Daily review 13/08/2024
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5:30 pm, August 13th, 2024 - 31 comments
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- An average 219 NZers migrated each day in July
Kia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, September 11:Annual migration of New Zealanders rose to a record-high 80,963 in the year to the end of July, which is more than double its pre-Covid levels.Two ...2 hours ago - What you’re wanting to win more than anything is The Narrative
Hubris is sitting down on election day 2016 to watch that pig Trump get his ass handed to him, and watching the New York Times needle hover for a while over Hillary and then move across to Trump where it remains all night to your gathering horror and dismay. You're ...2 hours ago - National’s automated lie machine
The government has a problem: lots of people want information from it all the time. Information about benefits, about superannuation, ACC coverage and healthcare, taxes, jury service, immigration - and that's just the routine stuff. Responding to all of those queries takes a lot of time and costs a lot ...5 hours ago - Christopher Luxon: A Man of “Faith” and “Compassion” Speaks on the Treaty Pr...
Synopsis: Today - we explore two different realities. One where National lost. And another - which is the one we are living with here. Note: the footnote on increased fees/taxes may be of interest to some readers.Article open.Subscribe nowIt’s an alternate timeline.Yesterday as news broke that the central North Island ...5 hours ago - Member’s Day
Today is a Member's Day. First up is the third reading of Dan Bidois' Fair Trading (Gift Card Expiry) Amendment Bill, which will be followed by the committee stage of Deborah Russell's Family Proceedings (Dissolution for Family Violence) Amendment Bill. This will be followed by the second readings of Katie ...8 hours ago
- Northern Expressway Boondoggle
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has been soaring high with his hubris of getting on and building motorways but some uncomfortable realities are starting to creep in. Back in July he announced that the government was pushing on with a Northland Expressway using an “accelerated delivery strategy” The Coalition Government is ...11 hours ago - Never Enough
However much I'm falling downNever enoughHowever much I'm falling outNever, never enough!Whatever smile I smile the mostNever enoughHowever I smile I smile the mostSongwriters: Robert James Smith / Simon Gallup / Boris Williams / Porl ThompsonToday in Nick’s Kōrero:A death in the Emergency Department at Rotorua Hospital.A sad homecoming and ...11 hours ago - Question Two of The Kākā Project of 2026 for 2050 (TKP 26/50)
Kia ora.Last month I proposed restarting The Kākā Project work done before the 2023 election as The Kākā Project of 2026 for 2050 (TKP 26/50), aiming to be up and running before the 2025 Local Government elections, and then in a finalised form by the 2026 General Elections.A couple of ...12 hours ago - Why is God Obsessed with Spanking?
Hi,If you’ve read Webworm for a while, you’ll be aware that I’ve spent a lot of time writing about horrific, corrupt megachurches and the shitty men who lead them.And in all of this writing, I think some people have this idea that I hate Christians or Christianity. As I explain ...13 hours ago - Inside the public service
In 2023, there were 63,117 full-time public servants earning, on average, $97,200 a year each. All up, that is a cost to the Government of $6.1 billion a year. It’s little wonder, then, that the public service has become a political whipping boy castigated by the Prime Minister and members ...14 hours ago
- New Models Show Stronger Atlantic Hurricanes, and More of Them
This is a re-post from This is Not Cool Here’s an example of some of the best kind of climate reporting, especially in that it relates to impacts that will directly affect the audience. WFLA in Tampa conducted a study in collaboration with the Department of Energy, analyzing trends in ...1 day ago - Where ever do they find these people?
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, is how Winston Churchill described the Soviet Union in 1939. How might the great man have described the 2024 government of New Zealand, do we think? I can't imagine he would have thought them all that mysterious or enigmatic. I think ...1 day ago - Motorway madness
How mad is National's obsession with roads? One of their pet projects - a truck highway to Whangārei - is going to eat 10% of our total infrastructure budget for the next 25 years: Official advice from the Infrastructure Commission shows the government could be set to spend 10 ...1 day ago
- Our transport planning system is fundamentally broken
Ever since Wayne Brown became mayor (nearly two years ago now) he’s been wanting to progress an “integrated transport plan” with the government – which sounded a lot like the previous Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) with just a different name. It seems like a fair bit of work progressed ...1 day ago
- Thou Shalt Not Steal
And they taught usWhoa-oh, black woman, thou shalt not stealI said, hey, yeah, black man, thou shalt not stealWe're gonna civilise your black barbaric livesAnd we teach you how to kneelBut your history couldn't hide the genocideThe hypocrisy to us was realFor your Jesus said you're supposed to giveThe oppressed ...1 day ago - How mismanagement, not wind and solar energy, causes blackouts
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections In February 2021, several severe storms swept across the United States, culminating with one that the Weather Channel unofficially named Winter Storm Uri. In Texas, Uri knocked out power to over 4.5 million homes and 10 million people. Hundreds of Texans died as a ...2 days ago
- The ‘Infra Boys’ Highway to Budget Hell
Chris Bishop has enthusiastically dubbed himself and Simeon Brown “the Infra Boys”, but they need to take note of the sums around their roading dreams. Photo: Lynn GrievesonMōrena. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, September ...2 days ago - Media Link: “AVFA” on the politics of desperation.
