‘The aspect of modern economic thinking I find most depressing is the lack of any emphasis on play or fun or family and friendships.
An economic worldview has evolved that sucks the meaningful marrow out of life. The big question we should be asking is whether our economic system is serving us or are most of us consigned to serving it?
We pay homage to the little scrutinised goal of economic growth as progress towards some undefined Nirvana on earth.
Yet few of us understand what this concept of economic growth actually means. It is a narrow obsession with ensuring that as a nation we make and consume more material stuff. ‘
agree 1000% Ed, we have lost the true simple things in life as the media are busy pumping the financial market forces and the stock market figures and hype relentlessly that we are consumed by their love of chasing money.
Very sad it see; as they just seem to dolise the ‘gold covered figures’ as the romans and spanish did of old eh?
Always remember that the media is owned by the financial industry.
‘From about 2007 financial institutions assumed shareholder control of major media corporations. Previous JMAD media ownership reports (2011-2016) detail how financialisation increasingly affected the New Zealand holdings of four major corporates – Fairfax, Sky TV, APN News and Media and Media Works.’
Good to see him back…..did he get parked whilst granny’s repeaters were shilling for Nationals election loss or have I just missed his down to earth pieces.
Marilyn Waring did some amazing work for the OECD amongst others on GDP taking account, and placing a value upon, unpaid work. She was sadly way ahead of her time.
As is so often the case, she is held in much higher regard overseas than she is at home.
Why is that?
Is it because she ‘betrayed’ the National Party over this..
“Waring precipitated the 1984 general election by threatening to vote for the opposition-sponsored nuclear-free New Zealand legislation, leading Prime Minister Rob Muldoon to call a snap election, stating that Waring’s “feminist anti-nuclear stance” threatened his ability to govern.[3] The nuclear-free New Zealand legislation was subsequently enacted by the new Labour government, and has been a sacrosanct touchstone of New Zealand foreign policy since.”
She also only stood for National cos Labour rebuffed her. She says her views aligned more with Labour. This was an interview I heard many months ago so I may nit be remembering her words acurately.
To be honest I think it is partly because she was a highly intelligent economist amongst men. Once men started saying stuff she said, albeit 2 decades later…
She wrote a letter to the Listener in 1984
” I address you too remembering Adrienne Rich writing in Women and Honour: Some Notes on Lying — “We assume that politicians are without honour. We read their statements trying to crack the code. The scandal of their politics is not that men in high places lie, only that they do so with such indifference, so endlessly, still expecting to be believed. We are accustomed to the contempt inherent in the political life.”
Human beings in modern economics are strictly defined by their production and consumption. Many of us have inadvertently been indoctrinated into this world view.
It wasn’t inadvertent. That indoctrination is how the rich get to control everyone else.
Did anyone recorded this event last night please for the ‘public interest’
“BREAKING: The Daily Blog to livestream TPPA meeting 6pm tonight
By The Daily Blog / December 5, 2017 ”
I missed it while responing to bloggers whjile this event was sent out live by TBD as the events are being ‘secretly’ set up without notifying the public sady.
I am bemused about the lack of “openness and transparency” over these country wide meetings on ‘TPP 11’ (or whatever it is called for now)
There’s something on TDB right now about them putting up the once they’ve loaded it online. I’d post a link but can’t navigate the dog’s breakfast that is their front page.
If you see the replay, please let me know and I’ll put up a post.
Thanks weka I just came in from getting the one foot high front lawn mowed so caught this meesage, wow it’s hot out there, I’m up in the Raukumara ranges 1650 ft above sea level.
It is normally cooler here bthan Gisborne or Opotiki but not this time.
Temp guage says 28 degrees C right now at 1.30pm so that is unheard of up here.
Thanks for that about the TPP11 is being loaded so we can view/listen to the last nights meeting, as we need to beam thiis set of meetings this week out to as many who may be inclined to send a note to their MP that they dont want ‘TPP11’ (or whatever it is called for now). Cheers.
Barry Soper is a compromised corporate puppet who earns his money by writing sycophantic articles to please the financial industries who own the media in New Zealand.
This is what he wrote about climate change. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11953808
Good grief… the gap between the intelligence and reasoning in Monbiot’s writing and Soper’s! It’s not even a chasm… it’s a f**king ocean! Both Monbiot and Attenborough provide very real examples of how humanity is slowly killing itself, while for Soper, climate change is reduced to a (not even clever) comparison of religious belief – as though it’s all in the mind. It’s verbal diarrhoea.
Incidentally, the loss of productive land Monbiot has highlighted is an issue in New Zealand also.
Sometimes I think that the likes of Soper, Hoskings and many of those ZB egg rolls are desperate to remain relevant, and they think the best way to do it is by way of that Okker-style ‘shock jock’ shit. Leighton Smith and Lackwit Larry are the other ones I was trying to think of. In a way you can sort of excuse Duncan ‘Dunks’ Garner and that OnceWas-a-Cricketer guy because they’re obviously getting into their mid-life crisis and wanting to remain down with the kuds.
It’s a shame the ageing process these days doesn’t seem to be as graceful as it once was. No bloody way would I want to be 20 or 30 something again
To be successful in journalism today requires chasing down the ‘African Woman turns Boeing 747 into engagement ring shop for the wealthy Jews of Antarctica.’ stories.
Our culture moves in cycles but it’s always a bit different when we revisit. The new Camaro is only a little bit like the one of the 60’s. The fresh faded look Hawaiian print shirts out for this Summer are a bit different this time round, the yoke, pocket, collar.
Media is not immune to this. The Time Warner, Hearst, Murdoch empires of the past have morphed into Facebook and Twitter.
When the media giants started to rise 100 years ago their well-being prompted those with foresight to explore avenues like ‘I wonder if people would like an indepth view into what’s happening in their town?’ Local papers were born. As the decades passed they gained traction and profitability and ultimately were gobbled up by the media behemoths.
The cycle will repeat but the Facebook Giants won’t be buying The Western Leader, they’ll be buying the new versions. The Standard, Honda Gossip or Breastfeeding Mums interactive readerships.
I’d advertise my cattle prods on the Whale and graffiti paint on The Standard.
Winston Peters’ lawyers signed papers seeking legal action against National leader Bill English and three of his ministers the day before the election was even held.
His action – which also seeks journalists’ phone and email records over the disclosure he was overpaid superannuation for seven years – was set before Peters received his seven percent of the vote and then entered supposedly good faith negotiations with both the National and Labour parties. He chose Labour, ousted National and now serves members of its negotiating team with legal action.
His papers even note that these National ministers were not acting in a ministerial capacity, in the matters that he is seeking documents over, and now have no access to state funds to defend themselves.
The case, if it becomes a case, appears to be over a breach of privacy.
His lawyer Brian Henry signed on September 22 the application to force English, Steven Joyce, Paula Bennett and Anne Tolley, plus English’s former chief of staff Wayne Eagleson to provide documents as did one of Peters’ solicitors Clifton Killip Lyon on a separate affidavit.
