You two are showing your Right side a bit much and getting sunburned there.
I think you are suffering from heat exhaustion and need a lie down, perhaps a cup of tea to recover from the bad National news. Be strong, there will be more of this.
What bad news? the last neutral poll had National on 46%
If I was going to make a prediction I’ll be surprised if Cindy makes it to 2020 I think the pressure and grind will get to her and she’ll’ chuck it in.
I don’t think she’ll even show up for parliament this week, that’s the level of her commitment.
Bridges on 6 or whatever it is and the nats in the 40s just shows how damaged our culture really is. The nats are in disarray (for now) but support for what the nats stand for these days is as strong as ever. Selfishness and hateful attitudes became the norm after the 1990s and it’s extremely hard to reverse that stuff. The task has now been left to Ardern and her band of merry people because of course Clark et al in her nine years not only made no effort to fix things but added to the cultural filth she inherited, campaigned to end and then finally adopted as her own. Ardern’s job has become that much harder because of it. Whether she can make a dent remains to be seen, especially given some of the people around her. But I think she’s very capable of being underestimated. And given the extent of the damage inherited by the previous governments from both sides even the slightest bit of progress towards erasing the cultural filth would be no mean feat.
I can’t see many getting into the polling booth and actually ticking National if Bridges is at the helm. That’s the test. TV polls are just anonymous words on the phone. They don’t require ticking the box with the marker.
Maybe the result under the current scenario is likely to be how you describe, especially given the nats’ current leadership crisis etc. But the cultural stuff, the cultural damage, until it’s fixed up, will always mean the they won’t be far behind. That’s what keeps them within striking distance even without coalition partners. All they need to come along is a half-interesting leader, its opponent to fall into leadership crisis or some other positive variable and they’re back in the game. Labour won’t have that luxury until NZ becomes a caring and compassionate nation again and will remain on the back foot until that happens.
Yes, New Zealand has become such a mean place. Perhaps was always this way but as a child of the middle I wasn’t aware of it. Interesting the the PM was though. She cites the lives of those around her growing up as a big reason for entering politics.
I totally believe the foot needs to be kept firmly on the throat of the National Party. They need to be kept in the dungeon for as long as possible because as you say they will eventually come up with an acceptable leader and the base vote of selfish NZ will fall in behind. Another period of division, zero government, and cutbacks will then follow. Communities will be broken and isolated. Those with power will have that power further entrenched. And services will be difficult to access.
And the foot kept on the nats’ throat also gives much needed time to develop the caring society. I sense Ardern knows that, too, and while she’s hampered by those around her, and that cultural change is helped by economic change, it doesn’t necessarily require it. Economic change can follow on. Some would say that a by stealth approach is in fact required.
No updates on the Police investigations into the National Party illegal donations, the Young Nat attempted rape or Maggie’s bullying and illegal use of staff resources. Haven’t heard anything about the death threats sent by the female MP either.
Have the many National Party leakers been silenced for simply telling the truth? It’s very strange. They must have all been paid off to keep quite. National needs the big donations to silence those annoying little people who expose the rot within.
Back when JLR resigned from National/was thrown out, Mallard as Speaker was said to have assigned him a speaking slot on Thurs, 13 December but nothing formal was ever issued/published on this.
This Thursday, 13 December, was set down as the last 2017 sitting day for the House, when the afternoon is taken up with (usually light-hearted) speeches from the leaders of each political party plus any Independent MPs, which is what JLR is now classified as. This is probably what was meant by the rumours of his having been assigned a speaking slot that day.
However. JLR advised (on Twitter?) that he would not be back this year on medical advice.
In mid-November when setting the House sitting programme for 2019, Parliament also agreed to extend their sitting days in December until Weds next week (19 December) when the House will rise and not resume until 12 Feb 2019, after Waitangi Day etc.
JLR apparently quietly slipped into Parliament last week. It has been suggested this was to clean out or move his office.
Media are there to sell stuff. They do that by backing winners, like who the most people support. That’s not sigh.moan at 7% and declining. Same goes for Stuff’s position on the future of our planet.
