Open mike 10/03/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, March 10th, 2015 - 184 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

openmikeOpen mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

184 comments on “Open mike 10/03/2015 ”

  • Comments are now closed

    • Draco T Bastard 1.2
      10 March 2015 at 8:24 am

      The economy must be doing worse than anticipated if Key’s pretty much demanding that the RBNZ lower interest rates.

      • infused 1.2.1
        10 March 2015 at 8:32 am

        It’s actually to combat negative inflation, which is just as bad, if not worse than inflation. Take a look at Japan. Once that starts, it’s very hard to stop.

        • Colonial Rawshark 1.2.1.1
          10 March 2015 at 8:35 am

          LOL deflation is a symptom of economic spending declines, debt over burdens and household incomes going backwards; it’s not some separate thing.

          This is where neoliberal policies and monetarism have taken us to.

          • infused 1.2.1.1.1
            10 March 2015 at 8:39 am

            Which isn’t actually happening.

            • Colonial Rawshark 1.2.1.1.1.1
              10 March 2015 at 8:50 am

              If the symptoms are there, you can be pretty sure the disease is there. You youself used the Japan example. Their economy is debt and demographic fucked – two lost decades now and counting.

          • les 1.2.1.1.2
            10 March 2015 at 8:52 am

            I think a blindingly good diversified deflation proof portfolio would be…
            Meridian
            Warners
            MRP
            Rio Tinto
            Genesis
            Sky City
            Bank of America
            Scales Corp
            JP Morgan

            • Hutty 1.2.1.1.2.1
              10 March 2015 at 9:07 am

              Why Scales Corp?

              • les …
                10 March 2015 at 9:27 am

                former Sth Cant asset given away for about $43mil ,then floated for about $143 mil,with one of the main ‘actors being John Spys next door neighbour in Parnell.

                • Tracey …
                  10 March 2015 at 9:29 am

                  really?

                  • les …
                    10 March 2015 at 9:36 am

                    really and truly…P.M at 105 St Stephens,and the entrepreneur at 106.

                    • rawshark-yeshe …
                      10 March 2015 at 11:38 am

                      Yes, literally given to govt by Hubbard when requested for a sign of good faith. In fact, it has been reported that English delayed the entry of SCF into guarantee scheme until Scales and his helicopter company were signed over. I think there is evidence they occurred on the same day as soon as the two companies were ‘gifted’ by Hubbard.

                      This story is out and about … there is evidence, it’s just never been looked at thoroughly in daylight. One of the biggest most corrupt rorts by Key and English, and that’s really saying something.

                      Will find a link and come back … a main part if it –here you are:

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9CE1a4pSeQ

                    • thatguynz …
                      10 March 2015 at 3:23 pm

                      Having known quite a bit about this for some time I would dearly love to see this be a topic for investigation by Hager or Jon Stephenson..

                      If even half of what I’ve heard is true then the current government would be gone in the blink of an eye – potentially to the point of not being electable for a very long time.

                • les …
                  10 March 2015 at 9:42 am

                  ‘South Canterbury Finance receivers have signed an agreement to sell a 79.7% stake in apple exporter and cold store company Scales Corporation to Direct Capital for $44 million.

                  Direct Capital is a local investment firm headed by Ross George. ‘

                  ‘Goldman Sachs & Partners New Zealand Limited acted as financial advisor to the Receivers of the SCF Group’.

        • Tracey 1.2.1.2
          10 March 2015 at 9:28 am

          Then he should sack Wheeler who clearly has no understanding of the necessary matters to do his job.

        • Draco T Bastard 1.2.1.3
          10 March 2015 at 1:33 pm

          It’s actually to combat negative inflation, which is just as bad, if not worse than inflation.

          Yeah, that’s what I said – the economy is tanking despite all the talk from the government about ‘rock-star economies’.

    • Tracey 1.3
      10 March 2015 at 9:28 am

      chuckle

      Not wanting to interfere the PM says at.8% the reserve bank is short of its 2% target but denies putting pressure on for an interest rate cut…

      the cut would lower the dollar (I assume) but lower borrowing costs as well, so no stop to Auckland’s runaway property market in mind from this PM.

      • Lanthanide 1.3.1
        10 March 2015 at 9:36 am

        And Wheeler is just thinking “yes, and if you’d do something about the housing market, then maybe I could drop interest rates”.

        • Tracey 1.3.1.1
          10 March 2015 at 9:49 am

          spot on with my thinking Lanth

        • infused 1.3.1.2
          10 March 2015 at 11:02 am

          And what do you propose?

          * CGT – Delayed effect, and would add to house pricing in auckland, while deflating it elsewhere

          * Stop Foreign Investment/purchasing – Which would the crash the Auckland market. As nice as you think that would be, it would be a disaster for NZ economically.

          Besides, house prices are only affecting two cities.

          • Molly 1.3.1.2.1
            10 March 2015 at 11:43 am

            “Besides, house prices are only affecting two cities.”

            One of which – Auckland – accounts for a third of the population.

            Couldn’t be bothered figuring out the other city you are referring to because if you don’t recognise there is a knock-on effect for the whole country, you are a bit deluded.

          • b waghorn 1.3.1.2.2
            10 March 2015 at 11:44 am

            According to key if i recall correctly foreign investment isn’t causing the house price boom so no problem to exclude them from the market.

          • Lanthanide 1.3.1.2.3
            10 March 2015 at 12:05 pm

            “* Stop Foreign Investment/purchasing – Which would the crash the Auckland market. As nice as you think that would be, it would be a disaster for NZ economically.”

            How about we actually do the research first, hmm, instead of leaping to conclusions?

            The fact is, there are no firm numbers about the amount or extent of foreign investment in Auckland, only anecdotes, hunches and guesses.

            Also, you don’t have to completely restrict it – you could require that all foreign bought homes must be new-builds. Use all of that excess cash coming in from offshore for something productive, instead of locking out NZers from buying homes at sensible prices.

            The government, being sovereign, can literally do anything they like in order to combat house prices. Here’s a suggestion: any entity that has owned land for 5+ years and not made any moves to develop it (ie, land-bankers), must pay a 1% capital tax, calculated based on the council valuation for the land. If that isn’t a big enough stick to get them to sell it, start increasing the rate by 0.5% per year after 5 years.

          • Draco T Bastard 1.3.1.2.4
            10 March 2015 at 1:42 pm

            1. Banning foreign ownership of homes
            2. Stop the banks from creating money
            3. Ban foreign ownership of anything and everything in NZ
            4. Build enough homes through Housing NZ to ensure 1% to 2% over-supply of housing
            5. http://thestandard.org.nz/real-monetary-reform/

            Stop Foreign Investment/purchasing – Which would the crash the Auckland market. As nice as you think that would be, it would be a disaster for NZ economically.

            No it wouldn’t. Sure, the financial markets would crash but economically we’d end up being much stronger.

          • Murray Rawshark 1.3.1.2.5
            10 March 2015 at 5:53 pm

            The Auckland house market is going to crash anyway. All pyramid schemes do. The question is whether Kiwis will control the property after the crash, or whether the strings will be pulled from overseas. It’s better we decide on the preferred outcome and aim for that.

  2. North 2
    10 March 2015 at 7:07 am

    Herald editorial this morning framing Little as having lost his nerve over Northland; by implication – “silly, no-guts, useless Little……”

    “Andrew Little’s initial instinct to compete strongly in the byelection was the right one. If any contest was tailor-made for Labour and its new leader, it is Northland.”

    Who writes this shit ? “Tailor-made” ? For what/whom ? Oh that’s right – TheGodKey. Herald abusing its power again.

    • tc 2.1
      10 March 2015 at 7:30 am

      Herald sees that as a good use of its power as a tory rag.

