Well last month WE WHERE, in the pound seat, without any other of our past side kicks, yet a few weeks in Politics is a life time as opposed to a week in politics. So one side kick is looking back in the hoos again, as for the other one, crystal ball and history should be not forgotten.
The election cannot come soon enough for me. It is a distraction when it comes to what the main focus needs to be from the government, preventing community transmission of Covid – 19.
It is good to see that Melbourne is having the right result after the long lockdown and restrictions.
Public Service Announcement for all the Tucker Carlson fanbois: Fox's official position is that Carlson just sez shit that nobody reasonable could ever be expected to take seriously. Which a federal judge agrees with, that anybody with functioning cognition would immediately recognise that any mouth-noises Carlson makes should be treated very skeptically.
That was actually quite a terrifying read the reasoning of this 'Trump appointed Judge'.
If you are a personality like him who sprouts bullshit for money, you can't get sued for defamation because 'his viewers should know he is a liar and thus expect to be told lies' and thus the lies he spreads about people are not defamation but 'shucks, entertainment'.
Essentially he told lies about the Playboy Bunny on how she got her 'payout' from the Don and they literally painted her as a blackmailer who committed a crime, while she did no such thing.
She got no justice, but he got a get out jail card for ever now, cause' everyone knows he lies, and thus its ok'.
Looking ahead, the scum-sucking bottom-feeders that the dayglo swampzilla is partying with now he's drained the swamp will be very happy to call on that legal precedent should anyone ever try to hold them accountable.
Indeed. Actually, that's been obvious since, well, forever. But I'm still astonished out how many convergence moonbats have asserted, apparently in all seriousness, that Tucker "gets it".
The prevailing culture in yankistan seems to regard dishonesty as a virtue and admire the most blatant liars most highly. Weird mutation of christianity.
"WorkSafe inspectors will enter notorious Christian community Gloriavale early next week after reports of 23-hour work shifts for members and threats by church leaders."
I'm reasonably adept at digging….sadly the site I was looking for CharityWatch…NZ seems to have disappeared.. (Well it did have a LOT of NZ richlisters on its "hello" site)
It is communal property. So they get a house assigned if married, they get to have food, and such, but i doubt anyone would get paid anything near a wage.
Yes, the people that leave, leave with nothing and will need a bit of help – provided by people who have left earlier and the state. Mind they are skilled in farming, etc so should be able to find job.
I found this a worthwhile 1/4 of an hour. Especially the final 4 minutes.
tldw, it covers othering, the importance of listening, the ego being the hardest thing to overcome, media and group think, not expecting to be offended.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a top contender on President Donald Trump’s short list for the Supreme Court, has drawn widespread media attention for her reported membership in People of Praise, a largely Catholic, charismatic religious group.
Another shortlister, Judge Barbara Lagoa, is a longtime member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. Her husband, Paul Huck, is an attorney at Jones Day, a law firm with close ties to the White House and throughout the Trump administration.
Those details — readily found in numerous news stories about the potential SCOTUS nominees — could become illegal for media outlets or anyone else to publish on the internet under a proposal federal judges sent to Congress earlier this month. Under the suggested legislation, lawmakers would grant judges extraordinary latitude to decide what personal information to exclude from the public eye.
The letter sent to House and Senate Judiciary Committee leaders did not contain specific legislative language, but did offer a non-exclusive laundry list of information judges want authority to suppress. It includes judges’ home addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank account details, home and mobile phone numbers and vehicle registrations.
However, the list also covers details on judges’ “investment property,” any “family member’s employer,” and “religious, organization, club, or association memberships.”
The gaslighting goes hand-in-hand with the eroding and undermining of trust in and respect for authority and experts. The pandemic fear has accelerated this process of polarising people in strongly believing, trusting and relying on authority and (science) experts, on the one hand, and people disbelieving, rebelling against and outright rejecting these, on the other hand. The people who have not succumbed yet to either polar opposite tend to have fallen off the fence in utter dizzying bewilderment and paralysing confusion. However, there are many who opt to disengage and run a mile for the hills away from the fence never to return to the fray. None of this bodes well for the future. Only if we work together do we stand a chance. Suffice to say, society is becoming more fragmented and sectarian by the day.
"Science (from the Latin word scientia, meaning "knowledge")[1] is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe"
Distrusting and disrespecting science experts (scientists) is not the same as distrusting and disrespecting science as a process albeit a human-driven one (a human concept).
The nature of (scientific) knowledge is nebulous to many and especially to lay-people. Similarly, (model) predictions can be imprecise, inaccurate, or ‘wrong’, but with complex systems they are probabilistic in any case. Even ‘simple’ systems have probabilistic states or outcomes because when they are based on a stochastic process. Think of flicking a coin, if you pick ‘wrong’ it is because you have only a 50% chance of picking it ‘right’. Many people struggle with the indeterminate nature of (model) predictions and they want/expect simple binary (absolute!) answers, e.g. the weather forecast: will it rain or not and don’t tell me that there is a moderate chance of showers in the afternoon clearing in the evening.
