The poor tend to be understood as the rational inferiors of the well-off, to the extent that political arguments now largely revolve around their management rather than their representation.
We are getting philosphical here, Olwyn, but good point.
It is all about dismempowerment, disentitlement, disowning and marginalisation. Then add the paternialistic approach by the present government, typical in the statements by welfare minister Paula Bennett, that the beneficiaries, the typical “poor” (apart from the working poor) need to be “managed” and supposedly “supported” (that ringing into ears again they cannot manage on their own), and we have the stigmatisation go on, and on, and on.
The POOR are only to blame themselves, and WE (society) need to take their affairs into OUR hands, that is what the damned welfare reforms before Parliament are about. It is not empowering, it is disgracing, humiliating and shaming, nothing else.
It is a bit too much of the traditional beggar meet benevolent or supposed benevolent donor scenario. Do as you are told, listen, obey, do the “right” thing, and you will get our “help”. Shut up and do not come complaining is the other side of “the deal”.
Looking closely at the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill exposes what is really going on. Sadly very few in public know what is in it, what is planned, and what this government is doing. So it is the ignorant, ill-informed public and with that voters once again lulled into wrong thinking, manipulation and told to vote for something that none of them understand.
In the meantime National and the lackeys from ACT and UF get away with hoodwinking NZers and driving a neglected, poor section of society ever more into desperation and onto the margin. So while crime figures may have gone down over the last year or two, prepare for them to go up again.
Desperate people will take desperate actions, like some sole mothers up north having had to steal to feed their kids.
The poor often are women. And the fact that women have babies sometimes becomes a curse rather than a joy. Immediately, pregnant single women used to be reviled and patronised.
Examples of the children of the poor being taken from their parents –
Britain: The children were sent to Australia to what were supposed to be health farms. It was said that they could return but children who wished to might be told that their mother had died. It took decades to trace and join some of these families. There was some sexual interference, they all had to work hard, girls trained to be domestics and boys farm labourers I suppose.
Australia: The children particularly of aboriginal women who were unmarried, were taken with strong efforts of persuasion. Hospitals did not reveal their methods of coercion as they knew there would be public distaste. Julia Gillard has just given a formal apology. Hundreds of thousands of babies were taken away from their mothers for assimilation into white homes.
USA: During the Depression as people streamed out of dry poor farming states in search of work, they might leave their baby in care of a Home. There was one in Tennessee where the proprietress made a good profit from selling the babies for adoption. When the parents came back the children were gone – I don’t know if they were lied to, saying the baby died. There was a further grotesque side – the woman owner in Tennessee used to holiday in Cuba and have a high old time. The authorities in the state were complicit in this trade. A film was made about it.
I bet NZ has been guilty too. Just can’t remember offhand.
Re what happened in Australia and the US, I always thought this only happened in NAZI Germany, but I learned through history, I was wrong. The scale of things are or were different, but the systemic approach is equally worrying.
just been a government level “apology” for the “encouraged” (euphemism) separation of children from un-married mothers from the 40s through to the 70s in Aus; same thing happened in NZ;
“leading to life-times of loss and despair”; yep, Authoritarian government knows best.
Management and treatment of slaves is a pressing issue of debate in our society, from when and how harshly whippings are carried out to the appropriate care, feeding and housing of a plantation’s slaves. Proper systems of tasks, rewards and enforcement of moral rigour in slave families must never be overlooked or shyed away from. Such are the duties of a decent slave owner.
Completely agree – a very good point and very well made.
In our world, to be poor is to be deficient and because it is politically incorrect to blame the economic system the only option is to blame anyone who can’t ‘foot it’.
“…it is politically incorrect to blame the economic system” – very insightful use of that term. And you are right. A few days ago, James Henderson put up an excellent outline of that very economic system that must be protected from attack at all costs. http://thestandard.org.nz/one-day-older-and-deeper-in-debt/
““Services for the poor are poor services”” works better perhaps (for an audience with a trigger finger 😉 ) – i.e. meaning if you design for the poor rather than for the population as a whole services will “largely revolve around their management rather than their representation” – the poor house, the soup kitchen. The suggestion elsewhere in this post about a universal basic income being a service for the whole population is a good alternative.
Problem is, the Right Wing have gradually and effectively moved popular thinking towards the Right. Slavery was fully supported by most citizens in the southern states, remember.
Yep, but it can be moved back as the article I linked to yesterday showed. Just have to show, and keep showing, that the society that National and Act bring about is less benevolent and caring. Is, in fact, outright nasty.
Cv
Yes that’s my worry. 1984 and Labour started a process of wiping everything in an effort to control the unions. Now we have a generation that hasn’t had any experience of that time. If something stays in long enough it becomes status quo as long as it suits those who can enrich themselves within that system.
I agree OTH. I think that the idea of human rights could be extended to include the basis for genuine agency – security of dwelling and a basic living income, for example. See johnm at 7, who offers a few historic examples.
The answer for less well off people is supplied by the Democrats for Social Credit party as follows:
Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI)
“• Promote the right of every New Zealander to have an adequate basic income
• Provide the guaranteed basic income free from tax
• Pay this guaranteed income to every resident New Zealander as a right of citizenship
• Progressively replace all current benefits and allowances with a guaranteed basic income regardless of employment, marital or gender status
• Retain supplements for the disabled, their carers and housing”
This is the humane and socially and economically sensible thing to do. At a stroke you remove the huge edifice of fascist persecution this government is now contemplating.
Young persons will continue to seek work as that is the only means to a fulfilling future and family life and a home.
I believe the current government intends to privatise everything and one day after ruining the public sector will simply say “We don’t have enough money!”
There are many alternatives to the current fascist road as mentioned by Draco T Bastard.
“In his final book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967) Martin Luther King Jr. wrote:
I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.
—from the chapter titled “Where We Are Going”
The first Muslim Caliph Abu Bakr introduced a guaranteed minimum standard of income, granting each man, woman, and child ten dirhams annually; this was later increased to twenty dirhams.
French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte echoed Paine’s sentiments and commented that ‘man is entitled by birthright to a share of the Earth’s produce sufficient to fill the needs of his existence’ (Herold, 1955). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaranteed_minimum_income
The current era of growth is over permanently, yet NeoLiberal Governments continue to assert that the richer members of society should continue to experience wealth growth at the expense of poorer people, this is obviously unjust, cruel, irresponsible, unchristian and downright fascist. The choice:
Yes, I’m sure many of us on the left wonder what happened to our egalitarian New Zealand. Something that Chris Trotter has done some outstanding articles on on Bowally.
I think the poor are really ostracised now (and the rich are given some sort of special (undeserved) status, think John Key and his popularity) compared to 30 years ago, when we lived in much more egalitarian times. The reason for this is the aggressive promotion of the free market philosophy in New Zealand. Borrowing from Michael Sandel’s brilliant book “What Money Cant Buy”, he argues that there is a real lack of discussion about the moral limits of markets. He states that the market has moved into areas it has no place to be such as schools, health, justice, military etc. The big loser from this are the poor. As an example, a rich person can afford health insurance, while a poor person relies on the public health system. The rich person using health insurance will jump to the head of the queue pushing the poor person further back. Is this moral or fair? Clearly it is not. But it is the way we live in New Zealand. The same thing is going to happen with the Mighty River shares. Those rich enough to buy shares will take advantage of increasing power prices through higher dividends while the poor are left struggling to pay increased electricity costs.
I guess there are no surprises that National don’t represent the poor (although their cruelty is reaching new heights the longer they stay in power), but the question is why don’t Labour do more to represent this group. I suspect that they are scared of alienating that bunch of gormless, bookless, aspiring to be rich like John Key group of dropkicks that seem to make up the swing voters in NZ. I know heaps of these people (a couple are family members), they will never vote for Labour as long as John Key is fronting National, he is like their god. Hence the reason that National don’t seem to budge in the polls I suspect.