    • Skinny 2.2
      10 March 2015 at 7:58 am

      The beauty/ugly fact is every Northlander knows they get the modern day equivalent of broken plates and beads from the Treaty era, the morden being broken roads and a undemocratically implemented Super Council to strip rural Zombie towns of a say.

      So spin as they are the MSM have little say, the true glimmer of hope is Peters motto “Help is on it’s way.”

    • Tracey 2.3
      10 March 2015 at 9:32 am

      pretty sure journalist’s opinion is no more valid than anyone elses, but how about just giving us some facts and letting us decide for ourselves?

      god forbid they be spending this morning opining about Bridges bridges.

      http://livenews.co.nz/2014/09/12/regional-land-transport-programme-2015-18-underway/

  3. AsleepWhileWalking 3
    10 March 2015 at 7:40 am

    Thought having access to all emails, texts, and phone conversations was invasive?

    http://www.thedailysheeple.com/scotland-yard-chief-wants-cctv-cameras-in-every-home_032015

    Sir Bernard Hogan Howe, the head of London’s Metropolitan Police Service, is now urging residents to put CCTV cameras in their homes and businesses. Because safety. It gets better though…

    Sir Bernard is encouraging inhabitants to install cameras at eye level, because according to the Scotland Yard chief,

    ‘Facial recognition software has got better, and we can now apply it to images of burglaries, and then compare them with images we take when we arrest people.

    ‘What we need to be able to do is to be able to compare that photograph with the images we have of people committing a crime.

    ‘Taking the tops of their heads is not that helpful for facial recognition which relies on the eyes and the configuration of the area around the nose and the mouth. So we’re trying to get people to, ideally, add a camera at face level.

    ‘If anyone listening has a business, think about installing a new one – they’re relatively cheap. If you can’t buy one, could you think about moving it?

    • Tautoko Mangō Mata 3.1
      10 March 2015 at 7:52 am

      What a twit! Give away your freedom so that the Police can catch your burglar…oh, sorry…he was wearing a mask?

      • te reo putake 3.1.1
        10 March 2015 at 8:10 am

        What freedom is being given away? It’s entirely up to the homeowner what happens to the video. Modern cameras have motion sensors and if all they record is the cat, big deal. But if they capture a burglar, then yeah, share that for sure.

        • vto 3.1.1.1
          10 March 2015 at 8:30 am

          ” It’s entirely up to the homeowner what happens to the video”

          Are you serious trp? You truly believe that freedom would not be lost? ….. after all eh, nothing to fear nothing to hide…

          everything else is already recorded – there is only the inside of ones home left.

          • te reo putake 3.1.1.1.1
            10 March 2015 at 8:35 am

            Yep, entirely serious. The home or business owner has total control over the what is recorded and what happens to the video. I think the mistake being made here is the thought that the video is going to be actively monitored by the police. Which it ain’t.

            • vto 3.1.1.1.1.1
              10 March 2015 at 8:38 am

              yet

              read some history

              start with ird

            • vto 3.1.1.1.1.2
              10 March 2015 at 8:52 am

              “The home or business owner has total control ”

              You do realise trp that the home or business owner does not have total control over things in their home or business in countless ways already?

        • Colonial Rawshark 3.1.1.2
          10 March 2015 at 8:33 am

          What freedom is being given away? It’s entirely up to the homeowner what happens to the video

          Most of these modern CCTV systems will be hooked up to a PC hooked up to the internet, silly. Homeowners will be told they can monitor their home and their kids from work or while on holiday. Who wouldn’t want that?

          And once its on the internet it will be collected and recorded by the intelligence services.

          • te reo putake 3.1.1.2.1
            10 March 2015 at 8:37 am

            Actually most of them work on flash drives, CV. And in the real world, who’s going to be actively monitoring what your cat does while you’re asleep anyway? Get a grip.

            • vto 3.1.1.2.1.1
              10 March 2015 at 8:40 am

              I am staggered at your mindset here trp, in light of the recent revelations that ALL our communications are being hoovered up by the ‘authorities’.

              This is la-la land stuff that you are dwelling in

              • Colonial Rawshark …
                10 March 2015 at 8:46 am

                Dick Smith $599 home CCTV system enabling “remote viewing” by PC, smartphone or tablet. Compatible with Apple, Android and Windows devices. How handy.

                http://www.dicksmith.co.nz/security/uniden-digital-wireless-surveillance-pack-dsnz-l9272

                • te reo putake …
                  10 March 2015 at 8:54 am

                  So what? I think we are all aware that there are internet compliant systems, but most people go with the cheaper systems that aren’t. If you’re paranoid about the man monitoring your moggy, that’s the obvious option. Or simply don’t put a system in at all.

                  Get. A. Grip.

                  • vto …
                    10 March 2015 at 8:58 am

                    Lets place a bet shall we……

                    that the authorities will move to collect this data as its recording becomes more prevalent (of course some of it is already recorded by the authorities right now as CV has amply shown)

                  • Colonial Rawshark …
                    10 March 2015 at 8:59 am

                    LOL just making a point that you’re not paying proper attention to Snowden and Hager’s revelations.

                    • te reo putake …
                      10 March 2015 at 9:04 am

                      Um, I think you’re the one missing the point of their revelations, CV. But keep looking out for the black helicopters anyway. You never know.

                    • vto …
                      10 March 2015 at 9:14 am

                      That’s what the populists said in Germany in the 1930s. Why is it that humans do not learn from history?

                    • Colonial Rawshark …
                      10 March 2015 at 10:24 am

                      TRP: You probably think that the “black government helicopter” raids meme is funny.

                      The truth is of course is that “black government helicopters” accompanying paramilitaries in body armour with automatic weapons have already been in use around NZ. Against unarmed civilians with families and children. Who have had loaded weapons pointed at them for no just reason.

                      They went for Kim Dotcom on a foreign governments orders, and they went to the Ureweras on trumped up terrorism charges.

                      vto: yep some people can’t even seem to remember recent Kiwi history let alone European 20th century history.

                  • Murray Rawshark …
                    10 March 2015 at 6:06 pm

                    Some of us do a little more in our homes than sit patting a cat that’s asleep on our knee shawl. But hey, don’t worry, they’ll make the cameras compulsory for beneficiaries first, probably ones with little kids. Then Sabin’s Methcon will get a contract to monitor them. Yeah, don’t worry.

            • Colonial Rawshark 3.1.1.2.1.2
              10 March 2015 at 8:42 am

              People want to be able to watch their pets, kids, house while at work, so more and more of these systems will be connected to the internet via wifi straight to the modem, the home PC or a cellular connection.

              And once it is connected to the internet even indirectly, it’s a gift to the intelligence services who are collecting everything and recording it permanently.

        • Tracey 3.1.1.3
          10 March 2015 at 9:35 am

          You don’t see a point where maybe the data of those who voluntarily do this is used to show what a great “crime fighting” success it is so everyone should have one and to make it easier we (govt) will subsidise the cost and installation…. but you must instal…

        • weka 3.1.1.4
          10 March 2015 at 10:36 am

          “What freedom is being given away?”

          There are privacy rights issues for people visiting the businesses and private homes where such systems are installed, esp if the police are using such systems to gather data for nationwide face recognition systems, which I’m pretty sure would be the intent. You really think the police want to go through hours of localised files that aren’t connected to a network each time there is a burglary?

          We already know that there is significant connection happening between the police and places like nightclubs, where private businesses are feeding the police data.

          In NZ I think there would be legal issues. Do you have the right to record me in your home without me knowing? Or your business? How about in the toilet or bathroom of both those places? Where’s the limit? Can you record images, or can you record sounds as well? How about phone calls I make from there on my own phone? Now think about how this links into the meta and content data being collected by every spy and his dog as well as private contractors.

          I’m also surprised by your responses TRP, because they sound exactly what people used to say about other kinds of data collection, when us paranoid lot were being told there was nothing to fear and nothing to hide. It’s patently obvious that the people developing surveillance systems are intending them to go much further than just having a isolated recording device in your hallway.