In this podcast Selwyn Manning and I talk about what appears to be a particular type of end-game in the long transition to systemic realignment in international affairs, in which the move to a new multipolar order with different characteristics … Continue reading ...2 days ago - The cost of flying blind
Just over two years ago, when worries about immediate mass-death from covid had waned, and people started to talk about covid becoming "endemic", I asked various government agencies what work they'd done on the costs of that - and particularly, on the cost of Long Covid. The answer was that ...2 days ago
- Seymour vs The Clergy
For paid subscribers“Aotearoa is not as malleable as they think,” Lynette wrote last week on Homage to Simeon Brown:In my heart/mind, that phrase ricocheted over the next days, translating out to “We are not so malleable.”It gave me comfort. I always felt that we were given an advantage in New ...2 days ago - Unstoppable Minister McKee
All smiles, I know what it takes to fool this townI'll do it 'til the sun goes downAnd all through the nighttimeOh, yeahOh, yeah, I'll tell you what you wanna hearLeave my sunglasses on while I shed a tearIt's never the right timeYeah, yeahSong by SiaLast night there was a ...2 days ago - Could outdoor dining revitalise Queen Street?
This is a guest post by Ben van Bruggen of The Urban Room,.An earlier version of this post appeared on LinkedIn. All images are by Ben. Have you noticed that there’s almost nowhere on Queen Street that invites you to stop, sit outside and enjoy a coffee, let alone ...2 days ago
- Hipkins challenges long-held Labour view Government must stay below 30% of GDP
Hipkins says when considering tax settings and the size of government, the big question mark is over what happens with the balance between the size of the working-age population and the growing number of Kiwis over the age of 65. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short; here’s ...2 days ago - Your invite to Webworm Chat (a bit like Reddit)
Hi,One of the things I love the most about Webworm is, well, you. The community that’s gathered around this lil’ newsletter isn’t something I ever expected when I started writing it four years ago — now the comments section is one of my favourite places on the internet. The comments ...3 days ago - Seymour’s Treaty bill making Nats nervous
A delay in reappointing a top civil servant may indicate a growing nervousness within the National Party about the potential consequences of David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill. Dave Samuels is waiting for reappointment as the Chief Executive of Te Puni Kokiri, but POLITIK understands that what should have been a ...3 days ago
- 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #36
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, September 1, 2024 thru Sat, September 7, 2024. Story of the week Our Story of the Week is about how peopele are not born stupid but can be fooled ...3 days ago
- Time for a Change
You act as thoughYou are a blind manWho's crying, crying 'boutAll the virgins that are dyingIn your habitual dreams, you knowSeems you need more sleepBut like a parrot in a flaming treeI know it's pretty hard to seeI'm beginning to wonderIf it's time for a changeSong: Phil JuddThe next line ...3 days ago - Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies: Excerpt Six.
The “double shocks” in post Cold War international affairs. The end of the Cold War fundamentally altered the global geostrategic context. In particular, the end of the nuclear “balance of terror” between the USA and USSR, coupled with the relaxation … Continue reading ...3 days ago
- Buried deep
Here's a bike on Manchester St, Feilding. I took this photo on Friday night after a very nice dinner at the very nice Vietnamese restaurant, Saigon, on Manchester Street.I thought to myself, Manchester Street? Bicycle? This could be the very spot.To recap from an earlier edition: on a February night ...4 days ago - Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies, Excerpt Five.
