We are living in incredible times. The best and worst of humanity presents itself to us on a daily basis. We are often concentrated on the worst of it.
Here’s good news. Yes, I’m repeating from daily review, where it was overlooked/ignored/posted too late/who cares its done now.
Just when you think neoliberalism can not get any worse….
Recommend this series “Altered Carbon”… when the rich don’t die… when the tortured once dead and can be bought back to life to be tortured again and again … on Netflicks and probably other places. Worthwhile binge viewing.
The funny thing is that once Santa’s suited up with the padding and the beard, nobody gives a shit who’s inside it. It’s a jolly jape etc whomever plays it.
But TDB and the media focus on the suit, not the guy’s comments like: “We employ Santa’s Little Helpers, and they wear a little skirt and top … but I wouldn’t put a guy in a skirt and top — right?”
I always thought the helpers with in cheap tunics and green tights regardless of gender, but I guess folks do things differently these days…
I wondered if you folks could get a medical breakthrough like this and turn it into a negative. Shame on you. Last time I checked we had a health system albeit slightly battered. Once the patent is lost from the procedures (is it 20 x years still?) this will become common. And we (hospitals) will be able to buy an organ incubator.
Not all future scenarios are Dystopian.
If you want to see how creepy the rich could be go no further than modern style vampirism.
The blood plasma of young and healthy individuals is transplanted to older less healthy individuals.
The procedure and results are controversial, but have not stopped the practice gaining traction.
That sounds really good the huge issue being growing large volumes of the particular species. Saltwater aquaponic ventures have had success with various seaweeds over time it might be worth pulling those researchers/entrepreneurs in on this.
The reduced feeding won’t go down well with farmers.
My approach would be to selectively breed the homoacetogen bacteria to operate in lower hydrogen environments thus competing with methanogenic bacteria. This would stop a portion of the substrates for methane becoming methane, instead building short chain fatty acids for milk and meat production.
The dairy industry might like to study research done on kelp that shows huge losses to coastal beds due to the “quality ” of river water that emerges near those beds. Land use is poisoning the kelp beds. Maybe if the rivers were clean, the kelp beds would recover then we could harvest them and feed them to cows and the cows could…oh…hang on…
Yep, that pollution is why I called growing the kelp a huge issue.
My (partial) solution to bovine methane gives more for less, replacing methane with production. The microbes might be inoculated with the kelp to deal methane a double whammy.
The pollution has multiple inputs, many from agriculture: tilling (and subsequent loss of soil structure and compaction), erosion, NPK, cattle effluent.
I’m working on an article on water retention now, I’ll need to stress how slowing/retaining water loss slows/retains nutrient and topsoil losses too.
I sense trouble on the horizon as big oil moves in on our power supplies and turns NZ into a fertiliser factory. re: 8 rivers. I need more info but it seems to be keen on maintaining much of the status quo aka burning gas to start a process, pumping CO2 back into wells in the hopes of replenishing hydrocarbons, and maintaining their stranglehold on agriculture and power supply.
As I, and no doubt many others, predicted: big oil has no intention of letting go of power. They’ll only move when they can keep control.
Every time that I heard people decrying river water reaching the sea as ‘going to waste’ I thought why doesn’t anyone mention that whole species have evolved to live in that slightly saline mix, and there must be some result on the coastline from river water changing.
And here is one the kelp beds are affected. And the thinking of those people, probably farmers, might change now as they understand it wasn’t going to waste. Give them the suggestion of Robert G and they will adapt to this new thinking and understanding.
Don’t overwork those brains you people. I am starting to see a new source of energy feeding into The Standard pipeline. Of course some may call it
‘fertiliser’ but they wouldn’t know the difference between a drop in pollution from a long drop.
Estuarine systems are the most productive in the world. When relatively intact anyway. After Charles retrofit his wetlands as a natural fish farm – you could walk on the fish waiting to be let in…
Seaweed has been an interesting subject in farming for many years. This stuffs not news to me but it’s great to hear they have made progress in finding a solution to a major problem looking for a viable solution.
I’ve always supported the idea of creating artificial reefs and like environments as a way of employing prison populations, community service, etc.
Such environments would not only provide a seaweed farming enviroment, paying for the reefs developement costs, and offsetting prisoner costs, but create more high diversity Eco systems.
Yes for sure. – Chris said; “How quickly people forget.”
This labour coalition is certainly forgetting their promises made “To be inclusive” (and give us all a voice to be heard.) as they repeatedly promised.
We will not be so forgetful come the next election will we just?
This labour coalition will be punished for their ‘forgetfulness too!!!!!.
Our own HB/Gisborne groups are very disappointed as the Labour Minister of Transport is also very ‘forgetful’ as he has since being chosen as our new ‘Minister of transport received 60 emails from our NGO requesting his ‘indulgence’ in “advocating for us” and requests to meet with us and only once has Phil Twyford ever responded!!!!!!!!
That was after our letter to him of “congratulations to him on 25th October 2017 for him becoming our new minister of transport”.
Since then a year ago, after another 59 emails were sent to him requesting a meeting with him, he has apparently “been to busy to bother with our groups since then”
So yes Labour are being foolish here and caviller, and forgetful as they promised to be a Government that would be “inclusive” – yeah right!!!!!
Roll around 2020 then so we can show our voice at the voting booth, then these Ministers might awaken from their slumber as they are shown the door if they don’t wake up from their slumber.i!!!
In the old days ALL politicians seem to answer every piece of correspondence they received. Sad that they feel they can cut their constituents and the public out by not bothering to reply, and then probably wonder why less people bother voting or don’t vote for them anymore.
I sent three letters to Helen Clark and her Ministers and she answered all three of them and in the last letter Helen even added 26 words in hand writing!!!!!
So no to that JanM
In the old Labour Government of 1999 to 2008 all the ministers we wrote to actually answered our emails fully most of the time.
But now this labour Government just ignore our HB/Gisborne constituents as through they don’t care any more now to advocate for them.
I wrote to David Lange and got signed reply… maybe a recent lazy responses by politicians, too busy cozying up for money and donations and now apparently public who are not about to donate some cash, are not worth it….
Well Cleangreen you can try another tack. Get onto Ms Ardern and get the Minister of Transport portfolio transferred to someone else.
Phil Twyford before the election had:
Phil was elected to Parliament for the Labour Party in 2008. In Opposition, he held the portfolios of Housing, Transport, Auckland Issues, and Disarmament and
Arms Control. https://www.beehive.govt.nz/minister/biography/phil-twyford
It might have been convenient for him to hang onto the major issues that he had fronted while in Opposition. But housing is really important and I think has become a very hot topic over the other hot topics.
So who? What about Shane Jones as Minister and Clare Curran as Associate. Shane has a lot on but has force and energy. Clare is keen to get on with things and as long as she worked in with Shane could get a lot done. Those with negative opinions should state who they would like, and look at what their roles are now, and why they would be good.! https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/full-list-gets-in-labour-led-government
Twyford has been for four years a union organiser and journalist after leaving university. That brought him into touching the working class but what work experience? There is very poor detail of background for NZ politicians. How we are to know whether they are the Right Stuff I don’t know. There is a lot of guff about their interests and intentions and visions blah blah.
He is good at managing having been a founding member of Oxfam here andthen going to Washington with them. Reminds me of David Shearer’s profile. Job overseas in world political agencies doing aid; shoe-in NZ.
He has been involved with NZ Labour since 2003. And ran for the North Shore seat in 2005. An ambitious, coming man. He is 55 years born 1963.
Our NGO committee has already suggested this tack but as Secretary yesterday I was given the task of slapping a Official Information Act request on lazy Mr Twyford for him to supply our committee with all emails received and if any were not read or responded to (over 60) that we had sent him from 25th October 2017 till yesterday 23rd November 2018 so we shall see what excuse he had to ignore all but the first email we first sent on 25th October 2017 congratulating him on becoming our new ‘Minister of transport’, so now we will keep you posted on whether he does front up and explain why yesterday’s email to him was sent back as “not read” and we were deply offended there meaning he has ignored our long association with Labour since 19999 during Helen Clark’s excellent government.
If Phil Twyford is to busy to handle the Transport portfolio and reply to groups requesting he be our ‘advocate’ in transport matters then he needs to give his transport portfolio up to a competent minister who will give rail and road matters his/hers best efforts to bring rail to all provinces.
We did ask Phil twyford in February 2018 to ask the “transport select committee” to restore the portfolio for a ‘Minister of rail’ again.
We all now own the rail and when last we had owned the rail we had a minister of rail so we need one now.
Phil Twyford is waning on the transport portfolio we feel and has lost his mojo since Jacinda took the air transport portfolio off him so this is where we now are sadly.
After our committee received Twyford’s first and only response to our congratulations letter, his two following responses we sought in our responses/enquirers to his letter were not forthcoming.
So if you get a letter from anyone do you not respond to them?
We see no evidence of that do we?
We did warrant a reply to questions raised in ‘his only letter to our Committee’ and Twyford did never respond to our reply to his letter.
That was a big show of a lack of respect to any constituent as everyone had to right to a reply to a letter sent from the Minister don’t they?
Trickledrown is right james; – you are ‘Stalker spamming’ James.
Trotter’s first commenter made a good point: “this situation illustrates the downside of identity politics taking primacy over class and power relationships, and the enervating effect of both post modernist and neo liberal philosophy on clearly identifying who are the oppressors in society”.
The rainbow community divided over whether to exclude or include is amusing, eh? Inclusion was their political imperative for so long: flipping to exclusion is sensible when the excluded are the wrong kind of humans. So validity on both sides…
Another commenter writes “I may be a straight white male, but I have total sympathy for my fellow New Zealanders in the LGBTQI community.” Just about every time you look, that community seems to have grown another letter into its name. Emergence of such organic diversity is a sign of vitality in evolution.
DF
I was thinking how people who have been passed over, oppressed, behave when they get some power. Are they generous to others, grateful that at last their time has come, and look on the sunny side?
Did Paula Bennett want to support other sole parents when she arose to prominence?
Did womens libbers ensure that all women got decent wages and conditions when they won improvements? Or did the middle class women utilise the opportunities to rise in the world of business and then look down on other ‘unsatisfactory’ women?
On a wider stage, does Israel seem determined to treat the Palestinians as fairly as possible, while at the same time staring Arabs with invasionary ideas down?
Gay pride Cissy something reminds me of Paula Bennett, making the most of power, and being forthright and uncompromising, when the gay community have won so many concessions they should be happy and building bridges to further improvements.
Yes, it’s a syndrome. Human nature to morph into a different person in a different context. The old saying `power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ is relevant. Just as a general rule.
Basically, it’s a test of character: to what extent does someone remain true to original political motivations? Are they serious about representing those they identified with at the start, or will they abandon them? Reminds us of the moral dimension of leadership, usually conspicuous by its absence in our era.
60 emails That looks more like stalking abuse from obsessive nutjobs!
Write a letter most govt ministers work 16 hr days 7 days a week. To demand time is unreasonable. Why not try the green spokesperson instead of haranguing minister.
The Trolls have tied their necks to the mad caucus of Simon Bridges. They don’t realise he will trample all over his own Party with his Lies and his hatred of the ordinary New Zealand man and woman.
He, has given his neck to the Chinese Government and Donors. He has allowed Paula Bennett to deny there is a crisis in housing, when even The Herald shouted out in 2017 – Don’t be so dumb Bennett. Don’t be so dumb Billy English.
For me the stupidity of the Trolls – I include Farrar, Hooten , James, BM and Mrs Boag , Judith Collins – is demonstrated by greed for Oil and Gas. Also their demand to allow Farmers to poison every stream and river in New Zealand.
Oil is Lethal, as is Gas. It Pollutes our Air. Diesel Fuel is highly Carcinogenic. So is Petroleum. So is Gas.
Water is essential to all living creatures. Nitrate saturation of our streams and rivers is a crime. It will not be long before Farmers and Industry who pollute our water will be imprisoned for long Sentences.
People such as the Greens. who give our clean water away to their friends will also find themselves in prison. We simply cannot afford Troll stupidity.
(of course I think the CCP has reinvented the concept of communism, probably quite a different version than the original manifesto, that comrades like Simon, Phil, Judith and many other NZ politicans can profit from).
Though, had USSR and its vassals adopted the Chinese model rather the gangster capitalism and reactionary conservatism in place now, a whole of of people would be better off.
CCP hasn’t reinvented capitalism it’s a command and Control capitalism with central planning.
Allowing China to make changes quickly which Democratically elected economies let economies flounder and yield to to many influences and influences.
China can react quickly when money printing is required they do it. Currency changes the same dumping to gain market share same again, protection of markets they do it as the Dairy industry knows all to well. Stock Piling raw materials China does it.
Other economies may have to wait several or more electoral cycles.
Those who disagree with policies disappear harvested for body parts if they are lucky.
Maybe crimes against stupidity, when there is public loss of amenity through gross stupidity.
It was legal for the tobacco, asbestos and so forth, later on, they had to pay big fines, same will hopefully happen with all these people siphoning from the aquifers for profit and those that allowed it.
Pretty much everybody is pointing fingers at Trump and tut tut about his outright support for the Saudis , while at the same time pretty much everybody will carry on trading and doing business with the Saudis…and of course it is not as if everybody didn’t already know about the Saudi’s long and bloody history of human rights abuses including the hanging and beheading and even crucifying of it’s own citizens regularly…the hypocrisy is so stark it is almost farce…
No, all Trump is exposing in broad daylight is that there is no room for morals or ethical considerations when the political ideology that guides your counties every decisions is constant and unending growth…wether that means USA first, or NZ first, the final decision will be the same…the only real difference is that bitter pill is sold to Kiwi’s in a more pragmatic way.
So maybe we should be saving our finger pointing and tut tutting for someone a little more closely to home…whats that old saying about backyards…
You could argue that Trump is at the very least the most honest of them all?
Maybe Trump is hated more for exposing what other government’s are also doing, but not putting a marketing spin on it.
Lets see how soon, business will be ‘bought back’ into the fold…
Or will other governments and international bodies and business actually do something meaningful and take a moral stand?
Mass hypocrisy seems to be on the rise.
At least the Natz were always clear they would sell their soul for a $ and remember their Saudi sheep deal, it’s more incompetence that let them down than greed on their botched bribes.
@SaveNZ, yeh this is my main problem with Labour NZ, watching them “putting a marketing spin” on Liberalism that IMO is worse than the ‘harder’ (but at least more honest) National version of it, it leaves citizens with no real political choice but this free market economic liberalist ideology…which means as a country, you will end up trading any and all moral and ethical positions or stands that your country might have thought it stood or stands for, to the invisible hand of competition economics.
And if you haven’t sold out that moral/ethical stand today…you can be sure someone will offer you just the right price for you to forget it tomorrow…everything is apparently for sale in our bright new free market gig economy.
No, all Trump is exposing in broad daylight is that there is no room for morals or ethical considerations when the political ideology that guides your counties every decisions is constant and unending growth…wether that means USA first, or NZ first, the final decision will be the same…the only real difference is that bitter pill is sold to Kiwi’s in a more pragmatic way.
True but its not USA first or NZ first but rich people first. They’re really the only ones who benefit from the present round of globalisation. Same as happened in the 19th century round as well now that I think about it.
The present system is all about making the rich richer. To achieve that, though, everyone else must become poorer. That’s just accounting.