National has not given up the ghost, it is clear that its aim for the next couple of weeks is to prevent the party going into what its own MPs call the “death spiral”: where potential centre-right voters know National won’t be in government and peel off to other alternatives, defenestrating the party and making the rebuild task much harder.
What is also clear, however, is that Collins was not then, nor now, targeting swing voters in the political centre to come over to National. That’s the party’s only chance of winning but the numbers are so low that that is not even being tried at the moment.
The ghost seems to be the Nat tactical advisor: "Okay, we sail in towards the black hole at the correct trajectory to pull out in a week's time. That'll get all the neocon votes back in behind, then we can clear the event horizon via powering full throttle out."
"A week is a long time in politics, everyone knows, so voters will have forgotten our lunge to the right by then as we head back into the mainstream to scoop up sheeple spellbound by Ardern's charisma. No problem." Ghostwriters know how formula thinking works: just gotta out-bland the competitor. Sheeple love bland.
The gospel according to Luke:
Regardless of how National spins it, the minimum respectable result for the party is 35 per cent… No-one in National is any longer talking about a ‘’path to victory’’. It's now about damage control and MPs with even healthy majorities are hunkering down in their electorates, making sure they hold their seats.
I was pretty appalled by that too. At the lower income brown end of town he would have gone down I suspect. And there is nothing like a conviction and jail sentence to ruin one's job prospects. There is also the issue that diversion did not seem to have been part of the picture.
I asked myself – if he had gone up to a stranger at the pedestrian crossing down town and behaved as he did including breaking someone's nose would they have been so keen to discharge him without conviction. Likely no – so why was the assault minimised because it was at home?
I might also had some belief that he had dealt with his issues if he had said some thing like " the divorce has been settled on the generous terms by consent without argument from me and the financial outcomes and lifestyle for her and the children going ahead has been preserved to the best of my ability – I have been to every course available and understand my behaviour better that I understand why she wishes nothing moore to do with me yadda yadda".
Labor also still needs to prove it is a stable and responsible party of alternative government, and it is equally hard to imagine that knifing yet another first term leader would reassure the electorate of that.
This brings us to perhaps the most critical problem that Labor is facing, namely the viciousness and toxicity of its self-proclaimed supporters on the extreme left.
Most of these are unreconstructed baby-boomers who never came home from Woodstock and the usual student socialists who are yet to know better. The only difference between now and 1990 is that social media both spreads their idiocy and artificially amplifies their influence – a paradox we can only hope will be met with a reckoning.
If Australia is anything like NZ, the genuine "extreme left" could likely be gathered together in their entirety without violating social distancing rules. The "extreme left" in the mind of Hildebrand sound like moderate social democrats.
The "extreme left" in the mind of Hildebrand sound like moderate social democrats.
Umm no. If you read the article it's clear this isn't the case. I identify as a moderate social democrat and I'm clear that Hildebrand reliably speaks my language.
Basically he's saying that the centre wins elections, as it always has. And that people who insist there are more votes to be had if 'Labour goes left' are deluding themselves with an argument that makes no sense at all.
Indeed, there are many who say Labor only lost the last election because it was not left-wing enough.
Allow me to lay out this argument: After a farcical six years in which the Coalition knifed its own prime minister in every single term, and in which Bill Shorten actively vowed to redistribute the wealth of retirees and property investors, an invisible cohort of hard left voters said “Labor’s not socialist enough for me, I’m voting for Scott Morrison.”
It physically hurts the brain to follow this thought process and yet this is precisely what online activists say over and over again, rarely politely. Indeed, bereft of any rationality they embark upon random campaigns of vitriol and abuse.
New Zealand has been one of the fastest money printers this year and is on track to print up to a third of GDP. The point is no central bank has managed to either reverse their bond buying in any sustained way, or create the inflation they need for more than 20 years.
The idea that the lunch will be paid for any time soon is barely believable and we should get used to the fact money printing will pay for Government deficits for the foreseeable future. The bigger question is what New Zealand has hoped to achieve once the printing eventually stops, rather than worrying about when it reverses.
Voters, too stupid to keep up, still believe govt debt must be repaid. Therefore National's campaigning includes the higher-taxes threat – a trad achilles heel for Labour since the Black Budget. In the real world, that logic is no longer valid.
Government was able to borrow $450 million for a four-year term at minus 0.048 per cent this week. It was also able to borrow $150m for a period of 17 years at 0.908 per cent. The idea is that once the economy is stabilised and generating too much inflation, the Reserve Bank will then go back into the market and sell those bonds back to banks and pension funds to suck cash out of the system and tighten monetary policy.
