Daily review 16/05/2023
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5:30 pm, May 16th, 2023 - 8 comments
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- Learning what’s at stake with the Weather & Climate Livestream
As any reader is likely aware, in the United States big deletions are being made to the capabilities of a plethora of federal agencies. These include the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which has a mission including that of keeping us safer in the case of "bad luck" due to ...21 hours ago - Politicians, speak openly about China. Chinese-Australians won’t mind
Beijing would have us believe that Australian politicians cannot speak openly and honestly about China’s geopolitical ambitions without fear of losing Chinese-Australian voters. Don’t fall for it: Chinese-background voters are as divided and cantankerous as ...22 hours ago - Say it again: Hate crimes are not terrorism.
Since I have written extensively about this subject over the years I will not bore readers with more tedious expositions. But in light of recent events I thought it would be permissible to height some basic facts about hate crimes and terrorism. Here goes: Government officials, politicians and media have ...23 hours ago - Aotearoa should not have places named after slavers
What do Picton, Ashburtn, Stokes Valley, and Ellice St in wellington have in common? They're all named after slave-owners. This is abhorrent. Naming stuff after foreign imperialists is bad enough, but slave-owners were participants in one of the greatest crimes against humanity in human history. We should not be naming ...23 hours ago - Regulating X isn’t censorship. It’s self-defence
In 2024, during the fiercely fought US presidential election campaign, current US Vice President JD Vance made an extraordinary ultimatum: if Europe wanted the United States to remain committed to NATO, it should stop regulating ...24 hours ago
- National’s “investment boost”
I've been thinking a bit about National's "investment boost", the centrepiece of its dogshit budget. Its pitched by the government as encouraging big capital investments which will create jobs for the future. But I don't think there's much chance of that. The problem is that the policy just won't last ...1 day ago
- The basket is full of rotting kumara, Hosking is full of reckons
1. What does Naku te rourou nau te rourou ka ora ai te iwi mean in English?a. As liquefaction is to the ground beneath us, so is Mike Hosking to the air aboveb. With your basket and my basket the people will livec. This joke of a government is a ...1 day ago - NZ Herald’s Cancel Culture Targets Winston Peters’ Heckler
The right-wing establishment and their media lapdogs are at it again, this time sinking their claws into a private citizen who dared to heckle Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters at a Wellington Railway Station press conference. The NZ Herald, in a particularly vile move, has taken it upon themselves to ...1 day ago - Learn from Finland: Australia doesn’t assess its risks, isn’t ready for them
‘Australia was ill-prepared for war in 1941. In 2025, we’re making the same grave mistake’. That’s the headline of an article by Geoffrey Blainey in The Australian on Anzac Day. ‘Australia is not prepared for a ...1 day ago
- Just a Girl
Oh, I'm just a girl, living in captivityYour rule of thumb makes me worrisomeOh, I'm just a girl, what's my destiny?What I've succumbed to is making me numbOh, I'm just a girl, my apologiesWhat I've become is so burdensomeOh, I'm just a girl, lucky meTwiddle-dum, there's no comparisonWriter(s): Gwen Stefani, ...1 day ago - Trump brings AI, not democracy, to the Middle East
US foreign policy no longer pursues strategic influence through ideological alignment but through advanced technological primacy and infrastructural reach. When US President Donald Trump returned to the Middle East earlier this month, he did not ...1 day ago
- Bernard Hickey, Peter Bale, Lara Greaves, Craig Renney & Terry Baucher ‘Hoon’ around...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about Budget 2025 with:Vic Uni political scientist Lara Greaves;CTU Economist ; and,Tax commentator Terry Baucher.The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over ...1 day ago - Danger Is Literally Their Middle Name
Hi,This week was another week of the “students identifying as cats and shitting kitty litter trays” story being spouted as fact by idiots with platforms.It’s frustrating to see. As I wrote way back in 2022:“If you’re even slightly savvy you’ll know the cat article is an implicit attack of trans ...2 days ago - Gordon Campbell On Budget 2025
Underwhelming, as promised. All week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis had actively reduced public expectations by saying that her second Budget would not be filled “with rainbows and unicorns” although – somewhere over the rainbow – it would somehow deliver the twin unicorns of “hope for the future” and “genuine growth.” ...2 days ago - Operatunity Knocks
All the things that you needed from meAll the things that you wanted for meAll the things that I should've given but I didn'tOh, darling, make it go awayJust make it go away nowSongwriter: Kate Bush Read more ...2 days ago - Budget 2025: Nicola Willis Delivers More Austerity
The National-led government’s 2025 Budget, unveiled today by Finance Minister Nicola Willis, dressed up as a “Growth Budget” is gambling with our future and delivering nothing but austerity for the vast majority of New Zealanders.Willis promised a disciplined, growth-oriented plan, but the numbers tell a grim story of cuts, broken ...2 days ago
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #21 2025
Open access notables Shifting Gears in a Shifting Climate: Birds Adjust Migration Speed in Response to Spring Vegetation Green-Up, Amaral et al., Diversity and Distributions Our results have direct implications for the conservation of migratory bird diversity in Eastern North America. While birds show some plasticity in adjusting migration pace, this ...2 days ago
- Taiwan, a leader in public health, should be in the WHO
Taiwan urges the World Health Organization and all relevant parties to recognise Taiwan’s considerable contributions to global health. We view health as a fundamental human right and universal value. Improved health results in greater well-being ...2 days ago
- Trump’s theatre of the absurd.
