I don't like the taxpayers union and sit at the other end of the political spectrum from them. But what I find refreshing is a lobby group calling the government to account, despite it being a government that they voted for.
It annoys me when people support or oppose simply based on what party has proposed it.
A perfect example is increasing the age of Super. Labour proposed increasing the age the last time it was in opposition, and Key opposed the age increasing. You just have to trawl through the Standard archives to see so many people on the left supporting that Labour position back then, simply because Labour proposed it and Key opposed it.
Then the parties flipped. National in opposition wanted to increase the age, and Labour under Jacinda opposed the increase. And guess what, all the respective supporters flipped their views too for no reason other than what their team was saying. Tribal politics at its worse.
So even though I disagree with the Taxpayers Union, it is refreshing seeing a group being consistent in their views. They stick to their vision and will tell their government that they oppose something.
We work to expose excessive and wasteful government spending. We want more transparency and accountability in how taxpayers’ money is spent and our politicians spending money as if they’d worked as hard as the taxpayers who earned it. We believe that new taxes should only be introduced when there are equal decreases in other taxes
I've always opposed the age increasing and would put it back to 60. All increasing the age did was make people who were unwell from 60 to 65 have to live off $140-00 a week less and use up their savings and get called bludgers.
Just tax more highly those who can still work and wish to do so. Give people choices. Isn't 40 years servitude to capitalism enough.
Retire, volunteer in the community or work as much as you like.
Because Maori women and men have significantly decreased life expencies compared with the majority of NZers, it is also racist.
"Life expectancy at birth was 73.4 years for Māori males in 2017–2019 (up 3.1 years from 2005–2007), and 77.1 years for Māori females (up 2.0 years from 2005–2007). In comparison, non-Māori males are expected to live to 80.9 years, while non-Māori females are expected to live to 84.4 years."
6-7 fewer years of drawing Super. Money saver for the govt.
A Guardian article last year on the UK increase in age limit for the pension (legislated 20 years ago and stepping up now), is also classist, as those with lower incomes over their lifetime and who have done physical labour also have decreased lifespans, compared with well-nourished middle classes. The actual lifespan stats for working class UK citizens was a bit horrifying, actually, from what I remembered.
I think of the NZ Taxpayer Union as being New Zealand's currently most successful Political Action Group. They have raised significant money and used that well to "foment mischief" for the parties of the left through media campaigns attributed to a variety of names, but economic policy has always been clear – they will push National and NZ First to accept their well thought through policies to move as much taxation to "user pays" as possible (including to local rates), to reduce services from government, and turn as many as possible service providers into "for profit" entities. The campaign against App fees was initially directed towards international organisations such as Facebook and Twitter, and there were links to charging them for use of New Zealand press material. This campaign highlights Air BnB, Book – a – Batch, Uber, Ola and Delivereasy – it is not clear to me whether these are international companies or local companies (possibly owned by an international company). Essentially ACT don't care about NZ Media – they want a compliant population delivering to their wealthy donors. Seymour has therefore tended to be more effective than Luxon or Peters – he has a narrower focus and just doesn't care about some issues. They are exploiting the loophole that money to them will not need to be declared – and they visibly support both National and ACT through paying for Curia Polling, and creating a series of other organisations to front campaigns. As far as taxes are concerned, if these companies are making sure they incur no profits in NZ, do we care of they pay some taxes that stay here and make it harder to compete with New Zealand companies in the areas of holiday homes and takeaway deliveries and taxis?
Nothing but shows they are full of shit, they were straight in for a taxpayer hand out when I can't see how covid affects them and even if it did affect them they should have sucked ot up.
Absolutely, they feel they've been green lighted by government ministers to put their assorted resentments into actions. Some dude wearing a baseball cap and a mask and driving a big SUV apparently smashed up a whole lot of electric charging points in Drury yesterday, these dumb fucks feel untouchable right now thanks to Seymour and Peters and our utterly useless PM.
I think Sanctuary may've been referring to Destiny's charitable status as a 'church', rather than any threat of physical violence. Certainly how I took it.
Destiny want to behave like gangsters, let them live by the consequences of that choice.
Theres also an absolutly massive new church almost complete in Wiri which is unconnected to Destiny although also evangelist and funded from the US. Biggesr church im NZ I reckon and prob the tallest steeple when finished.
During the sixties the old man built several houses at Temple View for church members. Unusual houses for the times, large, with particular requirements for symmetry, well insulated, with huge cellars and diesel-fired central heating. Working on Saturday mornings with the old man the home owners would turn up with glorious smoko spreads and, it seemed fucking weird to me at the time, two pots of tea. One was for their milo, of course.
No I was referring to the common and humorous meme of mafia gangsters.
Weka made the heroic leap to retaliatory arson against her favourite pastor all by herself.
The point is the old Bish and his flock are playing a dangerous game, it isn't like gay activists can't use Google maps and after all that re-decorating of their tasteful Ponsonby villas they are bound to have pails of Dulux ivory cream (semi-gloss of course) left over under the house. God's house in Wiri is a boring grey anyway. A literal splash of colour and some obscene epithets as to the sexual proclivities of Brian's flock would be a definite improvement IMHO.
All that "when they go low we go high" stuff is so 2015.
It doesn't work. What remains of the left worldwide is getting its ass kicked.
All the wins the right had during the last Labour government was when they militantly organised and gave it right into people's faces. Tractor drives, massive billionaire fundraising and mass advertising, rebellion from industry no matter what inducement, huge coordinated media attacks to kill off major infrastructure, steamrolling urgency of legislation with unprecedented power.
If you are still into the politesse of pamphlets, phone trees, little marches, and petitions, prepare to be consigned to political history.
I'm saying that if the response to Tamaki from the left is only to point a finger and say bigot, instead of pointing the finger and saying bigot and fighting hard and understanding what the fucking culture war actually is, then we will lose.
We are losing.
Atm the liberal left still seems to believe that we can force people to be progressive, despite being outnumbered. It's not about being nice to Tamaki, go hard against what they are doing. It's that if you want to retaliate in kind, you need to have a much better strategy than the left have. Putting our backs into fighting the current government as well as doing whatever identity politics is needed would be a start. Remember the 90s? We were on the streets en masse by this point in National's first term. So sure, fuck the politics of "politesse of pamphlets, phone trees, little marches, and petitions, prepare to be consigned to political history" but also fuck the politics of social media outrage.