The best path for Labour would be to give up on the swing voters and strongly represent the poor, and I reckon if Labour could create a decent debate on social justice and equality it wont only win back the non voting poor but it could possibly win back some of the swing voters on moral grounds. It needs strong leadership making it clear that we need to increase the top rate of tax and implement the recommendations from the Family Commission to reduce child poverty. If this is put across in a fluent, articulate, strong manner it will swing voters.
Most Kiwi’s are fair people but they dont seem to be getting any alternative messages/narrative from Labour.
Anyway Olwyn, I strongly recommend the book. Michael Sandel (Professor of Govt, Harvard University), What Money Cant Buy…The Moral Limits of Markets.
I have read a paper by Sandel expressing that view, with which I agree but I have not read the book. I used to love his lectures on Channel 7 when we still had it. I get the impression that the moral arguments get sidelined because market advocates promote their view as “scientific” and insist that “you can’t mess with the science of it.” But I have no doubt that many would be open to moral arguments, just as they were open to moral arguments against slavery, which was also rationalised on a quasi-scientific basis.
I think you’re entitled to reject the false frame as well. The “market advocates” don’t in fact have “science” (by which I take you to mean economics) on their side either.
Rational and emotional arguments can be pretty persuasive, especially in partnership.
“This is wrong – this is why and here’s what we’re going to do about it.”
The problem as I see it goes deeper than that, however. It is clear for the current crop of Nats that universal human rights are too politically correct. Of course, they\’ll defend their own rights to the death.
As for their adherence to a particular market theory, that’s debatable. Perhaps they subscribe to the notion that commerce provides for many goods, and took a bit too much fashionable advice from Treasury.
a major enabler of nationals’ full-scale pogrom on the poorest/sickest was how well the clark labour govt prepared the soil for them..
..those nine long years of clark/labour fostering the ‘otherness’ of the worst-off..(‘working for (some) families..but not them..!’) creating the climate perfect for nationals’ plans..
..the demonising/ostracising/stigmatising of that group has been a major success for the right..
..it is now the norm that these people are ‘bad’/undeserving..
..and of course a classic example of careful what you wish for is those (in work at the time) who nodded along in support of the poorest not getting ‘working for families’..
..that it should only go to ‘deserving’ families/people..
..those supporters of this discrimination now unemloyed have had the double kick in the guts of losing their income..plus losing their working for families top-up..
..i wonder if their experience has tempered their previous enthusiasm..?
…(‘first they came for the unemployed etc etc ‘..)
“The poor tend to be understood as the rational inferiors of the well-off, to the extent that political arguments now largely revolve around their management rather than their representation.”
This quote states a fascist mind set. The new Jews are the poor, there was a final solution for the jews and the poor must be managed.
This statement is quite vile in it’s assumed superiority for those with greater wealth, income and opportunity it shows contempt for all of western civilisation’s progressive strivings. For instance the French Revolution : Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. The Social contract post WW11 and the New Deal in the US.Also the Christian ideal of we are all equal before God.
This vile statement talks of a land ruled by the kleptocratic few, not democracy. A land ruled by the marriage of corporate power and the state and the disenfranchisement of the poor to a basic income.
Definition of DISENFRANCHISE
: to deprive of a franchise, of a legal right, or of some privilege or immunity; especially : to deprive of the right to vote
The poor are to be cast out in terms of income, social status, and rights eg: Benes are force to send their children to ECE. at ages 3 and 4. They are to be harrassed and driven into any possible work outlet proper or no.
johnm, I don’t know if you meant it, but your explanation makes it sound like Olwyn’s quote is stating how things SHOULD be, and that he agrees with it.
Olwyn is actually stating the way things already are, and in a way that shows he strongly disagrees with this attitude become practice.
Excellent summation of the way things have become, especially for those of a Tory mind-set.
“Iain Duncan Smith denies jobcentres have targets for sanctioning benefits
Minister says reminder will be sent to jobcentre staff after leaked email suggested existence of league tables”
1. “IDS, what a shit. ” 2.”Iain Duncan Smith denies jobcentres have targets for sanctioning benefits
Who would believe a word this ignoramus says. Ian Duncan Smith is a proven liar not to mention Mark Hoban.” 3. “HeilCameron – Is he unique in this?” 4. ”
He seems to a be a man who struggles to open his mouth without lying so the argument about who to believe here seems moot.
The true mascot of the Nasty Party. A man who cannot face the cruelty of his actions. A bully, a coward and incompetent. Not a trifecta of which to be proud.”
5. ” Fiddling the unemployment figures by use of sanctions, regardless of the human cost; changing the law retrospectively to prevent people exerting their rights with Workfare; and undermining disabled people’s dignity by cutting their benefits and social care whilst claiming that they are being given greater choice and independence. All accomplished by lying through your teeth, IDS.
Lower than vermin.”
6. “Impossible to believe anything IDS says, with his form.
The targets explain why my single parent neighbour has been sanctioned twice since just before xmas, losing a total of 6 weeks JSA, for complete non-reasons.”
7. ” “Who does he think he is..?” IDS?
A bigoted privileged narcissist in a party bloated with bigoted privileged narcissists.
This is the problem we have – and why none of them have gone – they’re all so unbelievably rotten that none of them are standing out!”
The poor tend to be understood as the rational inferiors of the well-off, to the extent that political arguments now largely revolve around their management rather than their representation.
We have no assurance that the empolyers are not over-stating the problem. They have employed some people to their satisfaction. Why is there no balance showing exactly how many of the total are a problem?
At the interview they complain of people chewing gum and smoking – are the implied social skills necessary for labouring jobs?
And the article mentions a burger chain requiring loads of workers in the area. I had a relative (from a fairly right leaning branch of the family), worked for a bit a McDonalds. Hir family described the boss/system there as exploiting the young family member working there. They demand workers do as they are told, for meagre wages, no matter how unacceptable the orders.
Let’s have the employers’ and their recruiters’ attitudes and behaviour on the table before they start demeaning all those applying for their jobs.
Doug, I’ve read the Waikato Times article you link.
One has to wonder about the criteria applied by Kristen Goodwin when she determined that only 5 out of 200 people who applied for 1 administration job, were “acceptable”.
I find the whiff of deliberate bullshit there anyway. Is Ms Goodwin asking us to believe that she went through the rigmarole of interviewing 200 people for 1 job ? And that by the strangest of coincidences the 5 “acceptable” people were not found until 195 “unacceptables” had been interviewed and rejected ?
How I sympathise with the wan, put-upon, clearly pregnant Ms Goodwin as depicted by her photograph in the article. It must be so trying for a decent, middle class, white, mother-to-be lassie to have to deal with 195 disgusting underclass.
There are six certainties here:
1. 200 applicants were not interviewed or considered in any true sense.
2. For whatever lesser number were in fact truly interviewed irrelevancies such as looks, age,
ethnicity were determinants.
3. The “journalist” who researched and wrote the article is inept. It is bullshit.
4. Paula Bennett would not be happy with Ms Goodwin. Job applicants are to be “congratulated”
for endlessly suffering the actual and implied sneering of the likes of Ms Goodwin.
5. Far from countering Olwyn’s observation the article positively proves it.
6. The poor are a commodity who fall to be “managed” by their “betters”, and publicly
castigated when their “management” proves vexing.
Sooner or later there will be social-media assisted rebellion. An enduring society cannot unendingly marginalise, enslave, and impoverish.
which only makes her claim that 195 were unsuitable even more difficult to believe.
How did she advertise the position? Was the job correctly described. Is she simply telling porkies ????
Indeed, it doesn’t fit with your personal narrative so it she must be lying or inept in some fashion. It couldn’t possibly be that unemployment is so high that large volumes of people are applying for every job the see, qualified or not.
