Something that needs fixing in NZ it seems to me, possibly even more than the "voices" who spend hours venting about "freedom of speech" and "gun control" on line are the warped perceptions of some "everyday" NZers.
It all reminds me of a similar campaign when a Maori emersion school was planned for Bethlehem, where I live, that opened in 2012, sadly to exactly the same sort of negative pre-judgement and quite along local campaign to stop it's construction.
Emergency housing, much needed in Tauranga, has some locals still determined to be NIMBY's till the bitter end, possibly due to having nothing better to do. The attached link shows the news story where their "fears" and angst continue despite the story stating that conditions of conduct are applied to residents and are to be increased to sooth the "concerns" of, some – but not all – local residents.
Sadly the scrutiny being placed on the residents of the emergency housing also sees some of them uncomfortable and wanting to leave, that would be fine if it was not due to the pitchfork mentality of some of those in the surrounding area and they had other better reasons and options to leave. Police have stated that there are no more events of any criminal nature or disturbance than there are elsewhere in the area.
The fact is that since the local school here opened after long and concerted efforts by the "locals", who predicted a massive wave of crime and vandalism, the school has operated for the past seven years as a seamless part of the community with absolutely none of the mayhem predicted.
The on-line screeching about "rights", probably by those who would be the first to abuse them, is bad enough but people taking petty fears and perceived problems into the community does nothing to better the lives of NZersor themselves.
Of course, it never registers with said NIMBYs that they themselves are only one major health or financial (or both) disaster away from needing emergency accommodation themselves…
Ae! Or when, if they're ever forced to 'cash up', they could be in serious shit. The banks, their employers no longer their friends. In some cases the ignominy of bankruptcy and the realisation their phallus ain't quite so grand as first thought.
It's at that point they usually start screaming for MUMMY or gummint intervention.
I so wish that the local paper who are peddling this story were made to go back and interview all the naysayers of the school predicting mayhem pre-2012. The funny thing is I know some of them by name, 3rd-hand, their children were sort of pre-teen then and things have, I hear, not been particularly easy or straighforward with them "growing up", the very typical "people in glass houses" that you speak of.
Hi PR, speaking of underpaid workers, just having a chat with my significant other after a shift at ED.
One of the people she dealt with was a profoundly deaf man with mental health issues. After a family harm incident, he has been forbidden from entering a local town. While this town is where the alleged harm occurred, it is also where his only other support (parents) is.
After two nights in the cells he is 'released', no money, transport, food or winter clothing. He was treated for an old injury and then went and sat outside the hospital in light cotton clothing. At 1am, he comes back in, shivering, hungry and depressed.
Long story short, he sleeps on the floor of ED under a blanket until the mental health social worker can sort something out.
The solutions are not cheap nor simple and I feel that things are getting more severe especially in the realm of mental ill-health.
BTW, big ups to you and your colleagues for doing the job you do in what must be under more and more trying circumstances.
Hi PR. I fear you're right about salaries not covering the horrific jobs that need to be done, let's hope one day we achieve salaries befitting the work involved. In the mean time I hope they have meaningful assistance for staff confronting these issues and that you avail yourself of them. Rest up well before your next shift.
My night was a very cushy number, thanks. However, my first thought on reading your comment wasn't "Oh we aren't paying prison guards enough," but "Why are we using prisons as storage facilities for people with serious mental health issues?"
My observation is it comes down to mostly because there's not enough spaces for the prisoners in wards so they get sent to corrections and, through the grapevine, sometimes they won't be taken because the prisoners are to violent
Indeed, the two are not mutually exclusive – and they'd certainly have to pay me a lot of money to work in Corrections, for which they wouldn't get value for money because I'd almost certainly be hopeless at it (unless prisoners are easily swayed by people who use a lot of big words in convoluted sentences, but that feels somewhat unlikely).
Well you better hope national and in particular collins or mitchell never get near power or prisons will get stuffed fuller and staffed cheaper. Serco on steroids is where those nut jobs would take us.
Probably so – and what you and the prisoner experienced sounds terrible. I would note though, that you are able to form the thought that "correction officers don't get paid enough" only because you have some underlying notion of 'value' that is not the same as the exchange (dollar) value that is obtained in the market. i.e. the money you get does not accurately represent the value of what you do. And this is true in general and in both directions – markets actually reward people rather perversely from the standpoint of the 'real' value they produce. We will make a lefty out of you yet PR.
Um – does that mean you are going to do a ballet dance for us, PR? Or did you mean bolshy? If that is why the smiley face is there, nice one, and please post the video.
re: Govt. Gun Registration plans, good idea, but keep an eye on the opponents perhaps.
NZ gun lobby group COLFO (Council of Licensed Firearms Owners) has been making early noise about the Govt. plans. COLFO is a member of the World Forum for the Future of Sport Shooting, which in turn is linked to the NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation) US, which is linked to The Firearms Industry Trade Association, US, and the NRA (National Rifle Association) US.
The NSSF has a policy of not linking to third parties such as NRA but it is clear that there is a connection. One site I looked at offered discounted membership to NRA.
When I recently renewed my license I was given the option to voluntarily register my rifles which I did . So it should be easy to know who to go find .
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr17fMPT0Xg&t=2745s
I learnt a lot of new things.When listening to the most comprehensive history of tRump I'd found on the web … delivered with mocking humor
One was that Rump always stiffed small businesses and sub-contractors who worked for him …
Starting right at the beginning, on his first construction site … he kept $100,000 due to already underpaid non-union polish workers … and he's done it to everyone since.
He apparently gets mad when any of his managers … pay out the agreed upon price to contract workers… paying the quoted and accepted price… gives the don the shits..
His method was / is to retain the last payment …and tell them to sue, … they would be told it would take years of expensive legal battling … and if they lost or pulled out, they would be bankrupted. by having to pay trumps expensive lawyers fees …
It's a mugs game for Small businesses or individuals taking on a corporation with multi-million funds … rich bullies know litigation is a rich mans game.. and so rich wankers use this against the 'lesser' people that they effectively steal from.
A recent comparable example in NZ …. was the Nact government telling Pike River families "they could sue" ,,, in response to pathetic compensation from the Nact Govt ,,, despite the Govts part in regulatory failure leading to the disaster ,,, and the Govt receiving millions in Insurance payouts for the mass killing 'accident'. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/west-coast/9399690/PM-avoiding-Pike-River-payout
In a final grubby insult,, Nact trolls tried to smear / blame Andrew Little for the neo-lib, non-compliant, non-regulated, free-market death trap that was Pike River….a lie that shows total disregard for the safety of mine workers … as it seeks to hide the failures / lessons that need to be corrected.
