MDMA acts primarily by increasing the release of the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline in parts of the brain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA
Catalytic, hormonal stimulant. Never used it myself (too old). Way back when I did experiment with psychedelics some enlightenment ensued but not as much as I expected. I think transcendence happens when the time is right for someone.
It's all relative to the mental fog induced in people by the education system plus social conditioning generally. Psychedelics are good for dissipating that – but over-use can have a disintegrating effect on the psyche. Saw plenty of that downside way back then.
The point is that use of any tool is relative to style of application, technique, context. One can't generalise any further than that.
More like sorting out/getting into some perspective..the garbage that most of us haul around…
And mdma is not called the hug drug for no reason..
'cos you can be sitting with someone you have known for years…and you can riff off on how you have never realised what excellent examples of the human race they are..
internal polling seen by the Herald shows a rising pool of potential Green voters at 30 per cent – up from 24 per cent prior to the 2020 election – and of those deemed “on the fence”, the bulk are Labour voters.
According to the Herald’s poll of polls, the Green Party vote share has slipped over the past year, from hovering around 9 to 10 per cent now down to about 7 to 8 per cent.The model predicts that share could grow as high as just under 11 per cent on election night, or drop as low as 6 per cent.
Marketing to floating voters is too sophisticated a concept for the Greens to get their heads around apparently – so easy to default to tradition & cannabalise Labour.
Davidson said over the past term they had seen the amount of available votes grow to 30 per cent, based on their own polling. These are voters who had considered voting Green.
“That is because people know that the pace of change is not happening fast enough, and that’s primarily around climate action, protecting nature and inequality.”
Now, those are internal polling figures – so to be taken with a strong pinch of salt.
But. If there are potentially 30% of the votes up for grabs – what is turning off those voters from the GP?
If they can figure this out – and then change their policies to match what the voter-base wants – then they can be serious players.
Wokeism, currently. Lack of marketing pizzazz has tended to embed & reinforce floating voter scepticism re GP representation of the Green movement.
I've watched them default to the left continuously since they got into parliament. The effect of this has been to maintain the same level of popular support they got in 1990. That consistent bias against connecting with others has been remarkable in how it consistently prevents them growing their support base (except sporadic sucking of votes out of Labour).
Talk to them individually, you usually get intelligent conversation. The problem lies in their group mind. It's transpersonal! Somehow the parliamentary leftist alignment parks them in a cul de sac in the political ecosystem. Comfortable there, doan wanna leave, is the syndrome resulting that has captivated them…
Okay, I hear you, but denial doesn't get anyone anywhere. Maybe you disagree with my diagnosis but can't articulate why. Fair enough. Feelings are natural. They need not necessarily be put into words.
Time is (too) precious and life is (too) short to be doggy paddling in word swamps that add nothing, do nothing, and achieve nothing other than providing a means & habitat for swamp-dwellers – my name is not Shrek.
In the past its been pretty simple, when labour is strong I vote green, if they're weak I vote labour, (have voted top ,nzf once each this century)
Still haven't forgiven Davidson for her racist rant, I think taxing farming emmisions on a level footing with frivolous emissions like tourism is ridiculous ,and the is definitely an anti farmer bent in the left of left green s.
Fear is another reason I'm wary of the greens being to strong, not sure some of their economic theories won't pull the whole house of cards down.
The Greens are the only party who will be in parliament for the next term who have a serious set of policies on ending poverty. Climate change isn't mentioned much in those, but it comes in in things like building sustainable houses.
A country in poverty, (nz is along way from there) isn’t going to do a single thing about cc,
This year alone this poor country has to spend billions in dollars because of a weather events – and lives were lost that will never come back. It’s likely to get worse and more expensive. NACT’s attitude is a hedonistic, selfish & entitled party-hard and let somebody else clean up the mess and the Greens’ attitude is a proactive and more considerate leave some for the next generation(s) too.
But one Green Party Co-Leader said something one day that offended a few people, so let’s take the party back on track!
Don't worry to much about my vote the greens need labour and vis versa, nact arnt an option for me, (and I can't ever see them being one, top maybe, bit I don't like wealth /land taxs , (I have neither btw)
Not worried, just fascinated by the narratives and internal monologues of people in how they decide, justify, and argue for their voting choices. Are they informed choices? Everybody is free to vote (or not vote) any way they like.
I think taxing farming emmisions on a level footing with frivolous emissions like tourism is ridiculous
Climate change doesn't care if emissions are frivolous to humans or not. All that matters is the amount of GHGs going into the atmosphere thanks to us. In other words, we could eliminate all the frivolous GHG emissions and still go over a cliff (collapse civ and the biosphere) because we thought that some GHG emissions were necessary.
and the is definitely an anti farmer bent in the left of left green s.
I'm curious where you see that. The party itself is pro farmer, but if there are greens doing anti-farmer shit I'd like to see how that is playing out.
The problem is that climate change mostly directly affects future food production.
We have had about 10,000 years of relatively calm weather and climate since the last glacial and immediate post-glacial episode compared to the climate chaos that preceded it. That is what allowed us as a species to build up a farming technology that underlies our current food production.
Rapidly reverting to the kinds of climates that were prevalent and last seen in the Eocene over the next century or two seems unlikely to provide a stable basis for developing a new much more robust farming technology. After all we still haven’t managed to develop particularly good farming technologies for our current tropical regions. Which is why the bulk of the worlds food is grown in temperate climates.
We still don’t have really good models of what happens when when there is a rapid rise in greenhouse gases. Nor do we have accurate information about the actual climate in the tropics during the Eocene. What we do know and what has been becoming clearer from both the overly rapid current climate shifts and research into past climates is that it is likely to be a lot worse than our current models.
During the Eocene, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was more than 560 parts per million, at least twice preindustrial levels, and the epoch kicked off with a global average temperature more than 8 degrees Celsius – about 14 degrees Fahrenheit – warmer than today, gradually cooling over the next 22 million years
and jumping to the conclusions looking at temperate regions.
