The Socialist Pope

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 1:26 pm, December 29th, 2014 - 54 comments
Categories: capitalism, class war, climate change, Conservation, discrimination, Environment, global warming, International, poverty, science, socialism - Tags: catholic church, Pope Francis, vatican

The ranks of Aotearoa’s trade unions and leftie movements including the Labour Party are full of catholics, most of them lapsed. It is something about the combination of the new testament preaching that we should address poverty and love one another and drive the money changers from the temple that obviously strikes a vein with us, yours faithfully included.

The Labour Party originally included the support of many Irish Catholics. Peter Fraser, Bob Semple and Paddy Webb amongst others, went to jail for their opposition to the first world war or to conscription based in part at least on their view that the English, who had just fought with the Irish, did not deserve or justify support. If you want to get a feel for the time have a read of this.

The Catholic Church has always had this undercurrent of radicalism. But thanks to the clogging hysteria of the conservative clergy it was often opposed to progressive change, rather than supportive of it.

The latest head of the Church, Pope Francis aka Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is trying to change all this. He is the first Pope from Latin America. He was previously a Chemical Technician and a Nightclub Bouncer but became a Priest at the age of 33 and since then has dedicated his life to God.

Wikipedia records that throughout his life he has “been noted for his humility, his concern for the poor and his commitment to dialogue as a way to build bridges between people of all backgrounds, beliefs and faiths.”

He has been creating a stir lately. The Guardian has been following his actions closely. He has held out a hand to Muslims, he has suggested that the Catholic Cardinals are failing in their obligation to live frugal lives, he has been instrumental in ending the United States blockade of Cuba and he is in the process of urging Catholics world wide to do something about climate change.

As part of his Christmas Message he called for Jesus “to look upon our brothers and sisters in Iraq and Syria, who for too long now have suffered the effects of ongoing conflict and who, together with those belonging to other ethnic and religious groups, are suffering a brutal persecution.” He also appealed to God “to give comfort to the families of the children who were killed by the Pakistani Taliban at a school in the city of Peshawar”.

In perhaps his most radical and challenging statement just before Christmas he talked about the fifteen ailments that had affected the Vatican’s bureaucracy. The Vatican sounds like it has its own version of Dirty Politics happening. According to the Guardian:

Chief among the pope’s list of sins was the “terrorism of gossip”, which he said could “kill the reputation of our colleagues and brothers in cold blood”. He denounced the “pathology of power” that afflicts those who seek to enhance themselves above all else, and the “spiritual Alzheimer’s” that has made leaders of the Catholic church forget they are supposed to be joyful.

Francis, the first pope born in the Americas, has refused many of the trappings of office and made plain his determination to bring the church’s hierarchy closer to its 1.2 billion members.

To that end, he has set out to reform the Italian-dominated Curia, the Vatican’s civil service whose power struggles and leaks were widely held to be partly responsible for Benedict XVI’s decision last year to become the first pope in six centuries to resign.

In his Christmas greeting, Francis used biblical references to condemn the “disease” of feeling “immortal and essential”.

“Sometimes [officials] feel themselves ‘lords of the manor’ – superior to everyone and everything,” he said.

“These and other maladies and temptations are a danger for every Christian and for any administrative organisation … and can strike at both the individual and the corporate level”.

In relation to Cuba he played a major role in ending the blockade. He sent letters to the leaders of both countries urging them to end the blockade, was instrumental in resolving the issue concerning the exchange of prisoners, and then the Vatican hosted a meeting between the parties in October at which time most issues were resolved.

Climate change may present his most difficult challenge. He wants to persuade the world to enter into a meaningful agreement. As reported in the Guardian:

But can Francis achieve a feat that has so far eluded secular powers and inspire decisive action on climate change?

It looks as if he will give it a go. In 2015, the pope will issue a lengthy message on the subject to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, give an address to the UN general assembly and call a summit of the world’s main religions.

The reason for such frenetic activity, says Bishop Marcelo Sorondo, chancellor of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, is the pope’s wish to directly influence next year’s crucial UN climate meeting in Paris, when countries will try to conclude 20 years of fraught negotiations with a universal commitment to reduce emissions.

“Our academics supported the pope’s initiative to influence next year’s crucial decisions,” Sorondo told Cafod, the Catholic development agency, at a meeting in London. “The idea is to convene a meeting with leaders of the main religions to make all people aware of the state of our climate and the tragedy of social exclusion.”

The pope intends to issue a Papal Encyclical, an importantly ranked document distributed to Bishops, urging all catholics to take action against climate change on moral and scientific grounds.

He sees the links between poverty and environmental devastation:

In recent months, the pope has argued for a radical new financial and economic system to avoid human inequality and ecological devastation. In October he told a meeting of Latin American and Asian landless peasants and other social movements: “An economic system centred on the god of money needs to plunder nature to sustain the frenetic rhythm of consumption that is inherent to it.

“The system continues unchanged, since what dominates are the dynamics of an economy and a finance that are lacking in ethics. It is no longer man who commands, but money. Cash commands.

“The monopolising of lands, deforestation, the appropriation of water, inadequate agro-toxics are some of the evils that tear man from the land of his birth. Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and deforestation are already showing their devastating effects in the great cataclysms we witness”.

But it is anticipated that his evangelical zeal to do something about climate change will raise opposition within Christianity, particularly amongst the conservative Christian movements in the United States.

The Guardian article quoted Calvin Beisner, who is spokesman for the conservative Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. This organisation has declared the US environmental movement to be “un-biblical” and a false religion. According to the article Beisner has said:

“The pope should back off. The Catholic church is correct on the ethical principles but has been misled on the science. It follows that the policies the Vatican is promoting are incorrect. Our position reflects the views of millions of evangelical Christians in the US.”

The Alliance looks like it has funding from the anti environmental movement to push a particular christian message. I am still trying to work out how an organisation whose members believe in creationism can lecture the Pope that he is wrong on the science of climate change.

But all strength to Pope Francis. If he keeps this up I may think about going back to church!

54 comments on “The Socialist Pope ”

Comments are now closed

RedLogix 1

29 December 2014 at 1:39 pm

he has suggested that the Catholic Cardinals are failing in their obligation to live frugal lives

And there is a crucial element. Any organisation where the top leaders loose touch with the lives of ordinary people will inevitably collapse. If Francis can maintain this energy he will save the Catholic Church.

Given that a very large portion of Christians globally are Catholic this is an astonishing turnaround for an institution that was still battles with a foul legacy of child abuse and centuries of failure to adapt to the changing world. Still a long journey to go, but at least the Pope is pointing in the right direction.

If he could now do something about the celibacy thing – I would be bloody impressed.
- tracey 1.1
  
  30 December 2014 at 12:50 pm
  
  failing to do so for most of the 1600 years of the church. pope has mostly been a position of politics power and greed. it is why guys like frank and jp2 stand out like sore thumbs
phillip ure 2

29 December 2014 at 1:54 pm

he is by far the best one they have had since that one who was assassinated..

..and i noted in the general debate thread that these will be trying times for bill english..

..as a card-carrying catholic..

..his drill-baby-drill!/fuck-the-poor..! policies go head to head with what his spiritual boss is ordering catholics in positions of power to do..

..and he is telling them in no uncertain terms..

..to care for the poor/end inequality..

..and now..to stop screwing over the planet..

