I’d like to give a huge shoutout to the team at Hamilton’s MilkTestNZ, together with the gutsy advice of MPI who put the case to Treasury and then to Cabinet to put up nearly $900 million to eradicate MBovis from the entire cow herd of New Zealand.
After starting way back in 2018, they are now down to their last infected farm, and they will get it out of there soon. There were plenty of doubters at the time who I am sure will have the sense to keep quiet now.
It is of course immensely stressful and there are many hundreds of devastated farmers and indeed cow families whose cow herds have been slaughtered as part of this massive eradication programme.
Once complete it will be the only time in the world that a massive MBovis outbreak has ever been eradicated in the entire world.
It is also our biggest ever biosecurity outbreak since the Norwegian Shiprat. Faced and brought to heel.
So congratulations to the entire team of testers, public servants, Minister O’Connor, the lab scientists, trackers, cattle agents and of course the farmers who have together brought this under control.
Interesting! While 68% want a tax cut in the next budget (including 54% of labour voters) 76% of kiwi's want gst off food. Getting rid of gst is indeed a tax cut for everyone. It's also progressive af, GST is a Disgraceful consumption tax that hurts the poorest.
Since more people favor gst cuts than tax cuts , If Labour has any sense they will be dropping GST to atleast pre Key levels in the budget ( preferably they'd go further and drop to 10% like Australia) and remind everyone at every chance that nationals tax cuts will mean a GST rises which means price rises.
instead of trying to attack Luxon for what he'd personally get out of tax cuts (which didn't work with key and isn't working with Luxon) people don't care about his wealth, they would care that his tax cuts will mean they get $20 a week but pay more on every item they buy..
Since the tax take is 2.7 billion dollars higher than forecast that $2.7 billion should go to tax cuts or gst cuts.
By doing something on tax (preferably the more popular option of gst) Labour can neutralize Nationals biggest stick (tax cuts)
Do you think the Government should give New Zealanders a tax cut in the upcoming May Budget?
68% said yes. I'm surprised it wasn't 100%. Who doesn't want a tax cut.
Its up to the government to make sure that National's policy – to give themselves and their mates a massive tax cut and the rest a few coins in comparison – is known by every man and woman in the country.
Some of you may be aware of the Transpower rises in Electricity charges for manufacturers indicated last week.
It may be of further interest to know that the sole manufacturer of construction steel in NZ, including rebar and roofing will be disadvantaged by a 348% rise by April 2023. This will increase the cost of electricity for BlueScope from $3million to $14m p/a. Increasing the cost of steel by $16.50 tonne.
Although BlueScope is Australian owned, it is providing construction steel while supply lines are stretched and not reliable.
Rio Tinto on the other hand has been subsidised. There's more to this, but the impact on construction costs will be noted.
Son is doing a compulsory paper at university, and module is currently the mātauranga Māori one. During the last few days, while stuck in traffic, he pulls up the online powerpoints and we've had some interesting discussions on what is being presented.
It's been a hybrid of fact, opinion, unevidenced speculation and unconvincing equivalences of some aspects of Te Ao Māori with universal science concepts.
Yesterdays contribution – apparently delivered with a straight face, was in regards to water pollution. The use of scientific method to determine whether there was pollution was considered a colonial approach of science. According to the lecturer, mātauranga Māori approach was superior. If you were adept at mātauranga Māori, you did not have to resort to testing of any kind. You had the (unspoken but implied) superior method of looking at a body of water and knowing whether it was suitable for swimming or drinking.
This application of Māori knowledge, ill fitted, non-evidenced and unable to be challenged (yes, they were advised at the start of the module that some may find the material contentious but that was the fault of the complainers) is going to backfire. It will create understandable dismisssal and possibly resentment for those that are presented with it.
A true partnership between Māori and the Crown requires mutual respect, not this facsimile of understanding and equality.
God help us Molly. Seriously "the use of the scientific method to determine whether there was pollution was considered a colonial approach of science. Acording to the lecturer Matauranga Maori was superior. ………..you did not have to resort to testing of any kind."
Expect NZ to lose its scientists in droves because of this stuff.
Gobsmacked!
Science is apparently no longer of any value in this post-truth world.
Expect NZ international university ratings to take a nose-dive if this is embedded.
Not to mention that we are crying out for scientifically literate graduates in a whole range of areas.
I don't know about you, but if 3 Waters goes ahead, I really, really do want to have some scientific backing to claims of potability of my water supply…..
Observation (which happens in scientific enquire as well as mātauranga Māori) can give you broad indications of the health of a body of water (healthy plants, diversity of fishes and invertebrates, even colour and smell of the water, etc.), but doesn't tell you anything about fecal coliform counts or cryptosporidium levels.
It is possible to look at a river, a life force, and tell it is not healthy.
Western science is useful but is also a colonial construct used to protect economic benefits of a small number of farming elite, to the detriment of the river ecosystem.
Science – which endeavours to be a universal language – and has contributors from cultures all over the world, includes the observation you speak of as a primary source of theories.
"It is possible to look at a river, a life force, and tell it is not healthy."
Yes. But it is not possible to look at a body of water and tell if it is drinkable from that observation only. That assumes a mystical knowledge that is the antithesis of science. The observation leads to a theory that the water is able to be drunk. That theory is tested, and conclusion reached.
"Western science is useful but is also a colonial construct used to protect economic benefits of a small number of farming elite, to the detriment of the river ecosystem."
You call it a colonial construct, despite knowledge being built up over millenium from a wide variety of cultures.
To me, it is a tool, that can be used wisely or not, to examine the world around us. It can benefit all. To say it is limited to the use of a "farming elite, to the detriment of the river system" is emotive rhetoric. Which also has no place in science evaluation.
Yes. But it is not possible to look at a body of water and tell if it is drinkable from that observation only. That assumes a mystical knowledge that is the antithesis of science. The observation leads to a theory that the water is able to be drunk. That theory is tested, and conclusion reached.
I addressed this above/below but want to dig into it a bit more.
it's not just observation, it's also interaction
observation can tell us immediate things that do in fact establish drinkable eg I wouldn't drink from a pond that was full of algae. I don't need science to tell me that, and humans had ways of avoiding making themselves sick long before western science arrived on the scene.
deep observation can see things we cannot and so the ability to establish drinkable may be more than point 2. eg can the person see that over time there's been a decline in the nymph that lives in the rocks on the edge of the creek and then one year they are nearly all gone, and there's an oral history of this occurrence and people becoming very ill when drinking the water (I made that example up)
None of that is infallible, but then neither is science.
I believe observation to be the starting blocks of science. Every learned fact was first observed, and tested in some way, and conclusions reached. Whether that is from a series of observations leading to a fixed pattern being recognised or otherwise, observations are a fundamental part of scientific theory. Your example of water observation in this sense, fits well.
However, there is a limited number of Maaori who retain the intimacy and connection to land to perform this type of observation. And that loss should be recognised and mourned, and hopefully, as we become more intimate with the land, regained. However, we need to ensure when teaching, that it is not promoted as an innate ability that is unable to be understood, so it takes on a mystical quality.
If we err on that side, the inclusion of matuaranga Maaori will have justified critics. If we introduce concepts, the explanation should be robust (as yours was – I'll actually share it with my son, so he can write about it in that form) and able to be queried.