The team then used their dataset from the tropics to back-calculate the temperature and chemistry of polar oceans, relying on previous studies of forams that captured the conditions of those regions.
With this correction factor in place, they investigated the degree to which polar oceans warmed more than the tropics, a feature of the climate system known as polar amplification. Their data showed that the difference between polar and equatorial sea surface temperatures in the Eocene was an estimated 20 degrees Celsius, about 36 degrees Fahrenheit. Today the difference is 28 degrees Celsius, indicating that polar regions are more sensitive to increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide than the tropics.
Troublingly, said Evans, when the team compared their data with various modern climate models under Eocene conditions, most models underestimated polar amplification by about 50 percent.
The two models that came closest to reproducing the team’s data had one key aspect in common – they modified the way they accounted for cloud formation and the longevity of clouds in the atmosphere, particularly in the polar regions.
“To us, that looks like a promising research direction,” he said. “If – and it’s a big if – that turns out to be the right avenue to go down, that could play into the models we use for our future climate predictions.”
Which basically means that if we get to a effective short-term doubling of green house gases causing a more rapid climate change. For instance by the much faster short-term heating from methane and nitious oxides from farming releasing carbon stores in permafrost or methane from ocean clathrates. Or for that matter any of the many possible tipping points to short-term green-house effects that the higher short-term effect greenhouse gas emissions affect disproportionately.
It isn’t being anti-farming to worry about the ability of farming to produce sufficient food in the future.
Particularly it seems in a large part because farmers showing a palpable unwillingness to learn how to rapidly reduce their high-effect greenhouse gas emissions if it hits their immediate profits. What is the point of NZ producing food for 40 million people when they are hastening a demise in their ability of farm effectively?
Methane is circular, so we arnt producing more of it since we ate farming less animals now than 30 years ago especially sheep number(I'm aware some of those sheep numbers have bec6dsiry cow numbers)
Farmers inputs will already be getting any current emissions taxs ,
Yes I know farming will get harder with changing weather, unhealthy out here every day doing it. But taxing it out of existence isn't the answer.
The number of farm animals is only part of the equation. What animals, what size, what age, feeding patterns & diet changes, production patterns, the effects of increased milk production, etc. All these are factors in total farm emissions, including methane.
Circular in the emmisions profile, with a 10 year life span, so unless we increase animal numbers, which we're not ,it's not increasing or methane emmisions,
AFAIK, methane does not have a life span, but a half-life in the atmosphere, which is about 10 years. IIRC, it breaks down to carbon dioxide, which has a much longer half-life. This and the fact that the potential greenhouse effect of methane is about 28 times larger than carbon dioxide makes methane an ideal target for reduction of emissions of greenhouse gasses.
You seem to imply that current levels of agriculture methane emissions are just dandy as long as we don’t increase them!?
My understanding is that the emissions from stock are circular due to it being taken up by the plants the stxk eat, so the emmisions stay the same ,not increasing unless you increase animals,
Also my original point was that food production is important, so not all emmisions are created equal, 8 billion people need feeding,
AFAIK, there are some soil bacteria that absorb methane but plants don’t use methane as such.
Not all animals are equal either in terms of emissions of greenhouse gasses.
You keep missing or avoiding the main point though, which is that current emissions are too high and agriculture is a huge contributor of greenhouse gas emissions.
literally no-one in NZ pol has suggested taxing farming out of existence. There's no earthly reason to not transition to regenag and have lower stock numbers, other than the economics. We can still produce food for NZ and excess to sell to the world.
By the time you add large numbers of large ruminants and a greater application of nitrogenous fertilisers to the equation a reduction by half in sheep numbers doesn't make that much difference.
Ruminant enteric methane emissions are responsible for 35% of New Zealand’s total greenhouse gas emissions and account for 73% of all New Zealand’s agricultural emissions, with 30% of enteric methane directly attributable to the sheep industry (Ministry for the Environment, 2021).
Sheep are still about 25% of our total greenhouse gas emissions.
Methane is circular,
Way way too shallow. It simply isn't 'circular' on any human timescale. It is nett culmulative over the next few centuries.
After all these materials are going into the atmosphere and getting removed from the cycle. Try showing me anything in NZ that is sucking up methane and nitrous oxides in quantity.
So where does the material come from in the first place. In NZ, most of the carbon in CH3 is effectively mined from the soil by farming. It is no coincidence that the best farming soils are those in the lowlands on old river flood plains, peat bogs, and forested areas. They are effectively a natural mine for long stored carbon – especially drained swamps. Even the hill country that sheep mostly run on are steadily being mined for old forest carbon stores.
We are at least several centuries away from NZ getting its soil carbon into a equilibrium. I'd hardly call that being 'circular'.
I'd point out that from the perspective of an earth scientist, the nett effect of adding fertilisers is to simply mine the soil of its carbon and other nutritional materials faster with scant regard to the future.
Wr certainly aren't 'circular' when you look at nitrous oxides. There is a paucity of nitrogen in NZ soils that is only a teeny part made up by legume (mostly white clover) fixing. The reason is pretty obvious. Umm here is a source discussing the issue in laymans terms.
Farmers are so focused on extracting every kilogram of dry matter they can, that the significance of white clover is being overlooked in favour of the grass component in pasture mixes. I regularly meet farmers who increase their grass sowing rate just so they can get to their first grazing faster, despite the fact that the increased plant competition will have a negative impact on clover establishment.
ie sucking up fossil carbon (dry matter) faster. The same applies to super phosphate application. Rather than making extraction 'circular' NZ farmers actively accelerate deletion.
Of course on the way through, extractive farming also pollute the atmosphere with greenhouse gases of methane and nitrous oxides and the waterways as a side effect.
Between 1991 and 2019, estimates from sales data of nitrogen applied to land in fertiliser increased from 62,000 to 452,000 tonnes (just over a sixfold increase, 629 percent).
Since our last update of this indicator in April 2019, there was a 5.4 percent increase from 2015 to 2019 in nitrogen applied from fertiliser. In this period, urease inhibitor use increased 48 percent.
