The review found “no evidence of favouritism, bias, or undue influence over agency decisions”.
However, Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes said that while there was no evidence of bias, the agencies’ failure to ask about perceived conflicts – and manage them – could damage public confidence.
“Poorly managed perceived conflicts of interest can be just as damaging to public trust and confidence as poorly managed actual conflicts of interest,” he said.
Clearly, some things need to change in the Public Service sector.
The agencies involved have taken steps to address the issues Hughes identified.
He will now issue expanded conflicts of interest model standards to agencies, strengthen the controls around identifying and managing conflicts, and write to all chief executives outlining his expectations.
Nope. She won't. Instead her political enemies will double down and misconstrue the findings as somehow 'inadequate' or a 'manipulation of the truth'. They may not use those exact words and will not produce any evidence to back up their claims. They never do.
"You demonstrated a lack of professional judgement in the way you dealt with matters”, the judge told Grey. “They bear on your fitness to act as a lawyer.”"
"Speaking outside court after the appearance, Grey said her time in the cell left her “shaken” and the cold concrete floor had seeped into her bones.
She had no pen and paper for the three hours she spent in the cell, which was “cruel and inhumane”."
What kind of incentives is that creating. I mean the judge imposed inhumane treatment and she didn't even take her case to the Hague, a little bit. She just turned up, shut up and let her court rep speak for her.
You'll have future judges throwing her out of their court over all kinds of disruption this way.
Pity she is unable to see the number of examples that are in her caucus. Then again there are many within labour that are willing to excuse arrogance when they wear red.
pity our PM was unable to answer the question truthfully (yet again) had to deflect !!!
Still unable to admit any fault in her actions
Oh get a life. You could not do one tenth of that job, and she has to be polite and kind while vile bullies send death threats and other rubbish. She is strong and intelligent, but is very tired of non productive prats like Seeless. He is for the top 5% not for ordinary kiwis.
What part of the question wasn't answered 'truthfully'….I would deduce you either didn't watch the parliamentary exchange or are just completely ignorant.
A reminder for tankie-splainers about about why Eastern Europe and Baltic states are so resolute in their determination to avoid a re-run of Russian dominance and it's inherent cruelty.
I became briefly obsessed with the concept of collective trauma, and the idea that we have inherited the pain inflicted on our grandparents by Russia and its people. I came across an article by the contemporary Lithuanian writer Vaiva Rykstaite, who spoke of the “pain of blood” she felt. It made so much sense to me: It felt like your entire being is in pain. It feels like sadness and empathy for Ukrainians, anger, hatred, helplessness, a sense of injustice and hopelessness mixed into one, consuming you. I cannot explain it.
Lithuania was forcefully incorporated into the Soviet Union in July 1940, when the Red Army was on its soil, following secret agreements between the USSR and Germany that divided Europe. Death, rape, arrests and mass deportations followed. It is estimated that from 1940 to 1990, about 1 million people, or around a third of Lithuania’s population, were deported, imprisoned, killed or forced to emigrate. More than 20,000 Lithuanian fighters and their supporters were killed in an armed resistance that continued long after the war.
It has been eerie and depressing to watch Russia commit the same repertoire of atrocities in Ukraine. The deportations of Ukrainians to Russia make me think of the cattle trains that took an estimated quarter of a million Lithuanians in the 1940s to the frozen wastelands and gulags in Siberia. Tens of thousands perished along the way.
In 2001 on a trip back from Ekaterinburg to Moscow I made a point of stopping for a day at Perm, and organised a visit to Perm-36. While working in the months prior I had expressed an interest in the history of the gulags and through personal contacts a private visit was organised for me. It was one of the very few relatively intact gulags remaining, and at some stage a local organisation called Memorial turned it into just that – a memorial to the millions who died or suffered horribly in that ghastly system.
Later on in 2017 another work trip took me to Far East Siberia (a large gold operation). To get there involved a flight from Seoul to Magadan and then a trip along the Kolyma Highway, otherwise known as the Road of Bones . No-one recorded the exact numbers, but literally hundreds of thousands died during that period. And while there is less physical evidence of that monumental cruelty still remaining, if you know the history, the bus trip can only be described as haunting. A beautiful landscape, with a stark and cruel legacy palpably hanging over it.
Over the years here I have made an brief reference here at TS to these experiences. It is possible to quibble the exact numbers, or the nuances of the moral equivalence to the Holocaust – but as far as I am concerned that once you have murdered more than a million or so people, you have made your point.
But the crucial difference between Nazism and Stalinism is this; that one is recognised as an undiluted evil, fully repudiated by all sane people, and expunged to the strongest extent possible in the land of it's source. By contrast the Stalinist horror remains ambivalent history – and one that Russia has never confronted and reconciled. And under Putin, Stalin's legacy is being carefully curated and rehabilitated.