“True but its not USA first or NZ first but rich people first. They’re really the only ones who benefit from the present round of globalisation. Same as happened in the 19th century round as well now that I think about it.”
I agree with you there, but one big difference is that now a huge part of the population has also caught the disease of greed, either by trading houses or stocks or whatever, and when you let that greed genie out of the bottle it seems like it will be hard to squash back in, so unfortunately now many of our fellow citizens buy into this greedy liberal ideology, even though it is obviously destroying us all, including them and their families.
Greed is a extremely powerful part of the human psyche that liberalism (I think) originally unleashed by dumb mistake, but now is cynically tapping into…stopping it will be very difficult.
Do people here agree with this attitude prevailing in NZ? This is what I encountered in Daily Review 23/11.
As we age our tendency to hark back to our halycon formative years increases. We pine for the ways things used to be. We all have a soft spot for the music we listened to as 15-25 year olds.
Reading the posts of the older contributors to this blog an international observer could easily deduce that of the 198 countries in the world we are living in the biggest shit-hole of all.
No child had their legs blown off in NZ today, nobody starved to death, nobody was imprisoned for life for criticizing the government.
We don’t know how lucky we are.
This describes an attitude which I have been arguing against for years, and I think that most people writing on The Standard also do not agree with it. How come this can pop up still, like a stainless steel coated shield againstour considered human values and what I thought the left basically thinks, and The Declaration of the Rights of Man ushered in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Man_and_of_the_Citizen
As elders we all want to see a real solid ‘equal redistribution of our ‘commonwealth to all NZders not just a few.’
Now that the pendulum has swung wildly to the right; – where many of us are poor elders are stripped with no increase in living costs, – that are climbing every day, we are now among the ‘working and unemployed poor in NZ.
In the 1950’s there was a solid ‘safety net’ around the elders income but that has gone now.
Thanks Craig H
I was just watching a bit of a video where politics was being satirised and then breaking into real critiques and the guy was saying that the left was splitting into narrow silos so that there could be no movement from the road to utopia, basically.
So keeping perspective as you suggest seems to be what we need, and also not to have the competitive darts approach where the small circle in the middle is the only one to bother about.
The Police Force is a must. We cannot do without it. Day and night it is putting itself in danger because Families are being abused; Druggies are acting up like zombies; Motorists are pretending they can drive; and the town is awash with alcohol and anger.
Some misfits and crims like to throw abuse at the men and women of the Police Force.
But normal people are glad of Police Bravery and Support.
I think that Gay people thankfully, are well accepted in the community these days- and accepted as naturally normal citizens.
Parades are an opportunity for people to honour the Bravery and the Service of our Police. They are so worthy of that.
Police are not always good. Gay people are not always perfect. We need to see around any disagreement, not be idealistic.
Police are being run less as a community organisation, and the military-style authoritarianism taken precedence. And they have been encouraged to reduce crime by going around looking for it, stopping people as they go about their business who are questioned as to their rights to be there and to see whether they may be breaking some law.
The way that convicted law breakers are treated is not for rehabilitation and being found jobs and organisations that will help against recidivism. That is how crime is reduced. Police are being loaded with the job of decreasing crime, and that makes them too prominent in everybody’s life. They deserve better lives and jobs and if government was intelligent and determined to follow better methods the police would not be in their invidious position.
Is our political term too short to achieve climate change action? An ex political leader says that the cycle of re-election is a distracting feature thinking about appealing to the people who may not be willing to face whatever is their likely future that the politicians are supposed to be improving.
That came up in an interview this morning between Kim Hill and Mary Robinson
talking about climate change and what is needed to help the planet from going out of balance.
The former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, has turned her energy to the fight against climate change. She has set up The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice which focuses on the struggle to secure justice for people who are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and who are usually forgotten – the poor, the disempowered and the marginalised. She has also released a series of podcasts with comedian Maeve Higgins, Mothers of Invention, which tells the stories of women all over the world driving climate solutions. She joins Kim to talk about her new book, Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future, in which she argues that grassroots activists offer hope in the face of climate change.
While we are discussing the ‘health of our communities’ where is the labour coalition government’s new bill called “Health and well being bill” at today ,does anyone know????
The Government’s commitment to a broad agenda of wellbeing has been reinforced by the intention to reinstate the requirement on local government to promote the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of communities.
There is a shared role for central and local government when it comes to wellbeing. Local government plays a key and important role in community development.
The four wellbeing domains – social, economic, environmental and cultural- have recently been reintroduced into the Purpose clause of the Local Government Act.
In regard to Crime, it seems that children raised in dysfunctional homes are in great danger of not having literacy or numeracy and enter into a life of crime and recidivism.
So, From very early on there has to be a high level of intervention in those homes – with focus on the children.
Although we often say that Maori are the main prisoners, Pakeha are not all that far behind them in number.
If the parents issues are not being addressed how does it improve the children’s lives. If the parents are improved doesn’t that result in improvement for the child. If the parents remain dysfunctional then the foundation of improving the child’s outcome remains rotten.
Services move on and the children’s enviroment is possibly worse as the parents are punished by ideology portrayed as “best interests of the child”
Remembered from my studies on social policy, a government that really cares about FAMILIES not just carrying on about children, and wants to advance the welfare and self-sufficiency and socialisation of the poor and their children, puts a lot of attention in working ALONGSIDE parents. They would have parents bring their children to school, and while their children are young give the parents all the information, support and reward needed to keep a positive move upward and onward when the support can be lessened. The object is to build knowledge, practicality, confidence and pride in parents and then make sure that they can move out of a downward-pushing location and lifestyle.
The peer group pressure can be punishing, and breaking the location and relationship cycle can be very freeing. When the parents and children are doing reasonably well, then there is the possibility of incentives and apprenticeships for the children. Then if parents on benefits are not scraped to the bone by supertax clawbacks by ‘Welfare’ (note changed slightly ‘farewell’) on every extra $ earned over the benefits they are on the path away from poverty and dependency.
And then fare well, would be an appropriate goodbye to people going from the benefit roles.
But you might not realise Observer, that there is a pleasure for many to beat up on poor people and lay the problems of society at their feet as if caused by them. When in fact, they are sufferers of mean policies that don’t meet their needs, and give them opportunities to prepare for life at the right time.
The best time is when children are growing, in the womb, toddling, becoming themselves when they are under FIVE, and helping all parents then, and not piling hate and despising thoughts on parents for being parents, FGS would change everything. But first you have to get policy out of the hands of haters of children and misers with no caring for others in their fingertips. Too many people like children only when they are behaving like well-schooled circus dogs, there for people’s entertainment ‘Oh how sweet, what a cute little chap’!
While reading it I was reminded of all the other cases where the previous National Governments lax attitude to enforcing the laws put in to protect people has either cost lives and or seen people badly injured.
Unsafe vehicles on our roads was just a small part of how their lax attitude to enforcing laws and letting businesses self-regulate has left devastation in their wake.
The Pike River mine tragedy and deaths of forestry workers are another two that come to mind.
I think if someone was to compile a list of names of people who have died due to the previous National Government not enforcing rules, weakening rules, and allowing business to self-regulate it would be a substantial list.
Then there is also the hidden harm they caused by cutting back in funding to the health sector, allowing our rivers and streams to be polluted, and failing to find soloutions to help tackle climate change. Those would have caused deaths too that will not be as easy to pin on their lax management.
I think if someone was to compile a list of names of people who have died due to the previous National Government not enforcing rules, weakening rules, and allowing business to self-regulate it would be a substantial list.
And something that needs to be done with appropriate charges laid on that previous government.
It is wrong that a government can can cause deaths through negligence and not be held accountable for them.
National caused the “Leaky homes issue to didn’t they?
This now has spread over to large buildings like Middle more hospital now and others so many to even count all that was clad with that ‘substandard’ siding material fro Australian company ‘Hardies’ right?
And they called our builders “cowboys”????
national are the bloody cowboys like “Maurice Williamson” right?
One area National belatedly did was new tough Health and Safety laws.
But they underfunded Mobie deliberately relying on self regulation rather than preventive inspectors!
You are dead right and it is a very big story to go in to.
NZTA is the most powerful agency in the government and it has had no effective oversight for nearly a decade.
The new Labour-appointed Chair Michael Stiassny is a total pit bull in a meat truck, and the Chief Executive is so shit it’s like listening to one of the Undead.
Nearly 50% staff turnover in 2017 and close to 35% already this year.
This is an organization in really serious trouble.
The government should now expect questions in the House about how much contracting out all the investigations and prosecutions out to Meredith Connell is actually costing the taxpayer.
I suspect this is going to take a bit of a legislative shift in the second quarter of next year to make MOT an effective controller of NZTA. Currently NZTA is an out of control monolith.
The government should now expect questions in the House about how much contracting out all the investigations and prosecutions out to Meredith Connell is actually costing the taxpayer.
Yes. The corruption that’s been found in the NZTA is a great reason why we should have kept the MoW and why we should bring it back.
Outsourcing government work invites such corruption.
About the Ministry of Transport
Last updated on: 14/08/2018
The Ministry of Transport is the government’s principal transport adviser. The majority of our work is in providing policy advice and support to Ministers.
Through our advice we aim to:
improve the overall performance of the transport system
improve the performance of transport Crown entities
achieve better value for money for the government from its investment in the transport system.
We help the government give effect to its policy by supporting the development of legislation, regulations and rules. We also manage and account for funds invested in transport.
The Ministry represents New Zealand’s interests internationally, particularly in aviation and maritime.
We work with Crown entities
We assist the government in its relationship with the transport Crown entities to ensure they are effectively governed, and are accountable for their performance and monitoring arrangements for transport sector Crown entities.
Visit the Transport Sector Functions page for more information
We work with local government authorities
Local government authorities own, maintain and develop New Zealand’s local road network and perform important regulatory functions. Regional councils (and unitary authorities) are required to develop regional land transport strategies that guide the decision-making of local councils. In the Auckland region, the Auckland Transport carries out these functions. Some local authorities own seaports and airports, or share ownership with the Crown.
My point still stands. We get this corruption because of outsourcing government service to private enterprise who are incentivised not to do the work properly to make a bigger profit.
The truck safety issue is another area which Ken Shirley Nationals back door funder has allowed most of our trucking industry to run dangerously unsafe trucks Buses trailers on our roads the extent of this deliberate over site shows how easily corrupt able National is. Not to mention the CCP The Exclusive Brethren (Simon no nothing accepting bribes) /Catholic Church (Bill English side lining their systematic abuse) Tories corrupt to the core bending to the highest bidders.
Truckies were given a free ride ‘wet bus ticket’ here as always.
Note; – that NZTA as ‘safety police over our public railway’ are very strict on rail safety rules even with private rail companies leasing rail for tourism events, unlike seeing that NZTA are slack over shoddy private operators of truck haulage safety rules it appears.
This is what you get when you employ businessmen and businesswomen! to head government agencies. There used to be big fusses made about double-dipping.
Then it only got called for people like Julian Assange.
I think one of the CEOs of the social welfare department used to be ceo of a shipping agency. He introduced a priority phone calling set up. Then I guess he could take it all the way to saying we will return your call in a week as you are regarded as low priority. Of course that is just making fun, they wouldn’t think of returning a call. Or the recipient wouldn’t answer fast enough, three rings and you’re out!
With business, you pay more so they can run an efficient organisation attending to only what is important and make a profit from that. On a chart of their customer and action there would be crossed lines in the middle and a dead spot near the intersection full of people who weren’t important.
Yes we agree fully that MInistry of transport (MoT) needs to be beefed up to take control of NZTA as it is a runaway agency that has no principals at all and it tried to roll over MoT in 2014 so yes do this Minster of transport if he is listening.
see my comment about the NZTA on .11.2.1.1.1 reply to Draco about NZTA.
The paper comes after the team of scientists produced data in 2016 that charted the planet’s remaining terrestrial wilderness and in 2018 examined which parts of the world’s oceans remained free from the damaging impacts of human activity.
They found that more than 77% of land – excluding Antarctica – and 87% of oceans had been modified by human intervention.
We’re not included in those five as our land has been fully modified by humanity. Most of it flipped over to the destruction of farming.
Thanks Draco; that an important ‘comment’ in the journal Nature.
“Global conservation policy must stop the disappearance of Earth’s few intact ecosystems, warn James E. M. Watson, James R. Allan and colleagues.”
NZ, regrettably, has negligible true terrestrial wilderness (mining in national parks, anyone?), but creeps into the top ten in a list of (total; terrestrial and marine) wildest countries, thanks to an extended marine environment.
At #9, NZ is between ‘terrestrial wilds’ China (#8) and Algeria (#10).
France (#6) and Kiribati (#7) also make the list solely for their marine wilds.
Local governance for community well-being
With the reintroduction of the four well-beings and commitment to a Wellbeing Budget 2019, there is an opportunity to harness local government’s strengths and proximity to its communities and explore how central and local government can align its well-being objectives, frameworks and measures.
This programme will focus on how our two levels of government can and should work together to deliver intergenerational well-being, and on the future role of local governance in New Zealand in strengthening local democracy, instilling greater trust and confidence in local governance and supporting regional growth. It will explore what settings, conditions and resources are required to support local government in this work.
‘It’s important to initiate the conversation about how Central and Local Government can contribute, enhance and support the types of expectations that communities seek around environmental stewardship, urban planning and place-making, public services and amenities, housing and community development and intergenerational wellbeing,” said Nanaia Mahuta.
20th November 2018.
20 NOVEMBER 2018
Wellbeing and Water – a necessary conversation with Local Government
•
HON NANAIA MAHUTA
Local Government
The Government has announced plans to initiate a strategic conversation with Local Government about community well-being and proposals to overhaul the regulation of water. Led by the Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta, the multi-agency Three Waters Review has been investigating the state and performance of New Zealand’s drinking water, wastewater and storm water systems.
“Equally important is the need to engage our Councils and Central Government in what we can do collaboratively to enhance wellbeing through regional growth, strengthening the role of our communities and engaging the potential of our young people – essential to that will be the challenge of our waters infrastructure,” said the Hon Nanaia Mahuta.
Full support for carpet worker going out on strike.
Workers at Godfrey Hirst carpets have downed tools for the Living Wage – First Union
As those plastic (Nylon) carpets you are exposed to are toxic and dangerous to work with as they out-gas some very toxic chemicals,
I was working in a building in Canada when they bought 5 acres of nylon carpeting into the 12 storey un-ventilated building I was working in at the time and laid the carpet down while we were working there.
In six moths time 40 workers including me was permanently damaged from the chemicals they out-gas such as, butadiene, and styrene, TDI, formaldehyde and toluene, to name a few including the chemicals used when they sprayed the carpets with flame and bug deterrents.
Labour Canada did a sampling of the ‘air quality’ and said we should not have been exposed to these chemicals.
Dirty farmers let us all down. Come on and pull your bloody socks up.
… Of the more than 230 high risk dairy farms inspected by the Waikato Regional Council since the beginning of July, 69 were found be significantly non-compliant. Those 69 farms included some which were significantly non-compliant from the previous season…
… There is no more time or patience for excuses such as faulty irrigators, broken down pumps or burst pipes. A faulty speedometer will not excuse a speeding tick or a stopped watch excuse a parking ticket…
For most farms early autumn to late June is when workers can get to take time off. Workers often work 7 days a week. My partner gets a 3 day weekend once a month if she is lucky. She only stopped working when her contractions started in the shed, and was back at work only days after giving birth to our children.
