It's hard to feel sorry for this kind and caring bloke when he falls for virtually the same scam so many times. As they say, "A fool and his money are easily parted".
The Korean war should have been our the last US war of choice that we supported.
But no.
You would think, that our experience in Vietnam would have taught us a lesson?
But again no.
We just had to send troops to the US bloodfest in Afghanistan.
And we are still doing it.
Why?
America’s Coming War With China
Conflict is both undesirable and imprudent, but appears inevitable given our current leadership.
Douglas MacGregor – The New Conservative, June 8, 2021
…..If the political purpose of a new Pacific war is to change Chinese behavior externally or internally—to render China incapable of resisting American political demands—it is worth noting that China is not Imperial Japan in 1941. Japan’s economy was roughly one-tenth the size of the U.S. economy, and it still required three years of hard fighting by U.S. forces to redeem America’s ignominious defeat at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines….
…..China’s economy is also nearly the size of the American economy and, in contrast to Imperial Japan, Beijing has generally avoided armed conflict with its neighbors despite a number of disputes. In fact, the dramatic success of the regional comprehensive economic partnership—which creates a free trade agreement between China and the Asia-Pacific nations of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam—has made Washington’s notion of building an anti-Chinese alliance very difficult, if not impossible.
As American diplomats are rapidly discovering, none of these states really wants to be caught in the middle of a conflict between China and the United States.
Are regional states, like New Zealand, reluctant to be caught up in this conflict as this writer claims?
If so;
Then how much back room arm twisting and secret threats did it take the US, to get New Zealand to send warships to take part in thier war games in the South China Sea?
"The Korean war should have been our the last US war of choice that we supported.
But no.You would think, that our experience in Vietnam would have taught us a lesson?
But again no.
We just had to send troops to the US bloodfest in Afghanistan.
And we are still doing it.
When will we ever learn?"
Great question, my take is that we (as country) won’t, or more accurately can’t and will never learn any military lessons from history while we are still governed by people (and enabled by all MSM).who won’t even acknowledge that the endless growth economic system that they all adhere to like members of some insane death cult is literally burning the planet before their eyes.
These people are not the free thinkers that we need to extract us from climate change and endless pointless wars, they are just the same old stodgy minded thinkers from yesterday that have proven that they have no capacity to take on board new bold transformative , progressive ideas..let alone come up any themselves.
Watching these slow minded, slack jawed idiots jump on the this new US lead anti-China campaign like lemmings off a fucking cliff has been depressing for me to be honest …”when will we learn”..not any time soon by the looks of it.
The only hope we have is that there is a whole generation coming through right now, who have huge student loans, no hope of ever owning their own home (so no mortgages , which as we all know kills off the revolutionary spirit faster than any other single thing)..are being gouged relentlessly by boomers for rent every single week of their lives and to top it all off,are being left with a planet on fire!
They literally have no skin in the game of freemarket liberalism, they have nothing to lose, which is exactly the right place to be and to start from when it comes to throwing out the old and starting something new, let’s all hope that their brave new world also sees through the mountains of bullshit that keeps moronically pushing that old troupe, endless war is just a human condition.
Surely China's neighbours will have haad a good think about yankistan's reliability as an ally, in view of recent events. The UK will come to heel of course.
I suspect it has more to do with the fact that we have a vested interest given that our main shipping route to Japan and Taiwan is straight through the South China Sea, and we have a longstanding policy of supporting international maritime law and UN resolutions vis a vis The South China Sea Arbitration (The Republic of Philippines v. The People's Republic of China) 2013 etc.
Short answer as to why that perspective has always been bullshit, from corner stores to geopolitics: folks you trade with would often prefer to take what you have for free.
Short answer as to why that perspective has always been bullshit, from corner stores to geopolitics: folks you trade with would often prefer to take what you have for free.
Let me get this straight. According to you; We are protecting our trade routes to China, to stop China from taking our stuff for free, en-route, before it gets to China?
You've got to be kidding, that's just so many colours of crazy.
But OK. I'll play.
For a start it would be piracy.
Military ships, Chinese crews, trained for armed takeover of freighters on the high seas.
What's the ROI on that?
If China really wanted to take our stuff for free, wouldn't it be cheaper for them, to just not pay us for it, after we had delivered it?
The worry is not that China want our stuff for free, the real worry is that they might not want it at all.
New Zealand's number one export to China is milk powder
Australia's number one export to China is iron ore.
China’s five-year plan to slash Australian iron ore imports
Michael Smith – Financial Review, May 22, 2021
The Chinese government has drafted a five-year plan to slash its reliance on iron ore from Australia and other countries by almost half by investing in new mines offshore and seeking alternative supplies from Russia, Myanmar, Kazakhstan and Mongolia…..
Figures on a Chinese consumer website show New Zealand has topped a list of countries that had their milk products rejected by China last year.
