If you want to get youth interested first it must be established that mentors have implemented professional strategy and made money out of it. Why else would any one listen to any one trying to sell chemical sterilisation when they don’t even use the product themselves.
You know? It’s just this moral vs economic argument always comes up and charlatan educators confuse the too.
[picking the first comment upthread that looks most like the derail. Shifting the whole subthread because below it gets abusive. Sam, you got pretty free rein in that thread, but a warning, don’t derail and don’t get abusive on Guest Posts and Cross posts. That space was for the author and women in particular to discuss the issues she raised. I don’t want to have to start writing long explanatory comments under posts about where the moderation limits are, it’s easier for me to just moderate the odd commenter instead. I’d suggest dialing back the abuse across the whole site, because your name is starting to pop up too many times for this moderator’s attention. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Dunno about “don’t even use the product themselves”. I’d leap at it if it were reversible – vasectomies can be, but with a pretty crude success rate.
It’s not really about “getting the youth interested”, although the full informed consent thing goes for it. If you plug it to 11 year olds, they’ll do it because they’re not as stupid as teenage boys. And it’s also before 99.5% of them will be in a position to get someone knocked up.
In all interactions there is a need for a trusted broker. Some one who is not from either world but understands both. These people are very rear and hard to find and they usually cost a fortune. These people are not firmly the product of one system or another, these people have unique insights of finance, economics, politics, news and culture and what it all means.
Good people think everything is like a movie that they can freeze development every time they become intensely involved. It does not work liked that. If good people want to substantially effect the strategic evolution of justice for woman good people can not come and go.
It’s hard to tell if your joking or not about sterilising 11 yr olds… I mean that’s just fucking amazing… Some one get McFlock Obamas Nobel peace prize…
Can you imagine the group think on the other side of a two way mirror observing minors as they interact after being sterilised… Ending with congratulations doctor. You’ve done it, you will now be validated. Any one who thinks mutalating the body is a good idea needs to try it first before selling it to others.
Not talking permanent sterilization. An easily and reliably-reversible male contraceptive with fewer side effects than a vasectomy would save a lot of accidental pregnancies.
Yes, like with HPV vax there’ll be some parents who reckon their little prince should not be exposed to the possibility of ever having sex, or seem to believe that it’s impossible to discuss the issue with a child without playing internet porn. Ironically half the time it seems that those are the parents whose kids end up making bad mistakes, but that’s just my anecdata.
Kids around ten are actually pretty smart.
It’s teenagers who tend to be fucking morons.
Oh. “mutalating”. Yes, a 15y.o. considering an abortion or the alternatives is a much better option. 🙄
ok now I’m just going to say that McFlock does not have a medical license and if you did it should be withdrawn immediately. Seeking medical advice from anonymous avatars on the Internet is a terrible fucking idea because they have zero clue about local resources, were to go or what to do.
I mean this is why us lefties are called fucking loonies. It’s like some how you think you’re different from gooie talking about ACT party abortion policy, if you post it ironically or as a joke…
really lucky that I’m not offering medical advice then, innit?
Oh, and last I heard none of the reversible male contraceptives in development were available in NZ or even in human testing phase, let alone for nation-wide roll-out.
They are just promising technologies that could help cut our unplanned pregnancy rate. Especially amongst teens, where pregnancy is often related to a number of hazardous behaviours such as maternal smoking and alcohol use.
And I’m not the weirdo talking about conversations behind a two-way mirror in the sexual health clinic.
Removing diseases and disorders can only be a good thing. However I’m going to say that you’re likely really far off from reality and manipulating biology in such a manner to become much better as a species. At least without becoming something like The Master from Fallout.
On the other hand I have some inclination to witness some mad SCIENCE to see if creating a being like the Master would even be possible.
More seriously outside of curing disorders and defects I lean towards the cybernetic side of things for human improvement.
Again, I get the impression you think this is a big eugenics proposal.
It’s not.
Regardless of harm to the child, the hazardous behavious associated with teen pregnancy simply indicate that the pregnancy itself is related to another risky behaviour (unprotected sex) rather than being a planned pregnancy. I did see a stat once that this does not correlate so much in cultures where women traditionally get pregnant young and have wider community support as it does where women traditionally wait until monogamous marriage,etc.
To put it bluntly, the more teenage pregnancy is contrary to traditional values of that culture, the higher the percentage of teenage mother smoke, for example.
And then as the mothers are older when they have their babies, the fewer of them smoke and actually the smoking rate drops significantly below the smoking rate of their peers.
So for a lot of teens, having a child is another outcome of their phase of risky behaviour. If, without side effects and completely reversibly, we can limit that to the clap rather than 18 years of child rearing then why not offer it to the kids and their parents to discuss before they enter almost the riskiest time of their lives?
yeah, because nobody has had the course of their lives massively altered by an unplanned pregnancy (that might have been prevented if the soon-to-disappear guy had had access to non-invasive, long acting and reliable contraception). /sarc. Lots of /sarc
If we want the state to be a force for good then we must recognise that the state is not a vehicle for science and innovation. What the state does do they must do well. State housing is one area that must do well. Instead of designer baby policies. Provisions could be made to supply single mothers with below cost housing ownership programmes so property minus land value on the provision that the house not be sold with in the first 5 years, or something, so that the mother has chips on the board… These are the things we ought to focus on.
It’s about pregnancy being a positive choice rather than a regretted accident. For both parties.
Of course mothers should be supported to the full extent of the welfare state, but even with that people do end up suspending courses of study or work they really wanted to do in order to raise a kid on a shitty income. Do they regret it? Not for a second. The kids I know are loved intensely. But was it done the wrong way around, and would they prefer to have been able to sever all contact with a dropkick jerk and just have a kid with someone they love? In some cases, yes.
What we ought to focus on is all of the above. Stopping teenagers from doing stupid things is always a challenge, and they and their parents should have the tools to at least limit the consequences.
And as for “the state is not a vehicle for science and innovation”… please tell us more about that, using html documents transmitted over a UFB computer network…
You can not convince the uneducated to come off the play ground and fight for reproductive justice some where else. It’s economics really. The greater the sacrifice the more they will want in return.
Let’s say we implemented your strategy if you want to call it that. So the 11 year old takes the inert for a limited time drug on the provision that life will be a little bit better for the species. So we will all live happily ever after. The end.
With all Parametres predetermined you could come up with a convincing model that does exactly what you set out to do in a really fancy science lab. But out side the lad decisions have to be made between life and death that is something no child should have to contemplate.
Any more than they wear condoms “for the species”.
They talk it over with their parents and maybe a doctor, and see if it’s for them. If they come up with an alternative reason why they won’t accidentally knock up a classmate and spend their period of lowest income having child support deducted, then they don’t bother with it.
But if they have access to a contraceptive that doesn’t require them to carry it in a pocket for a couple of years and hope it’s in good condition when they finally have a reason to use it, they should certainly have the option and everyone should certainly be aware it’s available before they need it. Which means (like HPV vax) before they start shagging each other.
And you know what? People are already fighting for sex education. Kids are still shagging, but less of them are having babies. When a long-acting male contraceptive finally happens, it’ll just be another column in a sex ed flipchart, and they’ll know where to go for more information on it.
You lead me to believe that you were a literary genius of some kind, that all the good writers, what ever that meant exited The Daily Blog for the standard. But the more I read into your mind, the less impressed I am.
But you should be congratulated for your work towards the moron of the century award.
Sex is not taboo. In a population of 5mln you’ll get people acting outside acceptable social norms no mater what any one says.
What I’m actually trying to say is you’re wasting people’s time and money and effort inventing artificial edifices tacted onto the education system because there’s stuff that teachers can’t do for some reason.
If you ask teachers would they like more resources they say ok yeah. Just to help students navigate the landscape better, hardly ever do they come back with a oh we need more varied chemical restrains. That’s just insane. And putting all this over to the private sector is an order of magnitude more insane.
and if you ask the same teachers whether they’ve stopped every kid they taught from ever making a foolish impulsive decision, not one would say yes.
But obviously you have some weird agenda such that every mention of contraception is “designer baby” or “chemical restraint” territory.
Every few days I end up sidelining a few groceries towards a mate whose steady boyfriend ran out of condoms and she didn’t know the pill she was on had lost its effectiveness (I didn’t even know that was a thing). She’s already in a state house, but the little money she has goes on the kid. She skips meals. Hence the groceries. Even without that to worry about, she felt she had to sideline study and professional development until this year. Fucko McDreamy left town three months before the birth.
So yeah, accidental pregnancies are fucking disruptive to people’s lives. If Fucko had had an opportunity to make the choice when he wasn’t horny as fuck and probably a bit drunk, my mate would probably be in a decent job by now and have found someone who wasn’t a jerk, with whom she might plan a family.
We can not hold every ones hands through life. There are only so many adjustments that can be made to the economy. What can be done is give woman access to resources and funds via public programmes like housing. So that when asset prices improve over time, so to does the prospects of woman improve over time. This is a problem all capitalist democracies face and we are still puzzled about how to combine idle hands with idle resources. This meme that says woman make for poor investments must die a horrible death.
On average for every dollar invested in woman’s business globally you get slightly more than a dollar returns. For male dominated industry you’ll be lucky to get 20 cents back. Like seriously. Industry profit is down 80% right across the globe since 2008. I mean did y’all forget or something. It’s actually not a complicated argument.
Personally I think the Coalition has a set of policies and ministers that will keep the kiwi dollar low and improve the prospects of domestic asset prices. These are the things that instruct how to invest time and money. And if it so happens that some drug company makes a brake through in inert for a limited time drugs and gets a license to sell it in New Zealand then it might be worth putting a bob on either way…
Are you pussy whipped? Looking to the future for chemical silver bullets could be the ruin of woman today. Not there salvation. Maybe you should have a shower and blow off some steam or something.
You know. You’re just wasting my time with your irrelevance. If male contraceptives was a thing it would be here already. If it was patented and some one picked it up with an investment model in New Zealand I’d probably put some money in myself because we have some PR merchants piming limited for a time sterilisation.
I mean you mind is about 5 years way to early if any of this even materialises in reality. In the mean time how ever.
Look. He choices for woman are not the same for men. If you give boys a wonder drug that takes away some of the responsibility it will for ever change the genetic make up of the human race and that I think you are naively. Your just wasting time now with me checking in on this conversation so fuck off time waster.
As for your fears about changing the genetic profile of humanity, don’t worry about that because there will still be more than enough total morons like you around to make up the difference.
World’s first electric container barges to sail from European ports this summer
Dubbed the ‘Tesla of the canals’, the unmanned vessels will operate on Dutch and Belgian waterways, vastly reducing diesel vehicles and emissions
6.7% of freight in the EU currently going by inland waterway isn’t a nothing. And existing barges can be retro-fitted. Also a good thing.
But with sea-level rise being slated to be somewhere in the 3m to 6m range this century by some leading researchers… well, there goes a fair amount of any country’s canal network.
It should be done regardless. Abandoning infrastructure and writing off investments is going to be the order of the day anyway. And doing stuff now on a grand enough scale, even if it won’t survive in the medium term, is going to reduce the impacts we’ll be dealing with…assuming no tipping points triggered in the meantime.
Brexit: Britons favour second referendum by 16-point margin – poll
Guardian/ICM survey finds rising interest in vote on final deal as concerns mount over EU talks
I wouldn’t hope that. We elect representative governments in western democracies, not functionaries who report back to us for instructions every time a decision needs to made. Referenda in NZ have been good ways of appealing to prejudice or forcing people to make an assumption about what some ambiguously-worded question actually means, but not much use otherwise.
