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Nigel Haworth – Back to the Future?
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, November 27th, 2023 - 22 comments
“Labour should be as focused on production as it is on distribution. Labour’s job is not simply to distribute such resources as accrue to the state; it is to promote production and trade that underpin fairer distribution, but under particular conditions.”
The Left Do Not Own Maori
Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, November 26th, 2023 - 52 comments
Labour, the Greens and liberal parts of the media have not adjusted to the fact that liberal and Maori are different things.
The politics of Palestine
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, November 21st, 2023 - 34 comments
Earlier this week the New Zealand Labour Party made a statement on Palestine and it was a good one.
Certainly much better than the positions adopted by its sister Labour parties overseas.
Nigel Haworth on Labour at the crossroads
Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, November 8th, 2023 - 42 comments
Former Labour Party President Nigel Haworth: “Any decisions about leadership should follow a careful and comprehensive review of, first, the recent campaign, and second, the broader settings in which Labour has chosen to work in recent years”
Hipkins endorsed
Written By: - Date published: 8:02 pm, November 7th, 2023 - 53 comments
It was never going to be anything else, but two positive emerged. All policy options are back on the table, including tax, and there is a realisation that the main task ahead is to rebuild a strong and progressive party.
What happened in the Maori seats
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, November 5th, 2023 - 48 comments
The final results in the Māori electorates clearly indicate that there was a great deal of strategic voting taking place.
Labour’s leadership
Written By: - Date published: 10:06 am, November 3rd, 2023 - 34 comments
Now that the dust is settling it is time for the Labour Party to think about its future.
Has Labour become a cadre Party? Pt 1 Leadership
Written By: - Date published: 4:43 pm, November 2nd, 2023 - 18 comments
In 2021, I voted against Labour’s conference proposal for midstream leadership change to be determined by Caucus alone, saying that it risked Labour becoming a cadre party for elites. A series of posts will start with why the Caucus should not rush to a leadership vote.
Don’t get angry, get organised
Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, October 23rd, 2023 - 87 comments
Labour day is a good day for all progressives to start getting organised for the next three years and working on the election of the next progressive Government.
How the special votes may work out
Written By: - Date published: 8:18 am, October 17th, 2023 - 57 comments
Special vote counts may see Labour win back some important electorate seats and see the National/Act majority vanish.
NZ Election result
Written By: - Date published: 6:03 am, October 17th, 2023 - 45 comments
In parliamentary politics, there are no final victories. After losing the 2023 election, Labour must now immediately focus on winning in 2026.
Why are the Greens so happy?
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, October 15th, 2023 - 75 comments
The trad left/right spectrum people are wondering why the Greens are so happy. Didn’t the left just lose?
That was not as good as was hoped for
Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, October 15th, 2023 - 129 comments
Last night was not a good night for the Labour Party …
Neck and neck
Written By: - Date published: 8:12 pm, October 13th, 2023 - 8 comments
Last post before election day but the big mo is on and the election is getting closer and closer.
About last night’s debate
Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, October 13th, 2023 - 42 comments
It is very clear now why National did not agree to a further debate between the leaders. Last night’s debate between Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luzon was totally one sided.
Down to the wire
Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, October 12th, 2023 - 52 comments
Two new polls were released last night and they both confirm a tightening of the race with the right slumping and the left improving.
Labour surges in latest poll
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, October 11th, 2023 - 82 comments
A new poll has Labour surging into the 30s, Act continuing its decline and National going backward. This election is not over.
Managing Expectations: Community transmission of coronavirus in NZ was inevitable
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, October 10th, 2023 - 5 comments
The sad thing about the NZ COVID response is that overall it did deliver in that it protected the public health system and saved lives. But expectations about stopping all community transmission were set too high, and walking back from that politically has been challenging for Labour.
The Big Mo
Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, October 8th, 2023 - 48 comments
Recent polls suggest that National and Act is going backward while Labour has stabilised. A win for the left is possible but this last week will be all important.
Managing Expectations – the NZ Housing crisis and Labour’s response.
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, October 6th, 2023 - 42 comments
Watching the 2023 election campaign in New Zealand, one of Labour’s challenges appears to be that it has failed to manage voters’ expectations over the last six years. Recalling the election campaign in 2017, Jacinda Ardern gave people hope that politics could be different. However government is about handling problems – like building at scale and pandemics.
Even Capitalists think that too much Capitalism is a bad thing
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, October 5th, 2023 - 9 comments
In recent times Goldman Sax has warned National that its policies will hurt the economy. And S&P has praised Labour’s handling of the economy and expressed a high assessment of various factors relating to the country.
What really matters this election – poverty
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, September 30th, 2023 - 38 comments
National has shown its real priorities with proposals to cut benefits that will pay for increased tax concessions for landlords and increasing prison resources in anticipation of the crime wave the increased poverty will cause.
Tax or quality public services – which is more important to NZ voters?