Perm-36, Russia’s only Gulag memorial, has announced its first exhibit since the state seized it from a local nonprofit. What was a museum of Soviet political repression will now showcase the technical means used to keep prisoners detained, focusing more on the guards than the inmates.
Viktor Shmyrov, the director of the nonprofit that until recently managed Perm-36, told the BBC that the museum is being maintained, but its public presentation is getting a complete overhaul. “Now it’s a museum about the camp system, but not about political prisoners. There’s nothing said about the repressions or about Stalin,” Shmyrov said.
A throw of the dart at lists-memo-ru. One of 172,000 Koreans.
Na Yun-ho Born in 1891, Korea; Korean; brick factory worker. Lived in: Komi Republic, Syktyvkar. Arrested 21 March 1938 Sentenced: troika at the UNKVD of the Komi ASSR on October 30, 1938, under Art. 58-6 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. Sentence: 10 years in prison Source: Book of Memory of the Komi Republic
Due to the passing of time and the fact of my Russian being rudimentary at best, I cannot recall if the person I met at Perm-36 was a member of Memorial or not. She spoke good enough English for us to converse, and we spent maybe an hour walking about the site. It is not very large – only the one large building remained.
I was very grateful for the time and effort she made to take me there – everything in Russia was just that much more fraught than you might expect. Even simple tasks can have unforeseen, unexpected complications if you don't have someone to help you.
She did not lecture me, or go into polemic detail – mostly she let the place speak for itself.
The language is changing i guess i seem to recall a certain amount of shock expressed when John Key was called a rich prick by Clarks finance minister a man not short of words i imagine .Perhaps prick is going the way of cunt etc as the working class slowly dies out .People seem to have forgotten already Tim Shadbolt and Bullshit an Jellybeans of the seventies prefering instead to say the americanism BS .As a kid i remember the word bugger was considered quite rude certainly not for childrens vocabluary because the adults at least all knew what it meant !!not sure if thats the case today or if todays puritans even know where theyve come from ?Smoko used to be a word that resounded but not any more i know of only one 'smoko 'shed in the country where the workers are still allowed to smoke !!
Last night, the news came through that Pope Francis had passed away at 7:35 am in Rome on Monday, the 21st of April, following a reported stroke and heart failure. Pope Francis. Photo: AP.Despite his obvious ill health, it still came as a shock, following so soon after the Easter ...
The 2024 Independent Intelligence Review found the NIC to be highly capable and performing well. So, it is not a surprise that most of the 67 recommendations are incremental adjustments and small but nevertheless important ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkThe world has made real progress toward tacking climate change in recent years, with spending on clean energy technologies skyrocketing from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars globally over the past decade, and global CO2 emissions plateauing.This has contributed to a reassessment of ...
Hi,I’ve been having a peaceful month of what I’d call “existential dread”, even more aware than usual that — at some point — this all ends.It was very specifically triggered by watching Pantheon, an animated sci-fi show that I’m filing away with all-time greats like Six Feet Under, Watchmen and ...
The National Party government is doubling down on a grim, regressive vision for the future: more prisons, more prisoners, and a society fractured by policies that punish rather than heal. This isn’t just a misstep; it’s a deliberate lurch toward a dystopian future where incarceration is the answer to every ...
The audacity of Don Brash never ceases to amaze. The former National Party and Hobson’s Pledge mouthpiece has now sunk his claws into NZME, the media giant behind the New Zealand Herald and half of our commercial radio stations. Don Brash has snapped up shares in NZME, aligning himself with ...
A listing of 28 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 13, 2025 thru Sat, April 19, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. The formatting is a ...
“What I’d say to you is…” our Prime Minister might typically begin a sentence, when he’s about to obfuscate and attempt to derail the question you really, really want him to answer properly (even once would be okay, Christopher). Questions such as “Why is a literal election promise over ...
Ruth IrwinExponential Economic growth is the driver of Ecological degradation. It is driven by CO2 greenhouse gas emissions through fossil fuel extraction and burning for the plethora of polluting industries. Extreme weather disasters and Climate change will continue to get worse because governments subscribe to the current global economic system, ...
A man on telly tries to tell me what is realBut it's alright, I like the way that feelsAnd everybody singsWe are evolving from night to morningAnd I wanna believe in somethingWriter: Adam Duritz.The world is changing rapidly, over the last year or so, it has been out with the ...
MFB Co-Founder Cecilia Robinson runs Tend HealthcareSummary:Kieran McAnulty calls out National on healthcare lies and says Health Minister Simeon Brown is “dishonest and disingenuous”(video below)McAnulty says negotiation with doctors is standard practice, but this level of disrespect is not, especially when we need and want our valued doctors.National’s $20bn ...