The US Federal Reserve started this type of money printing by buying bonds in 2009. It tried to reduce the pace of its buying in a process known as “tapering” after just four years, but sparked financial market mayhem as investors rejected the idea of being weaned off the cheap money.
The Fed printed US$4.5 trillion between 2009 and 2013, but was only able to offload US$700b back into the market over the following six years. Then it started printing again in September last year at a slow rate, but turbo-charged that in March and now has bought over US$7t worth of bonds.
The Bank of Japan started printing 20 years ago and now has assets worth 126 per cent of its GDP. It bought back about a third of its holdings from 2012 to 2015, but has since reversed all of that and almost doubled its holdings from 2012 again.
So quantitative easing has been effective in stabilising the system for more than a decade: it has become orthodoxy.
The Reserve Bank is also about to start printing money and lending directly to banks at virtually zero per cent interest or even negative rates.
That will allow banks to use that money to replace $126b of foreign borrowings they currently have. One of the untold good news stories of the Covid-19 crisis is that New Zealanders are importing less and going on holiday less, the big four banks are not repatriating dividends under orders from the Reserve Bank and New Zealand fund managers are saving by buying overseas assets. That has improved our net debt from 84 per cent of GDP a decade ago to 58 per cent now.
Looks like the RB has got us onto a resilience trajectory. Now we just need politicians able to comprehend this, and pass on the good news to voters. So far, zilch.
People don't really understand money, how its created nor the simple fact that it has no value in and of itself.
The RBNZ and politicians haven't seemed to twig to its reality either.
Which means that we'll still end up with the private banks creating money and charging us interest on it in such a way that it can never be repaid with a resulting ever increasing amount of private debt. Exactly as happened prior to the GFC which quantitative easing was then used to transfer that private debt to the government's books so that the rich could stay rich.
The problem is the Govs and central banks who 'own' the currency and are concerned with its reputation whereas the private banks are only concerned with profit and reputation be damned.
But it could be said it is the govs own fault as they are the ones who let the leash get so long they couldnt see what the dog was up to.
On his Facebook page, Bryan Gould made these points:
As a former television professional, I watched last night’s leaders’ debate with particular interest. I was fascinated by how decisions by the studio director and the positioning of the cameras influenced the course of the debate, usually to Ardern’s disadvantage.
As the opening shots demonstrated, Collins had the advantage of a camera directly in front of her, and to which she could speak full face on. Ardern, by contrast, was being filmed from somewhere out to her right, with result that she was seen largely in profile, speaking to no one in particular, and in wide shots, with Collins a constant presence over her shoulder in the same shot. The consequence was that Collins was on screen most of the time and had ample opportunity to use facial expressions and physical gestures by way of comment on what Ardern was saying and as she was saying it.
The studio director added to these advantages by making repeated cut-aways to Collins while Ardern was speaking. The overall impression thereby created was that Collins was at the heart of the debate, while Ardern was floating around somewhere on the periphery. Labour will need to address these issues with TVNZ before the next debate.
Good to know Gould drew the same conclusion I did here last week, likewise from a background of career experience in television. Creating an un-level playing field, tilted to one side, is dirty politics. Does Labour have the political nous to negate the favouritism? I doubt it.
If the favouritism that Gould, you and others observed gives the National party a significant political advantage, then I’d agree that ideally it should be negated in future, but doubt 'Labour' is too worried. I do hope influential lefties are observing and making little lists as these may prove handy in post-election neg(oti)ations.
Yes I think Ianmac quoted Gould on the Daily review last week. Gordon Campbell wrote about it too.
i put in a complaint to the media council, rewording some of what Gould said adding my own impressions.
i realise nothing much will come of it, but I believe TVNZ will have to respond and maybe Gould, Gordon Campbell and the complaints they get, might stop them doing it when Jessica Mutch McKay has her turn.
either incompetence or deliberate or maybe both.
A fail for John Campbell re the whole show as far as I am concerned
Well good on you for doing that. It's true Gould & Campbell are leftists, so bias is a factor with them. Not so for me: I decided in 1971 that the left weren't credible (due to being part of the establishment) and adopted a third alternative political path through the middle between left & right. I'm only supporting Labour on this due to the fairness principle of democracy.
If the Labour Party doesn't make a formal complaint, collective stupidity may not be their reason. They may agree that the fairness principle of democracy ought to be preached by leftists but not actually practised.
It always amuses me that commentators who have common sense as their middle name are always classed as 'leftists". Being a supporter of the Labour Party or the Greens does not automatically mean a person is a leftist in the negative sense that Dennis Frank uses the term. In fact, I think they are both mature and highly intelligent commentators whose views are based on factual evidence.
They run rings around many of the idiot commentators who frequent the tabloids, radio and TV current affairs programmes. I find it interesting that they are not better used by the media. I suspect the media in general feel threatened by their superiority and intelligence. Might show them up.
