Daily review 07/12/2022
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Date published: 5:30 pm, December 7th, 2022 - 4 comments
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Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
Open mike 07/12/2022
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Date published: 6:00 am, December 7th, 2022 - 39 comments
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Daily review 06/12/2022
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Date published: 5:30 pm, December 6th, 2022 - 29 comments
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
Open mike 06/12/2022
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Date published: 6:00 am, December 6th, 2022 - 45 comments
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Daily review 05/12/2022
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Date published: 5:30 pm, December 5th, 2022 - 34 comments
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
Open mike 05/12/2022
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Date published: 6:00 am, December 5th, 2022 - 128 comments
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Sustainability Sunday
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Date published: 2:47 pm, December 4th, 2022 - 6 comments
So many good initiatives that demonstrate that sustainability and community resiliency are intertwined. The sheer numbers of people involved now is heartening at a time when we are inundated with what is going wrong.
We’ve never had so much choice in what we can do to effect good change. We know the problems, now is the time to put our attention to the solutions, what is already working. and then get on with it.
Luxon’s first year
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Date published: 8:46 am, December 4th, 2022 - 56 comments
Chris Luxon marked the anniversary of his becoming National leader this week by showing that he is that out of touch he had no idea what the single rate of superannuation is.
Open mike 04/12/2022
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Date published: 6:00 am, December 4th, 2022 - 61 comments
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Open mike 03/12/2022
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Date published: 6:00 am, December 3rd, 2022 - 42 comments
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Daily review 02/12/2022
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Date published: 5:30 pm, December 2nd, 2022 - 3 comments
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
Open mike 02/12/2022
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Date published: 6:00 am, December 2nd, 2022 - 84 comments
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Daily review 01/12/2022
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Date published: 5:30 pm, December 1st, 2022 - 8 comments
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
Open mike 01/12/2022
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Date published: 6:00 am, December 1st, 2022 - 64 comments
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Daily review 30/11/2022
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Date published: 5:30 pm, November 30th, 2022 - 14 comments
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
Co-Governance is Orthodox Policy for both National and Labour
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Date published: 8:12 am, November 30th, 2022 - 412 comments
National, the party which enacted legislation that gave Waikato command over the allocation of the Waikato River, iwi command over the Taupo catchment and full Maori control over the massive Uruwera water catchment, has not traditionally been opposed to co governance.
Open mike 30/11/2022
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Date published: 6:00 am, November 30th, 2022 - 59 comments
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Daily review 29/11/2022
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Date published: 5:30 pm, November 29th, 2022 - 35 comments
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
Three strikes law is not the answer
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Date published: 12:13 pm, November 29th, 2022 - 25 comments
National is proposing a return of the Three Strikes legislation, despite the Supreme Court ruling that the law went well beyond excessive punishment and would shock the conscience of properly informed New Zealanders, and was so disproportionately severe as to breach the Bill of Rights. And despite there being no evidence that it would actually work.
Open mike 29/11/2022
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Date published: 6:00 am, November 29th, 2022 - 33 comments
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Daily review 28/11/2022
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Date published: 5:30 pm, November 28th, 2022 - 16 comments
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Newscorp and Victorian Liberals were just so out of touch. Just like National and Act here
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Date published: 2:17 pm, November 28th, 2022 - 12 comments
The Liberal/Nat victory that Newscorp had been promoting in the Victorian state elections simply didn’t materialise. For some reason pandering to the loud and noisy just isn’t what it used to be. Fortunately those who still rely on traditional media and who haven’t been immunised against the idiots on the net are a diminishing voting resource.
What Is Labour’s Purpose This Term?
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Date published: 7:57 am, November 28th, 2022 - 35 comments
It is time to set out succinctly and without recourse to abstract nouns exactly what this Labour government has intended, is doing, and how it seeks to alter the country.
Open mike 28/11/2022
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Date published: 6:00 am, November 28th, 2022 - 28 comments
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Overblown rhetoric and Laura Norder
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Date published: 10:19 am, November 27th, 2022 - 69 comments
This week has seen some extreme rhetoric from various quarters about who to blame for a recent senseless killing. But news that the person arrested had recently been extradited from Australia has shown the rhetoric to be entirely misplaced.
Open mike 27/11/2022
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Date published: 6:00 am, November 27th, 2022 - 170 comments
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Open mike 26/11/2022
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Date published: 6:00 am, November 26th, 2022 - 210 comments
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Daily review 25/11/2022
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Date published: 5:30 pm, November 25th, 2022 - 6 comments
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Medical gender transition in New Zealand: How common is it really?
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Date published: 6:05 am, November 25th, 2022 - 42 comments
Laura López decided to explore and analyse the available evidence on medical transition in New Zealand.
Open mike 25/11/2022
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Date published: 6:00 am, November 25th, 2022 - 93 comments
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Prime Minister Ardern and Premier Xi
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Date published: 8:40 pm, November 24th, 2022 - 6 comments
New Zealand has the most adroit and high profile international leader in a generation with Prime Minister Ardern, but she has weakened New Zealand against China.
- A bad sign
On Friday, a New South Wales court heard the case of Violet Coco. As part of a protest against inaction on climate change, Coco had blocked a Sydney motorway for 25 minutes. Using anti-protest laws passed by NSW's fossil-fuel-funded government, the judge jailed her for 15 months, with a minimum ...4 hours ago - Do New Zealanders no longer support Ukraine?
Of a possible 55 heads of state, only four made time to join a virtual address delivered by the African Union Assembly on June 20 by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Source: Ghana Web So Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is to address the NZ ...4 hours ago- Member’s Day
Today is a Member's Day, the last one for the year. First up there is a bunch of new private and local bills - the Thomas Cawthron Trust Amendment Bill, the New Plymouth District Council (Perpetual Investment Fund) Bill, and the Hawke’s Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society Empowering Bill. None ...7 hours ago- Political Roundup: 7 December 2022
Items of interest and importance today THREE WATERS Thomas Manch (Stuff): Make no mistake, Labour knew it was passing controversial Three Waters entrenchment clause Thomas Cranmer: A government humiliated Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Three Waters entrenchment: Jacinda Ardern, Nanaia Mahuta at odds, David Parker says he was always opposed David Farrar: ...8 hours ago- After the deluge — cascading effects of extreme weather on human health
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Emily Jack-Scott and Sarah Spengeman News coverage of this summer’s devastating flood in Pakistan has peaked, but the deluge left behind hasn’t subsided: Experts predict the floodwaters could take six months to fully recede. An aerial view of Shahdadkot, Khairpur Nathan Shah, Mado, ...11 hours ago- Gordon Campbell on Ukraine’s prospects
So the government has (a) backed down over the entrenchment of water management, thus enabling a future centre right government to privatise a key essential of life via a simple majority, as readily as any elected government can change the tax rate, or the rules for the licensing of pets ...1 day ago- Justice for Ukraine?
Overnight, Russia launched more missiles against Ukraine, targeting apartment blocks and electricity facilities in an effort to terrise civilians and freeze them to death over winter. And there are more photos of Russian war crimes in occupied areas doing the rounds. So I'm glad to see some progress at the ...1 day ago- A Matter Of Trust.
Hard To Win, Easy To Lose: Trust cuts both ways. It is equally critical, in political terms, that a government trusts the people to at least the same extent as the people trust the government. Indeed, nothing erodes the voters’ trust faster than evidence their own government considers them untrustworthy.TRUST. ...1 day ago- The case for free speech and courage
Best-selling author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie makes the case for free speech and courage. Below is a brief excerpt. ...1 day ago- Political Roundup: 6 December 2022
Items of interest and importance today 1NEWS KANTAR POLL, PARLIAMENT 1News: Poll: National and ACT strengthen, Luxon closes gap on Ardern 1News: Poll: Economic pessimism soars to 10-year high Toby Manhire (Spinoff): This new poll delivers one clear message – and a clutch of other clues Claire Trevett (Herald): The trifecta ...1 day ago- AGU Fall Meeting 2022 – Cranky Uncle makes an appearance
This year's Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) takes place in Chicago as well as online from December 12 to 16. Thanks to being held in hybrid mode it was feasible for John Cook and me to submit an abstract to one of the sessions. Just like for the European ...2 days ago- Is 3 Waters entrenchment really a stupid idea?
