Daily Review 13/09/2018
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5:30 pm, September 13th, 2018 - 57 comments
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National Government’s backward-looking climate policy has seen New Zealand fall seven places on the Climate Change Performance Index to 41 out of 63 countries measured. ...4 days ago
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When the Government says it has reduced the number of people in emergency housing, what it means is it is stopping people from accessing it in the first place. ...4 days ago
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The Government is turning its back on children by not only weakening child poverty reduction targets, but also removing child mental wellbeing as a priority focus in their Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy. ...5 days ago
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Labour warmly welcomes the Restoring Samoan Citizenship Bill as it passes its third reading, before becoming law. ...5 days ago
- Government plan to reinstate live animal exports a “national disgrace”
The Government has taken a giant step backwards by reinstating live animal exports. ...5 days ago
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National’s repeal of Labour’s smokefree legislation has taken New Zealand further away from achieving a Smokefree 2025 and a smokefree generation. ...5 days ago
- Release: Call for Palestine recognition by NZ, Australian and Canadian MPs
Parliamentarians from Australia, Canada and New Zealand have written an open letter to their respective Prime Ministers calling on them to recognise Palestine. ...5 days ago
- Justice Select Committee opens floor for Treaty Principles submissions
Today, the Justice Select Committee has decided to officially open submissions for the controversial Treaty Principles Bill. ...6 days ago
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Today, Hīkoi mō te Tiriti arrived in Wellington, with thousands gathering to march in unity against the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...7 days ago
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The Green Party condemns the passing of the Treaty Principles Bill at first reading, and is clear that the fight is not over. ...2 weeks ago
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Te Tiriti o Waitangi is our country’s founding document. It forms the basis of the relationship between Māori and the Crown – and the Aotearoa New Zealand we live in today. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Over 15,000 sign Labour’s open letter to Luxon
As the hīkoi to Parliament continues, Labour has sent an open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in a last-ditch attempt to get him to kill the Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
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The fast-track legislation passing its second reading in Parliament is another step towards environmental ruin. ...2 weeks ago
- Greens join King’s Counsel in calling for Treaty Principles Bill to be abandoned
The Prime Minister must answer the call from a group of senior lawyers of the King’s Counsel to abandon the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Chris Hipkins’ apology statement to state and faith-based care survivors
...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour formally apologises to state and faith-based care survivors
Labour joins with the Government in unreservedly apologising for the abuse, neglect and trauma including torture in state and faith-based care and for ignoring the voices of survivors for too long. ...2 weeks ago
- Green Party stands in support of survivors of abuse in care
Today, the Green Party stands alongside the survivors of abuse in state care and faith-based care as the Government issues an historic apology. ...2 weeks ago
- Green Party calls for conscience vote on Treaty Principles Bill
The Green Party has written to the Speaker of the House requesting he enable a personal vote on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
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The Green Party is alarmed by the Government’s move to exclude a journalist from covering this week’s apology for the survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care. ...2 weeks ago
- Without action, an apology will be empty air
For tomorrow’s apology to survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care to hold any water, the Government must not pursue the same policies that drove the abuse in the first place. ...2 weeks ago
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Concerns about the tobacco industry’s ability to interfere in government policy making remain, despite the inability of the Office of the Auditor-General to investigate the Government’s decision to halve the excise tax on heated tobacco products. ...2 weeks ago
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The Climate Change Commission’s latest advice indicates Aotearoa needs to be stepping up on climate action. ...2 weeks ago
- Green MP’s Meme-ber’s Bill set to save the world
Break out the punchlines and dust off your meme folder: Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter’s Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill was pulled from the Ballot yesterday. ...3 weeks ago
- Release: Poroporoaki: Ta Robert (Bom) Gillies
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The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...3 weeks ago
- Release: Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principle...
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...3 weeks ago
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The headline says Twyford should be ’embarrassed’ about his Kiwibuild ‘blunder’. Yet it should be the Newshub subs who are embarrassed.