Its the sort of shameful thing Rump would say …. It got a brief airing here at TS ,,,, but I wonder how often this dog whistle got posted up in Kiwiblog or Whalestain ….
Rump plays to an audience …. the NZ 'right' share an awful lot of the same things.
That's why so many see Trump as God and saw Key as God. Those two fine specimens had a grasp of the real world and are / were about showing what the real world is about, or should be about. The thing that should be the weirdest bit it is the Trump thing about 'draining the swamp' still being chanted by his cheerleaders. Like Shylock to Oliver and co., "Welcome after your trip out of the swamp my dears, to a mire of neck high shit."
You will know when we have a real Left wing transformative politician who is anywhere near the levers of power in New Zealand, because this is what happens when a real one shows up and threatens the power status quo….
" The greatest fear of those holding the most power and wealth is that they will lose their exalted position in the world. They will resist any changes to the grossly unequal and unjust class structure that causes grievous damage to so many people; and to the planet itself. Even the threat of real change must be crushed. This, in a nutshell, underpins the astonishing and relentless campaign to stop Jeremy Corbyn, a moderate leftist, from ever becoming Prime Minister."
Yeah I would go along with that, although I would also have to say that the Greens PR department (if they indeed have one) should have all been fired immediately after that episode had exposed their complete ineptness.
+100 … how Metiria Turei was forced to resign … but double dipper english and his rich mans crime of greed was allowed to remain … was a disgrace …. mainly to our media but also the greens PR.
Corbyn smears are also media enabled to a very large degree …. partly because we are kept in the dark about how bad Israel is … and what sort of other sneaky stuff is being done.
Who knew that BDS has been falsely framed and ruled anti-semetic ?
Israel – and now the German parliament – have claimed that the boycott is Nazi-like in its methods. “‘Don’t buy’ stickers of the BDS movement on Israeli products,Israel – and now the German parliament – have claimed that the boycott is Nazi-like in its methods. “‘Don’t buy’ stickers of the BDS movement on Israeli products, ” the non-binding German resolution stated, “remind one [sic] of inevitable associations with the Nazi call ‘Don’t buy from the Jews’,
Or how about the links and admirers of right wing Apartheid Israel
it has certainly facilitated the U.S. wars in the Middle East against its regional enemies and now it is nurturing the Islamophobic far right in the West hostile to the flood of displaced refugees fleeing them.
Netanyahu has also courted Poland’s far-right prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, even as the latter has fuelled Holocaust revisionism with legislation to outlaw criticism of Poland for its involvement in the Nazi death camps. Millions of Jews were exterminated in such camps.
He has been engaged in a similar bromance with Viktor Orban, the ultra-nationalist prime minister of Hungary, who barely veils his Jew-baiting and has eulogised Miklos Horthy, a Hungarian leader who collaborated with the Nazis.
Israel is cultivating alliances with other ultra-nationalists – in and out of power – in the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Austria.
The conclusion drawn by Jewish communities abroad is that their well being – even their safety – is now a much lower priority than bolstering Israel’s diplomatic influence.
And our media never comments on things like what has been written in UN reports about Israel … a country Wayne mapp said shared our NZ values … he can count me out …of his values
UN: In the best traditions of fascism, this policy and these racist practices are designed to terrorize the Arab population so that they either give up or simply leave the occupied territories for ever. In our 1988 report, we cited numerous statements by Israeli officials which bore out this assessment.
Israel is violating international and humanitarian law throughout the occupied Arab territories more and more systematically. Its barbarous racist policies have caused the Security Council to adopt many resolutions on the subject, including resolutions 605 (1987), 607 (1988) and 608 (1988). The policy of terror adopted by Israel in the occupied Arab territories is exemplified by, among other things, beatings designed to break detainees' bones, the use of toxic gas, toughening of the iron fist policy, demolition of homes, destruction of villages, banishment, administrative detention, house arrest, detention of children, minors and the elderly, curfews, sealing off of camps, suppression of the freedoms of opinion, expression and assembly, and news blackouts. This policy has exceeded all bounds since the general uprising began throughout the occupied Arab territories, including the Golan: some residents have even been buried alive and children massacred.
In the detention camps, detainees are constantly subjected to the most barbarous torture: long interrogations late into the night, beatings until they become unconscious, hot and cold showers, being forced to crawl on their knees or to stand for long periods with their arms up, having lighted cigarettes applied to the most sensitive parts of their bodies, electric shocks, being deprived of food and having blood samples taken weekly, the aim being to so weaken detainees that they have been reduced to invalids,
,,,,,,,,,its almost like Sadam The Butcher of Baghdad ,,, didn't die …
I think the massive effort to stymie drug law reform is another example of this, the powerful see it as a threat because they may lose some control to the new generation. And of course they are above the law so it has no impact on their day to day recreational activities.
Chomsky says….no but seriously he always had a pretty good take on drugs/drug control/class war etc…although not sure his lottery analogy here works that well anymore, maybe times have changed a bit since them?
It has been by me. Tomorrow's council meeting will be very interesting. The formal discussion, however, has been shunted into the "public excluded" chamber, as so often is the case.
Great advocate for transparency, me; are we banned? Well, there are consequences if one does, but if the information should be in the public arena…
it's the age-old argument; there are different ways to hide information; what goes on tour, stays on tour, etc. but there's also the Hager Effect. It depends. The runaka has been asked for the position paper they sent to us, but have declined to provide it to the media. I'd like to talk with them first. I reckon it's in the public arena now, having been reported upon by the media.
The RAF carried out some 216 airstrikes in and around the city ( Raqqa ) during the offensive, but the Ministry of Defence has denied that any civilians were harmed as a result.
And they get worse in defending their lies …
“Rather than focusing on the devastating impacts of this joint bombing operation, the MoD has sought to undermine the credibility of Amnesty when we’ve published evidence detailing coalition airstrikes that killed civilians,
Our SAS and Key / mapp look like baby step fibbers with only two villages we know they've lied about…. The Big boys tell Huge ones …..
In the entire air campaign against Isis in both Syria and Iraq, the UK has conceded responsibility for just one civilian casualty,… despite more than 1,700 RAF air strikes.