The website says, according to customs data, nearly 14 percent of the total number of dairy products rejected between October 2013 and November 2014 were from this country.
The Shipin Anquan Kuaisu Jiance site did not specify why 60 batches from New Zealand were rejected, but said generally products from around the world had been sent back or destroyed because of illegal use of chemicals, expired due-by-date or excessive e-coli bacteria counts…..
Vietnam, the Phillipines, and Indonesia all trade with China. That doesn't mean they don't need to actively defend what they see as their territory from China, particularly in relation to the South China Sea. Including international sea lanes.
No major power is benevolent. The trick for smaller nations is to utilise their own defence capabilities and international alliances to make trade more attractive than occupation.
Beijing has generally avoided armed conflict with its neighbors despite a number of disputes.
Because they can't. You're mistaking an 'inability to act' for 'peaceful intentions'. The premise of this article you quote is around the question of a US -China war. Neither nation is interested in such a thing – the Chinese cannot project power beyond their immediate borders, and the US is absolutely not going to put boots on the ground in China.
China faces a number of hard geopolitical constraints and while the US media likes to overestimate it's opponents, this doesn't change the realities on the ground or at sea so much. There are at least four critical problems they face:
Their geography means they cannot project power easily. On land they face the Himalayas or the vast open grasslands that both present impossible logistic challenges. To their south mountainous jungles and their access to the global oceans is constrained by hostile archipelago neighbours.
It may be the 2nd largest economy, but per capita remains about 77th in the world. And most of the new wealth is concentrated in the large coastal cities. As a result it's one of the most unequal societies on earth and faces considerable internal dissent. It's no coincidence that the greatest repressions are happening in the impoverished interior provinces.
It's rapidly ageing society that is rapidly running out of the young people necessary to sustain internal consumption led growth. Worse still it's rapidly losing it's labour price advantage over the rest of the world. China will not remain the 'workshop of the world' forever – that title is rapidly moving to places like Mexico, Malaysia, Vietnam and India. Supply chains move about all the time. As a result China may well become the first great nation to become old before it gets rich – and no-one knows what might happen then.
The entire growth of modern China has been based on it's ability to trade with the rest of the world – for both raw input materials and access to markets. And it controls none of the pre-conditions necessary for this to happen. It doesn't control access to the oceans, to it's markets nor to the rules based order that enables these things to happen. The CCP leadership well understands this, hence the entire BRI initiative that can only be read as an attempt to create it's own alternative system that it does control. How well this works out remains to be seen – personally I think the CCP will expend a lot of resources for not much return on the project.
For all these reasons I think there will be no great power war between the US and China – with the caveat of an attempted invasion of Taiwan. (That would almost certainly fail – amphibious invasions are incredibly hard to pull off and Taiwan is very well prepared for this possibility.) The PRC media and diplomats perform much posturing, but their actions are exceedingly cautious just were the Soviets before them – their Admirals are not fools and can count ships. As with the Cold War – all the US has to do is create an alliance to contain the CCP and – wait.
The article requires subscribing before reading, so I didn't, but the headline was enough to make me think about "the way forward" being an amalgam of naturalism and science, the old and the new, or whatever 🙂
White clover makes for a good test species because it has already displayed the stamina to survive in climates from Norway to southern India, Dr. Johnson said. The plant also helps nourish soil with nitrogen and serves as an important source of nectar for bees and other pollinators.
The clover adapts to colder climates by losing its ability to make hydrogen cyanide or HCN, a toxin the plant produces to protect itself from predators, like snails, insects and voles, and in the country, cows, sheep and goats. The number of plants that produce hydrogen cyanide increases with every mile away from the city center, the study found, with small cities showing the same effect as big ones.
White clover that grew in an urban environment was less likely to make hydrogen cyanide, Dr. Johnson said. Although cities can be warmer than the countryside, the heat and human activity result in less snow than in rural areas. Without snow to insulate the plants from the cold, the clover would poison itself if it could not give up its ability to make hydrogen cyanide, Dr. Johnson said.
I was confused right through the second and third paragraphs till we got to: snow to insulate the plants.
I'd be more interested in some thinking around/examination of variance in their microbial symbionts, and their contribution to the hologenome leading to a highly adaptive supraorganism.
Honestly, I wonder who gives half these people their doctorates. But then, multi-disciplinary thinking is still more a catchphrase than a thing.
Thanks for that detail, ianmac; very interesting indeed. At first, counter-intuitive: why would a plant let go of a protective process (making hydrogen cyanide)? Realising that the herbivores that like clover don't like cities was the moment…
Of course, I may have got that wrong 🙂
Yes it's a shame the entire article is behind a paywall – it would make for an interesting read.
While my expertise and natural bias lies on the industrial side of the equation that constitutes human welfare – I've always tried to give full credit to the 'agricultural' side as well. There is much to learn about both and much I think both can contribute to each other if each was willing to set aside their suspicions of the other.
