PM Jacinda Ardern has confirmed our gun laws will change. The terrorist had 5 guns, including two semi automatic weapons. He has a valid NZ gun licence.
The gunman is an Australian who has lived in NZ on and off. He has left a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto in which he praises mass murderer Anders Breivek and Trump supporter Candace Owens.
Solidarity has been shown by world leaders, including the Queen, and Donald Trump, who as usual, showed a complete lack of self awareness, saying a few minutes ago that he didn’t think white supremacy was a rising problem.
I woke up this morning to many messages from friends and family overseas. This attack has shocked the world. One positive feature of the response is that solidarity has been shown from people of all faiths, which suggests the terrorists have instantly failed in their objective to split and divide us.
If you are like me, this morning you’re angry, tearful and confused about how to react. But I know this much; solidarity and aroha will always win.
I imagine she’s already had buy in from the opposition as well as her coalition partners. Bridges is on the same flight to Chch as Ardern this morning. I doubt he’s going to land at the airport and announce National oppose doing something practical to make NZ safer.
I’m more concerned how this guy slipped through the net and wasn’t picked up as an unbalanced nut.
All systems can be spoofed. That is just playing with the probabilities – and fails as a strategy when the gun lobby groups eat away at it. Just look at the current strategies that the gun companies have been using in aussie to get around their post-Tasmania shooting.
Semi-automatic weapons allow even untrained fools to kill and injure a lot people very quickly. If this dickhead had to work a bolt each round, then he’d have been jumped quickly and the weapon taken away from him, as eventually happened.
The real issue here is that there are semi-automatic weapons available. They just need to be destroyed and not allowed on the market. That is a better way of playing the probabilities with the dickheads. That will reduce any death and injury rates.
It is also a lot harder to wrangle around a full ban
According to someone who read the killers manifesto
He hopes that his actions and his choice of firearms will cause further firearm restrictions and force firearms owners to take a side noting that they do little to protect the erosion of their rights.
Then again, Gun owners might see that it’s a good idea and happily relinquish the semi-automatic guns they own, as happened (after some minor grumbling) in Australia after the Port Arthur Massacre.
Seems likely, as to not give the bastards what they want.
The $100m funding boost our spy’s got was mostly for infrastructure and hardware which is fine for after the fact. To actually have a readable report in real time you need analyst making those reports. That just leaves a weapons ban as the most likely course of action.
Clearly another who doesn’t understand the failure that’s was Howard’s Gun Laws.
Read the ABS reports for gun crimes in Australia
Those of the far left just don’t understand attacking law abiding citizens has never worked throughout history.
Prohibition on guns is fine by the far left, but prohibit drugs that would be against their human rights. How many people are killed and injured on our roads through drivers under the influence of drugs in NZ every year, or how many woman and children subjected to physical violence due to drug use each year. How many drug overdose deaths each year, how many self harm incidents each years induced by drugs, how many psychiatric admissions each year by drugs….and the list goes on
That’s right, ban guns, not drugs….wake up you stoners
”Police Association president Greg O’Connor also believed a mass shooting was “inevitable”, telling MPs police had noticed a massive increase in the number of firearms among “those who simply should not have them”.
“We’ve already had mass killings, there are mass killings happening in the United States, we would be naive to think we’re not going to have one here.”‘
“We have an opportunity in this country not to go down the American path.”
Those were the words of former Australian Prime Minister John Howard before he radically changed Australia’s gun laws and – many believe – rid the country of gun violence on a large scale.
You will already be hearing some Kiwis clutching their gun rights. We have to decide which ideals we really follow in NZ. Are we actually clean and green? Are we actually peaceful and safe? Which country do we use as a model for our future?
Hi might just not have been a ‘certified nut’ but rather passed all check and balances had a good laugh at us and our little laws and went on to kill unarmed praying people in a house of worship.
so yes, maybe in NZ we don’t need semi automatics to go hunting?
By making some controversial announcement, she is effectively deflecting attention away from the fact the incompetent Government SHE LEADS have failed the NZ people and allowed this event to occur.
Sure the alleged terrorist pulled the trigger, but it was Ms Photopportnity and the Intelligence and Police she and her responsible Ministers that failed to identify this person as a risk.
I mean the alleged terrorist didn’t exactly hide his intentions, and had been posting regularly on social media for weeks.
As taxpayers we pay multi millions annually to our intellegence and Police services, and they can’t even see him when he’s standing in plain view.
No the Prime Minister failed the NZ people again, she is the boss so the buck stops with her.
Haven’t heard any talk of her sacking the relevant Government Ministers for Intellegence services or Police for gross neglect…no let’s just blame the guns.
will she launch a Royal Commission into how this could have occurred, given all the resources at her Governments disposal.
The PM current verbal flatulence on changing gun laws is nothing more than a smoke screen to press home her Marxist agendas and won’t change a thing for the security of the NZ people.
I suppose the guns sideshow doesn’t work for her, she could get her spin doctors to trot out more family photos for the woman’s magazines.
Gun laws are just another excuse to deflect attention from her Govenments failures.
You can put up all the defences you like to protect the PM, as all the gun laws in the world don’t stop terrorists. Just look up the Lindt cafe and Parramatta police HQ murders. Both incidents by Muslim males, both having no firearms licences, both firearms used were illegal.
Criminals, terrorists etc will always get their hand on illegal firearms
Changing our national laws only makes 1/5 of our population who are law abiding citizens the scapegoats for the Governments failure to identify this terrorist.
the Governments failure to identify this terrorist.
Domestic terrorists who don’t do stupid things that put them on police/security service radar can’t be stopped by anything other then old fashioned dumb luck. And police and security services can’t track people they’ve never heard of.
In reality, counter terrorism isn’t like the movies but hey, I’m sure there’s something new over on NetFlix to stroke yourself over.
Relating to or involving the doctrines or principles of the Hindu or Buddhist tantras, in particular the use of mantras, meditation, yoga, and ritual.
‘tantric yoga’
It wasn’t the present Government either, putting all the terrorism focus onto ISIS and the Middle east, or focusing in on kiwi jihadi brides (not currently living in New Zealand! ) joining ISIS.
No doubt Saintarnuad is even more outraged at these fairly recent Government failures too… yeah right!
It seems you who is doing all the deflecting attention away from the public glare on our inadequate gun laws that are way too relaxed for our own good and if you think that is a “controversial” statement then it says a lot about you.
Completely incorrect, the present firearms legislation requires review in light of recent events, but not attention seeking knee jerk reactions by a desperate PM whose interests lays deflecting any blame from herself and the Government.
So you think our PM is not responsible in any way whatsoever for the recent events? Would love to hear your views on how’s she completely blameless
… the present firearms legislation requires review in light of recent events …
Good that you agree with the PM’s announcement on the need to reform NZ gun laws. That is the topic of the thread; anything else is (a) deflection from this.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been this sad, I feel like our country has been cheated and our sense of togetherness has been shattered. It is so unfair that innocent people seeking safety in what should be a safe home in this country have been let down so badly.
A few puzzles remain, what of the car and people seen driving the gunman away from the Linwood Mosque ? Sure, recall is rarely reliable in such stressful enviroments but still, a few people saw it happen.
I cannot find a reliable timeline to explain how the arsehole got across central Chch that quickly to strike a second target.
Which attack came first, and how did the white Subaru get as far as Brougham Sreet after what must have been over 30 minutes since the start of the attack.
Was it just laziness on behalf of the Police to oppose full scale person and individual gun registration the last time legislation was proposed ?
All the details of what exactly happened will of course be carefully looked at there’ll be conclusions reached and discussions and debate about those conclusions. But as far as why it happened I’m not surprised. It’s interesting the culprits are described as extreme right wing. It’s just a shame that Bridges, Bennett, Collins, Mitchell and their mates don’t have the capacity to ever consider who decides where the line’s drawn.
We also know some of the grief will move to the anger stage. I think Jacinda has given us a legitimate target for that. These weapons in the wrong hands are lethal. Australia took the opportunity to change their laws after the Port Arthur case, and we could do the same here.
As to delays in responding, perhaps it was some minutes before the police and responders realised two mosques were involved? It took some time for help to arrive.
We need to the city to mobilise now to locate the missing three year old, contribute to the fund, reach out to Muslim people with genuine support and aroha, and generally show what we are about. All genuine Kiwis care and feel terrible today.
“All kids are different. They need different information to feel safe, they look for a different level of detail and they are impacted by different parts of the story. Nobody knows your kids better than you do, so it’s important to manage the conversation based on who they are, what they already know, and what it means for them.”
Thank you for that, only this morning I for some reason realised that probably school children across NZ will turn up for the day and will have varying degrees of understanding or information on what happened in NZ on Friday, but they will hear about it and for some of them it may be the first time they have heard about it.
I know my daughter’s first inclination was that her son in some way didn’t need to know, or shouldn’t hear about the awful events in Ch Ch, to be fair I think it was an immediate instinct to “protect” her child.
The weekend has now passed and in case she hasn’t realised herself come tomorrow he will be at school I will be sending her the link to read so she can, if she has not done so, prepare him for what will no doubt be raised at school tomorrow.
This is a clear sign of a changing world now as we begin to have a more libertarian ‘diverse’ population as most overseas first world countries have had for some time and have experienced the same ‘backlash’ from extremists, though most have been historically carried out by Islamic extremists to date as other will obvious evolve.
This is the price we are about to pay for the dramatic changes in the fabric of our changing culture sadly.
How could this happen in NZ? Well as a regular on TS I notice how plugged in to the USA many are, to the extent they hardly discuss NZ at all. There have been many of these shooting accidents over there. When people get obsessed with the USA and their doings it would lead to copycat responses, from the number who are vulnerable to propaganda and outrage, eventually.
Then I notice that Radionz, and I suppose most news reporting private stations, (though I’m not sure about this), report in great detail every attack in the USA, getting the sheriff, the mothers, the colleagues, the bystanders…opinion in detailed reports during the news slot.
Then also there is always the reality of our government showing a lack of interest in NZ citizens needs as terrible holes in our welfare system show, there is a constant degradation of workers and low income lifestyles, while they encourage the rise of housing demand and prices beyond ordinary good citizens’ earning capacity to buy. Then they don’t even ensure there are good rental properties sufficient for the resulting demand from people who would once have been settled and in jobs affording them a reasonable living. Then the government has favoured cheap imports in return for export markets so much that the internal business community with jobs for people in NZ has collapsed because it can’t compete with the cheap imports flooding in and unbalancing our country’s financial standing. We live in a giant ponzi scheme, and though many won’t understand that, they see the results.
And then foreign people get let into the country as refugees. And they get looked after, and get houses. And foreign people are cutting off westerners heads. And it’s not right.
Blame the foreigners. That is basically the pathway to the atrocity we saw
yesterday. The bad stuff just keeps coming and builds up and there seems no end and the thought occurs that someone needs to do something, to show how wrong it all is….
You emphasise the points I was making OneTwo. It is a given that there will be serious matters happening in the world every moment! That means that we have to have our antennas up to catch the details but must not let ourselves
ignore our own problems, now and forecast to come, and we know that there
are big problems scientifically indicated, not just a prophesy like the daily sandwich-boarded man I saw once proclaiming ‘The End is Nigh’.
