What is not often considered is that with the dominant language being English, Māori reo speakers are compelled to be bilingual to get by in society.
There is no such pressure on pākehā. Other tauiwi of which there are scores of nationalities, and those with English as a second language might feel similarly pressured.
A friend worked in Europe for years, based in Geneva and by the end of his long tour could converse in 4-5 languages proficiently.
The fuss over Māori culture seems part of post colonial fallout, from descendants of those that benefited from land grabs and attempted cultural assimilation/destruction.
There will be some 21st century culture war element too I guess for some.
Mostly a smokescreen – it displaces the argument from something front-page worthy into a series of invisible background niggles about 'relevance' which the media will largely ignore. As others have pointed out, it's a shift from the vulgar boofheadery of Luxon in campaign mode to Key's quiet evisceration of the possibility of civilised communities.
Herald headline: 'Mark Mitchell explains why he released letter to Coster." Then,
"Police Minister Mark Mitchell has explained to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking why he took the unusual step of releasing a letter of expectations for Police Commissioner Andrew Coster."
Simple, it's because he's a grandstanding dick and he knows his boofhead supporters will like it, and get all excited about it. Not doubt he has list of strategic announcements to be made to keep them, and him, all orgasmic over the next months. All the tra las around gangs will be the next big one.
He'll be crapping himself that that there might be a ram raid. No doubt he's had a tête-à-tête with Sunny Kaushal of the Dairy and Business Owners Group suggesting a leaf has been turned, being positive will help keeping the 'bad news' off the front page will be of use. Who knows while he's there maybe they could talk about the importance of peddling tobacco and vapes since it seems they're on the same page with those.
Kia Ora. It is certainly about time we had some common sense applied to policing and crime.Far too many dangerous buggers in the community wearing bracelets for a start.and,whilst liberated, they are comitting some very serious crimes.And, we surely need some recovery from a bit of financial mischiefness that Grant Robertson bluffed us with.
It's always time to have some common sense applied to policing and crime. And to justice.
There's a massive chasm in thinking of how crime and justice issues should be handled.
In one hand there are those who believe in principles of restorative justice, both victims and offenders involved in finding ways to hold the offender accountable for their offending and, as far as possible, repair the harm caused to the victim and community. Moving forward constructively in a way which edifies all and improves society in then long term.
On the other hand, pun intended, there are those who have the sort of attitude that a 15 year old shoplifting a loaf of bread because he's hungry should have his hand chopped off. 14 year old car stealing a car? Her parents should have any benefits cut, the thief off to boot-camp for whatever period. An 18 year old Hutt Valley youth who gets pissed and does something dumb and the only thing he's got going or him is his sport? Ban him from playing it forever.
I see a lot of the noise from the 'off with his head' lot as lashing out as an acknowledgement and admission from them that they have helped construct, actively or incidentally, a society with a lot or undesirable facets.
At the moment the 'lock 'em up forever' redneck Mark Mitchell, David Seymour and zb loonies types are in charge.
If you are going to say things like that Sandra you need to back it up with a link to stats.
You are also implying the previous government wasn't applying common sense. I disagree. Labours humane policy of releasing non-dangerous prisoners from prison (often ankle tagged as you say)significantly reduced the number of people held in jail. This helped both the person released normalise their life and reduced the cost to the taxpayer .
If NAct actually gave a damn about gang crime etc, they would have written letters to Oranga Tamariki, Ministry of Social Development, Inland Revenue Department, Treasury, Ministry of Education etc etc, DEMANDING urgent action be taken to address poverty, disadvantage and inequality – which are powerful drivers of rising crime.
The police are the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff – and 'tough on crime' policies are not that effective.
This obsession with the police is dangerous because it's only a very short step away from arming them full time, and then militarising them in the long term.
The issue isn't not enough people being arrested..
The issues are the things driving crime and the Police, Corrections or Justice as a whole have very influence over those things.
A small mention a few days ago in Stuff or Granny stated that ram raids were still going on, one in fact for a 7k damage bill garnered a 1 dollar chocolate bar.
How do you see this working though if a kid leaves school then goes onto the living wage, but never actually works?
Or maybe you mean people who have proven disabilities or issues determining that they can’t work, should have their benefits set at the nominal living wage.
