Daily review 14/08/2023
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5:30 pm, August 14th, 2023 - 28 comments
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This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.
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As legislation to set up boot camps passed its first reading, the Green Party urged the Government to abandon this failed policy experiment for the good of our rangatahi. ...3 days ago
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Louise Upston has revealed her diminished vision for vulnerable youth against a backdrop of snubbed advice, scrapped priorities, shifted goal posts and thousands more children projected to fall into poverty. ...3 days ago
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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. ...3 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. ...4 days ago
- Release: A historic win for Samoan communities
Labour warmly welcomes the Restoring Samoan Citizenship Bill as it passes its third reading, before becoming law. ...4 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. ...4 days ago
- Pasifika justice as Member’s Bill passes final reading
Teanau Tuiono’s Member’s Bill, the Citizenship (Western Samoa Restoration) Amendment Bill, has passed its third reading and will become law. ...4 days ago
- Release: Minister of Education thinks New Zealand ends at the Bombay Hills
The Minister of Education has shown complete disregard for rural communities and their school bus routes in Question Time today. ...4 days ago
- Economists sound alarm on Government’s slash-and-burn approach
A group of prominent economists has released an open letter to the Government, raising grave concerns about the far-reaching consequences of its fiscal policy. ...4 days ago
- Release: Smoking numbers up under Costello’s watch
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
- Power of the people on full display as hīkoi approaches Parliament
Today, Hīkoi mō te Tiriti arrived in Wellington, with thousands gathering to march in unity against the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...6 days ago
- Hypocrisy as Te Whatu Ora contractor bill balloons
Te Whatu Ora’s bill for contracting and consulting staff has ballooned by nearly 20 percent under the National Government, breaking a promise they made during the election campaign to cut contractors. ...7 days ago
- Release: Growing pressure to scrap Section 7AA Repeal Bill
The newly released Section 7AA Repeal Bill's select committee report is further evidence that the Government should scrap it. ...1 week ago
- Government’s move to monetise access to nature a slippery slope
The Green Party is voicing serious concerns over the Government’s proposal to charge for access to public conservation land, released today. ...1 week ago
- Green Party condemns the passage of Treaty Principles Bill
The Green Party condemns the passing of the Treaty Principles Bill at first reading, and is clear that the fight is not over. ...1 week ago
- Stand Up for Te Tiriti
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. ...1 week 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
- Fast Track Bill threatens environment, climate and reputation
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
- Govt move to exclude journalist risks chilling effect
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
- Release: Concerns remain over tobacco interference
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
- Urgent wake-up call on climate
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. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Poroporoaki: Ta Robert (Bom) Gillies
Kua hinga te manawa kairākau o Te Rua Tekau Ma Waru Tiwhatiwha te po! Kakarauru i te po! Ka rapuhia kei hea koe kua riro! Haere e te Ika a Whiro ki o tini hoa kua ngaro atu ki te Pō ...2 weeks ago
- Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principles Bill
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. ...2 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. ...2 weeks ago
- NZ must pursue independent foreign policy
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Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Ka mihi ki te mana whenua ko Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. Kia ora and good morning everyone. Thank you Fran and Simon for inviting me here today, and importantly your leadership of this forum over several years now. I want to acknowledge David Gehrenbeck, Deputy ...2 days ago
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- District Court Judge appointed
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- First arrests made under gang patch ban
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- Better support for victims of sexual violence
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- MSA pilot participant update
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- Improving the lives of young New Zealanders
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Tēnā koutou katoa – it is a pleasure to be here today. I would like to begin by acknowledging the important leadership role you all play in ensuring a quality health system New Zealanders can trust. There is enormous clinical expertise in this room covering a wide range of disciplines. ...5 days ago
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Tēnā koutou katoa. Mr President, Excellencies, Delegates. New Zealand, and all nations represented here today, are already dealing with the impacts of climate change. Our households, businesses, and economies are bearing the costs of its effects. The choices we make now will shape the severity of these impacts for generations ...5 days ago
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- New Zealand supporting loss and damage fund
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- LGFA increases borrowing capacity to support high growth councils
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- Protecting New Zealand from foreign interference
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- New diplomatic appointments
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- Police stats show promising change
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- Better coordination of anti-scam efforts
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- Minister to consider 7AA select committee report
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- Defence Minister to attend ASEAN meeting
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- COP 29: Carbon credit trading scheme critisised as ‘get out of jail free card’
The deal reached in the final hours of COP29 has been criticised as a free pass for countries to slack off on efforts to reduce emissions at home. ...5 hours ago
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- Protest photographer John Miller records Hīkoi mō te Tiriti with his historic lens
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-
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Peel, Director, Melbourne Climate Futures, The University of Melbourne The petroleum-laden dust has settled on this year’s United Nations climate summit, COP29, held over the past fortnight in Baku, Azerbaijan. Climate scientists, leaders, lobbyists and delegates are heading for home. ...8 hours ago
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The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
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The consensus, house prices will rise in 2024 – regardless of who wins the election. Because of the level of inward migration – favoured by Labour and NACT placing pressure on housing supply.
Notable points, National have not yet ruled out a return to allowing foreigners to buy property here.
Because of decades of under-building of (income related rent) state housing and rising cost of building energy efficient long term (market rent) housing for those who cannot afford to own their homes, are Kiwi Saver Funds a source of funds for the new construction required (as lender to government, or private sector owner)?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/132681298/house-prices-to-rise-postelection-more-so-if-national-win-experts-say
Note – Kiwi Saver Funds $97B March 2023. NZSF c$65B atm.