I know that it is undiplomatic to say so, but I sure wish that some foreign leader would interrupt one of Trump’s Oval Office public humiliation stunts to tell him to his face in front of the media that he is an adolescent bullying imbecile who seems to think that ...2 days ago
- Reverse Robin Hood Budget steals from working people
Budget 2025 takes $12.8bn from low-income, female dominated workforces to prop up the Government’s failed economic policies, said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The Government has promised this would be a growth budget, yet it has effectively cut the wages of low-income women workers. We know that one ...2 days ago - A few short thoughts about the budget
Thought oneTurns out Andrea Vance was understating it.You're substantially and unfairly and unreasonably handicapping the pay equity process, everyone told Nicola Willis,Wrong, she said.This is likely to deprive women who do some of the hardest shittiest unappreciated work of decent pay, they told her.Wrong, wrong wrong, she said.You don't care; ...2 days ago - ‘Deterrence’—an agreeable word that obscures strategic debate
Deterrence has become the centrepiece of Australian strategic thinking, but its value has become more political than strategic. The focus on deterrence has advantages in terms of messaging, but this has tended to muddy Australia’s ...2 days ago
- Budget 2025
Get more from Bernard Hickey in the Substack appAvailable for iOS and AndroidGet the app Read more ...2 days ago - The (deeply underwhelming) Budget
2 days ago - Drawn
A ballot for three member's bills was held this morning, and the following bills were drawn: Local Government (Port Companies Accountability) Amendment Bill (Lemauga Lydia Sosene) Financial Markets (International Money Transfers) Amendment Bill (Arena Williams) Military Decorations and Distinctive Badges (Modernisation) Amendment Bill (Tim van de ...2 days ago
- Budget 2025 highlights and invite to live chat session at 3.30 pm
Just briefly in Budget 2025 around the areas of housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy:The Government said Budget 2025 was about ‘Going for Growth,’ but the Budget forecast slower growth, higher Government borrowing, less housing spending, lower KiwiSaver contributions and a net fiscal contraction of three percentage points ...2 days ago - $13 billion
That's how much Nicola Willis thinks she stole from New Zealand women by repealing pay equity: A tax incentive for businesses, boosts to health and education spending, and Crown funding for new gas fields are among new Budget initiatives made viable by nearly $13 billion in cuts to the ...2 days ago
- National grovels to Trump
Its budget day, and the government has been whining about how it has no money and so can't afford anything. Meanwhile, they've just given away half a billion dollars a year to foreign fascist techbros: New Zealand financial statements filed by tech firms including Google, Facebook and Amazon show ...2 days ago
- Pay Equity – what did New Zealand women lose under the cover of darkness and without any prior war...
The law on pay equity was changed without any prior warning during the election campaign, without any select committee process. It has shocked New Zealand women and gutted fundamental rights Come and hear from pay equity experts including women whose claims have been cancelled and what the plan is from ...2 days ago - Budget 2025: delivering for whom?
On 22 May, the coalition government will release its budget for 2025, which it says will focus on "boosting economic growth, improving social outcomes, controlling government spending, and investing in long-term infrastructure.” But who, really, is this budget designed to serve? What values and visions for Aotearoa New Zealand lie ...2 days ago
- Is David Seymour Encouraging NZ Civil War?
OPINIONIt’s supposed to be the first day of my time off, but how can I resist when Mihingarangi Forbes has dropped one of the most compelling, and impactful pieces of investigative journalism I’ve seen.There are extraordinary revelations in her latest MATA episode and it packs a punch in under 40 ...2 days ago
- Food banks pray for Budget help before July 1
Food banks have pleaded for renewed funding in Budget 2025 so they can keep providing food parcels for up to 600,000 New Zealanders living in food poverty beyond July 1. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāThe six key news items from Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on ...2 days ago - New frontiers of Southeast Asian space diplomacy
Southeast Asian countries were formerly peripheral to debates on space governance. They had nascent space programs and modest capabilities, and their policy interests focused largely on civilian applications. But this is changing. Growing reliance on ...2 days ago
- NewstalkZB’s Ryan Bridge Is A Hack
Ryan Bridge’s latest Newstalk ZB piece, “It’s three strikes for Chippy,” is an exercise in sloppy punditry, slinging mud at Labour leader Chris Hipkins with flimsy claims and zero evidence. His so-called “three strikes” propaganda, claiming that Hipkins’ ambiguity on the Green Party’s alternative budget, not locking in a 50% ...2 days ago
- Realising Darwin’s potential as a marine industry hub
If Australia is serious about defending its interests and shaping its region, building out Darwin’s marine industry must be at the forefront of our national agenda. Darwin is where Australia’s northern frontier meets the Indo-Pacific’s ...2 days ago
- The Politician, The Heckler, and Tonkin + Taylor
..The gentleman who heckled Winston Peters at Wellington Railway Station on 20 May, has been ‘outed' by the media as an employee of engineering firm Tonkin + Taylor. It is unclear why media felt it was necessary to dox this man, but in this world of Anything Goes, personal privacy ...3 days ago - To Play the Queen of Hearts: Published
My first published fictional work of 2025: To Play the Queen of Hearts. https://horrificscribblings.com/toplaythequeenofhearts/ A French Revolutionary Horror-Fantasy with a fairly loathsome narrator. Originally inspired by Morrissey’s Margaret on the Guillotine, and as noted elsewhere, a piece with a frustrating publishing history. For other horror authors featured by Horrific Scribes, ...3 days ago - Dialogi de miraculis Sancti Benedicti, by Pope Victor III (circa 1080) – A Complete English Transl...