It's not that rainbow activism is wrong. All power to the councils for acting quickly and repainting, that was awesome to see. It's the dearth of similar kind of energy and passion for climate/ecology and NACTF ripping the country's infrastructure apart. I know people are angry about those things, and there is plenty of commentary, but it's got little follow through.
It still fucks me off no end that it was the trucker/freedom crowd that occupied parliament grounds for three weeks. While the liberal left started talking about restricting right to protest. It should have been us, then on climate, now on austerity. In front of parliament and making a big fucking noise and really holding the government to account.
Middle NZ/swing voters have a choice, and atm they're fucked off with the left in multiple ways and we still think the solution is to mock them and tell them they are wrong. That's why we are losing the culture war.
Middle NZ/swing voters have a choice, and atm they're fucked off with the left in multiple ways and we still think the solution is to mock them and tell them they are wrong. That's why we are losing the culture war.
Wow, so close to home, but never was a truer word said.
Imho the response to covid in particular the reaction to people who refused vaccination or broke the 'rules' or turned up to protest really showed how many lefties here including rhose in parliment sit on the authortarian side of of the spectrum and tbh its a big reason that i'm not going to be voting anything other than a protest vote for a very long time.
Some might say i'm cutting off my nose to spite my face but if anything the whole shit show proved that you are bettee to find like minded people build a community and look after yourselves / each other.
National level politics are just fakes for the wealthy and power hungry.
Partly a case of how you do it, the restore rail people on wellington were effective at disruption but at the same time they hurt a bunch of people who were in precarious positions trying to get to work. If anything it alienates the very people you are trying to help.
If you were to look at Destiny they spend 15min defacing a crossing which achives more in turns of media coverage and it doesnt piss this the people in the meet grinder living day by day off so mouch.
There is plenty of pushback against Tamaki's behaviour, here and in the wider community that does not sink to their level. We do have that ability and we don't sink.
Why do you claim that there isn't and that we do? Because of one (possible) example here?
I guess that's the problem with one liners, the potential to not be understood
☺️😛
But fair call on asking for an explanation.
What I am pointing to here is the problem with the approach of the left to our current situation. Doesn't mean we aren't doing good things, as you point out there is rightly and actively push back against Destiny Church.
The inability I see is to grasping with what the culture war is and how to respond effectively. Tamaki knows what is, so does Peters and Seymour. They are all using the culture war to further their own ends. Both their political agenda, but also just as importantly, garnering and consolidating power.
The liberal left is struggling to know what to do, because imo it is often failing to grasp what is going on. Pushing back against the destruction of the rainbow crossing is necessary, it's not sufficient.
I think that DC have overplayed their hand here, but their interest isn't in winning the swing voters, so it's probably less of a mistake for them. The reaction from the left is part of what he wants. He's basically trolling liberals to get a reaction that he can use against liberal values.
That's why I reacted to Sanctuary's comment. I get that it was an offhand whatever on a small piece of SM. But it's useful to point out why it's a fail. Encouraging gay people to throw rainbow paint and obscenities over the church building in retaliation might make some lefties feel good, but what does it achieve?
We lack cohesive strategy imo (not that I think Sanctuary is responsible for that or the solution, it was just the thing in the moment).
We will never have a cohesive strategy, but in lieu of that, we need agile guides who can nudge the discussion in the progressive direction, without knee-capping the contributors to the discussion.
A Tamaki church, dripping with red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, violet…
The reaction was to repaint the rainbows; Tamaki will use that somehow???
Yes, indeed. I've heard from multiple people the comment, along the lines of: Council can't repair potholes or deal with gang graffiti [substitute the grievance de jour for the individual concerned] – but they can repaint vandalized gay rainbows the next day.
If you don't think that this has cut through with the potential support base for the Destiny Church – you're living in a much-insulated world.
Destiny Church's "potential support base"; those who would support Tamaki's madness, are of little consequence to anyone. The rapid repainting reveals real passion in the community: priceless! Tamaki's efforts to"white-out" a vibrant community have resulted in a colourful response; joyous, vibrant and cheeky! Every warm-hearted person feels that joy 🙂
I'm watching the number of people who are ok with the action because they see GI as having gone to far, they will will ignore that it was DC. The GC people I see siding with LGB rights are much smaller in number.
Robert can write off the people who are concerned, but they're the ones that voted in a right wing government. The liberal left have some massive blind spots at times.
The more serious risk here is that people choosing to side with DC on this end up being more conservative generally. That's harder to turn back than a swing vote especially at this time with people being scared and stressed by the state of the world.
The liberal left have some massive blind spots at times.
Regular Standardistas would have to be blind not to see that some view gender ideology/theory as a massive (global) problem – TS has done a service to Kiwis by providing a forum for debating GI matters.
The more serious risk here is that people choosing to side with DC on this end up being more conservative generally. That's harder to turn back than a swing vote especially at this time with people being scared and stressed by the state of the world.
Yes, it's natural for people to be stressed by the state of civilisation, and spaceship Earth. We are in sustained overshoot – c'est la vie.
Otoh (or is it?), stress can be a killer. Given Freedoms NZ's election result (0.34% of the party vote), I'm pretty relaxed about Destiny Church's influence on NZ politics. Even if a few CoC MPs were closeted DC supporters, they couldn't be so stupid as to openly endorse Bishop Brian's regressive views – could they?
The legal freedoms of minorities have progressed considerably since Muldoon and Moyle – not far enough for some, too far for 'others'.
NZ…A Gay Haven for a Trans-Takeover [1 Oct 2023]
However, don’t get it twisted. I love all people, including those who have chosen to be LGBTQIA+.
But I fervently oppose the Rainbow community pushing their beliefs and ways onto the rest of society…
"Pushing their beliefs" Don't stress Brian – try taking a walk in Palmy. No rainbow crossings here, as far as I know – happy Easter.
Otoh (or is it?), stress can be a killer. Given Freedoms NZ’s election result (0.34% of the party vote), I’m pretty relaxed about Destiny Church’s influence on NZ politics. Even if a few CoC MPs were closeted DC supporters, they couldn’t be so stupid as to openly endorse Bishop Brian’s regressive views – could they?
I would suggest doing some reading about the progression of societies towards fascism. It’s not as Robert argues against that all these people are going to become part of the DC congregation. It’s that there are large numbers of people that don’t care that Tamaki thinks gay people cause earthquakes.