Fisk: Almost as distressing as this palpably ridiculous figure was that the BBC reported this on 7 March as a straightforward news story,……….
statistics of this kind are not just unbelievable, incredible and insulting to anyone who reads or studies them. They are obviously miraculous, nonsensical, irresponsible, preposterous, bizarre, weird, out-of-this-world, dreamlike and – for anyone who has covered wars for the past four decades – totally untrue.
Yet the British Ministry of Defence got away with it.
Which brings me to Idlib … and the problem of radicalized overseas fighters ,,,, I doubt our media will inform us of this problem…. Where the brits and co send killers ,,, but do not want them back.
British Isis fighters should be hunted down and killed, says defence secretary
‘A dead terrorist can’t cause any harm to Britain,’ says Gavin Williamson, arguing jihadists should not be allowed back into UK
More than 800 UK citizens are thought to have gone to fight for Isis in Iraq and Syria
France, too, is working to eradicate its jihadis overseas.,,,
“And the French — well, I think their position is clear. They want all their guys killed here so they don’t have to bring them back and deal with them at home.”
Personally I think a lot could be de-radicalized as many were tricked into a) the warped twisted cult version of isis / al nusras Muslim preaching … and b) their 'good war' .
And there is the ongoing injustice in our blind eye to our criminals ….behind and involved in their crimes.
In 2003, Australian-British journalist John Pilger conducted research and concluded, “More than 100,000 Islamic militants were trained in Pakistan between 1986 and 1992, in camps overseen by the CIA and MI6, with the SAS training future al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in bomb-making and other black arts. Their leaders were trained at a CIA camp in Virginia.”
That Western interference in Afghanistan actually precedes the Soviet invasion by several months is rarely acknowledged.
it is worth tracing the motives and methods employed by foreign powers to further their own ends in that territory, as these have been repeated and modified in Iraq and Syria.
Idlib is a small ugly problem …. compared to what the west cooked up … and Libyans now face with their NATO destroyed society
I suspect that similar strategies have been used with the Uyghur Muslims in China. Thetre are several Sunni sects living in China, but the Uyghurs tend to be the most inclined to violent jihad and separatism.
The Turkestan Islamic Party(Xinjiang) is designated a terrorist organisation by the EU, the UK, Turkey, the US , Russia and others.
They've shown up in Idlib, Syria where the fear is they'll return to China as hardened fighters.They have a fearsome reputation for cruelty and barbarity.
Radical Uyghurs have also been involved in terrorist acts against other Muslim minorities within China, notably the Hui muslims who are the most numerous in China
It needs to be also remembered that the Chinese also were the first ones that trained and funded the Afghan Mujahideen before the CIA started it. Using training camps in Xinjiang. A little blowback maybe?
I know the Chinese backed Pol Pot … long with the usa.
But training Afghan Mujahideen is a new one … the training camps were located in Pakistan… and before the cia sponsored operation cyclone and the destruction of Afghanistan kicked of in 1979 the country was at peace.
Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive CIA operations of all time.
From 1979 to 1989 and thereafter, the CIA armed and financed the mujahideen in Afghanistan in support of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. This funding began before the USSR’s military intervention and continued throughout the entire period.
it was part of the Hippy trail … and safe up until 1979 …and been rooted ever since.
But in the late 1970s came the end of the road for the overlanders. 1979 was the year Russia invaded Afghanistan,
Its also why I felt very sad for the Afghan man who was among the first killed by the christchurch racist terror killer …. Afghanistan has been preyed upon and been in a constant state of destruction ….. since 1979.
Apparently approx 20 Afghans a day are still being killed … in 2019
We backed the bad buggers over there … and let good ones die here.
Cheers for the very interesting Link francesca …. I'd read of 40,000 plus numbers of foreign fighters … So with only 800 odd english, and similar numbers from france, germany, europe … there were some big recruiting countries missing.
And bingo … there were a large number of them
there are an estimated 5000-18,000 Uyghurs fighting as Islamic Jihadists in Syria, and reportedly being groomed to return to China to wage Jihad against the government in the region which is the heart of China’s oil and gas pipeline networks
Thanks for the interesting read and missing information … that you would almost think our media censors …
A “Holy War” Against China
“The policy of guiding the evolution of Islam and of helping them against our adversaries worked marvelously well in Afghanistan against the Russians. The same doctrines can still be used to destabilize what remains of Russian power, and especially to counter the Chinese influence in Central Asia.”1
—Graham E. Fuller, 1999, key CIA architect of US Islam strategy
Greenpeace activists are climbing Wellington's tallest building to attempt to reach the OMV Austrian oil giant's HQ to deliver a "go home, you are not welcome here" message.
You can watch the live action here and sign their petition at the same time:
"Somebody's going to get something out of it, and it isn't going to be you."
The last line of the video. Thanks, McFlock. A great litmus test. Even if I do something good altruistically, that's true- apart from the feeling of virtue which of course being a Lefty, I get much joy from signalling.
The Pentagon believes using nuclear weapons could “create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability”, according to a new nuclear doctrine adopted by the US joint chiefs of staff last week.
The document, entitled Nuclear Operations, was published on 11 June, and was the first such doctrine paper for 14 years. Arms control experts say it marks a shift in US military thinking towards the idea of fighting and winning a nuclear war – which they believe is a highly dangerous mindset.
“Using nuclear weapons could create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability,” the joint chiefs’ document says. “Specifically, the use of a nuclear weapon will fundamentally change the scope of a battle and create conditions that affect how commanders will prevail in conflict.”
Seems to be one of these eternal things that some sectors of US military really want to use nukes. ISTR GWB regime was trying a "nuclear bunker buster" and/or some sort of mini-nuke that would be bigger than the MOAB but not so large as to be diplomatically reckless if it's used.
Constantly trying to have a continuum of nuke use, rather than armageddon or nothing.
Bismarck etc probably told themselves the same thing in the decades before WW1: that it wouldn't all blow up in their faces.
Fair point, yeah I fucked that one up lol. Wilhelm II is the chappy.
Bismarck called it (although he did start the network of alliances that ended up in W2 flailing about and tangling the net).
But the wider point stands, I think – I believe many of the diplomats thought they could advance their interests with complex alliances, believing that their main opponents would blink in the face of a europe-wide (kinda global) conflagration.
