I'll have another look at it this weekend (assuming that my bug list from QA doesn't grow again today). My current server had problems with the upgrade to the latest LTS version.
However the new server is sitting under my desk at the workplace. I just received the order of disk bays for it yesterday which was the last bit.
So I'll transfer the TS array to it this weekend and get that running, then do a fresh install on the current server.
I/S @ No Right Turn doesn't treat Luxon's anti-abortionism lightly:
"Over the weekend, the US Supreme Court followed through on its threat, and overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively outlawing abortion in much of the United States. People were outraged, in America and around the world. And in Aotearoa, this meant a lot of sudden questions for the National Party, which is led by a fundamentalist anti-abortionist, stuffed with fundamentalist anti-abortionist MPs, and which tends to take its lead from whatever crack the US Republicans are smoking this week. While National's fundy backbenchers celebrated the imposition of forced birth in America, Christopher Luxon desperately tried to backpedal on his past views and reassure the public that National had no intention of changing the law. Except that today, he's doubling down on being anti-abortion:"
Like I've said ad nauseam, when Jacinda needs a disaster, one appears. And this ones a beauty.
As night follows day, dumb voters have knee jerked in response. HDA received texts saying people are now reconsidering voting for National. You can bet there are many others thinking similar.
Seems they don’t understand abortion issues are the least of our worries.
I’ve already had two under 40-year-olds tell me they’re worried about the Nats and the abortion issue, and they’re both actually National voters. One of them now says they don’t think they can vote for National this time around.
No, there were others during open talkback, but that was the only link I could find to show I wasn't making stuff up. That link was her opening comments for that day's session.
My point is, even just using those two examples, there would be thousands of other women having second thoughts about voting National just like them. All they see is National has too many fundies in their party. And Luxon is one, too. And he's the leader.
From AB's post below.
''The might be the least of yours mate, but for women of childbearing age, it might be a bit different. And maybe a bit different too for men with daughters, sisters and female relatives in that category. Quite a few people then.''
That's how middleclass women and others will be thinking. People who previously were considering voting for National.
thanks. What I’m hoping is that you will learn to explain your thinking up front like that, so I don’t have to drag it out of you as a mod or commenter. What you have since provided that wasn’t in yoru original comment:
an explanation that HDPA opened her show with the example of two women
that others texted in during the show and said similar
your analysis of what women voters might be doing.
If you look at your first comment, it’s just some offhand, throw them out there reckons. But you can obviously formulate a decent political argument, so I’m asking that you do that up front.
This isn’t twitter or FB, we’re not here for the reckons, we’re here for the robust debate. When people put there argument (and links and quotes) up front, the debate improves. Everyone knows what is being discussed and the context. Good and robust debate is the point of the commentariat (robust doesn’t mean fractious, it means vigorous and resilient and of a certain standard).
Gordon Campbell brings his wisdom to the tawdry situation:
"After all… And starting at around 4 minutes into this December 2021 interview, Luxon (a) agreed that abortion is “tantamount to murder” and (b) refused to answer a question about whether he thought abortion should be allowed for victims made pregnant by rape or incest. This man is not a social liberal.
Footnote One: Apparently, access to abortion is not something the National caucus regards as being important. In yesterday’s mea culpa to his colleagues O’Connor said that his offensive tweet “had caused distress and trouble for the party, that just wants to focus on big issues.” Women voters, take note. Abortion rights = no big deal. Blokes got more important things to talk about."
The might be the least of yours mate, but for women of childbearing age, it might be a bit different. And maybe a bit different too for men with daughters, sisters and female relatives in that category. Quite a few people then.
And let's consider what it is emblematic of. This basically:
Luxon calls himself 'pro-life' but appears not care about the quality of life of the woman forced to bring the foetus to term, the eventual child itself or any other children the woman may already be caring for
Nor is he offering to make this imposition on women any easier through free universal contraception, free universal childcare, job guarantees from the state when he private sector can't or won't provide them at a livable wage, or a guaranteed right in the BORA to freedom from financial and housing insecurity, etc.
In fact, this latter point seems to dovetail exactly with his anti-human (not pro-life at all) extremism on economic matters in general, such as tax-cuts overwhelmingly favouring people with the most already, re-inflation of the housing market through removing brightline extensions further impoverishing future generations without inheritances from parents and turning them into debt serfs or lifelong renters, wage suppression through opening immigration taps again, etc.
Your saying Luxons poll levelling was down to a large faction of dumb voters? Good of Heather to be so up front and tell it to their faces on newstalk then.
Blade, there are people who vote on single issues- they're called single issue voters.
The abortion issue is one such issue. People on both sides of the issue can be very passionate about it. Some will vote against Luxon because to their one issue passion, but not many on his side of that debate will be impressed by his conflicted approach.
Even people who agree with Luxon's views on abortion as being 'tantamount to murder' will find it difficult to reconcile the seriousness of that moral position with his stated position not to have the National party do anything under his leadership.
If I were in that position of having a very strong anti-abortion stance that is of the 'die in a ditch' moral standing, then I'd be very disappointed even if I realised the political implications for Luxon. I'd want him to be telegraphing that he'd be working to change his party policy for the future.
Then there are voters who see inconsistencies in politician's views and summing them up accordingly vote for others.
There are others who see extremism in one set of a politician's views and wonder whether there are other similar views not yet revealed but that would also be undesirable if acted upon.
These are often middle of the road voters, centrist in nature who are suspicious of extremism.
Luxon has shown extremism, conflicted beliefs and an authoritarian approach to party dissent.
Some might argue that the member for The Upper Room might be better suited in a minority Christian conservative party, rather than leader of a political party that has been traditionally and largely liberal especially in its urban wing.
Others might argue that National is becoming a party with a growing and alarming group of social conservative, even extremist, MPs.
They would already be worried by the exodus from their ranks of socially liberal women MPs like Adams and Bennett. National has been struggling to regain women voters. Luxon's views, and those of illiberal members like O'Connor and Brown, will not help.
Lastly, if National is looking to reclaim the young vote with younger MPs like Brown and O'Connor, then they will be hard pressed with their espousal of illiberal causes that goes beyond the abortion issue but into other issues as gay rights and same-sex marriage where the young are far more liberal.
In sum, then, I'd say that National looks like a party for the socially conservative, male, older voter.