Chris Luxon’s tenure as New Zealand’s Prime Minister has been a masterclass in incompetence, marked by coalition chaos, economic lethargy, verbal gaffes, and a moral compass that seems to point wherever political expediency lies. The former Air New Zealand CEO (how could we forget?) was sold as a steady hand, ...
Has anybody else noticed Cameron Slater still obsessing over Jacinda Ardern? The disgraced Whale Oil blogger seems to have made it his life’s mission to shadow the former Prime Minister of New Zealand like some unhinged stalker lurking in the digital bushes.The man’s obsession with Ardern isn't just unhealthy...it’s downright ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is climate change a net benefit for society? Human-caused climate change has been a net detriment to society as measured by loss of ...
When the National Party hastily announced its “Local Water Done Well” policy, they touted it as the great saviour of New Zealand’s crumbling water infrastructure. But as time goes by it's looking more and more like a planning and fiscal lame duck...and one that’s going to cost ratepayers far more ...
Donald Trump, the orange-hued oligarch, is back at it again, wielding tariffs like a mob boss swinging a lead pipe. His latest economic edict; slapping hefty tariffs on imports from China, Mexico, and Canada, has the stench of a protectionist shakedown, cooked up in the fevered minds of his sycophantic ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
One pill makes you largerAnd one pill makes you smallAnd the ones that mother gives youDon't do anything at allGo ask AliceWhen she's ten feet tallSongwriter: Grace Wing Slick.Morena, all, and a happy Bicycle Day to you.Today is an unofficial celebration of the dawning of the psychedelic era, commemorating the ...
It’s only been a few months since the Hollywood fires tore through Los Angeles, leaving a trail of devastation, numerous deaths, over 10,000 homes reduced to rubble, and a once glorious film industry on its knees. The Palisades and Eaton fires, fueled by climate-driven dry winds, didn’t just burn houses; ...
Four eighty-year-old books which are still vitally relevant today. Between 1942 and 1945, four refugees from Vienna each published a ground-breaking – seminal – book.* They left their country after Austria was taken over by fascists in 1934 and by Nazi Germany in 1938. Previously they had lived in ‘Red ...
Good Friday, 18th April, 2025: I can at last unveil the Secret Non-Fiction Project. The first complete Latin-to-English translation of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s twelve-book Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (Disputations Against Divinatory Astrology). Amounting to some 174,000 words, total. Some context is probably in order. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) ...
National MP Hamish Campbell's pathetic attempt to downplay his deep ties to and involvement in the Two by Twos...a secretive religious sect under FBI and NZ Police investigation for child sexual abuse...isn’t just a misstep; it’s a calculated lie that insults the intelligence of every Kiwi voter.Campbell’s claim of being ...
New Zealand First’s Shane Jones has long styled himself as the “Prince of the Provinces,” a champion of regional development and economic growth. But beneath the bluster lies a troubling pattern of behaviour that reeks of cronyism and corruption, undermining the very democracy he claims to serve. Recent revelations and ...
Give me one reason to stay hereAnd I'll turn right back aroundGive me one reason to stay hereAnd I'll turn right back aroundSaid I don't want to leave you lonelyYou got to make me change my mindSongwriters: Tracy Chapman.Morena, and Happy Easter, whether that means to you. Hot cross buns, ...
New Zealand’s housing crisis is a sad indictment on the failures of right wing neoliberalism, and the National Party, under Chris Luxon’s shaky leadership, is trying to simply ignore it. The numbers don’t lie: Census data from 2023 revealed 112,496 Kiwis were severely housing deprived...couch-surfing, car-sleeping, or roughing it on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on a global survey of over 3,000 economists and scientists showing a significant divide in views on green growth; and ...
Simeon Brown, the National Party’s poster child for hubris, consistently over-promises and under-delivers. His track record...marked by policy flip-flops and a dismissive attitude toward expert advice, reveals a politician driven by personal ambition rather than evidence. From transport to health, Brown’s focus seems fixed on protecting National's image, not addressing ...
Open access notables Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region, Mu et al., Nature Communications:Global warming causes permafrost thawing, transferring large amounts of soil carbon into rivers, which inevitably accelerates riverine CO2 release. However, temporally and spatially explicit variations of riverine CO2 emissions remain unclear, limiting the ...
Once a venomous thorn in New Zealand’s blogosphere, Cathy Odgers, aka Cactus Kate, has slunk into the shadows, her once-sharp quills dulled by the fallout of Dirty Politics.The dishonest attack-blogger, alongside her vile accomplices such as Cameron Slater, were key players in the National Party’s sordid smear campaigns, exposed by Nicky ...
Once upon a time, not so long ago, those who talked of Australian sovereign capability, especially in the technology sector, were generally considered an amusing group of eccentrics. After all, technology ecosystems are global and ...