          Like tracey said, more people need to read 1984 (again).

          • vto 3.1.1.4.1
            10 March 2015 at 10:49 am

            TRP’s approach to this really is surprising. Raises questions about the place heshe occupies in the system. Again.

            • Colonial Rawshark 3.1.1.4.1.1
              10 March 2015 at 11:45 am

              Agreed. It’s a viewpoint congruent with those who have authority and influence in the power establishment.

          • te reo putake 3.1.1.4.2
            10 March 2015 at 10:55 am

            “esp if the police are using such systems to gather data for nationwide face recognition systems, which I’m pretty sure would be the intent.”

            The intent is to catch burglars.

            • weka 3.1.1.4.2.1
              10 March 2015 at 11:05 am

              so? That’s not incompatible with what I said.

              • te reo putake …
                10 March 2015 at 11:16 am

                Yes, it is. Unless intent has a new meaning not previously known. The cop concerned wants to catch burglars. He suggested that those home owners who already have CCTV devices put them at a better angle so the pictures can help identify crooks. He further suggested that other home owners might consider getting the devices as well. That’s it. That’s all he said. That was his intent. To catch burglars. Anything more is speculation and fantasy.

                Have a read: http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10032015/#comment-982707

                • vto …
                  10 March 2015 at 11:34 am

                  Your determination to limit this discussion to cops and robbers does your credibility no good trp. This discussion goes beyond that – the cop was the starting point only.

                  The discussion is about the creep of government surveillance – the cop was the starting point only.

                  Why are you ignoring this? (and please don’t repeat what the copper said again)

                • Bill …
                  10 March 2015 at 11:39 am

                  You’re being disingenuous trp.

                  He wants to match the images against the 12 000 000 images of suspects and offenders the police already have. Note the word suspects there? (And the existence of 12 million ‘mug shots’ from a population of…!?)

                  Labour MP Andrew Miller said: ‘We were alarmed to discover that the police have begun uploading custody photographs of people to the police national database and using facial recognition software without any regulatory oversight. Some of the people had not even been charged.

                  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2985202/Scotland-Yard-chief-Hogan-Howe-calls-DIY-surveillance-help-police.html

                  Still. Everyone (who counts) is a good guy and a cop in this brave new world you seem prepared to relax into.

                  • te reo putake …
                    10 March 2015 at 11:52 am

                    It’s you and the daily mail using the word ‘suspects’ (strange bedfellows, Bill!).

                    The cop actually says: “What we need to be able to do is to be able to compare that photograph with the images we have of people committing a crime.”

                    • Bill …
                      10 March 2015 at 12:22 pm

                      Aw ffs! – the infantile school yard dance aside…

                      The Metropolitan Police Commissioner says…’x’.

                      House of Commons Committee discovered…’y’.

                      And in this instance you’re going with the word of a Met Officer over a House of Commons Committee. Whatever.

                    • te reo putake …
                      10 March 2015 at 12:30 pm

                      Bill, you wrote: “He wants to match the images against the 12 000 000 images of suspects and offenders the police already have.”

                      Which was wrong, as it turns out.

                    • Bill …
                      10 March 2015 at 12:38 pm

                      How are you showing that opinion to be wrong?

                      Given the penchant of authorities to ask for an inch while they take a mile, and the fact that the Commons Committee discovered the police have been using facial recognition software without any oversight, I’d say there’s a fair bet they will do matches against their entire data base. Actually, unless their data base is subdivided into ‘arrested but not charged’ and various other categories, then I don’t see how such an outcome can be avoided.

                      They sure as hell ain’t wanting face level photos just so they can print them off and take them around the neighbourhood.

                    • Colonial Rawshark …
                      10 March 2015 at 12:48 pm

                      It’s quite likely that FVEY police forces are following the example of the US FBI and other law enforcement organisations in participating in what Bill Binney calls a “planned programme perjury policy”.

                      This is where law enforcement uses NSA data without warrants or probable cause to finger individuals, then reconstructs in parallel (so-called “parallel reconstruction”) legal evidence which can be presented to a court of law while concealing their original sources of knowledge.

                      It’s stasi state secret police, secret evidence stuff.

                    • te reo putake …
                      10 March 2015 at 12:50 pm

                      No, you’re probably right that it will be the broader usage, Bill, but that’s what happens now anyway. All that will happen if those with cameras follow the cop’s advice is that they will get clearer pictures, which will mean the right people have their collars felt. That’s gotta be better than just arresting the nearest kid that vaguely looks like a grainy photo taken from a bad angle or simply not solving the crime at all.

            • Sabine 3.1.1.4.2.2
              10 March 2015 at 2:20 pm

              and to that end everyone is guilty unless proven innocent by facial recognition.
              Yeah, right Tui.

      • infused 3.1.2
        10 March 2015 at 8:35 am

        I have cameras in my house on the out side. One covers the garage, two on they alley way side (main reason I got them) and one in the drive way.

        Night vision motion sensors.

        All came about as there is a bottle shop across the road and alley way right next to my house. Fence was always being tagged/booted in. People coming up the drive way and fucking with stuff on the property.

        Never had an issue since the cameras went in.

        • Tracey 3.1.2.1
          10 March 2015 at 9:35 am

          what did it cost you?

          • McFlock 3.1.2.1.1
            10 March 2015 at 10:50 am

            probably only a few hundred bucks if it was an off the shelf domestic system with 3 cameras and DVR, and a monitor thrown in for luck. “Night vision” is just a pretty standard ccd with IR leds and “motion detection” is a software option. The pan/tilt/zoom cameras get more pricey, as do more durable or higher def professional surveillance cameras.

            • infused 3.1.2.1.1.1
              10 March 2015 at 11:08 am

              Nah… if you buy the cheap stuff you will get what you pay for. I did a lot of research as i’d heard horror stories about night vision cameras.

              You need to pay for the $800 cameras for outdoor+night vision or you are going to get a shitty picture. indoor ones are a lot cheaper.

              For a DVR, I just used a NAS with some software to do the job. I already had the NAS for storage, so you just add the app to do the processing.

              Camera is here: http://www2.acti.com/product/support/B87

              • McFlock …
                10 March 2015 at 11:45 am

                Fair enough.

                Although if the result is deterrence rather than trying to get the cops to track down taggers, simpler would do (although those cheap dummy domes look like crap).

                I recall one ptz I was working with back in the day automatically flipped to macro-focus to get a clear shot of the small spider sitting on the dome an inch from the lens. You don’t want that to suddenly pop up when you’ve a coffee halfway to your mouth 🙂

    • Tracey 3.2
      10 March 2015 at 9:33 am

      People really need to re-read 1984. Too often the media and the pollies only feed people the so-called “upside”…

      • Tiger Mountain 3.2.1
        10 March 2015 at 12:46 pm

        thats right, read it as a kid and was fascinated to find that original title was “1948”, the author was critiquing existing totalitarian regimes as much as projecting futurism.

        But much of Orwell’s book has come to pass though, TVs, computer webcams and other electronic gadgets and drones that can watch and monitor you, politicians that say the exact opposite of what they mean, a pervasive surveillance state, various snitch networks (such as Whaleoil’s Tipline and the blue bellies star555–its only traffic safety, 0800 consumer lines and web tracking) and so on. Auckland Transport is going to run facial recognition software on its traffic intersection cams that photograph license plates, driver and front seat passengers linked to US based servers.

        The ability to go about your life reasonably privately and unmolested by the state is nearly gone. But you can do things like use cash for most purchases and turn some of the gadgets off occasionally. There is plenty to fear when you have nothing to hide.

      • Sans Cle 3.2.2
        10 March 2015 at 1:51 pm

        Agree – there are so many parallels with manipulating information, obfuscating meanings, denial of having said something…..basically trying to change the facts. Veutoviper @14 below, also makes some interesting points about Key’s post-cabinet press conferences being published.

