According to Gallup, three-quarters of Americans say they have seen, read or heard about Trumps tweets "a lot, or a fair amount". That's despite only 26 per cent of Americans having an account themselves, and just 30 per cent of that cohort – roughly 8 per cent of the population – following Trump. "Fifty-five per cent of those who follow Trump on Twitter say they read all or most of his tweets, with another 25 per cent saying they read some," Gallup said.
"Taking all of this into account, 4 per cent of Americans overall have a Twitter account, follow Trump's account and read all or most of his tweets," Gallup said. "The percentage reading Trump's tweets directly rises to 6 per cent when including those who say they read some of his postings."
So the small numbers who actually read him get leveraged up massively due to msm recycling. Then there's his leverage of the Republicans:
"Although most Americans don't like him, Trump has an 80 per cent approval rating among Republicans," Associate Professor Opal wrote for The Conversation. "He uses this popularity, along with his Twitter feed, to bully Republican dissidents into silence."
"Having alienated almost every other demographic, they must stick with their Trump-loving base. They have no one else. And Trump will do everything he can to win in November, unburdened by any sense of propriety, fairness or facts."
So there's the strategic basis for his campaign: Trump vs America. Now we wait to see if the penny drops in the minds of Americans. To prevent that happening, he needs to start a war somewhere, like Iran. Dominance is his modus operandi. Alpha male. Primate deep psychology – watch it induce mass submission.
That's unfair to primates. Gorillas apparently are quite peace loving and sit around eating leaves. But then chimpanzees can raid other family groups and eat their babies. But even so, I think there is some deep-held atavistic psychology that comes out in humans, a blood-thirsty viciousness apparently only just held in check by a thin layer of so-called civilisation. History shows our higher intelligence has led to a more clever application of aggression when useful to the people in power, and which often is admired by many without power.
some deep-held atavistic psychology that comes out in humans, a blood-thirsty viciousness apparently only just held in check by a thin layer of so-called civilisation
Have you encountered the alien intervention theory? Been around for decades in some form or another. The genetic version postulates tinkering with the genome in prehistory, the basic idea being that we are partly designed/engineered, partly natural.
The question of which animal species prey upon themselves is an interesting one, regardless. I've not seen any authoritative comprehensive documentation of this.
Sounds like you may have been taught by a schoolteacher. 😉 Books written by scientists to explore the holes in Darwinist theory are usually worth reading.
The missing links have long been the main weakness of the theory. Mutation & selection documented by intermediary forms is persuasive. Trouble is, there are so many damn sudden appearances of new species without any sign of evolutionary transition to explain them. So chance remains a bit player in the overall game…
I think I read it in one of Jane Goodall's reports from her eye witness accounts of chimpanzee life.
The alien idea – it smacks of us never wanting to look at ourselves too closely. It’s sort of ducking out of the idea that our free will has led us to the edge of the pit, either the victim to be shot or the perpetrator, it’s the human inside; an actor in a failed boxoffice epic.
😊 Don't worry, I wouldn't even try. Wrong planet. Back in the '90s I subscribed to Nexus awhile & got entertained by all the competing scenarios, until I cottoned on to the trend towards delusionality & bailed out. But the theory that more than one alien race/species from different galactic origins & with different motives have visited &/or intervened here in the distant past &/or currently does a certain je ne sais quoi about it. Aesthetic appeal?
Given the number of galaxies, stars and the likelihood of Goldilocks planets in our known universe, the statistical chances of other extraterrestrial life is a good bet. I’m long out of the loop, so don’t know who else is here, but if I had to choose what's more likely, intervention or intelligent design creationism, I'd go for ET over JC any day.
As it happens, with a flat battery, I'm only hanging around until 2137 when time travel gets invented and I can go home. It's a tough road, but at least the monkey men get the climate sorted, eventually.
Y'know, if we're going with the idea that ancient astronauts were messing around with our forebears, I'd kinda like to think that instead of boring little green men in spacesuits that it was an entity more like Cthulhu.
I am curious as to the though processes of those who organized and went on the march yesterday. How did they come to the decision to break the level two restrictions. I was very concerned because there are good reasons we are not at level one. The virus can take two weeks to show itself. Some people particularly young people can have very mild or no symptoms and be infectious. I understand the anger at what is going on in the US but why?
I too wondered who thought this type of gathering was a good idea and whether there was one nationwide organiser or group or different groups in each town. What is happening in the US is awful and I'm not fussed on armed cops locally either but how does potentially infecting others when we are almost clear help?
Also do we know if anybody was being funded to do this?