If this is the level at which they try to trip up Government Ministers for clicks then they are entrenching their position as a tabloid media outlet.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/09/phil-twyford-admits-embarrassing-kiwibuild-blunder.html
“It was the developer who made that statement,” was his excuse. “Did I personally fact-check it? No.” So this “embarrassing mistake in a KiwiBuild press release” was actually made by who?? The person who wrote the press release.
Are you really suggesting that Newshub got their reportage wrong? “”The @340 Onehunga development is a six-minute walk from Onehunga train station and on a main bus route with connections to the CBD and Auckland Airport,” Mr Twyford said in the release.” Looks to me like the mistake was made by the KiwiBuild author, not Newshub.
Hi Dennis. I’m not saying Newshub got their reportage wrong. I’m saying it isn’t worthy of reportage. 17,000 errors* of this sort happen every single day in this country.
It’s a daft piece but not all bad – it could be considered extra publicity for Labour’s Kiwibuild program which is now in the news cycle permanently and has multiple references across many news sites.
The brand ‘Kiwibuild’ if I can call it that will be entrenched in NZ society for years to come and it will benefit many thousands of Kiwis.
Not looking good for National in 2020.
*Yes, I made that number up.
Oh, okay. Yeah will be trivia to most kiwis – only locals may be irritated. Media beat-up, fair enough..
Agree its a minor detail…15 mins verse 6 mins.
The headline should be its not Kiwibuild rather Kiwibuy.
Twyford’s spin of Kiwibuild will be in addition to what the private sector can deliver is in tatters.
Currently, Twyford is taking current private sector pipeline stock and turning it into a lottery for “an affordable home buyer”.
Brand Kiwibuild is making positive daily headlines. It’s going to be Kiwisaver, which everyone loves, all over again.
That the first few were already in development? No-one cares.
Until Twyford conjures up more tradesmen, Kiwibuild is pointless, it’s just redistributing existing resources.
Redistributing existing resources to Kiwibuild is great. Those resources go to building affordable homes directly for first home buyers instead of the open market where greedy baby-boomer investors and offshore buyers lurk.
Labour also are working on better apprentice schemes instead of calling young people unless druggies like the last PM was fond of doing.
Problem is for Twyford is that these tradesmen don’t work for him, he’s nothing more than a client.
If the businesses they work for can’t make a decent profit from Kiwibuild homes they’ll pin the pin or ask for more money which will basically sink Kiwibuild.
It’s not like there’s a shortage of work.
Those tradies and the people they work for will weigh up whether it’s best to take on big block of work for a lower price or go back to the one off jobs. That’s what I do all the time.
Such a big client has a lot more buying power and that’s what this industry needs – a massive shake up.
Who is upset by that? A few developers, land bankers and the materials retailers. No one give a toss.
Big clients can be more hassle then what they’re worth.
You can lose a lot of autonomy when you work for big clients, they sort of think you’re just employees that they can boss around and get you to do whatever they want.
Personally, I hated big clients.
Builders don’t need autonomy. There’s nothing creative about what they do. Just follow the plan and try not to screw up.
Not true.
If you follow the plan you are certain to screw up.
Never seen a house that could be built exactly to plan.
Architects plans being the worst.
Builders used to do house plans, until the law created a job guarantee for university graduates.
Go along with that.
I remember a builder I used to do work for, the architect gave him a plan to quote/work off.
Three stories with a roof garden with a support pillar that went through all three floors as well as hold up a pergola on the roof garden
it was up to him to make it work and if it leaked it was on him.
I think you miss the point Muttonbird…the Kiwibuild put forward by Tywford was to build another 10,000 houses a year than already being done.
National will be reminding everyone of this fact.
Personally, I want to see building massively ramped up and the cost of land/building to go down. I don’t like smoke and mirrors though…
National might like to remind everyone of that but they in turn should be reminded that they intended to build none.
