So there's two board members heading in the same direction. Maybe more, time will tell. I wonder if the board will adopt a set of operational principles.
Musk’s vision is to generate revenue for Twitter from subscriptions rather than advertising. Without having to worry about attracting and retaining advertisers, Twitter would have less pressure to focus on content moderation. This could make Twitter a sort of freewheeling opinion site for paying subscribers.
The writer is apprehensive about a lack of content moderation (Anjana Susarla is a Professor of Information Systems at the Michigan State University.). Given the likely size of the subscriber community, seems inevitable that intelligent design of a suitable moderation system will become a priority – even if they go for open slather as policy, the herding shit hitting the proverbial will likely force realisation that it was a mistake.
Twitter’s own algorithmic bias bounty challenge concluded that there needs to be a community-led approach to build better algorithms. A very creative exercise developed by the MIT Media Lab asks middle schoolers to re-imagine the YouTube platform with ethics in mind. Perhaps it is time to ask Musk to do the same with Twitter.
Good thinking there, prof! I'd go for crowd-sourcing editorial advice in general (from users) with reference to moderation as first priority…
Obviously you did not read his updates etc on the protest at Parliament Grounds. Also his continued exposing of those on the far right Sivell, Flutey, Counterspin, the farcical Sheriffs and Sov Cit movement etc. His thoughts on the Canterbury massacre come from a distaste for those involved in far right politics/thoughts.
Amazing how prescient some of the rebels of yore were isn't it? Some of what Tame Iti is saying is quite mainstream and commonsense now but it was seen as revolutionary at one time. Of course those mired in the thoughts and actions of the past and not paying attention to the movement of thought/discourse will still find them revolutionary etc.
But I suppose by the same token he might have a unique perspective on the Christchurch massacre.
LOL …Convoy protest 21/2/22 « The Standard… bear in mind the bloated Pakeha Woke New Middle-Class (see Shanreagh above), always poised to indulge in performative narcissism on a truly ostentatious scale, experience a genuine frisson of delight at the merest mention of violent, deluded wanna-be Māori Che Guevaras … Colonisation, it seems, justifies anything & everything (unless, of course, it's inflicted on the affluent Woke themselves) … and … that all-important aura of radical chic.
The cynic might observe that the NZ Police had zero intel on the Christchurch shooter because he and his ilk, rather than exercise free speech in public, were radicalising and organising as secretively as possible. It's the ones that don't wear their views on their sleeve that you have to worry about. The loud ones you know to keep an eye on.
Slimeball A reviews slimeball B interviewing slimeball A:
Unlike others, I don’t believe Piers is a complete slimeball, but he lost a lot of credibility. Interestingly, many of the Fake News Media outlets are covering his mistake. They view it as potentially fraudulent, and so do I. Piers is off to a bad start, but thanks to me, he may get a final burst of big ratings before it all comes crashing down!” https://order-order.com/
So there was a media event involving colliding egos of the rightist persuasion:
in classic tabloid style, much is made of Trump’s walkout at the end of his interview. Did it really happen? Despite being teased in trailers for the past week, you’ll have to tune in to episode two to find out.
This week I took advantage of recess and went out on the road to talk with people about our policies and principles. Crucially, I also wanted to hear what they thought – about their lives, about what needs to change, about what they need from government to help make that happen. That is because the politics of the Labour Party must come from the people it represents.
The biggest frustration of my leadership has been Covid making it so hard to get out of Westminster more to hear from people across the country. I know the best policies and the best ideas are written with and alongside people, not handed to them by Westminster.
That’s why since restrictions began to lift, I’ve been out and about at every opportunity. This week, we went to Sunderland, Burnley and Birmingham.
Indeed it is. Talk about projection! They are claiming the Labour Party are hell bent on undermining democracy when everything they do and say is a pack of lies which is the hallmark of those who undermine our democratic system of government.
