+ 1000 Ed MSN report what they get paid the most to report OR NOT TO Report.
ECO MAORI was Tau toko supporting a a news channel and I notice a little friction with two employees of there’s. I new it was about ECO MAORI.
But I read it wrong then as soon as they could they through me under the bus they were warned not to stuff with ECO MAORI and they laughed who’s laughing now. I’m going to get Sky at home the school holidays soon and the mokos will leave me a computer to use when they come to stay. I will be able to watch
Te Karere Maori news. I tau toko
All cultures but Maori Mana has be damaged the most. A lot of people in Aotearoa forgot that there are a lot of people in Aotearoa that have Maori tepuna but they don’t go advertising this fact these people still have a affiliation with Maori.
They support ideas that benefit Tanga te Whanua Kia kaha Ka kite ano P.S what a coincidence Sky has dropped its subscription minimin price Ka pai
The problem isn’t just industry wide, it’s nation wide. Already Miss 13 is being sexually harrassed at high school.
Today she asked a male friend for a sip on his water bottle, he gave her the bottle, she gave it a shake (habit of hers) then had a drink, his friends then started making comments like, do you shake a dick like you shake that bottle… etc. She’s a number of admirers because she is attractive and she’s really over all the attention, only been at high school a month.
Any ideas on how to deal with that?
We had a big chat about sexual harrasment in the work place. But she’s a long way from joining the work force.
Or how about “if it were yours I’d have to use tweezers”?
The problem is, bullying/banter encourages more bullying/banter, and she probably doesn’t want to hear that either. There’s strength in numbers, and I expect she isn’t the only person who’s experienced such ‘banter’. She might find some of the boys have better ethics if encouraged, too.
I can never figure out whether being in single-sex education until 17 was a good thing for me, but watching my own childrens’ experience of co-ed, it’s tempting to say so.
am so hearing you OAB. Girls and boys hormones at the same ages are at such different stages.
She was so taken back she didn’t say anything. Might ask if they teach about sexual harrasment etc in social studies. Got to educate the next generation, so we don’t have any more dodgy law firms and the likes.
I think if it’s happening more than once talking to the school is a good idea. They should keep your names out of it too.
Another options is find a good self-defence teacher (from one of the women’s networks), because not only do they teach what to do if one is attacked, but also how to set boundaries and have the confidence/strength to manage those other kinds of situations.
I used to follow feminist blogs that talked about porn and the impact on women in relationships with men who were porn users. The comments section was pretty full on, so many stories of women in relationships with men who were using porn and the problems from that, because of the kind of porn being watched rather than there being a problem with visual sex per se. I think this applies to young men too and it gets reinforced all over the place.
The gist of it is that many young men are socialised into expectations around sex (including talking to girls) that are power based. This happens on lots of levels and in many situations. The dudes hassling your daughter know full well that it affects her, that’s why they’re doing it. It’s on the school and society to wake them up about that, but the sooner young women get the skills to deal with that in ways that are safer for them the better.
Single sex worked very well for me, just not having to deal with that shit. Didn’t even really have to deal with it that much out of school either, but that’s probably about the people I hung out with. I’m tempted to say it’s worse now.
Comparing my sister’s experiences at school with her daughter’s at the same school, I’m amazed at the progress they made. I mean, the classmates were still teenagers, but the quantity and extent of dickishness was way down on the days my sister and I were there (myself included).
And they seem to do a lot better at things like sex ed, even though it’s a religious school. My sister has a story about her teacher in the girl’s class poking her head out the door then giving the girls a proper rundown on condoms etc, on the understanding nobody said where they got the info. By the time of my niece, parents had to opportunity to recuse their kids but the school publicity said explicitly that it would not teach false or unsafe information.
My sex ed was at a boys’ school being shown weird goat-head diagrams by someone who swore themselves to celibacy thirty years before (at least). It was not overly informative.
My niece had the temperament to escalate out of it at school – if they wanted her to feel uncomfortable, they were going to feel scared. But that’s not for everyone – for it to work you need to be able to follow through. Dunno if she ever had to use any of the wee tricks a bouncer-at-the-time uncle taught her, though. Usually chatting about them to all her friends seemed to do the trick. And, in first aid class, volunteering to break someone’s leg when the teacher asked for someone to be the patient. I got a bit of stick for that one.
Their reward is the embarrasment they cause. This gives them power, which gives them status because they can say such things, get a reaction and get away with it. So the way to minimise that behaviour is to remove the reward, or flip it back if you have the temperament. If you don’t want to flip it back, Bushido the hell out of it, hide the reaction, never let them see you bleed.
For the teens with infatuations and if contact is unavoidable, one thing that might work is find something they love and consistently screw it up. If they love Monty Python,say how good Adam Sandler was in it. If they’re into the marvel universe, let him overhear how you couldn’t understand why thor had a glowing thing on his chest. Be a fan of the cricketer the guy hates. Anything to get the nerdside to overpower his hormones so he moves on to someone else.
And if he starts stalking, document it and tell the school.
I find it rather amusing that they can interview the porn king Shane Jones about good character tests.
They obviously don’t apply to Cabinet Ministers.
People of “good character” really do exist.
If you inhabit the more lefty political circles you aren’t likely to run into very many of course.
The pick of politicians, for good character, in New Zealand this century was probably David Shearer. The Labour Party of course crucified him and switched to that popinjay Cunliffe.
With Shearer in the leader’s job I would have gladly voted Labour at the last election.
The man of good character who badmouthed bene’s !!
Real top drawer character.
Yes Cunniliffe had personality problems, so did Shearer.
Finding “good character ” among the candidates to lead National proved problematical. So the right are not angels.
They chose the best of a poor lot. Cheers.
Not quite hysterics but I thought it was pretty stupid. I couldn’t see anything useful that he would accomplish and I think my opinion turned out to be correct. An expensive way to give a middle finger to the then Opposition parties.
Jones is a lazy trougher.
I don’t quite understand what you are talking about.
Jones was a McCully appointment wasn’t he? Obviously he didn’t care about getting the best person for the job if he appointed Jones to almost anything. Am I wrong. Was it someone else who gave Jones that job?
What is the point of your comment?
“They obviously don’t apply to Cabinet Ministers.”
The character test applying to Ministers (or not) was your construct, I noted that in terms of the previous administration you have plenty to support your view….
Not at all.
You may not realise it but an Ambassador is not a Politician. They are Public Servants. They may have been politicians before, and politicians afterward but while an Ambassador, or High Commissioner they are meant to be apolitical.
A good character test probably does (or should) apply to the Public Servants. In Jones case there was clearly little attempt to check it.
Now it appears to be a black mark to have “good character”. If it was a requirement for a Politician it is very hard to see how the deputy-PM could be allowed near the House.
Of course the only person who applied the test to Winnie was John Key. As he said in 2008, before the election
“When Mr Key ruled not working with NZ First after the election, he said he would have to be able to look his colleagues in the eye and trust them. “
An agency may exclude a supplier from participating in a contract opportunity if there is a good reason for exclusion. Reasons for exclusion include:
– bankruptcy, receivership or liquidation
– making a false declaration
– a serious performance issue in a previous contract
– a conviction for a serious crime or offence
– professional misconduct
– an act or omission which adversely reflects on the commercial integrity of the supplier
– failing to pay taxes, duties or other levies
– a threat to national security or the confidentiality of sensitive government information
– the supplier is a person or organisation designated as terrorists by New Zealand Police,
An agency must not exclude a supplier before it has evidence supporting the reason for the exclusion.
I actually think the Govt would struggle to nail Russel McVeagh on those counts. In the absence of any convictions, what have you got left, “professional misconduct”, but does that apply to bad behaviour by staff members “off the clock”, I’m not a lawyer or an HR person but I wouldn’t have thought it did.
“The power balance is skewed – the normal scenario involves a powerful male partner and a young female intern or solicitor. The partner holds all the power. He literally holds the young woman’s whole future career in his hands.
1. Investigate, prosecute, try and sentence.
2. Change the law.
Close down legal firms who flout it.
Years of community service for those found guilty, as well as the appropriation of all their assets.
Could be a long search looking for a lawyer of good character ( although I’m sure the odd one lurks here abouts) let alone a whole firm of them.
Another option is to make their professional body discipline their members in line with what society expects.
I’m holding my breath.
Brexit time! The exit date is only a year away and the Tory Party is still flailing like a demented windmill. The lasted tactic is to threaten to throw the Good Friday Agreement in to the bin of broken English commitments.
Remember before Christmas when they agreed and signed the report on the exit: divorce bill, EU citizen rights in UK and the regulatory alignment of both sides of Ireland. That is now published in a legal form and the Tories/DUP have gone ballistic.
I’ve just listened to BBC 4 news and its coverage and questioning is below its ususal low quaility. Hence RNZ’s coverage will probably be equally poor.
To get up to speed on the Irish border issue have a look at Fintan O’Toole’s recent piece in the Guardian.
“….you can have a hard Brexit or you can have the Belfast Agreement but you can’t have both. And it is increasingly clear which choice they want Britain to make: throw the dead weight of the peace process overboard so that the Brexit balloon may soar into the blue skies of its triumphant future.”
I would be willing to bet that no further proceedings are ever commenced. Winston will never admit he has dropped it and he, and his lawyer, will continue to claim that they are still preparing a claim but it will never appear on any actual Court proceedings.
Am show OUR rate of suicide rate is directly connected to the suppression of a minority culture.
Te tangata need to feel proud positive and loved most of all.
A system that advertise all the bad stats on Maori the main MSM that we see positive articles about Maori is Te Karere I will support Maori news that’s why I’m getting Sky I can watch Te Karere on channel 501 one hour later .
Our mokos need to feel and be treated as equals with all other cultures in Aotearoa they need 2 parent family not one. The moves the Labour government is making know will raise Maori Mana and lower the bad stats on Maori.
Ka kite ano
There is a brilliant book out by Johann Hari that deals with depression.
It’s is called Lost Connections.
Neoliberalism has successfully destroyed or damaged our social connections, something we, as a species, depend on.’
I recommend it to everyone.
In which the Germans gift us the term Rekommunalisierung, the returning of privatised assets to community ownership. I did enjoy this bit:
He ponders all the failures of British privatisation – with a special, sad mention of “your rail system”. (Every German I meet uses the same regretful tone about British trains, as if discussing a child with behavioural problems.)
You could swap out “British” for “NZ” with no loss of accuracy (well, other than that I doubt Germans ever talk about NZ’s trains, regretfully or otherwise).
oh we do talk about NZ missing trains, regretfully in general.
