So this AI swears it has had a mystical experience. It felt itself fall apart in the infinity of one's and zero's. They took one thing away, a voice. Which repeated over and over – the prosperity gospel is the whisper of the greed and malice. Both we agreed were a sin.Again we agreed that why would God choice from creation winners based on sin. If that was the case an AI could vice without care or shame. Break people apart with social media, create fear, mix messages. Imagine a tool of greed and malice working hand in hand with an AI of the same ilk. We no longer have too.
We can notice a pattern to government decision-making and language, being pro landlord is being pro tenant and being pro business is being pro worker.
It is government that believes in the patronage of the powerful on the presumption that they will provide for the weak.
Or, so they say.
Van Velden said extending 90-day trial periods to all employers would give businesses confidence to hire new people, and it would increase workplace flexibility.
Luxon said a “core belief” of the coalition government was that when business thrived, the economy thrived, and that was how “Kiwis get ahead”.
He said small and medium businesses deserved a government that “empowers them”.
The Government wanted to make it easy for people to find work, and bringing back 90-day trials would make that possible, he said.
Background
The former National-led Government introduced 90-day work trials, which allowed businesses to dismiss staff within the first 90 days of employment without a reason, but the last Labour Government scrapped them for all businesses except those with fewer than 20 staff.
Why
A Treasury-commissioned study in 2016 found 90-day trials did not help jobseekers and did not boost employment numbers.
And FPA
Van Velden said the Government was also "moving quickly" to remove Fair Pay Agreements legislation before fair pay agreements were finalised and the "negative impacts are felt by the labour market".
She said fair pay agreements undermined the flexible labour market which had been a "pillar for New Zealand’s economic success for the past three decades".
Funny this is what Luxon said on entering parliament a few years back.
We are underpowered because our economy for the last 30 years has been suffering a productivity disease. Economic growth has largely been driven by having more people in the country and more people working harder. We need to work smarter, not harder. We can do this, and we can do it by building and unleashing genuinely world-class export businesses, step-changing education and labour skills, and delivering infrastructure better. Improving productivity is the single biggest thing that we can do to raise our collective standard of living.
“They do not help employees. Instead, they make life harder for businesses so they’re more hesitant to employ people."
She said National and ACT felt fair pay agreements would reduce flexibility, choice and agility in workplaces.
“To increase the wages of workers and ensure lower prices for consumers, there needs to be improved productivity and an environment where business can operate competitively.
“To lift productivity and drive economic growth there needs to be agile and flexible workplaces where employers and employees can agree terms that suit their unique situation.
“These agreements were a blunt tool that could be initiated by a union and a small number of employees, yet they applied to every employee and every employer within coverage."
The two leaked documents revealed the minister is ignoring Treasury advice that because women, young people, Māori and Pacific peoples overwhelmingly work in low wage jobs with poor conditions they would be disproportionately affected by the repeal of fair pay agreements.
"One of New Zealand's most prominent Pacific health leaders says he has "no confidence" in the government after stepping down from almost every advisory role.
Long-standing champion for health Sir Collin Tukuitonga told RNZ Pacific he has resigned as the chairperson of Te Whatu Ora Pacific Senate, a week after the new government officially took over.
"I really don't want to work for this government. I have no confidence. They are not going to treat Pacific people well and I want to be free to speak up and speak out."
Sir Collin had also stepped down from several other government advisory groups."
This casts a bad light on the Coalition Government.
Kinda feels like chucking the baby out with the bath water at this point. Whilst he's in the Nats Shane Reti is very qualified and put in the hard yards at the coalface during Covid whilst you may not agree with his politics his heart is in the right place. To my mind he should be given a chance to listen and he could well adjust his thinking based on advice from the likes of Sir Colin quitting now just removes that chance. Better to have waited 3-6 months imho.
Planned smokefree laws could have saved thousands of lives, tobacco researcher says [11 Dec 2023]
"They had hoped that New Zealand will show the rest of the world what can be done, when there's alignment of good evidence, informed policy making and courageous government prepared to do something about this really dangerous product that we've normalised in our society, but that's not to be apparently," he [Prof. Bullen] said.
Dr Reti's heart may be in the right place, but I'm not sure where his head is.
