Magnificent weather for the dawn service and nice touch on the music, very appropriate.
A day of reflection on times since past and sacrifices made by men and women in WW 1/2 in the hope we would enjoy freedom from fascism, racism and tyranny…..lest we forget.
I hate being cynical tc, you are very sincere, but I think most of the soldiers who died in these wars did so, not out of voluntary, willing, and courageous decision to sacrifice themselves, but because the were conscripted by governments which offered them as sacrificial lambs (when there was probably no specific threat made to our country). Should they show “cowardliness”, or disobey orders, they would likely have been executed. These poor souls were forced to put their lives on the line, there was no choice. Moreover, at Gallipoli, they acted at the murderous behest of madmen sheltering at home in their safe political offices.This is not to deny that some soldiers truly did act sacrificially. (Please note: I have had much experience in the military).
Friends and loves we have none, nor wealth nor
blessed abode,
But the hope of the City of God at the other end of
the road.
Old weekend warriors like myself wish for peace. It is only the armchair warriors like Judith Collins (and at a guess Cameron Slater) who are stupid enough to worry about a poppy expressing a wish for peace. Let us pray that no idiot is stupid enough to ever put her in as Defense minister. I know her type. She’d simultaneously cut the budget, double bunk soldiers, and get them committed to getting crushed in silly wars,
From memory the most I ever heard from the RSA was a question about how far it would cut into their sales – a very practical consideration.
Rocky did the logo in 2010 late on Anzac day after seeing my single poppy version, and it went up in 2011 and 2012.
Each time they deploy, NZ forces demonstrate their dedication to their duty, i.e., for the military to obey the direction of the civilian government. Far, far too often the civilian government fails NZ forces by sending them on immoral and futile missions in an ever-spiralling attempt to suck up to empire.
I will not forget the sacrifices of loyal soldiers and I will struggle against those who to this very day spill their blood for their own venal purposes.
+1
I went to a combined Australian/New Zealand service today where the Turkish ambassador also spoke. I’m utterly amazed at how the loss of their 85,000 young men at our hands is seen by the Turks as an event that unifies the three countries. Maybe a realistic assessment due to the end of their own empire, but for whatever reason I’m grateful.
Heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives! You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
A tribute to those ANZACs who died in Gallipoli (1934). Inscribed on the Atatürk Memorial in Turakena Bay, Gallipoli and at the Kemal Atatürk Memorial, Canberra
All wars are terrible events. The heroic sacrifices people make, often with their lives, should be remembered. The loss of lives should be mourned. The reasons people went to war should be studied so that such sacrifices are not made for someone else’s dubious ends.
Yep. A few of my ancestral family were in those on both sides. Also the South African, North African, Pacific, Korean, Vietnam, Middle Eastern, etc wars. Not just Europe.
Its interesting to consider that Henry Ford shut down his successful aviation business because of the growing potential for planes in the 1930s to be used for war.
While his plants were used for war production, he was only a figurehead by this time and the US government put his grandson Henry Ford II in charge of the business
Basically everyone was a rabid anti semite pre WWII weren’t they?
Funny how it’s the right wing devoted to Israel these days and its anyone who dares question the Israeli colonisation project ( ie ‘lefties’ ) who are vulnerable to the ‘anti jew’ label.
Basically everyone was a rabid anti semite pre WWII weren’t they?
Nope. But Ford was.
And it hurt his business, demonstrating that not everyone was anti-Semitic even then:
Wallace also found that Ford’s apology was likely, at least partly, motivated by a business that was slumping as result of his anti-Semitism repelling potential buyers of Ford cars.
Why are we fighting for the USA in Afghanistan? ex-President Carter gets stuck into his own country in an article in The Press this morning – USA, the world’s greatest warmonger. Lowest of the low.
At least there are no idiots out burning flags at dawn parades. The last thing the anti-war movement needs is the likes of John Minto and Valerie Morse drawing the wrong attention to themselves with stunts like that.
Speaking of dawn parades, I myself have concerns about this growing attitude we have to ANZAC day, especially amongst the young, it is starting to move from “Remembering the Fallen” to all out militarism and the glorification of war, especially when commentators start going on about it being our new national day. To me it feels like we are going down the path where New Zealand signs up to America’s latest quagmire and the people blindly support it without question and those who do question it are vilified as ‘traitors’.
Having said that, if the Chinese start swapping their chequebooks for tanks and machine guns to secure food supplies, you can bet your bottom dollar, Ill be first in line at the recruiting office…
Perhaps millsy, the younger people are turning out because there are no Gallipoli vets left, and the numbers of WWII vets are shrinking fast.
For me, it’s a nod to my ancestry. My grandfather was invalided out of Gallipoli with a bullet lodged in his hip (which emerged from the other side of his body 30 years later), and my father was a member of 2NZEF in North Africa, Crete and Greece. Neither of thm is alive now, so honouring them and their comrades on Anzac Day is the least that I can do in their memory.
“Having said that, if the Chinese start swapping their chequebooks for tanks and machine guns to secure food supplies, you can bet your bottom dollar, Ill be first in line at the recruiting office…”
Not me…I’ll never defend this country by murdering someone else.
What would I be fighting to defend?…A political system that is a sham? For my freedom of voice that never gets heard?
May as well be dictated under a Chinese invasion. I would probably be better off than the other situation; being dictated by old, greedy bankers & lawyers.
I’m working this arvo and will not be getting paid time and a half. I don’t really give a shit about the money, I do the work cause I enjoy it, and I don’t care for ANZAC day…NZ should stop pretending it gives a shit too. Our army exists to ensure we have the freedom to consume, the free access to capitalist greed.
Our wars today occur so that the Chinese can open their chequebooks…and then their chequebooks are used to replace the tanks and machine guns. Neocolonialism under the clock of ‘development’ subjects the global South to more suffering and death than any kind of physical force could.
Perhaps we could have a day in remembrance of capitalist greed for all its death and destruction?
I suggest the day after Boxing Day…we could all get drunk and then go steal each other’s Christmas presents.
“You probably should be. I suggest you follow up with your employer.”
I know, but I’m sure there is a loop-hole somewhere there about part time employment / not working there long enough…or something else.
The real reason that I won’t follow it up is that I am working for an education provider who is currently cutting back their staff due to lack of funding. If they did cut me due to costs then I would continue on a volunteer basis because I know that the department are not wasteful and do not have overpaid management of any kind (of course the education provider itself has so many layers of management that it is slowly crumbling).
My other experiences of working on ANZAC day have been when I was too young to realise my rights as a worker. Younger generations in NZ are not concerned with ANZAC day, its seen as a free day to sleep off a hangover before catching up on some shopping. Or to get some part time work while others get a day off.
I went to a dawn service once…I mean I stumbled past one about 8 years ago when I left a nightclub at 6am. That’s how most young people participate in ANZAC day, unfortunately.
I don’t see that so much as a lack of respect, I was conforming to society’s values.
That footage in the post is very moving. It would add a lot to the ANZAC mornings if it could be shown at each parade prior to the march.
It would bring home to people the evil of war.
For there is one thiing that must be resisted at all costs imo and that is the glorification of war and armies. That glorification is something so easy to slip into. Footage like this would help prevent it.