As for the word cloud, I spent today at a social event with people who would have been around 70% National voters. Stuffs word cloud was a pretty good reflection of opinions about National’s current leader, although today’s sample would have had Muppet quite prominent. But that might have been omitted from the Stuff sample on copyright grounds.
It shows that Bridges’ net favourability – the difference between those who have a positive impression and a negative one – was negative 31 per cent, the lowest of any leader since Jenny Shipley, around the time that National was removed from office in 1999 …
… “That’s just borne out by those [favourability] numbers. We’ve never had, I don’t think, an Opposition leader in such a net negative space,” Talbot said, adding that a string of unsuccessful Labour leaders had not seen such low numbers.
“We never saw that for [Phil] Goff, we never saw that for [David] Cunliffe, we never saw that for [Andrew] Little.
“You get a lot of ‘unsures’ and ‘don’t knows’, but not that almost vitriolic stuff that you’ve got there.
“I’m not having a crack at the guy [Bridges], Talbot said. “I’ve never met him and I don’t know him, but clearly, people are having a sort of quite deep negative emotional reaction to him.”
One should bear in mind, of course, that these results are from UMR’s Late October 2018 Poll, when we were witnessing Peak Jamie-Lee Ross.
You have to wonder how much taxpayer money is getting pushed Stuffs way to peddle this bull shit.
And people try to make out Labour doesn’t do dirty politics.
In fact, UMR have been conducting these Leader-description word clouds for quite some time … and in an entirely objective / robust way.
For example, in early 2011 – when Key was near his height in popularity – UMR’s word cloud was overwhelmingly positive for him: Charismatic / Honest / Personable / Intelligent were prominent … (so no pro-Labour bias)
… although by late 2016 the terms assoicated with Key had – like his Favourability ratings – taken a bit of a tumble: Arrogant / Untrustworthy / Smarmy / Liar being paramount.
Of course not. The Labour Party had nothing to do with it and the first Cindy knew about it was when she saw it on TV.
Now perhaps you will answer this question.
Why has your nose grown by 3 centimetres Pinocchio?
Yeah it’s an interesting one, going back in my mind over the various cases that had massive coverage vs those that got a brief report then nothing.
BM phrased it in their usual way, and might be approaching it from the opposite direction for all I know, but as a society we do seem more upset when the murdered person is young, pretty, and pale. We should take all the other murders just as seriously, now they barely get a mention.
It’s a good response.
It’s the correct response.
It’s the response we should have to every murder. And I include myself in that.
So it’s also a moment of self reflection about how we, including me, regard our fellow residents as well as our visitors.
There’s more interest when the victim is a visitor, a guest if you like. The tragedy too has global coverage which NZ media seems to gag for. There’s no global coverage on the death of Maori women.
Also, young tourists have an innocence applied to them by the right rump of NZ which Maori women simply don’t. As Joe90 has pointed out they see Maori victims as bad buggers themselves and not-so-innocent which is why they are ignored and forgotten.
There’s truth in that Muttonbird. I remember the death of a young Pacific Island woman where the police decided that her morals were lacking and that her death was collateral damage of behaving in an immoral way. (Could have been in the 1990s.)
So she was downgraded because they thought she was prostituting or having casual outdoor sex, and they came to that conclusion because she was brown and I think from South Auckland Assumptions, and lack of care about looking closely at a violent death; all blase’ and prejudiced.
There was a journalist who looked into the matter and it was later shown that she had been attacked, and I think had managed to get away and been pursued before being killed.
There was another nasty attack that nearly was a death about that time.
A young Pacific Island woman went into Auckland city and then missed the last bus home to South Auckland. She had to walk home, a long way.
A car drove up behind her and knocked her over, injuring one leg. She managed to get away to a house where she found a gap in the foundations and crawled under there for safety.
There are a thousand stories in the big city goes a saying, and it sure applies to Auckland, most of them ignored by the ‘comfortable other’ people.
