Holy crap i mustve shit the bed !! Fijoas have been falling for a week or so round here very welcome they are too but im struck by how big they are this year ?cause of the wet spring maybe ? Others are telling me that the incidence of moth infestation is not as bad as last year .Certainly was bad though in some of the peaches .
'Campbell explains how pollsters have a spreadsheet of more than 400 different segments or profiles that need to be ticked off, and why pollsters have to work so hard to reach the "19-year-old man living on the West Coast". '
I would say I am probably a natural Labour supporter but I have voted Green in the last two elections as I feel they are more environmentally and anti-poverty oriented and at points I have had concerns over their survival. The sort of thing I have found off putting from the Greens is stuff like the reclaiming off the word "cunt" it was a "WTF" for me I didn't "get it" then I don't now and doubt I ever will. Apologies for the rambling comment.
I shared your reaction at the time. I kinda reframed on it after pondering awhile. Language does shape our world. Her explanation made sense on the basis that males had hijacked the word and turned it into a perjorative. So she did it as a liberationist feminist thing – reclaiming the word.
Pretty shallow if you vote for all the other parties that will do little about CC for that reason Barfly. Look at the big picture not the fringe elements-the media will of course play up the "cunt" issue, but then they should know.
Several years since I posted here about Substack, so here's an update:
Substack is an online newsletter platform: it was founded in 2017 by developers Chris Best and Jairaj Sethi, and writer Hamish McKenzie – a New Zealander who was raised in Alexandra and edited Critic, Otago University’s student magazine, in 2004.
Pretty much anyone can create a newsletter: once you’ve done that, people can sign up for it and Substack will email the newsletter to all your subscribers. It also provides an online WordPress-style platform where writers can interact with their readers.
You can sign up to a newsletter for free, or you can choose to pay for content, with writers deciding what they charge. Generally, Substack takes a 10 per cent cut of paying subscriptions, and the rest goes to the content creator. All in all, more than half a million people have paid Substack subscriptions, and the top 10 writers earn nearly $30 million every year.
The Detail talks to two former writers for mainstream publications who’ve turned to Substack about whether it’s changing the media game for the better.
The biggest hassle that I have with sub-stack or protean is that it is difficult and expensive to follow multiple people at once when you're only interested in reading some of each authors work.
Currently the only single author sites that I pay for are Politik and Phoronix. The former has a low article rate but is in depth on the type of analysis that I want on national politics. The latter, well it is the best news place for linux and the relationship to underlying hardware.
I have the same issue with pay walled media sites.
I subscribe to a number of newspaper/magazine media, but generally just the best international ones. My criteria tends to be ones that I will read a quarter of their articles in the morning read. But many media just don't hit that.
For instance I like reading Fallon's (now guest) economic/political writing on the Herald – but I'm not going to buy a subscription to the Herald to get it. Same for about 4 other authors on there. The articles in the Herald are just too damn uneven. I scan the headlines most days, but seldom want to open more than one or two articles.
I'll scan Stuff, RNZ, ABC.au, BBC.world in preference for an overview.
I'd prefer having a pay per use model at the NZ Herald, rather like the Auckland Transport parking app (which I love) or the AT bus dongle. Don't know why no-one seems to want to do that. Technically it is possible using exactly the same model.
Media site subscriptions are a pain unless it is The Economist – which gives me about a ~80% read article rate.
It was why I had to dropped Medium. Lots of good opinion articles. Highly uneven. Eventually I wasn't reading them because I already knew what each author was likely to say on politics history or science, and the usefulness of the technical was limited. I dropped down to about a 10% article read rate. I really wanted pay-per-view there.
I almost dropped Washington Post last renewal. But when I did, they came back with a offer that I couldn't refuse – about a 10th of the full rate. I guess they tracked what my actual usage was.
So I donate to Stuff because I use their site as the main local news overview pickup.
I donate to wikipedia because I love their random page. Nothing like getting bored and flicking through and scanning pages of information. That is when I'm not using wikipedia as a entry point to fact check or initial research on a topic.
I've trained Google Chrome's 'Discover' to give me the weird and wonderful opinion links in tech and science – which now has a ~50% read article rate… 🙂
"New COBOL contender emerges: gcobol"
"ASUS warns of Cyclops Blink malware attacks targeting routers"
"Eight RS232 Ports, one ethernet port"
"Canonical updfates the Ubuntu logo in time for 22.04 LTS"
"In 2045: Alpha Centauri"
"10 amazing exoplanet discoveries"
"C isn't a programming language anymore"
But really I want a conglomeration site like Discover which picks up from all over the place, learns my interests and reading level, and that I pay per view – mostly to the author.
Interesting feedback. I agree with pay per view, in principle. I'd prefer a tick box system though – placed at the end so you can tick it to register your opinion that it was worth reading. And the billing to then happen monthly. That way it would be easy to monitor the expense and the frequency of approvals.
My reading identifies me as a dilettante, notoriously so inasmuch as visitors have been known to try counting how many books they can find lying open with bookmark in place on various tables, chairs etc around the place – often in piles of same. I did a count once & reached 24 despite being a tidy person by nature.
So I share your online tendency. I'm allergic to paying anyone so tend to cruise around doing a brief scan of topics on any site. I have been a regular payer to Wikipedia though. I'd pay for a provider service if their qc was up to my standard.
…notoriously so inasmuch as visitors have been known to try counting how many books they can find…
I used to have piles of completed books around. Just because I read at least one book a day, and more like 8 fiction in a day when I relax.
However I offloaded the extensive paper library in 2012 after moving it around 2 houses when my partner needed a bigger workspace for editing a documentary. I'm now up to ~90% of the paper library as epubs.
These days my library is Calibre running on my servers with a couple of offsite repositories. I seem to be buying most of my books on Kobo at present. Periodically I batch them, strip the DRM and toss them into Calibre. I mostly use FBReader as my reader using ODPS from my servers.
FBReader is good enough that I’m contemplating using their SDK as a core to do my own reader. There are a few features that would make a better reader like the kobo font-sizer.
I've dug through the epub open source enough to know that it'd be a pain doing it from there.
I'm allergic to paying anyone
I don't mind paying. I just don't like wasting my time. Paying to waste my time with reading rubbish (eg NZ Herald) feels like a sin.
Calibre looks useful. I actually can't read for pleasure on a screen – physically unable to relax with one for some reason. Consequently the e-books option has never appealed. However I can see that it would be useful for sourcing text from nonfiction books to illustrate blog comments by expanding or proving points.
Such copying saves having to type it in or run it thro ocr. If there was a way to hook it up to TS it would benefit essay-writers. Expand the resource base considerably! Book writers tend to include more interesting stuff than the more superficial online writing culture provides…
Substack is great. Subscribed to David Farrier's Webworm (free). I thought Medium was really cool as well, until they locked it down and tried charging users to read more than 10 articles a week. Screw that. (there are browser extensions to get around it, but I just don't care enough to go to Medium much these days)
RSS aggregators were pretty nifty and I used a few of them over the years. Found some neat blogs. But eventually it became too tiring/tedious to curate all the crud.
So now I am like a magpie, getting bits off TS, TDB, Twitter, RNZ, NZHerald, Stuff. And occasionally foreign outlets when something significant happens overseas. I follow TheRegister and HackerNews and a few tech journos on Twitter, it's enough to get the gist of what's going on.
There are also useful tools like Outline.com and Bypass Paywalls that will get you full access to most news sites. DuckDuckGo is good for finding stuff that Google doesn’t want you to see. Plus a big shout out to Sci-Hub for the occasional academic paper that would normally cost an unreasonable amount of $$$$
Partner reads Webworm. I had the problem that after reading it a few times I could predict at the start of a article what he was likely to say from the title and first paragraph.
I originally paid for Medium because of the useful articles on the Android display API plus discussions on some of the languages and libraries that I don't use and was vaguely interested in the philosophy of (like flutter, react, haskell, kotlin etc). That was how I started to write in kotlin. I spread to the political, history, and science from that. But it simply wasn't deep enough and usually lacked links to deeper material if I wanted to delve deeper – one of the things that wikipedia was good on (and mass media is usually terrible at).
I magpie as well. But I have a basic set of sites that I go through every day – typically between 0630 and 0830 while I wake up, have breakfast, coffee, and before I start thinking about work.
We ought to give Labour credit for this lurch out of the 19th century into the 21st:
Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti… says the refresh of the school curriculums is scheduled over the next five years and it will be progressed in stages. The social studies curriculum is now out for review as well. "Also the vision for young people and this is an exciting part of the curriculum, this is the first time in this country that we've got a vision for young people that is created by young people."
The PM said
The curriculum has taken three years to develop… It would be very rare to find a country that didn't teach its own history so I think this is about New Zealand joining the pack
Just gloss over why it didn't happen in the 20th century. Try to ignore all the years that Labour was in govt then without feeling the need to drag education out of the 19th. Just feel good that it's finally happening.
She acknowledges NZ finally joining with other countries that teach kids their nation's history without any explanation of Labour's part in why it took more than a century to do it. Still – this is genuine evidence of Labour being transformational. Well done!
Clarks Labour did introduce a researched and comprehensive new curriculum while in Government.
Of course this took time.
To be dumped for Nationals return to the 1890's, emphasise on 3/R's and rote learning. National's low standards ended up coming at the same time as the new curriculum. Leading to an inivitable and typical right wing education stuff up.
No one in teaching is surprised that education standards in everything, including the 3R's, has dropped since. As it always does when right wing zealots get their sticky beaks into teaching.
Paul Goldsmith was reported this morning on breakfast tv as saying that the new history curriculum divides people into "oppressors" and "victims". Will be interesting to see how far the right gets with this line. It's bollocks, but still a promising line of attack for two reasons:
It aims to erase any suggestion that the current distribution (maldistribution?) of wealth/power was unjustly arrived at, i.e.. it allows people to believe that they are fundamentally decent
Binary folk will always default into a binary framing. Their brains can't function without doing so. Oodles of third alternatives are always evident to anyone with an open mind. I bet most settlers & maori would fit more accurately into the opportunist category, for instance.
Recall that Taranaki tribe who bought a ship from the Brits, sailed off to the Chathams to do genocide on the peaceful islanders? Extreme opportunism!
You are wrong there, Dennis. The late Sir Paul Reeves said in a speech ( to paraphrase) '' We came to your lands (Chathams) long ago'' There was no mention of genocide. I wonder if the new history curriculum will mention that with as much detail as Parihaka is recounted?