He unified a confederation of smaller states into a great power in the middle of Europe, with few if any buffer states between that and other great powers. He then initiated a series of alliances and diplomatic moves based on indirectly achieving strategic goals, turning the entire thing into a game of 3d chess with little margin for error.
Sure, he was a chess master and kept things at a nice stalemate to keep the game going, but he was succeeded by lesser diplomats.
I have often wondered about the "benefits" of our privatised electricity industry, where the use of theoretical "capital values" that may well be vastly inflated over anything paid to the original owners of the system, are used to justify companies taking turns at increasing prices ahead of inflation. Now attention is being paid to water:
Ardern said that National's ghost roads, planned for but not funded, had been costed at $12 billion. Bridges was critical of levying fuel taxes for funding roads and for these ghost roads not being built. Ardern pointed out the hypocrisy of this.
I wonder whether we will ever hear anything about Kiwibuild again?
In January the then figurehead, Twyford, told us there would be a reset "in a few weeks".
That then slipped and he promised it would be out in April. That then slipped back to June. The in June he promised that the reset details would be announced in early July.
Then he got dumped and Woods became the Conductor of the Housing Minister Quintet. She has been no more successful in keeping things in tune and now it has slipped until "late August".
Are we ever going to hear another word out of what has been the greatest stuff-up by a Government that I have ever seen? Probably not I suspect. The CoL are desperately hoping that it will all be forgotten.
A wedding to look forward to. That might distract the public attention. Look a squirrel!
So, Julie Anne Genter participates in the Grand Announcement of the Coalition's intention to honour their promise to repeal the Part 4A amendment to the Public Health and Disability Act and to end the continued discrimination against family members provide the supports a MOH DSS client has been assessed as needing….
….then quits the role and hands it over to Jenny Salesa. ( I wondered why she was in the frame.)
I'd link to something but this was an email from the office saying my correspondence to JAG (about the continued discrimination against family carers heralded by the announcement is simply not acceptable) has been passed to Salesa's office.
Genter never gave any real appearance of any interest in being an Associate Health Minister. She seems to really be only interested in spending the NZTA budget on anything except better roads.
I think that Salesa will actually take some interest in your topic.
2002 (in Telegraph newspaper column): “It is said that the Queen has come
to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular
cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies.” “They say [Tony Blair] is
shortly off to the Congo. No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas
will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break
out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big
white British taxpayer-funded bird.” [NOTE: he eventually apologised for
the comments in 2008.]
I would like amnesty international to check out my human rights being breached by the sandflys.
simon just got marmalade on his chin
I say that a complete overhaul of the resources management act is needed.
I think it's stupid people trying to change a person's personality by gay conversion therapy brain washing leave them alone muppets
Its cool to see 79 % of KIWIs have conserns about climate change that Show KIWIs have a above average IQ awesome.
Eco Maori is doing his bit to save our mokopuna environment. We cook mostly on a fire renewable firewood and some gas to heat water a composting TOILET system and today a small solar power system watching Te News on telly. Its good not having a noisy generator going
Condolences to Mrs Biddles whanau its sad but te whanau will be able to gather for her tangi
Its good to see the protesters in Auckland protesting about their sacred whenua are behaving peacefully ka pai.
I agree the resources management act is a great hindrance for tangata whenua building on our own whenua. One has to have heaps of putea of be a great administrator to get a whare built on tangata whenua Whenua hence the numbers of Maori owned whare has dropped sharply since the installation of the resources management act.
We will see if boris has the skills not to make a big
It must be quite hard for the people leaving Glory vale to adjust to a new life having to do everything themselves and learn the way our society works.
I do agree with the Wahine about the berkini incident at the pools that the attendants did unconsciously target Wahine this happens all the time in our society .Wahine need to be given more respect in our society EQUALITY is needed.
It is very hard to save a deposit for a whare in Aotearoa all the help our rangitahi can get to save for a house deposit is cool .
A lot of people are scared of natural gas in Aotearoa at the minute.
Those Republican are just protecting their own ass.
With the Wellington bus service if it ain't broke don't try and fix it they made a big mess of the bus service in Wellington to try and save money.???????
The cost of living in Aotearoa has gone to the Matariki before shonky got in power Aotearoa food prices were cheaper than Australia Britain Canada America not now shonky rolled out the Golden carpet for his wealthy businesses M8. The rent in our last house went up 4 times in 2 and 1/2 years the sandflys were trying to get me out of that house for all of that time in the end they got to the landlord who lied and said it was sold muppets.
That is a great way to look at climate change treat climate change as a positive phenomenon to transform our society's into a entrepreneurial enviomently friendly society that cares about other people's wellbeing no matter who they are . Eco Maori does that all the time it works to turning a negative into a positive.
I strongly agree with that Carly Aotearoa has to OWN Our boozing culture we need to teach te Rangatahi that Alcohol is a substance that should be taken with caution but you have some people who promote.
Its cool that everyone knows how little Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa has been compensated by the Crown.
Yes Simon Pound the baby boomers are stuck in their pasts reality that was manipulated by the few. they made them believe that alcohol is good and weed is bad. It's was all about the money they could harvest from the people.
Peter Ma te wa.
Ka kite ano Don’t worry Simon Eco Maori can see the Oil Barons money sloshing around the Shows studio paying for their words
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The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
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Something that needs fixing in NZ it seems to me, possibly even more than the "voices" who spend hours venting about "freedom of speech" and "gun control" on line are the warped perceptions of some "everyday" NZers.
It all reminds me of a similar campaign when a Maori emersion school was planned for Bethlehem, where I live, that opened in 2012, sadly to exactly the same sort of negative pre-judgement and quite along local campaign to stop it's construction.
Emergency housing, much needed in Tauranga, has some locals still determined to be NIMBY's till the bitter end, possibly due to having nothing better to do. The attached link shows the news story where their "fears" and angst continue despite the story stating that conditions of conduct are applied to residents and are to be increased to sooth the "concerns" of, some – but not all – local residents.
Sadly the scrutiny being placed on the residents of the emergency housing also sees some of them uncomfortable and wanting to leave, that would be fine if it was not due to the pitchfork mentality of some of those in the surrounding area and they had other better reasons and options to leave. Police have stated that there are no more events of any criminal nature or disturbance than there are elsewhere in the area.