What I see as having ‘provoked’ WW1 in particular was ‘fear’, simply the powerful elites of Europe’s ruling classes, the Kings and Queens and Generals ‘fear’ of the wave of Socialism sweeping across the continent and washing up upon the shores of ‘dear old England’ and it’s colony’s,
The Russian revolution didn’t just happen overnight and the ‘pamphleteering’ of the Socialist message had for a number of years spread the message of social equality through-out the class structure of old Europe and England,
‘In Flanders field poppies grow’,WW1 to me was simply the mass murder of part of the first generation to dare to question the authority of the Elite’s of Europe and England and demand from that corrupt elite a more equal society…
In England as WW1 dragged on and became more bloody by the day in what could only be described as ‘industrialized slaughter on a grand scale’, the King was advised that ‘the people’ were beginning to openly voice their disquiet about the horrific flood of injuries and continual calls for further sacrifice, pointing out it was not He,(the King),who’s Sons and Fathers were being fast forwarded into a hell of gassing burning,and, mutilation,
The King,ever mindful of ‘His’ duty to ‘His’ people duly ordered that ‘His’ house-hold staff ‘volunteer’ for service at the front,
This the Kings house-hold staff to a man duly did,and, within a week of their arrival at the front they were all dead to a man,
All of us can well imagine and glory in such a sacrifice from the King, after all can you imagine His discomfiture at having to be dressed by a new staff of servants who failed to understand His every hand gesture and grunt,
Colonel Malone of the Wellington Regiment voicing His abhorrence at what He saw as the needless casualties being suffered by His men asked that they be allowed to attack in darkness,
The English Lord,ensconced upon a British battle-ship offshore and in charge of this particular piece of needless slaughter denied Colonel Malone’s request,(after all what point was there in Him suffering the discomfiture of ship-bound life if He couldn’t watch the particular battles and skirmishes as they unfolded),
Colonel Malone in turn disregarding the order that He should only attack during daylight duly attacked the particular ridge which was the point of His mission,having captured the ridge that night Malone signaled that he needed reinforcements to hold His position,
Our grand English Lord ensconced in relative comfort aboard the British battleship off shore denied Malone’s request for reinforcements and obviously spitting blue blood over Malone’s disobedience in attacking the ridge at night ordered the battleships guns to fire upon Malone’s position,
Malone and all those who had spilled their and many Turk’s blood in capturing the ridge were killed or injured in the barrage of ‘friendly fire’,
Our civic leaders placing wooden crosses upon temporary Cenotaph’s simply remind me of those who confronted with the horror which was the slaughter of WW1 trench warfare ‘broke’ and could no longer stand the gassing,burning,mutilation and mass murder of being ordered to run headlong into the maw of masses of opposition machine-guns,
The wooden crosses so loved of our civic leaders are truly evocative of the wooden crosses that those who would not or could not carry on such a useless squandering of human life were strung up upon both as punishment and message to those who would dare lose stomach to be involved in such gut-churning slaughter,
Anyone here old enough to remember those old war movies that used to be a feature of sunday afternoon TV viewing???,
You know the ones,where the British Tommy in WW1 crawls out into no-mans land between the opposing forces to re-connect the communications lines???,
Such was a standard in those old flicks and had a small basis in actual events,but,ever wonder why our brave British Tommy is crawling forward to connect communications lines when the British Generals were in fact ensconced in HQ’s many miles to the rear of the front lines,
The niceties of war circa WW1 required that opposing Generals communicated with each other over such things as ‘who’s turn’ it was to come out of the trench’s and attack who’s position so it was vital that the phone lines remained intact,
It was Freyburg who grasped the fact that in modern war, especially by the time of WW2, events and dispositions on the battlefield could change very quickly and was well known for his propensity to be in the thick of the fight.
I would love there to be peace, but the realist in me knows that it is a pipe-dream. The best we can hope to do is address the major inequalities around the world that cause war and hope that a more stable and prosperous planet is the result.
Don’t get me wrong though. Remembering the fallen in pointless wars is a good thing. I recommend a good dose of Wilfred Owens’ poems to really honour the dead and the fruitlessness of war rather than scripted platitudes of politicians we get on Anzac Day.
If we really take the Anzac message seriously we should be campaigning to get Western troops, including ours, out of the Middle East now. Ninety years ago we supported an invasion of the Middle East for oil. We still are.
Lest we forget? Get real; we never got the story correct first time.
We need to start getting the story correct, we need to know why our troops were there in the first place and not forget that as it’s actually the important part.
There’s a lot of anachronistic bullshit that gets thrown around at this time of year, notably “why were WE fighting THEIR battles”
Well, people, “we” were “them”. In 1914, NZers identified themselves as part of the British Empire, as Britons across the sea. If NZ was wrong to send troops to Gallipolli then the Spartans were also wrong to send troops to Thermopylae. It was a case of a certain part of “us” that lived a long way away sending troops to help another part of “us.”
Secondly, even today, we are still part of them. We still bear the torch of the west – the torch that passed from Athens, to Rome, to a few lonely monasteries in Ireland, to a reborn England, to a mighty, globe-spanning empire, a torch that illuminated the world and freed it from darkness and evil.
Everyone who thinks “we” are not “them” displays an alarming lack of historical knowledge.
We are much closer to the British (or even the Romans!) than we are to any other major ‘culture’ of the world today (counting America as a sub-set of the British)
We are much closer to the British (or even the Romans!) than we are to any other major ‘culture’ of the world today (counting America as a sub-set of the British)</blockquote.
This is like saying Zespri is akin to a Chinese gooseberry. Which it is, but it is also largely irrelevant now, missing out many major and minor differences.
The clue: being part of and identifying with empire is not the way ahead for NZ.
I just wonder what all these “celebrations ” and marching to military bands is all about.For many years I attended ANZAC day and Armistice Day .Then one year as a member of a local, peace group I asked permission from the local,RSA and borough council for the Peace Movement to lay a wreath .The reaction was shocking I was told in no uncertain manner that ‘Boody Commo’s were not wanted and more .I have never been to a service since. anyway the religious services about sacrifice and Gods love was begining to get under my skin .
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me to be able to place something appropriate regarding peace.
Unfortunately I guess it is so very easy for many issues, and especially organisations, to get tangled and lost in entanglement unable to untangle them clearly on this day concerning so many deaths at war.
The RSA and others always do this (no quarter given to others on Anzac day) and I respect them for wanting to keep this morning and day entirely to themselves. I guess it really is solely about the men who have died in war. Nothing else. Those other related issues can have their time and day elsewhere. Perhaps we should leave them in peace to remember in the way they want.
Should be an opportunity to remember what those wars were really about – imperial power games, class conflict. Like one of the few remaining French WW1 soldiers saying it was a whole lot of young guys being sent to their deaths by old guys.
An hour or so ago I heard Julia Gillard’s speech regarding Turkish/ANZAC engagements in WW1. She was talking about “worthy foes” (I assume that means high body counts without any tactical achievement) and connecting it up to god knows what kind of convenient “friendship” in the present. The idea of worthy foe seems to me to be something of a romantic hangover; when war was fought more or less between single combatants with bronze weapons; stopping when it got dark and happening slow enough so that the combatant had the time to become a warrior. Exactly what Gillard thinks is romantic or worthy about machine gunning or shelling people into heaps before they get to see the enemy in a mystery.
So what else can she do, make negative reflections and insinuations about a foreign nation? She’s reflecting on Australia’s current relationship with Turkey, it’s pure diplomacy and politics, but it’s also positive, I’d rather see formerly adversarial nations and blocs be at peace with one another, even if that means they look a bit hypocritical. Look at how positive national relationships are between formerly deadly WWII adversaries. Of course it’s nowhere near perfect, but we have a lot to be grateful for, and we should be amazed at the spirit of such nations that can bury the hatchet and move on from such unimaginable grief and suffering.
Because I was born almost nine years to the day after the death of the third of three uncles who were lost during WW2 I was very young when I became aware of the grief and loss both my parents and my grandparents felt.
Mum and Dad were in their teens when they lost their brothers but, as youngsters do, they put the past behind them and carried on with their lives, matching and hatching, and the task of rearing us lot and their sadness only really emerged on anniversaries and days of remembrance.
Grandma, who’d lost two of her sons, absolutely detested the British, with an especially venomous hate reserved the royal family, never openly mourned. When asked how she coped Grandma used to say that she was one of the lucky ones, she had five more sons.
Granddad apparently, several years after the war, was so beset by grief that when dad and his brothers returned to the town they’d grown up in with new wives and young families in tow he handed the family business to them, took to the bottle, and never worked again.
I was nine when he died and I think he really did suffer and my memories are of a distant man who had cut himself from the world.
Mum’s parents never really talked about their loss and I think it was only on anniversaries and days of remembrance that the sadness took hold. But, again, they thought they were lucky to have lost only one son.
Anyhow, I’m quite fond of Kipling so here’s my favourite poem.
THE YOUNG BRITISH SOLDIER
When the ‘arf-made recruity goes out to the East
‘E acts like a babe an’ ‘e drinks like a beast,
An’ ‘e wonders because ‘e is frequent deceased
Ere ‘e’s fit for to serve as a soldier.
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
So-oldier
~OF~ the Queen!
Now all you recruities what’s drafted to-day,
You shut up your rag-box an’ ‘ark to my lay,
An’ I’ll sing you a soldier as far as I may:
A soldier what’s fit for a soldier.
Fit, fit, fit for a soldier . . .
First mind you steer clear o’ the grog-sellers’ huts,
For they sell you Fixed Bay’nets that rots out your guts —
Ay, drink that ‘ud eat the live steel from your butts —
An’ it’s bad for the young British soldier.
Bad, bad, bad for the soldier . . .
When the cholera comes — as it will past a doubt —
Keep out of the wet and don’t go on the shout,
For the sickness gets in as the liquor dies out,
An’ it crumples the young British soldier.
Crum-, crum-, crumples the soldier . . .
But the worst o’ your foes is the sun over’ead:
You ~must~ wear your ‘elmet for all that is said:
If ‘e finds you uncovered ‘e’ll knock you down dead,
An’ you’ll die like a fool of a soldier.
Fool, fool, fool of a soldier . . .
If you’re cast for fatigue by a sergeant unkind,
Don’t grouse like a woman nor crack on nor blind;
Be handy and civil, and then you will find
That it’s beer for the young British soldier.
