Defenders of the Labour Party on this matter won't want to read this. It will do your head in. And don’t come gunning after me for highlighting it.
Nevertheless, this is how a number of New Zelanders see this issue being played out.
The mishandling is continuing. Got to wonder who is advising them? And if it ends up costing Labour the election, they only have themselves to blame.
[baiting the community this time. Two day ban last time, four days this time. People who want to have considered debate on this topic are more than welcome to start or continue a discussion. Those that want to use it to bash Labour, concern troll, or shit stir can expect to get my attention – weka]
I read it online I had already cancelled Stuff, then I "tweeted" this "So glad I cancelled Stuff Sun paper at least I avoided paying for that. Winston Peter's & Tracey Martin's unsolicited opinions on this carry much more balance than Vance's. The twisting of the context of Shane Jones' words the other day shows just how conflated the facts now are."
Who are these "Nevertheless, this is how a number of New Zelanders see this issue being played out." A number of others are waiting on straight facts not Vances interpretation of them. I can see this not playing out well for the National Party, once this is reviewed the media will be very tempted to turn their thoughts back to the unresolved internal matters. I had forgotten until yesterday the murky offer to Lee Ross to return in time with possible promotion.
One assumes Winston and co knows how damaging this can potentially be for Labour.
Hence, it's logical to assume it's in their own (NZF's) self interest to lessen the damage. As I've already explained to you, Winston requires Labour and National to be in a position where they both require his Party's support. Allowing him to play them both off against each other so as he and his Party can secure a better deal.
And again, as I've already explained to you, I've not spoken (out in the real world) to anyone who trust Labour over this. And of course, Labour require voters to trust in Jacinda as without it (voter trust) they are unlikely to do well come next election.
Moreover, Labour party defenders of this matter seem to be totally unaware of how their defence is only making things worse for the party.
This is an issue the party needs to own and correct. Constant denial is only making it (the wider public perception) worse. So is being secretive as it looks as they are covering up.
Moreover, if we are to take Jacinda on her word of only recently finding out, hence for the party to take action on this. Then of course those that knew but failed to tell her where preventing action from being taken. Hence, protecting and enabling the culture to continue.
Why would you expect the police commissioner to get involved at that level of detail?
The commissioner of the police has a particular role inside the police, and it really isn't about running around working on individual cases. It is mainly administrative.
The chief executive of Police is known as the Commissioner and is appointed by the Governor General. Mike Bush (MNZM) is the current Commissioner of New Zealand Police. The Commissioner of Police is accountable to the Minister of Police for the administration of police services, but acts independently in carrying out law enforcement decisions.
Nationally we have 12 districts, which are administered from Police National Headquarters in Wellington, and a number of national service centres that provide administrative and specialised support, such as forensic services.
At best this would be a district level issue for investigation and would come after a complaint is made to the police.
To take just one other out of the jumble of topics you raised, the Francis review was an internal review undertaken by parliamentary services.
In other words it was done by an employer looking at how to better serve all of their employees and the institution. There are 85 recommendations in the review report. I just read them – perhaps you should indicate which one of those said that the police should be involved in rejigging parliamentary services HR system?
But even if criminal activities like sexual assault were identified by the Francis review, there would have been little that could have been done anyway at a criminal level – which is what you appear to be asking for.
In my view, the problem with our current system for dealing with sexual assaults is that it depends far too strongly on having a complainant, and the complainant being the victim or someone responsible for them like a parent or guardian. This makes it difficult through to impossible to deal with even something as awful as serial rapists without a complainant.
The process of going to the police is never going to be easy, and never more so in the wake of the revelations of the Louise Nicholls about Rotorua police culture or in the wake of the police treatment on complainants in the roastbusters in West Auckland. That makes it really difficult to think that going to the police about a sexual assault is going to do anything.
That is the basic problem that needs to be looked at. Personally I think that sexual assaults should be able to be reported to the police by anyone and the police should be required to take a case even if they don't have the complainant, but there is sufficient evidence to lay a charge.
I'd also like that decision about laying a charge to be taken away from the police or at least oversighted from outside the police because the idea isn't to just win cases – it is to make sure that offenders are aware of the consequences.
Of course amongst the public having John Tamihere and Willy Jackson waving their dicks on radio didn't help either. They sounded like they were only sorry they weren't out there raping with the boys. I'd have liked to laid complaint of offensive behaviour on that as well. Why bother going to a useless patsy rubber stamp like the BSA.
But FFS: please try to actually offer realistic ideas. Handwringing is so useless.
I know what the role of Bush is, he is in charge of enforcing the law. Perhaps he needed to make a statement when the Francis report was released so that people could have confidence in the police when reporting harassment, intimidation or a sexual crime.
Without a complaint a conviction cannot occur.
The police dragged their heels over Bazeley's recommendations. The same cannot be done about the Francis recommendations within Parliament.
Do Parliamentary Services actually know what to do and what to recommend a complainant does?
That refers mostly to bullying, harassment, and discrimination to be dealt with by the organisational HR.
You can also go direct to the Human Rights Commission, especially if it is systemic within the organisation.
There are other legal options
Sometimes behaviour which is bullying or harassment, may also be civil harassment covered by the Harassment Act 1997 and the complainant could apply for a restraining order.
If behaviour includes violence, is criminal harassment (where the person intends, and knows it is likely, for the harassment to cause the other person to reasonably fear for their own or their family’s safety) or is another criminal offence, it should be reported to the Police.
The police are pretty strictly there for crimes. Which they pretty much have sole jurisdiction over.
While anyone can make a report, generally the police will only act on an actual complaint. There are exceptions. But they are mostly to do with minors, dependents, and people unable to make complaints.
Now I personally wouldn't be adverse to some changes in the laws around this. However, that is a matter for parliament to introduce and actually pass. With our system, arbitrarily trying to make the rules up according to some individuals idea of what is a good idea just leads you into criminal or civil legal hot water.
The police above all other groups are aware of this – they work at the intersection between parliament's mandate to them, the courts who judge if they have made a case, and the population going off and exploring the limits to the laws. It tends to make them somewhat cautious about exploring new territory outside of their mandates – not helped by being chronically understaffed.
What does piss me off is fools who seem to not know what the current situation is and then somehow want to believe in weird magic rather than considered legislation that tries to see the bounds of natural justice and the limits of the law in seeking it.
Personally I tend to view such fools as just being the lynch mob and being just as big a nuisance as the perpetrators of crimes.
Advice – Avoid the National Party. The word is out that they have a very bad strain of measles, the sort that goes on and affects the brain. Keep clear and don't pay attention to their ravings.
Nevertheless, this is how a number of New Zelanders see this issue being played out.
Yep, currently around 38 – 43% of them, depending on whose polling is correct. And you, of course – drawing a discreet "a number of New Zealanders" veil over your personal opinion is very Pete Georgian of you, and just as transparent.
Winston has some history of his own, Owen Glenn. Probably on Bennett's agenda next week. Bennett probably can't wait until the PM returns.
Seriously, there needs to be a strategy to protect a complainant from being used as a porn by any MP. Parliamentary privilege has been abused by Bennett. To think a mature woman would put a 19 year old into the position of not knowing how the situation would play out and the outcome is irresponsible.
Your word wisdom is wonderful. It’s good to draw attention to TC and his/her approach to the left with, what is it called, compassionate trolling? Which is an underhand way of distracting attention from latent hostility, which sooner or later leads to sinking teeth into (left) ankles when everyone thought it was such a nice wee doggie.
I cannot ask you a question as you are unable to respond for 4 days.
Bennett had other options available to her, discussions with the speaker.
Even though the identity of the 19 year old is not publicly known, she can easily be identified by some people, this alone is problematic for her to be able to process being caught up in a situation which she needs a lot of support with and legal advice.
It is about the wellbeing of the complainant and not putting any further pressure on her.
There is a police process in making a complaint. The Spinoff could have handled the situation much better and made it about the process and how overlooked the Francis report has been.
With any crime, once out of the hands of the police, then it is the job of the court.
The complainant is the person who the verdict has a direct impact on.
Another issue about the Francis review was that it was about parliamentary staff (including the members). I don't think that you're likely to find a single word in it about parliamentary staff interactions with volunteers or even parliamentary staff interactions with members of the public
Perhaps you should just do something useful and read it. In particular look at Appendix B at the terms of reference. The scope of the people being covered is in point 3 of appendix B
Waving the Francis review around like a rugby talisman really just indicates that you need to learn more before speaking in public.
Where is it? Links are far more useful than unsubstantiated assertions. Apart from the informational and debate aspects, it also allows a verification that you have actually found something relevant rather than everyone having to spin bullshit into thin air.
The comment editor has a link function in the bar – looks like a chain link.
There is no report it was an expression. There needs to be a separate report done for parliamentary staff and volunteers.
The terms of reference in the Francis report were not wide enough. It needed to be mandatory for every MP and going back a decade. The same for Parliamentary Services staff.
However you should really actually read the recommendations of the Francis review for instruction. You will find a very large number of the 85 recommendations come down to writing down expectations so that people have to sign to show that they have seen them. This is a normal part of everyday life in business and work.
Even then, there are quite a lot of the sections of which I sign rights away on. One of those is to be able to work for whatever volunteer organisations I chose to – like this one. Or women’s refuge or helping people with their websites or training people or helping kids get holiday jobs or even (gasp) the Labour Party along with numerous others
The problem here is that by the sound of it, most if not of the incidents occurred when all, complainants and complained against were working as volunteers rather than as employees of the parliamentary services. Certainly there has never actually be anything specific to indicate that the incidents occurred in the workplace or as part of the work that the complained was doing for his employer.
It is not the usual thing that you find volunteers who don't get paid for their effort signing contracts about their behaviour. By several parts of contract law, that would make a for a void contract because of the lack of consideration. There are also a number of issues with it in labour law as well – mostly to do with condition similar to slavery or serfdom.
If you want to destroy all volunteer work, then please don't hesitate to declare yourself. Just at present you're sounding like a Taxpayers 'union' advocate.
Perhaps you could start addressing the issues and the problems rather than just trying to fire up the old magic please… You are pretty awful at mixing up the impossible to do without any reference to the known facts. It makes your contribution rather moot.
…have given a blunt opinion on some matters I raised.
I'm known for it. You have managed to have less blunt (ie hammerfall) opinions than it seems that I am wont to do these days .
I had to go back and rapidly reread the Francis review – which looks like every other HR review I have ever read. But was worth a second run through. BTW: never read a HR review lying bed on a tablet unless you want to go to sleep is all that I can say. I lost two hours due to the involuntary nap.
It's pretty obvious that Sara trusts Bennett more than anyone in the Labour party. If you read the time line it's not hard to see why.There is an excellent article that the chairman links to at the top. Vance absolutely nails it.
There is an excellent article that the chairman links to at the top. Vance absolutely nails it.
No it doesn’t. What it demonstrates is that Andrea Vance is determined to act as judge, jury and executioner.
It seems to me that the Andrea Vance would prefer to ignore natural justice (which is exactly what her saying that Simon Mitchell shouldn’t have spoken up in his on defense is), and that there has been direct contradiction of her and Paula Bennetts assertion that anything more than allegations of bullying and harassment were put in front of them.