..two things english isn’t and is doing..
- The Al1en 2.1
  
  29 December 2014 at 2:16 pm
  
  “he is by far the best one they have had since that one who was assassinated..”
  
  Who was that then?
  
  Last pope definitively listed as murdered was Gregory V (996–999)
  Do you mean him?
- disturbed 2.2
  
  4 January 2015 at 7:41 pm
  
  100% Phillip, as for Bill English’s policies on climate change,
  
  the first words that came out of English’s mouth when he got Finance was ” We cant afford roads and rail both at the same time?
  
  How come we did for the last 70 yrs. before that?
  
  Talk about “aspiration” he had none.
Ad 3

29 December 2014 at 2:02 pm

He is what I’ve been hoping for, for some time.

My personal wish list as a regular Mass-goer for St Francis’ term is:

– revive Vatican II and accelerate implementation
– pace yourself Pope; you’ll need a decade to bed it all in
– overturn the ban on priests marrying – and form the ground for female priests
– force some structure around what Vatican and parish assets may be used for, and focus income on the poor – esp with UN, ADB, and other major aid agencies
– keep expecting more from clergy and us Catholics in our lives
- Clemgeopin 3.1
  
  29 December 2014 at 2:37 pm
  
  Great points.
- RedLogix 3.2
  
  29 December 2014 at 2:56 pm
  
  Good to hear your perspective Ad.
  
  At the same time Sanctuary below @ 4.0 makes some strong counterpoints as well. My partner is from a fundamentalist Catholic family and says that she agrees with what you are both saying.
  - Sanctuary 3.2.1
    
    29 December 2014 at 3:04 pm
    
    “…My partner is from a fundamentalist Catholic family and says that she agrees with what you are both saying…”
    
    Deliciously theological of her! But has she met Father Ignatius, of the Inquisition? I am sure he’ll drive the devil of doubt from her mind…
    - RedLogix 3.2.1.1
      
      29 December 2014 at 3:27 pm
      
      She agrees with the desperate need for the kind of reforms Ad outlines, but at the same time is vividly aware of the depth of obstinate dogmatic idiocy still alive in the Church.
      
      Yet there is no question in my mind that if the fundies win this battle, the Church will have no future.
- Sanctuary 3.3
  
  29 December 2014 at 3:02 pm
  
  The Catholic church already has some hundreds of married ex-Anglican/Protestant priests. The answer to clerical celibacy – which is what the marriage debate is really about – is for the Catholic Church to adopt what the Eastern Orthodox church already does, namely allow men to marry before entering the priesthood but not after. I’m not sure of what the angels-on-heads-of-pins ecclesiastical argument is, but I would imagine that since marriage is seen as a sacramental union that that unites two people into a forever indivisible single entity, being married and a priest means you are technically celibate since sex with your wife is within a single union… Hey, I also know all about the dogma behind transubstantiation and the definition of the trinity and they are just as silly!
  - RedLogix 3.3.1
    
    29 December 2014 at 3:15 pm
    
    namely allow men to marry before entering the priesthood but not after.
    
    Useful perhaps as a transition step.
    
    My understanding was that behind the dogma, the celibacy nonsense was intended mostly to ensure there would be no families for the Church to support, nor heirs to claim inheritances – and that this policy is largely responsible for the immense wealth the Church has accumulated over centuries.
    
    Whatever the motivation – it has been an appalling mistake that may yet inflict immense damage on the Church. The policy should have been changed sometime in the 1800’s – that fact that we are still talking about it now is testament to a very strong undercurrent of bloody minded fundamentalism that also runs deep.
    - Anne 3.3.1.1
      
      29 December 2014 at 6:52 pm
      
      Behind most religious dogma there is a practical motivation. Take the banning of pork from the Jewish diet. Back in ancient times they wanted to discourage people from eating pork because of the presence of diseases in the pigs of the day, so they gave it a religious connotation in order to stop people eating it.
      
      The institution of marriage is another one. In order to reduce the high incidence of venereal diseases, somebody introduced the holy matrimonial meme in an effort to improve the health of the population.
      - RedLogix 3.3.1.1.1
        
        29 December 2014 at 7:24 pm
        
        Indeed. It’s very helpful to try and draw a distinction between those aspects of a religion which are essential and those which are not.
        
        The essential, inward aspects relate to teachings about justice, compassion, love, selflessness and purity of motive; while the non-essential, outward aspects are about how the rules the community had to follow in order to adapt or survive in that era.
        
        When you strip away all the outward aspects it’s pretty striking how all the religions actually say pretty much the same thing. They may express it differently, but the underlying message is congruent.
        
        Fundamentalists are people who believe in a God they have created from their own limited imaginations. They call themselves believers, but in reality what they believe in is their own vanities and fantasies. Most people however are not all that creative or imaginative and in order to flesh out and decorate their fantasies about God they depend heavily on all the rituals and dogmas, all those outward, non-essential aspects of their religion.
        
        And over time the inner, the essential and the actual reason for their belief becomes obscured and invisible to them.
Sanctuary 4

29 December 2014 at 2:43 pm

“…The Catholic Church has always had this undercurrent of radicalism….”

Maybe since Vatican II, but remember the Catholic church was loathed by socialist revolutionaries for good reason and reactionary Church officials have always supported extremist right wing reactionary causes everywhere.

It is the luxury of the separation of church and state and anti-secularism that allows people with short historical memories to see the church as a force for social enlightenment. In fact, that tradition – with it’s “liberation theology” only goes back fifty years. Coming from the Spanish speaking and from South America, Pope Francis will be well aware both of the deeply reactionary nature of Catholicism and the impact of liberation theology. He must know he is playing with fire. His Catholic spring won’t last long.

The Catholic church has always supported the most extremist, anti-enlightenment, and anti-humanist political movements it can think it can get away with.
- mickysavage 4.1
  
  29 December 2014 at 3:20 pm
  
  I am referring to new testament type radicalism which compared to the stuff in the old testament was pretty revolutionary, the rich man being able to fit through the eye of a needle type radicalism. I agree the church has acted as a counter to many progressive movements. Hopefully this is now changing.
  - RedLogix 4.1.1
    
    29 December 2014 at 3:34 pm
    
    A memorable old line, which is probably the result of a translation error:
    
    http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-25583,00.html
    
    Nonetheless over time I’ve come to think that the real meaning intended is conveyed just as well by the mistake as the literal.
    - Murray Rawshark 4.1.1.1
      
      29 December 2014 at 7:44 pm
      
      The answer I got to that one is that, for god, all things are possible. Miracles are his daily staple, and require no more effort than John Banks picking his earwax.
    - Ad 4.1.1.2
      
      29 December 2014 at 9:40 pm
      
      Jesus was regrettably a piss poor theologian, very context -driven, and his parables often have too much financial subtlety for my liking. And the previous Pope loved his bling and tailored shoes too much.
      
      Give me St Francis and the others who gave it all up any day.
- Ad 4.2
  
  29 December 2014 at 9:15 pm
  
  Agree with the repressive history of the church. And it’s never going to repent its patriarchal divine right, or convert to Liberation Theology. It is broken. And not entirely fixable, redeemable, believable.
  
  But.
  
  It’s bigger than the UN.
  It has more spiritual power over the world than any institution.
  It’s shrines are venerated by millions of pilgrims whether Christian or not, every year.
  It’s moral force leaves The Internationale, let alone NZ Labour, in its dust.
  And it’s done it – uniquely – for 2 millennia. It’s got roots 2 millennia before that.
  