Last month, I completed a long-running translation project, rendering (with AI assistance) Giovanni Pico’s work on astrology into English for the first time: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2025/04/18/disputationes-adversus-astrologiam-divinatricem-by-giovanni-pico-della-mirandola-1496-a-complete-english-translation/ I decided to do a follow-up. A less ambitious follow-up – something far shorter and less complicated – but nevertheless a text that for the past ...3 days ago - Climate Adam: Why Has Global Warming Just Spiked?
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). Climate scientists weren't expecting 2023. The planet's temperature is increasing thanks to that whole burning fossil fuels thing. ...3 days ago
- It’s not just software. Physical critical equipment can’t be trusted, either
Just auditing the software in critical equipment isn’t enough. We must assume that adversaries, especially China, will also exploit the hardware if they can. The latest report on the dangers from China-made solar inverters is ...3 days ago
- Fighting The Left, Fighting The Right
3 days ago - Winston Peters: The Architect Of Political Decay
Winston Peters, New Zealand’s 80-year-old Deputy Prime Minister, has once again proven himself unfit for office and a complete hypocrite by dragging political discourse into the gutter while preaching decorum. Last week, Peters lamented declining standards in the House, only to hurl a homophobic slur at Chris Hipkins, calling him ...3 days ago
- Member’s Day
Today is a Member's Day. Unusually, its not starting with bills; instead there will be two debates, the first on ACT MP Joseph Mooney's disallowance motion for the tikanga provisions in the Professional Examinations in Law Regulations 2008, and the second to authorise a select committee inquiry into online harm. ...3 days ago
- Australia should establish a unit dedicated to financial warfare capabilities
In an age of great-power competition, the next major conflict may be waged not in the skies over the Indo-Pacific or in the South China Sea, but through sanctions regimes, targeted financial disruptions and coercive ...3 days ago
- Parliamentary privilege is a threat to all of us
People are rightly outraged about psycho fascist Parmjeet Parmar "inquiring" about using the privileges committee to arbitrarily imprison her political opponents. As Chris Hipkins said yesterday, that is the sort of thing which happens in tinpot dictatorships, undemocratic and wrong, and a permanent stain on our Parliament. But its worse ...3 days ago
- Imprisoning Māori For Doing The Haka?
The ACT Party floating the idea of imprisoning Te Pāti Māori MPs for performing a haka in Parliament isn’t just a shameful overreach; it’s a chilling glimpse into a fascist mindset that seeks to silence indigenous voices through state power. According to RNZ, ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar asked the Privileges ...3 days ago
- Overloaded EDs send patients back to after-hours clinics
‘Lucky’ patients who have made it to a trolley in a corridor. Now many others are being redirected to private urgent care clinics due to ED overloading. Photo: Getty ImagesThe six key news items from Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, May 21 are: Emergency departments ...3 days ago - Australia must rethink cybercrime to tackle it effectively
Let’s face it: Australia is seen as a soft target for cybercriminals. Its fragmented cybercrime response makes both individuals and institutions more vulnerable. Australia’s cybercrime framework must be informed by diverse perspectives, and it must ...3 days ago
- Yellow Mellow
Yellow mellow, yellow mellowHello, hello, yellow mellowYellow mellow, yellow mellowOh, marmaladeSongwriters: Baden Jack Donegal / Nicholas Paul Blom / Mitchell Kenneth Galbraith / Lachlan George Galbraith / Thomas Patrick O'Brien / Angus Owen Goodwin.What a mad day in politics. In yesterday’s newsletter, I expressed hope that politicians from the left ...3 days ago - China’s geopolitical dominance game in the South China Sea
For all the talk about the South China Sea’s complexity as a security issue, its geopolitical significance to China is simple: China wants to condition Southeast Asian states to subordinate status. Southeast Asian countries would ...4 days ago
- Chris Hipkins’ Passionate Speech During Te Pati Māori Penalty Debate
Immediately after Hipkins’ speech, National House Leader Chris Bishop rose to defer the debate, without giving the opposition notice.This means no other opposition members were allowed to speak, despite the government scheduling the debate for today.A shortened clip of 3 minutes for those short on time:Tin-Pot DemocracyI was right in ...4 days ago
- 65
Today my heart attack turns 38 and I turn 65. It's now way older than I was when it grabbed me in a hotel bar at ten in the morning on my 27th birthday and squeezed.So many things I think of as just the other day turn out to be ...4 days ago - Indonesia has good reasons to reject Russian aircraft basing
Indonesia has plenty of reason to reject basing of Russian aircraft at its air force base on Biak, an island north of New Guinea at 1,400 km from Darwin. From Russia’s point of view, keeping ...4 days ago
- A desperate delay
So, that was a bit of a damp squib. Everyone having geared up for an epic filibuster battle which would upset the government's legislative program for at least the day, National has now abused its parliamentary majority to adjourn the debate on its outrageous and anti-democratic punishment of Te Pāti ...4 days ago
- Reported back