I agree with that, but I’m not sure it’s what you mean.
there are over 100,000 NZ citizens who are on a benefit because of long term disability and sufficient disability to prevent them from working, and who are forced by circumstance, government policy and societal attitudes/values to live in poverty.
I'm glad we are in agreement that they should be getting the living wage.
In addition to them, there are:
single parents with young children, including women who have recently given birth and/or are breastfeeding. Most of those are women, who are already financially disadvantaged by society and government policy.
people aged 65 or older
people who can't find enough work to live on
people who can't easily hold down enough work to keep themselves out of poverty, for whatever reason including mental health issues and who are excluded from accessing SLP.
people who have been working low wage jobs (someone has to do them) and who have lost their job and have no savings. Some of those people will end up on stand downs for the dole.
Here are the benefit stats for June 2023. Note that SLP is 100,878 and JobSeeker is 173,130, but that there are many people on JS who are unable to work due to disability, they're just not allowed on SLP.
This is how the previous Nact government cooked the books and punished disabled beneficiaries at the same time.
I don't know if MSD doesn't have the figures of JS with medical exemption or if they jsut choose not to publish them.
You can look at the other charts to see how much emergency money WINZ has to pay out because the benefit rates are set so low and because the government thinks it's appropriate to punish people who don't have work.
How do you see this working though if a kid leaves school then goes onto the living wage, but never actually works?
When I left school in 1984, I went on the dole. The dole was the same as the minimum wage. Unemployment was low, so it didn't matter. And most people wanted to work because it brought other benefits in addition to the minimim wage eg career, increasing income, skills training, social contact and so on.
Neoliberalism broke all that. It massively increased the unemployment rate, it intentionally started to treat unemployed people like shit, it undercut things like apprenticeships, learning on the job, working one's way up through an organisation, workplace culture. It treated people like stock units.
That was Labour. National in the 90s doubled down and created a long term, intergenerational underclass. Which is why we have so many people living in poverty now. It's not people people are lazy or bludgers, it's because when you treat people like shit and you stop them from having meaningful adult lives, society breaks down.
Fucked if I know why people on the dole shouldn't get living wage though. They have needs just like everyone else and the economy is run with a set amount of unemployed people so why not just be real about that?
housing crisis needs a whole systems approach that includes things like targeted rent caps, mass building of housing that stays permanently out of the property market (central and local government, iwi, NGOs, land trusts), rent to own schemes, government, councils, iwi building low cost homes for first home buyers (actual low cost), regulate the building industry including supply chains.
That’s only ever been achieved with a revolution, and few of those have worked out well.
If Labour people couldn’t find the backbone to enact some of those reforms when they had the first majority since MMP came in, and if the Greens refuse to collaborate with anyone other than Labour, I struggle to see how this can ever happen.
TINA is a poor excuse. The things I suggested don't require the downfall of capitalism, they could probably even be done under a more socialist democractic version of neoliberalism. For a while at least (climate will bring it all down, probably within our livetimes).
We might get lucky and Labour go away and sort their shit out.
A foreign concept to right wingers. Working for anything other than personal reward. And the corollary, something beyond their comprehension, working despite being paid regardless. That people work for other reasons than immediate personal gain, is beyond their comprehension,
“The criticism levelled at basic income that it would disincentivise work is not supported by [the Finnish] data,” says Painter.
Yes I read that a while back when it came out, before Covid, from memory.
Key quote for me was
“What we have been able to find out so far is not the whole truth,” said Olli Kangas at the University of Turku, who led the Finnish study in partnership with Kela. “That is much more sophisticated.”
It’s an interesting idea I keep my eye on, but while humans can have amazing powers of collaboration, and possibly that is something that differentiates us from the rest of the animals (part of the time anyway), I still find most patterns of human behaviour illustrate primal selfishness.
Sure, it can sometimes be annoying to have links demanded by the resident Mods but be fair … Adrian clearly cited 2 possible sources and I found Stuff and Herald articles immediately.
So it's obviously not the same as "politician X said … " with no evidence or source provided, which is often just trolling.
It's that recurring problem … in opposition you can say any old nonsense, but in government there are these pesky fact-checkers holding you to account.
Perhaps they'll be abolished. (I wish I was joking).