AS it would be lovely, like seriously lovely to not have to drive on NZ roads but rather use the trains to go about.
And for what its worth NZ trains situation reminds me of Germany in the early to mid 80’s when our then conservatives overlords under Helmut Kohl and the CDU/CSU thought that everyone wanted a car and thus lets close train lines up and down the country. This in the end did not go well, and the train lines were opened again, services were restored to many low population areas and ‘gasp’ a generous tax write off was offered to people to commute by train rather then use their own car.
Now Germany has high speed trains, work/sleep trains, the ‘weekend ticket’, discounts for elderlies and students, work tickets that can be bought for the full year (tax write off……) and why would the Germans do that? …..Cause frankly they had a choice to make, either pave over the last bits of green to create more roads or try to get people to use other alternatives.
Sadly in NZ, we don’t have the choice, we don’t get tax write offs for Bus/Train tickets, heck we can’t even get the busses to be on time, and thus if we want to get there we all drive there in our own Sardine Box.
Don’t despair too much Sabine, there are some good things happening around the country. And in surprising places.
Queenstown got a new bus service late last year. Funded 3 ways by ORC, NZTA and QLDC. $2.00 flat fare with a card and after 3 months usage is running ahead of projections.
But. It only happened because TINA. Projections of traffic volumes said we stop in 5 to 7 years, and the cost of providing parking in Queenstown CBD was stratospheric. Roading upgrade options also didn’t exist. So we got a sometimes shinny new bus service. Only sometimes shinny at present because it was put together in a few months by Ritchies out of whatever busses they could find. But they’re getting it together and it’s being used.
Medium term plans (5 years) are for park and ride facilities and fleet upgrades, 10 years has an electric and right sized fleet and frequency improvements. The free word is even getting a run, but not officially yet.
It’s mostly local workers that are using it, but the airport is on one of the routes so it’s taking a bit of traffic to/from there, but the airport and associated trade is a big employer too. Any car, taxi or shuttle van of the road and not using a car park is a win for the town.
The biggest issue is finding drivers and somewhere for them to live. https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/accommodating-drivers-biggest-bus-problem That’s an all over issue in town, there are far more jobs than both people who want them and accomodation. Even paying really good wages isn’t helping employers get or keep staff, when there’s nowhere to live, there’s nowhere to live, and attempts to build more just make it worse because the builders have to have somewhere to live first. The last government poured fuel onto an existing boom and just made everything worse. Won’t be long before it all comes to a shuddering halt when people are going broke left right and centre.
Heard “Oh, they can’t sell their house, it’s not looking good for them” a couple of times lately so there’s people hurting with it getting hard to do things. Quite foreseeable but happens every cycle here.
I visited Gigha (the home of my ancestors) last year. The dancing ladies (the 4 wind turbines that supply the Island and the national grid with electricity) can be seen as you approach the island from the the ferry. The Gardens of the Big Hoose were filled with rhodos and azaleas all in flower, and the local ice cream was almost as yummy as rush munros 🙂
A large battery storage has also recently been added http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/environment/14742762.Gigha_s_wind_power_to_be_stored_under_UK_government_funded_trial/
There you go Duncan one minute you are wearing Red and the next day you put on your blue underwear lol well at least national will now serve te tangata the 99.9%,of Common people of Aotearoa under Simon Bridge gidence. Ka kite ano
That’s positive Duncan I had that thought uterlising our churches and other community building to house OUR homeless people Ka pai.
Yes it he tangata he tangata that counts the most in any society working to gather helping each other
Ka kite ano
Duncan I Back the youth vote after all they are going to inherited the good and bad situation that we are leaving behind for them.
And the governments won’t forget about OUR youth. compolsery voteing as well I say the intelligence youth know what the reality is with the Internet informing them.
These people Saying the youth can not make up their minds.
ECO MAORI Says the Adults can not make up there minds on climate changes reality that we are going to leave behind for the youth and there mokos come on Aotearoa MSM get it together report the truth lucky we have website like the standard to tell the truth about reality .
Ana to kai Ka kite ano
Why does the MSM think the toxic sewer of twitter is worth constantly mining for stories? Twitter is for retards and morons.
For example – today there is a frontpage story on the Herald about people hating on J-Laws latest movie, featuring as it’s primary evidence a twitter post from an Australian nobody with less that 4000 followers who didn’t like the movie.
The non-story then blandly notes “…The film has had positive reviews from some…” “Some” in this case including Variety and the San Francisco Chronicle…
And the Herald thinks people will pay for access to this rubbish?
It has been suggested to me that it would be certain death for the Greens if they took a stand and pulled their backing of the Government over the TPP.
However, wouldn’t it be certain death if they fail to utilize the platform their supporters gave them to take a genuine stand?
Surely Green supporters will see their words mean little if they aren’t prepared to take a genuine stand or will their lip service be enough to appease them, thus maintain their support?
“…wouldn’t it be certain death if they fail to utilize the platform their supporters gave them to take a genuine stand?”
No.
Nothing is certain in politics. Other than your intentions.
I deeply regret the comments I made about Mick in the WSJ which were completely out of line. I have of course apologised to him in person.— Keith Richards (@officialKeef) February 28, 2018
“Mick’s a randy old bastard,” Richards told WSJ. Magazine about the Rolling Stones frontman having an eighth child at age 73. “It’s time for the snip—you can’t be a father at that age. Those poor kids!”
The world is warming, the poles are melting. Perhaps our voracious little businesspeople can help us make a profit on a falling market. The poles are melting, oh dear. Well pole vaulters will look for somewhere to land when they come down and seem to be choosing to come here.
So let’s charge them an arm and a leg to come here. Stop being price takers and be price makers. We are selling ourselves too cheaply as we prostitute ourselves to the Great Devil Money. If the world’s wealthy are saying that people can go to hell, and they are leading the way, let’s make it hot for them.
I reckon this is going to be the best idea and best written piece of news and comment today!
Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s staunchest supporters from the campaign right through to being the key figure in communications, has simply walked out on him:
Hicks’ resignation came a day after she testified before the House Intelligence Committee and said she had told white lies in the course of her duties, though there was no indication the two were connected. A source familiar with her thinking said she first seriously considered resigning in the wake of the scandal involving former senior aide Rob Porter, whose public defense Hicks helped craft while also dating him at the time.
So who’s he got left in the WhiteHouse from before the election? Apart from family, that is. The only ones I can bring to mind are Kellyanne the Alien, Gollum Miller, and Mr. Magoo Sessions.
He tangata I told you that people in powerful positions will try and undermine ECO MAORI Mana I can see it all over the media.
They don’t want to admit that a common broke Ngti Porou Maori has the Mana Iv got. Not all the powerful people are in denial I know exactly who supports me now.
The sandflys behave just like someone that Cat Williams the American comedian talks about in his latest video and that a fact. Ana to kai
I say we have more important issues than young 16 year olds voting like climate change and getting more common people to vote compolsery voteing the sandflys will use anything to undermine me these people who are acting maliciously against ECO Maori will all have water blown in there face.
Ana to kai
Great piece by prolific historian of NZ and the Pacific, Scott Hamilton, with a worrying conclusion:
Peter Thiel is looking for paradise in New Zealand. History is against him
China is the world’s new superpower, and its steady expansion into the Pacific shows how capitalism and the state still march side by side. Chinese businesses now dominate the economies of Pacific countries like Tonga and Fiji. Chinese diplomats negotiate on these businesses’ behalf, and Beijing’s aid to Pacific nations is dependent on permission for Chinese capital to circulate there. Behind the businessmen and the diplomats looms the largest military in the world. It is China, and not a few eccentric Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, that today poses the real threat to the sovereignty of South Pacific nations.
2 Over the last fifteen years China has taken economic control of Tonga. The 2006 riot that destroyed downtown Nuku'alofa targeted many Chinese stores. China evacuated its citizens after the riot, but regained influence by loaning huge sums for the rebuild of Tonga's capital. pic.twitter.com/tHZjIEARUW— Scott Hamilton RTM (@SikotiHamiltonR) February 26, 2018
4 Last year Tonga's PM Pohiva made the startling admission that his kingdom was under Chinese control. Recently Chinese officials summoned Pohiva to a meeting, & demanded he do something about anti-Cinese crimes. Pohiva deflected the demand, knowing how unpopular China is. pic.twitter.com/ZCnMWTe7xl— Scott Hamilton RTM (@SikotiHamiltonR) February 26, 2018
TPP; Not sure. When I look at the long term economic benefits I am inclined to think its of marginal benefit (unlike the FTA with China that accounts for billions).
Regarding your comments on moderation. I am an ex PSA delegate that previously has been a GP supporter. I view myself as centralist that will swing either left or right, depending on policy (FYI I did not vote in the last election).
While you may not have the same view as me, I see incredible hypocrisy within the GP at present in which (to me) trading off principals seems almost a regular occurrence for what, being a ‘serf’ party to Labour?
Like many, I am annoyed that environmental issues are being pushed to the margins when in fact they should be front and centre. Clearly I don’t agree with mixing social policy with environmental issues, as for hatred?, not my words. I have not referred to you as the Green Party, many comments here are aimed towards National so its no different.
As for banning? let the debate flow. I read far worse comments from both sides on Kiwiblog and banning there is very rare. A ban is overturned in as much time as it takes to set up a new email or redirect a VPN.
[1. in moderator mode, I don’t care about your politics, I care about your behaviour and the impact it will have on a thread (there are other issues re behaviour too, read the Policy). Throwing up an off topic, I hate the Greens comment, that is basically your feels, rather than making an actual political argument is a problem because it derails conversations and that style of commenting is very hard to debate with and more likely to end up in a flame war. Make the arguments, and I will argue back as an author or commenter, but am much less likely to get involved as a moderator.
2. don’t tell us how to moderate or run this site. It’s a bannable offence. I’m happy to pass onto the sysop that you intend to try and bypass any ban if that is what you would like. It’s also quite hard to hide personal style, so if you disappear I will notice a new handle appearing that slags off the GP.
3. Kiwiblog is a sewer because it doesn’t moderate and it actively and passively allows the development of prejudice and Dirty Politics. Authors at TS don’t. Again, read the Policy, it clearly states that the site is run for robust debate and to be inclusive by not allowing ‘tone or language that has the effect of excluding others”.
4. You did talk to me as if I were the Green Party. You said “While you may despise my politics its ‘unfortunate” that the Greens have taken this stance. Lets be clear; it took the Green Party so long to get around the table because of the Clark era – it appears you are no more than a party of convenience for Labour.”
