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National has a discipline problem
Written By: - Date published: 12:03 pm, June 13th, 2020 - 28 comments
Yesterday saw two back bench National MPs unintentionally set National’s position on the Government response to Covid 19 and on Hamilton City’s decision to take down a statute that was repugnant to Waikato Tainui. What has happened to their messaging discipline?
No mates Simon
Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, February 7th, 2020 - 86 comments
The repercussions from Simon Bridges’ disastrous Waitangi performance continue to reverberate. His suggestions that Māori seats and the Waitangi Tribunal should be done away with have resulted in the Māori Party indicating it is more likely to support Labour after the election.
Pollwatch: 11/02/2019
Written By: - Date published: 10:12 pm, February 12th, 2019 - 18 comments
Kia ora koutou readers, and welcome back to the first Pollwatch of 2019, and as our official Worst News™ will tell you, (okay, maybe that’s my opinion of their recent coverage rather than an official thing) it’s a doozy. Part of the reason I started modelling elections probabilistically myself is that looking at just the […]
Pollwatch: Colmar Brunton, October 23rd
Written By: - Date published: 8:42 pm, October 23rd, 2018 - 100 comments
In this triumphant return of Pollwatch, we discuss the increasing likelihood of a Labour-Green coalition at the next election, the security of the two smaller list parties’ tenure, the shocking 2% support of Simon Bridges’ handling of recent political events, and the split in the shadow-race for National Party leader.
Pollwatch: 5th August, 2018
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, August 6th, 2018 - 40 comments
The Return of the Pollwatch: Are Labour getting a baby bump? Are National in decline? Are the Greens in existential danger? And do all the previous questions have the same answer?
Pollwatch: Colmar Brunton 28/5/2018
Written By: - Date published: 7:38 pm, May 28th, 2018 - 59 comments
Hot on the heels of Reid Research, TVNZ has also been doing post-budget polling, and this one paints a bit of a different picture.
Broadcasting Standards Authority finds Mike Hosking’s election comments about the Māori Party inaccurate and misleading
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, December 20th, 2017 - 56 comments
“Further, his comments the following evening were confusing and insufficient to correct the inaccurate information for viewers.”
National needs a friend
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, December 12th, 2017 - 43 comments
National is pondering one of the realities of MMP. Without friends its chances of becoming Government are very limited.
Coalition of liars
Written By: - Date published: 6:34 am, October 7th, 2017 - 35 comments
The right wing clobbering machine is already calling a possible Labour Green NZF a “coalition of losers”. Well under MMP a coalition of losers can be the winners. But however you cut it a coalition of liars will always be liars.
National paying the price for cannibalising the political right
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, September 26th, 2017 - 27 comments
National have maintained their own vote but killed off all their political friends. Which is why their only route to power is now in the hands of an enemy, and why that enemy should be very wary of hitching his wagon to their fading star.
The election result
Written By: - Date published: 8:39 am, September 24th, 2017 - 361 comments
Some thoughts on the morning after a bitter sweet election result for Labour and the Greens.
The Climate Debate Tues 7pm
Written By: - Date published: 6:55 pm, September 19th, 2017 - 18 comments
Event at Auckland Uni and live streamed, the major political parties debate the climate with Rod Oram as MC.
It is National’s time for the brown trousers
Written By: - Date published: 11:26 pm, August 9th, 2017 - 92 comments
If you want to know why the right is farting so much personal smoke, take a look at the poll trends 2011, 2014, 2017. It’s not a pretty picture for the Nats.
Greens and the Māori Party on the new Labour leaders
Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, August 1st, 2017 - 27 comments
Coalition partners in the wings, game on for the left.
Maori Party proposes immigrant slave labour!
Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, July 20th, 2017 - 36 comments
Is how the media would report the plan – to have immigrants work here for 2 years unpaid – if it was a Labour Party policy. (Lookin’ at you Newshub)
Flavell has “no idea” how homelessness got so bad
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, July 19th, 2017 - 172 comments
Could it have anything to do with the government of the last nine years, and the policies that you and your party have been supporting?
This Bloody Vote.
Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, July 7th, 2017 - 212 comments
Disentangling the veritable plate of spaghetti that’s been set before us this election.
Mana Māori truce didn’t last long
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, April 3rd, 2017 - 58 comments
“A poisonous and destructive cancer” – that’s not something you say to your allies.
Marama Fox on working with a Labour/Green government
Written By: - Date published: 7:24 am, March 27th, 2017 - 73 comments
Marama Fox opens the way for the Māori Party to work with Labour and the Greens.
National’s flawed RMA ripoff still failing
Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, March 15th, 2017 - 13 comments
Maori Party Co-Leader, Marama Fox, is playing hardball over Nick Smith latest attempts to weasel out of commitments on the deeply flawed RMA changes that National has spent the last few years trying to find any support for in Parliament. The bill is crap. The Maori party should just drop it regardless how many baubles they think they will get from it.
Labour: Greens are the first cab off the rank
Written By: - Date published: 7:38 am, March 3rd, 2017 - 19 comments
Andrew Little has confirmed that the Green Party will be first party Labour looks to for a coalition deal after the election.
It’s past time to be bold about water
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, February 25th, 2017 - 147 comments
Water is both the front line and the rallying cry.
Kaupapa Pākehā
Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, February 22nd, 2017 - 329 comments
What if we based our politics on relationships not power?
He Kawenata ki Waenga i Te Roopu MANA me Te Paati Māori
Written By: - Date published: 5:51 pm, February 20th, 2017 - 53 comments
The agreement between the Mana Movement and the Māori Party.
The Greens in Te Tai Tokerau
Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, February 20th, 2017 - 13 comments
Te Tai Tokerau looks to be a hotly contested seat in the 2017 general election, and the Greens are entering the fray there for the first time, with new candidate Godfrey Rudolph.
Māori Mana deal in Te Tai Tokerau
Written By: - Date published: 12:18 pm, February 20th, 2017 - 165 comments
As reported on Stuff: “Hone Harawira gets clear Te Tai Tokerau run for Mana not running against Maori Party in other seats”.
Marama Fox vs Bill English – who will blink?
Written By: - Date published: 6:49 am, February 16th, 2017 - 167 comments
Marama Fox and Bill English have painted themselves into a bit of a corner, and Fox is threatening to “walk away from the Government”. Key would have handled this better.
Government will not support victims of domestic violence
Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, February 14th, 2017 - 19 comments
The Government is refusing to support Jan Logie’s bill aimed at helping the victims of domestic violence despite the bill receiving support from the ANZ and Business New Zealand supporting the bill going at least to select committee.
Māori politics – “don’t believe the hype”
Written By: - Date published: 8:42 am, January 24th, 2017 - 81 comments
Totally unexpected in an election year, but Te Ururoa Flavell is making a play for the Māori seats. Morgan Godfery has some thoughts on the hype.
The end of ‘governing from the centre’?
Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, January 10th, 2017 - 124 comments
And a return to the politics of division by Blinglish…
Mana and Māori Party ‘unification’?
Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, November 25th, 2016 - 44 comments
Although the personality obstacles probably retired with Turia and Sharples, it is hard to see how Mana’s left wing policies can be reconciled with the Māori Party’s record propping up the Key government.
- Steamrolling democracy again
After a sham select committee process which waste submitters' time, the government is planning to use urgency today to steamroll its Muldoonist RMA fast track bill through Parliament. I've talked before about what's wrong with the Bill. As mentioned above, its pure Muldoonism, bypassing the participatory RMA process with ...4 hours ago - Why Todd Muller – and National – Are Toast.
Not Ready: Todd Muller’s lack-lustre and self-contradictory performances offer conclusive proof that a political leader cannot be managed into competence. National’s new boss has Janet Wilson handling his media and Matthew Hooton writing his speeches. Both are highly professional political and public relations specialists, and Muller is lucky to have ...7 hours ago - June ’20 – NZ blogs sitemeter ranking delayed
Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...8 hours ago - Embassy raids prompt questions: Are our spies making burglars and hypocrites out of us?