  Membership forces the same sickly personal compromises that Labour supporters will be familiar with.
  
  For me, its values are my most basal motivator. I trust my devotional assent to it more than my assent to Labour (or any) politicians. But choosing to be inside, make change, and pray he hangs in there, are worth it.
  - mickysavage 4.2.1
    
    29 December 2014 at 9:19 pm
    
    Thanks Ad. I agree it is an institution with a great deal of history and a great deal of resources that has achieved some good in the past and may be able to achieve a great deal of good in the future.
greywarshark 5

29 December 2014 at 4:27 pm

Looking at Red Logix link I came on a comment that shows how prosperity religonists might think. It’s God’s money really, he is just channelling it through to you to increase for his greater glory. An angel investor! Yeah right.

Here’s a website with a lot of useful insight into this. http://www.angelfire.com/wy/Franklin4YAHWEH/camelthroughneedle.html What ever the exact translation, the principle remains the same. If you have SELF-MADE wealth, it demonstrates you do not have the SELFLESS attitude required for and developed through salvation.

Even if a wealthy person ‘discovers’ and accepts the Word of God, if they retain the products of their self-made life they (he or she) will always feel able to go back to that if they don’t like what God is doing – and there WILL be times when (s)he doesn’t like what God is doing in his/her life!

That is why they must be shed before progress can be made – a virtually impossible thing for a self-made man to do on his own! That is why the wealthy young man looked so downcast!

“But with God, all things are possible” and through Him, wealth can be re-established, but with the right attitude, and for the Glory of God, not self.
- Ad 5.1
  
  29 December 2014 at 9:22 pm
  
  ‘Supply-Side Jesus’ has his problems.
  Google that phrase for a great cartoon.
  - RedLogix 5.1.1
    
    30 December 2014 at 12:29 am
    
    Al Franken ? That surprises me a lot.
    
    And while I was googling about on him I found this fascinating article:
    
    Franken took the opposite approach. Instead of running away from the progressive accomplishments of the Obama era, he embraced them, railing against bankers, advocating for student loan reform—even defending the Affordable Care Act. Franken ran as an Elizabeth Warren-style Democrat, running a populist campaign that didn’t shirk discussion of the specific policies Democrats could pursue to help the middle class. And voters rewarded him. “This wasn’t a safe seat,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in an e-mail. “He earned his victory by being a proud populist Democrat for six years and inspiring voters.”
    
    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/al-franken-minnesota-senate-model-progressive-campaign
    
    Franken went on to increase his vote by 10% in the 2014 mide-terms – when most Dems went backwards. There is a lesson here.
  - BassGuy 5.1.2
    
    30 December 2014 at 2:14 pm
    
    Wow, some parts of that just seem overly familiar, particularly “I came from the humblest of roots, and yet now I am one of the richest men in Judea.”
    
    Supply-Side Jesus for government!
    
    …again.
BLiP 6

29 December 2014 at 6:22 pm

‘

What is Christianity other than the practical application of socialism?
Murray Rawshark 7

29 December 2014 at 6:36 pm

The evangelicals in the US and elsewhere are hard to see as any sort of Christians. I prefer to see them as conservative Jews who give some blonde bloke with a beard a figurehead role. As the only Swede born in Palestine 2000 years ago, he must have some role, I suppose. They follow the Old Testament (at least the hateful parts they like) and have little time for anything the blonde bloke was supposed to have said.

There is also a very repressive movement within Catholicism, particularly in Latin countries. Opus Dei and the many “Church and Family” organisations will not lie down for the Argentinian.
- Colonial Rawshark 7.1
  
  30 December 2014 at 12:08 am
  
  Right wing bible thumping pro Israel, pro war against the Muslims, conservative Christians of the US evangelical style are usually not even Christians – they are HERETICS who have totally inverted the teachings of the Gospels and the Beatitudes.
Ergo Robertina 8

29 December 2014 at 6:54 pm

”The ranks of Aotearoa’s trade unions and leftie movements including the Labour Party are full of catholics, most of them lapsed. It is something about the combination of the new testament preaching that we should address poverty and love one another and drive the money changers from the temple that obviously strikes a vein with us”

Perhaps; a bigger factor maybe is Catholic families produce scrappers who love a fight and feel at home in an atmosphere of conflict. I say it as someone who grew up in one, and observed many others; you survive or struggle in that environment.

In my view the Pope should not venture into climate change politics to this extent – producing the inevitably colourful attention-hogging fight with right-wing USA Catholics – until its own house is in order. This means addressing the child abuse horror, which involves more than carefully targeted strong words that downplay its extent.
- Ad 8.1
  
  29 December 2014 at 9:31 pm
  
  I kind of agree. Ecological theology remains weak and unsupported in any structural sense.
  
  I want the Church to focus its financial might towards overturning the damage of the “1% Economy”. That means an almighty clean out of its financial staff, its financial and asset base deployment, and start being an exemplary employer that stops damaging and wasting people’s lives and starts enabling their perpetual spiritual and material liberation.
  
  Not that I want much.
johnm 9

29 December 2014 at 7:14 pm

The Pope is a good man. But the issues he addresses are long gone out of control: climate change, inequality, war and violence. political corruption, greed, environmental destruction. He’s a good straw man crying in the wind for what might have been.

E.G. war Criminal Tony Blair converts to Catholicism: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/aug/28/blair-conversion-catholicism

The Pope despite wanting otherwise just serves the current corrupt rotten order. Order known as neoliberalism currently and American world dominance. The well to do Catholics I know don’t take the slightest scrap of notice of what he says: Rome is another Planet to them.
- Ad 9.1
  
  29 December 2014 at 9:55 pm
  
  You are not surely saying the Pope should give up because Tony Blair converted?
- tricledrown 9.2
  
  30 December 2014 at 12:42 am
  
  The Pope at least is giving hope!
  he is an cleaning up the church getting rid of the papal aristocracy.
  His leadership is a breath of fresh air.
  He is not frightened of tackling any issue.
  Lives in a humble apartment a man of the people!
  I see only one other world leader who is in that league the president of Uruguay !
  - RedLogix 9.2.1
    
    30 December 2014 at 12:49 am
    
    Lives in a humble apartment a man of the people!
    I see only one other world leader who is in that league the president of Uruguay
    
    I have seen something similar myself in person. It is deeply inspiring.
    
    Regrettably our media prefer to tell us how our PM holidays in Hawaii and has halved his handicap while in office. And 70% of the population suck it up like mana, when our grandparents would have been offended by these things. This is why religion (and emphatically not the debased materialistic, fundamentalist versions of it) are still relevant.
    - BassGuy 9.2.1.1
      
      30 December 2014 at 2:42 pm
      
      This bombardment of stories about Key on holiday is starting to drive me a bit nuts.
      
      Am I supposed to feel good that Key can afford to sod off overseas at will and play golf?
      
      Should I feel pride in a country that has created so much need, yet refuses to support those who struggle, while gifting with largesse to one man who already has so much?
  - Clemgeopin 9.2.2
    
    30 December 2014 at 8:41 am
    
    I see only one other world leader who is in that league the president of Uruguay !
    
