Another partial privatisation that has failed

Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, July 18th, 2022 - 37 comments
Categories: assets, Privatisation, privatisation, sport, uncategorized - Tags:

I watched the Rugby test on Saturday night.  One side played with passion and vigour.  Their forward pack dominated and the defensive effort from the backs was superb.  The four tries they scored were the direct results of unrelenting and sustained pressure.

The other side was the All Blacks who displayed all the passion and vigour of a National Party conference.

The All Black coach Ian Foster is getting a lot of stick.  When you earn the big bucks you live and die by the results.

For me however the thing that was evident was the lack of passion showed by the All Blacks.

And this is not a one off .  The results over the past couple of years have been decidedly ordinary.

What else has been happening during this time?  Agreed that Foster has been coach.

But during this time New Zealand Rugby has been engaged in a process to sell its soul and a stake in its assets to US Investment Firm Silver Lake.

I analysed this deal in April last year and said this:

We are left with the situation where something born of our communities and nurtured and supported by our local and central governments is potentially being sold off to a US private equity firm.  Just so that television audiences can be entertained and profits made.

If the sale happens it will be a very dark day for New Zealand rugby.  The word “grassroots” will no longer be able to be applied to the national game.

There are other theories about what has happened.  Texters to Morning Report thought it was the result of a rampant woke culture.  The funny thing is that most people claim wokeism is a worldwide phenomenon.  If so then I would be keen to understand how Irish wokeness has had less impact than New Zealand wokeness.

New Zealand Rugby’s major problem is that it is now a made for TV commodity played by well played gladiators where the dollar is the driving force.  And as it has evolved it has lost some of the passion that used to be such an integral part of every All Black performance.

37 comments on “Another partial privatisation that has failed ”

  1. Bruce 1

    'well played gladiators ' I think you mean payed

    But yes I agree big pay cheques seem to stifle passion, contrary to what the capitalists tell us.

    • Cricklewood 1.1

      Excepting of course that the most of the Irish will be earning considerably more than the Abs with their clubs… which are privately funded….

    • Belladonna 1.2

      Really? I don't think that a lack of passion is a characteristic of the really big sport franchises internationally. Look at NBA or Club Football (Soccer) in the Europe. They're the guys who get the really big money. Plenty of passion to win (not least, because they get a really nice bonus when they do) – but also because they know their international reputation is reflected in what they get paid.

      Suspect that the ABs (like all international teams) are going through a bad patch. It happens. Sometimes it's the coach. Sometimes it's other stuff. It's rarely the money.

  2. Maurice 2

    "And this is not a one off . The results over the past couple of years have been decidedly ordinary.

    What else has been happening during this time?"

    We have had a 2nd term Labour government which does not have to rely upon the Green Party!

    Note that it was a “Green” team which sunk the All Blacks

  3. bwaghorn 3

    Na we just need a coach with a pulse ,a forward /captain willing to die for the win and a center that's 4 ft across the shoulders who scares the opposition backs witless.

  4. Sanctuary 4

    Scotty Stevenson over at thespinoff sums it up:

    "…I have no desire to revisit the harebrained arrogance of the New Zealand national body which has, over the last decade, decimated club rugby, killed the National Provincial Championship, homogenised Super Rugby, burned Australia, Argentina and South Africa… …what happens when you package up 120 years of respected representative sporting success, call it a brand, and sell it off to Oxbridge dudebro buddies in an act of ego-inflating, nausea-inducing corporate capriciousness…

    "…In the meantime, there’s nothing that can be said other than once upon a time, innovation underpinned the game here in New Zealand. All Blacks teams consistently imposed their tactical superiority on others, convinced (and rightly so) that an abundance of athletic and technical ability existed within the nation’s broad church of styles. That broad church has been reduced to a cult, a one-size-fits-all approach informed not by variety but by reactionary methodology and protectionist ideology…"

    One of the biggest problems is the NZRFU strategy for 20+ years has been one of managed retreat, where everything – club rugby, the mass player base, the NPC, even Super Rugby – has been subordinated too and sacrificed for the sole aim of buying time for the All Blacks. That has IMHO imbued the NZRFU with a passive-aggressive and defeatist siege mentality.

    Every egg went into one particular basket. The model was simple – forget about rugby as "the game of the people" in return for money, money, money. So the game has been locked behind a paywall for a generation and given to a truly awful monopoly in Sky TV – a company so dependent on rugby for survival it actually has done a business deal with the NZRFU, but also a business now so far off the pace in technology and so reviled by it's customers it knows it would go broke overnight without rugby. So a generation of kids have grown not watching the game, which means the pay TV audience is now aging – I think what happened to NASCAR is similar to what has happened to rugby:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSKk6J20SsA&t=600s

    So now if the All Blacks fail they've got nothing. The days of 25,000 rabid fans keen on revenge on the aulde enemy packing a stadium for a provincial home game for a second leg clash between, say, Hawkes Bay and Taranaki are gone. The days when you might not follow club rugby that much but by George you know you didn't want those swine at Old Boys defeating your guys in Pirates are so much ancient history.

