As a local resident, I’m am totally in favour of Auckland Transport’s planned changes in Mt Eden Village. There seems to be a small group protesting the changes who get a lot of media attention.
Some of the images with the post show the continual bottleneck of cars through the Village. The protesters are complaining about 6 car parks being removed from the main road in order to extend the bus stop.
There’s a car park behind the shops, and some parking in side streets. I would axe all the car parks in the main road.
How do the little group of protesters plan to stop the eventual gridlock through the village, without removing some of the main road parks, and encouraging more bus travel?
At the moment a lot of traffic is pushed into the side streets to avoid the bottle neck. That’s not great for local residents.
Prager believes transport and roading changes being made by AT are “designed to assist multinational corporations to transfer public money into private hands via confidential contracts”.
Alternative transport lobby groups like Bike Auckland and Generation Zero along with blogs like Greater Auckland were a part of a global conspiracy called Agenda 21, she said.
Agenda 21 is an action plan of the United Nations which aims to work towards sustainable development however, some groups believe it is a plan to deprive nations of their sovereignty.
But why aren’t the going the whole hog and bus laning and cycle laning all major arterial roads, no parking at all, 24/7 and investing in the bus resources to make it work?
It shits me that we get pathetic bus lanes that still have to merge. Completely defeats the purpose
I’m not a cheer person for AT. But in this instance I support the proposed changes.
I have been thinking for years they need to stop parking in the Village. As a local resident I usually try to avoid driving through the village (when I do use my car). Why would anyone choose to drive (at a slow crawl) through that continual bottle neck?
Mostly I’m fine with the buses in the area, apart from the clogged roads. I think probably the inner city areas are better served by buses than some of the outer areas of Auckland.
But there also should be incentives to discourage people driving into the CBD from places like Mt Eden, and encourage more bus/train use, IMO.
I know. But those roadworks have gone on for 15 months now. On the corner of Wellington st, this is the second time they are causing delays. It could have all been done first time, pipe and improvements
While this sounds worthy, what it signals is an expansion of global governance controls on New Zealanders that will further undermine our culture and private property rights that have traditionally underpinned our economic growth and our identity in the world.
…
Essentially Agenda 21 is based on the notion that humans are destroying the planet and as a result, every aspect of our lives needs to be controlled. The mechanism being used to bring about this change is “sustainable development”, which is defined to mean development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations.
…
Twenty years on, the public are now recognising the failings of the global socialist agenda that has been imposed on us and they are waking up to the negative consequences on their quality of life.
While this sounds worthy, what it signals is an expansion of global governance controls on New Zealanders that will further undermine our culture and private property rights that have traditionally underpinned our economic growth and our identity in the world.
Where was this excellent woman when we protested against the TPPA? /sarc
Lead attack in Herald on Ron Mark with claims of improper use of NZDF air transport. Just more mud slinging at the coalition or hopeful distraction away from the book Hit and Run and the claims in the book on location that were denied last year by Chief of Defence Force Tim Keating and have now been admitted were correct and that he lied.
Along with Hosking, Hawkesby, Hooton and various other right leaning scribblers the Herald has become a blatant propaganda tool for the National party.
On Checkpoint most people who responded supported Ron Mark. And John Campbell liked a tweet suggesting he agreed Mark Mitchell was avoiding talking about Op Burnham.
+ 100 Kat the new coalition MPs will have to have there guard up as all there advisers use to serve national I have already warned them of being setup from the inside .
Kia kaha Ron Ka kite ano
And here’s another one regarding the Waihi Summer Camp – the person who contacted the Herald is insisting on remaining anonymous. OK, if this is true, it’s not at all good, but I do sometimes take what an ‘anonymous’ person spilling the beans with a generous pinch of salt – sheesh, if this person is a Young Labour member, why didn’t he/she talk to the party or at least the people running the camp. I reckon something’s not quite right here. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12013540
Im not sure if attacking the messenger is the best way to respond to this.
I want to know is why this was allowed to happen?
Surely the organizers of this camp were not that devoid of commonsense not to consider that providing a venue for young people to get blind drunk unsupervised is going to lead to bad outcomes?
If this was the Young Nats, the head shaking and hand wringing from the left would have been blinding in response.
Whats wrong with straight up admitting that your beloved party got it wrong, that the people who organised it were incompetent and should be held accountable?
The public would respect such a response and it would be a warning to other hopefuls that they should exercise good judgement if they came into positions of responsibility.
Hiding, minimizing, excusing, and lashing out are not appropriate ways of responding to deficient behaviour and actions.