The fact is that since the local school here opened after long and concerted efforts by the "locals", who predicted a massive wave of crime and vandalism, the school has operated for the past seven years as a seamless part of the community with absolutely none of the mayhem predicted.
The on-line screeching about "rights", probably by those who would be the first to abuse them, is bad enough but people taking petty fears and perceived problems into the community does nothing to better the lives of NZersor themselves.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12250431
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12006558
Of course, it never registers with said NIMBYs that they themselves are only one major health or financial (or both) disaster away from needing emergency accommodation themselves…
Ae! Or when, if they're ever forced to 'cash up', they could be in serious shit. The banks, their employers no longer their friends. In some cases the ignominy of bankruptcy and the realisation their phallus ain't quite so grand as first thought.
It's at that point they usually start screaming for MUMMY or gummint intervention.
Sounds like an excellent place to build a prison, what with all that public spiritedness.
I so wish that the local paper who are peddling this story were made to go back and interview all the naysayers of the school predicting mayhem pre-2012. The funny thing is I know some of them by name, 3rd-hand, their children were sort of pre-teen then and things have, I hear, not been particularly easy or straighforward with them "growing up", the very typical "people in glass houses" that you speak of.
Nothing quite like watching a prisoner almost bleed out to make you appreciate not having serious mental health issues
I and, by extension, all correction officers don't get paid enough…mind you neither do EMTs either
But how was everyone elses night 😉
Hi PR, speaking of underpaid workers, just having a chat with my significant other after a shift at ED.
One of the people she dealt with was a profoundly deaf man with mental health issues. After a family harm incident, he has been forbidden from entering a local town. While this town is where the alleged harm occurred, it is also where his only other support (parents) is.
After two nights in the cells he is 'released', no money, transport, food or winter clothing. He was treated for an old injury and then went and sat outside the hospital in light cotton clothing. At 1am, he comes back in, shivering, hungry and depressed.
Long story short, he sleeps on the floor of ED under a blanket until the mental health social worker can sort something out.
The solutions are not cheap nor simple and I feel that things are getting more severe especially in the realm of mental ill-health.
BTW, big ups to you and your colleagues for doing the job you do in what must be under more and more trying circumstances.
National and Labour have both dropped the ball on this and should be ashamed of themselves over this
It'd be…educational for an MP or two to spend sometime on the sharp end and actually see for themselves what a self harm incident looks like
Bet that'd get things moving in a hurry 🙂
Yep some tough jobs out there looking after the most vulnerable. Good that prison guards feel stuff too as too easy to be desensitised and cruel.
Hi PR. I fear you're right about salaries not covering the horrific jobs that need to be done, let's hope one day we achieve salaries befitting the work involved. In the mean time I hope they have meaningful assistance for staff confronting these issues and that you avail yourself of them. Rest up well before your next shift.
My night was a very cushy number, thanks. However, my first thought on reading your comment wasn't "Oh we aren't paying prison guards enough," but "Why are we using prisons as storage facilities for people with serious mental health issues?"
Because our management team gets paid more than enough, pretty much regardless of results.
Why not both? 🙂
My observation is it comes down to mostly because there's not enough spaces for the prisoners in wards so they get sent to corrections and, through the grapevine, sometimes they won't be taken because the prisoners are to violent
Why not both?
Indeed, the two are not mutually exclusive – and they'd certainly have to pay me a lot of money to work in Corrections, for which they wouldn't get value for money because I'd almost certainly be hopeless at it (unless prisoners are easily swayed by people who use a lot of big words in convoluted sentences, but that feels somewhat unlikely).
Well you better hope national and in particular collins or mitchell never get near power or prisons will get stuffed fuller and staffed cheaper. Serco on steroids is where those nut jobs would take us.
Its nothing to do with Serco and all to do with National gutting mental health, Labour continuing it and neither parties doing what needs to be done.
Which is building more psychiatric wards so instead of winding up prisoners because there's no spaces for them anywhere else.
Serco is a red herring or at the very least it's an issue can be looked at later
National gutting mental health, Labour continuing it and neither parties doing what needs to be done.
SSDD
Yup
This all goes back to deinstitutionalization back in the 1980's and 90's.
You a Union member PR?
Not sure what that has to do with it yes but yes I'm a member of CANZ
"correction officers don't get paid enough"
Probably so – and what you and the prisoner experienced sounds terrible. I would note though, that you are able to form the thought that "correction officers don't get paid enough" only because you have some underlying notion of 'value' that is not the same as the exchange (dollar) value that is obtained in the market. i.e. the money you get does not accurately represent the value of what you do. And this is true in general and in both directions – markets actually reward people rather perversely from the standpoint of the 'real' value they produce. We will make a lefty out of you yet PR.
Well it's in the middle contract negotiations now so we better get a decent offer or we might start getting a bit bolshei 🙂
Um – does that mean you are going to do a ballet dance for us, PR? Or did you mean bolshy? If that is why the smiley face is there, nice one, and please post the video.
I do look good in tights…
Looking forward then, old boy.
Wait a minute – you think JC looks good, don't you?
I think I might reserve judgement.
"Bleed out" Yes terrifying. My husband is on blood thinners and tore a gash in his calf.
The bleeding continued for 5 days of Dr and Hospital visits. Last night was our first with no bleeding and we slept with exhaustion.
No Puckish Rogue, you are not paid enough!! And I had only one person to care for. Cheers!!.
re: Govt. Gun Registration plans, good idea, but keep an eye on the opponents perhaps.
NZ gun lobby group COLFO (Council of Licensed Firearms Owners) has been making early noise about the Govt. plans. COLFO is a member of the World Forum for the Future of Sport Shooting, which in turn is linked to the NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation) US, which is linked to The Firearms Industry Trade Association, US, and the NRA (National Rifle Association) US.
The NSSF has a policy of not linking to third parties such as NRA but it is clear that there is a connection. One site I looked at offered discounted membership to NRA.
So the NZ COLFO fronted by Nicole Mckee
https://fss.nz/nicole-mckee/ is linked to the gun manufacturers and retailers
https://www.nssf.org/manufacturers/
When I recently renewed my license I was given the option to voluntarily register my rifles which I did . So it should be easy to know who to go find .
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr17fMPT0Xg&t=2745s
I learnt a lot of new things.When listening to the most comprehensive history of tRump I'd found on the web … delivered with mocking humor
One was that Rump always stiffed small businesses and sub-contractors who worked for him …
Starting right at the beginning, on his first construction site … he kept $100,000 due to already underpaid non-union polish workers … and he's done it to everyone since.