And in the case of Brexit, they’re making drastic changes to British society based on a 51/49 result following an ad campaign that featured huge funding by Tory interests on behalf of the ‘leave’ faction. Any sensible representative government would put it Parliament and accept the results.
Referenda in NZ have been good ways of appealing to prejudice or forcing people to make an assumption about what some ambiguously-worded question actually means, but not much use otherwise.
So we need to ask better questions. To find a way to make sure leading and suggestive question aren’t asked.
It doesn’t mean that we stop trying to become a better democracy.
Ok draco, the question is well worded etc, what’s to stop a wealthy lobby group (taxpayers union for example) running a welll timed dis-information campaign and getting or denying the result they wish.
Well, they run such a campaign before we voted for MMP and then they ran another one when National tried to change to SM.
Didn’t work either of those times.
Are mistakes going to be made?
Yep but people learn from mistakes. Our present system allows people not to learn from the mistakes made. Allows them to blame others for the outcomes rather than owning them and learning from them.
Whinging that it’s just too hard doesn’t make us or our society better.
Before we get into binding ‘i reckons’ we need to:
raise levels of participation,
have media ownership diversified,
lobbyists banished or at least adhere to a register
and generally raise awareness of the system and individuals ‘responsibilities’
The majority of voters in the UK had no idea what they were voting for in the Brexit referendum. The idiot Cameron put it up as a way to shut up the alt right faction thinking that sanity would prevail and the nonsense of Britain leaving the EU would be self evident. He mis-understood the lies and deceit that would be spread by the alt right, UKIP, and the leave campaign, and the stupidity of the old and decrepit who live in the golden years of the past British Empire (These Daily Mail readers still make up the majority of Brexiters).
Just one example of the damage that has been wrought on Britain since this manic decision
Around 10,000 EU nationals have quit the NHS since the Brexit referendum, it has emerged.
NHS Digital, the agency that collects data on the health service, found that in the 12 months to June, 9,832 EU doctors, nurses and support staff had left, with more believed to have followed in the past three months.
Airbus has told MPs that Britain risks losing the “crown jewels” of its aviation industry to China as a result of Brexit, putting up to 7,000 wing-manufacturing jobs in Wales at risk.
I’d say literally the majority. Thing is, “stick with the status quo” is the sensible option if you have no idea what voting for change would bring, so it’s the leave voters who are the assholes here.
Having spoken to a number of UK residents over the past year – people who were engaged in politics in the UK at a variety of different levels and from what I have read over the past year in the media (apart from the Daily Mail and The Telegraph) the constant refrain has been just that. Voters simply did not understand what it was they were voting on – the old and senile thought they were voting for things to go back to the glory days of the British Empire – and that is what they still fondly believe – but such a notion is nonsense. English law is now firmly aliened with EU, and has to be for such open borders as now exist. Furthermore the falsehood of 350 Million Pounds per week flowing into the NHS was just blatant nonsense, but fooled millions of voters.
No. if you read the article linked to, it it is because suddenly there will be a financial wall (tariff barrier), access for workers from the EU to and from the UK will be restricted, there is still no concept of how trade will continue between the EU and the UK, and a raft of other problems make the continuation of an EU wide manufacturing process – part of which is in Wales – impossible.
The point of another vote on brexit being that they vote on what is really going to happen. Before many of the ‘pluses’ were bogus and also not enough Britain’s took it seriously enough to vote in the first referendum.
Teachers are also very undervalued in NZ especially compared to other countries like Finland where it is considered a top profession and you normally need a masters, and it’s a hard course to enter.
In NZ teachers have been denigrated for 30 years, their union has been weakened and it’s no wonder that less people who would be fantastic teachers, are not joining or staying in the profession.
NZ has never valued local skills, instead under neoliberalism have created policy to sell and semi privatise education by stealth and then just bring in overseas teachers, doctors, nurses, fruit pickers, cleaners, fisherman – you name it – anything to pander to their globalist ideology and drive local wages and conditions down. Apparently it is to compete with Asia.
When locals don’t have access to jobs, starting with part time work when they are studying which has dried up with the amount of work permits being given out, then it becomes harder and harder to actually learn the structure of work, getting up, punctuality etc.
Now we are getting generations who will struggle to work because they don’t have the skills to do it and it’s harder to start out when you are older to learn basic skills.
Then you get the catch 22, more people with immigration to provide the work the ‘hopeless’ ‘overpaid’ locals are not deemed fit for by employers and government, more competition for jobs and houses and more strains on schools and health care and social services needed for the increased population as well as more strains on natural resources and the strains on people’s mental wellbeing as more and more people have to compete for basics like accomodation, minimal waged jobs etc.
I understand the value of education, which is why we put our kids thru private school.
Now two own businesses and the third is working thru uni (with a pet time job not running up a huge student loan).
We also always read to kids every night when they were small – have them a love of books and patented them that they had to do all homework / study before “the fun stuff”.
There are a lot of parents who value education out there.
Of course there are a lot of lousy parents also that let their own kids down.
Private or Public? I went to both when I was a kid. All my children have gone to Public schools…and you know what makes the biggest difference to an education? The teachers…if you are lucky enough to have a good teacher/s it makes no difference if you go Private of Public.
I agree that teachers are vastly important to a good education, I’d also add that a well run school that staff and students can flourish and feel safe in and the involvement and encouragement of parents in the students education will also reap huge benefits.
After a career in teaching, I spent four years as a cleaner and gardener. All the people I worked with, and for, were hard-working. There were no shirkers. And cleaning was hard work. One of the owners, a man of retirement age, said that he couldn’t do that job for eight hours. He didn’t have the energy. He was right. Hard work.
Our bosses knew. We knew. But some of the owners of the houses we cleaned. You could tell there who the slovenly, ill-educated and artistically impoverished were.
I could retire. My wife, a teacher as well, did the same. At seventy, she retired as a cleaner for the same firm.
Most of our colleagues could not retire but had to keep on working for just above minimum pay. The bosses couldn’t really pay more. Large firms from out of town undercut their contracts.
Cleaning is an honourable occupation, necessary and invaluable. Cleaners return x15 their wages as value to society. Just consider the worth of hospital cleaners. When I go into hospital, as an experienced cleaner, I look at the roof and walls, the floor and and the plumbing. Always clean, always reassuringly safe and hygienic.
Yes , James, you can be sure there are hard-working cleaners. Be aware. Observe. Be thankful there are, for the money and social recognition they, we, get.
Ed does not barbecue but likes Brussel sprouts.
Ed does not have a boat but he hates people donating to Alzheimer’s or heart kids.
Ed would not appear to be rich bit is certainly envious of those with more than him.
Ed is ageless.
I hope Ed is not real because it depresses me that there are people so bitter.
I’ve taught in a number of schools around the country – Private, State, and Independent. I even had the misfortune of spending 3 years teaching at Kristin. I have to say it was the worst school in 28 years in the classroom I ever experienced.
The year I left there was a staff turn-over of 28%. The dissatisfaction of staff and the poor staff morale was tangible. I wouldn’t want to speak ill of the place – but your comment above forced me.
It’s all image and show – Progress with vision, integrity, and love. Bullshit!
You don’t understand what I’ve alluded to…that’s not your level…which again…indicates a severely stunted personal growth curve… of a ‘middle aged man’…who makes up stories on an anonymous blog site…
There was nothing I felt comfortable to reply to Marco – he / she didn’t like teaching there. I don’t know what years it was – but our experience as parents differed.
One Two I went to Kristen School for a year as a pupil. It was a while back but found the school very good at helping me to catch up in certain areas of my schooling.
No idea what it is like now in 2018…but know of other parents who sent their kids to Kristen over the last 4 to 5 years and they seemed ok with the education they received (all be it expensive).
So what is the “Gotchas” in regards to james comment?
James, when I saw “I understand the value of education” I thought I was going to read that that was why your children had become teachers.
When you suggested that your kids have been successful I see it wasn’t in teaching.
I wonder how many parents of kids who go to Kristin encourage their kids to go teaching? There’s another vital service, a work place not far from Kristin which the parents are keen to see succeed and whose importance they likely comment on a lot. I wonder how many Kristin parents encourage their kids to work there. Paremoremo Prison.
@ James (4.1.1.1) … Gosh I hope the private education and university level education had a better outcome on your children’s ability to spell, considering yours leaves a lot to be desired!
Another point about education which we also put great value on. We were ordinary working class parents, who sent our (now adult) children to good old state schools to be primary and secondary educated, followed by tertiary education. One child was exceptionally intelligent, while the other was average, but always displayed a good work attitude. Despite the differences in this regard, they have both done exceedingly well for themselves in their chosen careers, working in the health and justice professions respectively.
My point being, regardless of whether a person is state or privately educated, as long as they are encouraged and respected for their individual abilities, they will shine in whatever they choose to do.
Liberté égalité fraternité is the motto of the French revolution meaning freedom, equality and fraternity, something which has been sorely absent in the social structure of Aotearoa for the past 30 years.
Liberty, egality and fraternity is the structure base of a civilised, fair and decent social system, which respects its citizens for their individual value above all else, regardless of status.
Judging by the tone of Jacinda’s statements during and after the election, I’m positive the coalition government intends to address the vicious and inhumane social failing afflicting our country, during its term of office.
Actually Ed private schools do have a place – although not as elitist “academies”. But they can cater for special needs and act as a vehicle for innovative ideas where a state school is more ham strung by regulation. All children have different needs and a one format fits all approach is not necessarily the best way to educate. Pedagogy needs to be responsive to the needs of the student and in some ways that is best achieved in a non state school. I have already intimated above that I have taught in a variety of different schools Military, State, Private, Home school, and Independent. The worst and best were private, with State schools running a close second best and second worst.
The real difference was in the ethos of each school – was it committed to Education – or was it solely interested in academic achievement. There is a big difference. If academic achievement is the be all, and end all of the school, then education, as such, goes out the window. In a private school (and to some extent state schools) I found that that ethos was driven as much by the parents, as it was by anyone else. Now it is nice that Jane or Johnnie will end up with a nice certificate to say that they successful regurgitated the necessary rhubarb on a series of assessments, but it is not education. The instruction may be brilliant, but there is no guarantee that the mind has been engaged. To engage the mind actually risks questioning the perceived ‘knowledge’.
As an example, in a class we were considering the concept of area – just what did they think area was and how could we measure it – these were “vege math” students at what was then 6th form – just passed school cert but not considered bright enough to gain UE in math. There were a number of suggestions – place a piece of string around it (confusing perimeter with area) etc. But the one that really blew us away was – weigh it. Now that would seem to be nonsense – but actually it proved to be the most accurate! Take a leaf. How do you measure its area? Photocopy it, cut around the image and weigh the resulting piece of paper. Knowing the density of the paper you can calculate the area.
Now there will never be an exam, or test, that will assess this sort of thinking – but this is real education where the engagement of mind has lead to the solution of a problem.
I think you need to explain why special needs cannot be catered for in a public system, considering that “one format fits all” is the opposite of the Finnish approach that our teachers and teachers’ unions have been promoting for years.
The goal of National Party education policy is not to educate, nor even to graduate, but to smash the teachers’ unions so that the sector can be privatised.
Pedagogy needs to be responsive to the needs of the student and in some ways that is best achieved in a non state school
Hardly surprising when (underfunded) state schools have had a ‘one format fits all’ approach forced on them by right wing greed.