Seems pretty likely to me. Way back when I was a low skilled worker facing personal financial problems I know I applied for every entry level position I could. Even for things I knew I couldn’t get in the hope of getting an interview.
absolutely fair call,
if i do not have all the facts I should not be casting aspersions based on the comments of the employer and the lifelong reading of people’s faces and how they often mirror the person within.
Yes I did read the article Contrarian. It said only 5 people out of 200 were acceptable. That is, 195 were unacceptable. Plain, straight out, no-good. That is the sneering pejorative inherent in the article.
Where the hell does Goodwin get off, and where the hell does Henson get off, branding 195 job-seekers as useless and unworthy if only 5 were interviewed ?
Heavy and uninformed judgment don’t you think of those 195 if they were never personally seen ? If they were judged only according to a phone call, some written expression of interest, or a photograph.
The article is a vicious and deliberate non-sequitur deceitfully peddled. Which means that honest reporting was never intended by the Maxim Institute connected propagandist who wrote it.
Anyway thanks for your comment. It confirms my suspicion that unacceptability may very well have been determined according to age, ethnicity fathomed according to a name or an accent or a photograph, or other discriminatory considerations. It also confirms that you Contrarian buy into the disgraceful “rationality” which Olwyn has identified.
Perhaps I should be kinder to you Contrarian. You comment that maybe it’s down to high volumes of people applying for jobs whether or not they are qualified. Yes, the ones who hope against hope, the ones who are desperate, the ones whom Bennett fulsomely congratulates.
Like the man during the Great Depression who lived next door to my then 18 year old mother in Church Street, Penrose. Daily routine was to walk all over the locality and beyond visiting work sites in search of a job. Insanely chanting the mantra – “I want work, work wants me, the work I want will come to me” repeat repeat repeat repeat. Lazy, indolent bastard ! Obviously the tupuna of the vile 195.
Take your pick CT. Join Bennett and congratulate people who against all the odds keep on applying for jobs, or abuse them as do Goodwin and Henson. You can’t have it both ways.
Precisely North. The rulers have to feel like they are so superior to the serfs. Otherwise their core existence is threatened and they may have to treat their workers like human beings.
And don’t get me started on the minimum wage. Why you should pay it and expect anything but the most minimal response is beyond me.
You did read the article? Sorry your comment about having to believe she interviewed 200 people when it specifically said 5 people must have been a typo on your part.
As a aside if advertised a job requiring Microsoft suite experience and, say, two years experience within the field of a law firm I wouldn’t interview who didn’t list those skills on their CV.
OK. So why does the subtitle of the article read “………applicants appalling” if the writer is talking about people, like in your Microsoft reference, who are simply unqualified ?
You’re a dick if you still maintain this article is not a direct attack on poor and unemployed people. But rationalise all you want…….
Chances are that the advertising would have been done through an agency. The agency would have screened out the vast majority of them through the CV/Cover letter – possibly automatically. Then there would have been the phone interview screening out even more. The finalists, all 5 of them requested by the client, would have been passed on to the employer for an interview.
If the employer did it themselves they would have done exactly the same thing including the predetermined five interviews.
It would be unfair to blame employers for being unable to deal with the enormous volumes of unemployed applicants out there. It would also be unfair to expect them not to go straight for the most qualified for the position.
Jesus did bon mots on the poor ten times better than this.
Is this “rationality” towards the management of poverty less a function of implied scorn and more a function of decreased social mobility?
I think egalitarianism, like Christianity, would be a very good idea, but I observe New Zealand to be so stratified, so grouped into tight hermetic subcultures, and so lonely, that the principle disempowering dynamic is stasis: people are just stuck. Can’t get out. And hence, without personal agency, the logic of managing the poor ensues from that.
“…without personal agency, the logic of managing the poor ensues from that.” I agree. johnm at 7 points out various people, including Napoleon, who have understood that the retention of real agency depends upon having a right to the means to build and maintain a life. Australia, at the time of the federation, also outlined what was needed for a modestly flourishing life. The living wage campaign is also a move in that direction, though a campaign by itself cannot confer a right. Advocacy, however, is a start.
Advocates for the poor are heroes. Absolutely no irony. Any time I see a Labour politician advocate for unity and dignity, to me they are heroes. Enjoyed Ardern sticking it to Bennett in the House this week. Just needs extra killer instinct to make her squirm when she’s impaled.
always precise Ad, personal agency Indeed
include
-government ignoring alcohol reform recommendations
-educational under-achievement, tangata whenua and Pasifika in partic.(yet that must be the “individuals fault”)
-racism (plenty of recent MSM articles on that matter)
-police and justice discrimination toward certain ethnicities
-euro-centricism
-bourgeois expectations
-low minimum wage
-health and safety record in NZ
-well entrenched poverty and implications
-the legacy of all the above occurring for decades now (before some of these applicants were born)
These employers are reaping what their political masters have sown.
The parallels between British Labour and its NZ counterpart are eerie. No wonder the satirical show ‘the thick of it’ is like a documentary of our own “shad cab”
The latest from Owen Jones at the Independent:
What a disgraceful, grubby chapter in the history of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Usually when a Tory Government is in power, giving working people and the poorest in society a kicking, any critical voices of the Labour leadership are savaged for aiding and abetting the enemy. It’s the Tories we should be opposing, or so the line goes. But what happens when the Labour leadership actively rides to the rescue of the Tories, blatantly and overtly helping them as they attack some of the poorest in society while riding roughshod over British law?
Jones believes that it is essential that Labour members stay and fight to take the party back. He endorses a new extra-parliamentary left movement that could light the way:
A Labour Party worthy of the name: it must be fought for. But that is going to be a long haul, and the suffocating political consensus must be fought now. With the Labour leadership abdicating their responsibilities, we need a broad movement that can confidently and unreservedly challenge Tory attacks. That’s why I’m throwing all my energy into building the People’s Assembly, a new initiative being built by trade unions, community groups and activists, members of the Green Party, Labour Party and – most importantly – those with no political home at all. It will be a coalition of all those who despair of what is being inflicted on this country, and are determined to do something about it.
As in the UK there is no shortage of people who are angry and despairing about the actions of the National government and its allies in Labour. Some will turn to the Greens. But maybe a similar movement in NZ could help turn the Labour Party around from being collaborators in kicking the poor and vulnerable of behalf of the wealthy, into a coherent resistance (also known as an opposition).
I love the idea of a people’s assembly. We have the germ of such a movement in TS, but I am not sure how one would go about broadening it. Such a movement would also give courage and traction to Labour MPs who would like to oppose the system, but do not see how. The problem with trying to represent demoralised people is that they cannot offer you a power base from which to negotiate. Trotter has quoted Roosevelt saying of the new deal. “You make me do it,” meaning, “you create the pressure that will give me justification.”
– Set up non-partisan co-ordinators in major and minor centres. They will need to be the right people. These will be people already active, respected and known on the Left wing political scene and ideally should all already know each other.
– There need to be funds available for each centre, promotional work, hall hire, contribution to a nation wide website (hmmmm new functionality for The Standard…?). Probably on the scale of $1K to $2K each in starting funds.
– Identify a network of skilled activists and professionals in each centre willing to dedicate their time and who are both willing to organise and be organised. Lawyers. Accountants. Doctors. Academics. Factory workers. Farm workers. Tradies. Beneficiaries. Retired.
– The first basic functions to carry out are: local news and event reporting and commentary. Dissemination of alternative political economic narratives. Help people understand the path that NZ has taken since the Great Depression. Write up of personal anecdotes and experiences.
My intuition at this stage is that such a movement should not be too committee-like from the outset, but I am not sure how else one might get the ball rolling. It seems at this stage it would be a good idea to keep an eye on how they are proceeding in England, and to also talk to like-minded people and get some ideas percolating.