His lawyers told the High Court they could not formulate their legal action without access to whatever documents the nine listed defendants – including this writer – might possess. And they say some of the defendants might have no “tortious liability” in any case.
Peter’s has the power and the gnat ex ministers will be worried. Hardly an idiot bm just accept it – whoever tried to sanction Winnie by releasing very private information are going to be held to account. Seems pretty solid to me.
By the sounds of it you are the only idiot on this channel BM.
Why you got your knickers in a twist, I do not understand or perhaps you condone the release of private gov’t information to smear people?
geez BM you are really showing a sign of mental breakdown here, hence I am genuinely worried about you.
I am a man that has deep compassion for all our people; – and that includes you.
I can vividly see you are a National Party supporter as I was, – when I returned from Canada to my home in Napier in 1976.
Robert Muldoon was what we saw as a true “Natonalist” PM out to protect what he oddly called “the ordinary kiwi bloke” (meaning family/whanau) at the time.
I was captured by Muldoon’s will to save NZ then and still feel that way even though some run him down as the media did also, as they semed to be again over Winston for a time.
So back to you, – so you are a national supporter and have now suffered a humiliating defeat of National loosing control of running the country.
I do understand your frustration here.
We on the other side; – Labour/NZF/Greens coalition are making solid headway in reversing the last nine years of austerity, and we are happy for this to occur.
We lived for nine years with our hearts lierally in our hands, daily frustrated and fearful of what National would do to us and our country next byselling all our assets and SOE’s set up for sale.
The new government is truly now gaining in confidence in parliament talking the blocking tactics National are trying to put up against the new government.
Changes are now coming BM and as we accept this under nine years of national you do need to make peace with your soul and accept the changes as holding that anger inside will cause you great health harm..
@ BM Peters played National for the fools they are. He had to give the impression they were in the game to get as much out of the coalition talks as possible, but he knew all along he was going with Labour and the Greens if they picked up one or two seats from the specials.
Anybody (including Jacinda) watching the exchanges and body language in parliament over the last 6 years would have known Winston was going with Labour.
Remember his comment “Labour lost the unloseable election” after Cunliffe lost in 2014 It was clear from this he was ready to support Labour then too.
And apparently National also entered into “good faith” negotiations with Peters while having breached his privacy and releasing the information to the public.
Yep. And as Winnie entered into what he thought were deep and meaningful discussions with National with their “boy, have I got a deal for you!”, he soon came to realise he was dealing with what we once referred to as the ‘used-car salesman’ of the dog and lemon.
Those used-car salesmen are still dealing with their grief. Never mind fellas, it’ll be over soon
When my children were younger I notice that there teeth were looking bad I did some research and because there was no fluoride in the water I went to the chemist and started them on fluoride tablets. And 3 out of 4 children teeth are fine the one I spent $4000 on braces later in life got addicted to Coca-Cola and that ruined her teeth I still give her shit about that the others are perfect. Science is all about asking questions and finding the true answer Ka pai
I live in a non-fluoride area. My daughter is 12 and has never had a cavity in either set of teeth. Diet is I think the biggest factor followed by regular brushing with fluoride toothpaste.
The people on the Rock radio rumble are funny buggers lol Roger those buggers set you up so funny but you are good at handling there stick lol Kia kaha
Heaps of the idiots following me around today marked cars to they don’t like there secrets out that they are humans and are not perfect.
They are a gang of intimidating bullies. They don’t like me painting there reality which is they break all the laws they want and they will use anyone to set up there Mark. They don’t care if you are dieing old young a bum they will use you
And not give a shit if there presence cause stress it goes way over there head. One of my clients that they have been using had a heart attack it won’t even register that they caused it these people are shitting on our society and casting a image that they care for you YEA RIGHT. ANA TO KAI
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One thing which came to me while listening to Morning Report this morning is, this Government and Auckland Super City Council are either too afraid of their own shadow or too money mad to consider the consequences of their actions. The Australian Government is making new laws to curb foreign influence within their Government structures and haven’t found it difficult to do so The Super City is saying that to close the walking tracks to protect our Kauri trees etc will be too expensive to police and difficult to monitor tourists treking through the reserves and parks.
What is so difficult that Andrew Little cannot bring about changes to protect our sovereignity – how can he say he is comfortable that all safe guards are in place over political donations and covert long term strategies that some countries will go to, to blend in with our political systems for their own subversive ends.
Penny Hulse comes across as either too money mad or poorly informed if she thinks this Kauri problem is just too difficult to get her head around – it’s plain to see she isn’t concerned about the demise of this mighty species of tree – all because it is too difficult to tackle.
What a country of useless heaps we have become – what has happened to our courage and doing the right thing when it has to be done.
“What is so difficult that Andrew Little cannot bring about changes to protect our sovereignity – how can he say he is comfortable that all safe guards are in place over political donations and covert long term strategies that some countries will go to, to blend in with our political systems for their own subversive ends.”
Perhaps Little’s position is a consequence of this influence taking hold?
I found her appearance on tv last night endorsing the new prohibition odd given a few days ago she said it was nice but not something she thought coubcil coukd back.
The recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel instead of Tel Aviv is another nail in the coffin on the fate of the Middle East. Jerusalem is a muslim city and this move will NOT be accepted by Islam. The Zionist/USA bloc is making an overly confident move here and is heading for huge trouble. Who will win and at what cost we don’t know but we are in for more American lead mayhem.
Here is some proof that national standards haven’t been working for our kids. So happy we now have a government that listens to the teachers and cares about the kids, now we can have progress.
The legacy of the losing national party has damaged so many facets of our society. But no more!!!
International report shows children’s literacy suffered under National Standards
Thanks for that great link, Cinny. Having got young children the national standards are a complete mess as is the rest of the primary education system.
With the literacy, it seems that if a child misses getting to the right level in year 1, it’s all over and they are then labeled as ‘something wrong’ with the child. These days everyone seems to be an amateur psychologist musing on various conditions that they read up about on the Internet, which itself is completely alarming and it seems to have become a way to excuse the teacher and school from bothering to continue or change strategies to get the child over the line in year 2 and onwards.
Education has become a process of denial and blame on the child and denial of precious resources, rather than actual learning or bothering to make real effort to get 100% literacy within the school.
At the same time the testing and programmic nature of the literacy standards turn the children off the subjects making it worse, the chaotic methods that confuse some children more than help, as well as the new open plan style of classrooms which again are problematic for many children to concentrate in.
The other big problem in primary schools is the new reliance on the private sector in public schools. Gone are the swimming pools in many schools, now kids are routinely bused into private centres for an underwhelming overcrowded lesson that parents pay for in their activity fees and is basically pointless. It is not surprising our high drowning statistics if that is what parents have to rely on.
Music has gone, in real terms visual art has gone, drama privatised and school play gone in many schools which of course combined art/music/drama for kids, PE very minimal (at the very same time as due to traffic many kids now don’t walk to school and actually need the exercise first thing in the morning).
