Andrea Vance speculates on the new left/right balance persisting until the election:
With ACT firmly married to National, and the Greens wed to Labour, NZ First and Te Pāti Māori are now in play. Both sit on two per cent in the poll… The poll indicates a sea change. And a rising tide of Māori voters could decide the future government.
A common thread in Peters most recent press releases is co-governance (the arrangement for negotiated decision-making between iwi and other Māori organisations and central government). He argues Labour has no mandate for the policies… Suspicion about a separatist government Māori agenda has been growing since the emergence of the He Puapua report, and galvanised by opposition to plans to overhaul how the country’s three waters services are managed.
Could Peters use this as leverage to perform another Houdini act? Given Labour's timidity in framing co-governance to the media & public, I suspect their answer would be yes. And I reckon they'd be right. Vance points out he just needs some such "wedge issue" and it is indeed a godalmighty wedge.
Expect Luxon's advisors to spot this. They'll be dead keen to stop Winston pulling 3% more out of the Nat support base, so we'll see Luxon adopting the Peters line.
However the crucial action will probably occur within the Maori vote. At 16% of the populace – say half that is voting age – yet the MP pulls only 2% currently. I'd therefore guess Labour's Maori cabal got 6% last election.
Where that 6% go will therefore decide the next election. Labour's timidity on co-governance is therefore the hinge. If they cave, and abandon support for the Maori cabal agenda, Willie & co will start to wonder if there's any point staying with Labour.
If their disgust with Labour pakeha betrayal got sufficiently strong, they'll look at jumping ship. To the MP probably – unless Winston is smart enough to have already sussed the scenario & shifted into behind the scenes negotiating. If they jump prior to the election, it's bye-bye Labour…
However, the MP vote (if it eventuates) is going to be almost entirely pulled from Labour (the GP don't poll significantly well in the Maori seats – and National has no numbers to lose, here).
That's numbers on paper – some of the Labour MPs have a very tight tribal lock on their seats – I wouldn't expect Mahuta or Tirikatene to be voted out – they're effectively endorsed by the iwi leadership.
There would have to be an enormous swing against Labour (something like the seabed and foreshore issue) for Labour to lose those 2 seats.
MP have made it fairly clear that they have nothing in common with National – so Labour is the only game in town for coalition.
In addition, if the MP start to poll around 5%+ – or start to look as though they'll pull in 5 or so seats from Labour, and it's looking like a Labour/Green/MP government – I'd expect to see some of the soft centrist Labour vote, start to shift to National – as they're spooked by what looks like a radical agenda.
They'd shift to a centrist party (which is what Winston portrayed NZ First as) – but they're unlikely to trust Winston again (though never, say never, with that wily fox) – and, without him, there is currently no centrist party. So, if they're spooked, it's National or nothing.
It looks to me that it is the pakeha population who feels hoodwinked and will vote accordingly. No one begrudges Maori their culture and status, but perusing an agenda no one has voted for via a back door and lying about it (yes lying) coupled with the not so flash stewardship of the economy will have consequences. The former also destroys any trust in the Maori Party if they show to be part of this tactical manoeuvre. I know these are strong words in a society that is more and more muzzled, but I pledge free speech. On the issue of inflation, which is the consequence of more than one event but created by external as well as internal factors, it will see the majority falling into income brackets that essentially set them back 10 years. This measured against pricing for food, fuel, electricity, rates, rents etc. will have a huge bearing on the next vote. When the PM sees this as a "plip" in the road to push the party agenda through, then the phrase "let them eat cake" is not far from the mind. Everybody living here has a right to be able to survive and thrive without losing their basic human rights because they disagree with the powers to be. Those tribal games, those divide and conquer games have to end. There is a need for a sound and measured approach, coherent solutions economically, environmentally and in societal context clearly spelled out and put on the table. Still waiting for a party to show its hand and a vision for all NZlanders without constantly going back to school yard bully behaviour.
If nothing changes, the young professionals will leave the country for greener pastures in great numbers. The writing is already on the wall.
''If nothing changes, the young professionals will leave the country for greener pastures in great numbers. The writing is already on the wall.''
Agree. That is a given. The numbers leaving may be the new 1pm news briefing once Covid numbers are no longer reported.
I recently stopped outside a closed cafe. The sign in the window said they may be able to reopen if the following positions are filled:
2) Chefs
2) Baristas
3) service staff.
Where have the previous employees gone? My guess is they are taking a paid break courtesy of the government before heading overseas. And if that's true, the situation with professionals must be worse given the big money on offer just across the ditch.
Look, employers can have whatever staff they want if they're prepared to do a bit of honest hard work.
They can't just expect opportunities to fall into their lap, they have to get out there and create them. Really sell themselves as an employer. Put themselves out there.
I wonder if they've tried networking functions? Word of mouth advertising can do wonders.
Maybe they could try finding savings elsewhere in their business, which they can then put towards really getting the staff they want?
If they put their head down and work hard and keep a good attitude, rewards will come.
Nobody want to hear it, but if they'd made better personal choices in the past, they wouldn't be in this position now. Rather than whinging or demanding that government fix their problem for them, how about some personal responsibility?
I was once on an interview panel 20 years ago, so I've done the hard yards, too. The problem with this generation of employers is that they just expect everything to be handed to them.
Blade – Yep, because it is a badge of honor to milk the system. How many times I have seen and experienced this is not even funny anymore. It really is difficult to be confronted with such attitude but this is true everywhere. A emigrant might go to a different country but their attitude travels with them.
However, at the same time there are many of the younger folks that feel shafted when they paid for their education and all the can land is a minimum pay job. There is a disconnect between the promise made to these graduates, i.e. if you get this degree or that, it is an opportunity and pays really well etc., vs what the market actually need and demands and will provide. So they are getting impatient and frustrated and look further afield for getting ahead. This is, and lets not forget this, a created instant gratification society. Be kind sometimes works, sometimes it will just create a bigger issue.