So we need to be extra bright, so many don’t want to know – have to be dragged complaining, threatening legal resort, to our truths in NZ. And TS can help by being bright and balanced. What other blog or media gives access to thought and opinion to the extent that TS does? Other blogs should be read and they gather comments, TS offers the fusion political cafe. And we care about our country, lot’s don’t, they skim across the water like those magic waterwalking insects (image below!), or they tramp across the landscape like fleeing herds of buffalo. (And I have read that the drive to flee is to get away from the cloud of stinging insects that arise in their area.)
We are animals also, with a heightened sense of our own cleverness, that is unjustified. Now that we can observe our mistakes, and our refusal to admit and think about them, we have to use our cleverness to overcome our clever deviousness.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CU8gYYkwSw
being white, being pakeha, confers zero natural superiority over any other skin colour.
It grants no natural right or privilege over any other skin colour.
It grants no higher intelligence or natural ability over any other skin colour.
It brings with it no basis what so ever to believe in supremacy based on skin colour.
What it does do however is give rise to a ignorant, deluded, sick cancerous belief within a % of the white/pakeha population that somehow skin colour creates superior rights which justifies violence.
Being white/pakeha, that deeply offends me. We don’t need that type of vile filth in our gene pool. I look forward to the day when we have purged that fucked up filth out of our DNA.
You are limiting your statement far to much.
Instead of saying that “sick cancerous belief within a % of the white/pakeha population” you should simply say that “sick cancerous belief within a % of the every racial group in the population”
It isn’t just white people. It is every group of people who will have some percentage who consider themselves to be superior to everyone else.
It is that we have to change.
yes Alwyn, every racial group has it. I just happen to be angry and disgusted that this shit exists in my race, white/pakeha.
The particular piece of trash who perpetrated the terror in Christchurch is a disgrace and abomination to his blood lines. I find ideas of superiority based on race as abhorrent, such ignorant ideas within my own race the worst.
I am a kiwi and a pakeha kiwi and bloody proud to be one. Any arsehole who comes to my country to shoot my countrymen, whatever race ethnicity or religion they are, in the name of racial supremacy offends the core of who I am and what my country does or should stand for.
As I feel at the moment, if the solution to purging this rubbish from white pakeha NZ might mean we dilute the pakeha poluation to the extent we are no longer white skinned, well, lets all get busy with inter racial marriage.
I am as my grandfather said the product of the riff raff of Europe being a mix of English, Irish, Scottish and German but being 5th generation NZ I class myself as Pakeha. I agree that these people who want to keep NZ white offends ME, I do nor feel that my culture translates the best to the Pacific, I prefer to defer to cultures that have been here for 1,000 years and at least 4,000 generations.
What I am concerned with is where we go from here. Once we recover from our grief, do we slide back into being passively a “good” country? To simply “not be racist” when what is required of us is to be outspoken “anti-racists”? I don’t want thoughts and prayers. What I want to see is bold leadership, standing up and uniting in this message: that hate will not be allowed to take root and triumph here. And to then act on that message. I need us all to be courageous and really look inwards at the fears, judgment and complacence we may have allowed into our hearts, and look outward to demand a change in the conversation. And to be that change.
If the alleged shooter was responsible for events at both locations, then perhaps he should be recruited at the Commander of the NZSASR instead of being sent to prison.
This tragic event as being reported in the media just doesn’t seem plausible.
[Go down this track and your time here will rapidly come to an end. I’ve done the trip from Deans Ave to Linwood many, many times. For a person who has no regard for human life, it is entirely possible to do the drive in the time stated by the police. TRP]
Well since you don’t know how to use a dictionary i’m guessing that google is also beyond your skill set. If you do manage to work out how to use it you can find the relevant press conference by the Police Commissioner.
I wonder if Cantabs will be able to feel so proud of the name of their rugby team still, The Crusaders, though I am kind expecting that thought to fly right over the heads of many.
It would appear the Auatralian was here because of our easier gun laws, he would not have been able to legally acquire them and then train up on them over in Oz. So he came here to buy the weapons and then train on them here – all quite legally.
Other Australians, including their government, will be aware this is now a threat to their security, not just our own.
If our gun laws had tightened up in 2017, this person would not have come here.
It’s the misfortune of those at the Christchurch mosques that he decided to make his attack here, for two reasons maybe – the time and risk acquiring such weapons illegally when back in Oz, and because of the name of the city for his homeland people church vs foreign immigrant mosque attack message.
It wasn’t only in 2017 that the opportunity was missed. The first time I remember was in 1990, immediately after the Aramoana tragedy. If Parliament had taken the opportunity immediately to tighten up the laws on the sort of weapon you could own it would have been done.
The trouble is that neither major party was willing to go it alone and as time went by, and people forgot, the impetus was lost. Both parties realised that there were a lot of one-issue voters in the country and if one party tried to put it through they might lose votes to the other side, even if the other side didn’t oppose the bill but simply sat on the fence.
The only thing to do is for at least National and Labour to agree immediately on a suitable law. Then put it through on a joint basis without either party trying to claim the credit as their own.
Winston may, or may not, sound of about it but they should simply ignore him if he does. However do it in a strictly defined way, say a simple ban and buy back of every semi-automatic weapon and pass it. Get it done by the end of the month.
If that doesn’t happen immediately it probably won’t happen at all, just as it never happened in 1990. It isn’t just old men who forget. the bulk of the public will have forgotten the raw horror of yesterday in only a few months time and all those single-issue gun owning voters will be at the front of all the politicians minds.
Get it done this month,while you can carry the whole population with you.
However I do not think Winston Peters will have a problem with this. I think you are being a little harsh, perhaps even partisan.
There are three things need changing:
1 / Banning all semi automatic sales to the general public.
2 / Limiting the size of magazines – This , however is of lesser importance if the civilian population is only allowed single shot hunting, sporting and pest eradication equipment.
3 / Rate of fire. this however will be determined to be moot if number one – banning semi automatics – is successful. Rate of fire was developed in the 19th century to provide a tactical military advantage over an enemy ; Gatling gun.
There is no place in civilian firearms for military style equipment.
There is also a fourth , – that of licensing , – then registering individual firearms – and those firearms being directly linked by registration to that licensed firearms user.
This would cut out the black market sale of firearms to criminal elements.
There are certainly other things about the firearms situation in New Zealand that need looking at.
However I believe that there is, as of today, pretty general agreement that there is no place at all for semi, or fully, automatic rifles outside the Police and the Armed Services.
Banning them in the general public’s hands is something that should be done NOW. If that was put forward immediately I believe that the great majority of the public would accept it and the firearm owners who have these things would get little or no support.
If it becomes a great big investigation into the whole system it will be argued over for years, people will forget the raw horror of this event and nothing will happen.
We will simply have the whole thing becoming bogged down in discussions about whether, while we are at it, we should discuss whether duck shooting should be banned, or deer stalking or whatever. I’m sure there will be those who will want to ban farmers shooting stock that really do need putting out of their misery and so on.
The one thing we can do right now is to get rid of semi-automatic military style weapons. Let’s really do it and not, as is the norm, just talk about it.
The you can worry about the other things.
I don’t know who said it first but I’m sure you remember the comment “Never let a good crisis go to waste”. Well we have such a chance.
So bypass democratic processes, consultation and constructive functional lawful outcomes in lieu of dictorial decree.
Stalin, Hitler, Mao…any of these murderous despots names ring a bell !
It’s a very slippery slope once you start down the pathway “banning” without due process. Guns today, free speech tomorrow, next thing you know people are off to the gas chambers for simply having an opinion
Clearly you don’t understand the legal requirements and legislative process of our parliament under democratic Westminster system….neither does our PM who makes big media grab promises while the victims bodies are still warm.
its really quick sick, turning a tragedy into political opportunism.
4 Power to declare weapons to be restricted weapons or specially dangerous airguns
(1)
For the purposes of this Act, the Governor-General may from time to time, by Order in Council, declare—
(a)
any weapon (including an airgun) to be a restricted weapon; or
(b)
any airgun to be a specially dangerous airgun.
(2)
Any Order in Council made under this section may relate to any weapon or airgun specified by its name or trade name, or to any class of weapons or airguns identified by a description of that class.
(3)
An Order in Council made under this section is a legislative instrument and a disallowable instrument for the purposes of the Legislation Act 2012 and must be presented to the House of Representatives under section 41 of that Act.
Like I said, you clearly don’t understand how legislation work.
If you had any legislative understanding, you clearly understand the wording of Subsection 3, and the ability of The Queen (via divested powers to the Govener General) can make an Order in Council, however this Does Not become law, and is sent to the House of Representatives for review ( i.e to be discussed in senate voted upon)
Unfortunately, our Comrade Princess thinks she has powers, that simply don’t exist.
I never said, or implied, that Winston really was a racist. He doesn’t mind appearing to have a bit of a lean that way if he thinks there are any votes in it though.
However, as someone who will know precisely what the polls are saying about his parties popularity, he might decide that he will become the champion of the gun owners and come out in support of their right to own any sort of weapon they want. They will be, in his view, the salt of New Zealand society and he will be their champion.
There are, I gather, about 250,000 of them in New Zealand. If there are that many prospective votes available Winston will go to bat for them. Going to bat for the votes that is. Winston doesn’t really give a damn about any person except himself.
The terrorist claims his purpose is to provoke a reaction by Moslems which will increase domestic opposition to immigration by Moslems.
Given Islamists attacks in Europe were/are of a design to foster a sense of oppression of the Moslem community by western governments, his real purpose maybe to provoke a crackdown of social media use by white race groups to drive them underground and or radicalise them. Already there are calls to regard these groups the same as Islamist ones who have been barred from social media.
I’ve been tough on this government. But today I’m glad Ardern is PM.
Yesterday and today our PM has shown real class. In particular her comment in response to the trump and his glib comment about white supremacy not being a growing problem.
Asked if she agreed with him, she simply said, no.
I don’t think much of him as the Leader of the Opposition but I do think he would rise to the occasion if he were to leave out the politics unlike the POTUS …
Frankly I think that Simon did well, as did Jacinda. The only thing that does surprise me is that I haven’t heard a word from the Governor-General? Has she said anything on TV which I only watch on very rare occasions?
The Government does have a problem though in that the DHB doesn’t appear to understand the religious need to get the bodies buried immediately.
It is a cultural thing of course and the Hospital is naturally concerned for the living rather than the dead but they shouldn’t have been so slow to try and get the bodies back to the relatives.
Unfortunately it may end up in a slanging match. The relatives are already complaining about the slowness of the process and to most people not of the religion that looks a bit like ingratitude for the Hospital’s work.
The DHB is well acquainted with the cultural problems,it has more difficult circumstances with identification following the earthquakes,where (and as of now ) additional specialist pathologists have to be brought from outside including Australia
The PM provided a diplomatic response to Trump’s disingenuousness. Mia Farrow called him out with less subtlety saying , “As the President of the United States, one of your first acts was to ban Muslims. Your hateful, anti- Muslim, anti refugee words are heard around the world and can inspire the very worst in humans. You are not blameless in this slaughter.”
I want ,… my Prime Minister to enact gun laws against semi automatics and to relegate them only into the hands of our Police and Military.