A fail for John Campbell re the whole show as far as I am concerned
If indeed there was a bias towards Judith Collins – and imo there definitely was and it stretched to include better visuals such as lighting and camera angles for Collins – then it is possible John Campbell wasn't in on the act. In which case he would not have known what was happening while the debate was in progress.
Hi Anne, my very strong impression was that Campbell interrupted Jacinda more than Judith. I am not sure if Campbell would appreciate the camera angles, but would stand corrected by someone in the know
i think overall Judith got an easier ride. No focus on the covid response. For those who say well other issues are more important, I would refute that. NZ continues to drop on the global list of covid cases. The much touted by some, Sweden is now surging again. As are most other countries. It’s tragic
btw excuse the bullet points. I often have trouble commenting from my I pad, but can do it if I bullet point.
He certainly did, but my take on that is he's a bit scared of Judith. Just like Muldoon, she is a formidable and nasty opponent and people are afraid of her biting tongue.
Not trying to defend Campbell. I don't like his sickly sweet mode of interaction. But I don't think he was part of any predetermined bias towards Collins. In fact I imagine he privately dislikes her.
I really don't understand why people make a stance on an aeroplane. Quite apart from anything else I suspect it could be a good while before Airnz allows any boarding onto any plane.
If they're smart, Air NZ will ban him for a month or two – that stuff he's peddling won't get him much support down south neither – educated folk down there.
Why make a stand on an aeroplane? So he can get time on the airwaves. So he can air his views in the media even more. So he can present himself as one who is staunch in his views. So he can claim persecution by the authorities. So he can reinforce within himself the feelings of conspiracy. “I must be right. They are all against me……..”
Which would hurt him the most? Being banned by Air NZ or being allowed to go on his merry way? Yes, he'd use the ban to gain more publicity, but he would be seriously compromised by not being able to fly around the country hoodwinking stupid people into believing his conspiracy theories.
It's a safety issue for the airline, however richly he may deserve an ass-kicking for other reasons. If I insisted on using a cellphone I wouldn't get to fly – masks are no different.
It is more than a safety issue, it is a compliance issue with safety regulations. Imagine something goes horribly wrong during or with the flight and some plonker refuses to follow the crew’s instructions because it doesn’t ‘feel right’ to him, potentially endangering himself, the crew, and other passengers. The core of the safety protocol is to follow the instructions. He or his lawyer can look it up in the Civil Aviation Act and challenge it in Court if he is stupid enough wishes.
I hope they ban him, but for the reasons Incog states. Hopefully they'll have some savvy PR person who manages the media release with just the right tone and framing.
Sometimes TS will embed images directly from the URL, so you can just copy and paste it into a comment. But, not all images will embed, and some take a while to show up on slower internet connections.
If you want just the image, then on FB, click on the image in the post, then control click on the image for a drop down menu and choose something like open in new tab or view image (depending on your browser maybe).
Then cut and paste that URL into a TS comment. Please remove all the part of the URL from the ? onwards (this is best practice for all links, including off FB).
Just don't get too carried away or the mods will get grumpy. TS isn't FB, judicious use of images to be encouraged here rather than spamming the site with memery 🙂
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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 ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
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 ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
The beloved local grocers lost a legal challenge to stop a new cycleway outside their store. Joel MacManus reports. In the annals of New Zealand legal history, there are a few brave people who have dared to stand up to the powers that be, no matter how bleak the odds ...
How what we produce and what we eat connects us to the world beyond our shores, visualised. Walking around a supermarket or vege shop, it might be obvious that everything on the shelves came from somewhere. But you might ...
Professor Jemma Geoghegan, of the University of Otago, Otakou Whakaihu Waka, co-leads a Te Niwha project aimed at understanding how and where avian influenza could affect Aotearoa New Zealand, as the highly infectious H5N1 virus spreads globally. The virus has now spread to all continents except Oceania and was recently ...
Thirty years on from Rwanda’s genocide, is guilt over the atrocities is blinding the world to the true nature of its current leadership? The post The repressive underside of Rwanda’s regime appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: Last week, important recommendations for our criminal justice system were made by the international community. Every five years, each member of the United Nations has its human rights practices reviewed. This rolling event – the Universal Periodic Review – is the culmination of a government reporting on its human ...
Highly pathogenic avian influenza – H5N1, or bird flu – has been flying around the world since the late 1990s. New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands are so far free of it, but now it’s been discovered in mainland Antarctica and scientists say it’s only a matter of time ...
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The following interview with auto electrician and former caver Stu Berendt, 68, of Charleston on the West Coast, came about because he was part of the caving team that found the rare and amazing fossil remains of the giant Haast eagle, the subject of one of the year’s best books, ...
A $1.8b funding boost for Pharmac still won’t enable it to buy more drugs, raising questions about the Government’s approach to the agency The post Can Pharmac do more with the same pot of money? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Stokan, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County If you live in one of the most economically deprived neighborhoods in your city, you might think the government is directing a smaller share of public funds to your community. ...
