panels is marginal so it's not trying to kick on and off all the time. Seems to me it would make more sense to just invest in a few more batteries to take advantage of all the engineering and economies of scale for making conventional off-grid systems and be done with it.
Recently I read of taking a freezer, changing the thermostat to operate around 4+ degrees, and using it as the household fridge. Toploaders loose less chill. Stay cold longer. Better insulated. Standard fridge use up to 2Kw per day. The freezer/fridge use less than 1kw per day. (I once made a built-in top loading chilly bin for a boat I built, with 4inch insulation, and by putting in frozen goods it would stay cool enough for 5-7 days.)
A combined fridge freezer like my upright LG 298 litre has a single source of cooling for the unit, the cold air is circulated to each compartment to maintain the temp – it has both a freezer temp adjustment outside, 5 levels ( with vacation and quick freeze settings) and a fridge adjustment inside.
Sounds like its easier to get a modern unit – even second hand – and reduce your power consumption that way.
Anything that makes us more independent of the grid, the better.
EcoFlow DELTA, the world's strongest battery-powered generator just launched on Kickstarter. Don't think EF ships to NZ yet. I tried the end of last year to buy their stuff and couldn't 🙁
"International postage excludes any GST, duty and customs clearance costs that may be payable on arrival in New Zealand.".
The current Government are insisting that companies like Amazon should collect GST due on things they ship to New Zealand and remit the taxes to the New Zealand Government.
Why is a Government owned organisation like New Zealand Post already doing that?
They are just the shippers , Amazon are the seller who know what the item is and its worth.
The Amazon tax came in two forms , the first was for 'online type services and subscriptions' where there wasnt a physical shipping, just dowmloads etc.
The later one was the $400 'exemption' for GST for imported physical items for personal use.
That last rule means sellers with more than $60k annual sales to NZ are required to 'register and collect the tax' .
NZ Post seems to be just following the rules, not that Ive used it are current with ALL the details
How the Government spent well over $100,000 and 15 years pursuing a chronically-ill beneficiary mother for a debt she should not have.
By Catriona MacLennan
While it was over twenty years ago when she was alleged to have fraudulently obtained a benefit, this case has a history that starts well before that. The cycle of poverty and abuse began, as so often is the case, in her own childhood. It is fair to say that the way she has been treated in the judicial process, both the criminal conviction, her imprisonment, and the subsequent pursuit for reparations has been extremely damaging for her children and compounded her own Post–Traumatic Stress Disorder arising from her previous traumatic experiences. The NZ Treasury has recently shown that poor outcomes for children by the time they are young adults are highly correlated with having “a finding of abuse or neglect, time spent in care of child protection services; most of their lifetime supported by benefits; a parent who has received a community or custodial sentence; a mother who has no formal qualifications.” NZ Treasury 2016.
Parliament is "falling apart before our eyes" thanks to Brexit, one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement has said.
Seamus Mallon, former NI (Northern Ireland) deputy first minister, described Boris Johnson as a "carpetbagger", which he defined as someone without principles….
Mr Mallon was deputy first minister from 1998 to 2001.
He is considered to be one of the key negotiators of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
"The lunacy of putting a referendum in Britain in relation to trying to unite the Tory party was a monumental mistake, and they have staggered from one mistake after another," Mr Mallon told BBC News NI, on the margins of the Kennedy Summer School in County Wexford.
"And this is the mother of parliaments. This is the home of democratic political process and it is falling apart before our eyes, and it is doing it in such a way that a carpetbagger like Boris Johnson is now leading it as prime minister."
Recalcitrant Boorish.
Boris Johnson has said he would "rather be dead in a ditch" than ask the EU to delay Brexit beyond 31 October.
Never ask that person who changes their mind, to do or have anything again. Don't have anything to do with them. They are losers! And this vid goes on for too long. Make the point faster – remember the ten second attention span that is talked about today. It is otherwise a greeaaat video. (That's really meant to be 'great', just got too long.)
Goodness marty mars – I am fine but just trying to keep thinking not becoming a reactive paper towel sucking up every idea that is presented in a conformist way to the in-meme. How about you?
well that meme was not designed for a 70 year old women (feel free to show to family and friends for their men if you want) – so maybe just have a wee think…
It's an excellent video and it goes for as long as it does because some people just cannot accept every individual has the right to any decision they choose to make and then change their mind if they so wish.
Sounds to me like that video touched a rather raw nerve with you Greywarshark and that maybe it should have gone on for another 3 days before you actually understood and accepted the point it was making.
For tea or sex, that's a "fail: safe" approach. If someone regards that approach as reasonable regardless of circumstance, they're probably not really equipped to safely offer consensual tea or sex in the first place, so for them it is actually a reasonable approach.
Whereas the "fail: deadly" approach is that someone who doesn't particularly understand consent still tries to have sex with other people, or make them drink tea.
I can only presume that the Fresh Water Discussion Document is intended only to be Labour’s opening gambit. Parker must know a fair bit of it will not be acceptable to the farming community or to the National Party. Legislation of this nature has to be sustainable across successive governments, it can’t be just acceptable to the party in power.
There will be a lot of support including within the farming community for more planting on stream margins, wider margins, and much stronger protection for wetlands. Probably with subsidies to help pay for it.
There will be major opposition to getting resource consents for farming changes or increased production. I predict that won’t survive consultation. I reckon NZF will oppose, as will National. If it is passed into law with NZF support, then I am certain such a requirement will be repealed by the next National government.
The more interesting discussion will be around monitoring water quality on farms. There is a very good case for it, with the intention of doing things to improve water quality. I reckon this will happen, but not with a whole raft of government inspectors. More likely a partnership with Dairy NZ.
If you really believe that then I fear you are 10 years out of date….with dairy (esp) under financial pressures unrelated the rural sector and banks will see the opportunity to use this to hedge future income streams (with gov assistance) and the noise from the likes of FF spokespersons will be largely disregarded.
National may well find they have backed a loser if they try to push back too hard….the dairy sector growth has been milked dry, time for ‘the next big thing’
yep some self interested and selfish farmers oppose water quality controls – pity not enough decent caring farmers are speaking up against their destructive brethren – still early days yet and the tide is turning against farming practices that are hurting the environment and communities.
Just filing away for future reference the admission that, when it comes to measures to improve NZ's freshwater quality, "a fair bit of it will not be acceptable to the farming community or to the National Party."
I did know that already, of course, but it's nice to have someone involved in the National Party state it so explicitly.
Shock, horror! Farmers and National don’t accept every single policy point that Labour proposes. Who would have guessed? They must be really bad to think like that.
no wayne – 'shock/horror' at national quite happy to allow the continued befouling of our environment/world..
and this at the behest of the biggest leeches – since forever ('it's rained – give us some money..!..we are the backbone of the economy – it hasn't rained – give us some more money..!..we are the backbone of the economy!' – repeat ad nauseum)
i think we are all sick of that schtick..eh wayne..?
so if you want to wave yr arms and say 'i'm/national is with them..!'..
why don't you do that – and we'll see how that goes down with an increasingly angry/impatient rest of us..eh..?
and if you can't see/feel that growing anger/impatience – wayne – at the excuses/behaviour/whining.polluting of the (fast going down the gurgler) dairy industry..
you clearly have all the political nous of a doorknob..
If you actually read my initial comment, I do think more needs to be done (wider stream margins, more planting, preserving wetlands, better monitoring, and other things) I support a fair amount in the discussion document. A lot of it is good.
But that doesn’t mean I and others have to agree with everything in it. And just because farmers don’t agree with everything doesn’t automatically make them the “ biggest leeches – since forever”.
The left, or at least a fair part of it, automatically thinking of farmers that way will result in a much bigger divide than currently exists. And not a way to get constructive dialogue.
Hey, he isn’t responsible for Nick Smith. It is like saying that I’m responsible for John Tamihere because he used to be a sort of a progressive and a Labour MP. Who knew that they were kind of a dickheads?
Of course getting rid of John Tamihere appears to have been a whole easier for Labour it is has been for National to cast off their waste.
Isn't there a convention of collective responsibility? In which case Wayne was indeed responsible for Nick Smith; if he wasn't up to snuff (and he ain't) it was Wayne's job, among others, to get rid of him.
I didn't for a moment expect Wayne to take responsibility for Nick Smith. I merely wanted to know his view on the story the book tells. It's a great read.
Farmers and National don’t accept every single policy point that Labour proposes.
More specifically, they don't accept any policy point that would significantly improve NZ's freshwater quality – those are the bits that "will not be acceptable to the farming community or to the National Party." If that weren't the case, farmers and National would be willing to give a fair hearing to proposals beyond doing a bit more planting along river banks.
You do realise Canterbury wouldnt be in this mess of you and you cronies hadn't sacked the democratically elected board ecan so you could sugar fuel the economy.
Like the trial school lunches it is just something that sounds big popped either side of the KiwiBuild fiasco to try to take the focus off what a complete hash it is.
I used to think hed make a great Labour Party leader but the more I read of his comments in the media the more I decided he is neoliberal at heart…might be a result of when he was educated, who knows…. I suspect he would have been in his happy place in a Douglas cabinet…and thats saying something
I've met him a few times and like his boldness. I agree he's more right than I am, but I reckon he feels the urgency of environmental degradation keenly and is making a last-ditch stand. It's now or never, he seems to have learned and resolved. In my personal experience.