It started as a family story, about a step-father who went out one night to break into an embassy in Wadestown, Wellington. John Daniell wanted to understand what his family had been part of when his mother and then step-father work for New Zealand’s Security Intelligence. He wanted to know ...21 hours ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #26, 2020
75 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects The response of stratospheric water vapor to climate change driven by different forcing agents (open access) Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Record warming at the South Pole during the past three decades Variability of soil freeze depth ...21 hours ago - Political Roundup: The Greens’ Zeitgeist poverty and tax action plan
The Greens have shaken up the election campaign with the announcement of their radical poverty and action plan to reform welfare provision and introduce a new wealth tax for millionaires. It’s a big-thinking, controversial policy and has generated a lot of disagreement over how radical it is, whether it could ...1 day ago - Gerard Hehir: With great power comes no responsibilityMy house is currently supplied electricity by Meridian. As soon as I can change I will because Meridian spilled water to hike electricity prices. They got consumers to spend an extra $80 million on power unnecessarily. Clever them. The Electricity Authority has called their behaviour an “undesirable trading situation”, or ...1 day ago
- Member’s DayToday is a Member's Day. First on the Order Paper is the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Amendment Bill, a locla bill of no interest to anyone outside Auckland. Once that's out of the way there's the second reading of Darroch ball's Protection for First Responders and Prison Officers Bill, which ...1 day ago
- Ian Powell: Continuing Scandal over Tunnel Vision Public Hospital RebuildingWhen Jacinda Ardern unexpectedly became the Labour Party leader shortly before the 2017 general election, she promised to lead a government of transformation. After nearly three years occupying the Treasury benches, health professionals working in public hospitals have been keenly waiting for transformational progress, including in the capacity and quality ...1 day ago
- Hard News: The Scientology front operation behind the “No” campaign on cannabis
Last night, One News ran a follow-up story to its Colmar Brunton poll results on the cannabis referendum, headed here as Government accuses big American anti-cannabis group of interfering in NZ politics.In truth it wasn't just the government: Justice minister Andrew Little, National's Shane Reti and the Greens' Chloe Swarbrick ...1 day ago - Nash liedWhen the government refused to put cameras on fishing boats to ensure fishers obeyed the law, Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash claimed that coalition partner NZ First (which has received large donations from the fishing industry) was not responsible for the decision. He has repeated that claim repeatedly since then. But ...1 day ago
- Labour Will Not Win With A Yeah-Nah Strategy1 day ago
- Who’s the security threat again?RNZ has followed up last month's story about the SIS burgling the Czech embassy in 1986 to try and steal a code-book with a story about further SIS embassy burglaries, of the Indian High Commission and Iranian embassy. Like the burglary of the Czech embassy, both were a violation of ...1 day ago
- Eliminate the pandemic virus causing COVID-19 or risk an animal reservoir
Prof John Potter* Elimination has been an effective strategy for New Zealand in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic virus (SARS-CoV-2). Most other countries have not pursued this goal and are ignoring the opportunity even now. SARS-CoV-2 is not manageable by the influenza playbook; its longer incubation period makes tracing ...1 day ago - Category 6 Sets Its Sights Over the RainbowThis is a re-post from Weather Underground by Bob Henson Above: This rainbow appears unusually low in the sky because it has formed early in the afternoon, rather than toward sunset. For a rainbow to form, water droplets must be present in the air in front of an observer ...1 day ago
- The party of mixed messagesOn Monday, Todd Muller gave an important speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, He spoke firmly about his belief in the need for foreign investment, for the public sector to partner with the private sector rather than boss it around and, crucially, demanded the government deliver a clear strategy ...2 days ago
- National’s whiteness problemTodd Muller's first act on become party leader was to appoint an all-white front bench. This understandably raised eyebrows, so he is now apparently reconsidering caucus and list rankings. Which is obviously necessary, but there's still the underlying problem: National doesn't have a lot of Māori MP's. And the reason ...2 days ago
- China is committing genocide in XinjiangChina is sterilising Uighur women in Xinjiang in order to suppress their population: Chinese authorities are carrying out forced sterilisations of women in an apparent campaign to curb the growth of ethnic minority populations in the western Xinjiang region, according to research published on Monday. The report, based on ...2 days ago
- Good riddanceOne benefit of the pandemic: the 2021 APEC meeting will now be held online, rather than in New Zealand. As for why this is good news, the cost of hosting that summit would have been to turn New Zealand into a police state for the duration of the meeting. The ...2 days ago
- An environmental crimeMeridian energy has been caught manipulating the electricity market for fun and profit: Meridian Energy pushed up power prices by unnecessary spilling water from its south dams in December that could have been used for generation, the Electricity Authority has ruled in a preliminary decision. The authority said the ...2 days ago
- No right to know.
When the Christchurch murderer pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder and a number of other violent assault charges a few months ago, he effectively closed the door on what the public will know about the lead up to and commission of the event. His plea means that no evidence ...2 days ago - Philippines president imposing new repressive law
Daphna Whitmore The Philippines is enduring one of the longest lockdowns in the world. For President Duterte the lockdown provides an opportunity to garner more powers and to push through a brazen assault on human rights. A new law called the Anti-Terror Bill has been passed under urgency and it ...2 days ago - Gerard Hehir: Wage Subsidy redundancies sting, but shouldn’t surpriseHearing the Prime Minister castigate the Warehouse for laying off 1,000 workers after receiving $52 million in wage subsidies reminds me of the fabled frog who agreed to carry a scorpion across a river. The scorpion stings the frog halfway across, dooming both to drown. The frog cries “Why on ...2 days ago
- Pandemic terminology: getting it right matters for effective risk communication and managementProf Nick Wilson, Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, Prof Michael Baker Compared with other OECD countries NZ is a stand-out success story by ending community transmission of COVID-19. While there have been some well-publicised recent deficiencies (eg, quarantine organisation), there has still been no evidence of community transmission for many weeks. Nevertheless, ...2 days ago
- The day the sky fell inIt’s June 30th, marked as Asteroid Day by many people of an astronomical bent around the globe. On this date in 1908, early in the morning in a remote part of central Siberia, the sky fell in. Well, not literally. What happened is a substantially-sized lump of cosmic detritus ...3 days ago
- Paula Bennett retires from politics. But an ethos she fully embodied will live on…
There really is not much about Paula Bennett concerning her career trajectory, the policies she promoted, and most importantly, the socio-economic effect this had upon New Zealand (and particularly the most vulnerable in this, our oft-cited “egalitarian” society of this country) that can be said now that hasn’t already been ...3 days ago - Green Party povertyDon Franks Poverty, inequality – really – aren’t politicians paid to sort that stuff ? Why can’t they just get it together and come up with something fair and sensible? A cold rainy 2020 morning, a headline showed promise. “Green Party’s $8b plan would guarantee an income of $325 a ...3 days ago
- CSLDF: Why We’re Concerned About Scientific Integrity PoliciesA guest repost by Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) staff attorney Augusta Wilson. Fundraising is not the objective of this article but readers may wish to know that CSLDF is currently conducting a summer fundraiser to support defense of research scientists and research integrity from anti-science interference by politicians and industrial interests. The COVID-19 pandemic ...3 days ago
- I’m Todd Muller and I like it
Helloy… My name is Todd Muller and I am the leader of the National Party of New Zealand. Many people come up to me on the street and ask me who I am. I’m often walking through Tauranga, or in a mall in suburban Auckland, or maybe even a farmers’ ...3 days ago - Removing a hateful symbolThe US state of Mississippi has finally voted to remove the Confederate emblem from its state flag. Good. Its appalling that it was put there in the first place, but even more appalling that it took so long to remove it. Its basicly as if a German Länder still had ...3 days ago
- Graham Adams: A euthanasia referendum in a pandemicNo one could have predicted when David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill was passed by Parliament last November that the referendum required to bring the legislation into force would be held against the backdrop of a deadly global pandemic. Since then, the mounting tally of casualties around the world ...3 days ago
- Paul Goldsmith loves poverty
Paul GoldsmithYou can often tell just how effective a progressive policy proposal will be by how much the right wing criticise it. The more socially beneficial, the more vitriolic and unhinged they seem to become.That was the case when the Green Party announced their Poverty Action Plan yesterday. The response ...3 days ago - Hard News: Towards the referendum: this might actually be a trendBack at the beginning of April, when we had much else on our minds, I wrote this post urging some caution in interpreting the results of the latest Horizon poll, conducted in February, on voting intentions in this year's cannabis referendum, which was paid for by Helius Therapeutics.I wrote that ...3 days ago
- The Greens’ opening bid is transformational changeOver the weekend the Greens made their first election policy announcement, and promised transformational change: a more progressive tax system, with new rates applying to incomes of $100,000 and $150,000; a new wealth tax on net wealth over $1 million; and a guaranteed minimum income to eliminate poverty. Its bold, ...3 days ago
- 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #26Story of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Global Warming Is Melting Our Sense of Time Satellite image of smoke from active fires burning near the ...3 days ago
- Life in Level 1: The Taxpayer’s Coin
. . Plague town? There are two things right now in Aotearoa New Zealand that are guaranteed to piss people off. Firstly, it’s National playing silly-bugger politics with the covid-19 pandemic. This cost Simon Bridges his job as National’s Leader. Lately, Michael Woodhouse has been playing fast and loose with ...3 days ago - Will tertiary fee changes in Australia increase Trans-Tasman study?