They're welcome………
An important factor for National will be the removal of a President who presided over a selection of politically dodgy candidates. Will they also look to their selection procedures to allow through more acceptable candidates, more representative, more liberal, more reasonable and uncontroversial?
The next few months as parties go into election and selection modes will be very revealing as to the direction of National- urban, liberal, centrist or rural, conservative, extremist?
" The voting gender gap is one thing. National‘s other dilemma on abortion is that it doesn’t want to alienate its Christian base before the election, but it also can’t risk looking to the general public as of it is captive to the Christian right. Answer: shut down the issue ASAP. Try to look as if you’re merely the steward of the status quo. Until such time as you can achieve the power to be otherwise."
I find it depressing that sections of the population think Roe v Wade is about banning abortion and even worse, it applies to New Zealand.
New Zealand already has the most liberal abortion regime in the world, voted in overwhelmingly with bi partisan support from both parties. Sure some National MPs voted against as did some Labour MPs. It is NOT going to change.
The US Supreme Court decision had little to do with abortion, it was about interpretation of the US Constitution and the separation of powers between the Legislative and Judicial Branches.
Certainly a highly contrived wedge issue in the NZ context at the moment … but that's how politics works … parties fighting tooth & nail for the affections of swing-voters (particularly those women – many of a morally-liberal disposition – who flowed from Clark to Key to Ardern then back to Luxon again).
It'll all end in tears before bedtime … but whose tears ? That's the question.
That doesn't really fit with a description of wedge issues, imo. They usually don't have a downside for the political faction pushing them forward.
In particular with Luxon he has only really shown a very detached position on any issues. It seems to be all high level rhetoric without much substance.
His actual policy positions are pretty extreme where he takes them. In particular on the economy he started regurgitating 80s monetarism as the only appropriate policy. I don't understand why saying most families should take a further pay cut so we can hand out tax increases to very few, is a viable political position. Never the less this was the proposal and it didn't seem relevant that QE was running for a decade without inflation, there has been massive supply side disruption, or that most families have taken a real wage cut due to inflation. Instead the only economic thinking of National is austerity must be the approach.
No, I'm saying Labour's indulging in the wedge politics here … not the Nats. [I'm not criticising, incidentally, it's a perfectly legitimate tactic in the game of electoral politics].
That sums him up. He constantly falls back on empty slogans and platitudes, and it only makes things worse.
Trying not to say what you really believe is rarely a smart approach in politics. But Luxon no doubt has advisers whispering in his ear "Don't be you. Be empty".
G, K and B, from the anti-abortion stable, saying that they respect the law of the land, then when on SOCTUS with a case before them then change the law. Team Luxon we have no plan to change the law, but individually will vote our conscience should a bill be before the House.
Well put. Now time for those in power to do something about one of the main sources of this inflation, those making record profits:
Banks making record profits, but impact of economic shocks to come
The country's banking sector continues to rack up record profits as it counters a slowdown in lending with improved margins, and lower expenses, but it could soon be the end of the golden weather.
I don't think it matters what environment banks want, record profits are record profits and when regular depositors are struggling with inflation related cost increases it's unacceptable that banks are setting profit records,
And then there's the global petrol companies record profits:
Largest oil and gas producers made close to $100bn in first quarter of 2022
Shell made $9.1bn in profit, almost three times what it made in the same period last year, while Exxon raked in $8.8bn
Regardless, my point is that bragging about profits while the majority of society is being pummelled by inflation costs and stagnant wages, should really be seen as the industry publicly requesting a windfall tax on their rampant profits.
when you change your email address, or make a typo, or can't remember what it is, your comments get treated as a new person and held back for manual approval. Might be good to take a note of the exact email address you are using 👍
Once upon a time the English told their cricket venues to develop pitches that lasted 5 days. A team toured the country and was put into bat first in two tests. In both tests England demonstrated they could score runs quickly and in great volume on the final day and thus no target set for them would be enough.
Then in the third test KW, the so called best captain in the world, decided to bat first. Is it the elbow, the time in the IPL or covid?
The next team to tour there will not make the same mistake and England will get burnt.
I can't believe how badly National have bungled this abortion issue. Luxon is hobbled by his own Christian fundamentalism, which leave him gruesomely floundering between credibility and electability on this issue and between him and his dumb as a sack of hammers fundy caucus they just can't help keeping the story alive. Judith Collins must be laughing her head off. What it shows is how brittle, undisciplined and bumbling their unrepresentative caucus is under pressure.
Goodfellow has a lot to answer for. One only hopes that now he is gone National can get some people into realistically electable positions who are representative of what constitutes the the bounds of NZ's social attitudes.
But it also shows that our MSM are ridiculously loaded into specialist minor-use health areas when in terms of thousands of people using the service the far more important health crises are in Emergency Departments and Eldercare. Those areas are where rights to health are in NZ under direct threat.
Agree Ad about the health cate crisis. Under this govt abortion likely to become less available cause of staffing shortages. Ironic isn’t it…….but never mind we will have our marvellous new health authority!
Well that is the lazy news cycle writ large. Morning Report and Checkpoint etc etc love these specialist minor-use health stories because they practically write themselves – and fact often do, given a lot of them seem to come from drug company funded lobby groups that want Pharmac to buy their latest incredibly expensive wonder drug.
Format for human interest health story (guaranteed outage and clicks):
< Desperate Deserving Person> with <specialist minor-use health problem>
complains to <outraged presenter> they can't get <specialist minor-use health outcome>
< Desperate Deserving Person> gives heart rending interview about their imminent demise
<outraged presenter> declares scandal and demands answers from <relevant minister>
And that is the lead 10 minutes of checkpoint or Morning Report four out of ten days.
Nine to Noon can then do a full thirty minutes twice a week talking about the health crisis du jour related to the above.
My partner went to the Dr last week and mentioned a mole on her toe. The Dr took a pic and mailed it to the Dermatology specialist at Auckland Hospital. On Monday she got an email from Green Lane hospital giving her an appointment with Dermatology for next Thursday.
Dreadful PR, actually. Luxon with three explanations about National's varied abortion views and then telling the women of New Zealand that National is their party was terrible public relations……
1. Trump wanted armed people waved onto the Hill because they were not there to threaten him
2. After calling for the crowd to go to Congress to protest the EC vote he wanted to join them – and tried to take control of the vehicle from secret service agents.
3. Meadows and his staff were given legal advice that anyone from the White House involved in trying to block the EC vote by attending the protest would likely go to prison.
