Daily Review 26/10/2018
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5:30 pm, October 26th, 2018 - 59 comments
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- Dragging our way towards the finish line, the end of this year can’t come soon enough for many…
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...10 hours ago - Handling Democracy.
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...11 hours ago - Open letter to the Minister of Dwindling Finances
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...12 hours ago - Open Government: The joke ends
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...13 hours ago - An unusual sort of press conference
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...13 hours ago - This substack has talked about this government’s seeming corruption & pro-corporate issues...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...14 hours ago - NZCTU: Minister needs to listen to the evidence on engineered stone ban
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...14 hours ago - Wednesday 18 December
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...15 hours ago
- Can the government change its mind on the ferries?
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...15 hours ago
- Notes from Afar: Will Luxon Attend Waitangi Day? And Opposition Calls Out Nicola Willis for “C...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...18 hours ago - Member’s morning
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...19 hours ago
- Going Backwards
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...21 hours ago - Blaming Treasury & Labour, Willis looks for even more Austerity
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...21 hours ago - December-24 AT Board Meeting
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...21 hours ago - The Making of a Mental Health Rockstar
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...22 hours ago - It could have been worse
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...24 hours ago - The Deep Divisions of Local Government
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...1 day ago - Willis’ austerity strategy just isn’t working
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...1 day ago
- Sabin 33 #7 – Are solar projects hurting farmers and rural communities?
On November 1, 2024 we announced the publication of 33 rebuttals based on the report "Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles" written by Matthew Eisenson, Jacob Elkin, Andy Fitch, Matthew Ard, Kaya Sittinger & Samuel Lavine and published by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia ...1 day ago - Join us for a pop-up Hoon at 5pm on HYEFU
2 days ago - ‘Ideas Worth Saving’: A Call for Papers
Some years ago, I found myself pondering the power of literature to endure. Or at least the power of some of it to endure, while the rest vanishes in mere decades: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2019/08/07/look-on-my-works-ye-mighty-and-despair-the-literary-future/. I have similarly had fun with the subject in some of my short stories, such as Another Alexandria ...2 days ago - Corrections is torturing prisoners again
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...2 days ago
- HYEFU and BPS data shows New Zealand is way off track
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...2 days ago
- “Better economic management”
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...2 days ago
- Shameless, clueless
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...2 days ago - Minimum wage ‘increase’ is an effective cut
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...2 days ago
- Crazy ’bout a Sharp-dressed Man
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...2 days ago - How much should you worry about a collapse of the Atlantic conveyor belt?
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson In this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...2 days ago
- 8% ACT Party Creates One Ring To Rule Them All
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...2 days ago - When austerity worsens public debt & cuts GDP
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...2 days ago
- Govt to double number of toll roads
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...2 days ago
- Luxon’s pre-emptive strike
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...2 days ago
- Gordon Campbell On The Coalition’s Empty Gestures, And Abortion Refusal As The New Slavery
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...2 days ago - More public service contempt of parliament
Back in 2023 the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties raised concerns about the inherent conflict of interest involved in public service agencies supporting parliamentary select committees. Our parliament is run on a shoestring, so depends on the public service for advice. But public service agencies work for Ministers, not ...2 days ago
- If There Is A God
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...3 days ago - A Lipstick Government
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...3 days ago - NZCTU open letter to Treasury on undue restrictions on restricted briefings
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...3 days ago
- Why you won’t hear me advocate for electric cars
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate. I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...3 days ago
- Coalition forced to back down on tolling Pahiatua track
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...3 days ago
- Thank You
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...3 days ago - 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #50
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...3 days ago
- Making Gravy
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...4 days ago - Nothing here but the shadows
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...4 days ago - The United Right: the FSU’s Continued Efforts to Undermine Academia
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...4 days ago
- Showing the Americans how to do it
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...4 days ago
- 2 Men, 1 Haircut
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...5 days ago - Chris Penk’s Hate Parade
What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...5 days ago - Tell me a story
All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...5 days ago - As Our Power Lessens: Accepted
2024 is now officially my best-ever year for short stories. My 1,850-word dark fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens, has been accepted for the upcoming solstice edition of Eternal Haunted Summer (https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/), thereby making that six published short stories for the calendar year. As always, see the Bibliography page for ...6 days ago - Six years of work wasted – Holidays Act reform now years away
Brooke van Velden has wasted six years of work from businesses, unions, and government by binning planned Holidays Act reforms, said Acting CTU President Rachel Mackintosh in response to today’s announcement from Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety. “The Minister has cynically kicked the can on Holiday Act reform even ...6 days ago
- Come Undone?