The 2023 elections will potentially be one of the most ideologically divided elections we will experience. The real solutions for most pressing social and environmental issues confronting us at the moment will involve systemic change and will necessarily challenge the neoliberal mindset that has dominated governance over the last four ...2 days ago- Submit!
The Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee has called for submissions on the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill. Submissions can be sent using the form here and are due by Monday, 23 January 2023. The main thing the bill does is fix this problem, where the purpose of the Crown Minerals ...2 days ago- Yet another OIA inquiry
All year the Ombudsman has been trying to tell us that everything is fine with the OIA. But earlier in the year he released another report showing problems, particularly around ministerial interference and stonewalling, and now he's been forced to open another inquiry into precisely those problems: Chief Ombudsman ...2 days ago- Bryce Edwards: New Zealand’s social cohesion is being torn apart
New Zealand is becoming a less socially cohesive country. And the driver of this division is worsening inequality. That’s the view of most New Zealanders according to a survey conducted for the New Zealand Herald. It shows that inequalities of wealth and housing access are tearing the country apart. The ...2 days ago- The subtlety of neo-Nazi influence in Ukraine – ignored by our media
3 days ago- 2022 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #48
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 27, 2022 thru Sat, Dec 3, 2022. Story of the Week #ClimateScam: denialism claims flooding Twitter have scientists worried Many researchers are fleeing the platform, unnerved by the surge in climate misinformation ...3 days ago- New paper: A toolkit for understanding and addressing climate scepticism
This is a quick summary about the newly published paper "A toolkit for understanding and addressing climate scepticism" by Matthew J. Hornsey and Stephan Lewandowsky. It leverages a thread tweeted by Stephan Lewandowsky shortly after publication as well as a mention in Doug Bostrom's and Marc Kodack's New Research Week ...5 days ago- The Coming Recession?
Is leaving inflation fighting to the Reserve Bank all we can do?We are making sacrifices to restrain climate change, not because the particular climate is what we want, but because if it starts changing too quickly, our current way of life is unsustainable. Similarly the current price level may not ...5 days ago- Climate Change: More subsidised pollution
Back in 2020, the government realised that the industrial allocations in the ETS - supposed to protect large polluters from unfair competition from countries who didn't pay for their carbon - was overallocated. They were giving away too many free credits, resulting in windfall gains to polluters. So, they started ...5 days ago- Still asleep at the wheel
A couple of months ago, I asked various government agencies whether they had produced any advice on the impacts of Long Covid, and was shocked to learn that they hadn't. Newsroom's Marc Daalder has been keeping an eye on this issue, and in an article today, he reports that the ...5 days ago- On Entrenchment: The Politics of Anti-Privatisation
I was not wanting to wade into New Zealand’s little furor about the proposed Three Waters reform. To be honest, Labour has brought this one on themselves – the task of cleaning up this country’s waterways really ought to be funded via the resources (financial or otherwise) of the ...5 days ago- The Masque of the Covid Breath: Testing Positive
Well, it had to happen eventually. A week ago, someone I live with tested Covid positive, and despite my best efforts (testing every day), today I finally succumbed. That dreaded second line on the RAT showed up bright and red. It’s a decent effort, of course… making it ...5 days ago- Entrenching entrenchment
Last week, Parliament passed a rare entrenchment clause, protecting water assets from being sold by future governments without a referendum. As a supporter of anti-privatisation as a constitutional principle, I don't really have a problem with this - the supermajority which passed it represents a broad consensus across Aotearoa, and ...5 days ago- Parliament’s Collective Failure To Defend The Constitution.
Unbitten: It is one of the oddest and most worrying aspects of the events surrounding Green MP Eugenie Sage’s late-night attempt to re-write the constitutional convention on entrenched legislation while a weary House of Representatives was sitting under Urgency. Sherlock Holmes’ famous observation concerning the dog that did not bark, ...5 days ago- Gordon Campbell on why the SIS need operational ground rules
This is bad, right? Apparently the SIS used its powers illegally when it raided journalist Nicky Hager’s cell phone and extracted information that still failed to identify one of the key sources for Hager’s 2011 book Other People’s Wars. In that book, Hager had revealed hitherto unknown aspects of New ...5 days ago- Bryce Edwards: Clawing back $7bn of corporate welfare
The taxpayer is short of billions of dollars that were overpaid to businesses during Covid according to Christchurch philanthropists Grant and Marilyn Nelson. They are taking legal action against state agencies to push them to recoup up to $7bn that was wrongly paid out to wealthy employers who didn’t need ...5 days ago- Legal Beagle: The Entrenchment Angle We All Missed
I have a basically finished 800-word article on the entrenchment issue that is now unneeded. Dean Knight’s tweets, my tweets, and the open letter of the group of legal academics published by the New Zealand Herald say almost all that needs to be said on the manner in which the ...6 days ago- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #48 2022
Open access notables: Kunio Kaiho is a leading expert on past extinction events. In Extinction magnitude of animals in the near future just published in Nature Scientific Reports, Kaiho draws on mechanisms of prior mass extinction events to prognosticate on what effect Homo bolidus [our term] might impose on Earth's species. "It depends," ...6 days ago- Media Link: AVFA on protests in China and Iran.
This week in “A View from Afar” Selwyn Manning and I try to provide a conceptual/analytic backdrop to the protests in the PRC and Iran. The thrust is that although there are similarities as well as differences between them, each confrontation involves a strategic game between the protestors and regime ...6 days ago- Open Government: Not achieved
Newsroom reports on the reaction from civil society organisations to Labour's new draft Open Government Partnership National Action Plan, and its pretty scathing: The Government’s claims to greater openness and transparency have yet again been called into question, with New Zealand’s latest open government plan containing proposals “so weak ...6 days ago- Climate Change: Be careful what you wish for
Throughout the (misnamed) he waka eke noa process, farmers have insisted on farm-level pricing, largely as a way of getting more subsidies for their pollution - and sadly, Labour looks set to give it to them. They're already complaining about the "bureaucratic nightmare" - a nightmare entirely of their own ...6 days ago- Reported back
The Justice Committee has reported back on the Electoral Amendment Bill. The bill implements the recommendations of the Ministry of Justice consultation on election funding - the one where the Ministry of Justice conspired with the labour party to keep its highly influential submission totally secret - and the Labour-dominated ...6 days ago- Bryce Edwards: Nicky Hager strikes a win for media freedom and democracy
Do New Zealand state spies unlawfully surveil the government’s political critics? Do they spy on critical journalists? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. And yesterday the government domestic security agency was forced to apologise for one instance when they were caught spying on investigative journalist Nicky Hager. The New Zealand Security ...6 days ago- 2022 General Reading: November (+ Old Phuul update)
Completed reading for November: The White People and Other Weird Stories (collection), by Arthur Machen Not So Barren Or Uncultivated: British Travellers in Finland 1760-1830, by Tony Lurcock J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, by Humphrey Carpenter The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead Legends of Aotearoa (collection), edited by ...7 days ago- Publishing a long overdue explainer about a scientific consensus
Recently, we happened upon a neat and detailed article, explaining what a scientific consensus is. This made us realize, that - even though we have a lot of material about the consensus - we were lacking an explainer about what a scientific consensus actually is. We have now remedied this ...7 days ago- The SIS: spying on the government’s political critics
The big worry about the SIS and GCSB is that they will be used to spy on the government's political critics. Whenever this worry is expressed, the spies and their Ministers say that of course that would never happen. The problem? It has: Journalist Nicky Hager will receive $66,000 ...1 week ago- Gordon Campbell on the gaslighting about inflation
Reportedly, we’re going to need to have a recession next year in order to curb our wild spending habits and bring inflation under control. According to some economists, we’ve all been spending our hefty wage rises so freely that up to 50,000 of us may have to lose our jobs ...1 week ago- Political Roundup: 30 November 2022
Items of interest and importance today THREE WATERS Jane Patterson (RNZ): Three Waters anti-privatisation blunder adds to storm of controversy Jo Moir (Newsroom): The chaos behind the Greens’ controversial Three Waters amendment Emile Donovan (RNZ): The problem with entrenching party policy Thomas Cranmer: Mahuta ditches ‘no surprises’ policy Anne Salmond ...1 week ago- Has Labour Become A Co-Governed Party?
The Power Of Two: It is possible that, formally or informally, the Labour caucus arrived at its own version of co-governance. What the Māori caucus decide upon as its priorities are not to be overridden or gainsaid by the broader Labour caucus’s Pakeha majority. An arrangement of this sort would ...1 week ago- Hope Defeats Hate.