According to what was said in the hearing this morning Trump was happy for armed people to be in his crowd. Get them there, rouse them, stir them up, get them heading for the Capitol. Angry and armed.
"Backstage at the rally, Trump was irate that people with weapons were not being let through the magnetometers by Secret Service officers and agents who screen all attendees at any event featuring a sitting president. But Trump wanted the armed individuals to be allowed to attend the rally and complained that the magnetometers were adversely affecting his crowd size, Hutchinson overheard."
“I don’t f—ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me,” Trump said, according to Hutchinson’s recollection. “Take the f—ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the f—ing mags away.”
Great to see central government put its stake in the ground for public transport in central Wellington. Next test is to see Wellington Council and GWRC get on board and formally align.
Right before an election, this is what elections were for.
It also worked really well before they decided to trolley bus and then just bus. Enjoyed many a ride from the station to the zoo, Athletic Park, and the Basin on the trams light rail.
It would be great to see any passenger train in New Zealand get to 80kms an hour, whereas now from Huntly to Karapiro you can now put the pedal down and go 110km an hour.
I heard on RNZ yesterday something along the lines of "submissions received strongly supported the 110 km limit."
Well d'oh. There is huge gung-ho car/truck lobby out there always demanding higher speed limits. That doesn't mean it makes sense for safety and environmental reasons.
I drive the Waikato express way reasonably frequently ( It is in fact the easiest and quickest way to Te Rapa, Te Awa, The Base, and Hamilton from here. There are many sections where 110kph is quiet safe* – a very well formed road right up to international standards. Not unreasonable in my view to raise the limit a notch.
*personal view after 60+ years of incident free driving and having raced motorbikes and organised motorcycle racing events.
Ardern said misinformation, often originated as propaganda from foreign actors such as Russia, was harming New Zealand’s social cohesion and was proven to duel terrorism.
She described it as a threat which could stoke anything from war and terrorism to public health risks.
The response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the riot on Parliament’s grounds in Wellington, and the March 15 terror attack all had expressions of misinformation, she said.
I was reading the Finnish defense minister doing an only slightly more polite version of "we will kick Russia's ass if they try it on" interview the other day and I was struck at how bellicose the Europeans are given half a chance.
We haven't yet seen the energy equivalent of NATO evolve in Europe, but odds on this will occur.
Every time European states intervene, the markets have been shown to fail.
The hard open question is whether European countries can follow Lithuania's lead and built the port importing capacity to rid themselves of Russian gas addiction.
I think this is a really big shift.
Turkey has been remaining very cautiously neutral over the Ukraine situation (I think because of Russian involvement in Syria – and therefore the Kurdish situation on their border).
For them to come out supporting an expansion of NATO – when it's clearly an area Russia want to veto for their cordon saintaire countries (more Finland than Sweden) – is significant.
The Turks are playing a canny game. They may be neutral, but that didn't stop Bayraktar donating three TB2 drones in additional to the four a donation drive purchased (apparently fifty have now be delivered to the Ukraine.
Johnny Turk is happily hunting with the hounds and running with the hares and getting concessions and $$$ everywhere for their troubles.
In a very bad direction – towards nuclear escalation.
The Russians have effectively stated with this war that they are fed up with meaningless negotiations, with USA and NATO negotiating in bad faith.
The Russians do not trust the West's bad faith negotiations any more. They have been planning this for some time.
Don't expect them to conform to our standards of morality. They don't believe we have any.
They will escalate. Be very careful of what you wish for.
Personally, I do not like Putin, but I fear that we in the West have been propagandized to the point where we have no idea of the dangers that now face us.
Those of you who are more dialled into local body politics in Wellington – do you think that Eagles is likely to take the mayoralty? And will it make a difference?
I would think he has a very good chance and is probably favourite at the moment. I don't think he will be any good at the job but it is 12 years since we had a decent Mayor and at least 30 since we had a good one so I doubt if he will make any difference.
He was a reasonable Councillor though so we may be surprised. He'll have to get rid of the arrogance that he has picked up as a Labour MP though. He has developed their typical attitude that laws don't apply to them while he has been in the House. As an example try this
Why are those managing Kiwibuild now approaching lead contractors requesting fixed price contracts and the message is being relayed to sub contractors with expectations of those prices to both drop and be adhered to? All so price ceilings announced 4 years ago can still be achieved. I am aware of a development exceeding 50 Kiwibuild will be cancelled as the head provider can not provide product and still achieve ANY financial benefit(unless subbies reduce price) and that is not factoring in the element of risk. https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/129103773/weve-never-seen-anything-like-it-cost-increases-leave-builders-scrambling
'Figures released to Q+A with Jack Tame under the Official Information Act show just 4.8% of KiwiBuild buyers who gave their ethnicity on their application forms are Māori, and 4.4% are Pasifika.'
'These figures are well below the ethnicity breakdown of the general population, which is 16.5% Māori, and 8% Pasifika.'
'At the current rate of progress, the original target of 100,000 KiwiBuild homes will be reached around the year 2300'
National housing spokesperson Jacqui Dean falsely claims they built 30,000 state homes when last in power In fact, the state housing stock fell by 2000 between 2009 and 2017.
Turkyie may well have had a rethink and does not favour having on almost half its borders a belligerent Russia, if it is not stopped or contained. The Black Sea is more Turkyies sea with almost half the coastline and with a vulnerable Georgia and Bulgaria north and east of it, a Russian ally in Syria to the south the future huge costs and problems of defence and refugees etc would loom large.
Kiwibuild did its job, the building industry got its arse into gear and started building and selling houses and suddenly finding land that had been forgotten in the “ bank “, because it could see that Govt would dictate the future direction and it did not want to be sidelined. We must be close to peak house anytime soon with the number already consented and with the Govt continuing to build State Houses, downward price pressure may leaven the product inflation.
Dont fear a building bust so long as the Auckland and now Wellington light rail, Lake Onslow and other big badly needed infrastructure projects go ahead.
Yes Kiwibuild did its job. The job of kiwibuild was never to build 100,000 homes, it was simply to get Labour in to government. Job done. Everyone with half a brain said it was not achievable and have been proved right.
Three people hospitalised following violent attack during Dublin Pride
Three people have allegedly been hospitalised following a suspected transphobic attack which occurred in Dublin’s Stephen’s Green on Saturday, June 25 at 6.50 pm. According to a message received by Labour TD Aodhan O Riordain, the assault was carried out on a group of five LGBTQ+ people following Pride celebrations.
