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Nat Vote: And the Loser Is ….
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, May 22nd, 2020 - 197 comments
The Nation holds its breath as the dullest political leadership race in a generation snores to a close. Who will win by losing? Who will lose by winning? Who cares?
UPDATE: It’s Mullertime!
UPDATE: Bennett dumped!
A Welcome Change Coming.
Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, February 29th, 2020 - 16 comments
There’s an increasing number of progressive and conservatives who are rediscovering their moral compass in these, the final days of unfettered liberalism.
- The Fog Of Economic Policy Is Starting To Clear…
Bryan Bruce, https://www.facebook.com/www.redsky.tv, 19 September 2020 National’s economic policy of temporary tax cuts yesterday proved, if proof be needed, that they are unapologetic neoliberals. While their claim that with more money in their pockets people will spend more might sound attractive, the reality is that tax cuts always benefit the ...3 hours ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #38, 2020
Highlighted article: Carbon pricing and planetary boundaries Engström et al take what might be called a systems approach to evaluating carbon pricing, taking into a account various economic sectors affected by and affecting paying for emissions. The conclusions are overall a rare pleasant surprise— a feature predicated on cooperation. Abstract: ...7 hours ago - Humans ignite almost every wildfire that threatens homes
Nathan Mietkiewicz, National Ecological Observatory Network and Jennifer Balch, University of Colorado Boulder CC BY-ND Summer and fall are wildfire season across the western U.S. In recent years, wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes, forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate and exposed tens of millions to harmful ...10 hours ago - Climate Change: China steps up
China has increased its climate change ambition, and set a target to be carbon-neutral by 2060: China will reach carbon neutrality before 2060 and ensure its greenhouse gas emissions peak in the next decade, Xi Jinping has told the UN general assembly. “China will scale up its intended nationally ...11 hours ago - Humans have dealt with plenty of climate variabilityClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz How much climate variability have humans dealt with since we ...12 hours ago
- Indigenous perspectives on unrestricted access to genomic dataBy Genomics Aotearoa researcher Maui Hudson, University of Waikato It is vital that genomics research respects genomic data and genetic heritage from indigenous communities. Genomics research is a rapidly growing field of study, and there is a strong push to make the huge amount of data being produced open ...14 hours ago
- Terrible luck: lockdowns on learning and youth job prospectsWhat is bad luck? Bad luck is spilling spaghetti sauce down your shirt right before an important meeting. When the person in front of you gets the last seat on the bus, that’s bad luck. Bad luck is when it’s sunny outside, so you leave the house without a coat, ...14 hours ago
- Ian Powell: Does private healthcare threaten public healthcare in New Zealand?
Is the private health system impacting negatively on the public health system? Health commentator Ian Powell evaluates a recent NZ Herald article by Natalie Akoorie (“Public v private healthcare: Moonlighting, skimming, duplication – should NZ do better”), and looks at how the dual system works, and concludes that the answer ...18 hours ago - A rabbit-hole election debate: So do you want more avocado orchards?
We live in strange and unusual times. It’s been a century since we’ve endured a global pandemic like this, more than half a century since we’ve had economic woes like this. So maybe we got an opening election debate for the times - because that was a strange and unusual ...1 day ago - LIVE: Jacinda Ardern vs. Judith Collins, First Debate
Tonight, The Civilian will be live-blogging the first of too many debates between Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and National Party leader Judith Collins, and also the last fifteen minutes of the news. Be sure to tune in from 6:45pm for regular updates, which can be accessed by refreshing this page ...1 day ago - Hundreds of Aucklanders arrested after illegal mass gathering on Harbour BridgeAn enormous drive-in party, shown here, was held this morning on Auckland’s Harbour Bridge, where police were forced to intervene. Hundreds of Aucklanders were arrested this morning on public health grounds, after an apparent illegal mass gathering on the city’s Harbour Bridge. Police say hundreds of Aucklanders gathered in their ...1 day ago
- The Looming Fight.
Social Distancing Be Damned - It's Jacinda! Shortly after ascending to Labour’s leadership, Jacinda described herself as a “pragmatic idealist”. It was an inspired oxymoron – packing into just two words the essence of the social-democrat’s dilemma. It was good to know that she knew what lay ahead of her. ...1 day ago - Climate Change: Moving fasterBack in 2017, the UK announced that it would ban the sale of new fossil fuel vehicles by 2040. Its a basic climate change measure, aimed at reducing emissions by shifting the vehicle fleet to cleaner technologies. Now, in the wake of the pandemic, they're planning to bring it forward ...1 day ago
- The Australian courts have had enough of refugee detentionFor the past decade, Australia has had a racist, anti-refugee policy. Those claiming refugee status are imprisoned without trial and left to rot in the hope they would "voluntarily" return to be tortured and murdered. When the courts have granted them visas, the government has immediately revoked them on racial ...2 days ago
- Friction and the Anti-lock Braking SystemYesterday afternoon I had to call on my car’s anti-lock braking system (ABS). For reasons best known to its driver, a car pulled out of a side road right in front of me while I was driving home after work, and I needed to stop in a hurry. I rather ...2 days ago
- The Inside Word: New Zealand Quarantine
There are a fair few misconceptions about conditions within New Zealand’s Quarantine Hotels. Madeline Grant’s misplaced accusations being one prominent example, though she is not alone. Today, I thought I’d share the inside word, so to speak. A friend of mine has recently returned to New Zealand from overseas, and ...2 days ago - Hard News: ASA: Let’s not talk about this
Last week, major newspapers carried a full-page ad as part of the campaign for a "No" vote to the referendum question about supporting the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill. The ad was authorised by the SAM NZ Coalition, which takes its name from a controversial American anti-cannabis group and includes ...2 days ago - This is not kindNew Zealand has a serious homelessness problem, due to skyrocketing rents and a lack of state houses. One of the ways we stick a band-aid on it is to put people up in motels. Previously, they were charged full commercial rates, saddled with odious debt due to the government's failure ...2 days ago
- Wokies are the establishment
by Ani O’Brien In the absence of a better word with which to refer to the rabid activists who claim progressivism while demanding adherence to an increasingly prescriptive set of political beliefs, I call them “woke”. With its roots in Black American slang, the term originally denoted a person or ...2 days ago - How to strengthen the post-isolation Covid rulesOver the weekend, the Ministry of Health reported a case of Covid-19 in Auckland that is not related to the current Auckland cluster. Before we start to panic, here’s how I think the case happened and how we can strengthen our current border controls. The new Covid-19 case is someone ...2 days ago
- Neuralink and You: A Human-AI SymbiosisBecky Casale Elon Musk reckons his Neuralink brain implant is much more than a medical device–that one day it will drive a symbiosis between humans and artificial intelligence. “Good morning! I’m Dr Benedict Egg and I’ll be supervising your Neuralink insertion today. Do you have any questions?” “Yes, Doc. ...2 days ago
- Liam Hehir: Our obsession with American politicsMany New Zealanders take a strong interest in US politics, with the death of Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg being the latest example. Liam Hehir wonders if it very wise for New Zealanders to get so worked about it. Many politically engaged New Zealanders are now furiously ...2 days ago
- COVID: Back to Level 1
After stamping the Coronavirus out via strict lockdown between March and May, New Zealand went through a good three months without any community cases. Then a local outbreak in Auckland rather buggered things up last month. Auckland’s been in level 3 and level 2.5 for the past six weeks. ...2 days ago - Climate Change: Climate injusticeWho's causing our skyrocketing emissions? As with most of our other problems, It's the rich: The wealthiest 1% of the world’s population were responsible for the emission of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the world from 1990 to 2015, according to new ...2 days ago
- Good riddanceThe border closure and resulting lack of foreign slave-workers is driving the fishing industry out of business: One fishing company is effectively out of business while others are bracing for large financial hits as the deepwater New Zealand industry, unable to get skilled foreign workers into the country, have ...2 days ago
- 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #38Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... The tipping points at the heart of the climate crisis Many parts of the Earth’s climate system have been destabilised by ...3 days ago
- Anyone for Collins?