I fully get why the police/government decided not to impose themselves on the situation as they could have, but really the organisers have to take a long hard look in the mirror as to whether it was worth putting New Zealand lives and all the investment we have put into eliminating Covid-19 at risk for a grandstanding protest that those in a position to improve the American situation would have taken less than zero notice of.
Could be a case of the heart short-circuiting the brain, Dawn. Easy to empathise with the protestors, and I think their passion overcame common sense.
More concerning is the apparent police collusion. Looks like the supervising officer decided not to enforce social distancing.
I reckon Level 2 is now a joke. Civil disobedience has prevailed. If we can't trust the cops to support the govt, no point the govt maintaining their pretence. The people have taken the lead to eliminate public safety mechanisms, and govt must follow their lead…
I dont believe it is a joke. The majority are abiding by the rules. Not logical that we should all break the rules because some people have. If anyone knows someone who went on the march they should ask them to stay away for two weeks.
That would be a good idea. Peer pressure can be effective. But it seems to me human nature is the problem here – resurgence hasn't become evident, and community transmission didn't get proven as far as I can tell. People have jumped to the conclusion that the precautionary principle is insufficient. Unless the protest produce new infections, they won't have reason to change their minds.
Oh, the AM Show just put up the graphic of their poll result: 66% believe we ought to be on level 1 now.
Well, we actually don't know that. You make a valid technical point, of course, and Tim Watkin's dissenting opinion likewise, but since the decision-makers were not provided with info on the actual fakery, and made their decision on the broadcaster's admission of guilt, we can't really evaluate the extent of bias going on. But yes, grounds for scepticism.
"A poll published on the Newshub website last year was found to have been manipulative by the Media Council, sparking calls for poll results to be better monitored"
AM show polls … I'd not regard that as a great sample.
But I do sense that the governments last statement of position was seen as too conservative, given no community transmission for a month despite coming out of lockdown.
The greater fear now is for the economy/jobs.
The PM has now placed emphasis on the government deciding to go to Level 1 on June 8, rather than no later than June 22. Which fits better with the balanced approach it has taken since we came out of lockdown.
" Looks like the supervising officer decided not to enforce social distancing."
So you recommend mass arrests? Snatch squads grabbing people? Turning an entirely peaceful protest into conflict? Deploy hundreds of cops, bundling people into vans? Hoping nobody resists?
There's a police commander's job going for you in the USA.
That kind of response would seem to send a message of New Zealands solidarity with the US regime rather than its citizens. Seems NZ police have much more sense than that.
Pathetic response. Smart policing is doing what the situation required: liaison with the organisers to enable a dignified social-distancing protest. Anyone could figure that out. Try using your brain for a change.
My brain says: "How do we control thousands of people?"
How many cops needed? How much do they break distancing, in order to enforce distancing? How do we deal with non-compliant protestors, who are hardly there because they are deferential to cops?
They did liaise with the organisers. There was contact tracing and appeals for distancing. People were told where to get masks. But … the people are not a hivemind. If 95% behave and 5% don't, what happens?
One image of a cop and protestor in a struggle is the headline leading the news. (Source: all media, since forever).
Good question, but my impressions were formed by wide shots of the crowd, and they showed 100% misbehaviour – anyone conforming didn't become evident to the eye. It is true that such impressions can mislead, however.
I reckon Level 2 is now a joke. Civil disobedience has prevailed. If we can't trust the cops to support the govt, no point the govt maintaining their pretence. The people have taken the lead to eliminate public safety mechanisms, and govt must follow their lead…
Oh great, we're back to the let's sacrifice elderly and disabled people conversation again.
The 'people' don't get to decide, because we elect social democratic governments (albeit neoliberalised ones) to take top level decisions that the people aren't in a position to make.
I can't imagine Labour extending L2 for no good reason, and I assume the reason is that the science is unclear if we are covid-free yet.
So fine, go to L1 early but if we get another outbreak, then I hope that there will be more support for disabled and elderly people this time.
"I reckon Level 2 is now a joke. Civil disobedience has prevailed. If we can't trust the cops to support the govt, no point the govt maintaining their pretence. The people have taken the lead to eliminate public safety mechanisms, and govt must follow their lead…
So I take it then pal according to you, if a load of hoons drive down a road at 100ks where the limit is 50ks for safety reasons the limit should be altered as they have taken the lead to eliminate public safety mechanisms.
