do what they did last year, hunt them, donate to foodbanks etc. I am sure the many many food insecure people in NZ would love to get a nice slab of meet for free.
Unfortunately the wild market has been buggered by covid, Germans aren't going out for dinner and China has prohibited the sale of wild meat. Both factors have also knocked the stuffing out of farmed venison prices as well. Currently the only market for wild game, apart from a few niche suppliers to restaurants, is for pet food and you've got to have everything going your way to make any money out of that.
Would be good if a protocol was developed to allow sale of game meat through butchers. If it's ok to give it away through food banks it should be able to be sold on the open market.
More than 18,000 families throughout New Zealand will be able to enjoy hearty meals thanks to a donation of free-range Fiordland venison.
The challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic created the perfect opportunity for the foundation to trial an idea they’d been discussing for years, Sloan said.
The Fiordland Wapiti Foundation was the only recreational hunting group in New Zealand that managed deer on conservation land, he said, and it was important for the ecosystem.
“We understand that if you shoot a deer in Fiordland, the herd can replace it in four to five years, but if that deer damages the forest, it can take generations to recover,” Sloan said.
The foundation typically sends its carcasses to Canterbury for processing, before exporting the meat.
just call it free range. 🙂
Heck i would have it. Its better then what you can get in any supermarket.
Are you suggesting that Sabine @ 1.1 and others above are "incorrect" when suggesting that the distribution of wild venison to food banks etc last year did not happen?
Perhaps you should check your facts before hitting your keyboard.
Here is a generic Google search link to "wild venison food banks nz" providing a whole range of links to media reports on the distribution of 18000 kg of the wild deer meat last year to food banks and other charities here in NZ –
Pet food supply was in media recently, supply chain issues apparently. Turning pests into petfood is good ecological sense even if it doesn't get a gold standard for economics. It can't be that hard to at least supplement the money spent on conservation with income streams such as this.
I guarantee you that instead of government both local and national turning the exploding population of deer in this country into a job ,money,and environmental win they will just turn it into a tax burden that wastes a quality resource. By poisoning them and culling with out extraction.
That would be extremely sad, and in a country with lots of hungry people or people so poor tha they could not even afford a crap cut of meat it would be pure wastage. I hope they will do what they did last year, organise one big hunt, and donate the processed goods to marae and foodbanks. heck, train youngsters who to butcher some game. Skills for life. .
bwaghorn Very likely – the Semmelweis outcome. (He was a man with a good idea, which was tested as a success and saved lives, but the PTB were disturbed that he was changing the status quo without a complete dossier on why and how and ordered him not to proceed further.)
Up until about 10 years ago I or any other good old boy or girl could pot a deer and as long as the liver heart and head where attached trundle down to the local chiller and top their income up , jobs in out of the way places,pest control,and cash in the community, 1080 got picked up due in a carcase to a dick head jumping the wrong boundary,so instead of putting in place a way to stop that they just killed the trade dead.
It is interesting that a government that can live with the fouling of our drinking water from various gunk, is so concerned at one example of something going wrong and someone getting sick. With that sort of safety concern we shouldn't let men go out with rifles at all.
We shouldn't let people go tramping and have them call up our expensive helicopter service when they twist their ankle or get lost. The way that health and safety contracts are drawn up seems to indicate that prevention of any injury is a must for the employee/manager involved. I presume that is why the feral deer market was closed – safety?
In Germany you have a system where meat that was not meant to be butchered aka road kill etc, can be sold publicly at the Freibank. My family used to get their meat there, and was very unhappy when the last one in our town closed. Essentially it was mainly roadkill, animals that were not meant to be butchered but had to be killed, all sorts of meat horse, dear, boar, etc.
An interesting article here from 1911 outlines the rules.
For those interested in a bit of culinary history the above link is awesome to read. Who knew we ate dog in Germany in 1911. I did not.
But this system of a cheap meat butchery of meat that otherwise would not be used, and it could be pests, game etc, to be used solely by people of no means would not go amiss in certain towns where food insecurity and hunger is an issue.
As far as i know all Freibanks in Germany are closed as meat got plentyful and cheap.
I believe and this is anicdata that the traces of 1080 were picked up in wild venison after arriving in Germany, bit of a fuck up but surely an avoidable problem .
ome passengers on board three flights to New Zealand caught up in the Brisbane International Airport Covid-19 green zone breach have been told to immediately isolate.
The Ministry of Health was last night advised by the Queensland health authorities of an upgraded risk for some passengers on board three flights that left Brisbane airport on Thursday afternoon.
Brisbane International Airport was announced a "venue of concern" today after a passenger, who had travelled from Papua New Guinea and mingled with passengers bound for New Zealand, tested positive to Covid-19.
Almost 400 passengers who flew to New Zealand from Brisbane have potentially been exposed to the virus.
Surely there is a really innocent explanation, like Covid, emergency, blablablablah ……………..
The new features wanted by the ministry included a national booking system, with a website where people could "see their vaccination status, receive invitations and reminders to get immunised and have the ability to record adverse reactions".
Each vaccination would need to be easily recorded to assist with tracking and tracing of previous Pfizer doses.
