Fighting the dittoheads

Written By: - Date published: 9:03 pm, July 20th, 2009 - 44 comments
Categories: democratic participation - Tags:

One of the great strengths of the Right is that the rank and file supporters are such slavish followers of their leaders. It comes from the whole ‘triumph of the will’ mentality – ‘that dude’s rich and powerful, ipso facto, I must respect him and if I’m gonna get rich and powerful I’ll have to copy him’. It means they parrot the lines in a way that Lefties simply won’t.

Take this comment from one of our threads:

mike: Good ole ‘Wack it on the bill’ phil did he say where he was taking the money from to do this or does it just go on the Govts credit card??

Classic. Mike’s exhibiting beautiful meme absorption and regurgitation. Everything he says is as if from Key’s mouth. And the best part: he thinks those are his own ideas. People like that working for you is a propagandist’s dream.

If, say, it had been just John Key and co saying ‘PC’ it wouldn’t have got far. But they weren’t alone. There were the various front groups like Sensible Sentencing, For the Sake of the Children etc too but most importantly, there were the rank and filers, mindless repeating the line (in the States they call them dittoheads). That meant the swing voter started hearing ‘PC’ on talkback, on social websites, from their friends, they heard strangers mention it in the pub. It didn’t have to make sense. There was no actual defensible argument. It was the repetition, initially by a relatively small number of zealots, that got the meme wider penetration until it became a truth universally acknowledged.

Simply doesn’t happen with the Left’s support base. You can’t get the buggers to agree on anything. They care about detail. They argue over it. The educated ones, especially, see simple slogans and shallow arguments as anathema. They don’t tend to go in for blind adherence to their leaders either. They see leaders as tools. Servants for furthering their shared ideals. They critically assess what their leaders say. If they do agree with it when they repeat it to others it will be in their own words. Not a simple repetition of a carefully crafted slogan*. The Left will never have our version of ‘PC’. It’s just not the way we think.

So the Right have this powerful weapon and we can’t respond in kind. It results in people voting a government that will lower their wages, take away their work rights, cut their social wage, and sell their assets because they’re ‘sick of all this PC nonsense’. What do we do about it?

The answer, like always, has to be to talk, to challenge, to engage. When you are talking to someone who voted against their own economic interests because the PC meme (for example) has got to them, you’ve got to excise it. Constructively. You’ve got to point out the big things that matter – wages, public services, jobs, work rights – that the Left delivers on and the Right doesn’t. You’ve got to ask them if light bulbs really matter.

If you don’t, all they will hear are the dittoheads. And they’ll believe them.

*(not that the 21st century NZ Left are any good at generating slogans anyway, or want to be)

44 comments on “Fighting the dittoheads ”

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  1. Lew 1
    20 July 2009 at 9:23 pm

    Zetetic, even more to your point, I seem to recall mike being an ACToid, not a Nat.

    This is indeed one of the strengths of the right – they are happy to shelve their differences to band together under a common banner. But it’s also a weakness – it only hangs together for so long before the infighting and factionalisation gets to them; and generally speaking they’re only a good fightin’ unit when unified under a strong leader. Labour under Clark suffered from the same problem – it tried to (and in a way was forced to) absorb the rest of the left, and competing agendas, suppressed in the name of unity, began to eat away from the inside. This is why enforcing slavish loyalty on the left (aside from being like herding cats) is generally deleterious.

    I think a different organisational model is needed – one where Labour can act as a focal point or a major partner for a bunch of other parties, doing so in a way which allows the minor partners to stand on their own issues and allows Labour to stand on theirs. National under Key is doing just this, and so far it’s working. We’ll see how the edifice cracks in time, but this term in opposition presents Labour with a golden opportunity to rethink themselves and reform their strategy, and learn as much as possible from a government which is committed to organisational experimentation.

    L

  2. lprent 2
    20 July 2009 at 9:25 pm

    I’ve noticed that dittohead mentality. Especially in trolls who just repeat without engaging their brains, thus boring the crap out of me (and earning band for being stupid programs).

    It is kind of wierd that the right indulge in that kind of collective behaviour, then accuse those on the left of wanting to stifle individual behaviour. But then many of them also lack any apparent ability to monitor their own behaviour.

    There are a few on the left like that as well. But nothing like the numbers I see from the right

    • Ag 2.1
      21 July 2009 at 12:13 am

      Again, Bob Altemeyer’s research explains exactly why this is the case. It should be required reading for everyone on this blog.

      If the “left” make one error over and over again, it is assuming that those on the right are “people just like them who happen to have different views”. A few of them are, or were (witness the demise of the “Eisenhower Republicans” in the US), but they are yesterday’s conservatives.

      If there is any redeeming feature of the NZ right, it is that they are nowhere near the Glenn Becks of this world or the “birther” lunatics, and Kiwiblog comments are nowhere near as insane as those on Free Republic. But they could get there with a little prompting, and that should be the goal of the New Zealand left: to goad the extreme right into ever greater acts of lunacy. It has worked very well for the US Democrats in the last couple of years.

  3. Lew 3
    20 July 2009 at 9:28 pm

    Hm, enspammed?

    L

  4. Zetetic 4
    20 July 2009 at 9:32 pm

    Yeah, don’t know why.

    captcha: forgetting

  5. AndyC 5
    20 July 2009 at 9:54 pm

    Whooooaaaa
    Back the bus up here. “One of the great strengths of the Left is that the rank and file supporters are such slavish followers of their leaders.”
    Never happend here. No way , no ..never. Not on this blog.

    hahahah Captcha .. unwanted.

    • Zetetic 5.1
      20 July 2009 at 10:09 pm

      No, you’re right. There has never been slavish following of leaders by the writers on this blog. In fact, I’m planning a coup on Oliver Woods as we speak.

  6. mickysavage 6
    20 July 2009 at 10:01 pm

    Good post Zetetic.