Nikolai Patrushev is currently the secretary of Russia’s Security Council.
Patrushev graduated from the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute with a diploma in engineering, a certification he shares with Russia’s current chiefs of the state security and intelligence services: Alexander Bortnikov, director of the FSB, and Sergey Naryshkin, director of the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service. Was it a great loss to Soviet engineering that they all became KGB officers? Their motivation is not difficult to explain — becoming a KGB officer was a ticket to a privileged lifestyle in the Soviet system.
Oleg Kalugin, a naturalized U.S. citizen and former KGB general-turned-critic, was once well acquainted with Patrushev. “I knew him really well for a long time. He was my assistant in Leningrad,” Kalugin said in a 2012 interview with Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gordon. “He was different from other KGB officers in that he never blindly followed the orders of his superiors.” According to Kalugin, Patrushev approached his work with a kind of “humanitarian concern” for everybody involved. He was not a rigid enforcer of Communist rules.
In his memoir “Spymaster: My Thirty-Two Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West,” Kalugin included a story involving Patrushev. When one of the Communist Party bosses in Leningrad accused a certain individual of “anti-Soviet agitation” and demanded that the KGB put him under surveillance, Kalugin recounted how he advised Patrushev: “Why don’t you invite [this individual] to your office, talk to him, and point out his errors and inconsistencies? Tell him to be careful. That way we can close the case without an arrest.” Patrushev complied, unafraid of bending KGB standard operating procedures. Kalugin was pleased that his advice was followed and that the individual avoided potentially devastating consequences for speaking his mind.
That Patrushev was not a dogmatic Communist may come down to his strong religious beliefs. Much later, when he became the director of the FSB, he was instrumental in supporting the renovation and reconsecration of Sophia, the Wisdom of God Orthodox Church, which is next to the FSB Lubyanka headquarters. It is said that before embarking on special missions, many FSB officers would stop in this church to say their prayers. Patrushev also proudly supported the construction of the statue of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker near one of Russia’s northernmost border posts on the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arkhangelsk region.
The west has long used St. Nicholas the Santa, of course. But all we ever get from him is yet more capitalist crap. So here's an opportunity to use lateral thinking in the foreign policy of Aotearoa. We can advise the Russians that we'll do a switch to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker if they can provide a sufficiently impressive list of wonders that he worked.
The world needs wonderworkers (climate change etc) so we can alert the Russian regime to the potential for using their St Nick as an avatar for combining positive thinking with magic to shift mass consciousness. Since it seems obvious that they haven't spotted the potential for global influence already, I mean. They need our help.
Really! Can’t see it, same old same old one eyed drivel of little substance. No mention how the Ukraine situation could have been avoided had the deaf ears of the UN addressed the concerns voiced many times by Russia regarding NATO’s expansionism and the dire plight of the Donbas peoples being constantly bombarded by factions of the Ukrainian army since 2014 with huge civilian casualties. So the one eyed view of Mr Freedman counts for FA
You do know that this is not really set as context in the news media. This war uses phrases to manipulate on an emotional level and the rhetoric of the President of Ukraine has changed from "help us defend ourselves" to " Mr Zelensky said Western nations – and nearby Europe in particular – must go further and "act without delay"." Act in what way? All the sanctions are in place, Russia is cut off and Europe is to become the battle field for who exactly?
The whole of Europe has signed agreements after the WW2 that would prevent such scenario. If they would intervene in a military way, WW3 is on. Do people understand how dangerous the situation is?
It certainly would have been a proper 'war zone' if foolish Labour Ministers that didn't know the law had brought the Army in like they and many on the left were calling for.
A children's slide some new grass and two minor fires, compared to a legislated loss of liberty supposed to gain a civic trade that hasn't prevented 300,000+ current infections and 100+ deaths.
The Police Officer overstated the situation obviously but it was probably the most dramatic, confused and potentially violent situation they had ever encountered – they obviously didn't experience the 81 tour protests or the Queen Street riot (too young)
The Police Officer overstated the situation obviously
Erh, your hat isn't your keyboard, best not to talk through it unless you were there? That officer's description matched what I saw on the live streams only too starkly. We have no right to dismiss someone's direct experience if we haven't shared it or been through something similar.
Would you dream of saying Ukranian refugees are overstating their situation?
In the Ukraine it's a war zone – blown up hospitals, shelled apartment buildings, blown up bridges, dead bodies ,smoking ruined Tanks and Infantry Fighting Vehicles, murdered civilians and raped women that is a fucking war zone not that pissant riot in Wellington.
No I wouldn't say Ukrainian refugees are overstating their situation at all. They are in a war zone.
To inflate what happened in Wellington by claiming or supporting claims it was a war zone is pretty bloody obscene when we are seeing firsthand what a real war zone is.
I agree Matiri. When you compare his words to what we actually saw happening in real time, I don't think he overstated the case at all. It was an horrific scene and astonishing no-one was killed. I saw one cop with a shield being trampled underfoot by a bunch of thugs. I didn't think he was going to come out of it alive. Maybe he was the cop who wrote this story.
thousands dead in the Ukraine get a sense of proportion
Bricks are not artillery shells metal poles are not cruise missiles a piece of 2 by 4 is not an Infantry Fighting Vehicle to suggest that Wellington and the Ukraine are/were both war zones is damned offensive.
I never used the expression “war-zone” nor suggested any such comparison so why aim your brickbats at me. Its only you who is making the comparison about two totally different and unrelated events.
Agreed – I apologise I lost it a bit after JO's effort at 4.2.1 the linked article said the officer said it was a 'war zone' which I found enraging. I misdirected my ire to you and I am sorry for doing that.
