Here are five disturbing findings from my research, which adheres, I believe, to the highest possible scientific standards inall respects:1.In 2016, biased search results generated by Google’s search algorithml ikely impacted undecided voters in a way that gave at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton(whom I supported). I know this because I preserved more than 13,000 election-related searches conducted by a diverse group of Americans on Google, Bing, and Yahoo in the weeks leading up to the election, and Google search results –which dominate search in the U.S. and worldwide –were significantly biased in favor of Secretary Clinton in all 10 positions on the first page of search results in both blue states and red states. I know the number of votes that shifted because Ihave conducted dozens of controlled experiments in the U.S. and other countries that measure precisely how opinions and votes shift when search results favor one candidate, cause, or company. I call this shift “SEME” –the Search Engine Manipulation Effect. My first scientific paper on SEME was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS) in 2015 (https://is.gd/p0li8V)(Epstein & Robertson, 2015a) and has since been accessed or downloaded from PNAS’s website more than 200,000 times. SEME has also been replicated by a research team at one of the Max Planck Institutes in Germany
Abandoned at birth by his father Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin searches for his life's purpose. With the help of some friends, Bitcoin rises from total obscurity to become a Batman–esque hero of the people who fights against the corrupt banking system that oppresses everyone.
In the pilot episode, Bitcoin awakens to a chaotic world following the 2008 financial crisis. With only a few words to his young child, Satoshi disappears, leaving Bitcoin with more questions than answers. Fortunately, a benevolent ice cream truck owner (Jones) takes Bitcoin under his wing in a search to find his father.
Bitcoin is the ultimate example of something whose only value is that a few people delude themselves that it has value. In tangible terms, it's purely a certificate of gratuitously wasted electricity.
Our present financial system is the ultimate example of something whose only value is that a few people [in pivotal positions manipulate it and in the confidence in its value by many] assure themselves that it has value.
In the end, the value of a state-issued currency is made tangible by that state having powers of compulsion over its citizens. So in that sense, yes, the backing is utterly reliant on the confidence of its citizens. That confidence can be lost, Zimbabwe and Venezuela being notable recent examples. But it takes a fairly cataclysmic societal upheaval to decimate the value of a state-issued currencly. Whereas a ponzi-scheme con game like crypto-currency could collapse from something as ephemeral as the next shiny economics-fashion idea coming along.
Your point is made…but 'the next shiny economics-fashion idea coming along' sounds just the idea of having a floating currency as the remarkable idea brought by the emissary from the Finsec riding on his magic wand that solved the problem of states trying to hold a stable currency against those who doubted its equivalency. So we decide on the unstable currency dependent on the 'next shiny idea' of the Alex's out there.
And in their persecution and murder of Christians and Yazidis in Iraq and Syria, Isis – which included Muslims from around the world – may not have been specifically aided by the local population; but while Arabs tried to protect their neighbours, others systematically looted their homes and property after Isis had slaughtered or deported the owners. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/holocaust-armenia-genocide-shoah-nazi-germany-turkey-ottoman-a9020601.html
And Don't hold back on fascist fighting …. 32 secs
If anybody deserves a holocaust …it would have to be those fascists …. 1min 32 secs :0
A regime huckster putting words in the mouths of his opponents.
Putting words in the mouths of others, hardly amounts to giving a balanced account.
Allah must never forgive anyone who shows mercy towards the Alawites, screams the opposition activists of Syria”
Faisal Qasim
From this beginning Faisal Qasim goes on to demolish the sectarian straw man argument of his own creation.
Despite Syria being a majority Sunni Muslim country, (and naturally the make up of the majority of the opposition reflect this reality). there have been and are Alawites and Christians who have been in the opposition even in leading positions.
Fadwa Soliman the famed Actress and political activist from Homs who became the most nationally recognised face of the opposition was from a notable Alawite family.
Homs was completely destroyed and depopulated by the regime's genocidal aerial bombardment. To escape this aerial genocide Fadwa Soliman along with tens of thousands of other citizens of Homs was forced to flee the rebel city and become a refugee.
Fadwa Soliman died in exile in France in 2017.
Reason, to finish, will ask you one simple question, it is a question I have always asked regime apologists like yourself.
I have lost track of the number of times I have asked it. And not once since I first posed it, have I ever received a single response from you, or any of the other pro-regime apologists who infest this site
To expose the intellectual dishonesty and cowardice of regime apologists like yourself Reason, I will again ask this question and challenge you to give an answer.
Jenny … … the video part of my post . was just a loon having a rave …. about killing fascists … he calls them Alawites … you call the Assadists … Same people.
You ignored in Wayne Mapp like fashion … the serious part of my post
And in their persecution and murder of Christians and Yazidis in Iraq and Syria,,,,,
Homs … “Christians to Beirut, Alawites to their graves!”
Amnesty International have stated that Raqqa was the worst example of total destruction and indifferent killing of civilians in either Iraq or Syria …. done by your fascist fighters … the good guys.
I've already told you who started it .,.. who is to blame … so your being dishonest yet again.
the video part of my post . was just a loon having a rave …. about killing fascists … he calls them Alawites … you call the Assadists … Same people.
Reason
Indeed he was a loon, just as you say. Faisal Qasim a sort of Arabic shock jock whose show has had 'guests' brawling in front of the cameras. Qasim had been criticised in the past for his habit of hand picking such unrepresentative loons to make his straw man arguments.
In this case a man who lives in Lebanon unknown in Syria, representative of no group or organisation in Syria or Lebanon, or anywhere else who makes no claim of being connected to any group or organisation and who speaks for nobody but himself. A 'loon' quite happy no doubt with his appearance fee to spout his lunacy.
I am sure you could find some loon like this in Lebanon if you specifically went and looked for them.
On another note. I have never used the term Assadist which I consider trite.
Putting words in other people’s mouths is lazy and dishonest.
I notice Reason that just like every other Assad apologist before you, you haven't answered the question.
Why is that?
Do you think it is a trick question?
I am sure you can argue all day long about false flags and crisis actors and faked videos and the rebels gassing their own people to make the Assad regime look bad.
But it is hard to make such arguments in the face of evidence of a whole city destroyed.
As I said your refusal to answer this simple question exposes the intellectual dishonesty and cowardice of regime apologists like yourself.
The truth is we know what we have to do and we can't do it, yet. They are killing us all for money – get that? money – a figment of our imagination.
These 10 companies produced 54.5 million tonnes of CO2 – more than two thirds of NZ's total emissions. Combined, they produced an estimated 54.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gases, roughly two-thirds of the national total.
That is very clearly put marty mars, but of course such a statement can be as easily applied to the person in the old toyota corolla or the new suv who whizzes past those of us on the road who walk everywhere …
or had the fireplace going last night …
aren't we all complicit by way of our daily actions?
In the case of the fuel companies, it's because the emissions are attributed to the company, not to the fuel buyer that actually burns it and emits the CO2.
Old cars must have a lesser carbon footprint than new because the making and materials would probably be amortised over say ten years, and then be about nil, only running and fuel costs then, and recycled parts often – so a lot of good can come from old cars.
Our lives and the economy have been built around oil-driven cars. What would it have been like if the steam-driven cars had succeeded? There would have been a contest for water, but most of what was used would have come down in rain somewhere wouldn't it?
The Stanley Steamer may have been the answer, killed off by better funded more aggressive Ford. The motor manufacturers had the bit between the teeth, figuratively, and didn't like anyone introducing different ideas to the public, even shatter-proof safety glass, note Tucker.
The Stanley Motor Carriage Company was an American manufacturer of steam-engine vehicles; it operated from 1902 to 1924. The cars made by the company were colloquially called Stanley Steamers, although several different models were produced.
It would be hard to dislike Jonathan Pie as he always presents my point of view in technicolour.
Then the selection that came up after his rant showed Stephen Fry – I am not sure whether he is for or against Brexit, but I would be likely to vote for him if there were just the two – Johnson and Fry for choice. And Fry's make chocolate too don't they – a winning name then. He is more fun than Boorish. And I think he said that his family was Hungarian, so you get diversity straight away to match and perhaps top Boris – Boris has Turkish delight as his sweet spot I think.
Thanks Grey. What makes it more fun, is that those bits were probably unscripted. What a clever chapStephen is. There was a set where he took the hypocrisy of the church to task. Bowled 'em all for a duck.
Clever, funny and possibly principled too. Though that should not be held against him if sizing him up for a politician! Got to have a larf occasionally.
What did poor old Boris Becker do to be connected to this?