In late October last year, the Ministry of Health awarded a $38m contract to Deloitte and Salesforce to deliver the new NIS, with an additional $5.4m per year over the system's first four years of operation. Deloitte and Salesforce are supported by Amazon-owned Amazon Web Services and Salesforce-owned Mulesoft……………………..
Did Orion pitch for the work? McCrae said neither his company nor any other local or international contender could have put in a bid because "there was no tender"…………………….
The situation seemed some distances from “key service requirements” outlined in the business case document, including a simple web interface that could be used by members of the public to access their immunisation data, a secure system that binds multiple agencies, including those outside the public health system, and that serves as a “single source of truth for all immunisations”.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson said the DHB’s were using a mix of systems because while a basic version of the new Salesforce-based systems was ready, it did yet include booking functionality.”
It had always been part of the plan to add new functionality over the course of 2021.
“The national online booking system is being built on the same Salesforce platform as the CIR uses but with an additional plug-in called Skedulo [made by an Australian company of the same name],” the MoH spokeswoman said.
“This platform has been successfully used internationally for similar booking systems. The system will be rolled out nationally in late May to support the ramping up of Covid-19 vaccinations, particularly as we move towards the middle of the year when the general population are able to access their vaccinations.
“The national online booking system will support and, in some instances, replace individual DHB booking systems.”
In McCrae’s view, the whole process is too slow, too complicated and too expensive.
“There’s a fair number at Orion who have been working on immunisations for a long time, and they’re just simply outraged how much money is being spent.”
This is trivial but I get really annoyed and have to vent when people re-write history… the review on stuff about The Handmaid's Tale said this…
Have June’s adventures in Gilead become the televisual equivalent of Groundhog Day? … the continuing perils of Offred/Ofjoseph/June (Elisabeth Moss) risk turning into Prison Break, The Fugitive or The Walking Dead, simply introducing new characters each season for her to butt up against, rather than progressing towards an ultimate tragedy or triumph.
The thing about The Fugitive is that it did have a definite end – It was a two part episode at the end of season 4. At the time it was the first series to have a definite end as the main actor signaled early that he wanted/needed to leave. Also, the final episode was the most watched episode of any tv series in the USA until the final episode of MASH sixteen years later – it had a similar social frisson as "who shot JR" on Dallas.
As an observer of The Fugitive from current times there are really four things that are interesting…
1) The show operates mostly amongst the working class as TF takes on whatever jobs are available. It shows the trials and tribulations of those at the bottom – govt contracts, unions, having to weather terrible bosses. At that time and following it was more typical to show the lives of the middle class and higher. This is probably the more interesting thing for this readership – 1960's working America looked recognisable whereas working life in the USA nowadays looks totally alien.
2) The story about a child of illegal immigrants born in the USA acquiring citizenship by birth, I suspect, had a major impact on illegal immigration to the USA.
3) The fear of teenagers (who were baby boomers at that time) – children are treated kindly but teenagers are treated as dangerous and troublesome. It was similar on Star Trek.
4) Black people were portrayed in very high social status jobs (doctor, diplomat).
(The acting was very patchy in a very 1960s way but David Janssen carried the cast along.)
One of my ideas is that among the retired etc there is a group in each town called the Friends of .. wherever, and they will take pride in their town and back up the authorities in different ways as volunteers which all unemployed people should do, for at least an hour a week – not taking support from government and putting little back – that's childlike.
The group would step in and weed, the hospital would shout them afternoon tea once a week, and it would be a good social and community thing. Some of the group would probably pick up somebody else to provide transport on their morning or afternoon on the job.
hey if the towns would hire all the unemployed people to fix the gardens, sweep the streets etc, that would be awesome. Suddenly all the people would have jobs, pay taxes and not try to survive on a beggars benefit, and then on the weekends they could volunteer for any charity they like to.
Or else what you are advocating is working for the a paid for benefit ‘aka the unemployment benefit’, which frankly should not be as you only get unemployment benefits when you can prove that you just lost a job, b. did nothing to deserve to have lost that job and c. have paid taxes for x amount of time.
One could say that unemployment benefits are actually an earned benefit courtesy of contributing at the very least 17.4 % and then up to 33 – 39% of ones wages to the upkeep of government and services.
So yeah, towns should hire people to keep their common grounds clean, and thus keep unemployment numbers low.
I don't really care about the part where Rimmer lied about not being able to buy properties (even though that is an insult to those who genuinely can't afford to buy a home and who help pay his wages) but the fact that he failed, apparently repeatedly, to declare these as pecuniary interests is cause for great concern.
Rimmer is a rules nerd so for him to claim ignorance does not wash.