Clearly Vance seems to thinks that there was – presumably based on what the complainants have said or presented to her (at least I hope so). The problem is that there is contradictory evidence being offered that she appears to be not willing to look at. She doesn’t even refer to it in her rant except to denigrate it without saying why.
Naki: it is exactly the same kind of behaviour that I expect to see from you on these pages – but you are a simple minded troll. She is a senior reporter and one who I’d usually trust a little. Assertions without saying why she believes one account over another. A complete lack of supporting evidence apart from unseen material. And a simple minded denigration of those contradicting her without offering any basic argument. Ir just diminishes my respect fro her writing without offering anything new to chew on,
Perhaps she should take her own advice. Perhaps she should review why she is willing to believe what appears to be one side but not the other and why she isn’t making it obvious why she thinks that.
Sure I can understand that she doesn’t like certain politicians (at least one of those, like Shane Jones, have long been in my shit list). However that is about the only thing that Vance’s rant did offer some clarity on.
The complainants have several other avenues for them to proceed through. If they have chosen their only route to be Paula Bennett, then that is a decision they will have to live with. Paula Bennett isn’t renowned for her ability to follow through past her own advantage.
If they actually want to get something resolved, then they should look at the review of the original allegations and the other option being provided to look at the differences between their accounts of what went on with the NZ Council and what the council members are saying.
Plus based on the allegations she has been making ‘Sarah’ should at the very least report a possible crime to the police and maybe lay a complaint. She is alleging some kind of sexual predator around. Better the police know about it with direct information on them rather than having it filtered through a parliamentary media more known for their delight in waving bloody political scalps around than accuracy.
What a load of laughable tosh from Andrea Vance who would appear to be a little sick in the head or she's a closet Nat. I suspect a bit of both.
I have been in and out of the Labour Party since 1972 and at no time did I experience or witness any antagonism towards women. The truth is the opposite. What is more, it has been a darn sight safer than National over the years!
We have two alleged cases of harassment and sexual assault (one of them by someone who was not a party member) and that constitutes:
"rot in the Labour Party and the Party being allergic to women?"
Bear in mind this is the same woman who started out as a hack for that piece of now defunct British trash called "The News of the World". We had our own version once called "The Truth" which printed anything but the truth.
Fleetwood Mac with Mr Finn gave us I Dont Know Why Sometimes I Get Frightened and a welter of 1980s MOR romance-rock for a big and generous show at the stadium.
And in town Michael Houston, our best ever pianist pianist, rocked the Town Hall with the local synphonia.
May the spirit of the music live on in Dunedin. The drummer is fantastic in Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood himself?
And Mr Houston – I think these are his last concerts. A man who managed to relearn how to use his hands and continue with his career after he was affected by carpal syndrome I think. Wonderful dedication.
Good for Dunedin – music of all sort abounds there. Would Dunedin like to be known as the NZ City of Music? As a change from being the hosts of uni students in slum dwellings which is an image I have.
Also Rapunzel asked about a Mark Knopfler mention – did you hear what it was, she would like to know?
Queenstown will be the first. How nice for them having everything foisted on them because their place is a big money magnet for profit.
Big money magnet for exposure is more like it. All the big brands are here for the exposure, not the profits they might generate in town. Losses are rationalised by the perceived brand exposure they get by being in and associated with Queenstown. And some of those annual losses are substantial.
Will be interesting how 5G goes here. 4G is patchy and variable between providers. At our gallery in CBD Spark is fine, Voda customers have to go outside to take a call. Similar story out in the basin where there's large where one or both providers are 2G or nothing because of terrain, 50m away it'll be full 4G.
Interesting bit about the exposure. Big outfits will buy in to a site to prevent a competitor gaining a position in the great competitive shuffle and shoulder pushing before they can settle down to a nice cartel. It's really like being on the ground under the hooves of stampeding cattle forthe ordinary person, the micro business of the local.
And you watch Graeme with a bemused expression as there is nothing you can do but try and foot it finely amongst the herd. I hope you are doing good business coming into Christmas.
I know of one major NZ retail brand that has downsized their Queenstown operation dramatically after huge losses and won't be bringing any other of their stable of brands to Queenstown, they'd be in most NZ malls or main streets and often anchor tenant. Wouldn't be surprised if some of the big box retailers that have sprouted this cycle don't pack it in as well, some of the stories doing the rounds regarding their performance can't be sustainable, even for big corporate retailers. These are like on a good day they might take enough to cover the wages, just staff / low level manager pub chatter but probably got some truth to it.
We're fortunate we're in a niche that the corporates can't handle, too small and specialised, so keep it small and personal with overheads to match. Have watched lots of cash bonfires in this town. That's the main driver of the economy (cash burn)
I think cynically that is the way of the neolibs. Without any sanctions on them, till we force them, they can push some sort of business and if it goes belly up the ordinary people have lost their all, while they can go on and invent some more money to finance another lot of wealth creation? and also they can make money out of dealing with any problems.
See-saw, they win at the top and can hedge for a crash, and then they win at the bottom when they produce some panacea, open a private hospital for the survivors etc. And that is why Donald Trump is a success and a good businessman; he understands that having the money and power is what it's all about. Laws and limits are just mosquito bites to the wealthy. Climate change controls go hand in hand with Money creation controls. And we don't let them take over our cash systems, and should be anxious how Kiwibank thinks it is getting modern by banning cheques. B.stards.
And we tend to go skipping after the Aussies. We don't have kangaroos but we do have wallabies. Hey that rhymes, perhaps someone would like to make a rap about it.
Radionz has sport and rugby dominating its page except for a celebration of a ‘great’ losing event of WW2 the Battle of Arnhem 'Operation Market Garden'. Celebrating famous cock-ups with lots of blood and gore – is that all that deadheads can find to do?
' The British 1st Airborne Division lost nearly ¾ of its strength and did not see combat again. '
There were about 8,000 of the Allies dead or captured or missing. Indefinite about the Germans – one figure is 3,300. 453 I think of Dutch dead and a large number turfed out of their homes which were looted and the contents sent to bombed out Germans.
… the bridge that the 1st Airborne had fought so hard for was eventually destroyed by the Allies to deny German forces its use. On 7 October, it was bombed and destroyed by Martin B-26 Marauders of 344th Bomb Group, USAAF…
This is the British for you – might explain the enthusiasm for Brexit. It's not the winning that counts, it's the bravehearted community charging forward and trying that is so great' sort of thing. Being wrongheaded elevated to an art!
Although a disaster for the British 1st Airborne Division, their fight north of the Rhine is considered an example of courage and endurance and one of the greatest feats of arms in the Second World War. Despite being the last great failure of the British Army, Arnhem has become a byword for the fighting spirit of the British people and has set a standard for the Parachute Regiment.
Nothing warms the English heart quite like a glorious defeat. Of course, this kind of heroic but doomed mission in which you lose most of your combat personnel was just about routine for German elite divisions in the last years of the war, but no-one makes a fuss about that – sucks to be the losers, I guess.
Well they should take a leaf out of the history book and celebrate their own glorious losses? It can be a new tourism venture. Think how the tourist dollar could flow into the Middle East when the oil runs out. They will travel by camel of course, it will be very special and high priced.
Oh dear, there are hurdles to jump for real estate agents that will lessen their lightness of being as they float in their hot-air balloons within the housing bubble.
A survey of 1861 real estate professionals around the country found 59 percent cited changing regulation as their top concern, whereas two years ago it was sixth on the list.
The Real Estate Institute said implementing new anti-money laundering laws has cost the industry tens of millions of dollars.
"The real estate industry has had to deal with more legislative changes in the last two years than we've dealt with in the five years prior," REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said.
They would complain – they are in an elite business level with top money. Their CE seems to be from UK and worked in Australia as well in top jobs. All has been tops for them, why should it change? They have had more change in the last two years (Labour) than they had in the prior five (National). QED
"The Real Estate Institute said implementing new anti-money laundering laws has cost the industry tens of millions of dollars."
Another way of reading this comment would be "Real Estate Sellers are finding things more difficult now they aren't able to sell as much property to dubious offshore buyers and meth traders."
Is the industry unable to see that most of us are delighted with this pressure they complain of.
Went to a barfoot auction house in Auckland last week and mostly kiwi buyers /sellers and not that many, not like the old days, packed with Asian buyers.
Then a slanted rather poisonous piece as PM Jacinda attempts to deal with bad behaviour from a male in the Party's employ against women within his ambit.
And the last about snakes possibly finding NZ comfortable. And an image of a green snake looking unpleasantly menacing which makes me think of Hehir above.
Oh dear, we are going to have to think, if only we had Rutherford here now some might say. But we do have thinkers here still, they just haven't been given the space and equipment and the action after their discoveries and models have shown us the way. Rutherford didn't have a royal suite but managed with his great team, to do world shifting stuff. Now we can shift rubbish to a Better Useful End.
And have we got it in our heads that we are supposed to be kindly, thoughtful people who aren't cruel to cows and other animals. Recently a ship with 8000 cattle was being refused docking overseas because of a legal wrangle over unpaid bills I suspect. Or perhaps they didn't have the certification as to disease or legalities of ownership. And the country was being begged to allow docking so they could obtain more food or the cattle would starve. Don't know what happened, but if good people don't watch out for other sentient beings, the machine minds will rule!
Now we have problems in NZ. We don't want international ships arriving without certification that they are clean, for our own sakes. And we don't want them arriving without complying with our rules about live animal transport. Should we allow this level of transport anyway? We have had enough problem with imported disease through the M.bovis – don't we ever learn? Hah. Silly question, of course we do, usually after lacking any precautionary, or rigid measures to ensure effectiveness.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) says until it's satisfied the Yangtze Fortune meets animal welfare conditions, the export certificate won't be issued. The ship arrived at the Napier Port yesterday afternoon to collect 4700 breeding cows to set up dairy farms in China.
No doubt one of the milk-rush companies has set this up, probably a National Party supporter. (I'm going out on a limb there. But it's 80:20 likely.)
A Warren/Sanders team would be interesting, but while I think he might go for it if he got the nom, she might be more inclined to go with a blandstander, especially from one of the the swing states. Strategy.
Can't see a Warren Saunders ticket happening, so yeah, probably a lesser candidate from a swing state or minority group, such as Beto, Harris or mayor Pete.
But a long way to go yet, and Biden has to go first.
There is absolutely no way she would go for Sanders. Much safer to go for a younger candidate, probably male, and probably from the midwest. So O'Rouke or Buttigieg.
Yeah, she probably wouldn't, but it's not as crazy as it sounds.
Firtly, I think they have much more sympathetic platforms than Warren and anyone else.
Secondly, Sanders would play "bad cop" making Warren a "compromise builder".
Thirdly, it might shut up the "bernie or bust" idiots, which would go a huge way to making the dems a unified force (rather than the candidate having to face the republicans while being sniped at from the back).
Joe90 – are you putting up links with your comments? There is none showing. You are wonderfully enigmatic but you usually have some explanation to enlighten.
They're there, some of us can't see them. I have to open a different browser to see the twitter embeds. I've been assuming this is to do with the adblocks and such I run on my main browser, but I haven't tested that. I'll tell Lynn.
just restarted Firefox with extensions disabled and all the tweets are visible now. Will try turning them on one at a time to see which extension is doing that.
Looks like it's the DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials addon. Which makes sense, so check for any extensions you have that are designed to limit tracking or provide extra privacy when browsing/searching.