It also gives motivation to other witnesses to speak up to ‘set the story straight.’
Knowing what black arts the opposition are capable of – thinking of Nicky’s book “Dirty Politics” it would not surprise me if the informant is a National Party plant, wasn’t the offender a guest of a Labour Party Member, that is dodgy to start with.
Labour have themselves to blame for this, they have been staring down the barrel of the previous government and all the shit they dug up while they were in office, why on earth wouldn’t they think it would not continue now they are no longer in Government. This lot have been caught with their pants down good and proper. Jacinda is too “nice” to handle this opposition – relentlessly positive is not going to do it for them. She needs to harden up real soon and keep a tight rein on her operations.
The first thing that the muck rakers were given was a shovel and instructed to start digging, the moment they knew they would not be in power. It was never going to be anything but more of the same.
Seems National is using its smear tool msm to spread more dirty politics on the government. A means to cover it’s own vile participation in Operation Burnam, including the lies and cover ups that followed. All of which will be damaging to National and those MPs involved in signing off this atrocious revenge raid against innocent civilians, an act which reeks of a war crime!
And what a liar he was, sitting there bold faced justifying his selling out to foreign corporate interests and creating a housing bubble based on speculation while degrading workers rights.
What an arsehole.
Remember what has become known as the ‘Hobbit Laws’?
Bloody shitter.
So then ( under Key ) they flood this country with cheap immigrant labour. To compensate for the 600,000 New Zealanders who now call Australia home because neo liberal subversives like Key made damn sure they would be wage and debt slaves if they remained in NZ.
That cunt should be stripped of his Knighthood and brought back in to answer for the murder of Afghanistan citizens during Operation Burnham that HE personally gave the green light for.
This is all National can do in the vacant vacuum of having no other credible attack line at the coalition at this time. It will get worse and we must be prepared for all manner of dirty politics between now and the next election. National have a sustained MSM attack plan against Labour and NZ First. They will pull out all stops based on the significant and historically large singular opposition they currently represent. They will see what happens with the Green support over the duration and consider moving in for the killer blow prior to election time. As Hosking would say “mark my words”.
Still panderers to a very , very small percentage of followers. People need to remember that.
MOST people have to battle for their security. Unlike the average privileged Nat supporter. And that means we are in the majority. Lets start to use that majority.
And kick these arseholes before our courts to answer charges of what amounts to the murder of civilians carried out under the auspices of the Key led National govt resulting in the deaths of at least six civilians.
Anything less is being complicit in the passive acceptance of the cheapness of civilian life in order to achieve an objective.
I don’t know about you , but where I come from, we don’t do that sort of thing.
Agenda 21 conspiracy theorist destroying somthing to make it safer to cycle. Having been knocked off my bike countless times by the downright awful Auckland drivers. I hope this idiot gets more than a slap with wet bus ticket as punishment, but I doubt it.
Can the right wing in this country get any crazier? Well I suppose we going to find out in the coming years.
Get your iodine pills folks, we might be needing them.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton is "waiting in the wings to replace [H.R.] McMaster," @MajorCBS reports; "the sense that H.R. McMaster's days are numbered as national security adviser has reached something close to a fever pitch" https://t.co/MVXWePSct0pic.twitter.com/upoej56b20— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 14, 2018
Thanks Anne, very funny, and interesting. After seeing the word “burqas” in the link, when the page first loaded for a second I thought I saw a burqa-wearer in the front left seat.
Then they vanished – my God, they could be anywhere!
“About 94% of the global warming heating is going into the ocean and it is the Gulf Stream – Svalbard current that will be our killers because they are melting the Arctic ice from below and destabilizing the methane hydrates between the ocean surface and 200 meters depth along the Arctic ocean shelf edge. The core of the Svalbard current has increased in temperature from less than 1.5 to more than 4 degrees centigrade.”
–Malcolm Light
1.Develop “free “trade deals that allow foreign companies the same access to local resources that New Zealanders enjoy
2.Buy a property that sits above an aquifer and drill for water virtually for free and sell it at a price than is more than we pay for petrol.
3.Perpetuate the myth that “no one owns the water”
4. Makes sure that local and national politicians are elected who either do not have the will to change the economic order or a vested interest in keeping things just the way they are.”
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. ...
Unfortunately we have another National Party government in power at the moment, and as a consequence, another economic dumpster fire taking hold. Inflation’s hurting Kiwis, and instead of providing relief, National is fiddling while wallets burn.Prime Minister Chris Luxon's response is a tired remix of tax cuts for the rich ...
