Daily review 05/10/2020
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5:30 pm, October 5th, 2020 - 79 comments
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- PM ‘constructively dissatisfied’ with himself
“Look, I don’t really live with regrets,” Luxon said in one of the interviews marking his first year as PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, November 25: The news: COP29 ...4 hours ago - Team of One
Oh, it's a mystery to me We have a greed, with which we have agreed And you think you have to want more than you need Until you have it all, you won't be freeSongwriter: Eddie VedderToday is the last day to subscribe to Nick’s Kōrero at the original price ...4 hours ago - A Bad Day
5 hours ago - A visitor from the Hawkes Bay rides AT’s buses & trains.
This is a guest post from longtime supporter Mr Plod, whose previous contributions include a proposal that Hamilton become New Zealand’s capital city, an examination on cruise control and speed limits, and that we should switch which side of the road we drive on. Greater Auckland is brought to you by a ...6 hours ago - Bridges challenges Luxon’s foreign policy
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon last Friday appeared to be starting to moderate his pivot to the United States under the foreign policy reset. Back in August he had told Australia’s Lowy Institute last August that New Zealand’s independent foreign policy was a “nonsense”. But in his latest foreign policy speech, ...9 hours ago - 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #47
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Related articles belowIntroductionRecently, I’ve been having some delays in putting pen to paper.It’s not because I’m short on words -Verbosity seems to be one of the banes of my life. And it’s not because there isn’t enough content: I just whipped up a long list from the past few days.So, ...21 hours ago - Rowdy scrappers, beautiful birds
Who doesn't love to watch Tūī? Who doesn't love those colours, almost too good to be true - the deepest, glossiest, most lustrous of deep blue, the iridescent turquoise, the crisp-as-a-vicar's-collar white tuft?Who doesn't love the way they move, swooping as swift as a jet or occasionally bashing the hell ...1 day ago - Fact brief – Has human-caused climate change increased extreme weather?
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Following the 2022 Brazilian general election, election loser Jair Bolsonaro tried to do a Trump, attempting a coup to overturn the election. It failed. But unlike his American friend, he hasn't been allowed to get away with it: The former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and some of his closest ...3 days ago - Treasury warns deeper recession worsening Budget deficit
The gift that keeps giving: David Seymour has now opened a split in the coalition over the future of National’s promise to build a new medical school. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / TheKakaKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and ...3 days ago
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- Beyond Question?
Record Numbers: The Hīkoi mō te Tiriti, which began at the tip of the North, and the tail of the South, on 11 November, culminated outside Parliament on Tuesday, 19 November 2024, in one of the largest demonstrations in New Zealand’s political history.ACCORDING TO TE ARA, the Ministry of Culture ...3 days ago - The Rush To Blame “The Activists”
Activists are such easy scapegoats. The right and center have been conditioned for decades to roll their eyes at all protests. The left are easily aggravated over students leading movements they see as belonging to grownups, who have more important concerns like the economy and whether the trains come on ...3 days ago - Cutting Through An Inundation of Dipshit Racists
Hi,Watching New Zealand from afar offers a strange perspective. It can be a good thing — distance from Aotearoa helped keep me sane while I reported on abuse at New Zealand’s biggest megachurch over the course of a year. It helps fuel my silly podcast. But it can also be ...3 days ago - This is bad news
The speech yesterday by Treasury’s Chief Economic Advisor warning that the books are in worse shape than forecasted looks like it’s part of a softening-up process for either more cuts or a longer wait to get back into surplus. The speech was a highly unusual public preview of Treasury’s Half-Yearly ...3 days ago
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #47 2024
Open access notables Projected increase in the frequency of extremely active Atlantic hurricane seasons, Lopez et al., Science Advances: Future changes to the year-to-year swings between active and inactive North Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) seasons have received little attention, yet may have great societal implications in areas prone to hurricane ...4 days ago
- Chicken Kiev
Chatting in the supermarket this morning, I found I needed to lunge for the chicken drumsticks.Coping mechanisms: who hasn’t felt a greater need for them lately?When it all gets too much, I turn to demonstrating handy butchery hacks.It wasn’t that she’d said anything wrong, our friend, not at all. We ...4 days ago - The year is 2024 and it’s 1984
