Daily review 09/08/2019
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5:30 pm, August 9th, 2019 - 18 comments
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Daily review is also your post.
This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.
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- It should take about a month
The great problem you’re facing this month is very often not the one you’ll be worrying about a year from now.I find this notion reassuring. I lean upon it. But lately, given what the hell has been going on in the world, not so much.Perversely yesterday’s White House spectacle reinstated ...4 hours ago - Fact brief – Are high CO2 levels harmless because they also occurred in the past?
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are high CO2 levels harmless because they also occurred in the past? While the Earth adapted to high carbon dioxide levels in the ...13 hours ago - 2025 Reading List: February (+ Writing Update)
Completed reads for February: He Who Shrank, by Henry Hasse The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus The Maracot Deep, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Poseidon’s Paradise: The Romance of Atlantis, by Elizabeth Birkmaier The Hairy Monster, by Neil Miller The Spider, by Arthur Edward Chapman The Canterville Ghost, by ...18 hours ago - Forty years of floating
Last year there was interesting new book out made up of 29 collected short papers by (more or less) prominent economists given at a 2023 conference to mark Floating Exchange Rates at Fifty. The fifty years related to the transition back to generalised floating of the major developed world currencies ...19 hours ago - Hyundai back in running to build two new Cook Strait Interislander ferries – after Willis canc...
Quick update here on the ferries cancellation saga, now led by Winston Peters.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.RNZ:The giant Korean ship builder Hyundai could be back in the running to build two new Cook Strait ...22 hours ago - Dawn chorus for Saturday, March 1
Pans to replace development contributions with pre-set development levies and to give councils powers to set targeted rates won’t be finalised until well into 2026. Meanwhile, the Waikato District Council has stopped accepting new building consents for Pokeno because of wastewater infrastructure shortages. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories ...1 day ago - Marjen van den Belt – Pollute and Pay
Marjen is an ecological economist with 28 years' experience gained through research, teaching, advising, consulting, management, enterprising and governance in settings ranging from local to global. She is a ministerial appointment to the Lincoln University Council and a member of the Edmund Hilary Fellowship and a previous Chief Economist for ...2 days ago - The Cult of Generic Management
As Lady Bracknell almost said, ‘to lose one may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.’ And so a second Government Statistician has made a hasty exit, The official reason in each case was the management of the population census but the cult of generic management ...2 days ago - I cannot live with this man I cannot live without him what even is this life
Questions 1. What French expression best characterises this weeks’ intimate encounter between Old Mate Grabaseat and Mike Answer-the-fricken-question-for-the-love-of-me Hoskinga. Ménage à Trumpb. Folie à deuxc. Amour foud. None of the above all of the above I cannot live with this man I cannot live without him what even is this ...2 days ago - What does David Seymour have against kids?
Newsroom’s Fox Meyer wrote a good piece yesterday on the Compass school lunches contract, unveiling its terms, and revealing the government stumped up an extra $8.9m “bonus” to meet requirements.This means the per school lunch cost is now a minimum of just under $4 - excluding the large number of ...2 days ago - Govt eyes big new infrastructure levies, but no value-capture rates
Will a Government-set and regulated system of infrastructure levies replace council-set development contributions and open up new land supply for housing? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things that stood out to me in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February ...2 days ago - Friday 28 February
The Government is set to announce a levy system and new rules around housing infrastructure aimed at making housing developments and transport corridors more financially attractive to councils. The job market is potentially showing signs of recovery according to more positive advertising data which shows the rate of decline has ...2 days ago - Weekly Roundup 28-February-2025
It’s Friday and we’re are the end of February already meaning here comes March Madness. Here too are some of the things that caught our attention this week. This week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt covered parts of a fantastic speech by Chris Bishop. Tuesday had Matt ...2 days ago - The Glowing Light of You, the Reader
Hi,Because the Webworm community is consistently a glowing light in my life, I wanted to share a few insights readers shared about Franks Ogilvie, the feral law firm that sent a threatening legal letter to Kiwi health professionals.(A lot of you asked for a copy of the original threatening letter, ...2 days ago
- The Letter
Hi,Quite a few readers have asked to see a copy of the original letter Stephen Franks of Franks Ogilvie law sent out to various New Zealand health practitioners.So, here is a copy.I am not going to do a fact check here, but would advise you keep these emojis in mind ...2 days ago - The Hoon around the week to Feb 28
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including Donald Trump’s wrecking of the post-WW II politicial landscape; and, on the week in ...2 days ago - China stands aside, now its Peters v the Cook islands Premier
It is now clear that the Government is singling out Cook Islands Premier Mark Brown as the person to blame for the Islands signing three partnership agreements with China. China itself appears to be standing aside. After a meeting in Beijing on Wednesday night, Foreign Minister Winston Peters even got ...2 days ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #9 2025
Open access notables A twenty-first century structural change in Antarctica’s sea ice system, Raphael et al., Communications Earth & Environment: From 1979 to 2016, total Antarctic sea ice extent experienced a positive trend with record winter maxima in 2012 and 2014. Record summer minima followed within the period 2017-2024, raising ...3 days ago
- Scholarly Link: The Comparative Notebook.