This year nobody got time off as significant fencing, drain maintenance etc projects had to be done to be compliant to new rules and be permitted to supply.
Amongst the bad actors are people who don’t deserve to be tarred with someone else’s brush.
That’s the point they are. There is only so many hours in the day. We have made significant investment, and sacrificed in improving things. Our money, and definately not yours because you invest nothing in solutions.
Bad actors within the industry are being exposed.
Try writing about city waterways and see what reality you can discover.
Fuck off noddy. I’ve milked and I know the truth of that business.
Dirty farmers are killing our country with their greed and selfish desire for more money. Good farmers need to step up instead of bleating and blaming others. Take responsibility for your bad apples.
I posted a whole article up and responded to your comments. You seem to struggle to understand what you are reading. My suggestion is read it twice before responding thus saving you embarrasment.
I did read it, and have taken your advice in case I made a mistake and read it again.
“To their credit it is now the careful and responsible dairy farmers…”
Which was my point.
Your.
“Dirty farmers let us all down. Come on and pull your bloody socks up.”
Which is what I was responding too.
In hindsight I may have misinterpreted that.
Generalisations are fraught with misinterpreted responses, something I make a mistake in doing myself.
“An inspirational short film showcasing New Zealand farmers leading the way with regenerative techniques to save our rivers from pollution and contamination. ”
I agree that Tom O’Connor has put up a significant report. A 30% delinquency rate in Waikato is big news, good on you for the link. I wonder if he’s a farmer, or someone who works in compliance management.
Perhaps DJW is commenting on the general situation. A Fed Farmers chappie a while back put the nationwide non-compliance rate around 10%. So the real issue is why failure to comply is so much higher in Waikato.
1. Farmers don’t pay taxes
2. They get: Roads, trains, aircraft, educated workers, power, bailouts by government when their mismanagement brings about failure, etcetera
Obviously farmers get some back like schooling, police, military etc.
The farm pays large rates, but get no services. No water, sewerage, rubbish collection or roading services. We have a council owned drain through the property that they are responsible for. They refuse to maintain it so we have to pay for a big digger to clean it as it blocks up going under a main road flooding the farm.
The owners husband who was super healthy never using the health system had a off farm accident resulting in a degenerative brain injury. He required 24 hours specialist care the 74 year old wife couldn’t provide. Due to assets she paid $5,000 per month over a year until his death.
Aircraft. We just hired one to do some work. $17,000 plus GS Tax.
Trains. Fonteras use of Rail is probably one of the only profitable parts of the network.
Power? The taxpayer provides power? You should see our bill. The power company pays tax on profits from us. The farm was subject to the public works act with towers built on it so you can have power.
Bailouts? Never seen one of those.
Roads? We have a State highway boundary but they are for connecting cities, plus we pay vehicle taxes for that.
Education. Nobody has a tertiary education, most leaving at 15. (Exclude me as I’m not personely involved with the farm) It’s 20km to get to kindy, and they closed the local school about 6 years ago, no bus services for the local kids.
Other governments services are levied.
We protect blocks of Native forest on private land without reward.
Provide access to the property to a community group to hold festivals, and free summer holiday camping for families.
Every worker pays for what they get with income tax. Helping to raise a total of 6 kids with nobody getting WFF or accommodation supplements.
Down chain our production creates jobs and taxes.
So blah blah, farmers are bludgers, blah blah.
Your link went they pay no tax. Firstly Nash is a bigger dropkick than Kelvin and that’s saying something. Secondly it went farmers only payed $26million in a cherry picked bad year except we excluded this other group of farmers who paid $1.8 billion in tax, ingnored GST, support businesses, income taxes, and the taxes earned by the 15 times income multiplier past the gate for what we make.
Yep farmers are bad. City living bludgers having babies for are living are good. I get it.
For all the visual thinkers out there, here’s a chart of government spending per person in New Zealand’s five most populous regions. Aucklanders get less spending per capita than the other large regions. This reflects the city’s young demographics – more workers, fewer pensioners – as well as the economies of scale enabled by larger, denser places.
Really, look at that graph. The cities have been subsidising farms for decades.
5. Most of the people on welfare are unmarried mothers – many of them teenagers – who have extra children so that they can get more money
This is a hoary old myth that combines the resentment of beneficiaries in general, with prurient resentment of the sexy young having too much sex. In fact, the US and New Zealand evidence is that young people are having less sex, later than their parents’ generation.
The Salvation Army’s recently published State of the Nation report contains similar positive findings for New Zealand :
Teenage pregnancies and abortions have fallen during 2009, which is perhaps welcome news that there are fewer unplanned pregnancies. The number of 11–14 year olds giving birth or having an abortion dropped from 122 in 2008, to 108 in 2009….Although this decline is on a very small base, this number of pregnancies is the lowest in at least eight years. For older teenagers aged 15-19 years old, there was a 10% decline in the rate of pregnancies between 2008 and 2009
Such figures help contradict Key’s scaremongering use of the young as a pretext for welfare reform. More to the point, the NZ figures on DPB recipients do not bear out Key’s specific assertion about ‘significant numbers of very young women going onto the DPB and staying there for a lifetime.”
In fact, only 3.1 % of those on the DPB are under 20 years of age – and that figure has barely flickered since 2005, when the figure was 2.9 %. Put another way, 97% of the people on the DPB are NOT the ‘very young women’ of Key’s lurid imagination. There are in fact, significantly more people on the DPB over 55 years of age (5.6%) than there are ‘very young women’ receiving this benefit.
The vast bulk of DPB recipients (nearly 75%) are what you would expect : they are aged between 25 and 54. Some 61% of them are caring for children six years or under – a figure that, again, has barely changed since 2005. Nearly half are caring for two or more dependent children.
Many of these women are caring for children alone because of a marriage breakdown, which is rarely a lifestyle choice. They have not only borne the opportunity cost of foregoing career opportunities to raise a family but are also now doing the bulk of the parenting alone and – if one can believe the child support payment figures – very often without the financial support that is due to them. Even so, more DPB recipients are engaged in part-time work (16%) than those on the dole. Far from being left at home to look after their children in ways that low income workers cannot, people on the DPB have since last September, faced a regime of work tesing.
These are the women that the WWG and the Key government want to stigmatise? Even Paula Bennett’s own department doesn’t believe the real problem here is a lack of personal motivation, or an absence of strong incentives. The Social Development Department’s December fact sheet on the DPB blames the economy instead :
The number of clients receiving a Domestic Purposes Benefit at the end of December decreased from 106,000 to 98,000 between 2005 and 2007, then increased to reach 113,000 in 2010. This pattern reflects changes in economic conditions. (My emphasis.)
One further crucial piece of evidence shows there is no social or economic crisis in the country’s current DPB figures. The ratio of those on the DPB – if taken as a percentage of the working age population – was actually lower in December 2010 (at just over 4%) than it was when National left office in 2000, when the figure was heading for 5%.
You’re talking out your arse.
“It must have been a long time ago then, because you’ve said nothing about what is happening now.”
Maybe you should read your own posts….
” Workers often work 7 days a week. My partner gets a 3 day weekend once a month if she is lucky. She only stopped working when her contractions started in the shed, and was back at work only days after giving birth to our children.
This year nobody got time off as significant fencing, drain maintenance etc projects had to be done to be compliant to new rules and be permitted to supply.”
So your business needed 30% more staff, at least, in order to be able to meet the demands you placed on it. Or you are over stocked by 30%. In any business that’s a recipe for things to turn to shit. But that’s farming.
It’s private enterprise, not a Union. We get screwed at every turn. We even have to register our cows and pay a yearly fee as permission for them to live. We made a profit of $40,000 last year, plus the owners profit. We could employ someone else but then there would be no profit. They choose to work hard instead.
Labour is a resource like every other in a business. Generally the managers of that business will have the same attitudes to the allocation and use of those varied resources. If you are willing to accept a 30% over-use of labour, which is actually yourself and family, then it is reasonable to assume that you are just as prepared to to overuse other resources as well, like your stock and the environment . And probably to a much greater extent than 30% since it’s not coming out of your hide.
Are you starting to see what’s wrong here?
If most farmers are in the same position as you, since you say that you are one of the good ones, the industry is in serious trouble and there must be some serious basket cases out there.
No they’re not overstocked, the numbers have been fine tuned for the farm so the animals are at peak health and we can cope with drought. No they do not overwork 30%. That was 100% a one off due to a out of the blue rule change for fencing and ramp design rule changes plus council incompetence in managing there drain destroying a bridge we had to replace at our cost. This year they will overwork 0%. But who knows what farming haters will create as rule changes this year.
You are not permitted to overuse anything, cow numbers are limited by rules, so is fertiliser use. We don’t irrigate.
People who overstock get burnt with calving rates and go bust.
If it’s the waterway fencing requirement, that was signalled about 3 years ago, and was supposed to only affect 20% of farms, the rest either being fenced already, or not having waterways (which would be very few). So it was left to the last minute and the Council wasn’t able to process the consent in time. Not sure that the incompetence is entirely in the council’s court.
If you are having to work 7 days a week, by definition you are 30% understaffed, 5/7 = 0.71, so only 71% staffed. You need more staff before you kill someone, probably yourself.
So belong to the business class, just don’t complain to the left and the workers. You are on the end of a string that big business holds and so are we but you seem to think you deserve better. Any new business has to work hard before it can make a profit you know. Workers who want to go into business have to mortgage their houses and then give up having time off. And that may be for three years of living on the smell of an oily rag and perhaps hiring or renting while the money gets sucked into the business.
Karl Marx thinking about the range of income between wealthy and poor spent time analysing how it works. You are not poor but soon could be if anything goes wrong. Marx called your class the petite bourgeoisie.
Petite bourgeoisie – also petty bourgeoisie, is a French term (sometimes derogatory) referring to a social class comprising semi-autonomous peasantry and small-scale merchants whose politico-economic ideological stance in times of socioeconomic stability is determined by reflecting that of a haute (“high”) bourgeoisie, with which the petite bourgeoisie seeks to identify itself and whose bourgeois morality it strives to imitate.[1]
And an interesting piece of theory – He [Wilhelm Reich] claimed that the middle classes were a hotbed for political reaction due to their reliance on the patriarchal family (according to Reich, small businesses are often self-exploiting enterprises of families headed by the father, whose morality binds the family together in their somewhat precarious economic position) and the sexual repression that underlies it.[5]‘ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petite_bourgeoisie
We don’t own the business. My partner manages it. So she got none of that profit. We are a working class family. I’m a blue collar worker, who is part time due to illness but otherwise a stay at home parent. Labour is supposed to fight for my family. But what are we? Scum that needs labelling?
I grew up in poverty. I had to take custody of my brother when I was 19. Worked minimum wage for years living in a caravan.
Is that right wing enough for you.
I tell you what since you clearly know your subject.
What happens if all these horrible farms and horrible capitalist pigs all gave up. Every one of them closing there buisinesses tommorow. All seeing the error of their ways and bowing to Marxist Socialism.
Do I get the business subsidy WFF. We are on the limit. We got it in the first year when I had to stop working, but I got head hunted with a offer understanding of my illness and do a little bit of contract work taking us just over.
Am I from kiwiblog. No I’m from somewhere else. I have been politicaly active for 25 years, mostly in the last 5. I am not affiliated with any political party. Labour, National, greens, etc are irrelevant to me. Politically speaking I am a green capitalist. However I dedicated my life to Men’s Rights Advocacy until my death.
DJ Ward
Please don’t complain to us because we are drawing national structural problems to everyone’s attention. If it is your farm presumably you knew what you were getting into, If you were sharemilkers we have been reading for years about the hard time they have getting their own farms. I remember one man died and his wife said he’d died from overwork. The owner had kept building up his own herd beyond the expected cattle numbers, and the worker trying to look after them and build his own up to viable levels had gone under.
If you have bitten off more than you can chew and can’t manage to keep up as the conditions have become serious and climate change is dumping its forces on you, perhaps you should face up to reality and give up. The problems we have now have been building over the years and being ignored. Don’t blame us and imply we are mean and unfeeling because of your difficulties. The early pioneers had to go through hell some of them, and we thinking people never wanted to see others be reduced to the same disastrous regimes.
Look to the shits who got us into the present treadmill that is our economy and give them a tongue lashing. They will laugh at you, but at least you will be directing your ire at the people who are at fault.
No I was pointing out that not all farmers are dirty farmers.
We knew exactly what we were getting into.
She started with nothing, worked harder than you ever have to get the opportunity. She has a dream, she fought for it. When she got the opportunity she worked damn hard to make things work. The assets she has created from nothing because of hard work will set her up for the rest of her life. She will own her own farm in the not too distant future as a family Buisiness.
Labour celebrates Jacinda and her achievements. I’ll call crap on that.
My partner is the real feminism, the real worker, the person that’s earned my respect. Labour makes her the enemy. Labour makes me the enemy.
What the hell are you thinking to believe citizens like us should be hated.
I know perfectly well were societies problems began and they are not where you think they are.
20 year old Native American Allen Salway on why Thanksgiving is a painful reminder of a sanatised past.
In 1637 the Pequot Massacre took place, when over 700 Native men, women and children were slaughtered in what’s now known as Mystic, Connecticut. The following day, the governor declared a day of thanksgiving and held a feast to celebrate their victories in battle. Thirty-nine years later in Massachusetts, the colonists declared a “day of public celebration and thanksgiving” saying, “there now scarce remains a name or family of them [Natives] but are either slain, captivated or fled,” right after the slaughtering of a tribe including the beheading of Wampanoag chief Metacom (which remained on display for 24 years after King Philip’s war). It was not until 1863 that Abraham Lincoln officially declared it a national holiday, in the same year the Sioux were being removed from Minnesota, during which the bounty for a Sioux scalp was $25.
We’ve been advised that strike action has ceased following negotiations between Go Bus and First Union to reach a satisfactory outcome. First Union has agreed to lift its strike notice against Go Bus, and in return Go Bus will immediately lift the Lock Out notice that had been issued against 69 First Union members, who will now return to their duties from today.
Both parties have agreed to work collaboratively with all funding parties to improve driver’s wages and cease all industrial action in the interim.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and Waikato-Tainui worked closely with their respective commercial entities to find a solution to the impasse. Rukumoana Schaafhausen, Chair of TeArataura, the Executive of Waikato Tainui says, “as mana whenua in the rohe, I am pleased that the Waikato Regional Council and Hamilton City Council have worked with Go Bus and First Union to find a resolution. Waikato-Tainui, and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu are committed to ensuring the drivers of Go Bus receive fair remuneration for the work they do in our communities.”
Lisa Tumahai, Kaiwhakahaere of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu said, “whilst it was disappointing that Go Bus negotiations with First Union ended up with industrial action, we are strong advocates for the living wage and our focus was to ensure that there is a solution, for the drivers of Go Bus and their whānau.”
The union pressure was not helpful imo and the orchestrated media campaign was poor form. This was a combination of groups WORKING TOGETHER not being divisive – learn this ffs.
It was poor form that the workers were not paid properly in the first place, and it took union intervention and media pressure to get the workers recognition. That’s how it works.
It seems that Go Bus is the employer and supposed to be managing the company. The Maori entities are separate as bus owners I think.