(Bit of a red flag for me: Questions were also discouraged. I really want to sit in on these lectures to see for myself what is actually going on, then I'd be able to be either reassured about content, or able to articulate better if I consider there to be problems.)
that would be a red flag for me too. I do think there is cause for concern here based on what you have share. My response is similar to Robert's and as I shared below, is faulty delivery better or worse than no delivery?
And that loss should be recognised and mourned, and hopefully, as we become more intimate with the land, regained.
That becoming more intimate with the land is currently blocked. It's why we have climate change and polluted rivers. It stems directly from the dominant cultural world view that the universe is mechanistic, as well as our general disconnect from nature. I see the push of mātauranga Māori into education as one way of changing that. My biggest concerns here are that if they don't bring people along there will be a backlash, and that if they do it badly it will undermine the usefulness of western science. The problem here is trying to teach concepts to people who don't have the conceptual language or framework.
When I learned te reo, it was taught in a specific context, te Ao Māori. It wasn't taught like Latin or French as a set of patterns of words (although that was also taught), it was embedded in culture. Opening and closing karakia, learning some haka, waiata, marae visits and so on.
If we want to decolonise knowledge and learning, then we have to look at who gets to determine the cultural context it is taught in. At the moment the default is Pākehā (British descent).
However, we need to ensure when teaching, that it is not promoted as an innate ability that is unable to be understood, so it takes on a mystical quality.
There are some things that cannot be understood with the reductionist mind. We have mysticism because it gives us the conceptual frame and language to talk about those things.
I have a book somewhere about Aboriginal culture in Australia, with chapters regarding their bushcraft and hunting and gathering rituals and practices.
I remember vividly the chapter on testing new plantstuffs to see whether they were edible. Starting with observations about the plant, and similarity to other ones that they knew were edible, to looking for the evidence regarding what other animals ate it. When both those questions were answered positively, they had a set of tests they would put the plant through. Starting with skin sensitivity, and moving through the range of exposures until they were reassured enough to ingest it in small quantities.
If I come across it, I'll post the title. But for me, a really informative look into another culture and a clear understanding of their processes, which were related alongside their rituals.
I recall buying it from the withdrawals of the library as it started with a woman giving birth in the outback, and using practiced rituals to connect to the land and sky while giving birth. (After making this comment, I want to read it again now and have it as a comparative guide when looking at the mataraunga Maaori curriculum).
Are you suggesting that critiques of western science as colonial are somehow aligned with not using western science? Because that's not my understanding. The whole point is to have mātauranga Māori and western science and get the best of both worlds.
A true partnership between Māori and the Crown requires mutual respect, not this facsimile of understanding and equality.
Well, mutual respect has been absent from the side of the crown for nearly 200 years now. Why the sudden importance? Oh, that's right, it's because Maori are asking serious questions and conservative white people don't like it.
What is your desired outcome when you write "conservative white people" and " conservative white people bubble"?
It would be interesting to know what reaction you would like in return, or is it just about releasing tension for you personally, or a show of aggression?
What serious questions did the lecturer in Molly's son class ask? It sounds like the lecture was about labelling Western science colonial and inflating the ability of Maori to know water quality on sight and smell.
As I conceded to weka, I would probably have to attend a class to ensure that I am not misrepresenting either my son, or what was being delivered.
I see some red flags, but without evidence I can only express disquiet rather than outrage.
I'd be really annoyed though, if a badly designed or taught mataraunga Maaori curriculum put the consideration of the value of the contribution of Te Ao Maaori backwards instead of forwards.
Yes and I probably need to pause and breath a little.
The book you sited about Aboriginal culture bush craft is worthy of knowing about. And Maori have similar wisdom to offer.
When I hear people denigrating science and referring to it as colonial, red flags go off for me. What it is signalling for me is an ideological approach that is most unhelpful. I have experienced this in my own profession, when at a workshop I went to, the particular expertise I has was referred to as colonisation and the speaker frankly did not understand anything about what the methodology I used. I went along in good faith to learn more about Maori approaches in my field but I had to conclude that it had very little to offer. And I actually challenged the speaker re her saying the approach I am trained in was colonisation and she was extremely patronizing towards me.
I am beginning to think that the idea of denigrating science as colonial could be pervading our educational institutions. This worries me greatly.
I also have difficulties with acceptance the colonial reference in regards to science. I understood the science knowledge base to be one built on through millenia, and contributed to by cultures around the world from various places, at different times.
I also consider the building of this knowledge base to be ongoing. A truly universal language that allows any individual or culture to participate and contribute. The outcome: Mataraunga Maaori being recognised as a valued contributor, and having input into changes processes, if changing processes is what is required.
But the flipside of equal consideration is equal scrutiny. We can and should demand that curriculum from all sources are fit for purpose, and can stand up to critique.
You raise many good and interesting points, as usual.
Many of our science graduates will live and work overseas at some time in their lives although not necessarily working in a field of science. This raises the question whether VM gives them an international advantage or not, assuming it is more than just feeding a parochial need or island mentality.
Yeah I am a science graduate, and I have never worked in science.
However I use an understanding of science knowledge all of the time in everything from writing code to arguing on here about politics. And have a sufficient base to keep growing more understanding.
is it possible to see the content? (sorry, I know you've posted a lot of links to curriculum in the past). I'd like us to tease out what is official and what is the lecturer or tutor saying (is there a problem with the course itself, or was it this particular teacher, and how much of both?)
One thing I know from learning some te reo Māori, is that there are concepts quite hard to understand to the Western mind. It requires a different kind of thinking. Thus there's a tendency to see an mātauranga body of knowledge (oh some nice myths and such but not real knowledge) as inferior rather than alongside.
Don't disagree with you about the potential problems of what is being done, although I suspect part of the problem is trying to teach conceptual ideas and content related to that to people who don't have the conceptual grasp. Part of it is the emphasis on the literal in Western thinking and the lesser ability to think in metaphor.
Re your example of rivers, to my mind there is the reductionist approach (measure known pollutants and pathogens), and there is the knowledge that comes from deep observation and experience with the landscape (something that Westerners often struggle to grasp both the complexity and degree). Someone who knows a river from livelong interaction within a framework that establishes knowledge and that within the context of generations of observation, can see things we can't. When one's life and the lives of whānau and hapū depend on that, intergenerationally, then it's not so hard to see the body of knowledge being developed. Much of this has been grossly harmed by colonisation.
The tone of the teacher seems patronising. I've also seen such things reported by people who missed what was really being said.
Engineering. Like me, on the Aspergers spectrum, and very pedantic about what is being said. I trust him to get it right, because he is also forthright about getting it wrong.
My son, as a teen, accompanied me to Tikanga Marae course, and was involved in Kapa Haka for a while. Wants to learn Te Reo, and has some exposure to some of the concepts of Te Ao Maaori.
"Someone who knows a river from livelong interaction within a framework that establishes knowledge and that within the context of generations of observation, can see things we can't."
This I understand. But this is not what was said. It is a privilege afforded to very few people – Maaori or not, to have such an intimate connection with the land. I think that there is a difference between acknowledging the value of that connection while recognising the scale of the loss of it due to urbanisation and losing contact, with assuming that it is sense incumbent within all Maaori. I really believe the standard of the delivery will be dependent on the quality and restraint of the kaiako. Someone who is passionate about the injustices of the Crown, may be more likely to stretch the alignment of concepts to the point where a break is visible.
We are urban Maaori. My maternal grandparents farm was our de-facto marae, where we all gathered at holidays, celebrations and tangihanga. I have sought out additional learning for myself and my children, as after the grandparents died the farm ownership has been in and out of court for decades, and that easy relationship has been fractured.