There have been whole wars fought over this on twitter, major schisms within the GC movements on working with the right.There are many people who are infact ok with working with conservatives, including former left wing people. We’ve seen this on TS, so I’m not sure why it’s not obvious.
And the centrists and apolitical ones are winning apart from in the UK, where it’s hard to know which will it will eventually fall.
In NZ the left and centre left GC feminists and other women are outnumbered by the reactionaries and the right. And those people are quite ok with throwing gay people under the bus because they perceive the rainbow flag as a symbol of oppression of women and children.
It’s just another case of the left being wholly unprepared for what is coming.
It appears to me that some on the left (cf Robert's comments on this issue) appear to have a blind spot when it come to conservative (with a small c) voters.
Often these people don't have particularly Conservative (with a capital c) voting alignment (e.g. they don't particularly support a right wing economic policy, or sell-offs of public assets or downsizing of social support (although they may want more targeting of support to those in need, and a social contract with those receiving support – the KO refusal to evict went down like a lead balloon).
However, when the left are hard-aligned with fairly extreme socially liberal policies – it leaves this group with no voting home. 'Christian' parties have failed (both through the leadership, and in getting across the bar into government) – leaving only the centre right (and whatever you call Winston) as the only parties they can support.
This group were significant in electing this current coalition.
If the left want to see the current government voted out at the next election, then they need to consider how to soften their policy stance, to accommodate a broader 'church'.
Or, resign themselves to another 2 terms in opposition – until the usual 'Buggins turn' mentality of the electorate – allows them another period in power.
I absolutely agree with you about the danger of policy drift. If people see DC as the 'only' place with agrees with them about X issue, it becomes easier for them to gradually adopt other DC philosophy over time.
this is pretty much how I see it. There are a whole lot of NZ that don’t fit neatly into the left/right analysis, and there is a difference between the small c and the big one.
It’s that there are large numbers of people that don’t care that Tamaki thinks gay people cause earthquakes.
"People that don't care", or don't even know. I disagree with what little I know of the gospel according to Eftpostle Brian, but he's not raising my stress levels at present. Am I disappointed about some of the choices Destiny Church members have made? Of course – but then I'm disappointed about so many choices made every day.
I would suggest doing some reading about the progression of societies towards fascism.
…
It’s just another case of the left being wholly unprepared for what is coming.
If "what is coming" is a drift towards fascism, abetted by The Bish, then no doubt that will be a topic for discussion here, and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, we can each champion progressive ideas/values/principles/concepts/ideologies, as we see them and in our own ways. Breaking bread with conservative MPs doesn’t appeal to me, but there are MPs I admire who have done just that in pursuit of lasting progress, and there must still be some decent NActNZF pollies.
I find this action to the crossing to be quite despicable.
But I think we are seeing the slippery slope in action. If it is OK to protest by defacing a display in our national museum to make a point, then we shouldn't be surprised when groups we don't like take similar action.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. So, I think we either have to accept this sort of behaviour as legitimate protest even if we don't agree with it, or condemn it whenever it occurs whether we agree with the sentiment or not.
Turei and Shaw did that in 2016. It was a brilliant move, and Labour rose to the occasion thanks to Little. That was 8 years ago. We're a different country and the Greens have moved on to a new strategy. They will still work with Labour, but Labour's refusal to step far enough left means the Turei/Shaw deal was always going to be a time limited thing. I have a lot of respect for Ardern, but she also wasted this massive opportunity.
So yeah, Swarbrick and Davidson and Hipkins should talk and then act together. But will they? We can't afford to wait.
Chloe is confident that the Green Party can be the major party on the left. Without saying it, she is coming for Labour and their traditional supporters.
I don't expect there to be much co-ordination between the parties in the next 18 months. Labour has a wounded leader that is currently contradicting himself in his major speeches. He is there for the taking and Chloe sees that. She wants his support base.
They don't even need to campaign together with a common message in 2026. NZ First has found themselves at the cabinet table following 2 of the past 3 elections, without supporting the major party they went into coalition with.
That's my reading of the GP intention. I think that could change with a change of Labour leader and an overt support for wealth tax. But failing that, what would be the point?
Broadly agree with that. With a couple of cautions.
First, that if you have no principles, you can never be a hypocrite, but if you profess to have principles, you'll be called a hypocrite all the time.
Second, this aggression should stop short of endorsing violence. I don't think Sanctuary was doing that given what their history of commenting shows, but the bare words on the page could be interpreted that way.
Also (given the report on the dysfunction in civil defense during Gabrielle in Hawkes Bay) does anyone really think NZ's authorities would react with the spped and cool efficiency of the Baltimore Port Authority and police in the bridge strike there? It took FOUR MINUTES from the mayday to the port authority reacting immediately to the police closing the bridge.
At 1.30am in the morning, from port workers probably without an degree monitoring radios and screens, to police dispatchers to action. Incredible. The port maritime control responded immediately to the mayday, contacted police dispatch, who closed the bridge in four freaking minutes. That doesn't happen by accident. The training and trust chain was amazing. No "Are you sure? What do you mean?" they all acted immediately. Well done them, average Joes who earnt every dollar for the rest of their careers.
Unfortunately – this promptness did not extend to getting the road workers off the bridge in time. 6 of them are "missing" with at least 1 body found. It also looks like the vehicles that were identified by sonar belonged to the road workers.
Last March, a speeding car plowed between highway barriers on the same Baltimore highway and killed six workers, including Villatoro’s husband and brother-in-law. That crash along Interstate 695 was about 20 miles from the bridge. Now, a massive ship stacked with containers had crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing its collapse. Six workers, all native to Latin America, were lost in the Patapsco River and presumed dead.
NIWA's response in 2009 was typical of the arrogance amongst some Public Service leaders. The Met Service was no better back in the day. Whether it was confined to scientific agencies I don't know, but imo it was pretty much a case of professional jealousy. Management didn't like their 'underlings' taking the limelight away from them.
Good to hear. I knew Jim way back in the 70's/80's when we both lived in Silverstream and travelled on the train together to and from Wellington – GHG and AGW were frequent topics.
Our children were in the same class. His son was Joseph to my daughter's Mary in the school nativity play. 🙂 A nice bloke and a great travelling companion. He, of course, had his own meteorological observatory in his back garden and wrote a regular column for the gardening section of the local paper – the UH Leader. Excellent advice on when to plant.
Tuesday there were four “does the minister/PM stand by all their statement and actions” type questions from the opposition at question time. Yesterday five. Today another four.
