Author Archive
Being real about the climate emergency
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, December 4th, 2020 - 118 comments
Green tech, negative emissions and carbon capture and storage won’t save us, but we have other options.
Sneak preview of a neoliberal UBI
Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, November 23rd, 2020 - 21 comments
Giving migrant workers access to insufficient welfare is a financial coercion tool of right wing and centrist economics.
Time’s up Labour
Written By: - Date published: 4:50 pm, November 20th, 2020 - 114 comments
It’s not possible to resolve New Zealand’s housing and poverty crises from within a neoliberal frame. Change is going to have to be driven from outside of parliament.
Resiliency politics
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, November 19th, 2020 - 14 comments
With news of more global stressors next year, the stories we tell right now are critical to how we build resiliency. Let’s make sure they are good ones.
Powerdown part two
Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, November 16th, 2020 - 90 comments
Christchurch transition engineer Susan Krumdieck lays out the realities of the various crises we are facing, and why green tech won’t save us. What can we do instead?
Covid and contact tracing
Written By: - Date published: 4:46 pm, November 12th, 2020 - 32 comments
News of a new community case in Auckland, and the need for us all to be taking precautions and keeping track of our movements and contacts.
This is how you do it America
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, November 7th, 2020 - 79 comments
Day four of the US election (general discussion thread).
The Green Party’s decision on government
Written By: - Date published: 4:08 pm, October 31st, 2020 - 139 comments
Which way are the Greens going to jump?
A bit about how The Standard works
Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, October 27th, 2020 - 16 comments
Mostly about moderation.
Show us the plan Labour
Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, October 22nd, 2020 - 154 comments
Labour want to govern based in stability for all New Zealanders, but how does that work when your grand narrative has massive plot holes around ending poverty?
Left/Green/Indigenous
Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, October 18th, 2020 - 135 comments
What kind of government might New Zealand have?
This should have been the climate election
Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, October 16th, 2020 - 30 comments
A new Ministry for the Environment report on New Zealand and the climate crisis is sobering. If you haven’t voted, climate is still by far New Zealand’s biggest challenge, and it’s the Greens that have the plan for what to do.
About the Greens…
Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, October 15th, 2020 - 74 comments
Here’s the thing about the Greens. They want change. They want change more than they want power. I think that they fully understand that we are out of time on climate, poverty, the environment and now is the time to act boldly.
NZ Medical Association drops its opposition to the legalisation of cannabis
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, October 13th, 2020 - 38 comments
“So after staunchly opposing the legalisation of cannabis all year NZ Medical Association chair Kate Baddock has issued a statement and apology, in the middle of voting, saying actually the NZMA has “no position regarding the cannabis referendum”” – TVNZ political journalist Benedict Collins
Regenerative economies: $100,000 growing permaculture kale
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, October 11th, 2020 - 56 comments
A Thames couple are showing how to make a living from small scale market gardening, and leading the way in regenerative horticulture.
About that wealth tax
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, October 10th, 2020 - 301 comments
There are some issues to be ironed out, but this is the only thing I am seeing that attempts to resolve poverty in New Zealand rather than tinkering around the edges.
Is this woman being coerced into unsafe healthcare by the DHB’s handling of covid testing?
Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, October 8th, 2020 - 13 comments
Why is the Ministry of Health not stepping in to ensure nationwide standards for covid testing, and ensuring that isolation facilities meet our Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights?
Meanwhile, the climate crisis
Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, October 4th, 2020 - 44 comments
A large wildfire has destroyed many homes in the village of Ohau in the Mackenzie Country, and hundreds of people have been evacuated.
Trump’s not so bad: the holding our breath edition
Written By: - Date published: 11:17 am, October 4th, 2020 - 79 comments
An occasional series
What forming a Labour/Green government might look like
Written By: - Date published: 11:23 am, September 29th, 2020 - 44 comments
Shaw said that what he is hearing from people is they want Labour to have to talk to someone while in govt and not be able to make decisions by itself.
The question then becomes, how much does the left want Labour to be encouraged greenward and leftward?
Snow storm shout out to the undeserving poor
Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, September 28th, 2020 - 84 comments
Why does Labour still not have a plan for unwell and disabled people living in poverty?