No wonder kids are committing suicide and getting depressed, the arty ones, musical ones, drama ones, sporty ones are in some sort of hierarchy of education that whatever they might be good at does not matter and only those who excel initially are raised up. (normally those that can already read and write before entering the school). People who change the world are actually not high flyers in primary or secondary, they often show little talent or are dreamers, so it’s all a complete waste of talent in NZ to write many kids off and let them lose confidence.
Education has become a process that is designed for the top 40% just like the statistics show and everything in schools seem to be helping those kids succeed and this is leading to others becoming disengaged for many reasons at an early age, (and then blamed for it).
Designed to create little cogs for the low wage industry?
““The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don’t know how to be submissive, and so on — because they’re dysfunctional to the institutions.” Noam Chomsky
Even worse with the increasing automation both low wage and processing and reporting skills will be made more redundant in youth and it’s the new generation of creative adults that IT can’t replace, that will actually be in demand.
On the whole education topic I also think that the onerous health and safety and responsibility to schools/teachers need to be looked at and reduced by the new government.
It has created too much focus on ridiculous safety measures for teachers and not enough time spent on the actual coursework and teaching. Kids not becoming resilient as every cut/scratch/bruise is monitored and the kids can’t be kids anymore in case they fall down/cut themselves etc. It’s backfiring as well as kids then are anxious (getting a safety messages constantly makes them feeling there may be danger lurking) and can then lead onwards to mental health issues.
I find it hard to understand under the National government how 29 people died at Pike River and not held to account under law, yet every teacher spends way too much time on safety talks and has copious reporting for every injury. You just can’t wrap up kids in cotton wool. Then the poor sods graduate and work for companies like Talleys and cut their hand off. Common sense needs to be introduced.
It’s spread to A&E now too , as one New Years day, some person came in and presented a child at Starship who had minorly cut toe that a plaster could have sorted out, and then emergencies can’t get through. People need to get a grip!
Yep I guess then there is more work for dole type schemes where the taxpayers are footing the wages. Free Labour for employers beats minimum wages or even $2 p/h.
In 2009 the UK govt found National Standards we’re causing a decline in literacy as well as being expensive.
A Toy govt cancelled National Standards while National carried on with this failed costly experiment.
Our National government is even worse than the Tories, sounds hard to believe but probably true! I mean they did take away healthy lunches in schools under urgency. What a priority! Sickening.
This old fool was once a passable minor novelist. He wrote the very good Lucky Jim in 1957, and then coasted for the rest of his cantankerous, “contrarian” life. Unlike normal people, this anti-Semitic, women-hating old goat did not mellow with age, but grew crankier and more extreme in his views. But his worst—by far his worst—legacy to the world is his disgusting son, the novelist and fifth-rate essayist Martin Amis…..
In a highly critical article for his own Daisycutter Sports Digest, reprinted in Media Lens, Breen, author of BERNADINE, or “Hell Hath No Fury” said Amis was the “fluky beneficiary of a famous name”, and that his carefully cultivated Oxbridge stammer and air of studied insouciance fails to cover up the “painfully obvious” fact that he “reads little, and knows virtually nothing about anything.”
Breen’s intervention comes as Amis faces continued reaction from people disgusted with his crude race-baiting, which has proved to be a disturbing re-run of the notorious outbursts against “coons”, “wops”, “darkies” and Jews by his father, the late author Kingsley Amis.
Breen, who said he has spent “much too much” of his time struggling through really third-rate British fiction, also called Mr Amis “humorless”, “talentless”, and a “pathetic creep”, who had traded on his father’s fame and assiduously “sucked up” to the likes of the late Christopher Hitchens, who always poured scorn on Amis’s academic pretensions and treated his attempts to foot it with him intellectually with amused disdain. Breen noted how the notoriously lazy and ill-read Amis had boasted often about his “Congratulatory” Oxford First in English — “the sort where you are called in for a viva and the examiners tell you how much they enjoyed reading your papers.”
Mr Amis was a man “without the slightest semblance of character, leave alone discernible talent”, he added, and cited the academic Terry Eagleton’s opinion of some newspaper opinion pieces Amis had written as akin to the “ramblings of a British National Party thug.”
“Lucky Jim” is wonderful but “The Old Devils” which Amis wrote in 1986, that is 32 years after Lucky Jim, is a great book. This doesn’t fit your “coasting” theory in terms of his literary efforts.
The author of Money, London Fields and Time’s Arrow is “talentless?” You may be confusing your personal likes and dislikes with critical evaluation. They’re not the same thing.
Artists that leave a mark are often fairly outrageous characters in real life. Your head needs to be in a special place to lob your own ear off, build a Disneyland in the backyard, it’s hard not to wonder how much of Hunter S Thompson’s stuff is fiction.
If I’m correctly keeping track of the multiple layers of Morrissey quoting himself, then it appears Martin is indeed the Amis that Morrissey described as “talentless”.
Yes – it was Martin Amis Morrissey was quoting himself referring to as “talentless.” Kingsley is the “anti-Semitic, women-hating old goat” in the story.
Damn, this post just reminds me how much the left is missing the Christopher Hitchens factor these days. Sure, he fucked up on Iraq, wrong conclusion for the right ideas but I’m certain that had he lived to see the ISIS years, he’d have surely accepted that whatever justification there was for being rid of Hussein, his heirs, their clan, and their horrible regime, there had to have been something better than what happened.
It’s been revealed that two cruise ships filled up with water in Napier just before the city’s water crisis.
Nearly one percent of Napier’s water was split between the vessels that left on Sunday afternoon, one at around 3pm and the other at around 4pm….
…The Mayor of Napier blamed the water shortage on excessive use by residents.
“What happens is the reservoirs recharge overnight. Normally we have water usage up until around 8pm and then overnight the reservoirs recharge,” Bill Dalton told The AM Show on Tuesday morning.
“On Sunday night they didn’t. The reason for that is people put their sprinklers on and left them on all night.”
It appears the cruise ships were charged by the port company. So where does that money go? According to their website The Port of Napier Ltd operates as a fully autonomous subsidiary of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Company (HBRIC) which is the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s investment company.
The Port of Napier Ltd sounds like Ports of Auckland, totally unaccountable to the ratepayers but still getting everything on the cheap from ratepayers (like water) but pretending it’s all profit.
Interesting to know what the council charged the ports for the water.
P.S. cruise ships are one of the most polluting ways to travel and often use close to slave labour while being domiciled in tax havens and paying little to zero taxes. Not sure if this was the case with these cruise ships.
Anyway usual shocking neoliberal be warned tale, of the ordinary folks being blamed and told to tighten up and it’s all their fault, and behind the scenes some quasi corp is taking the water during a shortage for another corp which is probably not taxed in NZ or not even using NZ staff.
Breaking news! Bill English is DESPARATE for simple Christmas cake recipes as Mary has said he has to make one. Why can’t he just use an Edmonds Cookery Book instead of going to the media… No where near cute and folksy.. TWAT!!
Sorry if this has already been put up, but if you missed the live streaming of Jacinda Ardern discussing climate change with Al Gore last evening on the “Climate Reality Project 24 Hours Of Reality”, here is a link to TVNZ which still have a video of the full interview on its website
Former speechwriter of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and current ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Aydın Ünal on Monday threatened Turkish journalists in exile with extrajudicial killings, in his column published in the pro-Erdoğan Yeni Şafak daily.