7. I note that this analysis is based only on the text of the Bill and publicly available information released by the Council and the Local Government Commission. The
conclusion I have reached, that the Bill cannot be justified under s 5 of the Bill of
Rights Act, is largely due to the absence of information and analysis available to
provide justification for the limit on the right to freedom from discrimination
This has been mentioned in the reporting I've seen, but not explained. But consider that it's discrimination to have single sex spaces, and so we can and do make provision for this. My reading isn't that the Rotorua Bill is wrong, but that the AG couldn't make any other recommendation because he lacked the information to do so. Haven’t read the whole report yet.
From the NZ Herald ” a bill that would increase Maori voting rights in Rotorua’s local elections cannot be justified and discrimates against general roll voters, the Attorney General has found”
I used the words Tamati Coffey was trying to "sneak through" because rather than go through the committee concerned with parliament, voting etc, (I am sorry the name for the committee escapes me) he put it through the Maori Affairs select committee, allowing only two weeks for consultation, which included over the Easter period.
I also posted about this bill before, asking Sabine if she knew about it, as she is in the Rotorua area. She said she only knew about it because of National and NZ first, so I assumed that meant that Labour hadn't in any way canvassed the locals about this bill. I think that is a reasonable assumption.
Labour never canvassed on this proposal of co-governance. It is a significant change to how NZ runs in democracy. I think we have a right to debate these changes.
Personally I want my vote to equal any other citizens.
Why would you want voting to be unequal on a skin colour basis?
Framing the Treaty of Waitangi as a 'partnership' is how you have have arrived at this stupid outcome.
In essence the treaty did two things – it confirmed Maori as citizens of the British Empire – and extended to the iwi chiefs who personally signed the Treaty the protections of title and legal ownership of what they regarded as their property as any other British citizens.
There are absolutely no grounds to read the idea that the iwi chiefs were being offered a right to separate sovereignty of any kind whatsoever.
You are the one busy preaching to us how equal votes = tyranny of the majority which is the cause of all the ills in the world.
So if you don't like equal votes, one person one vote – then I can only conclude that you want equity in voting. So logically if 1 in 6 people are Maori then logically every Maori should get 6 votes for the 1 everyone else gets.
I don't mind sharing at all, because I wan't the debate over these changes and I don't think Labour did/does. I don't know enough about the Treaty to know if co-governance was promised, i.e. that Maori and Pakeha will have equal representation not depending on population numbers (that is my understanding of what some of this means and I am prepared to stand corrected. If this was promised in the Treaty, then this has to be honoured.
But if not, I am not for it, for many reasons. Democracy as we know it here has always been important to me as has my vote. I am no less or no more important than anyone else.
I really want to see Maori stats improve, health, justice, achievement et. But I don't see this is the way to achieve this. At the moment there is apparently a move to de-colonize the NZ education system and I have read articles by Professor Elizabeth Rata an a colleague of hers (Can't link provided below). They are saying that there are voices against improving literacy skills, because literacy is part of colonization. I think Molly has posted stuff on here about the school science curriculum issues.
I am concerned about applying any ideological approaches to policy e.g Critical Race Theory and Gender Ideology. These are theoretical hypothesis, not constructive ways forward. I am all for evidence based policies.
I say this within the context of my husband being Maori and having Maori step children. For example my experience of my husband health care needs is that he gets special access to services due to being Maori e.g he wasamongst the first to get vacinnated (at the local marae). I am not objecting to this prioritzation, this is just my experienc.
Te Tiriti was signed in 1840. Māori men got the vote in 1867. All men in 1879. All women in 1893. At points voting was tied to land ownership (and there's a whole thing there about disenfranchising Māori women and forcing Māori to adopt British ideas about sex and gender roles).
So no, Te Tiriti isn't about voting. There are two versions. International law generally says that the version in the indigenous language should prevail (for what I hope are obvious reasons).
From wikipedia,
The text of the treaty includes a preamble and three articles. It is bilingual, with the Māori text translated in the context of the time from the English.
