Archive for August, 2012
Ministry of Silly Investments
Written By: - Date published: 6:50 am, August 13th, 2012 - 4 comments
The Nats spent $420,000 on branding for the Ministry of Science and Innovation, which only existed for 18 months before being swallowed by MoBIE. It included money for branded play putty… Shearer’s right: “The Government’s supposed public service reform is an incoherent ego trip for ministers.”
Open mike 13/08/2012
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 13th, 2012 - 279 comments
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Interesting week
Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, August 12th, 2012 - 163 comments
It has been an interesting week for the leaders of the two main parties – one I think that they would both rather forget.
$12 billion on roads no-one will use
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, August 12th, 2012 - 58 comments
Research from the Green Party shows that the $12 billion ‘Roads of National Significance’, the bulk of the next decade’s transport budget, would be on routes that carry just 4% of the country’s traffic. So, the other 96% of us are paying nearly $3,000 a head for roads that bugger all people will use. Traffic on many of the routes is actually falling.
Open mike 12/08/2012
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 12th, 2012 - 151 comments
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
David Shearer’s first e-newsletter
Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, August 11th, 2012 - 97 comments
David Shearer has decided to start emailing members every week.
Given the recent hubbub it might be worth reading.
Here’s the first issue, sent out yesterday.
Nats’ education plans make sense after all
Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, August 11th, 2012 - 33 comments
How to explain National’s blatant inconsistency in not requiring national standards for charter schools? After further reflection, I think it makes sense after all…
Open mike 11/08/2012
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 11th, 2012 - 44 comments
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Put away the knives, the polls are up!
Written By: - Date published: 9:59 pm, August 10th, 2012 - 144 comments
I suspect that the knives that were out for a couple days this week will be quietly slipped back into their sheaths now. Labour’s up in the latest Roy Morgan. So are the Greens. The Left’s at 46% vs the Banks Key Government’s 44.5%. We won’t see more hamfisted attempts to undermine Shearer and attack Cunliffe clearing the path for someone else. Well, not until the next bad poll.
Weekend social 10/08/2012
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, August 10th, 2012 - 10 comments
Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can’t we all just get along?
3 News polls mums and dads
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, August 10th, 2012 - 43 comments
Turns out that not many “mums and dads” are planning to buy shares in their own assets.
162,000 unemployed just a “technical rise”
Written By: - Date published: 7:59 am, August 10th, 2012 - 277 comments
Key’s making excuses for his government’s pathetic record on jobs. Unemployment is going the wrong way but Key calls another 2,000 people without jobs to 162,000 – the highest number since 1994 – a “very small, technical rise“. 65,000 more unemployed under National. And we’re doing relatively badly. We’ve gone from 6th lowest unemployment in the OECD to 14th.
Why I’m In – a response to the disillusioned
Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, August 10th, 2012 - 143 comments
A somewhat meandering and personal response to the disillusioned, prompted by Scott Yorke’s recent “Why I’m Out”.
Open mike 10/08/2012
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 10th, 2012 - 266 comments
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Unemployment worse than it looks
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, August 9th, 2012 - 67 comments
Unemployment is up, and the real situation is worse than the figures suggest. Just how many more years of the Nats’ economic “genius” do you want NZ?
Labour, WTF? – a collection of posts
Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, August 9th, 2012 - 101 comments
We’ve received a set of guest posts arising from the Stab In the Back comments that Duncan Garner reported on Tuesday and Su’a William Sio. We’ll compile the best here. As always, we exercise judgement in not publishing truly nutty stuff but there’s no editorial line, no endorsement of guest posts we publish – they just have to pass the test of being informative, lucid, and left.
Kiwirail disgrace
Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, August 9th, 2012 - 36 comments
Buying back Kiwirail was a chance for building a cost-, oil-, and carbon-efficient transport network. Instead, its been a tale of false economies: cheap trains from China, cheap sleepers from Peru, cheap labour from contracting out. In the end, it all costs more for worse results.
Working InZone
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, August 9th, 2012 - 6 comments
Yesterday, National was patting itself on the back for getting, wait for it, 25 people into work and off benefits as part of rebuilding Christchurch. This in a $770,000 programme called Work InZone that was meant to get 100 people into work. This programme didn’t create jobs, it just helped get the select beneficiaries to the front of the queue for them. Just means someone else missed out.