In some ways, the only thing unique about Finnish schools is that the National Party USA approach to education doesn’t have any influence there.
I think you need to explain why special needs cannot be catered for in a public system, considering that “one format fits all” is the opposite of the Finnish approach that our teachers and teachers’ unions have been promoting for years.
I haven’t been avoiding answering this request rather I’ve been working on framing my response as helpfully as I can. I think we can agree that every child has different needs, whether they are the most or the least intelligent or emotionally developed or the least (a la D Trump) or the most physically capable or visually challenged or are socially advantaged, or what ever. Those needs are special to that child and need to be addressed before any real progress can be made on education.
Now essentially the Finnish model (which I endorse btw) does seek to address that most basic issue, but the problem is that with the present state of conventional wisdom in this country, such a system stands as much chance of implementation as a snowballs chance in hell. Just imagine the uproar from “concerned” parents if their child was not introduced to “formal” learning until age 6 or 7! Just imagine if laptops, tablets, and computers were taken out of the classrooms up to high school – and then only at senior level! Just imagine if there were no formal assessments in Junior school and only one or two final assessment at the end of High school and maybe not even then. Just imagine if mathematics and science involved drawing and the arts. And every student was involved in acting, music. and drama, and learned to knit and dance.
There are such schools available in NZ. They follow a curriculum and pedagogy developed over a 100 years ago, and the Finnish model of education has adopted many of their practices. But these schools are private. I had the privilege to teach in one of these schools for several years, and it was the most fulfilling and enriching period of my now 3 score years and 10 plus a few more. One of my pupils has just completed Auckland med school graduating top. Another who entered the class (completely unable to survive in a state school, and spent the first few weeks hiding behind the clothes stand) is now an engineer. Another is a graduate of Toi Whakaari, works as a sexual abuse councillor and facilitator for ACC in secondary schools, and regional co-convenor for the Greens, and was elected to a community board at the last local body elections. Another is a manager for a Travel firm and others are farmers, mechanics etc.
I’m not an anthroposophist but I believe Steiner got it pretty right with his system of education. Here is a comparison done by a US waldorf educator after hearing Pasi Sahlberg, director general of the Center for International Mobility and Cooperation in Finland’s Ministry of Education, speak at the Chicago Humanities Festival about why
Finland ranks first with the best school system in the world. http://chicagowaldorf.org/uploads/files/Finland_Education-by_Carol_Triggiano.pdf – note pdf
Thanks for that Macro. It never crossed my mind that you’d be avoiding it 🙂
As a concerned parent I’m more than happy to go toe-to-toe with any of my peers giving your excellent vision a hard time.
I suspect that the best way the Left can destroy the National Party’s ambitions for education is by closing all private schools and forcing Mummy and Daddy to confront the consequences of their actions at the ballot box, or failing that, to follow Finland’s example and figure out a way to stop the National Party from attacking children.
Yeah dreams are free, and I know now’s never the right time.
I left school at 15 and I’m slightly dyslexic. And I’m also lazy.
As for the comment “My point being, regardless of whether a person is state or privately educated, as long as they are encouraged and respected for their individual abilities, they will shine in whatever they choose to do.”
Indeed, In Finland teaching is held in very high regard.
“Because the Finnish system places so much emphasis on school and teacher autonomy, there are not clearly defined career ladders. Teachers have control over their classrooms, lesson plans, and hours outside of teaching.”
Research indicates that the average Finnish teacher spends seven days a year on professional development, with some municipalities arranging large, multi-school training events and others leaving it up to schools to develop in-service programs. However, teachers’ schedules in Finland enable a great deal of teacher collaboration to support their professional growth.
Any chance you and the truth might recognise one another on the street?
What’s clear is that you tried to lie about the influence of unions in Finnish education and now you’re spinning like a David Farrar-shaped dupe.
You don’t know anything about pedagogy or how professional development works in NZ either. You can keep letting David Farrar dribble down your chin, but don’t fool yourself that it has the slightest relevance to reality, or me.
OAB please point out where I “lied” about the influence of unions in Finnish education.
What I pointed out was the stark difference between how teachers can operate in Finland verse their counterparts in NZ. Which of course is made possible by the Finnish teacher’s union.
Maybe we should send you up to Finland for some personal development to take back to your school 😉
I’m way ahead of you Chuck, you poor dupe. I had already searched for NZ teacher union remarks about Finnish education in anticipation that you’d try and parrot some more of the lies you swallowed like a gullible fool.
Here’s a selection:
There are great models that we can follow from countries such as Finland with high achieving systems…
If I were the Minister of Education for Aotearoa New Zealand the first thing I would do is go to Finland…
The Finns have been able to create the most successful education system in the world because their politicians have been able to put the strategic educational needs of the country before their own party interests…
Walked right into that didn’t you Chuck. Now stop lying and smearing your betters, you rotten filth.
PS: My school? You think I’m a teacher 😆 what a moran.
Christ OAB, you don’t expect me to read the whole thread do you.
There’s no reason why the community can’t be more self-regulating. So I have no problem with you asking any commenter to stop maligning a whole profession, providing you don’t absue someone in the process. Your problem is that you give shit to people so why should they do what you ask?
I’m only going to get involved as a moderator if I see behaviour escalating that is going to cause problems for the site. In this case, the inevitable descent into abusive comments. I listen to the people who say that stuff puts them off from being involved in conversations here. I have to admit I’m stumped by the people who don’t get that. I mean I love a good argument as much as the next man, but I also understand that how I comment has impact and repercussions and that if I don’t want this place to become a ghettoised macho clique I might want to change how I do things.
I get you are on a mission to hold RWers and others in the way of progressive politics to account. I’m just pointing out that how you do that creates problems.
As an example of your utter lack of understanding, you praise Finland because:
…the Finnish system places so much emphasis on school and teacher autonomy, there are not clearly defined career ladders. Teachers have control over their classrooms, lesson plans, and hours outside of teaching.
…but you vote for Notional Standards, which are a direct attack on teacher autonomy.
You can’t even read your own citations. You might know the individual words but the meaning goes over your head. For once in your life, stop mindlessly repeating the right wing lies you rote-learned.
The personal insults aside…I am glad you are opening your mind away from the status quo that the various teacher unions in NZ just can’t seem to let go of.
“While we’re at it, perhaps someone could ask Chuck to stop attempting to defame and smear an entire profession.”
OAB if for one minute you did not let the red haze of rage cloud your mind, you might have a chance not to miss represent what I say.
By profession, I assume you mean teachers? Teachers can only work within the framework of the day. They are restricted by a/ the Unions and b/ the Government of the day.
Good teachers are worth gold, I want to see good teachers rewarded and helping struggling teachers up to their level. Schools should be able to do whats best for their students, which is not a one size fits all approach.
So have a great day OAB, I don’t expect you to agree with anything I have said…that ok. A debate is good and I do take on board other peoples views that may challenge mine.
Schools should be able to do whats best for their students, which is not a one size fits all approach.
So you agree with the NZEI and PPTA then. That’s exactly what they’ve been saying.
Unfortunately you voted for Notional Standards instead, which calls your lip service into question.
But everyone knows that really, you’re motivated by nothing but hatred for the freedoms of association and expression represented by the teachers’ unions, and all your* rhetoric is simply in service to that hate.
*except it isn’t really yours, you just parrot the things you rote-learn at the sewer.
Put median incomes NZ 2017, into the net. Be a plumber or electrician, you will earn twice what a teacher, (after 4/5 years) will earn. So there it is… not valued!!
I doubt higher salaries would be sufficient incentive to endure the results of decades of lies and contempt for the profession, embodied by such people as Anne Tolley and Hekia Parata.
embody
ɪmˈbɒdi,ɛmˈbɒdi/Submit
verb
past tense: embodied; past participle: embodied
1.
be an expression of or give a tangible or visible form to (an idea, quality, or feeling).
…
synonyms: personify, incorporate, give human form/shape to, realize, manifest, express, concretize, symbolize, represent, epitomize, stand for, encapsulate, typify, exemplify…
I shouldn’t feel contempt for people who turn education into a political football for money? Would you prefer a more “get tough on crime” manifestation of implacable cold rage?
Come on, you’ve ignored and vilified teachers unions. Who else do you think is going to school your sorry excuse for an education philosophy?
Dodgy criminal property developers.
This country needs regulations.
Cowboys are running amok.
Killing trees.
Polluting waterways.
Treating people like vermin.
This one got jail.
It’s the mindset around the development community that a consent, and any conditions attached to that consent, are just the basis for further negotiation as the project goes forward. So the developer just does what they want and expects to sort it out retrospectively.
It’s pretty much industry practice here, and you’re looked on as some sort of weirdo when you don’t “play the game”
I’m not sure that is correct. The consent and conditions that are part of it are the basis of the approval.
Without meeting the consent conditions 223’s and 224’s will not be issued.
Start doing things that impact wetland etc and you can get in a whole lot of trouble and it takes a lot of time and money that developers just do not have to waste.
Pretty rare when there’s not some “negotiation” around the granting of compliance.
There’s quite a difference between pushing it to the limit, and playing by the rules.
It’s also how a lot of the professional occupations make their money. Advise on how much the limits can be pushed, and then write out the invoice to sort it out when it turns to shit.
Easier, yes, but not as profitable. And as Graeme mentions there is a whole industry that is set up to challenge the rules and get concessions or exceptions.
Lack of consistent enforcement makes this a small gamble worth playing for larger profits if that is your priority.
When 99.9% of resource consents are approved at environment court, – why wouldn’t you be as greedy as possible? The NZ system is set up to reward greed of natural resources to anybody who wants to, from big and small corporations to big and small consents. If the rules on height for example is 15m then the developer will put in for 20m knowing if worst comes to worst it will come down to 15m and use that as a bargaining point on all the other issues that they also try to get more than, but in all likely hood they will get what they want as very expensive to challenge it in court. Meanwhile our country is turning into a deregulated toilet with that attitude.
Our planning seems to be stuck in the dark ages, and our enforcement is weak. Add to this, justifiable complaints about slow processes and costs and the public consensus to reduce redtape means that positive long-term change is unlikely.
One of the problems with leaky home cost recovery was the number of Developers who took profit and then closed companies to avoid future liability. Have seen no evidence that practice is less widespread today
New Zealand is failing its citizens.
In a basic human need.
Mild reform won’t solve the problem.
The total dismantling of the national economic system is needed.
Grubby deals.
The exploitation of human need.
Greed and real estate agencies.
New Zealand.
Where there are no rules to protect the vulnerable from sharks.
Roger Douglas.
Should be tried for treason.
Well said Ed (6). Agree with your sentiments in your post.
One more thing …
you say – “Roger Douglas.
Should be tried for treason.” Absolutely he should!
Be a good idea to also have John Key next to Douglas on the stand in court for his treachery as well … almost nine years of it! Two dirty devious knights of the realm (one also being a slimy groping hair fiddling pervert), standing side by side in the dock being tried for treason against the people of Aotearoa, for which a guilty verdict can be the only just and rational outcome! That would be absolute justice for those who have suffered immensely as the result of the ruthless inhumane policies of these two arse wipes!
Are we again having to watch the usual couples dancing the Tango here on TS over this long and very hot weekend or may we enjoy a weekend off for a change? We could name it Dancing With The Trolls although it is not always very clear who’s leading whom here 😉
Interestingly, it seems the thumbs up gesture for Roman amphitheatres meant kill the gladiator. The gesture meaning the opposite was a thumb wrapped around the fist. Of course, it has changed since Roman times; however, Commodus would have given the thumbs up for death.