I believe that mataraunga Maaori can and does contribute to the well-being of not only all the people of NZ, but the land.
I just want to ensure that the policy that hopes to include it, succeeds and does not put people off learning more. I think if they are not careful about content AND delivery, it could have a negative effect.
(My experience with the three courses from Te Wananga o Aotearoa, are mostly informed by the quality and delivery of the tutors. Two were superb, and retained most of the enrolments. The third, Te Reo, was painful, by a begrudging tutor, and the course finished with less than a third of the original number. My te reo is non-existent now.)
(Addition: Not supposed to share content. He was reading off his phone while I was driving, but they are advised not to share coursework with anyone. So, we just discussed what was said. Some slides with content points, but the lecturer riffed off them, which is where variation naturally occurs.)
Thanks Molly, lots there to consider, hope to come back today or over the weekend.
(being told not to share coursework is a big red flag for me. Not that he should share, don't want him to be uncomfortable or get grief about it. But that they are telling students to be secretive about it is really not ok).
Given the transfer during Covid to online, I suspect this is a standard proviso to protect intellectual property (and income streams). At present he still has access, but is not a rule breaker so don't want to push to get access. I have asked. I think he'd be comfortable with me in the room while he's watching, but he really doesn't want to watch again. Other priorities.
The class were invited to speak amongst themselves, and the other student was resentful of what had been presented. My concern is, that if not done well this effort will have long term negative repercussions.
I think weka has actually encapsulated that really well in her examples above. I showed her comments to my son to see if between him seeing it, and us talking about it, there has been a misinterpretation on my part.
He can follow weka's comments easily, and said that what was presented was not along those lines.
I'm trying to persuade him to watch online, so I can have a look and report back not via hearsay.
I'm supportive of an education system that gives all students an opportunity to be introduced and understand Te Ao Maori. That's why I think it is really important to get right.
If anyone has an opportunity to sit in on such lectures it'd be good to hear back. Unfortunately, like most courses, it might be a failing of lecturer and delivery rather than content. Or it could be neither – or both.
This was a fascination, frustrating discussion, weka, Molly et al. It's also a critical one, imo and one that's engaging "governance" up and down nga motu 🙂
Is the anguish expressed here primarily about the potential for a valuable adjustment to our world-view being harmed by faulty delivery, or are we debating the worth of the coming to prominence of matauranga Maori in the thinking/decision-making of all of us, but especially those especially those in the political sphere? Or something else?
The debate becomes, as it so often does, nebulous, if there isn't a focus set.
It might seem odd, and might sink like a stone (he pohatu kei roto puna?) but I'd like to suggest that we discuss/share dialogue around the word/concept "hauora"?
Thinking about this and debating in the council chamber, with iwi aboard, over the past couple of years, has proved very valuable, in my opinion. However, given this thread is "old" now (how ephemeral life is 🙂 it's likely my suggestion will be erased by circumstance; such is (modern) life 🙂
Is the anguish expressed here primarily about the potential for a valuable adjustment to our world-view being harmed by faulty delivery, or are we debating the worth of the coming to prominence of matauranga Maori in the thinking/decision-making of all of us, but especially those especially those in the political sphere? Or something else?
thanks Robert. This was my thinking too, but not as eloquently thought in my head. I suspect it's mostly the former, but it risks the latter. If it's a choice between faulty delivery or no delivery, what would we choose?
I also think decolonising western minds is pertinent, and I don't know how else to do that in NZ en masse apart from engaging with te Ao Māori.
Can you lead the discussion around hauora? My first thought goes to what wellbeing is compared to how our health system sees it (something broken that needs fixing). Something I was reading from Little the other day, our mainstream health systems are a very long way from upholding health and vigour.
I'd keep away from "the health system" in a discussion about hauora, weka, as it's too, too loaded with prior expectations/agonies/anguish. I was thinking about "hauora' as it's being used with regard water quality – the hauora of the water has become the lens through which legislation etc. around water quality is being viewed and it's creating some very intense discussions. For me, it's a very useful pivot around which the whole matauranga Maori/Western/colonizer science debate can turn.
It's a flash-point, imo. From the discussions I've been involved in, it seems there is a problem with applying our usual intellectual/thinking strategies to understanding "hauora" and meaning can only be gained through more poetic approaches. I guess the same problem would occur here and little might be gained. Face to face though, in an atmosphere of eagerness-to-learn, insight can be achieved by describing "hauora" in terms of, for example, a mother and new-born and their relationship, especially in terms of how the mother wraps her entire experience of living around the little one. Using that analogy/story to help express "hauora" with regards water, might stretch to breaking point most "colonised, Western minds 🙂 Nevertheless, I have been present in discussions where this has been spoken aloud to great effect 🙂
I hear you on the loss, both generally and for families in situations like yours. The loss was similar for my people (most peoples), but it was long ago enough that we don't even acknowledge it let alone remember or feel it. Layers of colonisation and here we are at the end of the world.
I also hear you about the quality of the delivery. I guess the ideal in an engineering course would be to have someone who is 'bilingual'. Understands science well and understands mātauranga. But as you point out, we probably don't have enough people who are also skilled in teaching.
The issue then becomes what do we do next?
It is a privilege afforded to very few people – Maaori or not, to have such an intimate connection with the land.
There are quite a lot of people seeking to remedy this and building experience, skill and knowledge. Robert is one such, nearly 30 years of direct and deep engagement with one place along with intention does that. I think many Māori still on the land have it. I know other Pākehā too, quite a lot. There are Pākehā frameworks that are helping eg permaculture. So all is not lost and it is worth trying to shift the cultural stuff while we still have enough functional society and civ tech to do so.
I see an overlap here with the Freedom protests. A subsection of that is people who manage their health from direct observation and engagement, and to them vaccination in particular is just weird (plus now it's mixed in with all the conspiracy and misinformation). Intuition is valued much more highly than science.
But in the wider sub culture that they belong to, there are people recovering health that mainstream medicine had said was not possible. I know this happens in Māoridom as well. And the other side is that in alternative health there is a fair amount of stupid and bullshit (but I would say this about mainstream medicine too, it's just displayed differently and msm has the power and resources to get away with it).
All of that to me points to a binary fragmentation that is getting worse and based in a lot of people not listening to each other and not prepared to listen to each other (which is scary).
We see that in the sex/gender wars as well. And in the culture wars generally. It's not a good thing to be happening at this point in history.
Apart from the liberal fringe of coastal states, it is hard to find social attitudes at a legislative level in the United States that are much more advanced than those of the Taliban. To illustrate: once Roe goes, up to 30 US states will legislate to effectively re-criminalise abortion altogether.
Barbie Kardashian is a troubled teenager who was “born a male but identifies as female”, and has a history of particularly nasty physical and sexual violence towards women. Having previously torn the eyelids from a female care worker, Kardashian was jailed last year in the women’s wing of Limerick prison following threats of violence against two individuals. According to the court report, Kardashian was “very anxious she be detained in a prison facility for females, as she identifies as a female”.
Already there was a “pre-operative, pre-hormone therapy”, male-to-female transgender prisoner who had been convicted of ten counts of sexual assault and one count of cruelty against a child.
Violence against authority is common amongst troubled youth. Violence against fellow inmates is also common amongst troubled youth. It has nothing to do with self-ID.
Why do you believe that women's prison estates were created?