The ACT Party leader’s latest pet project is bleeding taxpayers dry, with $10 million funneled into seven charter schools for just 215 students. That’s a jaw-dropping $46,500 per student, compared to roughly $9,000 per head in state schools.You’d think Seymour would’ve learned from the last charter school fiasco, but apparently, ...
India navigated relations with the United States quite skilfully during the first Trump administration, better than many other US allies did. Doing so a second time will be more difficult, but India’s strategic awareness and ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi is concerned for low-income workers given new data released by Stats NZ that shows inflation was 2.5% for the year to March 2025, rising from 2.2% in December last year. “The prices of things that people can’t avoid are rising – meaning inflation is rising ...
Last week, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment recommended that forestry be removed from the Emissions Trading Scheme. Its an unfortunate but necessary move, required to prevent the ETS's total collapse in a decade or so. So naturally, National has told him to fuck off, and that they won't be ...
China’s recent naval circumnavigation of Australia has highlighted a pressing need to defend Australia’s air and sea approaches more effectively. Potent as nuclear submarines are, the first Australian boats under AUKUS are at least seven ...
In yesterday’s post I tried to present the Reserve Bank Funding Agreement for 2025-30, as approved by the Minister of Finance and the Bank’s Board, in the context of the previous agreement, and the variation to that agreement signed up to by Grant Robertson a few weeks before the last ...
Australia’s bid to co-host the 31st international climate negotiations (COP31) with Pacific island countries in late 2026 is directly in our national interest. But success will require consultation with the Pacific. For that reason, no ...
Old and outdated buildings being demolished at Wellington Hospital in 2018. The new infrastructure being funded today will not be sufficient for future population size and some will not be built by 2035. File photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from our political economy on Thursday, April 17:Simeon Brown has unveiled ...
The introduction of AI in workplaces can create significant health and safety risks for workers (such as intensification of work, and extreme surveillance) which can significantly impact workers’ mental and physical wellbeing. It is critical that unions and workers are involved in any decision to introduce AI so that ...
Donald Trump’s return to the White House and aggressive posturing is undermining global diplomacy, and New Zealand must stand firm in rejecting his reckless, fascist-driven policies that are dragging the world toward chaos.As a nation with a proud history of peacekeeping and principled foreign policy, we should limit our role ...
Sunday marks three months since Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president. What a ride: the style rude, language raucous, and the results rogue. Beyond manners, rudeness matters because tone signals intent as well as personality. ...
There are any number of reasons why anyone thinking of heading to the United States for a holiday should think twice. They would be giving their money to a totalitarian state where political dissenters are being rounded up and imprisoned here and here, where universities are having their funds for ...
Taiwan has an inadvertent, rarely acknowledged role in global affairs: it’s a kind of sponge, soaking up much of China’s political, military and diplomatic efforts. Taiwan soaks up Chinese power of persuasion and coercion that ...
The Ukraine war has been called the bloodiest conflict since World War II. As of July 2024, 10,000 women were serving in frontline combat roles. Try telling them—from the safety of an Australian lounge room—they ...
Following Canadian authorities’ discovery of a Chinese information operation targeting their country’s election, Australians, too, should beware such risks. In fact, there are already signs that Beijing is interfering in campaigning for the Australian election ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). From "founder" of Tesla and the OG rocket man with SpaceX, and rebranding twitter as X, Musk has ...
Back in February 2024, a rat infestation attracted a fair few headlines in the South Dunedin Countdown supermarket. Today, the rats struck again. They took out the Otago-Southland region’s internet connection. https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360656230/internet-outage-hits-otago-and-southland Strictly, it was just a coincidence – rats decided to gnaw through one fibre cable, while some hapless ...
I came in this morning after doing some chores and looked quickly at Twitter before unpacking the groceries. Someone was retweeting a Radio NZ story with the headline “Reserve Bank’s budget to be slashed by 25%”. Wow, I thought, the Minister of Finance has really delivered this time. And then ...
So, having teased it last week, Andrew Little has announced he will run for mayor of Wellington. On RNZ, he's saying its all about services - "fixing the pipes, making public transport cheaper, investing in parks, swimming pools and libraries, and developing more housing". Meanwhile, to the readers of the ...
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming, 1921ALL OVER THE WORLD, devout Christians will be reaching for their bibles, reading and re-reading Revelation 13:16-17. For the benefit of all you non-Christians out there, these are the verses describing ...
Give me what I want, what I really, really want: And what India really wants from New Zealand isn’t butter or cheese, but a radical relaxation of the rules controlling Indian immigration.WHAT DOES INDIA WANT from New Zealand? Not our dairy products, that’s for sure, it’s got plenty of those. ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
Yesterday, 5,500 senior doctors across Aotearoa New Zealand voted overwhelmingly to strike for a day.This is the first time in New Zealand ASMS members have taken strike action for 24 hours.They are asking the government tofund them and account for resource shortfalls.Vacancies are critical - 45-50% in some regions.The ...