Third Time Winner: Daniel Andrews’ Victorian victory is of a piece with the general failure of the American Right to achieve the gains it was expecting in the recent mid-term elections. Generally speaking, voters not already addicted to the Right’s ideological Kool-Aid find very little to like about candidates who ...1 week ago- We need greater transparency on party funding
Yesterday Max Rashbrooke and Lisa Marriott released their report on political party funding. The gist of it can be gathered from the title: Money for Something. Big donors are donating big money for big influence over policy, and the current regime seems designed to facilitate rather than prevent this ...1 week ago- Political Roundup: 29 November 2022
Items of interest and importance today POLITICAL FINANCE, PARLIAMENT, VOTING AGE Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Big money donors get access to PMs and party leaders – report Anna Whyte (Stuff): Political donations: Identity over $1,500 should be disclosed, new report recommends Brent Edwards (NBR): Research reveals influence bought through political donations Jem ...1 week ago- How 2022 has substantially, and favorably, changed global climate outlook
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Anew analysis by the Global Carbon Budget, published in the journal Earth System Science Data, shows global carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels have fully recovered from the temporary dip driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, setting new records in 2021 and 2022. But it’s not ...1 week ago- Gordon Campbell on entrenchment, and being ‘soft on crime’
Good grief. Is it really a grave misuse of power to entrench safeguards against the irreversible sale of key public assets? Hardly. If this country has learned anything over the past 40 years, it should be that New Zealand has suffered lasting economic and social damage from the previous sales ...1 week ago- Entrenching anti-privatisation
Last week, Labour put the House into urgency to push on with its legislative agenda. Part of this included the committee stage of the three waters bill, and something unusual happened: they passed an entrenchment clause protecting the bill's anti-privatisation clause - meaning that a future government would need the ...1 week ago- Bryce Edwards: The Misuse of power to entrench Three Waters legislation
When governments become tired and lose their popularity – usually in their third term – they often become desperate to get their way and prone to misusing their power. This is currently in evidence with the Labour Government’s push to lock in elements of their Three Waters reform programme by ...1 week ago- Revenge and rage optics continues to dominate the politics of the Right, even here. All voters deser...
The vapid cycle of self-serving performative rage when it suits… the screaming for repeal here, there and everywhere… the constant calls from columnists and the airwaves to “be angry”, for the public to just get up and be “stomping mad!”… Of course, none of this is the stuff from ...1 week ago- Top tweets on the Government’s Three Waters law entrenchment
Catching up on constitutional developments while I’ve been deep in the marking cave. And this one is a doozy — and perhaps concerning? An SOP entrenching a point of policy (ownership/control of water assets) was agreed, ie 60% majority needed to repeal.https://t.co/GRRXrmr6ZW pic.twitter.com/sm4MCOD85w — ᴅʀ ᴅᴇᴀɴ ...1 week ago- A Strange Hill To Die On.
Last Stand? Has Labour’s caucus chosen the Government’s deeply unpopular Three Waters policy as the hill upon which it will stand and die? And, if that is the case, then – why?CURIA RESEARCH recently conducted a poll in the Napier electorate. Bad news for Stuart Nash, the Labour incumbent, whose ...1 week ago- 2022 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #48
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 20, 2022 thru Sat, Nov 26, 2022. Story of the Week The Art at COP27 Offered Opportunities to Move Beyond ‘Empty Words’ In Egypt, visitors encountered creative works about climate anxiety, sustainability ...1 week ago- Revisiting the Big Three of Weird Tales: H.P. Lovecraft, C.A. Smith, and R.E. Howard
My October 2022 reading was marked by a reacquaintance with old-school Pulp Fantasy and Horror, specifically a binge through the collected works of H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert E. Howard. Two of those three are still well-known names among fantasy readers, but in the first half of ...2 weeks ago- Open Government: Another farce
Yesterday the government released its draft Fourth Open Government Partnership National Action Plan 2023-24 for consultation. Like previous versions, the plan was meant to be "co-created" with civil society. And like previous versions, that obligation seems to have been observed mainly in the breach, with the government conducting a series ...2 weeks ago- The Crypto Casino
Financial activity is too often gambling. Cryptocurrencies are the latest example.Gambling is a zero sum game: the proceeds of the winners are offset by the losses of the losers. That statement is not quite true because typically there is someone between taking a margin on each transaction. Patrons leave a ...2 weeks ago- Bryce Edwards: Why Labour capitulated on hate speech laws
The Labour Government is currently fighting on multiple fronts that threaten its popularity in the run-up to next year’s election. Therefore, when a call had to be made about whether to push through divisive and poorly-designed hate speech laws, there really was no decision for Justice Minister Kiri Allan to ...2 weeks ago- Josh Van Veen: Wayne Brown’s first month
Wayne Brown has been Mayor for a month, and already he has done more to change Auckland than Phil Goff did in six years. The changes began even before Brown was sworn in. Only hours after the election results were announced on 8 October, the Chair of Auckland Transport Adrienne ...2 weeks ago- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #47 2022
Open access notables: Web bulb temperatures verging on unsurvivable are creeping into our world and heading toward familiar. That's the lesson we can infer from Dong-Quan & Sun's Effects of anthropogenic forcing and atmospheric circulation on the record-breaking welt bulb heat event over southern China in September 2021. Analyzing an event including 32.8°C the authors find: ...2 weeks ago- An engineered recession is class warfare
The Reserve Bank has just come out and admitted that they are engineering a recession to protect the rich: The Reserve Bank is deliberately engineering a recession to reign back inflation after being slow to raise interest rates, Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr admitted to a select committee on ...2 weeks ago- That’s no how you do democracy
Last night, the English Supreme Court ruled that the Scottish government cannot hold an independence referendum. Having said that Scotland is not a colony, they then turned around and effectively said that they are, by forbidding them from holding a democratic vote on their own constitutional arrangements unless another country ...2 weeks ago- Gordon Campbell on the centre-right’s internal ructions
For donkey’s years, political commentary has been all about the binaries: left/right, Labour/National, government/opposition, she said/he said. Yet currently, a lot of the fascinating conflict is occurring amidst the centre-right. That’s because National, ACT and New Zealand First all happen to be fishing in the same pond for cranky and ...2 weeks ago- Bryce Edwards: Politicians and the Reserve Bank are being blamed for an escalating economic crisis
Will the looming economic recession kill off Labour’s re-election chances? Is the Reserve Bank making things worse? And could a National Government do any better? These are some of the big political questions floating around after the full extent of the economy’s plight was made clear by the Reserve Bank ...2 weeks ago- Josephine Varghese: From Obama to Sunak–do representational milestones mean anything more than sym...
New Zealand media have recently discussed two major representational milestones in politics. Firstly, New Zealand Parliament achieving 50% women’s representation with the induction of Labour list MP Soraya Peke-Mason. Secondly, Rishi Sunak becoming the UK’s first non-White Prime Minister. Major media outlets have been celebrating these events as watershed moments ...2 weeks ago- Gustavo Petro and the Civic – Military Campaigns
Gearóid Ó Loingsigh looks at the new government in Colombia and how it talks of peace while increasing militarisation The Petro–Márquez government is one which proposes to bring us to what they term Total Peace. The term and the proposal as such have been subjected to justifiable criticism, not least ...2 weeks ago- Labour attacks LGOIMA – in secret
Today the government used urgency to introduce a new Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Bill. The bulk of the bill deals with land information memorandums (LIMs), requiring local authorities to notify of natural hazards and granting them immunity for doing so in good faith (hopefully forestalling lawsuits by ...2 weeks ago- Climate Change: Fixing the Crown Minerals Act?
Back in August, the High Court ruled that the Zero Carbon Act isn't worth shit and that the government can continue to approve new fossil fuel exploration without having to consider climate change. The core of the problem is the Crown Minerals Act, and in particular its purpose: "to promote ...2 weeks ago- The True Cost
It is hard to take seriously the voices of those currently asserting that Brexit has come with a considerable economic cost. Where were those voices at the very beginning of what became the Brexit saga, when we were assured that membership of what was then the Common Market would produce ...2 weeks ago- Political Roundup: 23 November 2022
Items of interest and importance today VOTING AGE Henry Cooke (Guardian): New Zealand’s supreme court has forced voting age on to agenda, exposing absurd arguments for status quo Henry Cooke: The only reasonable argument for retaining the voting age Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Local election voting age looks set to change ...2 weeks ago- Phil Ferguson: a firsthand account of the Irish struggle
Phil Ferguson is a founding editor of Redline and was a regular contributor. He has been out of action for the past year after suffering a stroke. He is learning to walk again and hoping to get back to writing. Tim Leadbeater sat down with Phil to talk about topics ...2 weeks ago- The Most Pertinent Question.