    I played rugby in the 1980s at high school with two future All Blacks (the fact that I did play rugby as a kid means I have kept up an interest in the game), and we had a reasonable first XV that was competitive with everyone. Now I see my old school regularly on the receiving end of 50+ hidings. This destruction of competitive participation at all levels was meant to be compensated by an elite academy system with talent scouts producing a conveyor belt of talent into Super Rugby from school rugby. Only that hasn't worked. Schoolboy rugby has been hijacked by a tiny coterie (about fifteen schools completely dominate) of elite schools who only want one type of player – big bulldozing early developers – so they can win first XV competitions. Everyone else – late developers, kids who just want to play, converts from other sports who might want to dabble – are largely doing something else now. And those elite high school kids? They've had a red carpet rolled out for them from the age of 13-14 years old. All they've ever had to do was step along it. When they get to professional rugby they are very entitled and mostly neither mentally tough enough or that interested in being an All Black, beyond maybe a season or three to burnish their CV before going on the rugby diaspora for better money.

    So no new talent, and no one watching. How ironic that the country that was the keenest for the game to go professional is mostly likely to be the one where that hubris leads to the sports destruction.

    • James Simpson 4.1

      I agree with you.

      In most other sports and in other rugby playing nations, the club competition is the basis for everything. Look at the NRL, the English Premier League, France Top 14 etc. There you have strong tribal rivalries between fans. Then from there the best players get picked to representative honours.

      New Zealand rugby has it backwards. It is the All Blacks first, second and third. The best payers are wrapped in cotton wool and required to rest during Super Rugby, which has the effect of killing that competition. And they never play NPC.

      What we have is professional competition that is nothing more than a training exercise for the All Blacks.

    • Puckish Rogue 4.2

      Preach brother!

    • woodart 4.3

      very good post . the comparison to nascar and its aging declining audience is valid. as are the forgetting of the amateur base of both sports . I wonder if nz rugby is trying to hard to be like nfl(american football). that sport is now struggling with a small number of amateur players and a changing audience demographic. comparisons to the nats? both nz rugby and the nats are run by the same sort of conservative thinkers, who do the same old, same old, expecting a different result.

  5. Incognito 5

    Passion and vigour only get you so far when you‘re [still] at the top. Skill and leadership matter as much if not more – they are not mutually exclusive, of course, but need to be integrated – especially when the competition is tough & tight.

    The National Party doesn’t have what it takes except for their insatiable hunger for power and a whatever-it-takes mentality to win.

    Labour and also the Greens have some skills and some leadership to offer but they lack passion and vigour; they look like an old troupe of tired damaged players who cannot wait for the bruising season to be over. That doesn’t inspire the grassroots!

  6. Populuxe1 6

    It's increasingly less and less relevant to the majority who thanks to technology can now follow other sports, or better yet, have lives of their own.

  7. I concur with everything 'Sanctuary' said. Sky viewing of Rugby, denied so many of us without access to Sky to enjoy the game of Rugby in our home, with the whole family engaged.

    • Sanctuary 7.1

      Sky is hopelessly legacy technology. Even the English Premier League, the very pinnacle of sporting excess, recognises that you need to have a few free live to air big matches to keep the interest up via Amazon Prime or whatever platform.

    • SPC 7.2

      There are free sports streaming sites – not the same as a TV in the home – but online.

    • nzsage 7.3

      This sums it up perfectly for me MC.

      Corporate greed wins over family and community spirit… again.

  8. Mike the Lefty 8

    Blaming the All Blacks loss on "woke culture"?

    Sounds like denial of responsibility to me.

    Fact is the Irish played better than the All Blacks. It was not the fault of the ref, the conditions, the rules or "the woke".

    The rugby establishment might blame "woke culture" on rugby's convoluted rules but actually the rot settled in some three decades before the word "woke" meant anything more than the moments after you finish sleeping. New rules were introduced, most ostensibly to prevent serious player injuries but they also had the effect of making the game slower and more difficult to referee.

    I remember a TV ad for Vogels bread that featured All Black legend Colin Meads commenting "these new rugby rules have ruined the game, its still called rugby, but its not the same".

    Watching the teams set their lineouts and scrums in the modern game is like watching bad acting in a movie – totally choreographed, predictable and somewhat tedious.