Historical accuracy would have been totally confusing. We must never let historical research get in the road of a good storyline, eh?
Corin Dann has stepped down as political editor at TV One and will be taking on a full time role on Q+A. So, eyes open for who will be the new political editor…
To get people talking? What sort of arrogance is that?
Have we all been wandering around grunting like Neanderthals and need a shiny thing in our sky to gaze at to boot our cerebral cortex into action?
Besides
” The satellite could only be seen at dawn or dusk and was yet to be spotted, he said.”
Damn
Beloved by Silicon Valley venture capitalists and the US aerospace industry and with a bog standard arms industry employment caveat courtesy of the US State Department, what’s not to love about RocketLab.
/
For security reasons background checks will be undertaken prior to any employment offers being made to an applicant. These checks will include nationality checks as it is a requirement of this position that you be eligible to access equipment and data regulated by the United States’ International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Under these Regulations, you may be ineligible for this role if you do not hold citizenship of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the European Union or a country that is part of NATO, or if you hold ineligible dual citizenship or nationality. For more information on these Regulations, click here.
Parallels? They fucken own shit loads of New Zealand, about 40% of the NZX is owned by banks, about 30% hedge funds and the rest pensions funds and professional traders. So people all earning above $250k of unearned capital gains. If only Garreth Morgan had of zipped it for like a couple mimits at the end of every interview we might have reformed all this.
Sorry for the lengthy and divided up response.., but there are character limits to my personality and this has to be explained to people to help them understand the difference between real trade ideas & real risk versus valueless noise. It cant be explained properly in a few words / sentences.
There are no overall shareholder brake down of the NZX that I’m aware of available to the public (for free) but I can give you some quick indicators. Mind you this won’t help you trade at all they’re just quick terminology that may help you to spot a few charlatans on your travels.
– a retail trader trades in accounts less than $500k
– Above retail traders are professional traders with institutional knowledge and institutional money (bank money, the top guys trade in about $400mln accounts with no less than 3 to a trading desk. With this kind of action you can literally print money in foreign currency)
JP Morgan lost $143mln to one client in Equities trading last quarter. Same guy who runs JP Morgan (Jamie Dimon) apparently “did a U-turn” on Bitcoin $BTC last week. So please understand that reporting an accurate number of who owns what of the NZX is next to impossible. So I’ll use Sky City Groups 2016 earnings report as a measuring stick. On page 76 it lists there top 20 share holders totalling $465,288,322 or 70.82% of the company as follows-
1. HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Limited – NZCSD
2. JP Morgan Nominees Australia Limited
3. HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Limited A/C State Street – NZCSD
4. Citibank Nominees (New Zealand) Limited – NZCSD
5. JP Morgan Chase Bank NA NZ Branch-Segregated Clients Acct – NZCSD
6. HSBC Custody Nominees (Australia) Limited
7. National Nominees New Zealand Limited – NZCSD
8. National Nominees Limited
9. RBC Investor Services Australia Nominees Pty Limited
10. Accident Compensation Corporation – NZCSD
11. BNP Paribas Noms Pty Limited
12. Citicorp Nominees Pty Limited
13. BNP Paribas Nominees (NZ) Limited – NZCSD
14. ANZ Custodial Services New Zealand Limited – NZCSD
15. UBS Nominees Pty Limited
16. Citicorp Nominees Pty Limited
17. HSBC Nominees A/C NZ Superannuation Fund Nominees Limited – NZCSD
18. ANZ Wholesale Australasian Share Fund – NZCSD
19. FNZ Custodians Limited
20. BNP Paribas Nominees (NZ) Limited – NZCSD https://www.skycityentertainmentgroup.com/media/1440/2016-skycity-entertainment-group-annual-report.pdf
And this is typical, if you go through earnings report of publicly listed companies on the NZX, retail brokerage accounts make up a fraction or less than 70% of the NZX.
This is like broker’s signals; Broker:”I’m cautiously optimistic” Translate :
If it goes up i will say ” i told you so.” / If it goes down i will say “i did say i was cautious”
We spent this morning cleaning out our sleds to be ready to fly out to Union Glacier tomorrow morning (depending on weather). Then we skied over to the Ceremonial South Pole (probably the Pole that everyone knows as the only South Pole – the barbers Pole with the flags) and the actual Geographic South Pole (which moves around 10m each year), which is marked separately. In the afternoon we were given a tour of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It is seriously as close to what a Base on another planet would be like than anything else on the planet – a mini-town based around the scientific work of the National Science Foundation. Tonight (it never gets dark this time of year) I skied back to the Pole again… to take this photo for all those men who commented “Make me a sandwich” on my TEDX Talk. I made you a sandwich (ham & cheese), now ski 37 days and 600km to the South Pole and you can eat it xx#bravenotperfect #expandpossible #climatechange #jadesquest #thepolarhatrick #northpole #greenland #southpole #makemeasandwich #nationalgeographic #nationalgeographicapp @natgeo @natgeoau @australiangeographic
We are in Auckland helping my daughter for a couple of days she was so happy. All the mokos are keeping us busy. The sandflys here drove the same type of vehicle that that Rotorua lot drive but they act differently they still try and USE the same dumb ass tactics intimidation and following me around at least they are to busy following me to bother other people Ana to kai
“People are starting to understand’: huge Invasion Day protest stuns Melbourne
Activist Gary Foley tells a crowd of up to 60,000 that ‘if we keep mobilising these numbers, governments cannot ignore us’”
Trump’s tax cuts may be the spark that sets the reindeer dey forest alight.
Debt levels at records heights.
Many experts warning we are at edge of a precipice.
Weird weather, the Herald says.
Rachel Stewart asks if we’re worried yet……
“Not only was 2017 the hottest ocean year on record, the heat gain from the previous hottest ocean year (2015) was quite considerable. In all 15,100,000,000,000,000,000,000 Joules of heat energy were added by the world ocean from 2015 to 2017. By comparison, 4,184,000,000 Joules were produced by the Hiroshima bomb. The world ocean is now taking in a similar amount of heat every 3-5 seconds.”
We have set our daughter and new Moko granddaughter on a smove course up there lifes ladder. Just a little bit of help at the right time is enough to help her karma. We teach Our children to treat every one with respect. We also teach them that they can only trust a few people in one’s life. I can see the sandflys have been spinning there lies again its so easy to see that effect. I know the people that are helping spread those lies are contracted liers. The contracted liers try to play me to but no ECO Maori checks these idiots to.
Ana to kai
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 new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The 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 ...
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 ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
If you want to get youth interested first it must be established that mentors have implemented professional strategy and made money out of it. Why else would any one listen to any one trying to sell chemical sterilisation when they don’t even use the product themselves.
You know? It’s just this moral vs economic argument always comes up and charlatan educators confuse the too.
[picking the first comment upthread that looks most like the derail. Shifting the whole subthread because below it gets abusive. Sam, you got pretty free rein in that thread, but a warning, don’t derail and don’t get abusive on Guest Posts and Cross posts. That space was for the author and women in particular to discuss the issues she raised. I don’t want to have to start writing long explanatory comments under posts about where the moderation limits are, it’s easier for me to just moderate the odd commenter instead. I’d suggest dialing back the abuse across the whole site, because your name is starting to pop up too many times for this moderator’s attention. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Dunno about “don’t even use the product themselves”. I’d leap at it if it were reversible – vasectomies can be, but with a pretty crude success rate.
It’s not really about “getting the youth interested”, although the full informed consent thing goes for it. If you plug it to 11 year olds, they’ll do it because they’re not as stupid as teenage boys. And it’s also before 99.5% of them will be in a position to get someone knocked up.
In all interactions there is a need for a trusted broker. Some one who is not from either world but understands both. These people are very rear and hard to find and they usually cost a fortune. These people are not firmly the product of one system or another, these people have unique insights of finance, economics, politics, news and culture and what it all means.
Good people think everything is like a movie that they can freeze development every time they become intensely involved. It does not work liked that. If good people want to substantially effect the strategic evolution of justice for woman good people can not come and go.
I think you’re overthinking it.
It’s hard to tell if your joking or not about sterilising 11 yr olds… I mean that’s just fucking amazing… Some one get McFlock Obamas Nobel peace prize…
Can you imagine the group think on the other side of a two way mirror observing minors as they interact after being sterilised… Ending with congratulations doctor. You’ve done it, you will now be validated. Any one who thinks mutalating the body is a good idea needs to try it first before selling it to others.
Not talking permanent sterilization. An easily and reliably-reversible male contraceptive with fewer side effects than a vasectomy would save a lot of accidental pregnancies.
Yes, like with HPV vax there’ll be some parents who reckon their little prince should not be exposed to the possibility of ever having sex, or seem to believe that it’s impossible to discuss the issue with a child without playing internet porn. Ironically half the time it seems that those are the parents whose kids end up making bad mistakes, but that’s just my anecdata.
Kids around ten are actually pretty smart.
It’s teenagers who tend to be fucking morons.
Oh. “mutalating”. Yes, a 15y.o. considering an abortion or the alternatives is a much better option. 🙄
ok now I’m just going to say that McFlock does not have a medical license and if you did it should be withdrawn immediately. Seeking medical advice from anonymous avatars on the Internet is a terrible fucking idea because they have zero clue about local resources, were to go or what to do.
I mean this is why us lefties are called fucking loonies. It’s like some how you think you’re different from gooie talking about ACT party abortion policy, if you post it ironically or as a joke…
🙄
really lucky that I’m not offering medical advice then, innit?
Oh, and last I heard none of the reversible male contraceptives in development were available in NZ or even in human testing phase, let alone for nation-wide roll-out.
They are just promising technologies that could help cut our unplanned pregnancy rate. Especially amongst teens, where pregnancy is often related to a number of hazardous behaviours such as maternal smoking and alcohol use.
And I’m not the weirdo talking about conversations behind a two-way mirror in the sexual health clinic.
Removing diseases and disorders can only be a good thing. However I’m going to say that you’re likely really far off from reality and manipulating biology in such a manner to become much better as a species. At least without becoming something like The Master from Fallout.
On the other hand I have some inclination to witness some mad SCIENCE to see if creating a being like the Master would even be possible.
More seriously outside of curing disorders and defects I lean towards the cybernetic side of things for human improvement.
Again, I get the impression you think this is a big eugenics proposal.
It’s not.
Regardless of harm to the child, the hazardous behavious associated with teen pregnancy simply indicate that the pregnancy itself is related to another risky behaviour (unprotected sex) rather than being a planned pregnancy. I did see a stat once that this does not correlate so much in cultures where women traditionally get pregnant young and have wider community support as it does where women traditionally wait until monogamous marriage,etc.
To put it bluntly, the more teenage pregnancy is contrary to traditional values of that culture, the higher the percentage of teenage mother smoke, for example.
And then as the mothers are older when they have their babies, the fewer of them smoke and actually the smoking rate drops significantly below the smoking rate of their peers.
So for a lot of teens, having a child is another outcome of their phase of risky behaviour. If, without side effects and completely reversibly, we can limit that to the clap rather than 18 years of child rearing then why not offer it to the kids and their parents to discuss before they enter almost the riskiest time of their lives?