I was just looking back a few decades and this comment from an overseas visitor with a NZ spouse on how NZ struck him, death-wish came to his mind:
A ski resort in winter, Whakapapa has a bizarrely posh hotel with interiors circa 1961, a grocery store, a nature centre and some cheap chalets with views across a hundred miles. …We went on a two-hour walk to Taranaki Falls (it took one hour), and slipped behind its thundering curtains. The falls have their dark side. At sunset that evening, two passers-by stopped for a chat. I said how lovely Taranaki was, and one of them, tilting his hat back and creasing up his craggy face, said: ‘Yeah, but did you hear what happened there?’ Pause for effect. ‘Bloke in a wheelchair got pushed off the top by his wife and her lover.’
The story was complicated, a confusing web of murderous threads involving the adulterous wife having sex (pronounced ‘six’ in New Zealand) in a cupboard. A few days later, we were in the Wairarapa, the heat-racked hills and valleys to the west of Wellington, staying with friends in a white clapboard house a few miles from anywhere….A carpenter called John was there and, like most New Zealanders, he was an affable, down-to-earth sort of bloke. He stopped for a drink. After he’d gone, our hostess sighed and shook her head. ‘Poor John,’ she said. ‘His wife tried to cut his head off with a chain saw.’ Poor John! ‘She’s doing life, of course,’ our hostess added. And it just kind of went on like that: everywhere we went, someone had a weird story, often involving menace and crime. https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/1999/aug/15/life1.lifemagazine2
We are said to be dour. Was he unlucky or just meeting that 2-3 degrees of separation here head-on and fast because of movement ariund the country and people impressing the visitor with their dramatic tales?
The United States joined a controversial proposal by Saudi Arabia and Russia this weekend to weaken a reference to a key report on the severity of global warming, sharpening battle lines at the global climate summit in Poland aimed at gaining consensus over how to combat rising temperatures.
Arguments erupted Saturday night before a United Nations working group focused on science and technology, where the United States teamed with Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to challenge language that would have welcomed the findings of the landmark report, which said that the world has barely 10 years to cut carbon emissions by nearly half to avoid catastrophic warming.
Satellite imagery from Google Earth taken on November shows hundreds of Russian main battle tanks at a new military base on the outskirts of the Kamensk-Shakhtinsky.
The large-scale military base only 18 kilometers away from the border with toward rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine. Images show hundreds of main battle tank like as T-64 and also T-62M, while a thousand military trucks, artillery systems and tankers are located slightly higher.
The weak international response to the Kerch Strait incident might well embolden Putin to take the canal feeding Crimea, as per Illarionov (below). It appears Russian OPE (propaganda and recon) north of Crimea in Kherson/Zaporozhye is getting more intense. https://t.co/q6GCa1KRmP— Michael Carpenter (@mikercarpenter) December 9, 2018
That would mean taking the entire southwestern portion of Kherson Oblast, up to Nova Kakhovka where the canal takes in its water from the Dnipro. A large-scale military operation, and done under the Russian flag. How would West respond?— Euan MacDonald (@Euan_MacDonald) December 9, 2018
Despite its occasional Hippy excesses, VM’s Astral Weeks must surely be one of the greatest Albums of the last 60 years.
Interesting Doco on RNZ a few weeks ago, exploring the production of that seminal album … and emphasising that his session musicians exerted a profound influence on the final sound / arrangement. They really didn’t get their due.
With the likes of .. If I ventured in the slipstream, between the viaducts of your dream/ Where immobile steel rims crack, and the ditch in the back roads stop .. it had to be.
tc (10.1) … Desperate Natz keeping their gobshites in employment, courtesy NZH.
Then come the 2020 election, Natz is likely to commission NZH to dig up the other putrid corpses of Armstrong and Prebble again, to throw the muck at the coalition, in an attempt to keep Natz alive and kicking.
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 ...
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 ...
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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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 ...
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 ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/109229941/what-the-public-is-saying-about-simon-bridges-according-to-labours-pollsters
If this is your doing labour people ,grow the fuck up.
You have to wonder how much taxpayer money is getting pushed Stuffs way to peddle this bull shit.