    The comments also apply to the so called commentators. Bill Ralston and Matthew Hooton are classic dittoheads, slavishly regurgitating the current attack lines even the stupid ones. Laila Harre and Chris Trotter, the left equivalents, seem to spend nearly as much time criticising Labour as criticising National.

    I have often felt frustrated about this but after thinking about your comments I agree that differences of opinion are healthy and the left have never slavishly followed anything.

    Long may this continue.

    • Lew 6.1
      20 July 2009 at 10:09 pm

      MS,

      Laila Harre and Chris Trotter, the left equivalents, seem to spend nearly as much time criticising Labour as criticising National.

      and

      I agree that differences of opinion are healthy and the left have never slavishly followed anything.

      Is it only me who sees a contradiction here?

      L

  7. Pat 7
    20 July 2009 at 10:11 pm

    “Simply doesn’t happen with the Left’s support base. You can’t get the buggers to agree on anything. They care about detail. They argue over it. The educated ones, especially, see simple slogans and shallow arguments as anathema. They don’t tend to go in for blind adherence to their leaders either.”

    And the uneducated ones – you simply round them up on election day with the Union vans.

  8. Tom Mathews 8
    20 July 2009 at 10:22 pm

    This is a classic “everyone is stupid but the people who agree with me” post. Not surprisingly, everyone that agrees with you shows up to say how perceptive it is.

    There are many people who aren’t really capable of independent thought. But I’m not sure it’s obvious that they’re situated on either side of the political spectrum – this post (to me) just looks like a case study in confirmation bias.

    But perhaps I deal less with the comments on your blog than you do.

    • Zetetic 8.1
      20 July 2009 at 11:06 pm

      Not everyone, Tom.

      Seriously though, we can’t deny that political discourse influences people and some might be more influence-able than others. Doesn’t make them stupid.

      • Tom Mathews 8.1.1
        21 July 2009 at 9:22 am

        Don’t you think it’s ironic that every comment from someone on the left (as far as I can tell) has been in agreement with this post?

  9. Pat 9
    20 July 2009 at 10:29 pm

    I get it – it’s the educated enlightened ones on the Left vs the sheep on the Right.

    You need to start counting the sheep, boys, because we have the numbers.

    • mickysavage 9.1
      20 July 2009 at 10:36 pm

      Sheep is the wrong term Pat.

      Many kiwis are trusting people interested only in politicians doing a good job.

      They do not get involved in the detail of policy debates, they just hope their leaders get the job done in a reasonable way.

      They have an innate sense of fairness, Cullen’s beach cricket concept is a good example of this. They thought it was Key’s turn with the bat.

      There will be a gradual but growing sense of fear and indignation as things get worse and this government’s policy response gets realised as being terribly lacking. Then the polls will swing around. Ordinary people will return because they will have realised they have been lied to and deceived.

      The next couple of years will be very interesting.

      • Pat 9.1.1
        20 July 2009 at 11:16 pm

        “There will be a gradual but growing sense of fear and indignation as things get worse…”

        Conversely there will be a gradual but growing sense of reassurance and confidence if things get better (Maybe I’m just a glass-half-full kind of guy).

        Or maybe Labour are just hoping things keep getting worse so their wayward sons and daughters return.

        The trouble for the Left is that by forecasting all manner of economic and social doomsday scenarios, the flip-side is that anything better than that ends up being a tick for Key. For example, latest forecasts are for 180,000 unemployed next year. If this ends up being 160,000 (still an ugly number) Key can go into the next election trumpeting that his government saved 20,000 jobs.

        • Maynard J 9.1.1.1
          21 July 2009 at 9:11 am

          Key could claim about 400 jobs, saved by the Greens’ insulation policy. Then the left could point out the several thousand cut from the public service. National would need to be seen to be doing something, anything, before they could pretend/claim credit for it.

  10. Graeme 10
    20 July 2009 at 11:27 pm

    Come on. Seriously?

    The left didn’t band together on the “gone by lunchtime” meme when Don Brash tried for honesty and nuance over Nuclear Policy (and the meme was applied to a bunch of other things as well).

    And just because it failed to get public traction doesn’t mean that “slippery” Key wasn’t a good attempt.

    The standard had fun – along with a bunch of others on the left – with “tax cuts for the rich” prior to the last election even though a greater proportion of Labour’s proposed cuts were for the well-off.

    Dittoheads lower the quality of the political debate, but the suggestion that there aren’t any on the left is laughable.

    • Zetetic 10.1
      21 July 2009 at 12:07 am

      I never ever heard an ordinary rank and filer use ‘gone by lunchtime’.I think you’re thinking of political operators, I’m not talking about them.

      The dittohead spreads the meme at the pub, not in his weekly column.

      • BK Drinkwater 10.1.1
        21 July 2009 at 5:52 am

        From this, I must conclude that you’ve never been in the same pubs as me, and that you’ve definitely never been in the same National Party meetings and conferences as me.

        I’ve long lost count of the number of people who tried a “gone by lunchtime” taunt at me; “Crosby/Textor” is a newer refrain.

        And as for those of us on the Right never disagreeing with each other? It doesn’t pass the laugh test; it doesn’t go close. My experience is that there is more furious contention within National than there is between it and Labour. I know: I’ve been caught in the middle of it more than once, in my own small way.

        Perhaps the difference is that we on the Right are not eager to air our internal grievances quite so publicly as those on the Left.

        Looking at the Left from outside, I can’t help but think of the old theological debates during the centuries leading up to the Great Schism, in which tempers ran so hot because people believed their salvation or otherwise was dependent on nothing so much as their belief about the precise nature and mechanics of the Trinity. The Right was never meant to be a unified movement like the Left; more a loose coalition of convenience with its own unwritten rules of etiquette. I think this explains the Left/Right difference you note; not some abdication of free will by everyone who votes National.