Thank you to whoever put this quote of mine up, and to the various commentators offering further insights into the problem and suggesting ways in which we might address it over the long haul.
The link above is to an article which clearly places the blame for unemployment not on the economy, but on the unemployed themselves.
Astoundingly it states what are considered “common” faults. Perhaps I’m limited in my experience but I find all except the last two as unlikely in the majority of cases.
COMMON JOBSEEKER FAULTS:
Drunkenness
Absenteeism
Failing drug tests
Physicality when told to leave site
Not turning up for interview
Smoking throughout interview
Chewing gum throughout interview
No CV prepared
CVs full of basic spelling mistakes
Yes folks! THAT’S the real reason the poor remain poor. It’s nothing to do with outside influences, but their lack of personal responsibility
Cheers, Olwyn. This isn’t meant to hijack your thread (!) but to point out that the “management” of the poor is justified through the media by highlighting a few rare cases, encouraging empathy with the employers in this case who can’t find suitable workers.
At no point in the article is it revealed what the conditions for workers with these employers are like, reputation of employers, duration of contract, location of the work and access to transport to work all of which will have considerable effect on the employers ability to attract workers.
That practice of generalising from a small number of particular cases is a standard way in which prejudice is propagated and maintained. And the list conflates cliched examples of poor work histories with poor interview stories. Absenteeism and failed drug tests do not generally come up at interviews. And as to “smoking throughout the interview,” aren’t most interviews conducted indoors? And aren’t all indoor work environments smoke-free by law? It all reads like yet another round of prejudice maintenance.
It might be a good idea to have a Good/Bad employer site. It would have to be circumspect about referring to the names of bad employers but could mention the type of employment. Tramps used to mark the gateways of houses with symbols that indicated their experience with the residents. This would be a modern way of doing the same.
Mea Cupla. I’m really dead sorry that I’ve spoiled it for everybody by refusing to be materially wealthy; by refusing to be a good consumer; by refusing to reduce my humanity to the level of a rationally optimising ‘ homo economicus’. And to authority -the representatives of the wealthy – that have generally found my attitude and presence problematic, well…what can I say? I feel for you and your burden, I really do.
Thanks to greed over powering common sense I have been recently made redundant. Severance Pay is not a word in my employer’s lexicon. As i try to find next month’s rent I expect to confront first hand many of the prejudices ascribed to the employers in the above article. I freely admit I am not looking forward to cliche driven character dissection by what are presented as some extremely judgemental denizens of virtue and perfection.
Luckily i have skills outside of slavery and will be trying to get the workshop producing most of my income but the interim of reality screams that I may have to sign on. If it does occur I at least wil be able to offer some updates on the front line attitude so to speak. That said though, signing on to the dole is going to be a desperate last act.
Stories like the one above do not instill confidence in jobseekers. It describes an environment devoid of rationality and open minded common decency. Neither of which, if the article has any truth, appear to be high on the agenda of employers.
Luckily i have skills outside of slavery and will be trying to get the workshop producing most of my income but the interim of reality screams that I may have to sign on.
Ring WINZ today as the stand-down period starts from when you ring them up. Even if you end up not signing up you’ll have started things in motion.
You are not alone in your advice. I have had friends on my back all week about not being such a stubborn idiot and to go ask for help, so i did. I rang them and booked in for next week. Not to say i am actually going to sign on but as they say, best to have a matress down if jumping off the barn roof.
🙂 most of my skills are hard to make money from without producing dross folk do not really need, so I have spent the last thirty years predominately in Hospo. The few times I thought that was going to change my lack of will to walk over others generally allowed others to walk over me.
I have exhibited at the National Gallery (when we had one) I have built a 300 square meter concrete map to celebrate the workers of NZ who once built the biggest Dam in the Southern Hemisphere ( a map since destroyed by a property developer who thought townhouses are more necessary than community space) I have organized large protest events and even got protest art legally installed on Parliament’s lawn. ( way back in the 90’s when we still had some rights to the grounds) The one time a ‘legit career’ was opening up for me as an Art teacher a particularly nasty violent crime shut the door hard and left me with PTSD. So like all of you I have tried things and I have had my challenges.
I confess to being a serious Artist not prone to producing the decor dressing that fills most galleries. I am told I produce actual Art that makes you feel something, that is based on the human need for reflection growth and progression. I am told I am very good and have learnt to quietly accept the praise when it is delivered. I paint, I sculpt, I carve Taonga, I make really lovely wooden boxes. I love producing large installation work for public space, but that is a rare event these days.
I have had opportunities most Artists would kill for and if I had more bloodlust I may have prostituted the events to my favour, but no, I concentrated on producing quality work instead. I succeeded every time, but the work seemed to be only part of the deal, i always suspected they wanted a personality to sell as well and that just is not interesting to me. I am not a navel gazer but do think on occassion. I have practical and digital skills in various creative fields, no institutional training to speak of and still have half a brain despite the best efforts of the MSM and associated media. I am an excellent problem solver and peacekeeper who is not motivated by money (hence the need for gainful employment) As an ‘outsider’ not attached to the Gallery game I developed my work instead of my reputation and am now entering one of the most productive satisfying and genuinely challenging periods of Studio work I have ever experienced. Perhaps the recent actions of my employer are simply the Universe suggesting I allow my work to help keep me alive instead of the other way around.
I beleive many who visit The Standard can appreciate that the career we get paid for and the life we actually live are often seperate things.
I thank you for the words of support and I know it is expressed towards all who are trying to get through the challenges of daily life in New Zealand. We all can help each other everyday by doing all we can to make sure those we know and love learn from the anguish facing hundreds of thousands of Kiwis. We all can remind people that things can be different and that articles like the one in question should be vilified for the thinly disguised hate speech that they are. Arohanui.
Thanks for your contributions “freedom”. The world is a place with as many diverse talents as there are human beings. Sadly the one-eyed market driven agenda – of the ones now dominating societies and economies – does not respect talents such as yours enough. Keep up your spirit despite all challenges and best of luck!
From todays Herald-Amelia Wade.
“1 in 3 NZers believe that they are worse off than 2 years ago and have less disposable income; 43% the same (on the moving escalator); 18% better off.
Food costs up, Power costs up, House costs up, Car costs up, Unemployment up.
Low and Middle-Income families feeling the increases more than those at the top; “average wage” stats skewed by high earners (that must be the 18% then).
But that is OK; Telecom job losses likely to be around 2500; 1/3 of their workforce;
“the highest number of job losses at a single time, from a single company, in NZ history.”
“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”
“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” [1]
Except for Telecom in 1990/91 when the layoffs first began. IIRC, the first tranche was about 5000 – again, about a third of their workforce at the time.
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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 29 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, 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. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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, Thursday 28 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
We are getting philosphical here, Olwyn, but good point.
It is all about dismempowerment, disentitlement, disowning and marginalisation. Then add the paternialistic approach by the present government, typical in the statements by welfare minister Paula Bennett, that the beneficiaries, the typical “poor” (apart from the working poor) need to be “managed” and supposedly “supported” (that ringing into ears again they cannot manage on their own), and we have the stigmatisation go on, and on, and on.
The POOR are only to blame themselves, and WE (society) need to take their affairs into OUR hands, that is what the damned welfare reforms before Parliament are about. It is not empowering, it is disgracing, humiliating and shaming, nothing else.
It is a bit too much of the traditional beggar meet benevolent or supposed benevolent donor scenario. Do as you are told, listen, obey, do the “right” thing, and you will get our “help”. Shut up and do not come complaining is the other side of “the deal”.