On the bright side, it is kind of handy having incompetent people in government. It's not surprising, and quite telling, that van Velden went from loyal Green supporter to rabid right-winger because she wouldn't have had a look in if she'd tried to enter politics via the Greens. You just need to look at the many many instances when Green MPs like Julie Anne Genter or Chloe Swarbrick have absolutely annihilated the likes of Gerry Brownlee, David Seymour and others. van Velden herself's been owned by Chloe Swarbrick more than once. Like so many on her team, she's a complete and permanent lightweight, so while things are bad, at least the calibre of these clowns will make things a little easier to counter, or at least can be factored in when deciding strategy.
He didn't finish his speech , it should have said , labour doesn't own Maori and the poor because they are the property of national and its funders , to work into the dirt for minimal income ,use as a target for the angry, collect smoking taxs off.
It's more of the aspirational politics bullshit that keeps right inline with Key/Bennett's state home/single parent background and Luxon't "first in my family to go to university" crap.. all it supports the illusion that "If I can do it, any one can do it".. Sometimes that's true.. but most often it isn't.
I was interested with the fawning media reaction to James Meager's maiden speech. He has been declared that most precious of things to the middle class – an "authentic" working class joe whose moral suasion appeals to their class values. Of course, the press gallery wouldn't know an authentic working class joe if they fell over one. It's enough though for them to imagine Meager as a sort of woke kryptonite, a guy that woke lefties don’t really have any power because he is "authentic." Meager is fawned over because he is a reassuring confirmation of their conservative identity politics, he reassures them that outside the tinsel circus of the parliamentary Truman show meritocracy is alive and well and ever open to the upwardly mobile with the properly conservative values of true working folk.
Here at last the gallery has gushed (perhaps literally given the barely repressed sexual frission he seems to have induced in some of the gallery members) is the real "authentic" voice of the politics they approve – a romantic tale as old as the world itself, an antidote to the post-truth, post-modernist discontentment of the weary, savvy alienation of their hipster cynicism.
Meager is just the next Paula Bennett – she capered about in her leopard prints and gauche put on fake Westie pastiche all the better to make right wingers feel better about her shitting all over beneficiaries, before she dropped the act and stopped pretending. Meager will make pious pronouncements and tell us all the people who work on the coal face of poverty know nothing because he is more "authentic" all the while voting for legislation that fucks over the least advantaged amongst us. He can take his right wing identity politics, his appeal to conservative ideals of "authenticity" and shove it up his backside because to me, he is just another fucking Tory to be defeated.
Young. Handsome. Has a pretty white wife? Couple of cute children? Looking for an easy ride up the greasy ladder of success?
There is no way he could be there to improve the lives of the poor or the disadvantaged from whence he came. NAct's policies are testament to that. It also sounds like he rejected his family background some time ago. Possibly because he perceived them to be an impediment to his success?
We all know people who fit the description. Full of sanctimonious and pious ideals but in reality don't give a s**t about anyone but themselves. Some of us even have (or had in my case) a family member who fitted the bill.
Somewhere down the line he will do or say something that will expose him – just like it did with Paula Bennett.
The guy got less votes than I did when I ran to be president of the local pigeon fanciers society, and I lost to Derek, the night janitor of a local sewage plant and a pigeon fancier of long note.
Not sure, then, if the self-style bishop is worthy of our great minds….
None at all. Christian Zionists believe that Jesus won't come back until various things have happened. One of them is the establishment of Zionist Israel. The Jews will all then convert to Christianity.
Shane Reti has a dream. A dream of solving Maori health inequities through devolved funding, i.e. iwi ambulances at the bottoms of cliffs, not the significant downward redistribution of wealth and power that might actually work.
Parliament's agenda for this afternoon states that Peters will ask Parliament to express grave concern at the ongoing violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. He will also "unequivocally condemn" the Hamas terror attacks of 7 October and call for the release of all hostages.
Peters will also move that Parliament recognises Israel's right to defend itself acting in accordance with international law and that all civilians be protected from armed conflict.
He had released a statement last Friday saying New Zealand was calling for all countries with influence in the region to work urgently towards a long-term ceasefire, but today's move will set that down on the Parliamentary record and allow the political parties to debate it.
If the govt incorporates feedback from the debate, our consequent policy stance has the potential to be on the basis of cross-party consensus – which would give it way more moral authority. That's the way to go.
Peters approved the positions of Starmer (a sustainable cease-fire includes ending Hamas capacity to attack Israel again) and Twyford, but dissed that of Maori MP's (of 3 different parties) by referring to the fate of pacifist Chatham Islanders.