In the absence of national public opinion polls, we have had to make do in recent weeks with other guides to voter intentions. Those guides, such as the Auckland Central poll, the incidence of google enquiries and the responses to Vote Compass questions, have suggested, not unexpectedly, that Labour is ...3 days ago - Crusher’s fiscal malfunction
Crusher Collins - National Party leaderWe all know that the National Party is desperate to gain some traction during this election campaign and have been throwing pretty much everything at the Labour Party in order to try and undermine Jacinda Ardern and what the Coalition Government has achieved. But unfortunately ...3 days ago 
Much of the commentariat’s reporting of the most recent GDP figure was misleading and unhelpful. The prize for the stupidest remark about the GDP figure for second quarter 2020 (2020Q2) released on Thursday (17 Sept) goes to Judith Collins, whose response to Grant Robertson’s comments indicated she did not ...3 days ago- Love and Hate as Complementary Revolutionary Acts
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh goloing@gmail.com (19/09/2020) Che Guevara said that a true revolutionary is motivated by love i.e. love of the oppressed, the poor, the children dying from preventable illnesses. This phrase of his is true but has been used by reformists and their more hippy wing have taken advantage ...4 days ago - 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #38A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 13, 2020 through Sat, Sep 19, 2020 Editor's Choice Get to Net-Zero by Mid-Century? Even Some Global Oil and Gas Giants Think it Can Be Done A report by a ...4 days ago
- Tax cuts for all!!! (except you, you, and you)
With the National Party this week announcing a new policy of tax cuts to spice up the election campagin. MyThinks went along to the launch and afterwards we spoke to the party’s finance spokesperson Paul “Golden Touch” Goldsmith. MT: Thanks for speaking to us Mr Goldsmith. PG: No. Thank you. ...5 days ago - Great Waves Washing Over New Zealand
Always to islanders danger Is what comes over the seas ‘Landfall in Unknown Seas’ (Allen Curnow)Six economic issues external to New Zealand, which will greatly impact upon us. 1. The Diminishing Global Dominance of the US. Since 1941 America has dominated the world economically and politically. Probably it could ...5 days ago - New Zealand has role to play in resolving crisis on ‘geopolitical fault line’, Helen Clark saysBy Geoffrey Miller New Zealand should continue to champion human rights in Belarus amidst an ongoing crackdown on protests by the country’s regime, former Prime Minister Helen Clark says. Protests in the country often referred to as ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’ erupted after the country’s disputed presidential elections on August 9 ...5 days ago
- Euthanasia referendum: How to cut through the emotionsJacqui Maguire, registered clinical psychologist This podcast episode highlights how difficult it is to have effective conversations about euthanasia due to how polarised people’s views are. I’m a clinical psychologist, with a passion for science communication. In early 2020 I founded the podcast Mind Brew, with an aim to make psychological ...5 days ago
- Why we need cameras on boatsIn case anyone needed further convincing, there's another example today of why we need cameras on fishing boats: reported seabird bycatch doubled during a camera trial: Commercial fishers operating off Auckland's coast around vulnerable seabirds are twice as likely to report accidentally capturing them when cameras are on ...5 days ago
- Graham Adams: The religious right’s campaign to spike the euthanasia referendumIn the leadup to the euthanasia referendum, an array of conservative Christian political organisations is running an expensive campaign to sow doubt about the safety of assisted dying. Graham Adams argues that these religious forces know that Christian arguments aren’t convincing the public, but that it is in the public ...6 days ago
- Opportunistic lootingThe National Party has spent the last six months acting horrified at the cost of supporting people through the pandemic and banging on about how the debt must be repaid. So what was their economic policy released today? Massive tax-cuts for the rich, of course! National has walked back ...6 days ago
- Uncomfortable Choices.Dangerous Times: This will be the choice confronting those coming of age in the 2020s. Embrace Neoliberalism’s belief in racial and sexual equality; adopt its secular and scientific world view; and cultivate the technocratic, multicultural, global outlook required of those who keep the machinery of hyper-capitalism humming. Or, throw your ...6 days ago
- Tony Burton: Covid and benefit paymentsIt would be a great time to reform the benefit system, according to former Deputy Chief Economic Advisor at the Treasury, Tony Burton. He argues the complexity of benefit system means that it’s failing to achieve its difficult three core objectives, which form an “iron triangle”. New Zealand’s benefit ...6 days ago
- Talking tax: How to win support for taxing wealthTax Justice UK, September 2020 Serious tax reform is on the political agenda for the first time in decades due to the coronavirus crisis. As this debate hots up it is important to understand what people think about public spending, wealth and tax. Tax Justice UK, along with Survation and ...6 days ago
- Getting Tough.Not Mucking Around: With upwards of 800 dead from the virus’s resurgence in the Australian state of Victoria, leniency is not on Premier Daniel Andrews’ agenda. The Victorian Police are cracking down hard on the protesters the Australian press has labelled "Covidiots".IMAGES OF POLICE, some in riot gear, others on ...6 days ago
- Media Link: Nuclear strategy, then and now.
Although I had the fortune of being a graduate student of some of the foremost US nuclear strategists of the day (1970s) and later rubbed shoulders with Air Force and Naval officers who were entrusted with parts of the US nuclear arsenal, I seldom get to write or speak about ...6 days ago - The Chinese List.News that Zhenhua Data, an arm of China Zhenhua Electronics Group, a subsidiary of the military-connected China Electronic Information Industry Group (CETC), maintains a list of 800 New Zealanders on a “Overseas Key Information Database” that contains personal information on more than 2.4 million foreign individuals, has caused some consternation ...7 days ago
- Things that grow fast, and things that surprise usMarie Becdelievre January 2020. The number of news article mentioning coronavirus exploded and anxious voices whispered about a global pandemic. Whisper? To me, it was only a whisper. I tend to learn about the world through non-fiction books, conferences, and academic research rather than news and social media, so ...7 days ago
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #37, 20202,082,476,000,000,000 Viability of greenhouse gas removal via the artificial addition of volcanic ash to the ocean (not open access, unfortunately) walks us through the numbers on a particular means of CO2 removal, addition of volcanic tephra to the ocean. The mechanism is straight chemistry and the cost is fully an order of ...1 week ago
- Barbados to become a republicBarbados is planning to remove the queen as head of state and become a republic in time for the 55th anniversary of its independence in 2021: Barbados has announced its intention to remove the Queen as its head of state and become a republic by November 2021. [...] Reading ...1 week ago
- Party Like It’s 1989: Bait and Switch is a Bad Look, Mr Hipkins
At the 2017 election, the New Zealand Labour Party promised a Fees Free Policy for tertiary students. Basically, it would make the first year of university education free in 2018, with a second year in 2021, and a third in 2024. It also promised to restore Post-Graduate access to the ...1 week ago - Will the tropics eventually become uninhabitable?Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz What is the impact of temperature increases in the tropics? ...1 week ago
- A first-hand look: What it’s like to live in a 2020 California wildfire evacuation zoneThis is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons It felt like 100 degrees in my in-laws’ Grass Valley, California, kitchen, but at least the lights were on and for the moment we were safely “distanced” from the Jones Fire. We’d just finished dessert, after pizza and a movie ...1 week ago
- COVID-19 is not the only infectious disease New Zealand wants to eliminate, and genome sequencing is...Nigel French, Massey University Genome sequencing — the mapping of the genetic sequences of an organism — has helped track the spread of COVID-19 cases in Auckland, but it also plays an important role in the control of other infectious diseases in New Zealand. One example is Mycoplasma bovis, a ...1 week ago
- A flaw in our electoral transparency regimeA key part of our electoral funding regime is a requirement for some transparency around donations, on the basis that if we can find out who has bought our politicians (typically after we have voted for them) then everything is alright. There are a lot of problems with that regime ...1 week ago
- Don’t Steal This BookOn “In Defense of Looting” Matt Taibibi takes an entertaining look at this generation of woke activists and how they compare with Abbie Hoffman the iconic anti-Vietnam war counter-culture figure of the 1960s On Thursday, August 27th, the same day Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican nomination, National Public Radio ...1 week ago
- Climate Change: Carbon prices must riseWhen Parliament introduced the Emissions Trading Scheme, it was worried that carbon prices might get too high. So it introduced a "fixed price option", allowing polluters to pay the government $25 in the place of surrendering credits. The result was predictable: after we were thrown out of international carbon markets ...1 week ago