He apparently gets mad when any of his managers … pay out the agreed upon price to contract workers… paying the quoted and accepted price… gives the don the shits..
His method was / is to retain the last payment …and tell them to sue, … they would be told it would take years of expensive legal battling … and if they lost or pulled out, they would be bankrupted. by having to pay trumps expensive lawyers fees …
It's a mugs game for Small businesses or individuals taking on a corporation with multi-million funds … rich bullies know litigation is a rich mans game.. and so rich wankers use this against the 'lesser' people that they effectively steal from.
A recent comparable example in NZ …. was the Nact government telling Pike River families "they could sue" ,,, in response to pathetic compensation from the Nact Govt ,,, despite the Govts part in regulatory failure leading to the disaster ,,, and the Govt receiving millions in Insurance payouts for the mass killing 'accident'. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/west-coast/9399690/PM-avoiding-Pike-River-payout
In a final grubby insult,, Nact trolls tried to smear / blame Andrew Little for the neo-lib, non-compliant, non-regulated, free-market death trap that was Pike River….a lie that shows total disregard for the safety of mine workers … as it seeks to hide the failures / lessons that need to be corrected.
Its the sort of shameful thing Rump would say …. It got a brief airing here at TS ,,,, but I wonder how often this dog whistle got posted up in Kiwiblog or Whalestain ….
Rump plays to an audience …. the NZ 'right' share an awful lot of the same things.
That's why so many see Trump as God and saw Key as God. Those two fine specimens had a grasp of the real world and are / were about showing what the real world is about, or should be about. The thing that should be the weirdest bit it is the Trump thing about 'draining the swamp' still being chanted by his cheerleaders. Like Shylock to Oliver and co., "Welcome after your trip out of the swamp my dears, to a mire of neck high shit."
You will know when we have a real Left wing transformative politician who is anywhere near the levers of power in New Zealand, because this is what happens when a real one shows up and threatens the power status quo….
" The greatest fear of those holding the most power and wealth is that they will lose their exalted position in the world. They will resist any changes to the grossly unequal and unjust class structure that causes grievous damage to so many people; and to the planet itself. Even the threat of real change must be crushed. This, in a nutshell, underpins the astonishing and relentless campaign to stop Jeremy Corbyn, a moderate leftist, from ever becoming Prime Minister."
The Campaign To Stop Corbyn – Smears, Racism And Censorship
http://medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=910:the-campaign-to-stop-corbyn-smears-racism-censorship&catid=57:alerts-2019&Itemid=252
Hi Adrian, as a local example; witness Metiria Turei in the last election.
Our media, almost in concert, got stuck in and made sure 'that sort of voice' isn't heard in the corridors of power.
Yeah I would go along with that, although I would also have to say that the Greens PR department (if they indeed have one) should have all been fired immediately after that episode had exposed their complete ineptness.
+100 … how Metiria Turei was forced to resign … but double dipper english and his rich mans crime of greed was allowed to remain … was a disgrace …. mainly to our media but also the greens PR.
Corbyn smears are also media enabled to a very large degree …. partly because we are kept in the dark about how bad Israel is … and what sort of other sneaky stuff is being done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aitqHMmIjFs
Who knew that BDS has been falsely framed and ruled anti-semetic ?
Or how about the links and admirers of right wing Apartheid Israel
And our media never comments on things like what has been written in UN reports about Israel … a country Wayne mapp said shared our NZ values … he can count me out …of his values
,,,,,,,,,its almost like Sadam The Butcher of Baghdad ,,, didn't die …
he's alive and running iron fist israel
I think the massive effort to stymie drug law reform is another example of this, the powerful see it as a threat because they may lose some control to the new generation. And of course they are above the law so it has no impact on their day to day recreational activities.
Chomsky says….no but seriously he always had a pretty good take on drugs/drug control/class war etc…although not sure his lottery analogy here works that well anymore, maybe times have changed a bit since them?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp8gNT1wzX4
Read what our brave Oraka/Aparima runagna have done!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/114210124/southland-kaumtua-draws-says-no-more-to-dairy-farming-in-southland
(mention of our council's bad decision not to declare a climate emergency in there too)
Good bloke and leadership – hope this is followed up and supported.
It has been by me. Tomorrow's council meeting will be very interesting. The formal discussion, however, has been shunted into the "public excluded" chamber, as so often is the case.
Hi Robert,
Are you able to speak about the closed door sessions, or are councillors barred from doing so?
Great advocate for transparency, me; are we banned? Well, there are consequences if one does, but if the information should be in the public arena…
it's the age-old argument; there are different ways to hide information; what goes on tour, stays on tour, etc. but there's also the Hager Effect. It depends. The runaka has been asked for the position paper they sent to us, but have declined to provide it to the media. I'd like to talk with them first. I reckon it's in the public arena now, having been reported upon by the media.
Thanks Robert.
Censorship takes many forms, each and every one of them are insidious and contribute to further decline and degradation.
Leads to, playing the system … out of necessity…
Cheers Robert.
Why is this man not thinking about the money, private interests, or the slapdash development of Southland. Heresy!
Outrageous propaganda …
And they get worse in defending their lies …
Our SAS and Key / mapp look like baby step fibbers with only two villages we know they've lied about…. The Big boys tell Huge ones …..
Which brings me to Idlib … and the problem of radicalized overseas fighters ,,,, I doubt our media will inform us of this problem…. Where the brits and co send killers ,,, but do not want them back.
France, too, is working to eradicate its jihadis overseas.,,,
Personally I think a lot could be de-radicalized as many were tricked into a) the warped twisted cult version of isis / al nusras Muslim preaching … and b) their 'good war' .
And there is the ongoing injustice in our blind eye to our criminals ….behind and involved in their crimes.
Idlib is a small ugly problem …. compared to what the west cooked up … and Libyans now face with their NATO destroyed society
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcDEc7gDYGk
I suspect that similar strategies have been used with the Uyghur Muslims in China. Thetre are several Sunni sects living in China, but the Uyghurs tend to be the most inclined to violent jihad and separatism.
The Turkestan Islamic Party(Xinjiang) is designated a terrorist organisation by the EU, the UK, Turkey, the US , Russia and others.
They've shown up in Idlib, Syria where the fear is they'll return to China as hardened fighters.They have a fearsome reputation for cruelty and barbarity.