Parker came to a farmers meeting at Ashburton before the last election and showed his true colours. Questioned on his intentions regarding the ill intentioned water tax it was obvious that the environment was secondary to putting farmers out of business.
Am well aware of Parkers reputation in rural sector…wasnt where I was looking…hes an obviously intelligent guy (who isnt beholden to Ag sector) but seems to struggle with the link between growth and environmental degradation…curious (IMO)
This is interesting on what causes insomnia or unrefreshing sleep leading to depression. It is good stuff but oddly lit, but good overall. She looks at the result of being bombarded with negative messages every day etc.
Tedtalk: Attention – This is Why you can't Sleep. Bronwyn Milkins research.
Looks like the Minister chose the "just fix it" option rather than the full-throated "let's connect the rail line to Northport and prepare to shift some of Auckland's port" option.
The repairs look like they are going to be done next year. That's hopefully good for those still underemployed in this part of Northland.
Still leaves open the possibility of a proper shift once the government finally lands on the Upper North Island ports study, and can then unveil a proper rail line and sea port upgrade for Whangarei in time for the election.
A couple of years ago, for reasons known only to himself, my man decided to not avoid that hole in the asphalt and tumbled he and his wheelchair arse over tip. Now he's a Big Lad my man, all of six foot four and at least 100kgs, so the chances of me getting him re-seated by myself are nil. The only help available were a vegan couple from eastern Europe, somewhere. I'm going "One, two, three lift! and they are doing… nothing. I try French, then German, with little extra effect. This pale and almost bloodless pair had absolutely no umph at all.
I'm fascinated by your ability to correctly identify the flaws in those arguments against vegan diets, but completely miss very similar flaws in the "red meat causes colon cancer" argument.
It is hard to describe the smell of meat burning when you don't like it – sorta like puke on wings. It is the hardest thing for me as a vege to tolerate and I have to over and over again with no thought for my sensibilities.
In regards yr hypothetical, sure, ask them to not cook meat all day every day.
Complain to management, organize a petition..
But when you look round and are the only one right….
As for not knowing why she complained: The neighbours were carnivorous, breeding, smoking people that incidentally had foreign sounding names. Oh, also, Cilla is a self centred person with a highly developed sense of entitlement
I can take you at yr word that the panel was a wank fest over the vegan story in Oz.
When I read the articles about Cilla Carden and she is quoted as saying:
"They've put it there so I smell fish, all I can smell is fish. I can't enjoy my backyard, I can't go out there." Self centred – check
and "It's been devastating, it's been turmoil, it's been unrest, I haven't been able to sleep," she said. Hyperbole and exaggeration – Check.
Then you add her desire for the children not to play basketball (too noisy).
Top it off with being told that the Supreme Court Judge and the State Administrative Tribunal have sided with her neighbours and have refused her appeal.
Is a two way street….where does the ability to object start and finish? Is it in the middle ground where the majority can accommodate or is it somewhere else?At some point it becomes dysfunctional does it not?
Aussie anti intellectualism adopted by the RNZ panel–Boofheads munching on charred animal bits is an achievement apparently…
Veganism and Vegetarianism is the future, and many are attempting to live it right now–but Whadarrryaaaaaa! seems the regular bloke response, hard working, god fearin’ Nu Zilundas eat meat–got it!…
Zimbabwe will be celebrating tonight, mugabe has passed away.
“His contribution to the history of our nation and continent will never be forgotten…….
Not wrong about that….mugabe has been accused of being a dictator responsible for economic mismanagement, widespread corruption, human rights abuses, and crimes against humanity.
Edit:
The ability of the older voter to comprehend that the status quo can not be an option; to grasp on BAU is for the innocent, ignorant middle aged and the olders resolutely looking away towards the tourism attractions and way from the real world.
Abbott said dying populations, not climate change, were the biggest threat to western civilisation, and lashed out at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for recent remarks that they would not have more than two children due to the effects on the environment. “Having fewer children in western countries will hardly make the climate better when so many children are being born elsewhere,” said Abbott.
Here's a Man Eco Maori admires and agrees with Kia Kaha stay strong keeping the Neanderthal in Check Ka pai
John Kerry says we can't leave climate emergency to 'neanderthals' in power
It’s a lie that humanity has to choose between prosperity and protecting the future, former US secretary of state tells Australian conference
The former US secretary of state John Kerry has warned that humanity risks marching off a cliff unless governments take immediate action to fight the climate emergency.
In a keynote address to the Global Table food and agriculture conference, Kerry made veiled swipes at the Australian government’s lack of climate and energy policy. He also weighed in on the heated debate about the massive Adani coalmine proposed for north Queensland.
“We just can’t sit on our asses and leave the political process to neanderthals who don’t want to believe in the future,” Kerry told the audience in Melbourne. “We have a dearth of leadership, but this will turn.”John Kerry: US 'cannot afford truculent child president
The former US Democratic presidential candidate said it was not a choice between taking action on the climate emergency and securing jobs and growth.
“They are not separate. And anybody who persists in putting forward that notion that you have to make the choice – you can either have jobs plus prosperity or you can protect the environment and the future. That’s a lie
The governments of the Papatuanuku need to do the humane thing and help the tangata of the Bahamas servive the huge mess hurricane Dorian made of their Island why because the government of the world are responsible for the cause of CLIMATE CHANGE
That's why I dislike PEE some people will do anything to get there next fix that phenomenon is what drives most crimes and thefts.
I have read that it's hot in Australia at the minute The Bush fire season has started early there government is still backing old carbon neanderthals.
Vegans are 22% more likely to have a stroke there you go we need a good veritable diet yes we can lower our protein consumption but not leaving animals protein out of our diet totally is what I believe.
I don't think that Wahine actor from America should be jailed for what she and many wealth people do.
Yes Wallaby need to be control to protect our native floral and birds and stop them from going extinct.
The way the Hawaii government is treating the tangata whenua O Hawaii is bad and sad. That is the way simon wanted to treat tangata whenua o Aotearoa Protesters.
The Amazon fires are a great man made desaster it shows that the government is not very intelligent they don't understand how Papatuanuku diversity of wild life is a great taonga that needs to be protected the. muppets
We are making a big mess in Tangaroa and on the whenua this is causing a masse extinction of our wild life and environment.
All in the goal of humanity instant satisfaction. Ie boil the jug to make a cup of tea turn on the light by a new TV because the relies have a better one. We have become a throw away society and in the process we are throwing away OUR FUTURE descendints right to a natural healthy life. We need to change and manufacture thing to last 20 years at least and stop using products with a huge carbon footprint.
After bronze and iron, welcome to the plastic age, say scientists
Plastic pollution has entered the fossil record, research shows
Plastic pollution is being deposited into the fossil record, research has found, with contamination increasing exponentially since 1945.
Scientists suggest the plastic layers could be used to mark the start of the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch in which human activities have come to dominate the planet. They say after the bronze and iron ages, the current period may become known as the plastic age.
The study, the first detailed analysis of the rise in plastic pollution in sediments, examined annual layers off the coast of California back to 1834. They discovered the plastic in the layers mirrors precisely the exponential rise in plastic production over the past 70 years.
Most of the plastic particles were fibres from synthetic fabrics used in clothes, indicating that plastics are flowing freely into the ocean through waste water Ka kite Ano link below.
Whanau don't fall this con as you see they target the common poor people stay away from skyway capital. They no poor people are desperate and will believe there rubbish and lies IF ITS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE THAN ITS A LIE.
I can guess why the USA is doing that nothing is logical in the USA now.
The Bahama desaster after math is evedince that global warming is going to affect the poor people the most.
TE REO Language week is awesome too celebrate Maori Language as a taonga.
I hope there is not too many people lives are affected negativey and wild life losses with the Australian Bush fire season starting earlier than expected.
So, the Trump Administration ordered the management of the central meteorological agency, NOAA to reverse its claim that Alabama was not included in the original forecast track for Hurricane Dorian?
Blackmail? If you don't reverse your original statement we'll remove your government financial resources – or something like that?
Meteorologists throughout the country are angry and upset at the way the "management" have folded. Shocking!
“It’s unheard of that [Noaa] would – with no scientific basis whatsoever – undermine their own employees for political reasons. That’s never happened before under any administration … This doesn’t happen. This is a scientific agency. People gather data and they make the best decisions they can make from that data.”
It's not funny any more. Beyond disgraceful that a scientific organisation whose primary task is to advise and warn the public of weather related events should be undermined in the course of its duty.
Totally agree Anne – somehow this has now become de rigueur in Trumpland. For instance the EPA is just a shadow of its former self, and there is now hardly a Department of State that has a permanent head. The US administration is practically on its knees. Trump plays on his phone keyboard while America burns.
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
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 ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Stokan, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County If you live in one of the most economically deprived neighborhoods in your city, you might think the government is directing a smaller share of public funds to your community. ...
Wansolwara The news media’s crucial role in climate change and environment journalism was the focus of The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme 2024 World Press Freedom Day celebrations. The European Union Ambassador to the Pacific, Barbara Plinkert, and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna were the chief ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Adams, Professor of Corporate Law & Academic Director of UNE Sydney campus, University of New England Last August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched legal proceedings against Qantas. The consumer watchdog accused the airline of selling thousands of tickets ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Nasser, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important ligament in the knee. It runs from the thigh bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia) and helps stabilise ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
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For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
If building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...
