“a few weeks ago, I wrote a story about the outrageous sexism woven deeply into the culture of the company. We’ve seen it in the company’s PR team discrediting female passengers who accuse drivers of attacking them by whispering that they were “drunk” or “dressed provocatively.”
We’ve seen it in CEO Travis Kalanick’s comments that he calls the company “boober” because of all the tail he gets since running it..”
“When They Compared Their Females Drivers to Hookers
In October, Uber launched an app that promised to pair male customers with sexy female drivers. “Who said women don’t know how to drive?” asked ads for the promotion, which was launched by the company’s office in Lyon, France. The fantasy rides had a 20-minute time limit, for reasons that are unclear.
Thanks to a media backlash, the creepy promo never actually rolled out. “They didn’t anticipate the reaction of Uber US,” said Pierre Garonnaire, co-founder of Avions de Chasse, the escort service that co-sponsored the idea.”In the US, you are more Puritan. For me and most of the people of France, it was a good [idea]. It was fun.”
That point is up for debate, but the promo didn’t do much to quell Uber’s reputation for not giving much of a fuck about the safety of women in its cars. On the flip side of the equation, female customers are still frequently complaining that male drivers are harassing them and somehow managing to learn their identities”….
“Private car services are popular among women who want to stay safe, but reports allege sexual harassment by drivers. Is it time to rethink services like Uber? ”
“Not only has Uber vilified riders accusing their drivers of rape, assault or general bad behavior, they’ve also betrayed all their drivers; Kalanick has said he can’t wait to replace them all with self-driving cars…”
*************************************
I’ve heard a rumour uber are going to step in and buy ‘Gun city ‘ …. thereby saving customers from any regulations or ‘red tape’ ….. about valid firearms licenses and other such unnecessary rules … 😉
Ignoring regulations is ubers business model … uber NZ see military style weapon owners, and semi auto aficionados offering solid consumer support and a enthusiastic customer base for Uber Gun citys … so the rumour goes 😉 😉
Get the uber gun app ….leverage their immunity to improve your gun owning experience….
## I made up the uber gun bit to try and trick James
1. Parking just a few doors down at pickup time, saying you didn’t show and charging the cancellation fee
2. False cleaning fees
3. When a “surge” is approaching they text each other. During a surge they get paid more so be prepared for multiple cancellations from cars that are apparently available during the hour prior, and when you eventually get that Uber it now costs more.
The women were hysterical james ??? … making things up about your loved one ?.
Do you love uber …. because you recognize another immigrant into New Zealand ….even more exploitive and lawless than yourself ?.
I must admit ….As a company it seems like a tailored fit to you ….
“Today, in his horrifying scoop, Smith writes about the the lengths that at least one Uber executive, Emil Michael, was willing to go to discredit anyone– particularly a woman– who may try to question how Uber operates.
https://pando.com/2012/10/24/travis-shrugged/ “If Uber doesn’t have to follow licensing laws, then neither does any Tom, Dick, or Harry who chooses to start offering rides via the Internet”
@TRP- sorry I could reply to you question about TAS in the Labour thread last night. It was very late when I checked back in and I’m about to be going out of internet contact for the next couple of days so can’t give you any detail sorry. But in a nutshull, TAS is what one can qualify for when necessary outgoings (usually rent and ongoing medical costs) can’t be met any other way, ie pretty much everyone on a benefit. You’ve got to provide a load of evidence of no other income/savings/things you can sell/proof of how you’ve changed your spending habits and then reapply every 3 months.
Good luck with your friend and thanks for being his advocate 🙂
TRP, if your friend ends up on a benefit make sure they get the Winter Warmth Payment 1 May to 1 Oct (only $20.42 a week single or $31.82 couple), but it is not taxed and does not affect any other payments .Cheers.
Chris Trotter makes a good point this morning, illuminating the difference between political perceptions and reality. Folks really do get captivated by the froth on the surface. He gives several valid historical examples to prove the point: http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2019/04/dark-matter.html
What really matters is where the electorate is at, en masse. Like the ocean. Those waves may indeed be fascinating, and it’s understandable that media & commentariat get lost in the details, but election results hinge on the tidal flow underneath. Flow to the left, ebb to the right, and where the centrists are at the time of the vote. That’s all that really matters…
“I think those picking up the cudgels – while I take my hat off to them for tenacity – have realised pretty quickly just how hard it is to do all the stuff needed to foot it with those parties that have been hanging about for decades. Others in TOP are just dreamers – think money grows on trees, and have no idea of the work needed,” said Morgan. They seem to be shuffling their deck currently, and struggling with logistics:
“As part of the transition to new leadership, Gareth Morgan set up a board to run the party, consisting of Simmons, 2017 Rangitata candidate Olly Wilson, and 2017 Rongotai candidate Paddy Plunket. But both Wilson and Plunket have now resigned from that board, though have remained involved with the party. Two new people are now on the board, membership representative Donna Pokere-Phillips and Matt Isbister – six and 21 on the 2017 list respectively.”
“Recently elected leader Geoff Simmons says the membership for TOP remains healthy, saying it is “about 4200, at the last count”. Of those members, only slightly more than 1000 voted in the recent leadership election – 678 of whom voted for Simmons – but he says that had more to do with the logistics of communicating details about the election to members than lack of interest. “We actually had a pretty big challenge just to inform our members about that stuff.”
Cullen actually implemented one as the Foreign Investment Fund tax. Which I pay every year. While I’m not bothered by paying income taxes, capital gains taxes, GST or sales taxes, the FIF tax always feels like a maliciously capricious way to levy a tax. It irritates me enough every year that it would turn me into a single-user voter against anyone that proposed it. Indeed, I haven’t voted Labour since it was introduced.
My reaction exactly. I just felt it appropriate to frame it in more dispassionate terms! Dunno if you noticed, but think it was RL who responded (to my initial comment) re his prior involvement with a Morgan enterprise (yesterday or last night).
Guyon Espiner was put in his place by Winston…. again….on morning retort today. Message to Guyon Espiner, give up trying to score points over Winston, at least in public and on air, Winston has knocked you for six so many times you are sounding very desperate to bowl him.
Xi: “Now [the] bilateral relationship faces new opportunities of development, our two sides must trust each other, pursue mutual benefit and strive to open up new grounds in our bilateral relations.”
Begs the question of a basis for such trust, eh? Blind faith doesn’t work. So the political question becomes: how can NZ & China create a basis of trust in their bilateral relationship?
” Talking to reporters after the meeting, Ardern said she had not interpreted Xi’s comments about trust in any pointed way. She saw it as a comment meaning that all relationships were based around trust, “that we have a longstanding relationship where there is good understanding, where there will from time to time be differences”.
“The differences between us certainly should not and will not define the relationship. Our relationship is too long, too great in history and has a layer of depth to it that I don’t think it should be defined by those differences and I don’t believe it will be.”
Audrey Young reports that, on the issue of Huawei failing to get the green light from the GCSB on 5G, she said she had raised it proactively with Xi. She had outlined the clear process in New Zealand’s legislation which dictated how such decisions were made and she set out where the process was at. And she had also raised the issues of human rights “particularly as it relates to Xinjiang”, – a reference to the mass detention of Uighur Muslims.” https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12217953
The PM was adroit in pointing out that the relationship ought not to be defined by differences between the two countries. She neglected to point out that common ground is where trust gets built.
We don’t know how she & Xi see such common ground emerging on Huawei. I suspect they tacitly assumed there was no time for indepth discussion. We don’t know how she & Xi see common ground emerging on civil rights. Likewise! So the basis for trust remains tenuous.
Stephen Jacobi always presents as a nice, reasonable man. Talking to Garner this morning he did his China cheerleader thing as usual. Xi’s emphasis on trust slid right by both of them. Garner’s normally good at picking up on nuances, but not today.
With Jacobi, I suspect the omission was deliberate. PR is all about managing perceptions, so bland is good. Ensure that discussion not only avoids getting to the crux of an issue, but heads everywhere but there so that distraction becomes a movable feast for viewers and listeners. The smokescreen.
I’ve quoted trust expert Rachel Botsman once or twice here recently, and her published appraisal of China’s new trust-based system for ranking citizens on their performance is relevant to how kiwis are likely to view our potential for trusting China’s regime.
“Ideas such as China’s Social Credit System show how distributed networks of trust could become national networks of shame and interference, controlled by governments.” That’s from the concluding chapter in her latest book (which examines how trust is formed via participation in online networks, using case studies).
So, given that western countries have had seven or eight decades of distrust of state compulsion deriving from totalitarianism, how we can formulate a basis for trust with the current totalitarian regime in China is an interesting question. I anticipate the towering intellects in the Labour Party providing the answer tout suite. Just kidding!! 😎
“Can she defeat the usa media first ?”
Do you watch any US media? Large swathes have Trump Derangement Syndrome, and will give a virtual free pass to any Democratic candidate. Trump’s a numpty, but he’s headed for a second term based on the Dem’s declared candidates.
Just curious, in the view from Shadworld are there any Democrats that could win? Declared or undeclared? Or are we inevitably getting a second round of the 2.8 Handicap-in-Chief??