Dave Seymour was disappointing in this interview. He made few pertinent points in my opinion.
In 1835, around 900 Māori people from Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama were welcomed to the islands. This group arrived in two waves. The first arrived on 19 November 1835 via the hijacked European ship Lord Rodney and carried 500 people along with guns, clubs and axes. This first group killed and hung up a 12-year-old Moriori girl.
The second group arrived on 5 December 1835. With the arrival of the second group "parties of warriors armed with muskets, clubs and tomahawks, led by their chiefs, walked through Moriori tribal territories" and "curtly informed the inhabitants that their land had been taken and the Moriori living there were now vassals."
Due to the new arrivals' hostility, a hui (council) of 1,000 Moriori was convened at settlement called Te Awapatiki to debate possible responses. Younger members argued that the Moriori could fight back as they outnumbered Māori two-to-one. Elders, however, argued Nunuku's Law should not be broken.
Despite knowing Māori were not pacifist, Moriori ultimately decided to stay pacifist against the invaders, describing Nunuku's Law as "a moral imperative".
Although the council decided in favour of peace, the invading Māori inferred that the decision was a prelude to war. Violence erupted and around 300 Moriori were killed, with hundreds more enslaved. The invaders killed around 10% of the population in a ritual that included staking out women and children on the beach and leaving them to die in great pain over several days.
Yikes that is horrific. Debunks the “noble savage” myth. And here I thought our worst massacre was the little known killing of 250 Maori on Moturua Island in the BOI by some French settlers
Just one (albeit notable) example of the extraordinarily brutal violence & ethnic cleansing of the Musket Wars … but best keep schtum about it … destroys the highly paternalistic Noble Savage Romanticism – grounded in Critical Race Theory & Post-Colonial Theory – at the heart of the new History curriculum.
Eternal Māori virtue, innocence, powerlessness & pacifism at all times.
Historical facts & moral complexity are far too yukky & inconvenient for Woke dogmatists pursuing a pure Good vs Evil Morality Tale.
Of course any sensible person would trust teachers as far as they can kick them, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt to start with.
Any lack of teacher credibility can always be exposed by a parent who primes their kid to ask the right question in class. Unsatisfactory performance by the teacher revealed in consequence can then be dealt with via a formal complaint to the headmaster, the minister of education, or both.
As a beneficiary of the status quo, Goldsmith's primary fear is that it is examined and found wanting in terms of justice – either in its historical origins or present day operation.
His fears are indeed well-founded – and his response is to either erase historical context, or have it defined by the winners, in order to maintain this "just world" fallacy.
And it's a pretty good strategy, as most people who have done OK in life share exactly the same predisposition.
I don't think Goldsmith's concern is an examination of NZ History, I think the concern is who is doing the examining & how it is presented. A definition of history by the "losers" may be as biased as one presented by the ""winners". (Winners & losers being your definition)
European & Maori history is full of brutal acts within their own people & against other people. I hope our NZ History when taught shows a warts & all full picture. Sadly if it doesn't it will become "the history you are taught at school & then here are the other bits they didn't tell you" It will become a sad joke.
I don't think how well you have done in life should determine how you view history.
Nah she's an intelligent young Millennial, who lacks life experience, but has a fine mind and decent ethics, who wants a better NZ. Her blind spots are privilege and wokeness, but I think she is smart enough to overcome those limitations sooner or later. I like her leadership potential and outspoken socialist leanings.
Her understanding of issues and communication skills rival those of Jacinda. A bright future.
Unfortunately, I have a suspicion that some of the concerns raised by the letter to the Listener, regarding mātauranga Māori inclusion into the curriculum are justified, or at least worth getting more details on. If we conflate those concerns as opponents of the non-defined Critical Race Theory, we fall into the same trap as those who view Gender Critical as transphobic.
It is openness and transparency of process and impact that will allow the public to discuss.
I have had a conversation with someone who said that when compiling the new NCEA standards, the initial work is done by subject specialists, and then Māori representatives are asked for their input, which is then shoehorned in.
I can see problems if that is the case. And OIR of some of the drafted standards might be the only way to see if the concerns of the letter writers above are justified, or whether the dismissal of those concerns are.
Found the hardest "wordle" derivative yet … called "semantle" (h/t weka). Yesterday my score was 47. Today it was 63. 🤯
I solved Semantle #47 in 63 guesses. My first guess had a similarity of 7.36. My first word in the top 1000 was at guess #18. My penultimate guess had a similarity of 34.71 (949/1000). https://semantle.novalis.org
semantle is the hardest one so far, also much more addictive. Although sometimes I find myself wondering if the game as any meaning, lol. Not being geeky enough to understand quite what they are doing with the connections there.
Michael Laws said, “I’m afraid the toxicity of social media is killing freedom of speech."
He reckons social media was stifling expression. This is after reaction to comments he made on his Facebook page. We're coming to terms with social media and how to use it and respond to it.
He'd written, "When did girls with lovely faces/breasts but unhealthy bums/legs become sexy?"
I'm not on Facebook to see if someone answered his question with: "About the same time arseholes became politicians or media personalities."
Not boding well for the stability of "The Platform"… lots of large egos on there. Without some kind of moderation, the “Free speech” outlet could easily devolve into thoughtless ranting that turns people off.
Sounds like he is unhappy that freedom of expression does not include the freedom from other private citizens making comments, judgement and even ostracism whether on social media, in a pub or in the town square.
He's mentioned a real issue, but skipped over it to pursue his low tastes.
Most are probably aware of Popper's paradox of tolerance, that An open society needs to be intolerant of intolerance.
The rise of Trumpism brings us the spectacle of people that will cheerfully suppress the freedoms of others, claiming the protection of an enlightenment constitution that they clearly do not subscribe to.
The right of propagandists who oppose free speech to claim their own speech is protected is necessarily less than infinite. In a moral sense they are freeloaders on their more enlightened fellows. But Laws just wants to talk about boobies.
I would really like to know why meat is as expensive as it is in the supermarket.
A breakdown of costs in the total supply chain, from the price paid to the farmer, cost at the works, shipping to the wholesale butchery, cutting up, packaging, transport costs et etc.
Free marketeers would tell you it's just supply and demand, and prices meeting the market. But they ignore the anticompetitive behaviour of the supermarket duopoly that has been well documented and ongoing for decades.
I say, nationalise the lot. They are (like many segments of the economy) exploitative and profiteering from market power. Screwing suppliers and workers, and inflating prices of essentials.
Nationalising them isn't required. They each sell up say 25 sites across NZ which is then taken by a 3rd player (Aldi, sainsburys etc) and you have a competitive industry.
Aldi shook up oz along with Costco but the entrenched duopoly here requires political cajones to resolve.
That's the real issue….political will to rule for a fair deal for all kiwis.
Political will relies on opinion polls and vested interests. So public opinion is a prerequisite to any major change. And the public is quite restless and annoyed at the moment, so I do expect the government to come up with something more than the usual platitudes.
Sam Brooks is just another queer stuck in the queer bubble of believing the queer community have some relevance in mainstream life. Bridges was just being what a conservative should be – true to himself and his worldview, like Sam Brooks is to himself and his worldview.
But I don't blame the queer community for their militancy, and attempting to push their agenda's on the world. For so long they where discriminated against. Alan Turing and Quentin Crisp are famous examples of the shit gay people had to endure.
As an aside, someone gave me a book called ''The Alan Turing Cryptic Codebreaker's Puzzle Book.'' F@#k me, you not only have to solve the puzzle… you sometimes have to work out what the question is. This blog gives me plenty of practice.
“A report published last week by the World Health Organization (see go.nature.com/3j9xcpi) says that if policymakers didn’t have a “pathological obsession with GDP”, they would spend more on making health care affordable for every citizen. Health spending does not contribute to GDP in the same way that, for example, military spending does, say the authors, led by economist Mariana Mazzucato at University College London.”
"Health spending does not contribute to GDP in the same way that, for example, military spending does, say the authors, led by economist Mariana Mazzucato at University College London.”
The authors apparently say this, and you quote this but what on earth does it mean? Can you explain this statement?
It means that a healthy working populace is not valued properly by GDP measures. But around the world (especially with Covid) it has been shown that a functioning public health system is actually better for the economy than sending workers and their families into bankruptcy when someone is hit by illness or accident.
I have read both and do not see where the conflict lies. Both argue that GDP is incomplete and measures the price of everything but the real value of nothing.
Just like on a personal level, we take our health for granted, until one day misfortune strikes.
One has its foundation in degrowth and wishes to destructure GDP (Doughnut economics) whereas the other advocates growth as measured by GDP and promotes its adoption through the measure seen as problematic by the former….they couldnt be more opposed if they tried.
The problem the original has (doughnut) and the point I was making to Alwyn was, it is utopic without any roadmap…..great to have a vision but difficult to support without the 'how' and probably why GDP remains the poor measure we use ….the lack (yet) of a viable alternative.
Perhaps they choose to see health spending as a cost and military spending as an investment; in that mindset a fighter jet will seem a more effective acquisition than a linear accelerator and the trained staff to run it.
Look at anything GDP measures in the desperately out of date 20th-century model: who chooses the values and categories; quis custodes custodiet?
It's journos with a conscience vs zombies in Russia.
Protesting journalist says Russians zombified by propaganda… "I was an ordinary cog in the propaganda machine. Until the very last moment I didn't think about it too much," she said.
Before her protest she recorded a video in which she said she was ashamed to work for what she called Kremlin propaganda.
The journalist said she was detained and questioned by police for 14 hours, and fined 30,000 roubles ($280; £210) for the video. The authorities had been convinced she had been acting on someone else's behalf, she said. "Nobody believed it was my personal decision. They suggested it could be conflict at work, relatives who were angry about Ukraine or that I was doing it for Western special services."
"They couldn't believe that I had so many objections to the government that I could not stay silent," she said.
Marina Ovsyannikova is a Russian TV producer who was employed on the Channel One Russia TV channel. She worked for Russia's main evening newscast Vremya since beginning of the 2000s.
Okay, I need to explain the difference between those two job descriptions. When I was working in the TVNZ newsroom 30 years ago I cut stories for reporters & journalists, but often for a hybrid professional category called news producers. This third category were given responsibility for producing news stories on an assigned basis by the programme producer.
Marina seems to fall into this category of a journalist who also produces tv news stories. The fact [see her wiki] that she had done so for 20 years for the state broadcaster suggests attainment of a senior position.