His personal life may have been just as turbulent as that of the other Boris but I hardly think he is responsible for Brexit. Let's just remember him as a really great tennis player.
The Coalition of Kindness gives not a shit about disability.
The fact that disabled New Zealanders are neglected and abused (sometimes to death) under the care of Ministry of Health providers matters not.
The recent announcement regarding the end of discrimination of family carers providing assessed supports was nothing but a PR stunt that failed to convince commenters here on the day, and it is now confirmed by our state broadcaster that the numbers simply don't add up.
New delegations for the associate Ministers of Health have been announced and responsibility for the Health Promotion Agency/Te Hiringa Hauora (HPA) has shifted from Hon Jenny Salesa to Hon Peeni Henare.
The full list of responsibilities is:
Associate Minister of Health: Hon Peeni Henare
Responsibility for policy and service delivery realting to:
Māori health equity
the Health Promotion Agency
blood and organ donation (including the New Zealand Blood Service)
diabetes
other initiatives as agreed from time to time.
Associate Minister of Health: Hon Jenny Salesa
Reponsibility for policy and service delivery relating to:
Pacific health equity
problem gambling
healthy school environments
health of older people
tobacco
ethics committees
special patients
the Health Quality and Safety Commission
HealthCERT and quality assurances (including Radiation Safety)
Disability Support Services
other initiatives as agreed from time to time.
Associate Minister of Health: Hon Julie Anne Genter
Responsibility for policy and service delivery relating to the following areas (with the exeption of remuneration issues, which are retained by the Minister of Health):
climate change and health
population health (built environments)
women's health (including maternity services, breast and cervical cancer screening, and the health aspects of abortion)
sexual health
family and sexual violence
public health (including immunisation, but excluding drinking water)
other initiatives as agreed from time to time.
I despair. I really do.
I would sincerely love to hear from the loyal Coalition Flagwavers on this issue…
I would sincerely love to hear from the loyal Coalition Flagwavers on this issue…
So would I but let's not hold our breath waiting. Disabled persons in NZ are now officially at the bottom of the food chain. I would go as far as to say below hardened violent criminals for the simple reason that they don't get ignored by politicians and the media, especially at election time. We just don't exist.
Let's see how many of them vote for the EOLC Bill. I can actually envisage some of them spinning it that allowing the sick and disabled the choice is upholding human rights.
Disability seems to be listed under Jenny Salesa's list of responsibilities.
As for not adding up, the $22.8M.p.a. seems to be slightly under the halfway point of Easton's projection of costs including the new families ($19.4-27.8M.p.a.). Which is reasonable for a budget allocation.
Needs assessments do need an overhaul, though. Vote Green to get it done.
Disability is at the bottom of the list of Jenny Salesa's responsibilities.
The new allocation of funding is only just enough to raise the hourly rate of those already being paid under the discriminatory Funded Family Care.
Those of us who could conceivably paid for the assessed supports we are providing will have to settle for a mere fraction of what has been allocated.
Had I the time McFlock I'd point you in the direction of numerous reports generated with government funding that describe only to clearly the legion of failings of the NASC assessment process. As if it is accurate to describe it as a "process" as that implies some sort of plan, or consistency, or structure.
Well, until people are actually turned down for funding it's all just speculation. And if it happens that there is a shortfall, you and the Greens will lobby to get more funding allocated and backpaid, no?
Well, until people are actually turned down for funding it's all just speculation.
Well, McFlock…why do you think that the local building inspector has to sign off on the foundations of a building before the walls and roof can go up?
In fact, if they did allow the build to proceed with dodgy foundations they'd be liable, surely?
(Or maybe not, since accountability is a dirty word these days.)
My initial optimism that Sunday (Sunday?! to make a major announcement on a bleeding Sunday!…who does that???) was subdued by the knowledge that repeated Ministers from successive governments have been totally and utterly impotent in the face of the often malevolence shown by the Ministry of Health towards disabled people who choose (or have no other option) to have a family member providing their assessed supports. And the MOH bureaucrats have a particular level of contempt towards family carers.
Putting this right could be ridiculously simple once the longstanding issue of inadequate and inconsistent NASC assessments has been sorted.
But this government is too chickenshit to demand that the Ministry of Health DSS makes this work an absolute priority.
Or/and this government truly do believe that disability support deserves it's place and the bottom of the Jenny Salesa's list of responsibilities.
Building inspectors don't assume that the place will fall down before they receive the plans.
But they're the wrong functionary in the building analogy, anyway. People build a new home aim for a value of say $500,000. But that's just an estimate. They'll try to bring it in on budget, but if it comes out to be more expensive, there's usually a certain leeway in their cost estimate to absorb a bit more expense. It might be $497k, but they might push to $580k or more.
What they don't do is get all dismayed about the project because the plans costed out the dwelling but the driveway isn't included. They will ask about the cost of that detail, but it's not a portent of project doom.
McFlock. I can see this is not your particular area of knowledge or expertise so I'll try and explain.
The Ministry of Health Disability Support Services has this database (called SOCRATES) they set up back in…2007 or so.. which in 2013 was finally persuaded to regurgitate some actual, well,data.
Up until then, and Brian Easton (blessings upon him and his kin) made mention of this in his 2008 brief of evidence to the Human Rights Review Tribunal for Atkinson, actual numbers of people enrolled with each area NASC were sketchy to say the least.
Those enrolled who had high and very high support needs (as assessed by the NASC) they could only make the wildest of guesses.
The numbers with high and very high support needs who were costing the Ministry NOTHING to support because an unpaid family carer was doing those tasks unpaid, they had very little idea…but…strangely enough by the time Crown Law had done their work, their economist's guestimate ($17-593 million) the upper figure of (and why don't we round that up) $600 million is the one that stuck. Big, scary costings based on guesses of what the actual numbers were.
Easton was much closer, and until I get a reply back from MOH DSS as to where the number "640" originated (if you haven't been keeping up that is the number of extra family carers Ardern has promised to pay) I won't be able to be more accurate in my estimates.
But looking at the data from Socrates, it could very well be that of the MOH DSS clients wanting or needing family to provide some or all of their assessed supports 640 extra might not be far off the mark.
It would be much easier if Socrates actually kept count of not only the Support Needs Allocation for the MOH DSS clients but also the actual funding used by each client. Because, believe it or not, it doesn't. Or so they claim.
So, McFlock…what I'm trying to get through to you ( and anyone else even remotely concerned that I am damning the Ministry and its tamed Ministers presumptively) that this is well on the way to being yet another Ministry of Health Disability Support Services cock up. And while they just might fool some with their brilliant impression of a virgin on his wedding night floundering around in the dark, they are not fooling me.
They have the data and they have the numbers and they will have a very good idea of how much it is going to cost to bring about justice.
So either the ministry advisors are misleading the government and setting them up to look like numpties with their Sunday afternoon announcements, or, the Ministers, including Ardern, are well aware it simply wasn't going to float but thought we were all (including Easton) too thick to notice.
And seriously McFlock…you'd wait until the keys were handed over to draw attention to the fault in the slab?
Look, I get the "fifteen times bitten, I know what to expect" routine.
But if all those 640 families get one full time support allocation at the top pay rate, the system will run out of funding in months. If it's part time funding at lower scales on average, the current funding might actually be adequate. If funding isn't adequate, it'll likely run out just before the election – which would almost guarantee a quick boost.
This is why I prefer "pretense of kindness" governments. They at least have to back it up if they get too specific.
I'd wait until the slab was poured before assuming there's a fault.
Home transfers to overseas people in Central Auckland peaked at 321 transfers (22 per cent) in the June 2018 quarter, shortly before the Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018 was passed, restricting the sale of residential land.
Of these, 153 homes were transferred to overseas people with Chinese tax residency in the June 2018 quarter – falling to 48 in the June 2019 quarter.
Across New Zealand, there were 183 home transfers to people who didn't hold NZ citizenship or a resident visa in the June 2019 quarter versus 1116 in the same quarter last year. Total home transfers numbered 37,695 and of those 0.5 per cent went to overseas buyers. A year earlier, total home transfers numbered 39,627 and 2.8 per cent went to overseas buyers.
A ban on foreign buyers took effect from October 22 last year and prevents most people who don't hold NZ citizenship or a resident visa from buying residential property in New Zealand.
Under the revamped act, there are exemptions for those who buy new apartments in certain developments, who add to New Zealand's housing supply, and for Australian and Singaporean citizens.