For years and years and years, David Seymour and his posse of deluded neoliberals have been preaching their “tough on crime” gospel to voters. Harsher sentences! More police! Lock ‘em up! Throw away the key. But when it comes to their own, namely former Act Party president Tim Jago, a ...
Judith Collins is a seasoned master at political hypocrisy. As New Zealand’s Defence Minister, she's recently been banging the war drum, announcing a jaw-dropping $12 billion boost to the defence budget over the next four years, all while the coalition of chaos cries poor over housing, health, and education.Apparently, there’s ...
I’m on the London Overground watching what the phones people are holding are doing to their faces: The man-bun guy who could not be less impressed by what he's seeing but cannot stop reading; the woman who's impatient for a response; the one who’s frowning; the one who’s puzzled; the ...
You don't have no prescriptionYou don't have to take no pillsYou don't have no prescriptionAnd baby don't have to take no pillsIf you come to see meDoctor Brown will cure your ills.Songwriters: Waymon Glasco.Dr Luxon. Image: David and Grok.First, they came for the Bottom FeedersAnd I did not speak outBecause ...
The Health Minister says the striking doctors already “well remunerated,” and are “walking away from” and “hurting” their patients. File photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from our political economy on Wednesday, April 16:Simeon Brown has attacked1 doctors striking for more than a 1.5% pay rise as already “well remunerated,” even ...
The time is ripe for Australia and South Korea to strengthen cooperation in space, through embarking on joint projects and initiatives that offer practical outcomes for both countries. This is the finding of a new ...
Hi,When Trump raised tariffs against China to 145%, he destined many small businesses to annihilation. The Daily podcast captured the mass chaos by zooming in and talking to one person, Beth Benike, a small-business owner who will likely lose her home very soon.She pointed out that no, she wasn’t surprised ...
National’s handling of inflation and the cost-of-living crisis is an utter shambles and a gutless betrayal of every Kiwi scraping by. The Coalition of Chaos Ministers strut around preaching about how effective their policies are, but really all they're doing is perpetuating a cruel and sick joke of undelivered promises, ...
Most people wouldn't have heard of a little worm like Rhys Williams, a so-called businessman and former NZ First member, who has recently been unmasked as the venomous troll behind a relentless online campaign targeting Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle.According to reports, Williams has been slinging mud at Doyle under ...
Illustration credit: Jonathan McHugh (New Statesman)The other day, a subscriber said they were unsubscribing because they needed “some good news”.I empathised. Don’t we all.I skimmed a NZME article about the impacts of tariffs this morning with analysis from Kiwibank’s Jarrod Kerr. Kerr, their Chief Economist, suggested another recession is the ...
Let’s assume, as prudence demands we assume, that the United States will not at any predictable time go back to being its old, reliable self. This means its allies must be prepared indefinitely to lean ...
Over the last three rather tumultuous US trade policy weeks, I’ve read these four books. I started with Irwin (whose book had sat on my pile for years, consulted from time to time but not read) in a week of lots of flights and hanging around airports/hotels, and then one ...
Indonesia could do without an increase in military spending that the Ministry of Defence is proposing. The country has more pressing issues, including public welfare and human rights. Moreover, the transparency and accountability to justify ...
Former Hutt City councillor Chris Milne has slithered back into the spotlight, not as a principled dissenter, but as a vindictive puppeteer of digital venom. The revelations from a recent court case paint a damning portrait of a man whose departure from Hutt City Council in 2022 was merely the ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
The economy is not doing what it was supposed to when PM Christopher Luxon said in January it was ‘going for growth.’ Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short from our political economy on Tuesday, April 15:New Zealand’s economic recovery is stalling, according to business surveys, retail spending and ...
This is a guest post by Lewis Creed, managing editor of the University of Auckland student publication Craccum, which is currently running a campaign for a safer Symonds Street in the wake of a horrific recent crash.The post has two parts: 1) Craccum’s original call for safety (6 ...
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff has published an opinion piece which makes the case for a different approach to economic development, as proposed in the CTU’s Aotearoa Reimagined programme. The number of people studying to become teachers has jumped after several years of low enrolment. The coalition has directed Health New ...
The growth of China’s AI industry gives it great influence over emerging technologies. That creates security risks for countries using those technologies. So, Australia must foster its own domestic AI industry to protect its interests. ...
After stonewalling requests for information on boot camps, the Government has now offered up a blog post right before Easter weekend rather than provide clarity on the pilot. ...
More people could be harmed if Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey does not guarantee to protect patients and workers as the Police withdraw from supporting mental health call outs. ...
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...