Looking closely at the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill exposes what is really going on. Sadly very few in public know what is in it, what is planned, and what this government is doing. So it is the ignorant, ill-informed public and with that voters once again lulled into wrong thinking, manipulation and told to vote for something that none of them understand.
In the meantime National and the lackeys from ACT and UF get away with hoodwinking NZers and driving a neglected, poor section of society ever more into desperation and onto the margin. So while crime figures may have gone down over the last year or two, prepare for them to go up again.
Desperate people will take desperate actions, like some sole mothers up north having had to steal to feed their kids.
The poor often are women. And the fact that women have babies sometimes becomes a curse rather than a joy. Immediately, pregnant single women used to be reviled and patronised.
Examples of the children of the poor being taken from their parents –
Britain: The children were sent to Australia to what were supposed to be health farms. It was said that they could return but children who wished to might be told that their mother had died. It took decades to trace and join some of these families. There was some sexual interference, they all had to work hard, girls trained to be domestics and boys farm labourers I suppose.
Australia: The children particularly of aboriginal women who were unmarried, were taken with strong efforts of persuasion. Hospitals did not reveal their methods of coercion as they knew there would be public distaste. Julia Gillard has just given a formal apology. Hundreds of thousands of babies were taken away from their mothers for assimilation into white homes.
USA: During the Depression as people streamed out of dry poor farming states in search of work, they might leave their baby in care of a Home. There was one in Tennessee where the proprietress made a good profit from selling the babies for adoption. When the parents came back the children were gone – I don’t know if they were lied to, saying the baby died. There was a further grotesque side – the woman owner in Tennessee used to holiday in Cuba and have a high old time. The authorities in the state were complicit in this trade. A film was made about it.
I bet NZ has been guilty too. Just can’t remember offhand.
Re what happened in Australia and the US, I always thought this only happened in NAZI Germany, but I learned through history, I was wrong. The scale of things are or were different, but the systemic approach is equally worrying.
just been a government level “apology” for the “encouraged” (euphemism) separation of children from un-married mothers from the 40s through to the 70s in Aus; same thing happened in NZ;
“leading to life-times of loss and despair”; yep, Authoritarian government knows best.
Management and treatment of slaves is a pressing issue of debate in our society, from when and how harshly whippings are carried out to the appropriate care, feeding and housing of a plantation’s slaves. Proper systems of tasks, rewards and enforcement of moral rigour in slave families must never be overlooked or shyed away from. Such are the duties of a decent slave owner.
Fine point well made, Olwyn
Completely agree – a very good point and very well made.
In our world, to be poor is to be deficient and because it is politically incorrect to blame the economic system the only option is to blame anyone who can’t ‘foot it’.
“…it is politically incorrect to blame the economic system” – very insightful use of that term. And you are right. A few days ago, James Henderson put up an excellent outline of that very economic system that must be protected from attack at all costs. http://thestandard.org.nz/one-day-older-and-deeper-in-debt/
It’s a bit trite but I think that “Services to the poor are poor services” is a good riposte to this view.
Only if you’re a sociopath.
““Services for the poor are poor services”” works better perhaps (for an audience with a trigger finger 😉 ) – i.e. meaning if you design for the poor rather than for the population as a whole services will “largely revolve around their management rather than their representation” – the poor house, the soup kitchen. The suggestion elsewhere in this post about a universal basic income being a service for the whole population is a good alternative.
Olwyn……..admirable, enviable, succinct, powerful. The essence. Thank you.
+1
Very well said Olwyn.
There must be a way to entrench decent human rights legislation to reverse this right wing dehumanisation, and prevent its re-occurrence.
Referenda with a clause that has any politician trying to remove them or bypass them going to jail for 20+ years.
Problem is, the Right Wing have gradually and effectively moved popular thinking towards the Right. Slavery was fully supported by most citizens in the southern states, remember.
Yep, but it can be moved back as the article I linked to yesterday showed. Just have to show, and keep showing, that the society that National and Act bring about is less benevolent and caring. Is, in fact, outright nasty.
Cv
Yes that’s my worry. 1984 and Labour started a process of wiping everything in an effort to control the unions. Now we have a generation that hasn’t had any experience of that time. If something stays in long enough it becomes status quo as long as it suits those who can enrich themselves within that system.
I agree OTH. I think that the idea of human rights could be extended to include the basis for genuine agency – security of dwelling and a basic living income, for example. See johnm at 7, who offers a few historic examples.
The answer for less well off people is supplied by the Democrats for Social Credit party as follows:
Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI)
“• Promote the right of every New Zealander to have an adequate basic income
• Provide the guaranteed basic income free from tax
• Pay this guaranteed income to every resident New Zealander as a right of citizenship
• Progressively replace all current benefits and allowances with a guaranteed basic income regardless of employment, marital or gender status
• Retain supplements for the disabled, their carers and housing”
This is the humane and socially and economically sensible thing to do. At a stroke you remove the huge edifice of fascist persecution this government is now contemplating.
Young persons will continue to seek work as that is the only means to a fulfilling future and family life and a home.
I believe the current government intends to privatise everything and one day after ruining the public sector will simply say “We don’t have enough money!”
There are many alternatives to the current fascist road as mentioned by Draco T Bastard.
http://www.democrats.org.nz/OurVision/ThePartyTenets/tabid/61/Default.aspx
“In his final book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967) Martin Luther King Jr. wrote:
I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.
—from the chapter titled “Where We Are Going”
The first Muslim Caliph Abu Bakr introduced a guaranteed minimum standard of income, granting each man, woman, and child ten dirhams annually; this was later increased to twenty dirhams.
French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte echoed Paine’s sentiments and commented that ‘man is entitled by birthright to a share of the Earth’s produce sufficient to fill the needs of his existence’ (Herold, 1955).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaranteed_minimum_income
The current era of growth is over permanently, yet NeoLiberal Governments continue to assert that the richer members of society should continue to experience wealth growth at the expense of poorer people, this is obviously unjust, cruel, irresponsible, unchristian and downright fascist. The choice:
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?
The Greens
Alliance
That’s their 2011 manifesto and on page 14 they say that they’ll bring in a Universal Income.
Yes, I’m sure many of us on the left wonder what happened to our egalitarian New Zealand. Something that Chris Trotter has done some outstanding articles on on Bowally.
I think the poor are really ostracised now (and the rich are given some sort of special (undeserved) status, think John Key and his popularity) compared to 30 years ago, when we lived in much more egalitarian times. The reason for this is the aggressive promotion of the free market philosophy in New Zealand. Borrowing from Michael Sandel’s brilliant book “What Money Cant Buy”, he argues that there is a real lack of discussion about the moral limits of markets. He states that the market has moved into areas it has no place to be such as schools, health, justice, military etc. The big loser from this are the poor. As an example, a rich person can afford health insurance, while a poor person relies on the public health system. The rich person using health insurance will jump to the head of the queue pushing the poor person further back. Is this moral or fair? Clearly it is not. But it is the way we live in New Zealand. The same thing is going to happen with the Mighty River shares. Those rich enough to buy shares will take advantage of increasing power prices through higher dividends while the poor are left struggling to pay increased electricity costs.
I guess there are no surprises that National don’t represent the poor (although their cruelty is reaching new heights the longer they stay in power), but the question is why don’t Labour do more to represent this group. I suspect that they are scared of alienating that bunch of gormless, bookless, aspiring to be rich like John Key group of dropkicks that seem to make up the swing voters in NZ. I know heaps of these people (a couple are family members), they will never vote for Labour as long as John Key is fronting National, he is like their god. Hence the reason that National don’t seem to budge in the polls I suspect.
The best path for Labour would be to give up on the swing voters and strongly represent the poor, and I reckon if Labour could create a decent debate on social justice and equality it wont only win back the non voting poor but it could possibly win back some of the swing voters on moral grounds. It needs strong leadership making it clear that we need to increase the top rate of tax and implement the recommendations from the Family Commission to reduce child poverty. If this is put across in a fluent, articulate, strong manner it will swing voters.