Basically I’m seeing you not taking any notice of the moderation notes I have already made, so putting you in moderation for a while. All your comments will have to be released manually until further notice. My suggestion is that you take note here, because the pertinent bit in the Policy right now is the bit about wasting moderator time and there won’t be any more warnings. – weka]
[don’t take my comments out of context and without linking so people can see the context and the whole argument. I take it as a sign of bad faith to selectively quote in that way. I don’t have time for sorting through this, so have deleted your comment entirely – weka]
[you don’t dispute though, you just assert. I just double checked and you took two verbatim statements of mine from another thread, selectively quoted, and didn’t link to them to provide context.
Our most powerful weapon and our greatest weakness is the brain. Perfect example of the later… they are brainwashed as. That was super messed up… ‘murica.
“I’m really excited he’s going to St Paul’s on the Aspire scholarship,” O’Sullivan said. “But I’m really gutted that, because of dirty politics, the Government is pulling these scholarships from this boy and many like him. This is a poor show.”
Someones gearing up for a run in politics which is good because hes someone every young kid could aspire to emulate
Its less about what I think is dirty politics and more about it looking like Lance is making some quite political statements to begin his entrance into politics, in my always humble opinion
Personally speaking though I don’t think its dirty politics, its a short sighted, ideologically driven dumb decision but its not dirty politics as far as I can see
The guy’s a political idiot and strikes me as authoritarian. Let’s hope that’s an example of his stupid rather than him deliberately using a misleading statement for political purposes.
I doubt it. The guy’s a numpty. People love him over his stance against anti-vaxxers, but lefties are going to get a wake up call. I picked the authoritarian stuff from his interviews on vaccination.
O’Sullivan and his wife, Tracy, set up the low-cost health clinic “Te Kohanga Whakaora” (The Nest of Wellness) to make basic healthcare accessible for people in the Far North. He has stated: “I see people on a daily basis who can’t afford to see me, who can’t afford to pay for their medications. We have emergency prescription funds donated to our clinic from New Zealanders around the country who heard about us”. O’Sullivan also set up the “Manawa Ora Korokoro Ora (Moko) programme”, Northland’s first full-time, school-based health clinic, providing medical care to 2000 children across the region, as well as the “Kainga Ora (Well Home) initiative”, which promotes the idea of fixing rundown homes, as he believes that wellness begins in safe warm homes.
There’s a bit of Gareth Morgan syndrome in there, but it’s more that he went to a good school so removal of that scholarship denies others his advantage. A reverse-Bennett. Thing is, the only reason private schools might be better is because the public system has been underfunded and abused.
He might go into politics, in which case he might be a nat, but I suspect he’s more NZ1 flavour.
Last year he was saying he wanted to be the sole leader of the Māori Party.
Some of the anti-vaxxer interviews he did were a red flag. He had difficulty separating out his emotional overload from his facts and he said some stupid shitty things about the anti-vaxxers that made him look off balance. I’m sure you will say there is nothing wrong with saying stupid shitty things about anti-vaxxers, but it was still a bad look for a GP, and for a politician.
Yeah maybe its not a good look but from his pov hes probably seen what actually happens to kids when not vaccinated so he probably does take it a bit personally and isn’t it sometimes good to see politicians with a bit of passion?
Yeah, and if he wasn’t emotional about it, he’d be a bloody sociopath.
Before we criticise him for saying shitty things, maybe we should ask how many kids he’s held in his hands when they were in dire straits from an easily preventable condition.
It might be a shitty thing to say that antivaxxers kill kids, but it’s true. And for all we know, he could well be thinking of specific kids he met and bonded with before they died.
Maybe he didn’t mean to get emotional, but in the moment, facing those people? Yeah, nah.
On a lighter note, the MP thing sounds plausible, but I suspect he’d expect them to do better than a poorly-understood funding monolith if they get back in.
nah, you misunderstand McFlock, and I didn’t say there was anything wrong with him being emotional. And he wasn’t in the moment, facing those people, he was in prepared radio interviews.
I watched where he went when he couldn’t handle his emotional state. That he was critical of anti-vaxxers wasn’t a problem. That he got disjointed and nasty in public made me think there are some issues there.
Like I said, I think he’s authoritarian (hence his position that he would lead the MP if *he can be the sole leader), and someone like that losing sight of the factual basis of his argument is not a good mix in a politician. If someone did that on TS they’d get slammed. You can excuse it because you support the anti-anti-vaxxer cause, but I’m less interested in that than in the dynamics that I saw.
ok, the MP thing, fair enough. Like I said, a bit gareth morgany.
But a pediatrician getting vicious about anti-vaxxers is still understandable, no matter the medium. A “prepared radio interview” is still a largely impromptu deal where you don’t read off a script.
I still don’t think you’ve understood my point, but maybe it’s ok for a pediatrician to get vicious on radio (I’m not sure about that). My comment was about him wanting to be a politician and lead a political party. It wasn’t Gareth Morgany, it was qualitatively different (although I see the same potential for divisive politics too).
The Aspire scholarship is ballot allocated. Not provided for academic achievement or focus, but purely a hand pulling out a name from the proverbial hat of candidates.
The reason for this was that private schools were suffering from falling rolls. The Aspire scholarship was another public donation to the private school purses, all done under the name of “ashpiration”.
I agree. If it’s the Nat version of the Maori Party he’s interested in then that mirrors his tendency toward elitism. Nothing wrong with wanting to help talented young kids from disadvantaged backgrounds but to select them in this way is pretty gross.
The Maori Party was turfed out of government and parliament because of its focus on elitism and Iwi business concerns rather than the concerns of actual Maori. O’Sullivan seems to be cut from the same cloth and will make the same if not worse mistakes on this.
Can’t understand how wedded he is to Nat/ACT processes while pretending to be a fighter for the disadvantaged. The two are mutually exclusive.
Guns arn’t the issue, its how ‘murica treats the mentally ill is the problem. Responding to calls is the problem. Storage of weapons is the problem. Sharing information is the problem
you can never get all those things right, so in a country where you have people who are socialised into violence, taking their kill machine guns away is a smart move. No-one is suggesting that all guns in the US be destroyed.
When was the last time a machine gun was used to commit a mass killing in the usa? Yeah I know its pedantic but with an issue like this I think its important to be accurate especially given the hysteria that can happen
Rather than remove rights (and the 2nd amendment means it wont happen anyway) I’d rather see existing laws enforced properly, information shared properly etc
Sorry, I meant ‘kill machine’ guns, not kill ‘machine guns’. I’m talking about the rapid fire and reload weapons now routinely being used in the US to kill people. Basically domestic terrorism. Of course those weapons should be restricted.
There was a meme going round recently that said something like “when my kid hits another child with a stick, I talk to the child about behaviour but I also take the stick away”. Not rocket science.
Personally speaking if the USA was to follow NZs gun laws they’d be doing a lot better but when it comes to firearms deaths its overwhelmingly pistol not rifle thats the problem and mental health/depression is a huge driver
‘Ignoring the issue is whats causing these tragedies.’
Read Johan Hari’s Lost Connections.
We are a social and cooperative species and we have lost the connections that give our lives meaning.
The issue that is causing these tragedies is called neoliberal capitalism, an ideology you shill for at every opportunity.
“The issue that is causing these tragedies is called neoliberal capitalism, an ideology you shill for at every opportunity.”
So whys it not happening in NZ, you know the country you think has been run on neo-liberal lines for the last thirty years, where you can buy AR15s and other former military semi-autos on a firearms licence
“The vast majority of mass shooters were NOT mentally ill.”
I’m sorry but, to me anyway, if you walk into a school or whatever and gun down as many people as you can then yeah theres something not right in your head
If you google how to make a bump fire stock you get so many ways of how to get your hands on one its not funny so banning them won’t help (I don’t think they’re needed but thats not the point) but to me if someone wants to kill as many people as they can then something in their head is’t right.
It might be depression, it might be anger it might be a lot of things I’d like to see the USA follow what NZ already does because banning AR15s won’t solve the issue in the USA
Oh bull.
I can improvise a zip gun in NZ today. Could probably even make some very unsafe and probably corrosive ammunition to go with it. If it was legal, I probably would, just for the technical challenge and the fun.
But I don’t. And most criminals don’t. Because as soon as it exists, it’s a liability.
And maybe, if I wanted to do Very Bad Things, my homemade design will fail. Like any number of attempted bombers who pretty much just set a car on fire rather than getting a lethal bang.
So making lethality-increasing adaptations illegal limits firearms damage in two ways:
if someone stumbles across the adaptation before the Very Bad Thing, that’s grounds for arrest and intervention right there; and
if the Very Bad Thing happens, unless the bad dude has the focus of Kaczynski then the home-rigged adaptation could well fail, slowing the killing.
But whether the shooter uses a bump stock or not (I’m not aware of how many actually do) doesn’t change the main problem which is that someone wants to kill a lot of people and that, usually, there are many warning signs that’re ignored
Banning certain types of weapons (even if you could) won’t stop that person wanting to kill a lot of people
It would mean that a fire alarm would once again be regarded as “great, another fucking drill” rather than “oh no, I might be killed in the next few minutes”.
Yeah right!
Did you read the link?
Are you telling me that they put the mentally ill in classrooms as teachers?
Giving them guns is sure going to help then isn’t it.
And what’s made them mentally ill in the Mom and apple pie society of the USA? Well probably the Mom and apple pie, and hyper competitive winner / looser society of the USA.
“This is where gun violence comes from. It starts with the violent rearing of men—taught to be self-sufficient—followed by a stripping of their livelihood. Surround them with demagogues who will appeal to their base (worst) of instincts and it gets ugly. What we are witnessing is the psychic rupture of an entire population group of the United States losing their self-purpose. They have lost the narrative that has defined them.
Within this narrative, if they are strong individuals they will succeed. What they are failing to notice is the structural violence perpetrated against them to ensure they don’t. Once this tension finally snaps in his brain, he does what he has been trained to do. Do the ultimate of individual violence. To lash out at the real problem: people, themselves, the otherwhere.”
Also note that this style of gun violence (school shootings) is a US only phenomenon, you don’t see the mentally ill kids of Canada or Australia or especially NZ where we have plenty of semi-auto assault weapons. So what is it about the US that does this.
Neoliberalism created them.
And chris73 is a religious believer in Ayn Rand’s cult.
He reads Atlas Shrugged every night before he goes to bed.
And prays to Hayek.