Housing is an issue, but oh, this tactic of telling women that they should show their concern on other topics before this is a tired one.
This thread is about how the impact of self-id in terms of policy for single-sex spaces puts women at increased risk of harm (and skews statistical data).
"I'd be writing to the prison authorities in question to ensure that didn't happen."
That is the thrust of the campaign regarding KPSS. Keep Prisons Single Sex.
There is no data that is used to rationalise the breaking of the single sex boundary for the prison estate.
Vulnerable men – who are not transgender – remain housed in the men's prison estate. Men who are trans-identified have not been shown to be more vulnerable than these others: young men, men with limited mental capacity, men with FASD and easily manipulated, men who are physically small or weak, men who are more effeminate in nature.
It is the responsibility of the men's estate to house all of these men safely.
Self ID enables the likes on Ms K to be housed with other women and girls. Ms K threatens to rape children and women. What leads you to deny this is a problem?
“i’d be writng to prison authorities to ensure that doesn’t happen”. And will you also write to the councils asking them to ensure that male bodied people don’t access women’s toilets?
How about putting women, who are by far the majority, ahead of people who are male but want to identify as female? You see when men start denying there is a problem with self ID it tends to suggest they either don’t understand women’s position or don’t give a shit.
And if you don’t give a shit about women, how about you start thinking about girls and teen girls? Why should they have to put up with male bodied people in the spaces?
I think you are searching. Nothing about Ireland’s self-ID changes the threat to the family of Mr Mannix.
My reading of Joyce's comment is this. Genderists in the UK in particular point to Ireland as an example of a country that already has legal self-ID (UK doesn't) as a kind of 'see, there are no problems with self-ID, it won't hurt to bring it in'.
Self-ID doesn't make this young man be violent. It enables him into women's spaces and to have his violence crime recorded as a woman's crime and reported as such in the MSM i.e. the MSM is deceiving the public. Those are obvious problems, do they really have to be explained?
The article didn't explain how Kardashian was a threat to other women, apart from her mother, who apparently abused her.
I answered it with evidence from further down the article – showing that K has explicitly threatened sexual violence (specifically rape) to other women. In that context, the fact that K is biologically male (while self-identifying as a woman) is absolutely relevant.
Other commenters have addressed why this is relevant in a more general societal context. I was making the point, that it is directly relevant in this specific case. K is physically equipped to actually carry out the sexual assault.
I looked up Coovagh House and it does not say it is in the women's estate, whatever that means. It is for troubled children.
From the article which Helen Joyce tweeted:
Coovagh House takes residents aged 11 to 17 years…The court heard that Coovagh, which has capacity for four residents, houses young people who have experienced childhood trauma, and who are at risk to themselves and or others. It is one of only four such units in the State, and that residents are placed in the units specifically on foot of orders of the High Court.
These threats any less likely to happen if Ireland did not have self-ID?
How ever transphobic to suggest there is a connection between violence and self-ID. Feminists on the other hand are pointing to male pattern violence and saying stop reporting this as women's crime. It's not.
Or is it just the label, "Woman (20)", you are worried about?
cool, if you want to know I am more than happy to explain.
One of the main issues in the gender/sex war is about language and who gets to name what. We have a major problem with male violence against women and girls (MVAWG). When we allow men to self-ID and that mean they are treated for all intents and purposes as women, we then get the MSM reporting this as a woman's crime. Women rarely do crimes like this, violence of this type is overwhelmingly done by men, generally to females.
When genderists get to control the language, it becomes harder to talk about MVAWG. Some people will accuse people of being transphobic for talking about MVAWG. MSM mislead (the IG could have reported this as a transgender crime if it didn't want to report it as a male crime, but it needed to be made clear that the person is biologically male).
Other issues arise. If self-ID means that society must refer to TW as female, then rape victims in court i.e. women who have been raped by men, can be required to refer to the accused as 'she'. This is both demeaning, as well as potentially retraumatising. It's also a mindfuck and institutional abuse.
This week there's debate about using terms like 'birthing bodies' when talking about abortion. If women lose the ability to talk about our sex based oppression we will not be able to retain rights. The conservatives in the US will both remove abortion rights and adopt neoliberal concepts like 'birthing bodies' because when you dehumanise women, or objectify them, it becomes much easier to remove more of their rights.
There are lots of rights being challenged in the US currently, and women's rights is one of them that needs to be named very clearly if we want to talk meaningfully about what is happening. Conservatives aren't just attacking rights that happen to be women's, the attack is on women specifically because they are female and they hold reproductive power.
tl;dr, self-ID causes all sorts of problems for women because it says we don't exist as a sex class any more.
This You Tube argues that Putin will soon face a Russian rebellion. Wouldn't that be a good outcome.
Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey
A Kremlin coup comprised of former generals and KGB officials may be increasingly likely in Moscow, according to multiple reports. Dr. Rashad Richey and Wosny Lambre discuss on Indisputable. Tell us what you think in the comments below. Read more here: https://www.cityam.com/kremlin-on-hig… "Rumours are swirling in Moscow that a number of former generals and KGB officials are preparing to oust Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and plan to end the war in Ukraine, which is increasingly seen across Russia as a strategic mistake and, above all, an economic disaster. The top of Putin’s former employer – the Russian security service FSB – is said to be so frustrated about the lack of military progress in Ukraine that it has reached out to a number of generals and former army officials, according to various analysts and local media reports." *** Indisputable, features Dr. Richey talking about the top news stories of the day, reading viewer comments, and engaging in debates and conversations with guests. Help support our mission and get perks. Membership protects TYT's independence from corporate ownership and allows us to provide free live shows that speak truth to power for people around the world.
It's really just a case of the Natz applying the Goebbel's principle: 'tell a lie and repeat it often enough a people will begin to believe it.'
There really is zero evidence that this government is soft on crime – but hey, when you're up to your ears in dirty politics, what on earth do facts matter?
Can't trust 'em – Dirty Politics is an oozing infected wound Nat MPs have no intention of acknowledging, let alone healing – tbh I don’t think they know how.
Most Kiwis don't understand that the Commissioner of Police must act independently of ministers, so the Minister could be telling him to be tougher for all any of us know, but he's required to ignore that.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
I’d like to give a huge shoutout to the team at Hamilton’s MilkTestNZ, together with the gutsy advice of MPI who put the case to Treasury and then to Cabinet to put up nearly $900 million to eradicate MBovis from the entire cow herd of New Zealand.
After starting way back in 2018, they are now down to their last infected farm, and they will get it out of there soon. There were plenty of doubters at the time who I am sure will have the sense to keep quiet now.
It is of course immensely stressful and there are many hundreds of devastated farmers and indeed cow families whose cow herds have been slaughtered as part of this massive eradication programme.
Once complete it will be the only time in the world that a massive MBovis outbreak has ever been eradicated in the entire world.
It is also our biggest ever biosecurity outbreak since the Norwegian Shiprat. Faced and brought to heel.
So congratulations to the entire team of testers, public servants, Minister O’Connor, the lab scientists, trackers, cattle agents and of course the farmers who have together brought this under control.
Eradication approach leaves just one property with M. bovis (1news.co.nz)
No idea if this government will get much recognition for it, but it’s a hard earned result of a successful delivery.
I agree, great result for NZ and farming but little if any credit ill be given.
Yep. National brought it in and let it spread. Labour cleaned up the mess.
It's the little things.
National brought it in? Is there no end to their evil?