I've been assuming this is to do with the adblocks and such I run on my main browser, but I haven't tested that.
It will be. I'm using OEmbed with for things like facebook, twitter, and youtube embeds (and a number of others). It is really restricted, but to make them 'live' with links, linkable they have to live and active.
Some adblockers will block them out. That is really up to user taste. I could just get the code to treat them as being empty comments without at least some text 🙁
Only Joe's words. I thought there must be some thing like you have said. I have my adblocker turned off i think. I need peaceful background to be able to concentrate on the news which is usually startling enough to keep me awake at night if I let it. So I will know what to do if I want to see tweets. Thanks for info.
I also can't use a browser with lots of things flashing at me or moving images. With Firefox you can restart in safe mode, which turns off all extensions. Restart again, then go into the extensions list and turn them back on one at a time. This will tell you which one it is. It wasn't adblocker on mine, it was an extension blocking tracking.
I also have a second browser with no extensions, so I can view webpages that aren't loading right.
It wasn't the adblocker, it was some DuckDuckGo extension (don't even know why I had it). See up thread. Am relieved I can see everything again, it will make writing posts easier too.
Ug, the problem I have now is that when I click on a link to a specific comment, my browser tries to load that but ends up off by half a page. I assume that's the tweets loading doing that.
Mine does that jumping around. When I go away from where I have been looking, it's a devil of a job to find it again sometimes. Goes to the right place then dashes off. I am on Firefox/Linux. Thanks weka for advice above will have to try that tomorrow.
I think it is something to do with slow page loading. I get it too on other websites such as Stuff. The only thing that seems to work (for me) is to slow down and be more patient 😉
Mine only does that if I'm in a different post, say I'm reading an Open Mike comment then click a lying: the preferred denier comment. If i'm already in today's Open Mike and click on another today's Open Mike comment it correctly goes straight there.
The tweets loading might be doing it, but it also used to behave like that before the latest editor in previous versions that didn't load the tweets.
Methinks next year's general election will have a very strong focus on Climate Change. Something for Greens and Labour to seriously work closely on together in the meantime, to keep National in Opposition.
i agree – things are currently moving very fast – as far as widespread awareness coupled with ever more strident demands to politicians to do what nesds to be done..are concerned..
those demands unheard will easily tip over into anger..
and one fact we can take to the bank – is that these demands are only going to get louder/more widespread..
we have known this was coming – for about the last 30 yrs..and we have done s.f.a. about it – we have just got worse – in our consumption etc..
this couple with global political stasis for those decades..
as all bowed to the alters of neoliberalism/growth..
You do understand that the singularity ie the SSW event is an analogue for the repair of the polar ozone hole ( under the Montreal agreement) and is a significant test on the understanding (theory) under an instantaneous forcing ie a natural experiment.
Thanks to all the Australian academics how have come out in strong tau toko of the extinction Rebellion. Ka kaha to all the intelligent tangata who protest the pollies who are trying to lead US down the wrong PATH.
'We declare our support for Extinction Rebellion': an open letter from Australia's academics
Leading academics from around the country say it is their moral duty to rebel to ‘defend life itself
We the undersigned represent diverse academic disciplines, and the views expressed here are those of the signatories and not their universities. While our academic perspectives and expertise may differ, we are united on one point: we can no longer tolerate the failure of the Australian government, or any other government, to take robust and urgent action to address the worsening ecological crisis.
It is unconscionable that we, our children and grandchildren should have to bear the terrifying brunt of this unprecedented disaster. When a government wilfully abrogates its responsibility to protect its citizens from harm and secure the future for generations to come, it has failed in its most essential duty of stewardship. The ‘social contract’ has been broken, and it is therefore not only our right, but our moral duty, to rebel to defend life itself
We also recognise the crucial role First Nations people in Australia and across the globe, have played for tens of thousands of years, and continue to play, in maintaining species, and caring for the land, water and air. We therefore declare our support for the urgent establishment of a treaty with First Nation Australians, to recognise Indigenous sovereignty and to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to continue protecting what they have already cared for, for so long Ka kite Ano link below.
I…. Papatuanuku has already given us the tools for sequestration of CARBON trees mash wetlands habits . We don't have to spend billion trying to perfect a machine to do the job that a Forest already does for us. We just need to spend billions planting trees and restoration of other natural habitat. We could also us wood products to replace alot of(steel high carbon) commodity we have the tech to do this. After all its not ROCKET SCIENCE. We can plant trees in all the land that is erosion prone and still be able to farm the land to as Te Whenua holds more water when trees are planted in the correct places fence lines steep gullies. Let's move away from the mono styles of farming and work with Papatuanuku to restore our future to have a habitatable climate.
Greta Thunberg: ‘We are ignoring natural climate solutions’
Film by Swedish activist and Guardian journalist George Monbiot says nature must be used to repair broken climate.
The protection and restoration of living ecosystems such as forests, mangroves and seagrass meadows can repair the planet’s broken climate but are being overlooked, Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot have warned in a new short film.
Natural climate solutions could remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as plants grow. But these methods receive only 2% of the fundingspent on cutting emissions, say the climate activists
In the film, Monbiot says: “There is a magic machine that sucks carbon out of the air, costs very little, and builds itself. It’s called a tree.” A recent scientific analysis concluded that growing billions of trees across the world is the single biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis, though coal, oil and gas burning must also end.
“We are living in the beginning of a mass extinction and our climate is breaking down,” says Thunberg in the film. “But we can still fix this – you can still fix this.”
“It’s simple,” she says. “We need to protect, restore, and fund.” That means protecting tropical forests that are being cut down at the rate of 30 football pitches a minute, she said, restoring the large areas of the planet that have been damaged and stopping the funding of things that destroy nature and instead paying for activities that help it.
The film’s producer, Tom Mustill of Gripping Films, said: “We tried to make the film have the tiniest environmental impact possible. We took trains to Sweden to interview Greta, charged our hybrid car at George’s house, used green energy to power the edit and recycled archive footage rather than shooting new.”
Te tangata whenua o Aotearoa need business advice from genuine Maori a lot of Te pakiha business men can't help them selves they just see innocent tangata whenua as sheep to be fleeced that's CAPTILSIM.
Yes all Our Marae need to be insured we have heaps of Marae in Te Tairawhiti.
We must nurture Te tamariki mental health as we only get one chance with some of our Rangatahi. Some Tangata have to stop being self-centered and put Te mokopuna welbing in the centre of our way of planning for the future.
Ruahine to much on your win in the Tarakihi Rugby league championship. I have been thinking about coming for a tiki tour there to check out a renewable energy outfit there. Ma Te Wa.
Te Waiata is good for the wairua Te Haka is awesome Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa Culture is Papatuanuku famous Ka pai kia kaha Whanau.
Eco Maori thinks that this is the best way to get poor countries to preserve their natural habitatable forests. Rewarding them to keep the trees in the Papatuanuku maybe offer Brazil money to keep the Amazon safe Maybe Jeff could pony up some putea to make this a reality. Our Papatuanuku is A living being we only get one chance if we make a big MESS our future will be Stuffed.
Gabon becomes the first African country to receive funding for preserving its rainforests
About 80 per cent of Gabon is covered by forests, sheltering a rich variety of wildlife.
(CNN) — In an effort to fight climate change, the United Nations announced Sunday that Gabon will become the first African country paid with international funds to preserve its rainforest.
Through the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), Norway will pay $150 million to Gabon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and battle deforestation. The announcement was made at the Climate Action Summit in New York, where world leaders gathered to discuss how to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
CAFI is a collaborative partnership between the UN Development Program (UNDP), six Central African countries, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Bank and a coalition of donors including the United Kingdom, Norway and South Korea
Covered in forests
Up to 80% of Gabon is covered with forests, according to a report in Mongabay, a website of environmental news.
In the statement, Ola Elvestuen, Norway's minister of climate and environment, said he hopes the partnership will help Gabon maintain 98% of the forests.
"I am very pleased with this results-based partnership through CAFI, which includes a historic carbon floor price to further encourage Gabon to continue to preserve its rainforest. This is a major breakthrough for REDD+ in Africa," Elvestuen said.
For many years, Gabon has been a leader in Africa in preserving its rainforests Ka kite Ano link below.
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 19, 2024 thru Sat, May 25, 2024. Story of the week This week's typiclal compendium of stories we'd rather were plot devices in science ficition novels but instead ...
This National government has been aggressively anti-environment, and is currently ramming through its corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" legislation to give three ministers dictatorial powers over what gets built and where. But that's not the only thing they're doing. On Thursday they introduced a Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, ...
Whenever politicians dole out taxpayer funding to groups or individuals, they must do so in a wholly transparent way with due process to ensure conflicts of interest don’t occur and that the country receives value for money. Unfortunately, it’s not clear that this has occurred in the announcement this week ...
Last night began earlier than usual. In bed by 6:30pm, asleep an hour later. Sometimes I do sleep odd hours, writing late and/or getting up very early - complemented with the occasional siesta, but I’m usually up a bit later than that on a Saturday night. Last night I was ...
Early in the COVID-19 days, the Boris Johnson government pressed a Big Red Button marked: act immediately, never mind about the paperwork.Their problem was: not having enough PPE gear for all the hospital and emergency staff. Their solution was to expedite things and get them the gear ASAP.This, along with ...
Up until 1989, you could attend a New Zealand University, and never need to pay a cent for your education. That then changed, of course. The sadists of the Fourth Labour Government introduced substantial fees for study, never having had to pay a cent for their own education. The even ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Minister for Children Karen Chhour is putting children first: Hon KAREN CHHOUR: I move, That the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the bill.It’s a privilege ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Applause and cheers erupted in the House on Wednesday afternoon as Children’s Minister Karen Chhour condemned Te Pāti Māori’s insults about her upbringing. Chhour, who grew up in state care, is repealing section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act – sparking uproar from ...
I could corrupt youIt would be uglyThey could sedate youBut what good would drugs be?Good Morning all,Today there’s a guest newsletter from Gerard Otto (G). By which I mean I read his post this morning and he has kindly allowed me to share it with you.If you don’t already I ...
Is the solution to any of the serious, long term issues we all have to face as a nation, because many governments of all stripes we can probably all admit if we’re deeply truthful with ourselves haven’t done near enough work at the very times they should have, to basically ...
The 2018 Social Security Act suggests that Labour may have retreated to the minimalist (neo-liberal) welfare state which has developed out of the Richardson-Shipley ‘redesign’. One wonders what Michael Joseph Savage, Peter Fraser and Walter Nash would have thought of the Social Security Act passed by the Ardern Labour Government ...
MPs are supposed to serve the public interest, not their own self-interest. And according to the New Zealand Parliament’s website, democracy and integrity are tarnished whenever politicians seek to enrich themselves or the people they are connected with. For this reason, the Parliament has a “Register of Pecuniary Interests” in ...
By now, most of you will have heard about the FLICC taxonomy of science denial techniques and how you can train your skills in detecting them with the Cranky Uncle game. If you like to quickly check how good you are at this already, answer the 12 quiz questions in the ...
Buzz from the Beehive The hacks of the Parliamentary Press Gallery have been able to chip into a rich vein of material on the government’s official website over the past 24 hours. Among the nuggets is the speech by Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and a press statement to announce ...