Beer, beer, beer for the soldier . . .
Now, if you must marry, take care she is old —
A troop-sergeant’s widow’s the nicest I’m told,
For beauty won’t help if your rations is cold,
Nor love ain’t enough for a soldier.
‘Nough, ‘nough, ‘nough for a soldier . . .
If the wife should go wrong with a comrade, be loath
To shoot when you catch ’em — you’ll swing, on my oath! —
Make ‘im take ‘er and keep ‘er: that’s Hell for them
both,
An’ you’re shut o’ the curse of a soldier.
Curse, curse, curse of a soldier . . .
When first under fire an’ you’re wishful to duck,
Don’t look nor take ‘eed at the man that is struck,
Be thankful you’re livin’, and trust to your luck
And march to your front like a soldier.
Front, front, front like a soldier . . .
When ‘arf of your bullets fly wide in the ditch,
Don’t call your Martini a cross-eyed old bitch;
She’s human as you are — you treat her as sich,
An’ she’ll fight for the young British soldier.
Fight, fight, fight for the soldier . . .
When shakin’ their bustles like ladies so fine,
The guns o’ the enemy wheel into line,
Shoot low at the limbers an’ don’t mind the shine,
For noise never startles the soldier.
Start-, start-, startles the soldier . . .
If your officer’s dead and the sergeants look white,
Remember it’s ruin to run from a fight:
So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,
And wait for supports like a soldier.
Wait, wait, wait like a soldier . . .
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier
~of~ the Queen!
I might be wrong Joe.. but I’m thinking that’s about the longest comment you’ve ever posted here. And it’s special.
Like yourself my own family paid a very heavy price in both wars. Depsite the fact that I’m a sixth generation New Zealander, apart from my own immediate nuclear family…. I have no close relatives.
My grandmother was one of a family of seven, yet only she and her younger sister survived both wars to have children themselves. The ones who didn’t come back were in many ways the lucky ones.
The same was true of my father-in-law. Served extensively in the Middle East. Came back home to his provincial town and never … ever… left home again. Not even for his only daughter’s wedding.
Some went to war and were lucky … but many saw and had to do things they could never reconcile. My aunty’s husband served in every major WW1 battle. We still have his war dairy intact. A reserved, almost dry read, but graphic enough. He came home and worked in the civil service all his life, quiet and apparently functional. But like most he could never talk about it.
Once at a family lunch my father asked him a small innocent question about his service. There was a long pause, my aunt looked a little stricken. Finally uncle said… “Any man who goes to a war is a fool”.
Later aunty said that in all their many decades of life together… that was the only thing he ever said about it.
Your talk of ‘grandma’s’ opinion of the British Royals brings a smile, reminding me of my mother’s exact same attitude which She never explained to us kids,
Taking us to the movies was the one instance when Her anti-Royal attitude was displayed in public,in the day, movies in the local theater began with the anthem ‘God Save the Queen’, and, every living soul in that movie theater stood for that anthems duration,
Except of course for one imposing lady and 4 kids who would never dare, until later in life, disregard any of Her edicts on anything…
I like your beloved nana, I long for the day when the British finally abolish the monarchy and give the royals 24 hours to vacate their fancy palaces…
There is no need for monarchy — anywhere.
The French got rid of theirs, as well as the Russians, and the Indians sent their puppet monarchs packing in the same direction as the British (they are now reduced to charging tourists to walk through their palaces to get by).
When I watched the Royal Wedding last year, all I was thinking is about how Princess Catherine would not have to even think about lifting a finger for the rest of her life. Having Fleet Street (the only people who benefit from monarchy) following her around everywhere will be a small price to pay for complete economic security and a guaranteed gold-plate standard of living.
Also from me, Seeker and Redlogix – thank you. What you have both posted means a great deal to me – was going to say more than …….. but everyone has a right to say what they want. But I will remember – and honour – your contributions. Thank you.
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And so this is Friday, and what have we learned?It was a week with all the usual luggage: minister brags and then he quits, Hollywood red carpet is full of twits. And all the while, hanging over the trivial stuff: existential dread, and portents of doom.Depending on who you read ...
When I changed the name of this newsletter from The Daily Read to Nick’s Kōrero I was a bit worried whether people would know what Kōrero meant or not. I added a definition when I announced the change and kind of assumed people who weren’t familiar with it would get ...
There was a time when a political party’s publicity people would counsel against promoting a candidate as queer. No matter which of two dictionary meanings the voting public might choose to apply – the old meaning of odd, strange, weird, or aberrant, or the more recent meaning of gay, homosexual ...
Photo by Joakim Honkasalo on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:PM Chris Hipkins announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but which blew up ...
Even though concern over the climate change threat is becoming more mainstream, our governments continue to opt out of the difficult decisions at the expense of time, and cost for future generations. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Now we have a climate liability number to measure the potential failure of the ...
Thomas Cranmer writesLike it or not, the culture wars have entered New Zealand politics and look set to broaden and intensify. The culture wars are often viewed as an exclusively American phenomenon, but the reality is that they are becoming increasingly prominent in countries around the world, ...
Here’s an analogy for the Stuart Nash saga. If people are to be forgiven for their sins,Catholic dogma requires two factors to be present. There has to be a sincere act of confession about what has been done, but also a sincere act of contrition, which signals a painful ...
Here’s an analogy for the Stuart Nash saga. If people are to be forgiven for their sins,Catholic dogma requires two factors to be present. There has to be a sincere act of confession about what has been done, but also a sincere act of contrition, which signals a painful ...
Human Destabilisers: Russia now has a new strategic weapon – migratory waves of unwelcome human-beings. Desperate people with different coloured skins and different religious beliefs arriving at, or actually breaching, the national borders of Russia’s enemies can wreak as much havoc, culturally and politically, as a hypersonic missile exploding in the ...
Hi,After Webworm contributor Hayden Donnell wrote his latest piece, ‘RIP to Millennials Killing Everything’, he delivered this exciting and important bonus content.It will make more sense if you’ve read his piece.David. Read more ...
Hi,Before we get to Hayden’s column — RIP to Millennials Killing Everything — a quick observation.There was a day last week where it had suddenly reached 10pm and I hadn’t eaten all day. Hunger had suddenly gripped me with a panicky all-consuming force, so I jumped onto Uber Eats and ...
We add some of the CMIP6 models to the updateable MSU comparisons. After my annual update, I was pointed to some MSU-related diagnostics for many of the CMIP6 models (24 of them at least) from Po-Chedley et al. (2022) courtesy of Ben Santer. These are slightly different to what ...
In a memorable Pulp Fiction scene, Vincent inadvertently shoots their backseat passenger in the head. This leads our heroes Jules and Vincent to express alarm about their predicament.We're on a city street in broad daylight here!says Vincent. We gotta get this car off the roads. You know cops tend to ...
Primary, secondary and kindergarten teachers are all on strike today, demanding higher pay and an end to systematic understaffing. While the former is important - wages should at least keep up with inflation - its the latter which is the real issue. As with the health system, teachers have been ...
So the teachers are on strike, marching across Aotearoa today to press their demands for better pay and working conditions.Children remained in bed this brisk morning, many no doubt quite pleased about a day off school. Parents perhaps taking the day off to look after the kids, or working from ...
After the Cold War the consensus among Western military strategists was that the era of Big Wars, defined as peer conflict between large states with full spectrum military technologies, was at an end, at least for the foreseeable future. The … Continue reading → ...
Dairy giant Fonterra has posted a 50% lift in net profit to $546m, doubled its interim dividend, and is proposing a return of capital of 50c a share, injecting a note of optimism into the nation’s dairy industry. Fonterra’s strong performance is against a backdrop of market volatility. It ...
Buzz from the Beehive The bothersome economic news today is that New Zealand’s GDP fell by 0.6% in the December quarter, weaker than market forecasts of a fall of around 0.2% and much weaker than the Reserve Bank’s assumption of a 0.7% rise. This followed the even-more-bothersome news yesterday that ...
Ouch: Hipkins’ policy bonfire has resulted in an expensive self-administered removal of a Budgetary foot with an explosive device. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Bonfires can be dangerous things when they get out of control. They also create a lot of smoke and heat and burn the grass. ...
* Dr Bryce Edwards writes – I teach a first-year course at Victoria University of Wellington about government and the political process in New Zealand. In “Introduction to Government and Law”, students learn there are rules preventing senior public servants from getting involved in big political debates – as we ...
I teach a first year course at Victoria University of Wellington about government and the political process in New Zealand. In “Introduction to Government and Law”, students learn there are rules preventing senior public servants from getting involved in big political debates – as we have recently witnessed with Rob ...