Interesting! While 68% want a tax cut in the next budget (including 54% of labour voters) 76% of kiwi's want gst off food. Getting rid of gst is indeed a tax cut for everyone. It's also progressive af, GST is a Disgraceful consumption tax that hurts the poorest.
Since more people favor gst cuts than tax cuts , If Labour has any sense they will be dropping GST to atleast pre Key levels in the budget ( preferably they'd go further and drop to 10% like Australia) and remind everyone at every chance that nationals tax cuts will mean a GST rises which means price rises.
instead of trying to attack Luxon for what he'd personally get out of tax cuts (which didn't work with key and isn't working with Luxon) people don't care about his wealth, they would care that his tax cuts will mean they get $20 a week but pay more on every item they buy..
Since the tax take is 2.7 billion dollars higher than forecast that $2.7 billion should go to tax cuts or gst cuts.
By doing something on tax (preferably the more popular option of gst) Labour can neutralize Nationals biggest stick (tax cuts)
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/05/newshub-reid-research-poll-overwhelming-majority-want-tax-cuts-in-budget-2022.html
Yes Corey.. That would just "pull the rug"
Question:
68% said yes. I'm surprised it wasn't 100%. Who doesn't want a tax cut.
Its up to the government to make sure that National's policy – to give themselves and their mates a massive tax cut and the rest a few coins in comparison – is known by every man and woman in the country.
Some of you may be aware of the Transpower rises in Electricity charges for manufacturers indicated last week.
It may be of further interest to know that the sole manufacturer of construction steel in NZ, including rebar and roofing will be disadvantaged by a 348% rise by April 2023. This will increase the cost of electricity for BlueScope from $3million to $14m p/a. Increasing the cost of steel by $16.50 tonne.
Although BlueScope is Australian owned, it is providing construction steel while supply lines are stretched and not reliable.
Rio Tinto on the other hand has been subsidised. There's more to this, but the impact on construction costs will be noted.
Yes they have complained in a letter to the Minister a few months back.
For us in the construction industry it ranks as bad as the closure of Marsden Point refinery.
Similarly a remnant hero project from 1966s, paired with the Meremere and Huntly Power Station for local steel from local bulk generation.
Son is doing a compulsory paper at university, and module is currently the mātauranga Māori one. During the last few days, while stuck in traffic, he pulls up the online powerpoints and we've had some interesting discussions on what is being presented.
It's been a hybrid of fact, opinion, unevidenced speculation and unconvincing equivalences of some aspects of Te Ao Māori with universal science concepts.
Yesterdays contribution – apparently delivered with a straight face, was in regards to water pollution. The use of scientific method to determine whether there was pollution was considered a colonial approach of science. According to the lecturer, mātauranga Māori approach was superior. If you were adept at mātauranga Māori, you did not have to resort to testing of any kind. You had the (unspoken but implied) superior method of looking at a body of water and knowing whether it was suitable for swimming or drinking.
This application of Māori knowledge, ill fitted, non-evidenced and unable to be challenged (yes, they were advised at the start of the module that some may find the material contentious but that was the fault of the complainers) is going to backfire. It will create understandable dismisssal and possibly resentment for those that are presented with it.
A true partnership between Māori and the Crown requires mutual respect, not this facsimile of understanding and equality.
God help us Molly. Seriously "the use of the scientific method to determine whether there was pollution was considered a colonial approach of science. Acording to the lecturer Matauranga Maori was superior. ………..you did not have to resort to testing of any kind."
Expect NZ to lose its scientists in droves because of this stuff.
Thanks for posting.
What is really annoying, is that this approach may actively discourage people from seeking out knowledge for themselves on Te Ao Māori.
Gobsmacked!
Science is apparently no longer of any value in this post-truth world.
Expect NZ international university ratings to take a nose-dive if this is embedded.
Not to mention that we are crying out for scientifically literate graduates in a whole range of areas.
I don't know about you, but if 3 Waters goes ahead, I really, really do want to have some scientific backing to claims of potability of my water supply…..
Observation (which happens in scientific enquire as well as mātauranga Māori) can give you broad indications of the health of a body of water (healthy plants, diversity of fishes and invertebrates, even colour and smell of the water, etc.), but doesn't tell you anything about fecal coliform counts or cryptosporidium levels.
"…but doesn't tell you anything about fecal coliform counts or cryptosporidium levels."
Almost word for word in what I told my son.
It is possible to look at a river, a life force, and tell it is not healthy.
Western science is useful but is also a colonial construct used to protect economic benefits of a small number of farming elite, to the detriment of the river ecosystem.
Science – which endeavours to be a universal language – and has contributors from cultures all over the world, includes the observation you speak of as a primary source of theories.
"It is possible to look at a river, a life force, and tell it is not healthy."
Yes. But it is not possible to look at a body of water and tell if it is drinkable from that observation only. That assumes a mystical knowledge that is the antithesis of science. The observation leads to a theory that the water is able to be drunk. That theory is tested, and conclusion reached.
"Western science is useful but is also a colonial construct used to protect economic benefits of a small number of farming elite, to the detriment of the river ecosystem."
You call it a colonial construct, despite knowledge being built up over millenium from a wide variety of cultures.
To me, it is a tool, that can be used wisely or not, to examine the world around us. It can benefit all. To say it is limited to the use of a "farming elite, to the detriment of the river system" is emotive rhetoric. Which also has no place in science evaluation.
I addressed this above/below but want to dig into it a bit more.
None of that is infallible, but then neither is science.
I believe observation to be the starting blocks of science. Every learned fact was first observed, and tested in some way, and conclusions reached. Whether that is from a series of observations leading to a fixed pattern being recognised or otherwise, observations are a fundamental part of scientific theory. Your example of water observation in this sense, fits well.
However, there is a limited number of Maaori who retain the intimacy and connection to land to perform this type of observation. And that loss should be recognised and mourned, and hopefully, as we become more intimate with the land, regained. However, we need to ensure when teaching, that it is not promoted as an innate ability that is unable to be understood, so it takes on a mystical quality.
If we err on that side, the inclusion of matuaranga Maaori will have justified critics. If we introduce concepts, the explanation should be robust (as yours was – I'll actually share it with my son, so he can write about it in that form) and able to be queried.
(Bit of a red flag for me: Questions were also discouraged. I really want to sit in on these lectures to see for myself what is actually going on, then I'd be able to be either reassured about content, or able to articulate better if I consider there to be problems.)
that would be a red flag for me too. I do think there is cause for concern here based on what you have share. My response is similar to Robert's and as I shared below, is faulty delivery better or worse than no delivery?
That becoming more intimate with the land is currently blocked. It's why we have climate change and polluted rivers. It stems directly from the dominant cultural world view that the universe is mechanistic, as well as our general disconnect from nature. I see the push of mātauranga Māori into education as one way of changing that. My biggest concerns here are that if they don't bring people along there will be a backlash, and that if they do it badly it will undermine the usefulness of western science. The problem here is trying to teach concepts to people who don't have the conceptual language or framework.
When I learned te reo, it was taught in a specific context, te Ao Māori. It wasn't taught like Latin or French as a set of patterns of words (although that was also taught), it was embedded in culture. Opening and closing karakia, learning some haka, waiata, marae visits and so on.
If we want to decolonise knowledge and learning, then we have to look at who gets to determine the cultural context it is taught in. At the moment the default is Pākehā (British descent).