- Climate Change: DisclosureThe government will finally be requiring large New Zealand companies to disclose their climate change risks: New Zealand finance companies will be made to report on climate change risk, Climate Change Minister James Shaw has announced. The policy will force around 200 large financial organisations in New Zealand to ...1 week ago
- Tackling the hard issues – trust and relationshipsBy Claire Grant, Genomics Aotearoa Communications Manager Community consultation is becoming an increasingly important aspect of research programmes in New Zealand, and with that comes the art of relationship building. Engagement between scientists and user-groups is certainly nothing new. But as stakeholder involvement becomes more of a requirement for science, ...1 week ago
- Equality Network – September NewsletterRead the Equality Network newsletter here ...1 week ago
- The Left’s Lost Allies.Rebels In A Wrong Cause: The truly frightening thing about Jami-Lee Ross’s and Billy Te Kahika’s success in persuading thousands of New Zealanders that Covid-19 is just another trick, just another way of stealing away their power, is realising just how many of them once marched at the Left’s side. ...1 week ago
- Legal Beagle: Low-Hanging FruitIn a couple of months, the 53rd Parliament will meet in Wellington, and approximately 120 MPs will be sworn in, many of them for the first time.They will all have political goals, some aligning with their party platforms, some not, some complex, and some simple, but they will gain one ...1 week ago
- Closing the Gap thinks that Labour’s proposal to raise the top tax rate is great but………Media Statement For Immediate Release 10th September 2020 The income and wealth inequality lobby group, “Closing the Gap” thinks the Labour proposal a great start says Peter Malcolm, a spokesperson for the group. But they need to be aware of what many of the rich do and of what do ...1 week ago
- Climate Change: No nonsenseACT is pushing a "no-nonsense climate change plan". What does it involve? Repealing the Zero Carbon Act and Emissions Trading Scheme, reversing the fossil-fuel exploration ban, and allowing mining on conservation land. In other words, repealing any policy which might actually reduce emissions. Which is the very definition of nonsensical. ...1 week ago
- My Climate Story: Coming full CircleThis blog post is a follow up to my recap of Al Gore's Climate Reality Leadership Training I recently participated in. One of the exercises we were asked to complete was to write about our respective "Climate Story". This is a slightly updated version to the one I had submitted during ...1 week ago
- A bill to criminalise wage theftWage theft is a problem in New Zealand, with a widespread practice of forcing employees to work without pay, and regular cases of underpayment and exploitation. One reason why its such a widespread problem is impunity: rather than a crime, wage theft is merely a tort, dealt with by the ...1 week ago
- Liam Hehir: What the voting age debate tells us about our disconnected political mediaNew Zealand’s media and online politics often reflect the values of liberal and progressive agendas. According to Liam Hehir, the current proposals to lower the voting age to 16 years – which the media overwhelming supports – is indicative of a wider mismatch with society, which is not good for ...1 week ago
- Why Pay Taxes?My wife and I, through a combination of good luck and good management, have managed to retire in comfortable circumstances. We celebrate our good fortune by making relatively small but regular donations to a range of good causes – to rescue services like the rescue helicopters, St John’s Ambulance and ...1 week ago
- Now everyone’s a statistician. Here’s what armchair COVID experts are getting wrongJacques Raubenheimer, University of Sydney If we don’t analyse statistics for a living, it’s easy to be taken in by misinformation about COVID-19 statistics on social media, especially if we don’t have the right context. For instance, we may cherry pick statistics supporting our viewpoint and ignore statistics showing we ...1 week ago
- More timid bullshit from LabourOver the weekend, Labour released its welfare policy: an increase in benefit abatement thresholds. And that's it. Faced with clear evidence of ongoing hardship among beneficiaries and a call from its on Welfare Expert Advisory Group to raise core benefits by between 12 percent and 47 percent, Labour's response is ...1 week ago
- The Police Kill as Part of their Social Functionby Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (Bogota; 09/11/2020) The murder of Javier Ordoñez in the neighbourhood of Villa Luz in Bogotá, Colombia at the hands of two policemen brings to the fore the issue of police violence and its function in society. First of all we should be clear that we are ...1 week ago
- 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #37Story of the Week... La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Humans exploiting and destroying nature on unprecedented scale – report Animal populations have plunged an average of 68% ...1 week ago
- The 2019 measles epidemic in SamoaGabrielle Po-Ching In November 1918, the cargo and passenger ship Talune travelled to Apia, Samoa from Auckland, carrying a number of passengers who had pneumonic influenza. From these passengers stemmed the biggest pandemic Samoa had ever seen. With around 8,500 deaths, over 20% of the country’s population at the ...1 week ago
- Shifting all Isolation/Quarantine Facilities to a Single Air Force Base: The Need for a Critical Ana...Prof Nick Wilson*, Prof Michael Baker In this blog the arguments for and against shifting all COVID-19 related isolation/quarantine facilities to a single air force base at Ōhakea are considered. The main advantage would be a reduction in the risk of border control failures, which can potentially involve outbreaks ...1 week ago
- The difference between Green and Labour: a tale of two Finance Ministers
So the Greens co-leader James Shaw recently made a mistake. In his role as Associate Finance Minister approving funding for “shovel-ready” projects, he fought hard for a private “Green school” to get funding to expand their buildings and, therefore, their student capacity. There are many problems with what he did: ...1 week ago - Bryce Edwards: Political Roundup – The missing election policy on free dental visitsOver the last three years there have been growing calls for the government to provide dental services under the health system – universal free dental care. This is because at the moment there’s an anomaly in which teeth are regarded as different from the rest of the body which means ...2 weeks ago
- 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #37A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 6, 2020 through Sat, Sep 12, 2020 Editor's Choice With California ablaze, Newsom blasts Trump administration for failing to fight climate change Trinity River Conservation Camp crew members drown ...2 weeks ago
- Letter to the EditorDear Sir, As we head into the run up to the upcoming election I feel it is my duty to draw your attention to the lack of fun we are currently forced to ensure by the Adern regime. In their efforts to keep the nation’s essential workers, health compromised people, ...2 weeks ago
- Reducing costs for Kiwi farmers
New Zealand’s farmers and growers play a key role in our economy and in our communities. Labour has set out a clear vision to transition to a carbon-neutral economy and today we committed to supporting our farmers and growers to achieve this goal. ...12 hours ago - Jacinda Ardern sets out Labour’s plan in first TV debateTonight was the first Leaders’ Debate, broadcast live on TVNZ 1. It was the first time New Zealanders have seen Jacinda Ardern side-by-side Opposition Leader Judith Collins this campaign. ...1 day ago
- Our plan to keep New Zealand movingLast updated 30 July 2020. The whole world is battling with COVID-19, and no country is immune. In New Zealand, our focus is getting the latest resurgence under control and making sure we put in place immediate financial supports to cushion the economic blow. As before, the best economic response is ...1 day ago
- Our AchievementsLed by Jacinda Ardern, our strong, stable government has delivered results and put people first every step of the way. In health, housing, education and more, we've got a strong track record of delivering for New Zealanders. Now, we’re continuing to put people first with our decisive response to COVID-19. ...1 day ago
- Why should I vote for Labour?Labour has a strong track record of making progress on the big issues facing our country. Now, as we recover and rebuild from COVID-19, we’re rolling out our plan to grow our economy, support businesses and communities, and keep New Zealand moving. If you’re still undecided ahead of this year’s ...1 day ago
- Greens call for a bus lane to bypass congestion on Harbour Bridge
The Green Party is calling for Waka Kotahi the NZ Transport Agency to convert a lane over the Auckland Harbour Bridge to bus-only and make buses free to use across the bridge until all lanes are back in operation. ...2 days ago - Greens to protect Aotearoa’s oceans with marine sanctuaries, bottom trawling and set-netting restr...The Green Party has released its Thriving Oceans Plan, which would dramatically increase marine protected areas and ban bottom trawling on seamounts. ...4 days ago
- Week that was: Jobs, trades training and supporting Kiwi workersIt was another busy week out on the campaign trail, with Labour focused on jobs, training, and supporting Kiwi workers. As we continue to roll out our five-point plan for recovery, we’re investing in our people, businesses, communities and vital services, so we can keep our economy moving as we ...4 days ago