Parliament has a register called the Register of Pecuniary and Other Specified Interests, in which MPs have to declare their interests
In February I voluntarily corrected my earlier returns, to declare interests in some properties and a Kiwisaver account. I had not declared these before, as an honest mistake
In reality I have no legally enforceable rights in any of the properties, being a discretionary beneficiary in other people’s trusts that own them, but Parliament’s rules ask that such interests be declared
I lived overseas when Kiwisaver was established, but was opted in as part of a second job upon return (having opted out on my main job). When I discovered this, I had to call AMP to get access to the account (my superannuation is through a separate scheme, which I declare)
I have not benefited from these ommisions, and nobody forced me to correct the record. Nobody had detected these omissions in the nearly seven years I’ve been a Member of Parliament, if I’d stayed silent it’s likely nobody ever would have. Correcting the record was an entirely voluntary choice
Everyone makes mistakes, the question is how you deal with them. I believe I’ve made the right choices, that ACT’s supporters would expect here.
Perhap we should be kinder to MPs for some minor errors and in less haste to make political attacks on the other side ??
i am Taken back by some comments that have been made including the post on this site on this topic when our PM has done something similar.
It’s been revealed the ANZ KiwiSaver scheme, in which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has money saved, has investments in companies which have supplied weapons to Saudi Arabia https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/300224963/air-nz-apologises-after-revelations-it-helped-saudi-arabian-military?rm=a
Our PM making commentary regarding Air NZ involvement with the saudis military and our PM having profited from the Saudi military doesn’t need me to drag her down her own actions have done that 🤭 but keep on being adjective and able to see all sides.
Always appreciate being channaged and reading balanced opinions.
On the sociopathic oink and his oozing, Bullington club entitlement and privilege.
A chronicler of the first Gilded Age, Fitzgerald would have seen Johnson for what he is. His novels are studded with just his type: men and women so thickly swaddled in money and privilege they can’t see the wreckage strewn behind them. Consult your copy of The Great Gatsby and near the end of that 1925 novel you will find a one-sentence portrait of our 2021 prime minister and his set. “They were careless people … they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
[…]
People like Johnson have always been around, as Fitzgerald reminds us. The most troubling question is how he came to be prime minister.
Agree with the characterisation of Johnson – it matters little whether he did or didn't say "let the bodies pile up", because they unquestionably and unnecessarily did. Yet somehow the story becomes whether he said it or not.
However I still don't like seeing the failures of the UK Covid response attributed to the personality of Johnson – rather than to the far-right, genocidal lunacy of Tory ideology that put an abstraction called "the economy" ahead of public health. "The economy" being nothing more than a sly, coded phrase for the financial interests of their own social class.
As far as Johnson is concerned if one reads the Posh Boys book about the effect of private school boys/men on English politics, it's illuminating. About a quarter of Brit PMs have come from Eton alone e&oe.
It's always been that way in Britain. Its not what you know but who you know that counts. Some of the brightest and most talented youngsters in the land never make it to the first step of the ladder because they come from the 'wrong' families.
Amateur landlord, Cassandra Gore, is a stain of a human being. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem but our residential tenancy model allows dangerous people to be in positions of power and soft authority.
If New Zealand's amateur landlords want to be considered a benefit to society, perhaps it's time for licensing and regulation. This I'm sure they would welcome as proof of their responsibility.
I've read a few articles on the property sections of the major news outlets, Homed, One Roof, etc, about 'how to do up the neglected rental you just bought'.
The articles are about what to do with the piece of crap you just bought to bring it up to a liveable standard for a decent, home-owning citizen. See what’s happening here?
The clear and irrefutable inference is that New Zealand landlords do 5/5ths of fudge-all to maintain their investment. They do nothing because they think their tenants aren't worth it and that the house and land lift the value far more than any consistent maintenance does. And they'd be right.
It's proof again that New Zealand landlords are not in it for the social service as they oft like to claim. They are in it for cash and the maximum possible cash at that.
As bwag says above, perhaps a microchip or ankle bracelet might buck their ideas up.
Landlords who do not know how to renovate also irk me. A vanity got installed, it could have been moved 40 cm if 40 cm got taken off a jutting out piece of wall. I cannot clean behind my washing machine as it needs to be lifted in and out. Great when washing machine flooded. As well I cannot have a front loader because the door could not open to load. I live in a really weird flat which could be great if stuff got fixed up properly in the first place when good money was spent. The real estate agent thought the flat was uninhabited as derelict inside until it got improved. I had to take the place to avoid being homeless as my previous landlord sold.
Farm owners could do with abit of that treatment, I went to an interview in a cold part of nz once ,the owners house had double glazing two big fires plus other heating very nice, the house I was offered had a semi outside concrete floored bathroom stained carpets leaky windows and a rusty old fire he got offended when I turned the job down an told him it was because of the house.
For those into trying to understand the dark web etc and also interested in Russia doing things to Ukraine, and Israel and the USA doing things to Iran, and Iran doing things to… and North Korea doing things and on and on. There was a very interesting and foreboding interview on Radionz this morning on Kim Hill. Thanks Kim for some hard-to-listen-to important info about on-line goings-on to keep to hand.
In her new book, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends, Nicole Perlroth, the cybersecurity and digital espionage reporter for the New York Times exposes threats posed by an international market in cyberweapons.
For decades the US government has been collecting "zero days", a software bug that allows a hacker to break into and silently spy on a computer or device, paying hackers for their code…
[mentioned are] hundreds of Chinese cyberattacks, including a months-long hack of the Times.
Perlroth is a guest lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a graduate of Princeton University and Stanford University.