        I really like this essay “Plato and the Internet”, extending old philosophical ideas with new technology…… (available here http://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/40292.pdf), and have taken out one relevant passage:
        “The written is infinitely less interesting to Plato than live discussion. But nowadays technology has blurred the distinction. Some speech – as recorded on TV or radio – is as unchanging as a piece of text. One cannot interact with a recording; it will not change if one debates with it (it ‘cannot come to its own support’). One can, of course, debate with the person who made the recording, but the recording will still stand. Like a piece of writing, a recorded utterance will remain in existence even if it has been exposed as a lie, or if its author has changed his mind. Like writing, it can be broadcast to a wide and undiscriminating audience (it ‘rolls about everywhere’).”

        I find this fascinating, in the context of a) a blog such as this, where everything is retained for future cross-checking…….b) the internet in itself, where humans are cataloguing everything, it seems…….and c) the mass surveillance and collection of data that Snowden has made us privy to.
        Also, I am not sure whether written word is immutable! What if we go back in 5 years from now, and the text of what we have written has changed?! I know there are projects archiving the internet, but are these beyond manipulation?

        …..and on interesting literature in this regard, we should also relook at The Minority Report (K. Dick’s original book, not the movie) as to where this could lead us.

    • Bill 3.3
      10 March 2015 at 10:46 am

      Okay, so as TRP says ‘It’s up to you’, but….

      1. Insurance premiums dropping if approved home surveillance systems in place.

      2. Cops issuing seizure orders (or whatever they might be called) on spurious as well as legitimate grounds.

      3. The ‘license’ and permission for neighbours to be snooping on neighbours…the guy on ACC, the guy on the dole, the single mother next door…

      4. Panopticon

      • Colonial Rawshark 3.3.1
        10 March 2015 at 10:54 am

        In East Germany, neighbours, friends and family members were encouraged to inform on each other. There were inducements and advantages provided for doing so.

        This is the way our society is heading.

  4. Marksman33 4
    10 March 2015 at 7:56 am

    As I work in the roading industry in the Far North, I can assure readers that Joe Carr was quite right on Morning Report this morning. Both the Taipa bridge and the Kaeo bridge are both on the nine year plan and have been for years, no new money there. I want to know why the government isn’t doing anything about the 2 one lane bridges on state hi way 1, north of Kaitaia. The amount of accidents and near misses that occur with tourists at these sites is staggering. Something needs to be done.

    • Tiger Mountain 4.1
      10 March 2015 at 8:44 am

      “Joekerr” (Carr) is with right breakaway Focus NZ but still backs up the tories–the Nats were actually going to progress Taipa and Kaeo regardless of the by election eh? Yeah right.

      There needs to be all sorts of planning, cost benefit analysis and local input before these much needed upgrades actually happen.

      • Skinny 4.1.1
        10 March 2015 at 9:17 am

        I wouldn’t knock the Focus NZ candidate. Osbourne may get clipped by Carr (polling 6℅) and flattened by the Winston Express.
        They may well rue not selecting the Focus NZ Leader Kenny R who lost the Nat candidate race to Carters pasty Osbourne. In other words Focus NZ would not have
        stood a candidate. Expect more protest votes to Carr from disgruntled Tories who can’t bring themselves to directly support Peters.

        Key and Joyce’s heads will be spinning faster than the taxpayers money machine spitting out money to pay for their By-Election bribes.

        • te reo putake 4.1.1.1
          10 March 2015 at 9:23 am

          Cheers, skinny, that answers something for me. If I read you correctly, the Focus group are not a party in their own right, just a ginger group. So National are likely to be putting pressure on them to cease campaigning to help Osborne out, yes?

          • Skinny 4.1.1.1.1
            10 March 2015 at 9:56 am

            Focus NZ are break away NL rural Tories. Front man Kenny R is no mug 6,000 votes in the NL election backs this up. Funny setup when he can drift back to the Nat’s and nom to stand for them. What a slap in the face to farmers (over & over again) getting rejected with 2 very capable rural characters. I would be spewing if i were a farmer.

            Key may have to offer new milking sheds all round to keep the farmers from defecting.

      • jenny kirk 4.1.2
        10 March 2015 at 11:18 am

        We went to the Kaikohe candidates meeting last night, and it was very clear that Joe Carr is using the by-election as a public platform to get some basic info across about
        the regional council’s draft 10 year transport plan, and also to correct some of the bullshit being talked by the Nats re the so-called “new” money for the 10 bridges.
        Focus might be naturally tory, but they sure as heck are not impressed with how the tories have treated the north over the last few decades – that was very clear from what was said at the meeting. Neglect was the word used, over and over again.

        • Tiger Mountain 4.1.2.1
          10 March 2015 at 11:31 am

          yes but; Focus are ‘good ’ol boys’, conservative and reactionary rather than modern citified Nats or the petit bourgeois of Kerikeri. They will wriggle and squiggle but never see beyond a blue political solution.

          People that are at core landowners and farmers in denial of the post colonial situation the Far North is in.

    • Tracey 4.2
      10 March 2015 at 9:36 am

      how many national voters north of Kaitaia?

      • ropata 4.2.1
        10 March 2015 at 4:53 pm

        it depends on the time of year, how many Parnell tractors are touring through before heading back to the yacht in Paihia

    • vto 5.1
      10 March 2015 at 8:24 am

      brave?

        • Colonial Rawshark 5.1.1.1
          10 March 2015 at 8:29 am

          Ahhh the propaganda machine and their spokespeople creating martyrs, heroes and freedom fighters. Exactly what I would expect.

          It’s a quagmire over there, a sectarian civil war against Baghdad authorities. How’s Tikrit going by the way.

          • infused 5.1.1.1.1
            10 March 2015 at 8:37 am

            You are so small minded. It’s a lot bigger than baghdad. The fact you even say that shows you don’t actually grasp what is going on on there.

            • Colonial Rawshark 5.1.1.1.1.1
              10 March 2015 at 8:55 am

              Just speaking the truth that it’s a sectarian civil war against corrupt partisan incompetent rule from Baghdad.

          • te reo putake 5.1.1.1.2
            10 March 2015 at 8:43 am

            Tikrit is going well, apparently, CV. Good thing the Iraqi army isn’t relying on you for military advice, eh?

            http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/03/iraqi-forces-advance-isil-held-tikrit-150308054623411.html

            • Colonial Rawshark 5.1.1.1.2.1
              10 March 2015 at 8:56 am

              Huh? If its going pretty well between the Shiite militia, the Iraqi Army and the Iranian Quds forces, then what the hell do they need our soldiers there for?

              • te reo putake …
                10 March 2015 at 9:15 am

                For training. It was in the news, surprised you missed it.

                • Tracey …
                  10 March 2015 at 9:53 am

                  sounds like their current training will suffice if they are heading for success in Tikrit?

                  • te reo putake …
                    10 March 2015 at 10:30 am

                    They can always use more training, Tracey. It’s been a major focus of the yanks in the last six months and seems to have paid some dividends. It will be interesting how Tikrit goes. If they can’t win there, then the bigger prize of Mosul will have to be reassessed. But the indications are that the Iraqi army are showing much more discipline and organisation than was previously evident. And training will have a bit to do with that.

                    • Colonial Rawshark …
                      10 March 2015 at 10:40 am

                      Armchair General Westmoreland, confident as ever about the mission at hand.

                    • Pascals bookie …
                      10 March 2015 at 11:24 am

                      How come you never mention the salient fact about the Qods and the militia, TRP?

                      Iraqi army this, Iraqi army that. Who is doing the fighting in Tikrit and in what proportion?

                      Who is in command? Who is advising him?