- Labour is backing our regions for recoveryOur regions are a vital part of our economic recovery plan. They’re home to innovative and creative businesses, and the backbone of our export economy - which is why Labour will continue to support our regions to grow as together, we rebuild better. ...4 days ago
- No surprise in National’s latest attempt to slash public servicesNational’s ‘alternative budget’ that includes huge cuts to the government’s operating allowance would risk gutting critical public services, and put health, education and nature at dire risk. ...6 days ago
- Latest figures show stronger economic recoveryData released this week shows that, while New Zealand is not immune to the economic impacts of the global pandemic, our strong health response has meant we’ve been able to get our economy going faster than many other countries. ...6 days ago
- 17 ways to get involved with the 2020 electionThis year’s election is on 17 October - and it’s coming up fast! With one month to go until Election Day, we’ve come up with 17 ways you, your friends and family can get involved in our campaign and help Labour keep New Zealand moving. ...6 days ago
- PREFU shows efforts to keep us all healthy, now we need to revenue raisePREFU has given a good insight into what was required to ensure New Zealanders were largely supported to continue work and remain healthy during COVID-19, but it is clear we need additional revenue raising measures ongoing, Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said today. ...1 week ago
- Greens now the only political party sticking up for studentsThe Green Party is disappointed with the Labour Party’s decision to reverse their three free years education policy and back down on their commitment to postgraduate student allowances. ...1 week ago
- Labour are backing teachers and building a stronger, fairer education systemIn the first two years of our term in Government, we gave teachers record pay rises as a way of recognising the lack of adequate adjustments over the previous decade and the significant role they play in the lives of children and young people. We also increased the number of ...1 week ago
- Carmel Sepuloni: Backing families to get aheadInvesting in people has never been so important - and it’s a key part of Labour’s five point economic plan. ...1 week ago
- Labour supports working New ZealandersLabour has a proud history of supporting working New Zealanders, whether through the implementation of the 40hr work week or the introduction of the Working for Families package. ...1 week ago
- Greens will push next term for Government to expand dignified income beyond public service with Fair...The Green Party welcome Labour’s commitment to extend the living wage to Government contractors, but will push for Fair Pay Agreements across industries in the next Government so more New Zealanders can earn a dignified income. ...1 week ago
- Government must walk the talk on commitment to te reo MāoriThe Green Party is urging the Government to act on its commitment to te reo Māori, by making it a core subject up to year 10, and including te reo courses in the Targeted Training and Apprenticeships scheme. ...1 week ago
- Week That Was: Back on the campaign trailWe're officially back to the campaign for the 2020 General Election. The campaign may look a little different this year, but our candidates are still getting out and about in their communities and spreading the word about how another term of Labour will keep New Zealand moving in the right ...2 weeks ago
- Labour’s plan to bring down debt: Your questions answeredYou might have heard a bit of discussion about Government debt lately, as experts weigh in on the COVID-19 economic recovery. If you’re wondering why it’s such a contested topic, or even if you’re unsure of what Government debt actually is, then read on - we’ve got you covered! ...2 weeks ago
- Greens unveil $297m fund to support sustainable food and farmingThe Green Party has released its Farming for the Future Plan, including a $297m fund to support farmers and growers to transition to climate-friendly practices. ...2 weeks ago
- Labour’s plan for tax: Your questions answeredWe believe every New Zealander deserves the chance to make an informed decision on Election Day. We’ve answered some of the most common questions on our 2020 tax policy, including how much money will be raised from our new top tax rate, and how this will be used to control ...2 weeks ago
- Labour’s energy policy shows progress, but more action needed to protect the planetThe Green Party says Labour’s energy policy is a step in the right direction, but the Greens would go further and faster to meaningfully tackle the climate crisis. ...2 weeks ago
- How does tax work?All this tax talk leaving you a bit dazed and confused? Read below to find out more about our progressive tax system and what Labour's policy means for you. ...2 weeks ago
- Grant Robertson: A balanced plan for managing debtThe world is facing its most challenging battle in generations with an insidious and new virus as the enemy. ...2 weeks ago
- Debt: What’s Labour’s plan?We’re committed to managing the Government’s books responsibly and keeping debt under control while supporting our people and our economy through the 1-in-100 year shock caused by COVID-19. ...2 weeks ago
- Tax should close the inequality gap between people who own and people who earn: GreensThe Labour Party has moved towards more progressive income tax, but is not addressing the growing wealth gap and inequality in Aotearoa. Labour’s new revenue policy also doesn’t help pay for the necessary response to the COVID-19 crisis, Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said today. ...2 weeks ago
- Tax: What’s Labour’s plan?For 98% of New Zealanders, there will be no changes to income tax. Earn less than $180,000? No changes to your income tax. ...2 weeks ago
- 5 ways Labour’s SME policy will help small businessesAre you the owner of a small business? We’ve got one simple message for you: we’ve got your back. ...2 weeks ago
- Greens pleased with Labour’s support for Matariki DayThe Green Party welcomes Labour backing a Matariki public holiday. ...2 weeks ago
- BREAKING: Labour will make Matariki a public holidayAs New Zealanders we are proud of who we are, what we stand for, and the way we weave together different worlds and cultures to create our unique national identity. ...2 weeks ago
- Lobby group advice to keep homes cold until after Election Day dangerousIt is appalling and negligent that landlords are being encouraged to keep their properties cold and damp until after the election, as advised by the NZ Property Investors Federation, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...2 weeks ago
- Support for innovative Pacific education responses to COVID-19 needs
Supporting new and creative Pacific education practices as part of our COVID-19 response and recovery is the focus of a new $28.5 million Pacific Education Innovation Fund announced today by Associate Minister of Education Jenny Salesa. “There is already an incredible amount of innovative and creative work going on in ...14 hours ago - Eligibility expanded for COVID-19 leave supportThe expanded scheme will cover: People who have COVID-19 like symptoms and meet the Ministry of Health’s criteria, and need to self-isolate while awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test. People who are directed to self-isolate by a Medical Officer of Health or their delegate or on advice of their ...2 days ago
- Seasonal work visa available to more peopleThe Government is putting in place a range of immigration policy changes to help fill labour shortages in key industries while ensuring New Zealanders, who have lost jobs due to COVID-19, have the chance to find new employment. “Two key sectors we are moving to help are horticulture and wine ...2 days ago
- More border exceptions for critical rolesThe Government has established class exceptions for border entry for a limited number of veterinarians, deep sea fishing crew, as well as agricultural and horticultural machinery operators. “Tight border restrictions remain the backbone of the Government’s border strategy to protect New Zealand against COVID-19 and ensure New Zealand citizens and ...2 days ago
- Crown will not appeal Dodds v Southern Response decisionThe Crown will not appeal the Court of Appeal decision in the Dodds v Southern Response case, Grant Robertson announced today. “Southern Response will be paying the damages awarded by the Court to Mr and Mrs Dodds shortly. The Crown was already meeting their legal costs for this appeal. “The ...2 days ago
- Crucial PGF investments for NorthlandThe Provincial Growth Fund is investing nearly $30 million in a diverse range of projects that will create immediate and long-term jobs and lift economic and social outcomes for Northland and its people. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones made the announcement today in ...2 days ago
- $27million investment in global vaccine facilityThe Coalition Government has committed to invest $27 million in COVID-19 vaccine development through the global COVAX Facility, Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced today. “The COVAX Facility is a key part of our COVID-19 Vaccine Strategy to obtain safe and effective vaccines. It allows us to invest in a high-quality, ...3 days ago
- Government backing Māori landownersThe Government will provide up to $1.69 million through the One Billion Trees programme to Māori landowners to make their whenua more productive through the planting of forests, both native and exotic, and improve economic and environmental outcomes, Forestry Minister Shane Jones has announced. “Around 1.5 million ha of land ...5 days ago
- New tools to make nature more accessiblePeople planning to head outdoors now have a resource that lets them know how accessible an area is for people with varying levels of mobility, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. The Halberg Foundation, Sensibel, and the Department of Conservation (DOC) have launched Accessibel, a new tool which helps ...5 days ago