ACT outflanks Labour on the left, advocating practical socialism:
Act leader David Seymour said they would fund this from Emissions Trading Scheme revenue. That is what companies pay in order to emit carbon into the atmosphere. Seymour said it is about $1 billion a year, and instead of going into what he calls the government's climate slush fund, it could be distributed to everyone.
"Act says, at a time like this, we should return carbon tax revenue to those struggling with high prices" Seymour said in a statement.
What a pity National didn't have the foresight to suggest this. Putting a policy like that in tandem with tax cuts would have been a big vote catcher in my opinion.
I doubt Labour would implement such a policy, given it targets everyone, even white folk finding it hard to keep the Audi running.
The Right is going to need something to counter the trinkets Robbo Hood will proffer to voters over the next two budgets. In fact, if Labours fortunes keep trending down, Robbo may become more important to Labour’s chances of survival than Jacinda.
It remains to be seen whether the PM rediscovers her mojo. Your prediction came true rather promptly, eh? I'd made similar prognostications in prior months so wasn't totally surprised.
Re Grant, expect a careful balancing act with the numbers matched with spending priorities I guess. A semblance of caring for the poor sufficient to fool enough voters, to mask the lack of substance thereof.
The main thing about the poll was floating voters underwhelmed by Labour's dropping of the ball. Labour are the kind of shallow thinkers who reckon pandemic fixation is a valid excuse for non-delivery. Too many opinion leaders in the community know better. Therefore the PM must get back into the saddle. The wrong conclusion to draw from the poll is floating voters rewarding National for performance. Ain't none of that happening.
Banal at the time. Will he ever live that down? However he's a thoughtful chappie & usually worth a read. I own several of his books & have even read them.
I'm impressed that he's with the ever-growing body of opinion that predicts Putin to become a loser. A cautionary note: nobody with a track record of military expertise seems to have entered the public arena with the same opinion yet.
When I was watching the first Gulf War on CNN (we had it piped into our monitors in the TVNZ newsroom despite it being unavailable here on broadcast tv) I always appreciated the expert opinions of the top military analysts they interviewed as operation Desert Storm proceeded. None of that happening now – dunno why.
That makes sense to me. Hope he is right with his prognostications.
No 7.
Putin will not survive the defeat of his army. He gets support because he is perceived to be a strongman; what does he have to offer once he demonstrates incompetence and is stripped of his coercive power?
As the writer points out later and I paraphrase: the days of the "strongman" leaders around the world will be numbered.
The middle of a war is probably not the best time to purge the upper ranks of your intelligence services. But hey, he's an ex KGB guy so I guess he knows a fair bit about purges..
A Russian spy chief and his deputy have been placed under house arrest by Vladmir Putin as the president blames his security services for the resistance met in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it has been claimed.
According to a leading expert on the Russian security services, Sergey Beseda, head of the FSB’s foreign intelligence branch, was arrested along with his deputy, Anatoly Bolyukh.
Andrei Soldatov, who is co-founder and editor of Agentura- a watchdog of the Russian secret services’ activities – revealed that sources inside the FSB have confirmed the detention of both men.
The arrests were further corroborated by Vladimir Osechkin, an exiled Russian human rights activist who also added that the FSB officers had carried out searches at over 20 addresses in Moscow of colleagues suspected to be speaking with journalists.
"Since he became President, Putin has cast himself as the true defender of Christians throughout the world, the leader of the Third Rome. His relentless bombing of ISIS, for example, was cast as the defence of the historic homeland of Christianity. And he will typically use faith as a way to knock the West, like he did in this speech in 2013:
“We see many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually rejecting their roots, including the Christian values that constitute the basis of Western civilisation. They are denying moral principles and all traditional identities: national, cultural, religious and even sexual. They are implementing policies that equate large families with same-sex partnerships, belief in God with the belief in Satan.”
Putin regards his spiritual destiny as the rebuilding of Christendom, based in Moscow. "
Putin's perception that the west are "implementing policies that equate large families with same-sex partnerships, belief in God with the belief in Satan" seems a tad extreme and would likely fail the test of evidence.
It would have been better for him to quote orthodox christian doctrine on these two points, eh? To prove there is a substantial difference, I mean.
Satan, also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood.
In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to Yahweh, typically regarded as a metaphor for the yetzer hara, or "evil inclination." In Christianity and Islam, he is usually seen as a fallen angel or jinn who has rebelled against God, who nevertheless allows him temporary power over the fallen world and a host of demons.
Why did god allocate this entity a place of high status in his righteous scheme? You'd have to ask a theologian. Don't ask more than one, since none of them agree with each other on the fundamentals & you'll only get confused!
My guess is that god created this entity for his own purposes (which remain mysterious) but I have to admit I borrowed this rationale from some ancient theologian. Then you get this:
first appears in the Hebrew Bible as a heavenly prosecutor, subordinate to Yahweh (God), who prosecutes the nation of Judah in the heavenly court
So the baddie operated on god's behalf in administering divine justice. And his target was a nation of baddies (the jews). Confused yet?
So Putin's theological critique amounts to the west equating god with god's justice administrator. This is indeed a grievous error. I can see why it bothered him.
Just found this in a book of quotes. "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That keyis Russian national interest." From Winston Churchill, October 1939. Would seem to be relevant right now !
Well, if Putin fails and the longed for American dream of regime change occurs in Russia, I hope that it is the 2nd most popular party (by far) that gets the nod from the Russian voters, that party of course is the Communist Party. That regime change probably is not the one NATO or any of the western nations want though, lol and boohoo.
"Thinking about both sexes when designing research experiments will soon be the default for grant applications. And here’s how your research could benefit.
Women represent about 50.6% of the UK population and there are sex differences in the prevalence and severity of most diseases and conditions, as well as responses to drugs and therapies.
Therefore, there are many reasons why studying male and female animals is important in pre-clinical research.