Some of us believe if the US govt agencies had reported and had these zero day exploits fixed (rather than just recording them and occasionally trying to introduce them), then the Chinese would have had a much harder time breaking in themselves.
“The debate today has moved to: what is the role of the treaty in our democracy going forward? Did the treaty bring us together as one people, or split us apart as two?
Didn't see her answer. No doubt it would be to the affect that if it hasn't split us apart as two she'll do her best to achieve that.
There is nothing virtual about online violence. It has become the new frontline in journalism safety – and women journalists sit at the epicentre of risk. Networked misogyny and gaslighting intersect with racism, religious bigotry, homophobia and other forms of discrimination to threaten women journalists – severely and disproportionately. Threats of sexual violence and murder are frequent and sometimes extended to their families. This phenomenon is also bound up with the rise of viral disinformation, digital conspiracy networks and political polarisation. The psychological, physical, professional, and digital safety and security impacts associated with this escalating freedom of expression and gender equality crisis are overlapping, converging and frequently inseparable. They are also increasingly spilling offline, sometimes with devastating consequences.
Here, we present an edited extract from a major interdisciplinary study produced by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) under commission from UNESCO. The book-length study will be published by UNESCO in mid-2021.
I have a UK friend who is famous and she has to deal with hate every single day. Some of it concerted and organised. Whole threads about her on other pages. Fake pages pretending to be her. Men contacting her management, husband, friends, anyone… to tell them she's blocked them unfairly and they have the right to call her (insert insult here).
That she should die, that she must die… 'just jokes aye'. 'Bit of banter' it's 'fun and games' for the good old football lads of the UK.
Never see women need to go online and tell male comics they're not funny, and some of them… you'd hope they would.
Minimise threats of sexual violence and gendered abuse directed at woman who speak up about the assorted fascists, autocratic despots, war criminals and genocidal thugs you adore. Way to go, sport.
So you don't want to debate or try and understand your own report Joe… you would rather flame. I'm sure magneto will be along shortly to tidy up your commentary…
What is needed is an IRD decision, or a law change around the definition of Church. I'm sorry, but you can't be good for the community and simultaneously bad for it as well. And the Scientologists and any other "church" who uses similar techniques of pressure and intimidation can go the same way as far as I'm concerned. NZ could then use that money for welfare, housing, and health.
The Kaukapakapa resident regularly spray-paints circles around potholes out of “sheer frustration” over seeing motorists navigating around them.
Driving over road imperfections slowly damages your car and tyres by misaligning wheels and constantly stressing shocks and mounts. Avoiding road hazards is dangerous and distracting.
While Councils and NZTA think about pulling their socks up on potholes and other road veneer failures, they can have a look at utility covers as well.
If you are going to re-lay a road 50mm higher than before, you must lift the utility covers also.
Great story here. Local, innovative, forward thinking and award winning. Make smoothies without a blender, including native foods like kawakawa and puha – love it.
Be sweet to get some hot tips on cultivating puha, sounds like they've got the expertise there too.
AFAIK, he’s not gay and has had female partners in the past; I don’t know if he’s single at the moment. I couldn’t care less about his sexuality. What those two adults do or not do in their personal lives is none of our business. Let’s not turn TS into a gutter blog, thanks.
It doesn't matter of course. But I do worry about people in the public eye who may decide to remain in the closet, or keep a relationship secret for some reason.
I'll take the advice from Incognito on the subject from here on in.
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
The pressure is mounting on the Government as it finalises its Budget Policy Statement, but yet more predicted revenue ‘goes missing’. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Climate Commission has delivered another funding blow to the National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government’s tax-cutting plans, potentially carving $1.4 billion off the ‘climate ...
The Government now faces the prospect of having to watch another tax raise the price of petrol when, only six days ago, it abolished the Auckland Regional Fuel tax. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon argued that the regional fuel tax imposed costs on lower-income people with less fuel-efficient vehicles and that ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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https://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/124993790/feral-deer-running-wild-bulldoze-native-plants-in-canterbury-ecosanctuary
Time to crack up the export freak deer market ,
do what they did last year, hunt them, donate to foodbanks etc. I am sure the many many food insecure people in NZ would love to get a nice slab of meet for free.
Absolutely. Good PR and good will all round.
also wild deer is so much better then the poor fenced of things eating nothing but highly fertilized grass.
Sabine – I love to see what slightly off piste response you come out with to others', always with a little wet blanket.
Unfortunately the wild market has been buggered by covid, Germans aren't going out for dinner and China has prohibited the sale of wild meat. Both factors have also knocked the stuffing out of farmed venison prices as well. Currently the only market for wild game, apart from a few niche suppliers to restaurants, is for pet food and you've got to have everything going your way to make any money out of that.
Would be good if a protocol was developed to allow sale of game meat through butchers. If it's ok to give it away through food banks it should be able to be sold on the open market.
I doubt any food banks would be taking the risk of distributing perishable meat, let alone wild stuff.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/121834937/fiordland-venison-redirected-to-foodbank-freezers
The foundation typically sends its carcasses to Canterbury for processing, before exporting the meat.
just call it free range. 🙂
Heck i would have it. Its better then what you can get in any supermarket.