Strongly criticizing journalists in exile for covering the case of Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who was arrested in Miami in March 2016 on charges of evading US sanctions on Iran, Ünal said: “Better to get ready for intra-organization extrajudicial killings instead of carrying out operations over judicial theater [the Zarrab case].”
The much awaited Performance Improvement Framework Review for Ministry of Health which probably cost the career of Chai Chuah.
Chai Chuah, who just the other day said…
“… it was not an easy decision to make.
“As I am immensely proud of the progress that we have made as a ministry over the last four years.
“I recognise there is a lot more work yet to do, however, I believe the foundations are now in place for the Ministry of Health to take the next step. I am optimistic that the important shift our health system needs to make is already in motion,” he said. ”
I wonder if anyone on here knows anything about results based accountability. When I Google it it seems to be a great tool however I am aware of a small ngo using it to prove their worth but the language is confusing and putting off the community they claim to serve. They are putting lots of effort into consulting and refining goals but not appearing to do much.
Auckland Transport’s secret further 150 km, $635 million Auckland cycleway plan was EXPOSED at Auckland Council Audit and Risk Ctte meeting 6/12/2017
Subject matter included:
1) The risk to Auckland Council following the alleged failure of Auckland Transport as a Council Controlled Organisation, to comply with its statutory duties arising from the Local Government Act 2002 (s.59), and the Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Act 2010, sections 38,39 and 40, regarding the effective imposition of ‘cycleways’ upon local communtities, without full and proper consultation; the cost of these ‘cycleway’ projects, and the cost of remediation of these ‘cycleway’ projects, such as West Lynn.
2) The ‘risk’ regarding the complete lack of public consultation regarding an effectively ‘secret’ AT plan for a further 150 kms of Auckland cycleways, costing $635 million.
“CONFIDENTIAL Cycling Programme Business Case Recommendation
That the Board: i. Endorse the recommended strategic direction for future investment in cycling in Auckland, the funding of which will be subject to prioritisation through the Integrated Transport Programme (ITP).
Executive summary
1 There is a significant opportunity for cycling to play a more substantial role in contributing to a more effective transport system for Auckland.
During the programme period, transport demands will continue to grow strongly alongside population and employment across the region, placing increasing pressure on congested networks and, in particular, on access to the city centre.
2 We analysed a range of options to identify which package would most effectively deliver the benefits and objectives of the programme, carried out economic modelling and conducted extensive engagement to arrive at a preferred programme of investment.
3 This programme business case recommends an investment of $635m in cycling over the period 2018-2028 to most effectively meet the objectives of the programme.
This would provide benefits of $1.9 to $4.6 for every $1 invested, and would deliver 150km of new cycleways linking to key activity centres and maximising access to public transport.
The investment would see an increase in modal share of trips to work for cycling from 1 per cent to 4 per cent across the Auckland region. ..”
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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Newcastle Snapshot freddy/ShutterstockPlans to revive an old coal-fired power station using bioenergy are being considered in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Similar plans for the station ...
Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
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ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT University The telecommunications industry faces a major shakeup following the release of the post-incident report on last November’s 12-hour Optus outage. Telecommunications companies will have to share more information with customers during future ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Eden Denyer, bookseller at Unity Books Auckland.Weirdest question/request you’ve had on the shop floorA mother came in looking for anything we might have on Alaskan bison as that was her little boy’s ...
NZCTU Economist Craig Renney said new data released by Statistics New Zealand shows the need for Government to act now, with unemployment rising from 3.4% to 4.3%. ...
The outpouring of anger over Maiki Sherman’s hyperbolic presentation of this week’s ‘nightmare’ poll is itself an overreaction, argues Stewart Sowman-Lund. Politicians love nothing more than to pretend they don’t care about polls. This week, deputy prime minister Winston Peters said he didn’t give a “rat’s derriere” about a TVNZ ...
Asia Pacific Report Ngāti Kahungunu in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay region has become the first indigenous Māori iwi (tribe) to sign a resolution calling for a “ceasefire in Palestine”, reports Te Ao Māori News. Reporter Te Aniwaniwa Paterson talked to Te Otāne Huata, who has been organising peace rallies ...
By Dale Luma in Port Moresby “We want grants and not concessional loans,” is the crisp message from Papua New Guinea businesses directly affected by the Black Wednesday looting four months ago. The businesses, which lost millions after the January 10 rioting and looting, say they need grants as part ...
Happy May Day. Join a union. Q: What’s worse than a staff break room where the only place to sit and have a cup of tea is on a teetering stack of old pornography magazines? A: Your boss replacing the magazine stacks with chairs that are “heartily encrusted with ...
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We get but one birthday a year – why not make it last as long as possible by scheduling as many meals with friends and family as you can? This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. How do you celebrate your birthday? Do you celebrate at ...
A Koi Tū discussion paper released today proposes sweeping changes to New Zealand’s media industry. The principal’s key author, Gavin Ellis, explains how journalists have a key role to play in making others value their role in society. This is an abridged version of a piece first published on knightlyviews.com ...
The Government’s spending cuts are again targeting support for Māori with proposed reform of the agency charged with advising on Māori wellbeing and development. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Douglas, Honorary Senior Lecturer, UNSW Aviation., UNSW Sydney The history of budget jet airlines in Australia is a long road littered with broken dreams. New entrants have consistently struggled to get a foothold. Low-cost carrier Bonza has just become the industry’s ...
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Winston Peters has been keen to dismiss speculation on our involvement in Aukus but will give a speech tonight on the direction of our foreign policy, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Usmar, Lecturer in Critical Media Literacies, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images With the coalition government’s ban of student mobile phones in New Zealand schools coming into effect this week, reaction has ranged from the sceptical (kids will just get ...
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Peter Lyon.
‘The aspect of modern economic thinking I find most depressing is the lack of any emphasis on play or fun or family and friendships.
An economic worldview has evolved that sucks the meaningful marrow out of life. The big question we should be asking is whether our economic system is serving us or are most of us consigned to serving it?
We pay homage to the little scrutinised goal of economic growth as progress towards some undefined Nirvana on earth.
Yet few of us understand what this concept of economic growth actually means. It is a narrow obsession with ensuring that as a nation we make and consume more material stuff. ‘
More here
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11953817
agree 1000% Ed, we have lost the true simple things in life as the media are busy pumping the financial market forces and the stock market figures and hype relentlessly that we are consumed by their love of chasing money.
Very sad it see; as they just seem to dolise the ‘gold covered figures’ as the romans and spanish did of old eh?
Always remember that the media is owned by the financial industry.
‘From about 2007 financial institutions assumed shareholder control of major media corporations. Previous JMAD media ownership reports (2011-2016) detail how financialisation increasingly affected the New Zealand holdings of four major corporates – Fairfax, Sky TV, APN News and Media and Media Works.’
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/12/04/new-zealand-media-ownership-why-it-matters/
Or by the Uber wealthy as Koch bros have just funded Meredith’s into buying time inc.