Wansolwara The news media’s crucial role in climate change and environment journalism was the focus of The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme 2024 World Press Freedom Day celebrations. The European Union Ambassador to the Pacific, Barbara Plinkert, and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna were the chief ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Adams, Professor of Corporate Law & Academic Director of UNE Sydney campus, University of New England Last August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched legal proceedings against Qantas. The consumer watchdog accused the airline of selling thousands of tickets ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Nasser, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important ligament in the knee. It runs from the thigh bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia) and helps stabilise ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
If building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...
Comment: The debate over the future relationship between news and social media is bringing us closer to a long-overdue reckoning. Social media isn’t trying to kill journalism, because social media has never really cared about journalism. Social media is resolutely in the attention business. News propels some attention — perhaps ...
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, Monday 6 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A new Commonwealth Prac Payment will provide students with $319.50 a week when they are on clinical and professional placements. The payment will be means tested and start from July 1 next year, which ...
Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
One week until advance voting starts. Let’s get this over with!
.
Labour 2017 Campaign Slogan: Let's Do This
Labour 2020 Campaign Slogan: For Chrissakes, Let's Get This Over With !
@swordfish
Yes! It feels quite good though for once to be a Labour voter and not worrying too much about how the election is going to turn out.
Well last month WE WHERE, in the pound seat, without any other of our past side kicks, yet a few weeks in Politics is a life time as opposed to a week in politics. So one side kick is looking back in the hoos again, as for the other one, crystal ball and history should be not forgotten.
The election cannot come soon enough for me. It is a distraction when it comes to what the main focus needs to be from the government, preventing community transmission of Covid – 19.
It is good to see that Melbourne is having the right result after the long lockdown and restrictions.
Anyone else booked a 100-person party for October 7th?
No. Superspreader events aren't my thing.
Public Service Announcement for all the Tucker Carlson fanbois: Fox's official position is that Carlson just sez shit that nobody reasonable could ever be expected to take seriously. Which a federal judge agrees with, that anybody with functioning cognition would immediately recognise that any mouth-noises Carlson makes should be treated very skeptically.
https://www.salon.com/2020/09/25/federal-judge-rules-that-fox-news-host-tucker-carlsons-viewers-dont-expect-him-to-tell-facts_partner/
Seems like a repeat of Maddow vs OAN.
Except a judge dismissed the lawsuit against Maddow who said One America News was "paid Russian propaganda".
Herring Networks, the parent company of OAN, claimed that Maddow had defamed the company in July 2019, when she discussed a Daily Beast article reporting that an OAN contributor was also on the payroll of Sputnik, a Kremlin-backed news site. Maddow said OAN “really literally is paid Russian propaganda.” Herring Networks alleged that she made a false statement, in that OAN is not paid by the Russian government. In dismissing the suit on Friday, U.S. Judge Cynthia Bashant ruled that Maddow was giving her opinion based on an accurate summation of the article.
That was actually quite a terrifying read the reasoning of this 'Trump appointed Judge'.
If you are a personality like him who sprouts bullshit for money, you can't get sued for defamation because 'his viewers should know he is a liar and thus expect to be told lies' and thus the lies he spreads about people are not defamation but 'shucks, entertainment'.
Essentially he told lies about the Playboy Bunny on how she got her 'payout' from the Don and they literally painted her as a blackmailer who committed a crime, while she did no such thing.
She got no justice, but he got a get out jail card for ever now, cause' everyone knows he lies, and thus its ok'.
Looking ahead, the scum-sucking bottom-feeders that the dayglo swampzilla is partying with now he's drained the swamp will be very happy to call on that legal precedent should anyone ever try to hold them accountable.
On the upside, I guess everyone can now refer to him as Paid Liar Tucker Carson.
Indeed. Actually, that's been obvious since, well, forever. But I'm still astonished out how many convergence moonbats have asserted, apparently in all seriousness, that Tucker "gets it".
The prevailing culture in yankistan seems to regard dishonesty as a virtue and admire the most blatant liars most highly. Weird mutation of christianity.
"WorkSafe inspectors will enter notorious Christian community Gloriavale early next week after reports of 23-hour work shifts for members and threats by church leaders."
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/west-coast/worksafe-inspectors-enter-gloriavale
About time !
I would be interested to know what the hourly rate of pay is. So they get around not paying wages by saying they are volunteer workers.
When people leave the community do they leave with next to nothing?
The value of assets would be of interest to me and who is the owner.
2016…
"$40 Million"…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77378317/gloriavale-christian-community-assets-top-40-million
"charity" ?
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/west-coast/ex-gloriavale-member-questions-tax-free-status
Gloriavale wanted PGF money?
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/exclusive-gloriavale-seeking-millions-taxpayer-dollars-set-up-new-health-food-enterprise
Wow the asset value and sounds like exploitation on many levels.