Radical Uyghurs have also been involved in terrorist acts against other Muslim minorities within China, notably the Hui muslims who are the most numerous in China
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkistan_Islamic_Party
https://www.greanvillepost.com/2019/04/19/a-holy-war-against-china-beijing-and-the-turkic-uyghur-threat/
There's more to all this recent internment camp hullaballoo than first meets the eye …as always
It needs to be also remembered that the Chinese also were the first ones that trained and funded the Afghan Mujahideen before the CIA started it. Using training camps in Xinjiang. A little blowback maybe?
I know the Chinese backed Pol Pot … long with the usa.
But training Afghan Mujahideen is a new one … the training camps were located in Pakistan… and before the cia sponsored operation cyclone and the destruction of Afghanistan kicked of in 1979 the country was at peace.
it was part of the Hippy trail … and safe up until 1979 …and been rooted ever since.
https://www.messynessychic.com/2014/03/11/road-trip-to-afghanistan-snapshots-from-the-lost-hippie-trail/
https://dangerousminds.net/comments/on_the_hippie_trail_through_afghanistan_to_india_1967-1979
Its also why I felt very sad for the Afghan man who was among the first killed by the christchurch racist terror killer …. Afghanistan has been preyed upon and been in a constant state of destruction ….. since 1979.
Apparently approx 20 Afghans a day are still being killed … in 2019
We backed the bad buggers over there … and let good ones die here.
Our Govts are still doing it
I'm beyond words at the shame of it all …
https://twitter.com/i/status/1110170205748187136
Cheers for the very interesting Link francesca …. I'd read of 40,000 plus numbers of foreign fighters … So with only 800 odd english, and similar numbers from france, germany, europe … there were some big recruiting countries missing.
And bingo … there were a large number of them
Thanks for the interesting read and missing information … that you would almost think our media censors …
Greenpeace activists are climbing Wellington's tallest building to attempt to reach the OMV Austrian oil giant's HQ to deliver a "go home, you are not welcome here" message.
You can watch the live action here and sign their petition at the same time:
[https://www.e-activist.com/ea-action/enclick?ea.url.id=3868846&ea.campaigner.email=l90SPJxQ20Cbb8aNHp7glXkPNSv3SSNb&ea.campaigner.id=HeGs%2FfM2IGMUHgIT5m4sfA==]
Thanks Robert
Loving it !
Brilliant Robert Have signed!!
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/114435232/government-extends-tax-break-for-oil-rigs-despite-promise-not-to-subsidise-fossil-fuel-industry
Before people get their knickers in to much of a twist read the lk ast sentence!
Probably been posted before, but should be posted regularly as a reminder that we've been here before:
Short US WW2 clip about fascist rhetoric.
Divide and conquer. Bastards1
"Somebody's going to get something out of it, and it isn't going to be you."
The last line of the video. Thanks, McFlock. A great litmus test. Even if I do something good altruistically, that's true- apart from the feeling of virtue which of course being a Lefty, I get much joy from signalling.
Parp!
Somebody's going to get something out of it, and it isn't going to be you.
That would have made a far more accurate Trump 2016 campaign slogan than "Make America Great Again," but I guess accuracy wasn't the point.
10 points PM
tRump indulges in his nuclear fantasies, again.
https://twitter.com/AtomicAnalyst/status/1153353619527405574
The Pentagon believes using nuclear weapons could “create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability”, according to a new nuclear doctrine adopted by the US joint chiefs of staff last week.
The document, entitled Nuclear Operations, was published on 11 June, and was the first such doctrine paper for 14 years. Arms control experts say it marks a shift in US military thinking towards the idea of fighting and winning a nuclear war – which they believe is a highly dangerous mindset.
“Using nuclear weapons could create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability,” the joint chiefs’ document says. “Specifically, the use of a nuclear weapon will fundamentally change the scope of a battle and create conditions that affect how commanders will prevail in conflict.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/19/nuclear-weapons-pentagon-us-military-doctrine
Seems to be one of these eternal things that some sectors of US military really want to use nukes. ISTR GWB regime was trying a "nuclear bunker buster" and/or some sort of mini-nuke that would be bigger than the MOAB but not so large as to be diplomatically reckless if it's used.
Constantly trying to have a continuum of nuke use, rather than armageddon or nothing.
Bismarck etc probably told themselves the same thing in the decades before WW1: that it wouldn't all blow up in their faces.
Bismark would've run a mile in the opposite direction of WWI.
Fair point, yeah I fucked that one up lol. Wilhelm II is the chappy.
Bismarck called it (although he did start the network of alliances that ended up in W2 flailing about and tangling the net).
But the wider point stands, I think – I believe many of the diplomats thought they could advance their interests with complex alliances, believing that their main opponents would blink in the face of a europe-wide (kinda global) conflagration.
WTF, for a generation the only thing holding Europe together peacefully was Bismarck.
Or was he just lining up the fall?
He unified a confederation of smaller states into a great power in the middle of Europe, with few if any buffer states between that and other great powers. He then initiated a series of alliances and diplomatic moves based on indirectly achieving strategic goals, turning the entire thing into a game of 3d chess with little margin for error.
Sure, he was a chess master and kept things at a nice stalemate to keep the game going, but he was succeeded by lesser diplomats.
this is the end, my only friend, the end…
Ignorant liar inserts himself into one of the most volatile conflicts on the planet.
https://twitter.com/nktpnd/status/1153370404418981888
https://twitter.com/MEAIndia/status/1153371327371173895
The Red Button Boner. Such an aphrodisiac.
"Why are we using prisons as storage facilities for people with serious mental health issues?"
Because those people are overwhelmingly men. See: homeless people. Almost all men. See: suicide deaths. Almost all men.
Solutions to the problems faced by men aren't sexy right now.
Live feed, still watching
https://youtu.be/mAdC0z7AsRQ
I have often wondered about the "benefits" of our privatised electricity industry, where the use of theoretical "capital values" that may well be vastly inflated over anything paid to the original owners of the system, are used to justify companies taking turns at increasing prices ahead of inflation. Now attention is being paid to water:
https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2018/04/drop-secret-water-war-europe-180402084125467.html
Could a future New Zealand government or councils sell off water reticulation and treatment, or stormwater and sewage systems to private companies?