Ah, I did not think of freezers. Doh.
Are you suggesting that Sabine @ 1.1 and others above are "incorrect" when suggesting that the distribution of wild venison to food banks etc last year did not happen?
Perhaps you should check your facts before hitting your keyboard.
Here is a generic Google search link to "wild venison food banks nz" providing a whole range of links to media reports on the distribution of 18000 kg of the wild deer meat last year to food banks and other charities here in NZ –
https://www.google.com/search?q=wild+venison+food+banks+nz&rlz=1C1LDJZ_enNZ499&oq=wild+venison+food+banks+nz&aqs=chrome..69i57.26185j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Please read my reply just above yours at 11.38am.
There is no market is because NZ never marketed that type of meat to NZ.
You can't get wild boar, hare, rabbit, fowl, pheasants, deer etc in NZ. And t'is a shame cause that meat is delicious.
But that grass fed Deer is and taste the same as grass fed beef. No flavor.
We have access to wild deer, boar, hare, duck in our small rural community from locals who hunt. It's the same in most small communities.
Yes, i know that full well, but if you don't then you don't have access to any of that.
And as i said before it is not marketed to NZ'lers as meat that could be delicious.
If ever you have any spare meat left, tell, me and i get the smoker going and bbq.
Even just a nice hare…i so love hare.
Premium Game in Blenheim have a great range and sell online – venison tahr hare goat, even wallaby and ostrich. They even do bacon, salami, sausages.
Stocked in supermarkets too.
thank you, i will check these guys out. Don't care about the wallaby and ostrich to much, but hare and goat. OH yeas! please! So thanks for that tip!
What does wallaby taste like?
like kangaroo
But wallabies are not kangaroos. I will try Google.
Pleased I did not ask what ostrich tastes like, you might have said emu.
Pet food supply was in media recently, supply chain issues apparently. Turning pests into petfood is good ecological sense even if it doesn't get a gold standard for economics. It can't be that hard to at least supplement the money spent on conservation with income streams such as this.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124949577/global-supply-issues-and-shipping-delays-hit-the-family-cats-dinner-plate
I guarantee you that instead of government both local and national turning the exploding population of deer in this country into a job ,money,and environmental win they will just turn it into a tax burden that wastes a quality resource. By poisoning them and culling with out extraction.
That would be extremely sad, and in a country with lots of hungry people or people so poor tha they could not even afford a crap cut of meat it would be pure wastage. I hope they will do what they did last year, organise one big hunt, and donate the processed goods to marae and foodbanks. heck, train youngsters who to butcher some game. Skills for life. .
bwaghorn Very likely – the Semmelweis outcome. (He was a man with a good idea, which was tested as a success and saved lives, but the PTB were disturbed that he was changing the status quo without a complete dossier on why and how and ordered him not to proceed further.)
Up until about 10 years ago I or any other good old boy or girl could pot a deer and as long as the liver heart and head where attached trundle down to the local chiller and top their income up , jobs in out of the way places,pest control,and cash in the community, 1080 got picked up due in a carcase to a dick head jumping the wrong boundary,so instead of putting in place a way to stop that they just killed the trade dead.
It is interesting that a government that can live with the fouling of our drinking water from various gunk, is so concerned at one example of something going wrong and someone getting sick. With that sort of safety concern we shouldn't let men go out with rifles at all.
We shouldn't let people go tramping and have them call up our expensive helicopter service when they twist their ankle or get lost. The way that health and safety contracts are drawn up seems to indicate that prevention of any injury is a must for the employee/manager involved. I presume that is why the feral deer market was closed – safety?
stop calling it 'feral' its free range. 🙂
In Germany you have a system where meat that was not meant to be butchered aka road kill etc, can be sold publicly at the Freibank. My family used to get their meat there, and was very unhappy when the last one in our town closed. Essentially it was mainly roadkill, animals that were not meant to be butchered but had to be killed, all sorts of meat horse, dear, boar, etc.
An interesting article here from 1911 outlines the rules.
https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1911/1/1/cheap-meat-the-german-freibank
For those interested in a bit of culinary history the above link is awesome to read. Who knew we ate dog in Germany in 1911. I did not.
But this system of a cheap meat butchery of meat that otherwise would not be used, and it could be pests, game etc, to be used solely by people of no means would not go amiss in certain towns where food insecurity and hunger is an issue.
As far as i know all Freibanks in Germany are closed as meat got plentyful and cheap.
I believe and this is anicdata that the traces of 1080 were picked up in wild venison after arriving in Germany, bit of a fuck up but surely an avoidable problem .
well that escalated quickly. Luckily for them, our MIQ is half empty so maybe we can house all those travelers there for their isolation period?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-immediate-isolation-warning-for-brisbane-to-nz-travellers-caught-in-airport-bubble-breach/FXOK2T6DYIQXR4Q7MK6SNWWGDM/
500 MIQ rooms have been set aside in case there are issues with the trans tasman bubble eg passengers caught by an outbreak while they are in the air.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300276732/transtasman-travel-will-there-be-room-at-the-inn-if-the-bubble-bursts
aren't we lucky.