Article one of the Māori text grants governance rights to the Crown while the English text cedes "all rights and powers of sovereignty" to the Crown.
Article two of the Māori text establishes that Māori will retain full chieftainship over their lands, villages and all their treasures while the English text establishes the continued ownership of the Māori over their lands and establishes the exclusive right of pre-emption of the Crown.
Article three gives Māori people full rights and protections as British subjects.
As some words in the English treaty did not translate directly into the written Māori language of the time, the Māori text is not a literal translation of the English text, particularly in relation to the meaning of having and ceding sovereignty.[8][9] These differences created disagreements in the decades following the signing, eventually contributing to the New Zealand Wars of 1845 to 1872 and continuing through to the Treaty of Waitangi settlements starting in the early 1990s.
My own position is that both those documents gives us a framework for discussion, but really the underlying principle is that Māori had their land and resources stolen by pioneers and colonisation forces, and they have been trying ever since to get that remedied. The Treaty gives non-Māori a way of being in New Zealand with honour and meaning, otherwise we're the descendents of bullies and the people with the biggest stick.
My own people arrived owing their passage from Scotland in the 1860s and within a short time they were land owners and within a generation building wealth while Māori were losing so much. There's a whole history there about the Clearances and who arrived here and how and why. I don't think my people were bullies or evil, they clearly were trying to improve their lives. They obviously benefited hugely from being part of the society that had the biggest stick. I want to do right by them and the peoples they displaced. Both of us.
Co-governance to me means two parties coming together and figuring out how to manage things. I see so many benefits to Pākehā society from this, not least of which is improvement in our inherited form of democracy. As we can see, opov/majority rules has brought us poverty and worse for Māori, climate crisis, housing crisis, general poverty, ecological destruction. I see no way out of that in the current system. Neoliberalism is cemented in, we have generations of people socialised into voting out of self interest and individualism, they will never vote to solve the major problems that we have and we simply do not have time in regards to climate and ecology.
What I see in this debate is people looking at majority rules and thinking that Māori will have more say proportionally. I have to wonder if the objection is founded in an intuitive grasp of just how unfair our current system is. We can want improvements for Māori all we want, but we're not going to get them while Pākehā have such a majority. Eventually there will be more Polynesian people in NZ than Pākehā, but that's not going to happen for a few decades and we need change now.
Whereas I see the value in consensus, in participatory democracy, in relational rather than transactional politics, in true, participatory consultation rather the poor forms we use now, in Māori cultural tools around debate and working through problems without having to resort to majority rules. I get the general objection on principle, but I'm not seeing the rationales laid out in comparison to what we could have instead.
Opov/majority rules is a Western structure we inherited. Why are we not considering there are other systems equally as good, or even better? Is this a lack of knowledge? Lack of imagination?
I have a lot of fears about what is happening in NZ . My fears are about not following science are pretty strong. The Listener 7 episode has, among other things made me very wary of people with ideological agendas.
And I am very wary about this Govt bringing in legislation in an underhand way, without people being fully informed, when there is evidence people don't support it (e.g a vote compass poll about gender self ID just before last election showed the majority didn't support it).
I have a lot of fears about what is happening in NZ.
Same, but there have been (at least a few) instances of government/parliament-sponsored changes for the better in the face of majority public disapproval. Sue Bradford's 2005 private member’s 'anti-smacking bill' springs to mind – parliament even resisted a strongly-supported citizens initiated referendum aimed at repeal.
While that aspirational legislation may not have resulted in all the benefits hoped for, neither have most of the fears of those opposed been realised.
I am not entirely against a change to how our democracy works, but there needs to be a lot of discussion and transparency about this. To date IMO Labour hasn't done this (they have done the opposite). It was not part of their policy platform and as a member of the party, I was not asked about this nor was it a question in one of the numerous surveys they sent out to members which I dutifully filled out………Jacinda very early in her term as PM said we need to take people with us on change. Surely this must apply to this issue.