Gender Dynamix building fire labelled 'suspicious' by police
A building used by Gender Dynamix – an organisation that aims to meet the mental health needs of the transgender and nonbinary community in the Bay of Plenty – has been targetted by a ‘suspicious’ fire.
A 42-year-old man has been arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder and terrorist acts after a shooting in the centre of Norway's capital, Oslo.
Two people died and 21 were wounded early on Saturday in what police called an "act of Islamist terrorism".
The shootings were in and near the London Pub, a popular LGBTQ+ venue, the Herr Nilsen jazz club and another pub.
In Tuesday’s hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) — vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack — played police transmissions that described people carrying firearms near the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., where Trump held his rally the morning of Jan. 6.
“Three men walking down the street in fatigues carrying AR-15s… at 14th and Independence,” a voice says in one transmission.
“White male… stock of an AR-15,” someone can be heard saying in another recording. “Green fatigues… Glock-style pistols in their waistband.”
“Elevated threat in the trees… American flag face mask… weapon on the right-side hip,” a third transmission says.
Cheney noted that among the supporters who chose to pass through metal detectors so they could get closer to Trump, security screened weapons and equipment including pepper spray, knives, batons and gas masks. Several thousand more people did not go through metal detectors and watched from the nearby Washington Monument lawn.
The committee also showed a report sent by Secret Service at 11 a.m. that day warning of a man with a rifle near the Ellipse, where Trump was speaking.
Just as we dont have the same problem with gun control legislation as the U.S. ,we dont have the same problem with abortion rights…our political systems are worlds apart so whipping ourselves into a moral panic over Roe v Wade appears to me to be superfluous.
Its highly relevant. Candidates for office and Parties will never have the opportunity to tell us precisely what they will do for every issue. We need to make future voting decisions based on how they approach issues which come up. In this case were observing the differences between a Luxon and an English approach to conscience questions.
Did you read Sandbrook ,I would suggest the member did not either,in a recent yougov poll only 2% were against abortion in the UK,not even significant at the 2 sigma level.More own goal there.
Posting as somebody who once wondered why Bill English was an electoral flop. I didn't understand the harm in his politics till he was already finance minister because his views were hardly news worthy. Its already apparent Luxon harbours multiple socially regressive traits, along with his economic wealth pandering tendencies.
This 'Social Investment' idea and its existing screwups should definitely have more focus. Unfortunately what seems to be reasonable social research program was basically undermined by the attempted pay off of implementing it as a money saving device.
Thats an interesting confession, however it dosnt address the point….how has the U.S. Supreme court decision changed any politicians ability to change NZ's abortion laws?
Hilarious to see the Herald come out as anti-capitalist on behalf of rural NZ and then try and blame the government too.
Two vodka entrepreneurs try to do something a bit different on a farm, which like their vodka is a bit kooky, but market focused and the absolute rural fap sees them top of the Herald online.
The rural establishment has a bit of trouble rationalising someone buying a farm and making more money off the land by not 'farming' it.
You start to wonder what, or rather, who, is being farmed.
But in reality most of the land between Queenstown and Wanaka is now retired / carbon farm / private conservation estate now. And one by one the old high country runs are going that way.
Halfway Bay sold last month and was immediately de-stocked and the farm manager laid off, going into carbon farm / conservation / high end tourism. Property covers the Lochy catchment which is one of the best trout fisheries around and has always been private, and has excellent hunting, so they should do better than the farm, and probably be a lot easier on the land.
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The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
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Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
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 ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Nasser, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important ligament in the knee. It runs from the thigh bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia) and helps stabilise ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
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Test saving a message
Improved a lot with the innodb pool size increase. Still higher than I’d like.
Try running an optimize to clean up any db issues. The site will be a bit slower for about an hour.
Completed. I'll have a look at database performance under load today, but it appears to have been a issue with data pool sizes.
better but still noticeably slow loading at my end.
I'll have another look at it this weekend (assuming that my bug list from QA doesn't grow again today). My current server had problems with the upgrade to the latest LTS version.
However the new server is sitting under my desk at the workplace. I just received the order of disk bays for it yesterday which was the last bit.
So I'll transfer the TS array to it this weekend and get that running, then do a fresh install on the current server.
slowness could be my crappy internet connection too.
Yes, seems better. DR missed its schedule last night, which tends to happen when there are speed issues with TS (aka a canary in the coalmine).
I/S @ No Right Turn doesn't treat Luxon's anti-abortionism lightly:
"Over the weekend, the US Supreme Court followed through on its threat, and overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively outlawing abortion in much of the United States. People were outraged, in America and around the world. And in Aotearoa, this meant a lot of sudden questions for the National Party, which is led by a fundamentalist anti-abortionist, stuffed with fundamentalist anti-abortionist MPs, and which tends to take its lead from whatever crack the US Republicans are smoking this week. While National's fundy backbenchers celebrated the imposition of forced birth in America, Christopher Luxon desperately tried to backpedal on his past views and reassure the public that National had no intention of changing the law. Except that today, he's doubling down on being anti-abortion:"
Read more: http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2022/06/still-digging.html
he's doubling down on being anti-abortion
In other words, his position today is the same as it was yesterday. Yeah I can see how that might be annoying for some in the media. 🙂
So what is his position, yesterday or today?
Is he anti-abortion or is he not?
Like I've said ad nauseam, when Jacinda needs a disaster, one appears. And this ones a beauty.
As night follows day, dumb voters have knee jerked in response. HDA received texts saying people are now reconsidering voting for National. You can bet there are many others thinking similar.
Seems they don’t understand abortion issues are the least of our worries.
[citation needed for the HDA claim – weka]
mod note
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-luxon-needs-to-wheel-out-simon-oconnor-and-make-him-apologise/
this?
"two"?
Two?
Yikes!!
No, there were others during open talkback, but that was the only link I could find to show I wasn't making stuff up. That link was her opening comments for that day's session.
My point is, even just using those two examples, there would be thousands of other women having second thoughts about voting National just like them. All they see is National has too many fundies in their party. And Luxon is one, too. And he's the leader.
From AB's post below.
''The might be the least of yours mate, but for women of childbearing age, it might be a bit different. And maybe a bit different too for men with daughters, sisters and female relatives in that category. Quite a few people then.''