Words, playing me deja vuLike a radio tune, I swear I've heard beforeChill, is it something real?Or the magic I'm feeding off your fingersWho do you need?Who do you love?When you come undoneSongwriters: John Taylor / Simon Le Bon / Nick Rhodes / Warren Cuccurullo.When this three-way coalition was being ...6 days ago - ‘Tis The Season …
Last week, I was speaking to a doctor in a public health hospital.She was wearing a brown Christmas seasoned shirt littered with pics of candy canes, elves, Xmas trees and mini Santas.And it took me a few minutes into the conversation before the realisation slowly struck me: “It’s Christmas time..!”How ...6 days ago - Friday 13 December
More public service job cuts are on the way, with hundreds more jobs set to be axed at Health NZ, and close to 50 jobs at Te Arawhiti. Winston Peters is saying Nicola Willis’ ferry proposal is now dead in the water and that he is going back to the ...6 days ago
- Govt cancels Tauranga housing expansion
Mōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 12 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below are:The National-ACT-NZ First Government, which has a ‘Going for Housing Growth’ policy designed to massively ...6 days ago
- Weekly Roundup 13-December-2024
It’s one of the final Fridays of the year and we are getting into the last couple of weeks before the summer shutdown. We hope everyone’s excited to have a break! Here’s some of the stories that have caught our attention this week. This post, like all our work, is ...6 days ago
- The Hoon around the week to December 13
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with: on the Government’s inadequate final emissions reduction plan and pro-business climate appointments; on the lightening overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and what might ...6 days ago
- Our Education System Will Be the Battlegrounds for the New Culture War
Luxon is the best negotiator. He’s just negotiated us into a culture war and he doesn’t even know it. Neoliberalism is preventing our school system from serving the population. People — most people — cannot really select the schools their children go to unless they are wealthy enough to pay ...6 days ago - The ferry saga; cracks in the coalition and closing Wellington’s container port
Yesterday, the coalition showed the first real public signs of cracks, as Ministers and the Prime Minister spent the day contradicting each other over the future of the inter-island ferries. The cracks between ACT and New Zealand First have always been there. But what made yesterday’s exchanges different was that ...6 days ago
- Chris Penk Personally Intervenes for Holocaust Denier
The general advertising strategy of far-right speakers for the last few years has been to announce they’re coming to New Zealand, wait for their visa to be denied or their venue to cancel on them, and then use that free promotion and outrage generation (sponsored by the Free Speech Union) ...6 days ago - Wulf vs Beowulf: A Review of The War of the Rohirrim (2024)
Oh good. Back to the Tolkien adaptations. Not just any Tolkien adaptation either. The story of Helm Hammerhand, as done in anime style – something a bit different. It’s actually the first animated Tolkien adaptation since Rankin-Bass’ Return of the King in 1980, as well as the first Tolkien adaptation ...6 days ago - Georgescu and the Arrogance of the West
I enjoy reading the views of pundits and people. I like knowing what they think, and why they think it. But sometimes I look at what commentators are saying and where conversations are leading and I despair. How often do we here on the left do the right’s job for ...6 days ago - Gordon Campbell On The Latest Round Of Ferry Follies
The scorned iRex option would have entered service in 2026. Thanks to Finance Minister Nicola Willis, there will now be a three year delay until 2029 at the earliest. Instead of fit-for-purpose iRex ferries, Willis is likely by then to have saddled us with smaller, less capable, more weather vulnerable ...6 days ago
- Rotten to the core
Just a few months ago, Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming was one of the final two candidates for the position of police commissioner. Now, he's on leave and facing multiple investigations for unspecified wrongdoing: The second-most powerful police officer in the country is on leave pending separate investigations, the Herald ...6 days ago
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #50 2024
Open access notables: Regional Impacts Poorly Constrained by Climate Sensitivity, Swaminathan et al., Earth's Future: Climate risk assessments must account for a wide range of possible futures, so scientists often use simulations made by numerous global climate models to explore potential changes in regional climates and their impacts. Some of ...6 days ago
- About Syria.