I have thought a lot today about my reaction to co-governance. I was brought up by a very political mother and I was told from a very early age that voting was my duty and that I must always vote (I always have). My vote really matters to me. I don't take it for granted as part of my early education was about the suffergettes and how NZ was the first country to allow women to vote. I would need very good reason to allow my vote to be diluted in its worth.
I am not sure that we will ever compensate Maori for the loss of their land, unless we give them ownership of the whole country. This would be hugely disrupted for everyone and a radical departure from our current arrangements. I know Treaty settlements don't really cut it. I think it has made the Maori elite better off. My husband co-owns small pockets of land with his whanau, that is not really that useful to him. He also gets a a Kaumatua allowance from his tribe.
Is the purpose of making changes to governance because people think this will significantly change things for Maori? If so how? Or is it more just a symbolic gesture to apologise for what happened. What would Maori do, that isn't already being done for Maori?
I am not entirely against a change to how our democracy works, but there needs to be a lot of discussion and transparency about this. To date IMO Labour hasn't done this (they have done the opposite). It was not part of their policy platform and as a member of the party, I was not asked about this nor was it a question in one of the numerous surveys they sent out to members which I dutifully filled out………Jacinda very early in her term as PM said we need to take people with us on change. Surely this must apply to this issue.
I have thought a lot today about my reaction to co-governance. I was brought up by a very political mother and I was told from a very early age that voting was my duty and that I must always vote (I always have). My vote really matters to me. I don't take it for granted as part of my early education was about the suffergettes and how NZ was the first country to allow women to vote. I would need very good reason to allow my vote to be diluted in its worth.
I am not sure that we will ever compensate Maori for the loss of their land, unless we give them ownership of the whole country. This would be hugely disrupted for everyone and a radical departure from our current arrangements. I know Treaty settlements don't really cut it. I think it has made the Maori elite better off. My husband co-owns small pockets of land with his whanau, that is not really that useful to him. He also gets a a Kaumatua allowance from his tribe.
Is the purpose of making changes to governance because people think this will significantly change things for Maori? If so how? Or is it more just a symbolic gesture to apologise for what happened. What would Maori do, that isn't already being done for Maori?
Patricia. Tamati is not the local MP for Rotorua. Despite Labour's landslide in 2020, Coffey lost his seat. The only sitting Labour MP to do so. He is a list MP>
I also posted further background to the Bill in my reply to Weka above.
He may not be the electorate MP, but he is a local list MP in Rotorua and, as such, has an official office in that electorate. This is the practice in many electorates where there is/are list MPs. Their status also gives them the right to act on matters of importance within the electorate.
A Havelock North mother who was told her moko kauae scared children in a playground, wants to meet with the women who insulted her…
"They asked me if I could cover my chin, my moko kauae, with my mask, because I was 'scaring the children'. And if not, [they said] then leave. They didn't say please. They just asked me to leave."
She ignored the comments but felt "hurt and rage".
"I was boiling on the inside. I had to compose myself and hold my mana."
Scott was sitting with her six-month-old and her three elder tamariki were playing.
She cried when she got home, and said a karakia.
Scott had felt uncomfortable about racial inequality in Hawke's Bay before but "never thought the race card would be slapped like that".
To be clear; this was not just an insult against one person, but all Ngāpuhi. And Ngāti Kahungunu (who are tangata whenua ki Heretaunga) for that matter.
Strange how things move. Brought up in a small Maori dominated community and the people we saw often and who we knew would help small children if we were lost or needed comforting were the Maori Wardens and the Nannies with ta Moko, also shop keepers etc.
What must go on in the home life of those who insulted this mother doesn’t bear thinking about.
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Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
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Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, he stressed the rising danger posed by espionage and foreign interference. “In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed ...