Two weeks of kindness and inclusiveness and we are already back to the same old shit. After some gang chapters were warmly accepted without qualification at Mosques, media soon set up their strawmen. The line was that if gangs really cared, they would hand in their guns – despite the police being the only ones who had firearms to protect worshippers and those expressing condolences. The president of ONE chapter of the Mongrel Mob said they would not be handing in their guns. It is conceivable that his chapter, the largest in the country, may only have legally held firearms and no semi-automatic or military style weapons. Before jumping to the conclusion that this is a naive assumption, the researcher Jarrod Gilbert noted that only one of the chapter’s members is in prison. More explicitly, Black Power made it clear they would not hand over guns that are used for hunting which on the balance of probably would be legally held. Of course, the media, having created the strawman, is now awash with commentary based on the assumption that the high profile gangs have vast numbers of illegal weapons. The dickwit Minister of Police is buying into the sensationalism and grandstanding about how the Police will prejudicially target gangs with only a quietly added afterthought that anyone illegally possessing semi-automatic weapons will be prosecuted. Meanwhile, how much publicity has been given to pro-gun lobbyists who have specifically stated they will not be handing in their military style weapons – bugger all! The media need to take some lessons on love and acceptance from the Muslim leaders and follow the lead of the Prime Minister. Instead they are dog-whistling the sorts of attitudes which were very briefly hidden under a thin veil of acceptance, kindness and inclusiveness.
Be good to have no violence from anyone I’d say because it is there – sometimes hidden by the veneer of respectability. Substance abuse, child abuse, spousal abuse – all there in every circle – every circle Kevin.
Too true..but just a smidgeon more in gangs don’t you think.
We used to do business with The MMM, and the Captains especially, often really nice guys, often pretty smart, and often a lot more relatable than some of the ‘Suits’ I interact with in ‘Legitimate White Guy Businesses’…but NO ONE EVER get patched up for being a nice guy.
Though these days the young lads in out neighbourhood (The ‘Nui) are able to buy their Patches..so who knows, maybe they could transform into a ‘club’..but even then, a club making money from selling drugs and paying off debt with traumatised young girls with drug and mental health issues..and in their own community..nope, if they want to go round ‘Virtue Signaling’ during this crisis they deserve to get the big old finger of accusation pointed right back at them.
I personally wouldn’t make too much of the low imprisonment rate of any Patched up gang members…I’m sure there’s very few Hells Angels inside, all things considered, but that’s because keeping within the law and driving round in white vehicles is simply common sense when your number one reason for existence is selling drugs.
Though, I do totally agree, the intelligent conversation should be, 100% about the Gun lobby..they are the real power, and they are the one that needs to be made to pull their head in so we can lower the number of guns..legal and otherwise, held in New Zealand.
(disclaimer..I actually have no problem at all with restricted gun ownership)
Oh dear Siobhan – pulled on the knowall superiority boots this morning eh? Careful you don’t trip over the laces, “…. often really nice guys, often pretty smart, and often a lot more relatable than some of the ‘Suits’ I interact with ….”. Also, it might pay to take the boots off before you get dragged under the veritable sea of ‘Virtue Signalling’ non-gang members who have just discovered Muslims, the nearest Mosques and a bit of compassion.
(disclaimer..I actually have no problem at all with heavily restricted gun ownership.)
If ‘kindness and inclusiveness’ is your stance;- ‘that is an honourable stand’.
I wished it would also translate to the other ‘elephants in the room’ also eh??
Labour has not been a ‘kind inclusive’ lot to us as their MP’s are as “cold and insular’ to us out there trying to fix nine years of national Party wrecking ball.
As a member of a community group I explained previously that ever since the Labour Coalition took over government, we have sent repeated requests to the minister Phil Twyford as Minister of Transport to meet our committee either in Napier, Gisborne, or Wellington and always get the same message from his office staff, “the Minister is too busy to meet you”.
Where the hell is the “kindness and inclusiveness” in that??
It is so bloody perplexing to our community here.
Get the labour coalition to answer community groups that come asking it meet these quote; “Kind, inclusive” MP’s please.
cg
I reckon Twyford has too much on his plate. Why not write to Jacinda and point out his list of portfolios and say that your region is not hearing much from anyone and point out the gripe you have about Shane Jones settling on a plan that is like a quick grab of something out of the lucky dip, not one tailored for your needs over there.
Thanks for that but Shane and Jacinda always get a copy of our groups request for a meeting with Phil Twyford and we thought that would just get it done.
So I sent a message to our local MP Stuart Nash to intervene but so far his office has not actually requested that Phil Twyford come to Napier and Nash’s PA at his electorate office has been trying to find out why ‘we are facing a wall of opposition’ (PA’s words) to meet Twyford.
So you can see the trouble we face, and it is not only us here.
We discussed this with other community groups who say they also have difficulty getting MP’s to agree to meet him also so it is endemic I am afraid.
Like i said where is the ‘inclusion’ Jacinda promised us?
Write to The Dominion perhaps. That might get read in the beltway.
Or erect a cardboard cutout of a bikini girl at Parliament with sign saying SEX in big caps and Now I have your full attention Twyford I love you and want to have a train with you. Perhaps citizens need to embarrass them to get attention?
A pair of briefs with a cheeky message on them on a sign saying Phil you didn’t leave these in Gisborne because you never came, and we have been waiting and wanting. Or something.
Terrible ideas and we shouldn’t be forced into lowering ourselves to be so vulgar. But he does have some heavy lifting and I think he should have someone else do the other portfolios.
I would of thought being a gang member would automatically exclude you from obtaining a firearms license, therefore all guns in gang members hands would be illegally held.
No Jim – and neither do we, as a society, blatantly discriminate against members of other groups in society if they can meet the requirements for gun ownership. If we were able to, there might be fewer firearms related domestic incidents – something gang members don’t appear to be renowned for.
Jim
You are assuming that all gang members have criminal convictions and that they don’t need guns for their sustainable living – probably many shoot their own meat, pigs etc. Watch the assumptions, there is a bit of truth in most things, so see what it is before you pass your own judgment eh.
Grey, come on.
If the police arms officer, vetting a potential FAL holder, reccomends that a patched gang member should be considered of good character and suitable for any type of FAL, that’s just ridiculous.
Give it a break Jim. Your prejudices have taken you beyond your ability for rational thought. How many cases of gang members killing their partners with firearms in domestic incidents can you confirm? Bet it is less than the number of well heeled horse breeders that have. When did any NZ gang members use a military type weapon to take down 50 people in prayer that can you tell us about? Can you provide evidence of times when gang members have killed either police officers or innocent bystanders? Need one go on? Besides, if you bothered to look, ‘of good character’ is your own invention but admittedly, is only a bit more subjective than the actual requirement in the application process. Thank God that arms officers are more professional and better able to determine facts what than you would be. Incidentally, some gang members have not been approved for FAL’s and there have been occasions when some have been withdrawn – just like with non-gang affiliates when their actions or dispositions have given cause for concern. Actually, licences are probably given more liberally that what they should be, but probably not to gangsters.
Are you seriously suggesting that the gangs can keep the category of semi automatics that are to be banned?
Basically the gangs can keep them but no-one else can?
I doubt whether the Gangs AK 47’s and AR 15’s are legally registered anyway, so they are probably illegal weapons hence they are not eligible for compensation ?
Hence I doubt whether the Gangs will hand them in as they need them for protection in case they are attacked by another Gang who wants to steal their drug stash or their cash ?
On james Casson – to be fair to him he spoke in anger in 2016 this: He agreed that in July 2016 he posted on Facebook after terrorist attacks in Nice and Paris, referring to an invasion of migrants into Europe. He had written that it was “time to get hard, time for retribution, and extreme violence to rid Europe of these scum”. https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/386094/hamilton-councillor-set-to-apologise-to-muslims-for-comments
He is going to apologise to the Muslim community. Perhaps the weight of opinion gives him the message to think about what he feels, and then think whether it is too black and white needing more understanding, and then think before he speaks about what feelings he will arouse in the wider community, and the small bunch of anomic hotheads.
Yeah as my Mum would say: He’s trying! Very trying.
But still if he can bow and be humble, and then take a less aggressive stance on things that are so human and therefore irritating ie be more understanding of the power of emotions on the talker and the listener, your pain may not have been in vain.
For me – it’s all a lie. His views haven’t changed. It is damage control based upon his ego and his fear of losing stuff. As I said I wish he’d stfu and piss off. Insincere white apologists are a waste of time on this site and in real life imo.
Actually marty I’m thinking in pragmatic idealist mode. I hope he will have changed, that’s the ideal. I think he may not have as these attitudes score deep in people’s psyches and it requires enormous effort to get free of them.
I think you are probably right in your summing up. And I fear insincerity. It is very sad when you think that someone has goodwill for what you all seem to be working for but it is just a front; they have other plans.
I liked this from an interview with a young woman in Nelson Mail Friday 3/22/2019.