The Justice Committee has reported back on the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Bill. The bill as introduced was a tyrannical law which threatened to outlaw protest and ordinary democratic activity in Aotearoa on the basis of government conspiracy theories and fantasies about its motivations. The good news is that ...4 days ago
- Hard to believe really
Take a scenario, just as a thought experiment for now. A new government gets elected, amid a lot of rhetoric about excessive increases in government spending and public service numbers. They pretty quickly move to require government departments – typically funded by Parliament through annual appropriations – to cut their ...4 days ago
- Submission on Industry Skills Boards’ Coverage
This submission to the TEC outlines the NZCTU’s concerns about the ongoing reforms to vocational education and training, and our views on the coverage and membership of the new Industry Skills Boards.NZCTU submission – ISBs, 20 May 2025Download The post Submission on Industry Skills Boards’ Coverage appeared ...4 days ago
- Pay Equity Explainers
It took less than two days for the Government to announce their changes to the Equal Pay Act, and then make those changes. Because things happened this fast, a huge amount of information about pay equity has sprung up in a really short time-frame—which can be pretty confusing for anyone ...4 days ago- Tuesday 21 May
Unions are pointing out that changes to the pay equity system have made it “virtually impossible” for new claims to succeed. The government will spend more than $600 million to upgrade the country’s rail network as part of this year’s Budget. Cabinet has signed off on introducing the Regulatory Standards ...4 days ago- OECD Debt Comparisons For NZ Are Wrong
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand recently patted itself on the back, claiming our government debt-to-GDP ratio of around 44.3% in 2024 was "low" compared to OECD peers like the US (113%) or Japan (242%). Sounds comforting, right? Wrong! This smug comparison glosses over a critical reality: New Zealand’s geographic ...4 days ago- Which side are you on, Labour?
Today will see an unprecedented moment in Parliament. A racist government whose leader opposes the "Maorification" of New Zealand is using its parliamentary majority to suspend opposition MPs from the House for being Māori, silencing them and the people they represent for up to 21 days. It is outrageous and ...4 days ago- Federalism could torpedo AUKUS
AUKUS is under pressure, not from adversaries abroad but from state governments at home. While Canberra drives the security pact forward, Australian states are the ones that that hold the constitutional levers over the land ...4 days ago- Luxon’s Anti-Māori Mask Slips Again
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has once again stocked the fire a racial disharmony, this time with a damning comment that reeks of anti-Māori sentiment. In a recent Newstalk ZB interview with Mike Hosking, Luxon responded to a question about the “Māorification of this country” by saying, “Well where ...4 days ago- How do you stop a pitchfork?
Last night, I put up a video where Luxon said he would not back down on the 21 day penalty for Te Pāti Māori MPs.Then came the pitchforks:“Boot them out. No compromise.”“Why debate....boot them....rules are rules!!!!”There were outwardly racist comments too.It’s hard to explain to an angry mob that there ...4 days ago- Monday 19 May
The PSA says mediation has failed to resolve its conflict with the government over working from home, with the case now heading to the ERA. Food prices have risen at their fastest pace in more than a year driven by more expensive dairy products, hinting that inflation pressures are gathering ...4 days ago- May AMA (+ Webworm Updates)
Hi,One of my favourite things on Webworm is doing these semi-regular AMAs — which I’ve been doing for four years now!In some ways they are daunting — I want to respond to questions with some thought and nuance, but also it can be fun just going with more unguarded-train-of-consciousness responses ...4 days ago- The Coalition’s Disinformation Undermining Our Democracy
The New Zealand government, National, ACT, and NZ First, has been very busy recently earning its moniker: the Coalition of Chaos. This unholy trinity seems hell-bent on trying to rewrite reality, peddling lies that erode public trust in politics, and flouting the rules of decorum in an orchestrated attack on ...4 days ago- The Green Budget: Cutting Through Right-Wing Spin
You might not have heard that the Green Party’s 2025 Alternative Budget is a bold blueprint for a fairer, greener Aotearoa. That's because right-wing spin merchants are twisting its intent and manipulating the narrative with predictable ferocity. From National’s Nicola Willis labeling it “clown show economics” to NZ Herald’s Thomas ...4 days ago- Reuniting ASIO and the AFP under Home Affairs is the right move to address intensifying threats
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to return policy responsibility for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Federal Police to the Department of Home Affairs is more than a machinery-of-government change; it’s a long-term ...4 days ago- Volcanic cooling
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink The climate has warmed by around 1.4C over the past 170 years as a result of human emissions of CO2 and other GHGs that have accumulated in the atmosphere. However, GHGs are not the only thing that has an impact on the climate system. Major ...4 days ago- Why Did 1 News Downplay Two By Twos Pedophilia?