The Tribunal had called on Minister for Children Karen Chhour to provide evidence at an urgent inquiry into the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University Midjourney image by T.J. Thomson As more than half of Australian office workers report using generative artificial intelligence (AI) for work, we’re starting to see this technology affect every ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Nicole Sharwood, Injury epidemiologist | Expert Witness, UNSW Sydney Sergey Novikov/Shutterstock Injuries are the leading cause of disability and death among Australian children and adolescents. At least a quarter of all emergency department presentations during childhood are injury-related. Injuries can ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Di Winkler, Adjunct Associate Professor, Living with Disability Research Centre, La Trobe University Shutterstock/Ground PictureMany Australians with disability feel on the edge of a precipice right now. Recommendations from the disability royal commission and the NDIS review were released late ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Salman Shooshtarian, Senior Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University Salman Shooshtarian Asbestos has been found in mulch used for playgrounds, schools, parks and gardens across Sydney and Melbourne. Local communities naturally fear for the health of their ...
Free speech requires limits. Not sure if Musk understands that.
https://twitter.com/te_taipo/status/1519196764913356800?s=21&t=gXVkT8nOc49o88vZNJgQCw
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has a rather idealistic vision of his tweety bird platform
https://twitter.com/jack/status/1518772756069773313?s=21&t=gXVkT8nOc49o88vZNJgQCw
Elon is the singular solution I trust
So there's two board members heading in the same direction. Maybe more, time will tell. I wonder if the board will adopt a set of operational principles.
The writer is apprehensive about a lack of content moderation (Anjana Susarla is a Professor of Information Systems at the Michigan State University.). Given the likely size of the subscriber community, seems inevitable that intelligent design of a suitable moderation system will become a priority – even if they go for open slather as policy, the herding shit hitting the proverbial will likely force realisation that it was a mistake.
Good thinking there, prof! I'd go for crowd-sourcing editorial advice in general (from users) with reference to moderation as first priority…
Kemara is a violent extremist best known for his involvement in an armed militia intent on pursuing political goals via a rifle barrel.
Why anyone would give a damn what he thinks about the appropriate limits of political discourse is a mystery to me.
But I suppose by the same token he might have a unique perspective on the Christchurch massacre.
Obviously you did not read his updates etc on the protest at Parliament Grounds. Also his continued exposing of those on the far right Sivell, Flutey, Counterspin, the farcical Sheriffs and Sov Cit movement etc. His thoughts on the Canterbury massacre come from a distaste for those involved in far right politics/thoughts.
Amazing how prescient some of the rebels of yore were isn't it? Some of what Tame Iti is saying is quite mainstream and commonsense now but it was seen as revolutionary at one time. Of course those mired in the thoughts and actions of the past and not paying attention to the movement of thought/discourse will still find them revolutionary etc.
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LOL …Convoy protest 21/2/22 « The Standard… bear in mind the bloated Pakeha Woke New Middle-Class (see Shanreagh above), always poised to indulge in performative narcissism on a truly ostentatious scale, experience a genuine frisson of delight at the merest mention of violent, deluded wanna-be Māori Che Guevaras … Colonisation, it seems, justifies anything & everything (unless, of course, it's inflicted on the affluent Woke themselves) … and … that all-important aura of radical chic.
that I can't write this funny
The cynic might observe that the NZ Police had zero intel on the Christchurch shooter because he and his ilk, rather than exercise free speech in public, were radicalising and organising as secretively as possible. It's the ones that don't wear their views on their sleeve that you have to worry about. The loud ones you know to keep an eye on.
Slimeball A reviews slimeball B interviewing slimeball A:
So there was a media event involving colliding egos of the rightist persuasion:
Man of the people gets out & about…
Latest advert from Hobson's Pledge, running on YouTube and very annoying
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSEX8ZW3Ags
Indeed it is. Talk about projection! They are claiming the Labour Party are hell bent on undermining democracy when everything they do and say is a pack of lies which is the hallmark of those who undermine our democratic system of government.
how was he sneaking?