Perhaps the one lesson that nature has to offer above all is just how subtle and powerful the process of evolution is. In just about every field of human endeavour I can think of – the principles of organic processes can be applied.
More than anything else, evolution is a balanced process. It both conserves and innovates at the same time. It both creates and destroys, and perhaps most fascinating of all – how the old must give way to the new in order to reveal the potential hidden within it.
I think you've misread me – biology is the layer at which evolution appears, but as DB alludes to, it's principles are by no means limited to biology – they build upward from there.
Energy, both ambient and biologically available, drives evolution. Higher temperature allows for higher metabolic rates using less energy, while total biologically available energy leads to larger population sizes. Larger population sizes use larger range sizes which contribute more geographic variation leading to further environmental selection pressures. More food = more young. More young = more variance. Higher populations and temperatures both lead to more mutation events, some of those become adaptations to selection pressures.
Continuing in this vein new species may arise on the fringe of large populations where sub-populations adaptations to variance in environment may eventually separate them (geographically, spatially or temporally) from interbreeding.
As redlogix alludes to, there is much for man to learn from evolution. It's a numbers game and breakthroughs come when large numbers are challenged by variance in the environment. While random mutations underpin much of this, selection is not random, it is driven by the environment.
Iterative adjustment to environmental pressure is the norm. Failure to adapt may be a death sentence. Iteration for the sake of business (e.g. new phone or car model) mimics evolution but is simply wasted resources. A population wasting resources to hoard for specific individuals decreases their chances of survival. All species are limited to the energy available within their range. As we consider ourselves thinkers, resources should go to adaptation to environment first, propagation of new generations second, and getting fat last.
Evolution is often described as an arms race (it often is) or survival of the fittest (it can be that too), but the real deal for survival is symbiosis. We're all packed with bacteria that entrain our immune systems, and issues with our microbiomes development can have profound results on human health and development. Humans too, could become symbionts – to the planet. That is our means of survival.
Clover not only uses chemistry to protect itself, but biology (via chemical signals). Plants trade with microbes to get (some of) the ingredients for the cyanide. Clover is clearly well adapted with massive range ( = massive populations) and both fungal and microbial symbionts involved. It is highly adaptive at least partially because it is well connected.
The hologenome of clover (combined genome of the plant and its symbionts) is greater than merely its own genome. The supraorganism (combo of plant and symbionts that act in concert as one organism) is far greater than the plant alone.
The old iteration of leaders (warmongers, capitalists) are killing us. Humanity must evolve as symbionts or be significantly diminished.
While random mutations underpin much of this, selection is not random, it is driven by the environment.
Indeed as the other post on globalisation attempts to outline – the ground is shifting under us both politically and economically in ways most people are not thinking about.
White clover is at the top of my weed list. Every bee sting i have ever had has been the fault of white clover. No matter how short you cut or not it it will always set flowers low to the ground. Bees will feed not only on these flowers but also underneath making a landmine.
Red clover on the other hand is my no1 friendly. Flowers set on the end of long stems and bees are not threatened by being brushed against. There are so many benefits to red clover i would have to write a post to cover.
(note that red clover will die off if mowed low and often as this cuts the crown off the plant)
If I ever join the landed gentry I'd love to experiment with moss instead of grass/clover. Probably as labour-intensive in different ways, but I've always liked the look and feel of it.
Moss likes a damp environment so you might not want a property to suit. Lawn camomile would give you a similar effect. Would be a lot of work keeping the weeds out, but would smell great when you mow it.
Chamomile lawn is fantastic. Not sure of the maintenance issues, you'd want to get it relatively weedless – but it looks good, feels good, and releases nice smells. A man who built Flax Lodge on Great Barrier had a chamomile lawn in his moon well. What a great place to hang out of an evening.
From family and friends who are deemed essential workers. We are only in our 5th day of lockdown, and I already see and hear of burnout. Sure those testing and admin jabs are doing a great job, but how long can they continue at this pace? And there are few in reserve that can be brought up to give these valuable people a respite. The same for supermarket workers, petrol station attendants, hospital workers etc There will be a need soon for them to have a break for their well being but financial stress, doing their bit for society etc may preclude this. I hope that those in senior positions are thinking of these and others and do not have expectations that current work outputs will continue. And we all can do our bit by showing our gratitude: a thank you, especially if they are part of our bubble.
Alot of the essential services are running low on staff with standdowns etc, given lockdown looks to be extending im going to apply for one of the many temp positions at the local supermarket gets me out of the house, helps keep shelves stocked and hopefully offers the chance for someone to have a shift off.
Another odd consequence of lockdowns is the courier drivers find themselves working even longer days delivering alcohol and flour (of all damn things) to domestic addresses in locations they rarely have to service and often not easy to find.