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 pm, September 27th, 2023 - 16 comments
Earlier this year Andrew Marr wrote in the New Statesmen, that Britain’s problem was that it wanted Scandinavian levels of Public Services and North American levels of taxation. His view was that Britain was overdue for an honest debate about tax and public spending. In New Zealand, there is a similar challenge.
Even Mike Hosking thinks that a National-Act-NZ First coalition would be an absolute disaster
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, September 26th, 2023 - 63 comments
As the polls show a further slump in support for the right and as Winston Peters emerges as a kingmaker there is growing concern about the possibility of a real coalition of chaos being elected.
There is no recession in New Zealand
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, September 21st, 2023 - 57 comments
The growth figures are up and National operatives will be in despair. Not only did the economy grow considerably faster than anticipated in the last quarter at 0.9% but the previous quarter’s figure has been resolved from -0.1% to 0%.
Understanding the New Zealand General Election 2023: Historical trends and perspectives.
Written By: - Date published: 6:01 am, September 20th, 2023 - 15 comments
From the outside, the New Zealand 2023 General Election seems both lacklustre and slightly strange. The Labour Government, having won a huge majority in 2020 is now fighting for its political life. Yet National, the main centre-right opposition party is still on average polling significantly worse now than they were when it lost power in 2017.
Labour’s Women’s Manifesto
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, September 18th, 2023 - 65 comments
“A re-elected Labour Government will continue its proud tradition of advancing women’s health, employment, and legal rights Spokesperson for Women Jan Tinetti said.”
National is devastated as PREFU is better than expected
Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, September 13th, 2023 - 26 comments
National has reached new levels of excessive hyperbole in response to the PREFU release which was better than expected.
The silver lining of last night’s poll
Written By: - Date published: 1:56 pm, September 12th, 2023 - 31 comments
The silver lining to last night’s Reid Research poll is that Act’s support is slumping and if there is a change in Government it may not be as extreme as it could have been.
Labour pledges free cervical screening
Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, September 12th, 2023 - 9 comments
“Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers and regular screening saves lives, so it is critical cost isn’t a barrier to accessing early detection”
Can’t we have more charging stations AND the clean car discount?
Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, September 7th, 2023 - 18 comments
National’s proposal to increase the number of electric car charging stations is something that should be considered but not at the expense of the extraordinarily successful clean car discount.
- Peters heads off to the trade war
Foreign Minister Winston Peters heads off today to Kuala Lumpur for a meeting with South East Asian foreign ministers, which will now be ground zero for the trade war with the United States. It is the annual Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers conference, and New Zealand ...1 week ago - Fact brief – Is global warming just due to El Niño?
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming just due to El Niño? El Niño Southern Oscillation is a short-term and cyclical weather phenomenon caused by alternating wind ...2 weeks ago - Think about defence spending like this: when risks rise, so do insurance premiums
Australia’s strategic risk has increased significantly, and the government needs to increase its defence spending to match it. Defence spending is the premium for Australia’s defence insurance policy—it underwrites Australia’s protection from external threats, with ...2 weeks ago - In their dreams
Order of Ceremony for the Jacinda Ardern Show Trial and Ritual HumiliationMs HDPB-Allen will rise to say:I want to hear you apologise for showing empathy during a crisis. She may, if she chooses, add: This made me feel very uncomfortable.Mr M Hosking, wearing Armani and looking as though he has ...2 weeks ago - Enter a title40 years on, the Rainbow Warrior, the bombing and French colonial culture in the Pacifi...
Provide a desJournalist and former university professor Dr David Robie reflects on the 1985 Rainbow Warrior mission to Rongelap atoll to help US nuclear refugees and the bombing of the Greenpeace campaign ship by French secret agents. His analysis is that far from the sabotage being an isolated incident, it ...2 weeks ago - ASPI Defence Conference: Putting the ‘national’ in national preparedness and resilience
The ASPI Defence Conference in June highlighted the critical importance of national preparedness and resilience to Australia’s national security. Chief of the Defence Force, Admiral David Johnston, set the stage by emphasising a pivotal shift ...2 weeks ago
- Qantas hack: limits to the government’s reach
A cyberattack on a Qantas call centre, revealed last week, put cyber risk back in the headlines, as did similar attacks on Medibank and Optus. But these are not one-off shocks: they represent a new ...2 weeks ago
- Prison for One: Accepted
A very, very nice bit of writing news today. Prison for One, my 3,250-word piece of Space Opera, has earned itself an acceptance by Bullet Points (https://bulletpoints.nathantoronto.com/), a magazine specialising in speculative military fiction. To call this an exciting acceptance is to understate the case. You see, Prison for ...2 weeks ago - Tuesday 8 July
The Supreme Court has begun hearing arguments on whether it should uphold or overturn previous court rulings that four Uber drivers were entitled to be treated as employees of the firm, rather than as contractors. Hospital workers are pushing back against a trial to reduce the number of maternity beds ...2 weeks ago - Uber drivers taking a stand on behalf of all platform workers