Comment: The debate over the future relationship between news and social media is bringing us closer to a long-overdue reckoning. Social media isn’t trying to kill journalism, because social media has never really cared about journalism. Social media is resolutely in the attention business. News propels some attention — perhaps ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A new Commonwealth Prac Payment will provide students with $319.50 a week when they are on clinical and professional placements. The payment will be means tested and start from July 1 next year, which ...
Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
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 ...
This morning's twitter goodness
https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/1169377290762899456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1169377290762899456&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffpost.com%2Fentry%2Fmark-hamill-darth-trump_n_5d70c159e4b09bbc9efa06c7
'Murica does not deserve AOC. She is truly a goddess when she can wind up Steve King so much he goes and drinks toilet water thinking that's owning the libs.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steve-king-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-toilet-water-video_n_5d70bd3be4b09bbc9ef9ff51
The fear of exiting Brexit is about the loss to the person producing the product. Some people do well in business, some do not and will not regardless of who they are trading with.
For the business owners/producers who need some help to transition, help needs to be given providing it is viable to do so.
I am in favour of Brexit going forward as Britain has limited economic control with trading within the EU. This is evident due to how hard it is to exit from the EU.
You reckon the poms are entitled to more control than lesser nations do you treesy?
The British are entitled to have as much control as they can have with whom they trade with.
When something is so hard to get out of, it usually is not good for you.
I do not like the word you used to identify a British person.
It's not hard to get out of the EU.
But it's cold outside, and warm inside, and the cat thought it wanted out, so now it's sitting in the open doorway while the European parliament is waiting for the british cat to make up it's damned mind. Sooner or later there will be a helpful foot up the arse in the form of "no extensions", and there'll be a soggy wee moggy wanting back inside.
Oh, and arseholes will be shooting up border stations in Armagh again.
The European Parliament has made up its mind and it ain't changing it. May thought she could change the EU exit and gave up so resigned as prime minister. Boris is decisive he said he would rather die in a ditch than delay leaving.
See what happens when parliament resumes, election or no election.
The European Parliament is the stupid human holding the door open for the cat.
Britain signed up to the method of departure when it signed up to join the EU. Now it wants to leave, it wants to renege on those terms, and actually wants the EU to do it a favour with trade deals..
Reminds me of a drunk in a pub – calls the bouncer rude words when leaving, but then is all "aww mate, do me a favour" when he wants to take the drink with him.
There are lots of things I do not like treesy. It would be piss easy to get out of if everyone wanted to.
Is there an address I can send a bale of cotton wool to Precious?
I'm doing my best to round up a few troops from around the colonies to ensure Borrie Jo, Little Jo and the Minister for the 18th Century are well protected and that their sight looking downwards is not impaired. Chin up old bean – we'll win out in the end doncha know – and unlike you, we'll FIGHT till the bitter end even if we do have to call in a few of those bloody "Yanks"
I disagree. A viable business competes on innovation and effectiveness to a much greater extent than geography, especially in this connected and mobile age. Brexit is about self-interest of entrenched elites on both sides of the channel.
Schumpeter wrote about Creative destruction (German: schöpferische Zerstörung), sometimes known as Schumpeter's gale who derived it from the work of Karl Marx and popularized it as a theory of economic innovation and the business cycle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_destruction
One of the best sources of breaking news on Brexit can be – rather ironically – found below.
https://www.conservativehome.com/frontpage/2019/09/newslinks-for-thursday-5th-september-2019.html
"More than 100,000 people have applied to register to vote since the start of the week, with young people making up the bulk of the surge against the backdrop of a momentous 48 hours in British politics.
On Monday, 52,408 applications were submitted, according to government figures, followed by 64,485 on Tuesday.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/04/more-than-100000-people-apply-register-vote-youth-uk-general-election
The figure on both days was significantly above the typical number for weekday applications, which has averaged about 27,000 for the past month.
Parties that have traditionally drawn support from younger people will be most encouraged by the figures, which show that 58% of applications submitted on the two days were from people aged 34 and under. Many of those signing up this week are understood to be students moving into new areas for the start of term, but experts pointed out that others may have put registering on the backburner.
“It’s not surprising that there will be a lot of young people in these figures,” said Dr Toby James, a senior lecturer at the University of East Anglia who has authored reports on Britain’s low levels of voter registrations.
“But I think that there is probably a tidal wave of applications to come. We’re all guilty of leaving things to the last minute.”
Labour, in particular, has been having conversations in recent months with groups behind voter registration drives amid concerns about the limitations in systems or names “falling off” registers.
Trade aside, what about Northern Ireland?
Compensate for the loss (an agreed amount and time limit) and transition.
Some people in Northern Ireland might actually be better off without Brexit.
What if the paramilitaries don't "agree"? Hard border or soft?
Hijacking democracy is the main problem with some British members of parliament.
Have they not heard of one man or woman one vote.
Brexit is like awaiting major surgery. Get it over and done with.
Hey, if the british people (well, not Scotland but they'll probably do devolution pretty soon after this) want to commit to a bloody stupid decision which will criple their supply lines in the short term and fuck their trade structure in the long term simply because they can't admit they didn't understand the chaos their bloody stupid decision would cause, that's their business.
But what about Northern Ireland? If there's a hard border with checkpoints, the IRA will come back. If there's a soft border people will shoot the cameras on one side and the unionists will screw the system at the other side. And things will escalate.
How will you avert this scenario?
Scotland voted to stay in the UK parliament. The UK parliament had the mandate to leave the EU.
It is about being no worse off financially and maximising profit. The EU can change terms and this would affect the UK even if there was no Brexit. The terms are not yet in play.
Patience is required to establish change.
Copy that. Get it over and done with, then have patience.
Sorry, how will you stop Troubles 2: the Brexiting from happening? I keep missing the bit where you describe a border resolution that brings permanent peace to Northern Ireland.
I don't think there will be much difference in day to day life in Ireland. I feel that there is enough stability in Ireland for a Brexit to not become a flash point.
When NZ lamb and dairy got dumped in the mid 1970s by Britain NZ survived. Moyle actually got some new trading deals and look what Muldoon did to him in 1976.
There is a bit of irony as Fonterra might do well in Britain.
Ireland will survive with the assistance of the British parliament working closely with Irish MPs.
Dairy? WTF has dairy got to do with anything?
The Troubles had nothing to do with trade, and everything about national identity. Hopefully the peace holds, but you're painfully optimistic if you're not worried about it.
Britain was the main trading partner with NZ to sell dairy, beef and lamb. Once Britain joint the EU new trading partners needed to be found.
I know about the troubles IRA and British army. This has been stabilised.
When it comes to national identity the Irish Parliament will need to be carefully listened to by the British Parliament.
Do you know if the Irish Parliament will be able to make trade deals without Britain's consent once the Irish are no longer part of the EU?
I am again optimistic that exiting the EU is the right thing to do.
Time will only tell. You never know what the EU will pull out in the future. Uncertain times globally for trade due to USA and China trade relations. I am not a fan of Trump but he is decisive on trade. Unemployment is the lowest it has been in 50 years in the USA. I do realise that people are needing to pay more for some products. This may only be short term.
I have not even mentioned patent rights/intellectual property when it comes to trade.
Britain and Ireland survived prior to joining the EU and they will survive once no longer an EU trading partner.
The Irish will be part of the EU.
The Northern Irish will not.
With Britain and Eire both being in the EU, everyone could pretend their own acceptable level of fantasy. The Republicans could travel all over Ireland without customs or barriers. The British were part of Britain, even if there was no border, just like the French and Belgians don't have border checkpoints any more, and they're still separate countries, right?.
Brexit fucks this happy compromise up.
The Northern Irish Assembly is already a big compromise by the Unionists and the Republicans. Having it negotiate a free trade and movement agreement with the EU (because Eire can't negotiate a separate agreement by itself) will be seen as further devolution from Britain.
That leads to bang-bangs.
On the flipside, a no-deal brexit means a hard border. Checkpoints in County Antrim again. That means the Republicans will view it as a step back towards Unionism.
That leads to bang-bangs.
Forget trade. How will you stop the Troubles from returning? Do you really expect bojo to "listen carefully"?
An off shore check point.
… even if practical, it puts the border checks between NI and the rest of the UK. The Unionists call that "devolution". They are adamant that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom.
But the idea of a border checkpoint in the middle of the Irish Sea is a joke, anyway.
Something went very wrong when May spoke with the EU re Brexit situation affecting Northern Ireland. The EU need to take some responsibility for this. EU want the trade border outside of Ireland. Exactly what did EU say?
1. That Northern Ireland is part of Ireland trade system and cannot have separate trade deals and only trade with EU?
2. That Northern Ireland can trade with EU and others?
Northern Ireland and Ireland need to be able to trade with EU and others. Basically immunity from EU restrictions. A time limit of 5 years then a review.
Ireland is not overly populated and the EU could be compensated from Britain.
So risky to get out for Northern Ireland from EU. Some thinker needs to go back to what the deal was when Northern Ireland and Ireland signed up. International trading law might over ride EU decision in insisting a trading border in Ireland.
The Good Friday agreement has held for 20 years. This has been progressive.
Probably the Good Friday agreement did not have a scenario for the EU trade border if either part of Ireland left the EU.
A solution might be found in a Switzerland neutrality. International banking seems to function there.
Are there trade exceptions with Switzerland and the EU. Think Switzerland is part of the EU.