The Greens on urban farming
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, September 24th, 2020 - 25 comments
This is exactly the kind of approach the Green Party would like to encourage – it’s strategic, it’s intergenerational and it recognises the interconnectedness of our people, the environment and local communities.
Last night’s leader debate
Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, September 23rd, 2020 - 129 comments
The leaders of our both main parties committed to neoliberalism is another kind of brutality that we seem reluctant to address.
Choosing ‘enough’ rather than ‘more’
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, September 18th, 2020 - 104 comments
A brief look at steady state economics and the values of enough rather than more.
What is this regenerative agriculture thing anyway?
Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, September 13th, 2020 - 32 comments
Given the state of New Zealand land and water, changing how we do farming should be a strong political topic for the left this year. The Greens and Greenpeace are campaigning for a shift to regenerative agriculture, so it’s timely to look at what that is.
The Greens sticking to their guns (and their values)
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, September 11th, 2020 - 157 comments
The Greens just boldly stepped up their election campaign.
Labour voters, if you could vote to keep the Greens in parliament would you?
Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, September 10th, 2020 - 116 comments
Choices, choices.
Labour’s two tier welfare plans
Written By: - Date published: 11:17 am, September 5th, 2020 - 74 comments
As the covid crisis deepens Labour appear to be committed to entrenching the underclass and giving a helping hand to the middle class.
Hitting the political spot
Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, September 3rd, 2020 - 20 comments
Markey accomplished what no Democrat or Republican had ever done: He defeated a Kennedy in Massachusetts.
What are the lessons here for lefties in New Zealand?
What if we had a Policy Costings Unit for all political parties?
Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, August 21st, 2020 - 22 comments
Surely political parties would welcome support to have their election year promises independently costed?
Yale does socialist medicine with new covid test
Written By: - Date published: 11:07 am, August 20th, 2020 - 15 comments
Yale have developed a covid saliva test that is not only effective but will be intentionally cheap and easily available.
- Banger alert: the song of the summer is ‘Harty Māori Stylez’
Espresso this, Not Like Us that. There will be only one true song of Aotearoa’s summer: Harty Māori Stylez by Te Kura Reo Rua o Waikirikiri. This summer, as you cruise coast to coast, you’re going to need an anthem to soundtrack your movements. A song that encapsulates the feeling ...1 week ago - GMO Bill Creates More Societal Division
Organics Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ) last week completed another two days with Ministers, political leaders, Ministries and primary sector leaders sharing science knowledge, societal concerns, economic impacts and trade findings. ...1 week ago - Lake Alice redress payments won’t have sway on what other survivors receive
Lead minister of the government's response to abuse in care Erica Stanford said Cabinet looked at this case very separately. ...1 week ago - Help Me Hera: I hate spending Christmas with my in-laws
I grew up in a family where Christmas was all about tradition and hospitality. My husband’s family takes a different approach. How do I get over my resentment and have a nice day? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nz Dear Hera The Christmas I had growing up was always quite lovely, ...1 week ago
- AI will continue to grow in 2025. But it will face major challenges along the way
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daswin de Silva, Professor of AI and Analytics, Deputy Director of the Centre for Data Analytics and Cognition, La Trobe University cybermagician/Shutterstock In 2024, artificial intelligence (AI) continued taking large and surprising steps forward. People started conversing with AI “resurrections” ...1 week ago - Fifty years ago, Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin. The lessons from it have still not been learnt
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Farram, Associate Professor in North Australian and Regional Studies (History), Charles Darwin University It is hard to comprehend the force with which Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin early on Christmas Day, 1974. It was so ferocious that it killed 66 people, partly ...1 week ago
- Australia has an ongoing GP shortage. Why can’t we just train more GPs?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Harrison, Senior Lecturer, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney NotarYES/Shutterstock If you have Australia is critically short of GPs – and the shortfall is growing, predicted to be 8,600 GPs by 2048. So why can’t we just train ...1 week ago
- Could NZ’s two kākā subspecies actually be remnants of a more diverse species? Here’s why we n...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Knapp, Associate Professor in Biological Anthropology, University of Otago Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images As many Wellingtonians will know, kākā can be trouble. New Zealand’s pesky forest parrots have expanded throughout New Zealand’s capital city since they were reintroduced 22 ...1 week ago
- More than 1,300 Hajj pilgrims died this year when humidity and heat pushed past survivable limits. I...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Ramsay, Research Affiliate in Climate Adaptation, Monash University Every year, hundreds of thousands of Muslims undertake the Hajj –the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca. In 2024, the pilgrimage took place in mid-June, the start of the Saudi summer. But this year, ...1 week ago
- How a Cold War satellite and Robert Menzies changed the way Australian schools are funded
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Clark, Adjunct Professor of History, University of Adelaide Prime Minister Robert Menzies during the 1963 federal election campaign. Image courtesy of the National Archives of Australia. NAA: A1200, L46014 As students and teachers prepare to go on holidays, there’s a ...1 week ago
- Where does Santa live? It’s a trickier question to answer than you may think
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marcus Harmes, Professor in Pathways Education, University of Southern Queensland Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland. Roman Babakin/Shutterstock Sending a letter to Santa can be difficult as no one can agree on where exactly Santa lives. Several countries are competing to ...1 week ago
- Winston Peters spends much of year’s last speech criticising Te Pāti Māori, Waititi breaks i...