As the Uber drivers have their case heard in the Supreme Court today, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi believes that the outcome of the case will have lasting implications for people working the in the platform economy and workers who have been misclassified as contractors. ...2 weeks ago
- Capital gaps and complacency: investment imbalance undermines sovereignty
Australia’s ability to generate breakthrough ideas has never been in doubt. But despite increasing recognition of the need for national resilience, the country still lacks a capital system built to serve strategic purpose. The failure ...2 weeks ago
- NZ economy sliding back into recession
There are clear signs from leading indicators that the economy is sliding back into recessionary territory in a third consecutive winter of economic discontent. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāBriefly in the news from Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Tuesday, July 8:On the eve of an ...2 weeks ago - The great acceleration debate
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink The publication of an article titled “The World Is Warming Up. And It’s Happening Faster” by the New York Times kicked off a pretty heated debate among climate scientists over the evidence of acceleration and how strong a claim can be made based ...2 weeks ago
- How to fill a 155 mm hole in Australian defence strategy
In Canberra, it’s called taking out the trash. Late on Friday, 27 June, the Department of Defence quietly issued a media release with news it must have hoped would get little media attention: it had ...2 weeks ago
- Gordon Campbell On Using The Tax System To Boost Funding For The Arts
Despite the myriad concerns being expressed about the Regulatory Standards Bill – including misgivings by his own Regulations Ministry and scorn from constitutional law expert Sir Geoffrey Palmer – David Seymour has professed to find no merit in any of the objections. Sure, he’ll add in a reference to the ...2 weeks ago - Horses for courses: where quantum computing is, and isn’t, the answer
Despite the impressive and undeniable strides quantum computing has made in recent years, it’s important to remain cautious about sweeping claims regarding its transformative potential. To avoid future disillusionment as the technology matures and ensure ...2 weeks ago
- People Linked to Jeffrey Epstein Who Have Died
The web of Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal network and its ties to powerful figures continues to unravel, revealing a chilling pattern of suspicious deaths, allegations of intelligence connections, and unanswered questions. From Epstein’s own mysterious death in 2019 to the unsolved murders of Barry and Honey Sherman, the apparent suicide of ...2 weeks ago - Don’t kid yourself, Australia: a Taiwan war would spread across the Indo-Pacific
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s second visit to China—pencilled in for this month—will come weeks before the People’s Liberation Army’s 98th anniversary on 1 August 2025, a date laden with symbolism as Beijing approaches the military modernisation ...2 weeks ago
- A good way to say goodbye
It can feel as though I'm often saying goodbye here. Friends who have gone; and I remember when.I’m at an age where I have more years behind me than ahead, and I'm writing for many people in the same position. But it's not always or ever just goodbye, I hope. ...2 weeks ago - The psychosocial imperative of food security preparedness
The dust has barely settled on the 2025 federal election and the returning government has already reaffirmed its commitment to delivering a national food security strategy. That’s a welcome and long-overdue step forward. But unless ...2 weeks ago
- Submission on the Public Finance Amendment Bill
This submission comments on select aspects of the Public Finance Amendment Bill. The NZCTU opposes the removal of the wellbeing provisions from the Act. These were inserted in 2020 to make clear that the goal of fiscal policy is to support the wellbeing of New Zealanders. The wellbeing provisions help ...2 weeks ago
- Legislating For Liberty.
Revolutionary Intentions: The Regulatory Standards Bill sounds like one of those pieces of legislation debated on a dreary Thursday afternoon in an almost empty House of Representatives - it is anything but.FOR A BILL set to transform New Zealand into a libertarian nightmare, it has an extremely boring name. The Regulatory ...2 weeks ago - Reality Check Radio’s Unhinged Petition
Reality Check Radio’s petition to prosecute former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, alongside Chris Hipkins, Ashley Bloomfield, and a cadre of public health experts, is a bewildering display of political theatre. Launched on the cusp of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into New Zealand’s Covid-19 response, this campaign is less a call ...2 weeks ago
- Whose cloud is it, anyway? Rethinking sovereignty in the shift to cloud infrastructure
Cloud infrastructure is now the backbone of everything from social services and emergency response to critical industry operations and defence. The shift has been fast, and often invisible to users. What began as a convenience ...2 weeks ago
- Another attack on the rule of law
Over the past few years New Zealand fisheries ministers have been repeatedly found to have acted illegally in their quota decisions, ignoring the Fisheries Act's environmental and information principles and setting quota at unlawfully high levels to pander to the fishing industry. But current fisheries minister Shame Jones has a ...2 weeks ago - Monday 7 July
The PSA are saying that months after commissioning a report into sexual harassment, Corrections has not moved fast enough to address its “old boys club” culture that has impacted a quarter of their staff. A survey of student nurses has found almost 62 percent are considering a job overseas if one ...2 weeks ago
- Willis eyes more tax from banks
Willis says she has sought advice on whether the major banks are paying their fair share of tax. Photo: Getty ImagesBriefly in the news from Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, July 7:Finance Minister Nicola Willis is considering changing the tax settings for banks in Budget ...2 weeks ago - The Red Flag