Since her father is Ukrainian and her mother Russian, her identity naturally forms a bridge between the two nations. Childhood in Chechnya during the war there is probably a contributor to her antiwar feeling.
Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at state-controlled Channel 1, was detained after she ran on to the set on Monday holding a sign saying "no war". She said she had been questioned for 14 hours and not slept for two days, and was not given access to legal help.
"I'm ashamed that I allowed myself to tell lies from the television screen. Ashamed that I allowed Russians to be turned into zombies," she explained… since the war in Ukraine began, at least three journalists have resigned from top Russian TV channels: Zhanna Agalakova from Channel 1, and Lilia Gildeyeva and Vadim Glusker from NTV.
In this report she is given a third job description. I was a video editor (the craftsperson who actually creates the product) and I worked with journos who operated as programme editors sometimes. I suspect her role was sufficiently senior that she did that editorial work as part of her normal duties.
The four resignations we know of are probably just high-level news due to reputation – tip of the iceberg I suspect. State compulsion to produce disinformation creates a toxic work environment. For workers to sacrifice their career and possibly their safety (or even their life) it shows an intense commitment to a better alternative.
For workers to sacrifice their career and possibly their safety (or even their life) it shows an intense commitment to a better alternative.
"Possibly their safety" I think is a given. Someone needs to get her out of Russia. She's in mortal danger.
And I agree the few resignations and the fleeing we know about is just the tip of the iceberg. I would suggest there are a great many Russians fleeing their homeland as we speak. We won't know how many until its all over – bar the shouting.
Could be her husband is in a position to protect her – he's also in a significant job elsewhere in Russian television. She's courageous (or naive) enough to refuse the offer from Macron.
Russia’s Channel One editor Marina Ovsyannikova says she has quit her job but refused to accept an asylum offer in France… Speaking to France 24, the editor said she had “handed in all the documents” for her resignation from Channel One. “It’s a legal procedure,” she said.
Ovsyannikova, who has two young children, said she had “broken the life of our family with this gesture”, with her son in particular showing anxiety. “But we need to put an end to this fratricidal war so this madness does not turn into nuclear war. I hope when my son is older he will understand why I did this,” she said.
In a separate interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel, Ovsyannikova said she would not take up an asylum offer put forward by France’s President Emmanuel Macron and would stay in Russia. “I don’t want to leave our country. I am a patriot, my son is even more so. We don’t want to leave in any way, we don’t want to go anywhere,” she said.
Despite having been freed, she could face further prosecution, risking years in prison under draconian new laws approved on March 4 that limit freedom of speech about the war in Ukraine.
It wouldn't hurt to offer her asylum in NZ – the odd journalist that understands and appreciates the importance of democracy would be a breath of fresh air.
Men who identify as women would never rape women in the single sex spaces that they are allowed to as they now identify as women.
Unless of course it does. And then what?
Well it is easy
Deny that there is a man on the 'female only ward'
Deny that a man could have been in the 'female only ward'
Tell the police that there was no man on the 'female only ward'
Disregards the Nurses, others Staff and CCTV Camera.
Tell the women (female adult human) who got raped that clearly she did not get raped cause there was no male on the 'female only ward'.
Instruct NHS staff to lie about men on the 'female only wards'.
Find CTTV camera and view the contents there of, learn that indeed there was a man on the female only ward and that indeed a women got raped.
Offer meaningless arse covering excuses to the victim who for a period of one year was told that a. there was no male on the female only ward, and b. that she never got raped at all, and thus there is nothing the Police should or could do.
And then have a Baroness state all of that in the house, and hope that by gosh, golly and the gods that shit will finally hit the fan, while simultaneous know that nothing will happen.
female adult human beings, are they even human, and do we care at all?
Disclaimer: not all men rape, but the vast majority of rapists are men, and in the UK all rapists are men as in the UK by definition of the law a penis needs to be involved in that rape to make it rape. And yes, only men have penises.
I hope to find some time to follow that up and maybe write a post, but on the face of it that would have to be one of the worst instances I've seen of not just the problems with self-ID, but the problems with half the world, including many on the left, having lost their goddam minds.
It's massive gaslighting of the raped woman, women rape survivors, and well, just women generally.
Better you write this post then me, cause i am starting to piss vinegar when it comes to these stories that would never ever happen.
Also, there must be a better word then 'gaslighting' for the mindfuckery that we put women (adult human females) and girls (children human females) through in order to protect violent men no matter their self professed identity.
One aspect of this discussion, is that requests for clarity on this single-sex provision is often asked for, but not given. Even in institutional and government documents, the words sex, gender, and gender identity are often conflated and used interchangeably so that intention and meaning is impossible to define.
A nurse has claimed that NHS trusts are “gaslighting” patients with official policy documents labelling those who ask for single-sex spaces “transphobes” and “perpetrators”.
Annex B states that trans people should be accommodated “according to their presentation: the way they dress, and the name and pronouns they currently use”, rather than their biological sex at birth.
snip
The goalposts have been moved and I don’t quite understand who was consulted about Annex B and where we go from here.
“How can one reconcile this gender-friendly Annex B with a single-sex ward pledge in the main guidance.
“At the very least there needs to be a review of what exactly is the regime that we want to support.”
He added: “I was particularly concerned to see that effectively if you classify yourself as non-binary you can take your choice as to whether you go in a ward of any particular sex.”
so yeah, there is a law, but then there is a rule to ignore that law, and there is a rule to demonize those that point out that law by calling htem all sorts of not kind words…………and women and girls (the adult/child human female kind) are the ones paying the price.
But then, i guess someone is always forced to pay the piper, and why would it not be the adult/child human female kind. Its not as if they count, and have rights, or needs to respect, dignity and sex appropriate care and accommodation.
“This is the NHS gaslighting women patients,” she said. “In other policies, women patients who ask for wards to be single-sex are described variously as transphobic service users, offenders, perpetrators or those who should be given trans education sessions to improve their attitudes.”
So you are needing a double masectomy and some chemo for your cancer, but we have decided that before we can do that we need to give your trans education so as to improve your attitude before we can start working on that pesky breast cancer that brings you here and no you can not expect 'single sex accommodation' even tho we should actually provide this to you,.
Sabine thanks for posting this. I had just copied the link.
This is what happens when the trans lobby infiltrates Govt organisations and gas lights people with statements like trans women are women.
It is an outrage that this could happen, then the hospital denied the rape as there were “ no males” there.
This is one of the many reasons organisations like SUFW have been trying to get across that there are some circumstances when women require their own spaces, eg bathrooms, hospital wards and prisons. For that the SUFW were utterly vilified and treated with contempt by female politicians…
this will not be published in any NZ media outlets because there is a shut down of anything that challenges gender ideology and their spin.
When JKR made the statement that "the be-penised individual that raped you was a woman" she was referring to the discussion at the time of the some 436 cases of rape over about 5 years in England and Wales that were recorded as being committed by 'women" In those jurisdictions, rape can only be committed by the unlawful use of a penis. So that is 436 complaints about rape, committed by individuals with a penis who demand that they be recognised as women. https://4w.pub/uk-home-office-orders/
Just watched the PM on Australian Sunrise tv promoting NZ as a travel destination. She does that so well, looks so charming, and has such a friendly, welcoming personality.
Simply can't imagine Luxon being able to carry off a promotional slot with any panache at all. I suppose he could remind the Aussies he ran the airline that they may fly on.
Watched it on the Herald website, so of course being the Herald, immediately after that up loomed a large photo of Luxon demanding restrictions be over NOW. Their editorial staff maintain they are balanced, according to a recent response to questions from the public. Never noticed that particularly.
He waits for the government to signal it is making a review of policy and calls for change. If he was any faster follower, he would be accused of sniffing the PM's hair.
As a keen history buff, I am very interested to see what the new NZ history curriculum will be like. In school during the 1970s NZ history teaching was very limited.
In Primary school in Taranaki, in the 60's, I was taught a great deal about Māori culture and local history, including Parihaka down the road.
To the extent I didn’t realise Pakeha had a distinct culture until years later.
Stick games, Poi, Māori phrases and words were part of my education in that school, despite it being mostly Pakeha. (Between Ruapehu and Taranaki). Maybe it was the young, at the time, hippy Teachers?
Second World War, Tudors – still have my copy of Rowse's excellent book The England of Elizabeth, Wakefield Settlements in a way that presented the Wakefields as pioneering heroes.
Albert Wendt's poem post school introduced me to Parihaka and made me wonder why he felt anger that none of my European family or friends ever mentioned let alone expressed. That sent me on a journey of understanding NZ history in much more depth. Still my favourite poem.
ALBERT WENDT
Into the First Cold
1.
Once his sight and bones didn’t know the four seasons
He was born into Samoa’s two seasons of wet and dry
and the air’s wrap that rarely dropped below 22 degrees
The lush forests did not ever shed their green
and crops sucked up the soil’s precocious blood all year round
No need for fur or other animal skin or fabric
Apt nakedness was adequate clothing for the times
despite the Victorian taboo of covering from neck to toe
Not one inch of erect skin shine to be exposed
Sex was only for procreation and in the sin-chocka dark of night
2.
His first taste of ice water was a shocking burn around his teeth
then round his mouth and down his gullet and chest
as a long-nailed finger that scraped up choking tears
Ice cream was the only cold he loved but his family couldn’t afford it
He learned about snow and ice from books and films
Across the Pasefika on the banana boat out of the sun’s cling
into a cold that seeped down into his marrow and wouldn’t let go—
a journey from warm ease into seasick body crunched up
in his first ever woollen clothes and shoes the seas and skies turning
wilder darker predicting a New Zealand locked in the loneliness of cold
3.
First at boarding school under cone-perfect Taranaki beanied
with ice snow and tapu the cold and homesickness gripped his every bit
The teachers ordered early morning runs and cold showers afterwards
to toughen the will against the invading winter and shape them
into men who wouldn’t flinch from any kind of pain
Rugby and military drill were the other manly prescriptions
Twice weekly rugby practice and the game against another school and winter
Tackle and tackle attack and attack the pain was exhilarating and beat
the cold and forged the ideal team that would die for one another
Winning wasn’t everything—it was the only thing
Military drill in prickly uniforms with his courage as steely as the rifle
he carried erectly at the epic school parades with their much medalled
headmaster in splendid command and some of his teachers mimicking
the decorated heroes they’d been in the Second World War others with silence
refusing to glorify the futile leap into colonial wars’ insatiable gobs
Left-right left-right left-right halt! Young fit acclimatised he now lived
comfortably with the cold weather and being away from home
But every morning when he walked in Taranaki’s compass to breakfast
the mountain signalled not all was well with the path
His history teacher praised Te Whiti’s stand at Parihaka
He researched that and discovered almost 200 years
of settler invasion fraud and theft of iwi land
A deadlier cold slid into his throat and held him hostage
to an anger as rich as Taranaki’s beauty and defiance
of colonialism injustice and greed behind the eyes
''To the extent I didn’t realise Pakeha had a distinct culture until years later.''