Did First Union approach the Maori bodies explaining their concerns.? They really needed to go over their bosses heads, to the master company. Go Bus managers could hardly do this, it wasn’t an option for them, it wouldn’t have been in their contract to run back to the owners when there were problems. Go Bus would have been following standard procedure applied in NZ now, get as much out of the workforce for as little moolah as possible.
But marty mars noticed what you haven’t mentioned in your precis, that there was an outcry against the Maori owners who have contracted the bus company. That is what mm is responding to, the Maori owners being called out as at fault. As you say Ad, the union pressured their employers.
The person who blackened the Maori holding companies,
owners is guilty of spreading simple-minded racist criticisms from a too-open flapping mouth,.
It’s really OK to hold Maori corporations to account. Whether the public should expect any more or the same from Maori corporations as any other corporate because it is a Maori corporation is a really interesting debate, but a bit philosophical to me.
I do see that it would be hard to have that debate about the accountability of Maori corporations without the more conservative end of the political spectrum to coming in boots and all. Which would not be useful.
Since unions and worker representation generally is so weak in New Zealand I’m personally glad to see any union pressure working.
I guess we are all a bit crooked Ad. A majority of NZs have supported governments that won’t do the right thing for decades. Why start pointing all your fingers at Maori corporates if they are more RW than you think they should be. There are plenty of other entities for each finger if you are looking to blame.
It really is more on a par with all the white wealthy with their fingers on the tips of the levers that go down to their pliant eager CEOs and managers amassing their own assets. That is a different kettle of fish and structural.
Yes ad forgets that this is actually an IWI organisation NOT a corporate. The subtleties of that will be lost on ad but for Iwi members it means a lot, like everything.
There’s no shield either under law or in our society from criticism of a corporate entity – no matter where they are from. And there’s only one owner being pointed at here, by Maori owners themselves as the quote at 19 shows.
There’s a whole post by itself on why Maori-owned corporate entities might have different accountabilities to any other corporation, but like I said it’s pretty philosophical.
Meantime, GoBus is owned by a particular bunch, and as the quote given at 19 points out, it is the Maori Chiefs and Runanga executives themselves who are fronting that corporation. And good on them.
marty mars
Are you saying that unions need to go direct to iwi members if the drivers want a fair deal? The problem with making systems work is that if something is everybody’s responsibility, then nobody feels they personally must do something.
So iwi appoint somebody to act on their behalf so they don’t have to be consulted about everything and spend much of their time in meetings and discussions and getting briefed on the facts.
Pointing out who are the participants in Maori organisations doesn’t indicate how those organisations set up their paths to decision making. Those paths, and the quality and fairness of the decisions made are of importance in this discussion.
Looks to me like the union struck for a living wage, gobus did a lockout, and now everyone’s back to work and the owners would really love to pay drivers fairly but haven’t actually committed to it.
There is no strike action any more and people are talking – and the corporation has set a really clear expectation in public. That’s not a total win but it’s great start.
It’s basically the situation that existed before the strike was announced – everyone’s in work, and gee willickers we’d love to give you more money sometime whenever we can afford it ourselves…
Not sure if anyone ever saw this movie, but as always with the good stuff, it might get lost in the mediocre flood.
la belle verte
a french movie about how things could be, how they were, still are, bref, a very french movie.
superb acting by all without exception
it is subtitled, it is suitable for 3-99+ years of age
There's been a lot of talk about the missionary killed by the natives of North Sentinel Island. They're probably so aggressive because of this weirdo, Maurice Vidal Portman. So here's a big thread about this creep and some facts from my decade-long obsession with the island. pic.twitter.com/rfOVjfU2ZY— Respectable Lawyer (@RespectableLaw) November 23, 2018
Thanks Joe90 Knowledge of deep history explains much but then still doesn’t explain how what happened could happen. Are we mad all the time with noticeable peaks, or do we go through cycles?
When you look up King Leopold of Belgium and go into what the bastard did in the Congo, and what Africa has had to put up with from whites, and rom each other, you need to wash your mind out. So I suggest that everyone sit down and slow their minds and read the quaint Alexander McCall Smith stories about Botswana and the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency set there. The stories are good, and slow, and he brings philosophical matters into them that he develops interestingly. And they leave one feeling better about Africa, and make a change from hearing about the travesty of civilisation so often told.
You could buy a copy for buy now $60 on Trademe – of 1993 book by Auckland historian Dick Scott, Would A Good Man Die? Niue Island, New Zealand and the late Mr Larsen – about NZs shame at playing colonial master and the way that NZs paid no attention to the treatment of the islanders and then bloodthirstily wanted them punished by hanging.
Story on NZ Herald. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=2847266
“With the reintroduction of the four well-beings and commitment to a Wellbeing Budget 2019″,
Wellbeig is a large target we can use to point to our deep held serious environmental issues”.
We see this as a win.
Local governance for community well-being
“With the reintroduction of the four well-beings and commitment to a Wellbeing Budget 2019”, there is an opportunity to harness local government’s strengths and proximity to its communities and explore how central and local government can align its well-being objectives, frameworks and measures.
there is something going on in France and else where in europe
le mouvement gilet jaune……
gilet jaune = the hiz viz vest one has to have in the car at all times, unless worn.
It is a european wide strike, and last count was about 3 million people on strike across Potugal, France, Italia, Germany, Hungry and Bulgary according to these guys here https://www.facebook.com/ResistanceNice
not quite sure if it is a spontanious uprising of people or the beginning of a general strike across europe, but its been going on for a while now and at least in france it seems to start having an impact.
I think we can not really just put it on one thing. The taxes on gasoline are literally just the last drop. I am not sure if you could classify a strike or an uprising.
when we are forced to give up the treats of civilization we will not do so quietly. 🙂 it is peaceful atm, to there is that.
Knocking moped thieves off their bikes, even during high-speed chases, is the newest “hardline” strategy to reduce moped crime in London.
A “tactical contact” approach will now be used by Scotland Yard officers, according to Commander Amanda Pearson, who said it was necessary to stop dangerous chases and arrest suspects.
I’m in two minds about it.
It’s dangerous and may hurt someone.
The crims have probably already hurt several people.
A neo-Nazi who goes by the alias Norman Spear has launched a project to unify online fascists and link that vast coalition of individuals into a network training new soldiers for a so-called forthcoming “race war.”
Spear, who claims to be an Iraq and Afghan war veteran, is a self-proclaimed white nationalist with a significant online following. His latest act involves bringing neo-Nazis together, regardless of affiliation and ideology, into a militant fascist umbrella organization. His tool for doing this? A social network he calls “The Base,” which is already organizing across the US and abroad, specifically geared toward partaking in terrorism.
Kia ora R&R I totally agree with that statement we need to go back to reusable glass bottles for all liquid products that’s what we did 30 od years ago.
Glass and aluminum are good choices
Consumer products are that cheap and unreliable the only last 3 to 5 years and you throw it away and buy a new one.
Yes the plastic bag banning single use super market bag’s is just the start to changing our use of plastic or and waste all waste needs to be minimized.
Ka kite ano P.S really good topic there is a lot of good information on what one can recycle the time seem out.
Kia ora The Hui It is a shame that Kura has been treated badly buy the police who only admit they are wrong went one has spent thousands of dollars in court or else Kura would have a criminal charges.
Wow thats higher than % of Maori In Jail the amount of Maori Tamariki in the state care are 70 % what a mess those poor tamariki .Thanks to Ngai tahu for taking a leading role in looking after there tamariki in state care Mana Wahine ka pai.
The Toi Whenua whano are classic example of how the state have rode roughshod over Te tangata whenua human rights its good that the government has apologized to the guys and whano for been taken off there father and put into state abuse/care just because there mother died ka pai Ka kite ano
Eco Maori has thought about the Kura case on The hui this morning and the conclusion I come to is the other driver was at fault and that the cop who did the investigation had links to the driver of the Peugeot an played his cover card for his M8
1 The way they treat maori deep down south I have experienced this phobia to maori every time I have been there and had anything to do with these European people down south it has had a negative out come for Eco Maori.
2 The other Car in the crash was a Peugeot no many maori drive these cars not enough room for the Mokopunas.
3 Why did the Cop wait till 5 days before the statute of limitations was up before he laid charges against Kura ?????. So there would be no chance of charging / investigating the other driver of the Peugeot in the accident by the time Kura got the correct ruling of not being the main cause of the accident .
4https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2017/07/19/southern-police-nothing-changed-since-tom-lewis-wrote-coverups-copouts/
5 What must be most worrying however are the retrospective powers John Key has rammed through Parliament to give the cops massive search and surveillance powers that allow them to bug legally privileged conversations, break into your house and plant spy cameras without you knowing, warrantless search orders and they can trigger these powers by linking 3 people who know each other.
Remember, this is the same Police force who are forcing companies to hand over information about you without you knowing, and then those companies punish you for it.{ Banks }
We are becoming less of a democratic state and more a functioning Police state.
6https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/04/05/thank-god-for-bryce-edwards-yes-the-nz-police-are-corrupt/
6https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/77844567/police-officers-convicted-of-52-crimes-in-three-years Coverups-copouts will be a good read to shine a light on this topic ANA TO KAI Ka kite ano links below
I see our Australian cousin can see past the ————- propaganda served up by the liberals neo in the Victorian state elections Ka pai I know that Labour has pushed to mitigate Human Caused Climate Change .
Labor has won a stunning victory in Victoria, with the premier, Daniel Andrews, saying voters have rejected “fear and division”.
The Liberal leader, Matthew Guy, says it’s time for “unity” within his party, amid claims of internal strife that are said to have plagued its campaign.
The Greens had a disappointing night following a disastrous campaign.
The Democrat capitalist are running scare of all the Democrat /Socialist who got elected during there American midterm elections Kia kaha minority cultures and Mana wahine .
Why do I say the capitalist are scared well they are trying to float a toilet that has already sunk because of all the stuff that is weighing down her toilet I see they are trying to float tony blair toilet to desperate fools they gave Berni Sanders a true Socialist a under arm bowl to clear the way for shillary and even now they can not see the WRITING ON THE WALL that to win the next American president election they have to embrace the socialist don’t be scare we will treat you better than you have treated us we are socialist we care about Equality and a future for the Grandchildren.
If the Democrats want to win they have to work with each other and not against each other the goals are the same slow climate change the socialist will have ladys vote youth vote and minority cultures vote join them all together and you will have a unstoppable force for good .links below
Ka kite ano
The neo Liberal capitalist of the world have a vale of bribes lies and money covering our Australians cousins eyes .The Australians have all these huge carbon exporting company’s .Senate inquiry told zero tax or royalties paid on Australia’s biggest new gas projects the Australian environment is going to degrade all for what to make ultra wealthy people even more billions and in the process turn our grandchildren future into a mess
Woodside applies to build big-polluting LNG plant – with no emissions plan
Western Australian Browse project could emit more than 200m tonnes of CO2
“It’s incredible to think the state government would consider a further expansion of what is an incredibly dirty source of gas at a time when the federal Labor party is proposing ambitious climate targets,” he said. “Fracking and LNG developments are going to put those targets out of reach.” lucky Eco Maori skims through the comments on story’s that interest me as I would never have seen this story that has a cloak of money hiding the facts on big carbon paying very little tax.
Kia ora Newshub yes education is need on man made weed its a poison if we educate people about all the harm it does they will be less likely to us the crap.
Wow thats heaps of rain in Auckland in one hour 30mls and its heading this way .
That was brave alright Robert Nickle fighting to save 60.000 refugees against huge odds good story its cool that they confirmed there efforts.
O no not the cheating American Palino team is himself first and for most that toilet has sunk.
Ka kite ano P.S I posted a few post today
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The 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 ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
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 Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
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. ...
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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 ...
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New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
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Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has apologised in Parliament after National accused her of intimidating and attacking one of its ministers in the House. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
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Thousands of workers attended public events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch today to celebrate International Workers’ Day (May Day), but union representatives are urging caution and vigilance over the Government’s blatantly "anti-worker" ...
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in the March 2024 quarter, compared with 4.0 percent in the previous quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
The PSA is warning the Government that the sensitive information of New Zealanders held by various agencies will fall into the wrong hands if the latest round of proposed cuts goes ahead. ...
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ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT University The telecommunications industry faces a major shakeup following the release of the post-incident report on last November’s 12-hour Optus outage. Telecommunications companies will have to share more information with customers during future ...
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NZCTU Economist Craig Renney said new data released by Statistics New Zealand shows the need for Government to act now, with unemployment rising from 3.4% to 4.3%. ...
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We are living in incredible times. The best and worst of humanity presents itself to us on a daily basis. We are often concentrated on the worst of it.
Here’s good news. Yes, I’m repeating from daily review, where it was overlooked/ignored/posted too late/who cares its done now.
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/scientists-can-regenerate-and-implant-any-injured-organ-without-body-rejecting-it/
I volunteer for a new liver, and a Jamieson’s and Dry.
Awesome. We can be wage slaves and debt serfs for 100 years rather than a mere 40.
No… only the super rich will be able to afford it. The wage slaves and serfs will find they have organs that are saleable.
Just when you think neoliberalism can not get any worse….
Recommend this series “Altered Carbon”… when the rich don’t die… when the tortured once dead and can be bought back to life to be tortured again and again … on Netflicks and probably other places. Worthwhile binge viewing.
Altered Carbon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon_(TV_series)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon
Identity politics gone too far…
Santa banned from NZ Santa Parade for saying only men can play Santa – people about to lose their shit in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/11/24/santa-banned-form-nz-santa-parade-for-saying-only-men-can-play-santa-people-about-to-lose-their-shit-in-5-4-3-2-1/
(Hope Santa takes them to court for unfair dismissal if they sack long standing Santa)
it’s stuff like this that will bring around the end of this PC bullshit.
Hope so James.
Dang that’s stupid as.
Santa is a male, a female santa is just wrong, that’s why there is Mrs Claus.
The deal-breaker was probably more relegating women to “little skirts and tops”
O.O dirty old man, ewwwww.
In that case, that particular santa is not needed, not ever, anywhere.
The funny thing is that once Santa’s suited up with the padding and the beard, nobody gives a shit who’s inside it. It’s a jolly jape etc whomever plays it.
But TDB and the media focus on the suit, not the guy’s comments like: “We employ Santa’s Little Helpers, and they wear a little skirt and top … but I wouldn’t put a guy in a skirt and top — right?”
I always thought the helpers with in cheap tunics and green tights regardless of gender, but I guess folks do things differently these days…
Yes that was really interesting, because it’s exactly what I was hearing on the wireless yesterday, all about the suit.
Nada about the pervy words, re wearing a little skirt and a top.
Sheez, I got played/brainwashed/narrative twisted by the media.
Thanks McFlock for the bigger picture, much appreciated.
I wondered if you folks could get a medical breakthrough like this and turn it into a negative. Shame on you. Last time I checked we had a health system albeit slightly battered. Once the patent is lost from the procedures (is it 20 x years still?) this will become common. And we (hospitals) will be able to buy an organ incubator.
Not all future scenarios are Dystopian.
If you want to see how creepy the rich could be go no further than modern style vampirism.
The blood plasma of young and healthy individuals is transplanted to older less healthy individuals.
The procedure and results are controversial, but have not stopped the practice gaining traction.
https://futurism.com/first-results-of-a-clinical-trial-to-cure-aging-using-young-blood-just-came-in
Billionaires keeping teens in the basement of their island mansions for a fresh blood supply. If you really want to play invent a conspiracy 😉
How can you bear to ruin a Jamieson’s with dry???