Good to see him back…..did he get parked whilst granny’s repeaters were shilling for Nationals election loss or have I just missed his down to earth pieces.
Marilyn Waring did some amazing work for the OECD amongst others on GDP taking account, and placing a value upon, unpaid work. She was sadly way ahead of her time.
http://www.marilynwaring.com/
As is so often the case, she is held in much higher regard overseas than she is at home.
Why is that?
Is it because she ‘betrayed’ the National Party over this..
“Waring precipitated the 1984 general election by threatening to vote for the opposition-sponsored nuclear-free New Zealand legislation, leading Prime Minister Rob Muldoon to call a snap election, stating that Waring’s “feminist anti-nuclear stance” threatened his ability to govern.[3] The nuclear-free New Zealand legislation was subsequently enacted by the new Labour government, and has been a sacrosanct touchstone of New Zealand foreign policy since.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Waring
And are the ‘left’ so ideologically constipated they can’t see the worth of an activist who was a National Party member?
Sigh. Politics is so complicated.
She also only stood for National cos Labour rebuffed her. She says her views aligned more with Labour. This was an interview I heard many months ago so I may nit be remembering her words acurately.
To be honest I think it is partly because she was a highly intelligent economist amongst men. Once men started saying stuff she said, albeit 2 decades later…
She wrote a letter to the Listener in 1984
” I address you too remembering Adrienne Rich writing in Women and Honour: Some Notes on Lying — “We assume that politicians are without honour. We read their statements trying to crack the code. The scandal of their politics is not that men in high places lie, only that they do so with such indifference, so endlessly, still expecting to be believed. We are accustomed to the contempt inherent in the political life.”
http://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2012/a-letter-to-my-sisters/
It wasn’t inadvertent. That indoctrination is how the rich get to control everyone else.
Did anyone recorded this event last night please for the ‘public interest’
“BREAKING: The Daily Blog to livestream TPPA meeting 6pm tonight
By The Daily Blog / December 5, 2017 ”
I missed it while responing to bloggers whjile this event was sent out live by TBD as the events are being ‘secretly’ set up without notifying the public sady.
I am bemused about the lack of “openness and transparency” over these country wide meetings on ‘TPP 11’ (or whatever it is called for now)
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/12/05/breaking-the-daily-blog-to-livestream-tppa-meeting-6pm-tonight/#comment-410082
If someone recorded this event can they give us a portal to hear/review this first meeting on ‘TPP11’ please?
There’s something on TDB right now about them putting up the once they’ve loaded it online. I’d post a link but can’t navigate the dog’s breakfast that is their front page.
If you see the replay, please let me know and I’ll put up a post.
Thanks weka I just came in from getting the one foot high front lawn mowed so caught this meesage, wow it’s hot out there, I’m up in the Raukumara ranges 1650 ft above sea level.
It is normally cooler here bthan Gisborne or Opotiki but not this time.
Temp guage says 28 degrees C right now at 1.30pm so that is unheard of up here.
Thanks for that about the TPP11 is being loaded so we can view/listen to the last nights meeting, as we need to beam thiis set of meetings this week out to as many who may be inclined to send a note to their MP that they dont want ‘TPP11’ (or whatever it is called for now). Cheers.
George Monbiot is an informed, fearless and independent journalist.
This is what he as written recently about climate change.
http://www.monbiot.com/2017/10/23/insectageddon/
David Attenborough is a highly respected and renowned broadcaster on the natural world.
This is what his most recent show Blue Panet 2 says about climate change.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=11953732
Barry Soper is a compromised corporate puppet who earns his money by writing sycophantic articles to please the financial industries who own the media in New Zealand.
This is what he wrote about climate change.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11953808
Want this to be a guest post Ed? With quotes of course.
Yes that would be good. Have drafted a version.
How do I send it to you?
gregpresland@gmail.com
What a load of billshit Soper writes – I wasted a whole 2 mins of my morning trying to find something relevant in what he wrote.
Good grief… the gap between the intelligence and reasoning in Monbiot’s writing and Soper’s! It’s not even a chasm… it’s a f**king ocean! Both Monbiot and Attenborough provide very real examples of how humanity is slowly killing itself, while for Soper, climate change is reduced to a (not even clever) comparison of religious belief – as though it’s all in the mind. It’s verbal diarrhoea.
Incidentally, the loss of productive land Monbiot has highlighted is an issue in New Zealand also.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11944763
Horticulture NZ CEO interviewed Q+A in Oct 2017 on the same subject:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1710/S00284/qa-mike-chapman-interviewed-by-corin-dann.htm
Barry Soper said this sadly; “And to all the naysayers in this country who say climate change is cool, well warm, and it should be encouraged”
Ed, am I reading this right?
If so; – does this indicate Barry Soper is encouraging climate change deniers/naysayers?
Just want to confirm if I ‘comprehend’ Sopers views correctly?
Only Soper knows.
He is an utter disgrace.
Sometimes I think that the likes of Soper, Hoskings and many of those ZB egg rolls are desperate to remain relevant, and they think the best way to do it is by way of that Okker-style ‘shock jock’ shit. Leighton Smith and Lackwit Larry are the other ones I was trying to think of. In a way you can sort of excuse Duncan ‘Dunks’ Garner and that OnceWas-a-Cricketer guy because they’re obviously getting into their mid-life crisis and wanting to remain down with the kuds.
It’s a shame the ageing process these days doesn’t seem to be as graceful as it once was. No bloody way would I want to be 20 or 30 something again
Journalists used to be measured and paid depending on the esteem they were held in by editors, the board, advertisers and readers.
Now it’s come down to ‘So how many clicks did the Soper story get?’
To be successful in journalism today requires chasing down the ‘African Woman turns Boeing 747 into engagement ring shop for the wealthy Jews of Antarctica.’ stories.
Our culture moves in cycles but it’s always a bit different when we revisit. The new Camaro is only a little bit like the one of the 60’s. The fresh faded look Hawaiian print shirts out for this Summer are a bit different this time round, the yoke, pocket, collar.
Media is not immune to this. The Time Warner, Hearst, Murdoch empires of the past have morphed into Facebook and Twitter.
When the media giants started to rise 100 years ago their well-being prompted those with foresight to explore avenues like ‘I wonder if people would like an indepth view into what’s happening in their town?’ Local papers were born. As the decades passed they gained traction and profitability and ultimately were gobbled up by the media behemoths.
The cycle will repeat but the Facebook Giants won’t be buying The Western Leader, they’ll be buying the new versions. The Standard, Honda Gossip or Breastfeeding Mums interactive readerships.
I’d advertise my cattle prods on the Whale and graffiti paint on The Standard.
Winston Peter’s case against National breach of privacy goes to court tomorrow firstly as “discovery” on 7/12/17.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/11/07/58644/winston-goes-fishing
Peters filed against Nats before election
Winston Peters’ lawyers signed papers seeking legal action against National leader Bill English and three of his ministers the day before the election was even held.