A bunch of gripes about royalty – Prince Charles doesn't sit up and beg like one of his Mother's corgis might. It hasn't always been good to host royalty, as noted from past centuries. Prince Charles is not PC about his duties to visit, smile at the peeps and now sends trucks carrying the entire bedroom suite including orthopaedic bed for himself and Camilla. If he has to put himself about the nation, he is an old man, and he tries to do it to his standard of comfort not that of the hosts, and probably has learned that from past experience.
The country's leading building product assurance scheme is in disarray after another major company pulled out of it.
The CodeMark review questions competency and technical expertise of companies that issue certificates.
The government's CodeMark scheme provides product approvals that cannot be challenged by councils during building consenting, but the scheme has now lost three of its seven certifiers, and these three have issued almost 70 percent of all certificates.
The latest to go is also the biggest, CertMark of Queensland, which issued 63 certificates, or a third of the total 183 CodeMarks.
It's a blow that the Building Industry Federation, which represents thousands of products suppliers, believes might prove fatal.
(This reflects that under neolib government is unable to keep control of its projects, its services, how they are run, whether they get value for money, etc.)
I heard a report on the Provincial Growth Fund this morning. One of its objects was to get work for NZs unemployed (get the nevvies off the couch) yet by the time it gets contracted out in frequent iterations, the gummint don't know what's going on.
RNZ also requested under the OIA the number of migrant workers being employed in these jobs through the fund, but the Provincial Development Unit (PDU) does not keep these figures.
PDU head Robert Pigou said they did not monitor who were actually getting the jobs once the money got to those projects.
"We don't keep track and the contracts don't require applicants to provide us with the details of where they're getting their workforce from.
"In many cases the applicants might be a local organisations like the district council and they would then go and contract with a third party."
Bloody neolib is not working well for citizens. However I did hear Michael Bassett waffling on this morning as head of Auckland Chamber of Commerce. M. Bassett is one of the Hounds that ushered in the neolib system and sold the stupid Unionists down the river as redundant munters of our small economy. Adopting the fancy new USA economic system was just what the wealthy ordered, giving them the chance for a plutocratic lifestyle in a peasant farmer country, that would always be struggling but why should they be held down by our size and isolation?
Principals fear Government learning support plan lacks long-term funding…
Auckland Primary Principals' Association president Heath McNeil said while the intent of the action plan was important, many of its goals were "we wills" subject to getting more funding down the line.
We've got boards of trustees now that are forced into topping up ministry funding by tens of thousands, in some cases hundreds of thousands, every year out of their operational budgets … We've just had a significant number of our students with needs have teacher aide funding cuts, pretty drastic ones, in the last three months."
McNeil points to other aims of the action plan, including reducing waiting times for early intervention.
"But the timeframe for that is six-and-a-half years with no real targets," he said.
I have a cunning plan. Pig disease in China – African Swine Flu (is that racist?) – is decimating their herds, flocks, whatever. Apparently it has been spread by feeding them meat scraps.
We used to feed pigs from the whey of our milk. Why don't we start doing that again and have pig meat that is 100% pure of ASF? At the same time we reduce the bloody factory dairy farms carrying stock numbers by a certain amount each year for the next three years. Then we will have a dynamic duo of healthy cows and pigs, and less disease from stacked stock with no room to move and live their normal lives.
Our frenzied dash after every dollar has led us to have cramped quarters in our own sour pens. A healthy appreciation of what life is about for animals and ourselves, the superior species, may be the saving of us for healthy real food. I can see the dreamy ads quite now, and if they are based on truth for once, we will be winners.
A pattern of repeated representations from senior NZ politicians to their Australian counterparts about this issue is emerging.
Deportations a growing source of tension
The Australian and New Zealand governments have been at odds over this issue since the legislation changes were introduced in 2014…
But this harsh deportation policy isn't the only issue creating strain in the relationship. New Zealand's offer to resettle refugees imprisoned in Australian offshore detention centres has been refused a number of times, most recently last week.
Morrison's apparent lack of willingness to take Ardern's concerns about deporting New Zealand offenders more seriously confirms a noticeable hardening in Australia's approach…
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton: "where people are sexually offending against children, for example, we've had a big push to try to deport those paedophiles."
Fair enough, most Australians may think.
But Dutton's remarks are highly misleading. The overwhelming majority of the people being deported are not paedophiles.
In fact, many people being deported from Australia under the "character test" have extensive family ties in Australia and have spent very little time in New Zealand, having arrived in Australia as children.
Losing contact with family
Deportees we've interviewed for as-yet unpublished research* had experienced significant trauma because of this process, and a common theme in our research is grief from the loss of contact with children and other loved ones.
Stories of families being torn apart and children being raised by only one parent were particularly distressing for them to recount.
*Professor Patrick Keyzer heads La Trobe University's law school. Dave Martin is a PhD candidate, La Trobe University
(Sounds nasty N..i behaviour from the Australian government. Not all Australians adopt this vicious mentality to NZs thank goodness.)
There were hopes for a change of government, and a show of principled behaviour, fairness and having a heart but the Australians have one approach for their citizens and apparently a prejudice against NZs which is totally unjustified, considering how we have been disadvantaged as a country from their government actions.
.
As the number of deportees has mounted, so too has the death toll. In the past three years, at least four New Zealand citizens have died in Australian custody or immediately following deportation, and researchers believe there are almost certainly more. The New Zealand government has no estimate of the total number of deaths, and Minister of Justice Andrew Little says his office is powerless to force a change in Australian law. “We don’t have any control over what the Australians do. We don’t have a great deal of leverage.”
Advocates in both countries say Australia’s actions are in direct contravention of United Nations conventions against torture, and in several cases even children have been locked in isolation or detained with adults, forcing tense political standoffs.
More than 15,000 New Zealand citizens are expected to be deported in the next ten years; a flood of exiles, many with no connection to this country, never allowed to go home.
National cut back on training for young mothers and other young people, so the vocational training institutions have to cut back. Then we can blame them when there are no trained people for jobs and we just have to – sob, sob – get immigrant labour in. A race to the bottom for NZ Inc. Will the last person out please turn off the light. Oh don't worry the light fitting has gone phut already.
I'm breaking my recent resolution not to return to The Standard because this particular subject is too important to leave unremarked. I can't post this item where it really belongs (The Guardian) because they're so snowed under lately with BTL comments, they have to close them off within about 5 minutes of the OP's piece going up.
I'm starting to see some ominous parallels with the 1917 Russian revolution. We have here a group that barely commands a majority in its own party (think: Bolsheviks v Mensheviks), but which knows exactly what it wants, concentrates relentlessly on its objectives, and is in the process of seizing a degree of power unprecedented in modern Britain. Like Lenin, they have realised that a small, active, tightly focused organisation is going to be more effective than a larger, diffuse one whose members don't have common goals.
The timing from their point of view couldn't be better – Parliament in recess for the next six weeks, so nothing to hold this Executive to account till early September. I predict we will see in that period a huge spate of activity by Cabinet and the ministries and departments of state. It will all be within the bounds – just – of existing legislation, but hitherto accepted agreements about what is "done" and "not done" will be ripped to shreds, just as we've been seeing in the USA.
There'll be no need to formally control the press because Rupert "Moloch" will do it for them and pump out endless propaganda about the necessity for it all. And then, shortly after Parliament resumes, they'll engineer some single-issue "crisis" and call a general election in search of a formal mandate to resolve it – and, by-the-by, cement their grip on what remains of the country.
Deluded fantasy on my part? Oh I hope so, I do hope so.
Yes Obi Knobi. Boris isn't as silly as he looks I think. As you say it's a worry.
And why don't you want to comment here? That would be interesting to know – or do you feel there isn't freedom of speech and thought allowed here to talk about it? I think it is important to say. What have you got to lose? I am sorry in advance, if I have offended you.
I'm not offended, Grey. I just got sick and tired of seeing about 90% of BTL comments devoted to petty point-scoring and denigration of anyone who didn't happen to share the particular point of view of the poster. I'd better things to do with my time than wading through that sort of drivel.
Vulnerable mothers desperately need access to more residential homes so they can keep their babies instead of watching them being taken into state care, an Insight investigation has found.
Last year, 281 babies were taken from their mothers within three months of birth, up from 247 in 2016…
But there are only five residential homes nationwide that offer a safe environment for women and their babies and support mothers to be good parents.
These homes can only offer 24 places for vulnerable mothers and their children at any one time.
Does anyone think this is the right way to support new families, and treat parents and children who should be encouraged to bond and build the security and continuity that keeps children happy and trusting in parents?
Moving into a residential home was not an option for Mel*, who ended up in a Women's Refuge safe house at the start of this year, after another hiding from her ex-partner.