Surely there is a really innocent explanation, like Covid, emergency, blablablablah ……………..
oh well just another day in Paradise.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/orion-healths-ian-mccrae-sees-tens-of-millions-in-overspend-on-vaccine-register-flawed-procurement/H6N3AH5GU43Q2NCSMK3JQWYEKQ/
If they use Salesforce, I wish the DHB or whatever replaces them good luck.
They have, hence why little has happened and every one seems to not like to talk about it at all.
Saleforce and Amazon. Why not.
Because its is useless, whether for scheduling or bookings etc. Have you ever worked with it?
Any idea how Deloitte ended up working with it? Any history elsewhere?
Looks like McCrae's got his nose out of joint because he couldn't get a govt contract.
This is trivial but I get really annoyed and have to vent when people re-write history… the review on stuff about The Handmaid's Tale said this…
Have June’s adventures in Gilead become the televisual equivalent of Groundhog Day? … the continuing perils of Offred/Ofjoseph/June (Elisabeth Moss) risk turning into Prison Break, The Fugitive or The Walking Dead, simply introducing new characters each season for her to butt up against, rather than progressing towards an ultimate tragedy or triumph.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/stuff-to-watch/300289269/the-handmaids-tale-as-season-4-comes-to-neon-has-gilead-hit-groundhog-day
The thing about The Fugitive is that it did have a definite end – It was a two part episode at the end of season 4. At the time it was the first series to have a definite end as the main actor signaled early that he wanted/needed to leave. Also, the final episode was the most watched episode of any tv series in the USA until the final episode of MASH sixteen years later – it had a similar social frisson as "who shot JR" on Dallas.
As an observer of The Fugitive from current times there are really four things that are interesting…
1) The show operates mostly amongst the working class as TF takes on whatever jobs are available. It shows the trials and tribulations of those at the bottom – govt contracts, unions, having to weather terrible bosses. At that time and following it was more typical to show the lives of the middle class and higher. This is probably the more interesting thing for this readership – 1960's working America looked recognisable whereas working life in the USA nowadays looks totally alien.
2) The story about a child of illegal immigrants born in the USA acquiring citizenship by birth, I suspect, had a major impact on illegal immigration to the USA.
3) The fear of teenagers (who were baby boomers at that time) – children are treated kindly but teenagers are treated as dangerous and troublesome. It was similar on Star Trek.
4) Black people were portrayed in very high social status jobs (doctor, diplomat).
(The acting was very patchy in a very 1960s way but David Janssen carried the cast along.)
Next installment in an occasional series of how neo-liberalism is failing us.
There is hope the new Health NZ will reverse the sub contracting of services and bring them back in-house.
Witness the gardens and grounds of yr local hospital. Here in the Manawatu, they are overgrown, unkempt and clearly a low priority.
One of my ideas is that among the retired etc there is a group in each town called the Friends of .. wherever, and they will take pride in their town and back up the authorities in different ways as volunteers which all unemployed people should do, for at least an hour a week – not taking support from government and putting little back – that's childlike.
The group would step in and weed, the hospital would shout them afternoon tea once a week, and it would be a good social and community thing. Some of the group would probably pick up somebody else to provide transport on their morning or afternoon on the job.
hey if the towns would hire all the unemployed people to fix the gardens, sweep the streets etc, that would be awesome. Suddenly all the people would have jobs, pay taxes and not try to survive on a beggars benefit, and then on the weekends they could volunteer for any charity they like to.
Or else what you are advocating is working for the a paid for benefit ‘aka the unemployment benefit’, which frankly should not be as you only get unemployment benefits when you can prove that you just lost a job, b. did nothing to deserve to have lost that job and c. have paid taxes for x amount of time.
One could say that unemployment benefits are actually an earned benefit courtesy of contributing at the very least 17.4 % and then up to 33 – 39% of ones wages to the upkeep of government and services.
So yeah, towns should hire people to keep their common grounds clean, and thus keep unemployment numbers low.
Both Korea & Japan have city beautification programs specifically to provide jobs to those without them. They do a pretty good job too.
I don't really care about the part where Rimmer lied about not being able to buy properties (even though that is an insult to those who genuinely can't afford to buy a home and who help pay his wages) but the fact that he failed, apparently repeatedly, to declare these as pecuniary interests is cause for great concern.
Rimmer is a rules nerd so for him to claim ignorance does not wash.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/05/act-leader-david-seymour-admits-he-s-a-beneficiary-of-property-holding-trusts-after-years-of-saying-he-couldn-t-afford-to-buy.html
The oink tries to excuse himself.
The key facts you may like to know are
Everyone makes mistakes, the question is how you deal with them. I believe I’ve made the right choices, that ACT’s supporters would expect here.
google cache
Rimmer is a stickler for the rules, often using others’ indiscretions for political gain.
Now he wants us to laugh all this off?
Perhap we should be kinder to MPs for some minor errors and in less haste to make political attacks on the other side ??
i am Taken back by some comments that have been made including the post on this site on this topic when our PM has done something similar.