Open mike 09/08/2012
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 9th, 2012 - 110 comments
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Libor and the rotten heart of capitalism
Written By: - Date published: 11:09 am, August 8th, 2012 - 30 comments
The Libor banking scandal has grown into a full fledged international crisis. Just another example of the rot at the heart of capitalism.
A modest proposal
Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, August 8th, 2012 - 25 comments
I plan to start a business. I will be a job creator. 50 people will have jobs thanks to me. The whole community will benefit. My business will make poisoned puppy toys. Don’t get me wrong. They won’t kill every puppy who chews on them every time. Only 50% over the puppies’ lives. 30 puppies a year will die per job created. But – jobs! Does it make it better if I’m only selling the poison puppy toys in Australia?
Bet tunnels didn’t cost this much at Messines
Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, August 8th, 2012 - 43 comments
How does it cost $75m to dig a 220m long tunnel? The Government is planning to tear up the 5-year old bypass road and put it underground to give space for the National War Memorial for $75m. You’re never going to win opposing a war memorial – even though the Nats cancelled it in 2009, which is why the cost is so high doing it at the last minute before the centenary of Gallipoli – but $350,000 a metre for a tunnel?
Open mike 08/08/2012
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 8th, 2012 - 125 comments
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Too far
Written By: - Date published: 8:05 pm, August 7th, 2012 - 394 comments
It looks like someone from within Labour’s top team* has decided to have a real nasty go at David Cunliffe via Duncan Garner.
Nats don’t believe their own education policy
Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, August 7th, 2012 - 28 comments
As usual it is the kids who will suffer.
Farrar & the mystery of induced traffic
Written By: - Date published: 10:16 am, August 7th, 2012 - 8 comments
David Farrar notes that 4 of the 10 worst congestion points in New Zealand are in Wellington. He concludes “Transmission Gully will help with some of that, but not all”. Quite the opposite, old boy. Transmission Gully will not create any new capacity at any of these congestion points. In fact, NZTA says it will create more traffic heading into 3 of them.
NRT: Dunne on alcohol pricing
Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, August 7th, 2012 - 48 comments
Last month, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne told us “I don’t support a minimum pricing regime … a lot of the material that I’ve seen from other jurisdictions raises more doubts than support for the issue of minimum alcohol pricing“. Now, an OIA reveals the actual advice to Dunne was that the international evidence shows minimum alcohol pricing works.
Asset sales could be delayed a year or more
Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, August 7th, 2012 - 52 comments
“Unusual and inappropriate” – that’s how the Waitangi Tribunal has described National’s ‘report by August 24th or we’ll ignore you’ ultimatum. Imagine if you or I were party to a court case and tried that! Now, the Tribunal is going to deliver a truncated report before that deadline and the full one in September. This is going to the courts. Injunctions will delay the sale.
Open mike 07/08/2012
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 7th, 2012 - 106 comments
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Curiosity – 5:30pm
Written By: - Date published: 3:40 pm, August 6th, 2012 - 106 comments
At around 5:30pm this evening Curiosity will either touch down safely on Mars, or make (another) expensive smudge on the surface. Various links below – tune in. Good luck Curiosity…
NRT: Not worth it
Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, August 6th, 2012 - 133 comments
I/S at No Right Turn on the latest Kiwi deaths in Afghanistan.