Today, the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill has passed its third and final reading, but there is one more stage before it becomes law. The Governor-General must give their ‘Royal assent’ for any bill to become legally enforceable. This means that, even if a bill gets voted ...
Abortion care at Whakatāne Hospital has been quietly shelved, with patients told they will likely have to travel more than an hour to Tauranga to get the treatment they need. ...
Thousands of New Zealanders’ submissions are missing from the official parliamentary record because the National-dominated Justice Select Committee has rushed work on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...
Today’s announcement of 10 percent tariffs for New Zealand goods entering the United States is disappointing for exporters and consumers alike, with the long-lasting impact on prices and inflation still unknown. ...
The National Government’s choices have contributed to a slow-down in the building sector, as thousands of people have lost their jobs in construction. ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a 20-year-old second-year university student explains her approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female. Age: 20. Ethnicity: NZ European. Role: I’m a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Naomi Oreskes, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University President Donald Trump has issued an executive order that would block state laws seeking to tackle greenhouse gas emissions – the latest salvo in his administration’s campaign to roll back United States’ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Duncan Ian Wallace, Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Monash University f11photo/Shutterstock If you’ve ever heard the term “wage slave”, you’ll know many modern workers – perhaps even you – sometimes feel enslaved to the organisation at which they work. But here’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zareh Ghazarian, Senior Lecturer in Politics, School of Social Sciences, Monash University More than 18 million Australians are enrolled to vote at the federal election on May 3. A fair proportion of them – perhaps as many as half – will ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Houlihan, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of the Sunshine Coast Jorm Sangsorn/Shutterstock If you ever find yourself stuck in repeated cycles of negative emotion, you’re not alone. More than 40% of Australians will experience a mental health issue ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Penny Van Bergen, Associate Professor in the Psychology of Education, Macquarie University If you have a child born at the start of the year, you may be faced with a tricky and stressful decision. Do you send them to school “early”, in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Golding, Professor and Chair of the Department of Media and Communication, Swinburne University of Technology Lucasfilm Ltd™ Premiering today, the second and final season of Star Wars streaming show Andor seems destined to be one of the pop culture defining ...
With global tariffs threatening NZ’s economy, the PM is in the UK advocating for free trade while Nicola Willis prepares for a challenging budget at home, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.A PM abroad Prime minister ...
Residents of a seaside suburb in Auckland have been campaigning to reverse the reversal of speed limit reductions on their main road, for fear the changes may end in a fatality. The Twin Coast Discovery Highway passes through a number of suburbs on the Hibiscus Coast. Like all major roads, ...
After Easter, an obscure kind of resurrection. West Virginia University Press has announced the reissue of a book they claim is “the earliest known work of urban apocalyptic fiction”, The Doom of the Great City (1860), by British author William Delisle Hay, set in…New Zealand.The narrator tells ofthe destruction ...
A close friend and business associate of Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, has gone from being an unpaid volunteer in the mayoral office, to a contractor paid more than $300,000 a year.Chris Mathews had managed Brown’s successful 2022 election campaign, and is now employed via his own company, to provide “specialist ...
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It’s billed as the passport to the economy, but a cross-section of New Zealand’s population can’t access one.It’s the humble bank account, a rite of passage for most Kiwis, but for prisoners, refugees, and the homeless, among other vulnerable marginalised people, it’s in the too-hard basket.So, in a bid to ...
The former Labour leader’s entry into the race makes life more difficult for Tory Whanau, but there are silver linings for her campaign. Andrew Little launched his campaign, a new political party insisted it wasn’t a political party, and the Greens found a new star candidate. It’s been a big ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The imbroglio over the reported Russian request to Indonesia to base planes in Papua initially tripped Peter Dutton, and now is dogging Anthony Albanese. After the respected military site Janes said a request had ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mathew Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross Cardinals attend Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, before they enter the conclave to decide who the next pope will be, on March 12, 2013, in Vatican City.Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Reardon, Postdoctoral Researcher, Pulsar Timing and Gravitational Waves, Swinburne University of Technology Artist’s impression of a pulsar bow shock scattering a radio beam.Carl Knox/Swinburne/OzGrav With the most powerful radio telescope in the southern hemisphere, we have observed a twinkling star ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joel Hodge, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, Australian Catholic University Pope Francis has died on Easter Monday, aged 88, the Vatican announced. The head of the Catholic Church had recently survived being hospitalised with a serious bout of double pneumonia. ...