I am pleased that the under-recognized scholar (and previous co-author of mine) Kate Nicholl has decided to join Substack and publish her thoughts on comparative politics. By using Substack she wants to bridge the gap between scholarly articles and opinion editorials (op eds). Her gift as a writer is to ...3 days ago - Still against a four-year term
It must be bad idea week at the Beehive. Yesterday, they were promoting vigilantism - a policy hated by everybody except the very worst people in the world. And today, they've announced that they're going to proceed with ACT's weird four-year-term bill, which would make the length of the parliamentary ...3 days ago - Thursday 27 February
Fleur Fitzsimons has been appointed as the new National Secretary of the PSA. The Government has confirmed it will amend the Crimes Act to give all citizens greater ability to arrest or detain thieves stealing from retail stories amid an increase in retail crime – the move is opposed by ...3 days ago
- Negative police officers to date – Sunny Kaushal & Paul Goldsmith want ‘5 million Ki...
Sunny Kaushal - National Party member and donorThere are few things that make me viscerally irritable in politics, but seeing the government proposing citizens’ arrest as a method to curtail crime - while losing more police officers than it can hire because it’s unwilling to pay for professionals - does ...3 days ago - Seymour’s late, missing, discarded, allergic, nutritionless, dangerous & skimpy school lun...
Seymour has broken the first rule of modern focus-group and poll-driven politics: never alienate the soccer and netball ‘moms’. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things that stood out to me in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 26:A crescendo ...3 days ago - Been Caught Stealing?
I've been caught stealin', once when I was 5I enjoy stealin', it's just as simple as thatOh well, it's just a simple factWhen I want something, man, I don't wanna pay for itHow much would you pay to change the law to whatever you want it to be? Probably quite ...3 days ago - Why is such rank dishonesty tolerated?
“We were one of the first central banks in the world to be tightening; we were one of the first central banks in the world to be easing” Those were Adrian Orr’s words last Thursday to Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee at their hearing on the Bank’s latest Monetary Policy ...3 days ago
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Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the City Centre Advisory Panel …and what can we do to increase its success? Here at Greater Auckland it is axiomatic that cities are, or at least can and should be, forces for good for their inhabitants and host nations. This of course explains ...3 days ago
- At last, some good news.
Things are starting to come right for the Government. Though recent polling has placed it behind Labour and the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, keeps tripping up in public, the economy is picking up, which may be enough to stop further poll falls. Better still for National, it is picking up ...3 days ago
- Gordon Campbell On School Lunches, And The Coalition Government Eating The Young
The school lunches saga gets worse by the day. Bland, repetitive menus, failures in heating, failures in timely delivery, failures to deliver halal meals that are truly halal, endangering children who have known allergies by giving them food that may contain the triggering ingredients, etc etc. It’s not as if ...3 days ago - Supermarket Self-Checkouts Are Limiting Your Personal Liberties
The New Zealand Supreme Court describes detention as the “most punitive and most liberty-depriving” of the penalties the law can impose. Because of this, they have always been incredibly careful to give a wide interpretation and hefty weight to the right not to be arbitrarily detained. This is an interpretation ...3 days ago - The profits must be protected!
If there’s any one person to be praised for finding receipts and sticking them in this government’s complacent face, that person would be Craig Renney.His most recent effort is a thorough rebuttal of some tough-on-crime puffed-chest- beating that went like this:You can find the full rebuttal here but the essence ...4 days ago - Empty vessel and strategic disruptor?