Girls who are boys who like boys to be girlsWho do boys like they're girls, who do girls like they're boysAlways should be someone you really loveSongwriters: Damon Albarn / Graham Leslie Coxon / Alexander Rowntree David / Alexander James Steven.Last month, I wrote about the Birds and Bees being ...
Australia needs to reevaluate its security priorities and establish a more dynamic regulatory framework for cybersecurity. To advance in this area, it can learn from Britain’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which presents a compelling ...
Deputy PM Winston Peters likes nothing more than to portray himself as the only wise old head while everyone else is losing theirs. Yet this time, his “old master” routine isn’t working. What global trade is experiencing is more than the usual swings and roundabouts of market sentiment. President Donald ...
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. ...
Willie Apiata’s decision to hand over his Victoria Cross to the Minister for Veterans is a powerful and selfless act, made on behalf of all those who have served our country. ...
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 ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 22 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Associate Professor, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide Lucigerma/Shutterstock Caring for a new puppy can be wonderful, but it can also bring feelings of depression, extreme stress and exhaustion. This is sometimes referred to as “the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katherine Kent, Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Wollongong StoryTime Studio/ Shutterstock Being a university student has long been associated with eating instant noodles, taking advantage of pub meal deals and generally living frugally. But for several ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Harrison, Director, Master of Business Administration Program (MBA); Co-Director, Better Consumption Lab, Deakin University Justin Sullivan/Getty You may have seen them around town or in the news. Bumper stickers on Teslas broadcasting to anyone who looks: “I bought this before ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Claire Hooker, Senior Lecturer and Coordinator, Health and Medical Humanities, University of Sydney A new state-of-the-art tube fishway technology called the “Fishheart” has been launched at Menindee Lakes, located on the Baaka-Darling River, New South Wales. The technology – part of ...
This Easter Sunday harassment of the victim’s family is part of a deliberate tactic to silence the victims, who were wrongfully duped of their money, efforts and hopes for a better future. ...
Māori own huge areas of land in Aotearoa but as climate change accelerates and carbon markets take hold, many are being backed into a corner.Māori connections to the whenua and ngahere run deep, rooted in whakapapa and sustained through generations. Today, that whenua is at a crossroads – squeezed ...
Comment: Two decades ago, I drove from Germany to Southern Belgium to visit the Commonwealth Memorial at Tyne Cot. The remains of my great grandmother’s brother, Private Robert Macalister, lay there. I didn’t know what to expect.Even in early summer, nine decades later, Passchendaele was blanketed in a thick, low ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra As it seeks to gain some momentum for its campaign, the Coalition on Monday will focus on law and order, announcing $355 million for a National Drug Enforcement and Organised Crime Strike Team to fight ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne With less than two weeks to go now until the federal election, the polls continue to favour the government being returned. ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone Israel assassinated a photojournalist in Gaza in an airstrike targeting her family’s home on Wednesday, the day after it was announced that a documentary she appears in would premier in Cannes next month. Her name was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Whittaker, Senior Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent University Darryl Fonseka/Shutterstocl What do you think of when it comes to extra terrestrial life? Most popular sci-fi books and TV shows suggest humanoid beings could live on other planets. But when astronomers ...
As a local resident, I’m am totally in favour of Auckland Transport’s planned changes in Mt Eden Village. There seems to be a small group protesting the changes who get a lot of media attention.
Today, Matt L on the Greater Auckland Blog did a very good post on the lack of logic of the anti-group: Mt Eden Mess.
Some of the images with the post show the continual bottleneck of cars through the Village. The protesters are complaining about 6 car parks being removed from the main road in order to extend the bus stop.
There’s a car park behind the shops, and some parking in side streets. I would axe all the car parks in the main road.
How do the little group of protesters plan to stop the eventual gridlock through the village, without removing some of the main road parks, and encouraging more bus travel?
At the moment a lot of traffic is pushed into the side streets to avoid the bottle neck. That’s not great for local residents.
And it seems this non-local resident is part of the protest group.
Anti-Agenda 21? Seriously!
But why aren’t the going the whole hog and bus laning and cycle laning all major arterial roads, no parking at all, 24/7 and investing in the bus resources to make it work?
It shits me that we get pathetic bus lanes that still have to merge. Completely defeats the purpose
Not easy to face a hall of rich residents and a Councillor in full attack against it’s own transport entity.
Mt Albert. Mt Eden. Grey Lynn. It’s street by street warfare for sustainability in Auckland.
Maybe if AT actually transported people rather than staggered roadworks on the same street month after month, I.e. Franklin road
And stopped driving everywhere and parking in bus lanes
I don’t work at AT, but staggering Franklin Road was the only way to get around neighbourhood concern.