There are some things that cannot be understood with the reductionist mind. We have mysticism because it gives us the conceptual frame and language to talk about those things.
I have a book somewhere about Aboriginal culture in Australia, with chapters regarding their bushcraft and hunting and gathering rituals and practices.
I remember vividly the chapter on testing new plantstuffs to see whether they were edible. Starting with observations about the plant, and similarity to other ones that they knew were edible, to looking for the evidence regarding what other animals ate it. When both those questions were answered positively, they had a set of tests they would put the plant through. Starting with skin sensitivity, and moving through the range of exposures until they were reassured enough to ingest it in small quantities.
If I come across it, I'll post the title. But for me, a really informative look into another culture and a clear understanding of their processes, which were related alongside their rituals.
I recall buying it from the withdrawals of the library as it started with a woman giving birth in the outback, and using practiced rituals to connect to the land and sky while giving birth. (After making this comment, I want to read it again now and have it as a comparative guide when looking at the mataraunga Maaori curriculum).
sounds interesting!
https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/04-05-2022/at-home-heart-checks-could-be-game-changer-for-maori
Bloody colonial Western Science again providing heart checks for Maori.
Are you suggesting that critiques of western science as colonial are somehow aligned with not using western science? Because that's not my understanding. The whole point is to have mātauranga Māori and western science and get the best of both worlds.
Well, mutual respect has been absent from the side of the crown for nearly 200 years now. Why the sudden importance? Oh, that's right, it's because Maori are asking serious questions and conservative white people don't like it.
Suddenly it's time for respect! Lol.
Are you assuming that I am both conservative and white?
Why don't you comment on content?
Don't be so arrogant as to assume my comment was about you.
So misinterpretation and insinuation in direct reply to me, but not intended to relate to me…
Quality contribution. Just low-quality.
My comment was general. You can include yourself in the conservative white people bubble if you like, or not.
"My comment was general. You can include yourself in the conservative white people bubble if you like, or not."
How is making unevidenced generalisations about people in regards to their position on a topic – a good contribution?
What is the outcome you expect from that? Or do you gain a personal satisfaction from arbitrarily labelling people who you disagree with?
I didn't label you anything. You did that yourself.
What is your desired outcome when you write "conservative white people" and " conservative white people bubble"?
It would be interesting to know what reaction you would like in return, or is it just about releasing tension for you personally, or a show of aggression?
What serious questions did the lecturer in Molly's son class ask? It sounds like the lecture was about labelling Western science colonial and inflating the ability of Maori to know water quality on sight and smell.
What are these serious questions you talk of?
As I conceded to weka, I would probably have to attend a class to ensure that I am not misrepresenting either my son, or what was being delivered.
I see some red flags, but without evidence I can only express disquiet rather than outrage.
I'd be really annoyed though, if a badly designed or taught mataraunga Maaori curriculum put the consideration of the value of the contribution of Te Ao Maaori backwards instead of forwards.
Yes and I probably need to pause and breath a little.
The book you sited about Aboriginal culture bush craft is worthy of knowing about. And Maori have similar wisdom to offer.
When I hear people denigrating science and referring to it as colonial, red flags go off for me. What it is signalling for me is an ideological approach that is most unhelpful. I have experienced this in my own profession, when at a workshop I went to, the particular expertise I has was referred to as colonisation and the speaker frankly did not understand anything about what the methodology I used. I went along in good faith to learn more about Maori approaches in my field but I had to conclude that it had very little to offer. And I actually challenged the speaker re her saying the approach I am trained in was colonisation and she was extremely patronizing towards me.
I am beginning to think that the idea of denigrating science as colonial could be pervading our educational institutions. This worries me greatly.
I also have difficulties with acceptance the colonial reference in regards to science. I understood the science knowledge base to be one built on through millenia, and contributed to by cultures around the world from various places, at different times.
I also consider the building of this knowledge base to be ongoing. A truly universal language that allows any individual or culture to participate and contribute. The outcome: Mataraunga Maaori being recognised as a valued contributor, and having input into changes processes, if changing processes is what is required.
But the flipside of equal consideration is equal scrutiny. We can and should demand that curriculum from all sources are fit for purpose, and can stand up to critique.
You raise many good and interesting points, as usual.
Many of our science graduates will live and work overseas at some time in their lives although not necessarily working in a field of science. This raises the question whether VM gives them an international advantage or not, assuming it is more than just feeding a parochial need or island mentality.
Yeah I am a science graduate, and I have never worked in science.
However I use an understanding of science knowledge all of the time in everything from writing code to arguing on here about politics. And have a sufficient base to keep growing more understanding.
Is your son doing a science degree?
is it possible to see the content? (sorry, I know you've posted a lot of links to curriculum in the past). I'd like us to tease out what is official and what is the lecturer or tutor saying (is there a problem with the course itself, or was it this particular teacher, and how much of both?)
One thing I know from learning some te reo Māori, is that there are concepts quite hard to understand to the Western mind. It requires a different kind of thinking. Thus there's a tendency to see an mātauranga body of knowledge (oh some nice myths and such but not real knowledge) as inferior rather than alongside.
Don't disagree with you about the potential problems of what is being done, although I suspect part of the problem is trying to teach conceptual ideas and content related to that to people who don't have the conceptual grasp. Part of it is the emphasis on the literal in Western thinking and the lesser ability to think in metaphor.
Re your example of rivers, to my mind there is the reductionist approach (measure known pollutants and pathogens), and there is the knowledge that comes from deep observation and experience with the landscape (something that Westerners often struggle to grasp both the complexity and degree). Someone who knows a river from livelong interaction within a framework that establishes knowledge and that within the context of generations of observation, can see things we can't. When one's life and the lives of whānau and hapū depend on that, intergenerationally, then it's not so hard to see the body of knowledge being developed. Much of this has been grossly harmed by colonisation.
The tone of the teacher seems patronising. I've also seen such things reported by people who missed what was really being said.
Engineering. Like me, on the Aspergers spectrum, and very pedantic about what is being said. I trust him to get it right, because he is also forthright about getting it wrong.
My son, as a teen, accompanied me to Tikanga Marae course, and was involved in Kapa Haka for a while. Wants to learn Te Reo, and has some exposure to some of the concepts of Te Ao Maaori.
"Someone who knows a river from livelong interaction within a framework that establishes knowledge and that within the context of generations of observation, can see things we can't."
This I understand. But this is not what was said. It is a privilege afforded to very few people – Maaori or not, to have such an intimate connection with the land. I think that there is a difference between acknowledging the value of that connection while recognising the scale of the loss of it due to urbanisation and losing contact, with assuming that it is sense incumbent within all Maaori. I really believe the standard of the delivery will be dependent on the quality and restraint of the kaiako. Someone who is passionate about the injustices of the Crown, may be more likely to stretch the alignment of concepts to the point where a break is visible.
We are urban Maaori. My maternal grandparents farm was our de-facto marae, where we all gathered at holidays, celebrations and tangihanga. I have sought out additional learning for myself and my children, as after the grandparents died the farm ownership has been in and out of court for decades, and that easy relationship has been fractured.
I believe that mataraunga Maaori can and does contribute to the well-being of not only all the people of NZ, but the land.
I just want to ensure that the policy that hopes to include it, succeeds and does not put people off learning more. I think if they are not careful about content AND delivery, it could have a negative effect.