        I’m no conservative, and I’m reluctant to go in to bat for conservatives. But I’m insulted on their behalf by the reductive bullshit in this post and in this thread.

        • Pascal's bookie 10.1.1.1
          21 July 2009 at 7:31 am

          “I’ve long lost count of the number of people who tried a “gone by lunchtime’ taunt at me; “Crosby/Textor’ is a newer refrain.”

          I think these are qualitatively different from the ‘PC gone mad’, ‘mainstream’, ‘one law for all’ and similar authoritarian rhetoric this post is about.

          On the ‘gone by lunchtime’ stuff, it’s kind of ironic that Graeme describes it as Brash trying for “honesty and nuance over Nuclear Policy” when the whole issue was that Brash was making promises to the Americans that he was not prepared to talk about to NZers (until after his words became public).

          Somehow this becomes about the ‘honesty and nuance’ of dear leader, and the perfidy of the left. The fact is that those mixed signals from National over so many years actually hurt our relationship with the US. Once National finally stopped pretending that the no nukes policy was on the table, the US accepted that the policy (which the NZ public likes) is here to stay and things have started to move along.

          • Graeme 10.1.1.1.1
            21 July 2009 at 11:46 am

            Brash’s nuclear ships policy was very clear. It was the same as Key’s and the same as Labour’s. He just advised that if the public gave a democratic mandate to change at some future time they would. If there was a referendum and the people came out in favour of change I suspect Labour would agree that there should be change. For some reason Clark didn’t agree that if the majority of the people wanted change that there would be change.

            This wasn’t Labour perfidy. I’m not saying Labour was bad. I was just using it as an example to counter your claim that the left avoided soundbite memes and were the only ones interested in nuanced debate. It’s foolish to assert a policy now and pretend that it is forever. When Brash acknowledged this over nuclear ships he was pilloried by the left for it. Good politics, sure, but not an example of wanting reasoned debate.

          • BK Drinkwater 10.1.1.1.2
            21 July 2009 at 1:39 pm

            @PB: What is long-forgotten, of course, is that Don Brash never said “gone by lunchtime”. Lockwood Smith did. Yet it was repeated mindlessly, ad nauseum, and uncritically by Labour supporters for years.

            I’ll have to think about your broader point a bit, but I’m way off buying that it salvages Zetetic’s extraordinarily shabby post.

            I’ll have to think about your point/distinction a little bit, but my first impression is this: as a general rule, I dislike using the vocabulary of meme propagation, but this post seems to be a classic example of something that has no trouble spreading and surviving because it’s flattering to the people who believe it. For this reason alone, if all the people here on the Left were really such the freewheeling critical thinkers they like to imagine themselves to be, they’d regard it as analytically unsafe.

            • Pascal's bookie 10.1.1.1.2.1
              21 July 2009 at 2:24 pm

              “What is long-forgotten, of course, is that Don Brash never said “gone by lunchtime’. Lockwood Smith did.”

              Really?

              http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0405/S00312.htm

              “In response to Dr Brash’s challenge, the following is the comment he was recorded as making at the meeting, and the context in which it was made:

              Dr (Lockwood) Smith explained the current study being done by the National Party. If the study came to the same conclusion as it did in 1992, then National would look seriously at the nuclear legislation.
              It was here that Dr Brash made the throw-away comment ‘If the National Party was in government today, we would get rid of the nuclear propulsion section today by lunchtime, even.
              “This comment was recorded by a non-partisan record taker at the meeting. It has been checked with that person for accuracy, and he confirms that he is certain that is what was said.

              emph. mine

            • BK Drinkwater 10.1.1.1.2.2
              21 July 2009 at 5:09 pm

              @PB: I’m happy to stand corrected here, and I don’t have the time right now to dig through all the old archives. From memory, it was this part of the notes that was contentious, and further reports attributed the statement to Smith. (I once won a prize at Back Benches for answering precisely this question).

              My critique of the post stands. It is an absurdity to me, contradicting almost all my (limited) political experience, that there is some dearth of independent thought on the Right. Believing that there is might be flattering for the Left, which is precisely why I think all you free-thinkers should be sceptical of the notion in the first place.

            • Pascal's bookie 10.1.1.1.2.3
              21 July 2009 at 8:30 pm

              Hey, fair enough.

              Way I remember it Brash disputed this account and it came down to he said/he said. Whether Brash or Locky said it though misses the point from a left perspective. It was the fact that senior National Party figures were saying it.

              I’m not sure that the post says there are no ideas on the right, but rather that the right, to a much greater degree than the left has many followers that are happy to just ditto those ideas. For whatever reason. One only has to listen to talkback, (anywhere in the world) to see the evidence for this. For some reason, left wing talkback formats don’t really work.

              Think about some of the tensions that do exist on the right, or should 😉

              ACT style themselves as ‘classic liberals’ and claim that they are just as much about social freedom as economic, and yet they closely work with social conservatives to a much greater degree than they do with social liberals.

              I’d certainly agree that the phenomena is not as pronounced here as it is in the US, but if you look at it over there it really is amazing how the right wing wurlitzer operates. Think about all the Obama nonsense, and the Clinton nonsense before that. And remember too, that ‘dittohead’ is what they call themselves. It’s not some lefty smear.

              To a lesser degree the same thing does exist here though. Leighton Smith, Laws, Perigo, the SST, Family First, Garth George etc. Think about the seemingly reflexive defense of Paul Henry’s mustache comments. Or the ‘honey trap’ that didn’t make sense as a honey trap.

            • BK Drinkwater 10.1.1.1.2.4
              21 July 2009 at 11:55 pm

              I can buy all that quite happily. Maybe it’s just a case of me being in too close; I’m within earshot of the grievance-airing, so I take that to be “normal”. In that case, I’m really not the best person to comment.