Well, if you can’t trust a Teaparty Republican with a gun…..
On Facebook, Davidson is a member of the “Teapublitarian Party” group, which says in its description, “If you want smaller government with less tax and regulation and all that then your tea party. If you believe in a representative republic and traditional values then you are republican. If you believe your personal rights and responsibilities begin where mine end and the minimal amount of government is still probably too much then your libertarian. If your a bit of all this then you are Teapublitarian. WELCOME HOME.”
He also likes the NRA’s Institute for Legislative-Action page along with the Memorial Page for the Victims at Sandy Hook Elementary.
On Twitter, he expressed support for “stand your ground” laws.
I also listened to Bill’s speech and I think I see where he gets his convictions. He is a born and bred country southerner where do-it-yourself stoicism is the basis of life. They are good people who believe that the kind of society they live in should be rolled out throughout the country but they don’t take into account the fact that large tracts of NZ – through no fault of their own – have neither the wherewithal or the financial certainty to make it work.
In other words, the ‘one size fits all’ mentality is both impractical and unworkable.
As for MMP. It’s 20 plus years since MMP was introduced and you’d think the Nats would have been able to get their heads around it by now but they haven’t. I put that down to their innate conservatism.
He’s a hypocrite because he talked about navigating the way through the GFC while maintaining the welfare state, for which the govt had to borrow – no mention of the handout to the richest bludgers in the tax cuts and SCF.
But perhaps I was expecting too much to hope he would be honest in his last speech to the house.
Well I’m on the farm with my mokos my aroma will change in the morning lol.
Had my eldest grandson today he was well behave well he gets his nanny and Papas undevdid care he loves it not having to line up with his other 4 sibling for mum and dad’s time.
I got Sky booked for Monday. I remember when sky first started they had all the latest moves ect. I will carry on reading Ropata WahaWaha book it’s a awesome read then I will find more on my tepunas and read them I’m on a mission to learn all I can about OUR Tepuna and te tairawhiti history. Kia kaha Ka kite ano
You’re back to believing CIA and Mossad propaganda again, Jenny.
You did this at the time of Aleppo and the White Helmets, gas and all the rest was shown to be lies.
And yet you fall for the Guardian’s propaganda again.
And while woke anti-imperialist citizen journalists save Syrians from a Western/CIA/Zionist plot, Syrian dissident Yassin al-Haj Saleh laments the rise of myopic fuckwits.
//
What did you expect from the left in its response to the Syrian revolution?
It came to me as a shock, actually, that most of them have sided with Bashar al-Assad. I don’t expect much out of the international left, but I thought they would understand our situation and see us as a people who were struggling against a very despotic, very corrupt, and very sectarian regime. I thought they would see us and side with us. What I found, unfortunately, is that most people on the left know absolutely nothing about Syria. They know nothing of its history, political economy, or contemporary circumstances, and they don’t see us.
In view of the jihadist threat, the Assad regime enjoys the particular support of the Western European left. What do you think about the stance adopted by Western left-wingers towards the Syrian revolution?
Al-Haj Saleh: I find it shocking that elements of the left in the west have sided with a brutal, corrupt and sectarian regime – a dictatorship which for half of a century has depended on the existence of a predatory class that exploits the impoverished and unprotected Syrian population, squeezing public resources dry while depositing billions in foreign banks. Many left-wingers in the west know that Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria for thirty years. They know that he transformed Syria into a dynastic monarchy ruled by the Assad family. They also know that this is a grave breach of the very concept of republic. Why have they never spoken out about this?
One problem is that all those who define themselves as anti-imperialists tend to identify our struggle as a regime change plan in the US sense, which naturally they reject. In the process they ignore Syria′s entire history, its society, political life and economy. At the same time, they feel encouraged to regard everything that happens in Syria in anti-imperialist terms, forgetting that regime change back in 2011 was our own initiative as Syrians! We were the ones who set out to overthrow the barbaric regime.
I think everyone should give Anita McNaught a look as well Ed.
And not just because she is a New Zealander who we have come to know and trust.
Though that is a big part of her identity.
Anita McNaught, former Middle East correspondent for Al Jazeera, interviewed by Altug Akin Faculty of Communications IUE
McNaught:
If we are lucky enough to live for a another few decades, to give us the luxury of looking back over history. I think we will all agree that this was the most remarkable period in human history, where some remarkable things went wrong, and some remarkable things changed, and some remarkably good things happened. And a great deal of heat and light was expended. And at the end of it all, there was no oil left and everything changed again……
There are rarely times in history where so much change happens is such an accelerated area of time, Where so many factors, cultural, religious, economic, converge in an area.
But of course if you are an addict of history, then the Middle East defines Western civilisation as much as Middle Eastern and Near Eastern civilisations…….
I do worry though, because all of us have had a thrilling stimulating and enlightening and profoundly moving time working in this region during this period. And I include Turkey in this……
But there is always for me, and there has always been, and in this I am not sure whether I share this with Robert Fisk, because we have never discussed that, him and I.
I worry that a lot of this is just a distraction. I worry at the end of the day if the biggest story isn’t climate change. In fact I know it is.
However people may get gloomy about the future of the world when they look at movements like the Islamic State, and nihilistic suicide bombers, and economic decline and peak oil and all these other things. And I think, and Al Qaeda, and American military failures. And all the other ways we express disastrous political choices. I wonder still, if the big story all of us have missed, while being terribly excited about the Middle East, is the change in the global climate, and what that is going to mean for every human on this planet.
And that we will look back from the luxury, if we have them, of those decades in the future and say, you know, that Al Qaeda business, that 9/11 business, took our minds off the real story, and the real story was climate change, which we can’t fight, which no army can be raised against, which no religious power can be invoked to stop. And which humanity now has to fight in a different sense.
So, on one hand it has been fascinating, on the other I do worry if it has taken our minds of something much more important……
Atil Atug:
When you look back, which period, or which times, did you enjoy most?
McNaught:
OOHh. That’s so difficult. Each of the channels are so different, so different. And oddly enough, in the many ways that I feel that I have been professionally blessed in my life, I think I have been with the people I needed to be with at the precise time, that I needed to be with them..
So, if I explain it this way, I think New Zealand was a brilliant country to train as a journalist in. Because it is such a practical place, it has such a lack of Hierarchy, with an emphasis and respect for craft skills. If you are going to be a trainee, it is one of the best places to be a trainee at because people don’t treat you with contempt, no one abuses your youth and inexperience, everyone wants to help you grow. It is a nurturing environment and it leaves you hungry and fit…..
P.S. What a joy it is transcribing such a clear thinker and talker, compared say to trying to make sense of the garbled nonsense that comes from Donald Trump.
Though I do wonder, with the news of Russell McVeigh, if things haven’t changed since those times.
My personal dealings with Russel McVeigh from my time in the union movement informed me that they were the go to guys for employers when they wanted to do a bit of union busting. So it doesn’t surprise me that they have a predatory and abusive culture in house as well.
(from when she was actively reporting from inside Syria, before it got too dangerous for here to go there personally at the risk her life and her film crew’s. The reasons why, she explains in the previous video at some length. Personally I would take Anita McNaught’s view point over embedded regime creatures like Vanessa Beeley et al. any day).
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
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Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
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Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
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TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
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Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
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Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
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I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
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TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
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TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
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As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
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Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
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Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
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Not one headline in the NZ msm this morning about the crisis in the Arctic.
Go back to sleep New Zealanders.
It must be solved.
Ok
+ 1000 Ed MSN report what they get paid the most to report OR NOT TO Report.
ECO MAORI was Tau toko supporting a a news channel and I notice a little friction with two employees of there’s. I new it was about ECO MAORI.
But I read it wrong then as soon as they could they through me under the bus they were warned not to stuff with ECO MAORI and they laughed who’s laughing now. I’m going to get Sky at home the school holidays soon and the mokos will leave me a computer to use when they come to stay. I will be able to watch
Te Karere Maori news. I tau toko
All cultures but Maori Mana has be damaged the most. A lot of people in Aotearoa forgot that there are a lot of people in Aotearoa that have Maori tepuna but they don’t go advertising this fact these people still have a affiliation with Maori.
They support ideas that benefit Tanga te Whanua Kia kaha Ka kite ano P.S what a coincidence Sky has dropped its subscription minimin price Ka pai
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/101870162/arctic-heat-spasm-that-created-the-beast-from-the-east-has-southern-counterpart
Ed’s law. 😈
You sound more and more like a denier.
To you perhaps, and that says something about you.
L(1-α) = εσT^4
Where L = solar luminosity
α = albedo
ε = emissivity
σ = Stefan-Boltzmann constant and
T = surface temperature in degrees Kelvin.
mmmmmmmm blanket zzzzzzz.
🙂
We need to think about what this means for rape victims in the courts
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/101863902/sexual-harassment-is-a-legal-industry-norm-former-lawyer-says
…and what it says when the government renews contracts to a law firm that obviously has a rape culture
As the article makes clear, the problem is industry-wide. Which other rape culture breeding ground should the government pick?
The first one that makes a clear and honest attempt to sort its shit out, imo.
The problem isn’t just industry wide, it’s nation wide. Already Miss 13 is being sexually harrassed at high school.
Today she asked a male friend for a sip on his water bottle, he gave her the bottle, she gave it a shake (habit of hers) then had a drink, his friends then started making comments like, do you shake a dick like you shake that bottle… etc. She’s a number of admirers because she is attractive and she’s really over all the attention, only been at high school a month.
Any ideas on how to deal with that?
We had a big chat about sexual harrasment in the work place. But she’s a long way from joining the work force.
Any ideas on how to deal with that?
Mace.
Or how about “if it were yours I’d have to use tweezers”?
The problem is, bullying/banter encourages more bullying/banter, and she probably doesn’t want to hear that either. There’s strength in numbers, and I expect she isn’t the only person who’s experienced such ‘banter’. She might find some of the boys have better ethics if encouraged, too.
I can never figure out whether being in single-sex education until 17 was a good thing for me, but watching my own childrens’ experience of co-ed, it’s tempting to say so.
am so hearing you OAB. Girls and boys hormones at the same ages are at such different stages.
She was so taken back she didn’t say anything. Might ask if they teach about sexual harrasment etc in social studies. Got to educate the next generation, so we don’t have any more dodgy law firms and the likes.
I think if it’s happening more than once talking to the school is a good idea. They should keep your names out of it too.
Another options is find a good self-defence teacher (from one of the women’s networks), because not only do they teach what to do if one is attacked, but also how to set boundaries and have the confidence/strength to manage those other kinds of situations.