Given half a chance. (and a seat on the board)
Simon's a bumbling idiot. Show me the money for your ghost roads Simon!
Ardern said that National's ghost roads, planned for but not funded, had been costed at $12 billion. Bridges was critical of levying fuel taxes for funding roads and for these ghost roads not being built. Ardern pointed out the hypocrisy of this.
What's the fellow from The Badge doing behind Slick?
He's wondering if really really has to get himself a troll-doll toupee to properly look the part and get on the front bench.
I wonder whether we will ever hear anything about Kiwibuild again?
In January the then figurehead, Twyford, told us there would be a reset "in a few weeks".
That then slipped and he promised it would be out in April. That then slipped back to June. The in June he promised that the reset details would be announced in early July.
Then he got dumped and Woods became the Conductor of the Housing Minister Quintet. She has been no more successful in keeping things in tune and now it has slipped until "late August".
Are we ever going to hear another word out of what has been the greatest stuff-up by a Government that I have ever seen? Probably not I suspect. The CoL are desperately hoping that it will all be forgotten.
A wedding to look forward to. That might distract the public attention. Look a squirrel!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12251969
"… ever hear anything about Kiwibuild again? "
We will. Oh yes we will. From you.
So, Julie Anne Genter participates in the Grand Announcement of the Coalition's intention to honour their promise to repeal the Part 4A amendment to the Public Health and Disability Act and to end the continued discrimination against family members provide the supports a MOH DSS client has been assessed as needing….
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12247412
….then quits the role and hands it over to Jenny Salesa. ( I wondered why she was in the frame.)
I'd link to something but this was an email from the office saying my correspondence to JAG (about the continued discrimination against family carers heralded by the announcement is simply not acceptable) has been passed to Salesa's office.
Oh dear.
I think you may be a great deal better off.
Genter never gave any real appearance of any interest in being an Associate Health Minister. She seems to really be only interested in spending the NZTA budget on anything except better roads.
I think that Salesa will actually take some interest in your topic.
Evict OMV
The third and latest banner from Greenpeace on Wellington's tallest building; 2 storeys from the OMV HQ. Very brave people indeed; watch live!
https://youtu.be/mAdC0z7AsRQ
OMG
OMG Indeed.
I did watch for a while….but found myself in a literal cold sweat.
BTW..what on earth are those folks inside the building doing at 3:50:30 ?
That Boris is a bit of a dag.
/
https://twitter.com/uk_domain_names/status/1138754140895682560
2002 (in Telegraph newspaper column): “It is said that the Queen has come
to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular
cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies.” “They say [Tony Blair] is
shortly off to the Congo. No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas
will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break
out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big
white British taxpayer-funded bird.” [NOTE: he eventually apologised for
the comments in 2008.]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XzAujyzN9JxpUl9rN7EIIX0AlgaXL8rE/view
The buffoon or the empty suit.
Eight out of ten refugees trying to get into the U.S. are from Honduras. Why?
Kia Ora Newshub.
I would like amnesty international to check out my human rights being breached by the sandflys.
simon just got marmalade on his chin
I say that a complete overhaul of the resources management act is needed.
I think it's stupid people trying to change a person's personality by gay conversion therapy brain washing leave them alone muppets
Its cool to see 79 % of KIWIs have conserns about climate change that Show KIWIs have a above average IQ awesome.
Eco Maori is doing his bit to save our mokopuna environment. We cook mostly on a fire renewable firewood and some gas to heat water a composting TOILET system and today a small solar power system watching Te News on telly. Its good not having a noisy generator going
Ka kite ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Condolences to Mrs Biddles whanau its sad but te whanau will be able to gather for her tangi
Its good to see the protesters in Auckland protesting about their sacred whenua are behaving peacefully ka pai.
I agree the resources management act is a great hindrance for tangata whenua building on our own whenua. One has to have heaps of putea of be a great administrator to get a whare built on tangata whenua Whenua hence the numbers of Maori owned whare has dropped sharply since the installation of the resources management act.
Ka kite ano
Kia Ora The Am Show.
We will see if boris has the skills not to make a big
It must be quite hard for the people leaving Glory vale to adjust to a new life having to do everything themselves and learn the way our society works.
I do agree with the Wahine about the berkini incident at the pools that the attendants did unconsciously target Wahine this happens all the time in our society .Wahine need to be given more respect in our society EQUALITY is needed.
It is very hard to save a deposit for a whare in Aotearoa all the help our rangitahi can get to save for a house deposit is cool .
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/94dBVPpymac
Kia ora Newshub.
Lloyd how long before it turns to a big mess.
A lot of people are scared of natural gas in Aotearoa at the minute.
Those Republican are just protecting their own ass.
With the Wellington bus service if it ain't broke don't try and fix it they made a big mess of the bus service in Wellington to try and save money.???????
The cost of living in Aotearoa has gone to the Matariki before shonky got in power Aotearoa food prices were cheaper than Australia Britain Canada America not now shonky rolled out the Golden carpet for his wealthy businesses M8. The rent in our last house went up 4 times in 2 and 1/2 years the sandflys were trying to get me out of that house for all of that time in the end they got to the landlord who lied and said it was sold muppets.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora Te Ao Maori News.
Tangata whenua have Sailing in there iwi sailing waka is the same. Eco Maori has a love of Tangaroa from my years of fishing around Aotearoa.
People who disrespect tangata whenua O Aotearoa artifacts do so with out knowing the consequences.
Ka kite ano P.S my ###### just wiped out my post
Its good to see more Maori prison officers being hired by our government.
Kia ora The Am Show.
Climate change Turning a negative into A positive
That is a great way to look at climate change treat climate change as a positive phenomenon to transform our society's into a entrepreneurial enviomently friendly society that cares about other people's wellbeing no matter who they are . Eco Maori does that all the time it works to turning a negative into a positive.
I strongly agree with that Carly Aotearoa has to OWN Our boozing culture we need to teach te Rangatahi that Alcohol is a substance that should be taken with caution but you have some people who promote.
Its cool that everyone knows how little Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa has been compensated by the Crown.
Yes Simon Pound the baby boomers are stuck in their pasts reality that was manipulated by the few. they made them believe that alcohol is good and weed is bad. It's was all about the money they could harvest from the people.
Peter Ma te wa.
Ka kite ano Don’t worry Simon Eco Maori can see the Oil Barons money sloshing around the Shows studio paying for their words
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/h4DFXUndvbw