Of the 1500 new places, 1000 were last week allocated to five housing providers through 'strategic partnerships' to make contracting the homes more efficient. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathleen Garland, PhD Candidate, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University The faces of living and extinct theropod dinosaurs.Left: Riya Bidaye; right: Indian Roller model (NHMUK S1987) from TEMPO bird project – MorphoSource. Bird beaks come in almost every shape and size ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Renwick, Professor, Physical Geography (Climate Science), Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Shutterstock/EvaL Miko If heat rises, why does it get colder as you climb up mountains? – Ollie, 8, Christchurch, New Zealand That is an ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Rindert Algra-Maschio, PhD Candidate, Social and Political Sciences, Monash University Three weeks into the federal election campaign and both major parties have already pledged to spend billions in taxpayer dollars if elected on May 3. But with so many policies ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Palazzo, Adjunct Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra, UNSW Sydney For more than a century, Australia has followed the same defence policy: dependence on a great power. This was first the United Kingdom and then ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Farah Houdroge, Mathematical Modeller, Burnet Institute ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock Needle and syringe programs are a proven public health intervention that provide free, sterile injecting equipment to people who use drugs. By reducing needle sharing, these programs help prevent the spread of blood-borne viruses ...
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https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/130746029/two-ministries-failed-to-manage-perceived-conflicts-over-nanaia-mahutas-husbands-consulting
Clearly, some things need to change in the Public Service sector.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/480643/nanaia-mahuta-contracts-probe-finds-poor-handling-of-perceived-conflicts-of-interest-but-no-favouritism
Time for some apologies to Nanaia Mahuta.
But will she get them?
Nope. She won't. Instead her political enemies will double down and misconstrue the findings as somehow 'inadequate' or a 'manipulation of the truth'. They may not use those exact words and will not produce any evidence to back up their claims. They never do.
Time to start banning!
https://news.sky.com/story/congolese-farmers-barred-from-own-land-for-tree-planting-project-by-french-oil-giant-total-energies-12766904
Its Not only aotearoa that's having communities destroyed by carbon offsetting.
"You demonstrated a lack of professional judgement in the way you dealt with matters”, the judge told Grey. “They bear on your fitness to act as a lawyer.”"
"Speaking outside court after the appearance, Grey said her time in the cell left her “shaken” and the cold concrete floor had seeped into her bones.
She had no pen and paper for the three hours she spent in the cell, which was “cruel and inhumane”."
The in-hu-manity! No pen!! No paper!! 3 hours!!!
Cruel!
Inhumane!!
Seeped!!
Sue! (we weep for you!)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/130747951/sue-grey-apologises-to-judge-after-disrupting-nelson-court
She's not still using pen and paper surely, hasn't she heard about the paper cuts and the nano-particles in the ink!
Papyrus and a quill, surely. Ink made from oak galls. None of this nasty modern technology….
What kind of incentives is that creating. I mean the judge imposed inhumane treatment and she didn't even take her case to the Hague, a little bit. She just turned up, shut up and let her court rep speak for her.
You'll have future judges throwing her out of their court over all kinds of disruption this way.
Jacinda to small boy being a dick in parliament today: “He’s such an arrogant prick,” she said.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300764061/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-calls-act-leader-david-seymour-an-arrogant-prick
I would say Jacinda is just speaking the truth, I just wished she hadn't apologised but then that shows the caliber of the PM.
"small boy being a dick in parliament" ha ha ha ha ha
As everyone knows, John Key was such a joker, his insults were just fine, a fun lad having a laugh … but Ardern could never get away with them now.
(Here's just one example, there are plenty more in Hansard)
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/50HansS_20130806_00000362/shearer-david-questions-for-oral-answer-questions-to
Just so we are clear- the insult you’ve linked to is John Key calling David Shearer a “muppet”?
Not Shearer. But "muppet", yes.
Nowhere near Key's worst though. Ever heard Ardern shout at the opposition "you back the rapists"? No. A PM wouldn't do that … but he did.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/51HansD_20151111/volume-710-week-33-wednesday-11-november-2015
Akshshully… it was the current minister of finance and deputy PM that was being referred to as a 'muppet'….
Pity she is unable to see the number of examples that are in her caucus. Then again there are many within labour that are willing to excuse arrogance when they wear red.
pity our PM was unable to answer the question truthfully (yet again) had to deflect !!!
Still unable to admit any fault in her actions
Oh get a life. You could not do one tenth of that job, and she has to be polite and kind while vile bullies send death threats and other rubbish. She is strong and intelligent, but is very tired of non productive prats like Seeless. He is for the top 5% not for ordinary kiwis.
What part of the question wasn't answered 'truthfully'….I would deduce you either didn't watch the parliamentary exchange or are just completely ignorant.
Imagine if Seymour had called Jacinda a "stupid little girl".
Anyhow, I thought Seymour was supposed to be a "useless Maori"?
A reminder for tankie-splainers about about why Eastern Europe and Baltic states are so resolute in their determination to avoid a re-run of Russian dominance and it's inherent cruelty.