This is written in response to the highly significant open letter from a group of economists that was today addressed to Christopher Luxon. The year is 2024, and it’s 1984. The country is reeling from a record Olympic medal gold haul, while the globe grapples with the choice of the ...4 days ago - The IPCA has failed
Back in 2022, RNZ took an in-depth look at the "Independent" Police Conduct Authority and its handling of killings by police. These are the most serious test of oversight, and you would expect the police's use of lethal force to receive the most severe scrutiny. But despite the police regularly ...4 days ago
- Thursday 21 November 2024
The Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti arrived at Parliament on Tuesday – the size is being debated but estimates range from 42,000 to 100,000. The Prime Minister is defending not attending due to some of the organisers being affiliated with Te Pāti Māori. The national gang patch ban came into force ...4 days ago - ‘These budget cuts are counter-productive and make no sense’
I spoke to former Productivity Chair Nana this morning about the letter he and a group of other economists sent to PM Christopher Luxon to urge the Government to urgently suspend cuts to spending and investment for the sake of the economy, struggling businesses and the wellbeing of vulnerable ...4 days ago
- ACT’s Astroturfing & A Co-ordinated Attack on Te Pati Māori
Unity on the Streets / Unity at the TableAfter the Hīkoi, all three right wing Coalition leaders came together to push the idea that the 42,000 - 50,000 + strong Hikoi was somehow less potent and brave, and more illegitimate than the energy and crowd displayed.Prime Minister Christopher Luxon 20-November: ...4 days ago - Durability of carbon dioxide removal is critical for stabilizing temperatures
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- The end of policing by consent
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- 27% of kids going hungry, up from 21% in a year
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This guest post by Tim Adriaansen, an advocate for accessibility and sustainable transport, originally published on LinkedIn and cross posted here with permission. People prefer cars, right? Probably not. Here’s why. Granted, most people in English-speaking countries use a car to get around. This simple reality underpins our transport ...5 days ago
- Young Maori take over
Neither Wellington nor Parliament has ever seen anything like it before. The Police said there were more than 40,000 but however many there were, yesterday’s Hikoi to Parliament was a monumental event. It was almost three times the Foreshore and Seabed martch of 2004 and many,many times bigger than ...5 days ago
- Gordon Campbell On The Hikoi Aftermath
The euphoria from yesterday’s hikoi may be transitory, but is no less valuable for that. It is pretty rare for the left to feel itself to be in the overwhelming majority, and speaking as the voice of the people. Lest that momentum be lost, the organisers will no doubt be ...6 days ago - Sabin 33 #3 – Solar panels generate too much waste and will overwhelm landfills
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Mr David Seymour crawling up to the ceilingThe sun don't shine the sun don't shine the sun don't shine at allMamma Pappa say you should go to school, I don't know what forNow that I've grown up and seen the world and all its liesSong: Southside of Bombay"Ake, ake, ake" ...6 days ago - Submit to defend te Tiriti!
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Like everyone else (everyone who wasn't there, anyway), I've spent the morning watching the hikoi march on Parliament. The pictures are astounding: parliament grounds and the surrounding streets are full, and there are still people backed up along Lambton Quay. The police are estimating 35,000 people, and that's a floor ...6 days ago
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Hi,So there’s a bunch of new stuff on the Webworm store (www.webworm.store) — just in time for the Holidays. Read more ...6 days ago - Trying to defuse the tension
There were urgent moves yesterday at Parliament to try and defuse the tension building up over ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill. The Bill’s author, ACT leader David Seymour, told reporters that he understood the Justice Select Committee met yesterday to discuss how long it should take to consider submissions on the ...6 days ago
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Politicians like to bang on all about the need to heal society’s racial/economic divisions, but in their actions they’re more keen on stoking those divisions, with the Treaty Principles Bill being the classic example. The Bill seeks to dilute the Crown’s responsibilities to Māori at the same time as it ...7 days ago
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7 days ago - Kaamos: Accepted
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This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Governments around the world face a conundrum. Virtually none are on track to meet their Paris climate commitments. That includes the United States, which committed to cut its emissions at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 but is only on track for 32-43% cuts ...7 days ago
- Unstoppable.