  11. lprent 11
    21 July 2009 at 12:04 am

    Never said that there aren’t any dittoheads on the left. They are however a lot less than the drones on the right by a few orders of magnitude.

    I had to cull the ones with defective and badly replicated code. A bit like badly tuned Borg. You mostly find them concentrated in the sewer these days.

    • Jared 11.1
      21 July 2009 at 12:41 am

      you might not have expressly stated that there are no dittoheads on the left, but to be fair, it was implied by being overly critical of the prevalence of dittoheads on the right, while conveniently ignoring the left. It happens all the time, just as the standard is largely aligned to the left and labours agenda, so is for instance, kiwiblog and its alignment to the right/ national. The difference is that, Labour now sitting in the defence have had 9 years of policy making, whilst those critical of National’s less than a year in the job have had plenty to say, most of the flow on effects are hall marks of labour policy. In that respect, it may seem like there are more dittoheads on the right, but rest assured, when Labour resume power, whenever that is, the left will have the same number of dittoheads as the right have previously, I believe the term is political ammunition no?

  12. jbc 12
    21 July 2009 at 3:24 am

    I’d say you’re drawing a fairly long bow to extrapolate the character of “the right” from comments on this blog. At best you’d suffer from extreme selection bias. None of my friends that you would label “right leaning” would ever comment here so I’d say the posts here are quite atypical.

    I guess that makes me an oddball.

    Meme followers and regurgitators tend to be those that don’t follow any critical thinking processes. Those that don’t add a bit of independent thought to what they spout. That’s certainly not confined to any one stripe of the political spectrum and I’d hesitate before drawing any conclusion in that respect as it would certainly be tainted by my own experiences.

    Thought experiment: what would you say to adding a “critical thinking test” to voter registration? Fail the test and you fail to vote. Weed out those that are just following others. In your mind who would that favour?

    • Ag 12.1
      21 July 2009 at 4:27 am

      Thought experiment: what would you say to adding a “critical thinking test’ to voter registration? Fail the test and you fail to vote. Weed out those that are just following others. In your mind who would that favour?

      The answer to that question is contained in this meta-study.

      http://www.awitness.org/journal/political_conservatism_as_motivated_social_cognition_summary.html

      We already know that conservatives tend to be rationality challenged. It’s a scientifically established fact. Of course the fact that conservatives will tend to deny such studies outright only confirms them.

      • BK Drinkwater 12.1.1
        21 July 2009 at 5:27 am

        I sincerely hope it is a sense of irony, and not supreme arrogance, Ag, that leads you to invoke “scientific fact” and then proceed to burden it with a proviso—Of course the fact that conservatives will tend to deny such studies outright only confirms them—that renders it utterly unfalsifiable.

        • Ag 12.1.1.1
          21 July 2009 at 7:41 am

          That doesn’t follow at all. If there existed a mental illness that among other things compelled all its sufferers to deny that they had it, it would in no way prevent diagnosis of the illness.

          You can read the various studies for yourself. One of the traits that tends to crop up among self described conservatives is an inability to even consider claims that are countered by their own authority figures.

          But hey, these studies just 20-40 years worth of peer reviewed material. If they clash with your views they must just be wrong…

          • BK Drinkwater 12.1.1.1.1
            21 July 2009 at 5:03 pm

            Ag, it’s remarkably tacky to imagine you’ve looked into my soul and divined my opinion about a piece of scientific research you assume I haven’t read. I’m very familiar with the study, and I had no problem with it (with the exception of John J Ray and his acolytes, not many people have a problem with it).

            It’s kinda obvious that different people have different thought processes, and that this has an influence on the systems of political thought they’re likely to find attractive. Ask yourself: what thought processes and cognitive biases have led you to your own political views? Hint: I sincerely doubt that anyone has arrived at their views through pure disinterested rationalism.

            And as for analogizing conservatism to mental illness, and your implied approach to psychiatric diagnosis, well that’s Brezhnevian at best.

            If ya’ll on the Left are such free-thinkers, then I’m sure you can evaluate Ag’s argument without further help from me. I still maintain the proviso Ag added renders the research into an unfalsifiable framework.

  13. vto 13
    21 July 2009 at 9:07 am

    sheesh zit, just like that silly thread of yours a couple of weeks ago, you seem to enjoy claiming this wondrous knowledge and insight into the thoughts and minds of people who you simultaneously acknowledge live on a different planet from you. Tell me – how do you get this amazing knowledge of people who you are at the opposite end of the spectrum from?

    But to fire it back at you, your statement “Simply doesn’t happen with the Left’s support base. You can’t get the buggers to agree on anything. They care about detail. They argue over it. The educated ones, especially, see simple slogans and shallow arguments as anathema.” outlines to some extent the problem with ‘left people’s’ thinking. You know – can’t agree because everybodys an expert, dont get anything done because they get lost in the detail, too much intelligence and not enough brains, can’t see the simplicity in simplicity, etc etc.

    And as for the claim of dittohead – ha ha, did you think that perhaps these things stick because they have some truth to them??

  14. vto 14
    21 July 2009 at 9:08 am

    in moderation? what for?

  15. Daveski 15
    21 July 2009 at 9:32 am

    Sorry, but this is more shallow “four legs good, two legs bad” crap which starts from a fixed viewpoint – the left is morally superior to the right – and constructs a shon-key (deliberate :)) case around it.

    I think part of the problem is that many of the participants here are actively interested if not involved in the internal machinations of politics, particularly Labour.

    As such, you don’t have the wider outside perspective that one politician is pretty much the same to the average punter.

    As for dittoheads, try the union members who pay their union fees but regardless of their political affiliations, there fees go to Labour. Pot kettle black?