Why Now? As Rebecca Wright pointed out to Justice Minister, Kiritapu Allan, on Newshub Nation, a great deal of political travail could have been avoided by the Labour Government if they’d simply accepted the Royal Commission’s recommendation to extend the already existing legal protections against the incitement of racial hatred ...2 weeks ago- Finally
At the 2020 election, Labour promised to regulate property managers. Now, they're finally doing it: The Government’s announcement that rental property managers will be regulated has left the industry asking for more detail, and tenants calling for landlords to be regulated too. Regulating property managers was one of the ...2 weeks ago- Young people must be allowed to vote
Let me just start out by saying that young people must be allowed to vote. Not because they are more enlightened than previous generations, but because the earlier people become voters, the more likely they will continue to participate in democracy.We have a serious problem in New Zealand with low ...2 weeks ago- How to counter holocaust denial – a particular type of hate speech
Plebity – a left free speech website looks at how to ‘counter hate speech with more speech’. This excellent article addresses one of the points discussed in the interview with Daniel Ben-Ami about how tolerance doesn’t mean silently allowing bad ideas or adopting a relativist outlook. WHAT DOES IT MEAN, ...2 weeks ago- Bryce Edwards: The High barriers to lowering the voting age
Sixteen-year-olds aren’t about to get the right to vote anytime soon. Despite yesterday’s Supreme Court declaration that a voting age of 18 violates the Bill of Rights, there are still many barriers to get over before the voting age could be lowered. In fact, as a best-case scenario, youth voting ...2 weeks ago- The Iran protests and the battle for Women’s Rights
In this Free Speech Union podcast Daphna Whitmore speaks with Dr Forough Amin about what’s happening in Iran after two months of growing protests across the country. Forough is a women’s rights activist and the founder of the Iranian Women in NZ Charitable Trust. Forough discusses the dire state of ...2 weeks ago- The Sagas and Fairy Tales of the South Pacific: Maori Legends, as collected by Sir George Grey (1855...
As a Pakeha New Zealander who spent the majority of his school-level education in the lower North Island in the 1990s, I received a smattering of Maori cultural infusion. I learned how to count to ten in Maori, learned the names of colours, some rudiments of pronunciation from singing ...2 weeks ago- Greens welcome Government coming to party on reducing alcohol harm
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- COVID inquiry disappointingly narrowThe Green Party welcomes a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic – but is disappointed with the narrow scope. ...2 days ago
- Greens call on every party to improve accessibilityThe Green Party is calling on all political parties to commit to stronger representation for disabled people at every level of politics. ...2 days ago
- Greens will keeping pushing to protect public ownership of waterThe Green Party will continue to push for strong protections of core public assets so they cannot be sold off against the wishes of New Zealanders. ...3 days ago
- Further action to tackle crime and keep our communities safe
Every community in New Zealand should be a safe place to live, work and raise a family. Our Government is focused on tackling the complex issues that cause crime while also making sure that appropriate consequences are in place. ...6 days ago - Backing farmers with a strong record on tradeAs countries around the world continue to face economic challenges, there is real reason for New Zealand to be optimistic about the future – and our primary sector is at the heart of that. ...1 week ago
- US court decision shows need for stronger protection of Māui dolphinA decision by a United States Court to ban seafood imports from New Zealand shows the Government needs to do more to protect Māui dolphins. ...1 week ago
- NZ needs strong protection against water privatisationNew Zealanders deserve strong protection against the future privatisation of water assets, the Green Party says. ...1 week ago
- Political parties call for action on IranParties from across Parliament have come together to call on the Government to take decisive action to hold those responsible for violence and human rights violations in Iran to account. ...2 weeks ago
- Social workers need to see pay equity immediatelyThe Green Party is welcoming today’s announcement that pay equity will be extended to more social workers, and urges the Government to work with unions to get this sorted as quickly as possible. ...2 weeks ago
- Case for excess profit tax on banks clearer than everThe Government should adopt an excess profits tax and use any revenue raised to help people make ends meet, following the rise in the Official Cash Rate today. ...2 weeks ago
- Easing the pressure on New ZealandersSince taking office in 2017, our Government has worked hard to lift wages and make life more affordable for New Zealanders, as we move forward with our plan to create economic security for all. ...2 weeks ago
- Crown mineral change does not go far enoughLong overdue changes to the Crown Minerals Act are a welcome step in the right direction but the Government needs to go further to end the nonsensical search for fossil fuels. ...2 weeks ago
- Healthy Homes for all means a WOF and Landlord RegisterThe Government’s decision to exclude landlords from property management regulations means more than half of Kiwi rentals will be left out in the cold. And, where they’re kicking the can down the road on Healthy Homes Standards, the Government falls short on the basics that a Rental Warrant of Fitness ...2 weeks ago
- Time to extend the voting ageThe Green Party is calling on the Government to take immediate action to lower the voting age to 16. ...2 weeks ago
- Supporting Kiwi kids this Children's DayOur Government has put the wellbeing of children at the heart of everything we do. As we celebrate World Children’s Day, we’re taking a look at some of the ways Labour is working to make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child. ...2 weeks ago
- Hate speech change welcome, but still leaves communities at riskThe Green Party welcomes hate speech reform to protect religious groups, but is concerned that the exclusion of gender, rainbow, and disability communities sends a signal that these groups are less deserving of protection. ...3 weeks ago
- DevNet 2022: Keynote address
Whakataka te hau ki te uru, Whakataka te hau ki te tonga. Kia mākinakina ki uta, Kia mātaratara ki tai. E hī ake ana te atakura. He tio, he huka, he hauhū. Tihei Mauri Ora! Tēnā koutou katoa. Thank you to the University of Auckland for hosting this DevNet ...2 hours ago - Community voices amplified in fight against alcohol harmAlcohol licensing hearings will become more accessible and less adversarial as the Government removes barriers preventing community voices from being heard, Justice Minister Kiri Allan said today. A Bill making targeted changes to the licensing process in the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 has been introduced to the ...7 hours ago
- GOVT to provide further funding to Ruapehu Alpine LiftsThe Government has decided to advance a further $6 million bridging funding to allow time for MBIE through Kanoa-RDU to support the development of an alternative commercial solution. “Following discussions with affected stakeholders, including other creditors and iwi, it has become clear that more time is needed to further explore ...8 hours ago
- Government delivers safer roads for WaimakaririAssociate Minister of Transport Kieran McAnulty was in Waimakariri this morning to mark the beginning of work on a $41 million programme to improve road safety in the Waimakariri district. “The projects started today is critical for the people of Waimakariri as it will address the stretch of SH1 between ...8 hours ago
- International tourists bring over $1b into economySpend from all international visitors totalled $1.03 billion in the September 2022 quarter Holidaymakers spent $479 million Visitors for friends or relatives spent $292 million Tourism Electronic Card Transactions spend in 8 regions (out of 16) was higher than October 2019 levels pre-COVID The release of the International Visitor Survey ...11 hours ago
- Launch of Te Ara Paerangi Future PathwaysE ngā mātāwaka, E ngā iwi o te motu, Tēnā koutou katoa. Ko Ayesha Verrall ahau, Te Minita mō te Rangahau, Pūtaiao me te Auahatanga. Tēnā koutou i runga i te kaupapa o te wā, Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tatou katoa. Acknowledgements It is a privilege ...23 hours ago
- Reform of science system to build better future for New ZealandThe Government has set the direction for a future-focused science system says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall. Our research, science and innovation system will be geared towards tackling New Zealand’s big challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation and the complex health and problems that undermine wellbeing. ...23 hours ago
- Te Rohe o Rongokako Joint Redress Bill Third Reading I Te Pānuitanga Tuatoru o te Pire mō te Puret...Te Pānuitanga Tuatoru o te Pire mō te Puretumu Ngātahi mō Te Rohe o Rongokako I te rā nei, i Pāremata, ka oti te tuatoru me te whakamutunga o ngā pānuitanga o te Pire mō te Puretumu Ngātahi mō te Rohe o Rongokako. Ko tā te pire, he whakatinana i ...1 day ago
- Hi-tech New Zealand strawberries on the horizonNew Zealanders will be able to enjoy spray-free strawberries grown through a hi-tech new system almost all year round through a Government-backed pilot project based in Foxton, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced. “We’re focussed on innovations that lift the sustainability and productivity of our food and fibre sector and this ...1 day ago
- Cadetships programme continues to empower whānau MāoriSince July 2022, more than 610 cadets across 35 programmes have been approved, up from the 499 cadets approved by this time in the last financial year. The programme is growing. “The Cadetship programme’s ongoing success comes down to treating our young people with mana so that they can achieve ...1 day ago
- New rules for offshore detention complete Govt response to Operation Burnham inquiryThe government has announced a new set of rules to ensure proper and humane treatment of people detained by Police, Defence forces, or other New Zealand agencies during offshore deployments. The Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta says the new framework for offshore detention delivers on the fourth and final recommendation accepted ...1 day ago
- 19 new townhouses for whānau in need in Lower HuttAssociate Minister of Housing (Māori Housing) Peeni Henare today visited Kahungunu Whānau Services and their newly purchased 19 townhouses in Taita, Lower Hutt. “Through the Government’s Te Kahui Māori Housing programme, Tātai Mokopuna Holdings Limited (the asset holding company of Kahungunu Whānau Services) was granted a $7.1 million Māori housing ...1 day ago