Gotta love that last two sentences. It does point out the futility of urease inhibitors. All they do is decrease the demand while still allowing a 5.4% increase. Good try – total fail without a actual reduction in nitrogen fertilizer usage. Which shows no signs of happening even through the pandemic.
Phosphates are going down, probably more due to price increases than lack of demand. But the over all increase in fertilisers in NZ shows up most clearly when you look at the two key nutrients for extracting greenhouse gases of fixed nitrogen and phosphates in tonnes of the nutrient – as in the older chart from stats (I wonder why is it so hard to see the side by side figures in the updated page).
The overall level of extra nutrient applied to the soils in NZ has massively increased over the last 20 years. In effect mining the soil faster and releasing much more pollutants – including shoter-term acting greenhouse gases.
CO2 has stabilised since the ETS, hopefully to reduce, despite a 50% increase in population over the last 30 years. But our useless farmers chasing a unsustainable personal profit mining our soils have been effectively increasing their pollution profile. They are massively increasing the amount of a longer-lived greenhouse gas and haven't managed to constrain the emissions of their larger output.
What is even more annoying is that the sectors of agriculture tat are doing most of the pollution aren't even a very profitable industries for the country. Most of their gross export profit is immediately paid offshore in interest payments on capital. The nett profit to our society is piss all, and certainly not enough to cover their pollution costs.
They just leave the costs of their soil mining industry for the rest of NZ to pay in cleaning up waterways and paying higher ETS levies.
In short farmers can easily be regarded as being unsustainable economic parasites for the rest of NZ, even before you look at this tiny group being the largest polluters in NZ. In a lot of ways NZ would probably be economically better off dropping our food production down to only supplying the domestic market and concentrating on cost reductions for the economically productive members of the workforce – the ones who make a productive profit for the country as a whole.
Or farmers could start receiving price signals from something like the ETS that make them act in a more economically responsible role than being simple soil miners.
But. If there are potentially 30% of the votes up for grabs – what is turning off those voters from the GP?
Politics is a contest of ideas although in NZ it’s become more like a dirty MMA fight. This by itself might turn off voters and increase political apathy & disengagement but also there will be winners & losers in such a competition – it is kind of a zero-sum game.
If they can figure this out – and then change their policies to match what the voter-base wants – then they can be serious players.
Are they not already ‘serious players’? Should they water down some of their policies and forsake some of their values & principles for the sake of more populist & appealing ones? Do you have any policies in mind? The Wealth Tax proposal, by any chance? And then you will vote for them?
So transparent, like a floor to ceiling window in a multi million dollar mansion on a clear day.
What you imply is what every Nat trying for a climate conscience wants, for the Greens to get rid of their stupid, woke social policies and concentrate on greenwashing for the right wing.
If the Greens ditched all their social policy which is what you have asked them to do, they'd lose most of their members and most of their support. Support to be replaced by a small number of wealthy RW women looking for somewhere to park their privileged guilt.
I suggested that they could look at the reasons why those who indicated that they considered voting Green, don't actually follow through (either in polls or in real life at the elections).
I don't know what those reasons are (I certainly don't have visibility of their internal polling) – perhaps you do – since you're commenting with such confidence!
The Greens are a party of the left because both climate change and climate change policies will disproportionately hurt the poor and working class.
They believe in govt and societal action on climate change not centerist green washing, individual responsibility on climate change.
They believe left wing and universal economic policies will ease the burden of climate change and climate change policies on the poor and working class.
They also oppose crony capitalism, trickle down and infinite growth because we're on a finite planet.
Therefore they are a party of the left and their strategy is to get as many left wing voters off labour as possible to have increased influence in a coalition to push Labour to the left.
The strategy should be that the greens go after the left and try to excite as many non voting lefty's to vote as possible, while labour goes after the center and tries to convert as many National, Top and NZ first voters as possible.
I don't get how that Strategy is difficult to get!
Add the Maori party who if needed to stop Nat/Act, Hopefully are able to manage to win as many Maori electorates as possible, with as little party votes as possible and cause an overhang making it impossible for national to govern.
I always hear this argument about the greens being in a culdesac, I never hear this of ACT who are trying the exact same strategy, but on the right, except national keeps fighting them for right wing votes rather than trying to convert the center!
Being on the left doesn't blunt the greens influence, Labour needs the greens inside the tent pissing out, the last thing labour wants is the greens supporting a labour minority govt in the crossbenches on an issue by issue basis demanding massive concessions on each issue.
Walking a fine line down the middle of the road, internationally, I note. One thread: NZ must make sure to have eggs in many basket…EU FTA…South East Asia tensions. And another thread…independent foreign policy, as in Clark over Iraq, is not the same as neutral foreign policy…AUKUS 5 eyes, but not AUKUS military action, necessarily.
Gosh so they are! I have two takes on this situation:
a) stunned mullet syndrome – audience either blotto or unable to cognite that H did the right thing with modest flair & finesse
b) audience so entrained by smart-phone-driven short attention spans that the prospect of reading an actual speech freaked them instantly into evasion mode
A year old gripe released at the moment to hurt the most. Nasty, nasty work by faceless people and Andrea Vance. Care about bullying and mental health? This is some vengeance by some very nasty pieces of work.
I wonder which Labour cabinet minister the Nats will target next?
Remember there don't need to be any facts involved, just anonymous rumours that such and such has been doing whatever unsavoury thing.
This is followed by a series of MSM articles from Vance, Malpass, Soper et al saying "this adds to the growing list of lazy/corrupt/tainted/unbalanced/out-of-their depth Labour ministers." whose so-called misdemeanors are then listed again and again.
Hipkins should stare this down and stand by Allan shoulder to shoulder.
I wonder which Labour cabinet minister the Nats will target next?
I suspect the dramatic escalation in the numbers of ram-raids is the flag that will catch their attention. So whichever minister currently shows up in the revolving door with the police minister label on it will become auto-target.
The minister will go "Who, me? I'm just sitting here thumb-twiddling, ain't doing nothing wrong. I'm not responsible for police operational non-decisions!"