It is from A Muslim PhD student living in NZ. She says – All together we have failed the terrorist’s plans. But the question still stands there, what can I do? All that you have done is way more generous and beyond expectation and we do not want you to put in that burden, all you need to do is just accept us as we are, ordinary.
We do not need sympathies, we do not need extra attention, and we do not want to be in limelight. We do not need platforms to speak, we just need acceptance, a place to be comfortable under our skin, a place where we have feeling of home, a feeling of co-existence not merely existence.
I’m glad you’re thinking in pragmatic idealist mode @greywarshark and it’d be nice if he really has had some sort of epiphany.
I agree with @ MM however, and that isn’t just because I see him as white apologist, it’s for reasons I’ve made comment over the past few days which include some of the antics and the way he and some of his ilk behave carrying out his job, and having been told how embarrassed one of his own former police colleague’s over their little ‘raids’.
I’m more inclined to Angela Cuming’s view: https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018689140/hamilton-council-complainant-not-surprised-by-racist-remarks
He and Peter Dutton would make great mates I’m sorry to say and perhaps he should consider returning to his former ‘economic refugee’ status
A city girl whose family had no direct connection to farming has made the finals of the Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer Award.
This year it’s the turn of the sheep and beef sector to be in the spotlight, and the three finalists are all shepherds.
20-year-old Kirsty Roa works on the Hauiti Corporation’s Iwinui Station near Tolaga Bay, her first job after a course run by the Waipaoa Cadet Training Trust.”
Chris Trotter sets out what has been occuring to me recently. That we are working so hard to turn back the clock and recover what we believed we had in NZ and making some small improvements. But why necessary, and why so hard to achieve? How come that we are in this pit, we can see the sky, we climb and slip back – is that it – a cycle of constant sacrifice of time and energy and sometime lives to achieve a better society and when we have, the children of the fighters don’t carry enough of the history of struggle with them, and let it slip away in favour of self-indulgence again. What prevents us from holding onto a society with values, sensible controls allowing all people the time and means to have an enjoyable life, and pass that precious package on to the next generation teaching them how to care for it, as its resilience is limited.
Bowalley Road says: So many on the Left do not appreciate the true dimensions of the vast and immovable cultural-political consensus that allows Capitalism to survive and thrive. If it wasn’t there: or, if it was there, but amenable to reason and love: then Capitalism would long ago have given way to a more human order.
This grim judgement is a lot easier for the Left to accept when reactionary ideas and parties are in the saddle and riding them hard. In those moments, it is easy to convince Capitalism’s enemies that it is, indeed, a monstrous nightmare pressing down upon the lungs of human hope.
A Left without illusions has a much better chance of organising effectively and, on rare occasions, winning.
And now, when we have won some time in the sun of relative goodness, what will the children of the complacent do? Can they take their minds out and check them for rips and weak points, can they limit their meditation, their gym workouts, their marathon training and put those times into skill and community building. Half hour per day to talk about work, school, people met, the day’s news, and some of the weekend into community input for the Council and the strugglers; that’s if they have a weekend.
A left without illusions does not exist, and nor should it.
Sure the workers won big in France in 1968.
And yes de Gaulle resigned the next year which was no accident.
But the biggest win was to the feminist movement. By 1974 they had won national health insurance for contraception. By 1975 they had legalisation of abortion. Also in 1975 they got reform of divorce laws.
Mitterand was a bit of a disaster, but he would not have had a shot at nationalising the entire banking industry without the impetus of 1968 and beyond.
Trotter is a useful writer for the right and for the status quo, because he is profoundly pessimistic. He is the very definition of Left Melancholy.
Trotter revels in the political disasters of the last two years of the Lange-Douglas years, and discounts the effects in our society of our own home-grown revolutions.
Our own revolutions in ecology, feminism, Maori land rights, anti-nuclear and anti-war protests, anti-development protests, and anti-racist Rugby protests, well they are the collective essence of left activism today.
They gave rise to the idealism within Ardern today.
Trotter will realise within 6 months that Ardern is shifting wealth through existing instruments of the state already – in many cases not particularly gradually either. She also has the opportunity to go after the really hard-right and hard-to-reach places in gun ownership and armed criminal conspiracies that have held this country back for decades.
The left led by Ardern is not the problem.
Old, spent commentators like Trotter who remain bereft of hope and trapped by history hold us all back.
Ad, you are so right. He is hidebound and Trots out the same sour notes.
If we are in, “Watch out it won’t last because…..” If we are out “We lack….”
Jacinda Ardern is such a consummate conductor, it is a pity Trots can’t learn the new tune.
She knows how to blend the best of each instrument to make hopeful strong music.
Each person who takes part grows in courage and belief. She is a force for good. She is growing seemlessly into the role.
Ad
I think you are holding back. Trotter is looking at ways Labour Coalition can achieve in the three year period of power which seems to be zooming along.
Good for doing things of yesterday. They and any other work didn’t prevent us from being up the creek, if we can find some water that hasn’t been utilised by some incomer for profit. We were without a paddle till Labour got back in.
People need to understand that Labour are doing their best but need to know they are limited by their bureaucracy and their financiers, and the fickle prejudiced, emotional market pretending to be staunch. School of fish rather. it might be better if thethe Labour Coalition ask the nation to help them carry out the good things for the country. Get the poor people involved on something in every community.
And it would be good for the public to read the Good Man of NZ’s effort to tell it like it is so they understand the huge reality of all those men with power and money who look through people like an X-ray. They are like a black hole in space, sucking everything into their giant schemes. It is too hard to comprehend for most people and if we can be kept busy enough always short of money, and have enough tragedies one after the other, and television to take our mind off the tragedies, then we may never have time to think.
Ad
Just thinking. Everyone has different ideas. Good if everyone thinks. My thinking – We are all on a hunt for the idea/s that are best for a near-future NZ.
It could be interesting and a ‘fun question’ to have a game of Where’s NZ. A sort of improv session for weekend participants who would put up scenarios, and then have an economist like Rosenberg or someone from BERL, Brian Easton, Max Rashbrooke etc give us scenarios using computer graphs of how they would work under different variables. (Something different and independent like this budget from 2018 – https://www.union.org.nz/bill-rosenberg-and-ganesh-nana-deliver-independent-budget-analysis/)
Say, what would happen if f the inflation level was eased and the base level came up from 2-4%?
(The fundamentalist economist – Inflation — a thief in your wallet 3m:43s
Head of Economics, John McDermott, explains how inflation is measured and how it manifests itself in everyday life. He also explains the importance of maintaining price stability.) https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary-policy/inflation (think this is 2019) Since 2000, New Zealand CPI (Consumers Price Index) inflation has averaged around 2.7 percent. This compares with averages of 2.4 percent in the 1990s, and averages of over 11 percent for the previous two decades. Since September 2002, the inflation target has been to keep inflation within a range of 1–3 percent on average over the medium term.
Discussions would take place with ideas coming from the floor .
– on monetary policy for the average person, why some have worked at different times.
– on how the import-export balance of trade works on employment levels and job stability.
– on how low wages and rising house rates keep the domestic flow of money from the average person low, and insufficient to power retail businesses and pay for the mostly imported goods they bring in, so that tourists are propping up the economy and exports have to be kept high just to keep us in business etc. –
With lots of questions and groups putting forward scenarios to see what could be done, how it would be regarded internationally, how self-sufficient we can be, how much we make that stays in NZ from large overseas businesses coming here, how they undercut and swamp our own initiatives, how the country is being stolen from us brick by brick and we don’t notice it till it doesn’t pass an earthquake inspection.
We need to understand what our dark matter is, find it, feed it, get cohesive, with our feet firmly on the ground.
Try not to pooh pooh this, I can’t bear too much cynicism.
I like that!: “Left Melancholy”. I hope you don’t mind if I use it from time to time @Ad. It could catch on, but we’d better be careful the Soimon or the shock jocks don’t get hold of it.
Will we ever be mature enough to act on our horrendous road toll ?
People will continue to die on the roads as they always have because
Excessive speed
No respect for the law
No respect for other road users
No police enforcement
Weak driver education and licence rules.
No serious punishment for driver misdemeanors.
Poor roads including the condition of most of them.
The mentality that before action is taken to make a road safer there has to be multiple deaths before anything is done.
Total failure right across the board from government to local authorities and the public who behave like they own the road and can speed doing 80MPH down a residential rd which has a limit of 50 ! despite the possibility that they could kill a child at the speed they choose to drive at.
And the attitude that it is the kids fault for being there not their speed that is the problem.
Mosa
Yesterday I sent a letter to ‘Minister of Transport Phil Twyford, to get passenger and freight rail going in all provinces again, – as used to be using some of the taxes.
Indeed, and that’s probably if they stick to the speed limit, which they don’t – because they’re trying to earn a living under arduous and impossible circumstances.
(And all that’s allowing for the margin of speedometer over-read, and all that shit about “this vehicle is governed…….etc.”)
Given that complete fuckup of a 4 lane tolled road that ends in Paengaroa (they call it an Expressway I think, but in reality, the ‘truckies rest break’ where they can travel while having a snooze because there’s fuck all else going in the same direction, and it doesn’t matter if they cross the centre line from time-to-time). Imagine if the money spent on that white elephant had been spent on something useful. (Like maybe double tracking where necessary in that “Golden Triangle”).