It’s been revealed the ANZ KiwiSaver scheme, in which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has money saved, has investments in companies which have supplied weapons to Saudi Arabia
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/300224963/air-nz-apologises-after-revelations-it-helped-saudi-arabian-military?rm=a
That's not similar. The case at hand is an MP failing to declare pecuniary interests as required by New Zealand law.
It would be great if you didn't try minimise Seymour's dishonesty here, and even better if you didn't try to drag Ardern down to his level.
Thanks in advance 🙂
Our PM making commentary regarding Air NZ involvement with the saudis military and our PM having profited from the Saudi military doesn’t need me to drag her down her own actions have done that 🤭 but keep on being adjective and able to see all sides.
Always appreciate being channaged and reading balanced opinions.
On the sociopathic oink and his oozing, Bullington club entitlement and privilege.
A chronicler of the first Gilded Age, Fitzgerald would have seen Johnson for what he is. His novels are studded with just his type: men and women so thickly swaddled in money and privilege they can’t see the wreckage strewn behind them. Consult your copy of The Great Gatsby and near the end of that 1925 novel you will find a one-sentence portrait of our 2021 prime minister and his set. “They were careless people … they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
[…]
People like Johnson have always been around, as Fitzgerald reminds us. The most troubling question is how he came to be prime minister.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/29/sleaze-boris-johnson-careless-privilege.
Agree with the characterisation of Johnson – it matters little whether he did or didn't say "let the bodies pile up", because they unquestionably and unnecessarily did. Yet somehow the story becomes whether he said it or not.
However I still don't like seeing the failures of the UK Covid response attributed to the personality of Johnson – rather than to the far-right, genocidal lunacy of Tory ideology that put an abstraction called "the economy" ahead of public health. "The economy" being nothing more than a sly, coded phrase for the financial interests of their own social class.
As far as Johnson is concerned if one reads the Posh Boys book about the effect of private school boys/men on English politics, it's illuminating. About a quarter of Brit PMs have come from Eton alone e&oe.
It's always been that way in Britain. Its not what you know but who you know that counts. Some of the brightest and most talented youngsters in the land never make it to the first step of the ladder because they come from the 'wrong' families.
To a lesser extent it is true of NZ as well.
Yep, so much waste because the wealthy work the system to protect their own mediocre offspring.
Amateur landlord, Cassandra Gore, is a stain of a human being. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem but our residential tenancy model allows dangerous people to be in positions of power and soft authority.
If New Zealand's amateur landlords want to be considered a benefit to society, perhaps it's time for licensing and regulation. This I'm sure they would welcome as proof of their responsibility.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/renting/124788759/nightmare-landlord-drives-tenants-out-but-court-action-has-left-them-unable-to-rent-again
Lisencing would be a good start. And it would be nice to have a register of Landlords that have been taken to the court.
Licensing landlords is a great idea,and if they a spayed or neutered they could get a cheaper fee, stop the buggers breeding.
shhhh……
bwaghorn –
Some people should not be landlords
I find the most annoying landlords are those who procrastinate and nothing gets done. So draining as well.
I've read a few articles on the property sections of the major news outlets, Homed, One Roof, etc, about 'how to do up the neglected rental you just bought'.
The articles are about what to do with the piece of crap you just bought to bring it up to a liveable standard for a decent, home-owning citizen. See what’s happening here?
The clear and irrefutable inference is that New Zealand landlords do 5/5ths of fudge-all to maintain their investment. They do nothing because they think their tenants aren't worth it and that the house and land lift the value far more than any consistent maintenance does. And they'd be right.
It's proof again that New Zealand landlords are not in it for the social service as they oft like to claim. They are in it for cash and the maximum possible cash at that.
As bwag says above, perhaps a microchip or ankle bracelet might buck their ideas up.
Landlords who do not know how to renovate also irk me. A vanity got installed, it could have been moved 40 cm if 40 cm got taken off a jutting out piece of wall. I cannot clean behind my washing machine as it needs to be lifted in and out. Great when washing machine flooded. As well I cannot have a front loader because the door could not open to load. I live in a really weird flat which could be great if stuff got fixed up properly in the first place when good money was spent. The real estate agent thought the flat was uninhabited as derelict inside until it got improved. I had to take the place to avoid being homeless as my previous landlord sold.
I hear you. The idea they do good is a complete fallacy. They do the bare minimum, and sometimes not even that.
Wonder why NZ’s housing stock is in such poor condition? Amateur landlordism.
Time to professionalise the industry in NZ and have proper, regulated adults in place.
Rich pricks can still invest in housing, just through regulated companies, instead of getting their filthy hands directly all over vulnerable tenants.
May be landlords could do a test run to see what living in their rental is like, for 14 days before leasing the property.
Farm owners could do with abit of that treatment, I went to an interview in a cold part of nz once ,the owners house had double glazing two big fires plus other heating very nice, the house I was offered had a semi outside concrete floored bathroom stained carpets leaky windows and a rusty old fire he got offended when I turned the job down an told him it was because of the house.
