Three News just reported that the sea-level monitoring website has been crashed most of the day due to so many people trying to use it – although the RNZ news earlier suggested there could have been cyber-attacks. Disgruntled Nat voters in denial linked to US corporate hacksters I guess.
So Petone's drain network now has a shelf-life of less than 20 years. Freak-out time. They interviewed a middle-aged male pakeha who had a couple of teenage boys with him who said he's not worried because he's never seen the sea rise. Oughta join the Nats & stand for parliament, eh? Whereas the next pakeha male they asked, elderly, said he'd already shifted from central Petone to up in the hills.
Luxon gave his pre-budget speech without mentioning climate change. She'll be right. Some of his mates living on the Takapuna waterfront will have to use nudge theory on him sometime soon…
If I heard the story correctly on TV1, former National Party MP, Matt King has received a letter informing him he will be arrested if he enters the parliamentary precinct. All those known to have participated in the protest are said to have been banned from parliament grounds.
That means Winston Peters should have received one too.
Those who participate in a protest that the sitting government disapproves of will be banned form participating in democracy at the seat of that democracy.
…they plumbed semi-permanent toilets and showers into the mains.
Ablution facilities?!? But this was 'the river of filth'…how dare they not live up to their name?
So. The Government still pissed off eh? Can't get their tiny brains around the fact that thousands of fairly ordinary Kiwis gathered together and without any clear leadership built a village. Built a community. Organised…
… the security detail, the laundry service, the first aid tent, the free food and drinks, the children's entertainment, the singing and dancing and the telling of stories. The political discussion and the health discussions and the provision of a venue to discuss the physical harms from the Covid shots and the emotional harms from the unjustified vaccine mandates.
Oh, that's right…these protestors were not real New Zealanders.
They desecrated the land on which our democratically elected parliament is situated. They illegally camped on the grass and forecourt. They left behind indescribable litter when they were finally driven off the precinct. They set fire to trees and debris. They left graffiti on buildings and pathways. They forced the closure of the surrounding streets making it impossible for residents and visitors to be able to enter or leave the area – not to mention the disruption to parliament and general governance of the country. They were rude and abusive. They attacked police officers who were only doing their duty to protect parliament and those who worked there. They bullied and frightened ordinary citizens going about their lawful business including schoolboys and schoolgirls. In short, their behaviour was appalling.
And what did they achieve? Nothing.
The vast majority of NZers were disgusted at what they saw with their own eyes. If this latest development acts as a deterrent for the future then it will be worthwhile.
I agree. Worst of all was the threats and misogyny aimed at the PM.
Dissent does not allow threats to life and limb. Some are still carrying on with their self appointed "Sherrifs", so they do need to be reminded they overstepped protest and became a mob.
Because of course in your world, the world constructed for you by the government being challenged and their pet mainstream media, the protestors were one amorphous mass acting incomplete sync.
This of course is complete and utter rubbish, as you would know if you'd been brave enough to step outside of your tiny bubble and made a genuine attempt to see the individuals involved and at least listen respectfully to their issues.
Judging the whole by the tiny minority of arseholes in attendance is of course unreasonable and unfair. But hey…not New Zealanders…right?
Oh, the 'graffiti' was done in chalk.
And what did we achieve…that remains to be seen.
Oh, how's the booster and 5-11 year old vaccination program going? Seems to me that many folks are voting with their sleeves.
This of course is complete and utter rubbish, as you would know if you'd been brave enough to step outside of your tiny bubble and made a genuine attempt to see the individuals involved and at least listen respectfully to their issues.
Listen respectfully to a bunch of crackpots and ne'er do wells bellowing on about "fascist government" and "evil prime-minister"? Most of them wouldn't know a fascist if they fell over one. "They" were the stupid and misguided together with the crackpots, the haters and the thugs which made up the bulk of the mob. Anyone with any sense of 'non-violent protest within acceptable bounds' was out of there after the first few days.
Please do return to your insular bubble of make-believe and leave the grown-ups to have a nice conversation among themselves.
They parked, illegally. They installed toilets, illegally. They camped, illegally.
These 'fairly ordinary Kiwis' are not fairly ordinary at all, they are fringe, anti-establishment, conspiracy nutters who have been captured by well funded international anti-vax movements.
They are real New Zealanders, but they are also a major embarrassment.
It appears arrangements have been made with their Bank to finish the 8 homes. Seems like common sense has prevailed to avoid a domino effect with smaller tradies caught up.
It only took five years for the proverbial slope to come into view, when the Canadian parliament enacted Bill C-7, a sweeping euthanasia law which repealed the ‘reasonably foreseeable’ requirement – and the requirement that the condition should be ‘terminal’. Now, as long as someone is suffering from an illness or disability which ‘cannot be relieved under conditions that you consider acceptable’, they can take advantage of what is now known euphemistically as ‘medical assistance in dying’ (MAID for short) for free.
Soon enough, Canadians from across the country discovered that although they would otherwise prefer to live, they were too poor to improve their conditions to a degree which was acceptable.
Not coincidentally, Canada has some of the lowest social care spending of any industrialised country, palliative care is only accessible to a minority, and waiting times in the public healthcare sector can be unbearable, to the point where the same Supreme Court which legalised euthanasia declared those waiting times to be a violation of the right to life back in 2005.
A failing health system and a lack of trained staff and an euthanasia bill…coincidence?
The Human Rights type cases I have been involved in with respect to disability supports in NZ have often spent much time in Court referring and deferring to the Canadian Human Rights legislation.
This was the gist of the submission I made on the last Euthanasia Bill. Back when I still clung to a shred of hope the effort counted for something
It will happen here that people will opt for the blue juice rather than trust that the health and disability and social support system will rally around to allow a stressless life while facing debility and perhaps death.
If we had a kind government…
We know a spinal injured Kiwi living in Canada at the moment and it sounds like he's able to access reasonable care. Well…that was a while back. They have legal access to Cannabis over there…I think that helps.
I despair. As Pat also points out…a failing health system etc. It's not just here. Not just Canada. Not just the UK. Hard to believe we're all of us victims of incompetent leadership for the past forty years. I ascribe it to malice.
When nurses are paid the same as real estate agents we might see a bit of balance in the health sector. At the moment the tax & regulatory structure of most western economies encourages insanely huge asset bubbles, not properly paid workers.
So many broken promises from so many successive NZ governments and the situation in health, disability, aged care, housing, education and social care has only go worse.
The 'I had good treatment so the system must be working…' comments here from some on The Left I find almost offensive. It is clearly obvious why nothing has got appreciably better for most, when so many choose to place their privileged experiences above the inadequate treatment many others have in the same system.
Until all voters demand that these taxpayer funded services work equally well or all ….nothing will change.
"The 'I had good treatment so the system must be working…' comments here from some on The Left I find almost offensive. "
I had a discussion with a friend whose wife had gone through a horrific birth experience at a hospital, and went through the stressful complaints process. During the intervening time he snapped his tendons, and was treated at the same hospital.