AT walk a fine operational and political balance every day.
They need support, from somewhere, or there will simply be no implementation.
I’m not a cheer person for AT. But in this instance I support the proposed changes.
I have been thinking for years they need to stop parking in the Village. As a local resident I usually try to avoid driving through the village (when I do use my car). Why would anyone choose to drive (at a slow crawl) through that continual bottle neck?
Mostly I’m fine with the buses in the area, apart from the clogged roads. I think probably the inner city areas are better served by buses than some of the outer areas of Auckland.
But there also should be incentives to discourage people driving into the CBD from places like Mt Eden, and encourage more bus/train use, IMO.
Franklin road is not just “roadworks” as you put it, but major pipe infrastructure work if my observations are correct.
Indeedy it is.
Excuse shorthand.
I know. But those roadworks have gone on for 15 months now. On the corner of Wellington st, this is the second time they are causing delays. It could have all been done first time, pipe and improvements
It’s quite frightening when people espouse the conspiracy theory called agenda 21.
What next, Jacinda’s got black helicopters. No wait that was Ron Mark…
Some people on Twitter are likening the anti-Agenda 21, anti-bus, anti-cycleways people to Trump supporters.
But here’s ex ACT deputy leader, Muriel Newman explaining opposition to Agenda 21 back in 2012.
Where was this excellent woman when we protested against the TPPA? /sarc
Lead attack in Herald on Ron Mark with claims of improper use of NZDF air transport. Just more mud slinging at the coalition or hopeful distraction away from the book Hit and Run and the claims in the book on location that were denied last year by Chief of Defence Force Tim Keating and have now been admitted were correct and that he lied.
Along with Hosking, Hawkesby, Hooton and various other right leaning scribblers the Herald has become a blatant propaganda tool for the National party.
It is only going to be ramped up.
On Checkpoint most people who responded supported Ron Mark. And John Campbell liked a tweet suggesting he agreed Mark Mitchell was avoiding talking about Op Burnham.
+ 100 Kat the new coalition MPs will have to have there guard up as all there advisers use to serve national I have already warned them of being setup from the inside .
Kia kaha Ron Ka kite ano
And here’s another one regarding the Waihi Summer Camp – the person who contacted the Herald is insisting on remaining anonymous. OK, if this is true, it’s not at all good, but I do sometimes take what an ‘anonymous’ person spilling the beans with a generous pinch of salt – sheesh, if this person is a Young Labour member, why didn’t he/she talk to the party or at least the people running the camp. I reckon something’s not quite right here.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12013540
Anonymous informant says:
their values… ?
So the informant isn’t a Labour Party member? one of the friends of Labour that went for…? why? the party?
Im not sure if attacking the messenger is the best way to respond to this.
I want to know is why this was allowed to happen?
Surely the organizers of this camp were not that devoid of commonsense not to consider that providing a venue for young people to get blind drunk unsupervised is going to lead to bad outcomes?
If this was the Young Nats, the head shaking and hand wringing from the left would have been blinding in response.
Whats wrong with straight up admitting that your beloved party got it wrong, that the people who organised it were incompetent and should be held accountable?
The public would respect such a response and it would be a warning to other hopefuls that they should exercise good judgement if they came into positions of responsibility.
Hiding, minimizing, excusing, and lashing out are not appropriate ways of responding to deficient behaviour and actions.
It also gives motivation to other witnesses to speak up to ‘set the story straight.’
Knowing what black arts the opposition are capable of – thinking of Nicky’s book “Dirty Politics” it would not surprise me if the informant is a National Party plant, wasn’t the offender a guest of a Labour Party Member, that is dodgy to start with.
Labour have themselves to blame for this, they have been staring down the barrel of the previous government and all the shit they dug up while they were in office, why on earth wouldn’t they think it would not continue now they are no longer in Government. This lot have been caught with their pants down good and proper. Jacinda is too “nice” to handle this opposition – relentlessly positive is not going to do it for them. She needs to harden up real soon and keep a tight rein on her operations.
The first thing that the muck rakers were given was a shovel and instructed to start digging, the moment they knew they would not be in power. It was never going to be anything but more of the same.
“Jacinda is too “nice” to handle this opposition – relentlessly positive is not going to do it for them.”
Unfortunately, that’s all Jacinda has…bumper sticker slogans.
And that shallow comment sums up about all you have, Chuck.
100% agree with you Kat (2).
Seems National is using its smear tool msm to spread more dirty politics on the government. A means to cover it’s own vile participation in Operation Burnam, including the lies and cover ups that followed. All of which will be damaging to National and those MPs involved in signing off this atrocious revenge raid against innocent civilians, an act which reeks of a war crime!