Maybe the EU might need to modernise to avoid a future scenario.
Britain and Ireland joined the EEC in 1973. To put it in partisan terms (to make it clear), British-occupied Ireland has never had independent foreign or trade policy. Look up "Potato Famine" for more information.
Until 1973, independent Ireland and British-occupied Northern-Ireland had a hard border, the result of the 1922 independence treaty. While that unified trade, the British were firmly in control of NI from London. The IRA & co had a problem with this, so the British sent in the Paras who shot some joy-riders, and everything went to shit for twenty years.
After twenty years of murders, bombings, bad movies, depressing but good movies, and okay music, the Good Friday accords fuzzed up the border and created the Northern Irish Assembly.
But if the Republic of Ireland and the United Kindom are under different trade rules, with no border between the two there will be massive amounts of smuggling both ways. The Irish won't get kicked out of the EU, and the Unionists won't let NI be separated from the UK. But if the border gets re-established anywhere, someone with thirty year old semtex will be angry.
This isn't an EU problem. It's a problem caused by the fuckers who put "325 million pounds a week" on the side of a bus rather than actually tell the truth.
What about the dual citizenship in Northern Ireland.
The EU need to think about that.
When are you Irish and when are you British when it comes to trade?
No, they don't.
If an Irish passport holder needs to cross into Ireland, no worries. A British person would need to satisfy the requirements of any other foreigner entering the EU.
If an Irish person wants to take goods from Belfast to Dublin, they pay EU duties. UK duties the other way. Same as anyone else.
This is a British problem of English construction. They chose it, but without thinking about how to solve it.
I thought if you held a Irish British passport that you could travel to any of the 27 EU countries as well travel between Britain and Ireland.
I will check if just to Northern Ireland or the whole of Ireland. Probably to the whole of Ireland as no border.
Previously I saw something about being born in Republic of Ireland or if parents or grandparents were born there.
At the moment anyone born in NI can move throught the EU, including England and Ireland.
After Brexit, this will devolve into the bounds of the Common Travel Area. So Dubliners can go to Manchester, Mancunians to Dublin, etc. This doesn't include the flow of goods, though. So the problem is if Polish goods go to Ireland and are then on-sold to Belfast and then forwarded to Manchester, at what point are duties paid to Britain and how is it detected? And what about goods travelling the opposite direction?
And NI is just one issue:
what about additional customs checks on cross-channel cargos? How will that affect the logistics chains of factories that run so lean they have to shut the production lines if they don't get replenishment every three hours? What about medications that can't be stockpiled because of their narrow expiry dates, but with no trade deals with nations that can supply them?
All of these factors should have been considered during the referendum, but people were lied to by sociopaths who didn't want to be subjected to EU tax or anti-money-laundering laws.
Brexit is the biggest tax dodge in history.
Just to wrap up on this thread for me.
DUP in Northern Ireland want to Brexit but population of Northern Ireland did not.
May back stop idea was unrealistic and time consuming. EU were unwise to settle with May on a Brexit date until the trade border with Britain and any EU trader with Britain was settled.
So now time has run out to re negotiate. EU became so stubborn and would not renegotiate.
EU needs to renegotiate and Johnson needs to put Brexit date to January.
The U in DUP stands for "Unionist".
They want a hard border on the county line, not the coast. Brexit is a way to get that.
EU doesn't need to do a damned thing. It's already negotiated one agreement and then agreed to two extensions because Britain is being bloody stupid.
I know I said my last on the thread.
What about a different date for Northern Ireland to leave the EU?
And still be able to trade under any new trade condition s with Britain. Basically dual trading. Britain could pay a tax/levy to EU.
What is population of Northern Ireland?
Very roughly speaking, that's the "Irish backstop" May agreed with the EU, but didn't get through parliament: that the UK and EU stay in a single customs union (except fish: cf: "Cod War") until they figure out what to do.
The bojo cons and the DUP oppose this solution. Bojo cons because they have fantasies about NZ beef and free trade with the USA, DUP because they see it as a concession that Northern Ireland is partly joined to Ireland, not England.
With the letter of withdrawal sent to the EU, Britain is on its way out. Because the Irish Backstop scuppered Britain ratifying the post-EU-membership agreement, it's currently going to be a no-deal brexit with hard borders on the county line.
Treetop – Major surgery? Get it over and done with. If someone's heart is removed, they need a working replacement to help them survive while another one is being fitted. And that had better work when the mechanical one is taken away.
And probably a lot of morphine. The patient might become a drug addict while trying to cope with the trauma.
Not something to rush into with a 'light heart'.
Anticipation can cause overwhelming anxiety and not change the outcome. British voters voted to leave.
There are going to be interim measures when transitioning. No one knows the fine detail yet.
Like I said above the Good Friday agreement has held for 20 years and is progressive.
It would be interesting to know what dooms day thinking was said back then regarding the agreement.
October 17 Johnson is to attend EU exit talks. The EU better be thinking hard about not having a trade border in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland. Population is 4.88 million.
I have nothing further to add.
(bernard hickey has covered things quite adroitly..)
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@pro/2019/09/05/791512/young-renters-just-got-double-toasted#
(excerpt..)
'Any remaining hopes that an enlightened government would engineer a supply shock to drive home prices down to improve affordability for both renters and first home buyers has just evaporated, if it ever existed to start with.
New Housing Minister Megan Woods did her best on Wednesday to put a brave face on what was easily the worst day politically in this second Labour-led Government post-MMP. Labour deployed Green Co-Leader Marama Davidson and the Green's rent-to-own plan to try to distract from the complete capitulation of abandoning the 100,000 over 10 years target.
It also tried to dress the broken promise by making it easier to use more KiwiSaver money for home deposits and to be able to borrow more to buy a first home.
Neither will sweeten this dead rat much. It's more of a rotting and hairy cat.'..
It looks bad but I still believe we have an over supply (ref Joe Wilkes, DFA channel commentary about NZ on YT). We are one GFC 2.0 away from seeing that.
By failing they will lessen our housing market demise.
oh..i am still expecting a housing price collapse..
(that is a separate/different issue..)
and maybe over-supply' means over-priced..?
then of course there is the quality of our existing housing stock – which is pretty crap…
'tis a complex issue..
Hickey's general thesis suggests that a house-price collapse will be a DISASTER for lower-income earners and young people. Summary:
Baby Boomers own all the property.
Baby Boomers participate in elections far more than young people.
Ergo
The issues that win elections are those that favour the people that already own all the property.
If a house-price collapse happens, the Baby Boomers will demand government action to protect their investments. And they'll get it, no matter the collateral damage to renters, low-wage workers, young people, etc.
i understand that boomers vote more than the young..
but i also think that cd be about to change –
as the urgencies of the climate-change – that will effect them the most – becomes more and more..
in the last 48 hrs there has been the biggest ever surge of young (under 33) voters registering to vote for the first time – in britain…and of course brexit is help driving that..
but the fast-rising extinction rebellion also argues for the power the young have in their hands – at the ballot box..
so for those reasons – i think that young don't vote assumption could soon become passe..
and i look forward to that…
My view of the history of great depressions is that normally the less well-off get hammered and forced into selling off everything, while the ultra-rich go around cherry-picking and buying up everything they like at bargain basement prices.
A housing price collapse will probably result in lower private ownership of houses, and Corporates renting out more of them.
Actually somewhat South of 60% of boomers own their own home. Many with mortgages. Down from the 80%plus in the previous generation who retired with mortgage free houses.
Then there are the large number of boomers who are ending up with a mortgage, on retirement, to help their kids into houses.
Nearly half of boomers do not have a house, let alone housing "investments.
Failing ?
Thats not what the polls have said a month or so back. Its almost 2 to one in favour.
'"Do you think the Government should continue with the KiwiBuild scheme?"
Sixty per cent said yes, the Government should keep going, while 34 per cent said no
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/latest-kiwibuild-development-revealed-auckland-poll-shows-kiwis-still-back-concept
poll driven government was what the last government did and achieved nothing in housing…?
Poll Driven ? Kiwibuild in various guises but essentially as state builds for owners has been around as Labour party policy since about 2014.
The polls point out that the public loves kiwibuild in spite of its setbacks and Judith Collins doesnt have as much influence as she might think.
She has plenty here who parrot her talking points.
Hickey has hardly any value as a commentator on housing as he 'knows nothing'
Agree +100%
Given that Kiwibuild was touted as the panacea for all housing ills in NZ Im surprised only 60% said yes
"Given that Kiwibuild was touted as the panacea for all housing ills in NZ"
That is bullshit – this was a solution that was attempted – you are just stirring the muck to get a thrill like a low down gnat always does.
http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/government-says-it-will-now-build-just-one-really-nice-home/
Funny all those inventions over the years based on attempts to find solutions again and again after getting it wrong again and again. The gnat lovers would give up after one or two attempts and run away yapping – meanwhile people that are serious keep on trying. An even funnier thing is that imo many of the inventors and worker outerers in the past were conservative – that was the ethos. Not the quick jammy fix that the gnational party prefers with it's simpleton leader and lackey supporters. Not the party of deep thinkers anymore the gnats, that's for sure.
'Ardern also pointed out that while the government had fallen well short of its initial 100,000 homes target, it was performing “much better” in relation to its target of 100,000 measles cases.'
yes I know you get your points from a comedy account, after all you be a crasher collins devotee lol oh dear what a pity
I was going to get my comedy points from Kiwibuild but I figure its already gone beyond a joke
60% of those polled supported it.