I want , our Prime Minister to require all responsible NZ firearms owners who wish to own and train with pistols, carbines and hybrid firearms including semi automatics to use designated and legitimate and NZ Police vetted gun clubs as the only fit and proper place to use , train with and store and retain under safe storage practice the aforementioned arms.
Automatics and semi automatics have no place in the sporting , hunting or pest control endeavors of the civilian population of New Zealand. They are , by definition, only the preserve of tactical military application and in the case of the NZ Police , a means of suppression of offenders until such time as apprehension.
I move that all such firearms and their variants and hybrid capacity excepting those used for legitimate hunting or pest control and eradication or used under strict ad vetted sports activity’s be removed from sale and banned for use by the general New Zealand public.
At least you offered “thoughts and prayers” which is more than our PM could offer.
Our religion hating atheist PM could only offer “thoughts”.
Yet it’s well noted in today’s media, that our atheist religion hating PM was wrapping herself up in a Muslim headscarf for a photo opportunity with Muslim families.
So what is it PM, full time atheist unless there is some shallow photo opportunity…pathetic
This PM has no respect, just blatant media opportunism.
And clearly if she understood Islam, she would know that faith regards her lifestyle and morality far more judgementally than other mainstream religions. Moderate followers of Islam would laugh at her as a joke, hard liners however would be considerably more critical in there critique of her donning a religious headscarf.
Hey, I personally don’t care what her lifestyle choices are, but just don’t insult people with hapless disingenuous gestures for a photo opportunity in front of the media.
These people has lost family and friends, they need private time to grieve loved ones, not impromptu visits from Comrade Princess with the press gallery in tow.
I think what they need most is love and support. I am really proud that as a country we are providing that and that we have a PM who is actually capable of these things.
49 people are dead, it must be a bit fucking galling for their families to see newspapers lead with how angelic the victims’ murderer was as a child pic.twitter.com/K9DGwvQ3VO
Well, tonight’s tv news was full of coverage of Tarrant and his background. The efforts by a couple of folks here to deter discussion of that due to some criminologist not liking it obviously died a swift death. Grafton, the NSW town he was born in, features the family as a local institution: the camera showed a large sign saying Tarrant Bridge to illustrate this.
Yesterday’s narrative that he was the product of the Chch skinhead scene evaporated. First, he actually lived in Dunedin, they interviewed his neighbours (who called him friendly). Second, Oz coverage had him growing up there, so the prior report that he grew up here seems wrong. They said he’d travelled to many different countries in the past seven years since his father died. Inheritance explains that lack of need to work.
Now the cops reckon he was both shooters. No explanation of why the other people were arrested, so we await clarification of Paul Buchanan’s reference to a cell of ten. The cops will check that out in regard to adding the charge of terrorism to murder. Whether his manifesto advocated shooting of muslims is a key question re evidence.
If info on Shatpant’s background assists in rooting out more terrorists, then fair enough franky. No doubt industrious polce will look closely into the inheritance/funding issue.
Go on, you can cut straight to the end-game of all this JAQing off. I’m kinda curious what it’s going to be. A Soros-controlled false flag? Something to do with Hillary trying to undermine the Queens Rufous Loofah-faced Shitgibbon? The Illuminati?
Sadly disturbed individuals of all stripes will always be with us BUT if we continue to create the conditions that increase their prevalence we can do nothing but expect increased tragedy.
Why no state of emergency or counter-terror measures invoked? Black bag, intern & render anybody remotely connected to the toxic little man. Soldiers should be guarding all public facilities forthwith. Emboldened neo- Nazis are paying $1.10 to go again
As part of our solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters we should be insisting on a far more rigorous inquiry into the unlawful killing of Muslims in Afghan villages
The Hit and Run saga is state sanctioned terrorism
From what i have read Brenton Tarrant was from a poor family in Australia where his father was a ‘bin collector’ so he died before his son was to finish school obviously to support his mother and sister, and worked at a fitness coach at the local gym so he had issues then.
We do know from NZ school admin’s here that the study they made recently showed children need some government assistance to complete school curriculum to get a real career, so he probably was failed here by the system after his father died of asbestos cancer it says in his history.
Tarrant’s family in Grafton, Australia
Tarrant’s father, Rodney Tarrant, died of cancer at age 49 in April 2010, according to an obituary The Daily Examiner in Grafton. He was described as a “dedicated family man” and “competitive athlete.” According to the obituary, Tarrant’s father separated from his mother when he was young.
Tarrant’s family is currently “assisting and cooperating” with investigations from Grafton, nearly 400 miles north of Sydney, local police told CNN.
Apart from the gun control aspect, Australia owns this atrocity as far as I’m concerned. The guy was an Australian citizen, not in the country very long, and not radicalized here.
Maybe we should be considering our diplomatic relations with them especially in context of their deportation policy towards us.
This is a copy of a post I also posted as a comment elsewhere and thought it needed to be said here also:
The so-called Muslims Terrorists who commit Murder are actually just Right-Wing Fascists flying a false flag. The so-called Cristian Terrorists who are committing murder are also Fascists flying a false flag. It is time that the war on Terror is targeted against the true enemy that is these Fascists no matter what false flag they are flying and religious groups they claim to belong to. Arrest all those who facilitate and radicalize all these Fascists.
I’ve just had my dentist’s assistant cancel an appointment because my dentist is in Christchurch to help identify bodies. She is a forensic expert. Such a hideous thought that this is necessary.
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy preparing for our summer paper on Science Communication. Looking for something amusing about ‘risk’ in science, I came across this neat xkcd.com cartoon about why so many people come knocking on my door (or phoning me, or emailing me) desperately wanting ...
by John Edmundson The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) have recently reposted a February article, by Romany Tasker-Poland, explaining ISO’s position in the “trans rights” debate. It is available on their website and on their Facebook Page. The article sets out to explain why “socialists support trans rights”. It reads more ...
"Auckland City Mission: 10% of Kiwis experiencing food insecurity", RNZ, 16 October 2019:About half a million people are experiencing food insecurity, according to new research from the Auckland City Mission. Food insecurity, or food poverty, is defined as not having enough appropriate food. The City Mission said over the last ...
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...
Would You Buy A Used Propaganda Video From This Man? Bridges and the National Party’s strategists have discovered that the ideas and attitudes considered acceptable by today’s editors and journalists are no longer enforceable. The rise and rise of the Internet and the social media platforms it spawned means that ...
There is plenty of evidence of the way the business mentality has permeated every level of society since the recrudescence of market liberalism 35 years ago. You only need to think of how citizens in need of help from their government, their state, their country, are now routinely described as ...
John MacCormickOver the last 40 years, New Zealanders – and people in other countries – have experienced big changes in the jobs they do and where they live and work. These changes include: a decline in manufacturing jobs an increase in jobs in ‘information-intensive’ industries (which are better paid ...
Nick Wilson, Leah Grout, Mereana Wilson, Anja Mizdrak, Phil Shoemack, Michael BakerProtecting waterways has the benefits of: (1) protecting water from hazardous microbes; (2) minimising cancer risk and other problems from nitrates in water; (3) avoiding algal blooms that are hazardous to health; (4) protecting mahinga kai uses (cultural ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women In a press release today Massey University announced it has decided to rebrand and reorientate after struggling to be a University for grown-ups. For some time the University has wanted to be a safe play space for wee-woke-misogynists who have been really badly triggered ...
After a brief dalliance with 'hard Revoke' it looks like the Lib Dems are changing ground on on Brexit, with leader Jo Swinson reverting to calling for a second referendum on Johnson's deal.The party has tabled an amendment to the Queen’s speech requesting that any deal brought back from Brussels ...
The government has decided that someone has done Something Bad. But despite their belief, there seems to be no evidence that they have actually broken the law. So the government's solution is to pass a retrospective law allowing them to be punished anyway, on a lower standard of proof. If ...
So, Judith Collins has done a Facebook rant about climate change, peddling the same shit National has been shovelling for the past twenty years: the impacts are overstated, there's no need to do anything about it, and its too hard anyway (oh, and its so unfair that people who peddle ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThere is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...
I came across this song quite by accident. If it isn't one of Greta Thunberg's favourites - it should be.Video courtesy of YouTube.This post is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
Last month, NZDF's shoddy coverup of what it knew about civilian casualties in Operation Burnham began to fall apart, with the revelation that a report on the matter, which NZDF claimed not to have, had been sitting in an NZDF safe for the past nine years. Yesterday, the man responsible ...
While many imagine that countries like the USA and Europe dominate space activities, in fact India is now a major player on this stage. It launches satellites for its own purposes and also commercially, and has constellations orbiting our planet and returning data of vital importance to that nation in ...
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...
For the past week, Extinction Rebellion has been peacefully protesting in London to demand action on climate change. The British government's response? Ban their protests:Police have banned Extinction Rebellion protests from continuing anywhere in London, as they moved in almost without warning to clear protesters who remained at the movement’s ...
An essay by Judith Collins MP reported on Carbon News yesterday seems to show an alarming shift in attitude within the National Party. Collins argues against the Zero Carbon Bill, the Paris Agreement, and downplays the magnitude of climate impacts. The Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015 and ratified ...
When they were running for election, Labour promised to overhaul the Employment Relations Act and introduce fair pay agreements to set basic pay and conditions on an industry level, preventing bad employers from undercutting good ones. They followed this up by establishing a working group, which reported back in January ...
A list of indicators of bad science – many of these are found in articles promoted by anti-fluoride activists. Anti-fluoride activists have been pouring money into a scaremongering campaign warning pregnant women not to drink fluoridated water. They claim fluoride will lower the IQ of their future child. Fluoride ...
Nothing Left To Say: Labour's pollster, Stephen Mills, remains swaddled-up in the comforting myths of the 1980s. As if the experience of Roger Douglas’s genuinely radical post-Muldoon policy agenda was literally a once-in-a-lifetime thing – as much as the party could possibly absorb for at least the next 50 years.MEMO ...
The Royal Commission on abuse in care is very significant for the disability community. For many decades last century, thousands of disabled children, and adults who managed to survive, were locked away from families and communities. This was not for anything they had done, but for the perceived threat their ...
With an unfair voting system, uneven electorates and an un-elected upper house, the UK's "democracy" is barely worthy of the name. But now the government wants to make it worse:The government has been accused of suppressing voters’ rights with the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans ...
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, the building industry was building leaky homes which should never have been granted consent. Now it turns out they've been building dodgy office blocks as well:New imaging technology has revealed hundreds of major buildings nationwide have defective or missing concrete or reinforcing steel. ...
Local body election results were released over the weekend, to joy or despair depending on where you live. In Auckland, Phil Goff trounced John Tamihere, who is muttering darkly about running for Parliament again (but which party would want him?) Wellington is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weta Workshop, except ...
How could government evolve over the next decades? Reports of democracy’s imminent demise are greatly exaggerated. However, satisfaction with political systems in many countries is low, so there is much to do for governments of all political stripes to improve relevance and trust. Digital technologies are seen as one ...
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...
A Statement on Abortion Law Reform by the Council of Disobedient Women On the eve of bringing an end to antiquated, anti-women abortion laws Green MP Jan Logie intends to write women out of the Bill. With a stroke of the pen, the woke are aiming for total erasure ...
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...
The Ugandan government wants to murder gay people:Uganda has announced plans to impose the death penalty on homosexuals. The bill, colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda, was nullified five years ago on a technicality, but the government said on Thursday it plans to resurrect it within weeks. The ...