I had a pakeha aunt pull me up when I said the exact same thing to her. My biggest mistake was thinking Maori culture was a way forward. It's not unless you are on the public tit – then it pays well.
We were well schooled in history when I was at school. Our teacher made it quite clear some Maori had been rorted out of land and that the crown had sometimes acted dishonourably much to the detriment of Maori self determination.
But…and this is a no-no, he also explained the benefits of colonisation, both for Maori and Pakeha.
Forget the 'woke whipping boy' ideological warblings.
Are you telling us that the benefits of colonisation will not be taught along with the downsides?
Because if you are, you dishonour the professional integrity of teachers, of academic knowledge, of the special understanding that history, the study of who we are, where we come from, what we have done as a human species brings us.
Which is why history, as a branch of learning, is so important.
And so feared by those who might feel ashamed, so liberating for those whose truth has been obscured and hidden, so enlightening for those who seek the truth and justice that come from real stories, told in truth and held up to the light of succeeding generations for their understanding and education.
Then we can investigate whether what you allege is true- that the teaching of colonisation as an historical concept is " an excuse for Māori failure", or on the other hand is an explanation for where our society has advanced from its earlier times, for good and bad, for good intentions or exploitation.
Truth ought not be feared. Historians teach the subject so we may learn from it and grow stronger as a society.
The fear comes from the realisation that we might need to change, alter our ways, and make right the wrongs.
History might teach us all that the cost of doing differently need not necessarily disadvantage us but rather benefit us all in a more harmonious and essentially just, fair and equal society.
Thanks, Blade, for the chance to put into words why I was a teacher of history. This is so important for our maturity as a society.
He says Maori have done historical research as part of the treaty settlement process but there hasn't been similar work done by pakeha because the Crown does that work.
"The unspoken contract that goes into this arrangement is don't disrupt the amnesia, don't disrupt the intentional and organised forgetting of our history that is a huge part of our pakeha culture.'
Regarding the rant about leaving the Māori language to die. The guest speaker at our graduation class in 1970 was the local Professor of German. He decried Māori as a second class language because it used so many borrowed words to overcome its vocabulary impoverishment.
He orated, naturally, in English……… what occurred to me even then was the errancy of this, and his contrary refusal to comprehend that the language he spoke in was similar with its seconded vocabulary- from French, Germanic and other sources- for example, garage, verandah, and the 30 instances I have used in these two paragraphs.
I wonder whether, as our German university academic for instance munched on his hamburger, did he discover what that grilled delicacy in its linguistic origins contained- beef, sauce, farmhouse bread, oil, tomato, onion, lettuce salad, mustard, salsa, all served with panache by the chef. Bon appétit!
Yes English probably has borrowed more words from other languages than any other. It is one of its delights. It is also clear that NZ English is really starting to adopt Maori words as well – hui, whanau, morena… I hear these as part of normal conversation spoken by lots of people who are not even close to fluent.
And then there is the beauty of words in all languages, that have no quite equivalent expression in English that are starting to make a difference in NZ thinking – manaakitanga in how we treat people and kaitiakitanga in how we treat our environment. Terms that I just never heard growing up that I now hear often.
We had 'the coming of the Maori to NZ' 3 years running, when I was in Primary School.
No idea why, or what happened to the curriculum in those years to get a double-up.
Lots of current events stuff around Bastion Point and the Maori Land marches, and later, the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal (social studies, politics, history).
Catholic primary school in a pretty much working-to-middle-class Auckland suburb, FWIW.
Really, then, as now, what will matter is the individual teacher. A good teacher with an interest in the subject will teach it well, and make it interesting; a poor teacher who is going through the motions, will make it dull as ditch-water.
Kids who have a passion for history will find their own resources (and that's a lot easier now, than it was 40 years ago); kids with zero interest will zone out in class, and forget what they've been taught in a week's time.
"Kids who have a passion for history will find their own resources (and that's a lot easier now, than it was 40 years ago); kids with zero interest will zone out in class, and forget what they've been taught in a week's time."
Around the world, people took action. Tens of thousands turned out to demonstrate support. People-power shamed politicians into action.
If countries want to enjoy the benefits of global trade, sports and investment, then they should agree to a minimum standard of behaviour. Civilised countries should exclude human rights abusers and genocidal maniacs. We don't need to trade only with democracies, but excluding war criminals, expansionists and murderers is not setting the bar too high.
Corporates around the world are rightly being required to observe environmental, social and corporate responsibility standards. One of those standards should be a bar on commerce with outlaw countries
Ukraine has become the frontline in a struggle over what the new world order will be – a moral one of tomorrow, or the paralysis of international institutions today and war-torn nationalism of the past?
PARIS, March 17 (Reuters) – The Ukraine crisis could knock more than a percentage point off global growth this year and add two and a half percentage points to inflation, the OECD estimated on Thursday, calling for targeted government spending hikes in response.
Former National politician and Northland MP Matt King, a Northland beef farmer, launched the DemocracyNZ Party on Friday afternoon… that he says stands for “freedom of choice” and unity.
The party stood for “democracy and uniting all Kiwis through our common values”, he said.
Cool! Obviously uniting the political left and political right is a task overdue for action! Their covert collusion has been going on too long.
Not sure if he's got what it takes, mind you, but full marks for ambition. It does mean, of course, that he will be unable to issue policies that are divisive. "Aha!" I hear you say. Don't assume he actually means what he says! Well, yeah, right-wing politician, fair point. Still, it does leave him wide open to attack from hungry journalists seeing a double-standard looming in whatever utterances he eventually utters…
We need as many anti-mandate parties as the ballot papers can fit. Also on polling day, if none of these fits you precisely, then its best to tick all the ones you support.
the current mandates against punching Matt King in the face are offending my freedom and I would like them removed, just in your case…
If you are sincere about bullshit freedoms which encroach on others and prevent their liberty to a much greater extent please start with this one. I’m sure we can find some takers to protest this mandate by punching you in the face.
Every disgruntled ambassador sent back to Russia increases pressure on the regime.
Everyone asks; 'What can we do to stop the war in Ukraine?'
The answer is very little. But every little bit helps.
Maybe we could do this.
Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on Friday announced the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats over the invasion of Ukraine, prompting Moscow to say it would respond in kind…..
….Lithuania's foreign ministry meanwhile announced that it had declared four Russian embassy employees persona non grata, a move made "in solidarity with Ukraine".
"Russia's military attacks on civilians, civilian objects, hospitals, schools, maternity wards, and cultural objects are war crimes and crimes against humanity," it said in a statement…..
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 ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – 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 (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
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 ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
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. ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
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 ...
Asia Pacific Report Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology Ryan Tauss/ Unsplash, CC BY Two male students have been expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in a list ranking female students. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Reserve Bank is now assuming Australians will see no interest rate cuts this year – and quite possibly none before the next federal election, due next May. That’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University The Victorian budget offered more of the same on Tuesday, with the only change being how the budget papers were packaged. The usual shrink wrap was gone, hinting at savings in the pages ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition is demanding extensive amendments to the government’s legislation targeting non-citizens who refuse to co-operate with their removal. In a dissenting report to the senate inquiry into the legislation, the Coalition says it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanita Yadav, Senior Research Fellow, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Brett Boardman/Belvoir The complex and grappling issue of violence against women takes centre stage in the soul-stirring solo dance drama Nayika: A Dancing Girl. During a dinner conversation ...
Disruption to patient care from a nationwide junior doctors strike is bordering on unsafe, a senior doctor claims, despite what health officials say. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Ground Picture/Shutterstock The anti-cancer drug abemaciclib (also known as Vernezio) has this month been added to the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to treat certain ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic McAfee, Postdoctoral researcher, marine ecology, University of Adelaide Robbie Porter, OzFish Unlimited Around Australia, hundreds of people are coming together to help a once-prized, but decimated and largely forgotten marine ecosystem. They’re busy restoring Australia’s native oyster and mussel reefs. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Webb, Lecturer, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology Austin Human/Unsplash How does Earth stop meteors from hitting Earth and hurting people? –Asher, 6 years 11 months, New South Wales Alright, let’s embark on a meteor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rory Mulcahy, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of the Sunshine Coast Professional sports organisations regularly promote and develop initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion. While sport has the power to change attitudes by sparking conversations about political issues and social ...
Comment: The weekly Monday post-Cabinet press conference is a useful forum for observing Christopher Luxon and how he is developing into the job of Prime Minister. He attempts to convey the impression of a man of action, speaking fast, delivering memorised National Party strategies in a connect-the-slogans kind of way, ...
Double votes, missing ballot boxes, tired tech and stressed staff: how tick-tallying went astray at last year’s election. Cast your mind back to November 2023, that bleary-eyed post-election period duringwhichwewaited, andwaited, for a coalition deal to be hammered out. A distraction from the hotel-hopping of our ...
International audiences are starting to discover what New Zealand already knew about After the Party.When After the Party aired in New Zealand last year, the response was fast and furious. In his preview for Rec Room, Duncan Greive said it was a “gritty, wrenching and highly confronting” series. By ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shahram Akbarzadeh, Convenor of the Middle East Studies Forum (MESF), and Acting Director the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University Iran’s leadership has been a direct beneficiary of the months-long war in Gaza. With every missile that Israel fires ...
Claire Mabey reviews the haunting and sexy debut novel from Sinéad Gleeson, who is about to touch down in Aotearoa for a string of live events.When Irish writer Sinéad Gleeson was in Aotearoa in 2018 with her spectacular collection of essays, Constellations, she told me she was working on ...
PNG Post-Courier Bougainville Affairs Minister Manasseh Makiba has described the Post-Courier’s front page story yesterday regarding a meeting between Bougainville and national government leaders as “sensationalised” and without substance. The Autonomous Bougainville Government (AGB) had warned it might use “other avenues to gain its independence” should the PNG government “continue ...