And people try to make out Labour doesn’t do dirty politics.
You two are showing your Right side a bit much and getting sunburned there.
I think you are suffering from heat exhaustion and need a lie down, perhaps a cup of tea to recover from the bad National news. Be strong, there will be more of this.
What bad news? the last neutral poll had National on 46%
If I was going to make a prediction I’ll be surprised if Cindy makes it to 2020 I think the pressure and grind will get to her and she’ll’ chuck it in.
I don’t think she’ll even show up for parliament this week, that’s the level of her commitment.
Delusional yet again. You need to get it through your head – just because you say something doesn’t make it true.
She is not a flake like John Key – can’t you get that? Or perhaps you do but it’s all shit and giggles as usual.
She’s flakier than a piece of deep-fried hoki.
Oh look it’s BM commenting again, taking the approach he intends to take
Yes dear.
Yeah no bad news for the gnats LOL it’s all bad news so you and waggy will have to cry into your stouts.
Bridges on 6 or whatever it is and the nats in the 40s just shows how damaged our culture really is. The nats are in disarray (for now) but support for what the nats stand for these days is as strong as ever. Selfishness and hateful attitudes became the norm after the 1990s and it’s extremely hard to reverse that stuff. The task has now been left to Ardern and her band of merry people because of course Clark et al in her nine years not only made no effort to fix things but added to the cultural filth she inherited, campaigned to end and then finally adopted as her own. Ardern’s job has become that much harder because of it. Whether she can make a dent remains to be seen, especially given some of the people around her. But I think she’s very capable of being underestimated. And given the extent of the damage inherited by the previous governments from both sides even the slightest bit of progress towards erasing the cultural filth would be no mean feat.
I can’t see many getting into the polling booth and actually ticking National if Bridges is at the helm. That’s the test. TV polls are just anonymous words on the phone. They don’t require ticking the box with the marker.
Maybe the result under the current scenario is likely to be how you describe, especially given the nats’ current leadership crisis etc. But the cultural stuff, the cultural damage, until it’s fixed up, will always mean the they won’t be far behind. That’s what keeps them within striking distance even without coalition partners. All they need to come along is a half-interesting leader, its opponent to fall into leadership crisis or some other positive variable and they’re back in the game. Labour won’t have that luxury until NZ becomes a caring and compassionate nation again and will remain on the back foot until that happens.
Yes, New Zealand has become such a mean place. Perhaps was always this way but as a child of the middle I wasn’t aware of it. Interesting the the PM was though. She cites the lives of those around her growing up as a big reason for entering politics.
I totally believe the foot needs to be kept firmly on the throat of the National Party. They need to be kept in the dungeon for as long as possible because as you say they will eventually come up with an acceptable leader and the base vote of selfish NZ will fall in behind. Another period of division, zero government, and cutbacks will then follow. Communities will be broken and isolated. Those with power will have that power further entrenched. And services will be difficult to access.
And the foot kept on the nats’ throat also gives much needed time to develop the caring society. I sense Ardern knows that, too, and while she’s hampered by those around her, and that cultural change is helped by economic change, it doesn’t necessarily require it. Economic change can follow on. Some would say that a by stealth approach is in fact required.
Yep, lots of bad news for the National Party.
No updates on the Police investigations into the National Party illegal donations, the Young Nat attempted rape or Maggie’s bullying and illegal use of staff resources. Haven’t heard anything about the death threats sent by the female MP either.
Have the many National Party leakers been silenced for simply telling the truth? It’s very strange. They must have all been paid off to keep quite. National needs the big donations to silence those annoying little people who expose the rot within.
Well, all that might change after Jami-Lee’s welcome return to the House next year.
Ross will have been paid off I suspect. His speech on Thursday will be a walk-back from the brutally candid revelations a month ago.
It’ll be all about how he’s found peace (and a big payout from Peter Goodfellow).
That’s how national roll. Money talks, shouts gets what it’s masters want….silence or mea culpa it was all JLR.
I didn’t see anywhere that Ross was coming back to the House this Thursday. Is that happening?