Then raise the scarlet standard highBeneath its folds, we'll live and dieThough cowards flinch and traitors sneerWe'll keep the red flag flying hereLyrics: Billy Bragg / Traditional.On this day in 1916, smaller socialist parties and trade unions came together to form our New Zealand Labour Party. So, congratulations to all ...2 weeks ago - Australia urgently needs a national security strategy
Many nations, including Australia, continue to operate as if strategic shocks are exceptional, not the new norm. This illusion of peace leaves us dangerously unprepared for the multipolar, contested, and volatile world rapidly unfolding around ...2 weeks ago
- “I Wanted, So Badly, To See His Face”
Hi,Four years ago on Webworm, my friend Kate wrote an essay about having aphantasia. In her words, “Aphantasia is the inability to visualise mental images. Most people who have aphantasia are also unable to recall sounds, smell or sensations of touch. That’s me. I can’t do any of it. Never ...2 weeks ago - FamilyBoost changes will exacerbate inequity of ECE access
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi is warning that the FamilyBoost changes announced today by Finance Minister Nicola Willis will fail to make early childhood education more affordable for the families who need it most and will instead widen inequities. “The Government has missed an opportunity ...2 weeks ago
- Unresolved Questions About Epstein’s Paedophile Network
Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal enterprise represents one of the most sophisticated pedophile and blackmail operations in modern history, facilitated by an extensive surveillance network that recorded illicit activities across his Manhattan townhouse, Palm Beach mansion, Little St. James island, New Mexico’s Zorro Ranch, and the New Albany estate. Despite numerous investigations ...2 weeks ago
- 2025 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #27
A listing of 27 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, June 29, 2025 thru Sat, July 5, 2025. Stories we promoted this week, by category: Climate Change Impacts (4 articles) What does climate change mean for agriculture? Less ...2 weeks ago
- Mountain Tūī’s 1 & Taking A Break
2 weeks ago - Common People
You will never understandHow it feels to live your lifeWith no meaning or controlAnd with nowhere left to goYou are amazed that they existAnd they burn so bright whilst you can only wonder whySongwriters: Jarvis Cocker, Russell Senior, Steve Mackey, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle.Under every government, there are winners and ...2 weeks ago - The Dangerous Lie That Homelessness is a Choice
The callous rhetoric emerging from this Government's housing ministers reveals a profound disconnect from the harsh realities facing thousands of New Zealanders. When politicians like Mark Mitchell and Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell suggest that homelessness is somehow a matter of personal choice, they perpetuate a dangerous myth that absolves the ...2 weeks ago
- The Dangerous Lie That Homelessness is a Choice
The callous rhetoric emerging from this Government's housing ministers reveals a profound disconnect from the harsh realities facing thousands of New Zealanders. When politicians like Mark Mitchell and Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell suggest that homelessness is somehow a matter of personal choice, they perpetuate a dangerous myth that absolves the ...2 weeks ago
- Investing in the Public Health System
What can you do when you have hit your borrowing limit and still want to spend? One option is to cut back on maintenance of your capital – say, to delay repainting the house or keeping the car in tip-top condition. The government does the same. Hence our three water ...2 weeks ago - The case for boosting defence spending is compelling—we shouldn’t need US prodding
The Australian government’s dispute with the United States over the level of defence spending has distracted our media and public from the core issue. The main driver of increased defence spending should not be requests ...2 weeks ago
- A reminder that music lifts you out of everything
Questions 1. What were participants in this year’s Youth Parliament effectively prohibited from saying?a. Death, death to the IDFb. There’s some hoes in this housec. Freddie Starr ate my hamsterd. Anything critical of the government2. About what does this government like to flex like a gym bro?a. Being tough on ...2 weeks ago - British public backs defence and security partnership with Australia
Australia was high on the list for Britain’s revamp of its alliances after Brexit, and the stormy geopolitical climate that followed has only reinforced the need for a more ambitious partnership. Looking ahead, public demonstrations ...2 weeks ago
- Qantas data breach shows compliance doesn’t always mean protection and resilience
Cybersecurity requires more than legal compliance; it demands constant vigilance and adaptation. A cyberattack on a third-party platform used by a Qantas customer contact centre in Manila, discovered on 30 June, made this clear. Six ...2 weeks ago
- How Taiwan must prepare to face Chinese drone saturation
Taiwan urgently needs to overhaul its air defence strategy to prevent the rising threat of low-cost drone saturation attacks from China. This demands three major reforms: expanding air-defence capability with low-cost weapons; improving survivability with ...2 weeks ago
- Friday 4 July
NZNO says Health New Zealand’s latest pay offer is a “massive backward step” for the health system and patients, and there are “very strong indications” members will want to strike. The amount of money Health New Zealand is spending each year on locum doctors to plug staff shortages is increasing ...2 weeks ago
- Europe’s lesson for Australia: invest in defence now, or spend more later
Instead of learning from Europe’s mistakes in the decade leading into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine—underinvesting in defence, increasing trade with a strategic adversary and expecting the United States to disproportionately carry the security burden—Australia ...2 weeks ago
- Make New Zealand Proud Again