That's how middleclass women and others will be thinking. People who previously were considering voting for National.
thanks. What I’m hoping is that you will learn to explain your thinking up front like that, so I don’t have to drag it out of you as a mod or commenter. What you have since provided that wasn’t in yoru original comment:
If you look at your first comment, it’s just some offhand, throw them out there reckons. But you can obviously formulate a decent political argument, so I’m asking that you do that up front.
This isn’t twitter or FB, we’re not here for the reckons, we’re here for the robust debate. When people put there argument (and links and quotes) up front, the debate improves. Everyone knows what is being discussed and the context. Good and robust debate is the point of the commentariat (robust doesn’t mean fractious, it means vigorous and resilient and of a certain standard).
there is still another mod note for you to respond to, comments will be held back until that is attended to.
Understood.
Gordon Campbell brings his wisdom to the tawdry situation:
"After all… And starting at around 4 minutes into this December 2021 interview, Luxon (a) agreed that abortion is “tantamount to murder” and (b) refused to answer a question about whether he thought abortion should be allowed for victims made pregnant by rape or incest. This man is not a social liberal.
Footnote One: Apparently, access to abortion is not something the National caucus regards as being important. In yesterday’s mea culpa to his colleagues O’Connor said that his offensive tweet “had caused distress and trouble for the party, that just wants to focus on big issues.” Women voters, take note. Abortion rights = no big deal. Blokes got more important things to talk about."
http://werewolf.co.nz/2022/06/gordon-campbell-on-nationals-ongoing-problems-with-abortion/
The might be the least of yours mate, but for women of childbearing age, it might be a bit different. And maybe a bit different too for men with daughters, sisters and female relatives in that category. Quite a few people then.
And let's consider what it is emblematic of. This basically:
In short – the guy is even worse than Key.
Your saying Luxons poll levelling was down to a large faction of dumb voters? Good of Heather to be so up front and tell it to their faces on newstalk then.
Blade, there are people who vote on single issues- they're called single issue voters.
The abortion issue is one such issue. People on both sides of the issue can be very passionate about it. Some will vote against Luxon because to their one issue passion, but not many on his side of that debate will be impressed by his conflicted approach.
Even people who agree with Luxon's views on abortion as being 'tantamount to murder' will find it difficult to reconcile the seriousness of that moral position with his stated position not to have the National party do anything under his leadership.
If I were in that position of having a very strong anti-abortion stance that is of the 'die in a ditch' moral standing, then I'd be very disappointed even if I realised the political implications for Luxon. I'd want him to be telegraphing that he'd be working to change his party policy for the future.
Then there are voters who see inconsistencies in politician's views and summing them up accordingly vote for others.
There are others who see extremism in one set of a politician's views and wonder whether there are other similar views not yet revealed but that would also be undesirable if acted upon.
These are often middle of the road voters, centrist in nature who are suspicious of extremism.
Luxon has shown extremism, conflicted beliefs and an authoritarian approach to party dissent.
Some might argue that the member for The Upper Room might be better suited in a minority Christian conservative party, rather than leader of a political party that has been traditionally and largely liberal especially in its urban wing.
Others might argue that National is becoming a party with a growing and alarming group of social conservative, even extremist, MPs.
They would already be worried by the exodus from their ranks of socially liberal women MPs like Adams and Bennett. National has been struggling to regain women voters. Luxon's views, and those of illiberal members like O'Connor and Brown, will not help.
Lastly, if National is looking to reclaim the young vote with younger MPs like Brown and O'Connor, then they will be hard pressed with their espousal of illiberal causes that goes beyond the abortion issue but into other issues as gay rights and same-sex marriage where the young are far more liberal.
In sum, then, I'd say that National looks like a party for the socially conservative, male, older voter.
They're welcome………
An important factor for National will be the removal of a President who presided over a selection of politically dodgy candidates. Will they also look to their selection procedures to allow through more acceptable candidates, more representative, more liberal, more reasonable and uncontroversial?
The next few months as parties go into election and selection modes will be very revealing as to the direction of National- urban, liberal, centrist or rural, conservative, extremist?
Gordon Campbell adds a pithy footnote:
" The voting gender gap is one thing. National‘s other dilemma on abortion is that it doesn’t want to alienate its Christian base before the election, but it also can’t risk looking to the general public as of it is captive to the Christian right. Answer: shut down the issue ASAP. Try to look as if you’re merely the steward of the status quo. Until such time as you can achieve the power to be otherwise."
I find it depressing that sections of the population think Roe v Wade is about banning abortion and even worse, it applies to New Zealand.
New Zealand already has the most liberal abortion regime in the world, voted in overwhelmingly with bi partisan support from both parties. Sure some National MPs voted against as did some Labour MPs. It is NOT going to change.
The US Supreme Court decision had little to do with abortion, it was about interpretation of the US Constitution and the separation of powers between the Legislative and Judicial Branches.
Your history of spreading citation-less bullshit consequence-free on here is depressing.
That’s inaccurate. The final vote was 68/51 (for/against).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_Legislation_Act_2020#Third_reading
.
Certainly a highly contrived wedge issue in the NZ context at the moment … but that's how politics works … parties fighting tooth & nail for the affections of swing-voters (particularly those women – many of a morally-liberal disposition – who flowed from Clark to Key to Ardern then back to Luxon again).
It'll all end in tears before bedtime … but whose tears ? That's the question.
That doesn't really fit with a description of wedge issues, imo. They usually don't have a downside for the political faction pushing them forward.
In particular with Luxon he has only really shown a very detached position on any issues. It seems to be all high level rhetoric without much substance.
His actual policy positions are pretty extreme where he takes them. In particular on the economy he started regurgitating 80s monetarism as the only appropriate policy. I don't understand why saying most families should take a further pay cut so we can hand out tax increases to very few, is a viable political position. Never the less this was the proposal and it didn't seem relevant that QE was running for a decade without inflation, there has been massive supply side disruption, or that most families have taken a real wage cut due to inflation. Instead the only economic thinking of National is austerity must be the approach.
No, I'm saying Labour's indulging in the wedge politics here … not the Nats. [I'm not criticising, incidentally, it's a perfectly legitimate tactic in the game of electoral politics].
Yes, they are. Good thing too – public service, I reckon!
Mac1, Well put .
It's not only the "abortion issues". It's the Luxon issue.
Today he declared that National is "a party for women".
https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/29-06-2022/luxons-morning-media-round-dominated-by-aftermath-of-roe-v-wade
That sums him up. He constantly falls back on empty slogans and platitudes, and it only makes things worse.