I used to follow feminist blogs that talked about porn and the impact on women in relationships with men who were porn users. The comments section was pretty full on, so many stories of women in relationships with men who were using porn and the problems from that, because of the kind of porn being watched rather than there being a problem with visual sex per se. I think this applies to young men too and it gets reinforced all over the place.
The gist of it is that many young men are socialised into expectations around sex (including talking to girls) that are power based. This happens on lots of levels and in many situations. The dudes hassling your daughter know full well that it affects her, that’s why they’re doing it. It’s on the school and society to wake them up about that, but the sooner young women get the skills to deal with that in ways that are safer for them the better.
Single sex worked very well for me, just not having to deal with that shit. Didn’t even really have to deal with it that much out of school either, but that’s probably about the people I hung out with. I’m tempted to say it’s worse now.
(edited)
Comparing my sister’s experiences at school with her daughter’s at the same school, I’m amazed at the progress they made. I mean, the classmates were still teenagers, but the quantity and extent of dickishness was way down on the days my sister and I were there (myself included).
And they seem to do a lot better at things like sex ed, even though it’s a religious school. My sister has a story about her teacher in the girl’s class poking her head out the door then giving the girls a proper rundown on condoms etc, on the understanding nobody said where they got the info. By the time of my niece, parents had to opportunity to recuse their kids but the school publicity said explicitly that it would not teach false or unsafe information.
My sex ed was at a boys’ school being shown weird goat-head diagrams by someone who swore themselves to celibacy thirty years before (at least). It was not overly informative.
My niece had the temperament to escalate out of it at school – if they wanted her to feel uncomfortable, they were going to feel scared. But that’s not for everyone – for it to work you need to be able to follow through. Dunno if she ever had to use any of the wee tricks a bouncer-at-the-time uncle taught her, though. Usually chatting about them to all her friends seemed to do the trick. And, in first aid class, volunteering to break someone’s leg when the teacher asked for someone to be the patient. I got a bit of stick for that one.
Their reward is the embarrasment they cause. This gives them power, which gives them status because they can say such things, get a reaction and get away with it. So the way to minimise that behaviour is to remove the reward, or flip it back if you have the temperament. If you don’t want to flip it back, Bushido the hell out of it, hide the reaction, never let them see you bleed.
For the teens with infatuations and if contact is unavoidable, one thing that might work is find something they love and consistently screw it up. If they love Monty Python,say how good Adam Sandler was in it. If they’re into the marvel universe, let him overhear how you couldn’t understand why thor had a glowing thing on his chest. Be a fan of the cricketer the guy hates. Anything to get the nerdside to overpower his hormones so he moves on to someone else.
And if he starts stalking, document it and tell the school.
TY McFlock for that 🙂
Is there actually provision in Govt procurement policies to refuse to hire a firm that has a bad reputation/character?
A.
Interview with Shane Jones yesterday (RNZ) suggested there is a good character test…overlooked by officials apparently.
I find it rather amusing that they can interview the porn king Shane Jones about good character tests.
They obviously don’t apply to Cabinet Ministers.
Alwyn You are talking about “good character”??? LOL LOL
People of “good character” really do exist.
If you inhabit the more lefty political circles you aren’t likely to run into very many of course.
The pick of politicians, for good character, in New Zealand this century was probably David Shearer. The Labour Party of course crucified him and switched to that popinjay Cunliffe.
With Shearer in the leader’s job I would have gladly voted Labour at the last election.
The man of good character who badmouthed bene’s !!
Real top drawer character.
Yes Cunniliffe had personality problems, so did Shearer.
Finding “good character ” among the candidates to lead National proved problematical. So the right are not angels.
They chose the best of a poor lot. Cheers.
you would have been rolling around the floor in hysterics when the Nats created an ambassadorial role for him then….
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/ambassador-pacific-economic-development-appointed
Not quite hysterics but I thought it was pretty stupid. I couldn’t see anything useful that he would accomplish and I think my opinion turned out to be correct. An expensive way to give a middle finger to the then Opposition parties.
Jones is a lazy trougher.
I assume the same assessment re character tests was made of McCully’s (to name but one) various appointments as well….no?
I don’t quite understand what you are talking about.
Jones was a McCully appointment wasn’t he? Obviously he didn’t care about getting the best person for the job if he appointed Jones to almost anything. Am I wrong. Was it someone else who gave Jones that job?
What is the point of your comment?
“They obviously don’t apply to Cabinet Ministers.”
The character test applying to Ministers (or not) was your construct, I noted that in terms of the previous administration you have plenty to support your view….
Not at all.
You may not realise it but an Ambassador is not a Politician. They are Public Servants. They may have been politicians before, and politicians afterward but while an Ambassador, or High Commissioner they are meant to be apolitical.
A good character test probably does (or should) apply to the Public Servants. In Jones case there was clearly little attempt to check it.
Now it appears to be a black mark to have “good character”. If it was a requirement for a Politician it is very hard to see how the deputy-PM could be allowed near the House.
Of course the only person who applied the test to Winnie was John Key. As he said in 2008, before the election
“When Mr Key ruled not working with NZ First after the election, he said he would have to be able to look his colleagues in the eye and trust them. “
what a load of irrelevant bollocks
I agree Pat. Alwyn often appears to live on Planet Key.
It’s difficult enough just to get Government organisations to hire organisations that can actually do what they say they can do…
> Is there actually provision in Govt procurement policies to refuse to hire a firm that has a bad reputation/character?
I looked it up.
From https://www.procurement.govt.nz/procurement/principles-and-rules/government-rules-of-sourcing/approaching-the-market/reasons-to-exclude-a-supplier/:
An agency may exclude a supplier from participating in a contract opportunity if there is a good reason for exclusion. Reasons for exclusion include:
– bankruptcy, receivership or liquidation
– making a false declaration
– a serious performance issue in a previous contract
– a conviction for a serious crime or offence
– professional misconduct
– an act or omission which adversely reflects on the commercial integrity of the supplier
– failing to pay taxes, duties or other levies
– a threat to national security or the confidentiality of sensitive government information
– the supplier is a person or organisation designated as terrorists by New Zealand Police,
An agency must not exclude a supplier before it has evidence supporting the reason for the exclusion.
I actually think the Govt would struggle to nail Russel McVeagh on those counts. In the absence of any convictions, what have you got left, “professional misconduct”, but does that apply to bad behaviour by staff members “off the clock”, I’m not a lawyer or an HR person but I wouldn’t have thought it did.
A.
“The power balance is skewed – the normal scenario involves a powerful male partner and a young female intern or solicitor. The partner holds all the power. He literally holds the young woman’s whole future career in his hands.
1. Investigate, prosecute, try and sentence.
2. Change the law.
Close down legal firms who flout it.
Years of community service for those found guilty, as well as the appropriation of all their assets.
3. Make 50% of all partners women.
Meanwhile, on Earth, there may some practical steps the government can take. Like making sure officials properly apply the good character test.
All the above can be done.
It just requires willpower.
4. Nationalise all law firms.
😆 or 🙄 if it wasn’t sarcasm.
They certainly Act (Seymour’s =T-shirt) like they’ve been Nationalised (hair-pulling, bullying, illegally surveilling).
Certainly not socialised……..
Could be a long search looking for a lawyer of good character ( although I’m sure the odd one lurks here abouts) let alone a whole firm of them.
Another option is to make their professional body discipline their members in line with what society expects.
I’m holding my breath.
Brexit time! The exit date is only a year away and the Tory Party is still flailing like a demented windmill. The lasted tactic is to threaten to throw the Good Friday Agreement in to the bin of broken English commitments.
Remember before Christmas when they agreed and signed the report on the exit: divorce bill, EU citizen rights in UK and the regulatory alignment of both sides of Ireland. That is now published in a legal form and the Tories/DUP have gone ballistic.
I’ve just listened to BBC 4 news and its coverage and questioning is below its ususal low quaility. Hence RNZ’s coverage will probably be equally poor.
To get up to speed on the Irish border issue have a look at Fintan O’Toole’s recent piece in the Guardian.
“….you can have a hard Brexit or you can have the Belfast Agreement but you can’t have both. And it is increasingly clear which choice they want Britain to make: throw the dead weight of the peace process overboard so that the Brexit balloon may soar into the blue skies of its triumphant future.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/25/brexit-vision-england-perfidy-over-ireland-good-friday-agreemnt
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/101869326/winston-peters-drops-national-party-lawsuit
If this is correct it means that the damage was already done so why bother continuing it
It isn’t correct.
I would be willing to bet that no further proceedings are ever commenced. Winston will never admit he has dropped it and he, and his lawyer, will continue to claim that they are still preparing a claim but it will never appear on any actual Court proceedings.
Fake news in a right wing rag to weaken Peters, seized on by the usual suspects.
Surprise all round.
Am show OUR rate of suicide rate is directly connected to the suppression of a minority culture.
Te tangata need to feel proud positive and loved most of all.
A system that advertise all the bad stats on Maori the main MSM that we see positive articles about Maori is Te Karere I will support Maori news that’s why I’m getting Sky I can watch Te Karere on channel 501 one hour later .
Our mokos need to feel and be treated as equals with all other cultures in Aotearoa they need 2 parent family not one. The moves the Labour government is making know will raise Maori Mana and lower the bad stats on Maori.
Ka kite ano
There is a brilliant book out by Johann Hari that deals with depression.
It’s is called Lost Connections.
Neoliberalism has successfully destroyed or damaged our social connections, something we, as a species, depend on.’
I recommend it to everyone.
The book shows that the way western society lives, works and relates to each other is flawed and leads to stress and mental illness.
M
Is there less stress and mental illness in non western societies ?
Yes
link ?
It’s a difficult thing to measure across cultures – this dataset suggests you may be incorrect as regards depression.
http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001547
Hook, line, and sinker, Stunned Mullet?
“Our mokos need to feel and be treated as equals with all other cultures in Aotearoa”
I agree 100% EM, do you feel that they’re not being treated as equals in neck of NZ ?
How a small town reclaimed its grid and sparked a community revolution
In which the Germans gift us the term Rekommunalisierung, the returning of privatised assets to community ownership. I did enjoy this bit:
He ponders all the failures of British privatisation – with a special, sad mention of “your rail system”. (Every German I meet uses the same regretful tone about British trains, as if discussing a child with behavioural problems.)
You could swap out “British” for “NZ” with no loss of accuracy (well, other than that I doubt Germans ever talk about NZ’s trains, regretfully or otherwise).
oh we do talk about NZ missing trains, regretfully in general.