I have been thinking about Syria and coverage of the fall of the Assad regime, and to be honest I believe that there is something missing from the picture being painted, at least in NZ. Although I am no expert … Continue reading ...7 days ago - The Two Hundred Million Dollar question
Here we see Napoleon delivering glory in Russia.Here we see Elizabeth Holmes delivering a blood test for anything. Read more ...7 days ago - Luxon & Willis Double Down on Ferries Debacle
The day before today, Nicola Willis told the House that they would have to wait until the ferries announcement for the details about ferries cost etc. It was the same promise Luxon has been making in Parliament over the last weeks and months: the details are coming, the details are ...7 days ago
- Luigi Mangione and Jury Nullification
Luigi Mangione, the shooter of the Ultimate Healthcare CEO, has been caught by the cops after a tip-off from a McDonalds worker. (A timely reminder, perhaps, that there is an official boycott against McDonalds for their profiting from and support of Israel’s occupation in Palestine, and it has been having ...7 days ago - Thursday 12 December
There has been widespread condemnation of the Government’s mishandling of the Cook Strait ferry replacements, including from unions, industry, and political parties. It has also led to public division among the coalition, with Winston Peters and David Seymour at odds regarding cost and privatisation. In other political news, Labour says ...7 days ago
- Foreshadowing HYEFU 2024
By way of prologue, the closest parallel to the current economic situation may be when Ruth Richardson became Minister of Finance in late 1990. The economy had been contracting, although there were signs of a fragile recovery. She was an Austerian and cut public spending savagely. The economy plunged a ...7 days ago - How unusual is current post-El Niño warmth?
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink As I noted a few months back, despite the end of El Niño conditions in May, global temperatures have remained worryingly elevated. This raises the question of whether this reflects unusual El Niño behavior, or a more persistent change in the underlying climate forcings ...7 days ago
- Nicky No Boats
I remember you by, thunderclap in the skyLightning flash, tempers flare'Round the horn if you dareI just spent six months in a leaky boatLucky just to keep afloatSongwriters: Brian Timothy FinnToday, a tale of such ineptitude, unwarranted confidence and underplanning that you will scarcely believe it. I can hear you ...7 days ago - Ferries delayed again, then handed to Peters, who hits out at Seymour
Willis wouldn’t give a cost estimate or confirm new ferries would be ‘rail enabled’ rather than ‘rail-compatible’, but Seymour has let slip the ferries and ‘landside’ development would cost around $1.5 billion. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...7 days ago
- When Should You Consider Retreat? – The Sooner the Better
This is a guest post by Waitematā local board member Dr Alex Bonham, about the Auckland Council’s Shoreline Adaption Plans. Currently consultation is open for the Auckland Central & Ōrākei to Karaka Bay SAPs until December 18th. If the sea bowls through your front door, through the house and ...7 days ago
- Shameless advertising: Two days only — 50% off subscriptions, forever
But wait!! If you would like to pay me LESS, on Friday the discount will be bigger. Subscription benefits include my endless gratitude, warm fuzzy feelings, bragging rights, and a slight spring in your step. ...7 days ago
- Release: Hikes for company directors but not ordinary Kiwis
Working people are going backwards while company directors are being given huge pay hikes. ...14 hours ago - ECE no place to cut corners
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...16 hours ago - Release: Strengthening Justice Services for New Zealanders
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...17 hours ago
- Release: Labour will continue fight against destructive projects
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...1 day ago
- Green Government will revoke dodgy fast-track projects
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...1 day ago
- Government for the wealthy keeps pushing austerity
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...2 days ago
- Release: Visa changes let migrant workers be paid less
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...2 days ago
- Release: Nightmare before Christmas for Nicola Willis
With more debt and a larger deficit, Nicola Willis’ reputation is in tatters after her failure to return the Government’s books to surplus. ...2 days ago
- Warning to Fast-Track Applicants – ‘Exploit the Whenua, Face the Consequences’
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...2 days ago
- Release: Govt cuts wages for lowest paid NZers… again
For the second year running, the government has effectively cut wages for the lowest paid workers in New Zealand. ...2 days ago
- Govt’s miserly 1.5% minimum wage will take workers backwards
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...2 days ago
- Release: Govt shirking responsibility for rate hikes
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...2 days ago
- Luxon’s ‘localism’ strikes again
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...2 days ago
- Release: Govt breaks promise on EV chargers
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...3 days ago
- Greens call for end to subsidies for Methanex
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...3 days ago