    Here he is:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20243493
OncewasTim 10

29 December 2014 at 7:27 pm

The kethlik church is a strange beast is it not? From my experience it can be a representation of religious extremism.
I’ve met kethliks with a concern for ‘societal welfare’ – usually the Kitty V’s conducting jumble sales in order to support the downtrodden (often at the expense of neglecting their own out-of-control-offspring), and with ‘left of centre poltiks; they seem to want to keep secret.
Then I’ve met a few at the other end of that swinging pendulum (swinging – the operative word).
Someone should really do a study on just how well the likes of Blinglish and his ilk fit with what the kethik church (a braod church apparently, and one that’s acceptable whilst the Labour Party’s broadness is apparently NOT).

Anyone ever followed the growing up of a Sacred Heart/Marist/St Pat’s kethluk?
Christ! I’ve encountered a few and none of them have been pretty sights!
There’s the poor little rich boy psychopath
The P heads
The wife beaters
The closet homos desperate to find their sugar dads
The P.I. branch of the above that usually try and keep it all on the down low – just as the Natzis do.

I think maybe kethluks see things in terms of there being a “right Wing”, and then a “wrong wing”

Sure as shit tho’ theire’a a Blinglish or two that’ll never ‘get it’ (until of course it all jumps up and bites them in the bum)
- McFlock 10.1
  
  29 December 2014 at 7:34 pm
  
  um – okaaaaaayy…
- BLiP 10.2
  
  29 December 2014 at 7:35 pm
  
  . . . I’ve met kethliks with a concern for ‘societal welfare’ – usually the Kitty V’s conducting jumble sales in order to support the downtrodden (often at the expense of neglecting their own out-of-control-offspring), and with ‘left of centre poltiks; they seem to want to keep secret . . .
  
  Hmmm . . .
- Murray Rawshark 10.3
  
  29 December 2014 at 7:48 pm
  
  I’ve met those ones as well, but I have also met catholics who are genuinely good people. Most of the latter were not met in Anglo colonies.
  - OncewasTim 10.3.1
    
    29 December 2014 at 9:47 pm
    
    As have I …. they’d be those I acknowledged first (the Kiity V’s). AND …. at LAST, a Pope that gives a shit and who seems to understand human beings.
    What took so long!
    The good thing is the Fox News miks are beside themselves
Sirenia 11

29 December 2014 at 10:49 pm

Peter Fraser was a staunch Scottish Presbyterian, not an Irish Catholic
Maui 12

29 December 2014 at 11:30 pm

Religion doing what it should be doing and helping the world, and not having its head up its arse.
dave brown 13

29 December 2014 at 11:46 pm

Has anybody pointed out the oxymoron of a socialist Pope?
I thought the Pope was God’s mouthpiece and not the elected delegate of all Catholics to represent them to God.
No wonder Peter Fraser was a Presbyterian where the congregations reputedly elect their ministers.
Pope’s seldom take the side of liberty against fascists or dictators like Hitler and Franco.
Certain Catholics have done like Archbishop Romero of El Salvador who was assassinated.
Pope Francis has been accused of failing to oppose or publicly condemn the role of the Church in the Argentinian ‘dirty war’. He lived not to tell the tale.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/14/pope-francis-argentina-military-junta
I think most Pope’s have been mouthpieces of the more conservative elements of the ruling classes over history.
Francis still serves the ruling class but as a liberal.
I think that he recognises that inequality and injustice is so bad that he wants to dissociate the church from the 1% in the hope of forestalling a revolution.
To wit his role in restoring diplomatic relations between Cuba and the USA.
He wants to avoid the Church becoming redundant along with its accumulated wealth and property.
I don’t see him succeeding.
- tricledrown 13.1
  
  30 December 2014 at 1:00 am
  
  Some of that accumulated wealth has gone,in the US the Catholic church is nearly bankrupt.
  The Catholic Church is facing legal action in just about every country in the world for child abuse compensation.
  This Pope has said he will cooperate fully with authorities and their will be no hiding place in the church for any perpetrator!
  Unlike Ratbagzinger who was in charge of covering up the abuses for john paul the 2nd.Ratzinger was more worried about the colour of his handmade shoes!
  The only worry now is if Francis is killed or dies before more reforms are carried out.
  - mac1 13.1.1
    
    30 December 2014 at 9:51 am
    
    I was in Ireland this year and visited a graveyard containing the bodies of over a hundred boys killed and abused by “Christian” brothers in the West. I was very affected by this. The next church I visited was a modern church up on the high moor lands and I left a note in the visiting book, commenting on the modernity of this church and hoping that the promising tone of the new papacy that would no longer excuse, condone and conceal the brutality of the Industrial School I saw, where these boys lived and died. Many more lie hidden and as yet undiscovered.
    
    What kicked me about this was that the Industrial School was part of a model village built by an English Quaker industrialist who was reacting to the plight of rural Ireland at the time of the Famine. The Quaker meeting house became the centre of the Christian Brother’s Industrial School.
    
    I left the Catholic Church as a young man to become a Quaker later on.
    
    I do have hope for a renewed Catholic Church with this new Pope Francis. There is a message just in his chosen name. What and who I am was formed by 21 year s of Catholic upbringing. There is a lot of good and ethical teaching in the Catholic Church.
    
    Remember the Papal Encyclical, “Pacem in Terris” from John XXIII? He wrote there can be no just war while nuclear weapons exist. I became a pacifist as a result, and found a spiritual home in a peace church, far from authoritarian dictates and the belief in intercession.
    
    The Socialist Pope may just allow by his example a truer identity of Christian expression to grow. I hope so, as a new year looms.
- Ad 13.2
  
  30 December 2014 at 7:23 am
  
  You have no idea what he has done already.
  Its more fun expecting change in the church under St Francis than losing 3 elections, 4 leaders, and dump trucks of policy under Labour.
  
  As an activist in both, I know.
  - dave brown 13.2.1
    
    30 December 2014 at 8:24 am
    
    Happy new Pope fun activist.
Sable 14

30 December 2014 at 8:39 am

Been reading the twaddle from the MSM hucksters again have we. The Pope has little to do with thawing US relations with Cuba. This is purely a cynical move by the US to try to isolate Cuba from the influence of Russia and China with which it has political and economic ties. The Pope may have been used as window dressing to distract the gullible but that’s about all he has had to do with any of this….
MrSmith 15

30 December 2014 at 9:12 am

Open wide suckers, here’s another few spoon full’s of false hope and hypocrisy, from the crown/clown Princes of false hope and hypocrisy.
Ergo Robertina 16

30 December 2014 at 11:01 am

There’s an interesting piece in NZ Catholic from earlier this month (reading the paraphernalia while visiting family) of how Catholic executives in the public sector negotiate the ”secular environment”. Apologies if a bit off-topic but I thought it relevant to how the church relates to the world.
Dale Bramley, Waitemata DHB’s chief executive, refuses to sign certificates that allow abortion to be carried out. ”I’ve had the discussion with my board, and they understand and someone else signs.”
Parkinsons NZ CEO Deirdre O’Sullivan refuses to provide Parkinsons NZ funds to stem cell research. ”Sometimes, my organisation does it, and I would have to live with that, but I’ve been fortunate that I have been respected [in my decision],” she said.