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In a manner of speakingI just want to sayThat I could never forget the wayYou told me everythingBy saying nothingOh, give me the wordsGive me the wordsThat tell me nothingOh, give me the wordsGive me the wordsThat tell me everythingSongwriter: Winston TongNext Tuesday, the subscription price for Nick’s Kōrero will ...1 week ago - Monday 18 November 2024
The NZNO have announced a nationwide strike for December over its pay dispute with Health NZ, who have put a 1 per cent cap on pay rises. The Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti and Treaty Principles Bill remain front and centre in the media, with the impacts of the Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke-led ...1 week ago
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
1 week ago - More lawlessness from National
On Tuesday, sick of government stonewalling, the Waitangi Tribunal issued a rare court order, ordering the Minister of Health to release unredacted documents within 48 hours showing its reasoning for disestablishing Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority. The government's response to the lawful order of a court? Yeah, ...1 week ago
- National’s tyrannical “foreign interference” law
Yesterday, under cover the the biggest political fight of the year, National quietly - covertly, even - introduced anti-foreign interference legislation. The bill is the product of a years-long work-program aimed at countering shit like this and this, and there's unquestionably a need to do something to counter foreign states' ...1 week ago
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One of the major problems the Government has in implementing its ‘going for housing growth’ strategy is that it isn’t giving much funding help to councils. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and ...1 week ago - Friday 15 November 2024
The Treaty Principles Bill continues to dominate political news, with it passing its first reading in the House. Parliament was briefly suspended and Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke suspended for 24 hours after leading a haka that was joined by opposition MPs and the public in the gallery. Willie ...1 week ago
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And screamingAre we we are, are we we are the waitingAnd screamingAre we we are, are we we are the waitingForget me nots, second thoughts live in isolationHeads or tails and fairy tales in my mindAre we we are, are we we are the waiting unknownThe rage and love, the ...1 week ago
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The Government has passed legislation to remove agriculture from the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) while Aotearoa’s reputation on climate action plummets. ...4 days ago - Failed boot camp experiment must end
As legislation to set up boot camps passed its first reading, the Green Party urged the Government to abandon this failed policy experiment for the good of our rangatahi. ...4 days ago
- Gender-affirming care must centre evidence and health needs, not political posturing
The Ministry of Health has today released an evidence brief regarding the use of puberty blockers in gender-affirming healthcare, amid moves by the government to limit access. ...4 days ago
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The National Government is walking away from our manufacturing sector with constant reports of closures and job losses. ...4 days ago
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- Release: Youth mental wellbeing no longer a priority for Child Poverty Minister
Louise Upston has revealed her diminished vision for vulnerable youth against a backdrop of snubbed advice, scrapped priorities, shifted goal posts and thousands more children projected to fall into poverty. ...4 days ago
- Release: National’s lack of climate action taking NZ backwards
National Government’s backward-looking climate policy has seen New Zealand fall seven places on the Climate Change Performance Index to 41 out of 63 countries measured. ...4 days ago
- Release: Simple reason for drop in emergency housing
When the Government says it has reduced the number of people in emergency housing, what it means is it is stopping people from accessing it in the first place. ...4 days ago
- Govt’s child wellbeing strategy ‘shallow and shameful’
The Government is turning its back on children by not only weakening child poverty reduction targets, but also removing child mental wellbeing as a priority focus in their Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy. ...4 days ago
- Release: A historic win for Samoan communities
Labour warmly welcomes the Restoring Samoan Citizenship Bill as it passes its third reading, before becoming law. ...4 days ago
- Government plan to reinstate live animal exports a “national disgrace”
The Government has taken a giant step backwards by reinstating live animal exports. ...5 days ago
- Pasifika justice as Member’s Bill passes final reading
Teanau Tuiono’s Member’s Bill, the Citizenship (Western Samoa Restoration) Amendment Bill, has passed its third reading and will become law. ...5 days ago
- Release: Minister of Education thinks New Zealand ends at the Bombay Hills
The Minister of Education has shown complete disregard for rural communities and their school bus routes in Question Time today. ...5 days ago
- Economists sound alarm on Government’s slash-and-burn approach