Which part of the country? I think the biggest thing under level 2 was the schools opening bringing hundreds of pupils into daily contact. Also, if it was fewer than 100 and they recorded details its within the present sports group restrictions (I played a football match yesterday, this is allowed now). Its possible they were more or less physically distant while marching also.
Funded by George Soros!!! Bill Gates, etc… not helpful from me but I disagree it was unnoticed overseas, the fact even little ol' NZ cares about what's going on matters. Even Taika got slammed for his "eloquent black man" comment.
The idea is that marching (I def saw photos with no physical distancing and MSM seemed to be saying no-one was) and protesting are high risk activities because the shouting and calling spreads droplets further. People touch stuff too, and how many people are still practicing not touching their faces? Why was there no requirement to wear a mask? And so on.
Also, no contact tracing (other than the app people).
I figured it was bandwagoning showboating, just couldn't resist the chance to be right-on. Seems more likely than a conspiracy of jetboat operators and tourist tat sellers to jemmy open the airports.
After some of the weekends events and news reports – should we have one government managed quarantine system with a well known set of operating rules and using suitable premises? Or does Minister Twyford get to sign off groups of people for entry who are basically designing their own quarantine locations?
Secondly is there going to be a chilling economic effect from a constant influx of say chartered aeroplanes of individuals from virus ridden countries – to the extent that locals continue to maintain a background higher level of anxiety about being infected and therefore curtail their own activities?
Good point. I am still wary and try and keep distance, but that only works when the vast majority are doing the same. And sometimes I forget and comfort myself with the knowledge that we have eliminated the virus. Yet testing at entry points to the country and reports of inconsistent isolation and lack of take-up of face masks leaves me uncertain again. Anxiety reigns especially when the young people from the individualistic, entitled generation are heard so often dissing the control methods as unnecessary.
Old Winston needs to go. How can you have a deputy saying things against the government, during a global pandemic, using flawed logic? He's lost his marbles and should be removed. Call a snap election if you must, why not. The incumbent will win. Give the morons in the street their level one, call a snap election, win the election based on your bribes, both monetary and intangible "freedoms", sit back, relax, straight back onto twitter and Yap App for magazine style governance. I'm getting the hang of central politics in the Brave New World. Literally anyone can do this.
Not necessarily. NZF might get over the 5% threshold and they might even get more seats than in 2017, but will they be Kingmaker again? If they’re not, or not the only one, they’ll lose their leverage during coalition negotiations. In 2017, National had a lot of leverage and yet they missed out.
At the moment it is just a phrase. The government hasn't given us the rules so it is difficult for anyone to say we should be at "Level 1".
The rules for level 2 have been relaxed gradually over the past 3 weeks so it is always a moving target.
I know there is enormous pressure coming from the sports and arts communities to allow crowds back into their events. So I think the only change will be crowds and packed pubs. Are we expecting anything else?
We have certainly not known for months what each level meant. As we have moved through the levels, the government has defined them days before we enter a new 'level'.
Level 2 was a phrase we all knew about since mid-March, but it wasn't until 7 May that we were advised exactly what it meant.
EiE of course we dont know the exact specifics of each level, that is by design and is an important feature. We dont know everything about the virus behaviour and there is no way to predict the exact situation at any point in the future. To work is MUST respond dynamically to externals
Even this past weekend hospitality and tourism were limited by the easing Level 2 rules.
They are also limited by the perception of a significant part of the population,that there is still underlying risk,and discretionary businesses are always fragile.
The arguments for opening of borders,level 1 etc, by politicians and lobbys, are fighting for their relevance,not the collective good of the people of NZ.
We do not face austerity,NZ households have never had so much money sitting in bank accounts in NZ (192 billion in cash at the 30 may)
It is the affirmation of confidence of the NZ public to spend (rather then save) or to invest in businesses that offer resilience under the new social contract.
And I was referring to the austerity that has led to our underfunded infrastructure and public services (such as health) over decades (the 2008-2017 austerity the latest period). It won't get better going from 20% to 50% debt to GDP. We do face return to austerity, because of the bill (if we adhere the neo-liberal rules that constrain government).
Confidence in safety to be active in the community and the confidence to spend/invest are in this instance inter-connected. One occurs with being safe from the virus, the other involves a more open economy. A pandemic makes this a tricky balance.
Recessions like runs on banks are self fulfilling prophecies,if business lobbys prefer layoffs rather then shareholders taking a hit on dividends say,they will fulfill their own expectations.
If it was a shock ,rather then a persistent downtown however,then it may be a trim rather then a number one.
Data suggest the former,and policy helped bridge the divide.
Yes, get out of your own right-wing cocoon, Paddington.