- PGF makes Māori history more accessibleOne of the most significant battle sites of the 1860s Land Wars will receive $2.96 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to improve the site and help tell the New Zealand story to visitors, Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. Nanaia Mahuta ...6 days ago
- Making it official: The journey of te reo Māori | Kia whakapūmautia: Ngā piki me ngā heke o te r...The journey towards recognising Māori as an official language and taonga has been captured as a web series and launched today during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, announced Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni. “Te reo Māori is a living language, and understanding its significance, and pathways to ...6 days ago
- Better-than-forecast GDP reflects decision to protect New ZealandToday’s better-than-forecast GDP figures show the expected impact of the decision to act quickly to protect New Zealanders from the global COVID-19 pandemic. GDP fell 12.2% in the June quarter from March, reflecting decisions to close New Zealand’s borders and enter Alert Level 4. “This result was better than the ...7 days ago
- Boost for COVID-19 related Pacific education needsThe Government is investing $39.7 Million over four years to support the educational needs of Pacific learners and families in the regions hardest hit by COVID-19, with Auckland getting an immediate boost, Associate Minister of Education Jenny Salesa says. “Like all New Zealanders Pacific families want learners to do well ...7 days ago
- More resources for kiwi conservationNew Zealand’s goal of 100,000 kiwi by 2030 is being helped by an extra $19.7 million in funding to accelerate iwi and community efforts to protect kiwi, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced. “$19.7 million of Jobs for Nature funding is being invested in kiwi conservation activities including increased predator ...7 days ago
- Improving access to affordable electricityEnsuring New Zealanders can get the best deal on their electricity takes a step in the right direction today with the South Island launch of the EnergyMate pilot run by the Electricity Retailers’ Association, says Minister of Energy and Resources, Dr Megan Woods. EnergyMate is an industry-led programme providing coaching ...7 days ago
- Government achieves 50 percent women on state boardsMinister for Women Julie Anne Genter announced today that the Government has reached its target of 50 percent on women on state sector board and committees – setting a new record level of women on state sector boards. “This Government is committed to having more women in leadership roles - ...7 days ago
- Record transport investment to help economic recovery and save livesTransport Minister Phil Twyford released today the final Government Policy Statement on land transport (GPS) 2021 which outlines the planned $48 billion investment in services and infrastructure over the next decade. “The final GPS supports our Government’s five-point plan for economic recovery by confirming our record investments in transport infrastructure ...7 days ago
- Advancing clean energy technologyThree ambitious and cutting-edge research programmes that will lift New Zealand’s advanced energy technology research capability over seven years, have been supported by Government today, says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. The projects will each receive a share of $40.7 million investment from the Strategic Science Investment Fund. ...1 week ago
- Major milestone reached in Pike River Re-entryThe critical area for forensic examination known as Pit Bottom in Stone has been reached in what is a major milestone for the Pike River re-entry project, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little announced. “The infrastructure located in Pit Bottom in Stone is of very significant interest in ...1 week ago
- Economic recovery guides Govt response to retirement income policy reviewThe Government is working on how New Zealand’s retirement income policies and settings can best support Kiwis in light of the COVID-19 economic recovery, with the help of the Retirement Commissioner’s latest review, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said. “The Retirement Commissioner’s three-yearly review into New Zealand’s retirement ...1 week ago
- Iwi community hub opens in MuruparaA new digital hub and development centre in Murupara will be instrumental in growing the region’s productivity, said Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau at the official opening of two community initiatives today. “I’m pleased to be here celebrating a significant milestone for two projects set to make a ...1 week ago
- PREFU shows economy doing better than forecastPREFU shows economy doing better than forecast Unemployment to peak at 7.8%, down from 9.8% forecast in the Budget Year-to-June accounts show tax revenue, debt and OBEGAL better than forecast Global forecast downgraded as COVID-19 second waves and uncertainty grows Balanced plan to support critical public services, manage debt and ...1 week ago
- Spruce-up for Ōtaki community facilitiesThe Kāpiti Coast town of Ōtaki will receive $1.4 million in Government funding for two projects providing scores of jobs for locals while improving community facilities, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Māoriland Charitable Trust will receive a $900,000 Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) grant to upgrade the ...1 week ago
- PGF funding for Jobs for Nature programmeThe Provincial Growth Fund will provide $11.88 million to fund fencing and waterway projects nationwide that will improve the environment and create jobs in their communities, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. “These projects will create more than 100 jobs nationwide with work starting within the next couple ...1 week ago
- Procurement to promote jobs, Māori and Pasifika businesses and sustainabilityAs part of the COVID-19 recovery, the Government has strengthened its procurement rules to ensure its annual $42 billion spend creates more jobs, uses more sustainable construction practices and results in better outcomes for Māori and Pasifika, Government Ministers announced today. Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford says the $42 ...1 week ago
- Timaru’s Theatre Royal to be upgraded and new heritage facility builtThe Government is supporting a major upgrade of Timaru’s iconic Theatre Royal and the construction of a new connected Heritage Facility museum and exhibition space with $11.6 million from the Government’s Infrastructure Fund, Jacinda Ardern announced today. “We heard the call from the community and the council. The Theatre Royal ...1 week ago
- District Court judge appointedChrissy Montague (formerly Armstrong), barrister of Auckland has been appointed as a District Court Judge with Family Court jurisdiction to be based in Wellington, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Ms Montague commenced practice in Auckland in 1987 and went into general practice dealing with Wills, Estates, Trusts, Conveyancing, Relationship Property ...1 week ago
- Approval given to Commercial Film and Video Production ProposalA Proposal to provide for the development and operation of commercial film and video production facilities in areas of Christchurch has been given the go ahead. Hon Poto Williams, Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, has approved the Proposal, which was prepared and submitted by Regenerate Christchurch. Minister Williams ...1 week ago
- Supporting a thriving wānanga sector to benefit Māori learnersAs part of the Government’s focus on building closer partnerships with Māori and enhancing the quality of, and access to, Māori medium education, a payment of $8 million will be made to Te Wānanga o Raukawa in partial recognition of its Waitangi Tribunal claim (WAI 2698), Associate Education Minister Kelvin ...1 week ago
- Jobs for Nature boosts efforts to restore Kaimai-MamakuThe Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage has announced a $19 million investment over four years in an important forest restoration project involving a partnership between the Department of Conservation, iwi/hapū, the Bay of Plenty and Waikato Regional Councils, community conservation groups and organisations such as Forest and Bird across the ...1 week ago
- New Zealand first in the world to require climate risk reportingNew Zealand will be the first country in the world to require the financial sector to report on climate risks, the Minister for Climate Change James Shaw announced today. The changes build on the huge progress this Government has made to tackle the climate crisis. “Today is another step on ...1 week ago
- Economic data highlights impact of Auckland moving out of Level 3Economic activity across the Auckland region and the country bounced back to levels experienced under Alert Level 1 following Auckland’s move out of Alert Level 3, analysis in the Treasury’s latest Weekly Economic Update shows. The analysis of economic data since Auckland’s move out of Level 3 shows: Auckland card ...1 week ago
- PM statement on Cabinet COVID-19 Alert Level reviewTakiri mai te ata, ka ao, ka ao, ka awatea, tihei mauriora! Tātou katoa ngā iwi o Aotearoa, tēnā koutou! Tēnā tātou e whakanuia ana i te wiki nei, te wiki o te reo Māori Greeting to you all from Otepoti, Dunedin. This week is the Māori Language week and ...1 week ago
- More mental wellbeing services for young people in regionsMore mental health and addiction services are available for young New Zealanders in Rotorua and Taupō, Wairarapa, South Canterbury, Dunedin and Southland from next month, Health Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter say. “The Government is serious about making sure New Zealanders struggling with mental health ...1 week ago