These are such a free hit for the government to take the conversation where ever they want and lazy by the opposition. I can see why the leader of the opposition might want to do it, but seriously in almost every portfolio! The opposition is coming across as incredibly weak in question time.
it would depend on the questions. Because you haven't shared what the questions were about it's hard to know if you have a good point or are trolling again.
Let me guess, you were captain of the debating team at high school?
You asked for some arbitrary evidence (this is a blog site, not a depositions hearing since when does everything have to come with an army of footnotes?) then when they were provided you you had a flounce because it didn't come with a silver spoon for you to feed you with?
"You asked for some arbitrary evidence (this is a blog site, not a depositions hearing since when does everything have to come with an army of footnotes?)"
No – these are always 'set-up' questions. Get the "Yes" from the Minister to the broad question and follow with a supplementary question on a specific matter where the "Yes" is difficult to justify.
Of course the Minister almost always knows what topic the supplementary will target and already has bullshit talking points rehearsed in advance. So most of the time it's all a bit like formal jousting where no-one gets injured and the public is no wiser afterwards. To draw conclusions from this empty ritual that the opposition looks "weak" is just your wishful thinking.
On the contrary, it allows the minister to talk about whatever they want. It also does not serve the public well where question time seeks to hold the government to account by asking probing questions about government policy. It looks like a feeble fishing expedition using old socks as bait by an opposition spokesperson not on top of their portfolio. I’m sure the government will be more than happy with this line of questioning to continue.
Like her or not, Erica Stanford was particularly good at asking specific and probing question when opposition education spokesperson
I believe that subsequent questions ( supplementaries) must be related to the topic of the original question. If the original question topic is wide enough (i.e. all statements and actions) then supplementaries can be asked about anything. It all seems a bit silly to me.
Its only an advantage if you have a speaker that runs a level playing field… theyre like hens teeth Lockwood Smith was prob the closest to neutral in recent times.
Minister Jones' official killing of the Kermadec Sanctuary proposal signals that this is a government far, far more retrograde than anything PM John Key proposed. Key actually launched this proposal live and direct to the United Nations.
Iwi commercial fishing interests have killed this off from the moment it was announced, despite all sorts of inducements from the previous Labour government.
Jones, Brown and Bishop are setting a development benchmark for which you would have to go back to the days of Semple or Syd Holland.
To see how anti-nature they have become, an important Cabinet Minister under Syd Holland was Ernest Corbett, who was a lifelong member of Forest and Bird and added several major national parks to our state to the tune of 1.2 million acres square.
That pretty much benchmarks how deep a reversal this move by Jones is.
It also benchmarks in case it wasn't obvious that Maori business are no friend of liberal causes Green, Labour or TMP.
“The effect of the sticker is two-fold. In one respect (and the most important), it conceals the racist remarks so that others will not see it. And in another, it shames the person that was bold enough to post it while demonstrating that other people won’t tolerate their poor behavior. This particular instance came to light after the popular Twitter account Lorenzo The Cat first posted a picture of the placement. Throughout the tweet’s many replies, the overwhelming message was users applauding the use of the sticker.
You can get your own cat cover-up label from the online shop called Cracks Appearing Distro. The stickers are sold in singles as well as packs of 10 or 30. Printed on a white gloss paper, they should brave the elements and last outdoors for six months”
"Israel has chucked its toys and has withdrawn from peace talks with Hamas and cancelled meetings at the Whitehouse because the UN has finally called for a cease-fire."
Pat and Aaron Hawkins discuss the news clips around Israel"s response to the UN resolution.
Don't stress, but the climate crisis is affecting our brains – still, itsa not so bad.
‘Everybody has a breaking point’: how the climate crisis affects our brains
[27 March 2024]
More than a decade later, she [cognitive neuroscientist Nomura] has her answer. The conclusions reveal a startling disparity: children who were in utero during [2012 hurricane] Sandy bear an inordinately high risk of psychiatric conditions today. For example, girls who were exposed to Sandy prenatally experienced a 20-fold increase in anxiety and a 30-fold increase in depression later in life compared with girls who were not exposed. Boys had 60-fold and 20-fold increased risks of ADHD and conduct disorder, respectively. Children expressed symptoms of the conditions as early as preschool.
…
Yet Nomura and her colleagues’ research also offers a representative page in a new story of the climate crisis: a story that says a changing climate doesn’t just shape the environment in which we live. Rather, the climate crisis spurs visceral and tangible transformations in our very brains. As the world undergoes dramatic environmental shifts, so too does our neurological landscape. Fossil-fuel-induced changes – from rising temperatures to extreme weather to heightened levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide – are altering our brain health, influencing everything from memory and executive function to language, the formation of identity, and even the structure of the brain. The weight of nature is heavy, and it presses inward.
…
“That scares me,” she [Ikiz] says. “Because in 2050, we’ll be like: ‘Ah, this is awful. Let’s try to do something.’ But it will be too late for a lot of people.
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. 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 ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
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 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],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 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
https://www.apptax.nz/
Taxpayers union, running an attack on national 🤣
Why is this funny? They are doing what their remit is. They are attacking areas of government taxation they think are harmful.
It's funny because they are eating their own.
I don't like the taxpayers union and sit at the other end of the political spectrum from them. But what I find refreshing is a lobby group calling the government to account, despite it being a government that they voted for.
It annoys me when people support or oppose simply based on what party has proposed it.
A perfect example is increasing the age of Super. Labour proposed increasing the age the last time it was in opposition, and Key opposed the age increasing. You just have to trawl through the Standard archives to see so many people on the left supporting that Labour position back then, simply because Labour proposed it and Key opposed it.
Then the parties flipped. National in opposition wanted to increase the age, and Labour under Jacinda opposed the increase. And guess what, all the respective supporters flipped their views too for no reason other than what their team was saying. Tribal politics at its worse.
So even though I disagree with the Taxpayers Union, it is refreshing seeing a group being consistent in their views. They stick to their vision and will tell their government that they oppose something.
I too detest this mindless tribalism. No one person or party has a monopoly on good ideas (or bad ones).
I've always opposed the age increasing and would put it back to 60. All increasing the age did was make people who were unwell from 60 to 65 have to live off $140-00 a week less and use up their savings and get called bludgers.
Just tax more highly those who can still work and wish to do so. Give people choices. Isn't 40 years servitude to capitalism enough.
Retire, volunteer in the community or work as much as you like.