Trying not to say what you really believe is rarely a smart approach in politics. But Luxon no doubt has advisers whispering in his ear "Don't be you. Be empty".
He can't keep that up for long. Nobody can.
Luxon needs to improve his party’s scorecard (but so does Labour).
https://www.genderjustice.nz/scorecard_election_2020
G, K and B, from the anti-abortion stable, saying that they respect the law of the land, then when on SOCTUS with a case before them then change the law. Team Luxon we have no plan to change the law, but individually will vote our conscience should a bill be before the House.
Parseltongues.
Never trust a religious fundamentalist!
When the crunch comes, he'll do what his god (conveniently) tells him to do.
And it’ll all be justified by words in his little book of myths!
Very true.
Try reading The Book of Mormon sometime.
I have, and I couldn't!
I just wish god would text me occasionally.
Robert, that is illuminating. Thank you.
Got a text from our local medical centre telling us that they are having to put their prices up because of inflation.
I texted them back, "Putting prices up, is what causes inflation."
Well put. Now time for those in power to do something about one of the main sources of this inflation, those making record profits:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/469976/banks-making-record-profits-but-impact-of-economic-shocks-to-come
While lots of people think that a low interest rate environment is the ideal one for commercial banks and what they lobby for this is miss leading.
It's actually a high interest rate environment which is more profitable for banks.
I don't think it matters what environment banks want, record profits are record profits and when regular depositors are struggling with inflation related cost increases it's unacceptable that banks are setting profit records,
And then there's the global petrol companies record profits:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/13/oil-gas-producers-first-quarter-2022-profits
In most countries, including NZ, commercial banks are directly involved in central bank lobbying activities via the media. Thats why this is relevant.
Regardless, my point is that bragging about profits while the majority of society is being pummelled by inflation costs and stagnant wages, should really be seen as the industry publicly requesting a windfall tax on their rampant profits.
Govt don’t fund the health services properly. So the health centre needs to cover its costs. Write to Andrew Little about it
when you change your email address, or make a typo, or can't remember what it is, your comments get treated as a new person and held back for manual approval. Might be good to take a note of the exact email address you are using 👍
Apologies Weka!
Once upon a time the English told their cricket venues to develop pitches that lasted 5 days. A team toured the country and was put into bat first in two tests. In both tests England demonstrated they could score runs quickly and in great volume on the final day and thus no target set for them would be enough.
Then in the third test KW, the so called best captain in the world, decided to bat first. Is it the elbow, the time in the IPL or covid?
The next team to tour there will not make the same mistake and England will get burnt.
We need a change in the leadership thinking so we can encourage our spinners and stop selecting bits and pieces players
Williamson to stop playing IPL and to relinquish the captaincy would also help immeasurably
I can't believe how badly National have bungled this abortion issue. Luxon is hobbled by his own Christian fundamentalism, which leave him gruesomely floundering between credibility and electability on this issue and between him and his dumb as a sack of hammers fundy caucus they just can't help keeping the story alive. Judith Collins must be laughing her head off. What it shows is how brittle, undisciplined and bumbling their unrepresentative caucus is under pressure.
Goodfellow has a lot to answer for. One only hopes that now he is gone National can get some people into realistically electable positions who are representative of what constitutes the the bounds of NZ's social attitudes.
Agree.
But it also shows that our MSM are ridiculously loaded into specialist minor-use health areas when in terms of thousands of people using the service the far more important health crises are in Emergency Departments and Eldercare. Those areas are where rights to health are in NZ under direct threat.
Agree Ad about the health cate crisis. Under this govt abortion likely to become less available cause of staffing shortages. Ironic isn’t it…….but never mind we will have our marvellous new health authority!
Well that is the lazy news cycle writ large. Morning Report and Checkpoint etc etc love these specialist minor-use health stories because they practically write themselves – and fact often do, given a lot of them seem to come from drug company funded lobby groups that want Pharmac to buy their latest incredibly expensive wonder drug.
Format for human interest health story (guaranteed outage and clicks):
< Desperate Deserving Person> with <specialist minor-use health problem>
complains to <outraged presenter> they can't get <specialist minor-use health outcome>
< Desperate Deserving Person> gives heart rending interview about their imminent demise
<outraged presenter> declares scandal and demands answers from <relevant minister>
And that is the lead 10 minutes of checkpoint or Morning Report four out of ten days.
Nine to Noon can then do a full thirty minutes twice a week talking about the health crisis du jour related to the above.
My partner went to the Dr last week and mentioned a mole on her toe. The Dr took a pic and mailed it to the Dermatology specialist at Auckland Hospital. On Monday she got an email from Green Lane hospital giving her an appointment with Dermatology for next Thursday.
You cannot complain about that sort of service.
VV Glad you got good service. Good wishes for a good diagnosis.
"dumb as a sack of hammers fundy caucus"….brilliant….excelling yourself today Sanc.
The abortion issue in NZ is a nothing burger led by the media desperate to create another 'controversy'
100% PR.
Dreadful PR, actually. Luxon with three explanations about National's varied abortion views and then telling the women of New Zealand that National is their party was terrible public relations……
The National Party created the controversy when one of their MPs celebrated the US Supreme Court decision.
And another of their MPs approved the celebration.
Trump watch resumes on Capitol Hill
1. Trump wanted armed people waved onto the Hill because they were not there to threaten him
2. After calling for the crowd to go to Congress to protest the EC vote he wanted to join them – and tried to take control of the vehicle from secret service agents.
3. Meadows and his staff were given legal advice that anyone from the White House involved in trying to block the EC vote by attending the protest would likely go to prison.
According to what was said in the hearing this morning Trump was happy for armed people to be in his crowd. Get them there, rouse them, stir them up, get them heading for the Capitol. Angry and armed.
"Backstage at the rally, Trump was irate that people with weapons were not being let through the magnetometers by Secret Service officers and agents who screen all attendees at any event featuring a sitting president. But Trump wanted the armed individuals to be allowed to attend the rally and complained that the magnetometers were adversely affecting his crowd size, Hutchinson overheard."
https://rollcall.com/2022/06/28/trump-wanted-armed-supporters-allowed-into-jan-6-rally-and-to-lead-capitol-charge/
Great to see central government put its stake in the ground for public transport in central Wellington. Next test is to see Wellington Council and GWRC get on board and formally align.