After she updated the table on how the complaint was progressing, he offered this: "My experience was completely different. Everyone I saw was great."
I'd say, words failed me – but of course they didn't.
Sure, because ultra-conservative Tory troll rag The Spectator, owned by the same oligarch who owns the Telegraph and formerly edited by Boris Johnson is an accurate and impartial source…
And also: Four Toronto doctors were aware of Sophia’s case and they also wrote to federal housing and disability government officials on her behalf. In that letter the doctors confirmed that her symptoms improved in cleaner air environments and asked for help to find or build a chemical-free residence.
“We physicians find it UNCONSCIONABLE that no other solution is proposed to this situation other than medical assistance in dying,” they wrote.
The letter was signed by Dr. Lynn Marshall, an environmental physician, Dr. Chantal Perrot, a family physician and MAiD provider, Dr. Justine Dembo, a psychiatrist, and Dr. James Whyte, a family doctor and psychotherapist. The physicians who wrote the letter all declined to speak to CTV News.
We all hate Australia for its policy of jailing refugees as a "disincentive" for people to try and escape torture and persecution. But New Zealand does this too, on a much lesser scale. last year, the government finally ordered a review of this disgusting practice. Today, that review reported back, ...
For the last three decades the global geopolitical system has been in a state of transition. It first transited from the tight bi-polar arrangement of the Cold War, where two nuclear superpowers with closely integrated alliance systems (NATO and the Warsaw Pact, plus other related networks) strategicaly balanced each other ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been perceived as “softening her line on wealth taxes” – and therefore being open to the introduction of a new type of progressive taxation on the rich. This was the description published yesterday by leftwing wealth researcher Max Rashbrooke, who was reporting on the fact ...
On 24 April the Minister for Māori Development, the Hon. Willie Jackson, stated on TVNZ’s Q+A programme that government plans for Māori co-governance were part of MMP. It meant ‘shared decision-making’, ‘partnership’, ‘diversity, about minorities working together’. ‘Co-governance is based on the principles of MMP, this is a consensus type ...
Below is an excerpt of a talk by journalist Karl du Fresne given at Victoria University on 28 April 2022 for the Free Speech Union. Here he examines the trends that are undermining a free press. [F]ree speech goes hand in hand with a free press – but it’s now ...
Braking And Entering: The CCTV recording of the ram-raid against Auckland’s Ormiston Mall is so disturbing, so inspiring of dread and rage, that no amount of rational commentary will make the slightest difference. It confirms in the most powerful fashion the stories so many New Zealanders have been telling themselves: ...
The Author of this Dorset Eye article, Ukraine – a beginner’s guide, says: “In 2014, the journalist and writer John Pilger wrote an article for The Guardian newspaper entitled ‘In Ukraine the US is dragging us towards war with Russia’.[i] Eight years later, in 2022, this prediction came true when ...
What's better than some Cranky Uncle cartoons scattered around here or there? A collection of them, cross-referenced with the fallacies they depict, of course! And this is what we highlight in this blog post. John Cook had made these cartoons available for download on his Cranky Uncle website in March 2021 ...
For decades now we've known that climate change will cause sea-level rise. In Aotearoa, the projections so far have been for 30cm by 2050, and 1m by 2100 - a level which is catastrophic to low-lying areas and coastal infrastructure and which is going to cost us billions of dollars ...
Losses to Australian teams over the weekend by both the Crusaders and Hurricanes have been greeted with shock and surprise by New Zealand rugby fans. Yet, an at least partial explanation is available; the two losses were both set in motion early in each match by a play that is ...
One of the more infuriating aspects of the current political debate is the way the National Party says it would be more rigorous, and more thriftily efficient in running social programmes that – left to its own devices – a National government would never have funded at all in the ...
On Friday the Government made some announcements about their Three Waters programme that were meant to assuage public concerns about the reforms. Instead, the announcements merely reinforced that Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta is determined to push the reforms through in the face of strong public opposition. The gist of ...
Unfortunately it looks like we’re going through a spate of ram raids in this country. Predictably, there comes the natural political rejoinder: “Alas, the youth are out of control in this country…” in various flavours of vitriol, and thus the Reckons. Those who were armchair epidemiologists concerning the ...
2022 is turning out to be a crap year – George Orwell would have been shocked. I guess reality is always different to predictions. Wars, economic and financial mayhem, and widespread censorship are now our lot. And on top of the censorship, there is disinformation and fake news. How ...
Completed reads for April: The Saga of Hervör and HeithrekThe Saga of Hromund GreipssonThe Tháttr of NornagestIphigenia among the Taurians, by EuripidesIphigenia at Aulis, by EuripidesRhesus, by Euripides?The Body in the Library, by Agatha ChristieWhy Didn’t They Ask Evans?, by Agatha ChristiePoirot Investigates, by Agatha ChristieThe Secret of Chimneys, ...
One thing is abundantly clear: the way we understand the world is largely a matter of narrative management. It is through the strength of narratives we frame concepts around politics, life, and our consequent approach to it. Personally. As Nations. Too often, we don’t even realise where these come ...
Stuff's Henry Cooke reports that the government is planning a significant increase in proactive release of official information, with plans to proactively release almost all advice to ministers. Which is an idea I love, and want to happen, but at the same time fear, because under this government it is ...
A few weeks ago it emerged that NZ Minister of Defence Peeni Henare had asked cabinet for approval to donate surplus NZDF Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) to Ukraine as part of the multilateral efforts to support the Ukrainian defence of its homeland against the Russian invasion that is now into ...
Reductions in effective productivity, largely as a result of events overseas, require reductions in real incomes. Ignore that and you cannot defeat inflation. What would you think of a doctor who treated only the symptoms and never tried to identify the causes? A quack? Skilled quacks will have accounts about ...
In an opinion piece in the Herald Bryce Edwards looks at rising inflation and the huge transfer of wealth to the rich under this Labour government. Some excerpts below detail the growing poverty gap. Business profitability is currently very high – banking profits were up 48 per cent last year, ...
The media's "honeymoon" with National's leader, Christopher Luxon, ended abruptly on 21 March when on Kerre McIvor's NewstalkZB show, he uttered these astonishing words:“If you want to have a go, and you want to make something of yourself -- we don't just do bottom feeding and just focus on the ...
Not Forgotten, Or Forgiven: At this moment our television screens are filled with stories featuring Ukrainians and Russians. Over the course of the past century, both of these peoples have endured almost unbelievable levels of pain, rage and guilt. The statue pictured above, entitled The Bitter Memory of Childhood is ...
A Dangerous Moment: Given the intense preparation which has gone into raising Māori expectations of co-governance, it would now be extremely dangerous for any political party to bring its institutional evolution to a halt. That said, the lack of any serious preparation of the non-Māori population for the revolutionary implications ...
Obviously not true for everyone. But it is amazing how many people take up a strong, emotional stance on the war in Ukraine despite being completely ignorant about what has been happening there. This short video does a great job of condensing the history of Ukraine – and presents ...