An issue of integrity has claimed the first ministerial scalp in Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ premiership. Police Minister Stuart Nash lasted mere weeks in the role after admitting in a radio interview this morning that he had called Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to ask him if police were going to ...
For some time now we’ve known that the cost and completion timeframe for the City Rail Link would increase. Yesterday we finally learned by just how much. Costs City Rail Link Ltd (CRL Ltd) today confirms it has submitted a formal funding request to its Sponsors – the Crown and ...
The Government’s decision to back peddle on lowering speed limits is hitting potholes. At this stage, although it is part of the Government’s reprioritisation efforts to free up money to alleviate cost of living increases, the speed limit change looks unlikely to do that. And it appears that it ...
The University of Otago – the oldest university in New Zealand – towers over my home city of Dunedin. When classes are on, something like a fifth of Dunedin’s population are university students. It is also the largest employer in the South Island. To say that this is a ...
Last weekend brought the latest instalment in Stuff’s bravura satirical series Of course you can afford a house! Just dig deeper!I love how much their appreciation of humour has evolved in just a few short years since the days when I would get to produce, for a few meagre dollars, ...
Australia’s move to strengthen its defence capability with five nuclear-powered attack submarines underlines how relatively defenceless New Zealand is in the Pacific. Kiwis may gasp that the Labor government in Australia recognises it must outlay $400bn on the nuclear subs, but this ensures that Australia is not exposed ...
Ironically, a repurposed Auckland Ratepayers Alliance placard (with a demand for climate action on the front) featured at the recent climate march. Voting ratepayers don’t want ‘bureaucrats in cushy council jobs’ borrowing or increasing rates, even when the need for investment is becoming increasingly obvious. So is council cost-cutting a ...
The quarterly ETS auction was held today. In the past, these have seen collusion by big players to game the price and force a dump of extra credits from the cost-containment reserve (essentially, trying to pick stuff up cheap now in the belief that it will be more valuable later). ...
Buzz from the Beehive Exempting bikes, electric bikes and scooters from fringe benefit tax looked like something of a sop for a Green Party that had good grounds to grumble after a bunch of climate change measures was tossed on to the PM’s policy bonfire. The combustibles included the clean car ...
Today is a Member's Day, the first of the year. Unfortunately it also looks to be a boring one. First, there's a two hour debate on the budget policy statement (somehow inexplicably "member's business", despite it being fundamentally a government thing). Then there's a couple of "private bills" - people ...
Most days, Chris Hipkins and James Shaw seem a bit like the Seals and Crofts of the centre-left: Earnest, inoffensive, and capable of quite nice harmonies at times. They blow gently through the jasmine in your mind, but you know they’re never going to rock your world. Back in 2020, ...
The reflection gazed back at him. Pale and a little paunchy, he wasn’t a well man.He had a toga made from a fitted sheet and it kept bunching up under his armpits.His Laurel wreath was made from some Christmas tree branches he’d found in the shed, not a real pine ...
Yesterday we covered the government’s latest policy/delivery changes with a focus on light rail. But there was another important transport part of the announcement: The government will also intends to scale back its road safety plans. The programmes that are being reprioritised include: Significantly narrowing the speed reduction programme to ...
Unbridled Consumption: This civilisation we have built (we being the whole human species) is the most astonishingly wonderful thing homo sapiens has ever seen. We love it. We cannot imagine how awful life would be without it. And, we most certainly are not going to co-operate with anyone who advises ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Let’s start with the absolute truisms.Politics is the art of the possibleHalf of something is better than all of nothingLet us now consider these with reference to the Under New Management government.What is a supporter of progressive politics to make of the abandonment of various policies, as announced in recent post-cabinet ...
Chris Hipkins has surprised even some of his closest friends and backers with the bounce he has secured for Labour in public polls since he became Prime Minister. He has been put to the test since he took over from Jacinda Ardern in the top job, and has shown a ...
Buzz from the Beehive It was a big day for the stopping or slowing of a second tranche of government programmes, an exercise which Beehive publicists are pitching as measures to allow the Government to focus more time, energy and resources on “the bread and butter issues” facing New Zealanders. ...
Last night there was a One News political poll which was welcomed by the left and will cause some concern in the opposition camp. A poll that showed no path to victory for ACT and National and which would likely result in another Labour/Greens government, possibly with the inclusion, or ...
Our young renters can vote Labour or Green as often as they like, but will end up paying the price of more and bigger climate emergencies, while also paying most of their after-tax income on rent with little hope of owning their own homes. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR:PM ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Labour’s shift in focus is working. Under Jacinda Ardern they were a party and government focused on the voters and ideologies of liberal Grey Lynn and Wellington Central. Now under Prime Minister Chris Hipkins Labour has a laser-like focus directed at ...
Labour’s shift in focus is working. Under Jacinda Ardern they were a party and government focused on the voters and ideologies of liberal Grey Lynn and Wellington Central. Now under Prime Minister Chris Hipkins Labour has a laser-like focus directed at the working class politics of places like West Auckland ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Chris Baraniuk It was an engineering problem that had bugged Zhibin Yu for years — but now he had the perfect chance to fix it. Stuck at home during the first UK lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic, the thermal engineer suddenly had all ...
Hi,I just wanted to say hello as this week really gets going, and check in about a few things. They’re a series of fractured random thoughts, so bear with me! First up — I haven’t watched the Oscars in ages and I’m really glad I watched yesterday. It felt like ...
Yesterday the Prime Minister laid out the next tranche of plans to scale back the ambition of Labour’s policy/delivery programme – and this time the Auckland light rail project gets a mention. “I can also confirm today that we will roll out transport projects in Auckland in stages. “Reducing transport ...
The Hipkins Government revealed its true colours yesterday as it chopped a whole series of “nice to have” policies — many of them promoted by the Greens — and instead diverted the savings to relieve the impact of inflation. His approach is all about taking action; no more excuses, ...
Saving The People From ... The People: The strangest aspect of the mass Israeli protests, from a New Zealand perspective, is that the judicial reforms proposed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would only confer upon Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, powers which the New Zealand House of Representatives has not only exercised ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
“Cabinet needs to do better - and today has shown exactly why we need Green Ministers in cabinet, so we can prioritise action to cut climate pollution and support people to make ends meet,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. ...
Biggest increase in food prices for over three decades shows the need for an excess profit tax on corporations to help people put food on the table. ...
The Green Party has today launched a submission guide to help Aucklanders give crucial input and prevent potentially disastrous Auckland Council budget proposals. ...
With calls growing for inquiries and action on bank profits, the Greens say the Government has all the information it needs to act now and put a levy on banks. ...
As large parts of Aotearoa recover from two of the worst climate disasters we have ever experienced, it would be a huge mistake for the Government to deprioritise climate action from future transport investments, the Green Party says. ...
The Green Party is celebrating the signing of a historic United Nations Ocean Treaty, and calls on the new Oceans and Fisheries Minister to urgently step up protection for Aotearoa’s oceans. ...
This year has seen a series of extreme weather events, unparalleled in New Zealand’s recent history. From Cape Reinga in the far north down to the Tararua Ranges, families and businesses across the country have suffered enormous loss and hardship. While the severe weather hasn’t directly affected every part of ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has today appointed Ginny Andersen as Minister of Police. “Ginny Andersen has a strong and relevant background in this important portfolio,” Chris Hipkins said. “Ginny Andersen worked for the Police as a non-sworn staff member for around 10 years and has more recently been chair of ...
Six further bailey bridge sites confirmed Four additional bridge sites under consideration 91 per cent of damaged state highways reopened Recovery Dashboards for impacted regions released The Government has responded quickly to restore lifeline routes after Cyclone Gabrielle and can today confirm that an additional six bailey bridges will ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for China tomorrow, where she will meet with her counterpart, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, in Beijing. This will be the first visit by a New Zealand Minister to China since 2019, and follows the easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions between New Zealand and China. ...
Education Ministers from across the Pacific will gather in Tāmaki Makaurau this week to share their collective knowledge and strategic vision, for the benefit of ākonga across the region. New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti will host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers (CPEM) for three days from today, ...
A vital transport link for communities and local businesses has been restored following Cyclone Gabrielle with the reopening of State Highway 5 (SH5) between Napier and Taupō, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan says. SH5 reopened to all traffic between 7am and 7pm from today, with closure points at SH2 (Kaimata ...
Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds has thanked generous New Zealanders who took part in the special Lotto draw for communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Held on Saturday night, the draw raised $11.7 million with half of all ticket sales going towards recovery efforts. “In a time of need, New Zealanders ...
The Government has announced funding of $3 million for providers to help people, and whānau access community-based Building Financial Capability services. “Demand for Financial Capability Services is growing as people face cost of living pressures. Those pressures are increasing further in areas affected by flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle,” Minister for ...