  16. randal 16
    21 July 2009 at 1:08 pm

    its worse than that folks.
    just listen to radio ritalin or radio spud and they are full time shovelling out the slogans and themes for the right to parrot out ad infinitum.
    even worse and this stuck in my craw was organising “victims” to contact newspapers and rubbish sian elias.
    this country is wonking out badly but until someone starts telling the truth about their methods then they will keep doing it

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    Chris Bishop has enthusiastically dubbed himself and Simeon Brown “the Infra Boys”, but they need to take note of the sums around their roading dreams. Photo: Lynn GrievesonMōrena. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, September ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Media Link: “AVFA” on the politics of desperation.

    In this podcast Selwyn Manning and I talk about what appears to be a particular type of end-game in the long transition to systemic realignment in international affairs, in which the move to a new multipolar order with different characteristics … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    2 days ago
  • The cost of flying blind

    Just over two years ago, when worries about immediate mass-death from covid had waned, and people started to talk about covid becoming "endemic", I asked various government agencies what work they'd done on the costs of that - and particularly, on the cost of Long Covid. The answer was that ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 days ago
  • Seymour vs The Clergy

    For paid subscribers“Aotearoa is not as malleable as they think,” Lynette wrote last week on Homage to Simeon Brown:In my heart/mind, that phrase ricocheted over the next days, translating out to “We are not so malleable.”It gave me comfort. I always felt that we were given an advantage in New ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    2 days ago
  • Unstoppable Minister McKee

    All smiles, I know what it takes to fool this townI'll do it 'til the sun goes downAnd all through the nighttimeOh, yeahOh, yeah, I'll tell you what you wanna hearLeave my sunglasses on while I shed a tearIt's never the right timeYeah, yeahSong by SiaLast night there was a ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Could outdoor dining revitalise Queen Street?

    This is a guest post by Ben van Bruggen of The Urban Room,.An earlier version of this post appeared on LinkedIn. All images are by Ben. Have you noticed that there’s almost nowhere on Queen Street that invites you to stop, sit outside and enjoy a coffee, let alone ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    2 days ago
  • Hipkins challenges long-held Labour view Government must stay below 30% of GDP

    Hipkins says when considering tax settings and the size of government, the big question mark is over what happens with the balance between the size of the working-age population and the growing number of Kiwis over the age of 65. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short; here’s ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Your invite to Webworm Chat (a bit like Reddit)

    Hi,One of the things I love the most about Webworm is, well, you. The community that’s gathered around this lil’ newsletter isn’t something I ever expected when I started writing it four years ago — now the comments section is one of my favourite places on the internet. The comments ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    2 days ago
  • Seymour’s Treaty bill making Nats nervous

    A delay in reappointing a top civil servant may indicate a growing nervousness within the National Party about the potential consequences of David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill. Dave Samuels is waiting for reappointment as the Chief Executive of Te Puni Kokiri, but POLITIK understands that what should have been a ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #36

    A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, September 1, 2024 thru Sat, September 7, 2024. Story of the week Our Story of the Week is about how peopele are not born stupid but can be fooled ...
    Skeptical Science
    3 days ago
  • Time for a Change

    You act as thoughYou are a blind manWho's crying, crying 'boutAll the virgins that are dyingIn your habitual dreams, you knowSeems you need more sleepBut like a parrot in a flaming treeI know it's pretty hard to seeI'm beginning to wonderIf it's time for a changeSong: Phil JuddThe next line ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago
  • Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies: Excerpt Six.

    The “double shocks” in post Cold War international affairs. The end of the Cold War fundamentally altered the global geostrategic context. In particular, the end of the nuclear “balance of terror” between the USA and USSR, coupled with the relaxation … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    3 days ago
  • Buried deep

    Here's a bike on Manchester St, Feilding. I took this photo on Friday night after a very nice dinner at the very nice Vietnamese restaurant, Saigon, on Manchester Street.I thought to myself, Manchester Street? Bicycle? This could be the very spot.To recap from an earlier edition: on a February night ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies, Excerpt Five.

    Military politics as a distinct “partial regime.” Notwithstanding their peripheral status, national defense offers the raison d’être of the combat function, which their relative vulnerability makes apparent, so military forces in small peripheral democracies must be very conscious of events … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Leadership for Dummies

    If you’re going somewhere, do you maybe take a bit of an interest in the place? Read up a bit on the history, current events, places to see - that sort of thing? Presumably, if you’re taking a trip somewhere, it’s for a reason. But what if you’re going somewhere ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • Home again

    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on anything you may have missed. Share Read more ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago
  • Dead even tie for hottest August ever

    Long stories short, here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer:The month of August was 1.49˚C warmer than pre-industrial levels, tying with 2023 for the warmest August ever, according ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to Sept 7

    The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts and talking about the week’s news with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on the latest climate science on rising temperatures and the debate about how to responde to climate disinformation; and special guest ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Have We an Infrastructure Deficit?

    An Infrastructure New Zealand report says we are keeping up with infrastructure better than we might have thought from the grumbling. But the challenge of providing for the future remains.I was astonished to learn that the quantity of our infrastructure has been keeping up with economic growth. Your paper almost ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    5 days ago
  • Councils reject racism

    Last month, National passed a racist law requiring local councils to remove their Māori wards, or hold a referendum on them at the 2025 local body election. The final councils voted today, and the verdict is in: an overwhelming rejection. Only two councils out of 45 supported National's racist agenda ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Homage to Simeon Brown

    Open to all - happy weekend ahead, friends.Today I just want to be petty. It’s the way I imagine this chap is -Not only as a political persona. But his real-deal inner personality, in all its glory - appears to be pure pettiness & populist driven.Sometimes I wonder if Simeon ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    5 days ago
  • Government of deceit

    When National cut health spending and imposed a commissioner on Te Whatu Ora, they claimed that it was necessary because the organisation was bloated and inefficient, with "14 layers of management between the CEO and the patient". But it turns out they were simply lying: Health Minister Shane Reti’s ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • The professionals actually think and act like our Government has no fiscal crisis at all

    Treasury staff at work: The demand for a new 12-year Government bond was so strong, Treasury decided to double the amount of bonds it sold. Photo: Lynn GrievesonMōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, September ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 6-September-2024

    Welcome to another Friday and another roundup of stories that caught our eye this week. As always, this and every post is brought to you by the Greater Auckland crew. If you like our work and you’d like to see more of it, we invite you to join our regular ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    5 days ago
  • Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies; Excerpt Four.