- Govt child poverty targets allow for increase in poverty
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...6 days ago
- Release: Four weeks annual leave under threat
The Government’s attack on workers continues with news it is scrapping work on the Holidays Act. ...6 days ago
- Govt’s emissions plan for measly 1% reduction
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...6 days ago
- Greens stand in solidarity with Whakaata Māori on sad day
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...6 days ago
- Sanctions regime to create more hardship for families
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...6 days ago
- Govt gifts renters housing anxiety for Christmas
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...6 days ago
- Release: National Party urged to support modern slavery legislation
Labour is urging the Prime Minister to walk the talk and support legislation combating modern slavery. ...7 days ago
- Release: Labour has lost confidence in the Speaker
The Speaker of the New Zealand Parliament made an unprecedented decision on the government amendment to the Fast Track Approvals Bill last night. ...7 days ago
- One year on, still no progress on new ferries
Today’s announcement from the Government on its plan for new ferries throws more uncertainty on the future of the country’s rail network. ...1 week ago
- Release: Nicola Willis’ smaller ferries will cost more
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...1 week ago
- Bill to sanction unlawful occupation of Palestine
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...1 week ago
- Release: Labour fully supports greyhound racing ban
The Government has done the right thing in moving to ban greyhound racing. ...1 week ago
- Greyhound racing industry ban marks new era for animal welfare
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...1 week ago
- Rangatahi voices must be centred in Government’s Relationship and Sexuality Education refresh
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...1 week ago
- Govt introduces archaic anti-worker legislation
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...1 week ago
- Winston Peters – Kinleith Mill Speech
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...1 week ago - Swarbrick calls on Auckland Mayor to end delay of revival of St James Theatre
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...2 weeks ago
- He Ara Anamata: Greens launch Emissions Reduction Plan
Today, the Green Party of Aotearoa proudly unveils its new Emissions Reduction Plan–He Ara Anamata–a blueprint reimagining our collective future. ...2 weeks ago
- Fossil fuel lobbyist appointment to EECA board called out
The Green Party condemns the Government’s appointment of a fossil fuel lobbyist to the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority Board. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Boot camps must be shut down today
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Another thing for vegans to be outraged about
Bank notes are not vegan.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12149227&ref=NZH_fb&fbclid=IwAR2BcVbprIsS470ZzPRYTKfPw8wtUIyVr-V8ZFtQsxziQnmj8_8mwZTbxoQ
Time to go cashless then.
No.
Draco, for someone who has a reasonably strong grasp on what ailes this world, including the financial shortcomings…
It makes your blindspot for cashless all the more illogical…
Have a think…
I’ve thought about it. That’s why I wrote it up.
So far no one has been able to come up with an argument against it.
OK, – Here’s one… who’s going to be ultimately in charge of that cashless society and going by the latest behavior with the ChiNational party do you really think whoever it will be can be trusted?
I’d hate to think how the Euros or Americans or Chinese or anyone else would love to have all that economic power over the rest of the world.
You are better off with individual curreny’s despite all its shortcomings.
Yes, we need to make sure to change it so that we’re the government that parliament is merely the administrators and that foreign influence is removed from our politics.
That, of course, all needs to happen.
They already have that power. Only a sovereign money system can remove it.
You’re advocating that every individual have their own currency?
Beggars can’t afford an eftpos machine.
That makes absolutely no sense.
You know, folks with a hat and a sign sitting in the streets like they have nowhere to go.
Without cash, how do people give them money? Or buskers, for that matter. Or how do they pay for goods if the eftpos goes down because some digger went through a fibre cable??
There are no beggars is Draco’s utopia. Everyone wears the same clothes, a silver jumpsuit, wearing one of the two brands of shoes made by the state. Red shoes denote a party member whereas white shoes mean they are a citizen. Everyone has a slightly glowing blue halo surrounding their bodies and everyone smiles in self satisfaction as they ride the “Mini-Tube” (what we’d call a Subway but much faster) to their assigned factories for a day of work.
Same clothes ?
You mean like a 2 piece business suit or overalls with high viz vest ?
opps .. too late
Yep. The level of conformity for clothing has increased significantly over the last few decades.
“Yep. The level of conformity for clothing has increased significantly over the last few decades.”
What bullshit. People wear far less suits and offices go for far more casual these days. You’re talking out ya ass. Even my doctor dresses down.
Shit, I’ve been white collar for my entire working life and in 20 years I have had to wear a suit for only two jobs.