Making both sexes the default
The Medical Research Council (MRC) will soon require that sex be considered as part of the experimental plans of grant applications that involve:
animals
human or animal-derived cells or tissues.
Both sexes should be used as a default unless a robust justification is given. MRC will fund these studies if they are robustly designed, regardless of any increase in costs.
To be clear, I refer here to ‘sex’ which is defined by a set of biological attributes, as opposed to gender, which is a societal construct. Animals do not have a gender.
Sex differences can impact metabolism of drugs and hormones, and non-specific effects of drugs and their side-effects. In addition, every cell has a sex and male and female cells have different characteristics and responses to experimental conditions."
Will be interesting to see if UKRI respond, and what the story is.
The puppet selected and installed by an occupying force isn't the mayor, he's a collaborator.
The Zaporozhye regional administration says a new mayor has been installed in the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, which is under Russian military control, after the elected mayor was detained on Friday
Mayor Ivan Federov, who is an ethnic Russian, had encouraged recent demonstrations in Melitopol against Russia.
Disappearances are stock in trade for fascist regimes. So asking where the Mayor of Melitopol has been taken is no small question. If they can disappear a Mayor, they can do it to anyone. Protesters, political activists, journalists are all under threat of being disappeared.
Where is the Mayor of Melitopol being held?
Has he been allowed to use a phone?
What are the charges against him?
What has be been accused of?
Where's the evidence?
Is he alive?
Thousands protest in Melitopol after Russian forces reportedly abduct mayor with a hood over his head
…..Large crowds gathered in the southern port of Melitopol on Saturday to protest the alleged abduction of the city’s mayor, Ivan Fedorov, by Russian troops, an act that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described as “a crime against democracy.”
….Russia has accused Fedorov of “terrorist activities,” according to the Associated Press. The prosecutor’s office of the Luhansk People’s Republic, a Moscow-backed rebel region in eastern Ukraine, has claimed without presenting evidence that Fedorov was financing the nationalist militia Right Sector to “commit terrorist crimes against Donbas civilians.”
…..The mayor’s alleged abduction prompted roughly 2,000 people on Saturday to protest outside the city hall building occupied by Russian forces, Zelensky said. Bundled-up against the cold, protesters in Melitopol chanted for Fedorov’s release.
“Bring back the mayor! Bring back the mayor!” they chanted. “Freedom to the mayor! Freedom to the mayor!”
…..As residents took to the streets of Melitopol last weekend to wave the blue and gold colors of Ukraine, Fedorov encouraged the demonstrations, even amid the Russian occupation.
“Together we will overcome anything!” he wrote in a Facebook post that has since been made private.
….Even as Russian forces aimed to shut down Saturday’s protest, Zelensky reiterated to reporters that he was “grateful to every Melitopol resident for this resistance” by demonstrating in response to the alleged abduction of Fedorov. He also suggested to Putin that the war is unpopular among Russians.
“Do you hear it, Moscow?” he asked. “If 2,000 people are protesting against the occupation in Melitopol, how many people should be in Moscow against the war?”
Many commentators have compared this war to Germany's invasion of Poland. I compare it to the American invasion of Vietnam.
It can be argued that the war in Vietnam was won and lost in America.
The Vietnam war was notable as being the first ever televised war.
All the Vietnamese had to do was keep fighting. The longer the war went on the more the objections and protests in America grew.
In Ukraine's asymmetric war gainst Russia, Ukraine has advantages the Vietnamese didn't, they speak the same language, they are nearby not thousands of miles away. And last of all they have the internet, live streaming all the crimes of the aggressor nation.
Putin has tried to impose and electronic Iron Curtain to stop Russians seeing the live stream of Russian war crimes in the Ukraine The original Iron Curtain lasted 4 decades, the new electronic lasted four days before it was breached.
The longer the Ukraine resists the more the resistance to war will grow in Russia.
The end result is inevitable. A humiliating defeat for Russia.
One big difference between the Vietnam war and the Ukraine war. will be that when Russia is defeated by Ukraine, there will be Nuremberg style court hearings to of Russians identified as having committed war crimes. Including the disappearances and murder of civilian leaders political activists and journalists.
“The fact of the abduction of the Mayor of Melitopol, along with hundreds of other facts of war crimes by Russian occupiers on the Ukrainian soil, are being carefully documented by law enforcement agencies. The perpetrators of this and other crimes will be brought to the strictest responsibility,” the ministry said in a Facebook post.
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Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Where some saw the worst press conference given by the government to date, Anna Rawhiti-Connell recognised girl maths game.Nicola Willis, recently exasperated by comparisons to Ruth Richardson, said she was “a bit sick of being compared with every female finance minister that’s ever been out there.”Some think that’s ...
The March results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2023 (HYEFU 2023), published on 20 December 2023 and the results for the same period for the previous year. ...
Jamie Arbuckle, the district councillor who became an MP but decided to keep getting paid for both roles, will instead donate one salary to charity. ...
Adding gender to the Human Rights Act would simply make the implicit explicit. So why is it so controversial? Paul Thistoll explain. At present, Aotearoa’s 1993 Human Rights Act (HRA) includes sex, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief (meaning a lack of religious belief), colour, race, ethnicity or national origin, ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, an 18-year-old who’s studying and working in hospo shares their approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Transmasc Age: 18 Ethnicity: Pākehā/Māori Role: Student, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Resources Minister Shane Jones has reportedly asked officials for advice on whether oil and gas companies could be offered “bonds” as compensation if drilling rights offered by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Gleeson, Associate Professor of Law, Macquarie University Shutterstock The Albanese government is weighing up the costs of delivering an election promise to protect religious people from discrimination in Commonwealth law. Such protections were relatively uncontroversial when included in state anti-discrimination ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yen Ying Lim, Associate Professor, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio Dementia is often described as “the long goodbye”. Although the person is still alive, dementia slowly and irreversibly chips away at their memories and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judy Bush, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne Adam Calaitzis/Shutterstock I met with a friend for a walk beside Merri Creek, in inner Melbourne. She had lived in the area for a few years, and as we walked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Throsby, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Macquarie University Arts companies and individual artists in Australia are supported by government arts agencies, philanthropists, industry bodies, private donors and patrons. However, it is frequently overlooked that a major source of support for the arts ...
Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa, a new incorporated society dedicated to ending harmful drug policies, officially launched today, seeks a new fit-for-purpose drug law for Aotearoa New Zealand, rooted in science, experience and evidence. ...
The Corrections Minister admits he "muddied the water" after he and the Prime Minister repeatedly provided incorrect information about a $1.9 billion prison spend-up. ...
It took a post-post-cabinet statement to confirm that 810 new beds will be built at Waikeria, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Lili Tokaduadua was only 15 when she left her family in Fiji to pursue her netball dream in New Zealand. She’d been playing the sport for 10 years and was offered a netball scholarship at Auckland’s Howick College. Now, in her first year out of high school, the 19-year-old defender ...
The beloved local grocers lost a legal challenge to stop a new cycleway outside their store. Joel MacManus reports. In the annals of New Zealand legal history, there are a few brave people who have dared to stand up to the powers that be, no matter how bleak the odds ...
How what we produce and what we eat connects us to the world beyond our shores, visualised. Walking around a supermarket or vege shop, it might be obvious that everything on the shelves came from somewhere. But you might ...
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The following interview with auto electrician and former caver Stu Berendt, 68, of Charleston on the West Coast, came about because he was part of the caving team that found the rare and amazing fossil remains of the giant Haast eagle, the subject of one of the year’s best books, ...
A $1.8b funding boost for Pharmac still won’t enable it to buy more drugs, raising questions about the Government’s approach to the agency The post Can Pharmac do more with the same pot of money? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Professor Jemma Geoghegan, of the University of Otago, Otakou Whakaihu Waka, co-leads a Te Niwha project aimed at understanding how and where avian influenza could affect Aotearoa New Zealand, as the highly infectious H5N1 virus spreads globally. The virus has now spread to all continents except Oceania and was recently ...
Thirty years on from Rwanda’s genocide, is guilt over the atrocities is blinding the world to the true nature of its current leadership? The post The repressive underside of Rwanda’s regime appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: Last week, important recommendations for our criminal justice system were made by the international community. Every five years, each member of the United Nations has its human rights practices reviewed. This rolling event – the Universal Periodic Review – is the culmination of a government reporting on its human ...
Highly pathogenic avian influenza – H5N1, or bird flu – has been flying around the world since the late 1990s. New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands are so far free of it, but now it’s been discovered in mainland Antarctica and scientists say it’s only a matter of time ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Stokan, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County If you live in one of the most economically deprived neighborhoods in your city, you might think the government is directing a smaller share of public funds to your community. ...
Wansolwara The news media’s crucial role in climate change and environment journalism was the focus of The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme 2024 World Press Freedom Day celebrations. The European Union Ambassador to the Pacific, Barbara Plinkert, and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna were the chief ...
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Andrea Vance speculates on the new left/right balance persisting until the election:
Could Peters use this as leverage to perform another Houdini act? Given Labour's timidity in framing co-governance to the media & public, I suspect their answer would be yes. And I reckon they'd be right. Vance points out he just needs some such "wedge issue" and it is indeed a godalmighty wedge.
Expect Luxon's advisors to spot this. They'll be dead keen to stop Winston pulling 3% more out of the Nat support base, so we'll see Luxon adopting the Peters line.
However the crucial action will probably occur within the Maori vote. At 16% of the populace – say half that is voting age – yet the MP pulls only 2% currently. I'd therefore guess Labour's Maori cabal got 6% last election.
Where that 6% go will therefore decide the next election. Labour's timidity on co-governance is therefore the hinge. If they cave, and abandon support for the Maori cabal agenda, Willie & co will start to wonder if there's any point staying with Labour.
If their disgust with Labour pakeha betrayal got sufficiently strong, they'll look at jumping ship. To the MP probably – unless Winston is smart enough to have already sussed the scenario & shifted into behind the scenes negotiating. If they jump prior to the election, it's bye-bye Labour…
If Andrea Vance thinks there's the slightest chance that Maori Labour would go near NZ First she's either being ingenuous or not very smart
I cannot see NZ First returning to parliament. I can see the Maori Party gaining more MPs.
Inflation and the cost of housing is going to be hardest on those with the lowest incomes. Long wait times for medical services will also sway voters.
Strategic voting will probably determine who the next government is.
However, the MP vote (if it eventuates) is going to be almost entirely pulled from Labour (the GP don't poll significantly well in the Maori seats – and National has no numbers to lose, here).
That's numbers on paper – some of the Labour MPs have a very tight tribal lock on their seats – I wouldn't expect Mahuta or Tirikatene to be voted out – they're effectively endorsed by the iwi leadership.
There would have to be an enormous swing against Labour (something like the seabed and foreshore issue) for Labour to lose those 2 seats.
MP have made it fairly clear that they have nothing in common with National – so Labour is the only game in town for coalition.
In addition, if the MP start to poll around 5%+ – or start to look as though they'll pull in 5 or so seats from Labour, and it's looking like a Labour/Green/MP government – I'd expect to see some of the soft centrist Labour vote, start to shift to National – as they're spooked by what looks like a radical agenda.
They'd shift to a centrist party (which is what Winston portrayed NZ First as) – but they're unlikely to trust Winston again (though never, say never, with that wily fox) – and, without him, there is currently no centrist party. So, if they're spooked, it's National or nothing.