Freedom Of Speech? The Säuberung (cleansing by fire) was the work of the German Student Union which, on 10 May 1933, under the watchful eye of the Nazi Reichminister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, consigned 25,000 books to the flames in a ritual exorcism of “un-German thought”. According to the logic of the ...
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...
New Zealand has prided itself for decades with regard to its lack of pollution, and all will be aware that the ‘100% Pure New Zealand‘ meme is under threat through land, water and air pollution of various causes. There is another type of contamination that the country also faces: light ...
New Zealand’s media is doing its part in Japan, reassuring those in the path of the storm that they won’t miss any rugby while away from their flooded homes. New Zealand sports reporters stationed in Japan for the Rugby World Cup have had the rare and heartwarming opportunity to inform ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is the only Cabinet member in favour of putting it all on green. As Finance Minister Grant Robertson finds himself with an enormous $7.5 billion surplus, the Government has begun intense, at times contentious conversations about whether to put the money on red or black at ...
by Susanne Kemp At the start of September close to 100,000 school teachers went on strike in Jordan. They demanded a 50% pay rise. A pay rise actually agreed to by the regime back in 2014. In early October, however, in the face of government repression and threats, the teachers’ ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy do people still think climate change isn’t real?David ...
Back in 2011, journalist Nicky Hager published Other People's Wars, an expose on NZDF's activities over the previous decade of the "war on terror". NZDF didn't like this, and especially didn't like the fact that it was base don leaks from their own. So, they had the SIS investigate him ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
The Best Way: Missing from the on-line voting debate is any reference to the voting system that produces turn-out figures ranging from 77 to 93 percent of registered voters. The voting system used to collect and count the votes cast in our parliamentary elections. The system that involves citizens making ...
Among the great new bunch of political friends we have been making recently is the excellent Australian-based Marxist gender-critical site, Freer Lives. So we asked the comrade who set up that blog to write something for Redline on the blog, himself, his analysis of the rise of gender politics and ...
by Don Franks The Auckland City Mission is struggling with a 40 percent increase in demand for food parcels this year. A total of 23,020 were needed by June. Last month Missioner Chris Farrelly told the Herald the “cupboards are bare” and without an emergency food drive, he can’t see ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Massey Wellington Student Association had a sit-in today. Imagine a sit-in. On a campus. Against a women’s rights meeting. Did the ’60s really happen or did we fucking dream it? They gathered in the student square, an echo chamber. Sitting on soft pillows ...
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...
First, almost a score of Labour MPs seem to have sent a letter to the EU basically begging them to accept a deal - any deal - just so Britain can get the Heck on with Brexiting instead of being trapped in limbo:
by Phil Duncan In 2016 the National-led government suspended the Parent Visa Category, through which migrants were able to bring their parents into New Zealand. Since then over 5,700 people have been in immigration limbo, stuck on the visa wait list. Labour is now bringing back the scheme. Well, sort ...
The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
by Nick Rogers The debate around the meaning of sex and gender made an appearance at this year’s British Labour Party conference in Brighton. Women’s Place UK – an organisation that questions the demand that biological males who self-identify as woman should have access to women’s spaces, to all-women shortlists, ...
Yesterday I went down to Wellington to participate in the Extinction Rebellion protest. Its part of the latest global wave of XR actions, with actions happening all over the world. Some of those protests are massively disruptive: in Canada, XR is blocking major bridges, stopping people from getting to work. ...
The Workshop is a charitable trust for public good. The Workshop undertake research to find ways of communicating that will build support for the solutions that work to solve complex social and environmental problems. See their Report on Talking about Poverty and Welfare Reform below. ...
What is language? We generally assume that it a facility unique to humans, allowing us to share what’s in and on our minds. We can tell of our plans, our past exploits, our knowledge. It also allows us to lie. And yet there are vast numbers of people we can’t ...
Being and Being Bought (Spinifex Press, 2013) by Kajsa Ekis Ekman A synopsis and commentary of Chapters 1-2 by Daphna Whitmore Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book She opens the discussion with a definition of ...
I make no claims to having much legal knowledge, so I defer to those trained in this area.I am very much enjoying this twitter stream from m'learned friend in Edinburgh, deciphering the legal arguments around the Scottish court challenge to Boris Johnson, based on the charmingly obscure principle of Nobile ...
Ivory Folly? The University of Auckland’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, upheld the right of the radical nationalist group, Action Zealandia to exercise their freedom of speech – not matter how distasteful that speech might be. A wiser community of students and scholars would have nodded their agreement and moved on. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have delivered an upgrade of the SuperGold Card website and a new smartphone app, which will help unlock the full benefits of the SuperGold Card for 750,000 New Zealand seniors.Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters, ...
Delivering a key election campaign promise, New Zealand First is proud to have accomplished a long overdue upgrade of the SuperGold Card today. At an event in Auckland, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters joined Minister for Seniors Hon. Tracey Martin in unveiling the new website and smartphone app which ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand continues to have serious concerns for peace and stability in north-east Syria. “Recent reports that hundreds of ISIS-affiliated families have fled from a camp are deeply concerning from a humanitarian and security perspective”, Mr Peters says. “While we acknowledge Turkey’s domestic security ...
Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor is warning travelling Kiwis to be vigilant as the high-season for the crop-eating brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is under way. “We’re on high alert to stop BMSB arriving in NZ. The high season runs until April 30 and we’ve strengthened our measures to stop stink ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
The construction sector is being freed up to allow more homes to be built more quickly as the Government cuts through some of the red tape of the Building Act. “Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe home and old inefficiencies in the Building Act make building slow and ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has welcomed further details on the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall’s visit to New Zealand next month. Their Royal Highnesses will visit New Zealand from 17-23 November – their third joint visit to New Zealand and first in four years. They arrive in Auckland ...
Minister of State for Trade and Export Growth and Minister of Agriculture, Damien O’Connor, heads to Thailand today to attend the final Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Ministerial meeting, as negotiations enter their final stages. “The RCEP Agreement would anchor New Zealand in a regional agreement that covers 16 countries, ...
Pacific young people living in the Hawke’s Bay, Southland and Otago regions will have access to support services that have proved successful in helping young people find new earning and learning opportunities. “Tupu Aotearoa is about changing Pacific young peoples’ lives. Our young people are talented, they are smart, they ...
Introduction As the Minister for ACC I thank you all for the work that you do supporting New Zealanders in their literally most vulnerable moments. From those who hold people’s lives in their hands, to the people who research technique, technology and trends, your work is highly valued. A special ...
Notes prepared for speeches in Christchurch – Wednesday 9 October 2019 Today’s topic, “trends and opportunities for the New Zealand economy,” is certainly one getting a great deal of commentary at the moment. Looking across the media landscape lately you’ll notice we aren’t the only ones having this discussion. There ...
Minister of Health Dr David Clark and Associate Minister of Health Peeni Henare say this year’s World Mental Health Day theme is a reminder of why the Government’s work on mental health is so important. “This year the World Federation for Mental Health has made suicide prevention the main theme ...
Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni will represent the government at Australia’s Meeting of Cultural Ministers in Adelaide this week. “This year’s meeting is special because New Zealand is expected to become an International Member of the Meeting of Cultural Ministers at this Australian forum,” Carmel Sepuloni said. “The meeting is an opportunity to ...
Aotearoa Climate Emergency (ACE), a climate change network, will host a conference in Wellington on 11 November (Armistice Day) to promote holding a Citizens Assembly in 2020, as a way of breaking the current political deadlock on treating climate ...
MediaWorks’ owners have called time after years of losses from its TV division. Sources say the company will announce it is for sale – if no buyers emerge, it will close within months.Three is facing the biggest crisis in its three decade history today, as its ownership will soon announce ...
Sam Brooks reviews Amazon Prime’s Modern Love, an anthology series based on the New York Times column dedicated to ‘love in all its forms’. A first date that ends up in the emergency room. A flagging marriage that finds new energy through tennis. The founder of a dating app who doesn’t ...
If we want to grow support for New Zealand’s aid, we need to get better at partnering with the ‘unlike-minded’ as well as the ‘like-minded’, and much better at telling people what we do with the money they give, says Josie Pagani, Executive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Orsola De Marco, Astrophysicist , Macquarie University If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.How are stars made? –Zali, age 8, Karkoo, South Australia. How are stars made? Well, stars are not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gita Mishra, Professor of Life Course Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland All women know to expect the time in life when their periods finish and they reach menopause. Many might even look forward to it. What many women don’t ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul McGreevy, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare Science, University of Sydney Since ancient times, horse behaviour, and the bond between horses and humans, has been a source of intrigue and fascination. The horse-lore that has accumulated over the centuries is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachael Wallis, Lecturer and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Southern Queensland A move to the country is often presented in popular culture as an idyllic life, a place where you can escape the pressures of the city. It’s in television shows such ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW The just-announced inquiry into Australia’s retirement income system ought to be anything but run-of-the-mill. Taking place 25 years after the introduction of compulsory superannuation, it provides an opportunity to either fix a broken system, or discard ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allan McCay, Law Lecturer, University of Sydney The rise of artificial intelligence has led to widespread concern about the role of humans in the workplaces of the future. Indeed, Israeli historian, futurist and publishing sensation Yuval Noah Harari warns in his most ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Saunders, Phd candidate, University of Wollongong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains images and names of deceased people. You leave Sydney and head for holidays on the South Coast. You plan to catch a quick surf, ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Clayton Mitchell denies accusations around a night out, food insecurity on the rise, and UK PM Boris Johnson secures deal with dubious prospects.NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell has got himself in a spot of late night bother in a Tauranga ...
As the rugby world wrestles with the new reality that players can, and will, be dismissed for accidental contact with an opponent’s head it's worth pondering the fate of three All Blacks not selected for the Ireland quarterfinal. ...
A new exhibition in Raetihi offers a rare opportunity to see early, colonialism-focused works by Wellington artist Barbara Strathdee, writes Pat Baskett. ...
Italy's Ambassador to New Zealand Fabrizio Marcelli responds to Newsroom stories - and The Detail podcasts - questioning the price of imported tinned tomatoes in light of reports of slave labour in the industry in his home country. ...
A measles outbreak in Samoa suspected to be responsible for the death of a one-year-old was “inevitable”, according to an expert who thinks NZ could have prevented it. ...
The big shock of the results in the weekend’s local elections was the unseating of Justin Lester as Wellington mayor. We invited him to pen a sort-of-valedictory.My three years as the mayor of Wellington ended on Sunday and I will forever remain grateful for the experience.I’m also acutely aware of ...
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Alex Braae reviews a night spent on the Intercity overnight sleeper bus getting from Wellington to Auckland.The most important thing to understand about long haul bus travel is that it’s all about getting exactly ...
Britain and the EU have agreed new terms for divorce. But with the Conservatives’ Northern Irish support party unimpressed, can the British prime minister at last put an end to the interminable shitstorm?At last, a deal! A palpable deal! A path out of the endless brain-melt!“Where there is a will, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Government sources insist shock jock Alan Jones didn’t drive Thursday’s announcement of a cash payment to drought-striken farmers about to be turfed off their household support because they’d reached the four year time limit. They ...