Wha??? There isn’t anything wrong with having children. It’s just society not likening it.
yeah, because nobody has had the course of their lives massively altered by an unplanned pregnancy (that might have been prevented if the soon-to-disappear guy had had access to non-invasive, long acting and reliable contraception). /sarc. Lots of /sarc
Oh McFlock. McFlock, McFlock………. McFlock…….Mc Mc……….just like, wow buddy……
If we want the state to be a force for good then we must recognise that the state is not a vehicle for science and innovation. What the state does do they must do well. State housing is one area that must do well. Instead of designer baby policies. Provisions could be made to supply single mothers with below cost housing ownership programmes so property minus land value on the provision that the house not be sold with in the first 5 years, or something, so that the mother has chips on the board… These are the things we ought to focus on.
Oh come on – “designer babies”.
It’s got nothing to do with that.
It’s about pregnancy being a positive choice rather than a regretted accident. For both parties.
Of course mothers should be supported to the full extent of the welfare state, but even with that people do end up suspending courses of study or work they really wanted to do in order to raise a kid on a shitty income. Do they regret it? Not for a second. The kids I know are loved intensely. But was it done the wrong way around, and would they prefer to have been able to sever all contact with a dropkick jerk and just have a kid with someone they love? In some cases, yes.
What we ought to focus on is all of the above. Stopping teenagers from doing stupid things is always a challenge, and they and their parents should have the tools to at least limit the consequences.
And as for “the state is not a vehicle for science and innovation”… please tell us more about that, using html documents transmitted over a UFB computer network…
You can not convince the uneducated to come off the play ground and fight for reproductive justice some where else. It’s economics really. The greater the sacrifice the more they will want in return.
Let’s say we implemented your strategy if you want to call it that. So the 11 year old takes the inert for a limited time drug on the provision that life will be a little bit better for the species. So we will all live happily ever after. The end.
With all Parametres predetermined you could come up with a convincing model that does exactly what you set out to do in a really fancy science lab. But out side the lad decisions have to be made between life and death that is something no child should have to contemplate.
They don’t take it “for the species”.
Any more than they wear condoms “for the species”.
They talk it over with their parents and maybe a doctor, and see if it’s for them. If they come up with an alternative reason why they won’t accidentally knock up a classmate and spend their period of lowest income having child support deducted, then they don’t bother with it.
But if they have access to a contraceptive that doesn’t require them to carry it in a pocket for a couple of years and hope it’s in good condition when they finally have a reason to use it, they should certainly have the option and everyone should certainly be aware it’s available before they need it. Which means (like HPV vax) before they start shagging each other.
And you know what? People are already fighting for sex education. Kids are still shagging, but less of them are having babies. When a long-acting male contraceptive finally happens, it’ll just be another column in a sex ed flipchart, and they’ll know where to go for more information on it.
You lead me to believe that you were a literary genius of some kind, that all the good writers, what ever that meant exited The Daily Blog for the standard. But the more I read into your mind, the less impressed I am.
But you should be congratulated for your work towards the moron of the century award.
Sex is not taboo. In a population of 5mln you’ll get people acting outside acceptable social norms no mater what any one says.
What I’m actually trying to say is you’re wasting people’s time and money and effort inventing artificial edifices tacted onto the education system because there’s stuff that teachers can’t do for some reason.
If you ask teachers would they like more resources they say ok yeah. Just to help students navigate the landscape better, hardly ever do they come back with a oh we need more varied chemical restrains. That’s just insane. And putting all this over to the private sector is an order of magnitude more insane.
and if you ask the same teachers whether they’ve stopped every kid they taught from ever making a foolish impulsive decision, not one would say yes.
But obviously you have some weird agenda such that every mention of contraception is “designer baby” or “chemical restraint” territory.
Every few days I end up sidelining a few groceries towards a mate whose steady boyfriend ran out of condoms and she didn’t know the pill she was on had lost its effectiveness (I didn’t even know that was a thing). She’s already in a state house, but the little money she has goes on the kid. She skips meals. Hence the groceries. Even without that to worry about, she felt she had to sideline study and professional development until this year. Fucko McDreamy left town three months before the birth.
So yeah, accidental pregnancies are fucking disruptive to people’s lives. If Fucko had had an opportunity to make the choice when he wasn’t horny as fuck and probably a bit drunk, my mate would probably be in a decent job by now and have found someone who wasn’t a jerk, with whom she might plan a family.
We can not hold every ones hands through life. There are only so many adjustments that can be made to the economy. What can be done is give woman access to resources and funds via public programmes like housing. So that when asset prices improve over time, so to does the prospects of woman improve over time. This is a problem all capitalist democracies face and we are still puzzled about how to combine idle hands with idle resources. This meme that says woman make for poor investments must die a horrible death.
On average for every dollar invested in woman’s business globally you get slightly more than a dollar returns. For male dominated industry you’ll be lucky to get 20 cents back. Like seriously. Industry profit is down 80% right across the globe since 2008. I mean did y’all forget or something. It’s actually not a complicated argument.
Personally I think the Coalition has a set of policies and ministers that will keep the kiwi dollar low and improve the prospects of domestic asset prices. These are the things that instruct how to invest time and money. And if it so happens that some drug company makes a brake through in inert for a limited time drugs and gets a license to sell it in New Zealand then it might be worth putting a bob on either way…
what has any of that got to do with giving teens another contraceptive choice?
I honestly regret having entertained your drug marketing delusions.
I still can’t figure out why you want to maintain the rate of unwanted pregnancy.
Are you pussy whipped? Looking to the future for chemical silver bullets could be the ruin of woman today. Not there salvation. Maybe you should have a shower and blow off some steam or something.
I really hope “have a shower” isn’t the sum total of the contraceptive advice you believe should be given to teens.
Ya da, ya da, ya da, ya da………
You know. You’re just wasting my time with your irrelevance. If male contraceptives was a thing it would be here already. If it was patented and some one picked it up with an investment model in New Zealand I’d probably put some money in myself because we have some PR merchants piming limited for a time sterilisation.
I mean you mind is about 5 years way to early if any of this even materialises in reality. In the mean time how ever.
Look. He choices for woman are not the same for men. If you give boys a wonder drug that takes away some of the responsibility it will for ever change the genetic make up of the human race and that I think you are naively. Your just wasting time now with me checking in on this conversation so fuck off time waster.
Well if you think the discussion is five years too early, why the hell didn’t you say that when I was quite clear about what stage they were at in development? It would have saved a lot of time.
As for your fears about changing the genetic profile of humanity, don’t worry about that because there will still be more than enough total morons like you around to make up the difference.
World’s first electric container barges to sail from European ports this summer
Dubbed the ‘Tesla of the canals’, the unmanned vessels will operate on Dutch and Belgian waterways, vastly reducing diesel vehicles and emissions
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/24/worlds-first-electric-container-barges-to-sail-from-european-ports-this-summer?CMP=fb_gu
6.7% of freight in the EU currently going by inland waterway isn’t a nothing. And existing barges can be retro-fitted. Also a good thing.
But with sea-level rise being slated to be somewhere in the 3m to 6m range this century by some leading researchers… well, there goes a fair amount of any country’s canal network.
It should be done regardless. Abandoning infrastructure and writing off investments is going to be the order of the day anyway. And doing stuff now on a grand enough scale, even if it won’t survive in the medium term, is going to reduce the impacts we’ll be dealing with…assuming no tipping points triggered in the meantime.
Using batteries made from precious metals mined from placed with very poor environmental records….
Huh would you look at that, something we both agree on…
Brexit: Britons favour second referendum by 16-point margin – poll
Guardian/ICM survey finds rising interest in vote on final deal as concerns mount over EU talks
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/26/britons-favour-second-referendum-brexit-icm-poll
The only poll that counted was the referendum.
It’s brexit baby.
Would you be calling for a new election if the polls showed the right polling higher than the government?
Yeah, but it’s not a done deal until parliament says it is.
http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2018/01/18/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-brexit-endgame-in-five
Indeed. But you would *hope* any government would honour the results of a referendum (obv I support binding referendums here as well).
I wouldn’t hope that. We elect representative governments in western democracies, not functionaries who report back to us for instructions every time a decision needs to made. Referenda in NZ have been good ways of appealing to prejudice or forcing people to make an assumption about what some ambiguously-worded question actually means, but not much use otherwise.
And in the case of Brexit, they’re making drastic changes to British society based on a 51/49 result following an ad campaign that featured huge funding by Tory interests on behalf of the ‘leave’ faction. Any sensible representative government would put it Parliament and accept the results.
So we need to ask better questions. To find a way to make sure leading and suggestive question aren’t asked.
It doesn’t mean that we stop trying to become a better democracy.
Ok draco, the question is well worded etc, what’s to stop a wealthy lobby group (taxpayers union for example) running a welll timed dis-information campaign and getting or denying the result they wish.
Gotta say I am not a fan of binding referenda.
Well, they run such a campaign before we voted for MMP and then they ran another one when National tried to change to SM.
Didn’t work either of those times.
Are mistakes going to be made?
Yep but people learn from mistakes. Our present system allows people not to learn from the mistakes made. Allows them to blame others for the outcomes rather than owning them and learning from them.
Whinging that it’s just too hard doesn’t make us or our society better.
We’re the 2 referenda you referred to, binding?
Before we get into binding ‘i reckons’ we need to:
raise levels of participation,
have media ownership diversified,
lobbyists banished or at least adhere to a register
and generally raise awareness of the system and individuals ‘responsibilities’
PM
In the case of EU membership, there is a precedent (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_European_Communities_membership_referendum,_1975). Under those circumstances, the referendum was entirely appropriate.
The majority of voters in the UK had no idea what they were voting for in the Brexit referendum. The idiot Cameron put it up as a way to shut up the alt right faction thinking that sanity would prevail and the nonsense of Britain leaving the EU would be self evident. He mis-understood the lies and deceit that would be spread by the alt right, UKIP, and the leave campaign, and the stupidity of the old and decrepit who live in the golden years of the past British Empire (These Daily Mail readers still make up the majority of Brexiters).
Just one example of the damage that has been wrought on Britain since this manic decision
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/sep/21/almost-10000-eu-health-workers-have-quit-the-nhs-since-brexit-vote
London is already suffering as thousands of financial services jobs are axed and business transfers to the EU.
Manufacturing jobs are also under threat particularly AIrbus
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/21/airbus-boss-says-brexit-risks-losing-uk-aviations-crown-jewels-to-china
And that is only the fate of those in the UK – the status of British nationals in the EU is also uncertain. It’s an absolute pot mess – and the only way to undo it is to cancel it.
“The majority of voters in the UK had no idea what they were voting for in the Brexit ”
Do you believe that to be all voters – or just the voters who didn’t vote for the result you wanted ?
I’d say literally the majority. Thing is, “stick with the status quo” is the sensible option if you have no idea what voting for change would bring, so it’s the leave voters who are the assholes here.
Would you vote for the status quo if you were becoming worse off because of it and it had been doing so for decades?
Or would you vote for any sort of change that may make things better for you?
Having spoken to a number of UK residents over the past year – people who were engaged in politics in the UK at a variety of different levels and from what I have read over the past year in the media (apart from the Daily Mail and The Telegraph) the constant refrain has been just that. Voters simply did not understand what it was they were voting on – the old and senile thought they were voting for things to go back to the glory days of the British Empire – and that is what they still fondly believe – but such a notion is nonsense. English law is now firmly aliened with EU, and has to be for such open borders as now exist. Furthermore the falsehood of 350 Million Pounds per week flowing into the NHS was just blatant nonsense, but fooled millions of voters.