Minister of Education, Hon Jan Tinetti, has announced appointments to the Board of Education New Zealand | Manapou ki te Ao. Tracey Bridges is joining the Board as the new Chair and Dr Therese Arseneau will be a new member. Current members Dr Linda Sissons CNZM and Daniel Wilson have ...
Fifteen ākonga Māori from across Aotearoa have been awarded the prestigious Ngarimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships and Awards for 2023, Associate Education Minister and Ngarimu Board Chair, Kelvin Davis announced today. The recipients include doctoral, masters’ and undergraduate students. Three vocational training students and five wharekura students, ...
High Court Judge Jillian Maree Mallon has been appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal, and District Court Judge Andrew John Becroft QSO has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Mallon graduated from Otago University in 1988 with an LLB (Hons), and with ...
The economy has continued to show its resilience despite today’s GDP figures showing a modest decline in the December quarter, leaving the Government well positioned to help New Zealanders face cost of living pressures in a challenging global environment. “The economy had grown strongly in the two quarters before this ...
Aucklanders now have more ways to get around as Transport Minister Michael Wood opened the direct State Highway 1 (SH1) to State Highway 18 (SH18) underpass today, marking the completion of the 48-kilometre Western Ring Route (WRR). “The Government is upgrading New Zealand’s transport system to make it safer, more ...
This section contains briefings received by incoming ministers following changes to Cabinet in January. Some information may have been withheld in accordance with the Official Information Act 1982. Where information has been withheld that is indicated within the document. ...
Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta reaffirmed her commitment to working together with the new Government of Fiji on issues of shared importance, including on the prioritisation of climate change and sustainability, at a meeting today, in Nadi. Fiji and Aotearoa New Zealand’s close relationship is underpinned by the Duavata ...
The Government is delivering a coastal shipping lifeline for businesses, residents and the primary sector in the cyclone-stricken regions of Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan announced today. The Rangitata vessel has been chartered for an emergency coastal shipping route between Gisborne and Napier, with potential for ...
The Government will progress to the next stage of the NZ Battery Project, looking at the viability of pumped hydro as well as an alternative, multi-technology approach as part of the Government’s long term-plan to build a resilient, affordable, secure and decarbonised energy system in New Zealand, Energy and Resources ...
This morning I was made aware of a media interview in which Minister Stuart Nash criticised a decision of the Court and said he had contacted the Police Commissioner to suggest the Police appeal the decision. The phone call took place in 2021 when he was not the Police Minister. ...
The Government’s sharp focus on trade continues with Aotearoa New Zealand set to host Trade Ministers and delegations from 10 Asia Pacific economies at a meeting of Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Commission members in July, Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor announced today. “New Zealand ...
$25 million boost to support more businesses with clean-up in cyclone affected regions, taking total business support to more than $50 million Demand for grants has been strong, with estimates showing applications will exceed the initial $25 million business support package Grants of up to a maximum of $40,000 per ...
80 per cent of 2021 Resident Visas applications have been processed – three months ahead of schedule Residence granted to 160,000 people 84,000 of 85,000 applications have been approved Over 160,000 people have become New Zealand residents now that 80 per cent of 2021 Resident Visa (2021RV) applications have been ...
The Lead Coordination Minister for the Government’s Response to the Royal Commission’s Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch Mosques travels to Melbourne, Australia today to represent New Zealand at the fourth Sub-Regional Meeting on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Security. “The Government is committed to reducing the threat of terrorism ...
The health and safety practices at our nation’s ports will be improved as part of a new industry-wide action plan, Workplace Relations and Safety, and Transport Minister Michael Wood has announced. “Following the tragic death of two port workers in Auckland and Lyttelton last year, I asked the Port Health ...
Bikes, electric bikes and scooters will be added to the types of transport exempted from fringe benefit tax under changes proposed today. Revenue Minister David Parker said the change would allow bicycles, electric bicycles, scooters, electric scooters, and micro-mobility share services to be exempt from fringe benefit tax where they ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will hold bilateral meetings with Fiji this week. The visit will be her first to the country since the election of the new coalition Government led by Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sitiveni Rabuka. The visit will be an opportunity to meet kanohi ki ...
The Government is introducing the Severe Weather Emergency Legislation Bill to ensure the recovery and rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle is streamlined and efficient with unnecessary red tape removed. The legislation is similar to legislation passed following the Christchurch and Kaikōura earthquakes that modifies existing legislation in order to remove constraints ...
Approximately 1.4 million people will benefit from increases to rates and thresholds for social assistance to help with the cost of living Superannuation to increase by over $100 a pay for a couple Main benefits to increase by the rate of inflation, meaning a family on a benefit with children ...
$1 billion in savings which will be reallocated to support New Zealanders with the cost of living A range of transport programmes deferred so Waka Kotahi can focus on post Cyclone road recovery Speed limit reduction programme significantly narrowed to focus on the most dangerous one per cent of state ...
The remaining state of national emergency over the Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay regions will end on Tuesday 14 March, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. Minister McAnulty gave notice of a national transition period over these regions, which will come into effect immediately following the end of the ...
The Government is today delivering on one of its commitments as part of the New Zealand Government’s Dawn Raids apology, welcoming a cohort of emerging Pacific leaders to Aotearoa New Zealand participating in the He Manawa Tītī Scholarship Programme. This cohort will participate in a bespoke leadership training programme that ...
Industry Transformation Plan to transform advanced manufacturing through increased productivity and higher-skilled, higher-wage jobs into a globally-competitive low-emissions sector. Co-created and co-owned by business, unions and workers, government, Māori, Pacific peoples and wider stakeholders. A plan to accelerate the growth and transformation of New Zealand’s advanced manufacturing sector was launched ...
New Zealand will provide support for Pacific countries to prevent the spread of harmful animal diseases, Associate Minister of Agriculture Meka Whaitiri said. The Associate Minister is attending a meeting of Pacific Ministers during the Pacific Week of Agriculture and Forestry in Nadi, Fiji. “Highly contagious diseases such as African ...
The Public Transport Futures project will deliver approximately: 100 more buses providing a greater number of seats to a greater number of locations at a higher frequency Over 470 more bus shelters to support a more enjoyable travel experience Almost 200 real time display units providing accurate information on bus ...
All but six schools and kura have reopened for onsite learning All students in the six closed schools or kura are being educated in other schools, online, or in alternative locations Over 4,300 education hardpacks distributed to support students Almost 38,000 community meals provided by suppliers of the Ka Ora ...
A new health centre has opened with financial support from the Government and further investment has been committed to projects that will accelerate Māori economic opportunities, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan says. Community health provider QE Health will continue its long history in Rotorua with the official opening of the ...
The new three year NZ UK Working Holiday Visas (WHV) will now be delivered earlier than expected, coming into force by July this year in time to support businesses through the global labour shortages Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says. The improved WHV, successfully negotiated alongside the NZ UK Free trade ...
It seems like only yesterday that we launched the discussion document Enabling Investment in Offshore Renewable Energy, which is the key theme for this Forum. Everyone in this room understands the enormous potential of offshore wind in Aotearoa New Zealand – and particularly this region. Establishing a regime to pave ...
Police has reached a major milestone filing over 28,000 charges related to Operation Cobalt. “I’m extremely proud of the fantastic work that our Police has been doing to crack down on gangs, and keep our communities safe. The numbers speak for themselves – with over 28,000 charges, Police are getting ...
The Government will provide $15 million in the short term to local councils to remove rubbish, as a longer-term approach is developed, the Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. “Several regions are facing significant costs associated with residential waste removal, which has the potential to become a public ...
$15 million of immediate reimbursement for marae, iwi, recognised rural and community groups $2 million for community food providers $0.5 million for additional translation services Increasing the caps of the Community and Provider funds The Government has announced $17.5 million to further support communities and community providers impacted by Cyclone ...
The Government’s approach of using frontline service providers to address inequities for Māori with mental health and addiction needs is making good progress in many communities, a new report says. An independent evaluation into the Māori Access and Choice programme, commissioned by Te Whatu Ora has highlighted the programme’s success ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Jotzo, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy and Head of Energy, Institute for Climate Energy and Disaster Solutions, Australian National University IISD/ENB The world is in deep trouble on climate change, but if we really put our shoulder to ...
RNZ Pacific New Caledonia’s only daily newspaper, Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes, has folded after the commercial court accepted the publishing company’s request for its liquidation. The court had deferred its decision by a day after an injunction by the public prosecutor who wanted to see if there was still a possibility ...
By Arieta Vakasukawaqa in Suva The installation of the Turaga Bale na Vunivalu Na Tui Kaba, Ratu Epenisa Cakobau, clearly indicates that Fiji’s traditional chiefly system still has a strong footing and chiefs still command respect among the country’s citizens. This is the view of Dr Paul Geraghty, the University ...