(Mel protests against Oranga Tamariki uplifts after her children were taken into state care. Photo: RNZ / Leigh Marama McLachlan)
She spent the week there before Oranga Tamariki took her one-year-old and three-month-old daughters over safety issues.
"I was compliant with Oranga Tamariki through that whole week, going into meetings," Mel said.
"That Friday they told me to come into the office at 5pm, when they had closed. They threw a bit of paper at me saying, 'You've got a minute to say goodbye to your kids'.
This seems… odd. It seems to be more a bureaucratic bias against prescriptive curruculae rather than intentional suppression (although suppression will be the outcome).
I always figured that there were basics that needed to be taught, and that was dictated by the ministry so local nutbars couldn't teach utter bullshit. Apparently I luckily just went ot a progressive school that taught physics, evolution, and some aspects of colonisation (rather than just the bible, intelligent design, and a flat earth with no history outside of europe).
It does seem weird to me that there isn't at least some minimum requirement of coveragewithin the curriculum – does the science curriculum require teachers to teach the basic equations like "F=ma", or is that all just traditionally done out of the kindness of teachers' hearts?
That idiot who drove a roller and smashed other people cars with it needs his head read something wrong up there .
This Government is talking to the whenua protesters Ma te wa.
Simon ain't plastic like shonky is .
Can't all the customers of Wallis group just separate the pork out of there meat waste and find a new market for there waste pork no drama there I say.
There is more to trees and plant life than people know or believe The Kauri stump being kept alive by other trees giving it vital nutrients very interesting.
This Government is trying to figure out a solution to the whenua protesters problems the last lot would have tried to shut it down to many tangata whenua there now to . It is a difacult thing to get to the bottom of who is correct in the whenua issue . My tipuna had a Maori Land court case that lasted 40 years and still it's not sorted the correct owners only got 5 shears out of 500 the shears went to the crowns stool pigeon Eco Maori is going to be re starting that case Ma Te Wa.
national scrapped the cancer agency and now they are trying to capitalize on their own MESS Paddy.
Eco Maori thinks all the help that our Pacific cousins can get from Aotearoa and China is needed to help them cope with climate change.Its cool that our government is investing in saving that rear bird .
Donna mahi is good for the wairua its sad that the system has a age discrimination I think its should change to encourage the elderly get mahi.
Alex it was freezing in bayview Hawksbay yesterday morning and today but where Eco Maori resides Te Ra was shining bright and warm also Te Ra had my solar powered system running strong.
Paina you lost your voice I did a few months ago it took about 2 months to come back it was sad times for Eco Maori.
Rania Smith te tangata knows the TRUTH about the historical significance of Ihumatoo.
I agree that tangata whenua need to have a bigger hand in the stakes of tamariki in the states care. I have made a few statements that to care for someone correctly one has to have aroha for that person so Maori need to be included in the care of these poorest tamariki.
I tau toko the Hawaiian who are protesting that 30 meter high telescope on their sacred mountain they have every right to sue That is what will stop that telescope being built but like tangata whenua O Aotearoa they will have limited resources.
You two national supporters love any story that is negative about our Labour lead Coalition Governments Aotearoa economy is fine when compared to other countries and whats happening around Papatuanuku
Sorry about you been robbed point your finger at your national m8 they made the poor people poorer hence more robberies.
Chris the disabled people needs of access ramps needs to be catered for by these organizations. We have a hard time getting transportation for one of our love ones whom is disabled.
I can see this canser drug issue being privately pushed buy the Big drug companies. Talking about doubling Pharmacs budget the drug companies will be rubbing their hands together thinking about their PROFITS they are going to get from this campaign. Its all about Te mone .
I disagree a business man like shonky only set the country up for the wealthy people hence we have a major housing crisis thanks to shonky a run down health system and education system the roads were ignored he was cutting all the state organizations budgets hence the big mess our Coalition Government has to clean up.
Measles has been quite prominent in Aotearoa as of late the prisoner's who have measles its been a problem Papatuanuku wide.
Condolences to the people who lost their loveones in the Korean nightclub bar balcony accident.
All the best in your new journey of retiring from international Polo you made Aotearoa shine bright with your starlight Sir Mark Tod Im sure you will have heaps of other things to keep you busy.
I would rather live with kiore that be a kiore .
Mike I know what that is like my machinery being tampered with my machinery has strange things happen like my Eco Maori Truck having lose nuts on the ball joints tyers going down for no logical reason I know all those ball joints nuts were tight because I changed the ball joints my self guessing who the tamper is.
Condolences to the whanau who lost love ones in the Kiangroa Bay of plenty car and truck crash.
Its good to see that time have changed now Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa is commanding more respect and we are receiving it .
At Winston my whanau were Mana whenua and still we didn't get our correct shears in our whenua.
Thats a awesome knitted flag that te Wahine made I Eco Maori is a suporter for equality for Wahine.
Some people need to learn not to bite the hands that care for them the most or would Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa prefer to have a government like national making common people lives very hard to paddle there waka te waka is actually going backwards with a national government be careful Whanau we might get burned by your actions.
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
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 Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 3 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Oh dear. Details matter …
https://www.vox.com/2019/7/25/8930035/trump-altered-presidential-seal
Infantroopen … lawmarkers … and in the replies, today's greatest observation: "Trump's ass looks like a pet door for Lindsey Graham"
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1154422075345526785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1154452456425713665&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffpost.com%2Fentry%2Ftrump-mark-esper-infantroopen_n_5d39ed47e4b020cd99505d05
Oh dear the fix is on.
https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1154444505090629633
Here are five disturbing findings from my research, which adheres, I believe, to the highest possible scientific standards inall respects:1.In 2016, biased search results generated by Google’s search algorithml ikely impacted undecided voters in a way that gave at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton(whom I supported). I know this because I preserved more than 13,000 election-related searches conducted by a diverse group of Americans on Google, Bing, and Yahoo in the weeks leading up to the election, and Google search results –which dominate search in the U.S. and worldwide –were significantly biased in favor of Secretary Clinton in all 10 positions on the first page of search results in both blue states and red states. I know the number of votes that shifted because Ihave conducted dozens of controlled experiments in the U.S. and other countries that measure precisely how opinions and votes shift when search results favor one candidate, cause, or company. I call this shift “SEME” –the Search Engine Manipulation Effect. My first scientific paper on SEME was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS) in 2015 (https://is.gd/p0li8V)(Epstein & Robertson, 2015a) and has since been accessed or downloaded from PNAS’s website more than 200,000 times. SEME has also been replicated by a research team at one of the Max Planck Institutes in Germany
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Epstein%20Testimony.pdf
Uh oh Poission , that kind of news does not give comfort to righteous Democrat minds
And for that reason I think you'll find that the Russians directed that research.Google is as pure as the driven snow
The story of Bitcoin
From TDV newsletter:
The plot goes like this…
Abandoned at birth by his father Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin searches for his life's purpose. With the help of some friends, Bitcoin rises from total obscurity to become a Batman–esque hero of the people who fights against the corrupt banking system that oppresses everyone.
In the pilot episode, Bitcoin awakens to a chaotic world following the 2008 financial crisis. With only a few words to his young child, Satoshi disappears, leaving Bitcoin with more questions than answers. Fortunately, a benevolent ice cream truck owner (Jones) takes Bitcoin under his wing in a search to find his father.
Bitcoin is the ultimate example of something whose only value is that a few people delude themselves that it has value. In tangible terms, it's purely a certificate of gratuitously wasted electricity.
Meh. Currency is what you make it.
Reasons to use bitcoin #93 Everyone should have a Swiss Bank Account in their pocket
https://www.reasonstousebitcoin.com/shop/t-shirt/reason-93/
Cryptocurrency is a vapourware ponzi scheme, it *will* burn you sooner or later
The Wild West Of Crypto Hacks
Our present financial system is the ultimate example of something whose only value is that a few people [in pivotal positions manipulate it and in the confidence in its value by many] assure themselves that it has value.
In the end, the value of a state-issued currency is made tangible by that state having powers of compulsion over its citizens. So in that sense, yes, the backing is utterly reliant on the confidence of its citizens. That confidence can be lost, Zimbabwe and Venezuela being notable recent examples. But it takes a fairly cataclysmic societal upheaval to decimate the value of a state-issued currencly. Whereas a ponzi-scheme con game like crypto-currency could collapse from something as ephemeral as the next shiny economics-fashion idea coming along.