Na your wrong .
It’s a very modern and I must say elegant solution by Tywford and co . By buying some of the houses of the plans they give the builders confidence to get on with it . And those builders will know that if they play their cards right there is 10 years of work ahead .
Which is fucking gold for any one in business.
Can also be a noose.
Just look at Fletcher’s.
“And those builders will know that if they play their cards right there is 10 years of work ahead .”
The work is already there to do. That is not the issue, Tywford is just rebranding part of the current housing pipeline into “Kiwibuild”.
Still better than National selling off State housing for parking lots. So people could live in cars.
However way short of the extra 15000 State houses we need each year to accommodate all of Nationals imported cheap labour.
A tap that Labour seems unable or unwilling to turn off.
I hate to agree with you – but yes, that was a stupid article. Waste of bandwidth.
John Banks pictured at the bedside of Penny Bright <3
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/09/11/john-banks-and-penny-bright-this-moment-is-legacy/
But who is the one needing support? I can’t tell.
“NZ First leader Winston Peters is blaming a memory lapse for saying all his MPs had signed a contract holding them liable for an up to $300,000 penalty if they resigned from the party. He has now confirmed that none of the NZ First MPs signed it.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12124674
This is interesting – since Winston said all had sign it.
Thats not a memory lapse – Will be interesting to see if there is more to this.
Alzheimer’s?
Ageist.
I don’t recall you being as critical of keys’ many phopahs and memory lapses.
Typical Winston bullshit! To make it worse his MP’s were not exactly forthcoming with the truth…
Winston being backed into a corner (standing orders) meant he had no choice this time but, to tell the truth.
The wily lawyer eh? He did say it was long time ago when that pledge got circulated as an interim measure until the waka bill went thro. But I agree a wily lawyer would have ensured that all signed it. All or nothing, what’s the difference? None, as it turns out – he said they don’t need to sign it now.
And you know what? That’s a dead give-away that he knows the bill will get enacted. I reckon a verbal agreement in principle has been secured already. I’m not confident that suitable amendments have been made yet – but perhaps his confidence means that agreement has indeed been reached on those also.
Agree…the waka jumping bill will go through (the Greens will vote for it).
The Ardern “captains call” on oil and gas was the tradeoff.
Of course agreement has been reached to enact the waka jumping bill, Dennis.
As I reported here weeks ago, the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill aka the waka jumping bill has been through Select Committee, and was back in the House in the week of 7 – 9 August. It then went through its 2nd Reading and was halfway through its Committee of the House debates when the House arose on 9 August.
Since then it has been sitting in what I call the “so close but yet so far” part of the daily Order Paper awaiting the continuation of the Committee stages and then the final 3rd Reading. Quite a bit of juggling has gone on daily keeping it in that position with quite a few other Bills moved up above it to keep it in the ‘close but not close enough’ zone to get back into the House.
As I know you really don’t know parliamentary procedure, standing orders etc, the Leader of the House holds the power to decide where Government Bills are place on the OP and who is the Leader of the House – Chris Hipkins*.
With the reporting back to the House of the Employment Relations Amendment Bill last Friday by the Education and Workforce Select Committee, this is now also on the Order Paper – currently right below the waka jumping Bill.
So one bill that NZF really wants through right next to one that Labour wants through …. Quelle coincidence! LOL.
Forget all the stirring by National in the last day or so. Both Bills will get through. And National knows it.
* Hipkins and his wife’s second child is due in the next week or so but complications mean that it is apparently has to be full cesarean birth and the Deputy Leader, Iain Lees-Galloway, will be taking over in the next week or so for four weeks while Hipkins is on parental leave – hence National targeting him in the last few days.
There has been a mad scramble this week to get through a number of Bills for which Hipkins is the lead Minister before he goes on leave – eg https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/daily-progress-in-the-house/daily-progress-for-thursday-13-september/
Thanks for that. Perception of order vs chaos rebalancing now I guess, but they really ought to be managing the look better because it will affect their poll rating. May be worth watching the parliament channel today?