- Government joins forces with Central Otago communities to clean up waterwaysThe Manuherekia catchment in Central Otago is the third exemplar catchment to be targeted as part of the Government’s plan to clean up waterways by supporting community-led programmes. Environment Minister David Parker said the Manuherekia catchment is vitally important to the people of Central Otago. “The Manuherekia rises in the ...1 week ago
- Government confirms new Dunedin Hospital designThe Government has agreed on a preferred design for the new Dunedin Hospital featuring two separate buildings, and has provided funding for the next stages of work. Minister of Health Chris Hipkins says Cabinet has approved in principle the detailed business case for the new hospital, giving people in ...1 week ago
- Join the one in a million reo Māori momentNew Zealanders across the country are set to mark history as part of the Māori Language Week commemorations led by Te Taura Whiri i te reo Māori this year. Māori Development Minister, Nanaia Mahuta says the initiative will mark history for all the right reasons including making te reo Māori ...1 week ago
- Education initiatives add to momentum of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2020More than 1000 teachers, support staff and school leaders have graduated from a programme designed to grow their capability to use te reo Māori in their teaching practice, as part of the Government’s plan to integrate te reo Māori into education, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Being trialled ...1 week ago
- The Toloa Tertiary Scholarships for 2021 aims to increase Pacific participation in STEMThe Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio, says the Toloa Tertiary Scholarships which aims to encourage more Pacific student numbers participating and pursuing STEM-related studies in 2021, are now open. “These tertiary scholarships are administrated by the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP), and are part of MPP’s overall Toloa ...1 week ago
- Financial support for timber industryFour Bay of Plenty timber businesses will receive investments totalling nearly $22 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to boost the local economy and create jobs, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Rotorua-based sawmill Red Stag Wood Solutions will receive a $15 million loan to develop an engineered ...1 week ago
- The courage to make life better
Labour has made an extraordinary ascent in the polls and is now clinging to a mostly non-threatening brand of centrism. Hayden Donnell counts the cost of that strategy. Cast your mind back to 2016. As Bill English rolled out his budget, Grant Robertson issued what looked like a criticism. In an ...23 mins ago - Government will reform insolvency system to improve distressed small businesses’ survival chances
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Morrison government will make sweeping changes to the insolvency system to improve the chances of saving small businesses hit by the pandemic. The reforms – which are described as the most significant for three ...56 mins ago - Making her mark: tattooed man meets his Muse, Judith Collins
When Judith Collins met Nik Given, the man with her likeness tattooed on his thigh, she told him: "don't worry about the media, they won't bite you... if they bite you, I'll bite them back". ...5 hours ago - NBN upgrades explained: how will they make internet speeds faster? And will the regions miss out?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thas Ampalavanapillai Nirmalathas, Group Head – Electronic and Photonic Systems Group and Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Melbourne The federal government has announced a A$3.5 billion upgrade to the National Broadband Network (NBN) that will grant two million households ...5 hours ago
- Is fast-tracking funds to Foxtel the best way to support the media during COVID?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Johan Lidberg, Associate Professor, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University According to an ABC report, government funds were fast-tracked to Foxtel during the coronavirus pandemic. This news will raise eyebrows, as the media — like so many industries — tries ...5 hours ago
- Reserve Bank ‘dallies with indolence’ instead of helping government pursue full employment: Paul...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Former prime minister Paul Keating has launched an extraordinary attack on the Reserve Bank, accusing it of having “one of its dalliances with indolence”, and describing it as “the Reverse Bank”. Keating, who was treasurer ...6 hours ago
- Daniel Andrews has flagged a quicker easing of Melbourne’s restrictions. But cases are still in th...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary-Louise McLaws, Professor of Epidemiology Healthcare Infection and Infectious Diseases Control, UNSW Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews flagged on Wednesday that metropolitan Melbourne’s restrictions could be eased further than initially planned on Monday September 28. The 14-day average of daily new cases has ...6 hours ago
- Our toxic legacy: bushfires release decades of pollutants absorbed by forestsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cynthia Faye Isley, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Environmental Science, Macquarie University We know forests absorb carbon dioxide, but, like a sponge, they also soak up years of pollutants from human activity. When bushfires strike, these pollutants are re-released into the air with ...7 hours ago
- More neurotic, less agreeable, less conscientious: how job insecurity shapes your personalitySource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lena Wang, Senior Lecturer in Management, RMIT University With unemployment at its highest rate in three decades, almost a million Australians are experiencing the anxiety of being out of work. Even more are underemployed, and more still holding on to jobs for ...7 hours ago
- NZ’s Largest Union Confirms All-Female Leadership Team
The Public Service Association is pleased to announce Kerry Davies will co-lead the organisation of 77,000 members, as one of two union National Secretaries. For the first time, the PSA’s top leadership will all be women. Ms Davies has been ...8 hours ago - Leaders’ debate absent of Māori issues, Ardern and Collins forced to explainJacinda Ardern and Judith Collins have been forced to front-up and explain why not a single mention of Māori interests, issues or rights was made during the leaders debate last night. ...8 hours ago
- First leaders’ debate failed to take on Māori issuesPolitical commentators seemed to be lauding National leader Judith Collins' performance in last night's TVNZ leaders' debate, but social media had entirely different takes. ...9 hours ago
- The finance guys have all the fun
While most eyes were on Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins in the first leaders' debate, Queenstown was hosting quite a different stoush - one that was way more entertaining, writes Nikki Mandow Tuesday September 22, 7pm. In a virtually empty TVNZ studio in Auckland, two female party leaders in dark suits ...9 hours ago - ‘Like trying to find the door in a dark room while hearing your relatives scream for help’: Tasm...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olaf Meynecke, Research Fellow in Marine Science, Griffith University A desperate rescue effort is underway after hundreds of long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) became stranded in Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania’s west coast. Yesterday, more than 250 pilot whales were reported to have ...9 hours ago
- Leading Scientist Does Major Backflip On Methane“It is almost unbelievable that one of the leading Methane scientists in the world, Dr Myles Allen, Professor at Oxford University who was a prominent designer of the GWP (Global Warming Potential), system has done a major back flip demanding the EU ...9 hours ago
- Schitt’s Creek: the TV show has been showered with Emmys but is it worth the hype?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Sparkes, Senior Lecturer (Media Studies and Production), University of Southern Queensland This year’s Emmy Awards saw some surprising and not so surprising moments. Perhaps the most astonishing event was the Canadian-produced comedy Schitt’s Creek winning seven major awards, including best comedy ...9 hours ago
- With Act polling at 7%, who is on course to join David Seymour in parliament?Yesterday’s Colmar Brunton poll for TVNZ had Act inching toward its best-ever election result, on 7%. With that, the one-man Act band would become a Seymour-led club of nine. So who the hell are they?By now, David Seymour must be among our most recognisable political figures. Entering parliament fresh-faced in ...9 hours ago
- First leaders debate: Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins reveal how they think they performedIt seems likely half of the country has weighed in on the performance of the National and Labour party leaders at last night's debate, but here's how the leaders themselves think they went. ...10 hours ago
- A potential disaster for US law
The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg has triggered a political fight over the appointment of a new Supreme Court justice, which has the potential to decisively change the balance of power on the court and set back the constitutional rights of millions by decades, writes Hayden Thorne When United States Supreme ...10 hours ago - COVID-19 and small island nations: what we can learn from New Zealand and IcelandSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murdoch, Dean and Head of Campus, University of Otago, Christchurch, University of Otago Despite being at opposite ends of the Earth, Iceland and New Zealand have many similarities. Both are small island nations, heavily reliant on tourism and currently led by ...10 hours ago
- $4bn hole in National’s fiscal programme raises questions about Treasury’s data-checking role an...