Your point is made…but 'the next shiny economics-fashion idea coming along' sounds just the idea of having a floating currency as the remarkable idea brought by the emissary from the Finsec riding on his magic wand that solved the problem of states trying to hold a stable currency against those who doubted its equivalency. So we decide on the unstable currency dependent on the 'next shiny idea' of the Alex's out there.
Alex cartoon Telegraph Peattie & Taylor
Syria Speaks
Tonight Auckland
Think you are an expert on Syria?
Think that the Assad regime is an anti-imperialist bastion?
Don't think that the Syian people have any right to defend themselves from a monstrous tyranny?
Think again?
Hear Syrians give their side of the story
The Peace Place
22 Emily Place
7pm
This Hui originally organised for the 15th of June, the anniversary of the start of the revolution against the Assad dynastic regime.
Despite the online death threats against this event this event.
Show the fascists that we will not be cowed.
Remember to put a good work in for the christians
And Don't hold back on fascist fighting …. 32 secs
If anybody deserves a holocaust …it would have to be those fascists …. 1min 32 secs :0
Peace be with you …
Hi Reason, hardly a credible source.
A regime huckster putting words in the mouths of his opponents.
Putting words in the mouths of others, hardly amounts to giving a balanced account.
From this beginning Faisal Qasim goes on to demolish the sectarian straw man argument of his own creation.
Despite Syria being a majority Sunni Muslim country, (and naturally the make up of the majority of the opposition reflect this reality). there have been and are Alawites and Christians who have been in the opposition even in leading positions.
Fadwa Soliman the famed Actress and political activist from Homs who became the most nationally recognised face of the opposition was from a notable Alawite family.
Homs was completely destroyed and depopulated by the regime's genocidal aerial bombardment. To escape this aerial genocide Fadwa Soliman along with tens of thousands of other citizens of Homs was forced to flee the rebel city and become a refugee.
Fadwa Soliman died in exile in France in 2017.
Reason, to finish, will ask you one simple question, it is a question I have always asked regime apologists like yourself.
I have lost track of the number of times I have asked it. And not once since I first posed it, have I ever received a single response from you, or any of the other pro-regime apologists who infest this site
To expose the intellectual dishonesty and cowardice of regime apologists like yourself Reason, I will again ask this question and challenge you to give an answer.
Who did this?
And is it not evidence of genocide?
Jenny … … the video part of my post . was just a loon having a rave …. about killing fascists … he calls them Alawites … you call the Assadists … Same people.
You ignored in Wayne Mapp like fashion … the serious part of my post
Homs … “Christians to Beirut, Alawites to their graves!”
Amnesty International have stated that Raqqa was the worst example of total destruction and indifferent killing of civilians in either Iraq or Syria …. done by your fascist fighters … the good guys.
I've already told you who started it .,.. who is to blame … so your being dishonest yet again.
Indeed he was a loon, just as you say. Faisal Qasim a sort of Arabic shock jock whose show has had 'guests' brawling in front of the cameras. Qasim had been criticised in the past for his habit of hand picking such unrepresentative loons to make his straw man arguments.
In this case a man who lives in Lebanon unknown in Syria, representative of no group or organisation in Syria or Lebanon, or anywhere else who makes no claim of being connected to any group or organisation and who speaks for nobody but himself. A 'loon' quite happy no doubt with his appearance fee to spout his lunacy.
I am sure you could find some loon like this in Lebanon if you specifically went and looked for them.
On another note. I have never used the term Assadist which I consider trite.
Putting words in other people’s mouths is lazy and dishonest.
Jenny …. "Putting words in other people’s mouths is lazy and dishonest."
lazy, dishonest …and forgetful in your case jenny.
I notice Reason that just like every other Assad apologist before you, you haven't answered the question.
Why is that?
Do you think it is a trick question?
I am sure you can argue all day long about false flags and crisis actors and faked videos and the rebels gassing their own people to make the Assad regime look bad.
But it is hard to make such arguments in the face of evidence of a whole city destroyed.
As I said your refusal to answer this simple question exposes the intellectual dishonesty and cowardice of regime apologists like yourself.
So I will ask you again, and defy you to answer
Who did this?
And is it not evidence of genocide?
The truth is we know what we have to do and we can't do it, yet. They are killing us all for money – get that? money – a figment of our imagination.
That is very clearly put marty mars, but of course such a statement can be as easily applied to the person in the old toyota corolla or the new suv who whizzes past those of us on the road who walk everywhere …
or had the fireplace going last night …
aren't we all complicit by way of our daily actions?
Interesting how many of them are Energy sector companies.
In the case of the fuel companies, it's because the emissions are attributed to the company, not to the fuel buyer that actually burns it and emits the CO2.
The same goes for the ag sector. Farmers get blamed instead of the people eating the meat and vegies ,cheese and milk etc
The difference is the ag sector actually does the emitting, much more than the final consumer. Well, if you exclude the bean-eating vegans, that is.
🙁 The most common sharks that are killed for squalene are…Basking sharks, Soupfin sharks, Bluntnose sixgill sharks.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/07/sharks-news-cosmetics-squalene-health/
Old cars must have a lesser carbon footprint than new because the making and materials would probably be amortised over say ten years, and then be about nil, only running and fuel costs then, and recycled parts often – so a lot of good can come from old cars.
Our lives and the economy have been built around oil-driven cars. What would it have been like if the steam-driven cars had succeeded? There would have been a contest for water, but most of what was used would have come down in rain somewhere wouldn't it?
The Stanley Steamer may have been the answer, killed off by better funded more aggressive Ford. The motor manufacturers had the bit between the teeth, figuratively, and didn't like anyone introducing different ideas to the public, even shatter-proof safety glass, note Tucker.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tucker
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucker_48
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/a30105/an-ultra-rare-3-million-tucker-48-was-discovered-in-an-ohio-barn/
Preston Tucker's car company was responsible for 51 cars being built. Of those, we know that 47 "Tucker '48s" have survived and we know where all of them are.
Another inventive gasoline-driven car maker. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Duryea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Motor_Carriage_Company
(Twins Francis E. Stanley (1849–1918) and Freelan O. Stanley (1849–1940) founded the company)
The Stanley Motor Carriage Company was an American manufacturer of steam-engine vehicles; it operated from 1902 to 1924. The cars made by the company were colloquially called Stanley Steamers, although several different models were produced.
The Stanleys had earlier developed improved dry plate photographic plates. They sold that invention to a chap called Eastman!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Edgar_Stanley
Ah, Boris Becker's bollocks!
Stark relief. Huh.
It would be hard to dislike Jonathan Pie as he always presents my point of view in technicolour.
Then the selection that came up after his rant showed Stephen Fry – I am not sure whether he is for or against Brexit, but I would be likely to vote for him if there were just the two – Johnson and Fry for choice. And Fry's make chocolate too don't they – a winning name then. He is more fun than Boorish. And I think he said that his family was Hungarian, so you get diversity straight away to match and perhaps top Boris – Boris has Turkish delight as his sweet spot I think.
Thanks Grey. What makes it more fun, is that those bits were probably unscripted. What a clever chapStephen is. There was a set where he took the hypocrisy of the church to task. Bowled 'em all for a duck.
Clever, funny and possibly principled too. Though that should not be held against him if sizing him up for a politician! Got to have a larf occasionally.
What did poor old Boris Becker do to be connected to this?
His personal life may have been just as turbulent as that of the other Boris but I hardly think he is responsible for Brexit. Let's just remember him as a really great tennis player.
It is Official.
The Coalition of Kindness gives not a shit about disability.
The fact that disabled New Zealanders are neglected and abused (sometimes to death) under the care of Ministry of Health providers matters not.
The recent announcement regarding the end of discrimination of family carers providing assessed supports was nothing but a PR stunt that failed to convince commenters here on the day, and it is now confirmed by our state broadcaster that the numbers simply don't add up.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/395170/new-families-joining-funded-family-care-scheme-may-miss-out-on-fair-pay
And to confirm exactly where disability sits on the list of priorities…
https://www.hpa.org.nz/news/new-delegations-for-the-associate-ministers-of-health-announced
New delegations for the associate Ministers of Health have been announced and responsibility for the Health Promotion Agency/Te Hiringa Hauora (HPA) has shifted from Hon Jenny Salesa to Hon Peeni Henare.
The full list of responsibilities is:
Associate Minister of Health: Hon Peeni Henare
Responsibility for policy and service delivery realting to:
Associate Minister of Health: Hon Jenny Salesa
Reponsibility for policy and service delivery relating to:
Associate Minister of Health: Hon Julie Anne Genter
Responsibility for policy and service delivery relating to the following areas (with the exeption of remuneration issues, which are retained by the Minister of Health):
I despair. I really do.