And high vis vests are for safety reasons, not conformity
So…[citation needed]
And there you go lying about me again.
No, I’m making fun of you
There really shouldn’t be beggars. Yes, I know that they’re structural and part of the present system as it creates ever more poverty. We have to change the system there.
That said, under such a system they would have a bank account and so anybody wishing to give them money would be able to make a bank transfer upon the spot using their phone.
I’d expect buskers to have applied for and get a Paywave device as part of their business. Supplied, of course, for free by the government.
Why would you need to? It’s an accident. It happens but infrequently and you should be able to get over the few hours of it being down by simply being a responsible adult.
Lol
Sorry, I thought you might have been suggesting a real-world solution, not something to be implemented after poverty has been eradicated, everyone’s willingly thoroughly documented and computerised, people are patient and never in need of something ASAP (paracetemol, etc), and the government routinely hands out free gadgets to anyone upon request.
Once that all happens, I might consider your cashless idea reasonable, rather than just something convenient for you being spouted as good for everyone.
There are many parts – not just one.
And considering that ~70% and increasing of transactions are already cashless we’re already well on our way. Of course, ATM, the entire financial system is owned and controlled by faceless, unelected dictators in the form of the private banking system.
Draco, good on you for authoring that document
You have thought it through…in what reads like a bubble…seemingly without an understanding of what you’ve written…certainly with no reference to the controllers of the worlds banking and finance markets…
‘They’ will not be handing over the control, of their control…
What you’ve described and advocated for, repeatedly, is a fully trackable and auditable financial prison system…
Are you even remotely aware of the technical developments in peer to peer untrackable payment technologies? Not bitcoin
Human beings should not be trapped within digital prisons…which is what your article and comments are describing and suggesting as a positive…
Each point in your article has a valid counter point, which easily exposes your position and why it should not happen…
You’ve not thought it through appropriately…if you had… you couldn’t claim ‘no arguments against’…not with a straight face…
I’ll have a full debate with you on this topic, as soon as you publish an updated version, highlighting the constraints and risks with your ‘system’…
Whinging about that isn’t how we get that control back. We have to take it.
It’s not a prison system at all.
Yes and am fully against them as they allow ever more corruption and disconnect the financial system even more from reality than it already is.
Then you’ll be able to list them and provide arguments.
I have never claimed that and never will.
Translation: I have absolutely no arguments against what you said so I’ll wait until you provide them.
Financial Prison System…
Did you deliberately leave out the word, FINANCIAL?
That you don’t see what you’ve described is the barriers you have to understanding why ‘cashless’ the way you fantasize about it…can’t happen…won’t happen…
So you’re ‘aware’ of the P2P technologies but you ‘ignore’ them…being against it will not stop it…I’ll take P2P cashless over your version all day…but I’ll take cash and barter over all others…
so far no ones been able to come up with an argument against…
So you didn’t make that claim then…perhaps you can clarify it more clearly…because you’ve made that claim…perhaps you don’t read widely enough or live in la la land…seems that is the case…
List the arguments you have and haven’t heard then…before you tell me I’ve got no arguments..
You made that claim…back it up!
It’s already happening it’s just being done by the private dictators in the banks rather than by government.
I made that claim – it just doesn’t match your assertion of it:
You either need reading and comprehension lessons or you’re lying.
And what I describe is not a prison system financial or otherwise. It’s a means to help get the financial system reconnected to physical reality. It goes hand in hand with a sovereign monetary system.
I asked for you to clarify what you meant in your comments, and suggested how you may do so by providing the arguments you have and have not heard…
Thus giving some credence to YOUR comment, which you are now trying to project away from with childish insults and accusations…
Why is it you are unwilling to provide substance to YOUR claim…regarding a document which YOU authored…
Why would you not ?
Speaking of assertions I’d like the citation for Draco’s “clothes are much more conformist now”
More likely they read that and think your not worth arguing with.
^ trying to argue with Draco is a sisyphean ordeal.
The Fisk take on journalists and ME government.
I knew just what Jamal Khashoggi’s murder really meant in the context of the Middle East last week when I realised just who I’d have to call to explain it to me. Whom would I telephone to learn what was going on? Why, of course, I’d call Jamal Khashoggi. And that’s why his murder is so important. Because he was, as he knew, a lone and important Arab journalist who did not listen – not any more — to His Master’s Voice. And that, of course, was his problem.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/khashoggi-latest-saudi-arabia-murder-yemen-consulate-istanbul-turkey-mecca-a8600886.html
Robert Fisk is a man to admire and learn from. Not every word he types will be gospel rectitude, we can argue his information and logic. But we must learn from his courage, tenacity and desire for truth.