It looks to me that it is the pakeha population who feels hoodwinked and will vote accordingly. No one begrudges Maori their culture and status, but perusing an agenda no one has voted for via a back door and lying about it (yes lying) coupled with the not so flash stewardship of the economy will have consequences. The former also destroys any trust in the Maori Party if they show to be part of this tactical manoeuvre. I know these are strong words in a society that is more and more muzzled, but I pledge free speech. On the issue of inflation, which is the consequence of more than one event but created by external as well as internal factors, it will see the majority falling into income brackets that essentially set them back 10 years. This measured against pricing for food, fuel, electricity, rates, rents etc. will have a huge bearing on the next vote. When the PM sees this as a "plip" in the road to push the party agenda through, then the phrase "let them eat cake" is not far from the mind. Everybody living here has a right to be able to survive and thrive without losing their basic human rights because they disagree with the powers to be. Those tribal games, those divide and conquer games have to end. There is a need for a sound and measured approach, coherent solutions economically, environmentally and in societal context clearly spelled out and put on the table. Still waiting for a party to show its hand and a vision for all NZlanders without constantly going back to school yard bully behaviour.
If nothing changes, the young professionals will leave the country for greener pastures in great numbers. The writing is already on the wall.
''If nothing changes, the young professionals will leave the country for greener pastures in great numbers. The writing is already on the wall.''
Agree. That is a given. The numbers leaving may be the new 1pm news briefing once Covid numbers are no longer reported.
I recently stopped outside a closed cafe. The sign in the window said they may be able to reopen if the following positions are filled:
2) Chefs
2) Baristas
3) service staff.
Where have the previous employees gone? My guess is they are taking a paid break courtesy of the government before heading overseas. And if that's true, the situation with professionals must be worse given the big money on offer just across the ditch.
Look, employers can have whatever staff they want if they're prepared to do a bit of honest hard work.
They can't just expect opportunities to fall into their lap, they have to get out there and create them. Really sell themselves as an employer. Put themselves out there.
I wonder if they've tried networking functions? Word of mouth advertising can do wonders.
Maybe they could try finding savings elsewhere in their business, which they can then put towards really getting the staff they want?
If they put their head down and work hard and keep a good attitude, rewards will come.
Nobody want to hear it, but if they'd made better personal choices in the past, they wouldn't be in this position now. Rather than whinging or demanding that government fix their problem for them, how about some personal responsibility?
I was once on an interview panel 20 years ago, so I've done the hard yards, too. The problem with this generation of employers is that they just expect everything to be handed to them.
Blade – Yep, because it is a badge of honor to milk the system. How many times I have seen and experienced this is not even funny anymore. It really is difficult to be confronted with such attitude but this is true everywhere. A emigrant might go to a different country but their attitude travels with them.
However, at the same time there are many of the younger folks that feel shafted when they paid for their education and all the can land is a minimum pay job. There is a disconnect between the promise made to these graduates, i.e. if you get this degree or that, it is an opportunity and pays really well etc., vs what the market actually need and demands and will provide. So they are getting impatient and frustrated and look further afield for getting ahead. This is, and lets not forget this, a created instant gratification society. Be kind sometimes works, sometimes it will just create a bigger issue.
Has some other party proposed a co-governance model?
Here's a revealing profile of Putin's #2: https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-second-most-powerful-man-in-russia/
Nikolai Patrushev is currently the secretary of Russia’s Security Council.
The west has long used St. Nicholas the Santa, of course. But all we ever get from him is yet more capitalist crap. So here's an opportunity to use lateral thinking in the foreign policy of Aotearoa. We can advise the Russians that we'll do a switch to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker if they can provide a sufficiently impressive list of wonders that he worked.
The world needs wonderworkers (climate change etc) so we can alert the Russian regime to the potential for using their St Nick as an avatar for combining positive thinking with magic to shift mass consciousness. Since it seems obvious that they haven't spotted the potential for global influence already, I mean. They need our help.
This guy is definitely worth reading regarding the war in Ukraine.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Freedman
https://samf.substack.com/p/giving-peace-a-chance?s=r
https://samf.substack.com/p/space-and-time?s=r
Really! Can’t see it, same old same old one eyed drivel of little substance. No mention how the Ukraine situation could have been avoided had the deaf ears of the UN addressed the concerns voiced many times by Russia regarding NATO’s expansionism and the dire plight of the Donbas peoples being constantly bombarded by factions of the Ukrainian army since 2014 with huge civilian casualties. So the one eyed view of Mr Freedman counts for FA
Someone’s drunk Putin’s kool aid!
Such an infantile comment and attitude.. Only like one flavour of propaganda 'kool aid' do you, Stephen D?
Actually, I don’t believe everything I read, no matter who or what the source. When possible, triangulate.
Well, you don't extend that consideration to BydOnz, do you? Even though he condemns one-eyed drivel…
I know right?
The UN could have stopped
Intifada, Venezuela, Afghanistan and Pakistan
Ukraine and uranium, Yemen and covidium
Russia and Somalia, Taiwan and diptheria
Climate change and Syria, Israel and malaria
Poverty and selfishness, oil and gas and nastiness
Those things the UN smooths with honey
With unlimited power and money
Great list Ad. Seems there is an interconnecting thread.
You do know that this is not really set as context in the news media. This war uses phrases to manipulate on an emotional level and the rhetoric of the President of Ukraine has changed from "help us defend ourselves" to " Mr Zelensky said Western nations – and nearby Europe in particular – must go further and "act without delay"." Act in what way? All the sanctions are in place, Russia is cut off and Europe is to become the battle field for who exactly?
The whole of Europe has signed agreements after the WW2 that would prevent such scenario. If they would intervene in a military way, WW3 is on. Do people understand how dangerous the situation is?