Military politics as a distinct “partial regime.” Notwithstanding their peripheral status, national defense offers the raison d’être of the combat function, which their relative vulnerability makes apparent, so military forces in small peripheral democracies must be very conscious of events … Continue reading ...4 days ago
- Leadership for Dummies
If you’re going somewhere, do you maybe take a bit of an interest in the place? Read up a bit on the history, current events, places to see - that sort of thing? Presumably, if you’re taking a trip somewhere, it’s for a reason. But what if you’re going somewhere ...4 days ago - Home again
5 days ago - Dead even tie for hottest August ever
Long stories short, here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer:The month of August was 1.49˚C warmer than pre-industrial levels, tying with 2023 for the warmest August ever, according ...5 days ago
- The Hoon around the week to Sept 7
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts and talking about the week’s news with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on the latest climate science on rising temperatures and the debate about how to responde to climate disinformation; and special guest ...5 days ago
- Have We an Infrastructure Deficit?
An Infrastructure New Zealand report says we are keeping up with infrastructure better than we might have thought from the grumbling. But the challenge of providing for the future remains.I was astonished to learn that the quantity of our infrastructure has been keeping up with economic growth. Your paper almost ...5 days ago - Councils reject racism
Last month, National passed a racist law requiring local councils to remove their Māori wards, or hold a referendum on them at the 2025 local body election. The final councils voted today, and the verdict is in: an overwhelming rejection. Only two councils out of 45 supported National's racist agenda ...5 days ago
- Homage to Simeon Brown
5 days ago
- Government of deceit
When National cut health spending and imposed a commissioner on Te Whatu Ora, they claimed that it was necessary because the organisation was bloated and inefficient, with "14 layers of management between the CEO and the patient". But it turns out they were simply lying: Health Minister Shane Reti’s ...5 days ago
- The professionals actually think and act like our Government has no fiscal crisis at all
Treasury staff at work: The demand for a new 12-year Government bond was so strong, Treasury decided to double the amount of bonds it sold. Photo: Lynn GrievesonMōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, September ...5 days ago - Weekly Roundup 6-September-2024
Welcome to another Friday and another roundup of stories that caught our eye this week. As always, this and every post is brought to you by the Greater Auckland crew. If you like our work and you’d like to see more of it, we invite you to join our regular ...5 days ago
- Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies; Excerpt Four.
Internal versus external security. Regardless of who rules, large countries can afford to separate external and internal security functions (even if internal control functions predominate under authoritarian regimes). In fact, given the logic of power concentration and institutional centralization of … Continue reading ...5 days ago
- A Hole In The River
There's a hole in the river where her memory liesFrom the land of the living to the air and skyShe was coming to see him, but something changed her mindDrove her down to the riverThere is no returnSongwriters: Neil Finn/Eddie RaynerThe king is dead; long live the queen!Yesterday was a ...6 days ago - Bright Blue His Jacket Ain’t But I Love This Fellow: A Review and Analysis of The Rings of Power E...
My conclusion last week was that The Rings of Power season two represented a major improvement in the series. The writing’s just so much better, and honestly, its major problems are less the result of the current episodes and more creatures arising from season one plot-holes. I found episode three ...6 days ago - Who should we thank for the defeat of the Nazis
As a child in the 1950s, I thought the British had won the Second World War because that’s what all our comics said. Later on, the films and comics told me that the Americans won the war. In my late teens, I found out that the Soviet Union ...6 days ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #36 2024
Open access notables Diurnal Temperature Range Trends Differ Below and Above the Melting Point, Pithan & Schatt, Geophysical Research Letters: The globally averaged diurnal temperature range (DTR) has shrunk since the mid-20th century, and climate models project further shrinking. Observations indicate a slowdown or reversal of this trend in recent decades. ...6 days ago
- Join us for the weekly Hoon on YouTube Live at 5pm
Photo by Jenny Bess on UnsplashCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with special guests:5.00 pm - 5.10 pm - Bernard and ...6 days ago - Media Link: Discussing the NZSIS Security Threat Report.
I was interviewed by Mike Hosking at NewstalkZB and a few other media outlets about the NZSIS Security Threat Report released recently. I have long advocated for more transparency, accountability and oversight of the NZ Intelligence Community, and although the … Continue reading ...6 days ago
- How do I make this better for people who drive Ford Rangers?