More connections between Chinese money and the National Party.
“National president named chairman of Chinese conference by alleged donor Zhang.
National president Peter Goodfellow says he and two MPs have been made honorary chairmen of a major Chinese conference organised by a businessman at the centre the party’s political donation scandal.
MP Jami-Lee Ross Ross alleged last week National Party leader Simon Bridges had broken the law by not correctly declaring a $100,000 donation he claimed was made by Yikun Zhang, his business partner, and associate Colin Zheng.
Goodfellow also has close connections with Zhang, and he accepted his invitation in 2017 to become an honorary chairman of the 20th International Teochew Conference in Auckland.
The conference, to be held over three days in September next year at SkyCity, will attract more than 1000 high-powered Chinese business people.
It is being organised by Chao Shan General Association of New Zealand, which Zhang established in 2014 for New Zealander-Chinese who share the same hometown of Chaoshan, a region in the coastal city of Guangdong in China.
Zhang is chairman of the Chao Shan General Association of New Zealand and Zheng is executive chairman of the 20th Teochew International Conference.”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/108124777/national-president-named-chairman-of-chinese-conference-by-alleged-donor-zhang
Chinese Money
An influential United States Congress hearing has been told “one of the major fundraisers for Jacinda Ardern’s party” is linked to the Chinese Communist Party and it showed China had penetrated New Zealand’s political networks.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12058818
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11924169
The major funder part is a beat up by Fisher…who’s interviewed his computer for the story. No sums are mentioned but later stories seem to indicate it referred to a hugely expensive bottle of wine…a line that was debunked… Which Fisher knew about and was in collusion with national over
You mean that bottle of wine at a Labour fund-raising event in Hawkes Bay? The one that was auctioned off for… wasn’t it $200? Later Liu tried to claim he payed much more for it but if my memory serves me correctly it was proven he lied.
Our own annual Labour electorate wine auction is coming up this weekend and there are plenty that hit the $200 mark. Gotta keep those Party dues going somehow!
I’m not a my side vs your side sort of guy.
Personally, I don’t have an issue with Chinese people donating to NZ political parties.
China is just one huge company all they’re interested in is getting work and making money for China.
Yes, – one that wants to make NZ Inc part of their corporate.
No thanks,… we’ve already seen how that functions under the ChiNational party. We don’t want anymore of it , either.
“I’m not a my side vs your side sort of guy.” No, NO – please stop – I’ve split my sides!
Keep beating the drum BM… I’d give more credence to you feigned anxiety, if you had querried National’s contacts!!!
Yes, Chinese money in NZ politics is bad – no matter who gets it.
And I don’t actually believe the CIA or pretty much anything that comes out of the US. They’ve spent too much time fucking around in everybody else’s politics for the gain of their rich.
Isn’t Chaoshan a sub region of Guangdong province.
It’s supposed to be the ‘home region’ of almost all the overseas Chinese in S E Asia.
The NZ Chinese from goldrush days mostly came from the adjacent Fuijian province. I hope I got that right
Gawd – The Kings Of Leon?
Fucking atrocious band
In “your” opinionated opinion…
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/communication-success/201606/5-keys-handling-judgmental-and-opinionated-people
Thank You.
Of course, it’s music after all. It’s all personal preference
Nice day today eh!
Terrible, Now for something decent.
Na, this is more my speed….
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=siCItdnj_6E
(Err what’s embed?)
Sorry, posted the wrong link, I have an eclectic taste in music.
Nice, BM .
🙂
Good gear there John.
why so serious…have a little fun
Noise pollution.
26 Oct 2017 – 26 Oct 2018
Yes.
And it seems that the reach of kindness has a limit, and those dependent on benefits and especially those on the Supported Living Payment are still outside the circle of warmth.
Still wedged in the margins.
Kay commented earlier on this….https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26-10-2018/#comment-1542552
…and it seems a topic undeserving of the attention of other Standardistas.
However…to the rescue comes Bomber…who gives the COL a well deserved D fucking minus for welfare reforms.
“Once upon a time in New Zealand, the agencies of state welfare were constructed as an instrumental and direct means to ensure our egalitarian values.
Social welfare was seen as a way to redistribute back to the most vulnerable amongst us and these agencies were critical in carrying out that redistribution.