A group of prominent economists has released an open letter to the Government, raising grave concerns about the far-reaching consequences of its fiscal policy. ...5 days ago
- Release: Smoking numbers up under Costello’s watch
National’s repeal of Labour’s smokefree legislation has taken New Zealand further away from achieving a Smokefree 2025 and a smokefree generation. ...5 days ago
- Release: Call for Palestine recognition by NZ, Australian and Canadian MPs
Parliamentarians from Australia, Canada and New Zealand have written an open letter to their respective Prime Ministers calling on them to recognise Palestine. ...5 days ago
- Justice Select Committee opens floor for Treaty Principles submissions
Today, the Justice Select Committee has decided to officially open submissions for the controversial Treaty Principles Bill. ...6 days ago
- Power of the people on full display as hīkoi approaches Parliament
Today, Hīkoi mō te Tiriti arrived in Wellington, with thousands gathering to march in unity against the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...6 days ago
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Te Whatu Ora’s bill for contracting and consulting staff has ballooned by nearly 20 percent under the National Government, breaking a promise they made during the election campaign to cut contractors. ...1 week ago
- Release: Growing pressure to scrap Section 7AA Repeal Bill
The newly released Section 7AA Repeal Bill's select committee report is further evidence that the Government should scrap it. ...1 week ago
- Government’s move to monetise access to nature a slippery slope
The Green Party is voicing serious concerns over the Government’s proposal to charge for access to public conservation land, released today. ...1 week ago
- Green Party condemns the passage of Treaty Principles Bill
The Green Party condemns the passing of the Treaty Principles Bill at first reading, and is clear that the fight is not over. ...2 weeks ago
- Stand Up for Te Tiriti
Te Tiriti o Waitangi is our country’s founding document. It forms the basis of the relationship between Māori and the Crown – and the Aotearoa New Zealand we live in today. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Over 15,000 sign Labour’s open letter to Luxon
As the hīkoi to Parliament continues, Labour has sent an open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in a last-ditch attempt to get him to kill the Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Fast Track Bill threatens environment, climate and reputation
The fast-track legislation passing its second reading in Parliament is another step towards environmental ruin. ...2 weeks ago
- Greens join King’s Counsel in calling for Treaty Principles Bill to be abandoned
The Prime Minister must answer the call from a group of senior lawyers of the King’s Counsel to abandon the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Chris Hipkins’ apology statement to state and faith-based care survivors
...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour formally apologises to state and faith-based care survivors
Labour joins with the Government in unreservedly apologising for the abuse, neglect and trauma including torture in state and faith-based care and for ignoring the voices of survivors for too long. ...2 weeks ago
- Green Party stands in support of survivors of abuse in care
Today, the Green Party stands alongside the survivors of abuse in state care and faith-based care as the Government issues an historic apology. ...2 weeks ago
- Green Party calls for conscience vote on Treaty Principles Bill
The Green Party has written to the Speaker of the House requesting he enable a personal vote on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt move to exclude journalist risks chilling effect
The Green Party is alarmed by the Government’s move to exclude a journalist from covering this week’s apology for the survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care. ...2 weeks ago
- Without action, an apology will be empty air
For tomorrow’s apology to survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care to hold any water, the Government must not pursue the same policies that drove the abuse in the first place. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Concerns remain over tobacco interference
Concerns about the tobacco industry’s ability to interfere in government policy making remain, despite the inability of the Office of the Auditor-General to investigate the Government’s decision to halve the excise tax on heated tobacco products. ...2 weeks ago
- Urgent wake-up call on climate
The Climate Change Commission’s latest advice indicates Aotearoa needs to be stepping up on climate action. ...2 weeks ago
- Green MP’s Meme-ber’s Bill set to save the world
Break out the punchlines and dust off your meme folder: Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter’s Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill was pulled from the Ballot yesterday. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Poroporoaki: Ta Robert (Bom) Gillies
Kua hinga te manawa kairākau o Te Rua Tekau Ma Waru Tiwhatiwha te po! Kakarauru i te po! Ka rapuhia kei hea koe kua riro! Haere e te Ika a Whiro ki o tini hoa kua ngaro atu ki te Pō ...2 weeks ago
- Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principles Bill
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...3 weeks ago
- Release: Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principle...