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 ...
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 ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 7 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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. ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Adams, Professor of Corporate Law & Academic Director of UNE Sydney campus, University of New England Last August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched legal proceedings against Qantas. The consumer watchdog accused the airline of selling thousands of tickets ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Nasser, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important ligament in the knee. It runs from the thigh bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia) and helps stabilise ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
Holy crap i mustve shit the bed !! Fijoas have been falling for a week or so round here very welcome they are too but im struck by how big they are this year ?cause of the wet spring maybe ? Others are telling me that the incidence of moth infestation is not as bad as last year .Certainly was bad though in some of the peaches .
Greens double their poll rating by doing nothing. Who said zen politics doesn't work?!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/labour-just-ahead-in-latest-poll-after-crash-in-support/4F6MDGBHUEMWZ3JSTUDDPBBJHY/
Picking up the Left vote, sick of neoliberal incrementalism
Exactly Robo.
Nope a sudden change like that is more likely a polling error , which is enevitable in the statistic based polling methods that are used.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018757020/polls-rogue-polls-and-statistics
'Campbell explains how pollsters have a spreadsheet of more than 400 different segments or profiles that need to be ticked off, and why pollsters have to work so hard to reach the "19-year-old man living on the West Coast". '
polls are all over the place.
Pretty typical in the mid-term
I would say I am probably a natural Labour supporter but I have voted Green in the last two elections as I feel they are more environmentally and anti-poverty oriented and at points I have had concerns over their survival. The sort of thing I have found off putting from the Greens is stuff like the reclaiming off the word "cunt" it was a "WTF" for me I didn't "get it" then I don't now and doubt I ever will. Apologies for the rambling comment.
I shared your reaction at the time. I kinda reframed on it after pondering awhile. Language does shape our world. Her explanation made sense on the basis that males had hijacked the word and turned it into a perjorative. So she did it as a liberationist feminist thing – reclaiming the word.
Pretty shallow if you vote for all the other parties that will do little about CC for that reason Barfly. Look at the big picture not the fringe elements-the media will of course play up the "cunt" issue, but then they should know.
Several years since I posted here about Substack, so here's an update:
The biggest hassle that I have with sub-stack or protean is that it is difficult and expensive to follow multiple people at once when you're only interested in reading some of each authors work.
Currently the only single author sites that I pay for are Politik and Phoronix. The former has a low article rate but is in depth on the type of analysis that I want on national politics. The latter, well it is the best news place for linux and the relationship to underlying hardware.
I have the same issue with pay walled media sites.
I subscribe to a number of newspaper/magazine media, but generally just the best international ones. My criteria tends to be ones that I will read a quarter of their articles in the morning read. But many media just don't hit that.
For instance I like reading Fallon's (now guest) economic/political writing on the Herald – but I'm not going to buy a subscription to the Herald to get it. Same for about 4 other authors on there. The articles in the Herald are just too damn uneven. I scan the headlines most days, but seldom want to open more than one or two articles.
I'll scan Stuff, RNZ, ABC.au, BBC.world in preference for an overview.
I'd prefer having a pay per use model at the NZ Herald, rather like the Auckland Transport parking app (which I love) or the AT bus dongle. Don't know why no-one seems to want to do that. Technically it is possible using exactly the same model.
Media site subscriptions are a pain unless it is The Economist – which gives me about a ~80% read article rate.
It was why I had to dropped Medium. Lots of good opinion articles. Highly uneven. Eventually I wasn't reading them because I already knew what each author was likely to say on politics history or science, and the usefulness of the technical was limited. I dropped down to about a 10% article read rate. I really wanted pay-per-view there.
I almost dropped Washington Post last renewal. But when I did, they came back with a offer that I couldn't refuse – about a 10th of the full rate. I guess they tracked what my actual usage was.
So I donate to Stuff because I use their site as the main local news overview pickup.
I donate to wikipedia because I love their random page. Nothing like getting bored and flicking through and scanning pages of information. That is when I'm not using wikipedia as a entry point to fact check or initial research on a topic.
I've trained Google Chrome's 'Discover' to give me the weird and wonderful opinion links in tech and science – which now has a ~50% read article rate… 🙂
"New COBOL contender emerges: gcobol"
"ASUS warns of Cyclops Blink malware attacks targeting routers"
"Eight RS232 Ports, one ethernet port"
"Canonical updfates the Ubuntu logo in time for 22.04 LTS"
"In 2045: Alpha Centauri"
"10 amazing exoplanet discoveries"
"C isn't a programming language anymore"
But really I want a conglomeration site like Discover which picks up from all over the place, learns my interests and reading level, and that I pay per view – mostly to the author.
Sounds like a retirement project.
Interesting feedback. I agree with pay per view, in principle. I'd prefer a tick box system though – placed at the end so you can tick it to register your opinion that it was worth reading. And the billing to then happen monthly. That way it would be easy to monitor the expense and the frequency of approvals.
My reading identifies me as a dilettante, notoriously so inasmuch as visitors have been known to try counting how many books they can find lying open with bookmark in place on various tables, chairs etc around the place – often in piles of same. I did a count once & reached 24 despite being a tidy person by nature.
So I share your online tendency. I'm allergic to paying anyone so tend to cruise around doing a brief scan of topics on any site. I have been a regular payer to Wikipedia though. I'd pay for a provider service if their qc was up to my standard.
I used to have piles of completed books around. Just because I read at least one book a day, and more like 8 fiction in a day when I relax.
However I offloaded the extensive paper library in 2012 after moving it around 2 houses when my partner needed a bigger workspace for editing a documentary. I'm now up to ~90% of the paper library as epubs.
These days my library is Calibre running on my servers with a couple of offsite repositories. I seem to be buying most of my books on Kobo at present. Periodically I batch them, strip the DRM and toss them into Calibre. I mostly use FBReader as my reader using ODPS from my servers.
FBReader is good enough that I’m contemplating using their SDK as a core to do my own reader. There are a few features that would make a better reader like the kobo font-sizer.
I've dug through the epub open source enough to know that it'd be a pain doing it from there.
I don't mind paying. I just don't like wasting my time. Paying to waste my time with reading rubbish (eg NZ Herald) feels like a sin.
Calibre looks useful. I actually can't read for pleasure on a screen – physically unable to relax with one for some reason. Consequently the e-books option has never appealed. However I can see that it would be useful for sourcing text from nonfiction books to illustrate blog comments by expanding or proving points.
Such copying saves having to type it in or run it thro ocr. If there was a way to hook it up to TS it would benefit essay-writers. Expand the resource base considerably! Book writers tend to include more interesting stuff than the more superficial online writing culture provides…
Substack is great. Subscribed to David Farrier's Webworm (free). I thought Medium was really cool as well, until they locked it down and tried charging users to read more than 10 articles a week. Screw that. (there are browser extensions to get around it, but I just don't care enough to go to Medium much these days)
RSS aggregators were pretty nifty and I used a few of them over the years. Found some neat blogs. But eventually it became too tiring/tedious to curate all the crud.
So now I am like a magpie, getting bits off TS, TDB, Twitter, RNZ, NZHerald, Stuff. And occasionally foreign outlets when something significant happens overseas. I follow TheRegister and HackerNews and a few tech journos on Twitter, it's enough to get the gist of what's going on.
There are also useful tools like Outline.com and Bypass Paywalls that will get you full access to most news sites. DuckDuckGo is good for finding stuff that Google doesn’t want you to see. Plus a big shout out to Sci-Hub for the occasional academic paper that would normally cost an unreasonable amount of $$$$
Partner reads Webworm. I had the problem that after reading it a few times I could predict at the start of a article what he was likely to say from the title and first paragraph.
I originally paid for Medium because of the useful articles on the Android display API plus discussions on some of the languages and libraries that I don't use and was vaguely interested in the philosophy of (like flutter, react, haskell, kotlin etc). That was how I started to write in kotlin. I spread to the political, history, and science from that. But it simply wasn't deep enough and usually lacked links to deeper material if I wanted to delve deeper – one of the things that wikipedia was good on (and mass media is usually terrible at).
I magpie as well. But I have a basic set of sites that I go through every day – typically between 0630 and 0830 while I wake up, have breakfast, coffee, and before I start thinking about work.
I checked out his archive & found the Bill Gates conspiracy one – based on a public media even, great context!
We ought to give Labour credit for this lurch out of the 19th century into the 21st:
The PM said
Just gloss over why it didn't happen in the 20th century. Try to ignore all the years that Labour was in govt then without feeling the need to drag education out of the 19th. Just feel good that it's finally happening.
She acknowledges NZ finally joining with other countries that teach kids their nation's history without any explanation of Labour's part in why it took more than a century to do it. Still – this is genuine evidence of Labour being transformational. Well done!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/463479/aotearoa-new-zealand-history-curriculum-launches
This is wonderful to see.
Financial literacy is something I think needs to be taught at an…early age.
Clarks Labour did introduce a researched and comprehensive new curriculum while in Government.
Of course this took time.
To be dumped for Nationals return to the 1890's, emphasise on 3/R's and rote learning. National's low standards ended up coming at the same time as the new curriculum. Leading to an inivitable and typical right wing education stuff up.
No one in teaching is surprised that education standards in everything, including the 3R's, has dropped since. As it always does when right wing zealots get their sticky beaks into teaching.
Paul Goldsmith was reported this morning on breakfast tv as saying that the new history curriculum divides people into "oppressors" and "victims". Will be interesting to see how far the right gets with this line. It's bollocks, but still a promising line of attack for two reasons:
Binary folk will always default into a binary framing. Their brains can't function without doing so. Oodles of third alternatives are always evident to anyone with an open mind. I bet most settlers & maori would fit more accurately into the opportunist category, for instance.
Recall that Taranaki tribe who bought a ship from the Brits, sailed off to the Chathams to do genocide on the peaceful islanders? Extreme opportunism!
You are wrong there, Dennis. The late Sir Paul Reeves said in a speech ( to paraphrase) '' We came to your lands (Chathams) long ago'' There was no mention of genocide. I wonder if the new history curriculum will mention that with as much detail as Parihaka is recounted?
Dave Seymour was disappointing in this interview. He made few pertinent points in my opinion.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/audio/david-seymour-and-graeme-ball-on-aotearoa-new-zealand-history-being-compulsory/
A history lesson for you:
Yikes that is horrific. Debunks the “noble savage” myth. And here I thought our worst massacre was the little known killing of 250 Maori on Moturua Island in the BOI by some French settlers
.