Here's the AG's report (PDF)
https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/PAP_122623/5d80125690667622a8d3c896fdb8beee9ff4b6da
7. I note that this analysis is based only on the text of the Bill and publicly available information released by the Council and the Local Government Commission. The
conclusion I have reached, that the Bill cannot be justified under s 5 of the Bill of
Rights Act, is largely due to the absence of information and analysis available to
provide justification for the limit on the right to freedom from discrimination
This has been mentioned in the reporting I've seen, but not explained. But consider that it's discrimination to have single sex spaces, and so we can and do make provision for this. My reading isn't that the Rotorua Bill is wrong, but that the AG couldn't make any other recommendation because he lacked the information to do so. Haven’t read the whole report yet.
/IANAL
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/rotorua-council-representation-bill-cannot-be-justified-attorney-general/FISDTUCJOZHW7LKQMWEF2IIENE/
From the NZ Herald ” a bill that would increase Maori voting rights in Rotorua’s local elections cannot be justified and discrimates against general roll voters, the Attorney General has found”
I used the words Tamati Coffey was trying to "sneak through" because rather than go through the committee concerned with parliament, voting etc, (I am sorry the name for the committee escapes me) he put it through the Maori Affairs select committee, allowing only two weeks for consultation, which included over the Easter period.
I also posted about this bill before, asking Sabine if she knew about it, as she is in the Rotorua area. She said she only knew about it because of National and NZ first, so I assumed that meant that Labour hadn't in any way canvassed the locals about this bill. I think that is a reasonable assumption.
Labour never canvassed on this proposal of co-governance. It is a significant change to how NZ runs in democracy. I think we have a right to debate these changes.
Personally I want my vote to equal any other citizens.
I had the impression that council went through a reasonable long process including consultation for the council changes.
The Bill is needed for those changes to be legal, but it's not the driver, that's coming from Rotorua council. Fair point about Coffey's approach.
Would you mind sharing why, in this context of Māori and Te Tiriti?
Why would you want voting to be unequal on a skin colour basis?
Framing the Treaty of Waitangi as a 'partnership' is how you have have arrived at this stupid outcome.
In essence the treaty did two things – it confirmed Maori as citizens of the British Empire – and extended to the iwi chiefs who personally signed the Treaty the protections of title and legal ownership of what they regarded as their property as any other British citizens.
There are absolutely no grounds to read the idea that the iwi chiefs were being offered a right to separate sovereignty of any kind whatsoever.
If you want to talk with me about this topic, you will have to stop making shit about my argument and position.
You are the one busy preaching to us how equal votes = tyranny of the majority which is the cause of all the ills in the world.
So if you don't like equal votes, one person one vote – then I can only conclude that you want equity in voting. So logically if 1 in 6 people are Maori then logically every Maori should get 6 votes for the 1 everyone else gets.
Or do you have something else in mind?
I don't mind sharing at all, because I wan't the debate over these changes and I don't think Labour did/does. I don't know enough about the Treaty to know if co-governance was promised, i.e. that Maori and Pakeha will have equal representation not depending on population numbers (that is my understanding of what some of this means and I am prepared to stand corrected. If this was promised in the Treaty, then this has to be honoured.
But if not, I am not for it, for many reasons. Democracy as we know it here has always been important to me as has my vote. I am no less or no more important than anyone else.
I really want to see Maori stats improve, health, justice, achievement et. But I don't see this is the way to achieve this. At the moment there is apparently a move to de-colonize the NZ education system and I have read articles by Professor Elizabeth Rata an a colleague of hers (Can't link provided below). They are saying that there are voices against improving literacy skills, because literacy is part of colonization. I think Molly has posted stuff on here about the school science curriculum issues.
I am concerned about applying any ideological approaches to policy e.g Critical Race Theory and Gender Ideology. These are theoretical hypothesis, not constructive ways forward. I am all for evidence based policies.