Home, home again to a long warm embrace. Plenty of reasons to be glad to be back.But also, reasons for dejection.You, yes you, Simeon Brown, you odious little oik, you bible thumping petrol-pandering ratfucker weasel. You would be Reason Number One. Well, maybe first among equals with Seymour and Of-Seymour ...6 days ago - A missed opportunity
The government introduced a pretty big piece of constitutional legislation today: the Parliament Bill. But rather than the contentious constitutional change (four year terms) pushed by Labour, this merely consolidates the existing legislation covering Parliament - currently scattered across four different Acts - into one piece of legislation. While I ...6 days ago
- Nicola Willis Seeks New Sidekick To Help Fix NZ’s Economy
Synopsis:Nicola Willis is seeking a new Treasury Boss after Dr Caralee McLiesh’s tenure ends this month. She didn’t listen to McLiesh. Will she listen to the new one?And why is Atlas Network’s Taxpayers Union chiming in?Please consider subscribing or supporting my work. Thanks, Tui.About CaraleeAt the beginning of July, Newsroom ...6 days ago - Inflation alive and kicking in our land of the long white monopolies
The golden days of profit continue for the the Foodstuffs (Pak’n’Save and New World) and Woolworths supermarket duopoly. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, September 5:The Groceries Commissioner has ...6 days ago - The thermodynamics of electric vs. internal combustion cars
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler I love thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is like your mom: it may not tell you what you can do, but it damn well tells you what you can’t do. I’ve written a few previous posts that include thermodynamics, like one on air capture of ...6 days ago
- Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies: Excerpt Three.
The notion of geopolitical “periphery.” The concept of periphery used here refers strictly to what can be called the geopolitical periphery. Being on the geopolitical periphery is an analytic virtue because it makes for more visible policy reform in response … Continue reading ...6 days ago
- Venus Hum
Fill me up with soundThe world sings with me a million smiles an hourI can see me dancing on my radioI can hear you singing in the blades of grassYellow dandelions on my way to schoolBig Beautiful Sky!Song: Venus Hum.Good morning, all you lovely people, and welcome to the 700th ...7 days ago - I Went to a Creed Concert
Note: The audio attached to this Webworm compliments today’s newsletter. I collected it as I met people attending a Creed concert. Their opinions may differ to mine. Read more ...7 days ago - Government migration policy backfires; thousands of unemployed nurses
The country has imported literally thousands of nurses over the past few months yet whether they are being employed as nurses is another matter. Just what is going on with HealthNZ and it nurses is, at best, opaque, in that it will not release anything but broad general statistics and ...7 days ago
- A Time For Unity.
Emotional Response: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon addresses mourners at the tangi of King Tuheitia on Turangawaewae Marae on Saturday, 31 August 2024.THE DEATH OF KING TUHEITIA could hardly have come at a worse time for Maoridom. The power of the Kingitanga to unify te iwi Māori was demonstrated powerfully at January’s ...1 week ago - Climate Change: Failed again
National's tax cut policies relied on stealing revenue from the ETS (previously used to fund emissions reduction) to fund tax cuts to landlords. So how's that going? Badly. Today's auction failed again, with zero units (of a possible 7.6 million) sold. Which means they have a $456 million hole in ...1 week ago
- Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies: Excerpt Two.
A question of size. Small size generally means large vulnerability. The perception of threat is broader and often more immediate for small countries. The feeling of comparative weakness, of exposure to risk, and of potential intimidation by larger powers often … Continue reading ...1 week ago
- Nicola Willis’s Very Unserious Bungling of the Kiwirail Interislander Cancellation
Open to all with kind thanks to all subscribers and supporters.Today, RNZ revealed that despite MFAT advice to Nicola Willis to be very “careful and deliberate” in her communications with the South Korean government, prior to any public announcement on cancelling Kiwirail’s i-Rex, Willis instead told South Korea 26 minutes ...1 week ago - Satisfying the Minister’s Speed Obsession
The Minister of Transport’s speed obsession has this week resulted in two new consultations for 110km/h speed limits, one in Auckland and one in Christchurch. There has also been final approval of the Kapiti Expressway to move to 110km/h following an earlier consultation. While the changes will almost certainly see ...1 week ago
- What if we freed up our streets, again?