Most Kiwi’s are fair people but they dont seem to be getting any alternative messages/narrative from Labour.
Anyway Olwyn, I strongly recommend the book. Michael Sandel (Professor of Govt, Harvard University), What Money Cant Buy…The Moral Limits of Markets.
I have read a paper by Sandel expressing that view, with which I agree but I have not read the book. I used to love his lectures on Channel 7 when we still had it. I get the impression that the moral arguments get sidelined because market advocates promote their view as “scientific” and insist that “you can’t mess with the science of it.” But I have no doubt that many would be open to moral arguments, just as they were open to moral arguments against slavery, which was also rationalised on a quasi-scientific basis.
I think you’re entitled to reject the false frame as well. The “market advocates” don’t in fact have “science” (by which I take you to mean economics) on their side either.
Rational and emotional arguments can be pretty persuasive, especially in partnership.
“This is wrong – this is why and here’s what we’re going to do about it.”
The problem as I see it goes deeper than that, however. It is clear for the current crop of Nats that universal human rights are too politically correct. Of course, they\’ll defend their own rights to the death.
Because they’re busy kowtowing to the Free-Market and the Masters of Business – Just like National.
As for their adherence to a particular market theory, that’s debatable. Perhaps they subscribe to the notion that commerce provides for many goods, and took a bit too much fashionable advice from Treasury.
a major enabler of nationals’ full-scale pogrom on the poorest/sickest was how well the clark labour govt prepared the soil for them..
..those nine long years of clark/labour fostering the ‘otherness’ of the worst-off..(‘working for (some) families..but not them..!’) creating the climate perfect for nationals’ plans..
..the demonising/ostracising/stigmatising of that group has been a major success for the right..
..it is now the norm that these people are ‘bad’/undeserving..
..and of course a classic example of careful what you wish for is those (in work at the time) who nodded along in support of the poorest not getting ‘working for families’..
..that it should only go to ‘deserving’ families/people..
..those supporters of this discrimination now unemloyed have had the double kick in the guts of losing their income..plus losing their working for families top-up..
..i wonder if their experience has tempered their previous enthusiasm..?
…(‘first they came for the unemployed etc etc ‘..)
..phillip ure..
“The poor tend to be understood as the rational inferiors of the well-off, to the extent that political arguments now largely revolve around their management rather than their representation.”
This quote states a fascist mind set. The new Jews are the poor, there was a final solution for the jews and the poor must be managed.
This statement is quite vile in it’s assumed superiority for those with greater wealth, income and opportunity it shows contempt for all of western civilisation’s progressive strivings. For instance the French Revolution : Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. The Social contract post WW11 and the New Deal in the US.Also the Christian ideal of we are all equal before God.
This vile statement talks of a land ruled by the kleptocratic few, not democracy. A land ruled by the marriage of corporate power and the state and the disenfranchisement of the poor to a basic income.
Definition of DISENFRANCHISE
: to deprive of a franchise, of a legal right, or of some privilege or immunity; especially : to deprive of the right to vote
The poor are to be cast out in terms of income, social status, and rights eg: Benes are force to send their children to ECE. at ages 3 and 4. They are to be harrassed and driven into any possible work outlet proper or no.
johnm, I don’t know if you meant it, but your explanation makes it sound like Olwyn’s quote is stating how things SHOULD be, and that he agrees with it.
Olwyn is actually stating the way things already are, and in a way that shows he strongly disagrees with this attitude become practice.
Excellent summation of the way things have become, especially for those of a Tory mind-set.
Thanks Karol, for offering johnm a clarification on my behalf. And I am a “she” not a “he” despite the “y” in my name.
Sorry for the wrong use of pronoun. She it is.
The Tory Scum in the U$K are putting this quote into practice here are some reactions. IDS is Ian Duncan Smith who does there Bennett’s role here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/mar/22/iain-duncan-smith-jobcentres-benefits#start-of-comments
“Iain Duncan Smith denies jobcentres have targets for sanctioning benefits
Minister says reminder will be sent to jobcentre staff after leaked email suggested existence of league tables”
1. “IDS, what a shit. ” 2.”Iain Duncan Smith denies jobcentres have targets for sanctioning benefits
Who would believe a word this ignoramus says. Ian Duncan Smith is a proven liar not to mention Mark Hoban.” 3. “HeilCameron – Is he unique in this?” 4. ”
He seems to a be a man who struggles to open his mouth without lying so the argument about who to believe here seems moot.
The true mascot of the Nasty Party. A man who cannot face the cruelty of his actions. A bully, a coward and incompetent. Not a trifecta of which to be proud.”
5. ” Fiddling the unemployment figures by use of sanctions, regardless of the human cost; changing the law retrospectively to prevent people exerting their rights with Workfare; and undermining disabled people’s dignity by cutting their benefits and social care whilst claiming that they are being given greater choice and independence. All accomplished by lying through your teeth, IDS.
Lower than vermin.”
6. “Impossible to believe anything IDS says, with his form.
The targets explain why my single parent neighbour has been sanctioned twice since just before xmas, losing a total of 6 weeks JSA, for complete non-reasons.”
7. ” “Who does he think he is..?” IDS?
A bigoted privileged narcissist in a party bloated with bigoted privileged narcissists.
This is the problem we have – and why none of them have gone – they’re all so unbelievably rotten that none of them are standing out!”
The poor tend to be understood as the rational inferiors of the well-off, to the extent that political arguments now largely revolve around their management rather than their representation.
Maybe they need Management.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/8462897/Dole-queues-are-long-but-bosses-say-We-can-t-get-workers
We have no assurance that the empolyers are not over-stating the problem. They have employed some people to their satisfaction. Why is there no balance showing exactly how many of the total are a problem?
At the interview they complain of people chewing gum and smoking – are the implied social skills necessary for labouring jobs?
And the article mentions a burger chain requiring loads of workers in the area. I had a relative (from a fairly right leaning branch of the family), worked for a bit a McDonalds. Hir family described the boss/system there as exploiting the young family member working there. They demand workers do as they are told, for meagre wages, no matter how unacceptable the orders.
Let’s have the employers’ and their recruiters’ attitudes and behaviour on the table before they start demeaning all those applying for their jobs.
I was going to post the same link, but as an example of the hate speech being directed at the poor in NZ.
Then again what can you expect from an ex- Maxim Institute ‘journalist’.
The Nats are certainly winning the propoganda war against the poor.
S Karol rightly asks , how are the unemployed meant to rebuke these sensationalized and largely overstated claims ?
Doug, I’ve read the Waikato Times article you link.
One has to wonder about the criteria applied by Kristen Goodwin when she determined that only 5 out of 200 people who applied for 1 administration job, were “acceptable”.
I find the whiff of deliberate bullshit there anyway. Is Ms Goodwin asking us to believe that she went through the rigmarole of interviewing 200 people for 1 job ? And that by the strangest of coincidences the 5 “acceptable” people were not found until 195 “unacceptables” had been interviewed and rejected ?
How I sympathise with the wan, put-upon, clearly pregnant Ms Goodwin as depicted by her photograph in the article. It must be so trying for a decent, middle class, white, mother-to-be lassie to have to deal with 195 disgusting underclass.
There are six certainties here:
1. 200 applicants were not interviewed or considered in any true sense.
2. For whatever lesser number were in fact truly interviewed irrelevancies such as looks, age,
ethnicity were determinants.
3. The “journalist” who researched and wrote the article is inept. It is bullshit.
4. Paula Bennett would not be happy with Ms Goodwin. Job applicants are to be “congratulated”
for endlessly suffering the actual and implied sneering of the likes of Ms Goodwin.