His action – which also seeks journalists’ phone and email records over the disclosure he was overpaid superannuation for seven years – was set before Peters received his seven percent of the vote and then entered supposedly good faith negotiations with both the National and Labour parties. He chose Labour, ousted National and now serves members of its negotiating team with legal action.
His papers even note that these National ministers were not acting in a ministerial capacity, in the matters that he is seeking documents over, and now have no access to state funds to defend themselves.
The case, if it becomes a case, appears to be over a breach of privacy.
His lawyer Brian Henry signed on September 22 the application to force English, Steven Joyce, Paula Bennett and Anne Tolley, plus English’s former chief of staff Wayne Eagleson to provide documents as did one of Peters’ solicitors Clifton Killip Lyon on a separate affidavit.
His lawyers told the High Court they could not formulate their legal action without access to whatever documents the nine listed defendants – including this writer – might possess. And they say some of the defendants might have no “tortious liability” in any case.
Peters is a fucking idiot and one of the main reasons why this government has had no honeymoon at all.
Backtracking and weaselling out on multiple election promises hasn’t helped either.
Peter’s has the power and the gnat ex ministers will be worried. Hardly an idiot bm just accept it – whoever tried to sanction Winnie by releasing very private information are going to be held to account. Seems pretty solid to me.
Attempt to derail again??
By the sounds of it you are the only idiot on this channel BM.
Why you got your knickers in a twist, I do not understand or perhaps you condone the release of private gov’t information to smear people?
geez BM you are really showing a sign of mental breakdown here, hence I am genuinely worried about you.
I am a man that has deep compassion for all our people; – and that includes you.
I can vividly see you are a National Party supporter as I was, – when I returned from Canada to my home in Napier in 1976.
Robert Muldoon was what we saw as a true “Natonalist” PM out to protect what he oddly called “the ordinary kiwi bloke” (meaning family/whanau) at the time.
I was captured by Muldoon’s will to save NZ then and still feel that way even though some run him down as the media did also, as they semed to be again over Winston for a time.
So back to you, – so you are a national supporter and have now suffered a humiliating defeat of National loosing control of running the country.
I do understand your frustration here.
We on the other side; – Labour/NZF/Greens coalition are making solid headway in reversing the last nine years of austerity, and we are happy for this to occur.
We lived for nine years with our hearts lierally in our hands, daily frustrated and fearful of what National would do to us and our country next byselling all our assets and SOE’s set up for sale.
The new government is truly now gaining in confidence in parliament talking the blocking tactics National are trying to put up against the new government.
Changes are now coming BM and as we accept this under nine years of national you do need to make peace with your soul and accept the changes as holding that anger inside will cause you great health harm..
Big Moaner still crying in your Beersies Much,if Winston had gone with National you would be defending him.
Better Move on Begrudging Minion.
@ BM Peters played National for the fools they are. He had to give the impression they were in the game to get as much out of the coalition talks as possible, but he knew all along he was going with Labour and the Greens if they picked up one or two seats from the specials.
Anybody (including Jacinda) watching the exchanges and body language in parliament over the last 6 years would have known Winston was going with Labour.
Remember his comment “Labour lost the unloseable election” after Cunliffe lost in 2014 It was clear from this he was ready to support Labour then too.
You can take the man out of National but not the National out of the man ey BM?
I genuinely do not understand why Nat supporters are upset at someone behaving as their National Ministers and PMs have.
You’re still really upset that Winston and NZ1st went with Labour rather than National aren’t you? Despite National offering more baubles.
What was that you were saying about the honeymoon BM…?
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/watch-jacinda-ardern-interrupts-speech-warmly-welcome-delighted-school-kids-into-room?auto=5669088682001
+1 CleanGreen. Good luck Winston. NZ Citizens information should be kept private, let alone leaked to influence elections.
And apparently National also entered into “good faith” negotiations with Peters while having breached his privacy and releasing the information to the public.
Yep. And as Winnie entered into what he thought were deep and meaningful discussions with National with their “boy, have I got a deal for you!”, he soon came to realise he was dealing with what we once referred to as the ‘used-car salesman’ of the dog and lemon.
Those used-car salesmen are still dealing with their grief. Never mind fellas, it’ll be over soon
When my children were younger I notice that there teeth were looking bad I did some research and because there was no fluoride in the water I went to the chemist and started them on fluoride tablets. And 3 out of 4 children teeth are fine the one I spent $4000 on braces later in life got addicted to Coca-Cola and that ruined her teeth I still give her shit about that the others are perfect. Science is all about asking questions and finding the true answer Ka pai
Flouride, is not singularly the reason for good, or bad oral health
Neither is coca-cola
No, but both contribute (one in a good way, one in a bad way).
Neither of the two are necessary
Both contribute in negative ways
Coca Cola is bad for your teeth.
That is not debatable.
Everything is debatable, Ed
The world is flat?
Gravity doesn’t exist?
Good on you ecomaori.
Ignorance kills. Fortunately there cure is education.
I live in a non-fluoride area. My daughter is 12 and has never had a cavity in either set of teeth. Diet is I think the biggest factor followed by regular brushing with fluoride toothpaste.
I used to have lots of cavities when I was young until they added fluoride to the Tauranga water supply at which time lots became almost nil.
I grew up in a fluoridated and had lots of fillings all my childhood. And lots of lollies.
The people on the Rock radio rumble are funny buggers lol Roger those buggers set you up so funny but you are good at handling there stick lol Kia kaha
Heaps of the idiots following me around today marked cars to they don’t like there secrets out that they are humans and are not perfect.
They are a gang of intimidating bullies. They don’t like me painting there reality which is they break all the laws they want and they will use anyone to set up there Mark. They don’t care if you are dieing old young a bum they will use you
And not give a shit if there presence cause stress it goes way over there head. One of my clients that they have been using had a heart attack it won’t even register that they caused it these people are shitting on our society and casting a image that they care for you YEA RIGHT. ANA TO KAI
.
One thing which came to me while listening to Morning Report this morning is, this Government and Auckland Super City Council are either too afraid of their own shadow or too money mad to consider the consequences of their actions. The Australian Government is making new laws to curb foreign influence within their Government structures and haven’t found it difficult to do so The Super City is saying that to close the walking tracks to protect our Kauri trees etc will be too expensive to police and difficult to monitor tourists treking through the reserves and parks.
What is so difficult that Andrew Little cannot bring about changes to protect our sovereignity – how can he say he is comfortable that all safe guards are in place over political donations and covert long term strategies that some countries will go to, to blend in with our political systems for their own subversive ends.
Penny Hulse comes across as either too money mad or poorly informed if she thinks this Kauri problem is just too difficult to get her head around – it’s plain to see she isn’t concerned about the demise of this mighty species of tree – all because it is too difficult to tackle.
What a country of useless heaps we have become – what has happened to our courage and doing the right thing when it has to be done.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018624347/kauri-dieback-forces-13-waitakere-tracks-to-close
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018624346/nz-urged-to-crack-down-on-foreign-political-influence
“What is so difficult that Andrew Little cannot bring about changes to protect our sovereignity – how can he say he is comfortable that all safe guards are in place over political donations and covert long term strategies that some countries will go to, to blend in with our political systems for their own subversive ends.”