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...3 weeks ago
- NZ must pursue independent foreign policy
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This Ohau thing is weird. Everyone now says it's always been a risk yet they still built there.
Christchurch was like that.
I'd be interested to read the info saying Christchurch specifically was an earthquake risk before the city was founded.
Before Christchurch or Wellington or Napier was founded there were no geotech reports done.
Before Invercargill or Greytown or Queenstown was founded there were no flooding assessments done.
Before Auckland was founded there were no volcano risk or sea level rise reports reports done.
I'm not even sure Maui had any sense either.
Blaming people when their life has just literally gone up in flames is just so shitty.
I'm not blaming the residents. I'm blaming the developer and the local council which signed off on it. Risk reporting has come a long way since the mid 19th century. I naturally assumed such risk is taken into account these days. Obviously not.
What evidence do you have of negligence on anyone's part? Not even the local lines company is prepared to rise to that inhuman bait. Maybe you could wait until the ashes cooled down before pointing the fingerbone.
By your measure of blaming Councils and developers for fire risk to property, QueenstownLakes should be liable for fire risk from Queenstown's own pine forests with homes subdivided right beside them or for subdivision around Wanaka's Mt Iron
https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/wildfire-2/
But then you'd have to do the same shitty blame game for … Te Anau, Hawea, Makaora, all towns on the West Coast from south to north, Chrischurch's Port Hills, Golden Bay, any settlement near any national park, Taupo, Tokoroa, Kinleith, Gisborne, Auckland suburbs like Titirangi and Glen Eden and Albany … in fact anywhere with a stand of trees.
Hold your breath and wait for the inquiry.
Fed Farmers and the local mayor have already been casting blame around. They of course want to see DoC and any other environmental conscience gone from the region so they can plant green dairy circles across the region.
You seem to want the same which is disappointing.
Maybe you could wait until the ashes cooled down before pointing the fingerbone.
You mean this isn't a time to ask questions, but a time to offer thoughts and prayers?
Christchurch was considered a low earthquake risk …until 2010
This area is know for high winds and dry conditions. It's never been built on before.
???
The Mackenzie Basin.
plenty of building there…Twizel, Tekapo etc…even Ohau has had a Lodge since the early fifties
Yes, I've been to Ohau lodge. Very nice and it too might be at risk but from memory it is hard up against the ranges. The affected settlement seemed to be out on the flat with dry pines and grasses in and around it.
Someone didn't do their risk assessments properly. Insurance companies must be fuming.
Let them fume…theyre quick enough to take the premiums…and from reports not all were insured.
If some weren't insured, that is sad for them. I wonder if the Waitaki District Council and Fed Farmers will step up.
There was a significant quake in 1869
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1869_Christchurch_earthquake
also
https://web.archive.org/web/20101225184414/http://eqc.govt.nz/home/research/researchpapers/p_105.aspx
Joel Cayford did a series of posts on Christchurch seismic activity back in 2011.
A good post to start is Faulty Thinking about Christchurch.
A month later he followed it up with Councils Fudge Christchurch Seismicity, which goes over the records and risk estimates.
They had a huge flood in Brisbane I think, on a flood plain, known, and still built there. The temptation is too great, wow a spare bit of land I can build something there and make a quid or whatever.
Food 2011 was last big apparently. https://actioninspections.com.au/im-buying-a-home-in-the-flood-zone-in-brisbane/
Some tips: We might have to build on this sort of land in say Christchurch Dunedin at some time. https://www.empiredesigns.com.au/tips-for-building-or-rebuilding-in-flood-zones
People in the Brisbane valley flood plain also successfully lobbied against a large set of protective stopbanks just five years ago, after intensive consultation and engagement.