This month I finished working my way through the surviving corpus of Ancient Greek Drama (in translation). For those keeping track at home, that is forty-six plays – seven by Aeschylus, seven by ...
by Daphna Whitmore The Auckland University of Technology has just deplatformed a talk on cancel culture. Yes, you read that right. The cancellation was instigated by an “Inclusion Officer” (of course it was). A bit Orwellian isn’t it? I was invited to give a lecture at a Free Speech Union meeting ...
We can't go on like this Past and future warming – direct comparison on multi-century timescales walks us through the improvements in methods between the IPCC AR5 and AR6 leading to the latest report's startling conclusion about our rapid, ongoing effect on global mean temperature. Unleashing the fossil hydrocarbon genie has ...
As of yesterday, I can report that the 2022 SpecFicNZ anthology, Aftermath: Tales of Survival in Aotearoa New Zealand, was released: https://specfic.nz/2022/04/27/aftermath-tales-of-survival-in-aotearoa-new-zealand/ It features The Night of Parmenides, my take on a post-apocalyptic Dunedin. Also notable for referencing Scribes, the much-missed second-hand bookshop of North Dunedin. ...
The current cost of living crisis in the New Zealand economy could yet have severe political consequences. Warning signs could be seen in Monday’s French presidential election result – in which the nationalist-populist Marine Le Pen upset the status quo by getting through to the second round and winning an ...
Such is our devotion to the ordinary Kiwi battler, we ruthlessly tax the wages they earn and the stuff they buy, while letting people who amass wealth from speculative investment (and stash it in trusts) to go on their merry way, largely untroubled by the tax department. In the latest ...
Karl Marx’s Capital remains the most important theoretical work explaining the capitalist mode of production from a working class and socialist perspective. The Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) is pleased to be hosting a series of monthly lectures introducing each part of Volume 1 by Andy Higginbottom, ...
I have always taken a dim view of entrenching the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (NZBORA). In contrast to certain other online commentators, I consider subjecting parliamentary statutes to judicial review ...
There were two elections over the weekend. In France, neo-liberal Emmanuel Macro managed to defeat neo-fascist Marine Le Pen, which should be a relief to everyone (especially given what a le Pen victory would have meant for Ukraine). But its hardly a particularly inspiring choice, effectively just a question of ...
Aotearoa has an inequality problem. The top 1% own 20% of the wealth, and nearly half our total wealth is owned by the top 5% (and as that paper notes, it likely understates the problem, as wealthy individuals are poorly captured by the Household Economic Survey on which it is ...
National truly is the party of aspiration. Any centre-right voter who watched their champion’s trainwreck interview with Jack Tame on last Sunday’s Q & A programme would have to conclude that if Christopher Luxon can lead National to victory in 2023, any wealthy white man in a suit can do ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Dennis Laich, Larry Wilkerson, and Erik Edstrom The US military is about to find itself committed to yet another unwinnable mission costing trillions of dollars. No, we are not referring to the possibility of American escalation in Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine: ...
There are currently twenty DHB's servicing Aotearoa - a country with five million people. A population that would fit comfortably in eightyone cities around the world.The fragmented system has twenty CEOs; twenty Boards (with up to eleven members each); twenty IT systems (to be confirmed); twenty HR departments; twenty payroll ...
An interesting piece of news out of Fellowship of Fans today. Not one that we were realistically expecting (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmc3sY0GQ0g) The news is that prior to his death in January 2020, Christopher Tolkien made some requests of Amazon, with regards to their impending Second Age adaptation, now called The Rings ...
https://freespeech.buzzsprout.com/370355/10486710-special-report-aut-cancel-a-free-speech-union-meeting The Free Speech Union has had a speaking event canceled by AUT. In the first public talk in what was to kick off a nationwide lecture series, Free Speech Union member Daphna Whitmore was to talk about (ironically) her experiences with women’s rights group ‘Speak Up For Women’ and ...
It’s a truism that the first casualty in war is the truth. But a close second is rational thought. We face this now where partisanship, wishful thinking and disinformation dominate what we read about the Ukraine-Russia war in our media. So, it is refreshing to come across an informed ...
A subject doing the rounds at the moment is the question of Tolkienian Canon. On one hand, there are the passionate Purists, for whom fidelity to Tolkien’s text is paramount in assessing Adaptations in general and The Rings of Power in particular. On the other, one finds discussions such ...
We do not go to war for free; we need to factor its economic costs and its consequences into public discussions.Wars are costly. People die, life is disrupted while wars divert resources to war use and wantonly destroy. We are currently involved in two major wars: the war against the ...
The Herald reports that a man who recoded a violent rant calling for genocide of Māori has been convicted for hate speech: Richard Jacobs, 44, filmed a video from his Pāpāmoa home in May last year where he called for the killing of Māori. The video was uploaded to ...
The Solomon Islands and PRC have signed a bilateral security pact. The news of the pact was leaked a month ago and in the last week the governments of both countries have confirmed the deal. However, few details have been released. What we do know is that Chinese police trainers ...
The Ministry of Education is currently attempting to decolonise the New Zealand schooling system, using some radical innovations. In this article, Prof Elizabeth Rata challenges some of the ideological underpinnings and practical outcomes of this agenda. Prof Rata welcomes debate on this issue, and the Democracy Project welcomes further submissions ...
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity.” - William FaulknerIT WAS NEARLY SIX YEARS AGO that I defended New Zealanders’ historical ignorance as a ...
Inflation at 6.9% is a bad sign of the rising cost of living, and hidden within the headline numbers are some even grislier figures. As CTU economist Craig Renney has pointed out: Food prices rose nearly 7%, led by fruit and vegetables which rose 17%. Meat rose 7.2%. The price ...
Making Ourselves Heard: Is participatory democracy really that important? Yes, it is, because without returning effective political power to the people, there is no possibility of also returning their resources. No one involved in the management of local government will have failed to notice the fake subsidiarity of neoliberalism: making ...
Tony Simpson writes in a Newsroom article about a major shortcoming of the new history curriculum. Here’s an excerpt: I don’t disagree at all with what the Committee have come up with which is largely about Māori indigenous culture, where it came from and how it has responded to incomers ...
OK, this is a bit controversial as it is an interview of a surrendered combatant. Mind you he did personally ask for the interview (and specifically asked that fellow Brit Graham Phillips carry out the interview) as a chance to appeal for a prisoner exchange. He is technically a ...
Water packing heat: it's not only the oceans It's often remarked that we don't directly notice or feel most global warming because most excess energy being retained by the planet is ending up "stored" in Earth's oceans. Given its high specific heat capacity, liquid water is an effective sponge for ...
Co-governance is currently the most polarising issue in New Zealand politics. There’s something of a culture war over the concept of giving Māori voters or leaders a mandated equal political influence in public affairs. It’s an issue that has the potential to be socially explosive as plans are being developed ...
Mike Hosking continues to deliver what his paymasters pay him for, if today’s Herald is anything to go by. No surprise there – Hosking has always been under no illusion as to what it is that he has to sell. What is worth remarking on, however, is the evident emotional ...