I thought he was due to speak on 13 December.
Back when JLR resigned from National/was thrown out, Mallard as Speaker was said to have assigned him a speaking slot on Thurs, 13 December but nothing formal was ever issued/published on this.
This Thursday, 13 December, was set down as the last 2017 sitting day for the House, when the afternoon is taken up with (usually light-hearted) speeches from the leaders of each political party plus any Independent MPs, which is what JLR is now classified as. This is probably what was meant by the rumours of his having been assigned a speaking slot that day.
However. JLR advised (on Twitter?) that he would not be back this year on medical advice.
In mid-November when setting the House sitting programme for 2019, Parliament also agreed to extend their sitting days in December until Weds next week (19 December) when the House will rise and not resume until 12 Feb 2019, after Waitangi Day etc.
JLR apparently quietly slipped into Parliament last week. It has been suggested this was to clean out or move his office.
I hope he’s not planning on moving too far.
How is it “dirty politics”? Labour didn’t hire a shill to manipulate and abuse people in order for another shill to pick it up and pass it to the MSM.
Media are there to sell stuff. They do that by backing winners, like who the most people support. That’s not sigh.moan at 7% and declining. Same goes for Stuff’s position on the future of our planet.
As for the word cloud, I spent today at a social event with people who would have been around 70% National voters. Stuffs word cloud was a pretty good reflection of opinions about National’s current leader, although today’s sample would have had Muppet quite prominent. But that might have been omitted from the Stuff sample on copyright grounds.
So who did they say would be a better leader?
It doesn’t matter. The depth isn’t there. The question’s more like who wouldn’t make the worst.
Do you consider Ardern a leader or just a marketable commodity?
A leader. A neoliberal it seems, but a leader nevertheless.
Your lot wouldn’t see any difference, although it does depend on the party you’re talking about.
UMR’s David Talbot
One should bear in mind, of course, that these results are from UMR’s Late October 2018 Poll, when we were witnessing Peak Jamie-Lee Ross.
BM
In fact, UMR have been conducting these Leader-description word clouds for quite some time … and in an entirely objective / robust way.
For example, in early 2011 – when Key was near his height in popularity – UMR’s word cloud was overwhelmingly positive for him: Charismatic / Honest / Personable / Intelligent were prominent … (so no pro-Labour bias)
https://twitter.com/swordfish7774/status/1072084412655783936
… although by late 2016 the terms assoicated with Key had – like his Favourability ratings – taken a bit of a tumble: Arrogant / Untrustworthy / Smarmy / Liar being paramount.
The results are sent to corporates and this particular piece of research was not commissioned by the Labour party.
I hope not . Higher standard and all that.
I can tell you that Labour is relishing doing no dirty politics and watching National burn itself to the ground!
Of course not. The Labour Party had nothing to do with it and the first Cindy knew about it was when she saw it on TV.
Now perhaps you will answer this question.
Why has your nose grown by 3 centimetres Pinocchio?
Where’s ‘slick’ waggers? That’d be my choice but nobody asked.
Hey Minister Twyford losing two agency CEs in a day is not a good look
Go kick State Services ass and settle this in January. More fun than DPMC involved where you don’t need them.
And stay safe: we need you driving for multiple terms
Sounds like they were both f%$king useless ?
Prior govt appointees ?
Best of the webs
https://twitter.com/Scouse_ma/status/1069687378342830081
Oh…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjp5OmoDYQM&feature=youtu.be
brilliant
Simon Bridges urgently demanded that the Police name the leaker.
The Police told him to fuck off.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/12/exclusive-simon-bridges-urged-top-cop-to-reveal-expenses-leaker-s-identity.html
Hardly surprising when the top cop is working for Labour and doing their bidding.
NZ is a banana republic.
Poor choice, huh.
Had the same thought. Mike Bush a Labour man?
But maybe on the Planet Delusion, who knows?
Oh look it’s BM commenting again, taking the approach he intends to take
BM
You really are clutching at straws.
Hey no need to call him a wanker.