Thank Christ Joyce never got near the place – he’d have been trying to sell off as much of the existing rail corridors as possible in the area.
Jeremy Corbyn on the latest shambles: “On a point of order, it is disappointing that no solution has won a majority this evening but I remind the House that the prime minister’s unacceptable deal has been overwhelmingly rejected three times.”
“If it is good enough for the prime minister to have three chances at her deal, then I suggest that possibly the House should have a chance to consider again the options that we had before us today, in a debate on Wednesday, so that the House can succeed where the prime minister has failed; in presenting a credible economic relationship with Europe for the future that prevents us crashing out with no deal.”
Diffident as he is, he seems to be giving a vote of confidence to their parliament. If he’s right to assume that the narrow defeat of a non-May motion is the basis upon which to proceed, then I endorse his political judgment in suggesting they take that opportunity.
“The option that came closest to being passed, which was defeated by just three votes, was remaining in a customs union with the EU – a key plank of the so-called “soft Brexit” option, under which the UK would leave the EU but retain very close trading links with the bloc.”
“Its supporters say it would mitigate the damage caused to the British economy by Brexit, particularly if combined with staying in the EU’s single market. Detractors say such an option in effect means not really leaving at all, as the UK would be subject to EU rules and regulations it had no say over – and would have no right to strike its own trade deals with non-EU countries.”
“Nick Boles, the Conservative MP who proposed the EFTA/EEA motion – the so-called “Common Market 2.0″ option – resigned from the party immediately after the vote results were announced.” https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47776512
“The Metropolitan Police said it had arrested 12 people on suspicion of outraging public decency, while officers had “negotiated” with one naked protester who had successfully glued themselves to a window.”
You may be wondering at the political relevance of elephant masks. Google provides some insight into this: “In West and Central Africa, the elephant is a potent image of political force and the accumulation of wealth by those in power. This is true for the art of the Cameroon Grasslands… The Kuosi, members of a society that served as the king’s representatives, and at times the king, wore this mask and headdress as they performed the prestigious elephant dance during rituals, festivals, and funerals.”
Have you put up a comment with link to the Norway deal with the EU? I don’t know anything about it. I heard something on the radio this morning and it sounded a possibility. I may have missed it here.
No, didn’t hear that. Just looked online & found a Politico report from last year with this interesting bit from their PM: “Solberg said there is a “problem with referendums” for solving the EU membership question because voters engage with the question on an emotional level rather than making an assessment based on economic pros and cons. Norway has had two votes on EU membership, opting both times to stay outside.”
“The Thames-Coromandel District Council has outraged local environmental advocates by voting against signing the Local Government Leader’s Climate Change Declaration.
The move at a packed council meeting in Thames saw the councillors rejected impassioned pleas from school children and locals to show environmental leadership by voting six to three against signing the document.
The vote led to loud booing and cries of “shame on you” from about 30 protesters in the public seating area, who had earlier gathered outside the building in the hope that councillors would support the declaration.”
Thames-Coromandel District Council https://www.tcdc.govt.nz/
Official website of the Thames-Coromandel District Council. Find out why Coromandel is the best place in New Zealand to work, live and play.
Re crossing the line on hate speech, Pablo gets it right: “When it comes to free versus hate speech the issue is simple: any speech that incites, encourages, supports, applauds or otherwise instigates or excuses violence against individuals or collectivities because of who (as opposed to anything they have done, although even there the call to violence is debatable), has crossed the line from protected speech into hate speech. Offensive speech remains protected, but the urging of violence is not. The issue is not about causing offence; it is about causing harm.” http://www.kiwipolitico.com/
Then he ventures into this interesting social context: “I have been told by informed community members that Islamophobia is very much a staple part of sermons in some Pacifika Christian churches.”
“Assorted talkback hosts and politicians are now in full “whataboutism?” mode, trying to equate the evils of Muslim extremists with those of other fanatics. Sensing an opportunity, people with agendas are in full throat, be it as purported experts on gangs and terrorism or pushing lines such as that the 1881 assault on Parihaka is a comparable atrocity (in which no one died).”
minimum wage risen,as also the living,wage,these wage rises,i as a imigrant in new zealand,1972,where wages paid minimum wage rate for Trademen,at that now proper progress Trades Person,that took how long,only to be capital bastered to traddies,Trades extent to skill level five years training,Trade Person,you going to let your in most exploiter call you one of my traddies.as his top dollar wage was paid back in 1972.
1972,THESE WAGE RATES AROUND,WHATS THE BIG DEAL OR LIE.bringing back who how old these new bread property ivested politicians who understand capitals exploit of their how control profit max your investment.Shame,yous labour carers,unemployed on the state support,single care one ninty,how much your rent cost 260 a week,ok landlord get your exploited profit exploit for and most are slums,how much left for you the unemployed state cared for,well my rent is 260,the state gives me 290,power food and trouble looks ahead.
Government forced to buy KiwiBuild houses that weren’t selling
Anna Bracewell-Worrall
For the first time, the Government has been forced to purchase KiwiBuild homes off a developer because the houses weren’t selling.
The Housing Minister insists the homes will still be snapped up by KiwiBuild buyers….
….For the first time in KiwiBuild’s short history, the Government had to purchase homes off the developer. Four of the homes are still unsold nearly six months after being balloted to first home buyers.
But Twyford says this is not a problem.
“We are not struggling to sell them. Those houses have only been completed for a few weeks so they are on the market.”
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 ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
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, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
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. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
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 ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
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 ...
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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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
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. ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Zuzana Caputova, the female and quite progressive lawyer, is now Prime Minister of Slovakia.
https://www.dw.com/en/slovakia-liberal-lawyer-zuzana-caputova-wins-election/a-48131765
Her campaign headline:
“Stand Up To Evil”
How could she possibly stand up to usa foreign policy …. Gangster / Mafi death threats …. literally
Rubio threatens Lynching … its a USA tradition among the Masters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ0bmYRD6mI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMhXrxgTNpk
https://pando.com/2014/11/17/the-moment-i-learned-just-how-far-uber-will-go-to-silence-journalists-and-attack-women/
“a few weeks ago, I wrote a story about the outrageous sexism woven deeply into the culture of the company. We’ve seen it in the company’s PR team discrediting female passengers who accuse drivers of attacking them by whispering that they were “drunk” or “dressed provocatively.”
We’ve seen it in CEO Travis Kalanick’s comments that he calls the company “boober” because of all the tail he gets since running it..”
uber https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/exm7za/all-the-reasons-why-uber-is-the-worst-1118
“When They Compared Their Females Drivers to Hookers
In October, Uber launched an app that promised to pair male customers with sexy female drivers. “Who said women don’t know how to drive?” asked ads for the promotion, which was launched by the company’s office in Lyon, France. The fantasy rides had a 20-minute time limit, for reasons that are unclear.
Thanks to a media backlash, the creepy promo never actually rolled out. “They didn’t anticipate the reaction of Uber US,” said Pierre Garonnaire, co-founder of Avions de Chasse, the escort service that co-sponsored the idea.”In the US, you are more Puritan. For me and most of the people of France, it was a good [idea]. It was fun.”
That point is up for debate, but the promo didn’t do much to quell Uber’s reputation for not giving much of a fuck about the safety of women in its cars. On the flip side of the equation, female customers are still frequently complaining that male drivers are harassing them and somehow managing to learn their identities”….
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ubers-biggest-problem-isnt-surge-pricing-what-if-its-sexual-harassment-by-drivers
“Private car services are popular among women who want to stay safe, but reports allege sexual harassment by drivers. Is it time to rethink services like Uber? ”
“Not only has Uber vilified riders accusing their drivers of rape, assault or general bad behavior, they’ve also betrayed all their drivers; Kalanick has said he can’t wait to replace them all with self-driving cars…”
*************************************
I’ve heard a rumour uber are going to step in and buy ‘Gun city ‘ …. thereby saving customers from any regulations or ‘red tape’ ….. about valid firearms licenses and other such unnecessary rules … 😉
Ignoring regulations is ubers business model … uber NZ see military style weapon owners, and semi auto aficionados offering solid consumer support and a enthusiastic customer base for Uber Gun citys … so the rumour goes 😉 😉
Get the uber gun app ….leverage their immunity to improve your gun owning experience….
## I made up the uber gun bit to try and trick James
He loves his uber ….
https://pando.com/2014/10/22/the-horrific-trickle-down-of-asshole-culture-at-a-company-like-uber/
Uber isn’t just creepy drivers and guns 🙂
Watch out for
1. Parking just a few doors down at pickup time, saying you didn’t show and charging the cancellation fee
2. False cleaning fees
3. When a “surge” is approaching they text each other. During a surge they get paid more so be prepared for multiple cancellations from cars that are apparently available during the hour prior, and when you eventually get that Uber it now costs more.
Not tricking anyone – its a pathetic post the borders on hysterical.
But you are right. I love Uber and use it multiple times per week.
The women were hysterical james ??? … making things up about your loved one ?.
Do you love uber …. because you recognize another immigrant into New Zealand ….even more exploitive and lawless than yourself ?.
I must admit ….As a company it seems like a tailored fit to you ….
“Today, in his horrifying scoop, Smith writes about the the lengths that at least one Uber executive, Emil Michael, was willing to go to discredit anyone– particularly a woman– who may try to question how Uber operates.
Ruining her life? Manufacturing lies? Going after her family? Apparently it’s all part of what Uber has described as its “political campaign” to build a $30 billion (and counting) tech company.” https://pando.com/2014/11/17/the-moment-i-learned-just-how-far-uber-will-go-to-silence-journalists-and-attack-women/
https://pando.com/2014/10/22/the-horrific-trickle-down-of-asshole-culture-at-a-company-like-uber/
https://pando.com/2012/10/24/travis-shrugged/ “If Uber doesn’t have to follow licensing laws, then neither does any Tom, Dick, or Harry who chooses to start offering rides via the Internet”
@TRP- sorry I could reply to you question about TAS in the Labour thread last night. It was very late when I checked back in and I’m about to be going out of internet contact for the next couple of days so can’t give you any detail sorry. But in a nutshull, TAS is what one can qualify for when necessary outgoings (usually rent and ongoing medical costs) can’t be met any other way, ie pretty much everyone on a benefit. You’ve got to provide a load of evidence of no other income/savings/things you can sell/proof of how you’ve changed your spending habits and then reapply every 3 months.
Good luck with your friend and thanks for being his advocate 🙂
Cheers, Kay. I can’t say I’m looking forward to it, but I’ll do my best.
TRP, if your friend ends up on a benefit make sure they get the Winter Warmth Payment 1 May to 1 Oct (only $20.42 a week single or $31.82 couple), but it is not taxed and does not affect any other payments .Cheers.
That payment occurs automatically for anyone eligible, so no need
Will Jacinda take the call to help Australia?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/111669826/aussie-comedy-sketch-pokes-fun-at-having-pm-jacinda-ardern-as-their-next-leader
Culture and humor alert…….Public broadcaster at work….Remember those.
Shatpant would be a better fit.
Chris Trotter makes a good point this morning, illuminating the difference between political perceptions and reality. Folks really do get captivated by the froth on the surface. He gives several valid historical examples to prove the point: http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2019/04/dark-matter.html
What really matters is where the electorate is at, en masse. Like the ocean. Those waves may indeed be fascinating, and it’s understandable that media & commentariat get lost in the details, but election results hinge on the tidal flow underneath. Flow to the left, ebb to the right, and where the centrists are at the time of the vote. That’s all that really matters…
Spinoff examines “How TOP plans to rebuild”: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/31-03-2019/gareth-morgan-gone-for-good-how-top-plans-to-rebuild/
“I think those picking up the cudgels – while I take my hat off to them for tenacity – have realised pretty quickly just how hard it is to do all the stuff needed to foot it with those parties that have been hanging about for decades. Others in TOP are just dreamers – think money grows on trees, and have no idea of the work needed,” said Morgan. They seem to be shuffling their deck currently, and struggling with logistics:
“As part of the transition to new leadership, Gareth Morgan set up a board to run the party, consisting of Simmons, 2017 Rangitata candidate Olly Wilson, and 2017 Rongotai candidate Paddy Plunket. But both Wilson and Plunket have now resigned from that board, though have remained involved with the party. Two new people are now on the board, membership representative Donna Pokere-Phillips and Matt Isbister – six and 21 on the 2017 list respectively.”
“Recently elected leader Geoff Simmons says the membership for TOP remains healthy, saying it is “about 4200, at the last count”. Of those members, only slightly more than 1000 voted in the recent leadership election – 678 of whom voted for Simmons – but he says that had more to do with the logistics of communicating details about the election to members than lack of interest. “We actually had a pretty big challenge just to inform our members about that stuff.”
Fascinating… wise move from Garfield.
Even if TOP fades, I think their ideas have taken root, particularly the RFRM tax and the UBI.
Hate to burst someone’s bubble but the UBI, was around long before, TOP.
So was an RFRM tax.
Cullen actually implemented one as the Foreign Investment Fund tax. Which I pay every year. While I’m not bothered by paying income taxes, capital gains taxes, GST or sales taxes, the FIF tax always feels like a maliciously capricious way to levy a tax. It irritates me enough every year that it would turn me into a single-user voter against anyone that proposed it. Indeed, I haven’t voted Labour since it was introduced.
Who the fuck plugs 2mill into a party for one election, then shafts everyone when he doesn’t get his way?
Morgan quit because the country didn’t vote him into parliament on the first attempt.
And if he was so fucking awesome, why are the new team having to redo party infrastructure?
My reaction exactly. I just felt it appropriate to frame it in more dispassionate terms! Dunno if you noticed, but think it was RL who responded (to my initial comment) re his prior involvement with a Morgan enterprise (yesterday or last night).
Guyon Espiner was put in his place by Winston…. again….on morning retort today. Message to Guyon Espiner, give up trying to score points over Winston, at least in public and on air, Winston has knocked you for six so many times you are sounding very desperate to bowl him.
Xi: “Now [the] bilateral relationship faces new opportunities of development, our two sides must trust each other, pursue mutual benefit and strive to open up new grounds in our bilateral relations.”
Begs the question of a basis for such trust, eh? Blind faith doesn’t work. So the political question becomes: how can NZ & China create a basis of trust in their bilateral relationship?
” Talking to reporters after the meeting, Ardern said she had not interpreted Xi’s comments about trust in any pointed way. She saw it as a comment meaning that all relationships were based around trust, “that we have a longstanding relationship where there is good understanding, where there will from time to time be differences”.
“The differences between us certainly should not and will not define the relationship. Our relationship is too long, too great in history and has a layer of depth to it that I don’t think it should be defined by those differences and I don’t believe it will be.”
Audrey Young reports that, on the issue of Huawei failing to get the green light from the GCSB on 5G, she said she had raised it proactively with Xi. She had outlined the clear process in New Zealand’s legislation which dictated how such decisions were made and she set out where the process was at. And she had also raised the issues of human rights “particularly as it relates to Xinjiang”, – a reference to the mass detention of Uighur Muslims.” https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12217953
The PM was adroit in pointing out that the relationship ought not to be defined by differences between the two countries. She neglected to point out that common ground is where trust gets built.
We don’t know how she & Xi see such common ground emerging on Huawei. I suspect they tacitly assumed there was no time for indepth discussion. We don’t know how she & Xi see common ground emerging on civil rights. Likewise! So the basis for trust remains tenuous.
Stephen Jacobi always presents as a nice, reasonable man. Talking to Garner this morning he did his China cheerleader thing as usual. Xi’s emphasis on trust slid right by both of them. Garner’s normally good at picking up on nuances, but not today.
With Jacobi, I suspect the omission was deliberate. PR is all about managing perceptions, so bland is good. Ensure that discussion not only avoids getting to the crux of an issue, but heads everywhere but there so that distraction becomes a movable feast for viewers and listeners. The smokescreen.
I’ve quoted trust expert Rachel Botsman once or twice here recently, and her published appraisal of China’s new trust-based system for ranking citizens on their performance is relevant to how kiwis are likely to view our potential for trusting China’s regime.
“Ideas such as China’s Social Credit System show how distributed networks of trust could become national networks of shame and interference, controlled by governments.” That’s from the concluding chapter in her latest book (which examines how trust is formed via participation in online networks, using case studies).
So, given that western countries have had seven or eight decades of distrust of state compulsion deriving from totalitarianism, how we can formulate a basis for trust with the current totalitarian regime in China is an interesting question. I anticipate the towering intellects in the Labour Party providing the answer tout suite. Just kidding!! 😎
Learn’t his skills from Hone Shonkey, as smooth as silk ?
She may have noticed the demand for trust is pretty much in the one direction franky and thought xi needx to praxis what he preaxes.
To finish my posting today on a positive note ……
Imagine having this brave woman as your first female leader of your country …
Listen to her short speach
Trump beater ????
Can she defeat the usa media first ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTHwOCDEDmc
“Can she defeat the usa media first ?”
Do you watch any US media? Large swathes have Trump Derangement Syndrome, and will give a virtual free pass to any Democratic candidate. Trump’s a numpty, but he’s headed for a second term based on the Dem’s declared candidates.
Just curious, in the view from Shadworld are there any Democrats that could win? Declared or undeclared? Or are we inevitably getting a second round of the 2.8 Handicap-in-Chief??
“…are there any Democrats that could win? ”
None that I’m aware of. I stand to be corrected. In fact I really hope to be!
The trumpatsies will note she’s a she and doesn’t hate immigrants reasy. They won’t hear a word she says.
Two weeks of kindness and inclusiveness and we are already back to the same old shit. After some gang chapters were warmly accepted without qualification at Mosques, media soon set up their strawmen. The line was that if gangs really cared, they would hand in their guns – despite the police being the only ones who had firearms to protect worshippers and those expressing condolences. The president of ONE chapter of the Mongrel Mob said they would not be handing in their guns. It is conceivable that his chapter, the largest in the country, may only have legally held firearms and no semi-automatic or military style weapons. Before jumping to the conclusion that this is a naive assumption, the researcher Jarrod Gilbert noted that only one of the chapter’s members is in prison. More explicitly, Black Power made it clear they would not hand over guns that are used for hunting which on the balance of probably would be legally held. Of course, the media, having created the strawman, is now awash with commentary based on the assumption that the high profile gangs have vast numbers of illegal weapons. The dickwit Minister of Police is buying into the sensationalism and grandstanding about how the Police will prejudicially target gangs with only a quietly added afterthought that anyone illegally possessing semi-automatic weapons will be prosecuted. Meanwhile, how much publicity has been given to pro-gun lobbyists who have specifically stated they will not be handing in their military style weapons – bugger all! The media need to take some lessons on love and acceptance from the Muslim leaders and follow the lead of the Prime Minister. Instead they are dog-whistling the sorts of attitudes which were very briefly hidden under a thin veil of acceptance, kindness and inclusiveness.
+ 1 great comment – I totally agree with your analysis.
So they took a day off from pushing P and synthetics. Whoopdy fucking do.
I look forward to no longer reading about gang-related violence in Hawkes Bay but not holding my breath.
Be good to have no violence from anyone I’d say because it is there – sometimes hidden by the veneer of respectability. Substance abuse, child abuse, spousal abuse – all there in every circle – every circle Kevin.
Too true..but just a smidgeon more in gangs don’t you think.
We used to do business with The MMM, and the Captains especially, often really nice guys, often pretty smart, and often a lot more relatable than some of the ‘Suits’ I interact with in ‘Legitimate White Guy Businesses’…but NO ONE EVER get patched up for being a nice guy.
Though these days the young lads in out neighbourhood (The ‘Nui) are able to buy their Patches..so who knows, maybe they could transform into a ‘club’..but even then, a club making money from selling drugs and paying off debt with traumatised young girls with drug and mental health issues..and in their own community..nope, if they want to go round ‘Virtue Signaling’ during this crisis they deserve to get the big old finger of accusation pointed right back at them.
I personally wouldn’t make too much of the low imprisonment rate of any Patched up gang members…I’m sure there’s very few Hells Angels inside, all things considered, but that’s because keeping within the law and driving round in white vehicles is simply common sense when your number one reason for existence is selling drugs.
Though, I do totally agree, the intelligent conversation should be, 100% about the Gun lobby..they are the real power, and they are the one that needs to be made to pull their head in so we can lower the number of guns..legal and otherwise, held in New Zealand.
(disclaimer..I actually have no problem at all with restricted gun ownership)
Oh dear Siobhan – pulled on the knowall superiority boots this morning eh? Careful you don’t trip over the laces, “…. often really nice guys, often pretty smart, and often a lot more relatable than some of the ‘Suits’ I interact with ….”. Also, it might pay to take the boots off before you get dragged under the veritable sea of ‘Virtue Signalling’ non-gang members who have just discovered Muslims, the nearest Mosques and a bit of compassion.
(disclaimer..I actually have no problem at all with heavily restricted gun ownership.)
aom; –
If ‘kindness and inclusiveness’ is your stance;- ‘that is an honourable stand’.
I wished it would also translate to the other ‘elephants in the room’ also eh??
Labour has not been a ‘kind inclusive’ lot to us as their MP’s are as “cold and insular’ to us out there trying to fix nine years of national Party wrecking ball.
As a member of a community group I explained previously that ever since the Labour Coalition took over government, we have sent repeated requests to the minister Phil Twyford as Minister of Transport to meet our committee either in Napier, Gisborne, or Wellington and always get the same message from his office staff, “the Minister is too busy to meet you”.
Where the hell is the “kindness and inclusiveness” in that??
It is so bloody perplexing to our community here.
Get the labour coalition to answer community groups that come asking it meet these quote; “Kind, inclusive” MP’s please.
cg
I reckon Twyford has too much on his plate. Why not write to Jacinda and point out his list of portfolios and say that your region is not hearing much from anyone and point out the gripe you have about Shane Jones settling on a plan that is like a quick grab of something out of the lucky dip, not one tailored for your needs over there.
Greywarshark;
Thanks for that but Shane and Jacinda always get a copy of our groups request for a meeting with Phil Twyford and we thought that would just get it done.
So I sent a message to our local MP Stuart Nash to intervene but so far his office has not actually requested that Phil Twyford come to Napier and Nash’s PA at his electorate office has been trying to find out why ‘we are facing a wall of opposition’ (PA’s words) to meet Twyford.
So you can see the trouble we face, and it is not only us here.
We discussed this with other community groups who say they also have difficulty getting MP’s to agree to meet him also so it is endemic I am afraid.
Like i said where is the ‘inclusion’ Jacinda promised us?
Write to The Dominion perhaps. That might get read in the beltway.
Or erect a cardboard cutout of a bikini girl at Parliament with sign saying SEX in big caps and Now I have your full attention Twyford I love you and want to have a train with you. Perhaps citizens need to embarrass them to get attention?
A pair of briefs with a cheeky message on them on a sign saying Phil you didn’t leave these in Gisborne because you never came, and we have been waiting and wanting. Or something.
Terrible ideas and we shouldn’t be forced into lowering ourselves to be so vulgar. But he does have some heavy lifting and I think he should have someone else do the other portfolios.
I would of thought being a gang member would automatically exclude you from obtaining a firearms license, therefore all guns in gang members hands would be illegally held.
No Jim – and neither do we, as a society, blatantly discriminate against members of other groups in society if they can meet the requirements for gun ownership. If we were able to, there might be fewer firearms related domestic incidents – something gang members don’t appear to be renowned for.
Really??? I was sure that being “of good character” was part of the license process, which excluded gang members from obtains a FAL.
Jim
You are assuming that all gang members have criminal convictions and that they don’t need guns for their sustainable living – probably many shoot their own meat, pigs etc. Watch the assumptions, there is a bit of truth in most things, so see what it is before you pass your own judgment eh.
Grey, come on.
If the police arms officer, vetting a potential FAL holder, reccomends that a patched gang member should be considered of good character and suitable for any type of FAL, that’s just ridiculous.
Give it a break Jim. Your prejudices have taken you beyond your ability for rational thought. How many cases of gang members killing their partners with firearms in domestic incidents can you confirm? Bet it is less than the number of well heeled horse breeders that have. When did any NZ gang members use a military type weapon to take down 50 people in prayer that can you tell us about? Can you provide evidence of times when gang members have killed either police officers or innocent bystanders? Need one go on? Besides, if you bothered to look, ‘of good character’ is your own invention but admittedly, is only a bit more subjective than the actual requirement in the application process. Thank God that arms officers are more professional and better able to determine facts what than you would be. Incidentally, some gang members have not been approved for FAL’s and there have been occasions when some have been withdrawn – just like with non-gang affiliates when their actions or dispositions have given cause for concern. Actually, licences are probably given more liberally that what they should be, but probably not to gangsters.
AOM
Are you seriously suggesting that the gangs can keep the category of semi automatics that are to be banned?
Basically the gangs can keep them but no-one else can?
Presumably not, but that is how your post read.
Are you seriously that lacking in comprehension skills? NO!
Wayne
Perhaps you are knee-jerking again from the conservative POV – which aspect seems to need updated glasses.
I doubt whether the Gangs AK 47’s and AR 15’s are legally registered anyway, so they are probably illegal weapons hence they are not eligible for compensation ?
Hence I doubt whether the Gangs will hand them in as they need them for protection in case they are attacked by another Gang who wants to steal their drug stash or their cash ?
Did gilby point out the ganger in prison prolly isn’t armed aomy?
On james Casson – to be fair to him he spoke in anger in 2016 this:
He agreed that in July 2016 he posted on Facebook after terrorist attacks in Nice and Paris, referring to an invasion of migrants into Europe. He had written that it was “time to get hard, time for retribution, and extreme violence to rid Europe of these scum”.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/386094/hamilton-councillor-set-to-apologise-to-muslims-for-comments
He is going to apologise to the Muslim community. Perhaps the weight of opinion gives him the message to think about what he feels, and then think whether it is too black and white needing more understanding, and then think before he speaks about what feelings he will arouse in the wider community, and the small bunch of anomic hotheads.
I wish he’d shut up and piss off. I’ve heard enough from that person tbh.
Yeah as my Mum would say: He’s trying! Very trying.
But still if he can bow and be humble, and then take a less aggressive stance on things that are so human and therefore irritating ie be more understanding of the power of emotions on the talker and the listener, your pain may not have been in vain.
This on Radionz this a.m.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018689150/lone-actor-terrorists-a-behavioural-analysis
It is good you have a kind heart.
For me – it’s all a lie. His views haven’t changed. It is damage control based upon his ego and his fear of losing stuff. As I said I wish he’d stfu and piss off. Insincere white apologists are a waste of time on this site and in real life imo.
Actually marty I’m thinking in pragmatic idealist mode. I hope he will have changed, that’s the ideal. I think he may not have as these attitudes score deep in people’s psyches and it requires enormous effort to get free of them.
I think you are probably right in your summing up. And I fear insincerity. It is very sad when you think that someone has goodwill for what you all seem to be working for but it is just a front; they have other plans.
I liked this from an interview with a young woman in Nelson Mail Friday 3/22/2019.
It is from A Muslim PhD student living in NZ. She says –
All together we have failed the terrorist’s plans. But the question still stands there, what can I do? All that you have done is way more generous and beyond expectation and we do not want you to put in that burden, all you need to do is just accept us as we are, ordinary.
We do not need sympathies, we do not need extra attention, and we do not want to be in limelight. We do not need platforms to speak, we just need acceptance, a place to be comfortable under our skin, a place where we have feeling of home, a feeling of co-existence not merely existence.
I’m glad you’re thinking in pragmatic idealist mode @greywarshark and it’d be nice if he really has had some sort of epiphany.
I agree with @ MM however, and that isn’t just because I see him as white apologist, it’s for reasons I’ve made comment over the past few days which include some of the antics and the way he and some of his ilk behave carrying out his job, and having been told how embarrassed one of his own former police colleague’s over their little ‘raids’.
I’m more inclined to Angela Cuming’s view:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018689140/hamilton-council-complainant-not-surprised-by-racist-remarks
He and Peter Dutton would make great mates I’m sorry to say and perhaps he should consider returning to his former ‘economic refugee’ status
Need to stop pushing this lone wolf fantasy. The guy had cheerleaders.
The Lone Wolf will have been guided over the years no doubt about that, whether we ever get the full story is anybody’s guess ?
Great work in so many ways.
https://www.waateanews.com/waateanews/x_news/MjE0NDE/Shepherd's-life-draws-in-wahine
Chris Trotter sets out what has been occuring to me recently. That we are working so hard to turn back the clock and recover what we believed we had in NZ and making some small improvements. But why necessary, and why so hard to achieve? How come that we are in this pit, we can see the sky, we climb and slip back – is that it – a cycle of constant sacrifice of time and energy and sometime lives to achieve a better society and when we have, the children of the fighters don’t carry enough of the history of struggle with them, and let it slip away in favour of self-indulgence again. What prevents us from holding onto a society with values, sensible controls allowing all people the time and means to have an enjoyable life, and pass that precious package on to the next generation teaching them how to care for it, as its resilience is limited.
Bowalley Road says:
So many on the Left do not appreciate the true dimensions of the vast and immovable cultural-political consensus that allows Capitalism to survive and thrive. If it wasn’t there: or, if it was there, but amenable to reason and love: then Capitalism would long ago have given way to a more human order.
This grim judgement is a lot easier for the Left to accept when reactionary ideas and parties are in the saddle and riding them hard. In those moments, it is easy to convince Capitalism’s enemies that it is, indeed, a monstrous nightmare pressing down upon the lungs of human hope.
A Left without illusions has a much better chance of organising effectively and, on rare occasions, winning.
The real danger comes when events conspire to make it appear as though the Left has already won.
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2019/04/dark-matter.html
And now, when we have won some time in the sun of relative goodness, what will the children of the complacent do? Can they take their minds out and check them for rips and weak points, can they limit their meditation, their gym workouts, their marathon training and put those times into skill and community building. Half hour per day to talk about work, school, people met, the day’s news, and some of the weekend into community input for the Council and the strugglers; that’s if they have a weekend.
A left without illusions does not exist, and nor should it.
Sure the workers won big in France in 1968.
And yes de Gaulle resigned the next year which was no accident.
But the biggest win was to the feminist movement. By 1974 they had won national health insurance for contraception. By 1975 they had legalisation of abortion. Also in 1975 they got reform of divorce laws.
Mitterand was a bit of a disaster, but he would not have had a shot at nationalising the entire banking industry without the impetus of 1968 and beyond.
Trotter is a useful writer for the right and for the status quo, because he is profoundly pessimistic. He is the very definition of Left Melancholy.
Trotter revels in the political disasters of the last two years of the Lange-Douglas years, and discounts the effects in our society of our own home-grown revolutions.
Our own revolutions in ecology, feminism, Maori land rights, anti-nuclear and anti-war protests, anti-development protests, and anti-racist Rugby protests, well they are the collective essence of left activism today.
They gave rise to the idealism within Ardern today.
Trotter will realise within 6 months that Ardern is shifting wealth through existing instruments of the state already – in many cases not particularly gradually either. She also has the opportunity to go after the really hard-right and hard-to-reach places in gun ownership and armed criminal conspiracies that have held this country back for decades.
The left led by Ardern is not the problem.
Old, spent commentators like Trotter who remain bereft of hope and trapped by history hold us all back.
Time to dare.
“The left led by Ardern is not the problem.
Old, spent commentators like Trotter who remain bereft of hope and trapped by history hold us all back.
Time to dare.”
+ 1 well said
Ad, you are so right. He is hidebound and Trots out the same sour notes.
If we are in, “Watch out it won’t last because…..” If we are out “We lack….”
Jacinda Ardern is such a consummate conductor, it is a pity Trots can’t learn the new tune.
She knows how to blend the best of each instrument to make hopeful strong music.
Each person who takes part grows in courage and belief. She is a force for good. She is growing seemlessly into the role.
Ad
I think you are holding back. Trotter is looking at ways Labour Coalition can achieve in the three year period of power which seems to be zooming along.
Good for doing things of yesterday. They and any other work didn’t prevent us from being up the creek, if we can find some water that hasn’t been utilised by some incomer for profit. We were without a paddle till Labour got back in.
People need to understand that Labour are doing their best but need to know they are limited by their bureaucracy and their financiers, and the fickle prejudiced, emotional market pretending to be staunch. School of fish rather. it might be better if thethe Labour Coalition ask the nation to help them carry out the good things for the country. Get the poor people involved on something in every community.
And it would be good for the public to read the Good Man of NZ’s effort to tell it like it is so they understand the huge reality of all those men with power and money who look through people like an X-ray. They are like a black hole in space, sucking everything into their giant schemes. It is too hard to comprehend for most people and if we can be kept busy enough always short of money, and have enough tragedies one after the other, and television to take our mind off the tragedies, then we may never have time to think.
People need to do exactly the opposite of what you suggest.
I think it was Stendahl that said
“Where the danger lies, there the saving power also grows.”
We are going through a liberative moment, led by charismatic, principled leadership.
Always obstacles. Always.
But each win catalyses another.
Each grows in speed.
The only question is how she deploys this political capital.
Always a fun question.
Ad
Just thinking. Everyone has different ideas. Good if everyone thinks. My thinking – We are all on a hunt for the idea/s that are best for a near-future NZ.
It could be interesting and a ‘fun question’ to have a game of Where’s NZ. A sort of improv session for weekend participants who would put up scenarios, and then have an economist like Rosenberg or someone from BERL, Brian Easton, Max Rashbrooke etc give us scenarios using computer graphs of how they would work under different variables. (Something different and independent like this budget from 2018 –
https://www.union.org.nz/bill-rosenberg-and-ganesh-nana-deliver-independent-budget-analysis/)
Say, what would happen if f the inflation level was eased and the base level came up from 2-4%?
(The fundamentalist economist – Inflation — a thief in your wallet 3m:43s
Head of Economics, John McDermott, explains how inflation is measured and how it manifests itself in everyday life. He also explains the importance of maintaining price stability.)
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary-policy/inflation (think this is 2019)
Since 2000, New Zealand CPI (Consumers Price Index) inflation has averaged around 2.7 percent. This compares with averages of 2.4 percent in the 1990s, and averages of over 11 percent for the previous two decades. Since September 2002, the inflation target has been to keep inflation within a range of 1–3 percent on average over the medium term.
Discussions would take place with ideas coming from the floor .
– on monetary policy for the average person, why some have worked at different times.
– on how the import-export balance of trade works on employment levels and job stability.
– on how low wages and rising house rates keep the domestic flow of money from the average person low, and insufficient to power retail businesses and pay for the mostly imported goods they bring in, so that tourists are propping up the economy and exports have to be kept high just to keep us in business etc. –
With lots of questions and groups putting forward scenarios to see what could be done, how it would be regarded internationally, how self-sufficient we can be, how much we make that stays in NZ from large overseas businesses coming here, how they undercut and swamp our own initiatives, how the country is being stolen from us brick by brick and we don’t notice it till it doesn’t pass an earthquake inspection.
We need to understand what our dark matter is, find it, feed it, get cohesive, with our feet firmly on the ground.
Try not to pooh pooh this, I can’t bear too much cynicism.
I like that!: “Left Melancholy”. I hope you don’t mind if I use it from time to time @Ad. It could catch on, but we’d better be careful the Soimon or the shock jocks don’t get hold of it.
Will we ever be mature enough to act on our horrendous road toll ?
People will continue to die on the roads as they always have because
Excessive speed
No respect for the law
No respect for other road users
No police enforcement
Weak driver education and licence rules.
No serious punishment for driver misdemeanors.
Poor roads including the condition of most of them.
The mentality that before action is taken to make a road safer there has to be multiple deaths before anything is done.
Total failure right across the board from government to local authorities and the public who behave like they own the road and can speed doing 80MPH down a residential rd which has a limit of 50 ! despite the possibility that they could kill a child at the speed they choose to drive at.
And the attitude that it is the kids fault for being there not their speed that is the problem.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/04/01/malcolm-evans-tolerable-death/
Mosa
Yesterday I sent a letter to ‘Minister of Transport Phil Twyford, to get passenger and freight rail going in all provinces again, – as used to be using some of the taxes.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1903/S00323/the-hidden-trucking-industry-subsidy.htm
That should lower the road deaths if these folks all had a good rail system to carry them along the tracks avoiding the roads entirely.
Great work CG
CG you are on to it an efficient rail and public transport network may get a lot of lunatics off the roads ?
Indeed, and that’s probably if they stick to the speed limit, which they don’t – because they’re trying to earn a living under arduous and impossible circumstances.
(And all that’s allowing for the margin of speedometer over-read, and all that shit about “this vehicle is governed…….etc.”)
And how about this:
https://thespinoff.co.nz/the-bulletin/02-04-2019/the-bulletin-tauranga-moves-closer-to-golden-triangle-train-dream/
Given that complete fuckup of a 4 lane tolled road that ends in Paengaroa (they call it an Expressway I think, but in reality, the ‘truckies rest break’ where they can travel while having a snooze because there’s fuck all else going in the same direction, and it doesn’t matter if they cross the centre line from time-to-time). Imagine if the money spent on that white elephant had been spent on something useful. (Like maybe double tracking where necessary in that “Golden Triangle”).
Thank Christ Joyce never got near the place – he’d have been trying to sell off as much of the existing rail corridors as possible in the area.
Jeremy Corbyn on the latest shambles: “On a point of order, it is disappointing that no solution has won a majority this evening but I remind the House that the prime minister’s unacceptable deal has been overwhelmingly rejected three times.”
Three strikes and you’re out!!! “The margin of defeat for one of the options tonight was very narrow indeed and the prime minister’s deal has been rejected by very large majorities on three occasions.” https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2019/apr/01/brexit-latest-live-news-indicative-votes–brexiters-dismiss-customs-union-plan-as-unacceptable-as-mps-prepare-for-more-indicative-votes-live-new
“If it is good enough for the prime minister to have three chances at her deal, then I suggest that possibly the House should have a chance to consider again the options that we had before us today, in a debate on Wednesday, so that the House can succeed where the prime minister has failed; in presenting a credible economic relationship with Europe for the future that prevents us crashing out with no deal.”
Diffident as he is, he seems to be giving a vote of confidence to their parliament. If he’s right to assume that the narrow defeat of a non-May motion is the basis upon which to proceed, then I endorse his political judgment in suggesting they take that opportunity.
“The option that came closest to being passed, which was defeated by just three votes, was remaining in a customs union with the EU – a key plank of the so-called “soft Brexit” option, under which the UK would leave the EU but retain very close trading links with the bloc.”
“Its supporters say it would mitigate the damage caused to the British economy by Brexit, particularly if combined with staying in the EU’s single market. Detractors say such an option in effect means not really leaving at all, as the UK would be subject to EU rules and regulations it had no say over – and would have no right to strike its own trade deals with non-EU countries.”
“Nick Boles, the Conservative MP who proposed the EFTA/EEA motion – the so-called “Common Market 2.0″ option – resigned from the party immediately after the vote results were announced.” https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47776512
The naked truth, rarely seen in politics, was almost evident: “Protesters stood in a line with their backsides pressed against the security glass of the public gallery. Most were only wearing knickers or underpants, while two were dressed in elephant masks.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/nude-protest-parliament-commons-naked-latest-a8849866.html
“The Metropolitan Police said it had arrested 12 people on suspicion of outraging public decency, while officers had “negotiated” with one naked protester who had successfully glued themselves to a window.”
You may be wondering at the political relevance of elephant masks. Google provides some insight into this: “In West and Central Africa, the elephant is a potent image of political force and the accumulation of wealth by those in power. This is true for the art of the Cameroon Grasslands… The Kuosi, members of a society that served as the king’s representatives, and at times the king, wore this mask and headdress as they performed the prestigious elephant dance during rituals, festivals, and funerals.”
The Brooklyn Museum features this example: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4852 but it remains to be seen whether the protestors were making a deep philosophical point about political hierarchies…
Have you put up a comment with link to the Norway deal with the EU? I don’t know anything about it. I heard something on the radio this morning and it sounded a possibility. I may have missed it here.
No, didn’t hear that. Just looked online & found a Politico report from last year with this interesting bit from their PM: “Solberg said there is a “problem with referendums” for solving the EU membership question because voters engage with the question on an emotional level rather than making an assessment based on economic pros and cons. Norway has had two votes on EU membership, opting both times to stay outside.”
“We have lost twice. We accept that,” said Solberg, whose Conservative Party is in favor of being inside the bloc. Solberg has been Norway’s prime minister since 2013.” https://www.politico.eu/article/norwegian-pm-uk-cannot-cherry-pick-eu-membership/
Also the guy who resigned was the Tory whip. He was pushing the Norway model: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/what-is-the-norway-model-brexit-2018-4?r=US&IR=T
There’s an overview of the scenario here: http://theconversation.com/brexit-a-norwegian-view-on-the-norway-plus-model-and-why-it-wouldnt-be-easy-for-the-uk-109981
Cracking flounce.
https://twitter.com/matthewchampion/status/1112827184593428480
Dismiss these turkeys they are worthless
“The Thames-Coromandel District Council has outraged local environmental advocates by voting against signing the Local Government Leader’s Climate Change Declaration.
The move at a packed council meeting in Thames saw the councillors rejected impassioned pleas from school children and locals to show environmental leadership by voting six to three against signing the document.
The vote led to loud booing and cries of “shame on you” from about 30 protesters in the public seating area, who had earlier gathered outside the building in the hope that councillors would support the declaration.”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/111706502/thamescoromandel-district-council-vote-against-climate-change-declaration
Gorillas have real chests to thump.
Pretend ones as in Thames-Coromandel councillors are just at their level of
incompetence.
https://www.tcdc.govt.nz/Your-Council/Councillors-and-Community-Board-Members/
Thames-Coromandel District Council
https://www.tcdc.govt.nz/
Official website of the Thames-Coromandel District Council. Find out why Coromandel is the best place in New Zealand to work, live and play.
Coastal – insurance 1.47m
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yErH6JttB4
Insurance retreat 5.12m
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVeggCODEFM
Classic David Seymour here folks, spent so long bigging up his stance against the gun laws under urgency that he missed the vote.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-shooting/111727631/act-will-force-government-to-pass-new-gun-legislation-under-urgency
premature procrastination?
Re crossing the line on hate speech, Pablo gets it right: “When it comes to free versus hate speech the issue is simple: any speech that incites, encourages, supports, applauds or otherwise instigates or excuses violence against individuals or collectivities because of who (as opposed to anything they have done, although even there the call to violence is debatable), has crossed the line from protected speech into hate speech. Offensive speech remains protected, but the urging of violence is not. The issue is not about causing offence; it is about causing harm.” http://www.kiwipolitico.com/
Then he ventures into this interesting social context: “I have been told by informed community members that Islamophobia is very much a staple part of sermons in some Pacifika Christian churches.”
“Assorted talkback hosts and politicians are now in full “whataboutism?” mode, trying to equate the evils of Muslim extremists with those of other fanatics. Sensing an opportunity, people with agendas are in full throat, be it as purported experts on gangs and terrorism or pushing lines such as that the 1881 assault on Parihaka is a comparable atrocity (in which no one died).”
minimum wage risen,as also the living,wage,these wage rises,i as a imigrant in new zealand,1972,where wages paid minimum wage rate for Trademen,at that now proper progress Trades Person,that took how long,only to be capital bastered to traddies,Trades extent to skill level five years training,Trade Person,you going to let your in most exploiter call you one of my traddies.as his top dollar wage was paid back in 1972.
And in other news baseline level for child poverty reduction has been released.
23% of our kids in poverty after housing costs are paid.
That’s where we start. This government will be judged on where we are about now (June 2019 data will be reported in 2020).
And in 2020 we will see whether honest attempts to reach clear goals actually get support from the electorate.
1972,THESE WAGE RATES AROUND,WHATS THE BIG DEAL OR LIE.bringing back who how old these new bread property ivested politicians who understand capitals exploit of their how control profit max your investment.Shame,yous labour carers,unemployed on the state support,single care one ninty,how much your rent cost 260 a week,ok landlord get your exploited profit exploit for and most are slums,how much left for you the unemployed state cared for,well my rent is 260,the state gives me 290,power food and trouble looks ahead.
‘
Government forced to buy KiwiBuild houses that weren’t selling
Anna Bracewell-Worrall
Give it up Phil. Keep them as State Housing, (which they should have been in the first place).
Here’s an idea; Stop trying to bail out the failed private housing market, rent them to needy families instead.
John A. Lee, John A. Lee, John A. Lee