I would sincerely love to hear from the loyal Coalition Flagwavers on this issue…
Stay strong Rosemary, don't let the bastards get you down.
I would sincerely love to hear from the loyal Coalition Flagwavers on this issue…
So would I but let's not hold our breath waiting. Disabled persons in NZ are now officially at the bottom of the food chain. I would go as far as to say below hardened violent criminals for the simple reason that they don't get ignored by politicians and the media, especially at election time. We just don't exist.
Let's see how many of them vote for the EOLC Bill. I can actually envisage some of them spinning it that allowing the sick and disabled the choice is upholding human rights.
It's the only way such voting could be spun…
All so very progressive.
Gotta wonder what the issues are which will mobilise the mainstream…
Too hard basket…don't care….something more sinister…combination…
The eugenics folks didn't hide.
I suspect a number of psycho/sociopaths on the list of ministerial advisors.
Isn't that a job requirement?
Treatment of vulnerable human beings around the place , home and abroad should not be accepted.
As you say, the EOL vote will expose them…
To what end it would matter remains to be seen…
This govt were always going to let many people down…predictably.
So long as the darkness is in control…little of nothing meaningful is going to change…
Disability seems to be listed under Jenny Salesa's list of responsibilities.
As for not adding up, the $22.8M.p.a. seems to be slightly under the halfway point of Easton's projection of costs including the new families ($19.4-27.8M.p.a.). Which is reasonable for a budget allocation.
Needs assessments do need an overhaul, though. Vote Green to get it done.
Disability is at the bottom of the list of Jenny Salesa's responsibilities.
The new allocation of funding is only just enough to raise the hourly rate of those already being paid under the discriminatory Funded Family Care.
Those of us who could conceivably paid for the assessed supports we are providing will have to settle for a mere fraction of what has been allocated.
Had I the time McFlock I'd point you in the direction of numerous reports generated with government funding that describe only to clearly the legion of failings of the NASC assessment process. As if it is accurate to describe it as a "process" as that implies some sort of plan, or consistency, or structure.
Call Hanlon, because I still can't decide.
(I did vote Green)
The list of portfolios is not necessarily hierarchical. That is your assumption.
[edit] argh shit yeah fair call the allocation is enough to cover existing recipients.
Although I still think the assumption that any additional recipients from the new rule won’t be covered is a rough call.
Brian Easton is not overly optimistic, and I'll take his word over that of some overpaid spindoctor.
For a few brief moments there McFlock those Miserly of Health bureaucrats and their tamed Ministers had most of the people fooled with their bullshit.
Well, until people are actually turned down for funding it's all just speculation. And if it happens that there is a shortfall, you and the Greens will lobby to get more funding allocated and backpaid, no?
Well, until people are actually turned down for funding it's all just speculation.
Well, McFlock…why do you think that the local building inspector has to sign off on the foundations of a building before the walls and roof can go up?
In fact, if they did allow the build to proceed with dodgy foundations they'd be liable, surely?
(Or maybe not, since accountability is a dirty word these days.)
My initial optimism that Sunday (Sunday?! to make a major announcement on a bleeding Sunday!…who does that???) was subdued by the knowledge that repeated Ministers from successive governments have been totally and utterly impotent in the face of the often malevolence shown by the Ministry of Health towards disabled people who choose (or have no other option) to have a family member providing their assessed supports. And the MOH bureaucrats have a particular level of contempt towards family carers.
Putting this right could be ridiculously simple once the longstanding issue of inadequate and inconsistent NASC assessments has been sorted.
But this government is too chickenshit to demand that the Ministry of Health DSS makes this work an absolute priority.
Or/and this government truly do believe that disability support deserves it's place and the bottom of the Jenny Salesa's list of responsibilities.
Building inspectors don't assume that the place will fall down before they receive the plans.
But they're the wrong functionary in the building analogy, anyway. People build a new home aim for a value of say $500,000. But that's just an estimate. They'll try to bring it in on budget, but if it comes out to be more expensive, there's usually a certain leeway in their cost estimate to absorb a bit more expense. It might be $497k, but they might push to $580k or more.
What they don't do is get all dismayed about the project because the plans costed out the dwelling but the driveway isn't included. They will ask about the cost of that detail, but it's not a portent of project doom.
McFlock. I can see this is not your particular area of knowledge or expertise so I'll try and explain.
The Ministry of Health Disability Support Services has this database (called SOCRATES) they set up back in…2007 or so.. which in 2013 was finally persuaded to regurgitate some actual, well,data.
Up until then, and Brian Easton (blessings upon him and his kin) made mention of this in his 2008 brief of evidence to the Human Rights Review Tribunal for Atkinson, actual numbers of people enrolled with each area NASC were sketchy to say the least.
Those enrolled who had high and very high support needs (as assessed by the NASC) they could only make the wildest of guesses.
The numbers with high and very high support needs who were costing the Ministry NOTHING to support because an unpaid family carer was doing those tasks unpaid, they had very little idea…but…strangely enough by the time Crown Law had done their work, their economist's guestimate ($17-593 million) the upper figure of (and why don't we round that up) $600 million is the one that stuck. Big, scary costings based on guesses of what the actual numbers were.
Easton was much closer, and until I get a reply back from MOH DSS as to where the number "640" originated (if you haven't been keeping up that is the number of extra family carers Ardern has promised to pay) I won't be able to be more accurate in my estimates.
But looking at the data from Socrates, it could very well be that of the MOH DSS clients wanting or needing family to provide some or all of their assessed supports 640 extra might not be far off the mark.
It would be much easier if Socrates actually kept count of not only the Support Needs Allocation for the MOH DSS clients but also the actual funding used by each client. Because, believe it or not, it doesn't. Or so they claim.
So, McFlock…what I'm trying to get through to you ( and anyone else even remotely concerned that I am damning the Ministry and its tamed Ministers presumptively) that this is well on the way to being yet another Ministry of Health Disability Support Services cock up. And while they just might fool some with their brilliant impression of a virgin on his wedding night floundering around in the dark, they are not fooling me.
They have the data and they have the numbers and they will have a very good idea of how much it is going to cost to bring about justice.
So either the ministry advisors are misleading the government and setting them up to look like numpties with their Sunday afternoon announcements, or, the Ministers, including Ardern, are well aware it simply wasn't going to float but thought we were all (including Easton) too thick to notice.
And seriously McFlock…you'd wait until the keys were handed over to draw attention to the fault in the slab?
Look, I get the "fifteen times bitten, I know what to expect" routine.
But if all those 640 families get one full time support allocation at the top pay rate, the system will run out of funding in months. If it's part time funding at lower scales on average, the current funding might actually be adequate. If funding isn't adequate, it'll likely run out just before the election – which would almost guarantee a quick boost.
This is why I prefer "pretense of kindness" governments. They at least have to back it up if they get too specific.
I'd wait until the slab was poured before assuming there's a fault.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12253024
Only 75 Auckland homes sold to overseas buyers in past 3 months; Chinese activity collapses
Home transfers to overseas people in Central Auckland peaked at 321 transfers (22 per cent) in the June 2018 quarter, shortly before the Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018 was passed, restricting the sale of residential land.
Of these, 153 homes were transferred to overseas people with Chinese tax residency in the June 2018 quarter – falling to 48 in the June 2019 quarter.
Across New Zealand, there were 183 home transfers to people who didn't hold NZ citizenship or a resident visa in the June 2019 quarter versus 1116 in the same quarter last year. Total home transfers numbered 37,695 and of those 0.5 per cent went to overseas buyers. A year earlier, total home transfers numbered 39,627 and 2.8 per cent went to overseas buyers.
A ban on foreign buyers took effect from October 22 last year and prevents most people who don't hold NZ citizenship or a resident visa from buying residential property in New Zealand.
Under the revamped act, there are exemptions for those who buy new apartments in certain developments, who add to New Zealand's housing supply, and for Australian and Singaporean citizens.
A bunch of gripes about royalty – Prince Charles doesn't sit up and beg like one of his Mother's corgis might. It hasn't always been good to host royalty, as noted from past centuries. Prince Charles is not PC about his duties to visit, smile at the peeps and now sends trucks carrying the entire bedroom suite including orthopaedic bed for himself and Camilla. If he has to put himself about the nation, he is an old man, and he tries to do it to his standard of comfort not that of the hosts, and probably has learned that from past experience.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12014916 Prince Charles to visit New Zealand: Here's his remarkable travel demands revealed.
I wonder what The Don demands?