I became briefly obsessed with the concept of collective trauma, and the idea that we have inherited the pain inflicted on our grandparents by Russia and its people. I came across an article by the contemporary Lithuanian writer Vaiva Rykstaite, who spoke of the “pain of blood” she felt. It made so much sense to me: It felt like your entire being is in pain. It feels like sadness and empathy for Ukrainians, anger, hatred, helplessness, a sense of injustice and hopelessness mixed into one, consuming you. I cannot explain it.
Lithuania was forcefully incorporated into the Soviet Union in July 1940, when the Red Army was on its soil, following secret agreements between the USSR and Germany that divided Europe. Death, rape, arrests and mass deportations followed. It is estimated that from 1940 to 1990, about 1 million people, or around a third of Lithuania’s population, were deported, imprisoned, killed or forced to emigrate. More than 20,000 Lithuanian fighters and their supporters were killed in an armed resistance that continued long after the war.
It has been eerie and depressing to watch Russia commit the same repertoire of atrocities in Ukraine. The deportations of Ukrainians to Russia make me think of the cattle trains that took an estimated quarter of a million Lithuanians in the 1940s to the frozen wastelands and gulags in Siberia. Tens of thousands perished along the way.
https://newlinesmag.com/first-person/what-ukraine-means-for-lithuanians-haunted-by-soviet-past/
In 2001 on a trip back from Ekaterinburg to Moscow I made a point of stopping for a day at Perm, and organised a visit to Perm-36. While working in the months prior I had expressed an interest in the history of the gulags and through personal contacts a private visit was organised for me. It was one of the very few relatively intact gulags remaining, and at some stage a local organisation called Memorial turned it into just that – a memorial to the millions who died or suffered horribly in that ghastly system.
Later on in 2017 another work trip took me to Far East Siberia (a large gold operation). To get there involved a flight from Seoul to Magadan and then a trip along the Kolyma Highway, otherwise known as the Road of Bones . No-one recorded the exact numbers, but literally hundreds of thousands died during that period. And while there is less physical evidence of that monumental cruelty still remaining, if you know the history, the bus trip can only be described as haunting. A beautiful landscape, with a stark and cruel legacy palpably hanging over it.
Over the years here I have made an brief reference here at TS to these experiences. It is possible to quibble the exact numbers, or the nuances of the moral equivalence to the Holocaust – but as far as I am concerned that once you have murdered more than a million or so people, you have made your point.
But the crucial difference between Nazism and Stalinism is this; that one is recognised as an undiluted evil, fully repudiated by all sane people, and expunged to the strongest extent possible in the land of it's source. By contrast the Stalinist horror remains ambivalent history – and one that Russia has never confronted and reconciled. And under Putin, Stalin's legacy is being carefully curated and rehabilitated.
In searching for the links above I found this news item from 2015:
A throw of the dart at lists-memo-ru. One of 172,000 Koreans.
Na Yun-ho Born in 1891, Korea; Korean; brick factory worker. Lived in: Komi Republic, Syktyvkar. Arrested 21 March 1938 Sentenced: troika at the UNKVD of the Komi ASSR on October 30, 1938, under Art. 58-6 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. Sentence: 10 years in prison Source: Book of Memory of the Komi Republic
https://lists-memo-ru.translate.goog/index14.htm?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
https://www.dw.com/en/russia-orders-closure-of-human-rights-group-memorial/a-60273615
Due to the passing of time and the fact of my Russian being rudimentary at best, I cannot recall if the person I met at Perm-36 was a member of Memorial or not. She spoke good enough English for us to converse, and we spent maybe an hour walking about the site. It is not very large – only the one large building remained.
I was very grateful for the time and effort she made to take me there – everything in Russia was just that much more fraught than you might expect. Even simple tasks can have unforeseen, unexpected complications if you don't have someone to help you.
She did not lecture me, or go into polemic detail – mostly she let the place speak for itself.
FFS!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/480652/reported-covid-19-cases-top-8000-today-for-first-time-in-country-s-third-wave
So to sum up the commenting classes:
2017-2022: "Labour under Ardern lose touch with earthy, blokey, red-blooded, blue-collar, plain-speaking salt-of-the-earth Kiwis …"
Today: "She said 'prick'! Shocked, we are! What a potty mouth! Cover your ears at smoko … "
The language is changing i guess i seem to recall a certain amount of shock expressed when John Key was called a rich prick by Clarks finance minister a man not short of words i imagine .Perhaps prick is going the way of cunt etc as the working class slowly dies out .People seem to have forgotten already Tim Shadbolt and Bullshit an Jellybeans of the seventies prefering instead to say the americanism BS .As a kid i remember the word bugger was considered quite rude certainly not for childrens vocabluary because the adults at least all knew what it meant !!not sure if thats the case today or if todays puritans even know where theyve come from ?Smoko used to be a word that resounded but not any more i know of only one 'smoko 'shed in the country where the workers are still allowed to smoke !!