Judith isnt getting traction with her talking points…oh dear.
Is she spending too much time on the fund raising circuit ?
Of course they want a policy of subsidised housing to keep going.
"Hello first home buyer, would you like a brand new home as your first home, you do well we'll make it cheaper for you"
I'm surprised more people didn't want it to continue but imagine if the question asked was something like: "do you think Labour will be able to build 100 000 homes in ten year"
Puck's is still madly in love with Judith.
Well it's one way of getting back the herd immunity puckers.
Always the optimist
and you are always the pessimist puke
Only a pessimist is ever pleasantly surprised…
But they don't expect the pleasant feeling to last…
Damn strait!
But I seem to remember John Key explaining that some unachieved goal of his was only 'esperational'
What is wrong with strong esperations?
The fact that people want then to carry on with kiwibuild proves most kiwis see a need for government intervention and despite labours troubles so far the are willing support their attempts to get it right .
If at first you dont succeed try again is far fucking better than anything the fuckwit nats can come up with.
yep I agree bwaghorni
Incorrect. Labours flagship policy, the policy used to discredit National, the policy that got Labour into power was not going to fail.
When critics pointed out it wouldnt work Labour said it would, Twyford insulted Treasury because they said it wouldnt work, Labour convinced enough people it would work, Jacinda was happy to pose for photos so no "If at first you dont succeed try again is far fucking better than anything the fuckwit nats can come up with." is simply not good enough
How well did Nationals cycle ways program work out and the 'big boost ' to the economy and 1000s of new jobs….. oh you like everyone else have forgotten
Just like John Keys promise – no matter what AND dont believe the naysayers- that makes it a double promise to bring the Pike River miners out that was make ( and recorded 11 months after the disaster)
Nationals not in power (if you hadn't noticed) and Kiwibuild was one of, if not the biggest, reasons that Labour got elected and the cycleway certainly wasn't
This is a monumental cock up of Twyford-like proportions and all you've got is 'National cycleways'
But hey as long as its coming from Labour is all good right
Labour do some stupid stuff for which they should be rightly bagged. But at least they do stuff. National spent most of their time arguing semantics in regard to whether the housing crisis was an actual crisis rather than merely a challenge. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.
I'd like to think not everyone here is so blinded by partisan loyalty they're prepared to ignore Labour's failings. But let's be honest, Pucky. National have never been the party of the less fortunate. They'll make a valiant attempt to portray themselves as such every now and then, but scratch the surface and you'll find the usual callous indifference which tends to be their stock-in-trade. Paula Bennett's shameful antics around Te Puea Marae are adequate testimony. National essentially let the wound fester until it erupted in a geyser of pus and maggots, and now the current government is attempting clean up the mess while National jeer and throw rocks from the Opposition benches.
National have zero moral high-ground on this. If anything, they should be standing in a smoking crater.
Ok so did Labour know they couldn't meet their targets but went ahead with it anyway which means they deliberately lied to NZ
or did they really think they could meet the targets which makes them delusional
or could they really have met the targets but didn't which makes them incompetent
In regards to Kiwibuild Labour are either liars, delusional or incompetent
Did I miss anything out?
Labour are just getting organised they will make real progress in their second and third terms in Government IMHO ?
@ d of f..
two yrs in – the time for blaming the (undoubtedly guilty) tories for now is past…eh..?
National discredited itself – that's what happens when for seigneurial reasons you put deadwood like Nick Smith in charge of anything. Even they were too ashamed to call him housing minister in the end.
As for kiwibuild failing, it's like Marengo – Napoleon had lost the battle by 14:00 and won it back by 18:00. Housing is a critical issue and it must be built – giving up like the Gnats did, while it reflects Nick's actual capacity, cannot get the job done.
Can you let us know the official date when National stops getting blamed for Labours failings cheers
I think it'll take 'nine long years' and comcomitant jeers.
Seriously though, it would just take as long as the calculated cost of the shortfall in expenditure over those nine years on things that needed expenditure, less the surplus revenue now available to the government minus the willingness of the electorate to apportion blame upon that government of nine long years.
Whichever comes first.
Less the number of dead cats strewn upon the table, global crises, natural disasters, forest fires, possible re-elections of Boris and Donald, China, the cost of fossil fuel and who won the World Cup.
Not necessarily in that order.
I hope that helps.
Oh, and whether Judith makes it or not, or should I say, when?
Housing isn't their screw up yet – though it's true they should have done more about it under Clark. If the Gnats had not been utterly incompetent in that portfolio it would be a different story, but actually it's kind of hard to put your finger on a Gnat area of responsibility where a fairly ineffectual effort doesn't represent a vast improvement – they were rubbish – and that is the baseline against which Coalition performance is measured.
Thats wrong too.
Havent you heard of the Ramped up State House builds
havent you heard of the extended Bright line to catch the speculators and flippers
havent you heard of the Foreign buyers ban
havent you heard of the stand alone Ministry of Housing and Urban development.
Kiwibuild was soley to fix the imbalance at the value end of the new builds where they had become only 5% of the volume.
That maybe what Kiwibuild was supposed to be but the message to the people was different.
Basically Labour over promised and under delivered, this would never have happened until Helen Clark so now now Jacinda has to own her, Twyfords and Labours failure over this
I suspect what Kiwibuild was to many varies greatly. Certainly it covered the "housing problems" that were being ignored, but the scalpel of the media and opposition, and possibly insufficient time on setting out its scope, meant that it became just a small part of the "housing problem". I believe priority was rightly given to social housing, to reducing the number in motels and on waiting lists, and these do not seem to be the issues they used to be, although they are not yet totally resolved. That part of the housing problem that affected new home buyers is a problem that is a total market problem; it will not be resolved quickly, but it is not as urgent as reversing the reduction in social housing services. The number I would like to see measured is how many New Zealanders the government has assisted into some form of 'satisfactory' housing, rather than emergency housing.
As for the market failure of the building sector, we have had a serious deterioration in that industry over the term of the Nat-led government; a reliance on imported labour, a reduction in training and youth employment, fragmented small companies that had an incentive to go out of business, matched with too few trading in product supply, and starved local authorities who struggled with infrastructure and planning/ approvals. Leaky building have not helped either.
So yes there was a marketing failure by the government, but I do not think it is clear whether there is any significant failure otherwise. In effect the media and opposition have won the propaganda / lying war, with the only real winners those who are still able to exploit rental shortages . . ..
@ d of f…
being a tad clever with that poll you keep trotting out there from (in yr words)'a month or so ago'..
it was published on the 11th june – three months ago..
and the polling likely done over the month preceeding that..?
that gets us to polling data 4 months old – and pretty much useless in this post-canning kiwibuild moment..
donchareckon..?
kinda grasping at any straw floating by there..d of j..?
What was new over the last few months ?
Nothing until last week.
The numbers who are aligned with your ideas was 34% !
What exactly is your land development or construction expertise or knowledge of even planing.
Im pretty sure you dont have the foggiest and wouldnt know your bracing wall from your elbow.
'arr – arr – i have 'ammered the odd nail – seen the odd bracing wall – and can remember once helping to build a nickel-refinery – and i do have some knowledge of ‘planing’ – i can make my wood smooth – does that count..?'
(said in lancashire accent..)
heh..!..but really – what the fuck has that got to do with anything here..?
you are getting desperate – aren't you..(not waving – flailing..heh..!)
and plse don't try selling some meme that i am/was anti-kiwibuild..
my anger at the failures is from disappointment – not opposition too..mm-kay..?
Glurglurglurg- eh! Hehehe? Arrrghalarggh… eh?
If the reset was really important our PM would have been present, like many well educated leaders appear to follow … good news be associated with the release, bad news allow others to be seen. Thus protecting the brand.
(and in some good news..a cool open-source off-grid solar-freezer..woo-hoo..!)
https://boingboing.net/2019/09/05/frozen-sunshine.html
'it uses a standard chest freezer with added thermal mass, a simple controller, and a photovoltaic panel that effectively stores sunshine as coldness, obviating the need for expensive backup batteries.
The Fridge0 is an advance on traditional off-grid 12v solar fridges that assume that solar panels are expensive and inefficient; by exploiting modern PV technology,
Hess says "A kilowatt of solar panels provides enough power to run a conventional fridge on even most cloudy days, and costs less than a commercial offgrid fridge."
"A kilowatt of solar panels provides enough power to run a conventional fridge on even most cloudy days, and costs less than a commercial offgrid fridge."
What does that amount to .. the whole roof ?
don't have the tech-knowledge to answer that..
but they do mention using 'advances in photovolteic tech'…and that it is much cheaper than usual set-ups.
so i d presume not 'the whole roof'..
did you read the links…?..they should answer yr questions..
No, sorry, I lost the link somehow. My bad ..
Depending on the efficiency of the panels, between 4 and 10 sq m of panels will give you 1 kW peak output.
Given a fridge-freezer or chest freezer only draws around 150W or less when running, I presume putting in 1 kW of panels is so they can run even on really dark cloudy days.
Dunno if they've got anything fancier for their thermal mass than just a jug filled with a 30% propylene glycol solution that freezes around -15 degrees C.That's all a distant rellie needed 25 years ago for their off-grid set-up.
Frequency of the power supply is important too – so an inverter is required to convert solar DC to AC – unless you have a DC fridge.