The proposition that global warming driven by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a risk that needs to be dealt with has achieved a large measure of agreement among policymakers. The proposition that it has to be dealt with right now and at great cost has no such consensus.One point ...
A bill to improve the pastoral care of students living in halls of residence has flown through its first reading in Parliament, thanks to cross-party support. ...
In this week's MediaRoom column: could MediaWorks close its TV operations altogether? And the Herald restructures its newsroom to remove a layer of management and shake up its investigative team. ...
Twenty-five young people who represent the future of the Asia-New Zealand relationship have been acknowledged as ‘ones to watch’, by the Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono. ...
The taboo that surrounds immigration and our refugee qouta, are two issues rising in New Zealand that need to start being given attention to challenge the fruit loops of the far left. ...
Winston Peters has been ordered to answer questions about whether he received a letter from MSD asking him to check details of his living arrangements, three years before discovering he'd been overpaid. ...
To celebrate 10 years since the start of New Zealand’s Next Top Model, our reality TV podcast The Real Pod is going to recap it week by week. Here are 10 of the most incredible revelations from the very first episode. 1) Colin Mathura-Jeffree was an emo kidThis was the moment ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Terrorism bill Lydia Lewis and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Security expert backs new terror law proposal ...
Occupiers of the disputed land at Ihumātao have been shut out of talks with the government about finding a resolution, saying they haven’t had any direct contact with ministers in more than a month, writes RNZ‘s Te Aniwa Hurihanganu and Meriana Johnsen.The Māori King announced in September mana whenua had ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Fancourt, Adjunct Research Fellow, University of New England Feral cats are wreaking havoc on our native wildlife, eating more than a billion animals across Australia every year. But managing feral cats and reducing their impacts on our threatened species is challenging, ...
Later this month, the national commemoration of the New Zealand Wars, known as Te Pūtake o Te Riri, is to be held in Taranaki. Local community activist Vivian Hutchinson looks at how a history of conflict has shaped our sense of citizenship and describes how some people in Taranaki are ...
New Zealand First MP Clayton Mitchell is demanding an apology from security guards who booted him out of a Tauranga bar on Saturday night, describing them as politically-motivated "buffoons". ...
New Zealand First MP Clayton Mitchell is demanding an apology from security guards who booted him out of a Tauranga bar on Saturday night, describing them as politically-motivated "buffoons". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jerry Zhou, Lecturer, School of Medicine, Western Sydney University If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.Does chewing gum stay inside you for years? – Olivia, aged 12, Australia. Great question, Olivia! ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Elphick, Adjunct Research Fellow, Law School, University of Western Australia In March last year, Frances McDormand won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In her acceptance speech, she drew attention to the female nominees in the room and left them with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peggy Kern, Associate professor, University of Melbourne The Portal follows six individuals who undergo a personal transformation from trauma and struggle to calmness, self-acceptance, and compassion towards others. These personal changes are intertwined with contemplations about the broader struggles facing humanity and ...
Many hill country farmers could be locked into low-return agriculture by government policy, with little chance of breaking the cycle, according to the main meat producers' lobby, Beef + Lamb New Zealand. ...
The Southern DHB has apologised and pledged to change practices after a report into a young woman’s complaint about treatment which included being stripped naked and left unattended in seclusion for 12 hours. Here she tells her story.I’d forgotten the Health and Disability Commission was about to publish its report. ...
In the Chief Ombudsman’s latest Annual Report, contacts for advice increased 29 percent, while more use was being made of guidance material, including the 23 new or updated guides that were published in the 2018/19 year. ...
Fletcher's new offsite home manufacturing facility could be producing two homes a day within a couple of years. But for the moment this high-tech factory is underwhelming. ...
National's leader Simon Bridges says his party will pull its support for the new anti-terrorism legislation if the minister doesn't meet with them next week and start negotiating in good faith. ...
For the latest episode of On the Rag, notorious prude Alex Casey enlisted the help of sex toy expert and pleasure therapist Teddy Curle. It sounds a bit like ingredients for an avant-garde stir-fry recipe. Cauliflower. Kūmara. A jar of Vegemite. But what it actually is, sex toy expert Teddy Curle ...
It is deeply concerning that the state of our marine environment has not improved in the last three years. Resilient coasts and oceans are essential to New Zealanders' health and wealth, so urgent action is needed to address the decline. ...
Something’s crowning this Christmas, and it isn’t King Richard of Aldovia in his favourite tiara. Tara Ward looks at what Netflix’s new movie A Christmas Prince: A Royal Baby could mean for us all. Yesterday Netflix announced they’re about to give birth to the third instalment in the legendary series A Christmas ...
In a new initiative, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence is celebrating and recognising the careers of three Māori leaders and visionaries, who have a long history of bringing about major social change ...
The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) has welcomed the publication by the Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ of Our Marine Environment 2019 , the latest in the reports on the state of our environment. The report is available here . ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Campbell Brown, CEO of PredictHQ.This week we talk to Campbell Brown, the CEO ...
The Government has today released its discussion paper ‘ Designing a Fair Pay Agreements System ’ providing detail of what proposed law for Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs) could include. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Ruppanner, Associate Professor in Sociology and Co-Director of The Policy Lab, University of Melbourne The polls were wrong in the last US and Australian federal elections. Hillary Clinton was favoured to win at a margin of 85% to Donald Trump’s 15%. ...
Today is World Ecolabel Day and to mark the occasion New Zealand’s premier ecolabel has released a study showing the powerful environmental effect of ecolabelled products. ...
Family First's continued fight against attempts by the government's Charities Registration Board to deregister them is set to continue in the Court of Appeal in Wellington next week (Tues & Wed 22-23 Oct). In a significant development, the Charity Law ...
The actions of New Zealanders on land are increasingly harming the ocean’s ability to sustain life. Alex Braae looks at a worrying new government paper on the marine environment.What’s all this then?A new report from the Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ has sounded alarming warning about state of ...
Farmers for Positive Change (F4PC) congratulates environmental, recreation and public health groups for coming to a united position on the Government’s freshwater reform and finds significant areas of agreement with the Healthy Water, Healthy Future joint ...
In time for Auckland Artweek, Eloise Callister-Baker opens the door on a cluster of small Auckland art spaces, once off the beaten track and ephemeral, now finding cunning new ways to adapt and survive in the CBD property market. Auckland’s terrific documentor of art openings, Sait Akkirman of artdiary.co.nz, provides ...
Right to Life asks, why the Special Abortion Legislation Bill Committee is continuing to discriminate by refusing to hear the 2,740 submitters who have requested the right to make a ten minute oral submission on the highly contentious abortion Bill conceived ...
Winston Peters is calling on an old mate to give evidence in his landmark court case against government agencies over a leak of his personal superannuation details. ...
Government ministers are exulting over how the NZ economy is performing— and their own work in making it stronger. David Clark, standing in for Grant Robertson in Parliament on Tuesday, rejoiced at how solid the “underlying fundamentals of the NZ economy are”. He said the government accounts for the June ...
A campaign to ban the Forced Swim Test in New Zealand is in line with public opinion, according to a new survey commissioned by the New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society (NZAVS) and SAFE. ...
Environment, health, recreation, and water infrastructure groups have come together to support four essential policies to save fresh water in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Public Health Association, Forest & Bird, Fish & Game New Zealand, Environmental ...
"So many of our children are being violently harmed. Their innocence stolen and their bodies used for the sexual gratification and financial gain of those involved in the dark world of paedophillia. These innocent children are voiceless; nobody ...
Christchurch: The Next Day 
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy preparing for our summer paper on Science Communication. Looking for something amusing about ‘risk’ in science, I came across this neat xkcd.com cartoon about why so many people come knocking on my door (or phoning me, or emailing me) desperately wanting ...1 hour ago
Jo Swinson is doing even worse at this Being Sensible lark that I'd thought. I've just become aware of the following utterance
Today's IPCA report of police criminality: a police officer unalwfully tasered a fleeing suspect who posed no threat to anyone:The police watchdog has found an officer unlawfully tasered an Auckland man who broke his ankle jumping off a balcony to escape arrest. [...] To avoid arrest, the man jumped over ...20 hours ago
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...21 hours ago
Would You Buy A Used Propaganda Video From This Man? Bridges and the National Party’s strategists have discovered that the ideas and attitudes considered acceptable by today’s editors and journalists are no longer enforceable. The rise and rise of the Internet and the social media platforms it spawned means that ...22 hours ago
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz There is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...2 days ago
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...3 days ago
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...3 days ago
The Royal Commission on abuse in care is very significant for the disability community. For many decades last century, thousands of disabled children, and adults who managed to survive, were locked away from families and communities. This was not for anything they had done, but for the perceived threat their ...3 days ago
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...7 days ago
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...1 week ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...2 days ago
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...3 days ago
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...1 hour ago
Aotearoa Climate Emergency (ACE), a climate change network, will host a conference in Wellington on 11 November (Armistice Day) to promote holding a Citizens Assembly in 2020, as a way of breaking the current political deadlock on treating climate ...20 mins ago
MediaWorks’ owners have called time after years of losses from its TV division. Sources say the company will announce it is for sale – if no buyers emerge, it will close within months.Three is facing the biggest crisis in its three decade history today, as its ownership will soon announce ...42 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Orsola De Marco, Astrophysicist , Macquarie University If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au. How are stars made? –Zali, age 8, Karkoo, South Australia. How are stars made? Well, stars are not ...2 hours ago
As the rugby world wrestles with the new reality that players can, and will, be dismissed for accidental contact with an opponent’s head it's worth pondering the fate of three All Blacks not selected for the Ireland quarterfinal. ...4 hours ago
This week's biggest-selling NZ books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan NZ bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias. ...5 hours ago
A new exhibition in Raetihi offers a rare opportunity to see early, colonialism-focused works by Wellington artist Barbara Strathdee, writes Pat Baskett. ...5 hours ago
Italy's Ambassador to New Zealand Fabrizio Marcelli responds to Newsroom stories - and The Detail podcasts - questioning the price of imported tinned tomatoes in light of reports of slave labour in the industry in his home country. ...5 hours ago
A measles outbreak in Samoa suspected to be responsible for the death of a one-year-old was “inevitable”, according to an expert who thinks NZ could have prevented it. ...5 hours ago
Plans for Facebook’s proposed “stablecoin”, Libra, appear to be unraveling as awareness about its adverse effects grows. ...5 hours ago
Explosives were used to blast a millions-of-years-old rock overhang in a national park. ...5 hours ago
Medical issues, party leaks and a surprise resignation have taken their toll - but Winston Peters argues his party is as strong as ever. ...5 hours ago
What's different about what Donald Trump did this time to finally snap Democrats into action and launch an impeachment inquiry? ...5 hours ago
A bill to improve the pastoral care of students living in halls of residence has flown through its first reading in Parliament, thanks to cross-party support. ...13 hours ago
In this week's MediaRoom column: could MediaWorks close its TV operations altogether? And the Herald restructures its newsroom to remove a layer of management and shake up its investigative team. ...13 hours ago
Judith Collins is filling the blackhole that is National’s climate policy with social media posts appealing to science deniers. ...14 hours ago
A Tom Sainsbury snapchat celebrating the genius of Dan Brown. ...19 hours ago
Many hill country farmers could be locked into low-return agriculture by government policy, with little chance of breaking the cycle, according to the main meat producers' lobby, Beef + Lamb New Zealand. ...19 hours ago
Sky Television's shareholders have approved its deal to retain the Sanzaar rugby rights for an undisclosed sum, making it unconditional. ...19 hours ago
Fletcher's new offsite home manufacturing facility could be producing two homes a day within a couple of years. But for the moment this high-tech factory is underwhelming. ...20 hours ago
How can Jacinda Ardern announce that all gun laws are changing?