ANALYSIS:By Shailendra Bahadur Singh in Suva The long-running row between the former Fiji government and the Suva-based regional University of the South Pacific (USP) has come back to haunt former Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who spent a night in a police cell on March 9 before appearing in ...
By Antoine Samoyeau in Pape’ete About 3000 activists of French Polynesia’s pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira party met for six hours at the weekend with the executives insisting that they were “united’ after a recent upheaval over leadership. The party also presented a “renewed” slate of 73 candidates for next month’s territorial ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The first arrest has been made following the Brereton inquiry into allegations that Australians committed war crimes in Afghanistan. Former SAS soldier, Oliver Schulz, 41, has been remanded in custody after his arrest by ...
We have our 2023 finalists after a big Sunday double-header at North Shore Stadium. Alice Soper reviews.Matatū vs BluesMatatū have scored the first try in every match they have played this season. It looked like this streak was going to be broken as the Blues finally found ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Park, Judith and David Coffey Chair in Sustainable Agriculture, Plant Breeding Institute, University of Sydney Shutterstock Some 70% of the World Heritage-listed Lord Howe Island has been closed to non-essential visitors in response to a recurrence of the plant ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suranga Seneviratne, Senior Lecturer – Security, University of Sydney Shutterstock Are you tired of receiving SMS scams pretending to be from Australia Post, the tax office, MyGov and banks? You’re not alone. Each year, thousands of Australians fall victim to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Misha Ketchell, Editor, The Conversation Thanks in no small part to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), today few people would be foolish enough to dispute the scientific consensus on the climate crisis. But as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Windholz, Senior Lecturer and Associate, Monash Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies, Monash University Inadequate, inequitable, and in some cases possibly in breach of workers’ compensation laws. That’s how bad the current insurance arrangements are for Australia’s professional sports people, ...
The newly-minted Police Minister, Ginny Andersen, has been called on by the Council of Licensed Firearm Owners (COLFO) to investigate how the previous Minister allowed Police to propose extraordinary fee increases for licensed firearm owners without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Kingsford, Professor, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney Bill Ormonde, Author provided Millions of dead fish float on the surface of the river. Native bony herring and introduced young carp, as well as a few mature ...
Things make more sense when people are speaking your language! This CAB Awareness Week (20-26 March), we are celebrating diversity and multiculturalism within our service. At the Citizens Advice Bureau, we are committed to making sure our service ...
The second week of the Auckland Arts Festivals showed the versatility of the city’s spaces, even when not matched entirely correctly with shows. Sam Brooks reviews (with assistance from Shanti Mathias).I often dismay at the lack of performance spaces we have in Auckland, and it takes something like the ...
The free and easy SMS two factor authentication (2FA) to log into your Twitter account ends today. That concerns Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster because it takes away one of the most common ways to verify who users are on their free accounts, which ...
New Zealand’s new minister of police will be one of the freshest faces around the cabinet table. Ginny Andersen, the MP for Hutt South, has been named as the new minister taking over from Stuart Nash. Andersen first became an MP in 2017 and only became a minister for the ...
The government has announced further roading reconnections, several weeks on from Cyclone Gabrielle. Earlier this morning it was confirmed the link between Napier and Taupō had been reestablished. And now, transport minister Michael Wood said another six bailey bridges would be constructed. “Our immediate priority has been to reopen lifeline ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has slammed the revelation that government agencies and State Owned Enterprises are spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on lobbying firms as revealed by Radio NZ this morning. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter McNeil, Distinguished Professor of Design History, UTS, University of Technology Sydney Sydney World Pride and Mardi Gras 2023 were a huge success. Sydney was activated in a way rarely seen – block and street parties, cultural festivals and dance parties for ...
For the first time since 2019, a New Zealand minister will head to China this week. Foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta will meet with her Chinese counterpart Qin Gang in Beijing. “I intend to discuss areas where we cooperate, such as on trade, people-to-people and climate and environmental issues. I will ...
The Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has completed his investigation into complaints about Auckland Council’s role in the National Erebus Memorial project. The complaints relate to the council’s approval and consents process for the memorial site in ...
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Magnificent weather for the dawn service and nice touch on the music, very appropriate.
A day of reflection on times since past and sacrifices made by men and women in WW 1/2 in the hope we would enjoy freedom from fascism, racism and tyranny…..lest we forget.
I hate being cynical tc, you are very sincere, but I think most of the soldiers who died in these wars did so, not out of voluntary, willing, and courageous decision to sacrifice themselves, but because the were conscripted by governments which offered them as sacrificial lambs (when there was probably no specific threat made to our country). Should they show “cowardliness”, or disobey orders, they would likely have been executed. These poor souls were forced to put their lives on the line, there was no choice. Moreover, at Gallipoli, they acted at the murderous behest of madmen sheltering at home in their safe political offices.This is not to deny that some soldiers truly did act sacrificially. (Please note: I have had much experience in the military).
Friends and loves we have none, nor wealth nor
blessed abode,
But the hope of the City of God at the other end of
the road.
Masefield
Fixed the logo…
Thanks for including the white poppy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_poppy_%28symbol%29
Was searching for what might have been said about the white poppies on The Standard and came by this:
Thanks, Jim. I didn’t know about the white poppy.
Old weekend warriors like myself wish for peace. It is only the armchair warriors like Judith Collins (and at a guess Cameron Slater) who are stupid enough to worry about a poppy expressing a wish for peace. Let us pray that no idiot is stupid enough to ever put her in as Defense minister. I know her type. She’d simultaneously cut the budget, double bunk soldiers, and get them committed to getting crushed in silly wars,
From memory the most I ever heard from the RSA was a question about how far it would cut into their sales – a very practical consideration.
Rocky did the logo in 2010 late on Anzac day after seeing my single poppy version, and it went up in 2011 and 2012.
Yes Judith is pure evil. Wasn’t it her that protested and spat at returning Nam veterans back in the 70s?
Each time they deploy, NZ forces demonstrate their dedication to their duty, i.e., for the military to obey the direction of the civilian government. Far, far too often the civilian government fails NZ forces by sending them on immoral and futile missions in an ever-spiralling attempt to suck up to empire.
I will not forget the sacrifices of loyal soldiers and I will struggle against those who to this very day spill their blood for their own venal purposes.
+1
I went to a combined Australian/New Zealand service today where the Turkish ambassador also spoke. I’m utterly amazed at how the loss of their 85,000 young men at our hands is seen by the Turks as an event that unifies the three countries. Maybe a realistic assessment due to the end of their own empire, but for whatever reason I’m grateful.
Today marks the lives and loss of lives of many New Zealanders in battle fields around the world
Does this include the 19th century land wars of Aotearoa?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Wars
http://archives.govt.nz/research/guides/war#nine
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/the-new-zealand-wars
All wars are terrible events. The heroic sacrifices people make, often with their lives, should be remembered. The loss of lives should be mourned. The reasons people went to war should be studied so that such sacrifices are not made for someone else’s dubious ends.
Yep. A few of my ancestral family were in those on both sides. Also the South African, North African, Pacific, Korean, Vietnam, Middle Eastern, etc wars. Not just Europe.
Its interesting to consider that Henry Ford shut down his successful aviation business because of the growing potential for planes in the 1930s to be used for war.
While his plants were used for war production, he was only a figurehead by this time and the US government put his grandson Henry Ford II in charge of the business
Do not forget ghost W that Henry Ford was a rabid anti-Semite and was awarded a high ranking medal from Hitler for his work against Jews .
Basically everyone was a rabid anti semite pre WWII weren’t they?
Funny how it’s the right wing devoted to Israel these days and its anyone who dares question the Israeli colonisation project ( ie ‘lefties’ ) who are vulnerable to the ‘anti jew’ label.
Basically everyone was a rabid anti semite pre WWII weren’t they?
Nope. But Ford was.
And it hurt his business, demonstrating that not everyone was anti-Semitic even then:
Why are we fighting for the USA in Afghanistan? ex-President Carter gets stuck into his own country in an article in The Press this morning – USA, the world’s greatest warmonger. Lowest of the low.
At least there are no idiots out burning flags at dawn parades. The last thing the anti-war movement needs is the likes of John Minto and Valerie Morse drawing the wrong attention to themselves with stunts like that.
Speaking of dawn parades, I myself have concerns about this growing attitude we have to ANZAC day, especially amongst the young, it is starting to move from “Remembering the Fallen” to all out militarism and the glorification of war, especially when commentators start going on about it being our new national day. To me it feels like we are going down the path where New Zealand signs up to America’s latest quagmire and the people blindly support it without question and those who do question it are vilified as ‘traitors’.