They typically get up at 4am and find themselves delivering stuff at 8pm in the dark to people who then whine about them being late. High burden, low margin work.
Thanks RL, it's the kind of work I'm involved in & we're flat tack! The best thing is people are happy to see us & being really positive, but I get annoyed at seeing people gathering but then I guess I'm lucky because I get to do something, keep active.
Courier and delivery people generally put up with the negatives because the work itself allows them some degree of personal autonomy that most other jobs don't offer. And they get to go places and interact with lots of different people – it can be kind of cool in this respect.
But the burn-out rate is pretty damned high, not all that many last more than 3 -4 years at it. As ‘contractors’ they’ve fall into an industrial relations grey zone that no govt has shown much interest in looking at.
At our local country supermarket this afternoon, as we were about to scan in, a middle aged couple rushed through. The young doorman politely requested, "Excuse me, please sign in." The response was, "HAVEN'T GOT TIME, we're in a hurry!" And they rushed into the store. I believe scanning/loggingin is to be made mandatory within a week, I guess this sort of behaviour is going to cause some real issues (in fact is already happening) for the poor individuals on the doors everywhere.
When health resources are available the unvaccinated would not be turned away. When resources become limiting their vaccination status might contribute to triage, which is unfortunate but logical.
A lot of pressure was put on the government last year and earlier this year by the opposition, business leaders, Hosking/Hawkesby & mates, Plan B attention seekers, universities wanting overseas students here, people wanting to holiday overseas (understandable for those wanting to see family) and farming/horticulture wanting workers.
Those same people are all rather quiet now that we are in lockdown again. Have those same people been doing their scanning every time they have gone into any premises? The contact tracing now having to be done could have been quicker if they had been doing that.
Stalking is still an issue in NZ, when it should be a priority for lawmakers. Who is more vulnerable than a stalking victim? Don't tell me murder victims. They are already dead.
English police have the power to take out stalking protection orders without forcing the victim through a lengthy court process. It puts the responsibility for monitoring behaviour onto police, rather than victims, Towns says.
That’s something that’s lacking in New Zealand, she adds.
The onus is always on victims. To gather evidence – even when the law isn’t there to prosecute. To make police reports – so if the worst happens at least there’s a paper trail. To get a protection order.
Protection orders are often the only avenue open to people being stalked by their partner or ex-partner.
They are usually granted through the Family Court. Their purpose is to protect the victim from contact or violence from the person named on the order.
But to get one there has to be evidence of a risk of serious harm, Women’s Refuge policy adviser Natalie Thorburn explains.
“Given that there’s often very little evidence of the stalking, and that individual episodes of stalking are only harmful because of the backdrop of abusive behaviour, it’s a hard threshold to meet.”
Thus creating the philosophical and editorial question if a fool makes a noise in the middle of nowhere and nobody is around to hear, do they really need a photo-op?
I find so much that is just plain wrong in your post, starting with "It did not seek to expand it's territory" for one, that I would need a whole series of posts to debunk it.
Whether or not I'm happy with the end of the "American century" is irrelevant. They USA is ending it anyway. It is their own fault, but not because they are "retreating from the world". Their dependence on manufacturing and economic support from China will preclude that.
Unless they indulge in another one of the huge social enterprises that have repeatedly saved their otherwise dysfunctional economy. War!
We just had a graphic illustration of how the USA,s misconceptions and view of themselves is a false narrative, in Afghanistan.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
"It is also a story of miscalculation and hubris, one that resonates rather profoundly this week as American soldiers, diplomats, intelligence officials and many thousands of Afghans flee the Taliban’s assault on Kabul."
"The group fitted 35 old CRT televisions, LED monitors and printers with GPS devices of a special make. Out of this sample the team quickly focused on the fate of three LCD screens dropped at Officeworks storefronts around the Brisbane metro area.
Hayley Palmer, BAN’s chief operating officer, was on the team that followed where they went afterwards. As the signals left the country, Palmer, her nine-month-old and a colleague tracked the monitors to a warehouse in Hong Kong and then on to an illegal dump-yard in a rural part of Thailand where they talked their way inside."
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On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
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The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
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A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
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The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
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It's hard to feel sorry for this kind and caring bloke when he falls for virtually the same scam so many times. As they say, "A fool and his money are easily parted".
The scammers have no moral compass.
West Coast beekeeper turns Brazilian drug mule in sophisticated scam – NZ Herald
‘
Why are New Zealand warships taking part in American war games in the South China Sea?
Why is US Vice President Harris going to Vietnam?
Is it this all part of US plans to shore up regional support for their next war?
It seems that it is.
Should we really be taking part in it?
When will we ever learn?
The Korean war should have been our the last US war of choice that we supported.
But no.
You would think, that our experience in Vietnam would have taught us a lesson?
But again no.
We just had to send troops to the US bloodfest in Afghanistan.
And we are still doing it.
Why?