Has she got the support of NZ First or National?
I imagine she’s already had buy in from the opposition as well as her coalition partners. Bridges is on the same flight to Chch as Ardern this morning. I doubt he’s going to land at the airport and announce National oppose doing something practical to make NZ safer.
Who do you think will vote against it?
NZ First, maybe National,
There are over 250,000 gun owners in NZ, they might get a bit angry if politicians want to take away their weapons.
It’s hard work to get a firearms license these days, lots and lots of background checks, personal interviews with wives, partners, house visits etc.
I’m more concerned how this guy slipped through the net and wasn’t picked up as an unbalanced nut.
I don’t own a weapon by the way
I’m more concerned how this guy slipped through the net and wasn’t picked up as an unbalanced nut.
All systems can be spoofed. That is just playing with the probabilities – and fails as a strategy when the gun lobby groups eat away at it. Just look at the current strategies that the gun companies have been using in aussie to get around their post-Tasmania shooting.
Semi-automatic weapons allow even untrained fools to kill and injure a lot people very quickly. If this dickhead had to work a bolt each round, then he’d have been jumped quickly and the weapon taken away from him, as eventually happened.
The real issue here is that there are semi-automatic weapons available. They just need to be destroyed and not allowed on the market. That is a better way of playing the probabilities with the dickheads. That will reduce any death and injury rates.
It is also a lot harder to wrangle around a full ban
According to someone who read the killers manifesto
He hopes that his actions and his choice of firearms will cause further firearm restrictions and force firearms owners to take a side noting that they do little to protect the erosion of their rights.
Then again, Gun owners might see that it’s a good idea and happily relinquish the semi-automatic guns they own, as happened (after some minor grumbling) in Australia after the Port Arthur Massacre.
Seems likely, as to not give the bastards what they want.
The $100m funding boost our spy’s got was mostly for infrastructure and hardware which is fine for after the fact. To actually have a readable report in real time you need analyst making those reports. That just leaves a weapons ban as the most likely course of action.
Clearly another who doesn’t understand the failure that’s was Howard’s Gun Laws.
Read the ABS reports for gun crimes in Australia
Those of the far left just don’t understand attacking law abiding citizens has never worked throughout history.
Prohibition on guns is fine by the far left, but prohibit drugs that would be against their human rights. How many people are killed and injured on our roads through drivers under the influence of drugs in NZ every year, or how many woman and children subjected to physical violence due to drug use each year. How many drug overdose deaths each year, how many self harm incidents each years induced by drugs, how many psychiatric admissions each year by drugs….and the list goes on
That’s right, ban guns, not drugs….wake up you stoners
Oh dear the far left lines. Frankly law abiding citizens with military style weapons can just get over themselves.
False equivalence.
Better gun law consultation has already been done – we just need the will to act.
2017 ‘Police Minister Paula Bennett consulted with independent firearms experts, and accepted seven recommendations, but rejected 12.
“We needed to strike the right balance between public safety and the rights of legal firearms owners,” Bennett said at the time.’
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/97512128/opportunity-missed-for-nz-to-tighten-gun-control-laws
and 2016
”Police Association president Greg O’Connor also believed a mass shooting was “inevitable”, telling MPs police had noticed a massive increase in the number of firearms among “those who simply should not have them”.
“We’ve already had mass killings, there are mass killings happening in the United States, we would be naive to think we’re not going to have one here.”‘
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/83499342/mass-shooting-in-new-zealand-inevitable-without-action-on-gun-laws-mps-warned
Australia has benefited from their stand….
“We have an opportunity in this country not to go down the American path.”
Those were the words of former Australian Prime Minister John Howard before he radically changed Australia’s gun laws and – many believe – rid the country of gun violence on a large scale.
You will already be hearing some Kiwis clutching their gun rights. We have to decide which ideals we really follow in NZ. Are we actually clean and green? Are we actually peaceful and safe? Which country do we use as a model for our future?
Hi might just not have been a ‘certified nut’ but rather passed all check and balances had a good laugh at us and our little laws and went on to kill unarmed praying people in a house of worship.
so yes, maybe in NZ we don’t need semi automatics to go hunting?
BM not hard enough for this terrorist to get a gun.
It’s like suicide. The suicide rate dropped dramatically after they changed the lethally of house hold gas.
We will never prevent all terrorist acts, but we can slow them down but limiting their means………
Anyway why the hell does anyone need a semi automatic
She obviously hasn’t got yours. It why you are called a Right Wing Nut Job.
+100%
Why wouldn’t she have their support?
You mean there is another legitimate point of view?
By making some controversial announcement, she is effectively deflecting attention away from the fact the incompetent Government SHE LEADS have failed the NZ people and allowed this event to occur.
Sure the alleged terrorist pulled the trigger, but it was Ms Photopportnity and the Intelligence and Police she and her responsible Ministers that failed to identify this person as a risk.
I mean the alleged terrorist didn’t exactly hide his intentions, and had been posting regularly on social media for weeks.
As taxpayers we pay multi millions annually to our intellegence and Police services, and they can’t even see him when he’s standing in plain view.
No the Prime Minister failed the NZ people again, she is the boss so the buck stops with her.
Haven’t heard any talk of her sacking the relevant Government Ministers for Intellegence services or Police for gross neglect…no let’s just blame the guns.
will she launch a Royal Commission into how this could have occurred, given all the resources at her Governments disposal.
The PM current verbal flatulence on changing gun laws is nothing more than a smoke screen to press home her Marxist agendas and won’t change a thing for the security of the NZ people.
I suppose the guns sideshow doesn’t work for her, she could get her spin doctors to trot out more family photos for the woman’s magazines.
Wrong target.
It wasn’t the present Government that opposed sensible gun laws.
Or who set the spooks onto people that embarrassed them, ordinary citizens computers, and on harmless protesters, instead of terrorists.
BTW. Present day Labour is less “Marxist” than Muldoon. Unfortunately!
Gun laws are just another excuse to deflect attention from her Govenments failures.
You can put up all the defences you like to protect the PM, as all the gun laws in the world don’t stop terrorists. Just look up the Lindt cafe and Parramatta police HQ murders. Both incidents by Muslim males, both having no firearms licences, both firearms used were illegal.
Criminals, terrorists etc will always get their hand on illegal firearms
Changing our national laws only makes 1/5 of our population who are law abiding citizens the scapegoats for the Governments failure to identify this terrorist.
Domestic terrorists who don’t do stupid things that put them on police/security service radar can’t be stopped by anything other then old fashioned dumb luck. And police and security services can’t track people they’ve never heard of.
In reality, counter terrorism isn’t like the movies but hey, I’m sure there’s something new over on NetFlix to stroke yourself over.
Ah Joe90, the catch cry replies from the far left when the truth is too confronting…carry on like a tantric child being rude, abusive & threatening.
Stay in denial Joe90, it’s much easier for your sort to use hate speech from behind the keyboard than mounting a sound structured rebuttal.
My apologies for using too many big words you may not understand.
like a tantric child being rude
Muphry strikes!.
My apologies for using too many big words you may not understand.
Thanks for the laugh.
What a load of rubbish.
Look up where the guns used in shootings, in NZ, come from.
It wasn’t the present Government either, putting all the terrorism focus onto ISIS and the Middle east, or focusing in on kiwi jihadi brides (not currently living in New Zealand! ) joining ISIS.
No doubt Saintarnuad is even more outraged at these fairly recent Government failures too… yeah right!
Another Jacinta apologist eh Maui???
She’s been in power heading on for two years, when are you going to stop blaming the previous Government.
Face it, she’s proven to be a complete dud. There is some talent inside the Labour Party, maybe it’s time they stand up and puss this failed PM aside
It seems you who is doing all the deflecting attention away from the public glare on our inadequate gun laws that are way too relaxed for our own good and if you think that is a “controversial” statement then it says a lot about you.
Completely incorrect, the present firearms legislation requires review in light of recent events, but not attention seeking knee jerk reactions by a desperate PM whose interests lays deflecting any blame from herself and the Government.
So you think our PM is not responsible in any way whatsoever for the recent events? Would love to hear your views on how’s she completely blameless
Good that you agree with the PM’s announcement on the need to reform NZ gun laws. That is the topic of the thread; anything else is (a) deflection from this.
Unless Comrade Princess is now backing down and changed her position, Her verbatim quote was “banning”…not review or discussion
So are you suggesting she’s now changed her position since yesterday?
Where’s ya link? Not what she said at all.
Since you seem a helpful person you wouldn’t mind giving the full quote plus link, would you?
It’s been a long time since I’ve been this sad, I feel like our country has been cheated and our sense of togetherness has been shattered. It is so unfair that innocent people seeking safety in what should be a safe home in this country have been let down so badly.
A few puzzles remain, what of the car and people seen driving the gunman away from the Linwood Mosque ? Sure, recall is rarely reliable in such stressful enviroments but still, a few people saw it happen.
I cannot find a reliable timeline to explain how the arsehole got across central Chch that quickly to strike a second target.
Which attack came first, and how did the white Subaru get as far as Brougham Sreet after what must have been over 30 minutes since the start of the attack.
Was it just laziness on behalf of the Police to oppose full scale person and individual gun registration the last time legislation was proposed ?
All the details of what exactly happened will of course be carefully looked at there’ll be conclusions reached and discussions and debate about those conclusions. But as far as why it happened I’m not surprised. It’s interesting the culprits are described as extreme right wing. It’s just a shame that Bridges, Bennett, Collins, Mitchell and their mates don’t have the capacity to ever consider who decides where the line’s drawn.
Adrian, we all share your sadness and grief.
We also know some of the grief will move to the anger stage. I think Jacinda has given us a legitimate target for that. These weapons in the wrong hands are lethal. Australia took the opportunity to change their laws after the Port Arthur case, and we could do the same here.
As to delays in responding, perhaps it was some minutes before the police and responders realised two mosques were involved? It took some time for help to arrive.
We need to the city to mobilise now to locate the missing three year old, contribute to the fund, reach out to Muslim people with genuine support and aroha, and generally show what we are about. All genuine Kiwis care and feel terrible today.
I hope this helps someone
“All kids are different. They need different information to feel safe, they look for a different level of detail and they are impacted by different parts of the story. Nobody knows your kids better than you do, so it’s important to manage the conversation based on who they are, what they already know, and what it means for them.”
https://www.theparentingplace.com/how-to-talk-about/world-trauma/
Thank you for that, only this morning I for some reason realised that probably school children across NZ will turn up for the day and will have varying degrees of understanding or information on what happened in NZ on Friday, but they will hear about it and for some of them it may be the first time they have heard about it.
I know my daughter’s first inclination was that her son in some way didn’t need to know, or shouldn’t hear about the awful events in Ch Ch, to be fair I think it was an immediate instinct to “protect” her child.