- What does the new Commonwealth Prac Payment mean for students? Will it do enough to end ‘placement...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...7 days ago - Education, productivity and emissions: Three big problems NZ needs to fix, according to the OECD
Economic growth is sluggish - and the problems are a familiar list. ...7 days ago - New to streaming: What to watch on Netflix NZ, Neon and more this week
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9) An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...7 days ago - ‘Don’t mistake Pacific leaders AUKUS quietness’ as support for NZ, says academicBy Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...7 days ago
- Labour says Government's water plan will see some councils 'left out in the cold'Meanwhile, the party and National are also odds about whose plan to fix the pipes will cost more. ...7 days ago
- The climate cost of your digital lifeHow worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...7 days ago
- Three fact-checking challenges in Southeast AsiaSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...7 days ago
- How to make the most of oyster seasonThe Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...7 days ago
- How the Student Volunteer Army is helping high schoolers give backThe Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...7 days ago
- Here’s what happened when I replaced my personality with the Meta AI chatbot for a dayKeeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...7 days ago
- MP Jamie Arbuckle to keep two jobs – and two salariesJamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...7 days ago
- Tense office dynamics draining your soul? Kink can help with thatThe workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...7 days ago
- Old, more polluting ships serving NZ could be a barrier to climate goalsThe Climate Change Commission is floating the idea of bringing international shipping into New Zealand's carbon-cutting targets. ...1 week ago
- A week on, the school phone ban is (mostly) winning praiseEven if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...1 week ago
- Could Wellington be the next region to ink a water deal with the government?Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...1 week ago
- Award-Winning Musician Ria Hall Announces Candidacy For Mayor Of Tauranga
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...1 week ago - Teachers don’t want the new histories curriculum to be ‘rebalanced’The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...1 week ago
- At last! The kiwi is getting its comeuppance For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...1 week ago
- Daily crossword, Monday 6 May
The post Daily crossword, Monday 6 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 week ago - Political donations: people power no match for big businessAnalysis: Experts are renewing their calls for a cap on donations as the gap between the left and the right widens The post Political donations: people power no match for big business appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 week ago
- Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 6 MayLoading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,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, Monday 6 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 week ago
- New Kiwi gymnast flips for Olympic dreamFor the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...1 week ago
- Rent controls are far from being ‘economically illiterate’Opinion: There are many ways to regulate for rental increases, depending on the market conditions The post Rent controls are far from being ‘economically illiterate’ appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 week ago
- Southland stream life wiped out by single contaminant dumpAn investigation is underway into how freshwater crayfish, trout and thousands of eels were killed when pollution from private land ended up in a healthy stream The post Southland stream life wiped out by single contaminant dump appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 week ago
- An incident at Glenmark station in CanterburyLate one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...1 week ago
- An obscure climate accounting decision with billion-dollar consequencesOpinion: For a country that trades on its reputation as a trustworthy international counterpart, we must follow through on our climate commitments – or face serious financial risks The post An obscure climate accounting decision with billion-dollar consequences appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 week ago
- Officials set aside environmental benefits of waste-to-energy facilityA $350 million waste incinerator is a step closer, but questions marks remain over its environmental benefits The post Officials set aside environmental benefits of waste-to-energy facility appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 week ago
- Auckland’s decades-old stadium shuffleIf building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...1 week ago
- Federated Farmers’ support for fast-track bill ‘ambiguous’Fed Farmers’ oral and written submissions on the fast-track bill contain no definitive indication of the group’s support. Board member Mark Hooper clarifies. The post Federated Farmers’ support for fast-track bill ‘ambiguous’ appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 week ago
- How advertising, not social media, killed traditional journalismComment: The debate over the future relationship between news and social media is bringing us closer to a long-overdue reckoning. Social media isn’t trying to kill journalism, because social media has never really cared about journalism. Social media is resolutely in the attention business. News propels some attention — perhaps ...1 week ago
- GCSB foreign spying capability under scrutinyThe Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...1 week ago
- Auckland's new water plan unveiled by Mayor Wayne Brown and Local Government Minister Simeon Br...The government claims Aucklanders will avoid a projected 25.8 percent water rates increase with the coalition's Local Water Done Well plan. ...1 week ago
- 'Māori Seabed, For Shore!' – Two decades on from the largest hīkoi in a generationTwenty years has passed since the historic hīkoi against the controversial Foreshore and Seabed Act reached Parliament. ...1 week ago