    If I watch rugby, I prefer to go down to the local park and watch the boys playing in the mud – not for money or glory but simply because they love the game.

  9. Corey Humm 9

    This is a country that historically votes out the incumbent govt if the all blacks lose. That always makes my head explode.

    The deputy PMs comments about how "you can't win when you make so many mistakes" sounded like he was talking about the Labour party's second term hopefully we get "glimpses in the second half" of this term.

    I think the left should stay away from rugby in general, we always underestimate it's popularity, last week the left were calling rugby fans "the rich" and raining misery and being the fun police and attacking 70% of the people in a city of half a million people for wanting a much delayed stadium to be built without delay so we dontt have to go to another city to see a concert or abs game.

    Tbf I'm a lefty who hates and despises rugby 🤣 lol I'm just not sure an overweight deputy leader of a floundering government facing certain defeat despite being elected in an earth shattering landslide less than two years ago has any right to be criticizing elite athletes athleticism or game match fitness.

    • Mike the Lefty 9.1

      I’m of the political left but I don’t hate rugby. I just don’t buy into the professional branding corporatism that pervades the game at the top level. The best rugby to watch is club level which you can watch (usually for free) at your local sports ground where the level of honest commitment is real.

  10. newsense 10

    There’s a great video on YouTube analyzing the Wallabies decline and insights on WR team success in general. Cohesion in the team is important.

    I don’t think it’s a mystery though that Sam Cane isn’t in the Richie McCaw bracket. Few are. Foster isn’t as good at head coaching as the three coaches before him.

    In general event television is waining and the number of people who play or follow rugby like a religion is on the wain. Maybe.

    But the competition structure is almost as confusing as cricket. Getting 5k or less along to games indicates a force declining. Sport requires active participation to keep going: refs, volunteers, fans, coaches, players, sponsors… that’s an awful lot of active good will you don’t get after being trained to be on the couch.

    and yes leaving behind a colonial identity where our biggest stars are South Africa, Australia and sometimes Britain may mean rugby declines too. Or it thrives. But it needs something better than this.

    • In Vino 10.1

      I don’t think it’s a mystery though that Sam Cane isn’t in the Richie McCaw bracket. Few are. Foster isn’t as good at head coaching as the three coaches before him.

      Unfair to Sam

      As I remember, McCaw was a bloody useless captain at first. Remember that time the French knocked us out of the World Cup because Wayne Barnes didn't see a forward pass?

      For the last 15 mins or so the dumb All Blacks hammered away at a determined French defence, and lost. McCaw (fairly new as captain) never even thought of trying a drop goal, or any different tactic. Useless.

      It took McCaw quite a long time to learn how to be a good captain. Sam Cane has not yet had that privilege

      • Puckish Rogue 10.1.1

        That was 2007, Richard was first made ABS captain in 2004

        • In Vino 10.1.1.1

          So McCaw was a shit captain for at least 3 years?

          Sam Cane is getting a rougher deal than I had thought!

          • Puckish Rogue 10.1.1.1.1

            Maybe your powers of recollection are not what they once were…

            • In Vino 10.1.1.1.1.1

              OK. I don't really know or care much about Rugby: I just remembered McCaw's failure in that game and thought that Sam Cane may be getting judged harshly in that light.

              If you have greater knowledge, please feel free to elucidate.

  11. Stuart Munro 11

    This process of gentrification in sport has been going on for centuries. Horse racing was a popular passion back when everyone rode or wished to ride horses – now it's a shadow of what it was in its its heyday.

    Rugby was the football of the nobility, and when it became NZ's national sport, that was an assertion of our society's egalitarianism. Roger Douglas et al put paid to all that. The RSEs that pick the fruit and milk cows here now don't build their dreams of accomplishment around H shaped posts.

    The sport can recover – but if it wants to be truly national again it has to offer something in the way of intangible benefits. Something that reaches down as far as the women that might like their children to play something that makes less clay-stained gear to wash and somehow dry through the rainy part of winter.

    A good coaching team and things'll come right for a while. It might be though, that there's a better obsession out there for the 21st century.

  12. SPC 12

    I don't see much connection between the state of the game (administrative or amateur), and the performance of the AB's, let alone wider society.

    The latter is a function of the talent available and utilisation of it, as players in a team and the team coaching/management.