PHOTO (cropped): Japan Meteorological Agency, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114321094 Jenny Stein, Resilience to Nature’s Challenges National Science ChallengeFollowing a volcanic eruption, local communities understandably have more pressing concerns than ensuring a sample of ash gets sent to a lab. But that sample will provide crucial insight into the extent ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Ella Gilbert, John King, and Ian Renfrew Scientists know the surface of the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica is melting, making it vulnerable to collapse. For the first time, we can rank the most important causes of melting over the recent past. ...
There are four types of bills that Parliament considers: most bills are government bills, but there are also members bills, private bills and local bills. Members bills are relatively well know (some important ones have passed over the last few years), but these latter three types are often grouped together. ...
The Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee has reported back on the Digital Identity Services Trust Framework Bill. The bill is one of those boring administrative ones, establishing a regulatory framework for providers of "digital identity services" - people who validate your identity online. Which normally isn't the sort of ...
A major, nation-wide challenge to our national well-being, such as the coronavirus pandemic, is not necessarily bad news for everybody. The government of the day has no choice but to take it on the chin, but opposition politicians, and other critics of the government, can have a field day; they ...
One word has largely been missing from the coverage of the MoH advice about MIQ: Omicron. The relevant memo was written in November. It was referring to the Delta outbreak and to the relative incidence of the Delta variant in the community as opposed to it coming over the border, ...
SpecFicNZ’s new post-apocalyptic themed anthology will be out soon, with Yours Truly providing one of the stories (specifically a Dunedin-centric piece titled The Night of Parmenides). Here’s a list of the other contributors, plus a look at the cover:
I recently read a critique of the market-oriented economic theory known as “neoliberalism” and decided to add some of my thoughts about it in a series of short messages on a social media platform dedicated to providing an outlet for short messaging. I have decided to expand upon those messages ...
Dane Giraud for the Free Speech Union interviews Don Franks. Don is a writer and editor for Redline. He talks to Dane about his involvement in Left-wing activism since the 1960s (starting with his opposition to the Vietnam War). Don is a published author and professional musician. He was a ...
I have always been opposed to virtue-signalling. It seems an easy way of supporting the current narrative and opposing any thoughtful opposition to it. And it does not require any exertion – of the mind, muscle, or (usually) wallet.Of course, these days the virtue signaler simply blocks ...
The Human Rights Commission inquiry into housing quality confirms what the Green Party has been calling for - a rental Warrant of Fitness and a register of landlords and property managers. ...
The Green Party welcomes the next steps towards implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in Aotearoa, and calls on the Government to get on with the mahi of upholding Tangata Whenua rights. ...
Our economic recovery is gaining momentum and the latest figures show that the Government’s focus on jobs is working. We’ve delivered a record low unemployment rate as well as a steady fall in the number of New Zealanders receiving a main benefit. ...
The Green Party welcomes the release of the implementation plan for Te Mana o te Taiao Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy and calls on the Government to act faster to protect our oceans. ...
After weeks of advocacy by Green MPs, Immigration New Zealand has given assurances that West Papuan students whose scholarships were cancelled by the Indonesian Government will not be deported - and that a team will now be formed to assess the future needs of the students. ...
The release today of Environment Aotearoa 2022 is a sobering reminder of what is at stake if the Government does not step up and take urgent action to protect Aotearoa New Zealand’s native plants, wildlife, habitats and ecosystems. ...
The release today of Environment Aotearoa 2022 is a sobering reminder of what is at stake if the Government does not step up and take urgent action to protect Aotearoa New Zealand’s native plants, wildlife, habitats and ecosystems. ...
Throughout the pandemic, we’ve worked hard to protect lives and livelihoods – and thanks to these efforts, our economy is now recovering faster than almost anywhere else in the world. ...
In the year ended March 2022, 50,858 new homes were consented, up 24 per cent from the March 2021 year. 21,477 new homes were consented in Auckland in the year ended March 2022, driven largely by an increase in multi-unit dwellings. 5,303 new homes were consented in March 2022 alone. ...
The Government is broadening the ability for residence class visa holders to re-enter New Zealand, Minister for COVID-19 Response Chris Hipkins has announced. The change means residence class visa holders not vaccinated against COVID-19 will be able to enter New Zealand from 6 May. The change allows New Zealand Permanent ...
I tāpaea i te rangi nei Te Tohu o Matariki ki te iwi tūmatanui e te Minita mō te Kōtuinga o Ngāi Māori me te Karauna: Te Arawhiti, Kelvin Davis rāua ko te Minita Tuarua mō te Toi, te Ahurea, me te Tukuihotanga, a Kiri Allan. Hei tā Kelvin Davis, ...
I want to thank Rabobank for hosting us this morning, and all of you for making it along for an early start. Yesterday, New Zealand opened its borders again to tourists and business visitors from around 60 visa waiver countries as we continue our reconnection with the world. The resumption ...
Surpluses will be kept within a band of zero to two percent of GDP to ensure new day‑to‑day spending is not adding to debt. A new debt measure to be introduced to bring New Zealand closer in line with other countries. A debt ceiling will ensure New Zealand maintains some ...
The Government has welcomed Te Waihanga/New Zealand Infrastructure Commission’s first infrastructure strategy as a major milestone in building a more prosperous, resilient and sustainable future for all New Zealanders. Rautaki Hanganga o Aotearoa – New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy 2022–2052 set out the infrastructure challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has today announced further sanctions on Russian politicians and defence entities supporting Putin’s actions in Ukraine, as part of the Government’s ongoing response to the war. “Through these sanctions, we are demonstrating our intention to continue going after those who are responsible for Russia’s invasion ...
Introduction Kia ora koutou katoa, Today is a significant day for infrastructure in New Zealand. And that means it is a significant day for our productivity, our environment, our wellbeing and connections as people. That is because good quality infrastructure is core to improving all of those things. Today we ...
Ringitia mai, waetia mai Tuhi tuhia mai e Kei te manawa tonu te aroha me te whakapono Can I please acknowledge our co-chairs today Fran O’Sullivan and Michael Barnett. US Ambassador to New Zealand Tom Udall. The Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor. And the really excellent ...
New Zealand is back on the world map for international tourism and business travellers as the country opens up to visitors from around 60 visa-waiver countries who enjoy freer travel here from today. Tourism Minister Stuart Nash and Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi say the welcome mat is out for citizens ...
The Government is committed to improving student attendance at school and kura, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti said in a pre-Budget announcement today. “It’s clear that young people need to be at school, and yet attendance rates haven’t been good for a long time. It’s ...
Essential workers sent a clear message today that they no longer want to see their pay and conditions set through a race to the bottom, and that they support fair, good faith bargaining with employers through Fair Pay Agreements. On International Workers’ Day, Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Michael ...
Climate Change Minister James Shaw says the release of new sea level rise data underlines the importance of the work the Government is doing to build a low emission, climate resilient future for Aotearoa. “Data from the NZ SeaRise programme confirms why this Government is right to prioritise action to ...