I would pay super rate benefits to those unable to work 60 to 65.
I would also pay those with disability the super rate.
I would afford it by ending super for those over 65, with a mortgage free home and $100,000 + in work income. – circa $1B pa.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/money/350177826/50000-people-earn-over-100k-get-pension-commission
Because Maori women and men have significantly decreased life expencies compared with the majority of NZers, it is also racist.
"Life expectancy at birth was 73.4 years for Māori males in 2017–2019 (up 3.1 years from 2005–2007), and 77.1 years for Māori females (up 2.0 years from 2005–2007). In comparison, non-Māori males are expected to live to 80.9 years, while non-Māori females are expected to live to 84.4 years."
Stats NZ
6-7 fewer years of drawing Super. Money saver for the govt.
A Guardian article last year on the UK increase in age limit for the pension (legislated 20 years ago and stepping up now), is also classist, as those with lower incomes over their lifetime and who have done physical labour also have decreased lifespans, compared with well-nourished middle classes. The actual lifespan stats for working class UK citizens was a bit horrifying, actually, from what I remembered.
Most of the men in my family have not reached not reach NZS age. Even the fit ones. Dad got a couple of years.
I think of the NZ Taxpayer Union as being New Zealand's currently most successful Political Action Group. They have raised significant money and used that well to "foment mischief" for the parties of the left through media campaigns attributed to a variety of names, but economic policy has always been clear – they will push National and NZ First to accept their well thought through policies to move as much taxation to "user pays" as possible (including to local rates), to reduce services from government, and turn as many as possible service providers into "for profit" entities. The campaign against App fees was initially directed towards international organisations such as Facebook and Twitter, and there were links to charging them for use of New Zealand press material. This campaign highlights Air BnB, Book – a – Batch, Uber, Ola and Delivereasy – it is not clear to me whether these are international companies or local companies (possibly owned by an international company). Essentially ACT don't care about NZ Media – they want a compliant population delivering to their wealthy donors. Seymour has therefore tended to be more effective than Luxon or Peters – he has a narrower focus and just doesn't care about some issues. They are exploiting the loophole that money to them will not need to be declared – and they visibly support both National and ACT through paying for Curia Polling, and creating a series of other organisations to front campaigns. As far as taxes are concerned, if these companies are making sure they incur no profits in NZ, do we care of they pay some taxes that stay here and make it harder to compete with New Zealand companies in the areas of holiday homes and takeaway deliveries and taxis?
Just amuses me ,didn't they take covid rescue money ?
What does that have to do with attacking National?
Nothing but shows they are full of shit, they were straight in for a taxpayer hand out when I can't see how covid affects them and even if it did affect them they should have sucked ot up.
That's a lovely church you've got out there in Wiri Brian, it would be a pity if something bad happened to it.
IMO we are seeing what happens when bullying anti social behavior goes unchecked and gets oxygen from the MSM.
Absolutely, they feel they've been green lighted by government ministers to put their assorted resentments into actions. Some dude wearing a baseball cap and a mask and driving a big SUV apparently smashed up a whole lot of electric charging points in Drury yesterday, these dumb fucks feel untouchable right now thanks to Seymour and Peters and our utterly useless PM.
The big SUV would have a number plate, so the dude might find he's less untouchable than he thought.
Ah, but prove he was driving it at the time ….
I guess its more abrupt but no different to the council removing the chargers from the Museum caepark in the domain.
I agree. Like making a joke about burning down Destiny Church in retaliation.
What, no formal Mod Note for
Mr VercottiSanctuary's comment?Evidently not.
Nice one centurion, like it, like it. Oh and hail Caesar.
lol.
this is why the left is losing the culture war and doesn't understand why.
We should have the ability to push back against Tamaki's bullshit without sinking to their level. But for some reason we don't.
I think Sanctuary may've been referring to Destiny's charitable status as a 'church', rather than any threat of physical violence. Certainly how I took it.
Destiny want to behave like gangsters, let them live by the consequences of that choice.
Proceeds of Crime process anyone…
"in Wiri" suggests a physical location. But sure, he could have meant that and it would have been good if that's what he'd said explicitly.
Theres also an absolutly massive new church almost complete in Wiri which is unconnected to Destiny although also evangelist and funded from the US. Biggesr church im NZ I reckon and prob the tallest steeple when finished.
Tallest steeple wins!
All hail!!
The new Mormon temple?
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/auckland-new-zealand-temple/
Yep, its something to behold alright… some very interesring rules with the tender processes but they do pay the invoices on time every time.
Strange mob.
During the sixties the old man built several houses at Temple View for church members. Unusual houses for the times, large, with particular requirements for symmetry, well insulated, with huge cellars and diesel-fired central heating. Working on Saturday mornings with the old man the home owners would turn up with glorious smoko spreads and, it seemed fucking weird to me at the time, two pots of tea. One was for their milo, of course.
Lovely people, though.
Yeah, al I have regular dealings with Bretherens incl the exclusive side of things amd could say the same. But on balance the whole is um distastful…
According to Wikipedia, they lost their charitable status in 2022.
No I was referring to the common and humorous meme of mafia gangsters.
Weka made the heroic leap to retaliatory arson against her favourite pastor all by herself.
The point is the old Bish and his flock are playing a dangerous game, it isn't like gay activists can't use Google maps and after all that re-decorating of their tasteful Ponsonby villas they are bound to have pails of Dulux ivory cream (semi-gloss of course) left over under the house. God's house in Wiri is a boring grey anyway. A literal splash of colour and some obscene epithets as to the sexual proclivities of Brian's flock would be a definite improvement IMHO.
All that "when they go low we go high" stuff is so 2015.
It doesn't work. What remains of the left worldwide is getting its ass kicked.
All the wins the right had during the last Labour government was when they militantly organised and gave it right into people's faces. Tractor drives, massive billionaire fundraising and mass advertising, rebellion from industry no matter what inducement, huge coordinated media attacks to kill off major infrastructure, steamrolling urgency of legislation with unprecedented power.
If you are still into the politesse of pamphlets, phone trees, little marches, and petitions, prepare to be consigned to political history.
that's not what I meant.
I'm saying that if the response to Tamaki from the left is only to point a finger and say bigot, instead of pointing the finger and saying bigot and fighting hard and understanding what the fucking culture war actually is, then we will lose.
We are losing.