(My experience with the three courses from Te Wananga o Aotearoa, are mostly informed by the quality and delivery of the tutors. Two were superb, and retained most of the enrolments. The third, Te Reo, was painful, by a begrudging tutor, and the course finished with less than a third of the original number. My te reo is non-existent now.)
(Addition: Not supposed to share content. He was reading off his phone while I was driving, but they are advised not to share coursework with anyone. So, we just discussed what was said. Some slides with content points, but the lecturer riffed off them, which is where variation naturally occurs.)
Thanks Molly, lots there to consider, hope to come back today or over the weekend.
(being told not to share coursework is a big red flag for me. Not that he should share, don't want him to be uncomfortable or get grief about it. But that they are telling students to be secretive about it is really not ok).
Given the transfer during Covid to online, I suspect this is a standard proviso to protect intellectual property (and income streams). At present he still has access, but is not a rule breaker so don't want to push to get access. I have asked. I think he'd be comfortable with me in the room while he's watching, but he really doesn't want to watch again. Other priorities.
The class were invited to speak amongst themselves, and the other student was resentful of what had been presented. My concern is, that if not done well this effort will have long term negative repercussions.
how would online powerpoint be different than handouts in a class?
Don't know. But I understand that may apply there too. I'll check.
(They’ve actually posted the full lectures, not just the Powerpoints.)
I feel that there is probably a lot of contextual nuance about rohe familiarity and cultural priorities that haven't been understood here imo
I think weka has actually encapsulated that really well in her examples above. I showed her comments to my son to see if between him seeing it, and us talking about it, there has been a misinterpretation on my part.
He can follow weka's comments easily, and said that what was presented was not along those lines.
I'm trying to persuade him to watch online, so I can have a look and report back not via hearsay.
I'm supportive of an education system that gives all students an opportunity to be introduced and understand Te Ao Maori. That's why I think it is really important to get right.
If anyone has an opportunity to sit in on such lectures it'd be good to hear back. Unfortunately, like most courses, it might be a failing of lecturer and delivery rather than content. Or it could be neither – or both.
This was a fascination, frustrating discussion, weka, Molly et al. It's also a critical one, imo and one that's engaging "governance" up and down nga motu 🙂
Is the anguish expressed here primarily about the potential for a valuable adjustment to our world-view being harmed by faulty delivery, or are we debating the worth of the coming to prominence of matauranga Maori in the thinking/decision-making of all of us, but especially those especially those in the political sphere? Or something else?
The debate becomes, as it so often does, nebulous, if there isn't a focus set.
It might seem odd, and might sink like a stone (he pohatu kei roto puna?) but I'd like to suggest that we discuss/share dialogue around the word/concept "hauora"?
Thinking about this and debating in the council chamber, with iwi aboard, over the past couple of years, has proved very valuable, in my opinion. However, given this thread is "old" now (how ephemeral life is 🙂 it's likely my suggestion will be erased by circumstance; such is (modern) life 🙂
thanks Robert. This was my thinking too, but not as eloquently thought in my head. I suspect it's mostly the former, but it risks the latter. If it's a choice between faulty delivery or no delivery, what would we choose?
I also think decolonising western minds is pertinent, and I don't know how else to do that in NZ en masse apart from engaging with te Ao Māori.
Can you lead the discussion around hauora? My first thought goes to what wellbeing is compared to how our health system sees it (something broken that needs fixing). Something I was reading from Little the other day, our mainstream health systems are a very long way from upholding health and vigour.
https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan=&histLoanWords=&keywords=hauora
I'd keep away from "the health system" in a discussion about hauora, weka, as it's too, too loaded with prior expectations/agonies/anguish. I was thinking about "hauora' as it's being used with regard water quality – the hauora of the water has become the lens through which legislation etc. around water quality is being viewed and it's creating some very intense discussions. For me, it's a very useful pivot around which the whole matauranga Maori/Western/colonizer science debate can turn.
Is the immediate value there in the discussions being created?
It's a flash-point, imo. From the discussions I've been involved in, it seems there is a problem with applying our usual intellectual/thinking strategies to understanding "hauora" and meaning can only be gained through more poetic approaches. I guess the same problem would occur here and little might be gained. Face to face though, in an atmosphere of eagerness-to-learn, insight can be achieved by describing "hauora" in terms of, for example, a mother and new-born and their relationship, especially in terms of how the mother wraps her entire experience of living around the little one. Using that analogy/story to help express "hauora" with regards water, might stretch to breaking point most "colonised, Western minds 🙂 Nevertheless, I have been present in discussions where this has been spoken aloud to great effect 🙂
I hear you on the loss, both generally and for families in situations like yours. The loss was similar for my people (most peoples), but it was long ago enough that we don't even acknowledge it let alone remember or feel it. Layers of colonisation and here we are at the end of the world.
I also hear you about the quality of the delivery. I guess the ideal in an engineering course would be to have someone who is 'bilingual'. Understands science well and understands mātauranga. But as you point out, we probably don't have enough people who are also skilled in teaching.
The issue then becomes what do we do next?
There are quite a lot of people seeking to remedy this and building experience, skill and knowledge. Robert is one such, nearly 30 years of direct and deep engagement with one place along with intention does that. I think many Māori still on the land have it. I know other Pākehā too, quite a lot. There are Pākehā frameworks that are helping eg permaculture. So all is not lost and it is worth trying to shift the cultural stuff while we still have enough functional society and civ tech to do so.
I see an overlap here with the Freedom protests. A subsection of that is people who manage their health from direct observation and engagement, and to them vaccination in particular is just weird (plus now it's mixed in with all the conspiracy and misinformation). Intuition is valued much more highly than science.
But in the wider sub culture that they belong to, there are people recovering health that mainstream medicine had said was not possible. I know this happens in Māoridom as well. And the other side is that in alternative health there is a fair amount of stupid and bullshit (but I would say this about mainstream medicine too, it's just displayed differently and msm has the power and resources to get away with it).
All of that to me points to a binary fragmentation that is getting worse and based in a lot of people not listening to each other and not prepared to listen to each other (which is scary).
We see that in the sex/gender wars as well. And in the culture wars generally. It's not a good thing to be happening at this point in history.
This might interest you, weka et al.
The War on Reality: Mary Harrington & Paul Kingsnorth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4kms2jkKbA
Am 12 minutes in so far. Superb, thank you. It’s like more educated people channelling my thinking but with enough new bits to keep me wanting more.
Well expressed Weka.
Worth a read. I fear it is correct.
https://theshot.net.au/general-news/america-is-surely-we-all-know-by-now-fucked/
https://twitter.com/hjoycegender/status/1521968502751604741?s=21
These threats any less likely to happen if Ireland did not have self-ID?
Or is it just the label, "Woman (20)", you are worried about?
The article didn't explain how Kardashian was a threat to other women, apart from her mother, who apparently abused her.
Still not seeing how self-ID makes any difference to this particular incident.
Quote from further down the article.
It's clear that this is a very disturbed individual. But it's the threat of rape which makes the self-ID issue relevant.
I think you are searching. Nothing about Ireland’s self-ID changes the threat to the family of Mr Mannix.
The accused was travelling with a female care worker and assaulted her. I can't find the original article I read but here's another.
They retain an elevated risk to women because of their self-declared hatred of women, and their actions and threats of violence towards women.
https://unherd.com/2021/07/how-the-trans-activists-fooled-ireland/
Violence against authority is common amongst troubled youth. Violence against fellow inmates is also common amongst troubled youth. It has nothing to do with self-ID.