4 days ago- ‘Weaponise rates to drive housing intensification’
Should Auckland Council set higher higher rates to densify housing around the stations on the City Rail Link, where low-rise warehouses and housing currently predominate? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāThe six key news items from Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, May 20 are: Apartment ...4 days ago- Nasty
Catch catch the horror taxiI fell in love with a video nastyCatch catch the horror trainFreeze frame gonna drive you insaneWriters: Raymond Burns, Christopher John Millar, David Vanian, Roman Paul Jug, Bryn Merrick.Speak English.Yesterday, the Prime Minister of our country appeared on the Mike Hosking show to beat the anti-woke ...4 days ago- Nasty
Catch catch the horror taxiI fell in love with a video nastyCatch catch the horror trainFreeze frame gonna drive you insaneWriters: Raymond Burns, Christopher John Millar, David Vanian, Roman Paul Jug, Bryn Merrick.Speak English.Yesterday, the Prime Minister of our country appeared on the Mike Hosking show to beat the anti-woke ...4 days ago- Gordon Campbell On NZ’s Silence Over Gaza, And Creeping Health Privatisation
Since last Thursday, intensified Israeli air strikes on Gaza have killed over 500 Palestinians, and a prolonged Israeli aid blockade has led to widespread starvation among the territory’s two million residents. Belatedly, Israel is letting in a token amount of food aid that UN under-secretary Tom Fletcher has called a ...5 days ago - Pay Equity Explainers
- Release: Govt guts emergency housing while need increases
The National Government has cut $1 billion from the emergency housing budget on the false pretence that demand is reducing, while also ending contracted emergency housing from December this year. ...1 day ago - Release: $1 billion of Māori funding gone
The Government should hang its head in shame after a budget that takes a knife to more Māori programmes. ...1 day ago
- Budget 2025 delivers little to nothing for our youngest
The Government’s Budget offers little more than crumbs for our tamariki, while real issues in the ECE system are ignored. ...2 days ago - Minister for the Environment missing in action in Budget 2025
Budget 2025 makes it crystal clear that this Government has no interest in protecting nature or securing a liveable future for our tamariki. ...2 days ago
- Government’s Budget fails Māori
The Government has failed Māori and ignored its Te Tiriti obligations with its Budget, says Te Mātāwaka, the Green Party’s Māori and Pasifika Caucus. ...2 days ago
- Housing crisis will rage on with Budget 2025
Budget 2025 makes clear that the Coalition Government has no long-term plan to help communities most in need of public housing. ...2 days ago
- Government pours gas on the climate crisis fire
Budget 2025 has put our climate targets in serious jeopardy, says the Green Party. ...2 days ago
- Budget 2025 leaves future of school lunches uncertain
The future of the Ka Ora | Ka Ako school lunch programme looks to be uncertain with Budget 2025 failing to provide any funding beyond 2026. ...2 days ago
- Budget to increase energy hardship
Budget 2025 delays our transition to a low emissions and low-cost energy network, this will put even more pressure on households, businesses and the climate. ...2 days ago
- ‘Growth Budget’ = growth in poverty
The Government’s Budget is failing families in poverty by pulling the rug on young people receiving income support and allowing more children to go without enough food on the table. ...2 days ago
- Release: National failing on the cost of living
Despite all the promises, Kiwis are still going backwards in Budget 2025. ...2 days ago
- Release: The Austerity Budget that leaves women out
Today’s Budget is a masterclass in making the wrong decisions for New Zealanders. ...2 days ago
- Release: Bills increase transparency of money transfers and ports
Two Labour bills drawn from the Member’s Ballot today would require greater transparency of international money transfers, and bring more public accountability and transparency to port companies. ...2 days ago
- ‘Growth Budget’ growing inequality and fuelling climate crisis
Budget 2025 represents a significant step backwards for Aotearoa, with the Government adding fuel to the fire when it comes to the climate and inequality crises, says the Green Party. ...2 days ago
- Release: Half a billion dollar tax break for tech giants
The Government is taking the Digital Services Tax off their books, effectively handing a $479 million tax break to global tech giants, like Facebook and Google. ...3 days ago
- Release: Govt helps banks dodge repayment claims for Kiwis
The Government is moving to let two of the country’s most profitable banks off the hook for money owed to their customers. ...3 days ago
- Release: Search begins for rare family receiving $250
The Government can’t say if even a single family has received the $250 a fortnight they were promised. ...4 days ago
- Release: Govt risks hospice care by cutting women’s pay
The Government’s decision to cut women’s pay could result in an exodus of palliative care nurses from the profession. ...4 days ago
- Release: Govt leaves sexual abuse survivors out in the cold
The Government is quietly cutting more services for women, this time it’s ACC support for survivors of sexual abuse and pausing the expansion of a major sexual violence prevention programme. ...4 days ago
- Report shows Govt’s callous lack of support for system at breaking point
A new report from Aotearoa Educators’ Collective, released today, has confirmed what teachers, students, and whanau have been calling out for years–our learning support system is overstretched, underfunded, and simply not working. ...4 days ago
- Prime Minister must scrap the Regulatory Standards Bill
The Green Party is urging the Prime Minister to get rid of the Regulatory Standards Bill after the Waitangi Tribunal found that the Bill breaches the Crown’s Tiriti o Waitangi obligations. ...5 days ago
- Release: Women in funded sector unlikely to get pay equity
The Government is unlikely to fund pay equity for hospice and Plunket nurses, care and support workers and other workforces made up of mostly women. ...5 days ago