AS it would be lovely, like seriously lovely to not have to drive on NZ roads but rather use the trains to go about.
And for what its worth NZ trains situation reminds me of Germany in the early to mid 80’s when our then conservatives overlords under Helmut Kohl and the CDU/CSU thought that everyone wanted a car and thus lets close train lines up and down the country. This in the end did not go well, and the train lines were opened again, services were restored to many low population areas and ‘gasp’ a generous tax write off was offered to people to commute by train rather then use their own car.
Now Germany has high speed trains, work/sleep trains, the ‘weekend ticket’, discounts for elderlies and students, work tickets that can be bought for the full year (tax write off……) and why would the Germans do that? …..Cause frankly they had a choice to make, either pave over the last bits of green to create more roads or try to get people to use other alternatives.
Sadly in NZ, we don’t have the choice, we don’t get tax write offs for Bus/Train tickets, heck we can’t even get the busses to be on time, and thus if we want to get there we all drive there in our own Sardine Box.
Don’t despair too much Sabine, there are some good things happening around the country. And in surprising places.
Queenstown got a new bus service late last year. Funded 3 ways by ORC, NZTA and QLDC. $2.00 flat fare with a card and after 3 months usage is running ahead of projections.
http://queenstownlife.com/2017/11/orbus-queenstown-and-the-2-fare/
But. It only happened because TINA. Projections of traffic volumes said we stop in 5 to 7 years, and the cost of providing parking in Queenstown CBD was stratospheric. Roading upgrade options also didn’t exist. So we got a sometimes shinny new bus service. Only sometimes shinny at present because it was put together in a few months by Ritchies out of whatever busses they could find. But they’re getting it together and it’s being used.
Medium term plans (5 years) are for park and ride facilities and fleet upgrades, 10 years has an electric and right sized fleet and frequency improvements. The free word is even getting a run, but not officially yet.
i am sure the tourists in Queenstown will rejoice re the cheap tickets. 🙂
It’s mostly local workers that are using it, but the airport is on one of the routes so it’s taking a bit of traffic to/from there, but the airport and associated trade is a big employer too. Any car, taxi or shuttle van of the road and not using a car park is a win for the town.
The biggest issue is finding drivers and somewhere for them to live. https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/accommodating-drivers-biggest-bus-problem That’s an all over issue in town, there are far more jobs than both people who want them and accomodation. Even paying really good wages isn’t helping employers get or keep staff, when there’s nowhere to live, there’s nowhere to live, and attempts to build more just make it worse because the builders have to have somewhere to live first. The last government poured fuel onto an existing boom and just made everything worse. Won’t be long before it all comes to a shuddering halt when people are going broke left right and centre.
Heard “Oh, they can’t sell their house, it’s not looking good for them” a couple of times lately so there’s people hurting with it getting hard to do things. Quite foreseeable but happens every cycle here.
Thanks for that PM. A blueprint.
How a small Isle off the coast of Scotland also reclaimed it’s grid, Island, community and land
I visited Gigha (the home of my ancestors) last year. The dancing ladies (the 4 wind turbines that supply the Island and the national grid with electricity) can be seen as you approach the island from the the ferry. The Gardens of the Big Hoose were filled with rhodos and azaleas all in flower, and the local ice cream was almost as yummy as rush munros 🙂
A large battery storage has also recently been added
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/environment/14742762.Gigha_s_wind_power_to_be_stored_under_UK_government_funded_trial/
These snippets of what awake communities are managing round the globe are fascinating and welcome info.
There you go Duncan one minute you are wearing Red and the next day you put on your blue underwear lol well at least national will now serve te tangata the 99.9%,of Common people of Aotearoa under Simon Bridge gidence. Ka kite ano
Garner is blue.
Dark blue with a tinge of yellow.
What colour are you ?
Ed is true to colour as are you.
I would have thought Ed would see himself more deep red with green tinges ?
Politicians serve the interest of politicians first and foremost regardless of whether they’re black, brown, white or orange.
No not all of them are self serving like Key was.
😆 you keep thinking that………
I can’t think of too many who made 15+ million profit while holding the role., can you??
That’s positive Duncan I had that thought uterlising our churches and other community building to house OUR homeless people Ka pai.
Yes it he tangata he tangata that counts the most in any society working to gather helping each other
Ka kite ano
Duncan I Back the youth vote after all they are going to inherited the good and bad situation that we are leaving behind for them.
And the governments won’t forget about OUR youth. compolsery voteing as well I say the intelligence youth know what the reality is with the Internet informing them.
These people Saying the youth can not make up their minds.
ECO MAORI Says the Adults can not make up there minds on climate changes reality that we are going to leave behind for the youth and there mokos come on Aotearoa MSM get it together report the truth lucky we have website like the standard to tell the truth about reality .
Ana to kai Ka kite ano
Why does the MSM think the toxic sewer of twitter is worth constantly mining for stories? Twitter is for retards and morons.
For example – today there is a frontpage story on the Herald about people hating on J-Laws latest movie, featuring as it’s primary evidence a twitter post from an Australian nobody with less that 4000 followers who didn’t like the movie.
The non-story then blandly notes “…The film has had positive reviews from some…” “Some” in this case including Variety and the San Francisco Chronicle…
And the Herald thinks people will pay for access to this rubbish?
Lolz at you despising twitter but reading the Herald.
It has been suggested to me that it would be certain death for the Greens if they took a stand and pulled their backing of the Government over the TPP.
However, wouldn’t it be certain death if they fail to utilize the platform their supporters gave them to take a genuine stand?
Surely Green supporters will see their words mean little if they aren’t prepared to take a genuine stand or will their lip service be enough to appease them, thus maintain their support?
“…wouldn’t it be certain death if they fail to utilize the platform their supporters gave them to take a genuine stand?”
No.
Nothing is certain in politics. Other than your intentions.
lol.
Barry Soper doesn’t like Simon Bridges.
2 articles now slamming him.
Which Nat was Soper supporting?
Barry Soper: Simon Bridges’ rubbish first full day as National Party leader
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12004021
Collins of course.
Heh
http://www.fmylife.com/article/michael-moore-tries-to-say-that-women-are-better-than-men-and-gets-shut-down-by-a-feminist_265887.html
Sometimes these things just slip out…..
“Mick’s a randy old bastard,” Richards told WSJ. Magazine about the Rolling Stones frontman having an eighth child at age 73. “It’s time for the snip—you can’t be a father at that age. Those poor kids!”
https://pagesix.com/2018/02/28/keith-richards-says-mick-jagger-needs-a-vasectomy/
Keiths not wrong
We agree on something.
Clean green NZ
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/351533/ocean-swim-race-moved-due-to-water-quality-fears
The world is warming, the poles are melting. Perhaps our voracious little businesspeople can help us make a profit on a falling market. The poles are melting, oh dear. Well pole vaulters will look for somewhere to land when they come down and seem to be choosing to come here.
So let’s charge them an arm and a leg to come here. Stop being price takers and be price makers. We are selling ourselves too cheaply as we prostitute ourselves to the Great Devil Money. If the world’s wealthy are saying that people can go to hell, and they are leading the way, let’s make it hot for them.
I reckon this is going to be the best idea and best written piece of news and comment today!
Shorting the polar ice caps
Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s staunchest supporters from the campaign right through to being the key figure in communications, has simply walked out on him:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Also her Deputy Comms Director is leaving.
Still, pretty awesome career accelerant for a 29 year old.
” … awesome career accelerant …”
Hmm, might leave that judgement until after Mueller’s investigation is done and dusted.
She lost hope. I wonder what the killing point was?
Doing a deal?.
Hicks’ resignation came a day after she testified before the House Intelligence Committee and said she had told white lies in the course of her duties, though there was no indication the two were connected. A source familiar with her thinking said she first seriously considered resigning in the wake of the scandal involving former senior aide Rob Porter, whose public defense Hicks helped craft while also dating him at the time.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/28/politics/hope-hicks-white-house/index.html
In that town a Senate callup is no liability, it’s a qualification.
She’s made the timing very cleverly.
Yeah, the way she reportedly stonewalled the senate probably is a badge of honour in some parts.
But Mueller has powers the senate doesn’t and seems to be digging a lot deeper and may yet unearth something too stinky even for DC.
Sure looks like you are going to be right there.
Here’s hoping.
So who’s he got left in the WhiteHouse from before the election? Apart from family, that is. The only ones I can bring to mind are Kellyanne the Alien, Gollum Miller, and Mr. Magoo Sessions.
He tangata I told you that people in powerful positions will try and undermine ECO MAORI Mana I can see it all over the media.
They don’t want to admit that a common broke Ngti Porou Maori has the Mana Iv got. Not all the powerful people are in denial I know exactly who supports me now.
The sandflys behave just like someone that Cat Williams the American comedian talks about in his latest video and that a fact. Ana to kai
I say we have more important issues than young 16 year olds voting like climate change and getting more common people to vote compolsery voteing the sandflys will use anything to undermine me these people who are acting maliciously against ECO Maori will all have water blown in there face.
Ana to kai
Great piece by prolific historian of NZ and the Pacific, Scott Hamilton, with a worrying conclusion:
Examples:
Pohiva is clearly a lot more honest than our politicians.
China is taking economic control of New Zealand, aided and abetted by Quisling politicians.
You all should read Brady’s work.
Do you support the TPP SoD?
(btw, there are two moderation notes for you to respond to in this thread).
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
TPP; Not sure. When I look at the long term economic benefits I am inclined to think its of marginal benefit (unlike the FTA with China that accounts for billions).
Regarding your comments on moderation. I am an ex PSA delegate that previously has been a GP supporter. I view myself as centralist that will swing either left or right, depending on policy (FYI I did not vote in the last election).
While you may not have the same view as me, I see incredible hypocrisy within the GP at present in which (to me) trading off principals seems almost a regular occurrence for what, being a ‘serf’ party to Labour?
Like many, I am annoyed that environmental issues are being pushed to the margins when in fact they should be front and centre. Clearly I don’t agree with mixing social policy with environmental issues, as for hatred?, not my words. I have not referred to you as the Green Party, many comments here are aimed towards National so its no different.
As for banning? let the debate flow. I read far worse comments from both sides on Kiwiblog and banning there is very rare. A ban is overturned in as much time as it takes to set up a new email or redirect a VPN.