I have been trying to make sense out of the shifts in US foreign policy under Trump 2.0. I understand his admiration for authoritarians and supination to Putin (which I believe is because Putin has dirt on him), and I also understand the much vaunted “transactional” nature of his view ...4 days ago
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The Government’s announcement to change citizen’s arrest powers shows workers will bear the brunt of their lack of a plan to deal with retail crime, said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff. “If the proposed changes to citizen’s arrests laws are any indication of what is to come, there ...4 days ago
- A reversal on secrecy?
For the past few years I've been waging war on secrecy clauses, submitting at select committee where clauses in legislation seem to over-ride the Official Information Act. One of the drivers of this was a 2014 decision by the Ombudsman (unpublished, but posted here), where they interpreted an exemption in ...4 days ago
- Cycleways only COST 1% of the entire transport budget and reap significant benefits economically, en...
This morning I saw a line on social media that got my attention —"More cycle and walking lanes that nobody uses to kill economy. Absolute genius!”But cycle ways only cost 1% of the entire transport budget!That's not what is killing the economy.Business liquidations are at a 10 year high. Unemployment ...4 days ago - Te Hā Noa 101: Victoria Street explained
Recently, Auckland’s Mayor Wayne Brown expressed bewilderment in a social media post about the current changes to Victoria Street in the city centre. “Welcome to Cone Central,” he says, adopting the universally recognised arms-wide position of exasperation, and gesturing around him at the works under way. “Nobody knows what it’s ...4 days ago
- Is compulsory saving the answer?
Economic growth – and the lack of the sustained productivity growth that underpins it – is again briefly in focus. 70 years of relative economic decline still shows no sign of being durably reversed, but the last few years have been particularly tough and there is an election next year, ...4 days ago
- National doesn’t want you to know what people think of the Regulatory Standards Bill
Back in January the government held a public consultation on its draft Regulatory Standards Bill. The bill is a piece of neoliberal bullshit which seeks to bind all future lawmaking to some highly contentious (and not public accepted) Libertarian ideological principles, in an effort to deter future lawmaking with the ...4 days ago
- The Eye of the Chicken
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Yesterday, I received a few messages telling me that my article on school lunches was being heavily discussed on Reddit -I was pleasantly surprised it hadn’t been zapped, so took a look.95% of the comments were positive, and many Kiwis appear to feel angry at the ‘free market, public-private enterprise ...4 days ago - Interview: ‘I didn’t want to smile’
The new report details the effects of unmet dental need and the financial strains, such as incurring debt including large MSD loans. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong story short, I spoke to researcher and campaigner Kayli Taylor in the interview above about her ActionStation Aotearoa report into unmet need ...4 days ago
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Hi,Late yesterday afternoon Webworm published a story on our website (www.webworm.co) — which this morning is top of New Zealand reddit, which is nice.But I wanted to get it to your inbox first thing today with a bit of added background.Webworm can report that various health professionals involved in gender ...4 days ago - A Tale of Two Germanies: the 2025 West/East Dividing Line
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Prof Jane Kelsey examines what the ACT party and the NZ Initiative are up to as they seek to impose on the country their hardline, right wing, neoliberal ideology. A progressive government elected in 2026 would have a huge job putting Humpty Dumpty together again and rebuilding a state that ...5 days ago
- Farewells
So. Farewell thenAndrew Bayly.It’s not easy to imagine something a minister could do in the Luxon Beehive that would be beyond the pale.But youseem to have a knack for finding it.I took the discussion too far and I placed a hand on their upperarm, you said.You sound like the sheriff ...5 days ago - Fiame stares down her corrupt party
Back in January, Samoan cabinet minister La’auli Leuatea Schmidt was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice. When he refused to resign, samoan prime minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa sacked him - triggering a political crisis. Because a majority of her political party felt that she should have not ...5 days ago
- Legal Threats Made to Gender-Affirming Health Professionals in NZ
Hi,Webworm can report that various health professionals involved in gender affirming care in New Zealand have received a threatening legal letter from Wellington law firm Franks Ogilvie.The law firm who sent the letter.The letter was sent on behalf of Inflection Point NZ, an anti-trans lobby group that boasts speakers including ...5 days ago - ‘We can’t hold on any longer. We’re selling.’