    We have not won at U 20 level for some time, so will have to live off a historic winning record against all nations … as we fade down the rankings. It will make winning easier to savour, as it will occur less often. But it will mean that we lose more and more of our players going north for money (as the status of the long AB career wanes)*

    It was inevitable that at some point that we would lose our amateur era advantage – which was the NPC/provincial game (South Africa had the Currie Cup). South Africa has made the strategic decision to abandon the south for the money of the north (to retain players it was losing and better time zones). This will give them a competitive advantage over us and is something we can do nothing about. We will try and retain international players in a Tasman bubble, but at some point if we lose too much talent will allow players over ** or after ** tests to go north and remain eligible for the AB's (so we remain as competitive as we would like to be).

  13. Binders full of women 13

    Rugby's toast– no kids are playing. Mums rightly concerned about MCE & dementia. But it's not just the conservative Nats that get wooed by the old salts in blazers. In my town field hockey and basketball are pumping but the facilities are so lacking that kids are training and playing at 9 30 at night. The Labour Govt came to town with $6mil for sports- the council had identified 6 priorities. The Govt went with #7! a new roof for the rugby grandstand . So 100 spectators can stay dry at 4 'Heartland' home games while watching early onset demetia. The cronyism is sickening.

  14. Ed 14

    Excellent article on this matter by John Minto over at the Daily Blog.

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2022/07/18/forget-the-fans-its-the-sponsors-calling-the-tune-on-the-all-blacks-series-defeat-to-ireland/

    Forget the fans – it’s the sponsors calling the tune on the All Blacks series defeat to Ireland

  15. Descendant Of Smith 15

    Rugby was always going to turn professional at some stage – people like Norm Hewitt were taking payments under the table and moving from club to club, French league were complaining about union pinching their players, the Japanese had jobs at ports that were simply fronts to play for their rugby teams with allowances like $6,000 to buy furniture for your flat – loopholes exploited everywhere.

    There had always been some of that – back in the 60's/70's players were lured to play in Wellington by being put in as managers of certain clothing shops.

    There were plenty of other drivers though to reduce playing numbers:

    1. Rogernomics opened up working on weekends and working longer hours to earn the same amount which not only reduced peoples ability to play and practise but meant for some they simply weren't even available on Saturday. Lots of community organisations were affected by this – Jaycees, Lions, Rotoract, etc. Rogernomics also decimated jobs in rural areas and so the demise of country clubs was basically set in stone. Small towns died and so did their rugby clubs. Rugby and cricket are pretty much urban sports now.
    2. The aging population was moving through and further reducing player numbers.
    3. We started seeing the overlap of cricket and rugby seasons – was a pain having to make choices between one or the other for at first practise and then actual playing.
    4. Sky for all the moaning about it above opened up coverage to a whole range of other sports barely seen on TV previously. This started to give kids other options.
    5.Immigration moved away from Britain to some extent to countries where rugby wasn't a sport. This exacerbated 4.
    6. TV rights shifted the games to night which lots of us didn't and still don't like. Loved 2:30 games in daylight but the money was in Europe and games for TV could not be scheduled to play at the same time in order to maximise viewing and sponsorship – so now it is one after the other after the other.
    7. We had already seen the decline of playing in the UK of soccer players past school age – if you hadn't been spotted young you stopped playing. It s still an issue even if you are spotted even today with 5 out of six youth given initial contracts are no longer playing by 21 or worse.

    "Chris Platts, whose 2012 doctorate for Chester University was based on questionnaires and interviews with 303 17- and 18‑year‑olds in 21 clubs’ academies, says only four have professional contracts now – a drop-out rate of 99%. "

    https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/oct/06/football-biggest-issue-boys-rejected-academies

    It isn't any surprise to see professional rugby go down the same track.

    The criticism of the rugby union is I think a little unfair. A spokesman for the Irish team was saying only recently that their rugby improved enormously after following the NZ model where players are contracted to the union not the clubs. I do think it is a much better model. Where I do think it can be improved from the club scene is by the addition of transfer fees based on duration of time for a club or province or country as well as the quality of the player. I do think it is fair that those that invest in the early training and development should be recompensed in some way.

    That being said I do think the tactics and coaching is poor at the moment – it is the deliberately playing out of position in particular that gets me. That and the incessant kicking. I find it as annoying as when Fitzpatrick was captain and we wouldn't take points on offer when we still needed to score twice – I'd have gone penalty then go for the try every time but it was always go for the try then hope for another penalty – so often we stuffed up the lineout, etc when we could have taken the three.

    Ireland are playing well, far less dropped ball, much more cohesive and much better kicking. Our old tactics of winning in the last twenty minutes simply are not up to it anymore. Teams have caught us in fitness terms – somewhat helped by substitutions with impact players only needing to be fit enough to play 20 minutes at high pace.

    I don't mind losing if we play well – I think that is the main issue most fans have – we are losing AND not playing well.

  16. tc 16

    Money changes everything.

    All blacks are like Barcelona FC imo.