There should be clear disclosure for anyone donating to an organisation whose chief executive pushes their religious agenda.
I’d find myself being sympathetic to the DHB boss if his qualms were about signing NGO contracts that don’t pay a living wage (especially if it was more than a Clayton’s someone-else-signing-same-outcome).
- RedLogix 16.1
  
  30 December 2014 at 11:36 am
  
  It’s a tricky boundary and always has been. In general it is wrong to force people into actions that contradict deeply held personal beliefs and values.
  
  If you happen to agree with the those ethics – then they are heroes. If not then they are demonised.
  
  For instance – personally I would be hopeless in the military. I would prefer to be killed than to kill. That would make me a dreadful coward in the eyes of most people.
  
  Yet at the same time, my failure to fight would (in some small measure) contribute to the peril of my nation. At that point I need to choose between my personal values and the the greater good of my community. Which do I place a greater value on, my life or that of my nation?
  
  (In real life the choice is rarely so clear or explicit. Images of naive farm boys loading their bloody horses onto transports for an adventure in WW1 still leave me aghast. Or as a long deceased uncle who survived every major battle of that war once said to us, “Any man who goes TO a war – is a fool.” Those were his only words ever on that topic.)
  
  This interplay between personal and collective ethics goes on all the time. We never escape it.
  - Ergo Robertina 16.1.1
    
    30 December 2014 at 12:10 pm
    
    ‘In general it is wrong to force people into actions that contradict deeply held personal beliefs and values.’
    ‘If you happen to agree with the those ethics – then they are heroes. If not then they are demonised.’
    
    In New Zealand taxpayer funded roles, like highly remunerated DHB chiefs, need to be administered without deference to religious tenets.
    I guess if the person’s conscience can be indulged by not signing a particular certificate, and getting someone else to with the same outcome, it’s harmless.
    When I said I’d find myself sympathetic to a Catholic CEO who did not sign an exploitative contract with low paid workers, I’m acknowledging the quandary you’ve touched on in cheering on non-conformists if you agree with their cause. For me the corporate hold over our public sector and economy is such that any source of an alternative value system – religious or otherwise – might be welcomed by me within strict boundaries, but we must keep the principle of a secular state.
    That’s already slipping with the likes of the state housing sell-off to church-aligned NGOs.
joe90 17

4 January 2015 at 7:49 pm

Heh!,

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2015/01/why-is-it-a-mystery-that-chicago-catholics-have-given-up-on-their-religion.html

Comments are now closed

Articles RSS

Comments
Opinions

What is the Hardest Sport in the World?
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
2 hours ago

What is the Most Expensive Sport?
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
2 hours ago

Pickleball On the Cusp of Olympic Glory
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
2 hours ago

The Origin and Evolution of Soccer Unveiling the Genius Behind the World’s Most Popular Sport
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
2 hours ago

How Much to Tint Car Windows A Comprehensive Guide
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
2 hours ago

Why Does My Car Smell Like Gas? A Comprehensive Guide to Diagnosing and Fixing the Issue
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
2 hours ago

How to Remove Tree Sap from Car A Comprehensive Guide
Tree sap can be a sticky, unsightly mess on your car’s exterior. It can be difficult to remove, but with the right techniques and products, you can restore your car to its former glory. Understanding Tree Sap Tree sap is a thick, viscous liquid produced by trees to seal wounds ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
2 hours ago

How Much Paint Do You Need to Paint a Car?
The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
3 hours ago

Can You Jump a Car in the Rain? Safety Precautions and Essential Steps
Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
3 hours ago

Can taxpayers be confident PIJF cash was spent wisely?
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Point of OrderBy gadams1000
9 hours ago

EGU2024 – An intense week of joining sessions virtually
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
Skeptical Science
11 hours ago

Submission on “Fast Track Approvals Bill”
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
12 hours ago

The Case for a Universal Family Benefit
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
PunditBy Brian Easton
13 hours ago

A who’s who of New Zealand’s dodgiest companies
Submissions on National's corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law are due today (have you submitted?), and just hours before they close, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop has been forced to release the list of companies he invited to apply. I've spent the last hour going through it in an epic thread of bleats, ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
14 hours ago

On Lee’s watch, Economic Development seems to be stuck on scoring points from promoting sporting e...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
15 hours ago

New Zealand has never been closed for business
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
16 hours ago

Stop the panic – we’ve been here before
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
19 hours ago

Melissa Lee and the media: ending the quest
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
20 hours ago

The Hoon around the week to April 19
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
20 hours ago

The ‘Humpty Dumpty’ end result of dismantling our environmental protections
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
21 hours ago

Nicola's Salad Days.
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
22 hours ago

Study sees climate change baking in 19% lower global income by 2050
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
22 hours ago

Weekly Roundup 19-April-2024
It’s Friday again. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week on Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt covered at the government looking into a long tunnel for Wellington. On Wednesday we ran a post from Oscar Simms on some lessons from Texas. AT’s ...
Greater AucklandBy Matt L
23 hours ago

Jack Vowles: Stop the panic – we’ve been here before
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
1 day ago

Clearing up confusion (or trying to)
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
PolitikBy Richard Harman
1 day ago

How to Retrieve Deleted Call Log iPhone Without Computer
How to Retrieve Deleted Call Log on iPhone Without a Computer: A Step–by–Step Guide Losing your iPhone call history can be frustrating, especially when you need to find a specific number or recall an important conversation. But before you panic, know that there are ways to retrieve deleted call logs on your iPhone, even without a computer. This guide will explore various methods, ranging from simple checks to utilizing iCloud backups and third–party applications. So, let‘s dive in and recover those lost calls! 1. Check Recently Deleted Folder: Apple understands that accidental deletions happen. That‘s why they introduced the “Recently Deleted“ folder for various apps, including the Phone app. This folder acts as a safety net, storing deleted call logs for up to 30 days before permanently erasing them. Here‘s how to check it: Open the Phone app on your iPhone. Tap on the “Recents“ tab at the bottom. Scroll to the top and tap on “Edit“. Select “Show Recently Deleted“. Browse the list to find the call logs you want to recover. Tap on the desired call log and choose “Recover“ to restore it to your call history. 2. Restore from iCloud Backup: If you regularly back up your iPhone to iCloud, you might be able to retrieve your deleted call log from a previous backup. However, keep in mind that this process will restore your entire phone to the state it was in at the time of the backup, potentially erasing any data added since then. Here‘s how to restore from an iCloud backup: Go to Settings > General > Reset. Choose “Erase All Content and Settings“. Follow the on–screen instructions. Your iPhone will restart and show the initial setup screen. Choose “Restore from iCloud Backup“ during the setup process. Select the relevant backup that contains your deleted call log. Wait for the restoration process to complete. 3. Explore Third–Party Apps (with Caution): ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
1 day ago

How to Factory Reset iPhone without Computer: A Comprehensive Guide to Restoring your Device
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
1 day ago

How to Call Someone on a Computer: A Guide to Voice and Video Communication in the Digital Age
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
1 day ago

Skeptical Science New Research for Week #16 2024
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications: Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
Skeptical Science
1 day ago

Where on a Computer is the Operating System Generally Stored? Delving into the Digital Home of your ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
1 day ago

How Many Watts Does a Laptop Use? Understanding Power Consumption and Efficiency
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
1 day ago

How to Screen Record on a Dell Laptop A Guide to Capturing Your Screen with Ease
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
1 day ago

How Much Does it Cost to Fix a Laptop Screen? Navigating Repair Options and Costs
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
1 day ago