- Government backs greater competition in building supplies to reduce costs for KiwisThe Government will take action to increase competition in the residential building supplies sector, says Building and Construction Minister Dr Megan Woods and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Dr David Clark, following the release of the Commerce Commission’s market study final report. “We asked the Commerce Commission to review our ...1 day ago
- Royal Commission to draw lessons from pandemic responseA Royal Commission to prepare New Zealand for future pandemics through lessons learned from COVID-19 has been announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today. “Every country in the world has grappled with COVID-19 and there was no playbook for managing it,” Jacinda Ardern said. “It had been over 100 years ...2 days ago
- Minister Sio to discuss Pacific development prioritiesAssociate Foreign Affairs Minister Aupito William Sio travels to Indonesia this week to represent Aotearoa New Zealand at the Indonesia Pacific Forum for Development and the 15th Bali Democracy Forum. “Attending these international meetings enables Aotearoa New Zealand to connect with our partners kanohi ki te kanohi, or face to ...2 days ago
- Changes to partner work visas deferred to April 2023Changes to partner work visas that were set to come into effect in December 2022 have been deferred to April 2023, Immigration Minister Michael Wood has announced today. “I have made the decision to defer these changes to April 2023,” Michael Wood said. “Our Government wants to provide greater certainty ...2 days ago
- Building Act changes put the environment at the heart of how we buildThe Government is taking action to reduce waste and lower emissions from the building and construction sector in significant Building Act amendments announced today. “This Government is proud to put the environment at the heart of how New Zealand builds. By enabling mandatory energy performance rating requirements for buildings, and ...2 days ago
- Govt’s medicines boost paying off for New ZealandersPharmac’s plan to fund the cystic fibrosis medicine Trikafta is another example of the Government’s boost to the medicines budget helping New Zealanders, says Health Minister Andrew Little. “Pharmac, not politicians, makes the decisions on what treatments to fund, but politicians decide what funding to provide to Pharmac, and health ...3 days ago
- Better transport choices for New ZealandersForty-six councils across Aotearoa New Zealand, from large metro centres to small provincial towns, will receive funding to implement more transport options for communities, as part of the Transport Choices package 2022-24, Transport Minister Michael Wood announced today. “The Government is upgrading New Zealand’s transport infrastructure system to make it ...3 days ago
- Te Rangiwaituhi – Maniapoto apologyMihi Ko taku rourou iti a haere, maringi kai whenua Ko taku rourou iti a haere, maringi kai moana kia mau ki te kawau māro, whanake ake! kō Maniapoto e! Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa Greetings and Thanks As we gather here this morning I want to ...3 days ago
- Maniapoto receives Crown Apology – Ka whakawhiwhia ki a Ngāti Maniapoto te Whakapāhatanga a ...Kua tukuna e te Pirimia, e Jacinda Ardern, i te taha o te Minita mō ngā Take Tiriti o Waitangi, a Andrew Little, te Whakapāhatanga a te Karauna ki a Ngāti Maniapoto mō āna mahi o mua i takahi i te Tiriti o Waitangi. I tū te hui i Te ...3 days ago
- Big online platforms to pay fair price for local news contentThe Government will legislate to require big online digital companies such as Google and Meta to pay a fair price to New Zealand media companies for the local news content they host and share on their platforms, Minister of Broadcasting Willie Jackson announced today. The legislation will be modelled on ...3 days ago
- Government to remove entrenchment from Three Waters legislationThe Government will fix the Water Services Entities Bill this week by removing the entrenchment clause that was voted on during committee stages, Leader of the House Chris Hipkins announced today. “It was a mistake to put the entrenchment clause in and the Government will fix the issue as soon ...3 days ago
- 10 new whare for Ngāi Tāmanuhiri kaumātua and whānau in Te MuriwaiAssociate Minister of Housing (Māori Housing) Peeni Henare joined Ngāi Tāmanuhiri and the wider Toitū Tairāwhiti collective, at the opening of 10 new homes built for kaumātua and whānau in Muriwai today. “Every whare that is built and whānau that is transferred from inadequate housing to a warm dry ...4 days ago
- Joint statement: Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Minister ConsultationsAustralian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong welcomed Aotearoa New Zealand's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon Nanaia Mahuta to Canberra today for biannual Australia – Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Minister Consultations. The Ministers acknowledged the unique strength of the relationship between Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, reaffirmed the shared ...5 days ago
- Funding boost for kaupapa Māori response to homelessnessAssociate Minister of Housing (Homelessness) Marama Davidson has announced a significant funding boost today for kaupapa Māori approaches that support whānau into housing. $24.7 million will be allocated to support the delivery of He Ara Hiki Mauri – a tangata whenua-led response to homelessness. “Homelessness is not inevitable. By working ...5 days ago
- Appointment of Judge of the High CourtAuckland barrister David Gary Johnstone has been appointed a judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Johnstone graduated from the University of Auckland in 1991 with a BCom/LLB(Hons), and joined Bell Gully as a solicitor, practising in general commercial litigation. During 1993 and 1994 he studied at the ...5 days ago
- MAIHI Whare Wananga celebrates innovative approach to Maori HousingNew Maori Housing dashboard for better data sharing and better outcomes New development training programme to grow sector capability Associate Minister of Housing (Maori Housing) Peeni Henare today attended the annual MAIHI Whare Wananga hosted by Toitu Tairawhiti Housing Limited in Kaiti. “Our MAIHI Whare Wananga is an opportunity ...5 days ago
- New mental health facility a step closer for GisborneHealth Minister Andrew Little was at Gisborne Hospital today to mark the next step of Te Tairāwhiti’s new Te Whare Awhiora mental health facility build. The Health Minister turned a sod to mark the start of groundworks at the site, in preparation for the placement of a mauri stone. “The ...5 days ago
- More rural broadband for regional communitiesNew contracts will improve around 30,000 broadband connections in rural homes and communities Govt on track to see 99.8% of all New Zealanders receive access to improved broadband as a result of various connectivity programmes by the end of 2023, including those targeting rural regions Applications open for one-off ...5 days ago
- Tauranga region to benefit from new funding and financing toolTauranga will be the first region to use a new Government tool to raise funding for much-needed infrastructure. A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be used to raise finance from private markets, which is then repaid via the levy on those who benefit from the infrastructure. The finance raised by ...5 days ago
- New committee established to drive better public health outcomesSome of the country’s most difficult health issues will be tackled by a newly established public health advisory committee, whose members have now been appointed. Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall says the new Public Health Advisory Committee will investigate and help address long-term health challenges facing Aotearoa. “We ...5 days ago
- Government and sector back innovative regional and wool projects$2.17 million for new food and fibre ventures in Taranaki $2.24m to develop high-value, sustainable cashmere industry $233,000 to prototype an acoustic, knitted textile product from strong wool for high-end commercial and residential interiors. $530 million co-invested with business through the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund The Government closes ...5 days ago
- Statement on the death of Sir Murray HalbergNew Zealand has lost one our true sporting icons with the passing of Sir Murray Halberg, Grant Robertson, Minister of Sport and Recreation said today. “Sir Murray was an extraordinary athlete. His gold medal in the 5000m at the Rome Olympic Games in 1960 has been immortalised as part of New ...6 days ago
- Ministerial talks in Canberra to progress trans-Tasman relationshipThe importance of cooperation in the Pacific to support the region’s recovery and resilience will be a focus of formal talks in Canberra tomorrow between the Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta and her Australian counterpart Penny Wong. Nanaia Mahuta will meet Senator Wong for the second formal Foreign Ministers’ Consultations following ...6 days ago
- Iwi and Government partnership delivers more rental homes for Pāpāmoa whānauAssociate Minister of Housing (Māori Housing) Peeni Henare attended the official opening of 10 new rental homes built for working whānau of Ngā Pōtiki ā Tamapahore in Pāpāmoa today. “The Bay of Plenty region is one of many regions facing significant housing challenges and this Government is taking action by ...6 days ago
- Government investment to support growth of Māori businesses and jobs in the primary sectorTotal exports by Māori businesses have grown by 38% since 2017 to $872 million, with the majority from the food and fibre sector Launch of Rautaki mo te Taurikura action plan to support the continued growth of Māori food and fibre sector Support for Māori agribusiness innovation and workforce development ...6 days ago
- Government to address child abuse system failingsThe Government is adopting the majority of recommendations from an independent review into the actions of government agencies leading up to the death of 5-year-old Malachi Subecz, Minister for Children Kelvin Davis announced today. Following Malachi’s murder at the hands of his caregiver in 2021, Dame Karen Poutasi was appointed ...6 days ago
- More tools to help Police deal with fleeing driversIncrease the maximum driver licence disqualification period for a second offence of failing to stop or remain stopped, from 12 months to between 12 months and 24 months; Amend the Sentencing Act 2002 so that a vehicle can be forfeited on conviction for failing to stop. Offenders could have their ...6 days ago
- Govt books solid as global situation worsensThe Crown accounts are in a solid position thanks to the Government’s careful financial management through a deteriorating global environment. For the four months to the end of October, the Operating Balance before Gains and Losses (OBEGAL) recorded a deficit of $2.8 billion, $274 million lower than forecast at Budget ...6 days ago
- Is Labour going to kill the public media merger?