The Government is partnering with Air New Zealand to trial an innovative new COVID-19 testing solution that uses Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) technology, Associate Minister for COVID-19 Response Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. “As New Zealand reconnects with the world, we are exploring innovative COVID-19 testing technology to help keep ...
A warmer winter is on the horizon for over 1 million New Zealanders receiving either a main benefit or New Zealand Superannuation as the Winter Energy Payment begins today. “When we first came into office, we introduced the Winter Energy Payment as part of our Government’s December 2017 Families Package. ...
World-class Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) is now available in Haast, one of New Zealand’s most remote West Coast towns, Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications, David Clark announced today. “A reliable, fast and secure internet connection is an important asset in the digital economy and that is why this Government ...
Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall launched ‘Smokefree May’ today at an event at Manurewa Marae. This new campaign, developed with Hāpai Te Hauora, supports the Government’s plan to make New Zealand smokefree by 2025. At the event, a new brand was also unveiled for the Smokefree 2025 Action ...
Minister of Housing Hon Dr Megan Woods and Associate Minister of Housing (Māori Housing) Peeni Henare have today announced a new investment partnership with Ka Uruora to build up to 172 new homes for whānau who need them most. Ministers Henare and Jackson joined partners Ka Uruora at an event ...
Local councils ownership of water entities confirmed and new shareholding structure put in place Local community and council voice further strengthened in Regional Representative Groups with the majority of Working Group recommendations accepted Co-governance on the board of the four water entities ruled out by Local Government Minister with board ...
A new Pacific Business Village that will grow Pacific businesses, fundamental to our COVID-19 recovery, was launched by the Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio in Tauranga today. “The Government wants the Village used as a strategic framework for any long-term economic development work in our regions for Pacific ...
Health Minister Andrew Little says New Zealanders who contract COVID-19 now have access to six medicines proven to safely prevent the most severe and life-threatening symptoms of the virus. Andrew Little was in Auckland this afternoon to see the first shipment of molnupiravir, the second oral anti-viral COVID-19 medicine to ...
Changes to intensive winter grazing rules will make them more practical for farmers and effective in lifting environmental outcomes, Environment Minister David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “For New Zealand, our economy depends on our environment. Cleaning up our winter grazing practices protects our freshwater resources, the welfare of our animals, ...
Five Auckland suburbs to get improved infrastructure to boost supply of new housing, and support existing homes Up to 16,000 new homes enabled on crown-owned land including public, affordable and market homes Capacity created for an extra 11,000 homes on surrounding privately owned land. Projects include water main renewal, sewage ...
The health and safety practices at our nation’s ports will be investigated as part of a range of actions taken by the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety in response to two deaths in the space of a week. “All New Zealanders should return from work safe and unharmed. Recently ...
Supporting older people to stay in the workforce and transition their skills as they age and their circumstances change is a key part of the new Older Workers Employment Action Plan, Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni and Minister for Seniors Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. “The Government ...
An initiative that has provided tourism workers with alternative employment into the lead up to New Zealand’s borders reopening is being extended to ensure staff are retained, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. It is one of two projects in the Waikato-Maniapoto to receive funding through the Government’s Jobs for Nature ...
From today New Zealanders can have their say on a proposed National Adaptation Plan to help communities across the country adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. “Aotearoa will soon have a plan to bring down our emissions and help prevent the worst effects of climate change, but we ...
Wetlands expert and advocate Dr Beverley Clarkson was today presented with New Zealand’s most prestigious conservation award, the Loder Cup by Minister of Conservation Kiri Allan. Dr Clarkson is a plant ecologist based at Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research in Hamilton. She is nationally renowned for her knowledge and championing of ...
People who have genuine reasons for not being able to wear a face mask can access a new personalised exemption card from the end of May, Minister for COVID-19 Response Chris Hipkins and Minister for Disability Issues Carmel Sepuloni announced today. “We know that face masks are a crucial part ...
The Government intends to amend the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001 (DIRA) to support Fonterra’s move to a new capital structure, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “The Fonterra cooperative is a key part of New Zealand’s world-leading dairy industry and a major export earner for our economy, sending product ...
Victoria University 26 April, 2022 Those coming here expecting announcements of new tax policy will be disappointed. None are being made. We have no secret plan to introduce a CGT nor a wealth tax or a deemed income tax, nor others. The IRD is not doing any work ...
Auckland harbour ferries are set to get quieter, cleaner and greener, thanks to two new fully-electric ferries for commuters and sightseers to travel on, Minister for Energy and Resources Dr Megan Woods announced today. Auckland Transport will operate the two electric fast ferries across all major inner and mid-harbour services, ...
New Zealand’s apples and pears industry is aiming to become spray-free by 2050 through a new Government-backed programme focused on world-leading sustainable production practices, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. The Government is investing in a seven-year programme through the Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI) Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Defence Minister Peeni Henare today announced that the Government has extended New Zealand’s commitment to three peace support deployments to the Middle East and Africa – the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO), the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the Multinational ...
Backing 15 big businesses to move away from fossil fuels in their production processes Equal to taking 14,400 cars off the road $13 million of Government funding matched by $32.66 million from industry Achieves a total of 900,631 t of carbon emissions saved over the project lifetimes The Government is ...
More than 50 jobs are being created across Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland with the launch of three new Government-backed initiatives, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “Tāmaki Makaurau has taken quite a hit over the past two years, with the region experiencing longer lockdown restrictions than anywhere else in the country. “Jobs for ...
The opening of the 2022-23 Great Walks booking season next week heralds 30 years of epic adventures in our backyard throughout the country, says Minister of Conservation Kiri Allan. Speaking from the Tongariro Northern Circuit,, the Minister acknowledged the importance of the Great Walks for conservation, recreation and tourism in ...
Let me start by saying how wonderful it is to see people up and down the country gathering together in person again this year, in commemoration of Anzac Day. At a time when the global pandemic has so often cancelled public gatherings, it is all the more precious to be ...
The shared nineteenth-century histories of Aotearoa-New Zealand have come to life with the official opening today of one of the most culturally significant sites of the 1860s New Zealand Wars. The Government-financed rebuild of the Rangiriri Pa Trenches complex in Waikato is the first project completed from a special ...
Japan and New Zealand’s strong partnership is built on a long tradition of official and industry engagement, underpinned by our natural complementarities and strong business relationships. Both countries share many similarities. Japan and New Zealand are island nations in the Pacific with rich soils and climates suited to temperate agriculture. Agriculture, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Nethery, Senior Lecturer in Politics and Policy Studies, Deakin University Diego Fedele/ AAP One of the Morrison government’s biggest challenges in this election campaign is the rise of the “teals”, a group of 22 independents who have received funding ...
Political Roundup is entirely subscriber-funded. The ethos behind this public service is to help foster a robust and informed public debate, with a great diversity of perspectives. If you appreciate what we are doing in providing non-partisan analysis and information about politics, economy, and society, please consider helping us keep ...
The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora says the Government continues to ghost health workers in the lead up to the Budget. In a pre-Budget speech, the Finance Minister Grant Robertson has said New Zealand’s economy has come through ...