Re the juggling around of Bills on the daily Order Paper, this is quite normal and has been going on ‘forever’ under the Westminister and similar forms of Parliamentary process which have evolved over centuries and which are used in many countries albeit with some local variations.
It only seems chaotic to those not familiar with these processes and the reasons for them. Sorry if I seem a “know all” but my decades in the public service and the type of work I did required me to have good knowledge of the processes, and I also did quite a few short and long term secondments to Parliament in that time. I also did some tutoring in these processes etc.
My view is that some of the Labour Cabinet members need a little more discipline and restraint – either of the self discipline nature or from others (not just the PM, but also the Whips – that is actually the latter’s job rather than the PM’s). Ruth Dyson is currently the Senior Labour Whip with two newies, Kiritapu Allan and Kieran McAulty as Junior Whips. In time I think the latter, Allan in particular, will be excellent but there currently seems to be a bit of slackness.
The Leader of the House (Hipkins) should also have a role in this but IMHO Hipkins has too much on his Ministerial portfolio plate with Education, State Services, and Ministerial Services as well as Leader of the House. Hipkins is of course one of Ardern’s closest colleagues due to their early start together as youngies in Helen Clark’s office along with Robertson.
However, I really think Ardern needs to do a rethink of her current Cabinet and their portfolios in the very near future – and this would be quite normal at this stage in the three year cycle. IMHO there are a number of others with too much on their plate, and also some others there in the Labour Caucus with several years’ experience under their belts who could take on more responsibility – plus a really good bunch of newies from the last election who could now start getting portfolio experience in Associate Minister/Undersecretary support roles.
Back to the present, today is Friday so Parliament is not sitting as they only sit Tues, Weds and Thurs unless under urgency, so nothing new happening on the Parliamentary channel today. Were you thinking of watching the TV channel? On the other hand, there is masses of watching available at any time on the On Demand section of the Parliament website.
You really should spend some time on the Parliamentary Website, Dennis. It is a wonderful source on information about how Parliament works etc and has lots of tutorials etc available on various aspects.
The Main page is https://www.parliament.nz/en and this now has a series of current subjects that pop up and lead to more info on those subjects.
The Visit and Learn section has lots of info under the headings Our System of Government, How Parliament Works, How Laws are Made for starters. All are easy reading and informative and lead to other sections of the website with more info. Lots more detailed stuff on the day to day operations in the Parliamentary Business section.
Thanks for those insights. I actually didn’t know they have a three-day work week. I’m too busy usually to educate myself about parliament, and the marginal interest I have currently is solely due to the Greens arriving in govt, to be honest.
So my motive for commenting here is just to help the GP via a little reframing when it seems apt to do so. I’d rather participate in a political forum that was more proactive but social media design hasn’t got there yet.
I agree a cabinet reshuffle would help. I hope you’re right re Labour improvement but gave up expecting that long ago. 🙄
T in C.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dm8CMShUwAA1pvl.jpg
Hehehe yeah I love that one – was going to post it myself. So very apt! I love the look of Melania following behind. The look of an parent following along behind their errant child.
Pussy Riot protestor gets poisoned.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45505064
If he survives, he may have to get used to this sort of thing happening again – Vladimir_Vladimirovich_Kara-Murza got poisioned twice (so far) – he is of the Peoples Freedom Party (formerly led by Boris Nemtsov until he was shot).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Vladimirovich_Kara-Murza
Getting in before Ed does.
Nope – nothing to see here. Not the Russians at all. (Insert false equivalence and a random youtube clip of your choice).
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Boris was worth more to the US, dead. Who killed him is just, detail.
LOL. Perhaps Ed could be friends with my ‘new found friend’ in these three links who will come up with a very long winded explanation why it is definitely not the “Russions who done it” – in good but stilted English.