Housing is probably where labour could salvage a win , shine a big glaring light on nationals plan, while continuing to build build build,
Labour is winning on housing, I standing on a corner in Blenheim this morning with 2 mates, yes I do have some , and they pointed out two projects where an old 40s or 50s cold and draughty had been shifted and 2 or 3 houses were being put on each large section. The old houses arent lost, people are snapping them up and rebuilding them. Yesterday 14 one bedroomers close in to supermarkets etc were opened. 165 more in the next few years.
Nice , so many people don't need a house and section.
I guess this is the toe in the water.
.
Former National Party campaign manager Steven Joyce says a hypothetical National-ACT-NZ First coalition might not make for strong government though it'd "survive".
https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/08/13/possible-nats-act-nz-first-coalition-would-survive-steven-joyce/
The return of NZF and its incorporation of mandate refuseniks is just in time for the official end of the era of the last pandemic orders. 7 day isolation and masks in health facilities.
So if one comes across the virally challenged in a health facility without a mask on, consider the precautions recommended in Naked Gun to prevent spread.
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/21/article-0-19918BE200000578-544_634x382.jpg
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/132741197/the-end-of-covid-measures-chris-hipkins-longed-for-the-day-but-some-are-worried
Hmm, a vaccine that wanes rapidly and provides doubtful protection against onward transmission or long covid, up to 50% of infections could be asymptomatic, and no clean air policies.
Masking in public is here to stay.
I'm not sure where your 'public' is – but I rarely see anyone masked in public – fewer than 1 in a thousand.
I'm at the International airport atm (collecting a family member) – and have yet to see one person masked – either the arrivals or the people waiting for them.
Unfortunately.
I suspect it might look differently if you were in Asian countries. Of particular interest is that people also wear masks to stop transmitting viruses to other people. That's a big difference in attitude to here.
Update. 2.5 hours at Auckland International airport. Zero people in the terminal wearing masks. 3 people arriving off international flights wearing masks (all Asian ethnicity, all in the 'elderly' age group, 2 women, 1 man).
👍
Well….Medical Professionals might like that here too. Makes sense. More in Link…
Does anyone know where we can buy a NZF Make NZ Great Again Caps, I guess NZF Website will have a Marketing Arm selling the Caps, interested to buy x 10 Caps.
I cannot see WP agreeing to wear one, which would explain the lack of merch anywhere.
Maybe something to place near a suit lapel?
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/files/styles/fullsize/public/images/camel-badge.jpg?itok=ytqdyUf1
New Zealand Imperial Camel Corps hat badge
NZF Gospel
Then Winston said to His disciples; Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for rich men, like John Key and Christopher Luxon, to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for rich men to enter the kingdom of God. They'll need to do good works with NZF to be worthy".
Trotter gets paranoid:
Perceptions of threats are often not reality-based: one could more-accurately call them potentiality-based. For public policy, it depends how much such perceptions are shared. In the USA they have oodles of institutions who all have a go at figuring out the extent of sharing in the most relevant social niches and mutual-interest groups established to drive public policy development, there's a bunch in the UK & a sprinkling here of think-tanks & ngos for the purpose.
Some collegial meeting of minds between personnel of such groups & the minister's advisors may already happen, but if not it ought to.
All the back and forth, the ups and downs, the tos and fro. All the thoughtful consideration from any number of angles from any number of sages over years.
When it came down to it? Labour's in the crap so gst on food is to go.
That's the sort of last desperate move from a party in a line up which had 65 seats against 33, 10, 10 and 2 in the opposition.
The treasure, the gold to use to make meaningful changes used how? Well to empower then likes of Winston Peters and Kirsten Peters.
The removal of GST on food should have been in place when GST was first introduced, most developed Countries in the Modern World do not put GST on food products, only a Banana Republic like New Zealand is stupid enough to do that. It is definitely a vote winning policy for Labour.
+1 a "pure" GST system is simply neo-liberal ideology. and anyway, there are exemptions already e.g. on some financial transactions, but not others, "fine metals" e.g gold (but not, say, titanium?), mortgage interest but not rates – a tax on a tax?
Go figure.
Off topic, and just if you feel like sharing, have you closed your twitter permanently or just taking a break?
I closed it permanently. I'm trying out BlueSky now, it lacks the NZ media input for now, but I think that will come.
how easy is it to get a BlueSky account?
I signed up before I left Twitter and got my account nearly 2 weeks ago. I don't know how long the wait time is now.
A person who has been on there 2 weeks (I think) gets an invite code that they give give to someone – let me know if you want one 😉
yes, would love one. Shall I email you?
Sure, I think you might have my real email address somewhere?
have emailed the two addresses I have, let me know if that works, thanks.
Yep.. all good
Labour's new addition to paid parental leave makes National"s offer of fund it yourself, plainly what it was… leave for the well off.
Clever Policy, adding to the previous situation in a meaningful way for new parents, also offering flexibility in when to take it..
The GST off unprocessed foods is a winner, "Winner winner veggie dinner"
Unprocessed foods have had a great boost. Now not only "good for all" but cheaper, and will be listed and visible. Specials in frozen veg and fruit will be more popular, and they are first class as they are washed and snap frozen while extremely fresh.