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.
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The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
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 The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
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!