Russian Troll Factory troll maybe? Or a “tankie” as joe90 suggested in the thread?
https://thestandard.org.nz/kremlin-killers/#comment-1522609
https://thestandard.org.nz/kremlin-killers/#comment-1523171 (repeat of above a day or so later)
https://thestandard.org.nz/kremlin-killers/#comment-1523200
I see you armchair cold warriors are busy fomenting war.
Why don’t you all sign up and head to Latvia?
Perhaps you should familiarise yourself with Russia’s thuggish oppression of Latvia.
Ed – again you wish death on people or maybe just shrapnel wounds and other such maiming. So the vegan ,’don’t hurt the animal’s’ is happy for people to be hurt. Sick.
No, stalker, you are wrong.
I advocate for a much more peaceful foreign policy than the one recommended by many on this site.
However, it seems unfair for others to die because armchair warriors seek conflict in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, Yemen, Venezuela and Russia.
These neocons should fight their own battles.
Namaste.
‘Why don’t you all sign up’ shows the person you are – scum
Well you want war.
Practice what you preach.
You have no valid argument.
Just ad hominems.
Are you a socialist?
Yes I am a socialist.
You ask people to go to war = warmonger
Oh no, you can’t be a socialist if you disagree with Ed. You must be a neo-liberal.
Ed can’t reconcile his own obvious contradictions – he is continually walking in a circle…
Te reo week.
I’m a whitey in my 70s so I’m well past speaking Maori.
However my best mate and I have reached a truce.
He’s a bit brown, as is my wife, children, grands and greats.
So, we’ve have decided that he will pronounce te reo correctly and I will pronounce English correctly.
Trouble is he’s much more articulate in both languages, so I’m on a hiding to nothing.
I need help people, or I’m buying beers forever
Te Reo Week – I’m in my mid-70s and about to join a local Te Reo class in my local small town – a town which has a rich Maori heritage which basically has been sidelined by the British settlement which seemed to overarch the Taha Maori history.
I did a night school class ostensibly to learn Te Reo, however what I came away with was a deeper understanding of tangata whenua tikanga.
E.g. women not speaking in the early exchanges on a marae, had nothing to do with chauvinism but was to protect the wahine from the curses that were bandied about.
Also the rich lyrical style of Te Reo.
Quick tip: for pronunciation of the vowels remember this sentence,
Are there three or two?
A. E. I. O. U.
My thoughts this week are with Sniggering Guyno, who has missed his chance to shine. I can only assume he actually choked on his own smugness.
There are some vids on Polyglot Maori.
https://polyglotinprogresssite.wordpress.com/maori-te-reo-maori/
And Omniglot Useful Maori Phrases is good.
https://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/maori.php
I like the little sstory about the one –
My hovercraft is filled with eels? Something to do with Monty Python.
This just shows that learning languages can take you in different directions than expected. If you just learned the vowels and tried to pronounce placenames better that is a big step – some of them really get butchered.
Difficult days ahead for some folk.
The Philippines is bracing for Typhoon Mangkhut, the most powerful storm this year, with millions living in its path and fears its rains could combine with monsoonal storms that could spark landslides and flash flooding.
Philippines officials have ordered evacuations and closed schools and offices as Typhoon Mangkhut approached, carrying sustained winds of 265km/h (165mph) and gusts of up to 325km/h (201mph). It is forecast to make landfall on Saturday.
The Philippine Red Cross said its emergency workers were on standby. Richard Gordon, its chairman, said: “We’re worried for the 10 million people in the Philippines living in the path of this destructive storm, including those who have been displaced several times due to the monsoon rains last July and August.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/13/typhoon-mangkhut-storm-and-monsoon-philippines
http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/westpac/movies/gmsirn/gmsirn_loop.html
http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/storm.php?&basin=westpac&sname=26W&invest=NO&zoom=4&img=1&vars=11111000000000000000&loop=0
Maori language week, rock on brothers. \m/ \m/