This guest post is by Tommy de Silva, a local rangatahi and freelance writer who is passionate about making the urban fabric of Tāmaki Makaurau-Auckland more people-focused and sustainable. New Zealand’s March-April 2020 Level 4 Covid response (aka “lockdown”) was somehow both the best and worst six weeks of ...1 week ago
- No Alarms And No Surprises
A heart that's full up like a landfillA job that slowly kills youBruises that won't healYou look so tired, unhappyBring down the governmentThey don't, they don't speak for usI'll take a quiet lifeA handshake of carbon monoxideAnd no alarms and no surprisesThe fabulous English comedian Stewart Lee once wrote a ...1 week ago - Five ingenious ways people could beat the heat without cranking the AC
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons Every summer brings a new spate of headlines about record-breaking heat – for good reason: 2023 was the hottest year on record, in keeping with the upward trend scientists have been clocking for decades. With climate forecasts suggesting that heat waves ...1 week ago
- No new funding for cycling & walking
Studies show each $1 of spending on walking and cycling infrastructure produces $13 to $35 of economic benefits from higher productivity, lower healthcare costs, less congestion, lower emissions and lower fossil fuel import costs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note ...1 week ago - 99
Dad turned 99 today.Hell of a lot of candles, eh?He won't be alone for his birthday. He will have the warm attention of my brother, and my sister, and everyone at the rest home, the most thoughtful attentive and considerate people you could ever know. On Saturday there will be ...1 week ago - Open Government: National reneges on beneficial ownership
One of the achievements of the New Zealand’s Open Government Partnership Fourth National Action Plan was a formal commitment from the government to establish a public beneficial ownership register. Such a register would allow the ultimate owners of companies to be identified - a vital measure in preventing corruption, money ...1 week ago
- Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies: Excerpt One.
This project analyzes security politics in three peripheral democracies (Chile, New Zealand, Portugal) during the 30 years after the end of the Cold War. It argues that changes in the geopolitical landscape and geo-strategic context are interpreted differently by small … Continue reading ...1 week ago
- Tea and Toast
When the skies are looking bad my dearAnd your heart's lost all its hopeAfter dawn there will be sunshineAnd all the dust will goThe skies will clear my darlingNow it's time for you to let goOur girl will wake you up in the mornin'With some tea and toastLyrics: Lucy Spraggan.Good ...1 week ago - NLTP 2024 released – destroying pipeline of shovel ready local projects
Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Waka Kotahi yesterday released the latest National Land Transport Plan (NLTP) for 2024-27. The NLTP sets out what transport projects will be funded for the next three years, including both central and local government projects. As expected given the government’s extremely ideological transport policy, it’s ...1 week ago
- Can Brown deliver his roads
The Government’s unveiling of its road-building programme yesterday was ambitious and, many would say, long overdue. But the question will be whether it is too ambitious, whether it is affordable, and, if not, what might be dropped. The big ticket items will be the 17 so-called Roads of National Significance. ...1 week ago
- New paper about detecting climate misinformation on Twitter/X
Together with Cristian Rojas, Frank Algra-Maschio, Mark Andrejevic, Travis Coan, and Yuan-Fang Li, I just published a paper in Nature Communications Earth & Environment where we use the Computer Assisted Recognition of Denial and Skepticism (CARDS) machine learning model to detect climate misinformation in 5 million climate tweets. We find over half ...1 week ago
- Excerpting “Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies.”
In the late 2000s-early 2010s I was researching and writing a book titled “Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies: Chile, New Zealand and Portugal.” The book was a cross-regional Small-N qualitative comparison of the security strategies and postures of three small … Continue reading ...1 week ago
- Hating for the Wrong Reasons: Of Rings of Power, Orcs and Evil
A few months ago, my fellow countryman, HelloFutureMe, put out a giant YouTube video, dissecting what went wrong with the first season of Rings of Power (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ6FRUO0ui0&t=8376s). It’s an exceptionally good video, and though it spans some two and a half hours, it is well worth your time. But ...1 week ago - Climate Change: “Least cost” to who?