I'm reasonably adept at digging….sadly the site I was looking for CharityWatch…NZ seems to have disappeared.. (Well it did have a LOT of NZ richlisters on its "hello" site)
All I see is the US one…still sickening reading
https://www.charitywatch.org/charity-donating-articles/charitywatch-hall-of-shame
It is communal property. So they get a house assigned if married, they get to have food, and such, but i doubt anyone would get paid anything near a wage.
Yes, the people that leave, leave with nothing and will need a bit of help – provided by people who have left earlier and the state. Mind they are skilled in farming, etc so should be able to find job.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/114491762/starting-a-new-life-outside-of-gloriavale
I found this a worthwhile 1/4 of an hour. Especially the final 4 minutes.
tldw, it covers othering, the importance of listening, the ego being the hardest thing to overcome, media and group think, not expecting to be offended.
RBG's replacement has been nominated! You'll never guess who it is!
They're working on it.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a top contender on President Donald Trump’s short list for the Supreme Court, has drawn widespread media attention for her reported membership in People of Praise, a largely Catholic, charismatic religious group.
Another shortlister, Judge Barbara Lagoa, is a longtime member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. Her husband, Paul Huck, is an attorney at Jones Day, a law firm with close ties to the White House and throughout the Trump administration.
Those details — readily found in numerous news stories about the potential SCOTUS nominees — could become illegal for media outlets or anyone else to publish on the internet under a proposal federal judges sent to Congress earlier this month. Under the suggested legislation, lawmakers would grant judges extraordinary latitude to decide what personal information to exclude from the public eye.
[…]
The letter sent to House and Senate Judiciary Committee leaders did not contain specific legislative language, but did offer a non-exclusive laundry list of information judges want authority to suppress. It includes judges’ home addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank account details, home and mobile phone numbers and vehicle registrations.
However, the list also covers details on judges’ “investment property,” any “family member’s employer,” and “religious, organization, club, or association memberships.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/24/judges-disclosure-personal-detailscrime-420894
Barrett has been confirmed as the pick to go forward.
Barrett's a religious zealot who belongs to a cult that believes women must be subservient to the commands of men. Incels will be delighted.
/
.
Further to the right…and with years of it to come.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/amy-coney-barrett-emergency-supreme-court-donald-trump-rbg-1067115/
Trump wants denial Inside the "Scientists Lair"….
https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/09/24/trump-noaa-david-legates-ryan-maue-climate-denial?utm_source=DeSmog%20Weekly%20Newsletter
FFS David Legates ?
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/climate-change-denialist-given-top-role-major-us-science-agency
Who Legates really is…and represents.!
https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/david-legates
The gaslighting goes hand-in-hand with the eroding and undermining of trust in and respect for authority and experts. The pandemic fear has accelerated this process of polarising people in strongly believing, trusting and relying on authority and (science) experts, on the one hand, and people disbelieving, rebelling against and outright rejecting these, on the other hand. The people who have not succumbed yet to either polar opposite tend to have fallen off the fence in utter dizzying bewilderment and paralysing confusion. However, there are many who opt to disengage and run a mile for the hills away from the fence never to return to the fray. None of this bodes well for the future. Only if we work together do we stand a chance. Suffice to say, society is becoming more fragmented and sectarian by the day.
Science by its very definition :
"Science (from the Latin word scientia, meaning "knowledge")[1] is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science
Is based on Knowledge. The gaining of which, Peer Reviewed by Scientists, is always head and shoulders above any other.
Anthropogenic Global Warming
When Trump is able to appoint deniers into NOAA, The EPA etc, its a very disturbing trend.
Especially when the people in question are known to be closely associated with Climate Denier thinktanks.
More attention and Scientific Push Back needs to be given. Not less….
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-scientists-think-100-of-global-warming-is-due-to-humans
Two things.
Distrusting and disrespecting science experts (scientists) is not the same as distrusting and disrespecting science as a process albeit a human-driven one (a human concept).
The nature of (scientific) knowledge is nebulous to many and especially to lay-people. Similarly, (model) predictions can be imprecise, inaccurate, or ‘wrong’, but with complex systems they are probabilistic in any case. Even ‘simple’ systems have probabilistic states or outcomes because when they are based on a stochastic process. Think of flicking a coin, if you pick ‘wrong’ it is because you have only a 50% chance of picking it ‘right’. Many people struggle with the indeterminate nature of (model) predictions and they want/expect simple binary (absolute!) answers, e.g. the weather forecast: will it rain or not and don’t tell me that there is a moderate chance of showers in the afternoon clearing in the evening.
You probably know what you mean. I'm sure I dont.
Unholy ghost taking National on death spiral into black hole: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/122892803/election-2020-national-goes-hunting-for-votes-on-the-right-while-labour-plays-it-safe
The ghost seems to be the Nat tactical advisor: "Okay, we sail in towards the black hole at the correct trajectory to pull out in a week's time. That'll get all the neocon votes back in behind, then we can clear the event horizon via powering full throttle out."