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/28/europe/ukraine-russia-zelensky-biden-intl/index.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60527346
A cop's eye view on what it was like in the midst of the final day of that protest:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-wellington-protest-frontline-police-officer-says-it-was-a-war-zone/7HAS7DRUGJYGEMXCRAH6BCMYNE/
It certainly would have been a proper 'war zone' if foolish Labour Ministers that didn't know the law had brought the Army in like they and many on the left were calling for.
A children's slide some new grass and two minor fires, compared to a legislated loss of liberty supposed to gain a civic trade that hasn't prevented 300,000+ current infections and 100+ deaths.
A fair democratic price paid so far.
look around the world and hazard a guess at the deaths the govt response has prevented.
It seems that where public health is at stake, the perfect is the enemy of the rational as well as the good.
The Police Officer overstated the situation obviously but it was probably the most dramatic, confused and potentially violent situation they had ever encountered – they obviously didn't experience the 81 tour protests or the Queen Street riot (too young)
The Police Officer overstated the situation obviously
Erh, your hat isn't your keyboard, best not to talk through it unless you were there? That officer's description matched what I saw on the live streams only too starkly. We have no right to dismiss someone's direct experience if we haven't shared it or been through something similar.
Would you dream of saying Ukranian refugees are overstating their situation?
"War Zone" in Wellington lol
In the Ukraine it's a war zone – blown up hospitals, shelled apartment buildings, blown up bridges, dead bodies ,smoking ruined Tanks and Infantry Fighting Vehicles, murdered civilians and raped women that is a fucking war zone not that pissant riot in Wellington.
No I wouldn't say Ukrainian refugees are overstating their situation at all. They are in a war zone.
To inflate what happened in Wellington by claiming or supporting claims it was a war zone is pretty bloody obscene when we are seeing firsthand what a real war zone is.
Yup, overstated.
//
https://twitter.com/AnnekeJSmith/status/1498952993236226048
https://twitter.com/AnnekeJSmith/status/1498955156947628032
A detective used to working on murder cases would know murderous intent if he saw it!! A sobering read.
I agree Matiri. When you compare his words to what we actually saw happening in real time, I don't think he overstated the case at all. It was an horrific scene and astonishing no-one was killed. I saw one cop with a shield being trampled underfoot by a bunch of thugs. I didn't think he was going to come out of it alive. Maybe he was the cop who wrote this story.
Hmm a war zone in Wellington and no one died –
thousands dead in the Ukraine get a sense of proportion
Bricks are not artillery shells metal poles are not cruise missiles a piece of 2 by 4 is not an Infantry Fighting Vehicle to suggest that Wellington and the Ukraine are/were both war zones is damned offensive.
I never used the expression “war-zone” nor suggested any such comparison so why aim your brickbats at me. Its only you who is making the comparison about two totally different and unrelated events.
Agreed – I apologise I lost it a bit after JO's effort at 4.2.1 the linked article said the officer said it was a 'war zone' which I found enraging. I misdirected my ire to you and I am sorry for doing that.
Sorted. No probs.
ACT outflanks Labour on the left, advocating practical socialism:
ACT outflanks Labour on populism and propaganda. What’s new?
What a pity National didn't have the foresight to suggest this. Putting a policy like that in tandem with tax cuts would have been a big vote catcher in my opinion.
I doubt Labour would implement such a policy, given it targets everyone, even white folk finding it hard to keep the Audi running.
The Right is going to need something to counter the trinkets Robbo Hood will proffer to voters over the next two budgets. In fact, if Labours fortunes keep trending down, Robbo may become more important to Labour’s chances of survival than Jacinda.
It remains to be seen whether the PM rediscovers her mojo. Your prediction came true rather promptly, eh? I'd made similar prognostications in prior months so wasn't totally surprised.
Re Grant, expect a careful balancing act with the numbers matched with spending priorities I guess. A semblance of caring for the poor sufficient to fool enough voters, to mask the lack of substance thereof.
The main thing about the poll was floating voters underwhelmed by Labour's dropping of the ball. Labour are the kind of shallow thinkers who reckon pandemic fixation is a valid excuse for non-delivery. Too many opinion leaders in the community know better. Therefore the PM must get back into the saddle. The wrong conclusion to draw from the poll is floating voters rewarding National for performance. Ain't none of that happening.
We’re waiting for the end of history, Francis.
/
https://www.americanpurpose.com/articles/preparing-for-defeat/
the end of history
Banal at the time. Will he ever live that down? However he's a thoughtful chappie & usually worth a read. I own several of his books & have even read them.
I'm impressed that he's with the ever-growing body of opinion that predicts Putin to become a loser. A cautionary note: nobody with a track record of military expertise seems to have entered the public arena with the same opinion yet.
When I was watching the first Gulf War on CNN (we had it piped into our monitors in the TVNZ newsroom despite it being unavailable here on broadcast tv) I always appreciated the expert opinions of the top military analysts they interviewed as operation Desert Storm proceeded. None of that happening now – dunno why.
That makes sense to me. Hope he is right with his prognostications.
No 7.
As the writer points out later and I paraphrase: the days of the "strongman" leaders around the world will be numbered.
The middle of a war is probably not the best time to purge the upper ranks of your intelligence services. But hey, he's an ex KGB guy so I guess he knows a fair bit about purges..
A Russian spy chief and his deputy have been placed under house arrest by Vladmir Putin as the president blames his security services for the resistance met in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it has been claimed.
According to a leading expert on the Russian security services, Sergey Beseda, head of the FSB’s foreign intelligence branch, was arrested along with his deputy, Anatoly Bolyukh.
Andrei Soldatov, who is co-founder and editor of Agentura- a watchdog of the Russian secret services’ activities – revealed that sources inside the FSB have confirmed the detention of both men.
The arrests were further corroborated by Vladimir Osechkin, an exiled Russian human rights activist who also added that the FSB officers had carried out searches at over 20 addresses in Moscow of colleagues suspected to be speaking with journalists.
https://archive.ph/UOueg
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russian-spy-chiefs-putin-security-b2034350.html
No mention of Putin's religious mission.