Watch: "Have a good Christmas, 'cos you'll need it sunshine," the NZ First leader said in a rowdy final debate in the house. ...1 week ago
- The year in five news events
For the penultimate Bulletin of 2024, editor Stewart Sowman-Lund flicks back through some of the biggest headlines of the year. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...1 week ago
- Swimming loses public funding but elite duo protected
High Performance Sport New Zealand will invest $162.8m into 36 national sporting organisations and athletes over the next four years, up from $131m in the four years leading up to this year’s Paris Olympics.From March next year, nearly $41 million per annum will go directly to national sports organisations for ...1 week ago - Former National MP joins push for University of Waikato’s third medical school.
A former National MP and incumbent Hamilton City Councillor has been hired by the University of Waikato to advocate for its proposed third medical school. ...1 week ago
- Transmission Gully: New plan to tackle long-standing fight
A new plan has been hatched to try to resolve a years-long fight to protect native fish at Transmission Gully. ...1 week ago
- Opposition parties move towards ‘formalising’ collaboration
Te Pāti Māori had to "get past ourselves" and is figuring out working with Labour. Labour says collaboration is still "casual", but the Greens say they'll be meeting regularly. ...1 week ago
- The Spinoff’s biggest stories of 2024
From malls to gods, woke foods to putrid stenches, the year’s greatest hits had a bit of everything. A tip: to create a perfect summer reading list (albeit with a crowded browser), click the headline of every story you missed to open it in a fresh tab. The 10 most ...1 week ago
- Ten stories that defined New Zealand’s media in 2024
It was a torrid year for almost every aspect of New Zealand’s media. Duncan Greive breaks down the key storylines – and the one vast, existential threat lurking underneath. Duncan Greive and Glen Kyne discuss many of these stories on The Fold’s year in review. 1. The end of ...1 week ago
- Daily crossword, Thursday 19 December
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- Huzzah! The 2024 ReadingRoom awards
And so 2024 in New Zealand literature will be remembered for not all that much, hardly anything to do with actual literature, more to do with politics and money, as in it will be remembered for 1) the shameful hunting of poet Tusiata Avia for having the gall to express ...1 week ago
- Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 19 December
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 19 December appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 week ago
- Vanuatu quake: Hospitals under pressure as death, damage toll grows
By Harry Pearl of BenarNews Vanuatu is taking stock of damage from a powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake that has killed at least 14 people and collapsed buildings in the capital Port Vila, as the first trickle of international assistance began arriving in the disaster-prone Pacific nation. The quake rattled the ...1 week ago
- Civil society groups call on NZ to bar new Israeli envoy over ‘flagrant’ Gaza genocide
Asia Pacific Report A broad coalition of civil society organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand have signed an open letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters urging the coalition government to refuse to accept the credentials of a new Israeli ambassador while the state continues to disregard international law and to ...1 week ago
- Mediawatch: The good, bad and weird media in 2024
Biggest flip-flop; best leading media by the nose; the Billy Connolly prize for breaking news about a single animal - Mediawatch's not-very-prestigious and not-at-all coveted annual media awards. ...1 week ago
- Vanuatu quake: Services still down nearly 24 hours after Port Vila hit
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist World Vision’s Vanuatu country director says electricity and water are still affected in the capital Port Vila and strategic bridges connecting the city are damaged, nearly 24 hours after a 7.3 earthquake just before 1pm on Tuesday afternoon. The city has had multiple aftershocks ...1 week ago
- Vanuatu quake: State of emergency declared, Fiji’s Rabuka offers help
By Monika Singh of Wansolwara Vanuatu is now in a state of emergency with at least 14 confirmed deaths following a 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck the capital Port Vila yesterday, followed bya 6.1 quake and other after shocks today. According to the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) in Vanuatu, ...1 week ago