Tertiary fees in New Zealand versus Australia: Fees Are Important, but not as Important as Financing In Australia, the Education Minister Dan Tehan has proposed an overhaul of the existing higher education funding system to offer 39,000 additional study places by 2023 and 100,000 by 2030. The proposal has been ...4 days ago - Bryce Edwards: Latest volatile poll illustrates the uncertainty of the NZ electionThe latest opinion poll forecasts a landslide win by Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party, but when taken alongside other polling, it illustrates New Zealand politics remains volatile and the contest is still very open. According to the Colmar Brunton poll published by TVNZ last night, Labour would easily romp back ...4 days ago
- 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #26A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 21 through Sat, June 27, 2020 Editor's Choice Facebook creates fact-checking exemption for climate deniers Facebook is "aiding and abetting the spread of climate misinformation,” said Robert Brulle, an ...4 days ago
- Credit Where It’s Due
The images and reports delivered to us by the world’s media leave us in no doubt that the rest of the world is still in the grip of a coronavirus pandemic that shows no signs of slackening, but is actually uncontrolled and picking up pace in many countries; and even ...5 days ago - Is David Clark a liability?5 days ago
- Radiation: Views June 27SUNDAY JUNE 28Beat the Chasers (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). Judging by the tweets, which is probably a bad idea, over lockdown, all of New Zealand found itself in front of The Chase every night at 5pm. It is a brilliant fomat: hardly anyone wins any money ...5 days ago
- Radiation: Views June 27: Five Chasers are better than oneSATURDAY JUNE 27Banksy and the Rise of Outlaw Art (Sky Arts, Sky 017, 8.00pm). There was graffiti before Banksy, but perhaps his pungent political messages hit home a bit harder. Anyways, a doco about his influence on street art featuring a bunch of cool people.SUNDAY JUNE 28Beat the Chasers (TVNZ 1, ...5 days ago
- The New Zealand Media and Political Games: “Just for clicks and giggles”?
We have been assailed by Fox News-style headlines, lurid stories of “a breach!”. An almost nuclear level disaster on the horizon scream, “Fiasco!” here, “Hero to Zero!” there… Oh quick, panic everyone! This has fueled an unbelievably stupid environment of panic among some, and spurred useless, counterproductive political ...6 days ago - Saharan dust storm expected to cause dangerous air pollution in U.S. this weekThis is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters A massive dust storm formed over the Sahara Desert last week and invaded the Caribbean over the June 20-21 weekend, bringing dangerous levels of air pollution and low visibility to the islands. The dust is accompanied by a large amount ...6 days ago
- Hinges of History: After Covid-19?Will the Covid Crisis lead to a dramatic redirection for New Zealand and the World? A hinge in history occurs where the past and present are connected but they point in different directions. Big hinges are rare but crucial in the development of humankind. Not in Narrow Seas identifies six. ...6 days ago
- Climate Change: RepealedOne of the big problems with climate change policy is that the government has refused to let local authorities use our major piece of environmental regulation to reduce emissions. Since 2003, local bodies have been explicitly forbidden from considering the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions in their planning documents, and ...6 days ago
- No future for Marsden PointRNZ reports that Refining NZ is considering shutting down Marsden Point and effectively turning itself into a fuel distribution service. The problem they're immediately trying to address is that running a refinery is expensive, and it is cheaper just to import processed fuel. But there's a longer-term problem too: climate ...6 days ago
- Over 159 million could die from COVID-19We all know that the COVID-19 virus is a terrible infectious disease that has already caused untold misery and numerous deaths around the world. Nearly half a million people have already died, and those are just the cases we know about.But how bad could things actually get exactly?Today, the NZ ...6 days ago
- Interesting analysis of the world phenomenon of BLM protestsThis essay by Alex Hochuli examines the global phenomena of BLM protests . He is a freelance writer and research consultant based in São Paulo, Brazil. He is the co-host of the global politics podcast, Aufhebunga Bunga, and co-author of the forthcoming Politics at the End of the End of History (Zero ...6 days ago
- Sack Him, Jacinda. Sack Him Now!Are You Still Here? Just like his colleague, Phil Twyford – of KiwiBuild fame – David Clark juts out his chin and shamelessly apportions blame to everybody but himself. Even worse, he has turned viciously on Ashley Bloomfield, the nearest approximation to a competent, decent, humble and accountable public servant ...6 days ago
- Life in Level 1: Reinfection – No, Dr Bloomfield!. . 20 June The bad news: Aotearoa New Zealand has two new cases of covid-19. The good news: the two cases were picked up at an Auckland quarantine facility. The terrifying news: had the story of the two women leaving quarantine without testing not broken four days ...6 days ago
- Doubling-Down On Donald Trump’s Dream.6 days ago
- What ‘Planet of the Humans’ gets wrong about renewable energyThis is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Like an earthquake rumbling down the San Andreas Fault, Jeff Gibbs’ and Michael Moore’s controversial film “Planet of the Humans” tore a rift through the environmental movement, a rift its leaders would not yearn for in an election year. After activists have spent ...7 days ago
- Legal Beagle: Parliamentary bungling? But by whom?There have been a number of articles written about the voting in the final statges of the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill, during which National MPs voted alongside the Green Party to force a change that would prevent the removal of sentenced prisoners from the Electoral Roll. You can ...7 days ago
- Some half-hearted victory songLast night should have been a cause for muted celebration in Parliament. The Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Bill’s final passage through the House partially erases a stain on New Zealand’s democratic system. It’s a drum I’ve been beating for the past decade, but denying all sentenced prisoners the right to vote is a ...1 week ago
- Jordan Williams shoots and missesJordan WilliamsIt’s pretty obvious to all and sundry that the Taxpayers Union, run by Jordan Williams, isn’t really a union at all. Instead it’s a small lobby group for privileged white folk, namely the old fools behind the scenes of the corrupt and largely defunct Act Party.With an incorrectly attributed ...1 week ago
- More progress on secrecyLast year, I highlighted a secrecy problem with the government's Infrastructure Funding and Financing Bill. The Bill would establish a new class of public entity, "special purpose vehicles", to hide debt from local government balance sheets fund infrastructure such as roads and sewers in "high-growth" councils. The SPVs would collect ...1 week ago
- Why I’m confident there is no community transmission in NZBoth the leader of the opposition Todd Muller and University of Auckland Professor Des Gorman have gone on the record as saying they suspect Covid-19 is spreading in the community in New Zealand once again. Let me explain why I don’t agree with them. As best I can tell there ...1 week ago
- Covid-19 border problems shows why new national security agency needed, former minister saysBy Geoffrey Miller A former MP and Associate Minister of Defence says that New Zealand’s Covid-19 border and quarantine issues illustrate why a new dedicated national security agency is needed. Heather Roy, a former deputy leader of the Act Party who held the associate defence portfolio from 2008-10, told the ...1 week ago
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #25, 2020Annual fishing report It's been about a year since we swapped out the Research News deckhand. It seems longer— particularly the past 4 months— and not because of this particular work. Over the course of the year somewhere in the neighborhood of 17,500 articles have been caught in our net, ...1 week ago
- Erasing a stain on our democracyNational's prisoner-voting ban was a stain on our democracy. Passed in defiance of the Bill of Rights Act, with an absence of thought, it brought our parliament into disrepute. But now, that stain has been at least partially erased, with the passage of the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment ...1 week ago
- New misogyny has many formsThis article on Feminist Current by Meghan Murphy looks at the Karen/Becky meme and argues it has officially gone too far The male centered progressive left has successfully made woman-hating trendy. Today, yet another “Karen” video went viral online. This time, it seems a woman flipped off a male driver, ...1 week ago
- Have NZ cops been trained to be killers?Over the past few weeks, there's been a lot of attention on the question of why American police are so violent, and so often murder people. There are a pile of reasons for this, including the racist roots of their entire policing system, but part of the answer seems to ...1 week ago
- Overseeing the COVID-19 lawThe COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 is currently being reviewed by a select committee, ahead of the first vote (in early August) on whether to extend it. The law includes clauses requiring orders to be approved by Parliament, and allowing them to be revoked at any time by the ...1 week ago
- Status quo “reform”Last year, the government promised that it would strengthen whistleblower protections. Today, they finally released the bill. There's one major change: "[a] discloser is entitled to protection for a protected disclosure made to an appropriate authority at any time" - an "appropriate authority" being public sector heads, officers of Parliament, ...1 week ago
- Why long-term environmental observations are crucial for New Zealand’s water security challengesAndrew Lorrey, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research; Ben Noll, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, and Lauren Vargo, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Brewster Glacier in New Zealand’s Southern Alps lost 13 million cubic metres of ice between March 2016 and March 2019 – ...1 week ago
- What Earth would be like if we hadn’t pumped greenhouse gases into the atmosphereClimate 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 This week, Climate Explained answers two similar questions. If humans ...1 week ago
- Life in Level 1: Reinfection – Labour’s kryptonite. . 17 June Labour’s “dream run” of being a competent manager during the Covid19 Crisis may just have come to a crashing end. Recent revelations that some of the quarantine facilities (hotels converted to the task) have been shambolically mis-managed has raised alarm bells and widespread criticism; . . ...1 week ago