The weekend has now passed and in case she hasn’t realised herself come tomorrow he will be at school I will be sending her the link to read so she can, if she has not done so, prepare him for what will no doubt be raised at school tomorrow.
I’m pleased it may help. It is a challenging conversation for us all and especially for the kids.
This is a clear sign of a changing world now as we begin to have a more libertarian ‘diverse’ population as most overseas first world countries have had for some time and have experienced the same ‘backlash’ from extremists, though most have been historically carried out by Islamic extremists to date as other will obvious evolve.
This is the price we are about to pay for the dramatic changes in the fabric of our changing culture sadly.
This is currently on the SMH website. From Waleed an Australian.
Certainly well worth while watching
Thank you – he spoke very well.
Good post thanks for putting up, well worth the 5 minutes.
How could this happen in NZ? Well as a regular on TS I notice how plugged in to the USA many are, to the extent they hardly discuss NZ at all. There have been many of these shooting accidents over there. When people get obsessed with the USA and their doings it would lead to copycat responses, from the number who are vulnerable to propaganda and outrage, eventually.
Then I notice that Radionz, and I suppose most news reporting private stations, (though I’m not sure about this), report in great detail every attack in the USA, getting the sheriff, the mothers, the colleagues, the bystanders…opinion in detailed reports during the news slot.
Then also there is always the reality of our government showing a lack of interest in NZ citizens needs as terrible holes in our welfare system show, there is a constant degradation of workers and low income lifestyles, while they encourage the rise of housing demand and prices beyond ordinary good citizens’ earning capacity to buy. Then they don’t even ensure there are good rental properties sufficient for the resulting demand from people who would once have been settled and in jobs affording them a reasonable living. Then the government has favoured cheap imports in return for export markets so much that the internal business community with jobs for people in NZ has collapsed because it can’t compete with the cheap imports flooding in and unbalancing our country’s financial standing. We live in a giant ponzi scheme, and though many won’t understand that, they see the results.
And then foreign people get let into the country as refugees. And they get looked after, and get houses. And foreign people are cutting off westerners heads. And it’s not right.
Blame the foreigners. That is basically the pathway to the atrocity we saw
yesterday. The bad stuff just keeps coming and builds up and there seems no end and the thought occurs that someone needs to do something, to show how wrong it all is….
All relevant points , gw…
The ‘world’ is an abusive environment, governments being prime movers in local and foreign abuse of human, animal, plant…
Silos nor vacuums lead to global atrocities such as these…
And as a result, global atrocities will continue on a daily basis…
You emphasise the points I was making OneTwo. It is a given that there will be serious matters happening in the world every moment! That means that we have to have our antennas up to catch the details but must not let ourselves
ignore our own problems, now and forecast to come, and we know that there
are big problems scientifically indicated, not just a prophesy like the daily sandwich-boarded man I saw once proclaiming ‘The End is Nigh’.
So we need to be extra bright, so many don’t want to know – have to be dragged complaining, threatening legal resort, to our truths in NZ. And TS can help by being bright and balanced. What other blog or media gives access to thought and opinion to the extent that TS does? Other blogs should be read and they gather comments, TS offers the fusion political cafe. And we care about our country, lot’s don’t, they skim across the water like those magic waterwalking insects (image below!), or they tramp across the landscape like fleeing herds of buffalo. (And I have read that the drive to flee is to get away from the cloud of stinging insects that arise in their area.)
We are animals also, with a heightened sense of our own cleverness, that is unjustified. Now that we can observe our mistakes, and our refusal to admit and think about them, we have to use our cleverness to overcome our clever deviousness.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CU8gYYkwSw
The Eagle has landed – More bloody foreigners – YouTube
being white, being pakeha, confers zero natural superiority over any other skin colour.
It grants no natural right or privilege over any other skin colour.
It grants no higher intelligence or natural ability over any other skin colour.
It brings with it no basis what so ever to believe in supremacy based on skin colour.
What it does do however is give rise to a ignorant, deluded, sick cancerous belief within a % of the white/pakeha population that somehow skin colour creates superior rights which justifies violence.
Being white/pakeha, that deeply offends me. We don’t need that type of vile filth in our gene pool. I look forward to the day when we have purged that fucked up filth out of our DNA.
You are limiting your statement far to much.
Instead of saying that “sick cancerous belief within a % of the white/pakeha population” you should simply say that “sick cancerous belief within a % of the every racial group in the population”
It isn’t just white people. It is every group of people who will have some percentage who consider themselves to be superior to everyone else.
It is that we have to change.
yes Alwyn, every racial group has it. I just happen to be angry and disgusted that this shit exists in my race, white/pakeha.
The particular piece of trash who perpetrated the terror in Christchurch is a disgrace and abomination to his blood lines. I find ideas of superiority based on race as abhorrent, such ignorant ideas within my own race the worst.
I am a kiwi and a pakeha kiwi and bloody proud to be one. Any arsehole who comes to my country to shoot my countrymen, whatever race ethnicity or religion they are, in the name of racial supremacy offends the core of who I am and what my country does or should stand for.
As I feel at the moment, if the solution to purging this rubbish from white pakeha NZ might mean we dilute the pakeha poluation to the extent we are no longer white skinned, well, lets all get busy with inter racial marriage.
Talking as if ‘race’ is an actual thing like you do enables these people to hold that one ‘race’ is superior over another.
100% alwyn.
End of story.
Thank you for that pragmatic and balanced opinion. I agree totally.
Me too Wild Katipo.
Alwyn is right here, as my dear departed mother taught me that “there is good and bad in everyone”.
and your skin colour is exactly?
Purple with yellow spots.
I am as my grandfather said the product of the riff raff of Europe being a mix of English, Irish, Scottish and German but being 5th generation NZ I class myself as Pakeha. I agree that these people who want to keep NZ white offends ME, I do nor feel that my culture translates the best to the Pacific, I prefer to defer to cultures that have been here for 1,000 years and at least 4,000 generations.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/384852/christchurch-mosque-terror-attacks-a-dark-day-of-grief-shock-and-unspeakable-heartbreak
A thorough background check into the idenities of all suspects please, this lunatic stuff could be a hallmark of manchurian candidates.
One shooter,two events .
One gunman is believed to be responsible for both shootings, police say.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/111313938/live-terror-attack-video-christchurch-mosque-shooting-muslims-new-zealand
And you thinks that’s possible?
If the alleged shooter was responsible for events at both locations, then perhaps he should be recruited at the Commander of the NZSASR instead of being sent to prison.
This tragic event as being reported in the media just doesn’t seem plausible.
[Go down this track and your time here will rapidly come to an end. I’ve done the trip from Deans Ave to Linwood many, many times. For a person who has no regard for human life, it is entirely possible to do the drive in the time stated by the police. TRP]
This tragic event as being reported in the media just doesn’t seem plausible.
That’s as being reported by the Police if you bothered to pay attention.
It’s actually being reported by the media, the police only release a statement
If you bothered with attention to detail
Attention to detail. Like “tantric” children and NZ’s “senate”.
Well since you don’t know how to use a dictionary i’m guessing that google is also beyond your skill set. If you do manage to work out how to use it you can find the relevant press conference by the Police Commissioner.
I wonder if Cantabs will be able to feel so proud of the name of their rugby team still, The Crusaders, though I am kind expecting that thought to fly right over the heads of many.
It would appear the Auatralian was here because of our easier gun laws, he would not have been able to legally acquire them and then train up on them over in Oz. So he came here to buy the weapons and then train on them here – all quite legally.
Other Australians, including their government, will be aware this is now a threat to their security, not just our own.
If our gun laws had tightened up in 2017, this person would not have come here.
It’s the misfortune of those at the Christchurch mosques that he decided to make his attack here, for two reasons maybe – the time and risk acquiring such weapons illegally when back in Oz, and because of the name of the city for his homeland people church vs foreign immigrant mosque attack message.
It wasn’t only in 2017 that the opportunity was missed. The first time I remember was in 1990, immediately after the Aramoana tragedy. If Parliament had taken the opportunity immediately to tighten up the laws on the sort of weapon you could own it would have been done.
The trouble is that neither major party was willing to go it alone and as time went by, and people forgot, the impetus was lost. Both parties realised that there were a lot of one-issue voters in the country and if one party tried to put it through they might lose votes to the other side, even if the other side didn’t oppose the bill but simply sat on the fence.
The only thing to do is for at least National and Labour to agree immediately on a suitable law. Then put it through on a joint basis without either party trying to claim the credit as their own.
Winston may, or may not, sound of about it but they should simply ignore him if he does. However do it in a strictly defined way, say a simple ban and buy back of every semi-automatic weapon and pass it. Get it done by the end of the month.
If that doesn’t happen immediately it probably won’t happen at all, just as it never happened in 1990. It isn’t just old men who forget. the bulk of the public will have forgotten the raw horror of yesterday in only a few months time and all those single-issue gun owning voters will be at the front of all the politicians minds.
Get it done this month,while you can carry the whole population with you.
Yes indeed, and again , 100% support.
However I do not think Winston Peters will have a problem with this. I think you are being a little harsh, perhaps even partisan.
There are three things need changing:
1 / Banning all semi automatic sales to the general public.
2 / Limiting the size of magazines – This , however is of lesser importance if the civilian population is only allowed single shot hunting, sporting and pest eradication equipment.
3 / Rate of fire. this however will be determined to be moot if number one – banning semi automatics – is successful. Rate of fire was developed in the 19th century to provide a tactical military advantage over an enemy ; Gatling gun.
There is no place in civilian firearms for military style equipment.
There is also a fourth , – that of licensing , – then registering individual firearms – and those firearms being directly linked by registration to that licensed firearms user.
This would cut out the black market sale of firearms to criminal elements.
There are certainly other things about the firearms situation in New Zealand that need looking at.
However I believe that there is, as of today, pretty general agreement that there is no place at all for semi, or fully, automatic rifles outside the Police and the Armed Services.
Banning them in the general public’s hands is something that should be done NOW. If that was put forward immediately I believe that the great majority of the public would accept it and the firearm owners who have these things would get little or no support.
If it becomes a great big investigation into the whole system it will be argued over for years, people will forget the raw horror of this event and nothing will happen.
We will simply have the whole thing becoming bogged down in discussions about whether, while we are at it, we should discuss whether duck shooting should be banned, or deer stalking or whatever. I’m sure there will be those who will want to ban farmers shooting stock that really do need putting out of their misery and so on.
The one thing we can do right now is to get rid of semi-automatic military style weapons. Let’s really do it and not, as is the norm, just talk about it.
The you can worry about the other things.
I don’t know who said it first but I’m sure you remember the comment “Never let a good crisis go to waste”. Well we have such a chance.
Well said @Alwyn!
So bypass democratic processes, consultation and constructive functional lawful outcomes in lieu of dictorial decree.
Stalin, Hitler, Mao…any of these murderous despots names ring a bell !
It’s a very slippery slope once you start down the pathway “banning” without due process. Guns today, free speech tomorrow, next thing you know people are off to the gas chambers for simply having an opinion
If the “due process” involves ministerial regulation already empowered by current laws, your “slippery slope” is simply a flat plain to walk over.
And if it requires legislative change, this is why “due process” includes things like legislation passed under urgency. So again, no slope.
But if you have a large enough chip on your shoulder, the lean might make the plain look like a slope, I suppose.