When Labour was in power, they wasted time, political capital, and scarce policy resources on trying to extend the parliamentary term to four years, in an effort to make themselves less accountable to us. It was unlikely to fly, the idea having previously lost tworeferendums by huge margins - ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: When Whanau Ora chief executive John Tamihere was asked what his expectations for the Budget next Thursday were, he said: “All hope is lost.” Last year Whānau Ora was allocated $163.1 million in the Budget to last for the next four years ...
Nick Hanne writes – There’s a common malady suffered by bureaucracies the world over. They wish to save us from ourselves. Sadly, NZ officials are no less prone to exhibiting symptoms of this occupational condition.Observe, for instance, the reaction from certain public figures to the news ...
Peter Dunne writes – As the city of Tauranga prepares to elect a new Mayor and Council after three and a half years being run by government-appointed Commissioners, the case for replacing the Wellington City Council with Commissioners strengthens. The Wellington City Council has been dysfunctional for years, ...
This will be s short post. It stems from observations I made elsewhere about what might be characterised as some macro and micro aspects of contemporary collective violence events. Here goes. The conflicts between Israel and Palestine and France and … Continue reading → ...
It may be a relic of a previous era of egalitarianism, but many of us like to think that, in general, most New Zealanders are as honest as the day is long. We’re good like that, and smart as. If we’re not punching above our weight on the world stage, ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Why aren’t politicians taking more action on the housing affordability crisis? The answer might lie in the latest “Register of Pecuniary Interests.” This register contains details of the various financial interests of parliamentarians. It shows that politicians own real estate in significant numbers. The ...
I built a time machine to see you againTo hear your phone callYour voice down the hallThe way we were back thenWe were dancing in the rainOur feet on the pavementYou said I was your second headI knew exactly what you meantIn the country of the blind, or so they ...
Why aren’t politicians taking more action on the housing affordability crisis? The answer might lie in the latest “Register of Pecuniary Interests.” This register contains details of the various financial interests of parliamentarians. It shows that politicians own real estate in significant numbers. The register published on Tuesday contains a ...
Microsoft’s transparency about its failure to meet its own net-zero goals is creditable, but the response to that failure is worrying. It is offering up a set of false solutions, heavily buttressed by baseless optimism. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in ...
Another Friday, another Rāmere Roundup! Here are a few things that caught our eye this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday, our new writer Connor Sharp roared into print with a future-focused take on the proposed Auckland Future Fund, and what it could invest in. On ...
Still Waiting: Māori land remains in the hands of Non-Māori. The broken promises of the Treaty remain broken. The mana of the tangata whenua languishes under racist neglect. The right to wear the huia feather remains as elusive as ever. Perhaps these three transformations are beyond the power of a ...
Posters opposing the proposed Fast-Track Approvals legislation were pasted around Wellington last week. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: One of the architects of the RMA and a former National Cabinet Minister, Simon Upton, has criticised the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals bill as potentially disastrous for the environment, arguing just 1% ...
There was less sharing of the joy this week than at the Chinese New Year celebrations in February. China’s ambassador to NZ (2nd from right above) has toldLuxon that relations between China and New Zealand are now at a ‘critical juncture’ Photo: Getty / Xinhua News AgencyTL;DR: The podcast ...
The importance of New Zealand’s relationship with China was surely demonstrated yesterday with the surprise arrival in the capital of top Chinese foreign policy official Liu Jianchao. The trip was apparently organized a week ago but kept secret. Liu is the Minister of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) International Liaison ...
With a crushing 20-plus point lead in the opinion polls, all the signs are that Labour leader Keir Starmer will be the PM after the general election on 4 July, called by Conservative incumbent Rishi Sunak yesterday. The stars are aligned for Starmer. Rival progressives are in abeyance: the Liberal-Democrat ...
We returned last week from England to London. Two different worlds. A quarter of an hour before dropping off our car, we came to a complete stop on the M25. Just moments before, there had been six lanes of hurtling cars and lorries. Now, everything was at a standstill as ...
Buzz from the Beehive A triumvirate of ministers – holding the Agriculture, Environment and RMA Reform portfolios – has announced the introduction of legislation “to slash the tangle of red and green tape throttling development in key sectors”, such as farming, mining and other primary industries. The exact name of ...
The Social Services and Community Committee has called for submissions on the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill. Submissions are due by Wednesday, 3 July 2024, and can be made at the link above. And if you're wondering what to say: section 7AA was enacted because Oranga Tamariki ...
Michael Reddell writes – The Reserve Bank doesn’t do independent fiscal forecasts so there is no news in the fiscal numbers in today’s Monetary Policy Statement themselves. The last official Treasury forecasts don’t take account of whatever the government is planning in next week’s Budget, and as the Bank notes ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – We know the old saying, “Never trust a politician”, and the Charter School debate is a good example of it. Charter Schools receive public funding, yet “are exempt from most statutory requirements of traditional public schools, including mandates around .. human capital management .. curriculum ...
How Do We Silence Them? The ruling obsession of the contemporary Left is that political action undertaken by individuals or groups further to the right than the liberal wings of mainstream conservative parties should not only be condemned, but suppressed.WEB OF CHAOS, a “deep dive into the world of disinformation”, ...
Muriel Newman writes – As the new Government puts the finishing touches to this month’s Budget, they will undoubtedly have had their hands full dealing with the economic mess that Labour created. Not only was Labour a grossly incompetent manager of the economy, but they also set out ...
Today the British PM, Rishi Sunak, called a general election for the 4th of July. He spoke of the challenging times and of strong leadership and achievements. It was as if he was talking about someone else, a real leader, rather than he himself or the woeful list of Tory ...
This post marks the return of an old format: Photo of the Day. Recently I was in an apartment in one of those new buildings on Great North Road Grey Lynn at rush hour, perfect day, the view was stunning, so naturally I whipped out my phone: GNR 5pm Turns ...
The Government may struggle with the political optics of scrapping assistance for first home buyers while also cutting the tax burden on landlords, increasing concerns over the growing generational divide. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government confirmed it will dump first home buyer grants in the Budget next ...
Yesterday, the Reserve Bank confirmed there will be no free card for the economy to get out of jail during the current term of the Government. Regardless of what the Budget next week says, we are in for three years of austerity. Over those three years, we will have to ...
It doesn’t inspire confidence when politicians change their minds. But you must give credit when a bad idea is dropped. Last year, we reported on the determination of British PM Rishi Sunak to lead the world in regulating the dangers of Artificial Intelligence. Perhaps he changed his mind after meeting ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Is carbon dioxide removal - aka "negative emissions" - going to save us from climate change? Or is it just a ...
Headed for the legislative wastepaper basket… Buzz from the Beehive It looks like this government is just as ready as its predecessor to dip into the public funds it is managing to dispense millions of dollars to finance – and favour – the parties it fancies. Or ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – National and Labour and ACT have at various times waxed on about their “vision” of NZ as a high value-added world tech centerWhat subject is tech based upon? Mathematics. A Chicago mathematician just told me that whereas last decade ...
Eric Crampton writes – Danyl McLauchlan over at The Listener on the recent shift toward more contestability in public policy advice in education: Education Minister Erica Stanford, one of National’s highest-ranked MPs, is trying to circumvent the establishment, taking advice from a smaller pool of experts – ...
Ele Ludemann writes – That Kāinga Ora is a mess is no surprise, but the size of the mess is. There have been many reports of unruly tenants given licence to terrorise neighbours, properties bought and left vacant, and the state agency paying above market rates in competition ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s being explained as an “inadvertent error”. However, National MP David MacLeod’s excuse for failing to disclose $178,000 in donations for his election campaign last year is not necessarily enough to prevent some serious consequences. A Police investigation is now likely, and the result ...
The scathing “independent” review of Kāinga Ora barely hit the table before the coalition government had acted on it. The entire Kāinga Ora board will be replaced, and a new chair (Simon Moutter) has been announced. Hmm. No aspersions on Bill English, but the public would have had more confidence ...
I'll light the fireYou place the flowers in the vaseThat you bought todayA warm dry home, you’d think that would be bread and butter to politicians. Home ownership and making sure people aren’t left living on the street, that’s as Kiwi as Feijoa and Apple Crumble. Isn’t it?The coalition are ...
Politics is about compromise, right? And framing it so the voters see your compromise as the better one. John Key was a skilful exponent of this approach (as was Keith Holyoake in an earlier age), and Chris Luxon isn’t too bad either. But in politics, the process whereby an old ...
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 ...
It’s being explained as an “inadvertent error”. However, National MP David MacLeod’s excuse for failing to disclose $178,000 in donations for his election campaign last year is not necessarily enough to prevent some serious consequences. A Police investigation is now likely, and the result of his non-disclosure could even see ...
The relentless drone coming out of the Prime Minister and his deputy for a million days now has been that the last government was just hosing money all over the show and now at last the grownups are in charge and shutting that drunken sailor stuff down. There is a word ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to riot-torn New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. Today’s flight will carry around 50 passengers with the most ...
Precious declaration saysYours is yours and mine you leave alone nowPrecious declaration saysI believe all hope is dead no longerTick tick tick Boom!Unexploded ordnance. A veritable minefield. A National caucus with a large number of unknowns, candidates who perhaps received little in the way of vetting as the party jumped ...
Rex Ahdar writes – The Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, likes to trace his political lineage back to the pioneers of parliamentary Maoridom. I will refer to these as the ‘big four’ or better still, the Four Knights. Just as ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Willie Jackson will participate in the prestigious Oxford Union debate on Thursday, following in David Lange’s footsteps. Coincidentally, Jackson has also followed Lange’s footsteps by living in his old home in South Auckland. And like Lange, Jackson might be the sort of loud-mouth scrapper ...
That is the only way to describe an MP "forgetting" to declare $178,000 in donations. The amount of money involved - more than five times the candidate spending cap, and two and a half times the median income - is boggling. How do you just "forget" that amount of money? ...
In this week’s “A View from Afar” podcast Selwyn Manning and spoke about the upcoming US elections and what the possibility of another Trump presidency means for the US role in world affairs. We also spoke about the problems Joe … Continue reading → ...
Hi,Two years ago I briefly featured in Justin Pemberton’s Web of Chaos documentary, which touched on things like QAnon during the pandemic.I mostly prattled on about how intertwined conspiracy narratives are with Evangelical Christian thinking, something Webworm’s explored in the past.(The doc is available on TVNZ+, if you’re not in ...
The Government is leaving the entire construction sector and the community housing sector in limbo. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government released the long-awaited Bill English-led review of Kāinga Ora yesterday, but delayed key decisions on its build plan and how to help community housing providers (CHPs) build ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons Farmers who can’t sleep, worrying they’ll lose everything amid increasing drought. Youth struggling with depression over a future that feels hopeless. Indigenous people grief-stricken over devastated ecosystems. For all these people and more, climate change is taking a clear toll ...
New Zealand’s relationship with China is becoming harder to define, and with that comes a worry that a deteriorating political relationship could spill over into the economic relationship. It is about more than whether New Zealand will join Pillar Two of Aukus, though the Chinese Ambassador, more or less, suggested ...
Been hoping we would see something like this from Sir Geoffrey Palmer. This is excellent.The present Bill goes further than the National Development Act 1979 in stripping away procedures designed to ensure that environmental issues are properly considered. The 1979 approach was not acceptable then and this present approach is ...