- Christmas can be challenging for people with hearing loss. Here are 7 ways you can help
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Ekberg, Senior Lecturer, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University Paulina Rojas/Shutterstock For many people, Christmas can be the most social time of the year. The holiday period is often filled with parties, lunches, dinners and celebrations of all ...1 week ago
- If Treasury forecasts are right, it could be a decade before Australia is ‘back in black’
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra After two successive surpluses, the federal budget will be back in deficit in 2024–25, according to the much-anticipated budget update released on Wednesday. Known as the Mid-Year Economic ...1 week ago
- Lake Alice Payments Discriminatory
“While we applaud the Govt for trying to do the right thing for Lake Alice survivors & in recognising international recommendations, why is this Govt not doing right by all other survivors and recognising domestic recommendations?” Ms Cooper and ...1 week ago
- Attorney-general ‘appalled’ after Judge and former doctor verbally abuse Winston Peters ...
Attorney-general Judith Collins said she was aware of what happened and was "appalled by it". ...1 week ago
- Why Vanuatu should brace for even more aftershocks after this week’s deadly quakes: a seismologist...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dee Ninis, Earthquake Scientist, Monash University Rescue services working in Port Vila, December 18 2024. Vanuatu Police Force/Facebook The death toll from Vanuatu’s earthquake disaster continues to rise, with international search and rescue operations underway to help people hit by the initial ...1 week ago
- Lake Alice survivor realises house bus dream with redress payment
Robyn Dandy plans to use her $150K payment to go on a South Island roadtrip with her pets in honour of the grandson she's lost. ...1 week ago
- Cabinet sets aside $22.6m for survivors tortured at Lake Alice
Analysis: More than 50 years after the first children were tortured at Lake Alice, the Government has announced redress, which includes either a rapid payment of $150,000 or an uncapped personalised payment.The Prime Minister set expectations that redress for Lake Alice survivors would be announced before the end of the ...1 week ago
- Final decisions on TVNZ restructure to be announced in coming days
TVNZ's chief executive Jodi O'Donnell appeared before MPs at select committee on Wednesday for its annual review and outlined the big costs for the company. ...1 week ago
- Let’s take the boat out! 5 tips on staying safe on the water if you fancy a drink
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Peden, NHMRC Research Fellow, School of Population Health & co-founder UNSW Beach Safety Research Group, UNSW Sydney View Apart/Shutterstock Australia is a nation of boaters, with one of the world’s highest rates of boat ownership. There are about one million ...1 week ago
- A bitter rivalry is emerging in the Middle East between two old adversaries over the future of Syria
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Conversation; Mohammed Badra (EPA), Maxim Shemetov (Reuters Pool/EPA), Stoyan Nenov (Reuters Pool/AP) The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria has opened a new front for ...1 week ago
- Flying this holiday season? Here’s why air travel makes us so cranky – and what to do about it
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Senior Lecturer of Urban Risk & Resilience, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock The holidays are coming, airports are packed and emotions are running high. You’ve probably seen it or even been part of it: that tense moment when a passenger snaps ...1 week ago
- Minister Needs To Listen To The Evidence On Engineered Stone Ban
“We need to follow Australia’s example and implement a total ban of engineered stone, a dangerous product that is killing workers,” said Polaczuk. ...1 week ago
- How to not hug people you don’t want to hug this holiday season
You dread it, but they love it: here’s how to tell your family you’re hoping for a no-contact Christmas before they wrap their unwanted arms around you. There is nothing like Christmas to bring the blow of family obligation hurtling through your otherwise enjoyable life like a wrecking ball. And ...1 week ago
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