Heaven forbid JanM
Very good question!
And every weekend you volunteer to sluice out the drunk tank, you get to keep your new liver.
Suicidal people will be rejected sorry for leaving you dejected.
Is this the solution to the NZ Dairy industry methane problem: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612452/how-seaweed-could-shrink-livestocks-global-carbon-hoofprint/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=11.23&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=d6c4f655c6-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_11_23_01_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-d6c4f655c6-153802653
That sounds really good the huge issue being growing large volumes of the particular species. Saltwater aquaponic ventures have had success with various seaweeds over time it might be worth pulling those researchers/entrepreneurs in on this.
The reduced feeding won’t go down well with farmers.
My approach would be to selectively breed the homoacetogen bacteria to operate in lower hydrogen environments thus competing with methanogenic bacteria. This would stop a portion of the substrates for methane becoming methane, instead building short chain fatty acids for milk and meat production.
Government funding welcome.
The dairy industry might like to study research done on kelp that shows huge losses to coastal beds due to the “quality ” of river water that emerges near those beds. Land use is poisoning the kelp beds. Maybe if the rivers were clean, the kelp beds would recover then we could harvest them and feed them to cows and the cows could…oh…hang on…
Yep, that pollution is why I called growing the kelp a huge issue.
My (partial) solution to bovine methane gives more for less, replacing methane with production. The microbes might be inoculated with the kelp to deal methane a double whammy.
The pollution has multiple inputs, many from agriculture: tilling (and subsequent loss of soil structure and compaction), erosion, NPK, cattle effluent.
I’m working on an article on water retention now, I’ll need to stress how slowing/retaining water loss slows/retains nutrient and topsoil losses too.
I sense trouble on the horizon as big oil moves in on our power supplies and turns NZ into a fertiliser factory. re: 8 rivers. I need more info but it seems to be keen on maintaining much of the status quo aka burning gas to start a process, pumping CO2 back into wells in the hopes of replenishing hydrocarbons, and maintaining their stranglehold on agriculture and power supply.
As I, and no doubt many others, predicted: big oil has no intention of letting go of power. They’ll only move when they can keep control.
Every time that I heard people decrying river water reaching the sea as ‘going to waste’ I thought why doesn’t anyone mention that whole species have evolved to live in that slightly saline mix, and there must be some result on the coastline from river water changing.
And here is one the kelp beds are affected. And the thinking of those people, probably farmers, might change now as they understand it wasn’t going to waste. Give them the suggestion of Robert G and they will adapt to this new thinking and understanding.
Don’t overwork those brains you people. I am starting to see a new source of energy feeding into The Standard pipeline. Of course some may call it
‘fertiliser’ but they wouldn’t know the difference between a drop in pollution from a long drop.
Estuarine systems are the most productive in the world. When relatively intact anyway. After Charles retrofit his wetlands as a natural fish farm – you could walk on the fish waiting to be let in…
The sand flats used to be wall to wall shellfish…
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2018/11/climate-change-still-rising.html
Thanks for the information John.
Seaweed has been an interesting subject in farming for many years. This stuffs not news to me but it’s great to hear they have made progress in finding a solution to a major problem looking for a viable solution.
I’ve always supported the idea of creating artificial reefs and like environments as a way of employing prison populations, community service, etc.
Such environments would not only provide a seaweed farming enviroment, paying for the reefs developement costs, and offsetting prisoner costs, but create more high diversity Eco systems.
Seaweed could make cows burp less methane and cut their carbon hoofprint: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612452/how-seaweed-could-shrink-livestocks-global-carbon-hoofprint/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=11.23&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=d6c4f655c6-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_11_23_01_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-d6c4f655c6-153802653
Chris Trotter raises salient points here that translate into our everyday life; is worth a read.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/11/23/must-read-the-perils-of-inclusion/
“How quickly people forget.”
Yes for sure. – Chris said; “How quickly people forget.”
This labour coalition is certainly forgetting their promises made “To be inclusive” (and give us all a voice to be heard.) as they repeatedly promised.
We will not be so forgetful come the next election will we just?
This labour coalition will be punished for their ‘forgetfulness too!!!!!.
Our own HB/Gisborne groups are very disappointed as the Labour Minister of Transport is also very ‘forgetful’ as he has since being chosen as our new ‘Minister of transport received 60 emails from our NGO requesting his ‘indulgence’ in “advocating for us” and requests to meet with us and only once has Phil Twyford ever responded!!!!!!!!
That was after our letter to him of “congratulations to him on 25th October 2017 for him becoming our new minister of transport”.
Since then a year ago, after another 59 emails were sent to him requesting a meeting with him, he has apparently “been to busy to bother with our groups since then”
So yes Labour are being foolish here and caviller, and forgetful as they promised to be a Government that would be “inclusive” – yeah right!!!!!
Roll around 2020 then so we can show our voice at the voting booth, then these Ministers might awaken from their slumber as they are shown the door if they don’t wake up from their slumber.i!!!
In the old days ALL politicians seem to answer every piece of correspondence they received. Sad that they feel they can cut their constituents and the public out by not bothering to reply, and then probably wonder why less people bother voting or don’t vote for them anymore.
They didn’t answer them themselves – they got sent to the appropriate government department to write
JanM,
I sent three letters to Helen Clark and her Ministers and she answered all three of them and in the last letter Helen even added 26 words in hand writing!!!!!
So no to that JanM
In the old Labour Government of 1999 to 2008 all the ministers we wrote to actually answered our emails fully most of the time.
But now this labour Government just ignore our HB/Gisborne constituents as through they don’t care any more now to advocate for them.
Roll around 2020 for revenge!!!!!!.
I wrote to David Lange and got signed reply… maybe a recent lazy responses by politicians, too busy cozying up for money and donations and now apparently public who are not about to donate some cash, are not worth it….
Well Cleangreen you can try another tack. Get onto Ms Ardern and get the Minister of Transport portfolio transferred to someone else.
Phil Twyford before the election had:
Phil was elected to Parliament for the Labour Party in 2008. In Opposition, he held the portfolios of Housing, Transport, Auckland Issues, and Disarmament and
Arms Control.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/minister/biography/phil-twyford
It might have been convenient for him to hang onto the major issues that he had fronted while in Opposition. But housing is really important and I think has become a very hot topic over the other hot topics.
So who? What about Shane Jones as Minister and Clare Curran as Associate. Shane has a lot on but has force and energy. Clare is keen to get on with things and as long as she worked in with Shane could get a lot done. Those with negative opinions should state who they would like, and look at what their roles are now, and why they would be good.!
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/full-list-gets-in-labour-led-government
Twyford has been for four years a union organiser and journalist after leaving university. That brought him into touching the working class but what work experience? There is very poor detail of background for NZ politicians. How we are to know whether they are the Right Stuff I don’t know. There is a lot of guff about their interests and intentions and visions blah blah.
He is good at managing having been a founding member of Oxfam here andthen going to Washington with them. Reminds me of David Shearer’s profile. Job overseas in world political agencies doing aid; shoe-in NZ.
He has been involved with NZ Labour since 2003. And ran for the North Shore seat in 2005. An ambitious, coming man. He is 55 years born 1963.
He once told a reporter that he looked up to Michael Cullen’s brand of “old-fashioned Keynesianism”. ?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/general/candidate-profile-phil-twyford-2011101211
greywarshark 100% to you.
Our NGO committee has already suggested this tack but as Secretary yesterday I was given the task of slapping a Official Information Act request on lazy Mr Twyford for him to supply our committee with all emails received and if any were not read or responded to (over 60) that we had sent him from 25th October 2017 till yesterday 23rd November 2018 so we shall see what excuse he had to ignore all but the first email we first sent on 25th October 2017 congratulating him on becoming our new ‘Minister of transport’, so now we will keep you posted on whether he does front up and explain why yesterday’s email to him was sent back as “not read” and we were deply offended there meaning he has ignored our long association with Labour since 19999 during Helen Clark’s excellent government.
If Phil Twyford is to busy to handle the Transport portfolio and reply to groups requesting he be our ‘advocate’ in transport matters then he needs to give his transport portfolio up to a competent minister who will give rail and road matters his/hers best efforts to bring rail to all provinces.
We did ask Phil twyford in February 2018 to ask the “transport select committee” to restore the portfolio for a ‘Minister of rail’ again.
We all now own the rail and when last we had owned the rail we had a minister of rail so we need one now.
Phil Twyford is waning on the transport portfolio we feel and has lost his mojo since Jacinda took the air transport portfolio off him so this is where we now are sadly.
With you sending him over 60 emails in that time he prob just has you down as a nuisance and they are auto deleted.
Stalker spamming James.
James you are a dumb arse aren’t you just?.
After our committee received Twyford’s first and only response to our congratulations letter, his two following responses we sought in our responses/enquirers to his letter were not forthcoming.
So if you get a letter from anyone do you not respond to them?
We see no evidence of that do we?
We did warrant a reply to questions raised in ‘his only letter to our Committee’ and Twyford did never respond to our reply to his letter.
That was a big show of a lack of respect to any constituent as everyone had to right to a reply to a letter sent from the Minister don’t they?
Trickledrown is right james; – you are ‘Stalker spamming’ James.
Trotter’s first commenter made a good point: “this situation illustrates the downside of identity politics taking primacy over class and power relationships, and the enervating effect of both post modernist and neo liberal philosophy on clearly identifying who are the oppressors in society”.
The rainbow community divided over whether to exclude or include is amusing, eh? Inclusion was their political imperative for so long: flipping to exclusion is sensible when the excluded are the wrong kind of humans. So validity on both sides…
Another commenter writes “I may be a straight white male, but I have total sympathy for my fellow New Zealanders in the LGBTQI community.” Just about every time you look, that community seems to have grown another letter into its name. Emergence of such organic diversity is a sign of vitality in evolution.
DF
I was thinking how people who have been passed over, oppressed, behave when they get some power. Are they generous to others, grateful that at last their time has come, and look on the sunny side?
Did Paula Bennett want to support other sole parents when she arose to prominence?
Did womens libbers ensure that all women got decent wages and conditions when they won improvements? Or did the middle class women utilise the opportunities to rise in the world of business and then look down on other ‘unsatisfactory’ women?
On a wider stage, does Israel seem determined to treat the Palestinians as fairly as possible, while at the same time staring Arabs with invasionary ideas down?
Gay pride Cissy something reminds me of Paula Bennett, making the most of power, and being forthright and uncompromising, when the gay community have won so many concessions they should be happy and building bridges to further improvements.
Yes, it’s a syndrome. Human nature to morph into a different person in a different context. The old saying `power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ is relevant. Just as a general rule.
Basically, it’s a test of character: to what extent does someone remain true to original political motivations? Are they serious about representing those they identified with at the start, or will they abandon them? Reminds us of the moral dimension of leadership, usually conspicuous by its absence in our era.
He gets it cleany – morechoochoomorechoochoomorechoochoochoo.
60 emails That looks more like stalking abuse from obsessive nutjobs!
Write a letter most govt ministers work 16 hr days 7 days a week. To demand time is unreasonable. Why not try the green spokesperson instead of haranguing minister.
Simon – A sick man
The Trolls have tied their necks to the mad caucus of Simon Bridges. They don’t realise he will trample all over his own Party with his Lies and his hatred of the ordinary New Zealand man and woman.
He, has given his neck to the Chinese Government and Donors. He has allowed Paula Bennett to deny there is a crisis in housing, when even The Herald shouted out in 2017 – Don’t be so dumb Bennett. Don’t be so dumb Billy English.
For me the stupidity of the Trolls – I include Farrar, Hooten , James, BM and Mrs Boag , Judith Collins – is demonstrated by greed for Oil and Gas. Also their demand to allow Farmers to poison every stream and river in New Zealand.
Oil is Lethal, as is Gas. It Pollutes our Air. Diesel Fuel is highly Carcinogenic. So is Petroleum. So is Gas.
Water is essential to all living creatures. Nitrate saturation of our streams and rivers is a crime. It will not be long before Farmers and Industry who pollute our water will be imprisoned for long Sentences.
People such as the Greens. who give our clean water away to their friends will also find themselves in prison. We simply cannot afford Troll stupidity.
NZ is Not for Sale. Bye Bye National
Simon,
He’s a pretty communist
(of course I think the CCP has reinvented the concept of communism, probably quite a different version than the original manifesto, that comrades like Simon, Phil, Judith and many other NZ politicans can profit from).
They seem to have reinvented it as capitalism.
They’re Fordists draccy.
maybe it’s communcapitalistism
totalitarianism is still a good description of many powers.
Though, had USSR and its vassals adopted the Chinese model rather the gangster capitalism and reactionary conservatism in place now, a whole of of people would be better off.
Probably true.
CCP hasn’t reinvented capitalism it’s a command and Control capitalism with central planning.
Allowing China to make changes quickly which Democratically elected economies let economies flounder and yield to to many influences and influences.
China can react quickly when money printing is required they do it. Currency changes the same dumping to gain market share same again, protection of markets they do it as the Dairy industry knows all to well. Stock Piling raw materials China does it.
Other economies may have to wait several or more electoral cycles.
Those who disagree with policies disappear harvested for body parts if they are lucky.
So much stupidity in one post so let’s start with just one point:
How will the greens find themselves in prison ?
Are you suggesting they have been breaking laws ?
Maybe crimes against stupidity, when there is public loss of amenity through gross stupidity.
It was legal for the tobacco, asbestos and so forth, later on, they had to pay big fines, same will hopefully happen with all these people siphoning from the aquifers for profit and those that allowed it.
Pretty much everybody is pointing fingers at Trump and tut tut about his outright support for the Saudis , while at the same time pretty much everybody will carry on trading and doing business with the Saudis…and of course it is not as if everybody didn’t already know about the Saudi’s long and bloody history of human rights abuses including the hanging and beheading and even crucifying of it’s own citizens regularly…the hypocrisy is so stark it is almost farce…
‘Saudi Arabia seeks death penalty against female human rights activist’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/22/saudi-arabia-seeks-its-first-death-penalty-against-a-female-human-rights-activist
‘Saudi Arabia Rejects Human-Rights Criticism, Then Crucifies Someone’
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/08/saudi-crucifixi
‘Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek beheaded in Saudi Arabia – BBC News’
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-20959228
…and it is not as if we will curtail any of our own US$412.67 Million trade with Saudi Arabia any time soon..
https://tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/exports/saudi-arabia
No, all Trump is exposing in broad daylight is that there is no room for morals or ethical considerations when the political ideology that guides your counties every decisions is constant and unending growth…wether that means USA first, or NZ first, the final decision will be the same…the only real difference is that bitter pill is sold to Kiwi’s in a more pragmatic way.
So maybe we should be saving our finger pointing and tut tutting for someone a little more closely to home…whats that old saying about backyards…
You could argue that Trump is at the very least the most honest of them all?
Good points Adrian Thornton
Maybe Trump is hated more for exposing what other government’s are also doing, but not putting a marketing spin on it.
Lets see how soon, business will be ‘bought back’ into the fold…
Or will other governments and international bodies and business actually do something meaningful and take a moral stand?
Mass hypocrisy seems to be on the rise.
At least the Natz were always clear they would sell their soul for a $ and remember their Saudi sheep deal, it’s more incompetence that let them down than greed on their botched bribes.