On Friday the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment released their submission on National's second Emissions Reduction Plan, ripping the shit out of it as a massive gamble based on wishful thinking. One of the specific issues he focused on was National's idea of "least cost" emissions reduction, pointing out that ...1 week ago
- Release: Aged care will be worse off if redesign rushed
New Zealanders needing aged care support and the people who care for them will be worse off if the Government pushes through a flawed and rushed redesign of dementia and aged care. ...4 hours ago - Release: Govt fails hundreds of workers as mills close
Labour is devastated at news hundreds of workers are set to lose their jobs following the closure of Winstone Pulp mills. ...10 hours ago
- Job losses from mill closures consequence of Govt inaction
Hundreds of jobs lost as a result of pulp mill closures in the Ruapehu District are a consequence of government inaction in addressing the shortfalls of our electricity network. ...1 day ago - Release: Cabinet should stop the Treaty Principles Bill
National Party Ministers have a majority in Cabinet and can stop David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill, which even the Prime Minister has described as “divisive and unhelpful.” ...2 days ago
- Release: Staff gagged to keep fast track list secret
The National Government is so determined to hide the list of potential projects that will avoid environmental scrutiny it has gagged Ministry for the Environment staff from talking about it. ...2 days ago
- Release: Labour challenges Te Whatu Ora gag orders
Labour has complained to the Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission about the high number of non-disclosure agreements that have effectively gagged staff at Te Whatu Ora Health NZ from talking about anything relating to their work. ...2 days ago
- Greens call on Treaty Principles Bill to be abandoned after letter from Christian leaders
The Green Party is once again urging the Prime Minister to abandon the Treaty Principles Bill as a letter from more than 400 Christian leaders calls for the proposed legislation to be dropped. ...3 days ago
- Sign the petition: Keep military-style firearms off our streets
Help us tell the Government that reintroducing military-style firearms should not be up for debate. ...4 days ago
- Vast majority of councils support Māori wards
Councils across the country have now decided where they stand regarding Māori wards, with a resounding majority in favour of keeping them in what is a significant setback for the Government. ...5 days ago
- Release: Government on the wrong side of Māori wards
The National-led government has been given a clear message from the local government sector, as almost all councils reject the Government’s bid to treat Māori wards different to other wards. ...5 days ago
- Release: Labour congratulates Kuīni Ngā Wai hono i te po Paki
The Labour Party congratulates Kuīni Ngā Wai hono i te po Paki on being crowned as the eighth Te Ariki Nui – head of Te Kiingitanga. ...6 days ago
- Green Party welcomes new Maaori Kuiini
The Green Party welcomes the coronation of the new Maaori Kuiini, Te Arikinui Nga Wai Hono i te Po, today in Turangawaewae. ...6 days ago
- ECE teachers deserve better than this Government
The Green Party is unsurprised but disappointed by today’s announcement from the Government that will see our Early Childhood Centre teachers undermined and pay parity pushed further out of reach. ...1 week ago
- Urgent intervention needed on supermarkets
The Green Party is calling on the Government to intervene in the supermarket duopoly dominating our supply of groceries following today’s report from the Commerce Commission. ...1 week ago
- Release: Rainbow youth neglected in mental health funding
Labour backs the call from The Rainbow Support Collective members for mental health funding specifically earmarked for grassroots and peer led community organisations to be set up in a way that they are able to access. ...1 week ago
- Release: Transport in NZ has to be more than just roads
As expected, the National Land Transport Programme lacks ambition for our cities and our country’s rail network and puts the majority of investment into roads. ...1 week ago
- Speech: Barbara Edmonds Building Nations 2024
Tēnā koutou katoa, Thank you for your warm welcome and for having my colleagues and I here today. Earlier you heard from the Labour Leader, Chris Hipkins, on our vision for the future of infrastructure. I want to build on his comments and provide further detail on some key elements ...1 week ago
- Govt transport plan deepens fossil fuel fix
The Green Party says the Government’s new National Land Transport Programme marks another missed opportunity to take meaningful action to fight the climate crisis. ...1 week ago
- Greens call for public to back Wrybill in BOTY and beyond
The Green Party is calling on the public to support the Ngutu Pare Wrybill not just in this year’s Bird of the Year competition but also in pushing back against policies that could lead to the destruction of its habitat and accelerate its extinction. ...1 week ago
- Building consents data bad news for construction
News that the annual number of building consents granted for new homes fell by more than 20 percent for the year ended July 2024, is bad news for the construction industry. ...2 weeks ago
- Te Pāti Māori Pay Tribute to Kiingi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII
Papā te whatitiri, hikohiko te uira, i kanapu ki te rangi, i whētuki i raro rā, rū ana te whenua e. Uea te pou o tōku whare kia tū tangata he kapua whakairi nāku nā runga o Taupiri. Ko taku kiri ka tōkia ki te anu mātao. E te iwi ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Gaps still to be addressed in callouts response
The Government must guarantee New Zealanders will not be at risk after making changes to the way mental health callouts are handled. ...2 weeks ago
- Poroporoaki: Kiingi Tuheitia passing
Haere e te Kīngi o te kotahitangi Haere ki o nui, ki o rahi I te pō ...2 weeks ago
- Green Party pays respects to Kiingi Tuuheitia
The Green Party is paying tribute to the Māori King, Kiingi Tuuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero XVII, after he passed away earlier this morning. ...2 weeks ago
- Potaka Brings Whakaata Māori to its Knees
Today’s Whakaata Māori announcement is yet another colossal failure from Minister Potaka, who has turned his back on te reo Māori, forcing a channel offline, putting whānau out of jobs, and cutting Māori content, says Te Pāti Māori. “A Senior Māori Minister has turned his back on Te Reo Māori. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: National restricts access to disability care homes
With disability communities still reeling from the diminishing of Whaikaha, a leaked document now reveals another blow with National restricting access to residential care homes. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Govt must help save 230 manufacturing jobs
Labour is calling on the Government and Mercury Energy to find a solution to the proposed Winstone Pulp mill closure and save 230 manufacturing jobs. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt shirks its responsibility to Whakaata Māori
The Green Party has called out the Government for allowing Whakaata Māori to effectively collapse to a shell of its former self as job cuts and programming cuts were announced at the broadcaster today. ...2 weeks ago
- NZ First Member’s Bill To Disestablish Auckland Transport
Today New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill that will restore democratic control over transport management in Auckland City by disestablishing Auckland Transport (AT) and returning control to Auckland Council. The ‘Local Government (Auckland Council) (Disestablishment of Auckland Transport) Amendment Bill’ intends to restore democratic oversight, control, and accountability ...2 weeks ago - Release: PM fails in constitutional role and leadership
The failure of the Prime Minister to condemn his Minister for personally attacking the judiciary is another example of this Government riding roughshod over important constitutional rules. ...2 weeks ago
- Waititi urges Rotorua Lakes Council to immediately stop works at Lake Rotokākahi
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Yucky bunny at channel 7 in Australia
It's shit for women across the ditch as well. Even in the glamour of the media.