"A week is a long time in politics, everyone knows, so voters will have forgotten our lunge to the right by then as we head back into the mainstream to scoop up sheeple spellbound by Ardern's charisma. No problem." Ghostwriters know how formula thinking works: just gotta out-bland the competitor. Sheeple love bland.
The gospel according to Luke:
As long as they don't peel off to WinnieFirst, all good.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300114018/accountancy-firm-director-gets-discharge-without-conviction-after-breaking-exwifes-nose
The fucks going on with nz??
This judge needs removing from office.
to bwaghorn at 9 ; astoundingly unbelievable…a huge affront to women from a reactionary judge . I grieve.
[Removed text from user name]
I was pretty appalled by that too. At the lower income brown end of town he would have gone down I suspect. And there is nothing like a conviction and jail sentence to ruin one's job prospects. There is also the issue that diversion did not seem to have been part of the picture.
I asked myself – if he had gone up to a stranger at the pedestrian crossing down town and behaved as he did including breaking someone's nose would they have been so keen to discharge him without conviction. Likely no – so why was the assault minimised because it was at home?
I might also had some belief that he had dealt with his issues if he had said some thing like " the divorce has been settled on the generous terms by consent without argument from me and the financial outcomes and lifestyle for her and the children going ahead has been preserved to the best of my ability – I have been to every course available and understand my behaviour better that I understand why she wishes nothing moore to do with me yadda yadda".
His previous good behaviour seems to include abusing his wife.
That is not spur of the moment – that looks like an ongoing pattern.
Under Culture.
https://twitter.com/existentialfish/status/1309574653292277766
https://thefederalist.com/category/culture/
Joe Hildebrand writes well and with a reliable compass. His assessment of the ALP's position and Albo's prospects of becoming PM resonates with me:
If Australia is anything like NZ, the genuine "extreme left" could likely be gathered together in their entirety without violating social distancing rules. The "extreme left" in the mind of Hildebrand sound like moderate social democrats.
Indeed. : )
The "extreme left" in the mind of Hildebrand sound like moderate social democrats.
Umm no. If you read the article it's clear this isn't the case. I identify as a moderate social democrat and I'm clear that Hildebrand reliably speaks my language.
Basically he's saying that the centre wins elections, as it always has. And that people who insist there are more votes to be had if 'Labour goes left' are deluding themselves with an argument that makes no sense at all.
Update from Bernard Hickey re free-lunch govt financing, debt repayment, quantitative easing: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300116549/heres-a-free-way-to-pay-off-governments-foreign-debt
Voters, too stupid to keep up, still believe govt debt must be repaid. Therefore National's campaigning includes the higher-taxes threat – a trad achilles heel for Labour since the Black Budget. In the real world, that logic is no longer valid.
So quantitative easing has been effective in stabilising the system for more than a decade: it has become orthodoxy.
Looks like the RB has got us onto a resilience trajectory. Now we just need politicians able to comprehend this, and pass on the good news to voters. So far, zilch.
People don't really understand money, how its created nor the simple fact that it has no value in and of itself.
The RBNZ and politicians haven't seemed to twig to its reality either.
Which means that we'll still end up with the private banks creating money and charging us interest on it in such a way that it can never be repaid with a resulting ever increasing amount of private debt. Exactly as happened prior to the GFC which quantitative easing was then used to transfer that private debt to the government's books so that the rich could stay rich.
Confidence
The problem is the Govs and central banks who 'own' the currency and are concerned with its reputation whereas the private banks are only concerned with profit and reputation be damned.
But it could be said it is the govs own fault as they are the ones who let the leash get so long they couldnt see what the dog was up to.
On his Facebook page, Bryan Gould made these points:
Good to know Gould drew the same conclusion I did here last week, likewise from a background of career experience in television. Creating an un-level playing field, tilted to one side, is dirty politics. Does Labour have the political nous to negate the favouritism? I doubt it.
If the favouritism that Gould, you and others observed gives the National party a significant political advantage, then I’d agree that ideally it should be negated in future, but doubt 'Labour' is too worried. I do hope influential lefties are observing and making little lists as these may prove handy in post-election neg(oti)ations.
Come on Dennis, your better than that. Bryan Gould is a politician first, journalist second. He is biased to buggery.
Be interesting to hear from the director on this.
Well good on you for doing that. It's true Gould & Campbell are leftists, so bias is a factor with them. Not so for me: I decided in 1971 that the left weren't credible (due to being part of the establishment) and adopted a third alternative political path through the middle between left & right. I'm only supporting Labour on this due to the fairness principle of democracy.
If the Labour Party doesn't make a formal complaint, collective stupidity may not be their reason. They may agree that the fairness principle of democracy ought to be preached by leftists but not actually practised.