- Chris Hipkins Speech Auckland regional conference
Tēnā koutou katoa. It’s fantastic to be here with you all—grassroots campaigners, organisers, union members, councillors, MPs, and Labour whānau. ...7 days ago
- Release: Minister’s rash orders fail frontline providers
The Auditor-General has found serious failings in the Government’s review of frontline providers such as counselling and prevention services. ...1 week ago
- Release: Prices keep rising while National cuts women’s pay
Prices for essentials, like milk, butter and electricity continue to get more expensive under National, at the same time as the Government takes money from women’s pockets to save their budget. ...1 week ago
- Te Pāti Māori Condemns Fast-Track Approval of Seabed Mining
Te Pāti Māori is gravely concerned by the Government’s approval of the Trans-Tasman Resources (Taranaki VTM) seabed mining project under its fast-track regime. This marks the first time a commercial shallow seabed mining operation has been approved anywhere in the world- pushed through with no transparency, no public input, and ...1 week ago
- Social Security Amendment Bill pushes poverty on people
The Government’s just-passed Social Security Amendment Bill is set to create more benefit sanctions that will push families deeper into poverty. ...1 week ago
- Report exposes damage of rushed cuts to Oranga Tamariki
Today’s report into last year’s Oranga Tamariki contract procurement process confirms the Government’s brutal cuts were rushed, poorly managed, and made with no concern for the impact on tamariki. ...1 week ago
- 210,000 Māori Silenced: Committee Delivers Harshest Punishment in Parliament History
Today the Privileges Committee handed down a severe punishment. Te Pāti Māori Co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have been suspended for 21 days, and MP for Hauraki-Waikato Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke has been suspended for 7 days. ...1 week ago
- Release: Govt finally admits 180,000 in line for a pay cut
The Government finally admitted late last night that roughly 180,000 people will be affected by its decision to halt pay equity claims. ...1 week ago
- Release: Admin nearly a quarter of entire FamilyBoost spend
Nearly a quarter of the money spent on the Government’s flagship FamilyBoost policy has gone to administration, not to families to help with childcare. ...1 week ago
- Green Budget for a country worth fighting for
The Green Budget shows how much better our lives could be under a Green Government, instead of one dominated by corporate greed. ...1 week ago
- Green Budget: Early Childhood Education for Everyone
The Green Party has unveiled its new plan to make Early Childhood Education (ECE) free. ...1 week ago
- Green Budget delivers for Māori
The Green Party is delivering for Māori with its Green Budget. ...1 week ago
- Green Budget: Free GPs for all
The Green Party has launched its plan for Free GPs as part of its Green Budget. ...1 week ago
- Chris Hipkins: Pre-Budget speech
Tēnā koutou katoa. Good morning. I read recently that one of the keys to success in life is to do the hard stuff first thing in the morning. ...2 weeks ago
- Release; Budget should not be paid for by working women
The Government must do three things in Budget 2025 if it is genuinely going to turn things around for New Zealanders. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Peeni Henare takes over foreign affairs
Labour’s Peeni Henare will pick up the foreign affairs portfolio, following David Parker’s departure from Parliament. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Govt better at crushing women’s rights than cars
Rehashing old laws around boy racers is not going to make our communities safer, or distract New Zealanders from the appalling decision to cut women’s pay. ...2 weeks ago
- No Justice for State Abuse Survivors- Kapa-Kingi
Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau calls out the government’s decision to keep funding state abuse, turning their backs on justice and real change for abuse in care survivors. “The government has committed to throwing $744 million down the drain, reinforcing a violent regime of disrespect against the ...2 weeks ago
- Stepping up in a changing global environment
Good evening. Thank you to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs for organising this event, and for your efforts to foster New Zealand’s understanding of international affairs. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak here today. As keen observers and practitioners of international relations, you will all ...3 weeks ago - New High Commissioner to Kiribati announced
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Pati Gagau as New Zealand’s next High Commissioner to Kiribati. “Our diplomats play a critical role in advancing New Zealand’s interests overseas,” Mr Peters says. “Nowhere is this truer than in the Pacific, where we strive to work with our Pacific partners to forge a more ...3 weeks ago
- Changes to improve pay equity process
The Government is amending the Equal Pay Act [the Act] to make the process of raising and resolving pay equity claims more robust, workable and sustainable, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden announced today. Pay equity is achieved when women and men are paid the same for work ...3 weeks ago
- Proposals to strengthen biodiversity released
Toitū te taiao – Our environment endures The Government is consulting on proposals to better protect our precious biodiversity and its economic benefits for future generations, Conservation Minister Tama Potaka says. “Today, the Department of Conservation – Te Papa Atawhai is releasing two discussion documents for public consultation, and I ...3 weeks ago
- Trade negotiations with India commence
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- NZ-EU trade deal delivers export growth
The early entry into force of the New Zealand–European Union Trade Agreement (FTA) is paying off, with Kiwi goods exports to the EU surging by 28 per cent during the first year. “In the last 12 months our goods exports to the EU surged from $3.8 billion to over $4.8 ...3 weeks ago