    A team with a winning style and structures replicated by others keen to have similar success.

    With others now caught up selling off parts of the farm to fund the future is what Barca have done now as the Petro backed clubs are financially setting the pace.

    No guarantees it's going to end well for them.

  17. Hunter Thompson II 17

    No-one wins every time.

    Look at Brazil's soccer team – humiliated by Germany in a 2014 World Cup semi at 7 goals to 1. Yet soccer is the game Brazil was meant to be the world's best at.

    The Northern Hemisphere teams caught up with the ABs years ago and now have passed them. Brains will beat brawn every time.

    Mind you, the Ireland series could all be part of a cunning plan to make the ABs' opposition over-confident at the next RWC. Perhaps Baldrick is on the coaching panel?

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    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The year was 2015. ‘Uptown Funk’ with Bruno Mars was at the top of the music charts. Jurassic World was the most popular new movie in theaters. And decades of futility in international climate negotiations was about to come to an end in ...
    2 days ago
  • Of Parliamentary Oaths and Clive Boonham
    As a heads-up, I am not one of those people who stay awake at night thinking about weird Culture War nonsense. At least so far as the current Maori/Constitutional arrangements go. In fact, I actually consider it the least important issue facing the day to day lives of New ...
    2 days ago
  • Bearing True Allegiance?
    Strong Words: “We do not consent, we do not surrender, we do not cede, we do not submit; we, the indigenous, are rising. We do not buy into the colonial fictions this House is built upon. Te Pāti Māori pledges allegiance to our mokopuna, our whenua, and Te Tiriti o ...
    3 days ago
  • You cannot be serious
    Some days it feels like the only thing to say is: Seriously? No, really. Seriously?OneSomeone has used their health department access to share data about vaccinations and patients, and inform the world that New Zealanders have been dying in their hundreds of thousands from the evil vaccine. This of course is pure ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • A promise kept: govt pulls the plug on Lake Onslow scheme – but this saving of $16bn is denounced...
    Buzz from the Beehive After $21.8 million was spent on investigations, the plug has been pulled on the Lake Onslow pumped-hydro electricity scheme, The scheme –  that technically could have solved New Zealand’s looming energy shortage, according to its champions – was a key part of the defeated Labour government’s ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • CHRIS TROTTER: The Maori Party and Oath of Allegiance
    If those elected to the Māori Seats refuse to take them, then what possible reason could the country have for retaining them?   Chris Trotter writes – Christmas is fast approaching, which, as it does every year, means gearing up for an abstruse general knowledge question. “Who was ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • BRIAN EASTON:  Forward to 2017
    The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies. Brian Easton writes The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Climate Change: Fossils
    When the new government promised to allow new offshore oil and gas exploration, they were warned that there would be international criticism and reputational damage. Naturally, they arrogantly denied any possibility that that would happen. And then they finally turned up at COP, to criticism from Palau, and a "fossil ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago
  • GEOFFREY MILLER:  NZ’s foreign policy resets on AUKUS, Gaza and Ukraine
    Geoffrey Miller writes – New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on the government’s smokefree laws debacle
    The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out – for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable ...
    3 days ago
  • Top 10 links at 10 am for Monday, December 4
    As Deb Te Kawa writes in an op-ed, the new Government seems to have immediately bought itself fights with just about everyone. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere as of 10 am on Monday December 4, including:Palau’s President ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • Be Honest.
    Let’s begin today by thinking about job interviews.During my career in Software Development I must have interviewed hundreds of people, hired at least a hundred, but few stick in the memory.I remember one guy who was so laid back he was practically horizontal, leaning back in his chair until his ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: New Zealand’s foreign policy resets on AUKUS, Gaza and Ukraine
    New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he left off. Peters sought to align ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    3 days ago
  • Auckland rail tunnel the world’s most expensive
    Auckland’s city rail link is the most expensive rail project in the world per km, and the CRL boss has described the cost of infrastructure construction in Aotearoa as a crisis. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The 3.5 km City Rail Link (CRL) tunnel under Auckland’s CBD has cost ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • First big test coming
    The first big test of the new Government’s approach to Treaty matters is likely to be seen in the return of the Resource Management Act. RMA Minister Chris Bishop has confirmed that he intends to introduce legislation to repeal Labour’s recently passed Natural and Built Environments Act and its ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    3 days ago
  • The Song of Saqua: Volume III
    Time to revisit something I haven’t covered in a while: the D&D campaign, with Saqua the aquatic half-vampire. Last seen in July: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2023/07/27/the-song-of-saqua-volume-ii/ The delay is understandable, once one realises that the interim saw our DM come down with a life-threatening medical situation. They have since survived to make ...
    3 days ago
  • Chris Bishop: Smokin’
    Yes. Correct. It was an election result. And now we are the elected government. ...
    My ThinksBy boonman
    4 days ago
  • 2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #48