Are regional states, like New Zealand, reluctant to be caught up in this conflict as this writer claims?
If so;
Then how much back room arm twisting and secret threats did it take the US, to get New Zealand to send warships to take part in thier war games in the South China Sea?
Or did we go willingly once more into the breach?
When will we ever learn?
"The Korean war should have been our the last US war of choice that we supported.
But no.You would think, that our experience in Vietnam would have taught us a lesson?
But again no.
We just had to send troops to the US bloodfest in Afghanistan.
And we are still doing it.
When will we ever learn?"
Great question, my take is that we (as country) won’t, or more accurately can’t and will never learn any military lessons from history while we are still governed by people (and enabled by all MSM).who won’t even acknowledge that the endless growth economic system that they all adhere to like members of some insane death cult is literally burning the planet before their eyes.
These people are not the free thinkers that we need to extract us from climate change and endless pointless wars, they are just the same old stodgy minded thinkers from yesterday that have proven that they have no capacity to take on board new bold transformative , progressive ideas..let alone come up any themselves.
Watching these slow minded, slack jawed idiots jump on the this new US lead anti-China campaign like lemmings off a fucking cliff has been depressing for me to be honest …”when will we learn”..not any time soon by the looks of it.
The only hope we have is that there is a whole generation coming through right now, who have huge student loans, no hope of ever owning their own home (so no mortgages , which as we all know kills off the revolutionary spirit faster than any other single thing)..are being gouged relentlessly by boomers for rent every single week of their lives and to top it all off,are being left with a planet on fire!
They literally have no skin in the game of freemarket liberalism, they have nothing to lose, which is exactly the right place to be and to start from when it comes to throwing out the old and starting something new, let’s all hope that their brave new world also sees through the mountains of bullshit that keeps moronically pushing that old troupe, endless war is just a human condition.
Surely China's neighbours will have haad a good think about yankistan's reliability as an ally, in view of recent events. The UK will come to heel of course.
Which of China's neighbours do you reckon want the United States to "help" in the neighbourhood? The Philippines? Vietnam? Laos? Cambodia? Korea?
https://www.salon.com/2012/06/17/when_chomsky_wept/
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1138&context=historical-perspectives
I suspect it has more to do with the fact that we have a vested interest given that our main shipping route to Japan and Taiwan is straight through the South China Sea, and we have a longstanding policy of supporting international maritime law and UN resolutions vis a vis The South China Sea Arbitration (The Republic of Philippines v. The People's Republic of China) 2013 etc.
Short answer as to why that perspective has always been bullshit, from corner stores to geopolitics: folks you trade with would often prefer to take what you have for free.
Let me get this straight. According to you; We are protecting our trade routes to China, to stop China from taking our stuff for free, en-route, before it gets to China?
You've got to be kidding, that's just so many colours of crazy.
But OK. I'll play.
For a start it would be piracy.
Military ships, Chinese crews, trained for armed takeover of freighters on the high seas.
What's the ROI on that?
If China really wanted to take our stuff for free, wouldn't it be cheaper for them, to just not pay us for it, after we had delivered it?
The worry is not that China want our stuff for free, the real worry is that they might not want it at all.
New Zealand's number one export to China is milk powder
Australia's number one export to China is iron ore.
Vietnam, the Phillipines, and Indonesia all trade with China. That doesn't mean they don't need to actively defend what they see as their territory from China, particularly in relation to the South China Sea. Including international sea lanes.
No major power is benevolent. The trick for smaller nations is to utilise their own defence capabilities and international alliances to make trade more attractive than occupation.
Remind me how that's working out for Australia again?
Are you capable of attempting answers your own rhetorical questions?
Is there any other block quote available other than the most militant commentary one could find outside of the Hoover Institute?
What are the views of the Prime Minister on this that you could find on Scoop over the past two Parliamentary terms?
Does New Zealand have a Defence White Paper you could actually quote some local reality from?
What is the stated New Zealand position on intervention in this geographical area that you can find on the MFAT website?
Would one prefer lobbing really softball questions to oneself because actually acting in the world is hard?
What is reading anyway?
Why think?
Beijing has generally avoided armed conflict with its neighbors despite a number of disputes.
Because they can't. You're mistaking an 'inability to act' for 'peaceful intentions'. The premise of this article you quote is around the question of a US -China war. Neither nation is interested in such a thing – the Chinese cannot project power beyond their immediate borders, and the US is absolutely not going to put boots on the ground in China.
China faces a number of hard geopolitical constraints and while the US media likes to overestimate it's opponents, this doesn't change the realities on the ground or at sea so much. There are at least four critical problems they face:
For all these reasons I think there will be no great power war between the US and China – with the caveat of an attempted invasion of Taiwan. (That would almost certainly fail – amphibious invasions are incredibly hard to pull off and Taiwan is very well prepared for this possibility.) The PRC media and diplomats perform much posturing, but their actions are exceedingly cautious just were the Soviets before them – their Admirals are not fools and can count ships. As with the Cold War – all the US has to do is create an alliance to contain the CCP and – wait.