Jacinda Ardern may have just offered a clue. Like an Air New Zealand jet eyeing up the big trip from New York to Auckland, the Labour government knows that you sometimes have to take drastic and unusual measures to make it home. When the fuel is limited and the headwinds ...11 mins ago - What actually happened in Avatar?Ahead of the much-anticipated release of Avatar 2: Way of the Water, our writers try and piece together what the first one was actually about. On December 18, 2009 Avatar was released in cinemas, breaking about a billion box office records and diagnosing the entire world with a serious case ...11 mins ago
- Big news: Avatar 2 actually sounds goodWe’re about a week away now from finally learning what Avatar: The Way of Water is all about. It’s been 13 years since the groundbreaking original was released – though some Spinoff writers don’t remember a lot about it (you’ll be able to read more about that on the site ...11 mins ago
- Family violence can include fire threats and burning. We can do more to protect women
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Heather Douglas, Professor of Law, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock Using fire and burning, and threats to burn, as part of family violence is more common than many people realise. These tools and tactics are used to coercively control a ...46 mins ago - Live Midday Thurs: Is an Independent Foreign Policy an Unachievable Myth? – Buchanan and Manning[email protected] NZ Time – 6pm USEST – In this, the 24th episode of A View from Afar for 2022 political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan and host Selwyn Manning will examine whether there is, in reality, such a thing as foreign policy independence in today’s world. Specifically, Paul and Selwyn ...53 mins ago
- Jailing Indonesians for shark finning in Australian waters doesn’t solve the real driver – pover...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Schuyler Marinac, Lecturer, College of Business, Law and Governance, James Cook University Shutterstock Last week, four Indonesian fishermen were convicted for taking shark fins and poaching fish in Australian waters. The four men were spotted off remote Niiwalarra/Sir Graham ...1 hour ago
- Prices hold steady at latest GDT auction, but are there warning signs for farmers in Scope 3 pressur...
Prices held steady at the latest Fonterra GDT auction. In USD terms, they were up 0.6% to an average $US3610, a smaller rise than the 2.4% at the previous auction. WMP prices held steady at $US3400 but SMP and cheddar both rose. Cheddar was up 1.8% to $US4826, ...2 hours ago - How the Treaty of Waitangi is determining the direction in which state-funded science will be taken ...
Buzz from the Beehive We have come – or gone – a long way, in the past two decades. In which direction is open to discussion. Writing for The Independent Business Weekly on 22 January 2003, I noted how a localised Māori belief in a taniwha had obliged ...2 hours ago - FIFA’s mirage of unity: why the World Cup is a vessel for political protestSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Before the Qatar World Cup began, FIFA launched a social campaign called “Football Unites the World”. FIFA acknowledged “the world is divided […] with conflicts and global crises”, but promised the ...2 hours ago
- Christopher Luxon calls for Nanaia Mahuta to be sacked over entrenchment clause
National Party leader Christopher Luxon says the Prime Minister should sack Nanaia Mahuta. Ardern says the Local Government Minister has not breached the Cabinet manual. ...2 hours ago - Could we have new Covid vaccines in 2023?It’s been a long time between drinks vaccines for most of us. But that could be set to change in 2023. The new director general of health Diana Sarfati suggested it would be useful for New Zealanders to be able to access a vaccine against specific strains of the omicron ...2 hours ago
- Hamish was a million sparks in the dark – goodbye to an unforgettable friendHamish Kilgour wasn’t just a creative genius and musical legend. He was a generous, sensitive friend to a great many, writes Gemma Gracewood. People don’t just drop round for tea in New York. Arrangements are made weeks in advance, mostly to meet somewhere outside our small apartments, to escape the ...2 hours ago
- Newsletter: December 7 2022 – Items of interest and importance todayNew Zealand Politics Daily is a collation of the most prominent issues being discussed in New Zealand. It is edited by Dr Bryce Edwards of The Democracy Project. Items of interest and importance today THREE WATERS Thomas Manch (Stuff): Make no mistake, Labour knew it was passing controversial Three Waters entrenchment clause ...2 hours ago
- Avoiding climate breakdown depends on protecting Earth’s biodiversity — can the COP15 summit del...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nathan Cooper, Associate Professor of Law, University of Waikato Getty Images Thousands of delegates have gathered in Montreal, Canada, for a once-in-a-decade chance to address the accelerating pace of species loss and the dangers of ecosystem breakdown. COP15 brings together ...3 hours ago
- ‘Community Participation’ Bill Will Enable A Fairer Alcohol Licensing Process
Hāpai te Hauora and Alcohol Healthwatch celebrate the changes put forward by Justice Minister Kiritapu Allan today to give power back to communities in decisions regarding controls on alcohol sales. The Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Community Participation) ...3 hours ago - Opposition calls for Mahuta to be sacked over entrenchment saga“It’s time for Jacinda Ardern to show some leadership, hold [Nanaia] Mahuta accountable, and sack her.” That’s according to National Party leader Christopher Luxon, who has issued a scathing statement this afternoon in the wake of revelations by Newshub that Mahuta, the local government minister, was responsible for allowing the ...3 hours ago
- Five reasons every marae should have these traffic signsAotearoa’s new official marae traffic signs are an important addition to our roadsides, writes Airana Ngarewa. A number of new traffic signs are slowly popping up around Aotearoa. They come in two varieties, a yellow hazard sign picturing a kui and her moko hand-in-hand, and a kōkōwai cultural marae sign ...3 hours ago
- Auckland Art Gallery’s visitor numbers ‘wouldn’t run a dairy’, says mayorAuckland’s mayor has taken aim at the city’s art gallery, labelling it the most uneconomic building and suggesting it sell off some of its collection. As Stuff reports, Brown said the gallery’s visitor numbers of about 9,500 between July and September were far too low. “9,500 wouldn’t run a dairy ...3 hours ago
- ChatGPT, the big-brain AI writing tool coming for our jobs, explains itselfDylan Reeve asks the self-described ‘revolutionary new tool for natural language processing’ to write its own explainer. Dylan: Let’s write an introductory paragraph to an article about using ChatGPT to write about ChatGPT. It should touch on how ChatGPT is now becoming an online meme, explain very briefly what OpenAI ...3 hours ago
- Doomed Deep Sea Miner The Metals Company Under Huge PressureIn what Greenpeace Aotearoa is calling another heavy blow to deep sea mining - the Canadian miner The Metals Company has received a delisting notice from the Nasdaq stock exchange - after trading below USD$1 at closing bid price for 30 days in a ...3 hours ago
- Jet Fuel Crisis PredictedThe current crisis likely to lead to severe jet fuel rationing in the lead up to Christmas completely vindicates Social Credit's campaign to get the government to keep the Marsden Point Oil refinery operational. That campaign was supported by ...4 hours ago
- ‘My brain is a blur … it’s exhausting’: On set with the EducatorsActors are asked to improvise dialogue, make up storylines and generally misbehave in front of camera. The result? New Zealand’s most chaotic – and funniest – TV comedy. Kura Forrester can’t help herself. Standing on stage in the assembly hall of a West Auckland school, she decides to do something ...4 hours ago
- Imminent Negotiations For US-driven IPEF Look To Mirror The TPPAThe first negotiating round of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) will be held in Brisbane from 10th to 15th December. “This is the most significant US-driven trade agreement since the deeply controversial and ill-fated Trans-Pacific Partnership ...5 hours ago
- ‘Complexity’ of govt reforms has allowed issues to be ‘muddied’ – ArdernJacinda Ardern has accepted some blame for confusion over major proposed government reforms like three waters – but she’s also suggested the opposition should take some responsibility as well. The government’s had a tough few weeks with ongoing debate and confusion over major policies like three waters and the merger ...5 hours ago
- Big Blue Aotearoa: How our ocean connects us (and why we need to protect it)New Zealand doesn’t end at the shoreline; the ocean that surrounds us is a part of us all too. And being more mindful of the role our moana plays in our lives could ensure it stays healthy and thriving for generations to come. ...5 hours ago