Prime Minister Luxon makes Alt-Right Extremist Group Proud Boys Legal AgainPrime Minister Christopher Luxon has removed the extremist group “Proud Boys” from New Zealand’s terrorist list despite its history of violence1 and far-right extremism. Journalist Paula Penfold notes the group is operating cross border, and have made their own New ...2 weeks ago - Bernard Hickey, Peter Bale, Cathrine Dyer, Robert Patman & Ed Miller ‘Hoon’ around the news ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts and talking with regular guests and about the week’s news in geopolitics and climate. This week’s Hoon featured:a discussion over research showing the sensitivity to climate change of extreme weather ...2 weeks ago - ‘Sleeping rough is a lifestyle choice here’
Mark Mitchell walked around Rotorua’s shops for TV cameras and said some rough sleepers did it more as a ‘lifestyle choice’. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāBriefly in the news from Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Friday, July 4:Police Minister Mark Mitchell says people who ...2 weeks ago - Australia can leverage SMEs to build national resilience
Australia needs a national strategy that explicitly prioritises the integration of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) into its defence industrial base to strengthen sovereign capability and infrastructure resilience. Despite high-level pledges to build a self-reliant ...2 weeks ago
- Protesters deluge Parliament
It has long been a cliché whenever Parliament is seriously discussed that the real work is done in the Select Committees. It is not anymore entirely true. The Committees are becoming platforms for political protest. One left-wing activist has recently widely circulated a document on how to “deluge” a Select ...2 weeks ago
- Canada’s Hikvision ban can inspire wider collective action
Canada has just made a great step forward in minimising the security risk from China. Now Australia should step forward and propose to work with Canada to create international, harmonised arrangements to protect critical infrastructure. ...2 weeks ago
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #27 2025
Open access notables The Emergence of Near-Permanent Marine Heatwave State in the Tropical Indian Ocean During 2023–2024, Soumya, International Journal of Climatology In 2023/24, global mean surface temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and the Tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) experienced a record-breaking basin mean anomalous warming of 0.88°C. This unprecedented warming ...2 weeks ago
- Join us at 5pm for this week’s Hoon
Photo by Andrew Wulf on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat with myself, and regular guests and , plus CICTAR’s Ed Miller ...2 weeks ago - A further descent into tyranny
A protest group carries out repeated non-violent actions to highlight its cause, highlighting the fact that the regime's foreign policy is in violation of international law and is at odds witht he values and wishes of its people. The regime responds by banning the organisation, and threatening 14 year jail ...2 weeks ago
- Strangle it, strangle it now
Sometimes you've got to take your chance at the flood, even when everyone says you've got it all wrong. Sometimes you've just got to back yourself and ride that tide.Sometimes this is the worst advice you could possibly give yourself. You imagine you know better than everyone else, but you ...2 weeks ago - For Quad to be taken seriously, it must formalise and expand
The Quad must formalise through a permanent secretariat and expand to include South Korea and New Zealand to remain relevant to Indo-Pacific security. Now is the time to assess whether the group’s current structure is sufficient ...2 weeks ago
- Taiwan, South Korea and Japan also need to spend 5 percent on defence
There’s no shortage of measures that the United States’ major East Asian friends could spend an increased defence budget on. NATO allies of the US have agreed to allocate 5 percent of GDP to defence ...2 weeks ago
- Libertarian Stuff
Arise, libertarians above totalitariansOur guide is the mighty invisible handReject state controllers, collectors and patrollersOur choices are better than government plansSongwriter: Dominic Frisby.This week, Prime Minister in waiting, Chris Hipkins, ventured into the centre-right heartland of Newstalk ZB and told them what he really thought.No major surprises; it was what ...2 weeks ago - Bob Vylan Censored While Gaza Genocide Ignored
The recent blacklisting of British punk-rap group Bob Vylan, following their provocative chant of “death, death to the IDF” at Glastonbury 2025, exposes a chilling double standard in Western governance.The swift and heavy-handed response, launching a criminal investigation, revoking the band’s visas, cancelling future concerts, and seeing them dropped by ...2 weeks ago
- Despite it all, China dominates Australian trade—again
China has reasserted its dominance over Australia’s export markets, taking a record of almost 1 billion tonnes of mineral resources and agricultural commodities last year, and displacing the trading partners that helped Australia out during ...2 weeks ago
- The five-domains update
Sea state Defence Minister Richard Marles visited the Maldives in early June and announced a present of one Guardian-class patrol boat and hydrographic equipment. They are expected to be delivered in 2026. Australia has an ...2 weeks ago
- An almost $20 million budget cut to RNZ is met with … near silence
Australia's national broadcaster is called Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It's regularly attacked by Rupert Murdoch's Sky News & Australian broadsheet - as well as Atlas Network think tanks such as IPA - as "wasting taxpayers money" The last Liberal (conservative) leader Peter Dutton also labelled ABC (and the Guardian) as ...2 weeks ago - Take advantage of these tax credits before Congress kills them
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington Republicans in the U.S. Senate are working to pass their version of the budget reconciliation bill before Congress goes on holiday for July 4. As it stands, the bill would terminate most clean energy tax credits long before their original ...2 weeks ago
- Act forces Willis backdown on policy costings unit