How Long Do Gaming Laptops Last? Demystifying Lifespan and Maximizing Longevity
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
2 days ago

Climate Change: Turning the tide
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
2 days ago

How to Unlock Your Computer A Comprehensive Guide to Regaining Access
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
2 days ago

Faxing from Your Computer A Modern Guide to Sending Documents Digitally
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
2 days ago

Protecting Your Home Computer A Guide to Cyber Awareness
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
2 days ago

Server-Based Computing Powering the Modern Digital Landscape
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
Gareth’s WorldBy admin
2 days ago

Vroom vroom go the big red trucks
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
2 days ago

Jones finds $410,000 to help the government muscle in on a spat project
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
2 days ago

Again, hate crimes are not necessarily terrorism.
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
2 days ago

Despair – construction consenting edition
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
2 days ago

Coalition promises – will the Govt keep the commitment to keep Kiwis equal before the law?
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
2 days ago

An impermanent public service is a guarantee of very little else but failure
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
2 days ago

What happens after the war – Mariupol
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Open ParachuteBy Ken
2 days ago

Babies and benefits – no good news
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
2 days ago

Should the RBNZ be looking through climate inflation?
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
2 days ago

Bernard's pick 'n' mix of the news links
The top six news links I’ve seen elsewhere in the last 24 hours, as of 9:16 am on Thursday, April 18 are:Housing: Tauranga residents living in boats, vans RNZ Checkpoint Louise TernouthHousing: Waikato councillor says wastewater plant issues could hold up Sleepyhead building a massive company town Waikato Times Stephen ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
2 days ago

Gordon Campbell on the public sector carnage, and misogyny as terrorism
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
2 days ago

Meeting the Master Baiters
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
David FarrierBy David Farrier
2 days ago

How extreme was the Earth's temperature in 2023
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blog In 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
Skeptical Science
2 days ago

Backbone, revisited
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
3 days ago

Ministers are not above the law
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
3 days ago

What’s the outfit you can hear going down the gurgler? Probably it’s David Parker’s Oceans Sec...
Buzz from the Beehive Point of Order first heard of the Oceans Secretariat in June 2021, when David Parker (remember him?) announced a multi-agency approach to protecting New Zealand’s marine ecosystems and fisheries. Parker (holding the Environment, and Oceans and Fisheries portfolios) broke the news at the annual Forest & ...
Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
3 days ago

Will politicians let democracy die in the darkness?
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
3 days ago

Matt Doocey doubles down on trans “healthcare”
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
3 days ago

A TikTok Prime Minister.
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
3 days ago

Texas Lessons
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
3 days ago

Bernard's pick 'n' mix of the news links at 6:06 am
The top six news links I’ve seen elsewhere in the last 24 hours as of 6:06 am on Wednesday, April 17 are:Must read: Secrecy shrouds which projects might be fast-tracked RNZ Farah HancockScoop: Revealed: Luxon has seven staffers working on social media content - partly paid for by taxpayer Newshub ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
3 days ago

Fighting poverty on the holiday highway
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
PolitikBy Richard Harman
3 days ago

Bernard's six-stack of substacks at 6:26 pm
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
4 days ago

At a glance – Is the science settled?
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 ...
Skeptical Science
4 days ago

Apposite Quotations.
How Long Is Long Enough? Gaza under Israeli bombardment, July 2014. This posting is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
Bowalley Road
4 days ago

What’s a life worth now?
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
4 days ago

Howling at the Moon
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
4 days ago

Newshub is Dead.
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
4 days ago

Seymour is chuffed about cutting early-learning red tape – but we hear, too, that Jones has loose...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
4 days ago

Bryce Edwards: Will politicians let democracy die in the darkness?
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
4 days ago

Was Hawkesby entirely wrong?
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
4 days ago

PRC shadow looms as the Solomons head for election
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time. A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
4 days ago

Climate Change: Criminal ecocide
We are in the middle of a climate crisis. Last year was (again) the hottest year on record. NOAA has just announced another global coral bleaching event. Floods are threatening UK food security. So naturally, Shane Jones wants to make it easier to mine coal: Resources Minister Shane Jones ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
4 days ago

Is saving one minute of a politician's time worth nearly $1 billion?
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
4 days ago

Long Tunnel or Long Con?
Yesterday it was revealed that Transport Minister had asked Waka Kotahi to look at the options for a long tunnel through Wellington. State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the ...
Greater AucklandBy Matt L
4 days ago

Smoke And Mirrors.
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
4 days ago

Fast-track submissions period must be extended
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. ...
Greens
15 hours ago

Release: Progress on climate will be undone by Govt
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. ...
Labour Blog
15 hours ago

Release: Dark day for Kiwi kids as a third of Govt cuts affect them
News that 1000 jobs at the Ministry of Education and Oranga Tamariki could go is devastating for future generations of New Zealanders. ...
Labour Blog
3 days ago

Release: Alarm as Government signals further blow to school lunches
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. ...
Labour Blog
3 days ago

Release: Quick, submit – stop Govt’s dodgy approvals bill
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Labour Blog
4 days ago

Government throws coal on the climate crisis fire
The Government’s policy announced today to ease consenting for coal mining will have a lasting impact across generations. ...
Greens
4 days ago

Release: Public transport costs to double as National looks at unaffordable roading project instead
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
Labour Blog
5 days ago

Release: Cost of living in Auckland still not a priority
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Labour Blog
5 days ago

Greens look to fast-track submissions on harmful law
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Release: Govt should stop making people’s lives harder and build more homes
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Labour Blog
1 week ago

Release: Melissa Lee missing in action on media
The action Melissa Lee promised to protect democracy and the media sector is missing, Media and Communications spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
Labour Blog
1 week ago

Landlord Government leaves little hope for renters
The Government’s announcement on tenancy rules prove that it does not care about renters. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Opportunity to build a more sustainable economy
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Significant step forward in fixing cruel and unjust past
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Missed opportunity but NZ will surely one day recognise the right to a sustainable environment
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Release: Don’t cut our lunches – clear message sent to Government
Tens of thousands of people are demanding the Government commits to fully funding free and healthy school lunches. ...
Labour Blog
1 week ago

Release: Govt makes U-turn on Suicide Prevention Office
Labour welcomes the Government’s U-turn on the closure of the Suicide Prevention Office, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Labour Blog
2 weeks ago

CCC issues warning over further climate delay
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

Luxon targets are lousy example of leadership
If talk is cheap, Chris Luxon’s “targets” are bankrupt. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

Luxon targets lame and lousy example of leadership
If talk is cheap, Chris Luxon’s “targets” are bankrupt. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

Release: Commitment to disability communities missing from Govt priorities
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Labour Blog
2 weeks ago

Methane target review is dangerous duplication
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

Release: Government must commit to school building project for disabled students
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Labour Blog
2 weeks ago

Release: National must take mental health seriously
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Labour Blog
2 weeks ago

Referendums for Māori wards a racist step backwards
The Government's imposed referendum on Māori wards is a racist step backwards for Māori representation, and disregards Te Tiriti o Waitangi. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

Release: Job losses at Health not worth it for tax cuts
New Zealand will feel the harm of the National Government’s reckless cuts to jobs at the health ministry for generations, says Ayesha Verrall. ...
Labour Blog
2 weeks ago