- Celebrating New Zealand Sign Language
Now is the time for Kiwis to give New Zealand Sign Language a go as we take a week to celebrate the language, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) week. The theme is that “anyone can sign anywhere”. “NZSL is an official ...3 weeks ago
- Boosting high-tech exports with advanced technology
New investment in advanced technology research will boost high-tech exports, strengthen connections between research and industry and generate high value jobs, Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “Advanced technology research leads to life-changing innovation,” says Dr Reti. “The breakthroughs that can be achieved through areas like ...3 weeks ago
- Post-Cabinet Press Conference: Monday 5 May 2025
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- ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for May 24, 2025
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A post-Budget debate about accommodation supplement changes dragged into the early hours of Saturday morning. ...5 hours ago - Daylight can boost the immune system’s ability to fight infections – new study
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Hall, Associate Professor of Immunology, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Ever found yourself out of sync with normal sleep patterns after late nights or working a night shift? It could be you’re experiencing what scientists call social ...8 hours ago
- ‘I felt nothing’: Devine’s comeback after hitting empty
It was one of the finest displays of Sophie Devine’s illustrious career – and yet, she felt nothing.She knew she had little choice but to turn her back on cricket and fly home.That late January day at Hagley Oval, Devine claimed a five-wicket haul for a miserly 13 runs – ...9 hours ago - Investment Boost: Govt’s ticking fiscal time bomb
Analysis: On its face, the Government’s Investment Boost policy is hard to argue with.It is, in effect, accelerated depreciation. Businesses can deduct an extra 20 percent of a new asset’s value from their taxable income in the first year, before depreciation proceeds as normal.“It is designed to encourage firms to ...10 hours ago
- Short story: The Dart, by Miro Bilbrough
A lacework of crosses and dashes notched the counter person’s fingers and hands as I watched these elegant inky gloves tap in my details and issue me a window emergency exit-row seat, never mind that I am short. Her tatau, she explained, was a malu pattern signifying shelter, protection and ...10 hours ago
- The galaxy of the Star Wars universe stretches to infinity
In a century long gone (the last one, that many of us still remember), the world of entertainment media experienced an era of beginnings.The Lord of the Rings was written, superheroes became a thing, Winnie-the-Pooh was invented and in 1977 Star Wars was released in theatres.Since then that movie has ...10 hours ago
- The secret diary of .. the Budget
NICOLA WILLISPeople think of the Budget as an economic response to the state of the nation. And traditionally that has been the case. But this Government is not bound by tradition. This Government, Mr Speaker, is an exciting Government. The Prime Minister is exciting. You only have to spend five ...10 hours ago
- The Weekend: Did you grow up terrified of investing?
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. When I was 21 years old, I travelled to America and spent some time with my cousin in Albuquerque. She was 30 and had what I assumed was a reasonably high-paying job in healthcare. Even so, she lived a life of luxury ...11 hours ago
- Reading the lost diary of the first indigenous woman to study at Oxford
A hundred years ago, the formidable guide, scholar and cultural authority Mākereti Papakura was documenting village life, politics and high-society visits in Whakarewarewa. Now, her whanaunga June Northcroft-Grant revisits those diary pages with fresh eyes. This year, more than a century after she enrolled at Oxford University, pioneering Te Arawa ...11 hours ago
- Le Vā and the legacy of Ladi6: A soulful reckoning with grief, growth and groove
Seven years in the making, Ladi6’s new album Le Vā is a deeply personal exploration of loss, healing and reinvention. Ahead of its release, she sits down with The Spinoff to talk about finding her voice again – musically and literally. When Caroline Park-Tamati walks into the room, she’s every ...11 hours ago
- ‘Freaking obsessed’: Josh McKenzie on meeting his 90s child star crush
Josh McKenzie, local star of The Hunting Party, Filthy Rich and La Brea, shares his life in television. Like almost every New Zealand actor who has made it into a big snazzy international TV show, Josh McKenzie cut his teeth on Shortland Street long before he starred in enormous American ...11 hours ago
- Allowing my wairua to pick up the pen
Writer Shelley Burne-Field on leaving the angst behind and letting her wairua drive her stories for young people. I suspect my brain sloshes around in my skull in a much too orderly fashion. It requires everything in its particular place and has daily duels with creativity. It can overthink, swell ...11 hours ago
- Budget 2025: The teenagers feeling ignored by government’s decisions
A group of youths grappling with some of the decisions made by the government expressed their concerns at a post-Budget chat hosted by the Child Poverty Action Group. ...19 hours ago
- Budget 2025: Māori educators say boost won’t fix poor school buildings
Māori Medium schools received funding in the Budget for approximately 50 new teaching spaces. ...20 hours ago
- View from The Hill: Coalition is being glued together again after crisis week
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition is being glued together again, after a Liberal Party meeting on Friday gave the go ahead for Liberal leader Sussan Ley to negotiate with Nationals leader David Littleproud on the fine print of ...20 hours ago
- The TGA has approved donanemab for Alzheimer’s disease. How does this drug work and who will be ab...
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- The death of Jelena Dokic’s father reveals the ‘difficult and complicated grief’ of losing an ...