He’s Got The Moxie: Only Willie Jackson possesses the credentials to meld together a new Labour message that is, at one and the same moment, staunchly working-class, union-friendly, and which speaks to the hundreds-of-thousands of urban Māori untethered to the neo-tribal capitalist elites of the Iwi Leaders Forum.IT’S ONE OF THE ...
Tree-huggers may well accuse the Government of giving them the fingers, after Energy Minister Simeon Brown announced new measures to protect powerlines from trees, rather than measures to protect trees from powerlines. It can be no coincidence, surely, that this has been announced at the same as Fisheries Minister Shane Jones ...
Willie Jackson will participate in the prestigious Oxford Union debate on Thursday, following in David Lange’s footsteps. Coincidentally, Jackson has also followed Lange’s footsteps by living in his old home in South Auckland. And like Lange, Jackson might be the sort of loud-mouth scrapper who could take over the Labour ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect New Zealanders' right of free speech. The “Protection of Freedom of Expression Bill” will ensure that no organisation or individual, when acting within the law, is unreasonably denied use of a public venue for an organised event or ...
The Green Party unequivocally condemns the governing parties’ attempts to limit the public’s say on the controversial Māori wards legislation, after the select committee considering the legislation set a deadline for submissions of just five days. ...
Disabled children and families nationwide have recently found out they’re no longer able to use disability support funding for programmes during school hours in another quiet update from the Government. ...
Following a horrific case of stalking that ended in tragedy, Labour’s police spokesperson Ginny Andersen has drafted a bill that would add stalking to the Crimes Act. ...
The Rt Hon Winston Peters, joined by Mike King, has announced $24 million over four years for the ‘I Am Hope Foundation’, and will provide young people aged between 5 to 25 years with free mental health counselling services. This funding will help I Am Hope’s ‘Gumboot Friday’ initiative give ...
Te Pāti Māori have launched a petition to stop the repeal of Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act. This announcement comes prior to the first reading of the Section 7AA repeal bill in Parliament today. “Section 7AA forces the Government to adhere to Te Tiriti o Waitangi with respect ...
The Government has yet again failed to do the one thing that needs to happen to ensure houses can be built – commit to ongoing funding, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Treasury officials have outlined many ways in which the Fast Track Approvals Bill is deeply flawed, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking says. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick used this year's State of the Planet to call on the Government to prioritise people and planet as the delivery of the Budget approaches. A full transcript of their speeches can be found below. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have used their State of the Planet speeches to challenge the Government to prioritise people and planet over profit as the delivery of the Budget approaches. ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Over the next four years, Budget 24 will support the training and recruitment of 1,500 teachers into the workforce, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced today. “To raise achievement and develop a world leading education system we’re investing nearly $53 million over four years to attract, train and retain our valued ...
1. New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Rt Hon Winston Peters; Minister of Health and Minister for Pacific Peoples Hon Dr Shane Reti; and Minister for Climate Change Hon Simon Watts hosted Cook Islands Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Hon Tingika Elikana and Minister of Health Hon Vainetutai Rose Toki-Brown on 24 May ...
The Government has approved two-year extensions for four New Zealand Defence Force deployments to the Middle East and Africa, Defence Minister Judith Collins and Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced today. “These deployments are long-standing New Zealand commitments, which reflect our ongoing interest in promoting peace and stability, and making active ...
The Climate Change Commission Chair, Dr Rod Carr, has confirmed his plans to retire at the end of his term later this year, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Prior to the election, Dr Carr advised me he would be retiring when his term concluded. Dr Rod Carr has led ...
Nine highly respected experts have been appointed to the inaugural board of the new Integrity Sport and Recreation Commission, Sport & Recreation Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Integrity Sport and Recreation Commission is a new independent Crown entity which was established under the Integrity Sport and Recreation Act last year, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters confirmed today that Vote Foreign Affairs in Budget 2024 will balance two crucial priorities of the Coalition Government. While Budget 2024 reflects the constrained fiscal environment, the Government also recognises the critical role MFAT plays in keeping New Zealanders safe and prosperous. “Consistent with ...
New social housing funding in Budget 2024 will ensure the Government can continue supporting more families into warm, dry homes from July 2025, Housing Ministers Chris Bishop and Tama Potaka say. “Earlier this week I was proud to announce that Budget 2024 allocates $140 million to fund 1,500 new social ...
Introduction Today, we are sharing a red-letter occasion. A Blackball event on hallowed ground. Today we underscore the importance of our mineral estate. A reminder that our natural resource sector has much to offer. Such a contribution will not come to pass without investment. However, more than money is needed. ...
Increasing national and regional prosperity, providing the minerals needed for new technology and the clean energy transition, and doubling the value of minerals exports are the bold aims of the Government’s vision for the minerals sector. Resources Minister Shane Jones today launched a draft strategy for the minerals sector in ...
The coalition Government’s legislation to restore the rights of communities to determine whether to introduce Māori wards has passed its first reading in Parliament, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says. “Divisive changes introduced by the previous government denied local communities the ability to determine whether to establish Māori wards.” The ...
The coalition Government has today introduced legislation to slash the tangle of red and green tape throttling some of New Zealand’s key sectors, including farming, mining and other primary industries. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop says the Government is committed to unlocking development and investment while ensuring the environment is ...
The decision by Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to approve the continued use of hydrogen cyanamide, known as Hi-Cane, has been welcomed by Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay. “The EPA decision introduces appropriate environmental safeguards which will allow kiwifruit and other growers to use Hi-Cane responsibly,” Ms ...
Kia ora, Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kātoa Tāmaki Herenga Waka, Tāmaki Herenga tangata Ngā mihi ki ngā mana whenua o tēnei rohe Ngāti Whātua ō Ōrākei me nga iwi kātoa kua tae mai. Mauriora. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the EMA for hosting this event. Let me acknowledge ...
The coalition Government is investing in social housing for New Zealanders who are most in need of a warm dry home, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. Budget 2024 will allocate $140 million in new funding for 1,500 new social housing places to be provided by Community Housing Providers (CHPs), not ...
Thousands more young New Zealanders will have better access to mental health services as the Government delivers on its commitment to fund the Gumboot Friday initiative, says Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey. “Budget 2024 will provide $24 million over four years to contract the ...
The Coalition Government’s Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, which will improve tenancy laws and help increase the supply of rental properties, has passed its first reading in Parliament says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “The Bill proposes much-needed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 that will remove barriers to increasing private ...
Standing here in Cassino War Cemetery, among the graves looking up at the beautiful Abbey of Montecassino, it is hard to imagine the utter devastation left behind by the battles which ended here in May 1944. Hundreds of thousands of shells and bombs of every description left nothing but piled ...
I present a legislative statement on the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill Mr. Speaker, I move that the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the Bill. Thank you, Mr. ...
The Bill to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has had its first reading in Parliament today. The Bill reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the care and safety of children in care, says Minister for Children Karen Chhour. “When I became the Minister for Children, I made ...
Kia ora koutou, good morning, and zao shang hao. Thank you Fran for the opportunity to speak at the 2024 China Business Summit – it’s great to be here today. I’d also like to acknowledge: Simon Bridges - CEO of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. His Excellency Ambassador - Wang ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing them ...
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Ouch!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/115898326/the-labour-party-is-allergic-to-women
Warning!
Defenders of the Labour Party on this matter won't want to read this. It will do your head in. And don’t come gunning after me for highlighting it.
Nevertheless, this is how a number of New Zelanders see this issue being played out.
The mishandling is continuing. Got to wonder who is advising them? And if it ends up costing Labour the election, they only have themselves to blame.
[baiting the community this time. Two day ban last time, four days this time. People who want to have considered debate on this topic are more than welcome to start or continue a discussion. Those that want to use it to bash Labour, concern troll, or shit stir can expect to get my attention – weka]
I read it online I had already cancelled Stuff, then I "tweeted" this "So glad I cancelled Stuff Sun paper at least I avoided paying for that. Winston Peter's & Tracey Martin's unsolicited opinions on this carry much more balance than Vance's. The twisting of the context of Shane Jones' words the other day shows just how conflated the facts now are."
Who are these "Nevertheless, this is how a number of New Zelanders see this issue being played out." A number of others are waiting on straight facts not Vances interpretation of them. I can see this not playing out well for the National Party, once this is reviewed the media will be very tempted to turn their thoughts back to the unresolved internal matters. I had forgotten until yesterday the murky offer to Lee Ross to return in time with possible promotion.
One assumes Winston and co knows how damaging this can potentially be for Labour.
Hence, it's logical to assume it's in their own (NZF's) self interest to lessen the damage. As I've already explained to you, Winston requires Labour and National to be in a position where they both require his Party's support. Allowing him to play them both off against each other so as he and his Party can secure a better deal.
And again, as I've already explained to you, I've not spoken (out in the real world) to anyone who trust Labour over this. And of course, Labour require voters to trust in Jacinda as without it (voter trust) they are unlikely to do well come next election.
Moreover, Labour party defenders of this matter seem to be totally unaware of how their defence is only making things worse for the party.
This is an issue the party needs to own and correct. Constant denial is only making it (the wider public perception) worse. So is being secretive as it looks as they are covering up.
Moreover, if we are to take Jacinda on her word of only recently finding out, hence for the party to take action on this. Then of course those that knew but failed to tell her where preventing action from being taken. Hence, protecting and enabling the culture to continue.
Anyone with half a brain would sit back wait , see how this plays out, then make a comment, and this goes for you and the media
There is an exception to sitting back. It is never ok to sit back when someone may be having harm caused to them.
I have just looked back to May 22 2019 a NZ Herald link on the approach which was taken to the sexual allegations in Parliament.
At the least Mallard needed to speak to Bush to get some direction.
Did Mallard speak to the Minister of Police or the Commissioner of Police?
Were there any discussions between the Minister of Police and the Commissioner of Police?
Is the Commissioner of Police currently investigating any matters raised by the Francis report?
Why would you expect the police commissioner to get involved at that level of detail?
The commissioner of the police has a particular role inside the police, and it really isn't about running around working on individual cases. It is mainly administrative.
At best this would be a district level issue for investigation and would come after a complaint is made to the police.
To take just one other out of the jumble of topics you raised, the Francis review was an internal review undertaken by parliamentary services.
In other words it was done by an employer looking at how to better serve all of their employees and the institution. There are 85 recommendations in the review report. I just read them – perhaps you should indicate which one of those said that the police should be involved in rejigging parliamentary services HR system?
But even if criminal activities like sexual assault were identified by the Francis review, there would have been little that could have been done anyway at a criminal level – which is what you appear to be asking for.
In my view, the problem with our current system for dealing with sexual assaults is that it depends far too strongly on having a complainant, and the complainant being the victim or someone responsible for them like a parent or guardian. This makes it difficult through to impossible to deal with even something as awful as serial rapists without a complainant.
The process of going to the police is never going to be easy, and never more so in the wake of the revelations of the Louise Nicholls about Rotorua police culture or in the wake of the police treatment on complainants in the roastbusters in West Auckland. That makes it really difficult to think that going to the police about a sexual assault is going to do anything.
That is the basic problem that needs to be looked at. Personally I think that sexual assaults should be able to be reported to the police by anyone and the police should be required to take a case even if they don't have the complainant, but there is sufficient evidence to lay a charge.