The consequences of inclusive policy based on self-id puts women at increased risk of harm.
I don't think it does. What increases harm is amateur landlordism and all the pressures of bringing up all children in healthy, stable environments.
Can't be done right now for a lot of people.
@Muttonbird.
Why do you believe that women's prison estates were created?
Housing is an issue, but oh, this tactic of telling women that they should show their concern on other topics before this is a tired one.
This thread is about how the impact of self-id in terms of policy for single-sex spaces puts women at increased risk of harm (and skews statistical data).
women in prison have been raped by males who self-ID as women. How is putting those trans women in women's prison not an increased risk of harm?
I'd be writing to the prison authorities in question to ensure that didn't happen.
@Muttonbird
"I'd be writing to the prison authorities in question to ensure that didn't happen."
That is the thrust of the campaign regarding KPSS. Keep Prisons Single Sex.
There is no data that is used to rationalise the breaking of the single sex boundary for the prison estate.
Vulnerable men – who are not transgender – remain housed in the men's prison estate. Men who are trans-identified have not been shown to be more vulnerable than these others: young men, men with limited mental capacity, men with FASD and easily manipulated, men who are physically small or weak, men who are more effeminate in nature.
It is the responsibility of the men's estate to house all of these men safely.
Self ID enables the likes on Ms K to be housed with other women and girls. Ms K threatens to rape children and women. What leads you to deny this is a problem?
“i’d be writng to prison authorities to ensure that doesn’t happen”. And will you also write to the councils asking them to ensure that male bodied people don’t access women’s toilets?
How about putting women, who are by far the majority, ahead of people who are male but want to identify as female? You see when men start denying there is a problem with self ID it tends to suggest they either don’t understand women’s position or don’t give a shit.
And if you don’t give a shit about women, how about you start thinking about girls and teen girls? Why should they have to put up with male bodied people in the spaces?
My reading of Joyce's comment is this. Genderists in the UK in particular point to Ireland as an example of a country that already has legal self-ID (UK doesn't) as a kind of 'see, there are no problems with self-ID, it won't hurt to bring it in'.
Self-ID doesn't make this young man be violent. It enables him into women's spaces and to have his violence crime recorded as a woman's crime and reported as such in the MSM i.e. the MSM is deceiving the public. Those are obvious problems, do they really have to be explained?
Your comment was
I answered it with evidence from further down the article – showing that K has explicitly threatened sexual violence (specifically rape) to other women. In that context, the fact that K is biologically male (while self-identifying as a woman) is absolutely relevant.
Other commenters have addressed why this is relevant in a more general societal context. I was making the point, that it is directly relevant in this specific case. K is physically equipped to actually carry out the sexual assault.
She also threatened to rape her care workers wife.
I don't want male bodied people who self id as women in woman's spaces.
There are a few problems here:
Violence statistics by sex for both victim and perpetrator are skewed,
Current policy to house self-identified transwomen in women's estate puts vulnerable women at risk (and possibly staff too);
Accused has not undertaken either medical or surgical transition, and retains full strength and sexual and physical violence capacity.
As an individual, it is apparent this person requires a high level of care and some form of restraint for public safety.
But for reasons above, not in the women's estate. And not counted as a woman in terms of data.
I looked up Coovagh House and it does not say it is in the women's estate, whatever that means. It is for troubled children.
From the article which Helen Joyce tweeted:
20 yrs old now. AFAIK, housed in Limerick's Women's Prison, as above. As per policy.
Any comments at all on risk factors?
Ms Kardasian in not a woman. They shouldn't be in women's spaces. Many of us women don't want them there.
I would suggest "Ms Kardasian" isn't housed with women or childrent.
Traumatized children shouldn’t have to put up with them
How ever transphobic to suggest there is a connection between violence and self-ID. Feminists on the other hand are pointing to male pattern violence and saying stop reporting this as women's crime. It's not.
What's the 'just' in your sentence for?
Twitter being what it is, Helen Joyce's statement was solely about the ID of Woman (20), which your repost of it here affirmed, hence the 'just'.
There was nothing else from either yourself, or Helen Joyce.
I'm asking you why you are minimising the importance of reporting a male crime as a female crime.
implies that it's no big deal for this to be reported in this way.
As I said, you didn't give anyone much to go on. You literally retweeted anti self-ID and that's it.
We are asked here at The Standard to back up with contribution, argument, and links.
You just did the link. Really hard to know what you actually meant.
cool, if you want to know I am more than happy to explain.
One of the main issues in the gender/sex war is about language and who gets to name what. We have a major problem with male violence against women and girls (MVAWG). When we allow men to self-ID and that mean they are treated for all intents and purposes as women, we then get the MSM reporting this as a woman's crime. Women rarely do crimes like this, violence of this type is overwhelmingly done by men, generally to females.
When genderists get to control the language, it becomes harder to talk about MVAWG. Some people will accuse people of being transphobic for talking about MVAWG. MSM mislead (the IG could have reported this as a transgender crime if it didn't want to report it as a male crime, but it needed to be made clear that the person is biologically male).
Other issues arise. If self-ID means that society must refer to TW as female, then rape victims in court i.e. women who have been raped by men, can be required to refer to the accused as 'she'. This is both demeaning, as well as potentially retraumatising. It's also a mindfuck and institutional abuse.
This week there's debate about using terms like 'birthing bodies' when talking about abortion. If women lose the ability to talk about our sex based oppression we will not be able to retain rights. The conservatives in the US will both remove abortion rights and adopt neoliberal concepts like 'birthing bodies' because when you dehumanise women, or objectify them, it becomes much easier to remove more of their rights.
There are lots of rights being challenged in the US currently, and women's rights is one of them that needs to be named very clearly if we want to talk meaningfully about what is happening. Conservatives aren't just attacking rights that happen to be women's, the attack is on women specifically because they are female and they hold reproductive power.
tl;dr, self-ID causes all sorts of problems for women because it says we don't exist as a sex class any more.
This You Tube argues that Putin will soon face a Russian rebellion. Wouldn't that be a good outcome.
Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey
Jacinda has confidence in everyone (even Mallard).
""Absolutely," Ardern said on Thursday, when asked if she still has confidence in Williams.
The problem is, that the public doesn't." – that sums it up.
Most Kiwis think Police Minister is too soft on crime, Newshub poll finds (msn.com)
Most people didn't want GST to go to 15% without warning. Jong Kee still did it. That is the definition of untrustworthy.
"And even Labour voters have turned on her, with a majority – 56.2 percent – saying she's too soft on crime, while just 28.1 percent said she's not."
It's really just a case of the Natz applying the Goebbel's principle: 'tell a lie and repeat it often enough a people will begin to believe it.'
There really is zero evidence that this government is soft on crime – but hey, when you're up to your ears in dirty politics, what on earth do facts matter?
Just look at crime stats. They're facts. I wonder where tonights ram raid will happen?
Can't trust 'em – Dirty Politics is an oozing infected wound Nat MPs have no intention of acknowledging, let alone healing – tbh I don’t think they know how.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/this-is-not-our-best-day-more-pain-for-nationals-mps
Most Kiwis don't understand that the Commissioner of Police must act independently of ministers, so the Minister could be telling him to be tougher for all any of us know, but he's required to ignore that.
I guess that's why some call him "cuddles" Coster.
Did you grow up in a household full with domestic violence?
No.
In other words, you received more loving and affectionate cuddles than vicious beatings at home when you grew up?