                    • Colonial Rawshark …
                      10 March 2015 at 11:55 am

                      Newsweek: Tikrit will be a bloody disaster led by Shiite militia

                      Several months after thousands of American advisers showed up for training sessions, Iraqi troops still aren’t ready for combat. Iranian-backed Shiite militias will do most of the fighting against the ISIS militants in Tikrit and other largely Sunni towns and cities in Iraq, raising the chances of more sectarian slaughter…

                      That’s the grim assessment of a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, James Dubik, who oversaw the training of Iraqi soldiers in the final months of the eight-year U.S. occupation…he wasn’t surprised when the Iraqi forces collapsed.

                      “Yup,” Dubik says with a dry chuckle, “those were my guys.”
                      …
                      Iranian involvement has created an awkward situation for the Obama administration, which has been launching airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria since last August, effectively putting Washington and Tehran on the same side…

                      Iranian-backed Shiite militias like the Badr Brigade and K’taib Hezbullah say their fighters make up two-thirds of the 30,000-strong force that’s gathered near Tikiti…But the presence of Shiite fighters on a predominantly Sunni battlefield is cause for concern, Dubik and other military analysts say.

                      http://www.newsweek.com/iraqi-army-fight-against-isis-312105

            • Tracey 5.1.1.1.2.2
              10 March 2015 at 9:37 am

              don’t need us then

            • Murray Rawshark 5.1.1.1.2.3
              10 March 2015 at 6:21 pm

              They’ve been trying for a week and haven’t made much progress at all. Maybe they should ask CR for advice.

              • Colonial Rawshark …
                10 March 2015 at 6:32 pm

                Without the promise of serious political and administrative reform in Baghdad, no lasting peace with Iraq’s majority Sunni areas is going to hold.

          • Bill 5.1.1.1.3
            10 March 2015 at 11:16 am

            The Rojava Revolution has no interest in forming a state entity (eg – a Kurdistan). Where it exists within Syria, it has stated its recognition of Syrian territorial integrity and law.

            The inclusion of an armed, anachronistic Marxist/Leninist organisation gives me the shits though. (See comment 5.2)

            Here’s a link to the constitution of Rojava. Leninism flies full tilt into the face of it. http://civiroglu.net/the-constitution-of-the-rojava-cantons/

        • vto 5.1.1.2
          10 March 2015 at 8:34 am

          Nope, not correct. Idiots can be brave. The mad can be brave. Evil is very brave. Murderers are also brave, as are rapists. Soldiers are brave. Gay peopleare brave. Psychopaths are brave. Political extremists are brave.

          Brave, in this context is the same as that other tiresome word Honour. Toss anything into it. Worthless.

    • Bill 5.2
      10 March 2015 at 11:07 am

      Hang on! So she died fighting for the MLPK! The same MLPK that “believes that a sharp class struggle will also continue under the power of proletariat against the danger of restoration, that the dictatorship of proletariat is a real democracy, a socialist democracy, and it aims at it.”

      http://www.mlkp.info/?kategori=1012&Who_we_are?

      I’m thinking that the MLPK have a long ideological road to travel. Meanwhile, I’m (sadly) seeing Spain writ large again, where authoritarian Leninist elements essentially undermined the democratic potential of that revolution.

      That aside, I take it there will be calls from within the authoritarian left that travel bans to Rojava be lifted, that the designation of the PKK as terrorist be lifted and that the political/economic embargo on Rojava be lifted?

      Then can they all ‘go to school’ and get a grip?

      • Murray Rawshark 5.2.1
        10 March 2015 at 6:26 pm

        The PKK should not be designated as a terrorist organisation. The US Department of Defense should be.

  6. veutoviper 6
    10 March 2015 at 8:16 am

    Last night in the comments on the Caption Contest post, Clemgeopin, Sans Cle and I shared a few more ‘funnies’ related to the Northland By-election. (Thread is at 30.)

    As they are rather lost in the comments there, I thought I would re-post them here in case you missed them!

    First, the TV3 News bulletin which shows the original of the Key Nailing failure, and Osborne showing he is at least reasonably competent in the nailing skill. It also shows Key playing ‘Daddy’ to Osborne, and Osborne playing second fiddle to Key including acting as Key’s personal photographer – rather than the centre of attention as the actual Nat candidate. All in the first 2 minutes of the video.

    http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/national-pulls-out-team-key-in-northland-2015030717?ref=video

    There has also been some very amusing photoshopping of Osborne’s billboards on Twitter. Here are the two supplied by Clemgeopin and Sans Cle last night.
    http://t.co/XFhW3zgvNN

    http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1813/4074/original.jpg?w=600&h

    There are also a couple more in the photos on this Twitter feed

    https://twitter.com/insiderslive/media

    Enjoy – and share!

  7. adam 7
    10 March 2015 at 8:19 am

    I know I’m a day late – but if you have not read this post From Andrew – I think you should. It really is that good

    http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/to-call-each-thing-by-its-right-name

    • One Anonymous Bloke 7.1
      10 March 2015 at 9:14 am

      It’s quite clear from that article that the Otago University Faculty of Law is inefficient, surplus to requirements, full of screaming Lefties, and should be defunded.

      • veutoviper 7.1.1
        10 March 2015 at 9:28 am

        I am hoping you forgot the sarc/ tag!

        • One Anonymous Bloke 7.1.1.1
          10 March 2015 at 9:38 am

          I’m writing government policy. If Osborne can do it why can’t I?

          • veutoviper 7.1.1.1.1
            10 March 2015 at 11:11 am

            LOL! Go for it. IMO your policy will be way better than his.

            Did quite a bit of that in the past, on a paid basis. Don’t miss it one bit.

    • veutoviper 7.2
      10 March 2015 at 9:23 am

      Thanks for the link, Adam – and I thoroughly agree that this is a must read.

      A little more information – Andrew Geddis discusses the ethics of the Nat candidate, Osborne, fronting yesterday’s announcement about the 10 Northland bridges funding from taxpayers’ funds when currently he is still a private citizen running as a candidate and not a current MP.

      Andrew also examines the 10 bridge proposal against the Northland regional plan which mentons only two of those 10 bridges in the plan and not as high priorities.

  8. les 8
    10 March 2015 at 8:24 am

    ‘Mr Key said National “unashamedly” wanted to win the byelection. He said it was standard practice to release policies during byelections, although he could not recall instances of National doing so in previous byelections.’.(nzh)…..he does it every day…!unbelievable.

    • logie97 8.1
      10 March 2015 at 8:39 am

      Wow. Look what Peters has achieved for Northland already and he is not even elected. A bevy of bridges to start with. Wonder what is next.

    • RedBaronCV 8.2
      10 March 2015 at 8:56 am

      But are the bridges a tainted gift. This is a gift that needs a hard look.

      The Nacts want bigger trucks on the roads so have kept at the state highway network widening roads and fixing bridges. I don’t think the Reginal councils have been the least bit interested in spending money to accomodate bigger trucks. So if Nact up grades these bridges is it really looking at putting bigger trucks on Northland’s roads and is this what voters want? Or are they being suckered?

      • veutoviper 8.2.1
        10 March 2015 at 9:18 am

        Adam at 7 above has provided a link to a post by Andrew Geddis at Pundit which is well worth reading.

        Andrew raises the ethics of a candidate (not an already elected MP so therefore still just a private citizen) fronting a government announcement such as that yesterday where Osborne fronted the bridge funding intentions.

        He then goes on to examine the 10 bridge proposals against the Northland regional plan currently under development where only two of the bridges are even mentioned in the plan.

        And this comment and photo from Sevy on Gower’s twitter feed last night is interesting if true …..

        https://twitter.com/graemeseverinse/status/574839853608652801

        Have just seen Marksman33’s comment at 9 below which is also very relevant and apparently from someone involved in Northland.