5. Far from countering Olwyn’s observation the article positively proves it.
6. The poor are a commodity who fall to be “managed” by their “betters”, and publicly
castigated when their “management” proves vexing.
Sooner or later there will be social-media assisted rebellion. An enduring society cannot unendingly marginalise, enslave, and impoverish.
Well said North.
And how come these fuckwits seem to forget all about their beloved market economics as soon as they can’t use it to screw someone?
If they’re not getting suitable applicants they need to offer more money. End of.
Did you actually read the article North? It explicitly says she interviewed 5 people out of 200. Not that she interviewed 200 and found 5 acceptable.
which only makes her claim that 195 were unsuitable even more difficult to believe.
How did she advertise the position? Was the job correctly described. Is she simply telling porkies ????
Indeed, it doesn’t fit with your personal narrative so it she must be lying or inept in some fashion. It couldn’t possibly be that unemployment is so high that large volumes of people are applying for every job the see, qualified or not.
Fair point.
Seems pretty likely to me. Way back when I was a low skilled worker facing personal financial problems I know I applied for every entry level position I could. Even for things I knew I couldn’t get in the hope of getting an interview.
absolutely fair call,
if i do not have all the facts I should not be casting aspersions based on the comments of the employer and the lifelong reading of people’s faces and how they often mirror the person within.
Yes I did read the article Contrarian. It said only 5 people out of 200 were acceptable. That is, 195 were unacceptable. Plain, straight out, no-good. That is the sneering pejorative inherent in the article.
Where the hell does Goodwin get off, and where the hell does Henson get off, branding 195 job-seekers as useless and unworthy if only 5 were interviewed ?
Heavy and uninformed judgment don’t you think of those 195 if they were never personally seen ? If they were judged only according to a phone call, some written expression of interest, or a photograph.
The article is a vicious and deliberate non-sequitur deceitfully peddled. Which means that honest reporting was never intended by the Maxim Institute connected propagandist who wrote it.
Anyway thanks for your comment. It confirms my suspicion that unacceptability may very well have been determined according to age, ethnicity fathomed according to a name or an accent or a photograph, or other discriminatory considerations. It also confirms that you Contrarian buy into the disgraceful “rationality” which Olwyn has identified.
Perhaps I should be kinder to you Contrarian. You comment that maybe it’s down to high volumes of people applying for jobs whether or not they are qualified. Yes, the ones who hope against hope, the ones who are desperate, the ones whom Bennett fulsomely congratulates.
Like the man during the Great Depression who lived next door to my then 18 year old mother in Church Street, Penrose. Daily routine was to walk all over the locality and beyond visiting work sites in search of a job. Insanely chanting the mantra – “I want work, work wants me, the work I want will come to me” repeat repeat repeat repeat. Lazy, indolent bastard ! Obviously the tupuna of the vile 195.
Take your pick CT. Join Bennett and congratulate people who against all the odds keep on applying for jobs, or abuse them as do Goodwin and Henson. You can’t have it both ways.
Precisely North. The rulers have to feel like they are so superior to the serfs. Otherwise their core existence is threatened and they may have to treat their workers like human beings.
And don’t get me started on the minimum wage. Why you should pay it and expect anything but the most minimal response is beyond me.
You did read the article? Sorry your comment about having to believe she interviewed 200 people when it specifically said 5 people must have been a typo on your part.
As a aside if advertised a job requiring Microsoft suite experience and, say, two years experience within the field of a law firm I wouldn’t interview who didn’t list those skills on their CV.
OK. So why does the subtitle of the article read “………applicants appalling” if the writer is talking about people, like in your Microsoft reference, who are simply unqualified ?
You’re a dick if you still maintain this article is not a direct attack on poor and unemployed people. But rationalise all you want…….
Specially when there are people at WINZ telling people that they must apply for between 3 and 5 jobs a day.
Chances are that the advertising would have been done through an agency. The agency would have screened out the vast majority of them through the CV/Cover letter – possibly automatically. Then there would have been the phone interview screening out even more. The finalists, all 5 of them requested by the client, would have been passed on to the employer for an interview.
If the employer did it themselves they would have done exactly the same thing including the predetermined five interviews.
It would be unfair to blame employers for being unable to deal with the enormous volumes of unemployed applicants out there. It would also be unfair to expect them not to go straight for the most qualified for the position.
Well said Olwyn.
Mind if I borrow it?
By all means! the more people pointing out such things, the better.
Jesus did bon mots on the poor ten times better than this.
Is this “rationality” towards the management of poverty less a function of implied scorn and more a function of decreased social mobility?
I think egalitarianism, like Christianity, would be a very good idea, but I observe New Zealand to be so stratified, so grouped into tight hermetic subcultures, and so lonely, that the principle disempowering dynamic is stasis: people are just stuck. Can’t get out. And hence, without personal agency, the logic of managing the poor ensues from that.
“…without personal agency, the logic of managing the poor ensues from that.” I agree. johnm at 7 points out various people, including Napoleon, who have understood that the retention of real agency depends upon having a right to the means to build and maintain a life. Australia, at the time of the federation, also outlined what was needed for a modestly flourishing life. The living wage campaign is also a move in that direction, though a campaign by itself cannot confer a right. Advocacy, however, is a start.
Advocates for the poor are heroes. Absolutely no irony. Any time I see a Labour politician advocate for unity and dignity, to me they are heroes. Enjoyed Ardern sticking it to Bennett in the House this week. Just needs extra killer instinct to make her squirm when she’s impaled.
I hear ya, Arden comes across like the type who has soft toys around her bedroom. Maybe it’s just me…
I like her a lot though.
always precise Ad, personal agency Indeed
include
-government ignoring alcohol reform recommendations
-educational under-achievement, tangata whenua and Pasifika in partic.(yet that must be the “individuals fault”)
-racism (plenty of recent MSM articles on that matter)
-police and justice discrimination toward certain ethnicities
-euro-centricism
-bourgeois expectations
-low minimum wage
-health and safety record in NZ
-well entrenched poverty and implications
-the legacy of all the above occurring for decades now (before some of these applicants were born)
These employers are reaping what their political masters have sown.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/workfare-why-did-so-many-labour-mps-accept-this-brutal-unforgivable-attack-on-vulnerable-people-8542193.html
The parallels between British Labour and its NZ counterpart are eerie. No wonder the satirical show ‘the thick of it’ is like a documentary of our own “shad cab”
The latest from Owen Jones at the Independent:
Jones believes that it is essential that Labour members stay and fight to take the party back. He endorses a new extra-parliamentary left movement that could light the way:
As in the UK there is no shortage of people who are angry and despairing about the actions of the National government and its allies in Labour. Some will turn to the Greens. But maybe a similar movement in NZ could help turn the Labour Party around from being collaborators in kicking the poor and vulnerable of behalf of the wealthy, into a coherent resistance (also known as an opposition).
I love the idea of a people’s assembly. We have the germ of such a movement in TS, but I am not sure how one would go about broadening it. Such a movement would also give courage and traction to Labour MPs who would like to oppose the system, but do not see how. The problem with trying to represent demoralised people is that they cannot offer you a power base from which to negotiate. Trotter has quoted Roosevelt saying of the new deal. “You make me do it,” meaning, “you create the pressure that will give me justification.”
Initially
– Set up non-partisan co-ordinators in major and minor centres. They will need to be the right people. These will be people already active, respected and known on the Left wing political scene and ideally should all already know each other.
– There need to be funds available for each centre, promotional work, hall hire, contribution to a nation wide website (hmmmm new functionality for The Standard…?). Probably on the scale of $1K to $2K each in starting funds.
– Identify a network of skilled activists and professionals in each centre willing to dedicate their time and who are both willing to organise and be organised. Lawyers. Accountants. Doctors. Academics. Factory workers. Farm workers. Tradies. Beneficiaries. Retired.