Seymour says there is no need for the unit - and he wouldn’t trust what the officials said anyway. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāBriefly in the news from Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Thursday, July 3:Deputy PM David Seymour has forced Finance Minister Nicola Willis ...2 weeks ago - Reflecting on 25 years of UNSC Resolution 1325
The United Nations’ Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda suffers from an ongoing burden: the need for less talk and more action. Invariably, several speakers raise this issue at the Security Council’s annual Open Debate ...2 weeks ago
- Gordon Campbell on National’s crackdown on shoplifters
Politicians do like being tough on crime. Flexing law and order muscle is a feature of the patriarchal Daddy State, and is beloved by the very same conservatives who deplore the workings of the Nanny State. But tough on which crimes – and even more to the point – tough ...2 weeks ago
- Bookshelf: the secret history of China’s most powerful company
How did a small Shenzhen-based manufacturer of telephone switches defy tough domestic and international competition to become a world leader in telecoms technology? And how did it manage to start producing its own 5G processors ...2 weeks ago
- Robert Howell – The Climate Catastrophe
Dr Robert Howell UN Secretary General: We are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe. In facing this wake up call, Dr Howell will describe the lessons to be learned from Wesfamers; the work of the External Reporting Board; the National Climate Change Risk Assessment for New Zealanders; and the Dasgupta Review.Dr Robert Howell ...2 weeks ago
- You build prosperity from the ground up, not from the helipad down
FFS, did you see this? I didn’t think he could do worse this year than host Morning Report, but Lord, Paddy Gower is a trier.Stuffed if I’m linking to it. It’s just another contemplation-free, insight-starved Tall Poppy Syndrome is Stopping Us From Being Rich diatribe.Here’s the thing:Prosperity isn't created by ...2 weeks ago - Why the Coalition should worry less about scholarships and more about Studylink
Hello. My house burnt down on my birthday. Well not down, but it burnt. And I’m currently living in a motel. Forgive me for phoning this one in; a better article is coming. And probably also a poetry substack, whenever I finally get around to it. From: Stephanie Cullen <s.cullen@hotmail.co.nz> Sent: Wednesday, ...2 weeks ago - Managing the dark side of the critical minerals rush
Australia and its partners must move towards frameworks that manage, rather than merely lament, the negative side-effects of critical mineral extraction. As the world scrambles to meet the demands of a clean energy transition, it’s ...2 weeks ago
- Israel-Iran war has exposed Russia’s vulnerability
The war between Israel and Iran has brought only short-term gains for Russia. Looking to the longer term, we see much bigger negatives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky complained that the war had resulted in a sharp ...2 weeks ago
- Democracy Under Siege: NZ Government Gags Youth MPs
In a development that epitomises authoritarian overreach masquerading as administrative procedure, the Coalition of Chaos government has decided to censor Youth MPs during the 11th Youth Parliament, an event that was meant to amplify the free voices of our young people. The revelation that youth representatives, invited to Parliament to ...2 weeks ago
- Home Affairs should be the great enabler of national resilience
Amid worsening strategic surprise and security fragility, Australia’s national resilience responses are just as important as its defence capabilities. While the original strategic logic for the Department of Home Affairs—the idea of peace, order and ...2 weeks ago
- Letter to the editor on State housing and broken promises
..2 July 2025The editorKapi Mana News letterstoeditor@stuff.co.nzKia ora,Your story in 'Kapi Mana News' on 1 July, headed "Porirua East social housing developments axed in review" revealed how this government is cutting back on social housing.76 proposed new homes in the Porirua region would have housed around 153 people. These are ...2 weeks ago
- Police protection for New Caledonian politicians following death threats
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk New Caledonian politicians who inked their commitment to a deal with France last weekend will be offered special police protection following threats, especially made on social media networks. The group includes almost 20 members of New Caledonia’s parties — both pro-France ...2 days ago - 12 countries agree to confront Israel collectively over Gaza after Bogotá summit
ANALYSIS: By Mick Hall Collective measures to confront Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people have been agreed by 12 nations after an emergency summit of the Hague Group in Bogotá, Colombia. A joint statement today announced the six measures, which it said were geared to holding Israel to account for ...2 days ago
- Rainbow Warrior bombing by French secret agents remembered 40 years on
SPECIAL REPORT: By Te Aniwaniwa Paterson of Te Ao Māori News Forty years ago today, French secret agents bombed the Greenpeace campaign flagship Rainbow Warrior in an attempt to stop the environmental organisation’s protest against nuclear testing at Moruroa Atoll in Mā’ohi Nui. People gathered on board Rainbow Warrior III ...2 days ago
- Why a surprise jump in unemployment isn’t as bad as it sounds
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jeff Borland, Professor of Economics, The University of Melbourne New figures show Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 4.3% – its highest level since late 2021 – in June this year, up from 4.1% in May. While this is bad ...2 days ago
- The Helen Clark Foundation Launches Honorary Fellow Programme
Rt Hon Helen Clark, the Foundation's patron, says "we are very pleased to have these values-driven thought leaders contributing to our Foundation's mission of developing fair, sustainable and inclusive solutions to key long-term issues facing New Zealand." ...2 days ago - Rate capping: ‘You’ve got to be able to control the costs first’ – ACT leade...