5 days ago - Electric vehicle adoption is stumbling, but still growing amid geopolitical clashes
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections. Climate journalism and its funding are under attack right now. If you value this kind of work, please consider donating to help ensure that it can continue. Among his Day One executive orders, President Donald Trump declared that his administration would eliminate what he called ...5 days ago
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Yesterday we covered a big part of a recent speech by Minister of Housing and Transport Chris Bishop. One aspect we didn’t cover was about the City Rail Link and his announcement of $200 million towards the removal of level crossings. On the CRL he notes: I’ve been down to ...5 days ago
- Interview: RBNZ wary of any administered inflation spiral
Long story short, I interviewed Reserve Bank of New Zealand Chief Economist Paul Conway yesterday in the full video above about:the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to cut the Official Cash Rate by 50 basis points to 3.75% last week;the bank’s projection in its Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) for three more ...5 days ago
- Handy Andy
Stay where you areYou're not going, just leavingI will sit around, let everybody talkAnd they will say what they knowThey will end up believingI will sit around, let everybody talkAndrew by Fur Patrol.Subscribe to Nick's Kōrero and save 20%Around lunchtime yesterday, I started seeing notifications about Andrew Bayly’s resignation. To ...5 days ago - The Rot of NZ’s Biggest Churches
Hi,Something interesting has happened in Aotearoa, where one of the country’s most toxic Christian churches has pushed things too far, and properly fucked New Zealand off.As I wrote last week, members of Destiny church protested a Pride event in a library, pushing and punching their way inside.Destiny has always been ...5 days ago - Gordon Campbell On Why Our China Panic Is About To Get Expensive
Allegedly, the defence environment has changed, and New Zealand thus needs to spend significantly more on Defence. The rationale is that China (our main trading partner) has been raising its profile in the Pacific, a region hitherto seen to be our own backyard, and an American lake. The cheek of ...5 days ago
- Germany keeps the fascists out
Germans went to the polls today, in what looks to be their most important election since 1945. The good news is that they seem to have kept the fascists out, with the Putin/Trump/Musk-backed Alternative für Deutschland coming second and effectively excluded from power. Instead, it looks like a Christian Democrat ...6 days ago
- This is not how I was hoping things would go
I relaxed myself into the dentist chair first thing this morning. I was back for a quick second filling that couldn’t be done on the last visit because it had to go alongside the one he’d just done.I like the dentist, Geoff, very much. You may recall me mentioning the ...6 days ago - Visitors With Votes.
6 days ago - NZ’s Coalition Government flings doors WIDE open for rich foreigners
Over the weekend, David Seymour announced the government’s plans to “overhaul” the Overseas Investment Act.The Act looks after overseas investments in sensitive assets in New Zealand. Its main purpose is balancing foreign money in our sensitive assets/lands/fisheries/forestries with the risks associated with that.This includes considering New Zealand’s national and economic ...6 days ago - New school lunches waste appears to exceed 70% as David Seymour’s incompetence rises to the fo...
Last month, David Seymour’s press release on school lunches said:“The [school lunch] programme was reformed to deliver the same outcomes while costing taxpayers less. This was achieved by embracing commercial expertise, using government buying power, and generating supply chain efficiencies…”And while that all sounded fair, the end result is - ...6 days ago - About that PLAN flotilla in the Tasman Sea.