Sometimes the quietest comments pass without emphasis on the level of nonsense they imply:
"It's true Gould & Campbell are leftists, so bias is a factor with them."
Aren't leftists allowed to be biased? Are leftists the only ones who are biased? Gould & Campbell are biased? Big fucken deal.
It always amuses me that commentators who have common sense as their middle name are always classed as 'leftists". Being a supporter of the Labour Party or the Greens does not automatically mean a person is a leftist in the negative sense that Dennis Frank uses the term. In fact, I think they are both mature and highly intelligent commentators whose views are based on factual evidence.
They run rings around many of the idiot commentators who frequent the tabloids, radio and TV current affairs programmes. I find it interesting that they are not better used by the media. I suspect the media in general feel threatened by their superiority and intelligence. Might show them up.
And of course rightists are noble, upright and dispassionate fellows.
Are you saying you don't have any bias Dennis?
Something that is in the middle between the two ends of the establishment is the middle of the establishment.
Please stay away from the 2 pot epoxy resin paints….
If indeed there was a bias towards Judith Collins – and imo there definitely was and it stretched to include better visuals such as lighting and camera angles for Collins – then it is possible John Campbell wasn't in on the act. In which case he would not have known what was happening while the debate was in progress.
btw excuse the bullet points. I often have trouble commenting from my I pad, but can do it if I bullet point.
He certainly did, but my take on that is he's a bit scared of Judith. Just like Muldoon, she is a formidable and nasty opponent and people are afraid of her biting tongue.
Not trying to defend Campbell. I don't like his sickly sweet mode of interaction. But I don't think he was part of any predetermined bias towards Collins. In fact I imagine he privately dislikes her.
I really don't understand why people make a stance on an aeroplane. Quite apart from anything else I suspect it could be a good while before Airnz allows any boarding onto any plane.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300117475/covid19-police-waiting-for-political-candidate-billy-tk-jr-at-airport-after-refusing-to-wear-mask-properly-during-flight
If they're smart, Air NZ will ban him for a month or two – that stuff he's peddling won't get him much support down south neither – educated folk down there.
Why make a stand on an aeroplane? So he can get time on the airwaves. So he can air his views in the media even more. So he can present himself as one who is staunch in his views. So he can claim persecution by the authorities. So he can reinforce within himself the feelings of conspiracy. “I must be right. They are all against me……..”
Which would hurt him the most? Being banned by Air NZ or being allowed to go on his merry way? Yes, he'd use the ban to gain more publicity, but he would be seriously compromised by not being able to fly around the country hoodwinking stupid people into believing his conspiracy theories.
Ban the bastard.
It's a safety issue for the airline, however richly he may deserve an ass-kicking for other reasons. If I insisted on using a cellphone I wouldn't get to fly – masks are no different.
It is more than a safety issue, it is a compliance issue with safety regulations. Imagine something goes horribly wrong during or with the flight and some plonker refuses to follow the crew’s instructions because it doesn’t ‘feel right’ to him, potentially endangering himself, the crew, and other passengers. The core of the safety protocol is to follow the instructions. He or his lawyer can look it up in the Civil Aviation Act and challenge it in Court if he
is stupid enoughwishes.I hope they ban him, but for the reasons Incog states. Hopefully they'll have some savvy PR person who manages the media release with just the right tone and framing.
Tried to post the Billy/facemask/underpants image, but couldn't.
sounds like we should be relieved.
Is there a guide to posting images, weka? Especially images from Facebook.
See this post?
https://www.facebook.com/nzgreenparty/posts/10157211768421372
On FB, click on the image. This will open a new URL (the address at the top of the page).
Then on TS, choose the wee picture of the mountain and the sun, and put the URL in the URL field.
It's a good idea to also set the width field to 400, because internet images vary hugely in size.
Sometimes TS will embed images directly from the URL, so you can just copy and paste it into a comment. But, not all images will embed, and some take a while to show up on slower internet connections.
Image URL on its own:
https://www.facebook.com/nzgreenparty/photos/a.489359751371/10157211765601372
which appears to be posting the whole post.
If you want just the image, then on FB, click on the image in the post, then control click on the image for a drop down menu and choose something like open in new tab or view image (depending on your browser maybe).
Then cut and paste that URL into a TS comment. Please remove all the part of the URL from the ? onwards (this is best practice for all links, including off FB).
Control click is a laptop trackpad Mac thing, if you're using a mouse you want to bring up the contextual menu (left click? right click?)
Image on its own with the URL edited from the ?
Oh dear! Now there's nought but a little blue square emblazoned with a question mark!
yeah, not sure what is going on there with those, will have another look this afternoon.
Thanks, weka. Now I'll be unstoppable!
Just don't get too carried away or the mods will get grumpy. TS isn't FB, judicious use of images to be encouraged here rather than spamming the site with memery 🙂