[1. in moderator mode, I don’t care about your politics, I care about your behaviour and the impact it will have on a thread (there are other issues re behaviour too, read the Policy). Throwing up an off topic, I hate the Greens comment, that is basically your feels, rather than making an actual political argument is a problem because it derails conversations and that style of commenting is very hard to debate with and more likely to end up in a flame war. Make the arguments, and I will argue back as an author or commenter, but am much less likely to get involved as a moderator.
2. don’t tell us how to moderate or run this site. It’s a bannable offence. I’m happy to pass onto the sysop that you intend to try and bypass any ban if that is what you would like. It’s also quite hard to hide personal style, so if you disappear I will notice a new handle appearing that slags off the GP.
3. Kiwiblog is a sewer because it doesn’t moderate and it actively and passively allows the development of prejudice and Dirty Politics. Authors at TS don’t. Again, read the Policy, it clearly states that the site is run for robust debate and to be inclusive by not allowing ‘tone or language that has the effect of excluding others”.
4. You did talk to me as if I were the Green Party. You said “While you may despise my politics its ‘unfortunate” that the Greens have taken this stance. Lets be clear; it took the Green Party so long to get around the table because of the Clark era – it appears you are no more than a party of convenience for Labour.”
Basically I’m seeing you not taking any notice of the moderation notes I have already made, so putting you in moderation for a while. All your comments will have to be released manually until further notice. My suggestion is that you take note here, because the pertinent bit in the Policy right now is the bit about wasting moderator time and there won’t be any more warnings. – weka]
I think you are confusing Greenpeace with the Green party. The later have never hidden its belief that people and the environment are side by side.
last mod note for you.
[deleted]
[don’t take my comments out of context and without linking so people can see the context and the whole argument. I take it as a sign of bad faith to selectively quote in that way. I don’t have time for sorting through this, so have deleted your comment entirely – weka]
Shame on you for silencing a counter view.
And I dispute your black writing accusation.
[you don’t dispute though, you just assert. I just double checked and you took two verbatim statements of mine from another thread, selectively quoted, and didn’t link to them to provide context.
1 month ban for wasting moderator time – weka]
Guns, Americans and a religious cult, what could possible go wrong,
https://apnews.com/34e81927d36f4c01b6d2527771d447c6
‘Murica, where a teenage survivor who speaks out about gun violence is fair game.
Woah… am stunned.
Our most powerful weapon and our greatest weakness is the brain. Perfect example of the later… they are brainwashed as. That was super messed up… ‘murica.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/101857808/axed-private-school-scholarships-made-the-impossible-possible–solo-mother
“I’m really excited he’s going to St Paul’s on the Aspire scholarship,” O’Sullivan said. “But I’m really gutted that, because of dirty politics, the Government is pulling these scholarships from this boy and many like him. This is a poor show.”
Someones gearing up for a run in politics which is good because hes someone every young kid could aspire to emulate
where’s the dirty politics?
Its less about what I think is dirty politics and more about it looking like Lance is making some quite political statements to begin his entrance into politics, in my always humble opinion
Personally speaking though I don’t think its dirty politics, its a short sighted, ideologically driven dumb decision but its not dirty politics as far as I can see
The guy’s a political idiot and strikes me as authoritarian. Let’s hope that’s an example of his stupid rather than him deliberately using a misleading statement for political purposes.
Maybe he has more information about this but more importantly he has the potential to be a major force in politics
I doubt it. The guy’s a numpty. People love him over his stance against anti-vaxxers, but lefties are going to get a wake up call. I picked the authoritarian stuff from his interviews on vaccination.
Sheltered life, if you ask me. Catholic boarding school, elite education, probably believes he worked hard to get where he is.
Well thats one way of looking at it I guess
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_O%27Sullivan_(doctor)
O’Sullivan and his wife, Tracy, set up the low-cost health clinic “Te Kohanga Whakaora” (The Nest of Wellness) to make basic healthcare accessible for people in the Far North. He has stated: “I see people on a daily basis who can’t afford to see me, who can’t afford to pay for their medications. We have emergency prescription funds donated to our clinic from New Zealanders around the country who heard about us”. O’Sullivan also set up the “Manawa Ora Korokoro Ora (Moko) programme”, Northland’s first full-time, school-based health clinic, providing medical care to 2000 children across the region, as well as the “Kainga Ora (Well Home) initiative”, which promotes the idea of fixing rundown homes, as he believes that wellness begins in safe warm homes.
No-one has said he hasn’t done good things.
Bit harsh.
There’s a bit of Gareth Morgan syndrome in there, but it’s more that he went to a good school so removal of that scholarship denies others his advantage. A reverse-Bennett. Thing is, the only reason private schools might be better is because the public system has been underfunded and abused.
He might go into politics, in which case he might be a nat, but I suspect he’s more NZ1 flavour.
He’s bloody right on antivaxxers, though.
Last year he was saying he wanted to be the sole leader of the Māori Party.
Some of the anti-vaxxer interviews he did were a red flag. He had difficulty separating out his emotional overload from his facts and he said some stupid shitty things about the anti-vaxxers that made him look off balance. I’m sure you will say there is nothing wrong with saying stupid shitty things about anti-vaxxers, but it was still a bad look for a GP, and for a politician.
Yeah maybe its not a good look but from his pov hes probably seen what actually happens to kids when not vaccinated so he probably does take it a bit personally and isn’t it sometimes good to see politicians with a bit of passion?
What kinds of things did he say about anti-vaxxers that you think were stupid and shitty?
Yeah, and if he wasn’t emotional about it, he’d be a bloody sociopath.
Before we criticise him for saying shitty things, maybe we should ask how many kids he’s held in his hands when they were in dire straits from an easily preventable condition.
It might be a shitty thing to say that antivaxxers kill kids, but it’s true. And for all we know, he could well be thinking of specific kids he met and bonded with before they died.
Maybe he didn’t mean to get emotional, but in the moment, facing those people? Yeah, nah.
On a lighter note, the MP thing sounds plausible, but I suspect he’d expect them to do better than a poorly-understood funding monolith if they get back in.
nah, you misunderstand McFlock, and I didn’t say there was anything wrong with him being emotional. And he wasn’t in the moment, facing those people, he was in prepared radio interviews.
I watched where he went when he couldn’t handle his emotional state. That he was critical of anti-vaxxers wasn’t a problem. That he got disjointed and nasty in public made me think there are some issues there.
Like I said, I think he’s authoritarian (hence his position that he would lead the MP if *he can be the sole leader), and someone like that losing sight of the factual basis of his argument is not a good mix in a politician. If someone did that on TS they’d get slammed. You can excuse it because you support the anti-anti-vaxxer cause, but I’m less interested in that than in the dynamics that I saw.
ok, the MP thing, fair enough. Like I said, a bit gareth morgany.
But a pediatrician getting vicious about anti-vaxxers is still understandable, no matter the medium. A “prepared radio interview” is still a largely impromptu deal where you don’t read off a script.
I still don’t think you’ve understood my point, but maybe it’s ok for a pediatrician to get vicious on radio (I’m not sure about that). My comment was about him wanting to be a politician and lead a political party. It wasn’t Gareth Morgany, it was qualitatively different (although I see the same potential for divisive politics too).
I guess without links i’ll call it a night on this one.
fair enough, I can’t be bothered looking it up and it’s probably not that important. If he has issues I guess they will become apparent in time.
The Aspire scholarship is ballot allocated. Not provided for academic achievement or focus, but purely a hand pulling out a name from the proverbial hat of candidates.
The reason for this was that private schools were suffering from falling rolls. The Aspire scholarship was another public donation to the private school purses, all done under the name of “ashpiration”.
Me too. Strikes me as an authoritarian that is chomping at the bit to get into power.
thanks Molly, good to hear someone else is seeing similar things. I’m guessing he won’t work well with others unless it’s to further his own agenda.
I agree. If it’s the Nat version of the Maori Party he’s interested in then that mirrors his tendency toward elitism. Nothing wrong with wanting to help talented young kids from disadvantaged backgrounds but to select them in this way is pretty gross.
The Maori Party was turfed out of government and parliament because of its focus on elitism and Iwi business concerns rather than the concerns of actual Maori. O’Sullivan seems to be cut from the same cloth and will make the same if not worse mistakes on this.
Can’t understand how wedded he is to Nat/ACT processes while pretending to be a fighter for the disadvantaged. The two are mutually exclusive.
So what was that nonsense about arming teachers?
When will the US just bite the bullet and get rid of guns…
not until the 12th of never.
Guns arn’t the issue, its how ‘murica treats the mentally ill is the problem. Responding to calls is the problem. Storage of weapons is the problem. Sharing information is the problem
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/27/us/parkland-shooter-cruz-sheriff-calls-invs/index.html
you can never get all those things right, so in a country where you have people who are socialised into violence, taking their kill machine guns away is a smart move. No-one is suggesting that all guns in the US be destroyed.
When was the last time a machine gun was used to commit a mass killing in the usa? Yeah I know its pedantic but with an issue like this I think its important to be accurate especially given the hysteria that can happen
Rather than remove rights (and the 2nd amendment means it wont happen anyway) I’d rather see existing laws enforced properly, information shared properly etc
OMG
A gun toting Trump supporter.
OMG
A assumption making ass hat.
I’m sure I read you as saying ‘ guns don’t kill people, people do.”
Sorry, I meant ‘kill machine’ guns, not kill ‘machine guns’. I’m talking about the rapid fire and reload weapons now routinely being used in the US to kill people. Basically domestic terrorism. Of course those weapons should be restricted.
There was a meme going round recently that said something like “when my kid hits another child with a stick, I talk to the child about behaviour but I also take the stick away”. Not rocket science.
Personally speaking if the USA was to follow NZs gun laws they’d be doing a lot better but when it comes to firearms deaths its overwhelmingly pistol not rifle thats the problem and mental health/depression is a huge driver
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/table-20
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/upshot/gun-deaths-are-mostly-suicides.html
and when it comes to terrorism, it’s the rapid fire weapons that are the problem.
You can try and frame it any way you want, anyone can uses stats to support their argument. But try looking at school shooting deaths.
“mental health/depression is a huge driver”
Symptom not a cause. The whole country has a mental health problem and that is only going to get worse.
How many warnings about this guy were ignored? How many mass shooters are, some form of, mentally ill?
Ignoring the issue is whats causing these tragedies
The vast majority of mass shooters are men.
Ignoring the issue is whats causing these tragedies.
Well we definitely need to do something about the problem of men, it’s true.
‘Ignoring the issue is whats causing these tragedies.’
Read Johan Hari’s Lost Connections.