- Debunking Michael WoodhouseMichael WoodhouseWe all know that the National Party has a major credibility issue at the moment, and his name is Michael Woodhouse.Not only has the former Health Minister recently been in the news promoting a number of unverified claims designed to try and discredit the Government's response to COVID-19, the ...1 week ago
- Shining a spotlight on translations and our translator teamsEven though Skeptical Science's "lingua franca" is English we do have a lot of content translated into more than 20 languages and anybody can get involved with translations as I explained in a blog post in 2014. A lot of the translation work tends to fly under the radar and in ...1 week ago
- Farmers are poisoning CanterburyLast year we learned that relatively low levels of nitrates in drinking water were linked to increased incidence of colorectal cancer. New Zealand has a lot of nitrates, thanks to all those cows pissing everywhere. So how bad is the problem here? Bad: 2020 data obtained by Forest & Bird ...1 week ago
- Getting what they paid for againIt looks like the fishing industry is still getting what they pay for: The Government has again bowed to fishing industry pressure and refused to extend a marine reserve around Campbell Island, a subantarctic sanctuary recognised for its value in conserving and maintaining unique creatures. Campbell Island/Motu Ihupuku is ...1 week ago
- Graham Adams: National’s strategy to neutralise Jacinda ArdernAt a time when a wave of iconoclasm has meant no statue or monument appears safe from destruction — whether it is Gandhi, Churchill or Captain Cook — Judith Collins has taken the opportunity to attack a living icon who has been feted in some quarters, both here and abroad, ...1 week ago
- Why are we seeing these new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand?After weeks of no new cases of Covid-19, in the last week we’ve recorded nine. That’s sounds pretty scary, but here’s why there’s no reason to panic. For weeks now, almost every day there have been over 100,000 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 around the world. On two days last ...1 week ago
- Site of new freight hub revealed
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...6 hours ago - Greens call for Guaranteed Minimum Income to alleviate skyrocketing debt with MSD
Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for the introduction of a Guaranteed Minimum Income to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and prevent more families entering into further debt with the Ministry of Social Development. ...7 hours ago - Winston Peters: Facts matter when taxpayer money is on the lineThere has been renewed focus on New Zealand First acting as a handbrake on the Government after our decision to not support Auckland light rail. We are a handbrake for bad ideas, that is true, but our track record since 2017 has seen New Zealand First constructively also serve as an ...8 hours ago
- Bill raising minimum residency requirement for NZ Super passes first readingMark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP New Zealand First’s Fair Residency for Superannuation Bill passed its First Reading in Parliament today. The Bill makes a significant change to NZ Super by raising the minimum residency requirement from 10 to 20 years, after age 20. “Currently, a migrant of ...9 hours ago
- Harsher penalties for assaults on first responders one step closerDarroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill in the name of Darroch Ball introducing a six-month minimum prison sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its second reading in Parliament. The new offence of "injuring a first responder or corrections officer with ...23 hours ago
- Criminal Cases Review Commission delivers Coalition promiseFletcher Tabuteau MP, Deputy Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the launch of the new Criminal Cases Review Commission, gifted with the name from Waikato-Tainui - Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, announced in Hamilton today by Justice Minister Andrew Little. “New Zealand First has long believed in and ...1 day ago
- Greens welcome huge new investment in sustainable projectsThe Green Party is celebrating over $800m in new funding for green projects, which will get people into jobs while solving New Zealand’s long-term challenges. ...1 day ago
- New Zealand First demands answers from Meridian EnergyMark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is appalled that Meridian seems to have been unnecessarily spilling water from its dams to drive up its profits."While New Zealanders have been coming together in some of our darkest hours, we don’t expect power gentailers to waste water and ...2 days ago
- Getting New Zealand moving again: June 2020
We wrapped up the first half of 2020 with a busy month, taking additional steps to support New Zealanders as we continue with our economic recovery. We rolled out targeted packages to support key industries like tourism and construction, helped create jobs in the environmental and agriculture sectors, and set ...2 days ago - Māori union leader appointed to Infrastructure Commission boardHon Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has welcomed the appointment of Maurice Davis and his deep infrastructure and construction experience to the board of the Infrastructure Commission. Mr Davis (Ngāti Maniapoto), is the seventh and final appointment to the board led by former Reserve Bank Governor ...2 days ago
- Click-bait journalism at its worstRt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand’s click bait journalism is taking a turn for the worse, with yet another example of sensationalist, wilful-misrepresentation of the facts. “New Zealand First has worked constructively with its Coalition partner on hundreds of pieces of legislation and policy, and ...2 days ago
- Green Party proposes transformational Poverty Action PlanThe Green Party is today unveiling its Poverty Action Plan, which includes a Guaranteed Minimum Income to ensure people have enough to live with dignity. ...4 days ago
- PGF accelerates Rotorua projectsRt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Rotorua Museum redevelopment and Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi Forest projects will be accelerated thanks to a $2.09 million Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) boost, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...5 days ago
- Week That Was: Getting people into jobsThis week, we rolled out the next steps of our recovery plan, with new infrastructure investment, extra support for tourism operators, and a new programme to get Kiwis into agriculture careers. The global economic consequences of COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge, but we have a detailed plan to ...6 days ago
- Coalition commitment establishing Mental Health Commission deliveredJenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its final reading in Parliament today fulfilling a coalition agreement commitment. “This is an important step in saving the lives of New Zealanders and delivers a key coalition commitment ...6 days ago
- Whakatāne gets a $2.5m ‘turbo boost’Whakatāne has been given a $2.5 million boost to speed up previously funded projects and create more than 450 jobs in the next decade. Of those, the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs could be delivered in the next six weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is in town to make ...6 days ago
- $2.5m PGF funding to speed up economic recovery in WhakatāneRt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $2.5 million to accelerate three infrastructure projects in Whakatāne, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This package is about ...6 days ago
- Shane Jones calls out those holding drought-stricken Auckland ‘to ransom’ over waterInfrastructure Minister Shane Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid by the Auckland Council to fast-track the more than doubling of the city's water allowance from the Waikato River. And he's coming out strongly against anyone who plans on getting in the way of this campaign. "It is my ...6 days ago
- Another Green win as climate change considerations inserted into the RMAThe Green Party is thrilled to see changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Paris Agreement obligations. ...7 days ago
- New Navy vessel Aotearoa to arrive in New ZealandHon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new ship, Aotearoa, set sail for New Zealand on 10 June from the Republic of Korea, and is due to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, announced Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “Aotearoa is the Royal New Zealand Navy’s new fleet ...1 week ago
- Racing Industry Bill passes third readingRt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters has today welcomed the Racing Industry Bill passing its third reading, creating the legislative framework for revitalising the racing industry while limiting the need for future government intervention. “For too long our domestic racing industry has ...1 week ago
- Green Party seek amendment to ensure all prisoners can voteThe Green Party has today put forward an amendment to the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill to ensure all people in prisons can vote in general elections. ...1 week ago
- Green Party welcomes new approach to delivering light railThe Green Party welcomes the decision to not proceed with Public Public Investment (PPI) delivery of Auckland’s light rail project and to instead run the process through the public service. ...1 week ago
- New Zealand First welcomes PGF investment in Wairarapa WaterHon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First List MP Hon Ron Mark welcomes the announcement of Provincial Growth Funding investment of $1.4 million to help secure the Wairarapa’s water supply. The funding boost will allow the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), and ...1 week ago
- New Zealand First MP Mark Patterson selected as candidate for TaieriNew Zealand First list MP Mark Patterson has been selected to represent the party in the newly formed Taieri electorate at the upcoming election. Mr Patterson, his wife Jude and two daughters farm sheep and beef at Lawrence and Waitahuna. He previously stood in the Clutha-Southland electorate however boundary changes ...1 week ago
- Ground-breaking on NZ Post depotHon Shane Jones, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises A new ‘super depot’ to be built for NZ Post in Wellington will create around 350 jobs during construction, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises Shane Jones says. Shane Jones today attended a ground-breaking and blessing ceremony for the parcel-processing depot ...1 week ago
- Week That Was: Putting our economic plan into actionOur strong economic management prior to COVID-19 - with surpluses, low debt and near-record-low unemployment - put us in a good position to weather the impact of the virus and start to rebuild our economy much earlier than many other countries. Now we're putting our plan to recover and rebuild ...1 week ago
- Fleeing drivers hit new record-high yet againDarroch Ball MP, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Law and Order Recently released Police fleeing driver statistics have shown yet another increase in incidents with another record-high in the latest quarter. “This new quarterly record-high is the latest in a string of record-high numbers since 2014. The data shows incidents ...1 week ago