I wonder what The Don demands?
Waterworks displays. Allegedly.
The mind boggles…
And spanking. Using a rolled-up magazine with his face on the cover. Allegedly.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1907/S00146/uncertainty-for-codemark-future-after-certifier-departures.htm
Phil Pennington, Reporter
The country's leading building product assurance scheme is in disarray after another major company pulled out of it.
The CodeMark review questions competency and technical expertise of companies that issue certificates.
The government's CodeMark scheme provides product approvals that cannot be challenged by councils during building consenting, but the scheme has now lost three of its seven certifiers, and these three have issued almost 70 percent of all certificates.
The latest to go is also the biggest, CertMark of Queensland, which issued 63 certificates, or a third of the total 183 CodeMarks.
It's a blow that the Building Industry Federation, which represents thousands of products suppliers, believes might prove fatal.
(This reflects that under neolib government is unable to keep control of its projects, its services, how they are run, whether they get value for money, etc.)
I heard a report on the Provincial Growth Fund this morning. One of its objects was to get work for NZs unemployed (get the nevvies off the couch) yet by the time it gets contracted out in frequent iterations, the gummint don't know what's going on.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/395273/locals-getting-jobs-through-pgf-not-tracked-by-officials
Sectors like forestry, which have been allocated funding through the PGF, have already indicated they want to hire more migrant workers to meet their obligations.
RNZ also requested under the OIA the number of migrant workers being employed in these jobs through the fund, but the Provincial Development Unit (PDU) does not keep these figures.
PDU head Robert Pigou said they did not monitor who were actually getting the jobs once the money got to those projects.
"We don't keep track and the contracts don't require applicants to provide us with the details of where they're getting their workforce from.
"In many cases the applicants might be a local organisations like the district council and they would then go and contract with a third party."
Bloody neolib is not working well for citizens. However I did hear Michael Bassett waffling on this morning as head of Auckland Chamber of Commerce. M. Bassett is one of the Hounds that ushered in the neolib system and sold the stupid Unionists down the river as redundant munters of our small economy. Adopting the fancy new USA economic system was just what the wealthy ordered, giving them the chance for a plutocratic lifestyle in a peasant farmer country, that would always be struggling but why should they be held down by our size and isolation?
Michael *Barnett*, different guy than the evil one who screwed local govt law.
Oh. The name – and I jumped 'that high'. I'll settle down now.
Another happy clappy Coalition Grand Announcement that withers more than a little under close scrutiny from those at the coalface.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/new-plan-and-funding-strengthen-learning-support
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12252962
Principals fear Government learning support plan lacks long-term funding…
Auckland Primary Principals' Association president Heath McNeil said while the intent of the action plan was important, many of its goals were "we wills" subject to getting more funding down the line.
We've got boards of trustees now that are forced into topping up ministry funding by tens of thousands, in some cases hundreds of thousands, every year out of their operational budgets … We've just had a significant number of our students with needs have teacher aide funding cuts, pretty drastic ones, in the last three months."
McNeil points to other aims of the action plan, including reducing waiting times for early intervention.
"But the timeframe for that is six-and-a-half years with no real targets," he said.
Read the Action Plan here…https://conversation.education.govt.nz/assets/DLSAP/Learning-Support-Action-Plan.PDF
God forbid we give these New Zealanders any senses of security.
SSDD
I have a cunning plan. Pig disease in China – African Swine Flu (is that racist?) – is decimating their herds, flocks, whatever. Apparently it has been spread by feeding them meat scraps.
We used to feed pigs from the whey of our milk. Why don't we start doing that again and have pig meat that is 100% pure of ASF? At the same time we reduce the bloody factory dairy farms carrying stock numbers by a certain amount each year for the next three years. Then we will have a dynamic duo of healthy cows and pigs, and less disease from stacked stock with no room to move and live their normal lives.
Our frenzied dash after every dollar has led us to have cramped quarters in our own sour pens. A healthy appreciation of what life is about for animals and ourselves, the superior species, may be the saving of us for healthy real food. I can see the dreamy ads quite now, and if they are based on truth for once, we will be winners.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/395298/untreatable-pig-disease-puts-pressure-on-pork-industry
How are our Kiwis getting on in Oz or perhaps Oz's concentration camps?
26/7/2019 The victims of Australia's deportation policy – they're Kiwis https://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=12252700
A pattern of repeated representations from senior NZ politicians to their Australian counterparts about this issue is emerging.
Deportations a growing source of tension
The Australian and New Zealand governments have been at odds over this issue since the legislation changes were introduced in 2014…
But this harsh deportation policy isn't the only issue creating strain in the relationship. New Zealand's offer to resettle refugees imprisoned in Australian offshore detention centres has been refused a number of times, most recently last week.
Morrison's apparent lack of willingness to take Ardern's concerns about deporting New Zealand offenders more seriously confirms a noticeable hardening in Australia's approach…
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton: "where people are sexually offending against children, for example, we've had a big push to try to deport those paedophiles."
Fair enough, most Australians may think.
But Dutton's remarks are highly misleading. The overwhelming majority of the people being deported are not paedophiles.
In fact, many people being deported from Australia under the "character test" have extensive family ties in Australia and have spent very little time in New Zealand, having arrived in Australia as children.
Losing contact with family
Deportees we've interviewed for as-yet unpublished research* had experienced significant trauma because of this process, and a common theme in our research is grief from the loss of contact with children and other loved ones.
Stories of families being torn apart and children being raised by only one parent were particularly distressing for them to recount.
*Professor Patrick Keyzer heads La Trobe University's law school. Dave Martin is a PhD candidate, La Trobe University
This is what we thought in 2016.
2/8/2016 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/82670283/kiwis-biggest-group-being-held-in-australian-detention-centres–new-report
Locking Kiwis up in Australian detention centres and sending them back across the ditch could be part of a policy to "purify" the country, says Labour MP Kelvin Davis.
(Sounds nasty N..i behaviour from the Australian government. Not all Australians adopt this vicious mentality to NZs thank goodness.)
There were hopes for a change of government, and a show of principled behaviour, fairness and having a heart but the Australians have one approach for their citizens and apparently a prejudice against NZs which is totally unjustified, considering how we have been disadvantaged as a country from their government actions.
.
12/5/2019 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/112551906/13-15-focus-oz-election-what-would-a-labor-government-mean-for-kiwis- Kiwis living in Australia hopeful for change of government so they get a better deal
27/2/2019 https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/383475/special-treatment-considered-for-kiwis-in-australian-immigration-appeals
17/1/2019 https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2019/01/more-than-100-kiwis-in-hunger-strike-at-australian-detention-centres.html
3/1/2019 https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/01/kiwis-in-australian-detention-centres-face-being-moved-from-families-lawyer.html
15/10/2018 https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/15-10-2018/tasman-deathtrap-the-brutal-human-toll-of-australias-deportation-policy/ (This feature was made possible thanks to reader contributions via the Spinoff Longform Fund. Click here to support our investigative journalism.)
As the number of deportees has mounted, so too has the death toll. In the past three years, at least four New Zealand citizens have died in Australian custody or immediately following deportation, and researchers believe there are almost certainly more. The New Zealand government has no estimate of the total number of deaths, and Minister of Justice Andrew Little says his office is powerless to force a change in Australian law. “We don’t have any control over what the Australians do. We don’t have a great deal of leverage.”
Advocates in both countries say Australia’s actions are in direct contravention of United Nations conventions against torture, and in several cases even children have been locked in isolation or detained with adults, forcing tense political standoffs.
More than 15,000 New Zealand citizens are expected to be deported in the next ten years; a flood of exiles, many with no connection to this country, never allowed to go home.
3/9/2018 https://www.magic.co.nz/home/archivedtalk/on-demand/the-am-show/2018/09/the–easy–solution-to-kiwis-in-detention-centres—go-home—-j.html ('Go home' – Jason Morrison)
6/4/2018 https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/australian-government-finally-reveals-number-kiwis-locked-up-christmas-island-detention-centre
25/9/2015 Key: Nearly 200 Kiwis in Australian detention centres https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11518766
National cut back on training for young mothers and other young people, so the vocational training institutions have to cut back. Then we can blame them when there are no trained people for jobs and we just have to – sob, sob – get immigrant labour in. A race to the bottom for NZ Inc. Will the last person out please turn off the light. Oh don't worry the light fitting has gone phut already.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/395296/weltec-and-whitireia-to-cut-up-to-70-teaching-jobs
I'm breaking my recent resolution not to return to The Standard because this particular subject is too important to leave unremarked. I can't post this item where it really belongs (The Guardian) because they're so snowed under lately with BTL comments, they have to close them off within about 5 minutes of the OP's piece going up.