Both ACT and New Zealand First are casting doubt on whether capping council rates is the answer. ...2 days ago - Australia got off on a technicality for its climate inaction. But there are plenty more judgement da...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wesley Morgan, Research Associate, Institute for Climate Risk and Response, UNSW Sydney This week, the Federal Court found the Australian government has no legal duty to protect Torres Strait Islanders from climate change. The ruling was disappointing, but it’s not the end ...2 days ago
- Pay talk protection: National backs Labour’s transparency bill
A bill protecting workers who talk about pay has passed its second reading with rare cross-party backing. ...2 days ago
- ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for July 17, 2025
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on July 17, 2025. Do women really need more sleep than men? A sleep psychologist explainsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amelia Scott, Honorary Affiliate and Clinical Psychologist at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, and ...2 days ago
- Do women really need more sleep than men? A sleep psychologist explains
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amelia Scott, Honorary Affiliate and Clinical Psychologist at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, and Macquarie University Research Fellow, Macquarie University klebercordeiro/Getty If you spend any time in the wellness corners of TikTok or Instagram, you’ll see claims women need one ...2 days ago
- I created a Vivaldi-inspired sound artwork for the Venice Biennale. The star of the show is an endan...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Miriama Young, Associate Professor Music Composition, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, The University of Melbourne Marco Zorzanello It was late January when I got the call. I’m asked to bring my sound art to a collaborative ecology and design project, Song of ...2 days ago
- David Seymour blames karakia for high power bills. Here’s what he gets wrong
In a speech this morning, the deputy prime minister said ‘blaming isn’t productive’, then proceeded to link ‘roadblocks’ such as cultural clauses in resource consents to rates rises leading to high inflation. Liam Rātana takes a different view. This morning, speaking at the 2025 Local Government New Zealand Conference, deputy ...2 days ago - Event noticeboard: Sugar, rubber gloves and shocked bananas
The Spinoff’s top picks of events from around the motu. I was tempted, in a moment of despair, to title this week’s noticeboard as “Rain, rain and more rain” or perhaps “Rain, flooding and more rain”. Thankfully it’s not flooded here, but I was triggered looking at my weather app ...2 days ago
- Number of benefit sancitions increase, over 80k people find work, new figures show
Jobseeker Support numbers are also up 10 percent to 216,000 people. ...2 days ago
- Number of benefit sanctions increase, over 80k people find work, new figures show
Jobseeker Support numbers are also up 10 percent to 216,000 people. ...2 days ago
- Is it okay to boil water more than once, or should you empty the kettle every time?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Faisal Hai, Professor and Head of School of Civil, Mining, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Wollongong Avocado_studio/Shutterstock The kettle is a household staple practically everywhere – how else would we make our hot drinks? But is it okay to re-boil ...2 days ago
- What does Australian law have to say about sovereign citizens and ‘pseudolaw’?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madeleine Perrett, PhD Candidate in Law, University of Adelaide Armed with obscure legal jargon and fringe interpretations of the law, “sovereign citizens” are continuing to test the limits of the Australian justice system’s patience and power. A few weeks ago, two ...2 days ago
- Is childbirth really safer for women and babies in private hospitals?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Dahlen, Professor of Midwifery, Associate Dean Research and HDR, Midwifery Discipline Leader, Western Sydney University A study published this week in the international obstetrics and gynaecology journal BJOG has raised concerns among women due to give birth in Australia’s public hospitals. ...2 days ago
- David Seymour lashes officials after LINZ becomes latest agency raising concerns about his Regulator...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says officials "don't take New Zealanders' rights seriously," after concerns about his bill surfaced from another agency. ...2 days ago
- Echo Chamber: Aussie roolz, NZ droolz
Every party in parliament agrees Australia is richer, cooler, prettier, better dressed, and will probably steal your man. Echo Chamber is The Spinoff’s dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. Did you know that ...2 days ago
- Alliance Renews Call For Bottom Trawling Ban In Hauraki Gulf
Bottom trawling is a fishing method that involves dragging heavy nets over the seafloor to catch fish, stirring up sediment, releasing carbon and indiscriminately killing marine life. ...2 days ago
- We were part of the world heritage listing of Murujuga. Here’s why all Australians should be proud
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jo McDonald, Professor, Director of Centre for Rock Art Research + Management, The University of Western Australia Senior Ranger, Mardudunhera man Peter Cooper, oversees the Murujuga landscape Jo McDonald, CC BY-SA On Friday, the Murujuga Cultural Landscape in northwest Western Australia was ...2 days ago
- Is our mental health determined by where we live – or is it the other way round? New research shed...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Hobbs, Associate Professor and Transforming Lives Fellow, Spatial Data Science and Planetary Health, Sheffield Hallam University Photon-Photos/Getty Images Ever felt like where you live is having an impact on your mental health? Turns out, you’re not imagining things. Our new ...2 days ago
- The hows, whys and WTFs of bringing the moa back from the dead
What do Peter Jackson, an iwi research centre and a Texas-based biotech firm have in common? They’re working together on plans to ‘de-extinct’ Aotearoa’s famous giant bird. Mirjam Guesgen explains what’s going on. The internet is fluttering with the news that a Texas-based company will bring back moa in Aotearoa ...2 days ago
- Union For Local Government Workers Supports LGNZ Recommendations To Improve Voter Turnout
Private companies should not be running local body elections, it is not appropriate for something so important to the functioning of local democracy, said PSA National Secretary Fleur Fitzsimons. ...2 days ago
- Travel Diary: A winter weekend in Melbourne – the next best thing to European summer?