Right before an election, this is what elections were for.
'Once in a generation': Government backs light rail for $7.4b Wellington transport overhaul | Stuff.co.nz
is that like light rail in Auckland?
Brilliant-well done the government. Light rail will do wonders for Wellington.
From personal experience it works really well in Sydney and Seville.
Of course if fundy Luxon is elected as PM this will be canned and it will be roads roads roads.
It also worked really well before they decided to trolley bus and then just bus. Enjoyed many a ride from the station to the zoo, Athletic Park, and the Basin on the
tramslight rail.And the Gold Coast QLD.
Thanks Patricia…I didn't know that.
This is what Wellington needs. Great. We are gathering momentum.
It would be great to see any passenger train in New Zealand get to 80kms an hour, whereas now from Huntly to Karapiro you can now put the pedal down and go 110km an hour.
Speed limit on parts of Waikato Expressway increasing to 110km/h (1news.co.nz)
That's the result of all that money put into cars.
Ladies and gentlemen, start your Polestar.
I heard on RNZ yesterday something along the lines of "submissions received strongly supported the 110 km limit."
Well d'oh. There is huge gung-ho car/truck lobby out there always demanding higher speed limits. That doesn't mean it makes sense for safety and environmental reasons.
TBF I'm looking forward to bypassing Hamilton post haste and doing a circuit of the Cambridge and Paeroa antique shops in an easy day.
The antique shops in Paeroa suffered a bit over the past couple of years – but still a good supply of children's dolly prams to be had. 🙂
I drive the Waikato express way reasonably frequently ( It is in fact the easiest and quickest way to Te Rapa, Te Awa, The Base, and Hamilton from here. There are many sections where 110kph is quiet safe* – a very well formed road right up to international standards. Not unreasonable in my view to raise the limit a notch.
*personal view after 60+ years of incident free driving and having raced motorbikes and organised motorcycle racing events.
NZ is well placed to use the NATO summit to accentuate this message:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300624319/misinformation-is-a-threat-and-affecting-nz-jacinda-ardern-says-ahead-of-nato-speech
I think the author meant "fuel" not duel.
NATO expansion is all on. Turkey agrees.
Turkey ready to back Sweden, Finland NATO bids | News | DW | 28.06.2022
In your eye Putin.
I was reading the Finnish defense minister doing an only slightly more polite version of "we will kick Russia's ass if they try it on" interview the other day and I was struck at how bellicose the Europeans are given half a chance.
What a quarrelsome lot they are.
Fiins have history here.
Russia isn't likely to forget the Winter War any time soon….
Europe will lose the winter war,as it has insufficient energy reserves,or an ability to produce sufficient heating.
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1541830101351948295?cxt=HHwWjoCz8dyT1-UqAAAA
https://twitter.com/SStapczynski/status/1541806195903971328?cxt=HHwWgIDStZ-kzOUqAAAA
We haven't yet seen the energy equivalent of NATO evolve in Europe, but odds on this will occur.
Every time European states intervene, the markets have been shown to fail.
The hard open question is whether European countries can follow Lithuania's lead and built the port importing capacity to rid themselves of Russian gas addiction.
Germany needs 2 LNG stations to be ready for NOV, consents have yet to be formatted.( nor have investment decisions)
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germanys-lng-terminals-completion-could-be-delayed-sector-lobby-says-2022-06-27/
Producing around 400gwh a day from coal and lignite a day,and still not diverting enough gas to winter storage.168 gwh in generation a day (gas)
Lithuania's lead? Ha ha. USA obviously behind that. Strangely enough, not NATO?
Anyway, this adds to the danger of nuclear escalation.
Nobody should be stupid enough to write shallow inanities like, "In your eye, Putin.'
Sorry Ad – that was really disappointing for me.
If only they'd listened to Trump:
Nice smirking by the Germans, wonder if they're smirking now
The British disease has crossed the channel.
https://twitter.com/SStapczynski/status/1541731378210803712?cxt=HHwWgMCglaShquUqAAAA
I think this is a really big shift.
Turkey has been remaining very cautiously neutral over the Ukraine situation (I think because of Russian involvement in Syria – and therefore the Kurdish situation on their border).
For them to come out supporting an expansion of NATO – when it's clearly an area Russia want to veto for their cordon saintaire countries (more Finland than Sweden) – is significant.
The Turks are playing a canny game. They may be neutral, but that didn't stop Bayraktar donating three TB2 drones in additional to the four a donation drive purchased (apparently fifty have now be delivered to the Ukraine.
Johnny Turk is happily hunting with the hounds and running with the hares and getting concessions and $$$ everywhere for their troubles.
It's called "field testing" and remarkably successfully too. Orders from observing countries will be flooding in.
I agree, Belladonna – a really big shift.
In a very bad direction – towards nuclear escalation.
The Russians have effectively stated with this war that they are fed up with meaningless negotiations, with USA and NATO negotiating in bad faith.
The Russians do not trust the West's bad faith negotiations any more. They have been planning this for some time.
Don't expect them to conform to our standards of morality. They don't believe we have any.
They will escalate. Be very careful of what you wish for.
Personally, I do not like Putin, but I fear that we in the West have been propagandized to the point where we have no idea of the dangers that now face us.
Nor of the duplicity of our own leaders.
Those of you who are more dialled into local body politics in Wellington – do you think that Eagles is likely to take the mayoralty? And will it make a difference?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/rongotai-mp-paul-eagle-announces-wellington-mayoral-bid/ZD5WUG3IOJLSLDWMFZVR3UCJ74/
Darn it, autocorrect…. Eagle
I would think he has a very good chance and is probably favourite at the moment. I don't think he will be any good at the job but it is 12 years since we had a decent Mayor and at least 30 since we had a good one so I doubt if he will make any difference.
He was a reasonable Councillor though so we may be surprised. He'll have to get rid of the arrogance that he has picked up as a Labour MP though. He has developed their typical attitude that laws don't apply to them while he has been in the House. As an example try this
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/06/wellington-mayoral-candidate-and-labour-mp-paul-eagle-refuses-to-remove-campaign-billboards-despite-being-ordered-to.html
test
Why are those managing Kiwibuild now approaching lead contractors requesting fixed price contracts and the message is being relayed to sub contractors with expectations of those prices to both drop and be adhered to? All so price ceilings announced 4 years ago can still be achieved. I am aware of a development exceeding 50 Kiwibuild will be cancelled as the head provider can not provide product and still achieve ANY financial benefit(unless subbies reduce price) and that is not factoring in the element of risk.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/129103773/weve-never-seen-anything-like-it-cost-increases-leave-builders-scrambling
Don't worry the ( kiwibuild )affordable homes are unaffordable at 6%,there will be no takers at 10% mortgages.