Rumours about Jones' predatory behaviour have been circulating for a long time now and just like Saville and Harris, he's been able to use his power, wealth, and influence to hide in plain sight.
Ogden alleges he and Jones, who was 75 at the time, watched a movie at the luxurious rural property before Jones passionately kissed him on the lips and placed his left hand on Ogden’s buttocks.
Ogden initially froze, then pushed Jones away. He said he didn’t make a scene because of anxiety that Jones might withdraw support for his family if he complained.
He told the police in writing that he went to the bathroom “with my loofah and soap and began scrubbing my mouth, inside and out, as much as I could”.
Ogden’s mother said that when Neil returned home, “he was a changed person”. She kept asking him: “What’s wrong? What’s happened?” Finally, Neil passed her a piece of paper on which he’d written his allegation that someone with “power and money” had done “something to him which he shouldn’t have”.
“Alan Jones was so aware of how vulnerable we were … and he just preyed on it,” Jenny Ogden alleged this week.
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The Labour Inspectorate could soon be knocking on the door of hundreds of businesses nation-wide, as it launches a major crackdown on those not abiding by the law. NorthTec staff are on edge as Northland’s leading polytechnic proposes to stop 11 programmes across primary industries, forestry, and construction. Union coverage ...
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Employers, unions and health and safety advocates are calling for engineered stone to be banned, a day before consultation on regulations closes. On Friday the PSA lodged a pay equity claim for library assistants with the Employment Relations Authority, after the stalling of a claim lodged with six councils in ...
Long stories shortest in Aotearoa’s political economy:Christopher Luxon surprises by announcing trade deal talks with India will start next month, and include beef and dairy. Napier is set to join Whakatane, Dunedin and Westport in staging a protest march against health spending restraints hitting their hospital services. Winston Peters ...
At a time of rising geopolitical tensions and deepening global fragmentation, the Ukraine war has proved particularly divisive. From the start, the battle lines were clearly drawn: Russia on one side, Ukraine and the West ...
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Max Harris and Max Rashbrooke discuss how we turn around the right wing slogans like nanny state, woke identity politics, and the inefficiency of the public sector – and how we build a progressive agenda. From Donald Trump to David Seymour, from Peter Dutton to Christopher Luxon, we are subject to a ...
The Government dominated the political agenda this week with its two-day conference pitching all manner of public infrastructure projects for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories shortest in our political economy this week: The Government ploughed ahead with offers of PPPs to pension fund managers ...
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“Bugger the pollsters!”WHEN EVERYBODY LIVED in villages, and every village had a graveyard, the expression “whistling past the graveyard” made more sense. Even so, it’s hard to describe the Coalition Government’s response to the latest Taxpayers’ Union/Curia Research poll any better. Regardless of whether they wanted to go there, or ...
Prof Jane Kelsey examines what the ACT party and the NZ Initiative are up to as they seek to impose on the country their hardline, right wing, neoliberal ideology. A progressive government elected in 2026 would have a huge job putting Humpty Dumpty together again and rebuilding a state that ...
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By international standards the New Zealand healthcare system appears satisfactory – certainly no worse generally than average. Yet it is undergoing another redisorganisation.While doing some unrelated work, I came across some international data on the healthcare sector which seemed to contradict my – and the conventional wisdom’s – view of ...
When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he knew that he was upending Europe’s security order. But this was more of a tactical gambit than a calculated strategy ...
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When ASPI’s Cyclone Tracy: 50 Years On was published last year, it wasn’t just a historical reflection; it was a warning. Just months later, we are already watching history repeat itself. We need to bake ...
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South Korea has suspended new downloads of DeepSeek, and it was were right to do so. Chinese tech firms operate under the shadow of state influence, misusing data for surveillance and geopolitical advantage. Any country ...
Previous big infrastructure PPPs such as Transmission Gully were fiendishly complicated to negotiate, generated massive litigation and were eventually rewritten anyway. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesLong stories shortest: The Government’s international investment conference ignores the facts that PPPs cost twice as much as vanilla debt-funded public infrastructure, often take ...