The most effective guide is insurance premiums responding to risk, but even then people just hold out, get devastated, and cry foul to GoFundMe or whatever.
Are they? I thought they were talking about recent years with the DoC issues. There are communities all over NZ built in what are now higher fire risk areas, but they weren't so high when first built. Central Otago, North Otago, Canterbury, Marlborough, Nelson. Basically half the South Island has areas of increased risk now.
The landscape has changed and climate change is pushing the boundaries. It's a potent mix of nature and human's ignoring the problem. People are still building in daft places. NZ doesn't have a bushfire mentality, yet. But we will.
Fed Farmers are trying to blame it on DoC. I just feel that if developers are going to build it is up to them and the local council to have a plan to make the development safe. The district mayor is also laying the blame at the feet of DoC. Well sorry mate, it's your council.
would have to look at when tenure review happened on those stations relative to when the houses were built. Are they new houses?
We still build in Wellington, so what's your point.
Indeed we still build in Wellington. The risk is high.
My point is those that build in places like Ohau are responsible for minimising risk.
No poll tonight?
No idea.
Early voting numbers are really high. So far about 165,000 people have already voted in the 2 days booths have been open.
Oh yeah – look at that rise… That really has gone mainstream behaviour now.
https://elections.nz/stats-and-research/2020-general-election-advance-voting-statistics/
I suspect that as well as the obvious advantages of voting without those other disease laden wretches, that there is a strong element of 'I already know who I'm voting for' that wasn't present in the last two elections.
I suspect that isn't going to be good for the right. It means that each day that these kinds of rates persist, the smaller the group that is available to convince otherwise shrinks.
It's also the first time early voting has opened with two full weekend days for voting. So it might have been a bit easier for wannabe early voters to actually do it this year.
Talking to a returning officer and it sounds like things were just as busy today….they astounded at how many have been through.
I heard that too Pat that today was really busy.
Tomorrow night for the Colmar-Brunton. Not sure when we’ll see another Reid Research, or a Roy Morgan for that matter.
Fingers and toes crossed the news is good.
The wheels can still fall off. The next 2 weeks is crucial. Jacinda cannot fuck this one up.
If early voting keeps trending the way it has this opening weekend then I reckon National has got another 2 or 3 days max to pull off the game-changer they need if they’re going to come back from the dead. They are really running out of road now.
Labour and the Greens have so far run an extraordinarily disciplined campaign. Apart from the odd candidate getting on the wrong side of fact-checking there has literally been nothing to upset the apple cart.
Where do you get early voting data from please tell?
https://elections.nz/stats-and-research/2020-general-election-advance-voting-statistics/
Things may be about to go spectacularly bad for National.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/10/leaked-email-national-mp-criticises-judith-collins-highly-problematic-idea-of-reviewing-auckland-council.html
Nah. The behaviour exposed by that e-mail is totally on-brand for Judthulhu. Any votes that might be changed by shit like that have already been changed. In both directions.
It's the continued leaking which is the problem. The Nats didn't like her before and nothing has changed.
Denise Lee just drew a political target on her forehead and told Judith to aim straight.
Auckland Council has very few friends left and Auckland Transport has even fewer.
I suspect that the only reason why Collins went for AT is because they're actually doing a good job in getting public transport working and building cycleways.
Taken a train recently?
How many kms of cycleway in a decade on AT network?
Yeah. New carriages. Electrification. Loads of young people and students use them. Journeys are way up. And they are fixing the lines as we speak.
Cycle ridership has tripled on the NW cycleway between 2012 and 2018 due to major upgrades between Lincoln Rd and the CBD including Lightpath, the Grafton Gulley cycleway, and the Waterview path.
Yes. Gets better nearly every time.
Well, that's one way to ensure even more Aucklanders don't vote for National. We remember, quite clearly, how they fucked Auckland last time they pulled this shit.
Collins comment at the end speaking about housing, "We cannot afford to go another three years waiting for something to happen". Yeah indeed, it was 9 years last time she was in power waiting for something to happen
@Andre 8.1
It’s not the behaviour that’s the problem here. We all know what National’s like. It’s the fact of the leak itself. Now? At the crucial point in an election campaign? Are they mad? Could be like a dam bursting. Looks like more than a few National MPs are already eyeing up the lifeboats.