    A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science  Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 26, 2023 thru Dec 2, 2023. Story of the Week CO2 readings from Mauna Loa show failure to combat climate change Daily atmospheric carbon dioxide data from Hawaiian volcano more ...
    4 days ago
  • Affirmative Action.
    Affirmative Action was a key theme at this election, although I don’t recall anyone using those particular words during the campaign.They’re positive words, and the way the topic was talked about was anything but. It certainly wasn’t a campaign of saying that Affirmative Action was a good thing, but that, ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • 100 days of something
    It was at the end of the Foxton straights, at the end of 1978, at 100km/h, that someone tried to grab me from behind on my Yamaha.They seemed to be yanking my backpack. My first thought was outrage. My second was: but how? Where have they come from? And my ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago
  • Look who’s stepped up to champion Winston
    There’s no news to be gleaned from the government’s official website today  – it contains nothing more than the message about the site being under maintenance. The time this maintenance job is taking and the costs being incurred have us musing on the government’s commitment to an assault on inflation. ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • What's The Story?
    Don’t you sometimes wish they’d just tell the truth? No matter how abhorrent or ugly, just straight up tell us the truth?C’mon guys, what you’re doing is bad enough anyway, pretending you’re not is only adding insult to injury.Instead of all this bollocks about the Smokefree changes being to do ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • The longest of weeks
    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Friday Under New Management Week in review, quiz style1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago
  • Suggested sessions of EGU24 to submit abstracts to
    Like earlier this year, members from our team will be involved with next year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The conference will take place on premise in Vienna as well as online from April 14 to 19, 2024. The session catalog has been available since November 1 ...
    5 days ago
  • Under New Management
    1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. Under New Management 2. Which of these best describes the 100 days of action announced this week by the new government?a. Petulantb. Simplistic and wrongheaded c. ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • While we wait patiently, our new Minister of Education is up and going with a 100-day action plan
    Sorry to say, the government’s official website is still out of action. When Point of Order paid its daily visit, the message was the same as it has been for the past week: Site under maintenance Beehive.govt.nz is currently under maintenance. We will be back shortly. Thank you for your ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • DAVID FARRAR: Hysterical bullshit
    Radio NZ reports: Te Pāti Māori’s co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has accused the new government of “deliberate .. systemic genocide” over its policies to roll back the smokefree policy and the Māori Health Authority. The left love hysterical language. If you oppose racial quotas in laws, you are a racist. And now if you sack ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #48 2023
    Open access notables From this week's government/NGO section, longitudinal data is gold and Leisorowitz, Maibachi et al. continue to mine ore from the US public with Climate Change in the American Mind: Politics & Policy, Fall 2023: Drawing on a representative sample of the U.S. adult population, the authors describe how registered ...
    6 days ago
  • ELE LUDEMANN: It wasn’t just $55 million
    Ele Ludemann writes –  Winston Peters reckons media outlets were bribed by the $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund. He is not the first to make such an accusation. Last year, the Platform outlined conditions media signed up to in return for funds from the PJIF: . . . ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 1-December-2023
    Wow, it’s December already, and it’s a Friday. So here are few things that caught our attention recently. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt covered the new government’s coalition agreements and what they mean for transport. On Tuesday Matt looked at AT’s plans for fare increases ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    6 days ago
  • Shane MacGowan Is Gone.
    Late 1996, The Dogs Bollix, Tamaki Makaurau.I’m at the front of the bar yelling my order to the bartender, jostling with other thirsty punters on a Friday night, keen to piss their wages up against a wall letting loose. The black stuff, long luscious pints of creamy goodness. Back down ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to Dec 1
    Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop and other National, ACT and NZ First MPs applaud the signing of the coalition agreements, which included the reversal of anti-smoking measures while accelerating tax cuts for landlords. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • 2023 More Reading: November (+ Writing Update)
    Completed reads for November: A Modern Utopia, by H.G. Wells The Vampire (poem), by Heinrich August Ossenfelder The Corpus Hermeticum The Corpus Hermeticum is Mead’s translation. Now, this is indeed a very quiet month for reading. But there is a reason for that… You see, ...
    6 days ago
  • Forward to 2017
    The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies.The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. They also describe the processes of the ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    6 days ago
  • Questions a nine year old might ask the new Prime Minister
    First QuestionYou’re going to crack down on people ram-raiding dairies, because you say hard-working dairy owners shouldn’t have to worry about getting ram-raided.But once the chemist shops have pseudoephedrine in them again, they're going to get ram-raided all the time. Do chemists not work as hard as dairy owners?Second QuestionYou ...
    More than a fieldingBy David Slack
    7 days ago
  • Questions a nine year old might ask the new Prime Minister