@SaveNZ, yeh this is my main problem with Labour NZ, watching them “putting a marketing spin” on Liberalism that IMO is worse than the ‘harder’ (but at least more honest) National version of it, it leaves citizens with no real political choice but this free market economic liberalist ideology…which means as a country, you will end up trading any and all moral and ethical positions or stands that your country might have thought it stood or stands for, to the invisible hand of competition economics.
And if you haven’t sold out that moral/ethical stand today…you can be sure someone will offer you just the right price for you to forget it tomorrow…everything is apparently for sale in our bright new free market gig economy.
True but its not USA first or NZ first but rich people first. They’re really the only ones who benefit from the present round of globalisation. Same as happened in the 19th century round as well now that I think about it.
The present system is all about making the rich richer. To achieve that, though, everyone else must become poorer. That’s just accounting.
“True but its not USA first or NZ first but rich people first. They’re really the only ones who benefit from the present round of globalisation. Same as happened in the 19th century round as well now that I think about it.”
I agree with you there, but one big difference is that now a huge part of the population has also caught the disease of greed, either by trading houses or stocks or whatever, and when you let that greed genie out of the bottle it seems like it will be hard to squash back in, so unfortunately now many of our fellow citizens buy into this greedy liberal ideology, even though it is obviously destroying us all, including them and their families.
Greed is a extremely powerful part of the human psyche that liberalism (I think) originally unleashed by dumb mistake, but now is cynically tapping into…stopping it will be very difficult.
Do people here agree with this attitude prevailing in NZ? This is what I encountered in Daily Review 23/11.
As we age our tendency to hark back to our halycon formative years increases. We pine for the ways things used to be. We all have a soft spot for the music we listened to as 15-25 year olds.
Reading the posts of the older contributors to this blog an international observer could easily deduce that of the 198 countries in the world we are living in the biggest shit-hole of all.
No child had their legs blown off in NZ today, nobody starved to death, nobody was imprisoned for life for criticizing the government.
We don’t know how lucky we are.
This describes an attitude which I have been arguing against for years, and I think that most people writing on The Standard also do not agree with it. How come this can pop up still, like a stainless steel coated shield againstour considered human values and what I thought the left basically thinks, and The Declaration of the Rights of Man ushered in.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Man_and_of_the_Citizen
And a thinkpiece from The Guardian on the matter.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/11/rousseau-man-born-free-social-contract
greywarshark,
As elders we all want to see a real solid ‘equal redistribution of our ‘commonwealth to all NZders not just a few.’
Now that the pendulum has swung wildly to the right; – where many of us are poor elders are stripped with no increase in living costs, – that are climbing every day, we are now among the ‘working and unemployed poor in NZ.
In the 1950’s there was a solid ‘safety net’ around the elders income but that has gone now.
It’s important to keep perspective on these matters, but I agree that it should not be used to dismiss valid concerns.
Thanks Craig H
I was just watching a bit of a video where politics was being satirised and then breaking into real critiques and the guy was saying that the left was splitting into narrow silos so that there could be no movement from the road to utopia, basically.
So keeping perspective as you suggest seems to be what we need, and also not to have the competitive darts approach where the small circle in the middle is the only one to bother about.
We take it for Granted
The Police Force is a must. We cannot do without it. Day and night it is putting itself in danger because Families are being abused; Druggies are acting up like zombies; Motorists are pretending they can drive; and the town is awash with alcohol and anger.
Some misfits and crims like to throw abuse at the men and women of the Police Force.
But normal people are glad of Police Bravery and Support.
I think that Gay people thankfully, are well accepted in the community these days- and accepted as naturally normal citizens.
Parades are an opportunity for people to honour the Bravery and the Service of our Police. They are so worthy of that.
Police are not always good. Gay people are not always perfect. We need to see around any disagreement, not be idealistic.
Police are being run less as a community organisation, and the military-style authoritarianism taken precedence. And they have been encouraged to reduce crime by going around looking for it, stopping people as they go about their business who are questioned as to their rights to be there and to see whether they may be breaking some law.
The way that convicted law breakers are treated is not for rehabilitation and being found jobs and organisations that will help against recidivism. That is how crime is reduced. Police are being loaded with the job of decreasing crime, and that makes them too prominent in everybody’s life. They deserve better lives and jobs and if government was intelligent and determined to follow better methods the police would not be in their invidious position.
Is our political term too short to achieve climate change action? An ex political leader says that the cycle of re-election is a distracting feature thinking about appealing to the people who may not be willing to face whatever is their likely future that the politicians are supposed to be improving.
That came up in an interview this morning between Kim Hill and Mary Robinson
talking about climate change and what is needed to help the planet from going out of balance.
The former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, has turned her energy to the fight against climate change. She has set up The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice which focuses on the struggle to secure justice for people who are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and who are usually forgotten – the poor, the disempowered and the marginalised. She has also released a series of podcasts with comedian Maeve Higgins, Mothers of Invention, which tells the stories of women all over the world driving climate solutions. She joins Kim to talk about her new book, Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future, in which she argues that grassroots activists offer hope in the face of climate change.
Look on RNZ site after 10am for audio.
greywarshark,
Good points in all that.
While we are discussing the ‘health of our communities’ where is the labour coalition government’s new bill called “Health and well being bill” at today ,does anyone know????
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/wellbeing
The Government’s commitment to a broad agenda of wellbeing has been reinforced by the intention to reinstate the requirement on local government to promote the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of communities.
There is a shared role for central and local government when it comes to wellbeing. Local government plays a key and important role in community development.
The four wellbeing domains – social, economic, environmental and cultural- have recently been reintroduced into the Purpose clause of the Local Government Act.
If we called a war footing, doesn’t that cancel out elections?
Hi Greywarshark
I enjoy your research and thought. Excellent.
In regard to Crime, it seems that children raised in dysfunctional homes are in great danger of not having literacy or numeracy and enter into a life of crime and recidivism.
So, From very early on there has to be a high level of intervention in those homes – with focus on the children.
Although we often say that Maori are the main prisoners, Pakeha are not all that far behind them in number.
The Raising of Young is the prime duty of adults.
With focus on the children?
If the parents issues are not being addressed how does it improve the children’s lives. If the parents are improved doesn’t that result in improvement for the child. If the parents remain dysfunctional then the foundation of improving the child’s outcome remains rotten.
Services move on and the children’s enviroment is possibly worse as the parents are punished by ideology portrayed as “best interests of the child”
Hi Observer I can see you are thinking deeply.
Remembered from my studies on social policy, a government that really cares about FAMILIES not just carrying on about children, and wants to advance the welfare and self-sufficiency and socialisation of the poor and their children, puts a lot of attention in working ALONGSIDE parents. They would have parents bring their children to school, and while their children are young give the parents all the information, support and reward needed to keep a positive move upward and onward when the support can be lessened. The object is to build knowledge, practicality, confidence and pride in parents and then make sure that they can move out of a downward-pushing location and lifestyle.
The peer group pressure can be punishing, and breaking the location and relationship cycle can be very freeing. When the parents and children are doing reasonably well, then there is the possibility of incentives and apprenticeships for the children. Then if parents on benefits are not scraped to the bone by supertax clawbacks by ‘Welfare’ (note changed slightly ‘farewell’) on every extra $ earned over the benefits they are on the path away from poverty and dependency.
And then fare well, would be an appropriate goodbye to people going from the benefit roles.
But you might not realise Observer, that there is a pleasure for many to beat up on poor people and lay the problems of society at their feet as if caused by them. When in fact, they are sufferers of mean policies that don’t meet their needs, and give them opportunities to prepare for life at the right time.
The best time is when children are growing, in the womb, toddling, becoming themselves when they are under FIVE, and helping all parents then, and not piling hate and despising thoughts on parents for being parents, FGS would change everything. But first you have to get policy out of the hands of haters of children and misers with no caring for others in their fingertips. Too many people like children only when they are behaving like well-schooled circus dogs, there for people’s entertainment ‘Oh how sweet, what a cute little chap’!
I was just reading this RNZ article
Previous government had ‘shocking attitude’ to vehicle safety
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/376692/previous-government-had-shocking-attitude-to-vehicle-safety
While reading it I was reminded of all the other cases where the previous National Governments lax attitude to enforcing the laws put in to protect people has either cost lives and or seen people badly injured.
Unsafe vehicles on our roads was just a small part of how their lax attitude to enforcing laws and letting businesses self-regulate has left devastation in their wake.
The Pike River mine tragedy and deaths of forestry workers are another two that come to mind.
I think if someone was to compile a list of names of people who have died due to the previous National Government not enforcing rules, weakening rules, and allowing business to self-regulate it would be a substantial list.
Then there is also the hidden harm they caused by cutting back in funding to the health sector, allowing our rivers and streams to be polluted, and failing to find soloutions to help tackle climate change. Those would have caused deaths too that will not be as easy to pin on their lax management.
And something that needs to be done with appropriate charges laid on that previous government.
It is wrong that a government can can cause deaths through negligence and not be held accountable for them.
100% Draco,
National caused the “Leaky homes issue to didn’t they?
This now has spread over to large buildings like Middle more hospital now and others so many to even count all that was clad with that ‘substandard’ siding material fro Australian company ‘Hardies’ right?
And they called our builders “cowboys”????
national are the bloody cowboys like “Maurice Williamson” right?
One area National belatedly did was new tough Health and Safety laws.
But they underfunded Mobie deliberately relying on self regulation rather than preventive inspectors!
You are dead right and it is a very big story to go in to.
NZTA is the most powerful agency in the government and it has had no effective oversight for nearly a decade.
The new Labour-appointed Chair Michael Stiassny is a total pit bull in a meat truck, and the Chief Executive is so shit it’s like listening to one of the Undead.
Nearly 50% staff turnover in 2017 and close to 35% already this year.
This is an organization in really serious trouble.
The government should now expect questions in the House about how much contracting out all the investigations and prosecutions out to Meredith Connell is actually costing the taxpayer.
I suspect this is going to take a bit of a legislative shift in the second quarter of next year to make MOT an effective controller of NZTA. Currently NZTA is an out of control monolith.
Yes. The corruption that’s been found in the NZTA is a great reason why we should have kept the MoW and why we should bring it back.
Outsourcing government work invites such corruption.
Not corruption in any legal sense.
Just politically directed laziness.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/350883/revealed-hundreds-of-drivers-lose-licences-after-bribery-scandal
Pretty sure that counts as corruption in a ‘legal sense’. If it doesn’t then we seriously need to improve the quality of our anti-corruption law.
Not NZTA itself; contracted agencies.
More to come in the MoT review.
Yes Draco,
The media was always referring NZTA as “The Transport agency” –
No that its incorrect.
NZTA is only a (RCA) or Road Controlling Authority”
Ministry of Transport is the “Principal Transport Government Advisory Agency” for all transport matters including road, rail, shipping, and air.
I wished the media would for once get the facts right.
https://www.transport.govt.nz/about/
About the Ministry of Transport
Last updated on: 14/08/2018
The Ministry of Transport is the government’s principal transport adviser. The majority of our work is in providing policy advice and support to Ministers.
Through our advice we aim to:
improve the overall performance of the transport system
improve the performance of transport Crown entities
achieve better value for money for the government from its investment in the transport system.
We help the government give effect to its policy by supporting the development of legislation, regulations and rules. We also manage and account for funds invested in transport.
The Ministry represents New Zealand’s interests internationally, particularly in aviation and maritime.
We work with Crown entities
We assist the government in its relationship with the transport Crown entities to ensure they are effectively governed, and are accountable for their performance and monitoring arrangements for transport sector Crown entities.
Visit the Transport Sector Functions page for more information
We work with local government authorities
Local government authorities own, maintain and develop New Zealand’s local road network and perform important regulatory functions. Regional councils (and unitary authorities) are required to develop regional land transport strategies that guide the decision-making of local councils. In the Auckland region, the Auckland Transport carries out these functions. Some local authorities own seaports and airports, or share ownership with the Crown.
Well, ok.
My point still stands. We get this corruption because of outsourcing government service to private enterprise who are incentivised not to do the work properly to make a bigger profit.
The truck safety issue is another area which Ken Shirley Nationals back door funder has allowed most of our trucking industry to run dangerously unsafe trucks Buses trailers on our roads the extent of this deliberate over site shows how easily corrupt able National is. Not to mention the CCP The Exclusive Brethren (Simon no nothing accepting bribes) /Catholic Church (Bill English side lining their systematic abuse) Tories corrupt to the core bending to the highest bidders.
100% Tricledrown.
Truckies were given a free ride ‘wet bus ticket’ here as always.
Note; – that NZTA as ‘safety police over our public railway’ are very strict on rail safety rules even with private rail companies leasing rail for tourism events, unlike seeing that NZTA are slack over shoddy private operators of truck haulage safety rules it appears.
https://www.marketscreener.com/business-leaders/Michael-Stiassny-06RB43-E/biography/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/106683463/special-meeting-called-to-remove-vector-chairman-michael-stiassny
This is what you get when you employ businessmen and businesswomen! to head government agencies. There used to be big fusses made about double-dipping.
Then it only got called for people like Julian Assange.
I think one of the CEOs of the social welfare department used to be ceo of a shipping agency. He introduced a priority phone calling set up. Then I guess he could take it all the way to saying we will return your call in a week as you are regarded as low priority. Of course that is just making fun, they wouldn’t think of returning a call. Or the recipient wouldn’t answer fast enough, three rings and you’re out!
With business, you pay more so they can run an efficient organisation attending to only what is important and make a profit from that. On a chart of their customer and action there would be crossed lines in the middle and a dead spot near the intersection full of people who weren’t important.
1000% Ad.
Yes we agree fully that MInistry of transport (MoT) needs to be beefed up to take control of NZTA as it is a runaway agency that has no principals at all and it tried to roll over MoT in 2014 so yes do this Minster of transport if he is listening.
see my comment about the NZTA on .11.2.1.1.1 reply to Draco about NZTA.
Five countries hold 70% of world’s last wildernesses, map reveals
We’re not included in those five as our land has been fully modified by humanity. Most of it flipped over to the destruction of farming.
Thanks Draco; that an important ‘comment’ in the journal Nature.
NZ, regrettably, has negligible true terrestrial wilderness (mining in national parks, anyone?), but creeps into the top ten in a list of (total; terrestrial and marine) wildest countries, thanks to an extended marine environment.
At #9, NZ is between ‘terrestrial wilds’ China (#8) and Algeria (#10).
France (#6) and Kiribati (#7) also make the list solely for their marine wilds.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07183-6
This is significant good on Nania Mahuta. – well done.
http://www.dia.govt.nz/Central-Local-Government-Partnership
Local governance for community well-being
With the reintroduction of the four well-beings and commitment to a Wellbeing Budget 2019, there is an opportunity to harness local government’s strengths and proximity to its communities and explore how central and local government can align its well-being objectives, frameworks and measures.
This programme will focus on how our two levels of government can and should work together to deliver intergenerational well-being, and on the future role of local governance in New Zealand in strengthening local democracy, instilling greater trust and confidence in local governance and supporting regional growth. It will explore what settings, conditions and resources are required to support local government in this work.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/wellbeing-and-water-%E2%80%93-necessary-conversation-local-government
‘It’s important to initiate the conversation about how Central and Local Government can contribute, enhance and support the types of expectations that communities seek around environmental stewardship, urban planning and place-making, public services and amenities, housing and community development and intergenerational wellbeing,” said Nanaia Mahuta.