Perhaps Little’s position is a consequence of this influence taking hold?
I found her appearance on tv last night endorsing the new prohibition odd given a few days ago she said it was nice but not something she thought coubcil coukd back.
The recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel instead of Tel Aviv is another nail in the coffin on the fate of the Middle East. Jerusalem is a muslim city and this move will NOT be accepted by Islam. The Zionist/USA bloc is making an overly confident move here and is heading for huge trouble. Who will win and at what cost we don’t know but we are in for more American lead mayhem.
Here is some proof that national standards haven’t been working for our kids. So happy we now have a government that listens to the teachers and cares about the kids, now we can have progress.
The legacy of the losing national party has damaged so many facets of our society. But no more!!!
International report shows children’s literacy suffered under National Standards
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/99534189/international-report-shows-childrens-literacy-suffered-under-national-standards
Thanks for that great link, Cinny. Having got young children the national standards are a complete mess as is the rest of the primary education system.
With the literacy, it seems that if a child misses getting to the right level in year 1, it’s all over and they are then labeled as ‘something wrong’ with the child. These days everyone seems to be an amateur psychologist musing on various conditions that they read up about on the Internet, which itself is completely alarming and it seems to have become a way to excuse the teacher and school from bothering to continue or change strategies to get the child over the line in year 2 and onwards.
Education has become a process of denial and blame on the child and denial of precious resources, rather than actual learning or bothering to make real effort to get 100% literacy within the school.
At the same time the testing and programmic nature of the literacy standards turn the children off the subjects making it worse, the chaotic methods that confuse some children more than help, as well as the new open plan style of classrooms which again are problematic for many children to concentrate in.
The other big problem in primary schools is the new reliance on the private sector in public schools. Gone are the swimming pools in many schools, now kids are routinely bused into private centres for an underwhelming overcrowded lesson that parents pay for in their activity fees and is basically pointless. It is not surprising our high drowning statistics if that is what parents have to rely on.
Music has gone, in real terms visual art has gone, drama privatised and school play gone in many schools which of course combined art/music/drama for kids, PE very minimal (at the very same time as due to traffic many kids now don’t walk to school and actually need the exercise first thing in the morning).
No wonder kids are committing suicide and getting depressed, the arty ones, musical ones, drama ones, sporty ones are in some sort of hierarchy of education that whatever they might be good at does not matter and only those who excel initially are raised up. (normally those that can already read and write before entering the school). People who change the world are actually not high flyers in primary or secondary, they often show little talent or are dreamers, so it’s all a complete waste of talent in NZ to write many kids off and let them lose confidence.
Education has become a process that is designed for the top 40% just like the statistics show and everything in schools seem to be helping those kids succeed and this is leading to others becoming disengaged for many reasons at an early age, (and then blamed for it).
Designed to create little cogs for the low wage industry?
““The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don’t know how to be submissive, and so on — because they’re dysfunctional to the institutions.” Noam Chomsky
Also to push kids into charter schools and private sector learning.
The failures become little cogs for low wages industry.
The successes one dimensional non creatives who excel in processes and reporting back what they have heard.
Even worse with the increasing automation both low wage and processing and reporting skills will be made more redundant in youth and it’s the new generation of creative adults that IT can’t replace, that will actually be in demand.
Typical Natz screw up.
I don’t think it was a “Natz screw up” I think it was done deliberately in the full knowledge that it was a dud
On the whole education topic I also think that the onerous health and safety and responsibility to schools/teachers need to be looked at and reduced by the new government.
It has created too much focus on ridiculous safety measures for teachers and not enough time spent on the actual coursework and teaching. Kids not becoming resilient as every cut/scratch/bruise is monitored and the kids can’t be kids anymore in case they fall down/cut themselves etc. It’s backfiring as well as kids then are anxious (getting a safety messages constantly makes them feeling there may be danger lurking) and can then lead onwards to mental health issues.
I find it hard to understand under the National government how 29 people died at Pike River and not held to account under law, yet every teacher spends way too much time on safety talks and has copious reporting for every injury. You just can’t wrap up kids in cotton wool. Then the poor sods graduate and work for companies like Talleys and cut their hand off. Common sense needs to be introduced.
It’s spread to A&E now too , as one New Years day, some person came in and presented a child at Starship who had minorly cut toe that a plaster could have sorted out, and then emergencies can’t get through. People need to get a grip!
Yep I guess then there is more work for dole type schemes where the taxpayers are footing the wages. Free Labour for employers beats minimum wages or even $2 p/h.
Certainly has that look to it in many ways.
DTB The Oil industry gets $700 million a year in subsidies.
Comalco millions more.
Irrigation $350 million.
Many other examples.
Working for families.
In 2009 the UK govt found National Standards we’re causing a decline in literacy as well as being expensive.
A Toy govt cancelled National Standards while National carried on with this failed costly experiment.
Our National government is even worse than the Tories, sounds hard to believe but probably true! I mean they did take away healthy lunches in schools under urgency. What a priority! Sickening.
Deadbeat Dads
No. 6: KINGSLEY AMIS
This old fool was once a passable minor novelist. He wrote the very good Lucky Jim in 1957, and then coasted for the rest of his cantankerous, “contrarian” life. Unlike normal people, this anti-Semitic, women-hating old goat did not mellow with age, but grew crankier and more extreme in his views. But his worst—by far his worst—legacy to the world is his disgusting son, the novelist and fifth-rate essayist Martin Amis…..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1565696/Family-defends-racist-Sir-Kingsley-Amis.html
Keep up with ALL the Deadbat Dads…
1 Sir John Key, 2 Bill “Double Dipper” English; 3 Sir Douglas Graham; 4 John Banks; 5 David Cameron
@Morrissey
“Lucky Jim” is wonderful but “The Old Devils” which Amis wrote in 1986, that is 32 years after Lucky Jim, is a great book. This doesn’t fit your “coasting” theory in terms of his literary efforts.
The author of Money, London Fields and Time’s Arrow is “talentless?” You may be confusing your personal likes and dislikes with critical evaluation. They’re not the same thing.
Artists that leave a mark are often fairly outrageous characters in real life. Your head needs to be in a special place to lob your own ear off, build a Disneyland in the backyard, it’s hard not to wonder how much of Hunter S Thompson’s stuff is fiction.
@Psycho…..all three of those were written by Martin Amis
If I’m correctly keeping track of the multiple layers of Morrissey quoting himself, then it appears Martin is indeed the Amis that Morrissey described as “talentless”.
Yes – it was Martin Amis Morrissey was quoting himself referring to as “talentless.” Kingsley is the “anti-Semitic, women-hating old goat” in the story.
oops ….sorry Psycho didn’t read it properly
Damn, this post just reminds me how much the left is missing the Christopher Hitchens factor these days. Sure, he fucked up on Iraq, wrong conclusion for the right ideas but I’m certain that had he lived to see the ISIS years, he’d have surely accepted that whatever justification there was for being rid of Hussein, his heirs, their clan, and their horrible regime, there had to have been something better than what happened.
“National” Standards a failure
Literacy goes down under National Standards.
A right wing failure they still defend.
+1 Tricledrown
Cruise ships took Napier’s water before crisis
It’s been revealed that two cruise ships filled up with water in Napier just before the city’s water crisis.
Nearly one percent of Napier’s water was split between the vessels that left on Sunday afternoon, one at around 3pm and the other at around 4pm….
…The Mayor of Napier blamed the water shortage on excessive use by residents.
“What happens is the reservoirs recharge overnight. Normally we have water usage up until around 8pm and then overnight the reservoirs recharge,” Bill Dalton told The AM Show on Tuesday morning.
“On Sunday night they didn’t. The reason for that is people put their sprinklers on and left them on all night.”
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/12/cruise-ships-took-1pct-of-napier-s-water-before-crisis.html
What is not been reported is how much each cruise ship paid for the water. Was is charged? Free? Who knows with this type of reporting.
Our local rag this morning had a bit more detail.
Port says cruise ships not the cause
It appears the cruise ships were charged by the port company. So where does that money go? According to their website The Port of Napier Ltd operates as a fully autonomous subsidiary of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Company (HBRIC) which is the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s investment company.
The Port of Napier Ltd sounds like Ports of Auckland, totally unaccountable to the ratepayers but still getting everything on the cheap from ratepayers (like water) but pretending it’s all profit.
Interesting to know what the council charged the ports for the water.
P.S. cruise ships are one of the most polluting ways to travel and often use close to slave labour while being domiciled in tax havens and paying little to zero taxes. Not sure if this was the case with these cruise ships.
Anyway usual shocking neoliberal be warned tale, of the ordinary folks being blamed and told to tighten up and it’s all their fault, and behind the scenes some quasi corp is taking the water during a shortage for another corp which is probably not taxed in NZ or not even using NZ staff.
Breaking news! Bill English is DESPARATE for simple Christmas cake recipes as Mary has said he has to make one. Why can’t he just use an Edmonds Cookery Book instead of going to the media… No where near cute and folksy.. TWAT!!
Pineapple and mixed fruit pizza Bill.
With Don Brashes corned beef and mushy peas for the main course.
Let them eat cake.
Is this going to go on for three years or are they going to Christmas Roll him soon….
Sorry if this has already been put up, but if you missed the live streaming of Jacinda Ardern discussing climate change with Al Gore last evening on the “Climate Reality Project 24 Hours Of Reality”, here is a link to TVNZ which still have a video of the full interview on its website
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/full-interview-jacinda-ardern-chats-al-gore-new-zealands-role-in-fight-against-climate-change
A well worthwhile use of c 13 minutes, IMO.
Well Putin gets away with it…..
Former speechwriter of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and current ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Aydın Ünal on Monday threatened Turkish journalists in exile with extrajudicial killings, in his column published in the pro-Erdoğan Yeni Şafak daily.
Strongly criticizing journalists in exile for covering the case of Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who was arrested in Miami in March 2016 on charges of evading US sanctions on Iran, Ünal said: “Better to get ready for intra-organization extrajudicial killings instead of carrying out operations over judicial theater [the Zarrab case].”
https://www.turkishminute.com/2017/12/04/erdogans-deputy-threatens-journalists-with-extrajudicial-killings/
It’s here!!!
http://www.ssc.govt.nz/sites/all/files/pif-review-health-dec2017.pdf
The much awaited Performance Improvement Framework Review for Ministry of Health which probably cost the career of Chai Chuah.
Chai Chuah, who just the other day said…
“… it was not an easy decision to make.
“As I am immensely proud of the progress that we have made as a ministry over the last four years.
“I recognise there is a lot more work yet to do, however, I believe the foundations are now in place for the Ministry of Health to take the next step. I am optimistic that the important shift our health system needs to make is already in motion,” he said. ”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/99525479/directorgeneral-of-health-steps-down–hunt-for-new-health-boss-starts
Bugger me…”proud”?
Not a lot to be proud of in this…
Crist, what are they doing now?
I wonder if anyone on here knows anything about results based accountability. When I Google it it seems to be a great tool however I am aware of a small ngo using it to prove their worth but the language is confusing and putting off the community they claim to serve. They are putting lots of effort into consulting and refining goals but not appearing to do much.
RBA is mainly a collaborative planning tool. It was initially promoted in NZ by MSD’s Family and Community Services section as a way to get measurable goals between a range of local partners in community initiatves: https://www.msd.govt.nz/what-we-can-do/providers/results-based-accountability/index.html
It seems to have been picked up since by contracting agencies like the Ministry of Health and I do not know how well it’s working in that context.
Thanks for that link Sacha. I guess like any tool it depends on how it is used and that is the issue I am concerned with.
Auckland Transport’s secret further 150 km, $635 million Auckland cycleway plan was EXPOSED at Auckland Council Audit and Risk Ctte meeting 6/12/2017
Subject matter included:
1) The risk to Auckland Council following the alleged failure of Auckland Transport as a Council Controlled Organisation, to comply with its statutory duties arising from the Local Government Act 2002 (s.59), and the Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Act 2010, sections 38,39 and 40, regarding the effective imposition of ‘cycleways’ upon local communtities, without full and proper consultation; the cost of these ‘cycleway’ projects, and the cost of remediation of these ‘cycleway’ projects, such as West Lynn.
2) The ‘risk’ regarding the complete lack of public consultation regarding an effectively ‘secret’ AT plan for a further 150 kms of Auckland cycleways, costing $635 million.
https://at.govt.nz/media/1974191/item114-auckland-cycling-programme-for-investmentfinal.pdf
“CONFIDENTIAL Cycling Programme Business Case Recommendation
That the Board: i. Endorse the recommended strategic direction for future investment in cycling in Auckland, the funding of which will be subject to prioritisation through the Integrated Transport Programme (ITP).
Executive summary
1 There is a significant opportunity for cycling to play a more substantial role in contributing to a more effective transport system for Auckland.
During the programme period, transport demands will continue to grow strongly alongside population and employment across the region, placing increasing pressure on congested networks and, in particular, on access to the city centre.
2 We analysed a range of options to identify which package would most effectively deliver the benefits and objectives of the programme, carried out economic modelling and conducted extensive engagement to arrive at a preferred programme of investment.
3 This programme business case recommends an investment of $635m in cycling over the period 2018-2028 to most effectively meet the objectives of the programme.
This would provide benefits of $1.9 to $4.6 for every $1 invested, and would deliver 150km of new cycleways linking to key activity centres and maximising access to public transport.
The investment would see an increase in modal share of trips to work for cycling from 1 per cent to 4 per cent across the Auckland region. ..”
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner
…..
Not seeing the problem penny. Seems like good planning to me.
Top Secret! Oh, except for https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2017/08/02/next-steps-aucklands-cycling-revolution/ and https://www.bikeauckland.org.nz/bike-future-10-year-plan-cycling-auckland/ in August. How did they find out? And published in full on AT’s own website as linked above. Diabolical, batman!