Speaking as Labour’s Finance spokesperson, rather than Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson was quick to crow about the discovery of “a basic error” which left a $4 billion gap in National’s economic plan. “If National can’t even do the basics required on their own policy costings, they cannot be trusted ...10 hours ago - Mental Health Reform Needed“Reports that mental health support workers and nurses at Wellington’s Mental Health Ward are scared, distressed and feel unsafe at work at Wellington’s Mental Health Ward is seriously concerning,” says ACT Party Deputy Leader and Mental Health ...10 hours ago
- The case of the missing moviesNgā Taonga Sound & Vision, New Zealand’s audiovisual archive, has uncovered some clues, but needs your help in solving a 90-year-old mystery.“A Mild Case of Murder”, one title shouts. “The Wife Who Knew”, insinuates another. “Happy Honeymoon – A Near Tragedy”, warns a third. Film-making is serious business and involves ...11 hours ago
- Bougainville president-elect Ishmael Toroama – rebel, peacemaker, farmerANALYSIS: By Keith Jackson Ishmael Toroama built his reputation as a bold fighter and later a commander in the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) in its struggle to close the Panguna copper and gold mine and gain independence for Bougainville from Papua New Guinea in the 10-year civil war of the ...11 hours ago
- Farm Plan Co-investment Pledge Is Positive, Feds SaysLabour’s pledge of an initial $50 million injection to partner with the agricultural sector on integrated farm plans is positive, Federated Farmers says. "Central and local government load up a huge amount of expensive environmental management, ...11 hours ago
- Prolonged Monetary Support NecessaryTēnā koutou katoa, welcome all. The Monetary Policy Committee agreed to continue with the Large Scale Asset Purchase (LSAP) Programme up to $100 billion. This action is necessary to further lower household and business borrowing rates in order to ...11 hours ago
- Māori don’t exist according to our political leaders so… talofaJacinda Ardern and Judith Collins showed their true colours in the first leaders’ debate, and they were pretty pale.Last night I settled in on the couch with a beer and takeaways, and watched an engaging, rambunctious and focused political debate. It was entertaining but also challenging and informative, and covered ...12 hours ago
- A tough first test for both
The first leaders' debate wasn't the walkover the PM's supporters may have expected, but it was also no game-changer ...12 hours ago - LIVE SPECIAL at 8pm: Selwyn Manning talks with Barbara Sumner about her new book and why adoption la...LIVE AT 8pm (NZST) we cross LIVE to author and film-maker Barbara Sumner to discuss her new book Tree of Strangers. But first, in this book, Barbara has laid bare her own life experiences to illustrate why New Zealand’s 65 year-old adoption laws must be fixed. It’s a beautifully written ...12 hours ago
- Suet pastries and free-range hens: Paul Little on writing The Covid ChroniclesDetermined to write New Zealand’s first Covid book, Paul Little chronicled the lives of more than 20 New Zealanders under lockdown as rural domesticity took over his own. It all started with a mysterious virus causing a global pandemic that threatened the lives of millions of people, my writer wife and ...12 hours ago
- New Zealanders Fail Online Quiz About End Of Life Choice Act4/10, that’s the average result from over 100,000 New Zealanders who have taken the Votesafe.nz End of Life Choice Act Quiz. Half of those weren’t even aware that their vote in October’s general election is a binding legislative decision. 50% ...13 hours ago
- Announcing 100 Year Forecast, a new interactive climate seriesWatch all five episodes and read the special interactive feature on The Spinoff from Monday.If you’ve seen a climate crisis documentary before, you’ve probably seen plenty of icebergs tumbling into the ocean and factories pumping big plumes of smoke into the atmosphere.The Spinoff’s new documentary series 100 Year Forecast has ...13 hours ago
- Gone By Lunchtime: The best and worst of last night’s debatesToby Manhire, Annabelle Lee Mather and Ben Thomas discuss last night’s raucous, robust and entertaining debate… and also the one between Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins.Election debate season is finally upon us, and the Gone By Lunchtime trio are here to talk Tuesday night’s two big debates. The Hui’s livestreamed ...14 hours ago
- Jacinda Ardern, Labour Party promise to help farmers with compliance costs and environmental transit...Labour is promising at least $50 million to help farmers with planning to transition to environmentally-friendly practices and cope with growing compliance requirements. ...14 hours ago
- New Zealand’s Population Nears 5.1 MillionNew Zealand’s estimated resident population reached 5,084,300 at 30 June 2020, Stats NZ said today. These are the first population estimates to fully incorporate the 2018 Census and 2018 Post-enumeration survey (PES) results. "One of the ...14 hours ago
- Jacinda Ardern announces Labour Party’s agriculture policyLabour is promising at least $50 million to help farmers with planning to transition to environmentally-friendly practices and cope with growing compliance requirements. ...14 hours ago
- Analysing the leaders’ debate: How did Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins fare?While Jacinda Ardern remains the favourite for prime minister, there was a little bit more shine on Judith Collins during the leaders' debate. ...15 hours ago
- Biosecurity Awards Celebrate The Champions Protecting AotearoaThe 2020 Biosecurity Award finalists named today represent outstanding contributions by biosecurity champions making a difference to protect New Zealand’s unique environment from pests and diseases. The 27 finalists named out of a pool of 70 entries include ...15 hours ago
- Ziena Jalil: Why ticking the diversity boxes keeps missing the markCOMMENT: By Ziena Jalil Diversity was in the spotlight last week. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori and Te Wā Tuku Reo Māori were embraced throughout organisations and homes. We also had the annual Diversity Awards NZ celebrating the organisations championing diversity and inclusion in workplaces. Tellingly, most award recipients ...15 hours ago
- Bryan Bruce: Poll dancing in NZ election – the choice is clearCOMMENT: By Bryan Bruce I’ll be honest, it was a long day yesterday so I only watched the first 10 minutes of the Leader’s debate in the New Zealand general election 2020 last night. What I saw confirmed the view I expressed some weeks ago that in Judith Collins National ...15 hours ago
- Finding connections: Three New Zealanders on their te reo Māori learning journeysToday The Spinoff launches Ako, a new series made in partnership with Spark NZ to highlight their Kupu app, with a piece introducing three very different te reo Māori learners. Despite being indigenous to Aotearoa, the history of te reo Māori is a fraught one – it wasn’t until the late ...16 hours ago
- Step Up, Stand Up, Speak Up!Sensible Sentencing Trust believe anyone withholding information about the death of a child caused by violence, is just as cowardly as the person who committed the heinous crime in the first place. National Spokesperson Jess McVicar says they understand ...16 hours ago
- What recession? Our unstoppable housing market marches onNew Zealand’s housing market is going ballistic, defying economic forecasts and historic trends. Michael Andrew asks the experts what’s causing the clamour and what it means long term.Six months after Covid-19 first reached our shores, New Zealand’s economy has officially moved into recession. GDP is down 12.2% – the largest ...16 hours ago
- Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – September 23 2020Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. Today’s content TVNZ leaders debate Tim Watkin (Pundit): A Rabbit-Hole Election Debate: So Do You Want More Avocado Orchards? Steve Braunias (Guardian): First TV debate between Ardern and Collins avoids ...16 hours ago
- The new Australian citizenship test: can you really test ‘values’ via multiple choice?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Reilly, Professor, University of Adelaide The Morrison government has announced plans to revamp the Australian citizenship test. From November 15, there will be new test questions on “Australian values”. What does this new, “clear focus” on values involve? And what is ...17 hours ago
- 5 things the pandemic has revealed about the Australian psycheSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jayashri Kulkarni, Professor of Psychiatry, Monash University The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned some of the most dramatic changes to Australian life in recent memory. We’ve had to adapt to a vastly different way of life to curb the spread of the virus, ...17 hours ago
- Our new model shows Australia can expect 11 tropical cyclones this seasonSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Magee, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Newcastle Tropical cyclones are considered one of the most devastating weather events in Australia. But they’re erratic — where, when and how many tropical cyclones form each year is highly variable, which makes them difficult to ...17 hours ago