I say this within the context of my husband being Maori and having Maori step children. For example my experience of my husband health care needs is that he gets special access to services due to being Maori e.g he wasamongst the first to get vacinnated (at the local marae). I am not objecting to this prioritzation, this is just my experienc.
https://theplatform.kiwi/opinions/the-bigotry-of-low-expectations-maori-literacy
Just found the link re Maori literacy and de-colonization
Te Tiriti was signed in 1840. Māori men got the vote in 1867. All men in 1879. All women in 1893. At points voting was tied to land ownership (and there's a whole thing there about disenfranchising Māori women and forcing Māori to adopt British ideas about sex and gender roles).
https://teara.govt.nz/en/voting-rights
So no, Te Tiriti isn't about voting. There are two versions. International law generally says that the version in the indigenous language should prevail (for what I hope are obvious reasons).
From wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi
To make sense of that one has to listen to what Māori scholars, historians and activists say about it and the meaning.
It also needs to be read alongside He Whakaputanga (1835) if we want to understand what Māori were thinking and wanting at that time.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/declaration-of-independence-taming-the-frontier
My own position is that both those documents gives us a framework for discussion, but really the underlying principle is that Māori had their land and resources stolen by pioneers and colonisation forces, and they have been trying ever since to get that remedied. The Treaty gives non-Māori a way of being in New Zealand with honour and meaning, otherwise we're the descendents of bullies and the people with the biggest stick.
My own people arrived owing their passage from Scotland in the 1860s and within a short time they were land owners and within a generation building wealth while Māori were losing so much. There's a whole history there about the Clearances and who arrived here and how and why. I don't think my people were bullies or evil, they clearly were trying to improve their lives. They obviously benefited hugely from being part of the society that had the biggest stick. I want to do right by them and the peoples they displaced. Both of us.
Co-governance to me means two parties coming together and figuring out how to manage things. I see so many benefits to Pākehā society from this, not least of which is improvement in our inherited form of democracy. As we can see, opov/majority rules has brought us poverty and worse for Māori, climate crisis, housing crisis, general poverty, ecological destruction. I see no way out of that in the current system. Neoliberalism is cemented in, we have generations of people socialised into voting out of self interest and individualism, they will never vote to solve the major problems that we have and we simply do not have time in regards to climate and ecology.
What I see in this debate is people looking at majority rules and thinking that Māori will have more say proportionally. I have to wonder if the objection is founded in an intuitive grasp of just how unfair our current system is. We can want improvements for Māori all we want, but we're not going to get them while Pākehā have such a majority. Eventually there will be more Polynesian people in NZ than Pākehā, but that's not going to happen for a few decades and we need change now.
Whereas I see the value in consensus, in participatory democracy, in relational rather than transactional politics, in true, participatory consultation rather the poor forms we use now, in Māori cultural tools around debate and working through problems without having to resort to majority rules. I get the general objection on principle, but I'm not seeing the rationales laid out in comparison to what we could have instead.
Opov/majority rules is a Western structure we inherited. Why are we not considering there are other systems equally as good, or even better? Is this a lack of knowledge? Lack of imagination?
Fear of change? I've been making an effort to rid myself of irrational fears, but some of them are deeply ingrained so it's a slow process.
or at least be able to explain what the fears are would be a start. I see people saying they don't like it, but not really why.
I have a lot of fears about what is happening in NZ . My fears are about not following science are pretty strong. The Listener 7 episode has, among other things made me very wary of people with ideological agendas.
And I am very wary about this Govt bringing in legislation in an underhand way, without people being fully informed, when there is evidence people don't support it (e.g a vote compass poll about gender self ID just before last election showed the majority didn't support it).
Same, but there have been (at least a few) instances of government/parliament-sponsored changes for the better in the face of majority public disapproval. Sue Bradford's 2005 private member’s 'anti-smacking bill' springs to mind – parliament even resisted a strongly-supported citizens initiated referendum aimed at repeal.