Research published by Transparency International New Zealand this week investigates corruption and money laundering within Pacific Island Countries (PICs). It highlights the linkage between the two concluding that preventive and investigative ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Martin, Senior Research Fellow, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock “Going home” is a classic metaphor for exiting prison. But most people exiting prison in Australia either expect to be homeless, or don’t know where they will be ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wilfred Yang Wang, Lecturer in Media & Communications Studies, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock Concerns about fake news and misinformation spreading on social media among Chinese communities are once again emerging, as they were during the 2019 election campaign. There ...
The closure of the four remaining MIQ facilities will be brought forward due to very low numbers using the facilities. Currently just 95 people are using 54 rooms (32 isolation and 22 quarantine) across four hotels. A decision has been made in ...
Opinion - New Zealand has previously made the wrong call for a generation by being too restrictive with its debt limit - now it risks doing the same again, Bernard Hickey writes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Conor McCafferty, PhD Student, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Shutterstock In the majority of cases, children who catch COVID won’t end up suffering serious illness. Kids have fewer symptoms, less severe disease, and tend to recover faster than adults. The ...
BusinessNZ welcomes the Government’s announcement that residence class visa holders who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 will be able to enter New Zealand from 6 May. Chief Executive Kirk Hope says it’s good to see the Government apply a risk ...
You can quickly tell from the headline and/or first paragraph of a press statement – sorry, most press statements – what the government is up to. Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta clearly stated in the opening sentence of a statement in the past 24 hours that further sanctions are being ...
Immigration New Zealand has released an independent review carried out by Victoria Casey QC into the detention in prison of people seeking asylum. The review clearly states detention at Corrections facilities should not occur. In response, Immigration ...
By Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group 29 April 2022 Original url: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/29/ahsf-a29.html On April 16, Martyn Bradbury, editor of New Zealand’s Daily Blog, published an extraordinary attack on the Socialist Equality Group (SEG), the New Zealand supporters ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Raymond Walker, Research Officer – School of Psychiatry, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock People with intellectual disability only have their disability noted by hospital staff in one in every five hospital admissions, our new study shows. Recognising someone has a disability ...
A documentary titled Milked, shown at the International Film Festival in Dunedin, seeks to “expose” the New Zealand dairy industry and calls on New Zealanders “to heal the land”. Milked is available globally via the streaming platform Waterbear and on Youtube via Plant Based News. The documentary is made by ...
I have found out that the Speaker of the House, Trevor Mallard, has trespassed me from parliament grounds for a period of two years. This dictatorial behaviour by Mallard, supported by Labour, should be reserved for third world banana republics. ...
It is unacceptable the government has pushed ahead with its three waters reforms before checking if the numbers stack up on debt financing, opposition parties say. ...
The petition is supported by leading animal organisations New Zealand Animal Law Association (NZALA), Helping You Help Animals (HUHA) and the New Zealand Anti-vivisection Society (NZAVS). Other groups are expected to add their support in time. The Animal ...
Most New Zealanders believe that government funding for private media companies undermines media independence, reveals a new poll commissioned by the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union . The scientific poll of 1,000 New Zealanders was carried out by ...
The Treasury has published a summary paper that outlines its advice on the new fiscal rules announced by Finance Minister Hon Grant Robertson. In a speech today, Hon Grant Robertson said that the Government will adopt two new fiscal rules: an operating ...
Health and climate change will be key spending areas, and there would be a new rule requiring governments to try to maintain a small surplus, the Finance Minister said. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yuanming Wang, PhD student, University of Sydney Artist’s impression of the PSR J0523-7125 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Carl Knox, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), Author provided When a star explodes and dies in a supernova, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Harris Rimmer, Professor and Director of the Policy Innovation Hub, Griffith Business School, Griffith University Clive Palmer has had a tough run leading up to the 2022 election campaign. He faced COVID-19 without the protection of vaccination in March, tripped at ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacinta Douglas, Professor of Acquired Brain Injury, La Trobe University SDA tenant, Tom, in his accessible apartment.Housing Hub, Author provided The federal government has been warning that the rising cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is unsustainable. More than ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University Shutterstock When you think of an electric vehicle, chances are you’ll picture a car. But there’s a quiet revolution going on in transport. It turns out electrification can work wonders for almost all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Saddler, Honorary Associate Professor, Centre for Climate Economics and Policy, Australian National University shutterstocShutterstock “Power prices are going up”, shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers declared last week. But according to energy minister Angus Taylor, “No one’s household power prices have gone ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Terry Goldsworthy, Associate Professor in Criminal Justice and Criminology, Bond University IMDB HBO’s new show Our Flag Means Death has brought the Golden Age of Piracy to life on TV, chronicling the life of the bumbling gentleman pirate, Stede Bonnet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Senior Lecturer, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide Shutterstock Australia Post workers are suffering more dog attacks than before with 1,170 incidents so far this financial year — up 400 on the same time in ...
A new round of sanctions imposed by the government on Russian politicians and defence entities targets 170 members of the upper house of Russia's parliament, known as the Federation Council, as well as six companies and organisations in the defence sec ...
ANALYSIS:By Michael Kabuni and Stephen Howes Central to the selection of the prime minister in Papua New Guinea following a general election is Section 63 of PNG’s Organic Law on Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates (OLIPPAC), which was passed in 2001 (and then amended in 2003). Section 63 ...
By Lian Buan in Manila The retraction of Kerwin Espinosa, one of the main accusers in the Philippines Bilibid drug trade allegations, has drummed up calls from different sectors to free jailed opposition senator Leila De Lima, but the Department of Justice (DOJ) is not budging. The difficulty with this ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva The University of the South Pacific’s latest international ranking is a “testament to the excellence” that pervades the university, says USP vice-chancellor and president Professor Pal Ahluwalia. He said this in a statement confirming USP had been ranked 401-600 out of 1406 institutions, with an ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Hamish Cardwell, RNZ News climate reporter Explosive new data shows the sea level is rising twice as fast as previously thought in some parts of Aotearoa, massively reducing the amount of time authorities have to respond. The major new projections show infrastructure and homes in Auckland and ...
RNZ News For the first time in more than two years, New Zealand’s border will reopen to international visitors at midnight tonight. On 19 March 2020, New Zealand snapped its border shut to anyone without citizenship or residency, before any covid-19-related deaths were recorded. It was the first time in ...
PNG Post-Courier A former election manager for Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District (NCD) who was charged with election fraud for corruptly receiving a large sum of money from a candidate during the 2017 election has been sentenced to seven years in prison by the National Court at Waigani. National ...
As the border opens to 60 visa waiver countries, there has already been an uptick in spending since New Zealand began welcoming Australian tourists two weeks ago, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says. ...