- Fletcher Tabuteau selected as candidate for RotoruaNew Zealand First MP Fletcher Tabuteau is pleased to be confirmed today as the party’s candidate for the Rotorua electorate. Speaking at the Rotorua AGM for New Zealand First, Mr Tabuteau said this is an election that is incredibly important for the people of Rotorua. “The founding principles of New ...2 weeks ago
- Greens call for Government office to address Rainbow issues following Human Rights Commission reportThe Human Rights Commission’s PRISM report on the issues impacting people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) provides an excellent programme of work for future governments to follow, say the Greens. ...2 weeks ago
- Winston Peters continues push for trans-Tasman travel as military take control of operationsForeign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said the trans-Tasman bubble had not been jeopardised after a border botch-up resulted in New Zealand having two active cases of COVID-19. On Friday, Mr Peters told RNZ's Morning Report he had heard from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that borders for trans-Tasman travel would open by ...2 weeks ago
- Winston Peters on the Government’s Covid-19 border blunderDeputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said today he was pleased the army was now running the quarantine and isolation process - up until now it has been the Ministry of Health. Peters told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that the army knew how to introduce and follow protocols and instil discipline. ...2 weeks ago
- New Zealand First’s Ron Mark confirms bid for the Wairarapa seatHon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First MP and Minister for Defence and Veteran’s Affairs Ron Mark has confirmed his bid for the Wairarapa seat.“The Coalition Government has done a lot of good work throughout the Wairarapa, but many constituents have told ...2 weeks ago
- New Zealand First welcomes second tranche of candidatesNew Zealand First is pleased to release the names of its next tranche of candidates for the 2020 election. We’re proud to announce these hardworking New Zealanders that have put their hand up to fight for a commonsense and resilient future.Jamie Arbuckle – Kaikoura Mark Arneil – Christchurch Central Jackie ...2 weeks ago
- Joint effort under way to repatriate stranded Vanuatu nationalsRt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence A massive joint effort between New Zealand Government agencies, employers, and the Vanuatu Government is underway to repatriate over 1000 Vanuatu nationals stranded in New Zealand, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron ...2 weeks ago
- $40m for regional apprenticeshipsHon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development Reprioritised funding of $40 million from the Provincial Growth Fund will support up to 1000 regional apprenticeships, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said today. The Regional Apprenticeship Initiative is part of the wider Apprenticeship Boost announced by Education Minister Chris Hipkins ...2 weeks ago
- Greens welcome new ACC zero carbon plans, call for ruling out any future fossil fuel investmentThe Green Party welcomes the ACC’s announcement to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 but emphasises the need to go further, and faster to truly meet the climate change challenge. ...2 weeks ago
- Farmers pleased with NZ First amendments to firearms billFarmers are rejoicing after Labour agreed to an amendment pushed by New Zealand First in the firearms bill that will allow the use of restricted guns for pest control. Concessions on gun control mean farmers will be able to apply for a licence to use restricted firearms for pest control. ...2 weeks ago
- New Zealand launches free trade talks with the UKNew Zealand has formally launched free trade negotiations with the United Kingdom, with hopes a swift deal could assist with the country's post-Covid recovery. The two countries announced the start of FTA talks on Wednesday afternoon, offering a new avenue for trade progress. In a statement announcing the start of ...2 weeks ago
- Northland’s $200m rail upgrade providing work for localsThe Northland rail project is already providing jobs for locals, with 200 contractors and KiwiRail staff needed over the coming months. The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) has pledged $204.5 million for the project - $164.5m to upgrade the Northland rail line and $40m to buy land. New Zealand First leader ...2 weeks ago
- Whanganui Port gets PGF boost
Five port-related projects in Whanganui will receive a $26.75 million Provincial Growth Fund investment to support local economic recovery and create new opportunities for growth, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This is a significant investment that will support the redevelopment of the Whanganui Port, a project governed ...3 hours ago - More support for Sarjeant GalleryWhanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery will receive an investment of up to $12 million administered by the Provincial Growth Fund to support its redevelopment, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. The project is included in a $3 billion infrastructure pipeline announced by Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Shane Jones yesterday. ...4 hours ago
- Funding for training and upskillingThe Provincial Growth Fund is investing nearly $2.5 million into three Te Ara Mahi programmes to support Manawatū-Whanganui jobseekers and employees to quickly train and upskill, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Up to 154 local people will be supported into employment within the first year by these ...6 hours ago
- Statement from the Minister of Health Dr David ClarkThis morning I have formally tendered my resignation as Minister of Health, which was accepted by the Prime Minister. Serving as Minister of Health has been an absolute privilege – particularly through these extraordinary last few months. It’s no secret that Health is a challenging portfolio. I have given ...7 hours ago
- Scholarship placements for agricultural emissions scientists doublesScholarships for 57 early-career agricultural emissions scientists from 20 developing countries is another example of New Zealand’s international leadership in primary sector sustainability, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. Mr O’Connor, announcing the scholarships today, says hundreds of applications were received for this fourth round of the CLIFF-GRADS programme (Climate, Food ...8 hours ago
- Funding for Foxton regenerationA project to help rejuvenate the Horowhenua town of Foxton will receive a Provincial Growth Fund investment of $3.86 million, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This funding for the Foxton Regeneration project will be used to make the well-known holiday town even more attractive for visitors and ...9 hours ago
- Plan to improve protection of moa bonesMoa bones and other sub-fossil remains of extinct species are set to have improved protection with proposals to prevent the trade in extinct species announced the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today. “We have lost too many of our native species, but these lost species, such as moa, remain an ...9 hours ago
- Free lunches served up to thousands of school children in the South IslandThe Government’s free and healthy school lunches programme moves south for the first time creating jobs for around 30 people in Otago and Southland. “Eighteen schools with 3000 students are joining the programme – 11 have already begun serving lunches, and seven are preparing to start during Term 3. This is ...13 hours ago
- Screen Sector recovery package protects jobs, boosts investmentThousands of Kiwi jobs and investment in New Zealand productions will be protected through a screen sector support package announced today by Associate Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford and Minister for Broadcasting Kris Faafoi. The package also includes investment in broadcasting ...19 hours ago
- New fund to help save local events and jobsThe Government has established a new $10 million fund for the domestic events sector to help save jobs and protect incomes as it recovers from the impacts of COVID-19, Minister of Economic Development Phil Twyford announced today. This funding from Budget 2020 follows talks with the event sector designed to ...1 day ago
- Bill to improve fuel market competitionThe Government has taken another step in its commitment to making sure New Zealanders get a fairer deal at the petrol pump with the introduction of legislation to improve competition in the retail fuel market, says Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods. “The fuel market study that this Government ordered ...1 day ago
- New Zealand joins global facility for pre-purchase of COVID-19 VaccineNew Zealand has joined a global initiative that aims to enable all countries to access a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. The COVAX Facility was recently launched by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The Alliance includes the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank ...1 day ago
- Right to legal representation in Family Court restored todayFrom today new legislation takes effect to both restore the right to legal representation at the start of a Care of Children (CoCA) dispute in the Family Court, and allow parties to those proceedings to access legal aid where eligible. During a visit to the Family Court in Auckland today, ...1 day ago
- Transitioning to a fully-qualified home-based ECE workforceHome-based early childhood education (ECE) subsidised by the government will transition to a fully qualified workforce by 2025 to ensure better and more consistent quality, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. “Quality early learning helps provide children with a strong foundation for their future,” Chris Hipkins said. From 1 January ...1 day ago
- Criminal Cases Review Commission gets to workThe new Criminal Cases Review Commission | Te Kāhui Tātari Ture (CCRC) has started work and can now independently investigate claimed miscarriages of justice. “Even though we have appeal rights and safeguards against unsafe convictions, from time to time our justice system does get things wrong. The design of the ...1 day ago
- Speech by the Minister of Defence to the New Zealand Institute of International AffairsE ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangatanga maha, tēnā koutou Ki a koutou Te Āti Awa, Taranaki Whānui, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, ngā mana whenua o te rohe nei, tēnā koutou Ko Te Whare Wānanga o Aotearoa ki ngā take o te Ao (NZIIA), Ko te Rōpū Tohu Tono ...1 day ago
- Six months with baby and $20 more a week for new parentsThe Government’s increase to paid parental leave kicks in today with another 4 weeks taking New Zealand up to a full 6 months (26 weeks, up from 22 weeks) leave for new parents, and the maximum weekly payment will increase by $20pw, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. ...1 day ago
- Infrastructure investment to create jobs, kick-start COVID rebuildA new package of infrastructure investments will help kick-start the post-COVID rebuild by creating more than 20,000 jobs and unlocking more than $5 billion of projects up and down New Zealand. Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones today outlined how the $3 billion infrastructure fund in the ...1 day ago