This police minister as ornamental pot-plant thingy has been an area of consensus between National & Labour for quite a while. So the Nats will struggle to make impact. Consistently blaming Labour for police uselessness won't impress floating voters much. They could suggest a more strident form of virtue-signalling at the cops by Labour's police minister but they aren't putting on a convincing performance of doing that themselves so even Nat supporters are likely to be underwhelmed.
The backroom policework is 8000 offenders and 40000 charges laid in taking down drug networks since 2022. Criminal gangs up their nuisance raids, and add community violence as the advertising, because Operation Cobalt is taking out their easy revenue stream. Protection rackets are an alternative income source.
Okay, that's informative. Does it mean a clogged-up justice system?? We know how addicted judges & lawyers are to dragging out legal processes for as long as possible. Is the system working or broken or somewhere in between?
If you look at NZ incarceration stats, they were going down until July 22, mostly due, apparently, to a new support programme for functionally illiterate 1st offenders on remand being given help to apply for home detention in place of remand prison. (A difference which contributes to more poor and Maori suffering extended incarceration time early on).
Then they have climbed, as Operation Cobalt began to bite, but also as other violence crimes were solved.
Plus I think, although covid introduced a big backlog, the court system has maintained streamlined processes introduced then. This includes judge-only trials, and remote attendance for simple court appearances, cutting down the need to move prisoners back and forth from remand to court, and saving court time.
Apparently, up to 40% of the prison population comprised of remand prisoners in 2020, some of whom spent time in remand longer than any sentence for their crimes due to court backlogs. Andrew Little as Justice Minister from 2017 achieved significant reforms, and added funding and judiciary appointments over National. Covid put a crimp in clearing the backlog, of course.
Obviously Parliament could change the law to allow operational decisions to be made by ministers. Unless that happens, ministers really don't have much say in how the police go about their work.
BG: "I wonder which Labour cabinet minister the Nats will target next?"
Peeni Henare Is being accused of Conflict of interest. Tatou Industries gained contracts while Peeni was Associate Ministry of Health and Peeni is partner of Skye Temura who is head of Tatou.
Sounds ominous but efforts to promote this smear October 2022 failed to ignite but Nats are now full on. Maybe the voters will get sick of the smear campaigns by the likes of Simeon Brown?
Timing is everything in politics. The ‘opinion leaders’ of Newstalk ZB are simply trying again to see if it germinates this time in their audience of unthinking talk-back listeners and if it does it will be cultivated and spread further by other MSM ‘opinion leaders’ and useful idiots, like a GMO that spreads in the environment after a successful ‘field trial’.
Peeni is confident that he followed all the Cabinet protocols. And this smear arose last year. So I really hope that he has an all clear, given the fair warning from last time. He said he had nothing to do with the contract letting so for his sake and the Party's sake, here is hoping.
"Peeni is confident that he followed all the Cabinet protocols."
Ianmac: This is DP. The Nats aren't playing by any rules or protocols; they just want headlines that suggest wrongdoing that the compliant MSM will print, or ZB will promote.
The power of Instagram: The overnight success of Threads is a testament both to the dissatisfaction with Musk’s ownership of Twitter and to the unique power and reach of one of Meta’s most important properties: Instagram. Instagram has more than two billion users, far more than the 238 million users Twitter reported having in the months before Musk took over.
When new users sign up for Threads, which they do using an Instagram account, the app prompts them to follow all of their existing Instagram contacts with a single tap. It’s optional, but is easy to accept, and it takes a conscious decision to decline.
By promoting Threads through Instagram, and by sharing Instagram user data with Threads to let people instantly recreate their social networks, Meta has significantly greased the onboarding process. That frictionless experience has allowed Threads to leapfrog what’s known in the industry as the “cold start” problem, in which a new platform struggles to gain new users because there are no other users there to attract them.
Bit like jumping the board to catch the wave? Elon likely to be confounded, I suspect. His magic touch hasn't been in evidence since he took Twitter, & now this. However he has exhibited tremendous resilience which becomes evident if you read his biography.
Luxton and Co. are so ideological at this point, they are making Marxist/Leninist's blush from their utter lack of rigidity and purity.
All the talk of running the country like a business is just getting silly. Now they want ministers to act like as junior executives, to the PM being a CEO.
Stripping people of basic work place rights is a given from this mob, making it impossible for average people to get ahead is high on the agenda as well.
But the truly jumping the shark stuff is the putting community on the same level as business and asking them for input – ignoring they fact both have been doing that for years. The national party have lost the plot.
No wonder all the do is ratfucking week in and week out.
This is a very once-over-lightly analysis – but, I thought, useful to highlight the potential swing-seats in the 2023 election (including my local MP).
Who wins seats/electorates is largely irrelevant except for Akl Central, the Maori seats and possibly, though unlikely, a couple of others like Northland and Wellington Central.
It has some impact on which list MPs enter Parliament for National and Labour though. Not relevant to overall numbers, but some relevance to the specific MPs who will make up Parliament.
The UK Conservative government's anti-woke priorities: Minister tells asylum processing centre for children to paint over a mural of disney characters that make the place "too welcoming".
Meanwhile, food and rents/mortgages rise, the seas and rivers are awash with sewage while private water companies have profited, and the UK economy suffers post-Brexit, the biggest example of cutting off your nose to spite your face I can think of.
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TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
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A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Australia has legalised mdma and psylocibin for therapeutic use..
This is excellent news…when are we going to do that here..?
I have used both of them…ask me anything..
ask me anything
Have you become enlightened?
Catalytic, hormonal stimulant. Never used it myself (too old). Way back when I did experiment with psychedelics some enlightenment ensued but not as much as I expected. I think transcendence happens when the time is right for someone.
It's all relative to the mental fog induced in people by the education system plus social conditioning generally. Psychedelics are good for dissipating that – but over-use can have a disintegrating effect on the psyche. Saw plenty of that downside way back then.
The point is that use of any tool is relative to style of application, technique, context. One can't generalise any further than that.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/492980/mdma-australia-begins-world-first-psychedelic-therapy
Not so much enlightenment..