Energy Resources Aotearoa has cautiously welcomed the release of the New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy but says that it overlooks the important role that the Emissions Trading Scheme and natural gas will play through and beyond the transition to a lower ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katharine Kemp, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock Consumers using online retail marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon “have little effective choice in the amount of data they share”, according to the latest report of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Crowley, Adjunct Associate Professor, Public and Environmental Policy, University of Tasmania Russell Freeman/AAP A major poll published yesterday suggests the Greens are set to grow as a political force at this month’s election, showing its primary vote has risen ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union will launch a wide-scale "Protect Your Savings" campaign if Labour decides to introduce a wealth tax. Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, "This morning on The AM Show Jacinda Ardern was given multiple opportunities ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Oliver Frank, Senior Research Fellow, Discipline of General Practice, and Specialist General Practitioner, University of Adelaide Shutterstock When you go to your usual GP, you probably sit down, tell her your health-care needs or problems, and she advises and discusses ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Shutterstock Each side is offering something for first homebuyers this election, but the nature of the support is quite different. The Coalition’s Home Guarantee The Coalition is promising ...
The BusinessNZ Energy Council (BEC) says it’s encouraging to see long-term infrastructure planning from the Government, and agrees that more of the same simply won’t cut it. The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission has released New Zealand’s first ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne Frankie Cordoba/Unsplash While artists struggle to get noticed in the Australian political arena, particularly in the lead up to an election, other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne AAP/Lukas Coch This week’s Newspoll, conducted April 27-30 from a sample of 1,538, gave Labor a 53-47 lead, unchanged since last week. Primary votes were 38% Labor ...
Now that it has set about implementing a de-colonialising curriculum on subjects such as science and history, the government is determined to get more kids into classes to lap up the new doctrine. ...
Explosive new sea level rise data released on the weekend highlights the urgency of acting on climate pollution from New Zealand’s intensive dairy industry, says Greenpeace Aotearoa. The modeling by NZ SeaRise shows sea level rise could be twice ...
The Government is forging ahead with its Three Waters reform process. Comments from the Government over recent months meant that its announcement last Friday was unfortunately predictable. The door was left open on governance and accountability for the Government-appointed ...
LGNZ President Stuart Crosby says the new Infrastructure Strategy is an important step towards addressing the critical issues affecting our communities. “Reliable infrastructure is the backbone to creating healthy, thriving communities and a resilient ...
The Office of the Children’s Commissioner supports the call of The Fairer Future group to adopt a seven-point plan of action to support low-income New Zealanders facing the high cost of living. The Seven Steps for Fairer Future report can be accessed ...
A major manufacturer of waterjets for boats fears it could miss out on millions of dollars worth of contracts if the government does not address urgent skilled worker shortages. ...
MBIE has opened consultation on proposed changes to the Building Code acceptable solutions and verification methods which cover plumbing and drainage, protection from fire, and structural stability of hollow-core floors. “As New Zealand’s ...
- New Zealand’s first-ever long-term infrastructure strategy - Strategy makes 68 recommendations to transform New Zealand The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga says New Zealand’s first long-term Infrastructure Strategy, sets a ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says while there will be no cap on the number of tourists allowed into New Zealand, tourism operators need to offer a quality experience with low environmental impact. ...
New Zealand’s leading animal welfare charity is celebrating a major milestone, as SPCA marks 150 years of improving the lives of vulnerable animals in Aotearoa. Since the charity’s formation in Canterbury in 1872, SPCA has rescued millions ...
Electricity generation, water services and responding to sea level rise are some of the priority investments identified in the Infrastructure Commission's first strategy. ...
Political Roundup is entirely subscriber-funded. The ethos behind this public service is to help foster a robust and informed public debate, with a great diversity of perspectives. If you appreciate what we are doing in providing non-partisan analysis and information about politics, economy, and society, please consider helping us keep ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lukas Wesemann, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock Infectious diseases such as malaria remain a leading cause of death in many regions. This is partly because people there don’t have access to medical diagnostic tools that can detect ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Cockfield, Honorary Professor in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, University of Southern Queensland Dominic Giannini/AAP While the Liberal and Labor parties each face several nail-biting contests, the Nationals have fewer immediate concerns in this federal election. The party ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kun Zhao, Research fellow, BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University As Australians across the country prepare to vote, many will be reflecting on what can help build a prosperous and inclusive society. Over the last five years, we have been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Fuller, Charles Perkins Centre Research Program Leader, University of Sydney Shutterstock We’re a society obsessed with numbers, and no more so than when managing our health. We use smartwatches to count steps and track our daily activity, creating scores ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eleanor Holroyd, Associate Dean International & Engagement, Auckland University of Technology GettyImages Aotearoa New Zealand’s community nurses and home and community care assistants have played a crucial yet largely invisible role in the country’s response to the global pandemic. Across ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Harris, Senior Lecturer in Geography, The University of Queensland Flinders Beach has been growing since the 1950sKevin Welsh, Author provided In a warmer world, rising sea levels could render many coastlines, beaches, and reef islands uninhabitable, or destroy them altogether. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Hail, Adjunct Associate Professor, Torrens University Australia Japan Ministry of Finance/Shutterstock. The Reserve Bank’s cash rate is in the news, and in an unwelcome way for the first time in 11 years. After a decade in which Australia’s central ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Portolan, PhD student, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University Mateus Campos Felipe/Unsplash The term “high-maintenance” is part of everyday speech, and usually refers to a woman who places a high value on her personal image, wants ...
Three News just reported that the sea-level monitoring website has been crashed most of the day due to so many people trying to use it – although the RNZ news earlier suggested there could have been cyber-attacks. Disgruntled Nat voters in denial linked to US corporate hacksters I guess.
So Petone's drain network now has a shelf-life of less than 20 years. Freak-out time. They interviewed a middle-aged male pakeha who had a couple of teenage boys with him who said he's not worried because he's never seen the sea rise. Oughta join the Nats & stand for parliament, eh? Whereas the next pakeha male they asked, elderly, said he'd already shifted from central Petone to up in the hills.
Luxon gave his pre-budget speech without mentioning climate change. She'll be right. Some of his mates living on the Takapuna waterfront will have to use nudge theory on him sometime soon…
If I heard the story correctly on TV1, former National Party MP, Matt King has received a letter informing him he will be arrested if he enters the parliamentary precinct. All those known to have participated in the protest are said to have been banned from parliament grounds.
That means Winston Peters should have received one too.
Oh dear, my heart bleeds for them . 😉
Edit: https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/05/02/former-national-mp-banned-from-parliament-grounds-for-2-years/
Once you've finished your dance of joy Anne you might want to consider what this means.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/former-national-mp-trespassed-from-parliament-grounds-after-being-identified-as-protester/QMFYV6DXOCX3ZYWN7YIPJ4AD4U/
Those who participate in a protest that the sitting government disapproves of will be banned form participating in democracy at the seat of that democracy.
Do they want to start another protest?
Agree. Nothing to celebrate.
Reckon it stopped being a protest when they dumped their cars on Molesworth St. This was very early on in the piece.
Later, they plumbed semi-permanent toilets and showers into the mains. That was the last straw and drew the appropriate police response.
… they dumped their cars on Molesworth St.
They parked?!?
…they plumbed semi-permanent toilets and showers into the mains.
Ablution facilities?!? But this was 'the river of filth'…how dare they not live up to their name?