20th November 2018.
20 NOVEMBER 2018
Wellbeing and Water – a necessary conversation with Local Government
•
HON NANAIA MAHUTA
Local Government
The Government has announced plans to initiate a strategic conversation with Local Government about community well-being and proposals to overhaul the regulation of water. Led by the Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta, the multi-agency Three Waters Review has been investigating the state and performance of New Zealand’s drinking water, wastewater and storm water systems.
“Equally important is the need to engage our Councils and Central Government in what we can do collaboratively to enhance wellbeing through regional growth, strengthening the role of our communities and engaging the potential of our young people – essential to that will be the challenge of our waters infrastructure,” said the Hon Nanaia Mahuta.
They tried multiple bottom line accountability in the previous local government legislation two decades ago and it didn’t work.
Nanaia is talking talk about water entity amalgamated but theres no sign of it. So far it’s just statements.
Twyford is going big and over the top of local councils (especially Auckland).
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/government-announces-new-housing-authority-cut-through-roadblocks-speed-up-projects
Full support for carpet worker going out on strike.
Workers at Godfrey Hirst carpets have downed tools for the Living Wage – First Union
As those plastic (Nylon) carpets you are exposed to are toxic and dangerous to work with as they out-gas some very toxic chemicals,
I was working in a building in Canada when they bought 5 acres of nylon carpeting into the 12 storey un-ventilated building I was working in at the time and laid the carpet down while we were working there.
In six moths time 40 workers including me was permanently damaged from the chemicals they out-gas such as, butadiene, and styrene, TDI, formaldehyde and toluene, to name a few including the chemicals used when they sprayed the carpets with flame and bug deterrents.
Labour Canada did a sampling of the ‘air quality’ and said we should not have been exposed to these chemicals.
https://ecologycenter.org/blog/ask-the-ecoteam-my-new-carpet-is-off-gassing/
Nylon carpet workers in US studies suffer from early cancers and death now.
Wool carpets are safer, so you need money for dangerous workplaces.
HVDC cook strait link down for repairs.
https://www.transpower.co.nz/power-system-live-data
3 cents a megawatt in the south island.
$630-650 mw in AK wlg.
https://www.electricityinfo.co.nz/
Dirty farmers let us all down. Come on and pull your bloody socks up.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/opinion/108824146/why-are-bad-farmers-letting-the-good-ones-down
For most farms early autumn to late June is when workers can get to take time off. Workers often work 7 days a week. My partner gets a 3 day weekend once a month if she is lucky. She only stopped working when her contractions started in the shed, and was back at work only days after giving birth to our children.
This year nobody got time off as significant fencing, drain maintenance etc projects had to be done to be compliant to new rules and be permitted to supply.
Amongst the bad actors are people who don’t deserve to be tarred with someone else’s brush.
That’s the point of the article. Try reading eh.
Excuses don’t cut it – stop the shit and protect the waterways – that’s it really.
That’s the point they are. There is only so many hours in the day. We have made significant investment, and sacrificed in improving things. Our money, and definately not yours because you invest nothing in solutions.
Bad actors within the industry are being exposed.
Try writing about city waterways and see what reality you can discover.
Fuck off noddy. I’ve milked and I know the truth of that business.
Dirty farmers are killing our country with their greed and selfish desire for more money. Good farmers need to step up instead of bleating and blaming others. Take responsibility for your bad apples.
It must have been a long time ago then, because you’ve said nothing about what is happening now.
If you don’t like us making money or making a profit, don’t ask for our taxes. Because we get virtualy nothing in return for the taxes we pay.
I posted a whole article up and responded to your comments. You seem to struggle to understand what you are reading. My suggestion is read it twice before responding thus saving you embarrasment.
I did read it, and have taken your advice in case I made a mistake and read it again.
“To their credit it is now the careful and responsible dairy farmers…”
Which was my point.
Your.
“Dirty farmers let us all down. Come on and pull your bloody socks up.”
Which is what I was responding too.
In hindsight I may have misinterpreted that.
Generalisations are fraught with misinterpreted responses, something I make a mistake in doing myself.
“An inspirational short film showcasing New Zealand farmers leading the way with regenerative techniques to save our rivers from pollution and contamination. ”
I agree that Tom O’Connor has put up a significant report. A 30% delinquency rate in Waikato is big news, good on you for the link. I wonder if he’s a farmer, or someone who works in compliance management.
Perhaps DJW is commenting on the general situation. A Fed Farmers chappie a while back put the nationwide non-compliance rate around 10%. So the real issue is why failure to comply is so much higher in Waikato.
1. Farmers don’t pay taxes
2. They get: Roads, trains, aircraft, educated workers, power, bailouts by government when their mismanagement brings about failure, etcetera
All for the low price of nothing.
Obviously farmers get some back like schooling, police, military etc.
The farm pays large rates, but get no services. No water, sewerage, rubbish collection or roading services. We have a council owned drain through the property that they are responsible for. They refuse to maintain it so we have to pay for a big digger to clean it as it blocks up going under a main road flooding the farm.
The owners husband who was super healthy never using the health system had a off farm accident resulting in a degenerative brain injury. He required 24 hours specialist care the 74 year old wife couldn’t provide. Due to assets she paid $5,000 per month over a year until his death.
Aircraft. We just hired one to do some work. $17,000 plus GS Tax.
Trains. Fonteras use of Rail is probably one of the only profitable parts of the network.
Power? The taxpayer provides power? You should see our bill. The power company pays tax on profits from us. The farm was subject to the public works act with towers built on it so you can have power.
Bailouts? Never seen one of those.
Roads? We have a State highway boundary but they are for connecting cities, plus we pay vehicle taxes for that.
Education. Nobody has a tertiary education, most leaving at 15. (Exclude me as I’m not personely involved with the farm) It’s 20km to get to kindy, and they closed the local school about 6 years ago, no bus services for the local kids.
Other governments services are levied.
We protect blocks of Native forest on private land without reward.
Provide access to the property to a community group to hold festivals, and free summer holiday camping for families.
Every worker pays for what they get with income tax. Helping to raise a total of 6 kids with nobody getting WFF or accommodation supplements.
Down chain our production creates jobs and taxes.
So blah blah, farmers are bludgers, blah blah.
Your link went they pay no tax. Firstly Nash is a bigger dropkick than Kelvin and that’s saying something. Secondly it went farmers only payed $26million in a cherry picked bad year except we excluded this other group of farmers who paid $1.8 billion in tax, ingnored GST, support businesses, income taxes, and the taxes earned by the 15 times income multiplier past the gate for what we make.
Yep farmers are bad. City living bludgers having babies for are living are good. I get it.
Check the finances some time:
Really, look at that graph. The cities have been subsidising farms for decades.
You’re really spouting the BS today:
These are the women that the WWG and the Key government want to stigmatise? Even Paula Bennett’s own department doesn’t believe the real problem here is a lack of personal motivation, or an absence of strong incentives. The Social Development Department’s December fact sheet on the DPB blames the economy instead :
The number of clients receiving a Domestic Purposes Benefit at the end of December decreased from 106,000 to 98,000 between 2005 and 2007, then increased to reach 113,000 in 2010. This pattern reflects changes in economic conditions. (My emphasis.)
One further crucial piece of evidence shows there is no social or economic crisis in the country’s current DPB figures. The ratio of those on the DPB – if taken as a percentage of the working age population – was actually lower in December 2010 (at just over 4%) than it was when National left office in 2000, when the figure was heading for 5%.
You’re talking out your arse.
“It must have been a long time ago then, because you’ve said nothing about what is happening now.”
Maybe you should read your own posts….
” Workers often work 7 days a week. My partner gets a 3 day weekend once a month if she is lucky. She only stopped working when her contractions started in the shed, and was back at work only days after giving birth to our children.
This year nobody got time off as significant fencing, drain maintenance etc projects had to be done to be compliant to new rules and be permitted to supply.”
So your business needed 30% more staff, at least, in order to be able to meet the demands you placed on it. Or you are over stocked by 30%. In any business that’s a recipe for things to turn to shit. But that’s farming.
It’s private enterprise, not a Union. We get screwed at every turn. We even have to register our cows and pay a yearly fee as permission for them to live. We made a profit of $40,000 last year, plus the owners profit. We could employ someone else but then there would be no profit. They choose to work hard instead.
Labour is a resource like every other in a business. Generally the managers of that business will have the same attitudes to the allocation and use of those varied resources. If you are willing to accept a 30% over-use of labour, which is actually yourself and family, then it is reasonable to assume that you are just as prepared to to overuse other resources as well, like your stock and the environment . And probably to a much greater extent than 30% since it’s not coming out of your hide.
Are you starting to see what’s wrong here?
If most farmers are in the same position as you, since you say that you are one of the good ones, the industry is in serious trouble and there must be some serious basket cases out there.
No they’re not overstocked, the numbers have been fine tuned for the farm so the animals are at peak health and we can cope with drought. No they do not overwork 30%. That was 100% a one off due to a out of the blue rule change for fencing and ramp design rule changes plus council incompetence in managing there drain destroying a bridge we had to replace at our cost. This year they will overwork 0%. But who knows what farming haters will create as rule changes this year.
You are not permitted to overuse anything, cow numbers are limited by rules, so is fertiliser use. We don’t irrigate.
People who overstock get burnt with calving rates and go bust.
If it’s the waterway fencing requirement, that was signalled about 3 years ago, and was supposed to only affect 20% of farms, the rest either being fenced already, or not having waterways (which would be very few). So it was left to the last minute and the Council wasn’t able to process the consent in time. Not sure that the incompetence is entirely in the council’s court.
If you are having to work 7 days a week, by definition you are 30% understaffed, 5/7 = 0.71, so only 71% staffed. You need more staff before you kill someone, probably yourself.
So belong to the business class, just don’t complain to the left and the workers. You are on the end of a string that big business holds and so are we but you seem to think you deserve better. Any new business has to work hard before it can make a profit you know. Workers who want to go into business have to mortgage their houses and then give up having time off. And that may be for three years of living on the smell of an oily rag and perhaps hiring or renting while the money gets sucked into the business.
Karl Marx thinking about the range of income between wealthy and poor spent time analysing how it works. You are not poor but soon could be if anything goes wrong. Marx called your class the petite bourgeoisie.
Petite bourgeoisie – also petty bourgeoisie, is a French term (sometimes derogatory) referring to a social class comprising semi-autonomous peasantry and small-scale merchants whose politico-economic ideological stance in times of socioeconomic stability is determined by reflecting that of a haute (“high”) bourgeoisie, with which the petite bourgeoisie seeks to identify itself and whose bourgeois morality it strives to imitate.[1]
And an interesting piece of theory –
He [Wilhelm Reich] claimed that the middle classes were a hotbed for political reaction due to their reliance on the patriarchal family (according to Reich, small businesses are often self-exploiting enterprises of families headed by the father, whose morality binds the family together in their somewhat precarious economic position) and the sexual repression that underlies it.[5]‘
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petite_bourgeoisie
We don’t own the business. My partner manages it. So she got none of that profit. We are a working class family. I’m a blue collar worker, who is part time due to illness but otherwise a stay at home parent. Labour is supposed to fight for my family. But what are we? Scum that needs labelling?
I grew up in poverty. I had to take custody of my brother when I was 19. Worked minimum wage for years living in a caravan.
Is that right wing enough for you.
I tell you what since you clearly know your subject.
What happens if all these horrible farms and horrible capitalist pigs all gave up. Every one of them closing there buisinesses tommorow. All seeing the error of their ways and bowing to Marxist Socialism.
Far out djward, take a breath.
Who is your local MP?
And are you the same djward from kiwiblog?
Do you not get working for families?
How about that healthy homes, insulation?
EDIT… The Listening Post is about to start….. epic information once a week at this time, here’s the link
Do I get the business subsidy WFF. We are on the limit. We got it in the first year when I had to stop working, but I got head hunted with a offer understanding of my illness and do a little bit of contract work taking us just over.
Am I from kiwiblog. No I’m from somewhere else. I have been politicaly active for 25 years, mostly in the last 5. I am not affiliated with any political party. Labour, National, greens, etc are irrelevant to me. Politically speaking I am a green capitalist. However I dedicated my life to Men’s Rights Advocacy until my death.
DJ Ward
Please don’t complain to us because we are drawing national structural problems to everyone’s attention. If it is your farm presumably you knew what you were getting into, If you were sharemilkers we have been reading for years about the hard time they have getting their own farms. I remember one man died and his wife said he’d died from overwork. The owner had kept building up his own herd beyond the expected cattle numbers, and the worker trying to look after them and build his own up to viable levels had gone under.
If you have bitten off more than you can chew and can’t manage to keep up as the conditions have become serious and climate change is dumping its forces on you, perhaps you should face up to reality and give up. The problems we have now have been building over the years and being ignored. Don’t blame us and imply we are mean and unfeeling because of your difficulties. The early pioneers had to go through hell some of them, and we thinking people never wanted to see others be reduced to the same disastrous regimes.
Look to the shits who got us into the present treadmill that is our economy and give them a tongue lashing. They will laugh at you, but at least you will be directing your ire at the people who are at fault.
100% correct greywarshark.
No I was pointing out that not all farmers are dirty farmers.
We knew exactly what we were getting into.
She started with nothing, worked harder than you ever have to get the opportunity. She has a dream, she fought for it. When she got the opportunity she worked damn hard to make things work. The assets she has created from nothing because of hard work will set her up for the rest of her life. She will own her own farm in the not too distant future as a family Buisiness.
Labour celebrates Jacinda and her achievements. I’ll call crap on that.
My partner is the real feminism, the real worker, the person that’s earned my respect. Labour makes her the enemy. Labour makes me the enemy.
What the hell are you thinking to believe citizens like us should be hated.
I know perfectly well were societies problems began and they are not where you think they are.
20 year old Native American Allen Salway on why Thanksgiving is a painful reminder of a sanatised past.
In 1637 the Pequot Massacre took place, when over 700 Native men, women and children were slaughtered in what’s now known as Mystic, Connecticut. The following day, the governor declared a day of thanksgiving and held a feast to celebrate their victories in battle. Thirty-nine years later in Massachusetts, the colonists declared a “day of public celebration and thanksgiving” saying, “there now scarce remains a name or family of them [Natives] but are either slain, captivated or fled,” right after the slaughtering of a tribe including the beheading of Wampanoag chief Metacom (which remained on display for 24 years after King Philip’s war). It was not until 1863 that Abraham Lincoln officially declared it a national holiday, in the same year the Sioux were being removed from Minnesota, during which the bounty for a Sioux scalp was $25.
http://www.papermag.com/thanksgiving-native-american-history-2620937254.html
Good to see action.
https://ngaitahu.iwi.nz/positive-outcome-in-hamilton-bus-strike/
Great to see union pressure working on the Maori owners, and a public commitment by them to the living wage.
Would be good to see some union commentary on developments.
The union pressure was not helpful imo and the orchestrated media campaign was poor form. This was a combination of groups WORKING TOGETHER not being divisive – learn this ffs.
You are saying the bus companies would have paid their workers a living wage if there had been no union pressure?
wow Is that what you think I’m saying???
Are you a member of a union?
Yes.