Here are some thoughts about the hysteria surrounding a Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) flotilla conducting freedom of navigation exercises in the Tasman Sea, including live fire drills. 1) The flotilla has been tracked for over a week by New Zealand and Australian forces. The tracking began when the ...6 days ago
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6 days ago - National’s Urbanist Minister
On Friday, Chris Bishop, the Minister of Housing, Transport, Infrastructure and RMA Reform, gave an absolutely fantastic speech to the Committee for Auckland. As a starter, he really sums up well why we need better cities with this line. I make no apologies for being an urbanist. Well-functioning urban environments ...6 days ago
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You can be amazingYou can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drugYou can be the outcastOr be the backlash of somebody's lack of loveOr you can start speaking upNothing's gonna hurt you the way that words doWhen they settle 'neath your skinKept on the inside and no sunlightSometimes, ...6 days ago - Finger wagging at the Blue Greens
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton, wagged a metaphorical finger at the National Party on Saturday, and RMA Minister Chris Bishop wagged straight back. A former National Party Environment Minister, Upton was a keynote speaker at the party’s Blue Greens Forum in Methven. His speech went right to ...6 days ago
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This government is significant. It is David Seymour’s first government for which he ran a campaign as Party Leader. It is Stephen Joyce’s National Party as selected by the individual interests he enabled when he removed control of candidate selection from the rank and file. It is our first right-wing ...6 days ago - 2025 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #08
A listing of 33 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 16, 2025 thru Sat, February 22, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...7 days ago
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Several years ago, as an intellectual exercise, I had the fun of ranking the worst Emperors of the Western Roman Empire (https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2020/09/04/the-five-worst-western-roman-emperors/). I even followed it up with a look at Honorius historiography. But there was still a missing piece of the puzzle. I was limiting myself to Emperors from ...7 days ago - Fumigating the. neoliberal cockraches
Prof Jane Kelsey examines what the ACT party and the NZ Initiative are up to as they seek to impose on the country their hardline, right wing, neoliberal ideology. A progressive government elected in 2026 would have a huge job putting Humpty Dumpty together again and rebuilding a state that ...7 days ago
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Kia Ora,I was reading about the history New Zealand Timekeeping and I think I may have identified a factual error on this page from 2006:Page 1. Time past - Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand[The rest of the Te Ara article is included for substack readers]In Europe other markers ...7 days ago - A Sunday soliloquy for the week to February 23
None of the official measures of child poverty improved in the year to June, 2024. Photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short, the top six things that stood out to me in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty in the week to Sunday, February 23 were:Stats NZ reported on Thursday ...7 days ago - 5 Things You Can Do When You Find Yourself Politically Helpless
1/ Join community / common cause organisations Find organisations you resonate with. Join them and/or donate. In the fight against the state, it’s critical we pool together in all cases. If you don’t have the financial resources, sign up for information & updates. Knowledge is power. These groups, and the ...7 days ago - A shattering earthquake in geopolitics
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People killin', people dyin'Children hurt, and you hear them cryin'Can you practice what you preach?And would you turn the other cheek?Father, father, father, help usSend some guidance from above'Cause people got me, got me questioningWhere is the love?Songwriters: will.i.am, Justin Timberlake, Taboo, apl.de.ap, Printz Board, Michael Fratantuno, George Pajon, Jr.Where ...1 week ago - Something to go to in Wellington
Climate Liberation Aotearoa will be holding a rally outside the Wellington District Court on Monday in support of climate defenders: If you support the climate, or support the right to protest - currently under attack from the secretive IPCA - then please go along. ...1 week ago
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A Bully in a China Shop?It is a mystery what Donald Trump learned when he did his BA in economics at the University of Pennsylvania in the mid-1960s. The Ivy League college has a good economics reputation, but even had Trump been a top student – unlikely or he would ...1 week ago - Podcast: Lunches, letches, and ‘lectorates.
The conflict we can see echoing across the world is being imported directly into New Zealand by outside powers and monetary influences that we don't want in our politics. It makes our politics messy and confusing, but untangling the puppet strings can help make sense of how we got here.This ...1 week ago
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The Government’s levies announcement is a step in the right direction, but they must be upfront about who will pay its new infrastructure levies and ensure that first-home buyers are protected from hidden costs. ...2 days ago - The week in review
New Zealand First continues to bring balance, experience, and commonsense to Government. This week we've made progress on many of our promises to New Zealand. Winston representing New Zealand Winston Peters is overseas this week, with stops across the Middle East and North Asia. Winston's stops include Saudi Arabia, the ...3 days ago - Release: Govt abandons retailers with citizen’s arrests
The Government’s expansion of citizen’s arrest powers leaves retailers on their own to deal with crime on their premises. ...4 days ago
- Co-Leaders announce plans to launch Green Budget this year