    Internal versus external security. Regardless of who rules, large countries can afford to separate external and internal security functions (even if internal control functions predominate under authoritarian regimes). In fact, given the logic of power concentration and institutional centralization of … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    5 days ago
  • A Hole In The River

    There's a hole in the river where her memory liesFrom the land of the living to the air and skyShe was coming to see him, but something changed her mindDrove her down to the riverThere is no returnSongwriters: Neil Finn/Eddie RaynerThe king is dead; long live the queen!Yesterday was a ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Bright Blue His Jacket Ain’t But I Love This Fellow: A Review and Analysis of The Rings of Power E...

    My conclusion last week was that The Rings of Power season two represented a major improvement in the series. The writing’s just so much better, and honestly, its major problems are less the result of the current episodes and more creatures arising from season one plot-holes. I found episode three ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    5 days ago
  • Who should we thank for the defeat of the Nazis

    As a child in the 1950s, I thought the British had won the Second World War because that’s what all our comics said. Later on, the films and comics told me that the Americans won the war. In my late teens, I found out that the Soviet Union ...
    Open ParachuteBy Ken
    6 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #36 2024

    Open access notables Diurnal Temperature Range Trends Differ Below and Above the Melting Point, Pithan & Schatt, Geophysical Research Letters: The globally averaged diurnal temperature range (DTR) has shrunk since the mid-20th century, and climate models project further shrinking. Observations indicate a slowdown or reversal of this trend in recent decades. ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago
  • Media Link: Discussing the NZSIS Security Threat Report.

    I was interviewed by Mike Hosking at NewstalkZB and a few other media outlets about the NZSIS Security Threat Report released recently. I have long advocated for more transparency, accountability and oversight of the NZ Intelligence Community, and although the … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    6 days ago
  • How do I make this better for people who drive Ford Rangers?

    Home, home again to a long warm embrace. Plenty of reasons to be glad to be back.But also, reasons for dejection.You, yes you, Simeon Brown, you odious little oik, you bible thumping petrol-pandering ratfucker weasel. You would be Reason Number One. Well, maybe first among equals with Seymour and Of-Seymour ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • A missed opportunity

    The government introduced a pretty big piece of constitutional legislation today: the Parliament Bill. But rather than the contentious constitutional change (four year terms) pushed by Labour, this merely consolidates the existing legislation covering Parliament - currently scattered across four different Acts - into one piece of legislation. While I ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • Nicola Willis Seeks New Sidekick To Help Fix NZ’s Economy

    Synopsis:Nicola Willis is seeking a new Treasury Boss after Dr Caralee McLiesh’s tenure ends this month. She didn’t listen to McLiesh. Will she listen to the new one?And why is Atlas Network’s Taxpayers Union chiming in?Please consider subscribing or supporting my work. Thanks, Tui.About CaraleeAt the beginning of July, Newsroom ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    6 days ago
  • Inflation alive and kicking in our land of the long white monopolies

    The golden days of profit continue for the the Foodstuffs (Pak’n’Save and New World) and Woolworths supermarket duopoly. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, September 5:The Groceries Commissioner has ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • The thermodynamics of electric vs. internal combustion cars

    This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler I love thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is like your mom: it may not tell you what you can do, but it damn well tells you what you can’t do. I’ve written a few previous posts that include thermodynamics, like one on air capture of ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago
  • Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies: Excerpt Three.

    The notion of geopolitical  “periphery.” The concept of periphery used here refers strictly to what can be called the geopolitical periphery. Being on the geopolitical periphery is an analytic virtue because it makes for more visible policy reform in response … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    6 days ago
  • Venus Hum

    Fill me up with soundThe world sings with me a million smiles an hourI can see me dancing on my radioI can hear you singing in the blades of grassYellow dandelions on my way to schoolBig Beautiful Sky!Song: Venus Hum.Good morning, all you lovely people, and welcome to the 700th ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago
  • I Went to a Creed Concert

    Note: The audio attached to this Webworm compliments today’s newsletter. I collected it as I met people attending a Creed concert. Their opinions may differ to mine. Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Government migration policy backfires; thousands of unemployed nurses

    The country has imported literally thousands of nurses over the past few months yet whether they are being employed as nurses is another matter. Just what is going on with HealthNZ and it nurses is, at best, opaque, in that it will not release anything but broad general statistics and ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    6 days ago
  • A Time For Unity.

    Emotional Response: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon addresses mourners at the tangi of King Tuheitia on Turangawaewae Marae on Saturday, 31 August 2024.THE DEATH OF KING TUHEITIA could hardly have come at a worse time for Maoridom. The power of the Kingitanga to unify te iwi Māori was demonstrated powerfully at January’s ...
    Bowalley Road
    7 days ago
  • Climate Change: Failed again

    National's tax cut policies relied on stealing revenue from the ETS (previously used to fund emissions reduction) to fund tax cuts to landlords. So how's that going? Badly. Today's auction failed again, with zero units (of a possible 7.6 million) sold. Which means they have a $456 million hole in ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    7 days ago
  • Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies: Excerpt Two.