That photo in the Herald over the weekend with the knives….
It wouldn't have been published without reason, and probably set up as well.
Whether the dam bursts after 17 Oct or before…
Interesting Judith Collins' unpopularity within the caucus has been exposed by one of their own MPs. What a laugh. And it is likely Denise Lee is not the only MP upset at Collins' behaviour.
Her popping her friend Maureen Pugh in at 19 has to have gotten a few backs up
looks like a $16 billion fiscal hole coming out of Epsom now.
Not content with Goldsmith miscalculating to the tune of $8 billion
Seems David Seymour has decided to join the club with his own $8 billion fiscal hole
As Niles Standish of Crank Yanker fame would say, "Take your $8 billion fiscal hole and DOUBLE it". That might explain the recent crank yanking we are seeing from both Goldsmith and Seymour.
When two black holes collide – or is it cannibalise each other? – it sends gravitational shock waves through the whole Universe. Many years from now some distant civilization might detect a short sharp spike and they’ll go “WTF!!” and then trace its origin back to the joining of two giant fiscal holes in the year 2020 AD on a small scorched planet orbiting a dwarf star. I’ll bet they’ll never figure out it the holes were man-made because they’ll have no record of our civilization, of course.
Your theory of everything is up to making predictions now?
Not just any predictions but miracles.
If I was optimistic, I would suggest that Judith knows that this election is lost for her, and with it the centre ground. She also know that her career is probably finished after the election, as well. So, she is just going all out Crusher, one final nothing-to-lose flurry before she bows out and goes back to the law chambers, you can tell she is just enjoying just being herself.
But, Im not going to get too carried away just yet.
Not quite this I don't think. I suspect she feels if Nats can get 35-37% in defeat it will be enough for her to stay on as leader. And in her mind, get another crack in 2023, maybe in a more suitable electoral climate. The Nats caucus might have other ideas.
+1
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/427651/legal-battle-forecast-over-drury-plan-changes
Is this good planning? Will there be some factories there or is it all for the dainty seat-fillers and consumers, shop, shop, shopping.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/424525/drury-development-feedback-sought-on-plans-to-transform-area-south-of-auckland
Anybody else think that it’s either a very lucky break or great campaign strategy that saw Labour release its LGBTQI policy today, amongst other things banning conversion therapy, after the country spent the weekend cringing at the sight of the National Party leader humiliating herself trying to curry favour with the conservative religious right.
Judith Collins proclaimed herself a longstanding Anglican and prayed in an Anglican church.
The New Zealand Anglican Church is one of the most thoroughly liberal and politically correct institutions in the entire country.
So, no, she didn't humiliate herself. She supported an exceedingly tolerant and inclusive institution.
What Labour did was announce a set of things any of which they could have done in the previous term – and didn't even try.
She prayed like a child in a Disney movie for political effect. It was embarrassing. Practicing Anglicans are most likely appalled.
They’ll probably do what the Catholics do though and accept that any new recruit is not to be turned away.
You were embarrassed. She wasn't.
She didn't invite the media in there, and it would have been worse if she had sought to ban them from the scene. She was invited to pray by the priest of the church.
She's not a new recruit to the Anglican church.
I'm surprised you have fallen for Judith's version of events so easily. There are ways a proper practicing Christian could politely ask the media for some level of privacy while she "spoke to god". A proper practicing Christian would be at home asking for such a simple request. She didn't even bother.
The very core of being Anglican is the central act of the community coming together at Mass to celebrate the Eucharist. It is that continued 'act of faith' that makes one a practising Anglican, not a baptisimal certificate.
Judith missed the St. Thomas service by two hours. Following the liturgy is morning tea so Judith also missed a mix and mingle with that parish community.
There is no special loss or gain of the power of a prayer by kneeling, posing hands or praying elsewhere.
She could have prayed at a local park, in a haybarn or in her car. She was very aware of the cameras as she played to them blatantly when posing in different directions while voting.