Is that because Airbus would prefer fellow EU member China????
No. if you read the article linked to, it it is because suddenly there will be a financial wall (tariff barrier), access for workers from the EU to and from the UK will be restricted, there is still no concept of how trade will continue between the EU and the UK, and a raft of other problems make the continuation of an EU wide manufacturing process – part of which is in Wales – impossible.
The point of another vote on brexit being that they vote on what is really going to happen. Before many of the ‘pluses’ were bogus and also not enough Britain’s took it seriously enough to vote in the first referendum.
Something I agree with you about!
1/5 of Auckland schools lacking teachers.
House prices.
Expensive rentals.
Rapid immigration .
Declining numbers of teacher trainees.
Crisis.
Neoliberalism.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11981812
Teachers are also very undervalued in NZ especially compared to other countries like Finland where it is considered a top profession and you normally need a masters, and it’s a hard course to enter.
In NZ teachers have been denigrated for 30 years, their union has been weakened and it’s no wonder that less people who would be fantastic teachers, are not joining or staying in the profession.
NZ has never valued local skills, instead under neoliberalism have created policy to sell and semi privatise education by stealth and then just bring in overseas teachers, doctors, nurses, fruit pickers, cleaners, fisherman – you name it – anything to pander to their globalist ideology and drive local wages and conditions down. Apparently it is to compete with Asia.
When locals don’t have access to jobs, starting with part time work when they are studying which has dried up with the amount of work permits being given out, then it becomes harder and harder to actually learn the structure of work, getting up, punctuality etc.
Now we are getting generations who will struggle to work because they don’t have the skills to do it and it’s harder to start out when you are older to learn basic skills.
Then you get the catch 22, more people with immigration to provide the work the ‘hopeless’ ‘overpaid’ locals are not deemed fit for by employers and government, more competition for jobs and houses and more strains on schools and health care and social services needed for the increased population as well as more strains on natural resources and the strains on people’s mental wellbeing as more and more people have to compete for basics like accomodation, minimal waged jobs etc.
In Finland
Education is valued.
Children are valued.
Teachers are valued.
In New Zealand
we know the price of everything
and the value of nothing.
Perhaps you are speaking for yourself.
I understand the value of education, which is why we put our kids thru private school.
Now two own businesses and the third is working thru uni (with a pet time job not running up a huge student loan).
We also always read to kids every night when they were small – have them a love of books and patented them that they had to do all homework / study before “the fun stuff”.
There are a lot of parents who value education out there.
Of course there are a lot of lousy parents also that let their own kids down.
Which part of the country are you in that you felt the need to put your children through private schools ?
I never said I needed too. I wanted too.
Its Auckland – Kristin school. We just liked it.
OK sorry I misunderstood, i thought you were suggesting that the private schools offered a better education experience than public schools.
Auckland’s North Shore is certainly very well served by many very good schools public, integrated and private.
” I wanted too.”
Do you understand how lucky you are that you could afford to?
Would the widowed mother on $18.00 an hour, working at paknsav have been able to?
You do shop at paknsav don’t you? It is the cheapest groceries outlet and we all must not be profligate if we want to get ahead.
Private or Public? I went to both when I was a kid. All my children have gone to Public schools…and you know what makes the biggest difference to an education? The teachers…if you are lucky enough to have a good teacher/s it makes no difference if you go Private of Public.
I agree that teachers are vastly important to a good education, I’d also add that a well run school that staff and students can flourish and feel safe in and the involvement and encouragement of parents in the students education will also reap huge benefits.
“Do you understand how lucky you are that you could afford to?”
You do understand that its not all ‘Luck’ dont you. There has been a lot of hard work and sacrifice to be able to do this.
Its the old saying – “the harder I work – the luckier I get”
If you want to talk about odds I think I know a thing or 2 about that.
“the harder I work – the luckier I get”
😆
People who get lucky suffer from attribution errors. Thanks for providing yet another example.
There are many many cleaners, nurses, and other people in underpaid jobs who are very hardworking
I’m sure there are.
They don’t play enough golf 😉
Or go to the right schools
I’m sure there are, too, James.
After a career in teaching, I spent four years as a cleaner and gardener. All the people I worked with, and for, were hard-working. There were no shirkers. And cleaning was hard work. One of the owners, a man of retirement age, said that he couldn’t do that job for eight hours. He didn’t have the energy. He was right. Hard work.
Our bosses knew. We knew. But some of the owners of the houses we cleaned. You could tell there who the slovenly, ill-educated and artistically impoverished were.
I could retire. My wife, a teacher as well, did the same. At seventy, she retired as a cleaner for the same firm.
Most of our colleagues could not retire but had to keep on working for just above minimum pay. The bosses couldn’t really pay more. Large firms from out of town undercut their contracts.
Cleaning is an honourable occupation, necessary and invaluable. Cleaners return x15 their wages as value to society. Just consider the worth of hospital cleaners. When I go into hospital, as an experienced cleaner, I look at the roof and walls, the floor and and the plumbing. Always clean, always reassuringly safe and hygienic.
Yes , James, you can be sure there are hard-working cleaners. Be aware. Observe. Be thankful there are, for the money and social recognition they, we, get.
James has a barbecue
James has a boat
James sent his kids to private school
James is 48.
James is rich.
And ‘James ‘ is not real.
that doesn’t even rhyme.
Poetry doesn’t have to rhyme!
Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet, described poetry as “The best things said in the best way.”
Ed.
Ed does not barbecue but likes Brussel sprouts.
Ed does not have a boat but he hates people donating to Alzheimer’s or heart kids.
Ed would not appear to be rich bit is certainly envious of those with more than him.
Ed is ageless.
I hope Ed is not real because it depresses me that there are people so bitter.
Didn’t rhyme either and is just as pointless.
I’ve taught in a number of schools around the country – Private, State, and Independent. I even had the misfortune of spending 3 years teaching at Kristin. I have to say it was the worst school in 28 years in the classroom I ever experienced.
The year I left there was a staff turn-over of 28%. The dissatisfaction of staff and the poor staff morale was tangible. I wouldn’t want to speak ill of the place – but your comment above forced me.
It’s all image and show – Progress with vision, integrity, and love. Bullshit!
Hold on a sec…
If you put your kids through private school, and now they’re old enough to own businesses, and the other works part time to fund uni…
So your offspring are into their 20’s as a minimum, which would have you in 40’s at best, or more likely the 50’s or beyond…
When you put the boot into ‘lousy parents’, that signals your own ‘parenting efforts’ are as ‘lousy’ as those you took the time to denegrate…
That is the height of hypocrisy…and indicates a stunted, arrested personal growth journey of a middle aged ‘man’…
Unless of course, it’s fairy tales…
Then you’ve been caught short…again…
I’m 48.
“‘lousy parents’, that signals your own ‘parenting efforts’ are as ‘lousy’ as those you took the time to denegrate”
I do not agree with that.
There are plenty of parents who are indeed lousy. Stating that as fact does not make me a bad or lousy parent.
Of course you wouldn’t agree with it, James…
You don’t understand what I’ve alluded to…that’s not your level…which again…indicates a severely stunted personal growth curve… of a ‘middle aged man’…who makes up stories on an anonymous blog site…
48 year old ‘man’….
You don’t understand what I’ve alluded to…
I can’t see how he possibly could. As usual, your comments make the Oracle of Delphi appear plain-speaking.
One Two finds it more important to try a ‘gotcha’ or to simply make statements that they have zero knowledge of than to make sense or seem rational.
‘Gotchas’ are courtesy of the plethora of contradicting yet ‘informative’ comments made under the handle, James….
Silver platter stuff…
Macro made a comment regarding having been a teacher at ‘Kristin’…you’ve read it, but not replied…silver platter…
Macro, perhaps unwittingly, exposed another of your fairy tales..
48 years old, agitating and commenting on a sub par level about the importance of education….
My oh my…yes
There was nothing I felt comfortable to reply to Marco – he / she didn’t like teaching there. I don’t know what years it was – but our experience as parents differed.
Big deal.
One Two I went to Kristen School for a year as a pupil. It was a while back but found the school very good at helping me to catch up in certain areas of my schooling.
No idea what it is like now in 2018…but know of other parents who sent their kids to Kristen over the last 4 to 5 years and they seemed ok with the education they received (all be it expensive).
So what is the “Gotchas” in regards to james comment?
James, when I saw “I understand the value of education” I thought I was going to read that that was why your children had become teachers.
When you suggested that your kids have been successful I see it wasn’t in teaching.
I wonder how many parents of kids who go to Kristin encourage their kids to go teaching? There’s another vital service, a work place not far from Kristin which the parents are keen to see succeed and whose importance they likely comment on a lot. I wonder how many Kristin parents encourage their kids to work there. Paremoremo Prison.
Like most others – I encourage my kids to do what they enjoy and want to do.
If they wanted to be teachers – cool. They just didn’t.
James’s online persona is a total fabrication.
He is a sad lonely middle aged man who spends his days on a website whose values he is at odds with.
That’s nice dear.
This your new meme for this week huh ed.
@ James (4.1.1.1) … Gosh I hope the private education and university level education had a better outcome on your children’s ability to spell, considering yours leaves a lot to be desired!
Another point about education which we also put great value on. We were ordinary working class parents, who sent our (now adult) children to good old state schools to be primary and secondary educated, followed by tertiary education. One child was exceptionally intelligent, while the other was average, but always displayed a good work attitude. Despite the differences in this regard, they have both done exceedingly well for themselves in their chosen careers, working in the health and justice professions respectively.
My point being, regardless of whether a person is state or privately educated, as long as they are encouraged and respected for their individual abilities, they will shine in whatever they choose to do.
Private schools have no place in a civilised socialist state.
We do not need ghettos.
Equality was one of the 3 demands of the French Revolution.
Ed @ (4.1.1.1.3.1) … Well put.
Liberté égalité fraternité is the motto of the French revolution meaning freedom, equality and fraternity, something which has been sorely absent in the social structure of Aotearoa for the past 30 years.
Liberty, egality and fraternity is the structure base of a civilised, fair and decent social system, which respects its citizens for their individual value above all else, regardless of status.
Judging by the tone of Jacinda’s statements during and after the election, I’m positive the coalition government intends to address the vicious and inhumane social failing afflicting our country, during its term of office.
Actually Ed private schools do have a place – although not as elitist “academies”. But they can cater for special needs and act as a vehicle for innovative ideas where a state school is more ham strung by regulation. All children have different needs and a one format fits all approach is not necessarily the best way to educate. Pedagogy needs to be responsive to the needs of the student and in some ways that is best achieved in a non state school. I have already intimated above that I have taught in a variety of different schools Military, State, Private, Home school, and Independent. The worst and best were private, with State schools running a close second best and second worst.
The real difference was in the ethos of each school – was it committed to Education – or was it solely interested in academic achievement. There is a big difference. If academic achievement is the be all, and end all of the school, then education, as such, goes out the window. In a private school (and to some extent state schools) I found that that ethos was driven as much by the parents, as it was by anyone else. Now it is nice that Jane or Johnnie will end up with a nice certificate to say that they successful regurgitated the necessary rhubarb on a series of assessments, but it is not education. The instruction may be brilliant, but there is no guarantee that the mind has been engaged. To engage the mind actually risks questioning the perceived ‘knowledge’.