For those into trying to understand the dark web etc and also interested in Russia doing things to Ukraine, and Israel and the USA doing things to Iran, and Iran doing things to… and North Korea doing things and on and on. There was a very interesting and foreboding interview on Radionz this morning on Kim Hill. Thanks Kim for some hard-to-listen-to important info about on-line goings-on to keep to hand.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018793738/nicole-perlroth-the-cyberweapons-arms-race
In her new book, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends, Nicole Perlroth, the cybersecurity and digital espionage reporter for the New York Times exposes threats posed by an international market in cyberweapons.
For decades the US government has been collecting "zero days", a software bug that allows a hacker to break into and silently spy on a computer or device, paying hackers for their code…
[mentioned are] hundreds of Chinese cyberattacks, including a months-long hack of the Times.
Perlroth is a guest lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a graduate of Princeton University and Stanford University.
Some of us believe if the US govt agencies had reported and had these zero day exploits fixed (rather than just recording them and occasionally trying to introduce them), then the Chinese would have had a much harder time breaking in themselves.
And hey, this may be a far left blessing but here it goes,
A very happy May Day, Workers Day, Labour Day to all workers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Day
Judith Collins asks:
“The debate today has moved to: what is the role of the treaty in our democracy going forward? Did the treaty bring us together as one people, or split us apart as two?
Didn't see her answer. No doubt it would be to the affect that if it hasn't split us apart as two she'll do her best to achieve that.
Some of the vile shit directed at women who dare speak up.
https://twitter.com/julieposetti/status/1387889654221918212
Introduction
There is nothing virtual about online violence. It has become the new frontline in journalism safety – and women journalists sit at the epicentre of risk. Networked misogyny and gaslighting intersect with racism, religious bigotry, homophobia and other forms of discrimination to threaten women journalists – severely and disproportionately. Threats of sexual violence and murder are frequent and sometimes extended to their families. This phenomenon is also bound up with the rise of viral disinformation, digital conspiracy networks and political polarisation. The psychological, physical, professional, and digital safety and security impacts associated with this escalating freedom of expression and gender equality crisis are overlapping, converging and frequently inseparable. They are also increasingly spilling offline, sometimes with devastating consequences.
Here, we present an edited extract from a major interdisciplinary study produced by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) under commission from UNESCO. The book-length study will be published by UNESCO in mid-2021.
https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/the-chilling.pdf
I have a UK friend who is famous and she has to deal with hate every single day. Some of it concerted and organised. Whole threads about her on other pages. Fake pages pretending to be her. Men contacting her management, husband, friends, anyone… to tell them she's blocked them unfairly and they have the right to call her (insert insult here).
That she should die, that she must die… 'just jokes aye'. 'Bit of banter' it's 'fun and games' for the good old football lads of the UK.
Never see women need to go online and tell male comics they're not funny, and some of them… you'd hope they would.
Well they can expect a visit from the popo if she complains, which hopefully she does.
According to the linked Unesco report 55% of the abuse towards Cadwalladr was "highly gendered".
Yet looking at your word cloud picture of most frequent abuse terms, you could hardly call it gendered abuse..
Minimise threats of sexual violence and gendered abuse directed at woman who speak up about the assorted fascists, autocratic despots, war criminals and genocidal thugs you adore. Way to go, sport.
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So you don't want to debate or try and understand your own report Joe… you would rather flame. I'm sure magneto will be along shortly to tidy up your commentary…
WTF would anyone bother indulging a fucking tankie.
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What is needed is an IRD decision, or a law change around the definition of Church. I'm sorry, but you can't be good for the community and simultaneously bad for it as well. And the Scientologists and any other "church" who uses similar techniques of pressure and intimidation can go the same way as far as I'm concerned. NZ could then use that money for welfare, housing, and health.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/441479/ex-exclusive-brethren-accuse-church-of-tearing-families-apart-there-are-some-pretty-nasty-stories
Solid activism here:
Driving over road imperfections slowly damages your car and tyres by misaligning wheels and constantly stressing shocks and mounts. Avoiding road hazards is dangerous and distracting.
While Councils and NZTA think about pulling their socks up on potholes and other road veneer failures, they can have a look at utility covers as well.
If you are going to re-lay a road 50mm higher than before, you must lift the utility covers also.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300290088/auckland-transport-to-report-pothole-penis-painter-to-police
Great story here. Local, innovative, forward thinking and award winning. Make smoothies without a blender, including native foods like kawakawa and puha – love it.
Be sweet to get some hot tips on cultivating puha, sounds like they've got the expertise there too.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/300285142/south-taranaki-iwis-smoothie-business-about-to-sweep-nz
Is David Seymour gay? If he ain't shagging his deputy and ideological duplicate, Brooke van Velden, then my gaydar is twitching.
AFAIK, he’s not gay and has had female partners in the past; I don’t know if he’s single at the moment. I couldn’t care less about his sexuality. What those two adults do or not do in their personal lives is none of our business. Let’s not turn TS into a gutter blog, thanks.
I'm not sure. Does it matter anyway? Are you homophobic?
It doesn't matter of course. But I do worry about people in the public eye who may decide to remain in the closet, or keep a relationship secret for some reason.
I'll take the advice from Incognito on the subject from here on in.