There was no need for such a 'charlatan' type display in church other than political posturing . Pretty sure on the campaign trail followed relentlessly by media in all these weeks it would have been news if she just popped into a church to pray around the country.???
That Judith just popped over to another electorate missing many, many polling booths to be at the one with an Anglican church was a staged theatrical stunt. She was voting in another electorate and had to use the special vote box as per rules.
Public acts of praying are explicitly condemned as unnecessary and possibly hypocritical by the Big Man himself. From the Sermon on the Mount:
5 And when thou prayest, be not as the hypocrites: for they love to stand and pray in the Synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, because they would be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
6 But when thou prayest, enter into thy chamber: and when thou hast shut thy door, pray unto thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
7 Also when ye pray, use no vain repetitions as the Heathen: for they think to be heard for their much babbling.
8 Be ye not like them therefore: for your Father knoweth whereof ye have need, before ye ask of him.
(Geneva translation, for Bible spods.)
Collins certainly did invite the media there.
A leader casting a vote is always an election photo-op. That's why the cameras were there (as they are for all major leaders). She chose to cast her vote at a church, knowing that the cameras would be there. She chose to go into a church to "pray" (pose), again in full knowledge and expectation.
“Collins didn’t seek privacy as she led the media pack into the building and a media handler checked with church staff that it was okay for cameras to enter.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122976973/election-2020-judith-collins-keeps-the-faith-with-two-weeks-to-go-as-she-votes-and-prays
Only the staggeringly naive would think this was some accident.
Great observation
.
In the Herald video clip she stated to reporters when asked, that no she had not been at that church before. So somehow between her Papakura home and St. Thomas Tamaki it was just a bloody miracle that the media were there.
To reporters she also in a most unChristian way said after saying she doesn't judge others ,
" I could have turned around and said 'get out of this house of worship you evil media', or I could have just done exactly what I was going to do in the first place. I would have thought they would have expected it was a private moment but they came charging in."
The church is as much the media persons' place to be as the hypocrite’s while praying in public.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/10/nz-election-2020-judith-collins-insists-support-for-abortion-euthanasia-entirely-consistent-with-her-christian-faith.html
Of course she wasn't. Psychopaths don't feel embarrassment.
That's a big call DTB.
I called hypocrite because the report card scores on the enactment of the gospels showed very unchristian results after 9 years.
" Unicef executive director Vivien Maidaborn said the report proved that New Zealand policy was killing children."
https://educationcentral.co.nz/unicef-report-reveals-new-zealands-poor-scores-for-child-wellbeing/
I called hypocrite too because it's easy for JC to pray and slang Labour for not instantly fixing their deadly sins.
And what else would you call a person who set those policies that killed children, showed no guilt for doing so and would do it again in the blink of an eye?
The Greens in Canada have elected a new leader to replace long-serving, outgoing leader Elizabeth May. Paul will be standing in the by-election scheduled for the downtown Toronto riding just vacated by outgoing Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/annamie-paul-says-greens-needed-for-this-moment-1.5750187
@Ad 8.2
Apparently it wasn’t Denise Lee who leaked her email to Jenna Lynch. Auckland Council and AT and their relative friendless-ness are incidental to the shit that’s about to hit the fan in the National Party.
@Ad 14.1
Judith Collins drove herself across the isthmus to a church outside of her electorate where she had to cast a special vote in order to get a photo op. All just to try and mop up a few supporters who are straying to the loony Christian fringe parties that have cropped up on her right flank.
I’m not sure that this is quite correct. Stuff reported her saying she’d voted for Simon O’Connor – ie she must be enrolled in Tamaki, not Papakura. Which is odd, but allowed. But then she was photographed posting a ballot into a special votes box, so that’s confusing.
Looks like the National Party hit job on Jake Bezzant is winding back up again.
@Ad 14.1.1.1
The whole bloody country was embarrassed for her. It was a set up for crying out loud. Maybe it will achieve what the National Party wants it to achieve. Who knows? But one thing’s for sure it’s just another sign that National has had to abandon the centre in a mad scramble to shore up its rapidly disintegrating right flank.