Something both DB Brown and RedLogix might enjoy 🙂
"Scientists are studying clover in urban settings all over the world because it is rapidly evolving to cope with the stresses of urban life."
White Clover Can Be an Annoying Weed. It May Also Hold Secrets to Urban Evolution.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/science/white-clover-evolution.html
The article requires subscribing before reading, so I didn't, but the headline was enough to make me think about "the way forward" being an amalgam of naturalism and science, the old and the new, or whatever 🙂
Might help Robert.
I was confused right through the second and third paragraphs till we got to: snow to insulate the plants.
I'd be more interested in some thinking around/examination of variance in their microbial symbionts, and their contribution to the hologenome leading to a highly adaptive supraorganism.
Honestly, I wonder who gives half these people their doctorates. But then, multi-disciplinary thinking is still more a catchphrase than a thing.
Thanks for that detail, ianmac; very interesting indeed. At first, counter-intuitive: why would a plant let go of a protective process (making hydrogen cyanide)? Realising that the herbivores that like clover don't like cities was the moment…
Of course, I may have got that wrong 🙂
Yes it's a shame the entire article is behind a paywall – it would make for an interesting read.
While my expertise and natural bias lies on the industrial side of the equation that constitutes human welfare – I've always tried to give full credit to the 'agricultural' side as well. There is much to learn about both and much I think both can contribute to each other if each was willing to set aside their suspicions of the other.
2 sides of a coin but there's only one coin 🙂
Perhaps the one lesson that nature has to offer above all is just how subtle and powerful the process of evolution is. In just about every field of human endeavour I can think of – the principles of organic processes can be applied.
More than anything else, evolution is a balanced process. It both conserves and innovates at the same time. It both creates and destroys, and perhaps most fascinating of all – how the old must give way to the new in order to reveal the potential hidden within it.
"In just about every field of human endeavour I can think of – the principles of organic processes can be applied."
Physics?
🙂
Less so – in the hierarchy of the sciences math, physics and chem lie underneath biology – which is the layer at which evolution appears.
That's a point on which we have differing views. Why should evolution only apply to biology?
@ Robert
I think you've misread me – biology is the layer at which evolution appears, but as DB alludes to, it's principles are by no means limited to biology – they build upward from there.
Energy, both ambient and biologically available, drives evolution. Higher temperature allows for higher metabolic rates using less energy, while total biologically available energy leads to larger population sizes. Larger population sizes use larger range sizes which contribute more geographic variation leading to further environmental selection pressures. More food = more young. More young = more variance. Higher populations and temperatures both lead to more mutation events, some of those become adaptations to selection pressures.
Continuing in this vein new species may arise on the fringe of large populations where sub-populations adaptations to variance in environment may eventually separate them (geographically, spatially or temporally) from interbreeding.
As redlogix alludes to, there is much for man to learn from evolution. It's a numbers game and breakthroughs come when large numbers are challenged by variance in the environment. While random mutations underpin much of this, selection is not random, it is driven by the environment.
Iterative adjustment to environmental pressure is the norm. Failure to adapt may be a death sentence. Iteration for the sake of business (e.g. new phone or car model) mimics evolution but is simply wasted resources. A population wasting resources to hoard for specific individuals decreases their chances of survival. All species are limited to the energy available within their range. As we consider ourselves thinkers, resources should go to adaptation to environment first, propagation of new generations second, and getting fat last.
Evolution is often described as an arms race (it often is) or survival of the fittest (it can be that too), but the real deal for survival is symbiosis. We're all packed with bacteria that entrain our immune systems, and issues with our microbiomes development can have profound results on human health and development. Humans too, could become symbionts – to the planet. That is our means of survival.
Clover not only uses chemistry to protect itself, but biology (via chemical signals). Plants trade with microbes to get (some of) the ingredients for the cyanide. Clover is clearly well adapted with massive range ( = massive populations) and both fungal and microbial symbionts involved. It is highly adaptive at least partially because it is well connected.
The hologenome of clover (combined genome of the plant and its symbionts) is greater than merely its own genome. The supraorganism (combo of plant and symbionts that act in concert as one organism) is far greater than the plant alone.
The old iteration of leaders (warmongers, capitalists) are killing us. Humanity must evolve as symbionts or be significantly diminished.
While random mutations underpin much of this, selection is not random, it is driven by the environment.
Indeed as the other post on globalisation attempts to outline – the ground is shifting under us both politically and economically in ways most people are not thinking about.
Very interesting comment, thanks.
Two words come to mind: proliferation and differentiation.