– The first basic functions to carry out are: local news and event reporting and commentary. Dissemination of alternative political economic narratives. Help people understand the path that NZ has taken since the Great Depression. Write up of personal anecdotes and experiences.
My intuition at this stage is that such a movement should not be too committee-like from the outset, but I am not sure how else one might get the ball rolling. It seems at this stage it would be a good idea to keep an eye on how they are proceeding in England, and to also talk to like-minded people and get some ideas percolating.
Thank you to whoever put this quote of mine up, and to the various commentators offering further insights into the problem and suggesting ways in which we might address it over the long haul.
Olwyn…….you give “aspiration”, of late a cynically abused word centred in cargo-cult, true meaning.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8463033/Dole-queues-long-but-bosses-can-t-get-workers
The link above is to an article which clearly places the blame for unemployment not on the economy, but on the unemployed themselves.
Astoundingly it states what are considered “common” faults. Perhaps I’m limited in my experience but I find all except the last two as unlikely in the majority of cases.
COMMON JOBSEEKER FAULTS:
Drunkenness
Absenteeism
Failing drug tests
Physicality when told to leave site
Not turning up for interview
Smoking throughout interview
Chewing gum throughout interview
No CV prepared
CVs full of basic spelling mistakes
Yes folks! THAT’S the real reason the poor remain poor. It’s nothing to do with outside influences, but their lack of personal responsibility
Cheers, Olwyn. This isn’t meant to hijack your thread (!) but to point out that the “management” of the poor is justified through the media by highlighting a few rare cases, encouraging empathy with the employers in this case who can’t find suitable workers.
At no point in the article is it revealed what the conditions for workers with these employers are like, reputation of employers, duration of contract, location of the work and access to transport to work all of which will have considerable effect on the employers ability to attract workers.
AWW, the article is discussed above
http://thestandard.org.nz/ts-quote-of-the-week/#comment-608099
That practice of generalising from a small number of particular cases is a standard way in which prejudice is propagated and maintained. And the list conflates cliched examples of poor work histories with poor interview stories. Absenteeism and failed drug tests do not generally come up at interviews. And as to “smoking throughout the interview,” aren’t most interviews conducted indoors? And aren’t all indoor work environments smoke-free by law? It all reads like yet another round of prejudice maintenance.
It might be a good idea to have a Good/Bad employer site. It would have to be circumspect about referring to the names of bad employers but could mention the type of employment. Tramps used to mark the gateways of houses with symbols that indicated their experience with the residents. This would be a modern way of doing the same.
Mea Cupla. I’m really dead sorry that I’ve spoiled it for everybody by refusing to be materially wealthy; by refusing to be a good consumer; by refusing to reduce my humanity to the level of a rationally optimising ‘ homo economicus’. And to authority -the representatives of the wealthy – that have generally found my attitude and presence problematic, well…what can I say? I feel for you and your burden, I really do.
You’re damaging world economic growth by not buying a new 52″ flat screen every 18 months. Shame on you.
Thanks to greed over powering common sense I have been recently made redundant. Severance Pay is not a word in my employer’s lexicon. As i try to find next month’s rent I expect to confront first hand many of the prejudices ascribed to the employers in the above article. I freely admit I am not looking forward to cliche driven character dissection by what are presented as some extremely judgemental denizens of virtue and perfection.
Luckily i have skills outside of slavery and will be trying to get the workshop producing most of my income but the interim of reality screams that I may have to sign on. If it does occur I at least wil be able to offer some updates on the front line attitude so to speak. That said though, signing on to the dole is going to be a desperate last act.
Stories like the one above do not instill confidence in jobseekers. It describes an environment devoid of rationality and open minded common decency. Neither of which, if the article has any truth, appear to be high on the agenda of employers.
Damn. Good luck, freedom.
Ring WINZ today as the stand-down period starts from when you ring them up. Even if you end up not signing up you’ll have started things in motion.
You are not alone in your advice. I have had friends on my back all week about not being such a stubborn idiot and to go ask for help, so i did. I rang them and booked in for next week. Not to say i am actually going to sign on but as they say, best to have a matress down if jumping off the barn roof.
Good luck mate. Keep in touch.
If I may be so bold as to ask: what are your core skills?
Not sure how one could help from here or if you want it.
But there will be plenty of mildly leftish team leaders, managers and employers on this site.
🙂 most of my skills are hard to make money from without producing dross folk do not really need, so I have spent the last thirty years predominately in Hospo. The few times I thought that was going to change my lack of will to walk over others generally allowed others to walk over me.
I have exhibited at the National Gallery (when we had one) I have built a 300 square meter concrete map to celebrate the workers of NZ who once built the biggest Dam in the Southern Hemisphere ( a map since destroyed by a property developer who thought townhouses are more necessary than community space) I have organized large protest events and even got protest art legally installed on Parliament’s lawn. ( way back in the 90’s when we still had some rights to the grounds) The one time a ‘legit career’ was opening up for me as an Art teacher a particularly nasty violent crime shut the door hard and left me with PTSD. So like all of you I have tried things and I have had my challenges.
I confess to being a serious Artist not prone to producing the decor dressing that fills most galleries. I am told I produce actual Art that makes you feel something, that is based on the human need for reflection growth and progression. I am told I am very good and have learnt to quietly accept the praise when it is delivered. I paint, I sculpt, I carve Taonga, I make really lovely wooden boxes. I love producing large installation work for public space, but that is a rare event these days.
I have had opportunities most Artists would kill for and if I had more bloodlust I may have prostituted the events to my favour, but no, I concentrated on producing quality work instead. I succeeded every time, but the work seemed to be only part of the deal, i always suspected they wanted a personality to sell as well and that just is not interesting to me. I am not a navel gazer but do think on occassion. I have practical and digital skills in various creative fields, no institutional training to speak of and still have half a brain despite the best efforts of the MSM and associated media. I am an excellent problem solver and peacekeeper who is not motivated by money (hence the need for gainful employment) As an ‘outsider’ not attached to the Gallery game I developed my work instead of my reputation and am now entering one of the most productive satisfying and genuinely challenging periods of Studio work I have ever experienced. Perhaps the recent actions of my employer are simply the Universe suggesting I allow my work to help keep me alive instead of the other way around.
I beleive many who visit The Standard can appreciate that the career we get paid for and the life we actually live are often seperate things.
I thank you for the words of support and I know it is expressed towards all who are trying to get through the challenges of daily life in New Zealand. We all can help each other everyday by doing all we can to make sure those we know and love learn from the anguish facing hundreds of thousands of Kiwis. We all can remind people that things can be different and that articles like the one in question should be vilified for the thinly disguised hate speech that they are. Arohanui.
Thanks for your contributions “freedom”. The world is a place with as many diverse talents as there are human beings. Sadly the one-eyed market driven agenda – of the ones now dominating societies and economies – does not respect talents such as yours enough. Keep up your spirit despite all challenges and best of luck!
From todays Herald-Amelia Wade.
“1 in 3 NZers believe that they are worse off than 2 years ago and have less disposable income; 43% the same (on the moving escalator); 18% better off.
Food costs up, Power costs up, House costs up, Car costs up, Unemployment up.
Low and Middle-Income families feeling the increases more than those at the top; “average wage” stats skewed by high earners (that must be the 18% then).
But that is OK; Telecom job losses likely to be around 2500; 1/3 of their workforce;
“the highest number of job losses at a single time, from a single company, in NZ history.”
Gotta keep those millions flowing to foreign shareholders. They get the profits of firing people, we keep the costs.
Welcome to Wonderland.
Except for Telecom in 1990/91 when the layoffs first began. IIRC, the first tranche was about 5000 – again, about a third of their workforce at the time.