Just one (albeit notable) example of the extraordinarily brutal violence & ethnic cleansing of the Musket Wars … but best keep schtum about it … destroys the highly paternalistic Noble Savage Romanticism – grounded in Critical Race Theory & Post-Colonial Theory – at the heart of the new History curriculum.
Eternal Māori virtue, innocence, powerlessness & pacifism at all times.
Historical facts & moral complexity are far too yukky & inconvenient for Woke dogmatists pursuing a pure Good vs Evil Morality Tale.
Of course any sensible person would trust teachers as far as they can kick them, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt to start with.
Any lack of teacher credibility can always be exposed by a parent who primes their kid to ask the right question in class. Unsatisfactory performance by the teacher revealed in consequence can then be dealt with via a formal complaint to the headmaster, the minister of education, or both.
Would the Musket Wars have been so brutal had not Maori been fuelled by the white man's technology, deceit, and theft?
Clearly they would not have been called the Musket Wars if it were not for muskets.
They would have been more noble, had they been more savages? I mean you have an open and shut case there regarding the technology.
It seems less clear that Maori were unfamiliar with deceit and theft from times before settlers arrived.
Maori warfare before the arrival of the settlers was brutal. Ever heard of Pouwhenua? Tewhatewha? Tao? Huata? Patu?
Funny – your first bullet point seems to confirm Paul Goldsmith's fears.
As a beneficiary of the status quo, Goldsmith's primary fear is that it is examined and found wanting in terms of justice – either in its historical origins or present day operation.
His fears are indeed well-founded – and his response is to either erase historical context, or have it defined by the winners, in order to maintain this "just world" fallacy.
And it's a pretty good strategy, as most people who have done OK in life share exactly the same predisposition.
I don't think Goldsmith's concern is an examination of NZ History, I think the concern is who is doing the examining & how it is presented. A definition of history by the "losers" may be as biased as one presented by the ""winners". (Winners & losers being your definition)
European & Maori history is full of brutal acts within their own people & against other people. I hope our NZ History when taught shows a warts & all full picture. Sadly if it doesn't it will become "the history you are taught at school & then here are the other bits they didn't tell you" It will become a sad joke.
I don't think how well you have done in life should determine how you view history.
The subject is so all encompassing that what is taught in schools will only ever be a selective once over lightly
Great news. I appreciated Chlöe's response to those complaining about "critical race theory" or whatever… 💪🏾
https://twitter.com/_chloeswarbrick/status/1504588865449132035?s=20&t=C2_FidPOJnZ503XBLdM0uQ
She’s a grandstanding narcissist who knows neither New Zealand history nor historiography.
Hope you are going ok. Swordfish?
Interesting comments about Chole. Not a fan myself
Nah she's an intelligent young Millennial, who lacks life experience, but has a fine mind and decent ethics, who wants a better NZ. Her blind spots are privilege and wokeness, but I think she is smart enough to overcome those limitations sooner or later. I like her leadership potential and outspoken socialist leanings.
Her understanding of issues and communication skills rival those of Jacinda. A bright future.
Unfortunately, I have a suspicion that some of the concerns raised by the letter to the Listener, regarding mātauranga Māori inclusion into the curriculum are justified, or at least worth getting more details on. If we conflate those concerns as opponents of the non-defined Critical Race Theory, we fall into the same trap as those who view Gender Critical as transphobic.
https://www.fsu.nz/in_defence_of_science_article
It is openness and transparency of process and impact that will allow the public to discuss.
I have had a conversation with someone who said that when compiling the new NCEA standards, the initial work is done by subject specialists, and then Māori representatives are asked for their input, which is then shoehorned in.
I can see problems if that is the case. And OIR of some of the drafted standards might be the only way to see if the concerns of the letter writers above are justified, or whether the dismissal of those concerns are.
Found the hardest "wordle" derivative yet … called "semantle" (h/t weka). Yesterday my score was 47. Today it was 63. 🤯
Also recommended: hellowordl, Absurdle, Quordle, Octordle
semantle is the hardest one so far, also much more addictive. Although sometimes I find myself wondering if the game as any meaning, lol. Not being geeky enough to understand quite what they are doing with the connections there.
loving Octordle and its wide screen mode!
I failed it today! 😭
just started, taking it slowly now though haha.
I fucked it up. Seem to be a lot of words with the same letters.
Yeah I think it's a bit too weird, Quordle is more fun
🙂
https://twitter.com/wekatweets/status/1504681446778163204
Whaaat! 30 guesses … I didn't realise #48 was available yet. Will give it a crack.
It's a test of similarity – i.e. how similar your brain is to a thesaurus.
yes, but some words that are quite similar have very low scores so it must be more than that
It's about the meanings, themes and thoughts behind the words. Synonyms on steroids. Maybe my practice of Cryptic crosswords helps!
If you fancy the same but different, try Globle.
It sure tests your knowledge of where countries are, and how to spell their names😎
https://globle-game.com/
Free speech makes the news again.
Michael Laws said, “I’m afraid the toxicity of social media is killing freedom of speech."
He reckons social media was stifling expression. This is after reaction to comments he made on his Facebook page. We're coming to terms with social media and how to use it and respond to it.
He'd written, "When did girls with lovely faces/breasts but unhealthy bums/legs become sexy?"
I'm not on Facebook to see if someone answered his question with: "About the same time arseholes became politicians or media personalities."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/appalling-example-michael-laws-obesity-comments-draw-fire-online/TMWIRJNDILGBSHNIAB3P4QP4KQ/
There are all sorts of problems with FB and other social media. There are also problems with Laws being a sexist, body shaming, regressive.
Aww poor Antoinette Beck's "friend" it's harsh out here.
Not boding well for the stability of "The Platform"… lots of large egos on there. Without some kind of moderation, the “Free speech” outlet could easily devolve into thoughtless ranting that turns people off.
Sounds like he is unhappy that freedom of expression does not include the freedom from other private citizens making comments, judgement and even ostracism whether on social media, in a pub or in the town square.
He's mentioned a real issue, but skipped over it to pursue his low tastes.
Most are probably aware of Popper's paradox of tolerance, that An open society needs to be intolerant of intolerance.
The rise of Trumpism brings us the spectacle of people that will cheerfully suppress the freedoms of others, claiming the protection of an enlightenment constitution that they clearly do not subscribe to.
The right of propagandists who oppose free speech to claim their own speech is protected is necessarily less than infinite. In a moral sense they are freeloaders on their more enlightened fellows. But Laws just wants to talk about boobies.
Regarding the price of meat.
I would really like to know why meat is as expensive as it is in the supermarket.
A breakdown of costs in the total supply chain, from the price paid to the farmer, cost at the works, shipping to the wholesale butchery, cutting up, packaging, transport costs et etc.
You can see the beef and sheep schedules here on interest.co.nz – rural dropdown shows the various cattle schedules.
https://www.interest.co.nz/rural/sheep/lamb-y
Free marketeers would tell you it's just supply and demand, and prices meeting the market. But they ignore the anticompetitive behaviour of the supermarket duopoly that has been well documented and ongoing for decades.
‘Extraordinary profits’: New Zealand considers breaking up supermarket duopoly | New Zealand | The Guardian
I say, nationalise the lot. They are (like many segments of the economy) exploitative and profiteering from market power. Screwing suppliers and workers, and inflating prices of essentials.
Nationalising them isn't required. They each sell up say 25 sites across NZ which is then taken by a 3rd player (Aldi, sainsburys etc) and you have a competitive industry.
Aldi shook up oz along with Costco but the entrenched duopoly here requires political cajones to resolve.
That's the real issue….political will to rule for a fair deal for all kiwis.
Political will relies on opinion polls and vested interests. So public opinion is a prerequisite to any major change. And the public is quite restless and annoyed at the moment, so I do expect the government to come up with something more than the usual platitudes.
Your saying two players doesn't make a competitive market but 3 will? Colour me skeptical.
You have to start somewhere, it's just an example of one of the submissions I heard was tabled.
That submitter has a future on Tui billboards.
A different take on Simon Bridges. And one nearer the mark of the man than the usual fawning MSM interviews.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/18-03-2022/what-simon-bridges-means-to-me
Sam Brooks is just another queer stuck in the queer bubble of believing the queer community have some relevance in mainstream life. Bridges was just being what a conservative should be – true to himself and his worldview, like Sam Brooks is to himself and his worldview.
But I don't blame the queer community for their militancy, and attempting to push their agenda's on the world. For so long they where discriminated against. Alan Turing and Quentin Crisp are famous examples of the shit gay people had to endure.
As an aside, someone gave me a book called ''The Alan Turing Cryptic Codebreaker's Puzzle Book.'' F@#k me, you not only have to solve the puzzle… you sometimes have to work out what the question is. This blog gives me plenty of practice.
GDP is not infinite.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00723-1?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=bd4e52b6e3-briefing-dy-20220317&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-bd4e52b6e3-47041915
“A report published last week by the World Health Organization (see go.nature.com/3j9xcpi) says that if policymakers didn’t have a “pathological obsession with GDP”, they would spend more on making health care affordable for every citizen. Health spending does not contribute to GDP in the same way that, for example, military spending does, say the authors, led by economist Mariana Mazzucato at University College London.”
GDP is a crude measure but it serves the interests of the corporate elites plundering the Earth, who only measure things in terms of money.
"Health spending does not contribute to GDP in the same way that, for example, military spending does, say the authors, led by economist Mariana Mazzucato at University College London.”
The authors apparently say this, and you quote this but what on earth does it mean? Can you explain this statement?
https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/council-on-the-economics-of-health-for-all/who_councilbrief3.pdf?sfvrsn=b121f943_11&download=true
Its long and involved and will still leave you asking the same question.
It means that a healthy working populace is not valued properly by GDP measures. But around the world (especially with Covid) it has been shown that a functioning public health system is actually better for the economy than sending workers and their families into bankruptcy when someone is hit by illness or accident.
How prioritizing health could help rebuild economies | McKinsey
You do realise that the article you linked to is in direct opposition to the one that is the basis of Stephen D's post?
I have read both and do not see where the conflict lies. Both argue that GDP is incomplete and measures the price of everything but the real value of nothing.
Just like on a personal level, we take our health for granted, until one day misfortune strikes.
Please elaborate.