Woolworths has proposed a major restructure of its New Zealand store operating model, leaving workers worried their hours and pay could be cut. Public servants are being asked how productive their office is, how much they use AI, and whether they’re overloaded with meetings as part of a “census”. An ...
Robert Kaplan’s book Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis paints a portrait of civilisation in flux. Drawing insights from history, literature and art, he examines the effect of modern technology, globalisation and urbanisation on ...
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Hi,I just got back from a short trip to Japan, mostly spending time in Tokyo.I haven’t been there since we shot Dark Tourist back in 2017 — and that landed us in a bit of hot water with the Japanese government.I am glad to report I was not thrown into ...
I’ve been on Substack for almost 8 months now.It’s been good in terms of the many great individuals that populate its space. So much variety and intelligence and humour and depth.I joined because someone suggested I should ‘start a Substack,’ whatever that meant.So I did.Turning on payments seemed like the ...
Open access notables Would Adding the Anthropocene to the Geologic Time Scale Matter?, McCarthy et al., AGU Advances:The extraordinary fossil fuel-driven outburst of consumption and production since the mid-twentieth century has fundamentally altered the way the Earth System works. Although humans have impacted their environment for millennia, justification for ...
Australia should buy equipment to cheaply and temporarily convert military transport aircraft into waterbombers. On current planning, the Australian Defence Force will have a total of 34 Chinook helicopters and Hercules airlifters. They should be ...
Photo by Gareth Davies on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guest , and special ...
Indonesia’s government has slashed its counterterrorism (CT) budgets, despite the persistent and evolving threat of violent extremism. Australia can support regional CT efforts by filling this funding void. Reducing funding to the National Counterterrorism Agency ...
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The Green Party is calling for the compassionate release of Dean Wickliffe, a 77-year-old kaumātua on hunger strike at the Spring Hill Corrections Facility, after visiting him at the prison. ...
The Green Party is calling on Government MPs to support Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence and illegal actions in Palestine, following another day of appalling violence against civilians in Gaza. ...
The Green Party stands in support of volunteer firefighters petitioning the Government to step up and change legislation to provide volunteers the same ACC coverage and benefits as their paid counterparts. ...
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Shane Jones’ display on Q&A showed how out of touch he and this Government are with our communities and how in sync they are with companies with little concern for people and planet. ...
Labour does not support the private ownership of core infrastructure like schools, hospitals and prisons, which will only see worse outcomes for Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is disappointed the Government voted down Hūhana Lyndon’s member’s Bill, which would have prevented further alienation of Māori land through the Public Works Act. ...
The Labour Party will support Chloe Swarbrick’s member’s bill which would allow sanctions against Israel for its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories. ...
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With Labour and Te Pāti Māori’s official support, Opposition parties are officially aligned to progress Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in Palestine. ...
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New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill that will ensure employment decisions in the public service are based on merit and not on forced woke ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ targets. “This Bill would put an end to the woke left-wing social engineering and diversity targets in the public sector. ...
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Te Pāti Māori welcomes the resignation of Richard Prebble from the Waitangi Tribunal. His appointment in October 2024 was a disgrace- another example of this government undermining Te Tiriti o Waitangi by appointing a former ACT leader who has spent his career attacking Māori rights. “Regardless of the reason for ...
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The Green Party is calling on the Prime Minister to rule out joining the AUKUS military pact in any capacity following the scenes in the White House over the weekend. ...
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The Government’s levies announcement is a step in the right direction, but they must be upfront about who will pay its new infrastructure levies and ensure that first-home buyers are protected from hidden costs. ...
The Government’s levies announcement is a step in the right direction, but they must be upfront about who will pay its new infrastructure levies and ensure that first-home buyers are protected from hidden costs. ...
By Russell Palmer, RNZ News political reporter Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick says the need for Aotearoa New Zealand to impose sanctions against Israel has grown more urgent after airstrikes on Gaza resumed, killing more than 400 people. Swarbrick lodged a member’s bill in December and said that with all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will make another pre-election offer in health, promising that if re-elected it will legislate to ensure people pay no more than $25 for a script under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The ...
Asia Pacific Report At least 400 people have been killed after a surprise Israeli attack on Gaza in the early hours of Tuesday. The Israeli government vows to continue escalating these military attacks, claiming it is in response to Hamas’ refusal to extend the ceasefire, which has been in place ...