We are a social and cooperative species and we have lost the connections that give our lives meaning.
The issue that is causing these tragedies is called neoliberal capitalism, an ideology you shill for at every opportunity.
You are an ass hat.
“The issue that is causing these tragedies is called neoliberal capitalism, an ideology you shill for at every opportunity.”
So whys it not happening in NZ, you know the country you think has been run on neo-liberal lines for the last thirty years, where you can buy AR15s and other former military semi-autos on a firearms licence
The vast majority of mass shooters were NOT mentally ill.
A great many school shooters, were bullied and ostracised, however. A sign of a sick society
Just as the vast majority of politicians in New Zealand who willingly keep children in poverty, are not, mentally ill.
We have all of the above in New Zealand, including fairly easy access to firearms. But we do not have the same problems with mass shootings.
“The vast majority of mass shooters were NOT mentally ill.”
I’m sorry but, to me anyway, if you walk into a school or whatever and gun down as many people as you can then yeah theres something not right in your head
the school shooter might just be a massive dickhead. Or someone in pain lashing out. But probably not mentally ill.
No it’s not. When a “semi-auto” rifle has a stock that allows a rate of fire in the range of an automatic rifle, there is no distinction between the two.
So, Las Vegas, in answer to your question.
If you google how to make a bump fire stock you get so many ways of how to get your hands on one its not funny so banning them won’t help (I don’t think they’re needed but thats not the point) but to me if someone wants to kill as many people as they can then something in their head is’t right.
It might be depression, it might be anger it might be a lot of things I’d like to see the USA follow what NZ already does because banning AR15s won’t solve the issue in the USA
Oh bull.
I can improvise a zip gun in NZ today. Could probably even make some very unsafe and probably corrosive ammunition to go with it. If it was legal, I probably would, just for the technical challenge and the fun.
But I don’t. And most criminals don’t. Because as soon as it exists, it’s a liability.
And maybe, if I wanted to do Very Bad Things, my homemade design will fail. Like any number of attempted bombers who pretty much just set a car on fire rather than getting a lethal bang.
So making lethality-increasing adaptations illegal limits firearms damage in two ways:
if someone stumbles across the adaptation before the Very Bad Thing, that’s grounds for arrest and intervention right there; and
if the Very Bad Thing happens, unless the bad dude has the focus of Kaczynski then the home-rigged adaptation could well fail, slowing the killing.
But whether the shooter uses a bump stock or not (I’m not aware of how many actually do) doesn’t change the main problem which is that someone wants to kill a lot of people and that, usually, there are many warning signs that’re ignored
Banning certain types of weapons (even if you could) won’t stop that person wanting to kill a lot of people
It will hinder their ability to achieve “a lot”, and it could present another warning sign that might actually be heeded.
Both things matter. Both things can save lives.
Here’s a quick squiz at the actual numbers.
http://www.9news.com/article/news/local/verify/verify-what-the-numbers-say-about-mass-shootings/73-520733240
Looks fairly persuasive that banning assault weapons reduces mass murders. Even if it doesn’t necessarily have much effect on other gun deaths rates.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/expanded-homicide-data/expanded_homicide_data_table_8_murder_victims_by_weapon_2010-2014.xls
Sure in mass shootings but what about deaths in general because to me rifles are not the main problem, handguns are
It would mean that a fire alarm would once again be regarded as “great, another fucking drill” rather than “oh no, I might be killed in the next few minutes”.
Not a machine gun man killer can fire at close to 2 rounds/second.
https://youtu.be/65AZWtAqf40?t=15s
Yeah right!
Did you read the link?
Are you telling me that they put the mentally ill in classrooms as teachers?
Giving them guns is sure going to help then isn’t it.
And what’s made them mentally ill in the Mom and apple pie society of the USA? Well probably the Mom and apple pie, and hyper competitive winner / looser society of the USA.
Ed put up a link yesterday that nailed it, https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-28-02-2018/#comment-1455337
“This is where gun violence comes from. It starts with the violent rearing of men—taught to be self-sufficient—followed by a stripping of their livelihood. Surround them with demagogues who will appeal to their base (worst) of instincts and it gets ugly. What we are witnessing is the psychic rupture of an entire population group of the United States losing their self-purpose. They have lost the narrative that has defined them.
Within this narrative, if they are strong individuals they will succeed. What they are failing to notice is the structural violence perpetrated against them to ensure they don’t. Once this tension finally snaps in his brain, he does what he has been trained to do. Do the ultimate of individual violence. To lash out at the real problem: people, themselves, the otherwhere.”
https://t.co/S1Rqx3Jav4?amp=1
Also note that this style of gun violence (school shootings) is a US only phenomenon, you don’t see the mentally ill kids of Canada or Australia or especially NZ where we have plenty of semi-auto assault weapons. So what is it about the US that does this.
Neoliberalism created them.
And chris73 is a religious believer in Ayn Rand’s cult.
He reads Atlas Shrugged every night before he goes to bed.
And prays to Hayek.
“Please let me be like John Galt“
I imagine most of those references were above your head
Not at all its just that unlike other commentators you’re not worth my time
A video for you Ed.
I take being attacked by neoliberal ideologues and cultists like you and chris 73 as a compliment.
Well, if you can’t trust a Teaparty Republican with a gun…..
On Facebook, Davidson is a member of the “Teapublitarian Party” group, which says in its description, “If you want smaller government with less tax and regulation and all that then your tea party. If you believe in a representative republic and traditional values then you are republican. If you believe your personal rights and responsibilities begin where mine end and the minimal amount of government is still probably too much then your libertarian. If your a bit of all this then you are Teapublitarian. WELCOME HOME.”
He also likes the NRA’s Institute for Legislative-Action page along with the Memorial Page for the Victims at Sandy Hook Elementary.
On Twitter, he expressed support for “stand your ground” laws.
https://heavy.com/news/2018/02/jesse-randall-randal-davidson-dalton-high-school-teacher-gun/
Just listened to Blinglish’s valedictory speech in the house.
Two things stood out to me:
1. He still hasn’t accepted MMP and the fact that National lost and
2. He’s strongly in favour of ‘small’ government – the so-called allowing people ‘choices!’
The man’s a model of hypocrisy.
Another neoliberal stooge bites the dust.
Just happy he cannot do any more damage.
The man’s a model of hypocrisy.
I don’t believe so TV etc.
I also listened to Bill’s speech and I think I see where he gets his convictions. He is a born and bred country southerner where do-it-yourself stoicism is the basis of life. They are good people who believe that the kind of society they live in should be rolled out throughout the country but they don’t take into account the fact that large tracts of NZ – through no fault of their own – have neither the wherewithal or the financial certainty to make it work.
In other words, the ‘one size fits all’ mentality is both impractical and unworkable.
As for MMP. It’s 20 plus years since MMP was introduced and you’d think the Nats would have been able to get their heads around it by now but they haven’t. I put that down to their innate conservatism.
He’s a hypocrite because he talked about navigating the way through the GFC while maintaining the welfare state, for which the govt had to borrow – no mention of the handout to the richest bludgers in the tax cuts and SCF.
But perhaps I was expecting too much to hope he would be honest in his last speech to the house.
no mention of the handout to the richest bludgers in the tax cuts and SCF.
True, very true. Mind you they were basically Key’s babies but English went along with it and put them into practice. Not a point in his favour.
Well I’m on the farm with my mokos my aroma will change in the morning lol.
Had my eldest grandson today he was well behave well he gets his nanny and Papas undevdid care he loves it not having to line up with his other 4 sibling for mum and dad’s time.
I got Sky booked for Monday. I remember when sky first started they had all the latest moves ect. I will carry on reading Ropata WahaWaha book it’s a awesome read then I will find more on my tepunas and read them I’m on a mission to learn all I can about OUR Tepuna and te tairawhiti history. Kia kaha Ka kite ano
Collective stupidity has engulfed the Liberal “anti-imperialist” Left.
https://splinteredeye.wordpress.com/2018/02/28/the-permutations-of-assadism/
The ceasefire you have when you are not having a ceasefire.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/26/so-called-ceasefire-in-syria-has-barely-led-to-a-lull?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
What can we do about Ghouta?
https://ghouta.com/index.php/2018/02/23/what-can-we-do-about-ghouta-a-starter-guide/
We can protest!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1931378846904811/
You’re back to believing CIA and Mossad propaganda again, Jenny.
You did this at the time of Aleppo and the White Helmets, gas and all the rest was shown to be lies.
And yet you fall for the Guardian’s propaganda again.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g1VNQGsiP8M&itct=CAwQpDAYCiITCPiBq5ThytkCFRnSWAodopgOtTIHcmVsYXRlZEjkt-vkzvbL04QB
More journalists disputing the Western propaganda about Syria.
And while woke anti-imperialist citizen journalists save Syrians from a Western/CIA/Zionist plot, Syrian dissident Yassin al-Haj Saleh laments the rise of myopic fuckwits.
//
What did you expect from the left in its response to the Syrian revolution?
https://theintercept.com/2016/10/26/syria-yassin-al-haj-saleh-interview/
In view of the jihadist threat, the Assad regime enjoys the particular support of the Western European left. What do you think about the stance adopted by Western left-wingers towards the Syrian revolution?
https://en.qantara.de/content/interview-with-syrian-dissident-yassin-al-haj-saleh-the-wests-lamentable-myopia
I listen to Pilger, Cockburn, Bartlett and other reputable independent journalists.
You listen to whomever is in alignment with your own views and ignore everything else lest you require a wet nurse.
Plus 1
I think everyone should give Anita McNaught a look as well Ed.
And not just because she is a New Zealander who we have come to know and trust.
Though that is a big part of her identity.
P.S. What a joy it is transcribing such a clear thinker and talker, compared say to trying to make sense of the garbled nonsense that comes from Donald Trump.
Though I do wonder, with the news of Russell McVeigh, if things haven’t changed since those times.
My personal dealings with Russel McVeigh from my time in the union movement informed me that they were the go to guys for employers when they wanted to do a bit of union busting. So it doesn’t surprise me that they have a predatory and abusive culture in house as well.
Plus 1
More from Anita McNaught,
(from when she was actively reporting from inside Syria, before it got too dangerous for here to go there personally at the risk her life and her film crew’s. The reasons why, she explains in the previous video at some length. Personally I would take Anita McNaught’s view point over embedded regime creatures like Vanessa Beeley et al. any day).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2012/10/18/a-syrian-air-force-pilot-explains-why-he-bombed-civilians/?utm_term=.0b1a67ce2be3