It was poor form that the workers were not paid properly in the first place, and it took union intervention and media pressure to get the workers recognition. That’s how it works.
condescending prat
It seems that Go Bus is the employer and supposed to be managing the company. The Maori entities are separate as bus owners I think.
Did First Union approach the Maori bodies explaining their concerns.? They really needed to go over their bosses heads, to the master company. Go Bus managers could hardly do this, it wasn’t an option for them, it wouldn’t have been in their contract to run back to the owners when there were problems. Go Bus would have been following standard procedure applied in NZ now, get as much out of the workforce for as little moolah as possible.
The union applied pressure to their employers.
That’s what the legislation allows for.
The media picked up on it.
And it’s working.
But marty mars noticed what you haven’t mentioned in your precis, that there was an outcry against the Maori owners who have contracted the bus company. That is what mm is responding to, the Maori owners being called out as at fault. As you say Ad, the union pressured their employers.
The person who blackened the Maori holding companies,
owners is guilty of spreading simple-minded racist criticisms from a too-open flapping mouth,.
It’s really OK to hold Maori corporations to account. Whether the public should expect any more or the same from Maori corporations as any other corporate because it is a Maori corporation is a really interesting debate, but a bit philosophical to me.
I do see that it would be hard to have that debate about the accountability of Maori corporations without the more conservative end of the political spectrum to coming in boots and all. Which would not be useful.
Since unions and worker representation generally is so weak in New Zealand I’m personally glad to see any union pressure working.
I guess we are all a bit crooked Ad. A majority of NZs have supported governments that won’t do the right thing for decades. Why start pointing all your fingers at Maori corporates if they are more RW than you think they should be. There are plenty of other entities for each finger if you are looking to blame.
It really is more on a par with all the white wealthy with their fingers on the tips of the levers that go down to their pliant eager CEOs and managers amassing their own assets. That is a different kettle of fish and structural.
Yes ad forgets that this is actually an IWI organisation NOT a corporate. The subtleties of that will be lost on ad but for Iwi members it means a lot, like everything.
There’s no shield either under law or in our society from criticism of a corporate entity – no matter where they are from. And there’s only one owner being pointed at here, by Maori owners themselves as the quote at 19 shows.
There’s a whole post by itself on why Maori-owned corporate entities might have different accountabilities to any other corporation, but like I said it’s pretty philosophical.
Meantime, GoBus is owned by a particular bunch, and as the quote given at 19 points out, it is the Maori Chiefs and Runanga executives themselves who are fronting that corporation. And good on them.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu is the sole Trustee of the Ngāi Tahu Charitable Trust which in turn owns and operates Ngāi Tahu Holdings Corporation Ltd.
Similar to Te Arataura for Tanui Holdings.
Plenty of others use such tax efficient structures.
Nothing wrong with it.
What has that to do with anything?
The Iwi is an organisation for Iwi members which also has corporate and commercial arms – big deal, you can read a website.
The accountabilities of the Iwi organisation are to Iwi members.
It’s pretty basic stuff – I surprised you are struggling with this neophyte level of understanding – maybe you’re not as bright as you think you are.
marty mars
Are you saying that unions need to go direct to iwi members if the drivers want a fair deal? The problem with making systems work is that if something is everybody’s responsibility, then nobody feels they personally must do something.
So iwi appoint somebody to act on their behalf so they don’t have to be consulted about everything and spend much of their time in meetings and discussions and getting briefed on the facts.
Pointing out who are the participants in Maori organisations doesn’t indicate how those organisations set up their paths to decision making. Those paths, and the quality and fairness of the decisions made are of importance in this discussion.
Sure looks like it worked marty.
good then maybe the bashing of iwi will stop but i doubt that favorite sport of tauiwi will go away soon.
Looks to me like the union struck for a living wage, gobus did a lockout, and now everyone’s back to work and the owners would really love to pay drivers fairly but haven’t actually committed to it.
How is that a win?
There is no strike action any more and people are talking – and the corporation has set a really clear expectation in public. That’s not a total win but it’s great start.
It’s basically the situation that existed before the strike was announced – everyone’s in work, and gee willickers we’d love to give you more money sometime whenever we can afford it ourselves…
🙂
the
Maoriowners.Now that is people power. They have to DO what they say and not try lip service.
We need to support participating employers employees and unions working towards providing a living wage.
We need to avoid the contracting out to the lowest tender!!
These are often achieved through low pay and poor maintenance of old buses.
Not sure if anyone ever saw this movie, but as always with the good stuff, it might get lost in the mediocre flood.
la belle verte
a french movie about how things could be, how they were, still are, bref, a very french movie.
superb acting by all without exception
it is subtitled, it is suitable for 3-99+ years of age
enjoy a rainy day:)
Thread.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1065841141201989632.html
Thanks Joe90 Knowledge of deep history explains much but then still doesn’t explain how what happened could happen. Are we mad all the time with noticeable peaks, or do we go through cycles?
When you look up King Leopold of Belgium and go into what the bastard did in the Congo, and what Africa has had to put up with from whites, and rom each other, you need to wash your mind out. So I suggest that everyone sit down and slow their minds and read the quaint Alexander McCall Smith stories about Botswana and the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency set there. The stories are good, and slow, and he brings philosophical matters into them that he develops interestingly. And they leave one feeling better about Africa, and make a change from hearing about the travesty of civilisation so often told.
You could buy a copy for buy now $60 on Trademe – of 1993 book by Auckland historian Dick Scott, Would A Good Man Die? Niue Island, New Zealand and the late Mr Larsen – about NZs shame at playing colonial master and the way that NZs paid no attention to the treatment of the islanders and then bloodthirstily wanted them punished by hanging.
Story on NZ Herald.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=2847266
I tried to bring good christian teachings to my village.
Things like not being racist and sexist.
Their eyes killed me with arrows. Their barbs never stopped.
Yet another handcart has departed.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/24/brazil-records-worst-annual-deforestation-for-a-decade
No Ad, refer to Ad 13.1
Water is only one of four tenants they are placing inside the new “Local governance for community well-being policy” do you see that?
http://www.dia.govt.nz/Central-Local-Government-Partnership
“With the reintroduction of the four well-beings and commitment to a Wellbeing Budget 2019″,
Wellbeig is a large target we can use to point to our deep held serious environmental issues”.
We see this as a win.
Local governance for community well-being
“With the reintroduction of the four well-beings and commitment to a Wellbeing Budget 2019”, there is an opportunity to harness local government’s strengths and proximity to its communities and explore how central and local government can align its well-being objectives, frameworks and measures.
there is something going on in France and else where in europe
le mouvement gilet jaune……
gilet jaune = the hiz viz vest one has to have in the car at all times, unless worn.
It is a european wide strike, and last count was about 3 million people on strike across Potugal, France, Italia, Germany, Hungry and Bulgary according to these guys here https://www.facebook.com/ResistanceNice
not quite sure if it is a spontanious uprising of people or the beginning of a general strike across europe, but its been going on for a while now and at least in france it seems to start having an impact.
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=le+gilet+jeune+news&oq=le+gilet+jeune+news&aqs=chrome..69i57.8472j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Sabine, is it the full price for France, that some there are striking about?
Saw this piece on the news the other day….
Protests against soaring fuel prices in Reunion Island have shut down much of the French territory.
The government cancelled all flights, closed schools and suspended public transport.
Several police personnel and protesters were injured and more than 100 people have been arrested.
Demonstrators on the island in the Indian Ocean say it’s about much more than the cost of filling up the tank.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/frances-fuel-protests-stretched-islands-reunion-181122110413086.html
I think we can not really just put it on one thing. The taxes on gasoline are literally just the last drop. I am not sure if you could classify a strike or an uprising.
when we are forced to give up the treats of civilization we will not do so quietly. 🙂 it is peaceful atm, to there is that.
Watch: London police knock over moped thieves to reduce crime (Auto-play video the effing morons)
I’m in two minds about it.
It’s dangerous and may hurt someone.
The crims have probably already hurt several people.
Was the same really
Thought it was pretty full on at first, but then thought how many elderly, kids, generally vulnerable people they have sent sprawling.
This ‘(Auto-play video the effing morons)’
What do you mean?
Page has auto play videos. It even automatically goes on to the next.
This chews up bandwidth which is a concern for limited bandwidth plans/devises and can make a lot of irritating noise if you’re not expecting it.
The Base … rings a bell….
A neo-Nazi who goes by the alias Norman Spear has launched a project to unify online fascists and link that vast coalition of individuals into a network training new soldiers for a so-called forthcoming “race war.”
Spear, who claims to be an Iraq and Afghan war veteran, is a self-proclaimed white nationalist with a significant online following. His latest act involves bringing neo-Nazis together, regardless of affiliation and ideology, into a militant fascist umbrella organization. His tool for doing this? A social network he calls “The Base,” which is already organizing across the US and abroad, specifically geared toward partaking in terrorism.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a3mexp/neo-nazis-are-organizing-secretive-paramilitary-training-across-america
I heard on bbc news;
Truckies and farmers in France want diesel tax dropped!!!!!
So it appears that they want to keep using ‘dirty diesel to pollute planet’ eh?
ummmm.
Kia ora R&R I totally agree with that statement we need to go back to reusable glass bottles for all liquid products that’s what we did 30 od years ago.
Glass and aluminum are good choices
Consumer products are that cheap and unreliable the only last 3 to 5 years and you throw it away and buy a new one.
Yes the plastic bag banning single use super market bag’s is just the start to changing our use of plastic or and waste all waste needs to be minimized.
Ka kite ano P.S really good topic there is a lot of good information on what one can recycle the time seem out.
Kia ora The Hui It is a shame that Kura has been treated badly buy the police who only admit they are wrong went one has spent thousands of dollars in court or else Kura would have a criminal charges.
Wow thats higher than % of Maori In Jail the amount of Maori Tamariki in the state care are 70 % what a mess those poor tamariki .Thanks to Ngai tahu for taking a leading role in looking after there tamariki in state care Mana Wahine ka pai.
The Toi Whenua whano are classic example of how the state have rode roughshod over Te tangata whenua human rights its good that the government has apologized to the guys and whano for been taken off there father and put into state abuse/care just because there mother died ka pai Ka kite ano
Eco Maori has thought about the Kura case on The hui this morning and the conclusion I come to is the other driver was at fault and that the cop who did the investigation had links to the driver of the Peugeot an played his cover card for his M8
1 The way they treat maori deep down south I have experienced this phobia to maori every time I have been there and had anything to do with these European people down south it has had a negative out come for Eco Maori.
2 The other Car in the crash was a Peugeot no many maori drive these cars not enough room for the Mokopunas.
3 Why did the Cop wait till 5 days before the statute of limitations was up before he laid charges against Kura ?????. So there would be no chance of charging / investigating the other driver of the Peugeot in the accident by the time Kura got the correct ruling of not being the main cause of the accident .
4https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2017/07/19/southern-police-nothing-changed-since-tom-lewis-wrote-coverups-copouts/
5 What must be most worrying however are the retrospective powers John Key has rammed through Parliament to give the cops massive search and surveillance powers that allow them to bug legally privileged conversations, break into your house and plant spy cameras without you knowing, warrantless search orders and they can trigger these powers by linking 3 people who know each other.
Remember, this is the same Police force who are forcing companies to hand over information about you without you knowing, and then those companies punish you for it.{ Banks }
We are becoming less of a democratic state and more a functioning Police state.
6https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/04/05/thank-god-for-bryce-edwards-yes-the-nz-police-are-corrupt/
6https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/77844567/police-officers-convicted-of-52-crimes-in-three-years Coverups-copouts will be a good read to shine a light on this topic ANA TO KAI Ka kite ano links below
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/77844567/police-officers-convicted-of-52-crimes-in-three-years
https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2017/07/19/southern-police-nothing-changed-since-tom-lewis-wrote-coverups-copouts/
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/04/05/thank-god-for-bryce-edwards-yes-the-nz-police-are-corrupt/
Ka pai
All Blacks captain Kieran Read leads the haka. Credits: Sky Sports
For the first time in his career, captain Kieran Read has had the privilege of leading the All Blacks’ haka before their match against Italy in Rome.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/sport/2018/11/all-blacks-vs-italy-why-kieran-read-led-the-ka-mate-haka.html He is a good leader Ka kite ano
I see our Australian cousin can see past the ————- propaganda served up by the liberals neo in the Victorian state elections Ka pai I know that Labour has pushed to mitigate Human Caused Climate Change .
Labor has won a stunning victory in Victoria, with the premier, Daniel Andrews, saying voters have rejected “fear and division”.
The Liberal leader, Matthew Guy, says it’s time for “unity” within his party, amid claims of internal strife that are said to have plagued its campaign.
The Greens had a disappointing night following a disastrous campaign.
And with that, I will leave you. link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2018/nov/24/victorian-election-2018-live-results-seats-analysis-labor-daniel-andrews-matthew-guy-liberals
Dont let the carbon baron make a mess of our grandchildrens future ka kite ano.
Hopefully Labour will win the national elections in may in Australia some one going to be lonely Ka kite ano.
The Democrat capitalist are running scare of all the Democrat /Socialist who got elected during there American midterm elections Kia kaha minority cultures and Mana wahine .
Why do I say the capitalist are scared well they are trying to float a toilet that has already sunk because of all the stuff that is weighing down her toilet I see they are trying to float tony blair toilet to desperate fools they gave Berni Sanders a true Socialist a under arm bowl to clear the way for shillary and even now they can not see the WRITING ON THE WALL that to win the next American president election they have to embrace the socialist don’t be scare we will treat you better than you have treated us we are socialist we care about Equality and a future for the Grandchildren.
If the Democrats want to win they have to work with each other and not against each other the goals are the same slow climate change the socialist will have ladys vote youth vote and minority cultures vote join them all together and you will have a unstoppable force for good .links below
Ka kite ano
https://www.euronews.com/2018/11/23/hillary-clinton-tells-europe-to-get-a-hold-on-migration-to-halt-rise-in-populism she is trying to educate Europe she was part of cause of the refuge crisis around Papatuanuku
The neo Liberal capitalist of the world have a vale of bribes lies and money covering our Australians cousins eyes .The Australians have all these huge carbon exporting company’s .Senate inquiry told zero tax or royalties paid on Australia’s biggest new gas projects the Australian environment is going to degrade all for what to make ultra wealthy people even more billions and in the process turn our grandchildren future into a mess
Woodside applies to build big-polluting LNG plant – with no emissions plan
Western Australian Browse project could emit more than 200m tonnes of CO2
“It’s incredible to think the state government would consider a further expansion of what is an incredibly dirty source of gas at a time when the federal Labor party is proposing ambitious climate targets,” he said. “Fracking and LNG developments are going to put those targets out of reach.” lucky Eco Maori skims through the comments on story’s that interest me as I would never have seen this story that has a cloak of money hiding the facts on big carbon paying very little tax.
https://theconversation.com/senate-inquiry-told-zero-tax-or-royalties-paid-on-australias-biggest-new-gas
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/23/woodside-applies-to-build-big-polluting-lng-pla
Kia ora Newshub yes education is need on man made weed its a poison if we educate people about all the harm it does they will be less likely to us the crap.
Wow thats heaps of rain in Auckland in one hour 30mls and its heading this way .
That was brave alright Robert Nickle fighting to save 60.000 refugees against huge odds good story its cool that they confirmed there efforts.
O no not the cheating American Palino team is himself first and for most that toilet has sunk.
Ka kite ano P.S I posted a few post today