- Ardern government takes a dive, but Jackson’s acrobatics are even more spectacularThe Ardern Government has taken a hammering in recent days. The weird aspect is that it has largely done the damage to itself, with the Opposition left only to rub salt into the ugly wounds. Pollsters have been on hand to measure the ...5 hours ago
- I’m going to a classical music concert for the first time. What should I know?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy McKenry, Professor of Music, Australian Catholic University Classical music is surprisingly controversial. For some, it’s a pinnacle of cultural achievement. For others it perpetuates class inequality and upholds “white middle class social domination”. To controversy, we can add contradiction! ...6 hours ago
- 'Incredibly difficult' for National to win Hamilton West by-election – LuxonThe National Party leader talks Hamilton West, "demerging" TVNZ and RNZ, and the latest rise of Winston Peters. ...6 hours ago
- The best and weirdest Real News of 2022It’s been a hell of year for a number of reasons, and that’s even before Rita Ora arrived with her tiny cigarettes and her big ideas. In this episode, we look at back at the best bits of real news that have come across our Real Pod news-desk in 2022 ...6 hours ago
- Fiji elections: Solution to nation’s problems – ‘vote out FijiFirst’, says RabukaBy Serafina Silaitoga in Suva The solution to Fiji’s problems is to vote out the FijiFirst government, says People’s Alliance party leader Sitiveni Rabuka. Speaking to about 1000 supporters who welcomed Rabuka with cheers of “480” — his votng candidacy number — at the party rally in Labasa last Saturday, ...6 hours ago
- Give Mokopuna Their Childhood BackSome modest advances in child poverty reduction have been made since the passing of the Child Poverty Reduction Act in 2018, but rangatahi (youth) with lived experience of poverty say it’s time for immediate action. At the launch of ...7 hours ago
- ProCare Welcomes Smokefree Environments Bill Passing Its Second ReadingLeading healthcare provider, ProCare, has this morning welcomed the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill passing its second reading in the house last night. The Bill aims to reducing retail availability, amending ...7 hours ago
- Government Finance Statistics (general Government): Year Ended June 2022 Government finance statistics (general government) gives an economic representation of New Zealand's central and local government financial activity. Key facts In the year ended June 2022: general government net operating deficit was $7.0 billion, ...7 hours ago
- Pour one out for all the kai we lost in 2022It’s never easy when your favourite kai disappears from the shelves. Charlotte Muru-Lanning stands to salute all the great food products that went to the big remainder bin in the sky this year. Just as sore backs and increasingly vicious hangovers are an inevitable part of growing older, so too ...8 hours ago
- Luxon says cost of ‘de-merging’ TVNZ-RNZ would be worth itIt’s Wednesday morning and we’re still talking about the disastrous Willie Jackson interview on Sunday’s Q+A. That’s the impact of an interview, good or bad. You can read Duncan Greive writing about the TVNZ-RNZ merger, and Willie Jackson, on The Spinoff today. Meanwhile, National’s leader Christopher Luxon joined RNZ this ...8 hours ago
- Science system reform needed to tackle environmental challenges – VerrallA reform of the country's science system is needed to tackle the big environmental challenges, says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Ayesha Verrall. ...9 hours ago
- MSD Knowingly Spent Misappropriated Money For Three Years“Today in the Social Services Select Committee it was revealed that the Ministry for Social Development has spent $5.907m of misappropriated spending on accommodation assistance in the past five years, what’s worse is that they knew about it for ...9 hours ago
- Confirmed: Zelensky to address New Zealand parliamentUkraine ppresident Volodymyr Zelensky will address New Zealand parliament next Wednesday morning – via video link, of course. He’ll speak to MPs at 8am. He becomes only the second world leader to address our parliament, after Australia’s Julia Gillard back in 2011. Jacinda Ardern, in a statement, reiterated New Zealand’s ...10 hours ago
- The Bulletin: Judge’s decision on guardianship of child expected todayThe Herald’s George Block has a detailed report from yesterday’s court proceedings in the guardianship case involving a baby whose parents have refused the use of vaccinated blood in a life-saving operation the child needs to have. The parent’s lawyer and anti-vaccination campaigner Sue Grey opposed the application for guardianship from ...10 hours ago
- What on earth is going on with the government?A popular TikTok meme and a column featuring a wobbly dessert capture a run of unforced errors and a government “staggering to Christmas”, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday morning, sign up here. Government “staggering to Christmas” ...10 hours ago
- From Gayford to guacamole, here’s everything we Googled in 2022New Zealand, your annual search results have been compiled – and they’re pretty weird. It has, by any imaginable measure, been a strange old year. It started with the threat of lockdowns, and it’s ending with rising Covid case numbers. Along the way, the Queen died, Johnny Depp inexplicably thrived, ...10 hours ago
- How far has nuclear fusion power come? We could be at a turning point for the technologySource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nathan Garland, Lecturer in Applied Mathematics and Physics, Griffith University Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak in Oxfordshire, UK. Courtesy of MAST, CC BY-SA Our society faces the grand challenge of providing sustainable, secure and affordable means of generating energy, while trying to reduce ...10 hours ago
- The government wants to change Australia’s referendum laws. How will this affect the Voice to Parl...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Kildea, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney Lukas Coch/AAP Last week, the Albanese government took another important step towards the referendum on a Voice to Parliament. It introduced a bill to make changes to our referendum ...10 hours ago
- Netflix psychiatrist Phil Stutz says 85% of early therapy gains are down to lifestyle changes. Is he...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrienne O’Neil, Professor & Co-Director Food & Mood Centre, Deakin University Netflix/Stutz Jonah Hill’s Netflix documentary, Stutz, is an insightful journey into the mind of his therapist, renowned psychiatrist Phil Stutz. Hill delves into Stutz’ model of care, creatively using ...10 hours ago
- In 2022, Australia’s governments finally got moving on climate. Here’s howSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Cleary, Sustainable Economies Lead, Climateworks Centre, Monash University Shutterstock We might look back on 2022 as the year when Australian governments finally started taking climate change as seriously as it needs to be. Our new report shows federal, ...10 hours ago
- ‘A life changing experience’: how adult literacy programs can keep First Nations people out of t...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Beetson, Executive Director, The Literacy for Life Foundation; Adjunct Professor, University of New England Photo credit: Adam Sharman, Author provided Despite years of discussion and countless reviews, the incarceration rate of First Nations adults continues to increase in Australia. ...10 hours ago
- The first photograph of the entire globe: 50 years on, Blue Marble still inspiresSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chari Larsson, Senior Lecturer of art history, Griffith University NASA December 7 marks the 50-year anniversary of the Blue Marble photograph. The crew of NASA’s Apollo 17 spacecraft – the last manned mission to the Moon – took a photograph ...10 hours ago
- Silo Theatre to dim lights for most of 2023 to develop new local workSilo Theatre today made the unprecedented move to announce that it would be spending most of 2023 developing three new works, rather than focussing on presenting live, in-person, performances. The theatre company cited the need to survive in a post-pandemic world with smaller audience numbers, rising prices, diminishing government support ...11 hours ago
- The case against saving the St JamesThere are two easy ways to get rich: find one very wealthy sucker or find a million very poor suckers. As a public, it’s our duty to make sure we don’t become the million poor suckers, argues Dan Taipua. A wealth of public buildings, a poverty of millionaire developers In ...11 hours ago
- What is the government’s plan for TVNZ, RNZ and the tech platforms?An interview widely described as a trainwreck was a missed opportunity to explain some vital reforms, writes Duncan Greive. Thomas Coughlan did not hold back. In a surgically deft opinion piece for the NZ Herald, the site’s deputy political editor described media minister Willie Jackson’s appearance on Q+A last Sunday ...11 hours ago