Worse, I'd suspect. Especially in the glamour of the media.
The CoC's punching down as usual
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350376643/ot-apologises-acting-well-below-expectations-after-auckland-counsellor-scrapped
Gives 4 hours notice of contract cancellation and then won't even say where the people using the service should go …and now 6 weeks later someone says oops?
IMO The CoC is in the service of evil.
it would be a very interesting study on how people like chour and bennet (paula) become complete class traitors .
Karen Chour is easy, shes a product of a very broken system and has decided to essentially burn the system down. Pretty understandable imho.
Paula is a nasty, vindictive sociopath who enjoyed the power trip. Easy.
She was one of my reasons for going into left-wing politics.
Without her vindictiveness, I would have been a placid sort of teenage person with some vague sympathies for anti-landlord politics and some drug legalisation politics, and thought nothing more of it.
With her vindictiveness, I was suddenly aware of how fragile my position was and I realised that being merely being part of a gentle opposition of the status quo was not enough and my voting & political activities shifted to a more active sort of politics (as far as my disabilities would have let me take)
And now with the coalition, I've gone even further left as I got older. I'm now taking a participatory view of politics. I am trying to change things with what I call a dialectic of parliamentary and extra-parliamentary politics.
Right now, I am making another shift in my politics, I am trying to mature my politics amongst the peoples who I am part of (and sometimes outside of) and finding a synthesis of such situations so I can move onto a new set of dialectics of the sort of politics peculiar to my life situation.
And Paula Bennett (and life experience) set this all into motion so I nowadays think she did a favour to me even if I still strongly despise her.
Beat me to it. Its got beyond comment except to say: the first thing that needs to happen: The Chhour woman has got to go. She's mad!
Bruce Jesson.
You could be right there adam. Chhour is making false claims about counselling services and has already been pulled up by the Children's Commissioner over it.
I once had a teeny weeny bit of sympathy for her. Its gone now.
I had none, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi 's remarks were mild and direct. Mariameno could have unleashed a much harsher remark about being a puppet – she chose the mild idiom. I'd argue that the idiom Kapa-Kingi chose, is idiom designed to make you think, not a full on attack.
Not a 100% polite by any means, but nothing in the ball park that many/most of the Labour/Green/NZfirst/Te Pāti Māori women MP's have faced. And a world away from the down right nasty misogynist BS that was directed at Nanaia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Standard
9 days to the 886th anniversary.
The King of Scots claimed his niece was rightful Queen of England (her son was Henry of Anjou) but Stephen of Blois was influenced by the Salic law of France in the matter of her claim.
This proved that Stephen was no true English monarch … of its common law.
Geoffrey of Anjou (husband of an emperors widow) was known for the flowering plant he wore on his hat and so in the 15thC a Duke of York re-named his (and the royal) house, the House of Plantagenet (and so the War of the Roses).
At this time, Cosimo of Florence patron of its library collected books from far and wide (areas he finance trade to), including one that consisted of plants not of this earth with description in a language that no one could read (an inside joke about Kabbalah Jews who travelled to other worlds where they were not persecuted).
The Kabbalah colour code – white then red then black then purple then blue then yellow then green.
"This proved that Stephen was no true English monarch … of its common law."