    First QuestionYou’re going to crack down on people ram-raiding dairies, because you say hard-working dairy owners shouldn’t have to worry about getting ram-raided.But once the chemist shops have pseudoephedrine in them again, they're going to get ram-raided all the time. Do chemists not work as hard as dairy owners?Second QuestionYou ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    7 days ago
  • Finally
    Henry Kissinger is finally dead. Good fucking riddance. While Americans loved him, he was a war criminal, responsible for most of the atrocities of the final quarter of the twentieth century. Cambodia. Bangladesh. Chile. East Timor. All Kissinger. Because of these crimes, Americans revere him as a "statesman" (which says ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    7 days ago
  • Government in a hurry – Luxon lists 49 priorities in 100-day plan while Peters pledges to strength...
    Buzz from the Beehive Yes, ministers in the new government are delivering speeches and releasing press statements. But the message on the government’s official website was the same as it has been for the past several days, when Point of Order went looking for news from the Beehive that had ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    7 days ago
  • DAVID FARRAR: Luxon is absolutely right
    David Farrar writes  –  1 News reports: Christopher Luxon says he was told by some Kiwis on the campaign trail they “didn’t know” the difference between Waka Kotahi, Te Pūkenga and Te Whatu Ora. Speaking to Breakfast, the incoming prime minister said having English first on government agencies will “make sure” ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    7 days ago
  • Top 10 at 10 am for Thursday, Nov 30
    There are fears that mooted changes to building consent liability could end up driving the building industry into an uninsured hole. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere as of 10 am on Thursday, November 30, including:The new Government’s ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    7 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on how climate change threatens cricket‘s future
    Well that didn’t last long, did it? Mere days after taking on what he called the “awesome responsibility” of being Prime Minister, M Christopher Luxon has started blaming everyone else, and complaining that he has inherited “economic vandalism on an unprecedented scale” – which is how most of us are ...
    7 days ago
  • We need to talk about Tory.
    The first I knew of the news about Tory Whanau was when a tweet came up in my feed.The sort of tweet that makes you question humanity, or at least why you bother with Twitter. Which is increasingly a cesspit of vile inhabitants who lurk spreading negativity, hate, and every ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    7 days ago
  • Dangling Transport Solutions
    Cable Cars, Gondolas, Ropeways and Aerial Trams are all names for essentially the same technology and the world’s biggest maker of them are here to sell them as an public transport solution. Stuff reports: Austrian cable car company Doppelmayr has launched its case for adding aerial cable cars to New ...
    7 days ago
  • November AMA
    Hi,It’s been awhile since I’ve done an Ask-Me-Anything on here, so today’s the day. Ask anything you like in the comments section, and I’ll be checking in today and tomorrow to answer.Leave a commentNext week I’ll be giving away a bunch of these Mister Organ blu-rays for readers in New ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    7 days ago
  • National’s early moves adding to cost of living pressure
    The cost of living grind continues, and the economic and inflation honeymoon is over before it began. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: PM Christopher Luxon unveiled his 100 day plan yesterday with an avowed focus of reducing cost-of-living pressures, but his Government’s initial moves and promises are actually elevating ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    7 days ago
  • Backwards to the future
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has confirmed that it will be back to the future on planning legislation. This will be just one of a number of moves which will see the new government go backwards as it repeals and cost-cuts its way into power. They will completely repeal one ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    1 week ago
  • New initiatives in science and technology could point the way ahead for Luxon government
    As the new government settles into the Beehive, expectations are high that it can sort out some  of  the  economic issues  confronting  New Zealand. It may take time for some new  ministers to get to grips with the range of their portfolio work and responsibilities before they can launch the  changes that  ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    1 week ago
  • Treaty pledge to secure funding is contentious – but is Peters being pursued by a lynch mob after ...
    TV3 political editor Jenna Lynch was among the corps of political reporters who bridled, when Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters told them what he thinks of them (which is not much). She was unabashed about letting her audience know she had bridled. More usefully, she drew attention to something which ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 week ago
  • How long does this last?
    I have a clear memory of every election since 1969 in this plucky little nation of ours. I swear I cannot recall a single one where the question being asked repeatedly in the first week of the new government was: how long do you reckon they’ll last? And that includes all ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago
  • National’s giveaway politics
    We already know that national plans to boost smoking rates to collect more tobacco tax so they can give huge tax-cuts to mega-landlords. But this morning that policy got even more obscene - because it turns out that the tax cut is retrospective: Residential landlords will be able to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago
  • CHRIS TROTTER: Who’s driving the right-wing bus?
    Who’s At The Wheel? The electorate’s message, as aggregated in the polling booths on 14 October, turned out to be a conservative political agenda stronger than anything New Zealand has seen in five decades. In 1975, Bill Rowling was run over by just one bus, with Rob Muldoon at the wheel. In 2023, ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 week ago