[deleted]
[If you want to cut and paste you have to 1) make it clear it’s a quote and 2) link – weka]
White clover is at the top of my weed list. Every bee sting i have ever had has been the fault of white clover. No matter how short you cut or not it it will always set flowers low to the ground. Bees will feed not only on these flowers but also underneath making a landmine.
Red clover on the other hand is my no1 friendly. Flowers set on the end of long stems and bees are not threatened by being brushed against. There are so many benefits to red clover i would have to write a post to cover.
(note that red clover will die off if mowed low and often as this cuts the crown off the plant)
When you combine white clover with shoes, the incidence of bee-stings drops significantly 🙂
Have you seen crimson clover?
Beautiful flower.
Damn those bees eh?
They should be banned
If I ever join the landed gentry I'd love to experiment with moss instead of grass/clover. Probably as labour-intensive in different ways, but I've always liked the look and feel of it.
Moss likes a damp environment so you might not want a property to suit. Lawn camomile would give you a similar effect. Would be a lot of work keeping the weeds out, but would smell great when you mow it.
that also looks pretty good.
As for moss, yeah it has its downsides. For some reason I just really like it.
Chamomile lawn is fantastic. Not sure of the maintenance issues, you'd want to get it relatively weedless – but it looks good, feels good, and releases nice smells. A man who built Flax Lodge on Great Barrier had a chamomile lawn in his moon well. What a great place to hang out of an evening.
Full article here https://archive.is/qQg2I
Hoo boy…
https://twitter.com/alexkramers/status/1428784100463333380
Geez, Vaccines are dangerous rant. Really bizarre.
She was clapped!!
Meanwhile The US has 38,512,463 cases and 644,820 deaths
115,582 case per million 1,935 deaths per million.
If nz had the same rates as the US
we would have ca 275,000 cases and 9000 deaths!!!!
We have had 2900 cases and 24 deaths!!!!
(And had no problems with spots after vaccination.)
Is "clapped" urban-slang for insane?
Sounds like it should be.
Got vaccinated yesterday… my spoons at home must be made of aluminium, they are not sticking to my vaccination spot
I've been taping a small magnet to my arm under my teeshirt sleeve…good fun discussing vaccination with a teaspoon then.
I loved the "God help us" at the end of the rant.
Hilarious AF…..right up until you see someone's reality.
https://twitter.com/taraskaduk/status/1428157982093807623
https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/local/signs-placed-after-photo-goes-viral-of-severely-ill-covid-patients-on-ground-at-jacksonville-library/77-74918ce4-48b5-49df-a247-ba0acfb5a98c
She could give Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt's character in 12 Monkeys) a run for his money.
I noted yesterday in the Sydney mob some decidedly 'white is right' types attacking the police. Absolute mad as fuck in bed with evil, not good.
Absolute mad as fuck in bed with evil is going ahead with his superspreader event in a state that's declared a Covid state of emergency.
https://twitter.com/OccupyDemocrats/status/1428795277360570368
https://www.al.com/news/2021/08/trump-rally-in-alabama-mo-brooks-mingles-as-thousands-flock-to-cullman.html
From family and friends who are deemed essential workers. We are only in our 5th day of lockdown, and I already see and hear of burnout. Sure those testing and admin jabs are doing a great job, but how long can they continue at this pace? And there are few in reserve that can be brought up to give these valuable people a respite. The same for supermarket workers, petrol station attendants, hospital workers etc There will be a need soon for them to have a break for their well being but financial stress, doing their bit for society etc may preclude this. I hope that those in senior positions are thinking of these and others and do not have expectations that current work outputs will continue. And we all can do our bit by showing our gratitude: a thank you, especially if they are part of our bubble.
Alot of the essential services are running low on staff with standdowns etc, given lockdown looks to be extending im going to apply for one of the many temp positions at the local supermarket gets me out of the house, helps keep shelves stocked and hopefully offers the chance for someone to have a shift off.
I feel for those testing & medical guys who come home after working their arses off to reports of shambles & incompetence.
Another odd consequence of lockdowns is the courier drivers find themselves working even longer days delivering alcohol and flour (of all damn things) to domestic addresses in locations they rarely have to service and often not easy to find.
They typically get up at 4am and find themselves delivering stuff at 8pm in the dark to people who then whine about them being late. High burden, low margin work.
Thanks RL, it's the kind of work I'm involved in & we're flat tack! The best thing is people are happy to see us & being really positive, but I get annoyed at seeing people gathering but then I guess I'm lucky because I get to do something, keep active.
Good on you Cricklewood!
Courier and delivery people generally put up with the negatives because the work itself allows them some degree of personal autonomy that most other jobs don't offer. And they get to go places and interact with lots of different people – it can be kind of cool in this respect.
But the burn-out rate is pretty damned high, not all that many last more than 3 -4 years at it. As ‘contractors’ they’ve fall into an industrial relations grey zone that no govt has shown much interest in looking at.