I'd also like that decision about laying a charge to be taken away from the police or at least oversighted from outside the police because the idea isn't to just win cases – it is to make sure that offenders are aware of the consequences.
Of course amongst the public having John Tamihere and Willy Jackson waving their dicks on radio didn't help either. They sounded like they were only sorry they weren't out there raping with the boys. I'd have liked to laid complaint of offensive behaviour on that as well. Why bother going to a useless patsy rubber stamp like the BSA.
But FFS: please try to actually offer realistic ideas. Handwringing is so useless.
I know what the role of Bush is, he is in charge of enforcing the law. Perhaps he needed to make a statement when the Francis report was released so that people could have confidence in the police when reporting harassment, intimidation or a sexual crime.
Without a complaint a conviction cannot occur.
The police dragged their heels over Bazeley's recommendations. The same cannot be done about the Francis recommendations within Parliament.
Do Parliamentary Services actually know what to do and what to recommend a complainant does?
Bush could give some direction on this.
So could anyone.
https://www.employment.govt.nz/resolving-problems/types-of-problems/bullying-harassment-and-discrimination/general-process/
That refers mostly to bullying, harassment, and discrimination to be dealt with by the organisational HR.
You can also go direct to the Human Rights Commission, especially if it is systemic within the organisation.
There are other legal options
The police are pretty strictly there for crimes. Which they pretty much have sole jurisdiction over.
https://www.police.govt.nz/advice/victims/victims-rape-or-sexual-assault
While anyone can make a report, generally the police will only act on an actual complaint. There are exceptions. But they are mostly to do with minors, dependents, and people unable to make complaints.
Now I personally wouldn't be adverse to some changes in the laws around this. However, that is a matter for parliament to introduce and actually pass. With our system, arbitrarily trying to make the rules up according to some individuals idea of what is a good idea just leads you into criminal or civil legal hot water.
The police above all other groups are aware of this – they work at the intersection between parliament's mandate to them, the courts who judge if they have made a case, and the population going off and exploring the limits to the laws. It tends to make them somewhat cautious about exploring new territory outside of their mandates – not helped by being chronically understaffed.
What does piss me off is fools who seem to not know what the current situation is and then somehow want to believe in weird magic rather than considered legislation that tries to see the bounds of natural justice and the limits of the law in seeking it.
Personally I tend to view such fools as just being the lynch mob and being just as big a nuisance as the perpetrators of crimes.
Protected Disclosures Act 2000
The Act requires public sector organisations to operate internal procedures for receiving and dealing with reports of serious wrong doing.
So much is always asked from the complainant when a sexual assault has occured.
What to do and where to go should not be such a hard decision to make.
Advice – Avoid the National Party. The word is out that they have a very bad strain of measles, the sort that goes on and affects the brain. Keep clear and don't pay attention to their ravings.
Thanks, taking your advice.
Thank you for your concern.
Nevertheless, this is how a number of New Zelanders see this issue being played out.
Yep, currently around 38 – 43% of them, depending on whose polling is correct. And you, of course – drawing a discreet "a number of New Zealanders" veil over your personal opinion is very Pete Georgian of you, and just as transparent.
Winston has some history of his own, Owen Glenn. Probably on Bennett's agenda next week. Bennett probably can't wait until the PM returns.
Seriously, there needs to be a strategy to protect a complainant from being used as a porn by any MP. Parliamentary privilege has been abused by Bennett. To think a mature woman would put a 19 year old into the position of not knowing how the situation would play out and the outcome is irresponsible.
Nevertheless, Bennett pushing the issue got Labour to act on it.
And if Labour handled this better from the get go, Bennett wouldn't have this stick to bash them with.
Whichever way you look at it, it all comes back on Labour.
Your lame labour lashing is legendary.
You were in it early this morning to steal ‘souls’ away for your misguided agenda to ‘save’ the Left. I wonder who pays the Piper.
Your admiration for Paula Bennett, the Scarlet Pimpernel of National, is quaint and fits well with your MO on this site.
I know you cannot reply to this comment of mine but I wanted it out there to let you and others know what I think. As such, it does not need a reply.
incognito
Your word wisdom is wonderful. It’s good to draw attention to TC and his/her approach to the left with, what is it called, compassionate trolling? Which is an underhand way of distracting attention from latent hostility, which sooner or later leads to sinking teeth into (left) ankles when everyone thought it was such a nice wee doggie.
I cannot ask you a question as you are unable to respond for 4 days.
Bennett had other options available to her, discussions with the speaker.
Even though the identity of the 19 year old is not publicly known, she can easily be identified by some people, this alone is problematic for her to be able to process being caught up in a situation which she needs a lot of support with and legal advice.
It is about the wellbeing of the complainant and not putting any further pressure on her.
So going to the Spinoff, who would turn it into headlines for over a week was 'a comfort to her'?
Was there not a woman MP , even in the Labour party, she could confide in
There is a police process in making a complaint. The Spinoff could have handled the situation much better and made it about the process and how overlooked the Francis report has been.
With any crime, once out of the hands of the police, then it is the job of the court.
The complainant is the person who the verdict has a direct impact on.
Another issue about the Francis review was that it was about parliamentary staff (including the members). I don't think that you're likely to find a single word in it about parliamentary staff interactions with volunteers or even parliamentary staff interactions with members of the public
Perhaps you should just do something useful and read it. In particular look at Appendix B at the terms of reference. The scope of the people being covered is in point 3 of appendix B
Waving the Francis review around like a rugby talisman really just indicates that you need to learn more before speaking in public.
I can see another report with recommendations on parliamentary staff and volunteers.
Where is it? Links are far more useful than unsubstantiated assertions. Apart from the informational and debate aspects, it also allows a verification that you have actually found something relevant rather than everyone having to spin bullshit into thin air.
The comment editor has a link function in the bar – looks like a chain link.
There is no report it was an expression. There needs to be a separate report done for parliamentary staff and volunteers.
The terms of reference in the Francis report were not wide enough. It needed to be mandatory for every MP and going back a decade. The same for Parliamentary Services staff.
Entirely likely.
However you should really actually read the recommendations of the Francis review for instruction. You will find a very large number of the 85 recommendations come down to writing down expectations so that people have to sign to show that they have seen them. This is a normal part of everyday life in business and work.
Even then, there are quite a lot of the sections of which I sign rights away on. One of those is to be able to work for whatever volunteer organisations I chose to – like this one. Or women’s refuge or helping people with their websites or training people or helping kids get holiday jobs or even (gasp) the Labour Party along with numerous others
The problem here is that by the sound of it, most if not of the incidents occurred when all, complainants and complained against were working as volunteers rather than as employees of the parliamentary services. Certainly there has never actually be anything specific to indicate that the incidents occurred in the workplace or as part of the work that the complained was doing for his employer.
It is not the usual thing that you find volunteers who don't get paid for their effort signing contracts about their behaviour. By several parts of contract law, that would make a for a void contract because of the lack of consideration. There are also a number of issues with it in labour law as well – mostly to do with condition similar to slavery or serfdom.
If you want to destroy all volunteer work, then please don't hesitate to declare yourself. Just at present you're sounding like a Taxpayers 'union' advocate.
Perhaps you could start addressing the issues and the problems rather than just trying to fire up the old magic please… You are pretty awful at mixing up the impossible to do without any reference to the known facts. It makes your contribution rather moot.
I intend to read the Francis report.
You raised some good points and have given a blunt opinion on some matters I raised.
I'm known for it. You have managed to have less blunt (ie hammerfall) opinions than it seems that I am wont to do these days .
I had to go back and rapidly reread the Francis review – which looks like every other HR review I have ever read. But was worth a second run through. BTW: never read a HR review lying bed on a tablet unless you want to go to sleep is all that I can say. I lost two hours due to the involuntary nap.
It's pretty obvious that Sara trusts Bennett more than anyone in the Labour party. If you read the time line it's not hard to see why.There is an excellent article that the chairman links to at the top. Vance absolutely nails it.
No it doesn’t. What it demonstrates is that Andrea Vance is determined to act as judge, jury and executioner.
It seems to me that the Andrea Vance would prefer to ignore natural justice (which is exactly what her saying that Simon Mitchell shouldn’t have spoken up in his on defense is), and that there has been direct contradiction of her and Paula Bennetts assertion that anything more than allegations of bullying and harassment were put in front of them.
Clearly Vance seems to thinks that there was – presumably based on what the complainants have said or presented to her (at least I hope so). The problem is that there is contradictory evidence being offered that she appears to be not willing to look at. She doesn’t even refer to it in her rant except to denigrate it without saying why.
Naki: it is exactly the same kind of behaviour that I expect to see from you on these pages – but you are a simple minded troll. She is a senior reporter and one who I’d usually trust a little. Assertions without saying why she believes one account over another. A complete lack of supporting evidence apart from unseen material. And a simple minded denigration of those contradicting her without offering any basic argument. Ir just diminishes my respect fro her writing without offering anything new to chew on,
Perhaps she should take her own advice. Perhaps she should review why she is willing to believe what appears to be one side but not the other and why she isn’t making it obvious why she thinks that.
Sure I can understand that she doesn’t like certain politicians (at least one of those, like Shane Jones, have long been in my shit list). However that is about the only thing that Vance’s rant did offer some clarity on.
The complainants have several other avenues for them to proceed through. If they have chosen their only route to be Paula Bennett, then that is a decision they will have to live with. Paula Bennett isn’t renowned for her ability to follow through past her own advantage.
If they actually want to get something resolved, then they should look at the review of the original allegations and the other option being provided to look at the differences between their accounts of what went on with the NZ Council and what the council members are saying.
Plus based on the allegations she has been making ‘Sarah’ should at the very least report a possible crime to the police and maybe lay a complaint. She is alleging some kind of sexual predator around. Better the police know about it with direct information on them rather than having it filtered through a parliamentary media more known for their delight in waving bloody political scalps around than accuracy.
porn or pawn? I am not clear on this.
Well, the complainants probably are being used as pawns by Paula Bennett, but one has to hope like hell that she isn't using them as porn…
Correction to 1.4 correct word is pawn not porn.
TC @ 1
What a load of laughable tosh from Andrea Vance who would appear to be a little sick in the head or she's a closet Nat. I suspect a bit of both.
I have been in and out of the Labour Party since 1972 and at no time did I experience or witness any antagonism towards women. The truth is the opposite. What is more, it has been a darn sight safer than National over the years!
We have two alleged cases of harassment and sexual assault (one of them by someone who was not a party member) and that constitutes:
"rot in the Labour Party and the Party being allergic to women?"
Bear in mind this is the same woman who started out as a hack for that piece of now defunct British trash called "The News of the World". We had our own version once called "The Truth" which printed anything but the truth.
Dunedin rocked last night.
Fleetwood Mac with Mr Finn gave us I Dont Know Why Sometimes I Get Frightened and a welter of 1980s MOR romance-rock for a big and generous show at the stadium.
And in town Michael Houston, our best ever pianist pianist, rocked the Town Hall with the local synphonia.
Very big weekend for this beautiful city.
May the spirit of the music live on in Dunedin. The drummer is fantastic in Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood himself?
And Mr Houston – I think these are his last concerts. A man who managed to relearn how to use his hands and continue with his career after he was affected by carpal syndrome I think. Wonderful dedication.