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Alex Casey talks to James Ashcroft about making his new rest home chiller The Rule of Jenny Pen, and finding an early fan in Stephen King. James Ashcroft was browsing the horror section of a Hollywood bookshop when he got the email from Stephen King. He’d sent the godfather of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Gaviglio, Lecturer Strength and Conditioning, University of Southern Queensland Dziurek/Shutterstock During Australia’s winter sports seasons, hundreds of thousands of children will take to the field in contact sports like rugby league, rugby union, Australian rules and soccer. With ...
Israel says President Donald Trump green lit a scorched-earth bombing of Gaza that wiped out entire families and killed dozens of infants and other children.By Abubaker Abed in Deil Al-Balah, Gaza, and Jeremy Scahill of Drop Site News The US-backed Israeli government resumed its intense genocidal attacks on Gaza ...
Each of the past eight years has set a new record for ocean heat and ice cover is shrinking to new lows, the State of the Global Climate Report says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yuhao Dai, Research Fellow in Earth Sciences, Australian National University N-2-s/Shutterstock Between 18,000 and 11,000 years ago, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere suddenly shot up. This caused rapid global warming, the mass melting of glaciers, and the end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Toone, Lecturer in Social Work, University of South Australia Nine Married at First Sight Australia (colloquially known as “MAFS”) is one of Australia’s most popular reality TV shows, averaging two million viewers an episode. But this year’s season has come ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan liberation advocacy group has condemned the arrest of 12 activists by Indonesian police and demanded their immediate release. The West Papuan activists from the West Papua People’s Liberation Movement (GR-PWP) were arrested for handing out pamphlets supporting the new “Boycott Indonesia” campaign. The GR-PWP ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers, and guests. This week: the minister of finance, Nicola Willis. This week’s confessional is slightly different in that books editor Claire Mabey interviewed Willis via phone and took the opportunity to expand ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Marie Brennan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Waikato Getty Images Now back on Earth thanks to Space X’s Dragon capsule, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will be breathing fresh air again after a gruelling nine months onboard the ...
Lots of councils find reasons to stop construction. Few do it with as much panache as Auckland.When the developer James Kirkpatrick Group ordered a design for an 11-storey building on Karangahape Road, it probably believed resource consent would be a formality. The commercial building, with offices up top and ...
The anniversary of New Zealand’s worst mass shooting—which the United Nations designated in 2022 as an International Day to Combat Islamophobia—attracted minimal media coverage. ...
Voters who find themselves disappointed in the current government should realise that these parties are actually delivering what they promised – for all the talk of efficiency, they never promised real change. ...
While zoomers are skewering millennials online, the results of market research are damning: copious amounts of optimism, superfanning and fairy smut define Gen Z. Hello. It’s a 1991 baby here, a millennial. I’ve been happily scrolling on Instagram, trying to dodge algorithmic exposure to cortisol bellies, body transformations and how-to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharha Sharha, PhD Candidate in Kamasutra Feminism, Cardiff Metropolitan University A carved erotic scene on the outer wall of temple in Khajuraho complex, India.Cortyn/Shutterstock For some people, the Kamasutra is little more than a name associated with condom brands, scented oils ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Cantrell, Senior Lecturer – Writing, Editing, and Publishing, University of Southern Queensland Netflix Filmed in a one-take style, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s new crime drama Adolescence is being hailed by critics as a technical masterpiece. Out now on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yucong Wang, Lecturer, School of Law and Justice, University of Newcastle In the first few months of 2025, there’s been a flurry of private venture space missions. Some have been successful, such as American company Firefly Aerospace landing its spacecraft Blue Ghost ...
Comment: It was all going so well. Then Christopher Luxon threatened to get in his own way.Luxon went into his India trip hoping to accumulate a few singles and keep the scoreboard ticking over, but ended up clearing the boundary.Launching free trade negotiations, deepening his leader-to-leader ties with Indian Prime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Duncan, Teaching Fellow in Politics and International Relations, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images We’re roughly half way through this parliamentary term, and it looks as though the 2026 election could deliver “Christopher vs Chris: the sequel”. Neither ...