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- Budget 2025: Spy agencies funds cut as security threats grow
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- Antarctica has its own ‘shield’ against warm water – but this could now be under threat
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ellie Ong, Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, Monash University The Australian ice-breaker RSV Nuyina, cruising around Antarctica. Pete Harmsen/Australian Antarctic Division A little-known ocean current surrounds Antarctica, shielding it from warm water further north. But our new ...22 hours ago
- Regulatory Standards Bill passes first reading
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- Budget 2025 reaction – as it happened
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- ‘Starving’ masked Palestine protesters condemn Luxon’s Gaza ‘appeasement’
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cornell, PhD Candidate in Public Health & Community Medicine, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Almost 700 rescues had been carried out in New South Wales by Friday morning as record-breaking rainfall pounds the state. Tragically, four people have died in ...23 hours ago
- Budget 2025: Who’s worse off under new KiwiSaver changes?
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- Regulatory Standards Bill Inflicts ACT’s Far-Right Principles On Aotearoa
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- Grand Theft Academia: Government Continues To Rob Young People Of Their Futures
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- Air New Zealand to resume Auckland-Nouméa flights from November
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Air New Zealand has announced it plans to resume its Auckland-Nouméa flights from November, almost one and a half years after deadly civil unrest broke out in the French Pacific territory. “Air New Zealand is resuming its Auckland-Nouméa service starting 1 ...1 day ago
Call me dark but the Wellington fire wipes Opposition counter-budget media attacks and clears Thursday for Robertson.
Yeah that's pretty cynical
It's obscene. Comments like this are why I hate this forum.
James Shaw is furious and it's not hard to see why. The landlord, property manger, building inspector, council, and government should all be in the dock for manslaughter.
The idea housing should not be forced to be decent and safe because landlords might not invest means that vulnerable people are forced into deliberately dangerous housing.
We are a scumbag country.
Yes we are MB.
No sprinklers. The building has been used for businesses and so no sprinklers were needed at the time of building. So those workers back then were also expendable though I have heard it said that the risk was mitigated by 50% as workers had someplace else to go after they finished work.
As well as people with limited choices of where to live we have people with limited choices of the items they place or use in the places they are housed. I don't know if these apply to Loafers Lodge but often people with low incomes have to buy cheaper furniture so with a MDF construction, polyfoam padding and synthetic covering. These often sit on solution dyed nylon carpet as we cannot afford to put down heavy commercial wool carpet. We have synthetic curtains.
People may sleep in beds with polycotton sheets and poly duvets etc. Their clothes may be mainly synthetic and not inherently warmer and so a reliance on heaters from the cheap end of the market…..
All of these poly products are much more flammable. Some such as furniture can be gasp- and hard breathing- inducing once they a start to burn. And they stick to the skin & burn.
These products are cheap and affordable and not good healthy quality or standards. But is there a rule that only wealthy people can afford clothes and furniture that is going to possibly play a part in killing us?
At the moment in every op shop in NZ there is a wool bale or two filled to brimming with single use synthetic clothes. With the best will people do try to recycle these clothes with high levels of artificial fibres but most of the time shops cannot put them out to sell. So they either go to tips and form masses that will be with us forever or get shipped to places in the Pacific where bales sit in towns, along riverbanks etc waiting to be recycled.
We seem to rapidly, well over the last 20 or so years, become a poor poor country. Actually probably when the tariffs protecting NZ clothing, bedding and furniture manufacturers were lifted back in the 1980/90s and the invasion of cheap synthetics began.
Maga goes full Ariosophy.
@patriottakes
At Trump Doral, Prophet Amanda Grace warned of technologically advanced “mermaids and water people” spreading perversion and told the crowd, “we are meant for hand to hand combat.”
https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1657868909716951041
Shout out to NZTA/Waka Kotahi (and presumably the local roading crews in Hawkes Bay and Wairoa) for getting the Wairoa to Napier road open in well under the initial estimates.
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/media-releases/first-vehicles-begin-their-journey-between-wairoa-and-napier-on-sh2/
When I saw the pictures (both in the papers, and sent by family/friends in the area) of major bridges totally destroyed – and sections of the road just vanished – I thought they'd be lucky to get the road open in under a year – and the initial estimates were 12 months
https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/02/22/cyclone-hit-and-isolated-wairoa-faces-year-of-road-closures/
But the roading crews have done an almighty job – despite ongoing weather issues making life difficult.
No, it's not complete, and there's still a lot of work to do – in building a more resilient roading system. But, interesting comments on the original infrastructure which has stood the test of time (and cyclones) and is still fit for purpose.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/an-engineering-marvel-what-its-like-to-drive-the-newly-opened-napier-wairoa-rd/73DB7B6HHBHYLFSUI46DJ6WVAM/
It's not business as usual. The transit time will be significantly greater, as there are one-way stretches, and walking-speed across the temporary Bailey bridge. But a heck of a lot better than nothing.
This road is a lifeline for the people of Wairoa and surrounds. It's so good to see it operational again.
I agree Great to see. Makes those who say, "they are not doing enough" look a tad self interested?
Who woulda thunk it?
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The U.S. Virgin Islands has subpoenaed Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk for documents in its lawsuit accusing JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) of helping enable sexual abuses by late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-virgin-islands-subpoenaed-elon-musk-jeffrey-epstein-litigation-2023-05-15/?