We have two friends who are couriers, they prefer working during lock downs, no traffic
What can we do …?
At our local country supermarket this afternoon, as we were about to scan in, a middle aged couple rushed through. The young doorman politely requested, "Excuse me, please sign in." The response was, "HAVEN'T GOT TIME, we're in a hurry!" And they rushed into the store. I believe scanning/loggingin is to be made mandatory within a week, I guess this sort of behaviour is going to cause some real issues (in fact is already happening) for the poor individuals on the doors everywhere.
Covid 19 coronavirus Delta outbreak: Delta raises 'big questions' about NZ's future approach – Chris Hipkins
I Wonder if sometime in the future the non vaccinated could be refused hospital treatment to help relieve the strain,
When health resources are available the unvaccinated would not be turned away. When resources become limiting their vaccination status might contribute to triage, which is unfortunate but logical.
Yes Uncooked, that's better expressed.
A lot of pressure was put on the government last year and earlier this year by the opposition, business leaders, Hosking/Hawkesby & mates, Plan B attention seekers, universities wanting overseas students here, people wanting to holiday overseas (understandable for those wanting to see family) and farming/horticulture wanting workers.
Those same people are all rather quiet now that we are in lockdown again. Have those same people been doing their scanning every time they have gone into any premises? The contact tracing now having to be done could have been quicker if they had been doing that.
What's a more absurd oxymoron than "military intelligence" or "NewstalkZB: Tune Your Mind"?
Answer: "Washington Post fact-checker."
Stalking is still an issue in NZ, when it should be a priority for lawmakers. Who is more vulnerable than a stalking victim? Don't tell me murder victims. They are already dead.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/125879686/the-stalking-was-so-bad-she-thought-he-would-kill-her-the-law-couldnt-help
Please attend to the Moderation note before you post anymore comments here, thanks.
FYI:
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-covid-vaccine-may-not-be-the-nirvana/#comment-1810589
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-covid-vaccine-may-not-be-the-nirvana/#comment-1810431
In an unusual move the PM has said she will not attend the press conference today as to protect the eyes of some reporters.
She's just needling them.
HaHa
There are testing kits that give a result in 15 minutes. They can be used in homes, schools and workplaces.
They are not as accurate as PCR but useful enough and would take pressure off such testing resources.
They were in big demand last year and again now that vaccinated people are being infected.
Why are we not importing these?
Even an Oz company is making them.
You might find the answer here: https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/medicines/policy-statements/COVID19/COVID19PointOfCareTestKits.asp
Somebody is spitting the dummy: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/126020883/the-saliva-testing-stoush-between-rako-science-and-the-ministry-of-health
I can sense the delight of some here; what a Leader!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/449711/dr-ashley-bloomfield-receives-first-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine
The main reason may well be that any video or still of saliva testing has hoik running all over the outside of the receptacle. Superspreader anyone?
Apparently, farmers protested by sounding their horns on their farms.
Thus creating the philosophical and editorial question if a fool makes a noise in the middle of nowhere and nobody is around to hear, do they really need a photo-op?
I used to toot-up all the time when i worked on a farm in my youth.
I did read the post. "Preconceptions"?
I find so much that is just plain wrong in your post, starting with "It did not seek to expand it's territory" for one, that I would need a whole series of posts to debunk it.
Whether or not I'm happy with the end of the "American century" is irrelevant. They USA is ending it anyway. It is their own fault, but not because they are "retreating from the world". Their dependence on manufacturing and economic support from China will preclude that.
Unless they indulge in another one of the huge social enterprises that have repeatedly saved their otherwise dysfunctional economy. War!
We just had a graphic illustration of how the USA,s misconceptions and view of themselves is a false narrative, in Afghanistan.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Legacy of failure in Afghanistan started in 1979, not 2001 – Asia Times
"It is also a story of miscalculation and hubris, one that resonates rather profoundly this week as American soldiers, diplomats, intelligence officials and many thousands of Afghans flee the Taliban’s assault on Kabul."
"The group fitted 35 old CRT televisions, LED monitors and printers with GPS devices of a special make. Out of this sample the team quickly focused on the fate of three LCD screens dropped at Officeworks storefronts around the Brisbane metro area.
Hayley Palmer, BAN’s chief operating officer, was on the team that followed where they went afterwards. As the signals left the country, Palmer, her nine-month-old and a colleague tracked the monitors to a warehouse in Hong Kong and then on to an illegal dump-yard in a rural part of Thailand where they talked their way inside."
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/22/going-to-e-waste-australias-recycling-failures-and-the-challenge-of-solar
I expect NZ faces the same challenge, and has the same lack of solution.
Seymour being a loose unit, ffs.
https://twitter.com/liamvincent26/status/1429376972556169221
Human psychology being what it is – Seymour could be onto something.
Yep. I'd give it a day before someone writes an app to "scan in" to random places ten times a second.