Anyway, refer to the following:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/25/power-brexit-boris-johnson-radical-conservative-party
I'm starting to see some ominous parallels with the 1917 Russian revolution. We have here a group that barely commands a majority in its own party (think: Bolsheviks v Mensheviks), but which knows exactly what it wants, concentrates relentlessly on its objectives, and is in the process of seizing a degree of power unprecedented in modern Britain. Like Lenin, they have realised that a small, active, tightly focused organisation is going to be more effective than a larger, diffuse one whose members don't have common goals.
The timing from their point of view couldn't be better – Parliament in recess for the next six weeks, so nothing to hold this Executive to account till early September. I predict we will see in that period a huge spate of activity by Cabinet and the ministries and departments of state. It will all be within the bounds – just – of existing legislation, but hitherto accepted agreements about what is "done" and "not done" will be ripped to shreds, just as we've been seeing in the USA.
There'll be no need to formally control the press because Rupert "Moloch" will do it for them and pump out endless propaganda about the necessity for it all. And then, shortly after Parliament resumes, they'll engineer some single-issue "crisis" and call a general election in search of a formal mandate to resolve it – and, by-the-by, cement their grip on what remains of the country.
Deluded fantasy on my part? Oh I hope so, I do hope so.
Yes Obi Knobi. Boris isn't as silly as he looks I think. As you say it's a worry.
And why don't you want to comment here? That would be interesting to know – or do you feel there isn't freedom of speech and thought allowed here to talk about it? I think it is important to say. What have you got to lose? I am sorry in advance, if I have offended you.
I'm not offended, Grey. I just got sick and tired of seeing about 90% of BTL comments devoted to petty point-scoring and denigration of anyone who didn't happen to share the particular point of view of the poster. I'd better things to do with my time than wading through that sort of drivel.
This would be such a good idea. Can't someone adopt this poor little overlooked idea and give it a good secure home properly funded.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/394741/more-residential-homes-could-stop-oranga-tamariki-uplifts
Vulnerable mothers desperately need access to more residential homes so they can keep their babies instead of watching them being taken into state care, an Insight investigation has found.
Last year, 281 babies were taken from their mothers within three months of birth, up from 247 in 2016…
But there are only five residential homes nationwide that offer a safe environment for women and their babies and support mothers to be good parents.
These homes can only offer 24 places for vulnerable mothers and their children at any one time.
Does anyone think this is the right way to support new families, and treat parents and children who should be encouraged to bond and build the security and continuity that keeps children happy and trusting in parents?
Moving into a residential home was not an option for Mel*, who ended up in a Women's Refuge safe house at the start of this year, after another hiding from her ex-partner.
(Mel protests against Oranga Tamariki uplifts after her children were taken into state care. Photo: RNZ / Leigh Marama McLachlan)
She spent the week there before Oranga Tamariki took her one-year-old and three-month-old daughters over safety issues.
"I was compliant with Oranga Tamariki through that whole week, going into meetings," Mel said.
"That Friday they told me to come into the office at 5pm, when they had closed. They threw a bit of paper at me saying, 'You've got a minute to say goodbye to your kids'.
Ministry of education doesn't want to make the Land wars a compulsory part of the NZ curriculum.
This seems… odd. It seems to be more a bureaucratic bias against prescriptive curruculae rather than intentional suppression (although suppression will be the outcome).
I always figured that there were basics that needed to be taught, and that was dictated by the ministry so local nutbars couldn't teach utter bullshit. Apparently I luckily just went ot a progressive school that taught physics, evolution, and some aspects of colonisation (rather than just the bible, intelligent design, and a flat earth with no history outside of europe).
"Mar 30 2016"
Fuck. That'll teach me to take news off FB lol.
Seems to be a lot of that going around this year. Been caught out myself.
All credit to Stuff, they seem to periodically report someone raising the issue.
Here's Hipkins repeating the "no" last year.
It does seem weird to me that there isn't at least some minimum requirement of coveragewithin the curriculum – does the science curriculum require teachers to teach the basic equations like "F=ma", or is that all just traditionally done out of the kindness of teachers' hearts?
Shit, I'll be sounding like a baby boomer soon…
Kia Ora Newshub.
That idiot who drove a roller and smashed other people cars with it needs his head read something wrong up there .
This Government is talking to the whenua protesters Ma te wa.
Simon ain't plastic like shonky is .
Can't all the customers of Wallis group just separate the pork out of there meat waste and find a new market for there waste pork no drama there I say.
There is more to trees and plant life than people know or believe The Kauri stump being kept alive by other trees giving it vital nutrients very interesting.
Ka kite ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
This Government is trying to figure out a solution to the whenua protesters problems the last lot would have tried to shut it down to many tangata whenua there now to . It is a difacult thing to get to the bottom of who is correct in the whenua issue . My tipuna had a Maori Land court case that lasted 40 years and still it's not sorted the correct owners only got 5 shears out of 500 the shears went to the crowns stool pigeon Eco Maori is going to be re starting that case Ma Te Wa.
Ka kite ano
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/w5tWYmIOWGk
Kia Ora Newshub.
national scrapped the cancer agency and now they are trying to capitalize on their own MESS Paddy.
Eco Maori thinks all the help that our Pacific cousins can get from Aotearoa and China is needed to help them cope with climate change.Its cool that our government is investing in saving that rear bird .
Donna mahi is good for the wairua its sad that the system has a age discrimination I think its should change to encourage the elderly get mahi.
Alex it was freezing in bayview Hawksbay yesterday morning and today but where Eco Maori resides Te Ra was shining bright and warm also Te Ra had my solar powered system running strong.
Ka kite ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Paina you lost your voice I did a few months ago it took about 2 months to come back it was sad times for Eco Maori.
Rania Smith te tangata knows the TRUTH about the historical significance of Ihumatoo.
I agree that tangata whenua need to have a bigger hand in the stakes of tamariki in the states care. I have made a few statements that to care for someone correctly one has to have aroha for that person so Maori need to be included in the care of these poorest tamariki.
I tau toko the Hawaiian who are protesting that 30 meter high telescope on their sacred mountain they have every right to sue That is what will stop that telescope being built but like tangata whenua O Aotearoa they will have limited resources.
Ka kite ano
Piripi that group of Native American and Canadian tribes paddling together looks like Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa waka paddlers awesome.
Kia Ora Newshub.
You two national supporters love any story that is negative about our Labour lead Coalition Governments Aotearoa economy is fine when compared to other countries and whats happening around Papatuanuku
Sorry about you been robbed point your finger at your national m8 they made the poor people poorer hence more robberies.
Chris the disabled people needs of access ramps needs to be catered for by these organizations. We have a hard time getting transportation for one of our love ones whom is disabled.
I can see this canser drug issue being privately pushed buy the Big drug companies. Talking about doubling Pharmacs budget the drug companies will be rubbing their hands together thinking about their PROFITS they are going to get from this campaign. Its all about Te mone .
I disagree a business man like shonky only set the country up for the wealthy people hence we have a major housing crisis thanks to shonky a run down health system and education system the roads were ignored he was cutting all the state organizations budgets hence the big mess our Coalition Government has to clean up.
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/eJlN9jdQFSc
Kia ora Newshub.
Measles has been quite prominent in Aotearoa as of late the prisoner's who have measles its been a problem Papatuanuku wide.
Condolences to the people who lost their loveones in the Korean nightclub bar balcony accident.
All the best in your new journey of retiring from international Polo you made Aotearoa shine bright with your starlight Sir Mark Tod Im sure you will have heaps of other things to keep you busy.
I would rather live with kiore that be a kiore .
Mike I know what that is like my machinery being tampered with my machinery has strange things happen like my Eco Maori Truck having lose nuts on the ball joints tyers going down for no logical reason I know all those ball joints nuts were tight because I changed the ball joints my self guessing who the tamper is.
Ka kite ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Condolences to the whanau who lost love ones in the Kiangroa Bay of plenty car and truck crash.
Its good to see that time have changed now Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa is commanding more respect and we are receiving it .
At Winston my whanau were Mana whenua and still we didn't get our correct shears in our whenua.
Thats a awesome knitted flag that te Wahine made I Eco Maori is a suporter for equality for Wahine.
Some people need to learn not to bite the hands that care for them the most or would Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa prefer to have a government like national making common people lives very hard to paddle there waka te waka is actually going backwards with a national government be careful Whanau we might get burned by your actions.
Ka kite ano