More like sorting out/getting into some perspective..the garbage that most of us haul around…
And mdma is not called the hug drug for no reason..
'cos you can be sitting with someone you have known for years…and you can riff off on how you have never realised what excellent examples of the human race they are..
Lots of grinning usually involved..
Lots of grinning
Interesting. So it shares that with mary jane. Tom Petty did a song about that:
too cold to cry when I woke up alone
I hit the last number, I walked to the road
Last dance with Mary Jane
One more time to kill the pain
https://genius.com/Tom-petty-and-the-heartbreakers-mary-janes-last-dance-lyrics
Or, as the Fab Furry Freak Bros often would say `dope will get you thro times of no money better than money will get you thro times of no dope'.
A herb that reliably connects someone to Gaia in a fraction of a second will always have currency: very deep Green. In times of trauma, use carefully…
Rather listen to Bill Hicks
https://youtu.be/QLIQ_NWyErQ
That is a very good link…
I would rather listen to bill hicks too..
Mind you… anything by bill hicks..
is a good link..
Left vs left again:
Marketing to floating voters is too sophisticated a concept for the Greens to get their heads around apparently – so easy to default to tradition & cannabalise Labour.
Yeah but that is the Herald's take-what do you expect?
With Climate Change becoming more and more a major issue the Greens are well placed to take votes from parties across the board, not just from Labour.
I have seen a stream of well thought out Green Party adverts on fb over the last few months.
Chloe will win Akl Central of course.
Care to make a prediction of Wgtn Central??
I find this telling for the Greens
Now, those are internal polling figures – so to be taken with a strong pinch of salt.
But. If there are potentially 30% of the votes up for grabs – what is turning off those voters from the GP?
If they can figure this out – and then change their policies to match what the voter-base wants – then they can be serious players.
Wokeism, currently. Lack of marketing pizzazz has tended to embed & reinforce floating voter scepticism re GP representation of the Green movement.
I've watched them default to the left continuously since they got into parliament. The effect of this has been to maintain the same level of popular support they got in 1990. That consistent bias against connecting with others has been remarkable in how it consistently prevents them growing their support base (except sporadic sucking of votes out of Labour).
Talk to them individually, you usually get intelligent conversation. The problem lies in their group mind. It's transpersonal! Somehow the parliamentary leftist alignment parks them in a cul de sac in the political ecosystem. Comfortable there, doan wanna leave, is the syndrome resulting that has captivated them…
When I read some of your comments about the Greens it’s like I’m reading Bomber doggy paddling and slowly drowning in his own word swamp.
Okay, I hear you, but denial doesn't get anyone anywhere. Maybe you disagree with my diagnosis but can't articulate why. Fair enough. Feelings are natural. They need not necessarily be put into words.
Time is (too) precious and life is (too) short to be doggy paddling in word swamps that add nothing, do nothing, and achieve nothing other than providing a means & habitat for swamp-dwellers – my name is not Shrek.
I've voted green 3 times , not sure this time.
In the past its been pretty simple, when labour is strong I vote green, if they're weak I vote labour, (have voted top ,nzf once each this century)
Still haven't forgiven Davidson for her racist rant, I think taxing farming emmisions on a level footing with frivolous emissions like tourism is ridiculous ,and the is definitely an anti farmer bent in the left of left green s.
Fear is another reason I'm wary of the greens being to strong, not sure some of their economic theories won't pull the whole house of cards down.
The environmental cliff we are barreling towards..
Will 'bring the whole house down'..
Green policies are an attempt to avoid that..
Funny because most were economic orthodoxy not all that long ago.
When we had the highest standard of living in the world.
Neo-liberalism has had us going consistently downhill.
Just giving my feelings to those asking why the greens aren't getting 30%.
A country in poverty, (nz is along way from there) isn't going to do a single thing about cc,
The Greens are the only party who will be in parliament for the next term who have a serious set of policies on ending poverty. Climate change isn't mentioned much in those, but it comes in in things like building sustainable houses.
This year alone this poor country has to spend billions in dollars because of a weather events – and lives were lost that will never come back. It’s likely to get worse and more expensive. NACT’s attitude is a hedonistic, selfish & entitled party-hard and let somebody else clean up the mess and the Greens’ attitude is a proactive and more considerate leave some for the next generation(s) too.
But one Green Party Co-Leader said something one day that offended a few people, so let’s take the party back on track!
Don't worry to much about my vote the greens need labour and vis versa, nact arnt an option for me, (and I can't ever see them being one, top maybe, bit I don't like wealth /land taxs , (I have neither btw)
Not worried, just fascinated by the narratives and internal monologues of people in how they decide, justify, and argue for their voting choices. Are they informed choices? Everybody is free to vote (or not vote) any way they like.
Climate change doesn't care if emissions are frivolous to humans or not. All that matters is the amount of GHGs going into the atmosphere thanks to us. In other words, we could eliminate all the frivolous GHG emissions and still go over a cliff (collapse civ and the biosphere) because we thought that some GHG emissions were necessary.
I'm curious where you see that. The party itself is pro farmer, but if there are greens doing anti-farmer shit I'd like to see how that is playing out.
"Anti farmer"
Just the vibe get weka, much more muted on the standard now days,
Farming feeds people, so no emissions arnt equal, hungry people arnt going to give a shit about cc in the same way poor people won't, .
I believe the un said food production should be treated differently (am off to see if I can dig a link up)
The problem is that climate change mostly directly affects future food production.
We have had about 10,000 years of relatively calm weather and climate since the last glacial and immediate post-glacial episode compared to the climate chaos that preceded it. That is what allowed us as a species to build up a farming technology that underlies our current food production.
Rapidly reverting to the kinds of climates that were prevalent and last seen in the Eocene over the next century or two seems unlikely to provide a stable basis for developing a new much more robust farming technology. After all we still haven’t managed to develop particularly good farming technologies for our current tropical regions. Which is why the bulk of the worlds food is grown in temperate climates.