Clearly you don’t understand the legal requirements and legislative process of our parliament under democratic Westminster system….neither does our PM who makes big media grab promises while the victims bodies are still warm.
its really quick sick, turning a tragedy into political opportunism.
Like I said, you clearly don’t understand how legislation work.
If you had any legislative understanding, you clearly understand the wording of Subsection 3, and the ability of The Queen (via divested powers to the Govener General) can make an Order in Council, however this Does Not become law, and is sent to the House of Representatives for review ( i.e to be discussed in senate voted upon)
Unfortunately, our Comrade Princess thinks she has powers, that simply don’t exist.
discussed in senate?
and no, it does not become “law”. It becomes a legislative instrument in force unless parliament explicitly decides to disallow it.
You might want to familiarise yourself with terms as used in the NZ system of government.
The irony is strong in this one!
100% again Wld Katipo.
Winston is not a racist at all.
I never said, or implied, that Winston really was a racist. He doesn’t mind appearing to have a bit of a lean that way if he thinks there are any votes in it though.
However, as someone who will know precisely what the polls are saying about his parties popularity, he might decide that he will become the champion of the gun owners and come out in support of their right to own any sort of weapon they want. They will be, in his view, the salt of New Zealand society and he will be their champion.
There are, I gather, about 250,000 of them in New Zealand. If there are that many prospective votes available Winston will go to bat for them. Going to bat for the votes that is. Winston doesn’t really give a damn about any person except himself.
Alwyn said “if he thinks there are any votes in it”
Yes that’s politics.
And it is not only ‘exclusive’ to Winston.
But every Politician ‘feathers their own nest’ for the future don’t they?
It’s really ‘all about the money for most politicians’- from what i see.
The terrorist claims his purpose is to provoke a reaction by Moslems which will increase domestic opposition to immigration by Moslems.
Given Islamists attacks in Europe were/are of a design to foster a sense of oppression of the Moslem community by western governments, his real purpose maybe to provoke a crackdown of social media use by white race groups to drive them underground and or radicalise them. Already there are calls to regard these groups the same as Islamist ones who have been barred from social media.
Just over 50,000 New Zealanders are Muslims.
1 out of every 1,000 Muslim New Zealanders were killed yesterday.
And another 1 out of every 1000 wounded.
I’ve been tough on this government. But today I’m glad Ardern is PM.
Yesterday and today our PM has shown real class. In particular her comment in response to the trump and his glib comment about white supremacy not being a growing problem.
Asked if she agreed with him, she simply said, no.
+1.
Can you imagine Simon Bridges mangling the multiple press conferences required?
I don’t think much of him as the Leader of the Opposition but I do think he would rise to the occasion if he were to leave out the politics unlike the POTUS …
Frankly I think that Simon did well, as did Jacinda. The only thing that does surprise me is that I haven’t heard a word from the Governor-General? Has she said anything on TV which I only watch on very rare occasions?
The Government does have a problem though in that the DHB doesn’t appear to understand the religious need to get the bodies buried immediately.
It is a cultural thing of course and the Hospital is naturally concerned for the living rather than the dead but they shouldn’t have been so slow to try and get the bodies back to the relatives.
Unfortunately it may end up in a slanging match. The relatives are already complaining about the slowness of the process and to most people not of the religion that looks a bit like ingratitude for the Hospital’s work.
The DHB is well acquainted with the cultural problems,it has more difficult circumstances with identification following the earthquakes,where (and as of now ) additional specialist pathologists have to be brought from outside including Australia
.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1903/S00119/message-from-the-queen-to-the-governor-general.htm [Saturday, 16 March 2019, 12:51 pm]
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1903/S00113/message-from-the-governor-general-christchurch.htm [Friday, 15 March 2019, 5:35 pm]
Bridges has already “burnt his bridges” and is now ‘dead man walking’
The PM provided a diplomatic response to Trump’s disingenuousness. Mia Farrow called him out with less subtlety saying , “As the President of the United States, one of your first acts was to ban Muslims. Your hateful, anti- Muslim, anti refugee words are heard around the world and can inspire the very worst in humans. You are not blameless in this slaughter.”
Gotta respect Mia Farrow for that.
Really…
This would be the same MIA Farrow who protected her peado husband while he was having sexual relations with their adopted child.
Yea, what a bastion of moral fortitude she is !!!
People can be complicated.
I’m sure you’d be a massive enigma if we ever got to know you.
And trump said he like to have sex with his daughter, so there is that…
Also adam when trump asked Jacinda what could he do she said said reach out to Muslim communities with love and sympathy
Indeed, our PM was all class.
I want ,… my Prime Minister to enact gun laws against semi automatics and to relegate them only into the hands of our Police and Military.
I want , our Prime Minister to require all responsible NZ firearms owners who wish to own and train with pistols, carbines and hybrid firearms including semi automatics to use designated and legitimate and NZ Police vetted gun clubs as the only fit and proper place to use , train with and store and retain under safe storage practice the aforementioned arms.
Automatics and semi automatics have no place in the sporting , hunting or pest control endeavors of the civilian population of New Zealand. They are , by definition, only the preserve of tactical military application and in the case of the NZ Police , a means of suppression of offenders until such time as apprehension.
I move that all such firearms and their variants and hybrid capacity excepting those used for legitimate hunting or pest control and eradication or used under strict ad vetted sports activity’s be removed from sale and banned for use by the general New Zealand public.
Blerta – Dance All Around The World – YouTube
Can’t work out if your running for office, or just expecting 5,000,000 Kiwi’s to just bow down to your demands because “you want”
‘Hey hey Woodie Guthrie I know that you know’d, all the things that I’m [we’re] saying and a million times more.’
If you think people quietly praying at a mosque in a peaceful country are your enemy, then you have a very long way to go.
My thoughts and prayers are with those who have had to go through this heartbreaking tragedy.
At least you offered “thoughts and prayers” which is more than our PM could offer.
Our religion hating atheist PM could only offer “thoughts”.
Yet it’s well noted in today’s media, that our atheist religion hating PM was wrapping herself up in a Muslim headscarf for a photo opportunity with Muslim families.
So what is it PM, full time atheist unless there is some shallow photo opportunity…pathetic
There is a thing called respect. You might need to use a dictionary as you obviously have no idea of this concept.
This PM has no respect, just blatant media opportunism.
And clearly if she understood Islam, she would know that faith regards her lifestyle and morality far more judgementally than other mainstream religions. Moderate followers of Islam would laugh at her as a joke, hard liners however would be considerably more critical in there critique of her donning a religious headscarf.
Hey, I personally don’t care what her lifestyle choices are, but just don’t insult people with hapless disingenuous gestures for a photo opportunity in front of the media.
These people has lost family and friends, they need private time to grieve loved ones, not impromptu visits from Comrade Princess with the press gallery in tow.
I think what they need most is love and support. I am really proud that as a country we are providing that and that we have a PM who is actually capable of these things.
In the darkest night, the stars shine brightest.
FFS.
Well, tonight’s tv news was full of coverage of Tarrant and his background. The efforts by a couple of folks here to deter discussion of that due to some criminologist not liking it obviously died a swift death. Grafton, the NSW town he was born in, features the family as a local institution: the camera showed a large sign saying Tarrant Bridge to illustrate this.
Yesterday’s narrative that he was the product of the Chch skinhead scene evaporated. First, he actually lived in Dunedin, they interviewed his neighbours (who called him friendly). Second, Oz coverage had him growing up there, so the prior report that he grew up here seems wrong. They said he’d travelled to many different countries in the past seven years since his father died. Inheritance explains that lack of need to work.
Now the cops reckon he was both shooters. No explanation of why the other people were arrested, so we await clarification of Paul Buchanan’s reference to a cell of ten. The cops will check that out in regard to adding the charge of terrorism to murder. Whether his manifesto advocated shooting of muslims is a key question re evidence.
If info on Shatpant’s background assists in rooting out more terrorists, then fair enough franky. No doubt industrious polce will look closely into the inheritance/funding issue.
There now appears to be some questions as to whether the alleged shooter has posted the online material himself.
More questions being raised as to how he could pull this off himself in just over 30 minutes at two seperate locations.
Christchurch central police station is under a kilometre from the mosque, what was the delay in responding???
Conflicting Witness statements in the media don’t all marry up with the suspect currently before the courts
This whole event is really becoming as questionable as it is tragic
Go on, you can cut straight to the end-game of all this JAQing off. I’m kinda curious what it’s going to be. A Soros-controlled false flag? Something to do with Hillary trying to undermine the Queens Rufous Loofah-faced Shitgibbon? The Illuminati?
Can’t be sure, but apparently Elvis was also seen in the vicinity
The headcam show the journey around HP and down bealy
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/17FE1/production/_106037289_christchurch_mosque_attacks_map04_976-nc.png
Sadly disturbed individuals of all stripes will always be with us BUT if we continue to create the conditions that increase their prevalence we can do nothing but expect increased tragedy.
Why no state of emergency or counter-terror measures invoked? Black bag, intern & render anybody remotely connected to the toxic little man. Soldiers should be guarding all public facilities forthwith. Emboldened neo- Nazis are paying $1.10 to go again
Because that would be simply moronic.
The best way NZ can react is by living life as we always have, not by becoming a fearful, undignified and reactive nation like the US did after 9/11.
As part of our solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters we should be insisting on a far more rigorous inquiry into the unlawful killing of Muslims in Afghan villages
The Hit and Run saga is state sanctioned terrorism
From what i have read Brenton Tarrant was from a poor family in Australia where his father was a ‘bin collector’ so he died before his son was to finish school obviously to support his mother and sister, and worked at a fitness coach at the local gym so he had issues then.
We do know from NZ school admin’s here that the study they made recently showed children need some government assistance to complete school curriculum to get a real career, so he probably was failed here by the system after his father died of asbestos cancer it says in his history.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/16/asia/new-zealand-suspect-brenton-tarrant-about-intl/index.html
Tarrant’s family in Grafton, Australia
Tarrant’s father, Rodney Tarrant, died of cancer at age 49 in April 2010, according to an obituary The Daily Examiner in Grafton. He was described as a “dedicated family man” and “competitive athlete.” According to the obituary, Tarrant’s father separated from his mother when he was young.
Tarrant’s family is currently “assisting and cooperating” with investigations from Grafton, nearly 400 miles north of Sydney, local police told CNN.
Apart from the gun control aspect, Australia owns this atrocity as far as I’m concerned. The guy was an Australian citizen, not in the country very long, and not radicalized here.
Maybe we should be considering our diplomatic relations with them especially in context of their deportation policy towards us.
This is a copy of a post I also posted as a comment elsewhere and thought it needed to be said here also:
The so-called Muslims Terrorists who commit Murder are actually just Right-Wing Fascists flying a false flag. The so-called Cristian Terrorists who are committing murder are also Fascists flying a false flag. It is time that the war on Terror is targeted against the true enemy that is these Fascists no matter what false flag they are flying and religious groups they claim to belong to. Arrest all those who facilitate and radicalize all these Fascists.
This Saintarnuad clown seems like another Tarrant in the making.
I’ve just had my dentist’s assistant cancel an appointment because my dentist is in Christchurch to help identify bodies. She is a forensic expert. Such a hideous thought that this is necessary.