The 150W 'while running' is about right , but as they stop and start often , you will draw much more for a few secs to spin up the compressor- could be the the 1Kw.
The article talks about having a battery to manage shutting it off. That would be useful to manage the startup surge, as well as managing the power on cloudy days if the output of the panels is marginal so it's not trying to kick on and off all the time. Seems to me it would make more sense to just invest in a few more batteries to take advantage of all the engineering and economies of scale for making conventional off-grid systems and be done with it.
1kw of panels is approx 8.5 square metres.
Recently I read of taking a freezer, changing the thermostat to operate around 4+ degrees, and using it as the household fridge. Toploaders loose less chill. Stay cold longer. Better insulated. Standard fridge use up to 2Kw per day. The freezer/fridge use less than 1kw per day. (I once made a built-in top loading chilly bin for a boat I built, with 4inch insulation, and by putting in frozen goods it would stay cool enough for 5-7 days.)
cool..!..thanks for than info…
A combined fridge freezer like my upright LG 298 litre has a single source of cooling for the unit, the cold air is circulated to each compartment to maintain the temp – it has both a freezer temp adjustment outside, 5 levels ( with vacation and quick freeze settings) and a fridge adjustment inside.
Sounds like its easier to get a modern unit – even second hand – and reduce your power consumption that way.
That is cool. Lol
Anything that makes us more independent of the grid, the better.
EcoFlow DELTA, the world's strongest battery-powered generator just launched on Kickstarter. Don't think EF ships to NZ yet. I tried the end of last year to buy their stuff and couldn't 🙁
Doesnt NZ post have a scheme where they have a contact point in US who then on-ships to NZ- all as a seamless service
https://www.nzpost.co.nz/tools/youshop
Your link includes the following statement
"International postage excludes any GST, duty and customs clearance costs that may be payable on arrival in New Zealand.".
The current Government are insisting that companies like Amazon should collect GST due on things they ship to New Zealand and remit the taxes to the New Zealand Government.
Why is a Government owned organisation like New Zealand Post already doing that?
They are just the shippers , Amazon are the seller who know what the item is and its worth.
The Amazon tax came in two forms , the first was for 'online type services and subscriptions' where there wasnt a physical shipping, just dowmloads etc.
The later one was the $400 'exemption' for GST for imported physical items for personal use.
That last rule means sellers with more than $60k annual sales to NZ are required to 'register and collect the tax' .
NZ Post seems to be just following the rules, not that Ive used it are current with ALL the details
Roger Waters Performs ‘Wish You Were Here’ in Assange’s Support in London
This is worth watching – actually introduction by John Pilger starts at almost six minutes in. Powerful words from him, as well as Roger Waters
marama davidson was impressive on rent-to-own etc on nat-red this morn…
she was also urging the building of many state houses…
Something urgent for Labour to attend to – the way that citizens who have difficulties in the wonderful free market neolib system are being treated in a shocking manner.
https://www.cpag.org.nz/assets/Publications/4-0%2031964%20Kathryn's%20Story.pdf
A Child Poverty Action Group Background Paper
Kathryn’s Story
How the Government spent well over $100,000 and 15 years pursuing a chronically-ill beneficiary mother for a debt she should not have.
By Catriona MacLennan
While it was over twenty years ago when she was alleged to have fraudulently obtained a benefit, this case has a history that starts well before that. The cycle of poverty and abuse began, as so often is the case, in her own childhood. It is fair to say that the way she has been treated in the judicial process, both the criminal conviction, her imprisonment, and the subsequent pursuit for reparations has been extremely damaging for her children and compounded her own Post–Traumatic Stress Disorder arising from her previous traumatic experiences. The NZ Treasury has recently shown that poor outcomes for children by the time they are young adults are highly correlated with having “a finding of abuse or neglect, time spent in care of child protection services; most of their lifetime supported by benefits; a parent who has received a community or custodial sentence; a mother who has no formal qualifications.” NZ Treasury 2016.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/09/06/cpag-mourns-passing-of-kathryn-and-calls-for-a-more-just-welfare-system/
Contrast those circumstances and outcome with Southern Repsonse's deceitful actions attempting to deny a couple $200,000.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-49601320
Parliament is "falling apart before our eyes" thanks to Brexit, one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement has said.
Seamus Mallon, former NI (Northern Ireland) deputy first minister, described Boris Johnson as a "carpetbagger", which he defined as someone without principles….
Mr Mallon was deputy first minister from 1998 to 2001.
He is considered to be one of the key negotiators of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
"The lunacy of putting a referendum in Britain in relation to trying to unite the Tory party was a monumental mistake, and they have staggered from one mistake after another," Mr Mallon told BBC News NI, on the margins of the Kennedy Summer School in County Wexford.
"And this is the mother of parliaments. This is the home of democratic political process and it is falling apart before our eyes, and it is doing it in such a way that a carpetbagger like Boris Johnson is now leading it as prime minister."
Recalcitrant Boorish.
Boris Johnson has said he would "rather be dead in a ditch" than ask the EU to delay Brexit beyond 31 October.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-49598118
Falling apart ?
Its called democracy .
he should talk about how democracy as defined in the GFA about the Northern Ireland Assembly has completely collapsed. Its zero, zilich , nada gone.
As an aside I did a word search on the GFA agreement, and the border is hardly mentioned at all.
Free travel ( and residency) for Irish citizens through out the entire UK came in 1922
There's something Blobbyjobby and I agree on. I'd rather he was dead in a ditch too.
Had this gem come up on my feed – worth watching if you need a reminder
Never ask that person who changes their mind, to do or have anything again. Don't have anything to do with them. They are losers! And this vid goes on for too long. Make the point faster – remember the ten second attention span that is talked about today. It is otherwise a greeaaat video. (That's really meant to be 'great', just got too long.)
I don’t like your comment much.
Not sure what's going on with you at the moment – hope it gets better for you.
Goodness marty mars – I am fine but just trying to keep thinking not becoming a reactive paper towel sucking up every idea that is presented in a conformist way to the in-meme. How about you?
well that meme was not designed for a 70 year old women (feel free to show to family and friends for their men if you want) – so maybe just have a wee think…
Who is the 70 year old woman?
I thought you were – sorry if I've got it wrong – I was sure you had written that but probably misinterpreted.
Agreed! That's another horrible comment. A trend emerges.
If the person who said yes to sex, but then changes their mind for whatever reason, they're a loser and you shouldn't go near them again. Wow.
So how would that work in a marriage situation? Blank your partner for ever or get divorced?
Calm down and go make yourself a cup of tea.
Try thinking Jimmy instead of short reactive jabs of no particular value to people, except to your satisfaction that you can read and write.
A person who changes their mind is a looser?
It's an excellent video and it goes for as long as it does because some people just cannot accept every individual has the right to any decision they choose to make and then change their mind if they so wish.
Sounds to me like that video touched a rather raw nerve with you Greywarshark and that maybe it should have gone on for another 3 days before you actually understood and accepted the point it was making.
For tea or sex, that's a "fail: safe" approach. If someone regards that approach as reasonable regardless of circumstance, they're probably not really equipped to safely offer consensual tea or sex in the first place, so for them it is actually a reasonable approach.
Whereas the "fail: deadly" approach is that someone who doesn't particularly understand consent still tries to have sex with other people, or make them drink tea.
I can only presume that the Fresh Water Discussion Document is intended only to be Labour’s opening gambit. Parker must know a fair bit of it will not be acceptable to the farming community or to the National Party. Legislation of this nature has to be sustainable across successive governments, it can’t be just acceptable to the party in power.
There will be a lot of support including within the farming community for more planting on stream margins, wider margins, and much stronger protection for wetlands. Probably with subsidies to help pay for it.
There will be major opposition to getting resource consents for farming changes or increased production. I predict that won’t survive consultation. I reckon NZF will oppose, as will National. If it is passed into law with NZF support, then I am certain such a requirement will be repealed by the next National government.
The more interesting discussion will be around monitoring water quality on farms. There is a very good case for it, with the intention of doing things to improve water quality. I reckon this will happen, but not with a whole raft of government inspectors. More likely a partnership with Dairy NZ.
If you really believe that then I fear you are 10 years out of date….with dairy (esp) under financial pressures unrelated the rural sector and banks will see the opportunity to use this to hedge future income streams (with gov assistance) and the noise from the likes of FF spokespersons will be largely disregarded.
National may well find they have backed a loser if they try to push back too hard….the dairy sector growth has been milked dry, time for ‘the next big thing’
yep some self interested and selfish farmers oppose water quality controls – pity not enough decent caring farmers are speaking up against their destructive brethren – still early days yet and the tide is turning against farming practices that are hurting the environment and communities.
Resource consent for some farming activities is already here.
https://www.horizons.govt.nz/HRC/media/Media/Consent/Guide-for-applying-for-intensive-farming-consent.pdf?ext=.pdf
And in places like the central north island lakes I think it covers all farming
https://www.waikatoregion.govt.nz/Community/Your-community/For-Farmers/Taupo/Nitrogen-management-in-the-Lake-Taupo-catchment/
getting your information about Government policies from Hosking can only lead to egg on face Wayne
Just filing away for future reference the admission that, when it comes to measures to improve NZ's freshwater quality, "a fair bit of it will not be acceptable to the farming community or to the National Party."