    A question of size. Small size generally means large vulnerability. The perception of threat is broader and often more immediate for small countries. The feeling of comparative weakness, of exposure to risk, and of potential intimidation by larger powers often … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    1 week ago
  • Nicola Willis’s Very Unserious Bungling of the Kiwirail Interislander Cancellation

    Open to all with kind thanks to all subscribers and supporters.Today, RNZ revealed that despite MFAT advice to Nicola Willis to be very “careful and deliberate” in her communications with the South Korean government, prior to any public announcement on cancelling Kiwirail’s i-Rex, Willis instead told South Korea 26 minutes ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    1 week ago
  • Satisfying the Minister’s Speed Obsession

    The Minister of Transport’s speed obsession has this week resulted in two new consultations for 110km/h speed limits, one in Auckland and one in Christchurch. There has also been final approval of the Kapiti Expressway to move to 110km/h following an earlier consultation. While the changes will almost certainly see ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    1 week ago
  • What if we freed up our streets, again?

    This guest post is by Tommy de Silva, a local rangatahi and freelance writer who is passionate about making the urban fabric of Tāmaki Makaurau-Auckland more people-focused and sustainable. New Zealand’s March-April 2020 Level 4 Covid response (aka “lockdown”) was somehow both the best and worst six weeks of ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    1 week ago
  • No Alarms And No Surprises

    A heart that's full up like a landfillA job that slowly kills youBruises that won't healYou look so tired, unhappyBring down the governmentThey don't, they don't speak for usI'll take a quiet lifeA handshake of carbon monoxideAnd no alarms and no surprisesThe fabulous English comedian Stewart Lee once wrote a ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago
  • Five ingenious ways people could beat the heat without cranking the AC

    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons Every summer brings a new spate of headlines about record-breaking heat – for good reason: 2023 was the hottest year on record, in keeping with the upward trend scientists have been clocking for decades. With climate forecasts suggesting that heat waves ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago
  • No new funding for cycling & walking

    Studies show each $1 of spending on walking and cycling infrastructure produces $13 to $35 of economic benefits from higher productivity, lower healthcare costs, less congestion, lower emissions and lower fossil fuel import costs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • 99

    Dad turned 99 today.Hell of a lot of candles, eh?He won't be alone for his birthday. He will have the warm attention of my brother, and my sister, and everyone at the rest home, the most thoughtful attentive and considerate people you could ever know. On Saturday there will be ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago
  • Open Government: National reneges on beneficial ownership

    One of the achievements of the New Zealand’s Open Government Partnership Fourth National Action Plan was a formal commitment from the government to establish a public beneficial ownership register. Such a register would allow the ultimate owners of companies to be identified - a vital measure in preventing corruption, money ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago
  • Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies: Excerpt One.

    This project analyzes security politics in three peripheral democracies (Chile, New Zealand, Portugal) during the 30 years after the end of the Cold War. It argues that changes in the geopolitical landscape and geo-strategic context are interpreted differently by small … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    1 week ago
  • Tea and Toast

    When the skies are looking bad my dearAnd your heart's lost all its hopeAfter dawn there will be sunshineAnd all the dust will goThe skies will clear my darlingNow it's time for you to let goOur girl will wake you up in the mornin'With some tea and toastLyrics: Lucy Spraggan.Good ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago
  • NLTP 2024 released – destroying pipeline of shovel ready local projects

    Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Waka Kotahi yesterday released the latest National Land Transport Plan (NLTP) for 2024-27. The NLTP sets out what transport projects will be funded for the next three years, including both central and local government projects. As expected given the government’s extremely ideological transport policy, it’s ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    1 week ago
  • Can Brown deliver his roads

    The Government’s unveiling of its road-building programme yesterday was ambitious and, many would say, long overdue. But the question will be whether it is too ambitious, whether it is affordable, and, if not, what might be dropped. The big ticket items will be the 17 so-called Roads of National Significance. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    1 week ago
  • New paper about detecting climate misinformation on Twitter/X

    Together with Cristian Rojas, Frank Algra-Maschio, Mark Andrejevic, Travis Coan, and Yuan-Fang Li, I just published a paper in Nature Communications Earth & Environment where we use the Computer Assisted Recognition of Denial and Skepticism (CARDS) machine learning model to detect climate misinformation in 5 million climate tweets. We find over half ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago
  • Excerpting “Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies.”

    In the late 2000s-early 2010s I was researching and writing a book titled “Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies: Chile, New Zealand and Portugal.” The book was a cross-regional Small-N qualitative comparison of the security strategies and postures of three small … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    1 week ago
  • Hating for the Wrong Reasons: Of Rings of Power, Orcs and Evil

    A few months ago, my fellow countryman, HelloFutureMe, put out a giant YouTube video, dissecting what went wrong with the first season of Rings of Power (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ6FRUO0ui0&t=8376s). It’s an exceptionally good video, and though it spans some two and a half hours, it is well worth your time. But ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    1 week ago
  • Climate Change: “Least cost” to who?

    On Friday the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment released their submission on National's second Emissions Reduction Plan, ripping the shit out of it as a massive gamble based on wishful thinking. One of the specific issues he focused on was National's idea of "least cost" emissions reduction, pointing out that ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago
  • Israeli Lives Matter

    There is no monopoly on common senseOn either side of the political fenceWe share the same biology, regardless of ideologyBelieve me when I say to youI hope the Russians love their children tooLyrics: Sting. Read more ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago
  • Luxon Cries

    Over the weekend, I found myself rather irritably reading up about the Treaty of Waitangi. “Do I need to do this?” It’s not my jurisdiction. In any other world, would this be something I choose to do?My answer - no.The Waitangi Tribunal, headed by some of our best legal minds, ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    1 week ago
  • Just one Wellington home being consented for every 10 in Auckland

    A decade of under-building is coming home to roost in Wellington. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday September 2:Wellington’s leaders are wringing their hands over an exodus of skilled ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • Container trucks on local streets: why take the risk?