  9. Marksman33 9
    10 March 2015 at 9:22 am

    Tiger Mountain, as I said both those bridges are on the books. This is not New money being waved here, I should know, we have the Transit contract and the FNDC contract. Whether the bridges would have got the go ahead remains to be seen, although I will say there has been a lot of office johnny activity going onsite over the last year.
    As for Joe Carr, yep he’s a tory acolyte, and I don’t pay much attention to him, he just happens to be correct in this matter.
    Sorry dont have numbered reply on my cell.

  10. Marksman33 10
    10 March 2015 at 10:31 am

    Tracy, not that im aware of, but im just a pleb.

    Tracy, how many nat voters north of Kaitaia youa ask, well every farmer and his wife normally, the wealthy elite in Pukenui and the forestry block owners and most of the logging truck drivers I come across.

  11. hoom 11
    10 March 2015 at 10:45 am

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/67117104/call-for-kiwisaverstyle-health-cover
    Say bye bye to our Public Health sector from later this term or if not, then next term the Nacts are in power.

  12. Philip Ferguson 12
    10 March 2015 at 11:22 am

    Last month saw the death of Dick Morrison, one of the founders of the gay liberation movement in NZ, and like most of the other activists in the GLM at the time, a fervent anti-capitalist:
    https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/remembering-dick-morrison-marxist-and-gay-liberation-pioneer/

    Phil

  13. Pascals bookie 13
    10 March 2015 at 11:24 am

    I’m just going to leave this here:

    https://twitter.com/HDPA/status/575040205759119360

  14. veutoviper 14
    10 March 2015 at 11:25 am

    On a bit more serious note than some of my comments over the last day or so, this article by Audrey Young may have escaped your notice with everything else that has been happening.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/audrey-young/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501219&objectid=11414366

    Audrey has scored a small win in getting the PM’s office to produce and supply the transcripts of the PM’s post Cabinet press conferences via the Beehive website (www.beehive.govt.nz) – although these are not currently searchable, apparently.

    To date, recordings have been available via Scoop for example, but not actual transcripts.

    Audrey details the background to this small win, the excuses put up to date for not doing so, and the fact that she took the matter to the Ombudman (with this aspect still ongoing).

    What does it mean? It means that anyone will now be able to view what Key actually said, as opposed to what may have been reported in the media etc. Sometime different things. – in terms of actualy wordings, lack of context etc.

    • weka 14.1
      10 March 2015 at 2:08 pm

      wow.

      What I want to know now is what effort is required to make a PDF document non-searchable. I assume it’s not the default setting, that someone has had to intentionally alter the document to make it nonsearchable before uploading it to the govt website.

      http://www.beehive.govt.nz/feature/pms-beehive-press-conference

      Young, When I asked why the transcripts were not searchable, Sia said it was decided that making them searchable was the “safest” way to present them so they could not be “manipulated.”

      Unfuckingbelievable.

      • Hayden 14.1.1
        10 March 2015 at 10:30 pm

        They appear to have been printed then scanned as images, so they’re no longer text but pictures of text. It’s all a bit pointless, as you can just upload the PDF to Google Drive, then open it in Google Docs, wherein it’s all nicely OCR-d, then download it as a Word document containing the original images and the now searchable text. It takes about 3 minutes per document.

        • Colonial Rawshark 14.1.1.1
          10 March 2015 at 10:42 pm

          It’s all a bit pointless, as you can just upload the PDF to Google Drive, then open it in Google Docs, wherein it’s all nicely OCR-d,

          Nice tip.

          I like noting how the security and surveillance state has all these handy tools. Like auto-captioning in Youtube – they can take a recording of someone speaking and automatically turn it into a transcript.

          • Hayden 14.1.1.1.1
            10 March 2015 at 10:52 pm

            Speech recognition seems to be always on the cusp of working properly – I remember building something in VB6 in 1999 that used some fairly crude version of it.

            Anyway, someone should tell Sia that it takes her longer to make the PDFs unsearchable than it does to make them searchable again.

            • McFlock 14.1.1.1.1.1
              10 March 2015 at 11:05 pm

              lol

              You could even run it back through text to speech so you can not only search it, but listen to Stephen Hawking reading the transcript 🙂

  16. Clemgeopin 16
    10 March 2015 at 12:07 pm

    Watch a misogynist moron and his shameful behaviour (ironically on the day the world had dedicated as the ‘International Women’s Day’)

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/67169084/sexism-on-air-in-this-studio-i-run-the-show

  17. Gareth 17
    10 March 2015 at 1:30 pm

    Why do we still have daylight savings and how do we get rid of it?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br0NW9ufUUw

    • Bill 17.1
      10 March 2015 at 1:41 pm

      I’ve found that being unemployed with no visible clocks in the house helps…right up until I have an appointment to be somewhere 😉

    • Draco T Bastard 17.2
      10 March 2015 at 4:58 pm

      Don’t know but, despite the fact that everyone seems to hate the bloody thing, all that our governments have done is extend it.

  18. NZSage 18
    10 March 2015 at 2:45 pm

    There was a telling question to the PM in yesterdays press conference which appears to have been overlooked/ignored by MSM.

    The question was; “Would the government still abide by their promise to upgrade 10 Northland one-way bridges even if National lose the Northland bye-election?”

    The reposnse by Key was simply: “Yes”

    So there you have it Northland voters, you don’t have to vote National to get your bridges upgraded, it’s a set in stone promise by John Key and how could you not trust honest John?

  19. Penny Bright 19
    10 March 2015 at 3:35 pm

    FYI folks – just had a significant victory in the Auckland District Court today.

    Within 35 minutes, District Court Judge Harvey ‘set aside’ the ‘rates judgment debt’ upon which Auckland Council had been relying, in order to force the rating sale of my freehold property.

    The ‘Rates Statement’ upon which Auckland Council had been relying, as evidence of rates owed, had included legal fees, which are NOT rates.

    CLUNK – went Auckland Council’s case.

    I am now actively seeking the assistance of legal counsel competent in local government matters to help
    prepare a ‘Declaratory Judgment’ in the High Court to test the ‘validity’ of my rates assessment notices and rates invoices against the statutory requirements of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002.

    The painstaking ‘due diligence’ has been done.

    This will be QUITE a case – because – generically, my rates assessment notices and rates invoices are arguably the same as every other residential ratepayer in the Auckland region.

    Kind regards

    Penny Bright

  21. ScottGN 21
    10 March 2015 at 8:36 pm

    Why has the TVNZ website put up a picture of Andrew Little to accompany their piece about David Seymour’s pathetic attempt to refer Winston to the courts if he wins Northland without first resigning his NZ First List placing. There is nothing whatsoever in Katie Bradford’s piece which has any relevance to the Labour leader.

  22. Ergo Robertina 22
    10 March 2015 at 9:50 pm

    Britain’s Daily Mail has covered the story of Mathilda Crisp, the youngest known person in the world to be diagnosed with narcolepsy, which causes sufferers to suddenly fall asleep, as well as hallucinations and excruciating pain.
    Her Mum, who remains in favour of vaccines, says it was caused by the Pandemrix pandemic strain vaccine, which she received aged 3 in 2009, and this is a link that has now been accepted.
    Before 2011 this vaccine was given universally to those under 20 in Britain.
    Now, since the causal link can no longer be denied, the U.K Government has started to claim narcolepsy is not a proper disability anyway, so as to decline the compensation claim. Unbelievable!

    ”This wrangling has continued despite the fact the Government’s scientists admitted two years ago that the vaccine, Pandemrix, could cause narcolepsy, having previously denied any link. In a statistical investigation, published in the British Medical Journal, they found children given the vaccine were 14 times more likely to have developed narcolepsy than unvaccinated children.”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2987209/Did-swine-flu-jab-little-Mathilda-crippling-sleep-disorder.html

    • Colonial Rawshark 22.1
      10 March 2015 at 9:56 pm

      Yep sounds about right. Over blown threats, understated risks, plenty of unknowns. Pushed on the public anyway with minimal or no effort to obtain informed consent.