Hipkins asked Luxon to distinguish between an immediate cease-fire (which Labour supports) and National's position – support for a sustainable cease-fire (which includes support for that advocated by the UNSG).
Good to see the Herald reporters were paying attention at Question Time today. I watched the Luxon/Hipkins exchange live and heard exactly what they did, with its clear implications:
"Christopher Luxon has said his new Government has not committed to a referendum on the Treaty principles bill.
Asked about the Treaty principles legislation, Luxon appeared to suggest National would not allow the Act’s Treaty Principles legislation to proceed beyond select committee.
He said a bill would be supported to select committee, as said in the coalition agreement, but “that’s as far as it will go”.
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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 ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
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https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/12/06/te-reo-maori-bonuses-acceptable-for-relevant-roles-willis/
Willis quietly backs away, after first feeding raw Maori meat to the baying pack.
Nicorette’s first lesson perhaps.
What is not often considered is that with the dominant language being English, Māori reo speakers are compelled to be bilingual to get by in society.
There is no such pressure on pākehā. Other tauiwi of which there are scores of nationalities, and those with English as a second language might feel similarly pressured.
A friend worked in Europe for years, based in Geneva and by the end of his long tour could converse in 4-5 languages proficiently.
The fuss over Māori culture seems part of post colonial fallout, from descendants of those that benefited from land grabs and attempted cultural assimilation/destruction.
There will be some 21st century culture war element too I guess for some.
That's my general feeling about this Nact1 government and their supporters.
We won the wars in the 1860s. so suck it up.
Yes, it is an anglo-saxon push back. It is straight forward white supremacy.
If we view Luxon as a Christian Nationalist then we should not be surprised.
Funny how the media have no spine to ask the questions to confirm if he is or not.
Mostly a smokescreen – it displaces the argument from something front-page worthy into a series of invisible background niggles about 'relevance' which the media will largely ignore. As others have pointed out, it's a shift from the vulgar boofheadery of Luxon in campaign mode to Key's quiet evisceration of the possibility of civilised communities.
Herald headline: 'Mark Mitchell explains why he released letter to Coster." Then,
Simple, it's because he's a grandstanding dick and he knows his boofhead supporters will like it, and get all excited about it. Not doubt he has list of strategic announcements to be made to keep them, and him, all orgasmic over the next months. All the tra las around gangs will be the next big one.
He'll be crapping himself that that there might be a ram raid. No doubt he's had a tête-à-tête with Sunny Kaushal of the Dairy and Business Owners Group suggesting a leaf has been turned, being positive will help keeping the 'bad news' off the front page will be of use. Who knows while he's there maybe they could talk about the importance of peddling tobacco and vapes since it seems they're on the same page with those.
Don’t mention the ram raids…I zee nothink…
Please supply a link every time you quote, including now.
Kia Ora. It is certainly about time we had some common sense applied to policing and crime.Far too many dangerous buggers in the community wearing bracelets for a start.and,whilst liberated, they are comitting some very serious crimes.And, we surely need some recovery from a bit of financial mischiefness that Grant Robertson bluffed us with.
Ma te wa.
"financial mischiefness" “bluffed us with” describes Nicola Willis.
It's always time to have some common sense applied to policing and crime. And to justice.
There's a massive chasm in thinking of how crime and justice issues should be handled.
In one hand there are those who believe in principles of restorative justice, both victims and offenders involved in finding ways to hold the offender accountable for their offending and, as far as possible, repair the harm caused to the victim and community. Moving forward constructively in a way which edifies all and improves society in then long term.
On the other hand, pun intended, there are those who have the sort of attitude that a 15 year old shoplifting a loaf of bread because he's hungry should have his hand chopped off. 14 year old car stealing a car? Her parents should have any benefits cut, the thief off to boot-camp for whatever period. An 18 year old Hutt Valley youth who gets pissed and does something dumb and the only thing he's got going or him is his sport? Ban him from playing it forever.
I see a lot of the noise from the 'off with his head' lot as lashing out as an acknowledgement and admission from them that they have helped construct, actively or incidentally, a society with a lot or undesirable facets.
At the moment the 'lock 'em up forever' redneck Mark Mitchell, David Seymour and zb loonies types are in charge.
If you are going to say things like that Sandra you need to back it up with a link to stats.