Press release: No Māori initiatives in Government’s nothing plan
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
Labour Blog
2 weeks ago

Thirty six point PR spin
The Government’s ‘36 point’ plan for the next three months is as pointless as it is hollow. ...
Greens
3 weeks ago

Thirty six point PR spin
The Government’s ‘36 point’ plan for the next three months is as pointless as it is hollow. ...
Greens
3 weeks ago

Thirty six point PR spin
The Government’s ‘36 point’ plan for the next three months is as pointless as it is hollow. ...
Greens
3 weeks ago

Release: Social housing off Government’s to-do list
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Labour Blog
3 weeks ago

Release: Less money in most people’s pockets this April
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
Labour Blog
3 weeks ago

$41m to support clean energy in South East Asia
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
15 hours ago

Minister releases Fast-track stakeholder list
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
17 hours ago

Judicial appointments announced
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
18 hours ago

Education Minister heads to major teaching summit in Singapore
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
18 hours ago

Value of stopbank project proven during cyclone
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
19 hours ago

Anzac commemorations, Türkiye relationship focus of visit
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
19 hours ago

Minister to Europe for OECD meeting, Anzac Day
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
21 hours ago

Comprehensive Partnership the goal for NZ and the Philippines
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 day ago

Government commits $20m to Westport flood protection
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Taupō takes pole position
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Cost of living support for low-income homeowners
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Government backing mussel spat project
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Government focused on getting people into work
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Clean energy key driver to reducing emissions
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Earthquake-prone buildings review brought forward
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Thailand and NZ to agree to Strategic Partnership
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

Government consults on extending coastal permits for ports
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

Inflation coming down, but more work to do
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

School attendance restored as a priority in health advice
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

Unnecessary bureaucracy cut in oceans sector
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

Patterson promoting NZ’s wool sector at International Congress
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

Removing red tape to help early learners thrive
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

RMA changes to cut coal mining consent red tape
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

McClay reaffirms strong NZ-China trade relationship
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

Prime Minister Luxon acknowledges legacy of Singapore Prime Minister Lee
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

PMs Luxon and Lee deepen Singapore-NZ ties
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
5 days ago

Antarctica New Zealand Board appointments
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
5 days ago

Finance Minister travels to Washington DC
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
5 days ago

Pet bonds a win/win for renters and landlords
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
5 days ago

Long Tunnel for SH1 Wellington being considered
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
5 days ago

New Zealand condemns Iranian strikes
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
5 days ago

Huge interest in Government’s infrastructure plans
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Health Minister thanks outgoing Health New Zealand Chair
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Roads of National Significance planning underway
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Navigating an unstable global environment
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

NZ welcomes Australian Governor-General
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Pseudoephedrine back on shelves for Winter
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

NZ and the US: an ever closer partnership
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Joint US and NZ declaration
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

NZ and US to undertake further practical Pacific cooperation
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Anne Salmond: My open submission on this radical, flawed fast-track bill
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
NewsroomBy Dame Anne Salmond
1 hour ago

Short story: Finally, by Caoimhe McKeogh
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
NewsroomBy Caoimhe McKeogh
1 hour ago

Thomas James is a master of invention
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
NewsroomBy Ben Fahy
1 hour ago

All 28 road tunnels in New Zealand ranked from worst to best
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
The SpinoffBy Group Think
2 hours ago

How to make the most of your market haul
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
The SpinoffBy Lucinda Bennett
2 hours ago

From a library basement comes a fashion history
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
NewsroomBy Sharon Brettkelly
2 hours ago

Rousing farewell for Kiwi doctors flying out to Gaza aid flotilla
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
9 hours ago

Communities Against The Fast-track Heartened By ‘Overwhelming’ Public Response; Disgusted By ‘...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Scoop politics
10 hours ago

Renters Rights To Drastically Reduce Under Landlord Government
The Government’s announced changes around tenancy rules set renters’ rights back by nearly a decade. ...
Scoop politics
10 hours ago

NZPI Submission on Fast Track Approvals Bill
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
Scoop politics
11 hours ago

Fast Track Invite List Includes Most Destructive Industries In New Zealand
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
Scoop politics
11 hours ago

Eugene Doyle: Helen Clark on why AUKUS isn’t in New Zealand’s national interest
COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
11 hours ago

Government releases list of organisations shoulder-tapped for fast-track consents
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Radio NZ – political
12 hours ago

The Week in Politics: Job cuts surge and Waitangi Tribunal trouble
Analysis - It's been a grim week for public servants, while trouble is also brewing between the government and Waitangi Tribunal. ...
Radio NZ – political
13 hours ago

It never rains but it pours: intense rain and flash floods have increased inland in eastern Australi...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
13 hours ago

Watch: Christopher Luxon speaks to media in Manila
The PM has defended how he's talked up NZ trade on his trip to Southeast Asia, after criticism from his own delegation. ...
Radio NZ – political
14 hours ago

‘It could be the death of the museum’: why research cuts at a South Australian institution have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
14 hours ago

Government signs off $41m clean energy deal with Asian Development Bank
The government has committed $41 million to clean energy transition at the Asian Development Bank's Energy Transition Mechanism. ...
Radio NZ – political
14 hours ago

Are 2 mid-career AFL retirements a sign Australian athletes are taking brain health more seriously?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
16 hours ago

Luxon: Waitangi Tribunal comments from coalition parties 'ill considered'
Comments from ACT and NZ First ministers about the Tribunal were "ill considered" and "that message will be underscored" to them, the PM says. ...
Radio NZ – political
16 hours ago

Mental Health Foundation Facing Staff Cuts From Govt Funding Squeeze
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Scoop politics
16 hours ago

I wholeheartedly recommend The President: a brilliant revival of a play of decay, terror and revulsi...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
17 hours ago

How the coolest little capital is shrinking
It's not the first time a government has targeted public servants for job cuts, but this time Wellington is really feeling it. ...
Radio NZ – political
17 hours ago

Ministers accused of Cabinet Manual breach with threats to Waitangi Tribunal
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
NewsroomBy Marc Daalder
17 hours ago

Many prisoners go years without touching a smartphone. It means they struggle to navigate life on th...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
17 hours ago

Good news: midlife health is about more than a waist measurement. Here’s why
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
17 hours ago

The Friday Poem: ‘Mitochondrial Problem’ by Evangeline Riddiford Graham
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The SpinoffBy Evangeline Riddiford Graham
17 hours ago

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending April 18
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38) Hot off the press, this debut ...
The SpinoffBy The Spinoff Review of Books
17 hours ago

Department of Conservation closing Dunedin centre, but no jobs lost
Visitor habits are changing and DOC needs to adapt in a financially sustainable way, its operations director says. ...
Radio NZ – political
17 hours ago

Unions Collaborate With Thousands Of Job Cuts
With New Zealand officially in recession, a swathe of mass sackings is currently sending shockwaves through the entire working class. ...
Scoop politics
17 hours ago

Watch live: Christopher Luxon speaks to media in Manila
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is speaking to reporters in Manila after pledging greater defence cooperation with the Philippines. Watch live. ...
Radio NZ – political
18 hours ago

Government sent please explain letter to Wellington City Council over transport disagreement
The contents were revealed in correspondence from Simeon Brown and Chris Bishop to Wellington's Mayor. ...
Radio NZ – political
18 hours ago