Atm the liberal left still seems to believe that we can force people to be progressive, despite being outnumbered. It's not about being nice to Tamaki, go hard against what they are doing. It's that if you want to retaliate in kind, you need to have a much better strategy than the left have. Putting our backs into fighting the current government as well as doing whatever identity politics is needed would be a start. Remember the 90s? We were on the streets en masse by this point in National's first term. So sure, fuck the politics of "politesse of pamphlets, phone trees, little marches, and petitions, prepare to be consigned to political history" but also fuck the politics of social media outrage.
It's not that rainbow activism is wrong. All power to the councils for acting quickly and repainting, that was awesome to see. It's the dearth of similar kind of energy and passion for climate/ecology and NACTF ripping the country's infrastructure apart. I know people are angry about those things, and there is plenty of commentary, but it's got little follow through.
It still fucks me off no end that it was the trucker/freedom crowd that occupied parliament grounds for three weeks. While the liberal left started talking about restricting right to protest. It should have been us, then on climate, now on austerity. In front of parliament and making a big fucking noise and really holding the government to account.
Middle NZ/swing voters have a choice, and atm they're fucked off with the left in multiple ways and we still think the solution is to mock them and tell them they are wrong. That's why we are losing the culture war.
Middle NZ/swing voters have a choice, and atm they're fucked off with the left in multiple ways and we still think the solution is to mock them and tell them they are wrong. That's why we are losing the culture war.
Wow, so close to home, but never was a truer word said.
TLDR.
Can you do all that as a tiktok?
I could but it would still go over your head apparently.
Imho the response to covid in particular the reaction to people who refused vaccination or broke the 'rules' or turned up to protest really showed how many lefties here including rhose in parliment sit on the authortarian side of of the spectrum and tbh its a big reason that i'm not going to be voting anything other than a protest vote for a very long time.
Some might say i'm cutting off my nose to spite my face but if anything the whole shit show proved that you are bettee to find like minded people build a community and look after yourselves / each other.
National level politics are just fakes for the wealthy and power hungry.
Partly a case of how you do it, the restore rail people on wellington were effective at disruption but at the same time they hurt a bunch of people who were in precarious positions trying to get to work. If anything it alienates the very people you are trying to help.
If you were to look at Destiny they spend 15min defacing a crossing which achives more in turns of media coverage and it doesnt piss this the people in the meet grinder living day by day off so mouch.
"
All that "when they go low we go high" stuff is so 2015.
It doesn't work. What remains of the left worldwide is getting its ass kicked."
Oh, yes!
There is plenty of pushback against Tamaki's behaviour, here and in the wider community that does not sink to their level. We do have that ability and we don't sink.
Why do you claim that there isn't and that we do? Because of one (possible) example here?
I guess that's the problem with one liners, the potential to not be understood
☺️😛
But fair call on asking for an explanation.
What I am pointing to here is the problem with the approach of the left to our current situation. Doesn't mean we aren't doing good things, as you point out there is rightly and actively push back against Destiny Church.
The inability I see is to grasping with what the culture war is and how to respond effectively. Tamaki knows what is, so does Peters and Seymour. They are all using the culture war to further their own ends. Both their political agenda, but also just as importantly, garnering and consolidating power.
The liberal left is struggling to know what to do, because imo it is often failing to grasp what is going on. Pushing back against the destruction of the rainbow crossing is necessary, it's not sufficient.
I think that DC have overplayed their hand here, but their interest isn't in winning the swing voters, so it's probably less of a mistake for them. The reaction from the left is part of what he wants. He's basically trolling liberals to get a reaction that he can use against liberal values.
That's why I reacted to Sanctuary's comment. I get that it was an offhand whatever on a small piece of SM. But it's useful to point out why it's a fail. Encouraging gay people to throw rainbow paint and obscenities over the church building in retaliation might make some lefties feel good, but what does it achieve?
We lack cohesive strategy imo (not that I think Sanctuary is responsible for that or the solution, it was just the thing in the moment).
You're advising against one-liners?
🙂
We will never have a cohesive strategy, but in lieu of that, we need agile guides who can nudge the discussion in the progressive direction, without knee-capping the contributors to the discussion.
A Tamaki church, dripping with red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, violet…
The Lord be praised!!!!
I was connecting over one liners.
Thanks for ignoring my political analysis though.
You're welcome 🙂
"The reaction from the left is part of what he wants. He's basically trolling liberals to get a reaction that he can use against liberal values."
The reaction was to repaint the rainbows; Tamaki will use that somehow???
that wasn't the only reaction, and yes he will. But there's not much point in talking further if you value this side of the conversation so poorly.
Yes, indeed. I've heard from multiple people the comment, along the lines of: Council can't repair potholes or deal with gang graffiti [substitute the grievance de jour for the individual concerned] – but they can repaint vandalized gay rainbows the next day.
If you don't think that this has cut through with the potential support base for the Destiny Church – you're living in a much-insulated world.
Destiny Church's "potential support base"; those who would support Tamaki's madness, are of little consequence to anyone. The rapid repainting reveals real passion in the community: priceless! Tamaki's efforts to"white-out" a vibrant community have resulted in a colourful response; joyous, vibrant and cheeky! Every warm-hearted person feels that joy 🙂
Certainly of no consequence to me – praise the Lord, and feel the joy.
The Rev. Dollar never sleeps, but the Bish isn't getting any younger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Tamaki#Views_and_controversies
I'm watching the number of people who are ok with the action because they see GI as having gone to far, they will will ignore that it was DC. The GC people I see siding with LGB rights are much smaller in number.
Robert can write off the people who are concerned, but they're the ones that voted in a right wing government. The liberal left have some massive blind spots at times.
The more serious risk here is that people choosing to side with DC on this end up being more conservative generally. That's harder to turn back than a swing vote especially at this time with people being scared and stressed by the state of the world.
"The more serious risk here is that people choosing to side with DC on this end up being more conservative generally."
And will have to come to terms with the very real possibility that the Christchurch earthquakes were God's punishment of queers, yes?
Regular Standardistas would have to be blind not to see that some view gender ideology/theory as a massive (global) problem – TS has done a service to Kiwis by providing a forum for debating GI matters.
Yes, it's natural for people to be stressed by the state of civilisation, and spaceship Earth. We are in sustained overshoot – c'est la vie.
Otoh (or is it?), stress can be a killer. Given Freedoms NZ's election result (0.34% of the party vote), I'm pretty relaxed about Destiny Church's influence on NZ politics. Even if a few CoC MPs were closeted DC supporters, they couldn't be so stupid as to openly endorse Bishop Brian's regressive views – could they?