There was a pride involved in this public service, our compassion made us unique and it built the values from which we as New Zealanders have benefitted from.
That simply is no longer the case.
For the last 30+ years, the neoliberal experiment has turned our once egalitarian welfare state into a neoliberal welfare state. The branches of social welfare, the MoD, CYFS, Corrections, Parole Services, Housing NZ, WINZ and Mental health have all been warped and mutated into weapons to punish the poor for being vulnerable.
In a culture of selfish consumerism where success is private and failure is personal , we see the poor as victims of their own circumstance rather than as a result of the hegemonic structures of power.
The poor, the vulnerable, the weak, the sick and the disabled do everything in their power now not to be needing assistance from these Government agencies, because these Government agencies don’t help, they only punish.
Labour have done sweet fuck all to change this toxic culture other than asking for a second sign off to ending welfare. Yay, Labour are only slightly less cruel than National, what a victory for human decency.
Suicide rates continue to soar, our mental health system is as dysfunctional as ever before and lip service is given to the politics of kindness.”
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/10/26/one-year-of-the-new-government-the-faded-hope-of-a-hollow-promise-grading-the-issues/
I don’t always see eye to eye with the Brad…but this time he’s nailed it.
So, Happy Bloody Birthday, COL…you betcha, we’re all feeling the love.
Yep. This is a major fail. Ditto for the home care workers featured on Checkpoint tonight, who can’t afford the petrol to do their jobs.
It seems to me that the current Labour-led government is focused on appealing to the middle classes. What ever happened to Savage’s Labour and the large number of Kiwis that supported it?
” What ever happened to Savage’s Labour and the large number of Kiwis that supported it?”
Those Kiwis who supported Savage’s Labour are still there..but they’re mostly rural/remote(in my experience), and far from the trendy political sophistication of the city folk.
But…since most Kiwis are now city folk…
As a student, and a subscriber to ‘student hardship’ (what you get in between school years) I can attest to the punitive suspicious and outright hostile environment that is WINZ.
You know in phone calls they’ll tell you it is being recorded for training… You know, that knowledge they think will force you to be docile. Doesn’t work. Turn the tables and they squirm like the proverbial worm.
Hot tip. Tell them you record everything. Tell them your phone is on record when they start their BS. Watch them freak out, pupils dilate, sweat on brow.. then put on a fake smile, and do their fucking job.
Every company or department I deal with now believes they are being recorded. No more BS. The only thing they seem to understand is profit and fear of being exposed as the inhuman shits they can be.
Zero tolerance for assholes. Take no prisoners.
“Tell them you record everything. Tell them your phone is on record when they start their BS. Watch them freak out, pupils dilate, sweat on brow.. then put on a fake smile, and do their fucking job.
Every company or department I deal with now believes they are being recorded. No more BS. The only thing they seem to understand is profit and fear of being exposed as the inhuman shits they can be.
Zero tolerance for assholes. Take no prisoners.”
Actual happening….
Walk/wheel into meeting room at local DHB for meeting with three managers associated with older people and rehabilitation services and the NASC to discuss complaint about said NASC.
You have an advocate from the Health and Disability Commission with you.
You place the voice recorder on the table and inform them of its existence…hoping this will encourage them to put aside the obfuscating bs, answer your questions and address your concerns and help devise a path for the future.
Next hour is more bs (from them). Total and absolute refusal to address any of our issues. Non reaction at calling one of them a liar. They had come up with the strategy to turn it back on us and imply that we had not cooperated with assessments and they hinted at dire consequences if we (again) ‘declined services’ even if the services offered are so unfit for purpose it would be dangerous to use them.
Long story short….we fully cooperated with their full on assessment, which arrived at a higher allocation of care hours than already offered.
This was cut back to the existing level and two out of the three designated care providers were horrifyingly inappropriate.
We have all of this in writing and in the voice record.
Like us….it counts for nothing.
“Wonderful to have @jacindaardern drop in on our @NZGreens Caucus Planning Day to talk about a year in Government with @nzlabour & #NZFirst.”
https://twitter.com/EugenieSage/status/1055643410068004864
And ; PM reflects on a coalition government one year on.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018668367/pm-reflects-on-a-coalition-government-one-year-on
Anyone else go to Rhian Sheehan tonight at Auckland’s Q Theatre?
What magic!
Awesome sounds.
Reminds me of: