Open mike 01/11/2023
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6:00 am, November 1st, 2023 - 37 comments
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- Thank You
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All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...1 week ago
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Returning to the model that was failing for most polytechnics and Institutes of Technology is not the answer. ...3 days ago
- Release: National buries 1019 planned homes
It’s been revealed that National has cancelled 60 percent of its housing projects planned before mid-2025 amidst housing woes. ...3 days ago
- Release: Rule-Czar bill a right-wing power grab
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...3 days ago
- Release: Why not both? Luxon shuns Waitangi celebrations
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is running away from problems of his own creation, with his decision not to go to Waitangi. ...3 days ago
- Govt’s ‘free speech’ legislation stokes fear, not freedom
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...3 days ago - Release: Nicola Willis spirals country deeper into recession
The economy shrank 1% this quarter and New Zealand has tumbled into the depths of a recession of Nicola Willis’ making. ...4 days ago
- Release: Hikes for company directors but not ordinary Kiwis
Working people are going backwards while company directors are being given huge pay hikes. ...4 days ago
- ECE no place to cut corners
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...5 days ago
- Release: Strengthening Justice Services for New Zealanders
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...5 days ago
- Release: Labour will continue fight against destructive projects
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...5 days ago
- Green Government will revoke dodgy fast-track projects
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...5 days ago
- Government for the wealthy keeps pushing austerity
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...5 days ago
- Release: Visa changes let migrant workers be paid less
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...5 days ago
- Release: Nightmare before Christmas for Nicola Willis
With more debt and a larger deficit, Nicola Willis’ reputation is in tatters after her failure to return the Government’s books to surplus. ...6 days ago
- Warning to Fast-Track Applicants – ‘Exploit the Whenua, Face the Consequences’
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...6 days ago
- Release: Govt cuts wages for lowest paid NZers… again
For the second year running, the government has effectively cut wages for the lowest paid workers in New Zealand. ...6 days ago
- Govt’s miserly 1.5% minimum wage will take workers backwards
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...6 days ago
- Release: Govt shirking responsibility for rate hikes
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...6 days ago
- Luxon’s ‘localism’ strikes again
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...6 days ago
- Release: Govt breaks promise on EV chargers
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...6 days ago
- Greens call for end to subsidies for Methanex
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...7 days ago
- Govt child poverty targets allow for increase in poverty
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...1 week ago
- Release: Four weeks annual leave under threat
The Government’s attack on workers continues with news it is scrapping work on the Holidays Act. ...1 week ago
- Govt’s emissions plan for measly 1% reduction
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...1 week ago
- Greens stand in solidarity with Whakaata Māori on sad day
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...1 week ago
- Sanctions regime to create more hardship for families
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...1 week ago
- Govt gifts renters housing anxiety for Christmas
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...1 week ago
- Release: National Party urged to support modern slavery legislation
Labour is urging the Prime Minister to walk the talk and support legislation combating modern slavery. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour has lost confidence in the Speaker
The Speaker of the New Zealand Parliament made an unprecedented decision on the government amendment to the Fast Track Approvals Bill last night. ...2 weeks ago
- One year on, still no progress on new ferries
Today’s announcement from the Government on its plan for new ferries throws more uncertainty on the future of the country’s rail network. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Nicola Willis’ smaller ferries will cost more
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...2 weeks ago
- Bill to sanction unlawful occupation of Palestine
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...2 weeks ago
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The Government has done the right thing in moving to ban greyhound racing. ...2 weeks ago
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As far as I'm aware, Labour & the Greens still haven't adopted women's rights policies. Winston is showing them how to do it:
Seems like sensible centrism, huh? Why is it so hard for leftists to stand up for women??
Only because you have not bothered to go to their sites and find out.
The Building Act one is OK, but does not specify “what woman or girl means” so its careless and lazy.
The amendment to the Sport and Recreation New Zealand Act has even worse wording … what does it even mean?
Well I did assume that they would have publicised such a timely stand in the media since it has been a hot issue the past couple of years!
Re meanings, I suspect politicians would rather follow a public consensus – and that would only emerge from sufficient public debate…
"Hot issue", bullshit. Aren't you always going on about "identity politics" & how that is "damaging to the left"? Jeez you're a shit stirrer sometimes. Well I bit I guess & I try to comment as less as I need to coz lifes too short than to be trying to get some lefties knickers in a twist about some faux outrage.
Well I did disclose here (and reiterated once or twice) that discrimination against an elderly woman caused me to abandon my membership of the Greens a couple of years back. I don't agree that the minority rights of those pretending to be women ought to prevail over those of actual women.
If you call that shit stirring you're evading the principle of minority rights, huh? I just want the issue dealt with suitably, so I pointed out that NZF (surprisingly) seemed to have the same intent. Why Labour & the Greens have failed to engage the issue, I'll leave to you for now…
How easy it is to demean people "I don't agree that the minority rights of those pretending to be women ought to prevail over those of actual women." when you look from a narrow, binary lens. Do you really think a Trans Person is simply "pretending to be a woman", you smug POS.
No wonder this site is becoming less and less inclusive.
No need to jump to the wrong conclusion: I pointed out onsite here a couple of years back when the issue first got hot that a user-defined public toilet ought to be configured in with the trad binary. The NZF policy seems headed in that direction, right?
Fraud is considered distasteful by most people, even illegal. The rights of women threatened by this instance of it must be protected by our law. The rights of trans folk likewise. Separately!
While I sympathise with your reaction, I do not consider your insult of DF as inclusive behaviour.
The Mods have been trying their hardest to find a balance between stimulating robust quality debate and keeping the site as inclusive as possible. However, all commenters need to play their part in this, starting with self-moderating their language in and of their comments.
Please be conscious of the effect your own comments may have here on TS.
I apologize to you and this site, meanwhile anyone struggling with their minority status will still be able to read that they are a pretence and a fraud according to DF.
Not the person, the behaviour. Many of us heterosexual folk have trans folk as friends or family, so we can sympathise with their difficulties.
The issue is public policy, which ought not to condone deceit. Trans folk must consider how threatened women feel in such closed-in situations. Being narcissistic instead is unhelpful…
I genuinely appreciate your reply, which shows you took my comment in the way it was intended (IMO, the apology wasn’t necessary, as you hadn’t offended me nor ‘the site’ that exists somewhere inside Lprent’s electronic hardware and, as such, has no feelings or emotions).
FWIW, I struggle with DF’s commenting behaviour, and I will deal with that when I have the time.
I thought Dennis Frank's comment describing transgender people as, "those pretending to be women", was highly aggressive and exclusive.
Followed by that old classic, 'some of my best friends are trans'.
Keeping the site as inclusive as possible is a good policy but transgender people reading Dennis Frank's comments would be alarmed.
A forum is made up of member comment and moderation. Sometimes not in equal parts.
https://thestandard.org.nz/labours-womens-manifesto/
https://www.greens.org.nz/womens_policy
I couldn't find any reference to the hot issue in either of those – just looks like leftist evasion fakery as usual. One expects relevant statements of principle.
So you are claiming gender identity is the only women's rights issue. A ridiculous position to hold, one suspects/should know the Women's Rights Party has a broader policy position than that.
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-womens-rights-party/
Isn't it obvious to you that NZF adopted that policy due to the hot issue??
And the WRP formed due to the left parties neglecting them! Getting real about this is the point I was making…
Most of the Women's Rights Party policies are the policies of the Green Party and the Labour Party.
Just because NZF adopted part of one policy of the Women's Rights Party does not make discussion about it, one about "Women's Rights".
I bet Weka & the others who have written into here on that issue the past year or two do see it as a women's rights issue. I'm puzzled that you can't.
You were the one claiming this.
Your meaning was obscure, it now seems you are arguing that "gender identity" is the only important women's rights issue.
As for the debate you talk about occurring here, I do not recall any participation in it from yourself.
No, the issue compounds discrimination and minority rights, and I still haven't seen evidence that either Labour or the Greens have yet grasped this, so it was worthwhile to report the evidence that NZF has!
Re the posts of Weka & others commenting on the issue, I do recall contributing early on & saying that women will have to form their own lobby group to represent their collective rights (a la Women's Lib in the old days). After that I left it to the women onsite here to sort out.
NZF being involved is sport of funny, they swing from being mainstream centre (super, anti large scale immigration, anti affirmative policies for Maori, anti indigenous rights status – UNDRIP for Maori) to adopting causes (Talley's/racing industry/anti vaccine mandate and a few others of recent social media times).
"Women's identity" is one of the few that can come under both categories.