The legal freedoms of minorities have progressed considerably since Muldoon and Moyle – not far enough for some, too far for 'others'.
"Pushing their beliefs" Don't stress Brian – try taking a walk in Palmy. No rainbow crossings here, as far as I know – happy Easter.
I would suggest doing some reading about the progression of societies towards fascism. It’s not as Robert argues against that all these people are going to become part of the DC congregation. It’s that there are large numbers of people that don’t care that Tamaki thinks gay people cause earthquakes.
There have been whole wars fought over this on twitter, major schisms within the GC movements on working with the right.There are many people who are infact ok with working with conservatives, including former left wing people. We’ve seen this on TS, so I’m not sure why it’s not obvious.
And the centrists and apolitical ones are winning apart from in the UK, where it’s hard to know which will it will eventually fall.
In NZ the left and centre left GC feminists and other women are outnumbered by the reactionaries and the right. And those people are quite ok with throwing gay people under the bus because they perceive the rainbow flag as a symbol of oppression of women and children.
It’s just another case of the left being wholly unprepared for what is coming.
It appears to me that some on the left (cf Robert's comments on this issue) appear to have a blind spot when it come to conservative (with a small c) voters.
Often these people don't have particularly Conservative (with a capital c) voting alignment (e.g. they don't particularly support a right wing economic policy, or sell-offs of public assets or downsizing of social support (although they may want more targeting of support to those in need, and a social contract with those receiving support – the KO refusal to evict went down like a lead balloon).
However, when the left are hard-aligned with fairly extreme socially liberal policies – it leaves this group with no voting home. 'Christian' parties have failed (both through the leadership, and in getting across the bar into government) – leaving only the centre right (and whatever you call Winston) as the only parties they can support.
This group were significant in electing this current coalition.
If the left want to see the current government voted out at the next election, then they need to consider how to soften their policy stance, to accommodate a broader 'church'.
Or, resign themselves to another 2 terms in opposition – until the usual 'Buggins turn' mentality of the electorate – allows them another period in power.
I absolutely agree with you about the danger of policy drift. If people see DC as the 'only' place with agrees with them about X issue, it becomes easier for them to gradually adopt other DC philosophy over time.
this is pretty much how I see it. There are a whole lot of NZ that don’t fit neatly into the left/right analysis, and there is a difference between the small c and the big one.
The right know who they are though.
"People that don't care", or don't even know. I disagree with what little I know of the gospel according to Eftpostle Brian, but he's not raising my stress levels at present. Am I disappointed about some of the choices Destiny Church members have made? Of course – but then I'm disappointed about so many choices made every day.
In 2022, Brian's efforts finally paid off
If "what is coming" is a drift towards fascism, abetted by The Bish, then no doubt that will be a topic for discussion here, and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, we can each champion progressive ideas/values/principles/concepts/ideologies, as we see them and in our own ways. Breaking bread with conservative MPs doesn’t appeal to me, but there are MPs I admire who have done just that in pursuit of lasting progress, and there must still be some decent NActNZF pollies.
I find this action to the crossing to be quite despicable.
But I think we are seeing the slippery slope in action. If it is OK to protest by defacing a display in our national museum to make a point, then we shouldn't be surprised when groups we don't like take similar action.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. So, I think we either have to accept this sort of behaviour as legitimate protest even if we don't agree with it, or condemn it whenever it occurs whether we agree with the sentiment or not.
No, we don't have to be principled at all.
The right aren't. The right are enjoying outrageous success.
This is no time to quibble about the equivalence of tactics.
This is the time for Chloe and Chris to call each other every Friday afternoon and coordinate attack lines.
Turei and Shaw did that in 2016. It was a brilliant move, and Labour rose to the occasion thanks to Little. That was 8 years ago. We're a different country and the Greens have moved on to a new strategy. They will still work with Labour, but Labour's refusal to step far enough left means the Turei/Shaw deal was always going to be a time limited thing. I have a lot of respect for Ardern, but she also wasted this massive opportunity.
So yeah, Swarbrick and Davidson and Hipkins should talk and then act together. But will they? We can't afford to wait.
Chloe is confident that the Green Party can be the major party on the left. Without saying it, she is coming for Labour and their traditional supporters.
I don't expect there to be much co-ordination between the parties in the next 18 months. Labour has a wounded leader that is currently contradicting himself in his major speeches. He is there for the taking and Chloe sees that. She wants his support base.
They don't even need to campaign together with a common message in 2026. NZ First has found themselves at the cabinet table following 2 of the past 3 elections, without supporting the major party they went into coalition with.
That's my reading of the GP intention. I think that could change with a change of Labour leader and an overt support for wealth tax. But failing that, what would be the point?
Broadly agree with that. With a couple of cautions.
First, that if you have no principles, you can never be a hypocrite, but if you profess to have principles, you'll be called a hypocrite all the time.
Second, this aggression should stop short of endorsing violence. I don't think Sanctuary was doing that given what their history of commenting shows, but the bare words on the page could be interpreted that way.
Sauce, tsmithfield, it's "sauce".
Those 2 actions are not equivalent, when you look at the intentions behind them and who is being targeted. Your claim is a nonsense, imo.
Also (given the report on the dysfunction in civil defense during Gabrielle in Hawkes Bay) does anyone really think NZ's authorities would react with the spped and cool efficiency of the Baltimore Port Authority and police in the bridge strike there? It took FOUR MINUTES from the mayday to the port authority reacting immediately to the police closing the bridge.
At 1.30am in the morning, from port workers probably without an degree monitoring radios and screens, to police dispatchers to action. Incredible. The port maritime control responded immediately to the mayday, contacted police dispatch, who closed the bridge in four freaking minutes. That doesn't happen by accident. The training and trust chain was amazing. No "Are you sure? What do you mean?" they all acted immediately. Well done them, average Joes who earnt every dollar for the rest of their careers.
Unfortunately – this promptness did not extend to getting the road workers off the bridge in time. 6 of them are "missing" with at least 1 body found. It also looks like the vehicles that were identified by sonar belonged to the road workers.
They don't count.