Mr Fleetwood drove the show from start to finish via rhythm section. Total stage leader.
Houston, well, full mastery of Mozart, and the Southern Synphonia in fine form. And excellent acoustics in the Town Hall compared to the stadium.
Good for Dunedin – music of all sort abounds there. Would Dunedin like to be known as the NZ City of Music? As a change from being the hosts of uni students in slum dwellings which is an image I have.
Also Rapunzel asked about a Mark Knopfler mention – did you hear what it was, she would like to know?
If you have a moment I was a bit intrigued by a reference to Mark Knopfler in regards the show – love to hear what that was in regards to.
Film about 5g doing the rounds of the rohe I think. We have seen it in Nelson. About it – film Generation Zapped. https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/generation-zapped/
Coming 9/10 to Auckland – Titirangi. https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/events/2019/10/generation-zapped-film-screening/
And stuff on what it is all about. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/109733512/this-year-is-all-about-5g-heres-what-you-need-to-know
Mass surveillance at the back of it all will be the outcome. Every new development, invention gets weaponised. https://www.rfsafe.com/5g-network-uses-nearly-same-frequency-as-weaponized-crowd-control-systems/
Queenstown will be the first. How nice for them having everything foisted on them because their place is a big money magnet for profit. https://www.odt.co.nz/business/queenstown-among-first-get-5g
(Do these guys look grey and bloodless to you?)
Big money magnet for exposure is more like it. All the big brands are here for the exposure, not the profits they might generate in town. Losses are rationalised by the perceived brand exposure they get by being in and associated with Queenstown. And some of those annual losses are substantial.
Will be interesting how 5G goes here. 4G is patchy and variable between providers. At our gallery in CBD Spark is fine, Voda customers have to go outside to take a call. Similar story out in the basin where there's large where one or both providers are 2G or nothing because of terrain, 50m away it'll be full 4G.
Interesting bit about the exposure. Big outfits will buy in to a site to prevent a competitor gaining a position in the great competitive shuffle and shoulder pushing before they can settle down to a nice cartel. It's really like being on the ground under the hooves of stampeding cattle forthe ordinary person, the micro business of the local.
And you watch Graeme with a bemused expression as there is nothing you can do but try and foot it finely amongst the herd. I hope you are doing good business coming into Christmas.
I know of one major NZ retail brand that has downsized their Queenstown operation dramatically after huge losses and won't be bringing any other of their stable of brands to Queenstown, they'd be in most NZ malls or main streets and often anchor tenant. Wouldn't be surprised if some of the big box retailers that have sprouted this cycle don't pack it in as well, some of the stories doing the rounds regarding their performance can't be sustainable, even for big corporate retailers. These are like on a good day they might take enough to cover the wages, just staff / low level manager pub chatter but probably got some truth to it.
We're fortunate we're in a niche that the corporates can't handle, too small and specialised, so keep it small and personal with overheads to match. Have watched lots of cash bonfires in this town. That's the main driver of the economy (cash burn)
I think cynically that is the way of the neolibs. Without any sanctions on them, till we force them, they can push some sort of business and if it goes belly up the ordinary people have lost their all, while they can go on and invent some more money to finance another lot of wealth creation? and also they can make money out of dealing with any problems.
See-saw, they win at the top and can hedge for a crash, and then they win at the bottom when they produce some panacea, open a private hospital for the survivors etc. And that is why Donald Trump is a success and a good businessman; he understands that having the money and power is what it's all about. Laws and limits are just mosquito bites to the wealthy. Climate change controls go hand in hand with Money creation controls. And we don't let them take over our cash systems, and should be anxious how Kiwibank thinks it is getting modern by banning cheques. B.stards.
It sounds justifiable but looked at closely it stinks like a dead kangaroo. https://cecaust.com.au/media-releases/morrison-banning-cash-so-australians-cant-escape-bail-negative-interest-rates
And we tend to go skipping after the Aussies. We don't have kangaroos but we do have wallabies. Hey that rhymes, perhaps someone would like to make a rap about it.
Radionz has sport and rugby dominating its page except for a celebration of a ‘great’ losing event of WW2 the Battle of Arnhem 'Operation Market Garden'. Celebrating famous cock-ups with lots of blood and gore – is that all that deadheads can find to do?
' The British 1st Airborne Division lost nearly ¾ of its strength and did not see combat again. '
There were about 8,000 of the Allies dead or captured or missing. Indefinite about the Germans – one figure is 3,300. 453 I think of Dutch dead and a large number turfed out of their homes which were looted and the contents sent to bombed out Germans.
… the bridge that the 1st Airborne had fought so hard for was eventually destroyed by the Allies to deny German forces its use. On 7 October, it was bombed and destroyed by Martin B-26 Marauders of 344th Bomb Group, USAAF…
This is the British for you – might explain the enthusiasm for Brexit. It's not the winning that counts, it's the bravehearted community charging forward and trying that is so great' sort of thing. Being wrongheaded elevated to an art!
Although a disaster for the British 1st Airborne Division, their fight north of the Rhine is considered an example of courage and endurance and one of the greatest feats of arms in the Second World War. Despite being the last great failure of the British Army, Arnhem has become a byword for the fighting spirit of the British people and has set a standard for the Parachute Regiment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arnhem#British_plan
Nothing warms the English heart quite like a glorious defeat. Of course, this kind of heroic but doomed mission in which you lose most of your combat personnel was just about routine for German elite divisions in the last years of the war, but no-one makes a fuss about that – sucks to be the losers, I guess.
Well they should take a leaf out of the history book and celebrate their own glorious losses? It can be a new tourism venture. Think how the tourist dollar could flow into the Middle East when the oil runs out. They will travel by camel of course, it will be very special and high priced.
The Arnhem Road bridge was destroyed by Dutch Engineers upon the German invasion, then rebuilt by the Germans and completed in 1944.
What has this , one of many failed UK military operations, have to do with Brexit?
Was there a referendum too ?
Don't worry your pretty head about it, it brings two ideas, like two colours together, and they turn our brown, so unexpected who'd have thunk it.
Here is an explanation from wikipedia that will enlighten you on colours and you will have learned something today.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown
Oh dear, there are hurdles to jump for real estate agents that will lessen their lightness of being as they float in their hot-air balloons within the housing bubble.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/399296/anti-money-laundering-laws-costing-real-estate-industry-multi-millions
A survey of 1861 real estate professionals around the country found 59 percent cited changing regulation as their top concern, whereas two years ago it was sixth on the list.
The Real Estate Institute said implementing new anti-money laundering laws has cost the industry tens of millions of dollars.
"The real estate industry has had to deal with more legislative changes in the last two years than we've dealt with in the five years prior," REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said.
They would complain – they are in an elite business level with top money. Their CE seems to be from UK and worked in Australia as well in top jobs. All has been tops for them, why should it change? They have had more change in the last two years (Labour) than they had in the prior five (National). QED
"The Real Estate Institute said implementing new anti-money laundering laws has cost the industry tens of millions of dollars."
Another way of reading this comment would be "Real Estate Sellers are finding things more difficult now they aren't able to sell as much property to dubious offshore buyers and meth traders."
Is the industry unable to see that most of us are delighted with this pressure they complain of.
Went to a barfoot auction house in Auckland last week and mostly kiwi buyers /sellers and not that many, not like the old days, packed with Asian buyers.
You'd have to wonder why ScoMo would want his personal paedophile protector to hold his hand.
https://twitter.com/benpershing/status/1175033473591119876
A number of links connecting in thought. First had a headline – Strangulation offences: Five a day charged since law changed.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/2018713972/getting-tough-how-new-zealand-could-stop-domestic-violence
Then a slanted rather poisonous piece as PM Jacinda attempts to deal with bad behaviour from a male in the Party's employ against women within his ambit.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/398745/if-only-the-czar-knew-how-long-will-jacinda-ardern-get-benefit-of-the-doubt-over-sex-assault-claims
Liam Hehir This article first appeared on Pundit.co.nz.
* (Liam Hehir is a Palmerston North lawyer and conservative political columnist and blogger for Pundit who has formerly volunteered for the National Party.)
And the last about snakes possibly finding NZ comfortable. And an image of a green snake looking unpleasantly menacing which makes me think of Hehir above.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/399142/counting-the-ways-climate-change-will-affect-us-and-how-we-will-affect-the-climate
Our self inflicted disaster.
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1175470497036996609
sobering
Sad, and we will follow.
Oh dear, we are going to have to think, if only we had Rutherford here now some might say. But we do have thinkers here still, they just haven't been given the space and equipment and the action after their discoveries and models have shown us the way. Rutherford didn't have a royal suite but managed with his great team, to do world shifting stuff. Now we can shift rubbish to a Better Useful End.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment/399221/indonesia-to-send-contaminated-recycling-back-to-nz
And have we got it in our heads that we are supposed to be kindly, thoughtful people who aren't cruel to cows and other animals. Recently a ship with 8000 cattle was being refused docking overseas because of a legal wrangle over unpaid bills I suspect. Or perhaps they didn't have the certification as to disease or legalities of ownership. And the country was being begged to allow docking so they could obtain more food or the cattle would starve. Don't know what happened, but if good people don't watch out for other sentient beings, the machine minds will rule!
Now we have problems in NZ. We don't want international ships arriving without certification that they are clean, for our own sakes. And we don't want them arriving without complying with our rules about live animal transport. Should we allow this level of transport anyway? We have had enough problem with imported disease through the M.bovis – don't we ever learn? Hah. Silly question, of course we do, usually after lacking any precautionary, or rigid measures to ensure effectiveness.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/398930/live-export-ship-arrives-in-napier-for-thousands-of-cows-without-certification
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) says until it's satisfied the Yangtze Fortune meets animal welfare conditions, the export certificate won't be issued.
The ship arrived at the Napier Port yesterday afternoon to collect 4700 breeding cows to set up dairy farms in China.
No doubt one of the milk-rush companies has set this up, probably a National Party supporter. (I'm going out on a limb there. But it's 80:20 likely.)
@ grey..
have you ever thought of spreading yr news-gathering activities outside of all the local ones that most already see..?
(asking for a friend..)
Simon Bridges showing his true colours, again. Businesses and property rights trump everything else; Māori don’t get a single mention, of course.
http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/5/348381
Anything for a dollar.
https://twitter.com/Ritaflood/status/1175506466456760320
Iowa.
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1175561434073305098
edit:
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1175561796331159557
I wonder if Warren will offer the VP to Biden? Always the bridesmaid… 🙂
yeah yeah one result way out and all that – just a funny thought
I think when Biden doesn't get the nomination he'll head off into the sunset to spend more time with his
record playerphonographwax cylinder.Fair bet.
A Warren/Sanders team would be interesting, but while I think he might go for it if he got the nom, she might be more inclined to go with a blandstander, especially from one of the the swing states. Strategy.
Can't see a Warren Saunders ticket happening, so yeah, probably a lesser candidate from a swing state or minority group, such as Beto, Harris or mayor Pete.
But a long way to go yet, and Biden has to go first.
There is absolutely no way she would go for Sanders. Much safer to go for a younger candidate, probably male, and probably from the midwest. So O'Rouke or Buttigieg.
Yeah, she probably wouldn't, but it's not as crazy as it sounds.
Firtly, I think they have much more sympathetic platforms than Warren and anyone else.