  • Minister sets expectations of Commissioner
    Today I met with Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to set out my expectations, which he has agreed to, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Under section 16(1) of the Policing Act 2008, the Minister can expect the Police Commissioner to deliver on the Government’s direction and priorities, as now outlined in ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    11 hours ago
  • New Zealand needs a strong and stable ETS
    New Zealand needs a strong and stable Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that is well placed for the future, after emission units failed to sell for the fourth and final auction of the year, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says.  At today’s auction, 15 million New Zealand units (NZUs) – each ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    13 hours ago
  • PISA results show urgent need to teach the basics
    With 2022 PISA results showing a decline in achievement, Education Minister Erica Stanford is confident that the Coalition Government’s 100-day plan for education will improve outcomes for Kiwi kids.  The 2022 PISA results show a significant decline in the performance of 15-year-old students in maths compared to 2018 and confirms ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Collins leaves for Pacific defence meeting
    Defence Minister Judith Collins today departed for New Caledonia to attend the 8th annual South Pacific Defence Ministers’ meeting (SPDMM). “This meeting is an excellent opportunity to meet face-to-face with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security matters and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Pacific,” Judith Collins says. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Working for Families gets cost of living boost
    Putting more money in the pockets of hard-working families is a priority of this Coalition Government, starting with an increase to Working for Families, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. “We are starting our 100-day plan with a laser focus on bringing down the cost of living, because that is what ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme scrapped
    The Government has axed the $16 billion Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme championed by the previous government, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says. “This hugely wasteful project was pouring money down the drain at a time when we need to be reining in spending and focussing on rebuilding the economy and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • NZ welcomes further pause in fighting in Gaza
    New Zealand welcomes the further one-day extension of the pause in fighting, which will allow the delivery of more urgently-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza and the release of more hostages, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said. “The human cost of the conflict is horrific, and New Zealand wants to see the violence ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Condolences on passing of Henry Kissinger
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters today expressed on behalf of the New Zealand Government his condolences to the family of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who has passed away at the age of 100 at his home in Connecticut. “While opinions on his legacy are varied, Secretary Kissinger was ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Backing our kids to learn the basics
    Every child deserves a world-leading education, and the Coalition Government is making that a priority as part of its 100-day plan. Education Minister Erica Stanford says that will start with banning cellphone use at school and ensuring all primary students spend one hour on reading, writing, and maths each day. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • US Business Summit Speech – Regional stability through trade
    I would like to begin by echoing the Prime Minister’s thanks to the organisers of this Summit, Fran O’Sullivan and the Auckland Business Chamber.  I want to also acknowledge the many leading exporters, sector representatives, diplomats, and other leaders we have joining us in the room. In particular, I would like ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago
  • Keynote Address to the United States Business Summit, Auckland
    Good morning. Thank you, Rosemary, for your warm introduction, and to Fran and Simon for this opportunity to make some brief comments about New Zealand’s relationship with the United States.  This is also a chance to acknowledge my colleague, Minister for Trade Todd McClay, Ambassador Tom Udall, Secretary of Foreign ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago
  • India New Zealand Business Council Speech, India as a Strategic Priority
    Good morning, tēnā koutou and namaskar. Many thanks, Michael, for your warm welcome. I would like to acknowledge the work of the India New Zealand Business Council in facilitating today’s event and for the Council’s broader work in supporting a coordinated approach for lifting New Zealand-India relations. I want to also ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Coalition Government unveils 100-day plan
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has laid out the Coalition Government’s plan for its first 100 days from today. “The last few years have been incredibly tough for so many New Zealanders. People have put their trust in National, ACT and NZ First to steer them towards a better, more prosperous ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • New Zealand welcomes European Parliament vote on the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement
    A significant milestone in ratifying the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was reached last night, with 524 of the 705 member European Parliament voting in favour to approve the agreement. “I’m delighted to hear of the successful vote to approve the NZ-EU FTA in the European Parliament overnight. This is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • Further humanitarian support for Gaza, the West Bank and Israel
    The Government is contributing a further $5 million to support the response to urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, bringing New Zealand’s total contribution to the humanitarian response so far to $10 million. “New Zealand is deeply saddened by the loss of civilian life and the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago

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