    • McFlock 22.2
      10 March 2015 at 10:46 pm

      Lawyer Peter Todd has been pursuing the cases with the Vaccines Damage Payment Scheme. ‘The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) initially refused our application because it would not accept there was a link between Pandemrix and narcolepsy,’ he says.

      This was before the publication of the BMJ study. ‘Now they are saying narcolepsy is not a severe disability and does not qualify for compensation.’

      I wonder if the tories have been screwing with the compensation system.

  23. The Murphey 23
    11 March 2015 at 4:21 pm

    http://www.humanheadline.com.au/hinch-says/shoot-the-messenger1

    We are still, despite several decades of campaigning, living in a world where we still ‘shoot the messenger’.

    His crime? He passed on damning information to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse which showed what a paedophile-protecting hypocrite Australia’s chief rabbi really was.

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

  • Stop the panic – we’ve been here before
    Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’.  ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    58 mins ago

  • Melissa Lee and the media: ending the quest
    Chris Trotter writes –  MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 hours ago

  • The Hoon around the week to April 19
    TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 hours ago

  • The ‘Humpty Dumpty’ end result of dismantling our environmental protections
    Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 hours ago

  • Nicola's Salad Days.
    I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 hours ago

  • Study sees climate change baking in 19% lower global income by 2050
    TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 hours ago

  • Weekly Roundup 19-April-2024
    It’s Friday again. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week on Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt covered at the government looking into a long tunnel for Wellington. On Wednesday we ran a post from Oscar Simms on some lessons from Texas. AT’s ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    5 hours ago

  • Jack Vowles: Stop the panic – we’ve been here before
    New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’.  The data is from February this ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    7 hours ago

  • Clearing up confusion (or trying to)
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    8 hours ago

  • How to Retrieve Deleted Call Log iPhone Without Computer
    How to Retrieve Deleted Call Log on iPhone Without a Computer: A Step–by–Step Guide Losing your iPhone call history can be frustrating, especially when you need to find a specific number or recall an important conversation. But before you panic, know that there are ways to retrieve deleted call logs on your iPhone, even without a computer. This guide will explore various methods, ranging from simple checks to utilizing iCloud backups and third–party applications. So, let‘s dive in and recover those lost calls! 1. Check Recently Deleted Folder: Apple understands that accidental deletions happen. That‘s why they introduced the “Recently Deleted“ folder for various apps, including the Phone app. This folder acts as a safety net, storing deleted call logs for up to 30 days before permanently erasing them. Here‘s how to check it: Open the Phone app on your iPhone. Tap on the “Recents“ tab at the bottom. Scroll to the top and tap on “Edit“. Select “Show Recently Deleted“. Browse the list to find the call logs you want to recover. Tap on the desired call log and choose “Recover“ to restore it to your call history. 2. Restore from iCloud Backup: If you regularly back up your iPhone to iCloud, you might be able to retrieve your deleted call log from a previous backup. However, keep in mind that this process will restore your entire phone to the state it was in at the time of the backup, potentially erasing any data added since then. Here‘s how to restore from an iCloud backup: Go to Settings > General > Reset. Choose “Erase All Content and Settings“. Follow the on–screen instructions. Your iPhone will restart and show the initial setup screen. Choose “Restore from iCloud Backup“ during the setup process. Select the relevant backup that contains your deleted call log. Wait for the restoration process to complete. 3. Explore Third–Party Apps (with Caution): ...
    Gareth’s WorldBy admin
    10 hours ago

  • How to Factory Reset iPhone without Computer: A Comprehensive Guide to Restoring your Device
    Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
    Gareth’s WorldBy admin
    17 hours ago

  • How to Call Someone on a Computer: A Guide to Voice and Video Communication in the Digital Age
    Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
    Gareth’s WorldBy admin
    17 hours ago

  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #16 2024
    Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications: Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
    Skeptical Science
    18 hours ago

  • Where on a Computer is the Operating System Generally Stored? Delving into the Digital Home of your ...
    The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
    Gareth’s WorldBy admin
    18 hours ago

  • How Many Watts Does a Laptop Use? Understanding Power Consumption and Efficiency
    Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
    Gareth’s WorldBy admin
    18 hours ago

  • How to Screen Record on a Dell Laptop A Guide to Capturing Your Screen with Ease
    Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
    Gareth’s WorldBy admin
    18 hours ago

  • How Much Does it Cost to Fix a Laptop Screen? Navigating Repair Options and Costs
    A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
    Gareth’s WorldBy admin
    18 hours ago

  • How Long Do Gaming Laptops Last? Demystifying Lifespan and Maximizing Longevity
    Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
    Gareth’s WorldBy admin
    18 hours ago

  • Climate Change: Turning the tide
    The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    19 hours ago

  • How to Unlock Your Computer A Comprehensive Guide to Regaining Access
    Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
    Gareth’s WorldBy admin
    20 hours ago

  • Faxing from Your Computer A Modern Guide to Sending Documents Digitally
    While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
    Gareth’s WorldBy admin
    21 hours ago

  • Protecting Your Home Computer A Guide to Cyber Awareness
    In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
    Gareth’s WorldBy admin
    21 hours ago

  • Server-Based Computing Powering the Modern Digital Landscape
    In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
    Gareth’s WorldBy admin
    21 hours ago

  • Vroom vroom go the big red trucks
    The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    21 hours ago

  • Jones finds $410,000 to help the government muscle in on a spat project
    Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    22 hours ago

  • Again, hate crimes are not necessarily terrorism.
    Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    1 day ago

  • Despair – construction consenting edition
    Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago

  • Coalition promises – will the Govt keep the commitment to keep Kiwis equal before the law?
    Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago

  • An impermanent public service is a guarantee of very little else but failure
    Chris Trotter writes –  The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago

  • What happens after the war – Mariupol
    Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
    Open ParachuteBy Ken
    1 day ago

  • Babies and benefits – no good news
    Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three.  ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago

  • Should the RBNZ be looking through climate inflation?
    Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago

  • Bernard's pick 'n' mix of the news links
    The top six news links I’ve seen elsewhere in the last 24 hours, as of 9:16 am on Thursday, April 18 are:Housing: Tauranga residents living in boats, vans RNZ Checkpoint Louise TernouthHousing: Waikato councillor says wastewater plant issues could hold up Sleepyhead building a massive company town Waikato Times Stephen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago

  • Gordon Campbell on the public sector carnage, and misogyny as terrorism
    It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    1 day ago

  • Meeting the Master Baiters
    Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    1 day ago

  • How extreme was the Earth's temperature in 2023
    This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blog In 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 day ago

  • Backbone, revisited
    The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago

  • Ministers are not above the law
    Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 days ago

  • What’s the outfit you can hear going down the gurgler? Probably it’s David Parker’s Oceans Sec...
    Buzz from the Beehive Point  of Order first heard of the Oceans Secretariat in June 2021, when David Parker (remember him?) announced a multi-agency approach to protecting New Zealand’s marine ecosystems and fisheries. Parker (holding the Environment, and Oceans and Fisheries portfolios) broke the news at the annual Forest & ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 days ago

  • Will politicians let democracy die in the darkness?
    Bryce Edwards writes  – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago

  • Matt Doocey doubles down on trans “healthcare”
    Citizen Science writes –  Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago

  • A TikTok Prime Minister.
    One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago

  • Texas Lessons
    This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    2 days ago

  • Bernard's pick 'n' mix of the news links at 6:06 am
    The top six news links I’ve seen elsewhere in the last 24 hours as of 6:06 am on Wednesday, April 17 are:Must read: Secrecy shrouds which projects might be fast-tracked RNZ Farah HancockScoop: Revealed: Luxon has seven staffers working on social media content - partly paid for by taxpayer Newshub ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago

  • Fighting poverty on the holiday highway
    Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago

  • Bernard's six-stack of substacks at 6:26 pm
    Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago

  • At a glance – Is the science settled?
    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 ...
    Skeptical Science
    3 days ago

  • Apposite Quotations.
    How Long Is Long Enough? Gaza under Israeli bombardment, July 2014. This posting is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
    Bowalley Road
    3 days ago

  • What’s a life worth now?
    You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago

  • Howling at the Moon
    Karl du Fresne writes –  There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago

  • Newshub is Dead.
    I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago

  • Seymour is chuffed about cutting early-learning red tape – but we hear, too, that Jones has loose...
    Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago

  • Bryce Edwards: Will politicians let democracy die in the darkness?
    Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago

  • Was Hawkesby entirely wrong?
    David Farrar  writes –  The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago

  • PRC shadow looms as the Solomons head for election
    PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time. A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago

  • Climate Change: Criminal ecocide
    We are in the middle of a climate crisis. Last year was (again) the hottest year on record. NOAA has just announced another global coral bleaching event. Floods are threatening UK food security. So naturally, Shane Jones wants to make it easier to mine coal: Resources Minister Shane Jones ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago

  • Is saving one minute of a politician's time worth nearly $1 billion?
    Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago

  • Long Tunnel or Long Con?
    Yesterday it was revealed that Transport Minister had asked Waka Kotahi to look at the options for a long tunnel through Wellington. State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    3 days ago

  • Smoke And Mirrors.
    You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago

  • What is Mexico doing about climate change?
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
    Skeptical Science
    3 days ago

  • State of humanity, 2024
    2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago

  • Govt’s Wellington tunnel vision aims to ease the way to the airport (but zealous promoters of cycl...
    Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago

  • The case for cultural connectedness
    A recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi Māori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Useful context on public sector job cuts
    David Farrar writes –    The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated.   While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell On When Racism Comes Disguised As Anti-racism
    Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    4 days ago

  • Govt ignored economic analysis of smokefree reversal
    Costello did not pass on analysis of the benefits of the smokefree reforms to Cabinet, emphasising instead the extra tax revenues of repealing them. Photo: Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 7:26 am today are:The Lead: Casey Costello never passed on ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago

  • True Blue.
    True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago

  • Who is running New Zealand’s foreign policy?
    While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    4 days ago

  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #15
    A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 7, 2024 thru Sat, April 13, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week is about adults in the room setting terms and conditions of ...
    Skeptical Science
    5 days ago

  • Feline Friends and Fragile Fauna The Complexities of Cats in New Zealand’s Conservation Efforts

    Cats, with their independent spirit and beguiling purrs, have captured the hearts of humans for millennia. In New Zealand, felines are no exception, boasting the highest national cat ownership rate globally [definition cat nz cat foundation]. An estimated 1.134 million pet cats grace Kiwi households, compared to 683,000 dogs ...

    Gareth’s WorldBy admin
    5 days ago

  • Or is that just they want us to think?
    Nice guy, that Peter Williams. Amiable, a calm air of no-nonsense capability, a winning smile. Everything you look for in a TV presenter and newsreader.I used to see him sometimes when I went to TVNZ to be a talking head or a panellist and we would yarn. Nice guy, that ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • Fact Brief – Did global warming stop in 1998?
    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. Did global warming stop in ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago

  • Arguing over a moot point.
    I have been following recent debates in the corporate and social media about whether it is a good idea for NZ to join what is known as “AUKUS Pillar Two.” AUKUS is the Australian-UK-US nuclear submarine building agreement in which … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    6 days ago

  • No Longer Trusted: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    Turning Point: “What has turned me away from the mainstream news media is the very strong message that its been sending out for the last few years.” “And what message might that be?” “That the people who own it, the people who run it, and the people who provide its content, really don’t ...
    Bowalley Road
    6 days ago

  • Mortgage rates at 10% anyone?
    No – nothing about that in PM Luxon’s nine-point plan to improve the lives of New Zealanders. But beyond our shores Jamie Dimon, the long-serving head of global bank J.P. Morgan Chase, reckons that the chances of a goldilocks soft landing for the economy are “a lot lower” than the ...
    Point of OrderBy xtrdnry
    6 days ago

  • Anzac commemorations, Türkiye relationship focus of visit
    Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul.    “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 hour ago

  • Minister to Europe for OECD meeting, Anzac Day
    Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 hours ago

  • Comprehensive Partnership the goal for NZ and the Philippines
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.  The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    15 hours ago

  • Government commits $20m to Westport flood protection
    The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    20 hours ago

  • Taupō takes pole position
    The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    22 hours ago

  • Cost of living support for low-income homeowners
    Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners.  “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    23 hours ago

  • Government backing mussel spat project
    The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago

  • Government focused on getting people into work
    Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago

  • Clean energy key driver to reducing emissions
    The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago

  • Earthquake-prone buildings review brought forward
    The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago

  • Thailand and NZ to agree to Strategic Partnership
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Government consults on extending coastal permits for ports
    RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Inflation coming down, but more work to do
    Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • School attendance restored as a priority in health advice
    Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Unnecessary bureaucracy cut in oceans sector
    Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Patterson promoting NZ’s wool sector at International Congress
    Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector.    "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Removing red tape to help early learners thrive
    The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • RMA changes to cut coal mining consent red tape
    Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • McClay reaffirms strong NZ-China trade relationship
    Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Prime Minister Luxon acknowledges legacy of Singapore Prime Minister Lee
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.   Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • PMs Luxon and Lee deepen Singapore-NZ ties
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.  During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Antarctica New Zealand Board appointments
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner.  The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Finance Minister travels to Washington DC
    Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.  “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Pet bonds a win/win for renters and landlords
    The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Long Tunnel for SH1 Wellington being considered
    State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • New Zealand condemns Iranian strikes
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel.    “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says.    "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Huge interest in Government’s infrastructure plans
    Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago

  • Health Minister thanks outgoing Health New Zealand Chair
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board.   “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti.  “I have asked her to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago

  • Roads of National Significance planning underway
    The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.  “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Navigating an unstable global environment
    New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.   “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States.    “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • NZ welcomes Australian Governor-General
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Pseudoephedrine back on shelves for Winter
    Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • NZ and the US: an ever closer partnership
    New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.    “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Joint US and NZ declaration
    April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • NZ and US to undertake further practical Pacific cooperation
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research.   “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Government redress for Te Korowai o Wainuiārua
    The Government is continuing the bipartisan effort to restore its relationship with iwi as the Te Korowai o Wainuiārua Claims Settlement Bill passed its first reading in Parliament today, says Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith. “Historical grievances of Te Korowai o Wainuiārua relate to 19th century warfare, land purchased or taken ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Focus on outstanding minerals permit applications
    New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals is working to resolve almost 150 outstanding minerals permit applications by the end of the financial year, enabling valuable mining activity and signalling to the sector that New Zealand is open for business, Resources Minister Shane Jones says.  “While there are no set timeframes for ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Applications open for NZ-Ireland Research Call
    The New Zealand and Irish governments have today announced that applications for the 2024 New Zealand-Ireland Joint Research Call on Agriculture and Climate Change are now open. This is the third research call in the three-year Joint Research Initiative pilot launched in 2022 by the Ministry for Primary Industries and Ireland’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Tenancy rules changes to improve rental market
    The coalition Government has today announced changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to encourage landlords back to the rental property market, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “The previous Government waged a war on landlords. Many landlords told us this caused them to exit the rental market altogether. It caused worse ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Boosting NZ’s trade and agricultural relationship with China
    Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay will visit China next week, to strengthen relationships, support Kiwi exporters and promote New Zealand businesses on the world stage. “China is one of New Zealand’s most significant trade and economic relationships and remains an important destination for New Zealand’s products, accounting for nearly 22 per cent of our good and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

Page generated in The Standard by Wordpress at 2024-04-19T01:11:50+00:00