Rebecca Murphy recaps her first trip overseas with her husband, and first time out of the country since the Covid-19 lockdowns. No hot girl summer for me, no sipping Chablis in France with the warm sun on my back. Instead, it was a long weekend in Melbourne to get a ...2 days ago
- Better Awareness Of Local Body Candidates Will Lift Voter Turnout
Voters need to be able to easily access information on who is standing for election, what they stand for, and what they hope to achieve if elected. LGNZ is partnering with Policy.nz as an interim measure to improve local elections in 2025. ...2 days ago
- Help Me Hera: My friends don’t seem to remember my birthday
Should I confront them about it, or is it time to make new friends? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nz Kia ora Hera, It’s my birthday tomorrow and none of my friends have reached out to make birthday plans with me. I planned a lovely weekend spending Saturday ...2 days ago
- The secret stories of trees are written in the knots and swirls of your floorboards. An expert expla...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, The University of Melbourne Magda Ehlers/Pexels, CC BY Have you ever examined timber floorboards and pondered why they look the way they do? Perhaps you admired the super-fine ...2 days ago
- Tasmania is limping towards an election nobody wants. Here’s the state of play
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hortle, Deputy Director, Tasmanian Policy Exchange, University of Tasmania In the darkest and coldest months of the year, Tasmanians have been slogging through an election campaign no one wanted. It’s been a curious mix of humdrum plodding laced with cyanide ...2 days ago
- What is astigmatism? Why does it make my vision blurry? And how did I get it?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flora Hui, Research Fellow, Centre for Eye Research Australia and Honorary Fellow, Department of Surgery (Ophthalmology), The University of Melbourne Ground Picture/Shutterstock Have you ever gone to the optometrist for an eye test and were told your eye was shaped like ...2 days ago
- From Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Ronnie Yoshiko Fujiyama: how electric guitarists challenge expectation...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janelle K Johnstone, Associate Lecturer Crime, Justice and Legal Studies, PhD Candidate School of Social Inquiry, La Trobe University American gospel singer and guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe playing a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar on stage in 1957. Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty ...2 days ago
- ‘Dramatic shift’ that could leave KiwiSaver members better off
The proportion of KiwiSaver in funds with high volatility has quadrupled in three years. ...2 days ago
- Walls go back up as open-plan classroom experiment falls flat
Once hailed as the future of education, the cavernous classrooms are finally being scrapped after years of complaints, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. End of the open-plan era The Ministry of Education will no longer build ...2 days ago
- Emissions Trading Scheme incentivising whole farm conversions into forestry, farmers say
But a forestry group has hit back saying it's not the only reason sheep numbers are declining. ...2 days ago
- Criminologist fears electronic tagging of migrants ‘going to get huge’
The government has introduced legislation that would allow electronic monitoring of migrants and asylum seekers who pose a security risk, or might run away. ...2 days ago
- How reforesting the Port Hills could help prevent another devastating fire
Prone to fires and erosion, Christchurch’s Port Hills were once covered in native bush, as hard as that is to imagine now. Dozens of community planting projects are the beginning of a return to a forested future. The Port Hills are visible from almost every part of Christchurch, buttressing the ...2 days ago
- Where do I send conservatives the bill for climate change?
In the 40 years since the world was first alerted to climate change, right-wingers have consistently been the ones most opposed to doing anything about it. And if there’s one thing that conservatives like, it’s personal responsibility. It seems almost impossible to believe, but until two years ago New Zealand’s ...2 days ago
- Book of the Week: When white liberalism gets fed up with the oppressed
Racism is a topic we talk about a lot in our house. Covid brought two extra mouths to our dinner table. Holly, whose whakapapa includes Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, then 19, joined us because science has yet to find a way to keep two 19 year olds in love ...2 days ago - How do the world’s wealthiest families invest?
The 2025 UBS Global Family Office Report offers some fascinating insights into how the world’s wealthiest families think about risk, time and opportunity. UBS, a financial services firm, captured the views of 317 family office clients. The average net worth of participating families was US$2.7 billion, with their family office ...2 days ago
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