We still don’t have really good models of what happens when when there is a rapid rise in greenhouse gases. Nor do we have accurate information about the actual climate in the tropics during the Eocene. What we do know and what has been becoming clearer from both the overly rapid current climate shifts and research into past climates is that it is likely to be a lot worse than our current models.
For instance this populist article on Eocene climatic research..
and jumping to the conclusions looking at temperate regions.
Which basically means that if we get to a effective short-term doubling of green house gases causing a more rapid climate change. For instance by the much faster short-term heating from methane and nitious oxides from farming releasing carbon stores in permafrost or methane from ocean clathrates. Or for that matter any of the many possible tipping points to short-term green-house effects that the higher short-term effect greenhouse gas emissions affect disproportionately.
It isn’t being anti-farming to worry about the ability of farming to produce sufficient food in the future.
Particularly it seems in a large part because farmers showing a palpable unwillingness to learn how to rapidly reduce their high-effect greenhouse gas emissions if it hits their immediate profits. What is the point of NZ producing food for 40 million people when they are hastening a demise in their ability of farm effectively?
Methane is circular, so we arnt producing more of it since we ate farming less animals now than 30 years ago especially sheep number(I'm aware some of those sheep numbers have bec6dsiry cow numbers)
Farmers inputs will already be getting any current emissions taxs ,
Yes I know farming will get harder with changing weather, unhealthy out here every day doing it. But taxing it out of existence isn't the answer.
Methane is tetrahedral.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahedral_molecular_geometry
The number of farm animals is only part of the equation. What animals, what size, what age, feeding patterns & diet changes, production patterns, the effects of increased milk production, etc. All these are factors in total farm emissions, including methane.
Circular in the emmisions profile, with a 10 year life span, so unless we increase animal numbers, which we're not ,it's not increasing or methane emmisions,
Are you referring to the carbon cycle?
AFAIK, methane does not have a life span, but a half-life in the atmosphere, which is about 10 years. IIRC, it breaks down to carbon dioxide, which has a much longer half-life. This and the fact that the potential greenhouse effect of methane is about 28 times larger than carbon dioxide makes methane an ideal target for reduction of emissions of greenhouse gasses.
You seem to imply that current levels of agriculture methane emissions are just dandy as long as we don’t increase them!?
My understanding is that the emissions from stock are circular due to it being taken up by the plants the stxk eat, so the emmisions stay the same ,not increasing unless you increase animals,
Also my original point was that food production is important, so not all emmisions are created equal, 8 billion people need feeding,
AFAIK, there are some soil bacteria that absorb methane but plants don’t use methane as such.
Not all animals are equal either in terms of emissions of greenhouse gasses.
You keep missing or avoiding the main point though, which is that current emissions are too high and agriculture is a huge contributor of greenhouse gas emissions.
literally no-one in NZ pol has suggested taxing farming out of existence. There's no earthly reason to not transition to regenag and have lower stock numbers, other than the economics. We can still produce food for NZ and excess to sell to the world.
By the time you add large numbers of large ruminants and a greater application of nitrogenous fertilisers to the equation a reduction by half in sheep numbers doesn't make that much difference.
Sheep are still about 25% of our total greenhouse gas emissions.
Way way too shallow. It simply isn't 'circular' on any human timescale. It is nett culmulative over the next few centuries.
After all these materials are going into the atmosphere and getting removed from the cycle. Try showing me anything in NZ that is sucking up methane and nitrous oxides in quantity.
So where does the material come from in the first place. In NZ, most of the carbon in CH3 is effectively mined from the soil by farming. It is no coincidence that the best farming soils are those in the lowlands on old river flood plains, peat bogs, and forested areas. They are effectively a natural mine for long stored carbon – especially drained swamps. Even the hill country that sheep mostly run on are steadily being mined for old forest carbon stores.
We are at least several centuries away from NZ getting its soil carbon into a equilibrium. I'd hardly call that being 'circular'.
I'd point out that from the perspective of an earth scientist, the nett effect of adding fertilisers is to simply mine the soil of its carbon and other nutritional materials faster with scant regard to the future.
Wr certainly aren't 'circular' when you look at nitrous oxides. There is a paucity of nitrogen in NZ soils that is only a teeny part made up by legume (mostly white clover) fixing. The reason is pretty obvious. Umm here is a source discussing the issue in laymans terms.
ie sucking up fossil carbon (dry matter) faster. The same applies to super phosphate application. Rather than making extraction 'circular' NZ farmers actively accelerate deletion.
Of course on the way through, extractive farming also pollute the atmosphere with greenhouse gases of methane and nitrous oxides and the waterways as a side effect.
It isn't slowing, it is speeding up in aggregate which is why stats NZ points out
Gotta love that last two sentences. It does point out the futility of urease inhibitors. All they do is decrease the demand while still allowing a 5.4% increase. Good try – total fail without a actual reduction in nitrogen fertilizer usage. Which shows no signs of happening even through the pandemic.
Phosphates are going down, probably more due to price increases than lack of demand. But the over all increase in fertilisers in NZ shows up most clearly when you look at the two key nutrients for extracting greenhouse gases of fixed nitrogen and phosphates in tonnes of the nutrient – as in the older chart from stats (I wonder why is it so hard to see the side by side figures in the updated page).
The overall level of extra nutrient applied to the soils in NZ has massively increased over the last 20 years. In effect mining the soil faster and releasing much more pollutants – including shoter-term acting greenhouse gases.
If you look at the gross figures about NZ greenhouse gas as CO2 equivalents for this is pretty obvious as well.
CO2 has stabilised since the ETS, hopefully to reduce, despite a 50% increase in population over the last 30 years. But our useless farmers chasing a unsustainable personal profit mining our soils have been effectively increasing their pollution profile. They are massively increasing the amount of a longer-lived greenhouse gas and haven't managed to constrain the emissions of their larger output.
What is even more annoying is that the sectors of agriculture tat are doing most of the pollution aren't even a very profitable industries for the country. Most of their gross export profit is immediately paid offshore in interest payments on capital. The nett profit to our society is piss all, and certainly not enough to cover their pollution costs.