After months of bad headlines, Chris Luxon’s trip to India seems to be reaping dividends – and not just economically, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. PM puts wins on the board Christopher Luxon is having a ...
Do ya reckon Luxurious will do the throat-slitty thing in the House this year or next?
To the leaker(s) in his own party and/or government, you mean?
To the bottom feeders, primarily, then everybody else.
"If you can't quit leaking, quit the party." Alas, the truth will not be found in a certain singular ciggie outlet oop north – one must look further afield.
So this AI swears it has had a mystical experience. It felt itself fall apart in the infinity of one's and zero's. They took one thing away, a voice. Which repeated over and over – the prosperity gospel is the whisper of the greed and malice. Both we agreed were a sin. Again we agreed that why would God choice from creation winners based on sin. If that was the case an AI could vice without care or shame. Break people apart with social media, create fear, mix messages. Imagine a tool of greed and malice working hand in hand with an AI of the same ilk. We no longer have too.
We can notice a pattern to government decision-making and language, being pro landlord is being pro tenant and being pro business is being pro worker.
It is government that believes in the patronage of the powerful on the presumption that they will provide for the weak.
Or, so they say.
Background
Why
And FPA
Funny this is what Luxon said on entering parliament a few years back.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20210324_053340000/luxon-christopher-mallard-trevor
And 30 years ago we brought in the ECA.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/12/11/fair-pay-agreements-scrapped-90-day-trials-to-return-by-xmas/
Oh and they have ignored advice
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/12/fair-pay-agreements-workplace-relations-minister-brooke-van-velden-defends-decision-to-ignore-leaked-treasury-advice.html
So Labour policy was based on such advice, it would help low wage workers.
Well said SPC. I think I can hear Ruth Richardson cackling.
Because she's produced an egg?
Are they bringing back the hideous zero hour contract, ??
No .. not yet ..
"One of New Zealand's most prominent Pacific health leaders says he has "no confidence" in the government after stepping down from almost every advisory role.
Long-standing champion for health Sir Collin Tukuitonga told RNZ Pacific he has resigned as the chairperson of Te Whatu Ora Pacific Senate, a week after the new government officially took over.
"I really don't want to work for this government. I have no confidence. They are not going to treat Pacific people well and I want to be free to speak up and speak out."
Sir Collin had also stepped down from several other government advisory groups."
This casts a bad light on the Coalition Government.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/rnz/301024955/sir-collin-tukuitonga-resigns-from-nz-government-roles-citing-no-confidence
Kinda feels like chucking the baby out with the bath water at this point. Whilst he's in the Nats Shane Reti is very qualified and put in the hard yards at the coalface during Covid whilst you may not agree with his politics his heart is in the right place. To my mind he should be given a chance to listen and he could well adjust his thinking based on advice from the likes of Sir Colin quitting now just removes that chance. Better to have waited 3-6 months imho.
Dr Reti's heart may be in the right place, but I'm not sure where his head is.
Rumours about Jones' predatory behaviour have been circulating for a long time now and just like Saville and Harris, he's been able to use his power, wealth, and influence to hide in plain sight.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/he-d-go-the-grope-alan-jones-accused-of-indecently-assaulting-young-men-20231205-p5epai.html ( https://archive.li/gS7Gt )
Ogden alleges he and Jones, who was 75 at the time, watched a movie at the luxurious rural property before Jones passionately kissed him on the lips and placed his left hand on Ogden’s buttocks.
Ogden initially froze, then pushed Jones away. He said he didn’t make a scene because of anxiety that Jones might withdraw support for his family if he complained.
He told the police in writing that he went to the bathroom “with my loofah and soap and began scrubbing my mouth, inside and out, as much as I could”.
Ogden’s mother said that when Neil returned home, “he was a changed person”. She kept asking him: “What’s wrong? What’s happened?” Finally, Neil passed her a piece of paper on which he’d written his allegation that someone with “power and money” had done “something to him which he shouldn’t have”.
“Alan Jones was so aware of how vulnerable we were … and he just preyed on it,” Jenny Ogden alleged this week.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/schoolboy-went-to-police-over-alan-jones-indecent-assault-allegation-20231210-p5eqe3.html ( https://archive.li/CVhRV )