Having said that, if the Chinese start swapping their chequebooks for tanks and machine guns to secure food supplies, you can bet your bottom dollar, Ill be first in line at the recruiting office…
Perhaps millsy, the younger people are turning out because there are no Gallipoli vets left, and the numbers of WWII vets are shrinking fast.
For me, it’s a nod to my ancestry. My grandfather was invalided out of Gallipoli with a bullet lodged in his hip (which emerged from the other side of his body 30 years later), and my father was a member of 2NZEF in North Africa, Crete and Greece. Neither of thm is alive now, so honouring them and their comrades on Anzac Day is the least that I can do in their memory.
“My grandfather was invalided out of Gallipoli with a bullet lodged in his hip (which emerged from the other side of his body 30 years later)”.
One of the lucky ones…
“Having said that, if the Chinese start swapping their chequebooks for tanks and machine guns to secure food supplies, you can bet your bottom dollar, Ill be first in line at the recruiting office…”
Not me…I’ll never defend this country by murdering someone else.
What would I be fighting to defend?…A political system that is a sham? For my freedom of voice that never gets heard?
May as well be dictated under a Chinese invasion. I would probably be better off than the other situation; being dictated by old, greedy bankers & lawyers.
I’m working this arvo and will not be getting paid time and a half. I don’t really give a shit about the money, I do the work cause I enjoy it, and I don’t care for ANZAC day…NZ should stop pretending it gives a shit too. Our army exists to ensure we have the freedom to consume, the free access to capitalist greed.
Our wars today occur so that the Chinese can open their chequebooks…and then their chequebooks are used to replace the tanks and machine guns. Neocolonialism under the clock of ‘development’ subjects the global South to more suffering and death than any kind of physical force could.
Perhaps we could have a day in remembrance of capitalist greed for all its death and destruction?
I suggest the day after Boxing Day…we could all get drunk and then go steal each other’s Christmas presents.
You would be fighting to defend your country.
I believe your sort of thinking died in around 1918.
I’m working this arvo and will not be getting paid time and a half. I don’t really give a shit about the money
You probably should be. I suggest you follow up with your employer.
“You probably should be. I suggest you follow up with your employer.”
I know, but I’m sure there is a loop-hole somewhere there about part time employment / not working there long enough…or something else.
The real reason that I won’t follow it up is that I am working for an education provider who is currently cutting back their staff due to lack of funding. If they did cut me due to costs then I would continue on a volunteer basis because I know that the department are not wasteful and do not have overpaid management of any kind (of course the education provider itself has so many layers of management that it is slowly crumbling).
My other experiences of working on ANZAC day have been when I was too young to realise my rights as a worker. Younger generations in NZ are not concerned with ANZAC day, its seen as a free day to sleep off a hangover before catching up on some shopping. Or to get some part time work while others get a day off.
I went to a dawn service once…I mean I stumbled past one about 8 years ago when I left a nightclub at 6am. That’s how most young people participate in ANZAC day, unfortunately.
I don’t see that so much as a lack of respect, I was conforming to society’s values.
That footage in the post is very moving. It would add a lot to the ANZAC mornings if it could be shown at each parade prior to the march.
It would bring home to people the evil of war.
For there is one thiing that must be resisted at all costs imo and that is the glorification of war and armies. That glorification is something so easy to slip into. Footage like this would help prevent it.
What I see as having ‘provoked’ WW1 in particular was ‘fear’, simply the powerful elites of Europe’s ruling classes, the Kings and Queens and Generals ‘fear’ of the wave of Socialism sweeping across the continent and washing up upon the shores of ‘dear old England’ and it’s colony’s,
The Russian revolution didn’t just happen overnight and the ‘pamphleteering’ of the Socialist message had for a number of years spread the message of social equality through-out the class structure of old Europe and England,
‘In Flanders field poppies grow’,WW1 to me was simply the mass murder of part of the first generation to dare to question the authority of the Elite’s of Europe and England and demand from that corrupt elite a more equal society…
In England as WW1 dragged on and became more bloody by the day in what could only be described as ‘industrialized slaughter on a grand scale’, the King was advised that ‘the people’ were beginning to openly voice their disquiet about the horrific flood of injuries and continual calls for further sacrifice, pointing out it was not He,(the King),who’s Sons and Fathers were being fast forwarded into a hell of gassing burning,and, mutilation,
The King,ever mindful of ‘His’ duty to ‘His’ people duly ordered that ‘His’ house-hold staff ‘volunteer’ for service at the front,
This the Kings house-hold staff to a man duly did,and, within a week of their arrival at the front they were all dead to a man,
All of us can well imagine and glory in such a sacrifice from the King, after all can you imagine His discomfiture at having to be dressed by a new staff of servants who failed to understand His every hand gesture and grunt,
I see no glory and when will we be free???…
Colonel Malone of the Wellington Regiment voicing His abhorrence at what He saw as the needless casualties being suffered by His men asked that they be allowed to attack in darkness,
The English Lord,ensconced upon a British battle-ship offshore and in charge of this particular piece of needless slaughter denied Colonel Malone’s request,(after all what point was there in Him suffering the discomfiture of ship-bound life if He couldn’t watch the particular battles and skirmishes as they unfolded),
Colonel Malone in turn disregarding the order that He should only attack during daylight duly attacked the particular ridge which was the point of His mission,having captured the ridge that night Malone signaled that he needed reinforcements to hold His position,
Our grand English Lord ensconced in relative comfort aboard the British battleship off shore denied Malone’s request for reinforcements and obviously spitting blue blood over Malone’s disobedience in attacking the ridge at night ordered the battleships guns to fire upon Malone’s position,
Malone and all those who had spilled their and many Turk’s blood in capturing the ridge were killed or injured in the barrage of ‘friendly fire’,
i see no glory,and when will we be free…
Our civic leaders placing wooden crosses upon temporary Cenotaph’s simply remind me of those who confronted with the horror which was the slaughter of WW1 trench warfare ‘broke’ and could no longer stand the gassing,burning,mutilation and mass murder of being ordered to run headlong into the maw of masses of opposition machine-guns,
The wooden crosses so loved of our civic leaders are truly evocative of the wooden crosses that those who would not or could not carry on such a useless squandering of human life were strung up upon both as punishment and message to those who would dare lose stomach to be involved in such gut-churning slaughter,
i see no glory and when will we be free…
Anyone here old enough to remember those old war movies that used to be a feature of sunday afternoon TV viewing???,
You know the ones,where the British Tommy in WW1 crawls out into no-mans land between the opposing forces to re-connect the communications lines???,
Such was a standard in those old flicks and had a small basis in actual events,but,ever wonder why our brave British Tommy is crawling forward to connect communications lines when the British Generals were in fact ensconced in HQ’s many miles to the rear of the front lines,
The niceties of war circa WW1 required that opposing Generals communicated with each other over such things as ‘who’s turn’ it was to come out of the trench’s and attack who’s position so it was vital that the phone lines remained intact,
i see no glory and when will we be free…
Because a General can’t really run a battle if he’s crawling forward to connect communication lines, can he?
It was Freyburg who grasped the fact that in modern war, especially by the time of WW2, events and dispositions on the battlefield could change very quickly and was well known for his propensity to be in the thick of the fight.
I would love there to be peace, but the realist in me knows that it is a pipe-dream. The best we can hope to do is address the major inequalities around the world that cause war and hope that a more stable and prosperous planet is the result.
Good article by Matt McCarten
We need to start getting the story correct, we need to know why our troops were there in the first place and not forget that as it’s actually the important part.
There’s a lot of anachronistic bullshit that gets thrown around at this time of year, notably “why were WE fighting THEIR battles”
Well, people, “we” were “them”. In 1914, NZers identified themselves as part of the British Empire, as Britons across the sea. If NZ was wrong to send troops to Gallipolli then the Spartans were also wrong to send troops to Thermopylae. It was a case of a certain part of “us” that lived a long way away sending troops to help another part of “us.”
Secondly, even today, we are still part of them. We still bear the torch of the west – the torch that passed from Athens, to Rome, to a few lonely monasteries in Ireland, to a reborn England, to a mighty, globe-spanning empire, a torch that illuminated the world and freed it from darkness and evil.
Everyone who thinks “we” are not “them” displays an alarming lack of historical knowledge.
No, really, we aren’t. Things change and, over time, what we become is no longer what we were.
We are much closer to the British (or even the Romans!) than we are to any other major ‘culture’ of the world today (counting America as a sub-set of the British)
So? We are still not British and from what I’ve been seeing over the last few decades we’re becoming more Maori. This I see as a Good Thing.
The Queen and the Soldier
I just wonder what all these “celebrations ” and marching to military bands is all about.For many years I attended ANZAC day and Armistice Day .Then one year as a member of a local, peace group I asked permission from the local,RSA and borough council for the Peace Movement to lay a wreath .The reaction was shocking I was told in no uncertain manner that ‘Boody Commo’s were not wanted and more .I have never been to a service since. anyway the religious services about sacrifice and Gods love was begining to get under my skin .