Secondly, Sanders would play "bad cop" making Warren a "compromise builder".
Thirdly, it might shut up the "bernie or bust" idiots, which would go a huge way to making the dems a unified force (rather than the candidate having to face the republicans while being sniped at from the back).
Joe90 – are you putting up links with your comments? There is none showing. You are wonderfully enigmatic but you usually have some explanation to enlighten.
They're there, some of us can't see them. I have to open a different browser to see the twitter embeds. I've been assuming this is to do with the adblocks and such I run on my main browser, but I haven't tested that. I'll tell Lynn.
Pretty sure that's it.
just restarted Firefox with extensions disabled and all the tweets are visible now. Will try turning them on one at a time to see which extension is doing that.
Looks like it's the DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials addon. Which makes sense, so check for any extensions you have that are designed to limit tracking or provide extra privacy when browsing/searching.
It will be. I'm using OEmbed with for things like facebook, twitter, and youtube embeds (and a number of others). It is really restricted, but to make them 'live' with links, linkable they have to live and active.
Some adblockers will block them out. That is really up to user taste. I could just get the code to treat them as being empty comments without at least some text 🙁
You can click directly on the embedded Twitter 'cards' that work like links do.
good point. Grewarshark, what can you see in Joe90's tweets? Can you see the embedded tweet? Or only Joe's words?
Only Joe's words. I thought there must be some thing like you have said. I have my adblocker turned off i think. I need peaceful background to be able to concentrate on the news which is usually startling enough to keep me awake at night if I let it. So I will know what to do if I want to see tweets. Thanks for info.
I also can't use a browser with lots of things flashing at me or moving images. With Firefox you can restart in safe mode, which turns off all extensions. Restart again, then go into the extensions list and turn them back on one at a time. This will tell you which one it is. It wasn't adblocker on mine, it was an extension blocking tracking.
I also have a second browser with no extensions, so I can view webpages that aren't loading right.
Try turning it off for this site. Most ad blockers will allow you to exclude particular sites from their attentions.
And we don't have ads…
It wasn't the adblocker, it was some DuckDuckGo extension (don't even know why I had it). See up thread. Am relieved I can see everything again, it will make writing posts easier too.
Just disabled for this page and can't see whatever used to be on the right hand side below the Feed. Is that gone now? I used to see links to things.
Ug, the problem I have now is that when I click on a link to a specific comment, my browser tries to load that but ends up off by half a page. I assume that's the tweets loading doing that.
Ah, mine has been doing that for ages as well. Must be a different calculation.
Mine does that jumping around. When I go away from where I have been looking, it's a devil of a job to find it again sometimes. Goes to the right place then dashes off. I am on Firefox/Linux. Thanks weka for advice above will have to try that tomorrow.
I think it is something to do with slow page loading. I get it too on other websites such as Stuff. The only thing that seems to work (for me) is to slow down and be more patient 😉
Mine only does that if I'm in a different post, say I'm reading an Open Mike comment then click a lying: the preferred denier comment. If i'm already in today's Open Mike and click on another today's Open Mike comment it correctly goes straight there.
The tweets loading might be doing it, but it also used to behave like that before the latest editor in previous versions that didn't load the tweets.
Mine was doing the same before the site allowed embedded tweets.
what browser are you all using? Firefox/mac here.
Mine goes initially to the right place and then jumps up the page.
Firefox/PC.
Same, immediate scroll to the comment and then scrolls down a dozen or more.
FF 69.0 on MacOS 10.14.6
Microsoft Edge using InPrivate mode.
Humanity's self inflicted disaster, greed, and polling trends pretty much speak for themselves. Anything I could say would be verbiage, I reckon.
Methinks next year's general election will have a very strong focus on Climate Change. Something for Greens and Labour to seriously work closely on together in the meantime, to keep National in Opposition.
Methinks this too.
@ mary a.
i agree – things are currently moving very fast – as far as widespread awareness coupled with ever more strident demands to politicians to do what nesds to be done..are concerned..
those demands unheard will easily tip over into anger..
and one fact we can take to the bank – is that these demands are only going to get louder/more widespread..
we have known this was coming – for about the last 30 yrs..and we have done s.f.a. about it – we have just got worse – in our consumption etc..
this couple with global political stasis for those decades..
as all bowed to the alters of neoliberalism/growth..
but this will all come to an end..soon enough..
i agree – things are currently moving very fast
Fast ,so sudden we need a new y-axis.
http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/clisys/STRAT/gif/pole10_sh.gif
https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/meteorology/figures/ozone/omds_2019_toms+omi+omps.pdf
national will not be running an election strategy based on climate change
You do understand that the singularity ie the SSW event is an analogue for the repair of the polar ozone hole ( under the Montreal agreement) and is a significant test on the understanding (theory) under an instantaneous forcing ie a natural experiment.
https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/meteorology/figures/ozone/to3caps_2019_toms+omi+omps.pdf
Climate dynamics will start shortly as wind reversals in the polar vortex inact.
The trouble for National will be finding anything they can campaign on credibly…
Thanks to all the Australian academics how have come out in strong tau toko of the extinction Rebellion. Ka kaha to all the intelligent tangata who protest the pollies who are trying to lead US down the wrong PATH.
'We declare our support for Extinction Rebellion': an open letter from Australia's academics
Leading academics from around the country say it is their moral duty to rebel to ‘defend life itself
We the undersigned represent diverse academic disciplines, and the views expressed here are those of the signatories and not their universities. While our academic perspectives and expertise may differ, we are united on one point: we can no longer tolerate the failure of the Australian government, or any other government, to take robust and urgent action to address the worsening ecological crisis.
It is unconscionable that we, our children and grandchildren should have to bear the terrifying brunt of this unprecedented disaster. When a government wilfully abrogates its responsibility to protect its citizens from harm and secure the future for generations to come, it has failed in its most essential duty of stewardship. The ‘social contract’ has been broken, and it is therefore not only our right, but our moral duty, to rebel to defend life itself
We also recognise the crucial role First Nations people in Australia and across the globe, have played for tens of thousands of years, and continue to play, in maintaining species, and caring for the land, water and air. We therefore declare our support for the urgent establishment of a treaty with First Nation Australians, to recognise Indigenous sovereignty and to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to continue protecting what they have already cared for, for so long Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/sep/20/we-declare-our-support-for-extinction-rebellion-an-open-letter-from-australias-academics
I…. Papatuanuku has already given us the tools for sequestration of CARBON trees mash wetlands habits . We don't have to spend billion trying to perfect a machine to do the job that a Forest already does for us. We just need to spend billions planting trees and restoration of other natural habitat. We could also us wood products to replace alot of(steel high carbon) commodity we have the tech to do this. After all its not ROCKET SCIENCE. We can plant trees in all the land that is erosion prone and still be able to farm the land to as Te Whenua holds more water when trees are planted in the correct places fence lines steep gullies. Let's move away from the mono styles of farming and work with Papatuanuku to restore our future to have a habitatable climate.
Greta Thunberg: ‘We are ignoring natural climate solutions’
Film by Swedish activist and Guardian journalist George Monbiot says nature must be used to repair broken climate.
The protection and restoration of living ecosystems such as forests, mangroves and seagrass meadows can repair the planet’s broken climate but are being overlooked, Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot have warned in a new short film.
Natural climate solutions could remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as plants grow. But these methods receive only 2% of the fundingspent on cutting emissions, say the climate activists
In the film, Monbiot says: “There is a magic machine that sucks carbon out of the air, costs very little, and builds itself. It’s called a tree.” A recent scientific analysis concluded that growing billions of trees across the world is the single biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis, though coal, oil and gas burning must also end.
“We are living in the beginning of a mass extinction and our climate is breaking down,” says Thunberg in the film. “But we can still fix this – you can still fix this.”
“It’s simple,” she says. “We need to protect, restore, and fund.” That means protecting tropical forests that are being cut down at the rate of 30 football pitches a minute, she said, restoring the large areas of the planet that have been damaged and stopping the funding of things that destroy nature and instead paying for activities that help it.
The film’s producer, Tom Mustill of Gripping Films, said: “We tried to make the film have the tiniest environmental impact possible. We took trains to Sweden to interview Greta, charged our hybrid car at George’s house, used green energy to power the edit and recycled archive footage rather than shooting new.”
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/19/greta-thunberg-we-are-ignoring-natural-climate-solutions
Kia Ora Newshub.
That was someone policy important heaps of people don't build housing warla a housing short banks and realestate rubbing there hands together.
Jenna Google is investing 2 billion dollars into new Renewable energy to power there operations with Renewable energy all over the Papatuanuku.
I can remember seeing Thomas Cook was a big thing in Aotearoa a few years ago.
The Pike River whanau are finally getting what they want. Hopefully they will get JUSTICE.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Te tangata whenua o Aotearoa need business advice from genuine Maori a lot of Te pakiha business men can't help them selves they just see innocent tangata whenua as sheep to be fleeced that's CAPTILSIM.
Yes all Our Marae need to be insured we have heaps of Marae in Te Tairawhiti.
We must nurture Te tamariki mental health as we only get one chance with some of our Rangatahi. Some Tangata have to stop being self-centered and put Te mokopuna welbing in the centre of our way of planning for the future.
Ruahine to much on your win in the Tarakihi Rugby league championship. I have been thinking about coming for a tiki tour there to check out a renewable energy outfit there. Ma Te Wa.
Te Waiata is good for the wairua Te Haka is awesome Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa Culture is Papatuanuku famous Ka pai kia kaha Whanau.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora The Am Show.
The reason someone can't get a good Wahine is because they are to selfish self-centred muppet.
Ka kite Ano
Eco Maori thinks that this is the best way to get poor countries to preserve their natural habitatable forests. Rewarding them to keep the trees in the Papatuanuku maybe offer Brazil money to keep the Amazon safe Maybe Jeff could pony up some putea to make this a reality. Our Papatuanuku is A living being we only get one chance if we make a big MESS our future will be Stuffed.
Gabon becomes the first African country to receive funding for preserving its rainforests
About 80 per cent of Gabon is covered by forests, sheltering a rich variety of wildlife.
(CNN) — In an effort to fight climate change, the United Nations announced Sunday that Gabon will become the first African country paid with international funds to preserve its rainforest.
Through the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), Norway will pay $150 million to Gabon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and battle deforestation. The announcement was made at the Climate Action Summit in New York, where world leaders gathered to discuss how to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
CAFI is a collaborative partnership between the UN Development Program (UNDP), six Central African countries, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Bank and a coalition of donors including the United Kingdom, Norway and South Korea
Covered in forests
Up to 80% of Gabon is covered with forests, according to a report in Mongabay, a website of environmental news.
In the statement, Ola Elvestuen, Norway's minister of climate and environment, said he hopes the partnership will help Gabon maintain 98% of the forests.
"I am very pleased with this results-based partnership through CAFI, which includes a historic carbon floor price to further encourage Gabon to continue to preserve its rainforest. This is a major breakthrough for REDD+ in Africa," Elvestuen said.
For many years, Gabon has been a leader in Africa in preserving its rainforests Ka kite Ano link below.
https://edition-m.cnn.com/2019/09/23/africa/gabon-paid-to-fight-deforestation-intl/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fedition.cnn.com%2Fafrica%3Fno-st%3D9999999999