Oh very very well played
🤣🤣
It’s all they’ve got now shonky has taken his snake oil show back to corporate.
It’s hangers on, past the used by and Eade/Lusk acolytes now, good luck with that.
Wow – get simon to investigate it like he did the leaker – who is still leaking LOL
Why don’t you read what you just wrote.
Lol.
BM
NZ is a banana republic.
Actually this is pristine proof that NZ is NOT a banana republic. If it was National would have been provided with the information.
This is the sort of behaviour which leads to the public forming the word cloud they did.
I’m finding the pack hysteria surrounding the death of the English girl a bit disturbing.
My god BM that’s an extraordinary thing to say. You are implying that people are feeling exaggerated or uncontrollable feeling about this tragedy.
Perhaps you have difficulty empathizing. Why other people’s very understandable deep sadness over this is disturbing to you, is IMO disturbing…….
Yet their was little hysteria about the killing of Ariana Eva Mahu,Te Awhiahua Toko, Chozyn Koroheke, Lynace Parakuka, and Aroha Kerehoma.
Yeah it’s an interesting one, going back in my mind over the various cases that had massive coverage vs those that got a brief report then nothing.
BM phrased it in their usual way, and might be approaching it from the opposite direction for all I know, but as a society we do seem more upset when the murdered person is young, pretty, and pale. We should take all the other murders just as seriously, now they barely get a mention.
Gosh can’t we just allow people the compassionate response they are having.
It’s a good response.
It’s the correct response.
It’s the response we should have to every murder. And I include myself in that.
So it’s also a moment of self reflection about how we, including me, regard our fellow residents as well as our visitors.
There’s more interest when the victim is a visitor, a guest if you like. The tragedy too has global coverage which NZ media seems to gag for. There’s no global coverage on the death of Maori women.
Also, young tourists have an innocence applied to them by the right rump of NZ which Maori women simply don’t. As Joe90 has pointed out they see Maori victims as bad buggers themselves and not-so-innocent which is why they are ignored and forgotten.
There’s truth in that Muttonbird. I remember the death of a young Pacific Island woman where the police decided that her morals were lacking and that her death was collateral damage of behaving in an immoral way. (Could have been in the 1990s.)
So she was downgraded because they thought she was prostituting or having casual outdoor sex, and they came to that conclusion because she was brown and I think from South Auckland Assumptions, and lack of care about looking closely at a violent death; all blase’ and prejudiced.
There was a journalist who looked into the matter and it was later shown that she had been attacked, and I think had managed to get away and been pursued before being killed.
There was another nasty attack that nearly was a death about that time.
A young Pacific Island woman went into Auckland city and then missed the last bus home to South Auckland. She had to walk home, a long way.
A car drove up behind her and knocked her over, injuring one leg. She managed to get away to a house where she found a gap in the foundations and crawled under there for safety.
There are a thousand stories in the big city goes a saying, and it sure applies to Auckland, most of them ignored by the ‘comfortable other’ people.
She was missing for a week, so it drew attention. The Father arriving created a new level of sadness. Their worst fears were correct. She was a guest.
Can you articulate why? Not that I am trying to dismiss your reaction, just wondering if you are able to dissect it?
I think a lot of it is fake bandwagoning .the media running it hard to get views and clicks .
I was just looking back a few decades and this comment from an overseas visitor with a NZ spouse on how NZ struck him, death-wish came to his mind:
A ski resort in winter, Whakapapa has a bizarrely posh hotel with interiors circa 1961, a grocery store, a nature centre and some cheap chalets with views across a hundred miles. …We went on a two-hour walk to Taranaki Falls (it took one hour), and slipped behind its thundering curtains. The falls have their dark side. At sunset that evening, two passers-by stopped for a chat. I said how lovely Taranaki was, and one of them, tilting his hat back and creasing up his craggy face, said: ‘Yeah, but did you hear what happened there?’ Pause for effect. ‘Bloke in a wheelchair got pushed off the top by his wife and her lover.’