Green Party Co-Leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have announced the party’s plans to deliver a Green Budget this year to offer an alternative vision to the Government’s trickle-down economics and austerity politics. ...4 days ago - State of the Planet speeches, 2025
At this year's State of the Planet address, Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick announced the party’s plans to deliver a Green Budget this year to offer an alternative vision to the Government’s trickle-down economics and austerity politics. ...4 days ago
- Release: Millions spent to rehash bad ideas on retail crime
The Government has spent $3.6 million dollars on a retail crime advisory group, including paying its chair $920 a day, to come up with ideas already dismissed as dangerous by police. ...5 days ago
- Greens stand in solidarity with mana whenua of Lake Rotokākahi
The Green Party supports the peaceful occupation at Lake Rotokākahi and are calling for the controversial sewerage project on the lake to be stopped until the Environment Court has made a decision. ...5 days ago
- Report highlights urgent need for “life-changing” free dental care
ActionStation’s Oral Healthcare report, released today, paints a dire picture of unmet need and inequality across the country, highlighting the urgency of free dental care for all New Zealanders. ...5 days ago
- Release: Overhaul of Overseas Investment Act a Fire Sale of Kiwi Assets
The Government’s reckless overhaul of the Overseas Investment Act is a fast track for foreign investment at the expense of Kiwi interests. ...6 days ago
- MP Views: The Golden Age, The Red Band Cavalry, Fluoride, and Social Media
The Golden Age There has been long-standing recognition that New Zealand First has an unrivalled reputation for delivering for our older New Zealanders. This remains true, and is reflected in our coalition agreement. While we know there is much that we can and will do in this space, it is ...1 week ago
- Release: Call for Destiny Church to lose charity status
Labour Te Atatū MP Phil Twyford has written to the charities regulator asking that Destiny Church charities be struck off in the wake of last weekend’s violence by Destiny followers in his electorate. ...1 week ago
- Release: Two Labour members’ bills drawn from ballot
Bills by Labour MPs to remove rules around sale of alcohol on public holidays, and for Crown entities to adopt Māori names have been drawn from the Members’ Bill Ballot. ...1 week ago
- Release: Govt losing police faster than it can hire them
The Government is falling even further behind its promised target of 500 new police officers, now with 72 fewer police officers than when National took office. ...1 week ago
- Release: Child poverty reduction must remain a priority
The latest child poverty statistics show child poverty reduction must remain a priority for the Government. ...1 week ago
- Static child poverty stats highlight need for urgent action
This morning’s Stats NZ child poverty statistics should act as a wake-up call for the government: with no movement in child poverty rates since June 2023, it’s time to make the wellbeing of our tamariki a political priority. ...1 week ago
- Right to Repair Bill passes significant step
Green Party Co-Leader Marama Davidson’s Consumer Guarantees Right to Repair Amendment Bill has passed its first reading in Parliament this evening. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Rate cuts highlight Willis’ economic blunders
Today’s Official Cash Rate cut is good news for borrowers, but also a symptom of rising unemployment and an economy in recession. ...2 weeks ago
- NZers didn’t need this much pain to reduce OCR
Today’s OCR cut will fail to soothe the long-term pain Christopher Luxon’s Government is inflicting upon our communities. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: ACT taps out of Treaty Principles Bill submission process
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt funding for biodiversity an embarrassment
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: University cuts on the cards under National
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Transparency needed on boot camps
The Government is stonewalling requests for information about its boot camps experiment, while pushing ahead with a Bill to enshrine them into law. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Disabled people languishing in psych wards due to Govt cuts
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Nicola Willis tone deaf as 230 jobs lost
Nicola Willis thought it was the perfect time to celebrate today, while 230 people lost their jobs. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Students misled on halal school lunches
It’s been revealed that Muslim students have been misled on the Government’s school lunches, which were claimed to be halal. ...2 weeks ago
- Job losses from Kinleith Mill closure devastating
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...2 weeks ago
- Mariameno Kapa-Kingi Enters Members Bill to Establish Mokopuna Māori Authority
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Bloodbath continues for health leadership
The Government continues to tear apart New Zealand’s health leadership, sacking or forcing the resignation of our top medical experts. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Paper mill closure adds to growing job losses
The Government has no plan to support workers as 230 more jobs are lost today with the closure of the Kinleith paper mill. ...2 weeks ago
- Democracy Matters
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Willis’ supermarket announcement all talk, no plan
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Homelessness growing under National
Housing is going in the wrong direction under National, despite promises to build more houses and reduce the social housing waitlist. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: More Kiwis are hungry, homeless and out of work
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Great pic of Gareth Hughes; quietly beavering away…
“The Government has withdrawn the majority of its support for the oil industry, reviewing the last remaining taxpayer help for fossil fuel industries.
It has put an end to research and development, sponsorship, promotional events and funding exploration data.