So. The Government still pissed off eh? Can't get their tiny brains around the fact that thousands of fairly ordinary Kiwis gathered together and without any clear leadership built a village. Built a community. Organised…
… the security detail, the laundry service, the first aid tent, the free food and drinks, the children's entertainment, the singing and dancing and the telling of stories. The political discussion and the health discussions and the provision of a venue to discuss the physical harms from the Covid shots and the emotional harms from the unjustified vaccine mandates.
Oh, that's right…these protestors were not real New Zealanders.
Still living on an alternate planet I see.
They desecrated the land on which our democratically elected parliament is situated. They illegally camped on the grass and forecourt. They left behind indescribable litter when they were finally driven off the precinct. They set fire to trees and debris. They left graffiti on buildings and pathways. They forced the closure of the surrounding streets making it impossible for residents and visitors to be able to enter or leave the area – not to mention the disruption to parliament and general governance of the country. They were rude and abusive. They attacked police officers who were only doing their duty to protect parliament and those who worked there. They bullied and frightened ordinary citizens going about their lawful business including schoolboys and schoolgirls. In short, their behaviour was appalling.
And what did they achieve? Nothing.
The vast majority of NZers were disgusted at what they saw with their own eyes. If this latest development acts as a deterrent for the future then it will be worthwhile.
Dissent does not allow threats to life and limb. Some are still carrying on with their self appointed "Sherrifs", so they do need to be reminded they overstepped protest and became a mob.
Dissent does not allow threats to life and limb.
Patricia…you have a good memory and you are part of Labour's history…do you not remember auspicious day?
Who are these "they" of which you speak?
Because of course in your world, the world constructed for you by the government being challenged and their pet mainstream media, the protestors were one amorphous mass acting incomplete sync.
This of course is complete and utter rubbish, as you would know if you'd been brave enough to step outside of your tiny bubble and made a genuine attempt to see the individuals involved and at least listen respectfully to their issues.
Judging the whole by the tiny minority of arseholes in attendance is of course unreasonable and unfair. But hey…not New Zealanders…right?
Oh, the 'graffiti' was done in chalk.
And what did we achieve…that remains to be seen.
Oh, how's the booster and 5-11 year old vaccination program going? Seems to me that many folks are voting with their sleeves.
A tune for you…
Listen respectfully to a bunch of crackpots and ne'er do wells bellowing on about "fascist government" and "evil prime-minister"? Most of them wouldn't know a fascist if they fell over one. "They" were the stupid and misguided together with the crackpots, the haters and the thugs which made up the bulk of the mob. Anyone with any sense of 'non-violent protest within acceptable bounds' was out of there after the first few days.
Please do return to your insular bubble of make-believe and leave the grown-ups to have a nice conversation among themselves.
They parked, illegally. They installed toilets, illegally. They camped, illegally.
These 'fairly ordinary Kiwis' are not fairly ordinary at all, they are fringe, anti-establishment, conspiracy nutters who have been captured by well funded international anti-vax movements.
They are real New Zealanders, but they are also a major embarrassment.
Illegally but not unlawfully.
Wellington construction company falls over,eight building sites shut.Over extended with high product costs from building suppliers.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/128511656/wellington-construction-company-armstrong-downes-commercial-appoints-liquidators
Dominoes
No doubt there will be more.
It appears arrangements have been made with their Bank to finish the 8 homes. Seems like common sense has prevailed to avoid a domino effect with smaller tradies caught up.
Rosemary, may be of particular interest to you. Should interest us all.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-is-canada-euthanising-the-poor-
A failing health system and a lack of trained staff and an euthanasia bill…coincidence?
A failing health system and a lack of trained staff and an euthanasia bill…coincidence?
The Human Rights type cases I have been involved in with respect to disability supports in NZ have often spent much time in Court referring and deferring to the Canadian Human Rights legislation.
Funny that.
This was the gist of the submission I made on the last Euthanasia Bill. Back when I still clung to a shred of hope the effort counted for something
It will happen here that people will opt for the blue juice rather than trust that the health and disability and social support system will rally around to allow a stressless life while facing debility and perhaps death.
If we had a kind government…
We know a spinal injured Kiwi living in Canada at the moment and it sounds like he's able to access reasonable care. Well…that was a while back. They have legal access to Cannabis over there…I think that helps.
I despair. As Pat also points out…a failing health system etc. It's not just here. Not just Canada. Not just the UK. Hard to believe we're all of us victims of incompetent leadership for the past forty years. I ascribe it to malice.
When nurses are paid the same as real estate agents we might see a bit of balance in the health sector. At the moment the tax & regulatory structure of most western economies encourages insanely huge asset bubbles, not properly paid workers.
It was reading your perspective that made me look to the possible consequences, rather than stop at the stated intentions of the bill.
Knowing some of the failings of the health and benefits systems, and the disability sector, I agreed with you.
So many broken promises from so many successive NZ governments and the situation in health, disability, aged care, housing, education and social care has only go worse.
The 'I had good treatment so the system must be working…' comments here from some on The Left I find almost offensive. It is clearly obvious why nothing has got appreciably better for most, when so many choose to place their privileged experiences above the inadequate treatment many others have in the same system.
Until all voters demand that these taxpayer funded services work equally well or all ….nothing will change.
"The 'I had good treatment so the system must be working…' comments here from some on The Left I find almost offensive. "
I had a discussion with a friend whose wife had gone through a horrific birth experience at a hospital, and went through the stressful complaints process. During the intervening time he snapped his tendons, and was treated at the same hospital.
After she updated the table on how the complaint was progressing, he offered this: "My experience was completely different. Everyone I saw was great."
I'd say, words failed me – but of course they didn't.
Sure, because ultra-conservative Tory troll rag The Spectator, owned by the same oligarch who owns the Telegraph and formerly edited by Boris Johnson is an accurate and impartial source…
Only 'coz you mention Johnson and Blair and the media, I thoroughly recommend this:
I've been binging it for a while now
You could choose parts of the article to search for other reports like I did, to check for the level of accuracy and veracity.
Or, do what seems popular, and dismiss source without effort.
Your time's your own.
Here’s the government report on expected annual savings:
https://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca/web/default/files/Documents/Reports/RP-2021-025-M/RP-2021-025-M_en.pdf
And also:
Four Toronto doctors were aware of Sophia’s case and they also wrote to federal housing and disability government officials on her behalf. In that letter the doctors confirmed that her symptoms improved in cleaner air environments and asked for help to find or build a chemical-free residence.
“We physicians find it UNCONSCIONABLE that no other solution is proposed to this situation other than medical assistance in dying,” they wrote.
The letter was signed by Dr. Lynn Marshall, an environmental physician, Dr. Chantal Perrot, a family physician and MAiD provider, Dr. Justine Dembo, a psychiatrist, and Dr. James Whyte, a family doctor and psychotherapist. The physicians who wrote the letter all declined to speak to CTV News.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/woman-with-chemical-sensitivities-chose-medically-assisted-death-after-failed-bid-to-get-better-housing-1.5860579