I did know that already, of course, but it's nice to have someone involved in the National Party state it so explicitly.
PM
Shock, horror! Farmers and National don’t accept every single policy point that Labour proposes. Who would have guessed? They must be really bad to think like that.
Correlation is not causation: they are incredibly bad, but they were bad even before they took up shitting in our water.
no wayne – 'shock/horror' at national quite happy to allow the continued befouling of our environment/world..
and this at the behest of the biggest leeches – since forever ('it's rained – give us some money..!..we are the backbone of the economy – it hasn't rained – give us some more money..!..we are the backbone of the economy!' – repeat ad nauseum)
i think we are all sick of that schtick..eh wayne..?
so if you want to wave yr arms and say 'i'm/national is with them..!'..
why don't you do that – and we'll see how that goes down with an increasingly angry/impatient rest of us..eh..?
and if you can't see/feel that growing anger/impatience – wayne – at the excuses/behaviour/whining.polluting of the (fast going down the gurgler) dairy industry..
you clearly have all the political nous of a doorknob..
eh wayne..?
If you actually read my initial comment, I do think more needs to be done (wider stream margins, more planting, preserving wetlands, better monitoring, and other things) I support a fair amount in the discussion document. A lot of it is good.
But that doesn’t mean I and others have to agree with everything in it. And just because farmers don’t agree with everything doesn’t automatically make them the “ biggest leeches – since forever”.
The left, or at least a fair part of it, automatically thinking of farmers that way will result in a much bigger divide than currently exists. And not a way to get constructive dialogue.
Wayne: have you read, "The Honorable Nick Smith…and me – the art of water politics" by Sam Mahon?
You should. I hope you will and when you do, would you care to comment here?
Thanks.
Robert
Hey, he isn’t responsible for Nick Smith. It is like saying that I’m responsible for John Tamihere because he used to be a sort of a progressive and a Labour MP. Who knew that they were kind of a dickheads?
Of course getting rid of John Tamihere appears to have been a whole easier for Labour it is has been for National to cast off their waste.
Isn't there a convention of collective responsibility? In which case Wayne was indeed responsible for Nick Smith; if he wasn't up to snuff (and he ain't) it was Wayne's job, among others, to get rid of him.
I didn't for a moment expect Wayne to take responsibility for Nick Smith. I merely wanted to know his view on the story the book tells. It's a great read.
you seem to be missing quite a bit of the big-picture there wayne..
dairy/meat-extraction industries are going down the gurgler..
aside from the other problem of a global-glut..
there is the rise of plant-based dairy/meat..
and what nobody is talking about..the increased climate-change pressures on exporting our dairy/flesh to the other side of the planet..
we are going to have to become more inward looking/self-sufficient..
these will be our new priorities..
Farmers and National don’t accept every single policy point that Labour proposes.
More specifically, they don't accept any policy point that would significantly improve NZ's freshwater quality – those are the bits that "will not be acceptable to the farming community or to the National Party." If that weren't the case, farmers and National would be willing to give a fair hearing to proposals beyond doing a bit more planting along river banks.
You do realise Canterbury wouldnt be in this mess of you and you cronies hadn't sacked the democratically elected board ecan so you could sugar fuel the economy.
bwaghorn – have you read the Sam Mahon story?
It's a cracker. Required reading, I reckon.
I reckon confiscating the surplus cows on poosy farms could be a go wayknee. Whatchoo reckon?
Don't think it is meant to go through.
Like the trial school lunches it is just something that sounds big popped either side of the KiwiBuild fiasco to try to take the focus off what a complete hash it is.
Seems to be working if you listen to talkback
I believe David Parker is entirely sincere in his intentions and statements.
I believe Robert Mugabe was entirely sincere in his intentions and statements.
Seems you'd believe anything; I suppose you trusted Key and English as well!
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
a question on the back of that….do you think Parker has the interests of the environment at heart?
Ab
So
Lutely!
and yet his favourite word is 'growth'…go figure
Trees grow. Are you sure you've explored his meaning thoroughly?
I used to think hed make a great Labour Party leader but the more I read of his comments in the media the more I decided he is neoliberal at heart…might be a result of when he was educated, who knows…. I suspect he would have been in his happy place in a Douglas cabinet…and thats saying something
I've met him a few times and like his boldness. I agree he's more right than I am, but I reckon he feels the urgency of environmental degradation keenly and is making a last-ditch stand. It's now or never, he seems to have learned and resolved. In my personal experience.
dont doubt his conviction to address the issue but do question his understanding of its cause
Parker came to a farmers meeting at Ashburton before the last election and showed his true colours. Questioned on his intentions regarding the ill intentioned water tax it was obvious that the environment was secondary to putting farmers out of business.
Am well aware of Parkers reputation in rural sector…wasnt where I was looking…hes an obviously intelligent guy (who isnt beholden to Ag sector) but seems to struggle with the link between growth and environmental degradation…curious (IMO)
"it was obvious that the environment was secondary to putting farmers out of business."
Utter nonsense, Ian. You need to settle and rethink.
Do farmers really want to admit their business model depends on the rest of us paying their pollution costs?
I've seen commentary from more responsible farmers, that are annoyed with Federated farmers, and National, giving them a bad name.
BTW. Even the oil industry stopped routinely Flushing oil into the water, decades ago. Why are farmers still allowed to pollute waterways.
Why can everyone else accept new legislation that is for the public good and Wayne and his farmers can't?
Whether it be a lowered speed limit or the banning of plastic bags, people generally adjust and accept and move on.
However, I did not know New Zealand laws do not apply to farmers.
This is interesting on what causes insomnia or unrefreshing sleep leading to depression. It is good stuff but oddly lit, but good overall. She looks at the result of being bombarded with negative messages every day etc.
Tedtalk: Attention – This is Why you can't Sleep. Bronwyn Milkins research.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaAydEAKglw 10 mins.
worth a bonus
"Floppy Johnson can't get an election"
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/4676854/brexit-news-boris-johnson/
+1
Not to be viewed by those easily triggered by facts, and/or facing up to reality.
Just remember, satire is your friend… Unless your a usual tory, snowflake, deniary, push any lie for power sort – then it's your enemy.
Historical perspective for those chicken littles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_votes_of_no_confidence_in_British_governments
These are ones where the government was defeated
Shane Jones puts $94.8 million into fixing the rail line from Auckland to Northland.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1909/S00167/government-investment-in-northland-rail-welcomed.htm
Looks like the Minister chose the "just fix it" option rather than the full-throated "let's connect the rail line to Northport and prepare to shift some of Auckland's port" option.
The repairs look like they are going to be done next year. That's hopefully good for those still underemployed in this part of Northland.
Still leaves open the possibility of a proper shift once the government finally lands on the Upper North Island ports study, and can then unveil a proper rail line and sea port upgrade for Whangarei in time for the election.
yeah – that's all very good…
Shane has actually got a good brain despite all his bravado imho ?
Hmmm. Potential extra stroke risk for vegans – could it be the stress of arguing about it with everyone? https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/food-news/115583500/study-finds-a-plantbased-diet-is-linked-to-a-higher-risk-of-stroke
…extra stroke risk for vegans….
A couple of years ago, for reasons known only to himself, my man decided to not avoid that hole in the asphalt and tumbled he and his wheelchair arse over tip. Now he's a Big Lad my man, all of six foot four and at least 100kgs, so the chances of me getting him re-seated by myself are nil. The only help available were a vegan couple from eastern Europe, somewhere. I'm going "One, two, three lift! and they are doing… nothing. I try French, then German, with little extra effect. This pale and almost bloodless pair had absolutely no umph at all.
It was me who nearly had the stroke…
@ mcdonald..
what a fascinating anecdote..about how going vegan makes you so weak..
you have almost convinced me to eat flesh again..
but hang on..!
have you ever seen something like this..?
https://www.vegansouls.com/vegan-bodybuilders
number 8 is particularly impressive..
so is the 75 yr old…
the women don’t look that weak either..
…have you ever seen something like this..?
Fascinating. And I'm sure there would be no anecdote had any of that line up been available.
Btw….the reason I know the Pale and Weak Ones were vegan is that was the reason they gave for not be able to lift…
Yeah I'm sure they're not getting any 'help' at all
Better living through chemistry!
Righteousness is the best stimulant.
is this one for me..?…ok..
first off the added risk recognised is 3 more strokes every thousand subjects…
(quite the small percentile – i think we all cd agree..)
(in the same study flesh-eaters had 10 more coronaries every 1,000 aubjects – why isn't that the headline..?..)
third off the data used is decades old..
'"This is data that's been collected from a couple of decades ago", Phillips explained.
"It might well be that the typical vegetarian diet today looks very different to a vegetarian or vegan diet from 20 or 30 years ago.
"They looked at what people ate and followed them for years, so it's an association, not cause-and-effect".
(hope that clarifies all that..)
I'm fascinated by your ability to correctly identify the flaws in those arguments against vegan diets, but completely miss very similar flaws in the "red meat causes colon cancer" argument.
well y'see andre – you are confusing the message and the messanger..
the red-flesh/processed-meat/bowel-cancer thing isn't me speaking..
i am just parroting the warnings from those with the medical expertise enabling them to reach that conclusion/issue those warnings..
i am not medically qualified to view their conclusions in a critical/analytical-way..
not my ballgame..
hope that clarifies that..
wallace chapman – david slack – and leonie freeman all riffing on the vegan-lady/bbq thing..on rnz panel..
complete and utter wankers – all three of them…
their ignorances as wide as they are deep..