The ‘Jonkey National Govt’…
Have a few questions to answer…
Like the wage gap between NZ and Aussie, and why a huge percentage of the ‘best and brightest’ leave the country( NZ ) – and Nationals answer?
Bust them at the airport for not paying their exorbitant student loans…
Talk about cheap, Trev , – National wants everyone working for fucking slave labour rates.
John Key on Hardtalk Part 1 – YouTube
Video for john key on operation burnham you tube▶ 12:14
And what a liar he was, sitting there bold faced justifying his selling out to foreign corporate interests and creating a housing bubble based on speculation while degrading workers rights.
What an arsehole.
Remember what has become known as the ‘Hobbit Laws’?
Bloody shitter.
So then ( under Key ) they flood this country with cheap immigrant labour. To compensate for the 600,000 New Zealanders who now call Australia home because neo liberal subversives like Key made damn sure they would be wage and debt slaves if they remained in NZ.
That cunt should be stripped of his Knighthood and brought back in to answer for the murder of Afghanistan citizens during Operation Burnham that HE personally gave the green light for.
Bloody fucker.
This is all National can do in the vacant vacuum of having no other credible attack line at the coalition at this time. It will get worse and we must be prepared for all manner of dirty politics between now and the next election. National have a sustained MSM attack plan against Labour and NZ First. They will pull out all stops based on the significant and historically large singular opposition they currently represent. They will see what happens with the Green support over the duration and consider moving in for the killer blow prior to election time. As Hosking would say “mark my words”.
Still panderers to a very , very small percentage of followers. People need to remember that.
MOST people have to battle for their security. Unlike the average privileged Nat supporter. And that means we are in the majority. Lets start to use that majority.
And kick these arseholes before our courts to answer charges of what amounts to the murder of civilians carried out under the auspices of the Key led National govt resulting in the deaths of at least six civilians.
Anything less is being complicit in the passive acceptance of the cheapness of civilian life in order to achieve an objective.
I don’t know about you , but where I come from, we don’t do that sort of thing.
This is brilliant. A review of Lisa Prager’s sledgehammer technique on the traffic island/cycle way* from this afternoon,
https://thespinoff.co.nz/auckland/15-03-2018/the-spinoff-reviews-new-zealand-56-lisa-pragers-sledgehammer-technique/
*Auckland thing that’s not very clear.
Agenda 21 conspiracy theorist destroying somthing to make it safer to cycle. Having been knocked off my bike countless times by the downright awful Auckland drivers. I hope this idiot gets more than a slap with wet bus ticket as punishment, but I doubt it.
Can the right wing in this country get any crazier? Well I suppose we going to find out in the coming years.
Get your iodine pills folks, we might be needing them.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/02/bus-seats-mistaken-burqas-anti-immigrant-group-norwegian
Funny.
Thanks Anne, very funny, and interesting. After seeing the word “burqas” in the link, when the page first loaded for a second I thought I saw a burqa-wearer in the front left seat.
Then they vanished – my God, they could be anywhere!
The Arctic is melting.
“About 94% of the global warming heating is going into the ocean and it is the Gulf Stream – Svalbard current that will be our killers because they are melting the Arctic ice from below and destabilizing the methane hydrates between the ocean surface and 200 meters depth along the Arctic ocean shelf edge. The core of the Svalbard current has increased in temperature from less than 1.5 to more than 4 degrees centigrade.”
–Malcolm Light
http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/2018/03/warm-waters-in-arctic.html
Bryan Bruce on twitter.
“How to plunder the New Zealand Economy 101
1.Develop “free “trade deals that allow foreign companies the same access to local resources that New Zealanders enjoy
2.Buy a property that sits above an aquifer and drill for water virtually for free and sell it at a price than is more than we pay for petrol.
3.Perpetuate the myth that “no one owns the water”
4. Makes sure that local and national politicians are elected who either do not have the will to change the economic order or a vested interest in keeping things just the way they are.”
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/christchurch/canterbury-mornings/audio/vicki-buck-major-concern-for-the-quality-of-our-drinking-water/
I really hope this government is listening.
“More than 100,000 people signed a petition demanding a ban on the use of farrowing crates – it was delivered to Parliament today.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/352636/petition-against-pigs-farrowing-crates-a-life-of-despair
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S6qPtRMeSqA&itct=CBMQpDAYACITCIjMw4D-7dkCFcuEWAodu1YJxTIHYXV0b25hdkii3MuirMvp594B