- Statement on passage of national security law for Hong KongForeign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today expressed the New Zealand Government’s deep disappointment at the passage by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee of a national security law for Hong Kong. “New Zealand has consistently emphasised its serious concern about the imposition of this legislation on Hong Kong without inclusive ...1 day ago
- July 1 marks progress for workers, familiesMore jobs and more family time with newborns are the centrepiece of a suite of Government initiatives coming into effect today. July 1 is a milestone day for the Government as a host of key policies take effect, demonstrating the critical areas where progress has been made. “The Coalition Government ...2 days ago
- Auckland water consent referred to Board of InquiryEnvironment Minister David Parker has today “called in” Auckland’s application to the Waikato Regional Council to take an extra 200 million litres of water a day from the lower reaches of the Waikato River for Auckland drinking water and other municipal uses. The call-in means the application has been referred ...2 days ago
- New Zealand to host virtual APEC in 2021Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker announced today that New Zealand’s hosting of APEC in 2021 will go ahead using virtual digital platforms. Mr Peters said the global disruption caused by COVID-19, including resultant border restrictions, had been the major factor in the ...2 days ago
- Matakana Link Road construction kicks off and drives jobsThe start of construction on a new link road between Matakana Road and State Highway 1 will create jobs and support the significant population growth expected in the Warkworth area, Transport Minister Phil Twyford and Mayor Phil Goff announced today. Transport Minister Phil Twyford said construction of the Matakana Link ...2 days ago
- PPE supplies secured as COVID-19 response focuses on borderThe Government is prioritising its latest investment in PPE for frontline health workers, including staff at managed isolation and quarantine facilities, Health Minister David Clark says. “With no community transmission of COVID-19 our response now has a firm focus on keeping our border safe and secure. “We must ensure that ...3 days ago
- PGF funding for Parihaka settlementThe Parihaka Papakāinga Trust in Taranaki will receive up to $14 million for a new visitor centre and other improvements at the historic settlement that will boost the local economy and provide much-needed jobs, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little have ...4 days ago
- Protections for workers in triangular employmentProtections for workers who are employees of one employer but working under the direction of another business or organisation have come into force, closing a gap in legislation that made the personal grievance process inaccessible for some workers, says Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. “This Government is working hard to ...4 days ago
- Government strengthens managed isolation systemA range of improvements are already underway to address issues identified in the rapid review of the Managed Isolation and Quarantine system released today, Housing Minister Megan Woods said. The review was commissioned just over a week ago to identify and understand current and emerging risks to ensure the end-to-end ...4 days ago
- Whakatāne to go predator free with Government backing Ngāti Awa led effortsThe important brown kiwi habitat around Whakatāne will receive added protection through an Iwi-led predator free project announced by Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau. “The Government is investing nearly $5 million into Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa’s environmental projects with $2.5 ...5 days ago
- Growing Goodwood: Expanding wood waste recycling plant in Bay of Plenty, WaikatoAn extra 4,000 tonnes of offcuts and scraps of untreated wood per year will soon be able to be recycled into useful products such as horticultural and garden mulch, playground safety surfacing and animal bedding as a result of a $660,000 investment from the Waste Minimisation Fund, Associate Environment Minister ...5 days ago
- Scott Watson’s convictions to be referred to Court of AppealThe Governor-General has referred Scott Watson’s convictions for murder back to the Court of Appeal, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Mr Watson was convicted in 1999 of the murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope. His appeal to the Court of Appeal in 2000 was unsuccessful, as was his ...6 days ago
- Protecting Kiwis with stronger financial supervisionA new five-year funding agreement for the Reserve Bank will mean it can boost its work to protect New Zealanders’ finances, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. “New Zealand has a strong and stable financial system. Financial stability is an area that we are not prepared to cut corners for, particularly ...6 days ago
- Forgotten funds and missing moneyA law change has been introduced to make it easier for forgotten funds in institutional accounts to be returned more easily to their rightful owners. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash has introduced an amendment to the Unclaimed Money Act 1971. It will update the rules controlling forgotten sums of money held ...6 days ago
- Government delivers on mental health commitmentThe Government is delivering on election commitments and a key recommendation of He Ara Oranga: Report of the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction with the establishment of a permanent independent Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, Health Minister Dr David Clark says. Legislation enabling the establishment of the fully ...6 days ago
- New Zealand privacy law modernisedA Bill to replace New Zealand’s Privacy Act passed its third reading in Parliament today, Justice Minister Andrew Little has announced. “The protections in the Privacy Bill are vitally important. The key purpose of the reforms is to promote and protect people’s privacy and give them confidence that their personal ...6 days ago
- Tourism operators provided extra supportExtra support is being provided to tourism businesses operating on public conservation land announced Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage today. The Government is providing $25m worth of support to tourism operators impacted by COVID-19, with a decision to waive most Department of Conservation tourism related concession ...6 days ago
- Queenstown infrastructure package to bolster local economyA central Government partnership with Queenstown will help unlock around $300 million of projects in the township and create about 320 direct jobs, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced today. The Government will contribute $85 million to the Queenstown Town Centre ($35m) project and Stage One of the Queenstown Arterials ...6 days ago
- Key appointments to ensure high quality healthcare for New ZealandersHealth Minister Dr David Clark welcomes the appointment of Auckland coroner Morag McDowell to the role of Health and Disability Commissioner. He is also pleased his appointments to the inaugural Paramedic Council were confirmed by gazette this week. The new Health and Disability Commissioner Ms McDowell will commence the role ...6 days ago
- Whakatāne Māori food producers receive $2.1m PGF boostThe Provincial Growth Fund is investing $2.1 million in a blueberry orchard initiative, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “The Meihana Koata Trust will receive a loan from the PGF’s Whenua Māori allocation to develop an 18.8 hectare blueberry orchard on ...6 days ago
- PGF investment in Rewa’s VillageA well-known Māori tourism in Northland will receive $1.25 million from the Provincial Growth Fund for much-needed redevelopment, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Rēhia Charitable Trust will use the funding to upgrade Te Pā Kāinga o Rewa, or Rewa’s Village, in Kerikeri. The long-established ...6 days ago
- Government partners with Ngāti Rēhia to create kauri sanctuaryThe Government and Northland iwi Ngāti Rēhia have today announced up to $6.25 million in One Billion Trees funding for a new kauri sanctuary. Forestry Minister Shane Jones said the sanctuary would help protect kauri by creating New Zealand’s first bio-secure kauri sanctuary, free of kauri dieback disease. “I am ...6 days ago
- Electoral Commission destroys $1m worth of brochures after printing error
The Electoral Commission is destroying millions of copies of brochures on the End of Life Choice referendum after one item was accidentally printed in a bold font. ...44 mins ago - The Daily Telegraph lost its Geoffrey Rush defamation appeal. What does this mean?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judith Ireland, Deputy Editor, Politics + Society, The Conversation, Australia Sydney newspaper the Daily Telegraph has lost its appeal against a defamation decision that awarded actor Geoffrey Rush almost A$3 million. Last year, Rush was awarded a record $2.9 million after he ...50 mins ago - Resigned: David Clark bows to inevitabilityPower Play - Both he and Ardern have come to the conclusion he's become too much of "distraction", and there's nowhere for a minister to go after that, Jane Patterson writes. ...2 hours ago
- Border closures, identity and political tensions: how Australia’s past pandemics shape our COVID-1...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Moloney, Associate Professor, Paediatrics, Griffith University Tensions over border closures are in the news again, now states are gradually lifting travel restrictions to all except Victorians. Prime Minister Scott Morrison says singling out Victorians is an overreaction to Melbourne’s coronavirus spike, ...2 hours ago
- Stopping koala extinction is agonisingly simple. But here’s why I’m not optimisticSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Hosking, Conservation Planner/Researcher, The University of Queensland On Tuesday, a year-long New South Wales parliamentary inquiry revealed the state’s koalas are on track for extinction in the wild by 2050, without urgent government intervention. Habitat destruction and fragmentation for agriculture, urban ...2 hours ago
- ‘This Is The Last Straw’ – Maori Leaders Demand Dismissals
Wāhine Māori are calling for the immediate sacking of Oranga Tamariki Chief Executive Ms Grainne Moss and the Minister Tracey Martin following more damning media reports about Oranga Tamariki. Dame Naida Glavich, Chair of the Governance Group for the ...2 hours ago - Family Lawyers Critical At Early Stages Of Care DisputesThe New Zealand Bar Association welcomes the re-establishment of access to lawyers at the start of disputes about the care of children. From 1 July 2020, parties will be able to get legal advice at the beginning of the process. The Bar Association ...2 hours ago
- Greens’ Shaw shrugs off Peters’ light rail ‘tantrum’Green Party co-leader James Shaw is accusing New Zealand First leader Winston Peters of throwing a tantrum via a comment piece he wrote on light rail. ...3 hours ago