..fools..!
To be fair phil, you have to include Cilla Carden in your list of wankers.
Not because she is vegan per se, Because of her self centredness and strong sense of entitlement.
can i run a hypothetical past you..
an orthodox jewish old folks home..people who have spent their whole lives avoiding pork like i avoid all flesh..
a new neighbour moves in..and insists on cooking pigs on a spit out in the backyard..each every day..
and this is right next to where the old people sit in the afternoon sun /their exercise area..
do you feel they would have any rights to try to stop this clear and obvious nuisance/impairment of their rights to their quiet enjoyment..?
another nuance to this is we don't know what drove her to go to court..
from the sound of it it was similar to what i outlined in the hypothetical..
and we don't know what complete and utter arseholes those neighbours may have been..
in their 'let's get the vegan lady'…
(and given how the fleshies on here pile into me – getting all hysterical..
i can easily see that mob-mentality at play here..
so no..ii can't call her a wanker..
(but i have met plenty of vegans – who i have thought are wankers = if that helps..?…)
but as for chapman/slack/freeman – no doubt – total ignorant wankers – all of them..
a total nuance-free zone..
Yep I agree
It is hard to describe the smell of meat burning when you don't like it – sorta like puke on wings. It is the hardest thing for me as a vege to tolerate and I have to over and over again with no thought for my sensibilities.
I fully get why she took a stand for her rights.
'sorta like puke on wings'..
aye..!
In regards yr hypothetical, sure, ask them to not cook meat all day every day.
Complain to management, organize a petition..
But when you look round and are the only one right….
As for not knowing why she complained: The neighbours were carnivorous, breeding, smoking people that incidentally had foreign sounding names. Oh, also, Cilla is a self centred person with a highly developed sense of entitlement
I can take you at yr word that the panel was a wank fest over the vegan story in Oz.
When I read the articles about Cilla Carden and she is quoted as saying:
"They've put it there so I smell fish, all I can smell is fish. I can't enjoy my backyard, I can't go out there." Self centred – check
and "It's been devastating, it's been turmoil, it's been unrest, I haven't been able to sleep," she said. Hyperbole and exaggeration – Check.
Then you add her desire for the children not to play basketball (too noisy).
Top it off with being told that the Supreme Court Judge and the State Administrative Tribunal have sided with her neighbours and have refused her appeal.
In anyones langauge, that is being a wanker.
Is a two way street….where does the ability to object start and finish? Is it in the middle ground where the majority can accommodate or is it somewhere else?At some point it becomes dysfunctional does it not?
Aussie anti intellectualism adopted by the RNZ panel–Boofheads munching on charred animal bits is an achievement apparently…
Veganism and Vegetarianism is the future, and many are attempting to live it right now–but Whadarrryaaaaaa! seems the regular bloke response, hard working, god fearin’ Nu Zilundas eat meat–got it!…
yep..!
Zimbabwe will be celebrating tonight, mugabe has passed away.
“His contribution to the history of our nation and continent will never be forgotten…….
Not wrong about that….mugabe has been accused of being a dictator responsible for economic mismanagement, widespread corruption, human rights abuses, and crimes against humanity.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/zimbabwe-president-robert-mugabe-dies-aged-95-190906050943163.html
His contribution to the history of our nation and continent will never be forgiven.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/africa/115612520/zimbabwes-first-postindependence-leader-robert-mugabe-has-died-at-the-age-of-95
Better late than never I suppose
Edit:
The ability of the older voter to comprehend that the status quo can not be an option; to grasp on BAU is for the innocent, ignorant middle aged and the olders resolutely looking away towards the tourism attractions and way from the real world.
Chris Trotter in TDB. https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/09/06/the-brexit-revolution-breaking-britain-to-remake-it/
The Telegraph has a piece on what may be a wily Conservative twist-and-turn conga led by Boorish.
https://premium.telegraph.co.uk/newsletter/article0/ignore-the-remainer-triumphalism-boris-is-still-on-course-for-victory
Run you weakling pricks but you can't hide.
Here's a Man Eco Maori admires and agrees with Kia Kaha stay strong keeping the Neanderthal in Check Ka pai
John Kerry says we can't leave climate emergency to 'neanderthals' in power
It’s a lie that humanity has to choose between prosperity and protecting the future, former US secretary of state tells Australian conference
The former US secretary of state John Kerry has warned that humanity risks marching off a cliff unless governments take immediate action to fight the climate emergency.
In a keynote address to the Global Table food and agriculture conference, Kerry made veiled swipes at the Australian government’s lack of climate and energy policy. He also weighed in on the heated debate about the massive Adani coalmine proposed for north Queensland.
“We just can’t sit on our asses and leave the political process to neanderthals who don’t want to believe in the future,” Kerry told the audience in Melbourne. “We have a dearth of leadership, but this will turn.”John Kerry: US 'cannot afford truculent child president
The former US Democratic presidential candidate said it was not a choice between taking action on the climate emergency and securing jobs and growth.
“They are not separate. And anybody who persists in putting forward that notion that you have to make the choice – you can either have jobs plus prosperity or you can protect the environment and the future. That’s a lie
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/03/john-kerry-says-we-cant-leave-climate-emergency-to-neanderthals-in-power
Kia Ora Newshub
The governments of the Papatuanuku need to do the humane thing and help the tangata of the Bahamas servive the huge mess hurricane Dorian made of their Island why because the government of the world are responsible for the cause of CLIMATE CHANGE
That's why I dislike PEE some people will do anything to get there next fix that phenomenon is what drives most crimes and thefts.
I have read that it's hot in Australia at the minute The Bush fire season has started early there government is still backing old carbon neanderthals.
Vegans are 22% more likely to have a stroke there you go we need a good veritable diet yes we can lower our protein consumption but not leaving animals protein out of our diet totally is what I believe.
I don't think that Wahine actor from America should be jailed for what she and many wealth people do.
Yes Wallaby need to be control to protect our native floral and birds and stop them from going extinct.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
There you go more PEE fueled Crime.
Don't count your chicken on brexit tangata
The way the Hawaii government is treating the tangata whenua O Hawaii is bad and sad. That is the way simon wanted to treat tangata whenua o Aotearoa Protesters.
The Amazon fires are a great man made desaster it shows that the government is not very intelligent they don't understand how Papatuanuku diversity of wild life is a great taonga that needs to be protected the. muppets
Ka kite Ano
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
We are making a big mess in Tangaroa and on the whenua this is causing a masse extinction of our wild life and environment.
All in the goal of humanity instant satisfaction. Ie boil the jug to make a cup of tea turn on the light by a new TV because the relies have a better one. We have become a throw away society and in the process we are throwing away OUR FUTURE descendints right to a natural healthy life. We need to change and manufacture thing to last 20 years at least and stop using products with a huge carbon footprint.
After bronze and iron, welcome to the plastic age, say scientists
Plastic pollution has entered the fossil record, research shows
Plastic pollution is being deposited into the fossil record, research has found, with contamination increasing exponentially since 1945.
Scientists suggest the plastic layers could be used to mark the start of the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch in which human activities have come to dominate the planet. They say after the bronze and iron ages, the current period may become known as the plastic age.
The study, the first detailed analysis of the rise in plastic pollution in sediments, examined annual layers off the coast of California back to 1834. They discovered the plastic in the layers mirrors precisely the exponential rise in plastic production over the past 70 years.
Most of the plastic particles were fibres from synthetic fabrics used in clothes, indicating that plastics are flowing freely into the ocean through waste water Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/04/plastic-pollution-fossil-record
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute.
https://youtu.be/SKprXO-f2pM
Kia Ora Newshub.
Whanau don't fall this con as you see they target the common poor people stay away from skyway capital. They no poor people are desperate and will believe there rubbish and lies IF ITS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE THAN ITS A LIE.
I can guess why the USA is doing that nothing is logical in the USA now.
The Bahama desaster after math is evedince that global warming is going to affect the poor people the most.
TE REO Language week is awesome too celebrate Maori Language as a taonga.
I hope there is not too many people lives are affected negativey and wild life losses with the Australian Bush fire season starting earlier than expected.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Eco Maori reception is not receiving Maori TV Tawhirimate is going Mana at the minute.
Ka kite Ano
So, the Trump Administration ordered the management of the central meteorological agency, NOAA to reverse its claim that Alabama was not included in the original forecast track for Hurricane Dorian?
Blackmail? If you don't reverse your original statement we'll remove your government financial resources – or something like that?
Meteorologists throughout the country are angry and upset at the way the "management" have folded. Shocking!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/07/sharpiegate-trump-alabama-hurricane-dorian
A trumpkin beholding to dear leader
https://twitter.com/cmkinmia/status/1170340769070223362
edit: tidied up and replied to the right thread
It's not funny any more. Beyond disgraceful that a scientific organisation whose primary task is to advise and warn the public of weather related events should be undermined in the course of its duty.
Totally agree Anne – somehow this has now become de rigueur in Trumpland. For instance the EPA is just a shadow of its former self, and there is now hardly a Department of State that has a permanent head. The US administration is practically on its knees. Trump plays on his phone keyboard while America burns.
Rotten.
https://twitter.com/jamiedupree/status/1170521328748830720
Beat you by 2 mins. 🙂
It's not funny anymore though. Bloody disgraceful!