/
Last March, a speeding car plowed between highway barriers on the same Baltimore highway and killed six workers, including Villatoro’s husband and brother-in-law. That crash along Interstate 695 was about 20 miles from the bridge. Now, a massive ship stacked with containers had crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing its collapse. Six workers, all native to Latin America, were lost in the Patapsco River and presumed dead.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/27/migrant-workers-baltimore-bridge-collapse/
Shoutout to Dr Jim Salinger for getting New Zealander of the Year.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/03/28/climate-scientist-jim-salinger-named-new-zealander-of-the-year/
In your eye NIWA for firing him in 2009 for bullshit reasons.
#payback#longgame
NIWA's response in 2009 was typical of the arrogance amongst some Public Service leaders. The Met Service was no better back in the day. Whether it was confined to scientific agencies I don't know, but imo it was pretty much a case of professional jealousy. Management didn't like their 'underlings' taking the limelight away from them.
Good to hear. I knew Jim way back in the 70's/80's when we both lived in Silverstream and travelled on the train together to and from Wellington – GHG and AGW were frequent topics.
Our children were in the same class. His son was Joseph to my daughter's Mary in the school nativity play. 🙂 A nice bloke and a great travelling companion. He, of course, had his own meteorological observatory in his back garden and wrote a regular column for the gardening section of the local paper – the UH Leader. Excellent advice on when to plant.
Tuesday there were four “does the minister/PM stand by all their statement and actions” type questions from the opposition at question time. Yesterday five. Today another four.
These are such a free hit for the government to take the conversation where ever they want and lazy by the opposition. I can see why the leader of the opposition might want to do it, but seriously in almost every portfolio! The opposition is coming across as incredibly weak in question time.
it would depend on the questions. Because you haven't shared what the questions were about it's hard to know if you have a good point or are trolling again.
Oral questions are easily found. Here are yesterdays. Note 3,4, 6,8 and 9.
https://bills.parliament.nz/v/11/aca78f3d-dca7-4996-3cd3-08dc4dd01dd1
I'm not doing your work for you, I’m pointing out the problem with your approach in a left wing space.
Let me guess, you were captain of the debating team at high school?
You asked for some arbitrary evidence (this is a blog site, not a depositions hearing since when does everything have to come with an army of footnotes?) then when they were provided you you had a flounce because it didn't come with a silver spoon for you to feed you with?
"You asked for some arbitrary evidence (this is a blog site, not a depositions hearing since when does everything have to come with an army of footnotes?)"
QFT
Indeed. I’d understand if the reference was to something obscure. But FCOL oral questions with a specific date reference.
No – these are always 'set-up' questions. Get the "Yes" from the Minister to the broad question and follow with a supplementary question on a specific matter where the "Yes" is difficult to justify.
Of course the Minister almost always knows what topic the supplementary will target and already has bullshit talking points rehearsed in advance. So most of the time it's all a bit like formal jousting where no-one gets injured and the public is no wiser afterwards. To draw conclusions from this empty ritual that the opposition looks "weak" is just your wishful thinking.
The reason for the questions you complain about…is that they leave the gummint unable to know/be prepared for the follow up…
This is the advantage to the opposition..
On the contrary, it allows the minister to talk about whatever they want. It also does not serve the public well where question time seeks to hold the government to account by asking probing questions about government policy. It looks like a feeble fishing expedition using old socks as bait by an opposition spokesperson not on top of their portfolio. I’m sure the government will be more than happy with this line of questioning to continue.
Like her or not, Erica Stanford was particularly good at asking specific and probing question when opposition education spokesperson
I believe that subsequent questions ( supplementaries) must be related to the topic of the original question. If the original question topic is wide enough (i.e. all statements and actions) then supplementaries can be asked about anything. It all seems a bit silly to me.
Its only an advantage if you have a speaker that runs a level playing field… theyre like hens teeth Lockwood Smith was prob the closest to neutral in recent times.
Minister Jones' official killing of the Kermadec Sanctuary proposal signals that this is a government far, far more retrograde than anything PM John Key proposed. Key actually launched this proposal live and direct to the United Nations.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350223648/nz-politics-live-govt-axe-kermadec-ocean-sanctuary-plan
Iwi commercial fishing interests have killed this off from the moment it was announced, despite all sorts of inducements from the previous Labour government.
Jones, Brown and Bishop are setting a development benchmark for which you would have to go back to the days of Semple or Syd Holland.
To see how anti-nature they have become, an important Cabinet Minister under Syd Holland was Ernest Corbett, who was a lifelong member of Forest and Bird and added several major national parks to our state to the tune of 1.2 million acres square.
That pretty much benchmarks how deep a reversal this move by Jones is.
It also benchmarks in case it wasn't obvious that Maori business are no friend of liberal causes Green, Labour or TMP.
It also benchmarks in case it wasn't obvious that Maori business are no friend of liberal causes Green, Labour or TMP.
Those people are businessmen first and foremost, whose Maoriness is largely incidental.
Fuck off with that naive racist bullshit.
Fraud is a victimless crime if your one of the entitled. Its American but I'd say the sentiment is the same here.
https://youtu.be/EDMinX6t1Zk?si=hcsiBrkn2ZH3bLoT
Hope this becomes a thing here 🙂
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJte9BKXEAAK6b_?format=jpg&name=small
“The effect of the sticker is two-fold. In one respect (and the most important), it conceals the racist remarks so that others will not see it. And in another, it shames the person that was bold enough to post it while demonstrating that other people won’t tolerate their poor behavior. This particular instance came to light after the popular Twitter account Lorenzo The Cat first posted a picture of the placement. Throughout the tweet’s many replies, the overwhelming message was users applauding the use of the sticker.
You can get your own cat cover-up label from the online shop called Cracks Appearing Distro. The stickers are sold in singles as well as packs of 10 or 30. Printed on a white gloss paper, they should brave the elements and last outdoors for six months”
https://mymodernmet.com/racist-rubbish-cat-sticker/
Hope what becomes a thing?
Reducing rascist graffiti by covering it with cute cat pictures.
(Or dolphins, thank you PB)
Yes, a supply of Hectors Dolphin pictures would work for NZ
"Israel has chucked its toys and has withdrawn from peace talks with Hamas and cancelled meetings at the Whitehouse because the UN has finally called for a cease-fire."
Pat and Aaron Hawkins discuss the news clips around Israel"s response to the UN resolution.
Big Hairy News (facebook post 28/03/24 15:42)
Big Hairy News chew over the govt tax cuts. Between 10 min and 20 min.
Big Hairy News Facebook 28 mar 6:42
Don't stress, but the climate crisis is affecting our brains – still, itsa not so bad.