One has its foundation in degrowth and wishes to destructure GDP (Doughnut economics) whereas the other advocates growth as measured by GDP and promotes its adoption through the measure seen as problematic by the former….they couldnt be more opposed if they tried.
The problem the original has (doughnut) and the point I was making to Alwyn was, it is utopic without any roadmap…..great to have a vision but difficult to support without the 'how' and probably why GDP remains the poor measure we use ….the lack (yet) of a viable alternative.
Perhaps they choose to see health spending as a cost and military spending as an investment; in that mindset a fighter jet will seem a more effective acquisition than a linear accelerator and the trained staff to run it.
Look at anything GDP measures in the desperately out of date 20th-century model: who chooses the values and categories; quis custodes custodiet?
Is that small thought too 'simplistic'?
Not a simple thought, a reasonable explanation.
It's journos with a conscience vs zombies in Russia.
Okay, I need to explain the difference between those two job descriptions. When I was working in the TVNZ newsroom 30 years ago I cut stories for reporters & journalists, but often for a hybrid professional category called news producers. This third category were given responsibility for producing news stories on an assigned basis by the programme producer.
Marina seems to fall into this category of a journalist who also produces tv news stories. The fact [see her wiki] that she had done so for 20 years for the state broadcaster suggests attainment of a senior position.
Since her father is Ukrainian and her mother Russian, her identity naturally forms a bridge between the two nations. Childhood in Chechnya during the war there is probably a contributor to her antiwar feeling.
In this report she is given a third job description. I was a video editor (the craftsperson who actually creates the product) and I worked with journos who operated as programme editors sometimes. I suspect her role was sufficiently senior that she did that editorial work as part of her normal duties.
The four resignations we know of are probably just high-level news due to reputation – tip of the iceberg I suspect. State compulsion to produce disinformation creates a toxic work environment. For workers to sacrifice their career and possibly their safety (or even their life) it shows an intense commitment to a better alternative.
For workers to sacrifice their career and possibly their safety (or even their life) it shows an intense commitment to a better alternative.
"Possibly their safety" I think is a given. Someone needs to get her out of Russia. She's in mortal danger.
And I agree the few resignations and the fleeing we know about is just the tip of the iceberg. I would suggest there are a great many Russians fleeing their homeland as we speak. We won't know how many until its all over – bar the shouting.
Could be her husband is in a position to protect her – he's also in a significant job elsewhere in Russian television. She's courageous (or naive) enough to refuse the offer from Macron.
It wouldn't hurt to offer her asylum in NZ – the odd journalist that understands and appreciates the importance of democracy would be a breath of fresh air.
I agree. Someone ought to email Mahuta & suggest she call in the Russian ambassador to make the offer!
The PM says that they will review mandates and passes next week.
So "clever" Luxton and Bishop declare to media ,"We demand that mandates and passes be dropped immediately."
When the PM announces such action next week, Lux/Bish will claim that they made the
PM act. How clever – not.
I demand that the sun sets this evening! And claim that I made it happen.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-national-party-leader-christopher-luxon-calls-for-vaccine-passes-mandates-passes-and-other-covid-19-restrictions-to-be-dumped/LFNBLVCZHGODSGCBBECBUJDAGY/
Yep, for the 20th time, and this time on a very busy Lower Hutt road, the National Party has declared this pandemic, over!
Until it's not, then we'll have to reinstate restrictions, The Bish adds helpfully.
Ah! The intellectual basis of virtually all prototype priesthoods. Time and season management.
Ahh but is only seasonal waves as Europe goes into its seventh winter in 2 years.
https://twitter.com/zorinaq/status/1503782053531193346
File this under would never happen.
Men who identify as women would never rape women in the single sex spaces that they are allowed to as they now identify as women.
Unless of course it does. And then what?
Well it is easy
Deny that there is a man on the 'female only ward'
Deny that a man could have been in the 'female only ward'
Tell the police that there was no man on the 'female only ward'
Disregards the Nurses, others Staff and CCTV Camera.
Tell the women (female adult human) who got raped that clearly she did not get raped cause there was no male on the 'female only ward'.
Instruct NHS staff to lie about men on the 'female only wards'.
Find CTTV camera and view the contents there of, learn that indeed there was a man on the female only ward and that indeed a women got raped.
Offer meaningless arse covering excuses to the victim who for a period of one year was told that a. there was no male on the female only ward, and b. that she never got raped at all, and thus there is nothing the Police should or could do.
And then have a Baroness state all of that in the house, and hope that by gosh, golly and the gods that shit will finally hit the fan, while simultaneous know that nothing will happen.
speech by the Baroness
CFWBaronessNicholsonHouseofLords170322_0104am
transcript on Glinner https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/baroness-nicholson-uncovers-a-horrific?s=r
female adult human beings, are they even human, and do we care at all?
Disclaimer: not all men rape, but the vast majority of rapists are men, and in the UK all rapists are men as in the UK by definition of the law a penis needs to be involved in that rape to make it rape. And yes, only men have penises.
I hope to find some time to follow that up and maybe write a post, but on the face of it that would have to be one of the worst instances I've seen of not just the problems with self-ID, but the problems with half the world, including many on the left, having lost their goddam minds.
It's massive gaslighting of the raped woman, women rape survivors, and well, just women generally.
Better you write this post then me, cause i am starting to piss vinegar when it comes to these stories that would never ever happen.
Also, there must be a better word then 'gaslighting' for the mindfuckery that we put women (adult human females) and girls (children human females) through in order to protect violent men no matter their self professed identity.
I watched her speech this morning, and looked up the NHS Annex A and B documents, and got confused over the apparent contradictions in advice.
However, Sex Matters organisation has gone through the documentation in a series of articles so I don't have to.
Download of pdf specifically to do with Annex B here:
https://sex-matters.org/posts/publications/reviewing-annex-b/
do you have a link to the series of articles? I find their website a bit hard to navigate.
Link, click view for starters …
what?
Using the link given, click view to see Annex B.
Just a site search for "Annex B".
Four hits, including the pdf linked above.
Other three are articles/posts:
NHS Hospitals: “single-sex” accommodation cannot be mixed sex
No need for sex data on domestic abuse? – regarding the impact on domestic violence refuges
EHRC to issue guidance on single-sex and separate-sex services
One aspect of this discussion, is that requests for clarity on this single-sex provision is often asked for, but not given. Even in institutional and government documents, the words sex, gender, and gender identity are often conflated and used interchangeably so that intention and meaning is impossible to define.
I can understand hte nurses stating that 'no men are on female (adult/child human females) only wards'
from the daily fail….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10500729/Nurses-sacked-raising-concerns-trans-patients-single-sex-wards.html
paywalled in the same sense The Times UK
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nhs-gaslights-women-who-want-single-sex-wards-as-transphobes-claims-nurse-9xntx69p5
from the Independent
so yeah, there is a law, but then there is a rule to ignore that law, and there is a rule to demonize those that point out that law by calling htem all sorts of not kind words…………and women and girls (the adult/child human female kind) are the ones paying the price.
But then, i guess someone is always forced to pay the piper, and why would it not be the adult/child human female kind. Its not as if they count, and have rights, or needs to respect, dignity and sex appropriate care and accommodation.
Times article archived here:
https://archive.ph/qMDlI
“This is the NHS gaslighting women patients,” she said. “In other policies, women patients who ask for wards to be single-sex are described variously as transphobic service users, offenders, perpetrators or those who should be given trans education sessions to improve their attitudes.”
How familiar.
So you are needing a double masectomy and some chemo for your cancer, but we have decided that before we can do that we need to give your trans education so as to improve your attitude before we can start working on that pesky breast cancer that brings you here and no you can not expect 'single sex accommodation' even tho we should actually provide this to you,.
That's how it reads to me as well.
thanks. Sorry, I thought you meant they'd done a series of posts on that case.
Oh, ok.
Apparently the amendment 184ZBA proposed by the Baroness was withdrawn.
UK Hansard regarding amendment here:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2022-03-16/debates/84C9B6AA-0214-4CEF-A41D-302373BDC190/HealthAndCareBill
Haven't had time to read through, but it may be of use if you are writing a post.
thanks Molly. I'll see if I can piece it all together, appreciate the links.
Sabine thanks for posting this. I had just copied the link.
This is what happens when the trans lobby infiltrates Govt organisations and gas lights people with statements like trans women are women.
It is an outrage that this could happen, then the hospital denied the rape as there were “ no males” there.
This is one of the many reasons organisations like SUFW have been trying to get across that there are some circumstances when women require their own spaces, eg bathrooms, hospital wards and prisons. For that the SUFW were utterly vilified and treated with contempt by female politicians…
this will not be published in any NZ media outlets because there is a shut down of anything that challenges gender ideology and their spin.
When JKR made the statement that "the be-penised individual that raped you was a woman" she was referring to the discussion at the time of the some 436 cases of rape over about 5 years in England and Wales that were recorded as being committed by 'women" In those jurisdictions, rape can only be committed by the unlawful use of a penis. So that is 436 complaints about rape, committed by individuals with a penis who demand that they be recognised as women. https://4w.pub/uk-home-office-orders/
Just watched the PM on Australian Sunrise tv promoting NZ as a travel destination. She does that so well, looks so charming, and has such a friendly, welcoming personality.
Simply can't imagine Luxon being able to carry off a promotional slot with any panache at all. I suppose he could remind the Aussies he ran the airline that they may fly on.
Watched it on the Herald website, so of course being the Herald, immediately after that up loomed a large photo of Luxon demanding restrictions be over NOW. Their editorial staff maintain they are balanced, according to a recent response to questions from the public. Never noticed that particularly.
The Herald/ Balanced? Oxymoron.
He waits for the government to signal it is making a review of policy and calls for change. If he was any faster follower, he would be accused of sniffing the PM's hair.
Granny Herald who was a cheerleader for the war in the Waikato?
No the bigger question should be why they have supported Jacinda as much as they have…
perhaps look as far as OneRoof for that
As a keen history buff, I am very interested to see what the new NZ history curriculum will be like. In school during the 1970s NZ history teaching was very limited.
It pretty much didn't exist. I learnt way more about Tudor and Stuart history than I ever learnt about anything in NZ.
Must have depended greatly on the Teachers..
In Primary school in Taranaki, in the 60's, I was taught a great deal about Māori culture and local history, including Parihaka down the road.
To the extent I didn’t realise Pakeha had a distinct culture until years later.