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me to be able to place something appropriate regarding peace.
Unfortunately I guess it is so very easy for many issues, and especially organisations, to get tangled and lost in entanglement unable to untangle them clearly on this day concerning so many deaths at war.
The RSA and others always do this (no quarter given to others on Anzac day) and I respect them for wanting to keep this morning and day entirely to themselves. I guess it really is solely about the men who have died in war. Nothing else. Those other related issues can have their time and day elsewhere. Perhaps we should leave them in peace to remember in the way they want.
I like John Pilger’s take on ANZAC – basically hijacked and used to mythologise and celebrate Western militarism and imperial power games.
http://johnpilger.com/articles/marching-for-anzac-in-the-51st-state
Should be an opportunity to remember what those wars were really about – imperial power games, class conflict. Like one of the few remaining French WW1 soldiers saying it was a whole lot of young guys being sent to their deaths by old guys.
51st state… Hence Hillary Clinton being “delighted” to get in on the act.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/last-post-first-light/anzac-day-2012/6803852/Hillary-Clintons-Anzac-tribute
An hour or so ago I heard Julia Gillard’s speech regarding Turkish/ANZAC engagements in WW1. She was talking about “worthy foes” (I assume that means high body counts without any tactical achievement) and connecting it up to god knows what kind of convenient “friendship” in the present. The idea of worthy foe seems to me to be something of a romantic hangover; when war was fought more or less between single combatants with bronze weapons; stopping when it got dark and happening slow enough so that the combatant had the time to become a warrior. Exactly what Gillard thinks is romantic or worthy about machine gunning or shelling people into heaps before they get to see the enemy in a mystery.
So what else can she do, make negative reflections and insinuations about a foreign nation? She’s reflecting on Australia’s current relationship with Turkey, it’s pure diplomacy and politics, but it’s also positive, I’d rather see formerly adversarial nations and blocs be at peace with one another, even if that means they look a bit hypocritical. Look at how positive national relationships are between formerly deadly WWII adversaries. Of course it’s nowhere near perfect, but we have a lot to be grateful for, and we should be amazed at the spirit of such nations that can bury the hatchet and move on from such unimaginable grief and suffering.
16 Candles
Anzac day makes me sad.
Because I was born almost nine years to the day after the death of the third of three uncles who were lost during WW2 I was very young when I became aware of the grief and loss both my parents and my grandparents felt.
Mum and Dad were in their teens when they lost their brothers but, as youngsters do, they put the past behind them and carried on with their lives, matching and hatching, and the task of rearing us lot and their sadness only really emerged on anniversaries and days of remembrance.
Grandma, who’d lost two of her sons, absolutely detested the British, with an especially venomous hate reserved the royal family, never openly mourned. When asked how she coped Grandma used to say that she was one of the lucky ones, she had five more sons.
Granddad apparently, several years after the war, was so beset by grief that when dad and his brothers returned to the town they’d grown up in with new wives and young families in tow he handed the family business to them, took to the bottle, and never worked again.
I was nine when he died and I think he really did suffer and my memories are of a distant man who had cut himself from the world.
Mum’s parents never really talked about their loss and I think it was only on anniversaries and days of remembrance that the sadness took hold. But, again, they thought they were lucky to have lost only one son.
Anyhow, I’m quite fond of Kipling so here’s my favourite poem.
THE YOUNG BRITISH SOLDIER
When the ‘arf-made recruity goes out to the East
‘E acts like a babe an’ ‘e drinks like a beast,
An’ ‘e wonders because ‘e is frequent deceased
Ere ‘e’s fit for to serve as a soldier.
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
So-oldier
~OF~ the Queen!
Now all you recruities what’s drafted to-day,
You shut up your rag-box an’ ‘ark to my lay,
An’ I’ll sing you a soldier as far as I may:
A soldier what’s fit for a soldier.
Fit, fit, fit for a soldier . . .
First mind you steer clear o’ the grog-sellers’ huts,
For they sell you Fixed Bay’nets that rots out your guts —
Ay, drink that ‘ud eat the live steel from your butts —
An’ it’s bad for the young British soldier.
Bad, bad, bad for the soldier . . .
When the cholera comes — as it will past a doubt —
Keep out of the wet and don’t go on the shout,
For the sickness gets in as the liquor dies out,
An’ it crumples the young British soldier.
Crum-, crum-, crumples the soldier . . .
But the worst o’ your foes is the sun over’ead:
You ~must~ wear your ‘elmet for all that is said:
If ‘e finds you uncovered ‘e’ll knock you down dead,
An’ you’ll die like a fool of a soldier.
Fool, fool, fool of a soldier . . .
If you’re cast for fatigue by a sergeant unkind,
Don’t grouse like a woman nor crack on nor blind;
Be handy and civil, and then you will find
That it’s beer for the young British soldier.
Beer, beer, beer for the soldier . . .
Now, if you must marry, take care she is old —
A troop-sergeant’s widow’s the nicest I’m told,
For beauty won’t help if your rations is cold,
Nor love ain’t enough for a soldier.
‘Nough, ‘nough, ‘nough for a soldier . . .
If the wife should go wrong with a comrade, be loath
To shoot when you catch ’em — you’ll swing, on my oath! —
Make ‘im take ‘er and keep ‘er: that’s Hell for them
both,
An’ you’re shut o’ the curse of a soldier.
Curse, curse, curse of a soldier . . .
When first under fire an’ you’re wishful to duck,
Don’t look nor take ‘eed at the man that is struck,
Be thankful you’re livin’, and trust to your luck
And march to your front like a soldier.
Front, front, front like a soldier . . .
When ‘arf of your bullets fly wide in the ditch,
Don’t call your Martini a cross-eyed old bitch;
She’s human as you are — you treat her as sich,
An’ she’ll fight for the young British soldier.
Fight, fight, fight for the soldier . . .
When shakin’ their bustles like ladies so fine,
The guns o’ the enemy wheel into line,
Shoot low at the limbers an’ don’t mind the shine,
For noise never startles the soldier.
Start-, start-, startles the soldier . . .
If your officer’s dead and the sergeants look white,
Remember it’s ruin to run from a fight:
So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,
And wait for supports like a soldier.
Wait, wait, wait like a soldier . . .
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier
~of~ the Queen!
I might be wrong Joe.. but I’m thinking that’s about the longest comment you’ve ever posted here. And it’s special.
Like yourself my own family paid a very heavy price in both wars. Depsite the fact that I’m a sixth generation New Zealander, apart from my own immediate nuclear family…. I have no close relatives.
My grandmother was one of a family of seven, yet only she and her younger sister survived both wars to have children themselves. The ones who didn’t come back were in many ways the lucky ones.
The same was true of my father-in-law. Served extensively in the Middle East. Came back home to his provincial town and never … ever… left home again. Not even for his only daughter’s wedding.
Some went to war and were lucky … but many saw and had to do things they could never reconcile. My aunty’s husband served in every major WW1 battle. We still have his war dairy intact. A reserved, almost dry read, but graphic enough. He came home and worked in the civil service all his life, quiet and apparently functional. But like most he could never talk about it.
Once at a family lunch my father asked him a small innocent question about his service. There was a long pause, my aunt looked a little stricken. Finally uncle said… “Any man who goes to a war is a fool”.
Later aunty said that in all their many decades of life together… that was the only thing he ever said about it.
Your talk of ‘grandma’s’ opinion of the British Royals brings a smile, reminding me of my mother’s exact same attitude which She never explained to us kids,
Taking us to the movies was the one instance when Her anti-Royal attitude was displayed in public,in the day, movies in the local theater began with the anthem ‘God Save the Queen’, and, every living soul in that movie theater stood for that anthems duration,
Except of course for one imposing lady and 4 kids who would never dare, until later in life, disregard any of Her edicts on anything…
I like your beloved nana, I long for the day when the British finally abolish the monarchy and give the royals 24 hours to vacate their fancy palaces…
There is no need for monarchy — anywhere.
The French got rid of theirs, as well as the Russians, and the Indians sent their puppet monarchs packing in the same direction as the British (they are now reduced to charging tourists to walk through their palaces to get by).
When I watched the Royal Wedding last year, all I was thinking is about how Princess Catherine would not have to even think about lifting a finger for the rest of her life. Having Fleet Street (the only people who benefit from monarchy) following her around everywhere will be a small price to pay for complete economic security and a guaranteed gold-plate standard of living.
Wonderful comments both Joe90 and Redlogix, thankyou.
Also from me, Seeker and Redlogix – thank you. What you have both posted means a great deal to me – was going to say more than …….. but everyone has a right to say what they want. But I will remember – and honour – your contributions. Thank you.