While that aspirational legislation may not have resulted in all the benefits hoped for, neither have most of the fears of those opposed been realised.
I am not entirely against a change to how our democracy works, but there needs to be a lot of discussion and transparency about this. To date IMO Labour hasn't done this (they have done the opposite). It was not part of their policy platform and as a member of the party, I was not asked about this nor was it a question in one of the numerous surveys they sent out to members which I dutifully filled out………Jacinda very early in her term as PM said we need to take people with us on change. Surely this must apply to this issue.
I have thought a lot today about my reaction to co-governance. I was brought up by a very political mother and I was told from a very early age that voting was my duty and that I must always vote (I always have). My vote really matters to me. I don't take it for granted as part of my early education was about the suffergettes and how NZ was the first country to allow women to vote. I would need very good reason to allow my vote to be diluted in its worth.
I am not sure that we will ever compensate Maori for the loss of their land, unless we give them ownership of the whole country. This would be hugely disrupted for everyone and a radical departure from our current arrangements. I know Treaty settlements don't really cut it. I think it has made the Maori elite better off. My husband co-owns small pockets of land with his whanau, that is not really that useful to him. He also gets a a Kaumatua allowance from his tribe.
Is the purpose of making changes to governance because people think this will significantly change things for Maori? If so how? Or is it more just a symbolic gesture to apologise for what happened. What would Maori do, that isn't already being done for Maori?
I am not entirely against a change to how our democracy works, but there needs to be a lot of discussion and transparency about this. To date IMO Labour hasn't done this (they have done the opposite). It was not part of their policy platform and as a member of the party, I was not asked about this nor was it a question in one of the numerous surveys they sent out to members which I dutifully filled out………Jacinda very early in her term as PM said we need to take people with us on change. Surely this must apply to this issue.
I have thought a lot today about my reaction to co-governance. I was brought up by a very political mother and I was told from a very early age that voting was my duty and that I must always vote (I always have). My vote really matters to me. I don't take it for granted as part of my early education was about the suffergettes and how NZ was the first country to allow women to vote. I would need very good reason to allow my vote to be diluted in its worth.
I am not sure that we will ever compensate Maori for the loss of their land, unless we give them ownership of the whole country. This would be hugely disrupted for everyone and a radical departure from our current arrangements. I know Treaty settlements don't really cut it. I think it has made the Maori elite better off. My husband co-owns small pockets of land with his whanau, that is not really that useful to him. He also gets a a Kaumatua allowance from his tribe.
Is the purpose of making changes to governance because people think this will significantly change things for Maori? If so how? Or is it more just a symbolic gesture to apologise for what happened. What would Maori do, that isn't already being done for Maori?
Tamati as a local MP was asked to present the Bill by the Council. End of.
Patricia. Tamati is not the local MP for Rotorua. Despite Labour's landslide in 2020, Coffey lost his seat. The only sitting Labour MP to do so. He is a list MP>
I also posted further background to the Bill in my reply to Weka above.
He may not be the electorate MP, but he is a local list MP in Rotorua and, as such, has an official office in that electorate. This is the practice in many electorates where there is/are list MPs. Their status also gives them the right to act on matters of importance within the electorate.
Fair point Anne
Auē! He kauae tehe. Kia kaha Ngāpuhi hine.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/465952/women-who-insulted-moko-kauae-told-to-apologise
To be clear; this was not just an insult against one person, but all Ngāpuhi. And Ngāti Kahungunu (who are tangata whenua ki Heretaunga) for that matter.
It was extremely ignorant and rude, and sad.
In actual fact it was the children's own parents scaring the children through prejudice and ignorance.
Strange how things move. Brought up in a small Maori dominated community and the people we saw often and who we knew would help small children if we were lost or needed comforting were the Maori Wardens and the Nannies with ta Moko, also shop keepers etc.
What must go on in the home life of those who insulted this mother doesn’t bear thinking about.