You are also implying the previous government wasn't applying common sense. I disagree. Labours humane policy of releasing non-dangerous prisoners from prison (often ankle tagged as you say)significantly reduced the number of people held in jail. This helped both the person released normalise their life and reduced the cost to the taxpayer .
Commissioner Coster needs the scrutiny.
The massive growth in gang violence in the regions and gun violence and homicide in Auckland needs permanent NZPolice accountability.
Letters of Expectation should be made public as a matter of course.
If NAct actually gave a damn about gang crime etc, they would have written letters to Oranga Tamariki, Ministry of Social Development, Inland Revenue Department, Treasury, Ministry of Education etc etc, DEMANDING urgent action be taken to address poverty, disadvantage and inequality – which are powerful drivers of rising crime.
The police are the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff – and 'tough on crime' policies are not that effective.
Thanks UncookedSelachimorpha..
You wrote the post I came here to write..
This obsession with the police is dangerous because it's only a very short step away from arming them full time, and then militarising them in the long term.
The issue isn't not enough people being arrested..
The issues are the things driving crime and the Police, Corrections or Justice as a whole have very influence over those things.
They likely will.
More public service accountability not less is what is needed.
But only NZPolice can enforce against crime.
‘More public service accountability’?
I’d be happy with ‘some’.
Police police the results of social policy. The ambulances and staff at the bottom of the cliffs aren't doing what we want and expect them to do?
And the best thing is to give them 'Letters of Expectation?'
There already was another ram raid just the other day at Pakuranga.
Here's the link.
Four youths arrested after Pakuranga bakery ram-raided; attempted burglaries at nearby vape stores – NZ Herald
A small mention a few days ago in Stuff or Granny stated that ram raids were still going on, one in fact for a 7k damage bill garnered a 1 dollar chocolate bar.
it would be cheaper to the country to 1) pay everyone a living wage (including those without jobs) and 2) fix the housing crisis.
Interested in how you see this working please.
1. If people get a living wage for not working, why would they go to work?
2. What ‘fix’ exactly, to the housing crisis, would you apply? And who would do the work involved?
thanks
not everyone can or should work 40 hours a week. eg disabled people and women with young children. Why should they not have enough to live on?
Of course some can’t work 40 hrs a week.
The minority though, and by some measure.
How do you see this working though if a kid leaves school then goes onto the living wage, but never actually works?
Or maybe you mean people who have proven disabilities or issues determining that they can’t work, should have their benefits set at the nominal living wage.
I agree with that, but I’m not sure it’s what you mean.
there are over 100,000 NZ citizens who are on a benefit because of long term disability and sufficient disability to prevent them from working, and who are forced by circumstance, government policy and societal attitudes/values to live in poverty.
I'm glad we are in agreement that they should be getting the living wage.
In addition to them, there are:
Here are the benefit stats for June 2023. Note that SLP is 100,878 and JobSeeker is 173,130, but that there are many people on JS who are unable to work due to disability, they're just not allowed on SLP.
This is how the previous Nact government cooked the books and punished disabled beneficiaries at the same time.
I don't know if MSD doesn't have the figures of JS with medical exemption or if they jsut choose not to publish them.
You can look at the other charts to see how much emergency money WINZ has to pay out because the benefit rates are set so low and because the government thinks it's appropriate to punish people who don't have work.
When I left school in 1984, I went on the dole. The dole was the same as the minimum wage. Unemployment was low, so it didn't matter. And most people wanted to work because it brought other benefits in addition to the minimim wage eg career, increasing income, skills training, social contact and so on.
Neoliberalism broke all that. It massively increased the unemployment rate, it intentionally started to treat unemployed people like shit, it undercut things like apprenticeships, learning on the job, working one's way up through an organisation, workplace culture. It treated people like stock units.
That was Labour. National in the 90s doubled down and created a long term, intergenerational underclass. Which is why we have so many people living in poverty now. It's not people people are lazy or bludgers, it's because when you treat people like shit and you stop them from having meaningful adult lives, society breaks down.
Fucked if I know why people on the dole shouldn't get living wage though. They have needs just like everyone else and the economy is run with a set amount of unemployed people so why not just be real about that?
housing crisis needs a whole systems approach that includes things like targeted rent caps, mass building of housing that stays permanently out of the property market (central and local government, iwi, NGOs, land trusts), rent to own schemes, government, councils, iwi building low cost homes for first home buyers (actual low cost), regulate the building industry including supply chains.