As an example, in a class we were considering the concept of area – just what did they think area was and how could we measure it – these were “vege math” students at what was then 6th form – just passed school cert but not considered bright enough to gain UE in math. There were a number of suggestions – place a piece of string around it (confusing perimeter with area) etc. But the one that really blew us away was – weigh it. Now that would seem to be nonsense – but actually it proved to be the most accurate! Take a leaf. How do you measure its area? Photocopy it, cut around the image and weigh the resulting piece of paper. Knowing the density of the paper you can calculate the area.
Now there will never be an exam, or test, that will assess this sort of thinking – but this is real education where the engagement of mind has lead to the solution of a problem.
I think you need to explain why special needs cannot be catered for in a public system, considering that “one format fits all” is the opposite of the Finnish approach that our teachers and teachers’ unions have been promoting for years.
The goal of National Party education policy is not to educate, nor even to graduate, but to smash the teachers’ unions so that the sector can be privatised.
Pedagogy needs to be responsive to the needs of the student and in some ways that is best achieved in a non state school
Hardly surprising when (underfunded) state schools have had a ‘one format fits all’ approach forced on them by right wing greed.
In some ways, the only thing unique about Finnish schools is that the
National PartyUSA approach to education doesn’t have any influence there.I haven’t been avoiding answering this request rather I’ve been working on framing my response as helpfully as I can. I think we can agree that every child has different needs, whether they are the most or the least intelligent or emotionally developed or the least (a la D Trump) or the most physically capable or visually challenged or are socially advantaged, or what ever. Those needs are special to that child and need to be addressed before any real progress can be made on education.
Now essentially the Finnish model (which I endorse btw) does seek to address that most basic issue, but the problem is that with the present state of conventional wisdom in this country, such a system stands as much chance of implementation as a snowballs chance in hell. Just imagine the uproar from “concerned” parents if their child was not introduced to “formal” learning until age 6 or 7! Just imagine if laptops, tablets, and computers were taken out of the classrooms up to high school – and then only at senior level! Just imagine if there were no formal assessments in Junior school and only one or two final assessment at the end of High school and maybe not even then. Just imagine if mathematics and science involved drawing and the arts. And every student was involved in acting, music. and drama, and learned to knit and dance.
There are such schools available in NZ. They follow a curriculum and pedagogy developed over a 100 years ago, and the Finnish model of education has adopted many of their practices. But these schools are private. I had the privilege to teach in one of these schools for several years, and it was the most fulfilling and enriching period of my now 3 score years and 10 plus a few more. One of my pupils has just completed Auckland med school graduating top. Another who entered the class (completely unable to survive in a state school, and spent the first few weeks hiding behind the clothes stand) is now an engineer. Another is a graduate of Toi Whakaari, works as a sexual abuse councillor and facilitator for ACC in secondary schools, and regional co-convenor for the Greens, and was elected to a community board at the last local body elections. Another is a manager for a Travel firm and others are farmers, mechanics etc.
I’m not an anthroposophist but I believe Steiner got it pretty right with his system of education. Here is a comparison done by a US waldorf educator after hearing Pasi Sahlberg, director general of the Center for International Mobility and Cooperation in Finland’s Ministry of Education, speak at the Chicago Humanities Festival about why
Finland ranks first with the best school system in the world.
http://chicagowaldorf.org/uploads/files/Finland_Education-by_Carol_Triggiano.pdf – note pdf
Thanks for that Macro. It never crossed my mind that you’d be avoiding it 🙂
As a concerned parent I’m more than happy to go toe-to-toe with any of my peers giving your excellent vision a hard time.
I suspect that the best way the Left can destroy the National Party’s ambitions for education is by closing all private schools and forcing Mummy and Daddy to confront the consequences of their actions at the ballot box, or failing that, to follow Finland’s example and figure out a way to stop the National Party from attacking children.
Yeah dreams are free, and I know now’s never the right time.
Yes my spelling is not great.
I left school at 15 and I’m slightly dyslexic. And I’m also lazy.
As for the comment “My point being, regardless of whether a person is state or privately educated, as long as they are encouraged and respected for their individual abilities, they will shine in whatever they choose to do.”
Could not agree more.
Indeed, In Finland teaching is held in very high regard.
“Because the Finnish system places so much emphasis on school and teacher autonomy, there are not clearly defined career ladders. Teachers have control over their classrooms, lesson plans, and hours outside of teaching.”
http://ncee.org/what-we-do/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/finland-overview/finland-teacher-and-principal-quality/
The various NZ Teachers Unions would have kittens over the Finland model!! they need to control everything.
For example – Charter Schools.
More than 95% of teachers in Finland are unionized.
From your link:
Any chance you and the truth might recognise one another on the street?
It’s clear that Finnish teachers have a much better union to support them.
Any chance you can understand that OAB?
What’s clear is that you tried to lie about the influence of unions in Finnish education and now you’re spinning like a David Farrar-shaped dupe.
You don’t know anything about pedagogy or how professional development works in NZ either. You can keep letting David Farrar dribble down your chin, but don’t fool yourself that it has the slightest relevance to reality, or me.
There’s no chance you understand that Chuck.
OAB please point out where I “lied” about the influence of unions in Finnish education.
What I pointed out was the stark difference between how teachers can operate in Finland verse their counterparts in NZ. Which of course is made possible by the Finnish teacher’s union.
Maybe we should send you up to Finland for some personal development to take back to your school 😉
😆
I’m way ahead of you Chuck, you poor dupe. I had already searched for NZ teacher union remarks about Finnish education in anticipation that you’d try and parrot some more of the lies you swallowed like a gullible fool.
Here’s a selection:
Walked right into that didn’t you Chuck. Now stop lying and smearing your betters, you rotten filth.
PS: My school? You think I’m a teacher 😆 what a moran.
Please tone down the personal abuse.
While we’re at it, perhaps someone could ask Chuck to stop attempting to defame and smear an entire profession.
After all, his lies have victims, and those victims are children. ‘Rotten’ and ‘filth’ are mild descriptors in the circumstances.
Anyhow, I’ll try and display my disgust and contempt using more acceptable language.
Christ OAB, you don’t expect me to read the whole thread do you.
There’s no reason why the community can’t be more self-regulating. So I have no problem with you asking any commenter to stop maligning a whole profession, providing you don’t absue someone in the process. Your problem is that you give shit to people so why should they do what you ask?
I’m only going to get involved as a moderator if I see behaviour escalating that is going to cause problems for the site. In this case, the inevitable descent into abusive comments. I listen to the people who say that stuff puts them off from being involved in conversations here. I have to admit I’m stumped by the people who don’t get that. I mean I love a good argument as much as the next man, but I also understand that how I comment has impact and repercussions and that if I don’t want this place to become a ghettoised macho clique I might want to change how I do things.
I get you are on a mission to hold RWers and others in the way of progressive politics to account. I’m just pointing out that how you do that creates problems.
As an example of your utter lack of understanding, you praise Finland because:
…but you vote for Notional Standards, which are a direct attack on teacher autonomy.
You can’t even read your own citations. You might know the individual words but the meaning goes over your head. For once in your life, stop mindlessly repeating the right wing lies you rote-learned.
The personal insults aside…I am glad you are opening your mind away from the status quo that the various teacher unions in NZ just can’t seem to let go of.
Yawn. More lies. The same lies, in fact, that were employed against the teaching profession in 2008.
Take your mind back from the sewer.
“While we’re at it, perhaps someone could ask Chuck to stop attempting to defame and smear an entire profession.”
OAB if for one minute you did not let the red haze of rage cloud your mind, you might have a chance not to miss represent what I say.
By profession, I assume you mean teachers? Teachers can only work within the framework of the day. They are restricted by a/ the Unions and b/ the Government of the day.
Good teachers are worth gold, I want to see good teachers rewarded and helping struggling teachers up to their level. Schools should be able to do whats best for their students, which is not a one size fits all approach.
So have a great day OAB, I don’t expect you to agree with anything I have said…that ok. A debate is good and I do take on board other peoples views that may challenge mine.
So you agree with the NZEI and PPTA then. That’s exactly what they’ve been saying.
Unfortunately you voted for Notional Standards instead, which calls your lip service into question.
But everyone knows that really, you’re motivated by nothing but hatred for the freedoms of association and expression represented by the teachers’ unions, and all your* rhetoric is simply in service to that hate.
*except it isn’t really yours, you just parrot the things you rote-learn at the sewer.
I want to see good teachers rewarded and helping struggling teachers up to their level
Rejoice and wipe your chin, Chuck: this is exactly what’s been happening for decades, as the National Party lied and lied and lied to you about it.
Why didn’t you notice it? Grossly distended amygdala? Shares in CSUSA? Blinded by hate?
Put median incomes NZ 2017, into the net. Be a plumber or electrician, you will earn twice what a teacher, (after 4/5 years) will earn. So there it is… not valued!!
I doubt higher salaries would be sufficient incentive to endure the results of decades of lies and contempt for the profession, embodied by such people as Anne Tolley and Hekia Parata.
I did not release that Tolley and Parata had been Education minister’s for the last 3 or 4 decades OAB!
You may have some valid points to make, but your contempt and hatred for anything not remotely resembling your narrative negate your message.
I shouldn’t feel contempt for people who turn education into a political football for money? Would you prefer a more “get tough on crime” manifestation of implacable cold rage?
Come on, you’ve ignored and vilified teachers unions. Who else do you think is going to school your sorry excuse for an education philosophy?
#getoutofauckland
Terrible unscrupulous property managers.
These are not rotten apples.
The problem is systematic.
Tinkering won’t do.
Radical reform needed.
And jail time.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/100807243/unregulated-property-managers-hold-keys-to-tenants-fortunes
Dodgy criminal property developers.
This country needs regulations.
Cowboys are running amok.
Killing trees.
Polluting waterways.
Treating people like vermin.
This one got jail.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/100922015/controversial-auckland-property-developer-sentenced-to-jail-for-brutal-damage-to-native-trees
More should.
“The problem is systematic.
Tinkering won’t do.”
Any evidence to back that up. There are many people that are happy and have helpful professional property managers.
There are a few bad eggs in every vertical.
Whilst I agree that guy deserves jail (and more than he got).
Most property developers operate in the rules – the fall out if they do not is too large).
So why should more of them go to jail if they are not breaking laws Ed?
Jailing people you are jealous of?
Na, don’t think he’s seeing it like that.
It’s the mindset around the development community that a consent, and any conditions attached to that consent, are just the basis for further negotiation as the project goes forward. So the developer just does what they want and expects to sort it out retrospectively.
It’s pretty much industry practice here, and you’re looked on as some sort of weirdo when you don’t “play the game”
I’m not sure that is correct. The consent and conditions that are part of it are the basis of the approval.
Without meeting the consent conditions 223’s and 224’s will not be issued.
Start doing things that impact wetland etc and you can get in a whole lot of trouble and it takes a lot of time and money that developers just do not have to waste.
Easier to play by the rules.
Pretty rare when there’s not some “negotiation” around the granting of compliance.
There’s quite a difference between pushing it to the limit, and playing by the rules.
It’s also how a lot of the professional occupations make their money. Advise on how much the limits can be pushed, and then write out the invoice to sort it out when it turns to shit.
“Easier to play by the rules.”
Easier, yes, but not as profitable. And as Graeme mentions there is a whole industry that is set up to challenge the rules and get concessions or exceptions.
Lack of consistent enforcement makes this a small gamble worth playing for larger profits if that is your priority.