Is Kiwibuild still a thing?
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/06/26/revealed-how-kiwibuild-failed-maori-and-pasifika/
'Figures released to Q+A with Jack Tame under the Official Information Act show just 4.8% of KiwiBuild buyers who gave their ethnicity on their application forms are Māori, and 4.4% are Pasifika.'
'These figures are well below the ethnicity breakdown of the general population, which is 16.5% Māori, and 8% Pasifika.'
'At the current rate of progress, the original target of 100,000 KiwiBuild homes will be reached around the year 2300'
"the original target of 100,000 KiwiBuild homes will be reached around the year 2300"
Now that statement shows a spectacular degree of wishful thinking. Add another thousand I would say.
Generational thinking all right
At least they're having a go
Chris Bishop’s baby now; Dean’s moved on to Conservation (presumably not of state houses).
I've really changed my views on Russell Brand, hes got some good ideas
Nope, being behind the times, more like it.
Turkyie may well have had a rethink and does not favour having on almost half its borders a belligerent Russia, if it is not stopped or contained. The Black Sea is more Turkyies sea with almost half the coastline and with a vulnerable Georgia and Bulgaria north and east of it, a Russian ally in Syria to the south the future huge costs and problems of defence and refugees etc would loom large.
Kiwibuild did its job, the building industry got its arse into gear and started building and selling houses and suddenly finding land that had been forgotten in the “ bank “, because it could see that Govt would dictate the future direction and it did not want to be sidelined. We must be close to peak house anytime soon with the number already consented and with the Govt continuing to build State Houses, downward price pressure may leaven the product inflation.
Dont fear a building bust so long as the Auckland and now Wellington light rail, Lake Onslow and other big badly needed infrastructure projects go ahead.
'Kiwibuild did its job'
I thought its job was to build 100 000 houses
You thought wrong, which you would have known if you had read your own link.
Yes Kiwibuild did its job. The job of kiwibuild was never to build 100,000 homes, it was simply to get Labour in to government. Job done. Everyone with half a brain said it was not achievable and have been proved right.
Ah well
https://nypost.com/2022/06/27/trans-woman-beats-13-year-old-in-womens-skateboarding-contest/
These are all completely unrelated
/
https://gcn.ie/three-people-hospitalised-violent-attack-dublin-pride/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/bay-of-plenty/128986082/gender-dynamix-building-fire-labelled-suspicious-by-police
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61933817
What’s your point, this time?
Lots of good bits still to come.
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1540399689098579968
https://twitter.com/darinself/status/1541839007021240324
Not a bunch of unarmed yahoos, eh Pucks.
/
In Tuesday’s hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) — vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack — played police transmissions that described people carrying firearms near the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., where Trump held his rally the morning of Jan. 6.
“Three men walking down the street in fatigues carrying AR-15s… at 14th and Independence,” a voice says in one transmission.
“White male… stock of an AR-15,” someone can be heard saying in another recording. “Green fatigues… Glock-style pistols in their waistband.”
“Elevated threat in the trees… American flag face mask… weapon on the right-side hip,” a third transmission says.
Cheney noted that among the supporters who chose to pass through metal detectors so they could get closer to Trump, security screened weapons and equipment including pepper spray, knives, batons and gas masks. Several thousand more people did not go through metal detectors and watched from the nearby Washington Monument lawn.
The committee also showed a report sent by Secret Service at 11 a.m. that day warning of a man with a rifle near the Ellipse, where Trump was speaking.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/house-committee-describes-weapons-trump-190545024.html
Just as we dont have the same problem with gun control legislation as the U.S. ,we dont have the same problem with abortion rights…our political systems are worlds apart so whipping ourselves into a moral panic over Roe v Wade appears to me to be superfluous.
Its highly relevant. Candidates for office and Parties will never have the opportunity to tell us precisely what they will do for every issue. We need to make future voting decisions based on how they approach issues which come up. In this case were observing the differences between a Luxon and an English approach to conscience questions.
British historians cannot understand the angst,of the Relevance to the UK either.
Sandbrook blames the Americanisation of the social culture such as tv and film.
https://twitter.com/holland_tom/status/1541681953509867520
Nothing to see here.
https://twitter.com/MirrorPolitics/status/1541778555088011264
Did you read Sandbrook ,I would suggest the member did not either,in a recent yougov poll only 2% were against abortion in the UK,not even significant at the 2 sigma level.More own goal there.
https://twitter.com/dcsandbrook/status/1541676279073837056
how exactly do you deem it relevant?
Posting as somebody who once wondered why Bill English was an electoral flop. I didn't understand the harm in his politics till he was already finance minister because his views were hardly news worthy. Its already apparent Luxon harbours multiple socially regressive traits, along with his economic wealth pandering tendencies.
Gordon Campbell on Luxon’s scary ‘social investment’ neither investment or social adherence.
Campbell in scoop
This 'Social Investment' idea and its existing screwups should definitely have more focus. Unfortunately what seems to be reasonable social research program was basically undermined by the attempted pay off of implementing it as a money saving device.
Thats an interesting confession, however it dosnt address the point….how has the U.S. Supreme court decision changed any politicians ability to change NZ's abortion laws?
The answer quite simply it hasnt.
Hilarious to see the Herald come out as anti-capitalist on behalf of rural NZ and then try and blame the government too.
Two vodka entrepreneurs try to do something a bit different on a farm, which like their vodka is a bit kooky, but market focused and the absolute rural fap sees them top of the Herald online.
The rural establishment has a bit of trouble rationalising someone buying a farm and making more money off the land by not 'farming' it.
You start to wonder what, or rather, who, is being farmed.
But in reality most of the land between Queenstown and Wanaka is now retired / carbon farm / private conservation estate now. And one by one the old high country runs are going that way.
Halfway Bay sold last month and was immediately de-stocked and the farm manager laid off, going into carbon farm / conservation / high end tourism. Property covers the Lochy catchment which is one of the best trout fisheries around and has always been private, and has excellent hunting, so they should do better than the farm, and probably be a lot easier on the land.