- Politics with Michelle Grattan: two leading economists on Australia’s post-COVID economySource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With three months before JobSeeker is due to end and calls for billions of dollars in extra spending, there is a growing debate about how Australia’s post-coronavirus economy will actually look. While Scott Morrison has ...3 hours ago
- Sissy that hoedown: Big city drag takes on small town values in We’re Here
They’re here, they’re queer, and they’re at a precipice of a new frontier in both entertainment and performance. We’re Here is the new Neon show that takes drag out of the city and into small town America, writes Dejan Jotanovic. Drag, as an artform, isn’t by any means new. It ...3 hours ago - Lockdown returns: how far can coronavirus measures go before they infringe on human rights?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stan Winford, Associate Director, Centre for Innovative Justice, RMIT University As of this morning, ten “hot spot” postcodes in Melbourne’s suburbs have gone back into Stage 3 coronavirus lockdown. In these suburbs, stay-at-home restrictions will be enforced by police patrols, “booze bus”-style ...3 hours ago
- LGNZ Invite Discussion On Councils’ FinancesLocal Government New Zealand (LGNZ) is inviting the New Zealand Maori Council to have an open-book discussion on the financial positions of five councils, to set right the misguided impression that they are potentially insolvent. This is in response ...3 hours ago
- NZCA Supports Tahr Control In National ParksThe New Zealand Conservation Authority (NZCA) strongly supports the Department of Conservation’s Tahr Control Operational Plan 2020-2021, and gives full support to the implementation National Parks Act’s policy of extermination of tahr, as ...4 hours ago
- Cook Islands Speaker rules against motion to ban political journalistThe unopposed motion put forward by Prime Minister Henry Puna was regarding the article titled “MPs seek allowance top-ups in downturn”. In her ruling, Rattle said the headline was unfair and the use of the word “demand” in the first paragraph was inaccurate. READ MORE: Earlier Cook Islands News editorial ...4 hours ago
- How Covid-19 changed the way we think about our homesCovid-19 forced us to reconsider our relationship with the places we occupy, writes architect Mat Brown – and these new priorities will influence the design of our spaces in future.I think it’s safe to say, on behalf of my profession, that architecture is a conservative art. We design places that ...4 hours ago
- Alert but not alarmed: what to make of new H1N1 swine flu with ‘pandemic potential’ found in Chi...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian M. Mackay, Adjunct assistant professor, The University of Queensland Researchers have found a new strain of flu virus with “pandemic potential” in China that can jump from pigs to humans, triggering a suite of worrying headlines. It’s excellent this virus has ...4 hours ago
- Māori Party Announce Policy To Uphold Māori Freshwater Rights And InterestsMāori Party Co-leader and Te Tai Hauāuru candidate Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has today announced her party’s policy on freshwater that will uphold Māori rights and interests and protect and restore waterways from pollution and overallocation. “The Māori ...4 hours ago
- Reddit removes millions of pro-Trump posts. But advertisers, not values, rule the daySource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Copland, PhD Student — Sociology, Australian National University On Monday, online discussion platform Reddit permanently took down its largest community of Donald Trump supporters, r/The_Donald. The community had more than 7,000 active users per day (although this has previously been much ...4 hours ago
- A leaked transcript of two wellness influencers’ crisis management meetingA hastily arranged crisis meeting has just been held between Steve and Steve Reputation Enhancement Company and two unnamed wellness influencers. The transcript was leaked to Emily Writes in a brown paper bag full of MMR vaccines.I found the package at my front door. It’s a shocking transcript of a ...5 hours ago
- Trade in moa bones would be banned under proposed new rulesThe government proposes regulations under the Wildlife Act to ban the sale of moa bones and other remains of extinct species. ...6 hours ago
- Winston Peters critical of China’s new security law for Hong KongPeters says the "one country, two systems" framework was meant to be in place for decades and that China is being asked to "keep your word". ...6 hours ago
- Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on David Clark’s resignation as Health Minister: ‘It is on...Jacinda Ardern says she agrees with Clark's decision to resign as Health Minister and that she cannot afford any diversions from Covid-19 objectives. ...6 hours ago
- Hipkins moves from dishing out free lunches to overseeing free health – and $10m is poured into th...
There’s no such thing as a free lunch? Tell that to Chris Hipkins, who is braying about Free lunches served up to thousands of school children in the South Island. Mind you, he now will be enthusing about free health after landing the Health portfolio after David Clark’s resignation. While ...6 hours ago - Under Cover: Sharon Van Etten and Tiny Ruins (WATCH)Under Cover is a new series that brings musicians together via video link to bond, chat, and play each other’s songs. The third episode features Sharon Van Etten and Hollie Fullbrook (Tiny Ruins).American singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten and New Zealander Hollie Fullbrook of Tiny Ruins found each other back in ...6 hours ago
- New Research Reveals Large Number Of Kiwis Are Experiencing Unequal PayMany New Zealanders have reported being paid less for doing the same job as another person, according to new research released today by the Human Rights Commission. The report “Opinions and Experiences of Unequal Pay and Pay Transparency” reveals ...6 hours ago
- Watch live: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on David Clark’s resignation as Health MinisterPrime Minister Jacinda Ardern is giving a media conference following the resignation of David Clark as Health Minister. ...6 hours ago
- Taxpayer Victory! David Clark Resigns...6 hours ago
- Korean War Veterans Commemorate 70th Anniversary Of Start Of WarThe service and sacrifice of New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel in the Korean War was remembered at a commemoration in Wellington yesterday to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the war. Ten Korean War veterans were joined by Prime Minister ...7 hours ago
- David Clark ‘takes one for the team’ and resigns as health ministerBeleaguered Labour MP David Clark resigned as health minister during a press conference at parliament this morning. Alex Braae reports.With just 78 days to go before the 2020 election, health minister David Clark has resigned from the position of health minister. He will also be resigning from all of his ...7 hours ago
- Bridges back in shadow cabinet
Todd Muller has retained Māori representation in his shadow cabinet through a minor reshuffle involving the National party's former leader A National party caucus reshuffle has seen former leader Simon Bridges brought back into shadow cabinet just over a month after he was deposed as leader. Whangarei MP Shane Reti has ...7 hours ago - David Clark resigns as Health Minister: ‘It’s best for me to step aside’David Clark has formally resigned as Health Minister after recent controversies in his handling of the Covid-19 response. ...7 hours ago
- Health Minister David Clark resigns
Health Minister David Clark has announced his resignation, following months of negative headlines over personal slip-ups and his handling of the Covid-19 crisis Speaking at Parliament on Thursday morning, David Clark said while he had given his all in the challenging Health portfolio, it had become clear that his continued ...7 hours ago - Victim Support Welcomes Bill To Strengthen Rights For Victims Of Insane OffendersThe passing of the first reading of MP Louise Upston’s Rights of Victims of Insane Offenders Bill is welcome news for victims, says Victim Support. The Bill aims to ensure victims of legally insane offenders are treated the same as other victims ...7 hours ago
- Health Minister David Clark to address media after calls for his resignationRNZ understands Health Minister David Clark is set to resign shortly at Parliament after recent controversies in his handling of the Covid-19 response. ...7 hours ago
- National reshuffle: Simon Bridges given foreign affairs role, Dr Shane Reti to replace Paula BennettSimon Bridges has been handed the foreign affairs portfolio and Dr Shane Reti will replace Paula Bennett. ...7 hours ago
- Lack Of Consultation By Government Shows And Public Get Behind TahrNew Zealand Deerstalkers Association Inc (NZDA) are disappointed to receive a final Himalayan tahr control operational plan from the Department of Conservation (DOC) for the coming 2020/21 operational period that ignores any advice and input from ...8 hours ago
- Kaiwi to undergo quarantine before moving into main Bomana prisonPacific Media Centre Newsdesk Bhosip Kaiwi, the man accused of murder in the Papua New Guinean torture case, will be held at the Correctional Services Training College at Bomana to undergo 14 days of quarantine under the government’s covid-19 requirement, reports the PNG Post-Courier. He will remain there until he ...8 hours ago
- National Party leader Todd Muller announces reshuffleThe National Party leader is announcing a reshuffle after leadership changes. ...8 hours ago
- A lesbian author surveys the lesfic landscape and finds it wantingTomorrow, Auckland writer Lil O’Brien releases one hell of a memoir: Not That I’d Kiss A Girl, the story of her coming out. People tell me that I can make anything gay.Sometimes they’re talking about physical things, like when I put on a plain white T-shirt then roll the sleeves over ...8 hours ago
- Overwhelming Public Support To Stop Mass Killling Of TahrTens of thousands of New Zealanders are signing a petition to stop DOC’s plans for a mass killing of tahr in the Southern Alps. The Change.org petition was started on Monday evening, shortly after revelations the Department of Conservation was planning ...8 hours ago
- Groundbreaking 501 Decision In Auckland CourtFor the first time, a 501 returned offender has successfully challenged a Special Conditions Order in the Waitakere district court. Richard Major, self-represented, opposed the special supervision order request imposed by the Chief Executive of the ...8 hours ago
- LGNZ Recovery Fund To Sponsor New Sector Development InitiativeLocal Government New Zealand’s National Council has announced the creation of an LGNZ Covid Recovery Fund, which will be used to deliver free digital training to support mayors, chairs and elected members in their post-Covid decision-making. ...8 hours ago
- Dunne Speaks: The Scott Watson Case Goes Back To Court...8 hours ago
- Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – July 02 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 NZ First, fishing industry, light rail Michael Morrah (Newshub): Talleys hosted fundraiser dinners for NZ First, but denies that’s behind delay in fishing boat cameras Thomas Coughlan ...9 hours ago