Support has been been winding down since the Coalition Government was elected.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/114886627/government-withdraws-majority-of-financial-support-for-the-oil-industry
Good to see the oil companies finally stripped from the public purse finally.
Next the il companies need to be forced to take back all their dirty "tyres" as they contain lots of petroleum distrates components like 1,3, butadiene and styrene as they cause cancer, reproductive damges, and nevous system damage, and many other illlness's.
Tyre dust pollution = is poisoning our drinking water, streams rivers and lakes.
Tyre dust evidence = https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tax-toxic-tyres-that-pollute-air-k7nlf98cb
https://www.globalresearch.ca/where-is-the-one-million-tonnes-of-toxic-tyre-dust-and-particulates-discharged-into-the-environment-each-year-in-the-us-and-europe/5667922
Racisim niped in the bud. Nice work.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018708052/driver-stops-train-demands-racist-passenger-get-off
The new New Zealander Peter Thiel, seems engaged with Racist Politicians and their racist 'border security ' actions.
http://digg.com/2018/palantir-cambridge-analytica
some of Peters Palantir work in Afghanistan …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZug8kV28RU&t=30s
[It is been your first day back after a short ban for, amongst other things, derailing discussion threads and it seems you haven’t modified your behaviour. If you want to express your form of Peter Thiel Derangement Syndrome, I’d suggest you start your own thread instead of using the reply button. If you choose to continue derailing other commenters, you can practice your PTDS in your own sandpit – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 6:58 PM.
Well?
Who is he?
Why is he?
You need to start your own separate comment Reason. I wonder if this happened just now which is what Daily Review is about so why put it here not OM? I find Peter Thiel info interesting in the right place.
"Tangaroa – the Māori god of the sea – may be little more than a mythological figure"
Really??
"The reference irked several councillors as religious and inappropriate, with Nicola Young attempting to attach an amendment removing references to "deities of any denomination"."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/111804349/religious-references-to-mori-sea-god-in-wellingtons-climate-change-plan-irks-councillors?rm=a
Whaleoil, like wrestling, was a spectacle of excess. Barthes might have been describing Slater: "an obese and sagging body, …that displays in his flesh the characters of baseness, for it is his part to represent what, in the classical concept of the saluad, the 'bastard', (the key concept of any wrestling match), appears as organically repugnant." ~ Mythologies
His blogging seems to have had less to do with ugly truth than with lucrative slander and scandal manufactured in the interests of the Key Kleptocracy or similar miscreants. That such a fellow was de facto a political insider illustrates just how far we have fallen, as a country, from the standards of the Burkean age.
Puts me in mind of the Baron Vlad….https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Harkonnen
I have a soft spot for the the Baron, he was a real contender, breaking new ground by subverting Dr Yueh among other things. The Whale was more on a par with Beast Rabban, intellectually and in human terms, though of course without significant combat skills.
Blubberboy has always been more of an inept loser than the Baron, right to the end: https://www.blomfield.co.nz/
New postage stamps for North Korea https://god.dailydot.com/north-korea-donald-trump-postage-stamps/?utm_content=buffer09738&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=thegoodlordabove&utm_campaign=bloomjoy&fbclid=IwAR0ma8tTiPqyEGEe70fsWfF5N2gMtAK7ac5z2rSXeXRxGaiHFhGqJuLyTPM
The Big Fat Douchebag (The BFD) gets sucker punched. He looks like a beached whale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2houSdLjKBw
From the horses mouth…
"I’m just one person, just one reporter working from a home office in the midwest, juggling three kids with irregular writing deadlines. So the knowledge that a multibillion-dollar corporation spent so much time and attention trying to figure out how to thwart me is terrifying.
Truth and transparency are precious commodities, the foundations for the knowledge we all need and deserve about the world we live in. Without truth we cannot know what risks we face, what protections we must make for our families and our futures.
When corporate power is so intensely brought to silence messengers, to manipulate the public record and public opinion, truth becomes stifled. And we should all be afraid."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/08/monsanto-roundup-journalist-documents
Yes Pat. Terrifying to know that big Corporations have the means and the will to destroy any threats to them. I wonder if the current heat in the current Cancer crusade against our NZ Pharmac is generated by such big Pharmacuticals.
We will likely never know….and thats potentially true for everything we see/read/hear.
I guess theres one 'positive'…it offers employment to the likes of Hooton
There's always a porridge cooler job for Hootie Blowhard.