They just leave the costs of their soil mining industry for the rest of NZ to pay in cleaning up waterways and paying higher ETS levies.
In short farmers can easily be regarded as being unsustainable economic parasites for the rest of NZ, even before you look at this tiny group being the largest polluters in NZ. In a lot of ways NZ would probably be economically better off dropping our food production down to only supplying the domestic market and concentrating on cost reductions for the economically productive members of the workforce – the ones who make a productive profit for the country as a whole.
Or farmers could start receiving price signals from something like the ETS that make them act in a more economically responsible role than being simple soil miners.
I genuinely appreciate the effort you've gone to to educate me, I'm sure I'll take a little bit in .
But aren't the emmisions created by stock intake removed by the growth of that intake, making it circular?
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/transnational-environmental-law/article/agricultural-exceptionalism-in-the-climate-change-treaties/08A9C8B97DB5EDC545D2732DCF71A8D4
this guy is against it but agricultural exceptionalism is a thing
Politics is a contest of ideas although in NZ it’s become more like a dirty MMA fight. This by itself might turn off voters and increase political apathy & disengagement but also there will be winners & losers in such a competition – it is kind of a zero-sum game.
Are they not already ‘serious players’? Should they water down some of their policies and forsake some of their values & principles for the sake of more populist & appealing ones? Do you have any policies in mind? The Wealth Tax proposal, by any chance? And then you will vote for them?
So transparent, like a floor to ceiling window in a multi million dollar mansion on a clear day.
What you imply is what every Nat trying for a climate conscience wants, for the Greens to get rid of their stupid, woke social policies and concentrate on greenwashing for the right wing.
I. See. You.
Well, the alternative seems to be remaining in the 6-10% range.
I guess, if that makes them happy……
If the Greens ditched all their social policy which is what you have asked them to do, they'd lose most of their members and most of their support. Support to be replaced by a small number of wealthy RW women looking for somewhere to park their privileged guilt.
These Greens would end up like the UK Greens.
I haven't asked them to do a blessed thing!
I suggested that they could look at the reasons why those who indicated that they considered voting Green, don't actually follow through (either in polls or in real life at the elections).
I don't know what those reasons are (I certainly don't have visibility of their internal polling) – perhaps you do – since you're commenting with such confidence!
Its simple.
The Greens are a party of the left because both climate change and climate change policies will disproportionately hurt the poor and working class.
They believe in govt and societal action on climate change not centerist green washing, individual responsibility on climate change.
They believe left wing and universal economic policies will ease the burden of climate change and climate change policies on the poor and working class.
They also oppose crony capitalism, trickle down and infinite growth because we're on a finite planet.
Therefore they are a party of the left and their strategy is to get as many left wing voters off labour as possible to have increased influence in a coalition to push Labour to the left.
The strategy should be that the greens go after the left and try to excite as many non voting lefty's to vote as possible, while labour goes after the center and tries to convert as many National, Top and NZ first voters as possible.
I don't get how that Strategy is difficult to get!
Add the Maori party who if needed to stop Nat/Act, Hopefully are able to manage to win as many Maori electorates as possible, with as little party votes as possible and cause an overhang making it impossible for national to govern.
I always hear this argument about the greens being in a culdesac, I never hear this of ACT who are trying the exact same strategy, but on the right, except national keeps fighting them for right wing votes rather than trying to convert the center!
Being on the left doesn't blunt the greens influence, Labour needs the greens inside the tent pissing out, the last thing labour wants is the greens supporting a labour minority govt in the crossbenches on an issue by issue basis demanding massive concessions on each issue.
Bomber has posted the Hipkins overview in full: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2023/07/08/prime-ministers-foreign-policy-speech-to-nziia/
Check out the reaction of his ecosystem of rabid nutters later today…
Walking a fine line down the middle of the road, internationally, I note. One thread: NZ must make sure to have eggs in many basket…EU FTA…South East Asia tensions. And another thread…independent foreign policy, as in Clark over Iraq, is not the same as neutral foreign policy…AUKUS 5 eyes, but not AUKUS military action, necessarily.
Yes indeed. That's how I see it too. Scylla & Charybdis. Sailing the fine line between two threats has become archetypal, through recorded history…
So far, 2 comments, both positive…..
Gosh so they are! I have two takes on this situation:
a) stunned mullet syndrome – audience either blotto or unable to cognite that H did the right thing with modest flair & finesse
b) audience so entrained by smart-phone-driven short attention spans that the prospect of reading an actual speech freaked them instantly into evasion mode
A year old gripe released at the moment to hurt the most. Nasty, nasty work by faceless people and Andrea Vance. Care about bullying and mental health? This is some vengeance by some very nasty pieces of work.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132500472/chris-hipkins-will-need-to-make-some-decisions-about-kiri-allan
It really is starting to look like good old dirty politics, reporters (and myself) swallowed this beat up hook line and sinker.
I wonder which Labour cabinet minister the Nats will target next?
Remember there don't need to be any facts involved, just anonymous rumours that such and such has been doing whatever unsavoury thing.
This is followed by a series of MSM articles from Vance, Malpass, Soper et al saying "this adds to the growing list of lazy/corrupt/tainted/unbalanced/out-of-their depth Labour ministers." whose so-called misdemeanors are then listed again and again.
Hipkins should stare this down and stand by Allan shoulder to shoulder.
Davis is next, that fight video will be one of 100s over the years but it pops up now??
I wonder which Labour cabinet minister the Nats will target next?
I suspect the dramatic escalation in the numbers of ram-raids is the flag that will catch their attention. So whichever minister currently shows up in the revolving door with the police minister label on it will become auto-target.
The minister will go "Who, me? I'm just sitting here thumb-twiddling, ain't doing nothing wrong. I'm not responsible for police operational non-decisions!"
This police minister as ornamental pot-plant thingy has been an area of consensus between National & Labour for quite a while. So the Nats will struggle to make impact. Consistently blaming Labour for police uselessness won't impress floating voters much. They could suggest a more strident form of virtue-signalling at the cops by Labour's police minister but they aren't putting on a convincing performance of doing that themselves so even Nat supporters are likely to be underwhelmed.