- Angus Taylor’s tech roadmap is fundamentally flawed — renewables are doable almost everywhereSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Diesendorf, Honorary Associate Professor, UNSW The Morrison government on Tuesday revealed the five low-emissions technologies it will prioritise for investment. The so called “technology roadmap” offers scant support for renewable energy, for reasons that do not stand up to scrutiny. The ...17 hours ago
- Coronavirus disrupted my kid’s first year of school. Will that set them back?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Rouse, Senior Lecturer, Early Childhood Education, Deakin University Students in the first year of school to Year 10 have been learning remotely in Victoria. It’s estimated first-year students (known as prep in Victoria) in areas that have been under lockdown for ...17 hours ago
- What are manufactured home estates and why are they so problematic for retirees?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lois Towart, Lecturer in Property Economics, University of Technology Sydney Some operators have predicted manufactured home estates will be the most popular type of retirement living in the near future, surpassing retirement villages. But enthusiastic development of manufactured home estates as retirement ...17 hours ago
- ‘If JobSeeker was cut, the unemployed would be picking fruit’? Why that’s not trueSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Davidson, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, UNSW I’m not sure which does the most harm: the cut of A$150 per week in JobSeeker payments due this Friday or the sudden and coincidental volley of media reports about unemployed people refusing jobs, including fruit ...17 hours ago
- What does an ‘unforgettable, multi-sensory experience’ have to do with Vincent van Gogh?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanna Mendelssohn, Principal Fellow (Hon), Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, University of Melbourne Review, Van Gogh Alive, Royal Hall of Industries, Sydney. In one of his many letters decrying modern ...17 hours ago
- Climate explained: humans have dealt with plenty of climate variabilitySource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frédérik Saltré, Research Fellow in Ecology & Associate Investigator for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University CC BY-ND Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer ...17 hours ago
- Election Live, September 23: Collins thinks she won debate, Ardern won’t sayWelcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 23, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other NZ news. The essential campaign dates are here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m ...18 hours ago
- The Bulletin: Poll, debate set tone for the campaignGood morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Politics nerds rejoice with both a poll and a debate, a remarkable story of a high finance world crashing down, and travel agent industry up against it.The top-line figure is clear – Labour still has a massive poll lead over ...18 hours ago
- Leaders debate ‘a boost for National but the race by no means over’Power Play - Judith Collins needed to perform in the first major televised election campaign, and she did, writes Political Editor Jane Patterson. ...19 hours ago
- David Seymour’s Incongruous Claim About Catholic Bishops And God’s CommandmentsIn an astounding statement by the leader of Act David Seymour, the author of the dangerous End of Life Choice Bill has said that the Catholic Bishops of New Zealand need to uphold the ninth commandment “Thou shalt not bare false witness against ...19 hours ago
- Climate Roadshow Arrives In Hawkes Bay On Tuesday, Sept 22nd At Pania Of The Reef, Marine ParadeHelen Howard speaking at Hawke's Bay The Climate Roadshow, which started in Cape Reinga in the North and Bluff in the South, arrived in Napier on Tuesday 22 September as part of its journey to the capital. The Roadshow is being organised by Extinction ...20 hours ago
- Business & Investing: Workers for the harvest
A new seasonal employment visa could allow 11,000 temporary workers to stay in NZ and help fruit and wine harvests. ...20 hours ago - The Kiwi criminals in a CCP-linked database
Why are drug smugglers, gang members and fraudsters in a database tied to the Chinese government? ...20 hours ago - Racism and the North Shore
We continue our week-long series on an extraordinary collection of essays as Amanda Jane Robinson interviews author Ghazaleh Golbakhsh The first time I met Ghazaleh Golbakhsh she was visiting my Year 12 media studies class. As a high-achieving alumna — her thesis film had just won the Outstanding Film Award ...20 hours ago - Hot, rich, well-travelled – but tone deaf to democracy
I teach Media Studies, and every time I talk about social media with students, influencers are subject to a barrage of insults and mockery by the generation who are most familiar with them. People love to hate on influencers. They are seen as narcissistic, entitled, vain, materialistic, spoiled micro-celebrities. But ...20 hours ago - The anatomy of a comeback: netball prodigy rebounds
One distressing knee injury after another would be enough to crush most young athletes, but not Ainsleyana Puleiata. The rising netball and sevens star tells Suzanne McFadden how she twice overcame the mental and physical torment - and now the black dress beckons. Twelve minutes. It’s a timeframe Ainsleyana Puleiata ...20 hours ago - The search for a ‘good death’
Dr Tanisha Jowsey asks: what does it mean to have a 'good death' and, if the end of life bill passes, who will be willing to help? May you live to be a hundred — and decide the rest for yourself. ~ Irish Proverb The end of life referendum concerns an ...20 hours ago - How misinformation endangers us
Six months after New Zealand first went into lockdown and a spate of arson attacks on cell towers began, we now have a better idea than ever before of how misinformation works and how it threatens us, Marc Daalder reports The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked widespread concern around the spread ...20 hours ago - The immigration policy ‘hole’
With less than a month to go the big policy debate of last election has vanished from the headlines and manifestos of both major parties. ...20 hours ago - Election 2020: A rematch over housing in Whanganui
The race in the swingy Whanganui electorate looks a lot like 2017, with the same two candidates squaring off over housing. ...20 hours ago - The End of Life Choice bill is safer than many of our current critical care lawsUncertainty is an unavoidable part of healthcare at the edges of life, writes Colin Gavaghan of Yes for Compassion. You’ve probably seen the adverts. Parents are taking their offspring to buy their first car. But the salespeople, instead of bigging up their products, are emphasising all of the ways in which ...20 hours ago
- An affirmative case for Otago medical school’s affirmative action policyA legal challenge to the University of Otago’s diversity policy for medical student intake doesn’t deserve to succeed, write Maria Hook, Jane Calderwood Norton and Andrew Geddis This week the Christchurch High Court is hearing a legal challenge to Otago University’s medical school ‘Mirror on Society’ policy, and associated admission ...20 hours ago
- Live exports – is there a better way?
The sinking of a cattle-carrying ship earlier this month - with the loss of most of the 43 crew members and all of the 5800 pregnant cows on board - has once against highlighted the problems with the live export of animals. But banning the trade is far from easy. On ...20 hours ago - Election 2020: Labour dips its toes into negative online ads
In this week's round-up of online election advertising we take a look at the messages political parties are spending money promoting Labour went on the attack this week online, running several ads on Google calling National's tax promise reckless, irresponsible and desperate in contrast to its "stable and prudent" path. The ...21 hours ago - A political dance with no room for missteps
Jennifer Lees-Marshment looks closely at likeability data, finding Jacinda Ardern and David Seymour have played the political management dance to perfection - other leaders not so much Earlier this year I asked whether Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern could dance her way to a second term. If Vote Compass data is anything ...21 hours ago - Collins edges Ardern, but Labour’s formidable lead remains
There were no knockout blows in the first leaders' debate of the 2020 election, and while Judith Collins may have just had the better of Jacinda Ardern, Labour's continuing strength in the polls gives the Prime Minister some breathing space, Sam Sachdeva writes “I want to pull out because it ...21 hours ago - The leaders’ debate: An unmemorable watch
The first leaders debate was expected to fire some life into a so far ho hum campaign. But, as Mark Jennings writes the Jacinda, Judith and John show fell flat. TVNZ’s atrium felt like a deserted shopping mall, a dark, gloomy, almost soulless place. Off to one side, the leaders ...21 hours ago - Count down under way for New Caledonia’s independence voteBy RNZ News The campaign for New Caledonia’s referendum on independence from France is already officially three days old with the critical vote in less than two weeks. Six political formations are registered to campaign for the plebiscite on October 4 when 180,640 voters will be asked whether they want ...23 hours ago
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