Ok, so a total reinvention of the system.
That’s only ever been achieved with a revolution, and few of those have worked out well.
If Labour people couldn’t find the backbone to enact some of those reforms when they had the first majority since MMP came in, and if the Greens refuse to collaborate with anyone other than Labour, I struggle to see how this can ever happen.
Sad, but true.
TINA is a poor excuse. The things I suggested don't require the downfall of capitalism, they could probably even be done under a more socialist democractic version of neoliberalism. For a while at least (climate will bring it all down, probably within our livetimes).
We might get lucky and Labour go away and sort their shit out.
Universal income study finds money for nothing won't make us work less | New Scientist
A foreign concept to right wingers. Working for anything other than personal reward. And the corollary, something beyond their comprehension, working despite being paid regardless. That people work for other reasons than immediate personal gain, is beyond their comprehension,
Yes I read that a while back when it came out, before Covid, from memory.
Key quote for me was
“What we have been able to find out so far is not the whole truth,” said Olli Kangas at the University of Turku, who led the Finnish study in partnership with Kela. “That is much more sophisticated.”
It’s an interesting idea I keep my eye on, but while humans can have amazing powers of collaboration, and possibly that is something that differentiates us from the rest of the animals (part of the time anyway), I still find most patterns of human behaviour illustrate primal selfishness.
Thank you for at least including those who cannot work, Weka. 🙂
Link please, or it doesn’t count
Sure, it can sometimes be annoying to have links demanded by the resident Mods but be fair … Adrian clearly cited 2 possible sources and I found Stuff and Herald articles immediately.
So it's obviously not the same as "politician X said … " with no evidence or source provided, which is often just trolling.
Ram raids are on the decline but shop owners wary of declaring victory | Stuff.co.nz
Watch: Pakuranga ram raid; over $20,000 in damage for $4 soft drink – NZ Herald
Will Koru Club be renamed? Toby Manhire suggests Fern Frond Spiral Club.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/06-12-2023/what-is-nzta-a-users-guide-to-the-new-english-names
I would have thought pretentious tosser room would be better?
When Time's person of the year cover is deep fake.
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/B292/production/_131941754_taylor_tweet.jpg.webp
New government Minister is "incorrect and misleading". This headline is available for daily copy and paste.
ACT MP Brooke van Velden wrongly quotes Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment | RNZ News
It's that recurring problem … in opposition you can say any old nonsense, but in government there are these pesky fact-checkers holding you to account.
Perhaps they'll be abolished. (I wish I was joking).
On the bright side, it is kind of handy having incompetent people in government. It's not surprising, and quite telling, that van Velden went from loyal Green supporter to rabid right-winger because she wouldn't have had a look in if she'd tried to enter politics via the Greens. You just need to look at the many many instances when Green MPs like Julie Anne Genter or Chloe Swarbrick have absolutely annihilated the likes of Gerry Brownlee, David Seymour and others. van Velden herself's been owned by Chloe Swarbrick more than once. Like so many on her team, she's a complete and permanent lightweight, so while things are bad, at least the calibre of these clowns will make things a little easier to counter, or at least can be factored in when deciding strategy.
I have a sneaking suspicion James Meager read my post saying the same thing.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/301022638/new-national-mp-steals-show-with-impressive-maiden-speech
He didn't finish his speech , it should have said , labour doesn't own Maori and the poor because they are the property of national and its funders , to work into the dirt for minimal income ,use as a target for the angry, collect smoking taxs off.
It's more of the aspirational politics bullshit that keeps right inline with Key/Bennett's state home/single parent background and Luxon't "first in my family to go to university" crap.. all it supports the illusion that "If I can do it, any one can do it".. Sometimes that's true.. but most often it isn't.
I was interested with the fawning media reaction to James Meager's maiden speech. He has been declared that most precious of things to the middle class – an "authentic" working class joe whose moral suasion appeals to their class values. Of course, the press gallery wouldn't know an authentic working class joe if they fell over one. It's enough though for them to imagine Meager as a sort of woke kryptonite, a guy that woke lefties don’t really have any power because he is "authentic." Meager is fawned over because he is a reassuring confirmation of their conservative identity politics, he reassures them that outside the tinsel circus of the parliamentary Truman show meritocracy is alive and well and ever open to the upwardly mobile with the properly conservative values of true working folk.