I figure there must be another Tracey Martin in their mix. I agree their policy mix is all over the park. That policy seems to me like it could only have been pushed thro by women.
Top capitalist anti-Trump takes a stand:
High time other influential Americans spoke out about the future of their country – recent years they've all seemed gormless.
Meh. Cooperman hates Trump more than Biden because he knows that of the two, Trump's chaotic, criminal, vulgar, proto-fascism is the bigger threat to continuing the neoliberal project that has so enriched him (Cooperman). That's because Trump probably can't win and takes the Republican Party off the table. Thus creating a better opening for Biden's timid efforts at ameliorating the worst cruelties of the project that has allowed Cooperman to wallow in wealth. If you are fooled into thinking Cooperman's pathology is 'centrism', there's no hope.
He is quoted as saying he's looking for centrists! Centrism would only be a pathology if leftism were more credible, I suspect, however subjectivity rules that dimension.
Given that the left parties betrayed the people by choosing to become neoliberal instead of socialist, I'm not surprised if he feels his wealth-creating enterprise benefits from both left & right govts…
If you mean he's just being cynical, that's not the impression I got. Folks who take a moral stand when it seems solitary have guts.
There are no centrists in the US political system. Unless you are using the term "centrist" in an entirely relativistic manner, rather than in an historical or analytical one.
There is of course a type of centrism that is better understood as ‘negotiation’ – mediating between different viewpoints. It’s a useful tool at times, but it’s not politics.
relativistic
Maybe. More to the point is the 40% of American voters who don't identify with either major party – so I use centrist to mean non-aligned – regardless how the rich dude meant it.
Great piece by David Williams highlighting the malevolent influence of the Tax Payers Onion in NZ politics.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/chiding-in-plain-sight
Thanks for that Scotty-interesting indeed.
Williams and Farrar are devious bastards. I'm sure the massive donations they received before the election (mostly from big donors and not from small donors as Williams claims-that is a lie) and the campaigns they paid for (3 Waters, Co-governance, anti-wealth tax etc) made a difference in the election result.
Yes Scotty. A devious rotten bunch who repeats stuff with the help of the Media and in a insidious way persuades people that all is lost. eg
I see that David Williams has posted the above report on the TPU as
Part1 with Part 2 to come.
It's an upgrade of the Whaleoil/Kiwblog being assisted by certain beltway people to run lines/create stories for the MSM.
That said it appears the idea of running a right wing pac "Taxpayer Union" (Citizens and Ratepayers) was a Young Nats dream (adapting a Tory UK idea) years before that.
But the purpose was/is the same, create a campaign/message to the public for the MSM to notice. Obviously connecting it to a Free Speech Union (public comment on race, sexuality, religion and the threat of men consorting in women's areas).
Then there was the focus on the Kiwi Iwi reprise via celebrity golfer Peter Williams touring the provinces on the Three Waters and co-governance TU dime.
Chris Bishop is a prat – or should I say brat – of the highest order. And he's No 3 in seniority on their parliamentary list. What kind of effing idiots must the rest of them be?
The thought of someone like this moron having any legislative jurisdiction over the population fills me with horror:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/501414/chris-bishop-spoken-to-by-christopher-luxon-on-strongly-worded-email-comparing-hamas-attack-to-holocaust
Seems to me to be a good analysis on the current political situation in Israel:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/netanyahus-political-future-looks-shakier-in-midst-of-israel-hamas-war
Netanyahu needs to be ousted – and fast.
He was gone for a while, he was supplanted as PM by Barak, Sharon and Olmert but came back after the end of the peace process (2000) and its replacement the disengagement policy (this expired after Abbas allowed Hamas to contest the last ever PA election and this leading to the division of Gaza and WB).
So BN returned, as the most well known opponent of the peace process, to run an occupation regime. Which is now in its most right wing form. BN uses Hamas to justify continuing occupation of WB and they use him to justify their river to the sea campaign.
It is surprising Gantz joined the unity government without requiring the National Security Minister to be replaced first. And a commitment for new elections after the war vs Hamas is over.
Thanks for the reminder.
It was always going to end in horrific bloodshed. God only knows what is gong to happen now. One thing is certain: electing ultra right-wing populist politicians is not only a danger to the countries concerned, but they are a danger to world peace in general. I guess that doesn't even need to be said.
And are you also calling for elections in Gaza – after all, there haven't been any since 2005.