When 99.9% of resource consents are approved at environment court, – why wouldn’t you be as greedy as possible? The NZ system is set up to reward greed of natural resources to anybody who wants to, from big and small corporations to big and small consents. If the rules on height for example is 15m then the developer will put in for 20m knowing if worst comes to worst it will come down to 15m and use that as a bargaining point on all the other issues that they also try to get more than, but in all likely hood they will get what they want as very expensive to challenge it in court. Meanwhile our country is turning into a deregulated toilet with that attitude.
With you there savenz.
Our planning seems to be stuck in the dark ages, and our enforcement is weak. Add to this, justifiable complaints about slow processes and costs and the public consensus to reduce redtape means that positive long-term change is unlikely.
One of the problems with leaky home cost recovery was the number of Developers who took profit and then closed companies to avoid future liability. Have seen no evidence that practice is less widespread today
” Developers who took profit and then closed companies to avoid future liability. Have seen no evidence that practice is less widespread today”
And with SLR and continuing developments on coastal sites – such practices will continue.
Can’t buy.
Can’t rent.
New Zealand is failing its citizens.
In a basic human need.
Mild reform won’t solve the problem.
The total dismantling of the national economic system is needed.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/100861408/cant-buy-cant-rent-trapped-in-a-system-without-a-way-forward
Grubby deals.
The exploitation of human need.
Greed and real estate agencies.
New Zealand.
Where there are no rules to protect the vulnerable from sharks.
Roger Douglas.
Should be tried for treason.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/100924851/rental-squeeze-sometimes-you-have-to-sweeten-that-deal
And with the new rules labour want to bring in – the number of rentals will fall.
So it’s only going to get worse for renters.
Well said Ed (6). Agree with your sentiments in your post.
One more thing …
you say – “Roger Douglas.
Should be tried for treason.” Absolutely he should!
Be a good idea to also have John Key next to Douglas on the stand in court for his treachery as well … almost nine years of it! Two dirty devious knights of the realm (one also being a slimy groping hair fiddling pervert), standing side by side in the dock being tried for treason against the people of Aotearoa, for which a guilty verdict can be the only just and rational outcome! That would be absolute justice for those who have suffered immensely as the result of the ruthless inhumane policies of these two arse wipes!
And Prebble, Moore, Richardson, Fay, Richwhite.
Quite a sorry lot.
Crooks Ed. Don’t forget bloody Bill Birch of the Contracts Act infamy!!
Good on you Ed, telling it how it is.
Are we again having to watch the usual couples dancing the Tango here on TS over this long and very hot weekend or may we enjoy a weekend off for a change? We could name it Dancing With The Trolls although it is not always very clear who’s leading whom here 😉
ha ha. We need to appoint some judges though, right?
Yes, hadn’t thought that far; will it be Strictly Ballroom though?
Please don’t take this a suggestion that we should introduce likes & dislikes here on TS!! I can’t stand these 🙁
https://gamerbling.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/commodus.jpg
😉 (Just a wee humour)
Lol, makes sense you would choose that particular image james.
Interestingly, it seems the thumbs up gesture for Roman amphitheatres meant kill the gladiator. The gesture meaning the opposite was a thumb wrapped around the fist. Of course, it has changed since Roman times; however, Commodus would have given the thumbs up for death.
Historical accuracy would have been totally confusing. We must never let historical research get in the road of a good storyline, eh?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumb_signal
I think Lynn trailed it and decided it wasn’t worth the bother of setting it up?
(I’ve come round to like buttons, from my time on twitter. I’m agnostic about them on TS).
Edit, actually twitter just has a like, not down vote, so that might work.
In the interests of fairness maybe a judge from the right hand side, just to add balance…
Hah! And one judge from the Greens to transcend the Left & Right. You do need three judges anyway 😉
😆
Sorry chris, but he got you there.
Hee hee love it Incognito (8) 🙂 It sends the mind into overdrive at the thought!
Corin Dann has stepped down as political editor at TV One and will be taking on a full time role on Q+A. So, eyes open for who will be the new political editor…
This seems like a bit of short-sighted self-promotion and ego on the part of RocketLabs:
Astronomers enraged by huge man-made star that has ‘vandalised’ the sky
IIRC, there was talk during Bush’s time of putting advertisements in the sky, which was promptly shut down – if it was indeed serious.
This arbitrary addition – just because they can – seems arrogant.
I’ve been surprised and heartened by the amount of criticism on twitter about it.
The Herald has since posted a reply from Rocket Labs in response to the criticism.
To get people talking? What sort of arrogance is that?
Have we all been wandering around grunting like Neanderthals and need a shiny thing in our sky to gaze at to boot our cerebral cortex into action?
Besides
” The satellite could only be seen at dawn or dusk and was yet to be spotted, he said.”
Damn
Sux to be us.
Beloved by Silicon Valley venture capitalists and the US aerospace industry and with a bog standard arms industry employment caveat courtesy of the US State Department, what’s not to love about RocketLab.
/
For security reasons background checks will be undertaken prior to any employment offers being made to an applicant. These checks will include nationality checks as it is a requirement of this position that you be eligible to access equipment and data regulated by the United States’ International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Under these Regulations, you may be ineligible for this role if you do not hold citizenship of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the European Union or a country that is part of NATO, or if you hold ineligible dual citizenship or nationality. For more information on these Regulations, click here.
http://www.rocketlabusa.com/careers/positions/general-applicants-auckland-new-zealand-2936214/
https://www.nbr.co.nz/rocket-man
Video on how the US democracy has been taken over by the rich. It may have some parallels here.
The question is: How does money influence who gets chosen to be our candidates?
Parallels? They fucken own shit loads of New Zealand, about 40% of the NZX is owned by banks, about 30% hedge funds and the rest pensions funds and professional traders. So people all earning above $250k of unearned capital gains. If only Garreth Morgan had of zipped it for like a couple mimits at the end of every interview we might have reformed all this.
Can you please post some evidence for your numbers.
I would be most interested in them, particularly the statement about Banks and Hedge Funds.
Sorry for the lengthy and divided up response.., but there are character limits to my personality and this has to be explained to people to help them understand the difference between real trade ideas & real risk versus valueless noise. It cant be explained properly in a few words / sentences.
There are no overall shareholder brake down of the NZX that I’m aware of available to the public (for free) but I can give you some quick indicators. Mind you this won’t help you trade at all they’re just quick terminology that may help you to spot a few charlatans on your travels.
– a retail trader trades in accounts less than $500k
– Above retail traders are professional traders with institutional knowledge and institutional money (bank money, the top guys trade in about $400mln accounts with no less than 3 to a trading desk. With this kind of action you can literally print money in foreign currency)
JP Morgan lost $143mln to one client in Equities trading last quarter. Same guy who runs JP Morgan (Jamie Dimon) apparently “did a U-turn” on Bitcoin $BTC last week. So please understand that reporting an accurate number of who owns what of the NZX is next to impossible. So I’ll use Sky City Groups 2016 earnings report as a measuring stick. On page 76 it lists there top 20 share holders totalling $465,288,322 or 70.82% of the company as follows-
1. HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Limited – NZCSD
2. JP Morgan Nominees Australia Limited
3. HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Limited A/C State Street – NZCSD
4. Citibank Nominees (New Zealand) Limited – NZCSD
5. JP Morgan Chase Bank NA NZ Branch-Segregated Clients Acct – NZCSD
6. HSBC Custody Nominees (Australia) Limited
7. National Nominees New Zealand Limited – NZCSD
8. National Nominees Limited
9. RBC Investor Services Australia Nominees Pty Limited
10. Accident Compensation Corporation – NZCSD
11. BNP Paribas Noms Pty Limited
12. Citicorp Nominees Pty Limited
13. BNP Paribas Nominees (NZ) Limited – NZCSD
14. ANZ Custodial Services New Zealand Limited – NZCSD
15. UBS Nominees Pty Limited
16. Citicorp Nominees Pty Limited
17. HSBC Nominees A/C NZ Superannuation Fund Nominees Limited – NZCSD
18. ANZ Wholesale Australasian Share Fund – NZCSD
19. FNZ Custodians Limited
20. BNP Paribas Nominees (NZ) Limited – NZCSD
https://www.skycityentertainmentgroup.com/media/1440/2016-skycity-entertainment-group-annual-report.pdf
And this is typical, if you go through earnings report of publicly listed companies on the NZX, retail brokerage accounts make up a fraction or less than 70% of the NZX.
This is like broker’s signals; Broker:”I’m cautiously optimistic” Translate :
If it goes up i will say ” i told you so.” / If it goes down i will say “i did say i was cautious”
I suggest you google what a nominee is.
Worth a whole article this.
Burn!
Jade Hameister
13 January at 01:45 ·
We spent this morning cleaning out our sleds to be ready to fly out to Union Glacier tomorrow morning (depending on weather). Then we skied over to the Ceremonial South Pole (probably the Pole that everyone knows as the only South Pole – the barbers Pole with the flags) and the actual Geographic South Pole (which moves around 10m each year), which is marked separately. In the afternoon we were given a tour of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It is seriously as close to what a Base on another planet would be like than anything else on the planet – a mini-town based around the scientific work of the National Science Foundation. Tonight (it never gets dark this time of year) I skied back to the Pole again… to take this photo for all those men who commented “Make me a sandwich” on my TEDX Talk. I made you a sandwich (ham & cheese), now ski 37 days and 600km to the South Pole and you can eat it xx#bravenotperfect #expandpossible #climatechange #jadesquest #thepolarhatrick #northpole #greenland #southpole #makemeasandwich #nationalgeographic #nationalgeographicapp @natgeo @natgeoau @australiangeographic
https://www.facebook.com/jadehameister/photos/a.224825967879767.1073741829.207513589611005/524715937890767/?type=3
We are in Auckland helping my daughter for a couple of days she was so happy. All the mokos are keeping us busy. The sandflys here drove the same type of vehicle that that Rotorua lot drive but they act differently they still try and USE the same dumb ass tactics intimidation and following me around at least they are to busy following me to bother other people Ana to kai
Great news.
“People are starting to understand’: huge Invasion Day protest stuns Melbourne
Activist Gary Foley tells a crowd of up to 60,000 that ‘if we keep mobilising these numbers, governments cannot ignore us’”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jan/26/huge-invasion-day-protest-melbourne-australia-day
THe crash is coming.
Trump’s tax cuts may be the spark that sets the reindeer dey forest alight.
Debt levels at records heights.
Many experts warning we are at edge of a precipice.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/26/imf-chief-warns-trumps-tax-cuts-could-destabilise-global-economy
Weird weather, the Herald says.
Rachel Stewart asks if we’re worried yet……
“Not only was 2017 the hottest ocean year on record, the heat gain from the previous hottest ocean year (2015) was quite considerable. In all 15,100,000,000,000,000,000,000 Joules of heat energy were added by the world ocean from 2015 to 2017. By comparison, 4,184,000,000 Joules were produced by the Hiroshima bomb. The world ocean is now taking in a similar amount of heat every 3-5 seconds.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/jan/26/in-2017-the-oceans-were-by-far-the-hottest-ever-recorded
I can finally go for a swim without freezing my nuts off.
We have set our daughter and new Moko granddaughter on a smove course up there lifes ladder. Just a little bit of help at the right time is enough to help her karma. We teach Our children to treat every one with respect. We also teach them that they can only trust a few people in one’s life. I can see the sandflys have been spinning there lies again its so easy to see that effect. I know the people that are helping spread those lies are contracted liers. The contracted liers try to play me to but no ECO Maori checks these idiots to.
Ana to kai