None of those Norman monarchs was English by birth (except Henry I) or culture, so never could have been "true". And the formulation/evolution of common law is usually credited to that Henry of Anjou you mention, some time after he'd become Henry II..
Good news, Methanex can be used as source of gas in dry years.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/524995/methanex-temporarily-shutting-new-zealand-methanol-plants
Bad news, corporate GE farming
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/525030/greens-labour-not-ruling-out-supporting-genetic-engineering-law-change
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KRu1liiq7Ho
Farrar watch:
David Farrar has resigned from Research Association New Zealand, the only industry body with any oversight of pollsters in this country. It's not even a regulatory body because the polling industry here seems, like the real estate industry, to fly under the radar of any applicable rules, heaven forbid.
But they do have some sort of charter which Farrar has recently and repeatedly fallen foul of.
People have finally decided to complain about you. Wow.
Cry me a river. As a partisan political activist against governmental social support, every single word and post from you causes vulnerable people stress. Welcome to the club!
So, the question his client insisted on asking was a leading question which, I believe, reputable pollsters are not supposed to do. Interesting that he distanced himself from his client and failed to inform them that the question was not appropriate. Also, it was a question asked on behalf of some unnamed transphobic organisation.
It appears the upshot of all this is David Farrar will now self-regulate and be really transparent. That's like asking a drug addict to watch his own usage.
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2024/08/why_i_have_resigned_from_the_research_association_of_new_zealand.html
I asked the question a few months ago in the wake of some dodgy Curia poll whether RANZ should be taking a closer look at David Farrar and the fact that he is both pollster and political activist. This is a clear conflict of interest and no industry body should be happy with it.
It seems they are not. Bye, David.
Time to arrest and lock up every gang member in NZ. Till the person or persons who did this, is found, charged and beaten by the innocent gang members.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-city-mission-finds-lethal-levels-of-meth-in-donated-lollies-handed-out-in-food-parcels/JUWLGY5X4BDZLFINI6RCUGNETI/
Are you 100% sure a gang member is responsible.
Well if it's a Eugenicist, I still want the gangs to beat them.
Manufactured offshore and imported here. The purpose would be to addict a targeted youth market. Someone (presumably supposed to share them out to mates) donated them to a food bank and thus the methodology is now a known.
So gangsters got them on shore. They should be considered guilty too, and charged.
Wonder if mark mitchell MP has the balls to go after the makers though, doubt it, the man has none.
It is distributed out of Malaysia and the place has a local youth with meth addiction problem.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=meth+in+malaysia
Supply chains for this crap are all over the Pacific now.
I still blame Scomo.
It's possible someone imported them in bulk to extract the meth.
Or it was just the method to create (and then control) their own “youth” market.
The reckons on reddit are that the amount of meth involved is such that it was a form for importing, not distribution.
If it was that pure they'd kill – people would want to cut it down to feed their greed.
So maybe with cock theory on this one?
But we need to punish them for giving it to the poor all the same – Sorry vengeful Christian comes out sometimes. I feel the same way about this government too, with their attacks on the poor.
Which does mean, I do have to wonder does our PM desire a heresy trial for his utter disregard of the Gospels?
Given that they are both unsweetened (according to RNZ this morning, this was the reason they tasted 'funny' and were reported) – and of a much higher meth content than would ever be supplied to an individual – it seems almost certain that they are the result of packaging of meth to evade customs scrutiny – which has gone astray and accidentally being gifted to a food bank.
In the original plan, the individual sweets would have been de-packaged, ground down, cut with neutral material – and then supplied in standard packages.
Just from a revenue potential – there is no way this was ever intended to be the actual supply-to-customer mechanism.
It's just that your first sentence implied a gang member was responsible. I'm fine with the second sentence.
Someone deliberately contaminating lollies with meth is likely to be a very disturbed individual and probably not a gang member.
Almost certainly an import mechanism (to evade customs scrutiny) rather than a supply mechanism.
Given that gangs are the primary drivers of the meth import and supply business in NZ – it's unlikely to be anyone else importing this.
I suspect the situation is the result of a package going astray. And the actual person gifiting it to the the food bank would have been entirely unaware of the actual contents.
How else did the drugs get into the country? Apart from gangs?
Reading reports over the last few years it almost always seems as though the local gangs are the receivers from the mostly Asian and some South American manufacturers and exporters. Last weeks big raid read as though the Mexicans were even doing their own distribution here, if they had cut in on gang distribution a local jail sentence is not going to be much fun.