The story was complicated, a confusing web of murderous threads involving the adulterous wife having sex (pronounced ‘six’ in New Zealand) in a cupboard. A few days later, we were in the Wairarapa, the heat-racked hills and valleys to the west of Wellington, staying with friends in a white clapboard house a few miles from anywhere….A carpenter called John was there and, like most New Zealanders, he was an affable, down-to-earth sort of bloke. He stopped for a drink. After he’d gone, our hostess sighed and shook her head. ‘Poor John,’ she said. ‘His wife tried to cut his head off with a chain saw.’ Poor John! ‘She’s doing life, of course,’ our hostess added. And it just kind of went on like that: everywhere we went, someone had a weird story, often involving menace and crime.
https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/1999/aug/15/life1.lifemagazine2
We are said to be dour. Was he unlucky or just meeting that 2-3 degrees of separation here head-on and fast because of movement ariund the country and people impressing the visitor with their dramatic tales?
Do you struggle to comprehend other people’s emotions BMmer?
Petrogarchs united.
The United States joined a controversial proposal by Saudi Arabia and Russia this weekend to weaken a reference to a key report on the severity of global warming, sharpening battle lines at the global climate summit in Poland aimed at gaining consensus over how to combat rising temperatures.
Arguments erupted Saturday night before a United Nations working group focused on science and technology, where the United States teamed with Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to challenge language that would have welcomed the findings of the landmark report, which said that the world has barely 10 years to cut carbon emissions by nearly half to avoid catastrophic warming.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-resists-global-climate-efforts-at-home-overseas/2018/12/09/b94a9ef0-fa41-11e8-863c-9e2f864d47e7_story.html?
It is staged theatre, J90 and
The UN are playing a role too..
Consensus…right…
It was 10 years more 15 years ago…
15 years more 10 years ago…
I believe the UN/IPCC about as much as I believe in Moodeys/S&P…
Same game…same personnel…
So we should be alright then.
You have a gut feeling on this no doubt.
I wonder if they’re there to correct mistakes.
Satellite imagery from Google Earth taken on November shows hundreds of Russian main battle tanks at a new military base on the outskirts of the Kamensk-Shakhtinsky.
The large-scale military base only 18 kilometers away from the border with toward rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine. Images show hundreds of main battle tank like as T-64 and also T-62M, while a thousand military trucks, artillery systems and tankers are located slightly higher.
https://defence-blog.com/army/satellite-imagery-shows-hundreds-of-russian-tanks-near-the-border-with-ukraine.html
Not looking very friendly all of that weaponry. Vlad must be getting ready for something…
Just some army-surplus cub scouts going to pop over to say “hi”, honest.
If Ukraine not come to free military fun fair, free military funfair go to Ukraine.
Well, you’d need lots of kit if you were going to take the entire southwestern portion of Kherson Oblast, up to Nova Kakhovka where the canal takes in its water from the Dnipro.
https://twitter.com/Euan_MacDonald/status/1071700736596168706
Seventy four years old, fourth album in fourteen months, and sounding as good as he ever has.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffLOu22xCSw
Van Morrison – The Prophet Speaks – Ain’t Gonna Moan No More
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx_NU0BOmHk
Despite its occasional Hippy excesses, VM’s Astral Weeks must surely be one of the greatest Albums of the last 60 years.
Interesting Doco on RNZ a few weeks ago, exploring the production of that seminal album … and emphasising that his session musicians exerted a profound influence on the final sound / arrangement. They really didn’t get their due.
With the likes of .. If I ventured in the slipstream, between the viaducts of your dream/ Where immobile steel rims crack, and the ditch in the back roads stop .. it had to be.
Leighton Smith’s last day on Friday. What a great day for New Zealand.
His herald regular column awaits whilst another red neck rant host is lined up.
tc (10.1) … Desperate Natz keeping their gobshites in employment, courtesy NZH.
Then come the 2020 election, Natz is likely to commission NZH to dig up the other putrid corpses of Armstrong and Prebble again, to throw the muck at the coalition, in an attempt to keep Natz alive and kicking.
Quite sad really!