- Mass Killing Of Tahr Devastating For Tourism IndustryTourism industry operators are pleading for the government to halt DoC’s plan for a mass killing of Himalayan Tahr, saying the animals provide hundreds of jobs and a multi-million dollar benefit to the country. ...9 hours ago
- Hong Kong protesters in NZ worried about new national security lawBy Mackenzie Smith of RNZ News Hong Kong protesters in New Zealand are worried they could be arrested if they return home because they have attended political demonstrations here. Beijing’s new national security law, passed on Tuesday, criminalises secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces, but will also effectively shut ...9 hours ago
- ‘Every day they are essential’: the living wage movement marches onWith the Covid-19 lockdown casting a light on the value of essential workers, the movement to pay them the living wage is gathering momentum.Every night at corporate and government buildings across the country, long after most of the day workers have gone home, a largely unseen labour force of cleaners ...9 hours ago
- In a first discovery of its kind, researchers have uncovered an ancient Aboriginal archaeological si...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Benjamin, Associate Professor in Maritime Archaeology, Flinders University and ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University For most of the human history of Australia, sea levels were much lower than they are today, and there was extra ...10 hours ago
- We developed tools to study cancer in Tasmanian devils. They could help fight disease in humansSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew S. Flies, Senior Research Fellow in Immunology, University of Tasmania Emerging infectious diseases, including COVID-19, usually come from non-human animals. However our understanding of most animals’ immune systems is sadly lacking as there’s a shortfall in research tools for species other ...10 hours ago
- Victoria is on the precipice of an uncontrolled coronavirus outbreak. Will the new measures work?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics, University of South Australia I recently wrote about Victoria’s surge in COVID-19 cases. On that day, Victoria recorded 11 new infections, after a few days of new cases in the high teens and low twenties. I wondered ...10 hours ago
- We know how to save NSW’s koalas from extinction – but the government must commitSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Christine Hosking, Conservation Planner/Researcher, The University of Queensland On Tuesday, a year-long New South Wales parliamentary inquiry revealed the state’s koalas are on track for extinction in the wild by 2050, without urgent government intervention. Habitat destruction and fragmentation for agriculture, ...10 hours ago
- UniSuper take note: there’s no retirement on a dead planetSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Barsky, Associate professor of Management, University of Melbourne HESTA, the industry super fund for health and community workers, plans to dump its shares in thermal coal mining companies. Beyond that, its Net Zero by 2050 program announced on Friday commits it ...10 hours ago
- The sun is setting on unsustainable long-haul, short-stay tourism — regional travel bubbles are th...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Higham, Professor of Tourism, University of Otago Unprecedented border closures and the domestic lockdown have paralysed New Zealand’s $40.9 billion a year tourism industry. In the process, the vulnerability of the sector to external shocks and the tenuous nature of tourism ...10 hours ago
- Forget JobSeeker. In our post-COVID economy, Australia needs a ‘liveable income guarantee’ inste...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland There are now less than three months to go before the expanded JobSeeker payment is due to end. As a result, there is a growing political debate about what should happen to ...10 hours ago
- In My Blood It Runs challenges the ‘inevitability’ of Indigenous youth incarcerationSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lilly Brown, PhD Candidate, University of Melbourne Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains references to deceased people. In 2019, Dujuan Hoosan travelled from Garrwa country in the Northern Territory, to Geneva where he addressed the United ...10 hours ago
- Live updates, July 2: Principals fear teacher shortage without border exemptionsFor all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...10 hours ago
- Business Wrap: Airport warns again
Auckland Airport warns of more job cuts and extraordinary losses after passenger numbers drop 95 percent and as Air NZ suspends flights to partially-locked down Melbourne ...11 hours ago - The Bulletin: Auckland gets Waikato water, but long-term issues remainGood morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Agreement reached in principle for Auckland to take Waikato water, beneficiary debt to MSD balloons, and Opportunities Party lose candidate in key seat.An agreement has been reached in principle for Auckland to take water from the Waikato River. As Radio NZ’s Jordan Bond ...11 hours ago
- Māori Party Co-leader Calls On The PM To Sack Tracey Martin And Grainne MossThe Māori Party is calling on the Prime Minister to sack Minister of Children, Tracey Martin, and instruct a new minister to replace CEO of Oranga Tamariki, Grainne Moss, in light of the most recent reports about their incompetence in leading the ...11 hours ago
- Lessons from Victoria: Don’t lose elimination status
A quarantine leak has put 300,000 people in Victoria back into lockdown. A former NZ epidemiologist at the University of Melbourne tells Farah Hancock how this country can avoid the same fate. Residents of 10 postcodes in Victoria will wake to a month of ‘stay home’ localised lockdown rules today as ...11 hours ago - Māori leaders repeat call for OT resignations
Following Newsroom’s investigation into concerning practices within the country’s child protection agency, Māori leaders are again calling for the dismissal of its chief executive, Grainne Moss, and the children’s minister Tracey Martin. Will they be listened to this time? A group of prominent wāhine Māori last night called for the ...11 hours ago - Third of Kiwis feel less wealthy post-Covid
People's views of their wealth have been impacted by the Covid-19 crisis, but more households are saving and stress levels reduced during lockdown. Tim Murphy reports A third of Kiwis feel less wealthy now than just three months ago, according to a special Kiwi Wealth State of the Investor Nation survey. ...12 hours ago - Minister’s stern warning to early learning centres
The education minister has warned early childhood education centres to toe the line, following allegations businesses are siphoning off funding intended for teacher pay rises. But that's only the start of the troubles plaguing the ECE sector, Laura Walters reports The Education Minister has issued a stern warning to early childhood ...12 hours ago - Book of the Week: Brian Easton will now harrumph
Shamubeel Eaqub reviews a thumping big opus by Brian Easton, "a walking encyclopaedia of New Zealand’s economic history". I used to lunch fairly regularly with Brian Easton and Jas Mackenzie, the former secretary of the Department of Labour, at Nikau by the Wellington Art Gallery. Standing order was usually their ...13 hours ago - An oft-forgotten ticking time bomb
Per capita, New Zealand has one of the greatest diasporas in the world. Nick Teulon asks what we can do to protect expat Kiwis under the crush of Covid uncertainty. The tale of the Great Kiwi Diaspora has been told many times. It first gained mainstream awareness during the 2001 Knowledge Wave ...13 hours ago - ‘Scary’ residency queue gets worse
A residency backlog that was a problem before the pandemic is even worse now ...13 hours ago - In Covid’s wake, another epidemic
As the Covid epidemic progresses through the world, a second epidemic is following hot on its heels. Rather than physical disease, this one involves the transmission of dubious, confusing or harmful information. While Covid-19 is largely passed from person to person through coughs and physical contact, the medium for the ...13 hours ago - A blame guide for the Auckland light rail cluster-shemozzle uber-bungleStruggling to find the correct apportionment of blame for the failure of light rail in Auckland? Hayden Donnell is here to help.Aucklanders’ hopes for a functional transport network took another hit last week, with the announcement that light rail will not be approved before the election. Many people have lashed ...13 hours ago
- The Winston Peters paradoxThe conspicuous scuppering of government plans is designed to win support for social conservative voters. Unfortunately for NZ First, the evidence suggests it isn’t working: they’re undermining their own government for no gain, argues Danyl Mclauchlan.The Serious Fraud Office is investigating the New Zealand First Foundation, an organisation linked to ...13 hours ago
- School bells and whistles gone with international students
With the billions in foreign student money gone thanks to border restrictions, schools that took a nice chunk of that money must learn to re-cut their cloth. It's our fifth-biggest export earner, contributing more than $5 billion each year to the economy - but the impact of Covid-19 means the international ...13 hours ago - Eden-Monaro focus groups: Voters want government to cushion pandemic recovery pathSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Eden-Monaro voters are calling for a compassionate and empathetic recovery process as Australia emerges from the pandemic. In focus group research conducted this week, ahead of Saturday’s byelection, the vast majority of participants favoured increasing ...19 hours ago
- Today, Australia’s Kyoto climate targets end and our Paris cop-out begins. That’s nothing to be ...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Penny van Oosterzee, Adjunct Associate Professor James Cook University and University Fellow Charles Darwin University, James Cook University Today marks the end of Australia’s commitments under the Kyoto climate deal as we move to its successor, the Paris Agreement. Emissions Reduction Minister ...19 hours ago
- Stricter NZ superannuation requirements bill passes first readingA member's bill raising the minimum amount of time a resident has to have lived in New Zealand before being entitled to superannuation has passed its first reading. ...20 hours ago
- Disagreeability, neuroticism and stress: what drives panic buying during the COVID-19 pandemicSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter O’Connor, Professor, Business and Management, Queensland University of Technology Panic buying has returned to Australia in the wake of its second-biggest city experiencing a spike in COVID-19. The Victorian government has reimposed stay-at-home restrictions on 36 of Melbourne’s 321 suburbs in ...23 hours ago
- How the Greens’ wealth tax proposal could be a political lifeline for Winston Peters and his part...
The Green Party’s major new election policy for a wealth tax has, not unexpectedly, had a mixed reception, not least from politicians of other parties. The policy to tax the wealthy to fund a payment of at least $325 a week for anyone not in full-time work, predictably brought cheers ...23 hours ago
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