- As Fiji prepares to vote, democracy could already be the loserSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic O’Sullivan, Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University Getty Images When Fijians elect a new parliament on December 14, it’s likely their votes will be counted ...11 hours ago
- NZ covid inquiry must look at response to specific communities, Pasifika health leader saysRNZ News A Pasifika health leader hopes the Royal Commission into the Covid-19 pandemic will look into the equity of the response and resource allocation. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday announced a Royal Commission into the government’s covid-19 response which will be chaired by Professor Tony Blakely, an epidemiologist working ...17 hours ago
- ‘Against propaganda, there are facts’ – RSF’s new global campaign videoThe new Reporters Without Borders campaign video about Russian’s invasion propaganda. Video: RSF Pacific Media Watch As Russia’s propaganda and crackdown on journalism continue to wreak havoc, the Paris-based global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has released its new campaign video. Devised and produced by the Paris-based advertising ...17 hours ago
- Indonesian protesters call for release of West Papua Morning Star detaineesRNZ Pacific Activists have protested at Indonesia’s Ternate Police headquarters in North Maluku demanding that the security forces release eight people arrested while commemorating West Papua Independence Day on December 1. December 1 marked 61 years since the first raising of West Papua’s symbol of independence, the Morning Star flag. ...21 hours ago
- Three Waters blunder 'made as a team, fixed as a team'Senior ministers are refusing to explain how a contentious Three Waters clause on privatisation got through caucus. ...22 hours ago
- Willie Jackson gives partial apology over public media merger interviewThe Broadcasting Minister says his recent interview about the RNZ-TVNZ merger was a mistake, but is downplaying concerns as coming largely from the media. ...23 hours ago
- This latest increase in RBA interest rates might well be the last, for some timeSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock You might not know it from reading Tuesday’s statement announcing Australia’s eighth consecutive increase in interest rates, but our Reserve Bank might finally have done enough. The statement ...1 day ago
- The ChatGPT chatbot is blowing people away with its writing skills. An expert explains why it’s so...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marcel Scharth, Lecturer in Business Analytics, University of Sydney Shutterstock We’ve all had some kind of interaction with a chatbot. It’s usually a little pop-up in the corner of a website, offering customer support – often clunky to navigate – ...1 day ago
- Keith Rankin Essay – Predicting the Coming Quarter CenturyAnalysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. On 29 October 2022, the New Zealand Listener published 10 Billion reasons to be cheerful, an article by Greg Dixon summarising “futurologist” Hamish McRae’s 2022 ...1 day ago
- Volodymyr Zelensky to address New Zealand Parliament next WednesdayUkraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, will address New Zealand's Parliament next Wednesday at 8am. ...1 day ago
- Why does New Zealand insist on pitching art against sport?Maybe the arts need more presence in mainstream media, but why does that automatically equate to less coverage of sport? The headline on Stuff had a Groundhog Day-like element to it: “The arts need to get a slice of sport’s blanket media coverage”. It came close to a year after ...1 day ago
- Taylor Swift’s Ticketmaster debacle is just the tip of the icebergHow has what you read, watch, and listen to been shaped by the economic structures that control creative production? Shanti Mathias reviews Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow’s Chokepoint Capitalism. The chaos of the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster debacle affected millions of very angry fans earlier in November. In brief: Taylor Swift, ...1 day ago
- Baby at centre of court hearing had previously had a blood transfusionThe High Court in Auckland has learned that a critically sick baby had previously been given a blood transfusion. That’s despite the parents refusing further treatment unless their son is given only blood from unvaccinated people. Health New Zealand wants custody of the child so that they can ensure he ...1 day ago
- Government falling behind on timeframe for co-governance plans – Willie JacksonThe Māori Development Minister confirms he's "leaning towards" putting the work on co-governance on hold. ...1 day ago
- The daunting task facing new Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim: uniting a divided countrySource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Chin, Professor of Asian Studies, University of Tasmania It’s been some journey for Anwar Ibrahim, the new Malaysian prime minister appointed last month. It took 24 years to go from being the country’s deputy prime minister in 1998 to becoming the ...1 day ago
- ‘Any means necessary’: the police who adopt the skull symbol of the ultra-violent comic book vig...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martyn Pedler, PhD Candidate, Swinburne University of Technology Shutterstock/ Disney In Travis Linnemann’s book The Horror Of Police, he quotes David Grossman, founder of the “bulletproof warrior” seminar series, notorious for teaching police that killing is “just not that big ...1 day ago
- We asked ChatGPT to write about ChatGPTDylan Reeve asks the self-described ‘revolutionary new tool for natural language processing’ to explain itself. Dylan: Let’s write an introductory paragraph to an article about using ChatGPT to write about ChatGPT. It should touch on how ChatGPT is now becoming an online meme, explain very briefly what OpenAI is and ...1 day ago
- Australia and the US are firm friends on defence – now let’s turn that into world-beating climat...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter J. Dean, Director, Foreign Policy and Defence, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney Mick Tsikas/AAP Climate action is firmly on the political agenda in both Australia and the United States, following a recent change in government in both ...1 day ago
- Empowerment and partnership – both concepts come into the considerations of Ardern’s Treaty-sens...Buzz from the Beehive “Empowerment” is a bit like “Treaty partnership”. Just a decade or so ago you would rarely have heard of it. Since then, its use has burgeoned and its meaning – like the meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi’s three simple clauses – has evolved ...1 day ago
- Sea urchins have invaded Tasmania and Victoria, but we can’t work out what to do with themSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Neil Andrew, Professor of fisheries and international development, University of Wollongong Urchin barrens David Harasti, Author provided While crown-of-thorns starfish on the Great Barrier Reef have long been ecological villains in the popular imagination, sea urchins have mostly crawled under the national ...1 day ago
- Domestic violence, isolation hit Pacific women during pandemic, says USP surveyBy Sri Krishnamurthi While some women at the University of the South Pacific’s 14 campuses found working from home enjoyable during the covid-19 pandemic, others felt isolated, had overwhelming mental challenges and some experienced domestic violence, a Pacific survey has found. Titled “University Women Remote Work Challenges”, the survey was ...1 day ago
- New safeguards to ensure proper treatment of detainees during offshore deployments announcedThe new framework delivers on the fourth and final recommendation accepted after the 2020 Operation Burnham inquiry. ...1 day ago
- Hamilton West by-election: National, Labour candidates and Guarav Sharma vie for voters' tickHamilton West voters will head to the polls this Saturday for the by-election triggered by former Labour MP Gaurav Sharma's resignation from Parliament in October. ...1 day ago
- Council Review A Chance To Achieve Better Ratepayer Equity, Feds SaysYet another local government review is underway - but will its recommendations actually be picked up, especially regarding cost fairness? The existing system of property value rates is loaded against agriculture. Farmers pay many more times than other ...1 day ago
- 1 in 10 Australian women report disrespectful or abusive care in childbirthSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hazel Keedle, Lecturer of Midwifery, Western Sydney University Shutterstock Having a baby can be an empowering experience when women are treated with kindness and respect. However, some women are left feeling traumatised by how they were treated. When women ...1 day ago
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