Some families push back against journalists who mine social media for photos – they have every rig...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
18 hours ago

Mental Health Foundation staff cuts loom, with funding falling behind rising costs
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
Radio NZ – political
18 hours ago

The ‘devil comet’ 12P/Pons-Brooks has finally become visible from Australia. What can we expect?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Pons–Brooks visible from Utah, March 9 2024. James Peirce/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND If you’re a fan of all things space, you’ve doubtless heard about the “devil comet”, which has been captivating keen-eyed observers in the ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
18 hours ago

Rugby stadiums are sold as an economic asset – but NZ needs to ask if they’re really worth it
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hamlin, Senior Lecturer in Marketing , University of Otago A multi-billion dollar stadium precinct has been proposed for Auckland, one of three proposals in front of Auckland Council for a new stadium in the city. The council is also considering revamping ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
18 hours ago

Auckland dog attacks: Callouts for attacks on other animals going up
Roaming dogs are responsible for more than a thousand attacks on animals each year, and the number is growing. ...
Radio NZ – political
19 hours ago

What access to puberty blockers means for trans young people and their whānau
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
The SpinoffBy Julia de Bres
19 hours ago

NZ and Philippines pledge defence cooperation amid rising tensions
The commitment came after a sit-down meeting between Christopher Luxon and President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr overnight. ...
Radio NZ – political
20 hours ago

How superblocks can help reimagine city life
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
The SpinoffBy Ellen Rykers
21 hours ago

Fire engineering expertise may take a big hit with job cuts at MBIE
The public sector cuts are poised to take out a big chunk of expertise at the country's building regulator. ...
Radio NZ – political
21 hours ago

“Fast-track Law To Kill Kiwi”: Students Say Fight Against Anti-democracy Legislation Is Only Jus...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Scoop politics
22 hours ago

‘We have thousands of Modis’: the secret behind the BJP’s enduring success in India
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
22 hours ago

Online schooling is not just for lockdowns. Could it work for your child?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
22 hours ago

Hear me out: You can shove your reusable period products
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
The SpinoffBy Kristin Kelly
22 hours ago

Rip It Up And Start Over – Fast-Track Approvals Bill Needs To Be Scrapped
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
Scoop politics
22 hours ago

Maori Authority Warns Government On Fast Track Legislation
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Scoop politics
22 hours ago

Why the government’s haste in changing the health system could come back to haunt it
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
22 hours ago

Many suicides are related to gambling. How can we tackle this problem?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
22 hours ago

Things that go buzz in the night – our global study found there really are more insects out after ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
22 hours ago

Why don’t Australians talk about their salaries? Pay transparency and fairness go hand-in-hand
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
22 hours ago

‘Character’ And Its Impact On Immigration Status
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
Scoop politics
23 hours ago

20,000 more on jobseeker benefits than this time last year
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
The SpinoffBy Catherine McGregor
24 hours ago

All of the Raglan Roast cafes in Wellington, ranked from worst to best
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
The SpinoffBy Zoë Mills
1 day ago

Auckland uni students threaten rent strike over rising accommodation fees
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously. The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
The SpinoffBy Stewart Sowman-Lund
1 day ago

Warning of death from a million cuts as Oceans Secretariat dissolved
Shane Jones says people voted for change, but opponents say small cuts such as ending a special oceans secretariat are starting to add up The post Warning of death from a million cuts as Oceans Secretariat dissolved appeared first on Newsroom. ...
NewsroomBy Andrew Bevin
1 day ago

Defence deal to counter Beijing’s aggression in South China Sea
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
NewsroomBy Laura Walters
1 day ago

Wellington’s ebb and flow of public servants
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
NewsroomBy Tom Kitchin
1 day ago

New Zealand transport planning has gone off the rails
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
NewsroomBy Dr Timothy F Welch
1 day ago

Daily crossword, Friday 19 April
The post Daily crossword, Friday 19 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
NewsroomBy Newsroom Puzzles
1 day ago

Brakes on transport and logistics sector as demand for freight slows
The transport sector is currently in the slow lane The post Brakes on transport and logistics sector as demand for freight slows appeared first on Newsroom. ...
NewsroomBy Emma Hatton
1 day ago

Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 19 April
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 19 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
NewsroomBy Newsroom Puzzles
1 day ago

Financial literacy should be on all of us
Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
NewsroomBy Bryce Marsden
1 day ago

Missy rustles to stardom in Canada
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
NewsroomBy Aiden McLaughlin
1 day ago

Emissions fall again – now NZ needs to up the pace
Official figures confirm New Zealand produced less climate pollution in 2022 than in any other year in the 21st century The post Emissions fall again – now NZ needs to up the pace appeared first on Newsroom. ...
NewsroomBy Marc Daalder
1 day ago

Grattan on Friday: Ethnic tensions will complicate the Albanese government’s multicultural policy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, he stressed the rising danger posed by espionage and foreign interference. “In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

Group plans work to improve safety of female MPs
New research shows harassment of elected officials - especially women - is on the rise. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

Ukraine warns of WW3 ahead of long-stalled Congress aid vote
Ukraine's Prime Minister says his country desperately needs the US to approve long-stalled security assistance. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

PSA astonished Education Minister expects hiring of contractors to review curriculum
Hiring contractors is an appalling solution when people who could do the work are losing their jobs, the PSA says. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

Crown lawyers attempt to block Waitangi Tribunal summons to Minister for Children
The Tribunal had called on Minister for Children Karen Chhour to provide evidence at an urgent inquiry into the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. ...
Radio NZ – political
2 days ago

Luxon refuses to guarantee public consultation on AUKUS Pillar 2
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says it's "far too premature" to be confirming whether the public would be consulted on joining AUKUS Pillar 2. ...
Radio NZ – political
2 days ago

Visualising the 1800s or designing wedding invitations: 6 ways you can use AI beyond generating text
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University Midjourney image by T.J. Thomson As more than half of Australian office workers report using generative artificial intelligence (AI) for work, we’re starting to see this technology affect every ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
2 days ago

Falls, fractures and self-harm: 4 charts on how kids’ injury risk changes over time and differs fo...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Nicole Sharwood, Injury epidemiologist | Expert Witness, UNSW Sydney Sergey Novikov/Shutterstock Injuries are the leading cause of disability and death among Australian children and adolescents. At least a quarter of all emergency department presentations during childhood are injury-related. Injuries can ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
2 days ago

Choice and control: will NDIS reforms mean people with disability don’t get to decide who they liv...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Di Winkler, Adjunct Associate Professor, Living with Disability Research Centre, La Trobe University Shutterstock/Ground Picture Many Australians with disability feel on the edge of a precipice right now. Recommendations from the disability royal commission and the NDIS review were released late ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
2 days ago

Asbestos in playground mulch: how to avoid a repeat of this circular economy scandal
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Salman Shooshtarian, Senior Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University Salman Shooshtarian Asbestos has been found in mulch used for playgrounds, schools, parks and gardens across Sydney and Melbourne. Local communities naturally fear for the health of their ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
2 days ago

The Socialist Pope

Related Posts

54 comments on “The Socialist Pope ”

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

Related Posts

Related Posts

Related Posts

Related Posts

The Socialist Pope

Share this:

Related Posts

54 comments on “The Socialist Pope ”

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

Share this:

Related Posts

Share this:

Related Posts

Share this:

Related Posts

Share this:

Related Posts