Stick games, Poi, Māori phrases and words were part of my education in that school, despite it being mostly Pakeha. (Between Ruapehu and Taranaki). Maybe it was the young, at the time, hippy Teachers?
Second World War, Tudors – still have my copy of Rowse's excellent book The England of Elizabeth, Wakefield Settlements in a way that presented the Wakefields as pioneering heroes.
Albert Wendt's poem post school introduced me to Parihaka and made me wonder why he felt anger that none of my European family or friends ever mentioned let alone expressed. That sent me on a journey of understanding NZ history in much more depth. Still my favourite poem.
ALBERT WENDT
Into the First Cold
1.
Once his sight and bones didn’t know the four seasons
He was born into Samoa’s two seasons of wet and dry
and the air’s wrap that rarely dropped below 22 degrees
The lush forests did not ever shed their green
and crops sucked up the soil’s precocious blood all year round
No need for fur or other animal skin or fabric
Apt nakedness was adequate clothing for the times
despite the Victorian taboo of covering from neck to toe
Not one inch of erect skin shine to be exposed
Sex was only for procreation and in the sin-chocka dark of night
2.
His first taste of ice water was a shocking burn around his teeth
then round his mouth and down his gullet and chest
as a long-nailed finger that scraped up choking tears
Ice cream was the only cold he loved but his family couldn’t afford it
He learned about snow and ice from books and films
Across the Pasefika on the banana boat out of the sun’s cling
into a cold that seeped down into his marrow and wouldn’t let go—
a journey from warm ease into seasick body crunched up
in his first ever woollen clothes and shoes the seas and skies turning
wilder darker predicting a New Zealand locked in the loneliness of cold
3.
First at boarding school under cone-perfect Taranaki beanied
with ice snow and tapu the cold and homesickness gripped his every bit
The teachers ordered early morning runs and cold showers afterwards
to toughen the will against the invading winter and shape them
into men who wouldn’t flinch from any kind of pain
Rugby and military drill were the other manly prescriptions
Twice weekly rugby practice and the game against another school and winter
Tackle and tackle attack and attack the pain was exhilarating and beat
the cold and forged the ideal team that would die for one another
Winning wasn’t everything—it was the only thing
Military drill in prickly uniforms with his courage as steely as the rifle
he carried erectly at the epic school parades with their much medalled
headmaster in splendid command and some of his teachers mimicking
the decorated heroes they’d been in the Second World War others with silence
refusing to glorify the futile leap into colonial wars’ insatiable gobs
Left-right left-right left-right halt! Young fit acclimatised he now lived
comfortably with the cold weather and being away from home
But every morning when he walked in Taranaki’s compass to breakfast
the mountain signalled not all was well with the path
His history teacher praised Te Whiti’s stand at Parihaka
He researched that and discovered almost 200 years
of settler invasion fraud and theft of iwi land
A deadlier cold slid into his throat and held him hostage
to an anger as rich as Taranaki’s beauty and defiance
of colonialism injustice and greed behind the eyes
Brilliant…poem.
''To the extent I didn’t realise Pakeha had a distinct culture until years later.''
I had a pakeha aunt pull me up when I said the exact same thing to her. My biggest mistake was thinking Maori culture was a way forward. It's not unless you are on the public tit – then it pays well.
We were well schooled in history when I was at school. Our teacher made it quite clear some Maori had been rorted out of land and that the crown had sometimes acted dishonourably much to the detriment of Maori self determination.
But…and this is a no-no, he also explained the benefits of colonisation, both for Maori and Pakeha.
Why do you say it is a no-no?
I'm a history teacher from the 70s. Explain to me why the benefits of colonisation are a 'no-no'.
In the modern context, colonisation is a woke whipping boy. An excuse for Maori failure. It supports woke culture.
I can't wait to see what the new school history studies have to say about colonisation.
Forget the 'woke whipping boy' ideological warblings.
Are you telling us that the benefits of colonisation will not be taught along with the downsides?
Because if you are, you dishonour the professional integrity of teachers, of academic knowledge, of the special understanding that history, the study of who we are, where we come from, what we have done as a human species brings us.
Which is why history, as a branch of learning, is so important.
And so feared by those who might feel ashamed, so liberating for those whose truth has been obscured and hidden, so enlightening for those who seek the truth and justice that come from real stories, told in truth and held up to the light of succeeding generations for their understanding and education.
Then we can investigate whether what you allege is true- that the teaching of colonisation as an historical concept is " an excuse for Māori failure", or on the other hand is an explanation for where our society has advanced from its earlier times, for good and bad, for good intentions or exploitation.
Truth ought not be feared. Historians teach the subject so we may learn from it and grow stronger as a society.
The fear comes from the realisation that we might need to change, alter our ways, and make right the wrongs.
History might teach us all that the cost of doing differently need not necessarily disadvantage us but rather benefit us all in a more harmonious and essentially just, fair and equal society.
Thanks, Blade, for the chance to put into words why I was a teacher of history. This is so important for our maturity as a society.
We like to forget.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201839522/taranaki-tensions-rooted-in-pakeha-collective-amnesia
He says Maori have done historical research as part of the treaty settlement process but there hasn't been similar work done by pakeha because the Crown does that work.
"The unspoken contract that goes into this arrangement is don't disrupt the amnesia, don't disrupt the intentional and organised forgetting of our history that is a huge part of our pakeha culture.'
Regarding the rant about leaving the Māori language to die. The guest speaker at our graduation class in 1970 was the local Professor of German. He decried Māori as a second class language because it used so many borrowed words to overcome its vocabulary impoverishment.
He orated, naturally, in English……… what occurred to me even then was the errancy of this, and his contrary refusal to comprehend that the language he spoke in was similar with its seconded vocabulary- from French, Germanic and other sources- for example, garage, verandah, and the 30 instances I have used in these two paragraphs.
I wonder whether, as our German university academic for instance munched on his hamburger, did he discover what that grilled delicacy in its linguistic origins contained- beef, sauce, farmhouse bread, oil, tomato, onion, lettuce salad, mustard, salsa, all served with panache by the chef. Bon appétit!
Yes English probably has borrowed more words from other languages than any other. It is one of its delights. It is also clear that NZ English is really starting to adopt Maori words as well – hui, whanau, morena… I hear these as part of normal conversation spoken by lots of people who are not even close to fluent.
And then there is the beauty of words in all languages, that have no quite equivalent expression in English that are starting to make a difference in NZ thinking – manaakitanga in how we treat people and kaitiakitanga in how we treat our environment. Terms that I just never heard growing up that I now hear often.
The Suez crisis
TheIrish Question
The leadup to the first world war
thats how I remember it
We had 'the coming of the Maori to NZ' 3 years running, when I was in Primary School.
No idea why, or what happened to the curriculum in those years to get a double-up.
Lots of current events stuff around Bastion Point and the Maori Land marches, and later, the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal (social studies, politics, history).
Catholic primary school in a pretty much working-to-middle-class Auckland suburb, FWIW.
Really, then, as now, what will matter is the individual teacher. A good teacher with an interest in the subject will teach it well, and make it interesting; a poor teacher who is going through the motions, will make it dull as ditch-water.
Kids who have a passion for history will find their own resources (and that's a lot easier now, than it was 40 years ago); kids with zero interest will zone out in class, and forget what they've been taught in a week's time.
"Kids who have a passion for history will find their own resources (and that's a lot easier now, than it was 40 years ago); kids with zero interest will zone out in class, and forget what they've been taught in a week's time."
And aint that the truth
Have often wondered about the ECE industry and their capitalist, extreme profit model. Also, what are they teaching our youngest people?
It appears some of them are teaching racist, anti-semitic propaganda via BitChute.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kids-kampus-parent-in-disbelief-as-auckland-preschool-emails-far-right-conspiracy-website-link-to-caregivers/OPCA27YFCKJLB3K6WQUCXLMQZU/
This kind of thing is why I strongly support freedom of speech.
The cognitive dissonance of "man".
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/127943246/people-power-shames-governments-into-action
https://www.reuters.com/business/ukraine-crisis-could-cut-1-off-global-growth-this-year-oecd-2022-03-17/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Reuters%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_content=17-3-22&utm_campaign=17-3-22
A peaceful resolution, rather than a Cold War with Russia – and its consequences for western capability to contain the rise of China is possible.
https://original.antiwar.com/david_stockman/2022/02/23/george-kennan-warned-nato-expansion-would-lead-to-this/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/128082010/we-should-dump-the-net-zero-carbon-goal
No more vast than a new Cold War involved weaning the EU off Russia oil an gas and the global impact on growth and inflation.
Murderous little prick's boosters must be feeling real good now.
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1504627665097089027
Whats wrong with it?
He didn't sell it enough. I don't think his heart was in the role this time.
Bit like Bruce Willis you reckon, only in it for the money
Bruce Willis career was negatively affected when Christmas movie roles dried up. He was simply type cast.
His best was Fifth Element – there are plenty more Moebius or Druillet stories he could have done.
I see your Fifth Element and I raise you a Pulp Fiction
12 monkeys.
Cool! Obviously uniting the political left and political right is a task overdue for action! Their covert collusion has been going on too long.
Not sure if he's got what it takes, mind you, but full marks for ambition. It does mean, of course, that he will be unable to issue policies that are divisive. "Aha!" I hear you say. Don't assume he actually means what he says! Well, yeah, right-wing politician, fair point. Still, it does leave him wide open to attack from hungry journalists seeing a double-standard looming in whatever utterances he eventually utters…
Perhaps he is looking to attract United Future ex voters. He needs a worm!
Yes:
We need as many anti-mandate parties as the ballot papers can fit. Also on polling day, if none of these fits you precisely, then its best to tick all the ones you support.
lol
https://twitter.com/LI_politico/status/1504656859818754052
Dear Matt King,
the current mandates against punching Matt King in the face are offending my freedom and I would like them removed, just in your case…
If you are sincere about bullshit freedoms which encroach on others and prevent their liberty to a much greater extent please start with this one. I’m sure we can find some takers to protest this mandate by punching you in the face.
sincerely
newsense
Mandates will be over (or close) by the election!!!!
Every disgruntled ambassador sent back to Russia increases pressure on the regime.
Everyone asks; 'What can we do to stop the war in Ukraine?'
The answer is very little. But every little bit helps.
Maybe we could do this.
Send the Russian Ambassador in Wellington packing
So what if our protest makes little difference, every little bit helps. Surely it is better than doing nothing.