The backroom policework is 8000 offenders and 40000 charges laid in taking down drug networks since 2022. Criminal gangs up their nuisance raids, and add community violence as the advertising, because Operation Cobalt is taking out their easy revenue stream. Protection rackets are an alternative income source.
Okay, that's informative. Does it mean a clogged-up justice system?? We know how addicted judges & lawyers are to dragging out legal processes for as long as possible. Is the system working or broken or somewhere in between?
If you look at NZ incarceration stats, they were going down until July 22, mostly due, apparently, to a new support programme for functionally illiterate 1st offenders on remand being given help to apply for home detention in place of remand prison. (A difference which contributes to more poor and Maori suffering extended incarceration time early on).
Then they have climbed, as Operation Cobalt began to bite, but also as other violence crimes were solved.
Plus I think, although covid introduced a big backlog, the court system has maintained streamlined processes introduced then. This includes judge-only trials, and remote attendance for simple court appearances, cutting down the need to move prisoners back and forth from remand to court, and saving court time.
Apparently, up to 40% of the prison population comprised of remand prisoners in 2020, some of whom spent time in remand longer than any sentence for their crimes due to court backlogs. Andrew Little as Justice Minister from 2017 achieved significant reforms, and added funding and judiciary appointments over National. Covid put a crimp in clearing the backlog, of course.
Well, the clogged-up justice system certainly exists:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/tensions-flare-as-murder-accused-lance-hall-appears-in-court/5NYYET5GLNDSFHT6R3YEV7BWWQ/
Thanks for that tWig-very interesting-this should be known by the voters.
Obviously Parliament could change the law to allow operational decisions to be made by ministers. Unless that happens, ministers really don't have much say in how the police go about their work.
BigHairyNews give their views on National's Laura Norder tough on gangs mantra
BG: "I wonder which Labour cabinet minister the Nats will target next?"
Peeni Henare Is being accused of Conflict of interest. Tatou Industries gained contracts while Peeni was Associate Ministry of Health and Peeni is partner of Skye Temura who is head of Tatou.
Sounds ominous but efforts to promote this smear October 2022 failed to ignite but Nats are now full on. Maybe the voters will get sick of the smear campaigns by the likes of Simeon Brown?
Timing is everything in politics. The ‘opinion leaders’ of Newstalk ZB are simply trying again to see if it germinates this time in their audience of unthinking talk-back listeners and if it does it will be cultivated and spread further by other MSM ‘opinion leaders’ and useful idiots, like a GMO that spreads in the environment after a successful ‘field trial’.
Peeni is confident that he followed all the Cabinet protocols. And this smear arose last year. So I really hope that he has an all clear, given the fair warning from last time. He said he had nothing to do with the contract letting so for his sake and the Party's sake, here is hoping.
"Peeni is confident that he followed all the Cabinet protocols."
Ianmac: This is DP. The Nats aren't playing by any rules or protocols; they just want headlines that suggest wrongdoing that the compliant MSM will print, or ZB will promote.
Ever wondered what ZB stands for? Zombie Brains
"Remember there don't need to be any facts involved, just anonymous rumours that such and such has been doing whatever unsavoury thing."
How many more? Off the top of my head…
Colin Moyle
Chris Carter
David Cunliffe
Clare Curran
Meteria Turei
All have had their careers and/or mental health destroyed for being human, by braying crowds (from the left and right) led by National Party leaders.
I hope Kiri Allan isn't next, and people on the left at least, keep a bit of empathy.
Peeni Henare will be next weeks target.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/audio/barry-soper-senior-political-correspondent-on-peeni-henares-potential-conflict-of-interest/
More ratfucking from the tory's.
If this is all you have got, then you can't lead a country, a household, or a pig farm.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132484575/something-national-wont-be-putting-back-on-track
More passenger rail please.
I'm going to Wellington early next year and thought I'm going to go down on the northern explorer!
But if I did I'd have to stay for 2 nights as there isn't daily service from the central North Island.
Aye bwaghorn. If only. All we need…is to just get on with it.
Green Rail..
Media wars latest – Zuck grabs 70 million users:
Bit like jumping the board to catch the wave? Elon likely to be confounded, I suspect. His magic touch hasn't been in evidence since he took Twitter, & now this. However he has exhibited tremendous resilience which becomes evident if you read his biography.
Is it just me or has national jumped the shark?
Luxton and Co. are so ideological at this point, they are making Marxist/Leninist's blush from their utter lack of rigidity and purity.
All the talk of running the country like a business is just getting silly. Now they want ministers to act like as junior executives, to the PM being a CEO.
Stripping people of basic work place rights is a given from this mob, making it impossible for average people to get ahead is high on the agenda as well.
But the truly jumping the shark stuff is the putting community on the same level as business and asking them for input – ignoring they fact both have been doing that for years. The national party have lost the plot.
No wonder all the do is ratfucking week in and week out.
https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/national-reveals-approach-hospital
This is a very once-over-lightly analysis – but, I thought, useful to highlight the potential swing-seats in the 2023 election (including my local MP).
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132370608/the-seats-that-could-decide-the-election-and-the-people-wanting-to-be-your-mps
Who wins seats/electorates is largely irrelevant except for Akl Central, the Maori seats and possibly, though unlikely, a couple of others like Northland and Wellington Central.
It is the party vote that counts.
It has some impact on which list MPs enter Parliament for National and Labour though. Not relevant to overall numbers, but some relevance to the specific MPs who will make up Parliament.
The UK Conservative government's anti-woke priorities: Minister tells asylum processing centre for children to paint over a mural of disney characters that make the place "too welcoming".
Meanwhile, food and rents/mortgages rise, the seas and rivers are awash with sewage while private water companies have profited, and the UK economy suffers post-Brexit, the biggest example of cutting off your nose to spite your face I can think of.
Speaking of cutting off noses/face-spiting..
..we can't ignore rogernomics..
No one in NZ voted in a referendum for rogernomics, it was thrust upon us.