- An Ode to .. Julie Anne GenterGenterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...1 week ago
- National aims high while struggling to take offPolitical conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...1 week ago
- Real journalists can lead the war against deepfakesComment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...1 week ago
- Meet the cast of Married at First Sight NZ for 2024Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...1 week ago
- New Zealand signs deal with Germany on Antarctica cooperationThe memorandum of understanding with Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute is expected to foster cooperation between the two polar science bodies. ...1 week ago
- NZ food safety agency monitoring Indian spice mix recallsNew Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...1 week ago
- The Boy in the Water: ‘I just can’t do this anymore’We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...1 week ago
- 'Data is the new oil': Call to save jobs of data security guardsNew Zealanders' data is at risk with the government's "unintelligent" proposal to cut information security jobs, the Privacy Foundation says. ...1 week ago
- The Secret Diary of .. Coalition Sheriff LuxonMONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...1 week ago
- Liam Hewson seeks answers in natureKeen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...1 week ago
- Dan Carter won’t stop kickingAfter a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...1 week ago
- ‘Everybody rolls their eyes’: Dame Susan Devoy’s guilty TV pleasureDame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...1 week ago
- Dunedin’s secondhand bookshops, ranked and reviewedHera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard. Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...1 week ago
- Review: High Country is the ideal crime drama for a cold winter nightThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...1 week ago
- Welcome to The WeekendIntroducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...1 week ago
- Tips and tricks for when your therapist looks like your dadTip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...1 week ago
- The Sunday Essay: The books that electrify and consume youI didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing. The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...1 week ago
- The Enhanced games, where drug use isn’t cheatingFormer Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...1 week ago
- Short story: The boat in the shed, by Kyle MewburnEveryone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...1 week ago
- Public health expert urges govt to focus on disease preventionThe government needs to step up in the wake of a report showing a third of Kiwis have unmet health needs, Professor Boyd Swinburn says. ...1 week ago
- Free speech debate back on as Victoria University expands diversity on panelA perceived right-wing bias and concerns about panellist diversity have pushed Victoria University to reformat its debate. ...1 week ago
- Week in Politics: Polls, pay rises and a Green MP in troubleAnalysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...1 week ago
- Māori win customary title over Tokomaru Bay on East CoastThe entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...1 week ago
- National raised $10.4m in donations in 2023Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...1 week ago
- Don't 'mistake' Pacific leaders 'quietness' on AUKUS as support for NZ'...A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...1 week ago
- Florist says Julie Anne Genter exchange was 'massive imbalance of power'The Wellington woman says she felt degraded and humiliated after being confronted by the Green MP. ...1 week ago
- National returned $200,000 donation day after Newsroom storyNational returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...1 week ago
- Greens have 'historically bad' start to the year – political scientistThe party has had faced a challenging set of circumstances over the past five months, Lara Greaves says. ...1 week ago
- HWPL Calls For Peace Amid Rising Tensions Between Israel And IranHeavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...1 week ago
- The Friday Poem: ‘Mātou’ by Tessa KeenanA poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...1 week ago
- The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending May 3The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25) The masterful Irish writer ...1 week ago
- Marriages, Civil Unions, And Divorces: Year Ended Dec 2023Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...1 week ago
- Marriages, Civil Unions, And Divorces: Year Ended December 2023Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...1 week ago
- ‘There was life in the old girl yet’: Dame Susan Devoy on taking reality TV by stormIn this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...1 week ago
- Auditor-General criticises way University of Waikato contracted Steven JoyceJohn Ryan says the University of Waikato did not invite multiple contractors and reached out to the former finance minister directly. ...1 week ago
- 'Not my first legal rodeo' – Winston Peters on defamation threatForeign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says he will not be cowed by threats of legal action, having received a legal letter from Bob Carr. ...1 week ago
- Can the Green Party’s holy mission survive its fallible disciples?A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...1 week ago
- Winston Peters gives China speech amid legal drama and AUKUS questionsThe Foreign Minister spoke about the NZ-China relationship amid lingering questions about the AUKUS security alliance . ...1 week ago
- Gone By Lunchtime: Mojo machine misfires, honeymoon cancelledWhat’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...1 week ago
- The Waitangi Tribunal’s latest report is about far more than just child protectionThe striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...1 week ago
- Live Winston Peters gives China speech amid legal drama and AUKUS questionsThe Foreign Minister was speaking at the New Zealand China Council while questions linger about the AUKUS security alliance . ...1 week ago
- 'We weren't informed': Apprentice working on school unaware of asbestosThe Education Ministry is promising to do more about asbestos problems in schools, with tighter controls over detection and removal. ...1 week ago
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