    This is a guest post by Charmaine Vaughan, who came to transport advocacy via her local Residents Association and a comms role at Bike Auckland. Her enthusiasm to make local streets safer for all is shared by her son Dylan Vaughan, a budding “urban nerd” who provided much of the ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    1 week ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #35

    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, August 25, 2024 thru Sat, August 31, 2024. Story of the week After another crammed week of climate news including updates on climate tipping points, increasing threats from rising ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago
  • An Uncanny Valley of Improvement: A Review and Analysis of The Rings of Power, Episodes 1-3 (Season ...

    And thus we come to the second instalment of Amazon’s Rings of Power. The first season, in 2022, was underwhelming, even for someone like myself, who is by nature inclined to approach Tolkien adaptations with charity. The writing was poor, the plot made no sense on its own terms, and ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    1 week ago

  • Government unlocking potential of AI

    Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced a programme to drive Artificial Intelligence (AI) uptake among New Zealand businesses. “The AI Activator will unlock the potential of AI for New Zealand businesses through a range of support, including access to AI research experts, technical assistance, AI tools and resources, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 hours ago
  • Government releases Wairoa flood review findings

    The independent rapid review into the Wairoa flooding event on 26 June 2024 has been released, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced today. “We welcome the review’s findings and recommendations to strengthen Wairoa's resilience against future events,” Ms ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 hours ago
  • Promoting faster payment times for government

    The Government is sending a clear message to central government agencies that they must prioritise paying invoices in a timely manner, Small Business and Manufacturing Minister Andrew Bayly says. Data released today promotes transparency by publishing the payment times of each central government agency. This data will be published quarterly ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 hours ago
  • Acknowledgement to Kīngi Tuheitia speech

    E te māngai o te Whare Pāremata, kua riro māku te whakaputa i te waka ki waho moana. E te Pirimia tēnā koe.Mr Speaker, it is my privilege to take this adjournment kōrero forward.  Prime Minister – thank you for your leadership. Taupiri te maunga Waikato te awa Te Wherowhero ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    20 hours ago
  • Interim fix to GST adjustment rules to support businesses

    Inland Revenue can begin processing GST returns for businesses affected by a historic legislative drafting error, Revenue Minister Simon Watts says. “Inland Revenue has become aware of a legislative drafting error in the GST adjustment rules after changes were made in 2023 which were meant to simplify the process. This ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    22 hours ago
  • Strong uptake for cervical screening self-test

    More than 80 per cent of New Zealand women being tested have opted for a world-leading self-test for cervical screening since it became available a year ago. Minister of Health Dr Shane Reti and Associate Minister Casey Costello, in her responsibility for Women’s Health, say it’s fantastic to have such ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    24 hours ago
  • Ministry for Regulation’s first Strategic Intentions document sets ambitious direction

    Regulation Minister David Seymour welcomes the Ministry for Regulation’s first Strategic Intentions document, which sets out how the Ministry will carry out its work and deliver on its purpose. “I have set up the Ministry for Regulation with three tasks. One, to cut existing red tape with sector reviews. Two, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Māori Education Advisory Group established

    The Education Minister has established a Māori Education Ministerial Advisory Group made up of experienced practitioners to help improve outcomes for Māori learners. “This group will provide independent advice on all matters related to Māori education in both English medium and Māori medium settings. It will focus on the most impactful ways we can lift ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • First of five new Hercules aircraft takes flight

    Defence Minister Judith Collins today welcomed the first of five new C-130J-30 Hercules to arrive in New Zealand at a ceremony at the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Base Auckland, Whenuapai. “This is an historic day for our New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) and our nation. The new Hercules fleet ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Have your say on suicide prevention

    Today, September 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day, a time to reflect on New Zealand’s confronting suicide statistics, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “Every death by suicide is a tragedy – a tragedy that affects far too many of our families and communities in New Zealand. We must do ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Action to grow the rural health workforce

    Scholarships awarded to 27 health care students is another positive step forward to boost the future rural health workforce, Associate Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “All New Zealanders deserve timely access to quality health care and this Government is committed to improving health outcomes, particularly for the one in five ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Pharmac delivering more for Kiwis following major funding boost

    Associate Health Minister with responsibility for Pharmac David Seymour has welcomed the increased availability of medicines for Kiwis resulting from the Government’s increased investment in Pharmac. “Pharmac operates independently, but it must work within the budget constraints set by the Government,” says Mr Seymour. “When our Government assumed office, New ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Sport Minister congratulates NZ’s Paralympians

    Sport & Recreation Minister Chris Bishop has congratulated New Zealand's Paralympic Team at the conclusion of the Paralympic Games in Paris.  “The NZ Paralympic Team's success in Paris included fantastic performances, personal best times, New Zealand records and Oceania records all being smashed - and of course, many Kiwis on ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Government progresses response to Abuse in Care recommendations

    A Crown Response Office is being established within the Public Service Commission to drive the Government’s response to the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care. “The creation of an Office within a central Government agency was a key recommendation by the Royal Commission’s final report.  “It will have the mandate ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Passport wait times back on-track

    Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says passport processing has returned to normal, and the Department of Internal Affairs [Department] is now advising customers to allow up to two weeks to receive their passport. “I am pleased that passport processing is back at target service levels and the Department ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • New appointments to the FMA board

    Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister has today announced three new appointments and one reappointment to the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) board. Tracey Berry, Nicholas Hegan and Mariette van Ryn have been appointed for a five-year term ending in August 2029, while Chris Swasbrook, who has served as a board member ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • District Court judges appointed

    Attorney-General Hon Judith Collins today announced the appointment of two new District Court judges. The appointees, who will take up their roles at the Manukau Court and the Auckland Court in the Accident Compensation Appeal Jurisdiction, are: Jacqui Clark Judge Clark was admitted to the bar in 1988 after graduating ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
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  • Government makes it faster and easier to invest in New Zealand

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