"Since he became President, Putin has cast himself as the true defender of Christians throughout the world, the leader of the Third Rome. His relentless bombing of ISIS, for example, was cast as the defence of the historic homeland of Christianity. And he will typically use faith as a way to knock the West, like he did in this speech in 2013:
“We see many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually rejecting their roots, including the Christian values that constitute the basis of Western civilisation. They are denying moral principles and all traditional identities: national, cultural, religious and even sexual. They are implementing policies that equate large families with same-sex partnerships, belief in God with the belief in Satan.”
Putin regards his spiritual destiny as the rebuilding of Christendom, based in Moscow. "
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2022/02/putins-spiritual-destiny/
Putin's perception that the west are "implementing policies that equate large families with same-sex partnerships, belief in God with the belief in Satan" seems a tad extreme and would likely fail the test of evidence.
It would have been better for him to quote orthodox christian doctrine on these two points, eh? To prove there is a substantial difference, I mean.
Why did god allocate this entity a place of high status in his righteous scheme? You'd have to ask a theologian. Don't ask more than one, since none of them agree with each other on the fundamentals & you'll only get confused!
My guess is that god created this entity for his own purposes (which remain mysterious) but I have to admit I borrowed this rationale from some ancient theologian. Then you get this:
So the baddie operated on god's behalf in administering divine justice. And his target was a nation of baddies (the jews). Confused yet?
So Putin's theological critique amounts to the west equating god with god's justice administrator. This is indeed a grievous error. I can see why it bothered him.
Just found this in a book of quotes. "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That keyis Russian national interest." From Winston Churchill, October 1939. Would seem to be relevant right now !
Well, if Putin fails and the longed for American dream of regime change occurs in Russia, I hope that it is the 2nd most popular party (by far) that gets the nod from the Russian voters, that party of course is the Communist Party. That regime change probably is not the one NATO or any of the western nations want though, lol and boohoo.
Join them Comrade.
You got nothin' to lose but your dreams.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) published an article on March 9th 2022, titled:
Consider both sexes in experimental design – by Mandy MacLean MBE, FRSE, FMedSci, FBPhS, Professor of Pulmonary Pharmacology.
https://www.ukri.org/blog/consider-both-sexes-in-experimental-design/
Don't bother clicking. It's already down, and UKRI have been asked why.
For the intellectually curious, a copy was archived on the web archive site:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220309195220/https://www.ukri.org/blog/consider-both-sexes-in-experimental-design/
Will be interesting to see if UKRI respond, and what the story is.
The puppet selected and installed by an occupying force isn't the mayor, he's a collaborator.
The Zaporozhye regional administration says a new mayor has been installed in the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, which is under Russian military control, after the elected mayor was detained on Friday
https://edition.cnn.com/webview/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-putin-news-03-12-22/h_d7ddf51a92bd3d4c8e15397ac8b1dfe8
Free the Mayor
Where is the Mayor of Melitopol?
Mayor Ivan Federov, who is an ethnic Russian, had encouraged recent demonstrations in Melitopol against Russia.
Disappearances are stock in trade for fascist regimes. So asking where the Mayor of Melitopol has been taken is no small question. If they can disappear a Mayor, they can do it to anyone. Protesters, political activists, journalists are all under threat of being disappeared.
Where is the Mayor of Melitopol being held?
Has he been allowed to use a phone?
What are the charges against him?
What has be been accused of?
Where's the evidence?
Is he alive?
Zelenksy is on the right track. The War in Ukraine will be won/lost in Russia.
We can help. The Russian legation in Wellington need to have their diplomatic immunity revoked until the Mayor of Melitopol is released.
And next the Ewoks join the fight.
Won or lost? Bold call!
There is a precedent.
Many commentators have compared this war to Germany's invasion of Poland. I compare it to the American invasion of Vietnam.
It can be argued that the war in Vietnam was won and lost in America.
The Vietnam war was notable as being the first ever televised war.
All the Vietnamese had to do was keep fighting. The longer the war went on the more the objections and protests in America grew.
In Ukraine's asymmetric war gainst Russia, Ukraine has advantages the Vietnamese didn't, they speak the same language, they are nearby not thousands of miles away. And last of all they have the internet, live streaming all the crimes of the aggressor nation.
Putin has tried to impose and electronic Iron Curtain to stop Russians seeing the live stream of Russian war crimes in the Ukraine The original Iron Curtain lasted 4 decades, the new electronic lasted four days before it was breached.
The longer the Ukraine resists the more the resistance to war will grow in Russia.
The end result is inevitable. A humiliating defeat for Russia.
One big difference between the Vietnam war and the Ukraine war. will be that when Russia is defeated by Ukraine, there will be Nuremberg style court hearings to of Russians identified as having committed war crimes. Including the disappearances and murder of civilian leaders political activists and journalists.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/13/world/europe/brent-renaud-irpin.html
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/new-mayor-installed-in-ukraine-s-melitopol-after-elected-mayor-s-abduction-101647129356871.html
“The fact of the abduction of the Mayor of Melitopol, along with hundreds of other facts of war crimes by Russian occupiers on the Ukrainian soil, are being carefully documented by law enforcement agencies. The perpetrators of this and other crimes will be brought to the strictest responsibility,” the ministry said in a Facebook post.
What's your Ukraine donation group of choice, people?
Odds on for dairy solids per kilo at NZ$11.
Less milk, Ukraine conflict driving dairy prices up (ruralnewsgroup.co.nz)
A perverse boom, but a boom nonetheless.
We as a country will need high returns for our commodities to pay for imported commodities.
Tracey Martin told One News that she has a $100 bet going with Ron Mark that NZF will not make it back into parliament at the next election. 🤑