Here at last the gallery has gushed (perhaps literally given the barely repressed sexual frission he seems to have induced in some of the gallery members) is the real "authentic" voice of the politics they approve – a romantic tale as old as the world itself, an antidote to the post-truth, post-modernist discontentment of the weary, savvy alienation of their hipster cynicism.
Meager is just the next Paula Bennett – she capered about in her leopard prints and gauche put on fake Westie pastiche all the better to make right wingers feel better about her shitting all over beneficiaries, before she dropped the act and stopped pretending. Meager will make pious pronouncements and tell us all the people who work on the coal face of poverty know nothing because he is more "authentic" all the while voting for legislation that fucks over the least advantaged amongst us. He can take his right wing identity politics, his appeal to conservative ideals of "authenticity" and shove it up his backside because to me, he is just another fucking Tory to be defeated.
"Meager is just the next Paula Bennett -"
Imo, you are on the button Sanctuary.
Young. Handsome. Has a pretty white wife? Couple of cute children? Looking for an easy ride up the greasy ladder of success?
There is no way he could be there to improve the lives of the poor or the disadvantaged from whence he came. NAct's policies are testament to that. It also sounds like he rejected his family background some time ago. Possibly because he perceived them to be an impediment to his success?
We all know people who fit the description. Full of sanctimonious and pious ideals but in reality don't give a s**t about anyone but themselves. Some of us even have (or had in my case) a family member who fitted the bill.
Somewhere down the line he will do or say something that will expose him – just like it did with Paula Bennett.
Agreed- I do not trust the chap.
Less than a month ago Fonterra were pledging to reduce its greenhouse gases by 30% in just 7 years.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/133258547/fonterra-pledges-to-make-milk-production-30-greener-by-2030#:~:text=Fonterra%20says%20its%20milk%20will,take%20steps%20to%20reduce%20emissions.
But just 4 weeks later, when it comes to making that same promise with its competitors in full view of COP28 participants, nah:
https://www.odt.co.nz/rural-life/dairy/fonterra-refuses-join-global-dairy-companies-methane-pledge
Thanks to Fonterra we remain the high-volume low-value kings of the dairy world.
Someone work out for me the moral complexities of Brian Tamaki holding a pro-Israel demonstration in Wellington.
The guy got less votes than I did when I ran to be president of the local pigeon fanciers society, and I lost to Derek, the night janitor of a local sewage plant and a pigeon fancier of long note.
Not sure, then, if the self-style bishop is worthy of our great minds….
If Brian had stood against you, my fine feathered friend, you might be just a little less cocky – coz, Power of the Lord!
None at all. Christian Zionists believe that Jesus won't come back until various things have happened. One of them is the establishment of Zionist Israel. The Jews will all then convert to Christianity.
Shane Reti has a dream. A dream of solving Maori health inequities through devolved funding, i.e. iwi ambulances at the bottoms of cliffs, not the significant downward redistribution of wealth and power that might actually work.
Cigireti – if you can't have an original thought, reach back to the 80's to pull some failed bullshit out of your ass.
Call it a shiny new solution.
This lot are making the marxist-leninists look less ideological pure.
An Aotearoan foreign policy initiative looms:
If the govt incorporates feedback from the debate, our consequent policy stance has the potential to be on the basis of cross-party consensus – which would give it way more moral authority. That's the way to go.
Peters approved the positions of Starmer (a sustainable cease-fire includes ending Hamas capacity to attack Israel again) and Twyford, but dissed that of Maori MP's (of 3 different parties) by referring to the fate of pacifist Chatham Islanders.
Hipkins asked Luxon to distinguish between an immediate cease-fire (which Labour supports) and National's position – support for a sustainable cease-fire (which includes support for that advocated by the UNSG).
Good to see the Herald reporters were paying attention at Question Time today. I watched the Luxon/Hipkins exchange live and heard exactly what they did, with its clear implications:
"Christopher Luxon has said his new Government has not committed to a referendum on the Treaty principles bill.
Asked about the Treaty principles legislation, Luxon appeared to suggest National would not allow the Act’s Treaty Principles legislation to proceed beyond select committee.
He said a bill would be supported to select committee, as said in the coalition agreement, but “that’s as far as it will go”.
Christopher Luxon’s first Question Time to feature debate about Government’s approach – NZ Herald