Austerity so that Bill English could pretend to 'balance the books' meant that Police were so underfunded that they had to quietly give up doing Alcohol checkpoints.
With much noise, a National Govt had heroically (and cost-free) lowered the drink-driving alcohol limits. But then they starved the Police.
A few years later, they had given NZ the distinction of being the only country so far to have lowered limits, but had a subsequent increase in alcohol-related accidents. Other countries had had the brains to increase the number of alcohol check-points, but not our good old National Govt.
Add to that sewage coming through a hospital ceiling and drainage through hospital walls; school buildings run down…
"Yeah the risible pay round for nurses and the understaffed wards was nothing."
Between 2008 and 2017, health spending increased in nominal terms by 44%, in real terms by 23% and in per capita terms by 10%. So you can quote anecdotes all you like, but the stats don't lie.
"Running down of social health is what I call it."
Between 2008 and 2017, health spending increased in nominal terms by 44%, in real terms by 23% and in per capita terms by 10%. So you can quote anecdotes all you like, but the stats don't lie.
Reads like an anecdote to me, in two comments, no less, for emphasis, no doubt. Unfortunately, you did not provide a link to your wonderful and compelling stats so we just have to assume you got it from the National Party Facebook page or KB. Maybe you rectify your omission, yes?
I'm not sure what those numbers are, McFlock, but the DHB deficits are ballooning at the moment:
"New figures, quietly dropped on the Ministry of Health's website yesterday, shows the total deficit across all 20 DHBs for the first five months of the financial year sits at more than $230 million.
That's almost $60 million higher than the deficit over the same five-month period the year prior and $166 million higher than the same period in 2017."
Yep, the numbers are huge. It's interesting that the spend to GDP is about the same in 2017 as 2008, considering the rate of economic growth post the GFC.
I mean, it's interesting, but my DHB has been running deficits for many years. If it spends its budget allocation plus $20mil, does that count as another $20mil in spending or not? And if it gets another $10mil the following year, but still has the same costs so has a $10mil deficit, does that count as an "increase" in funding? And how much of an aberration has my DHB been over the last 15 years or whatever?
I have googled, got lots of links about dhb funding, but very little about DHB debt over the period – increased a lot over 2018/19, but before that?
Meh, merely a mild interest late at night. I'll leave it. Answers to questions close to the questions that were actually asked are quite tiring and just another rabbit hole to distract from the bleeding obvious.
Fills me with so much trust that a reduction in DHB "debt" to the govt isn't touted as an increase in funding, even though there might be zero effect on the ground. /sarc
The march organisers should be prosecuted for yesterdays flagrant breach of the level 2 lockdown rules. I guess they'll get all high and mighty on the moral imperative, but they are no different in this to the idiots on the right who feel their right have been breached in the last few months.
These are the rules. Except for those afflicted with a performative stupidity, they are simple to understand. If you break the rules, you will be prosecuted. Simple.
No full excuse from me though, and morality aside, people all over the country apart from many seniors are milling about like it was xmas eve. Supermarket ques are gone etc. The march and rally organisers highly encouraged mask wearing, and are running an online attendance register.
Still, we've got to admit that there's an amusing twist here – the righties shout "Dictator Ardern" but never make it as far as protesting (possibly because any such protest by them would not even get close to the 100 limit).
In the end, the first protest that challenged the Evil Leftie rules was … by the Evil Lefties.
In NZ it is LIFE counts , that is why we have endured the last two months in Lockdowns. The emotive non-savants, led by Shalene Williams clearly think LIFE does not count in NZ. She broke our country’s rules and should be prosecuted accordingly. She could have been a bit more creative and come up with a law abiding way to make her message.
Janet the world and its woes still goes on while we have come out of a pandemic with little trauma compared to the shocking sight of a policeman in a supposed civilised country with his knee on someone's neck.
We watched a murder by an upholder of laura norder. The 'emotive non-savants' were moved in their hearts and brains for the suffering people in another country, while also trying to fit in with the controls at the end of our quarantine period. With you apparently any rule wins over true humanity, no matter what the situation is.
I was as appalled as most at the apparent murder of this American man and I am well aware that the USA policing system and the way all Americans relate to the police there is totally different from ours, thank goodness. Listening to our medical experts, we are NOT out of the pandemic yet.
There were other ways to express “true humanity “ It did not have to mimic the current American way where even the Covid situation is not controlled to help save lives.
But Janet you have such faith in our police behaviour being beyond reproach, which is unjustified. Part of the concern of the protesting crowd is self-centred, they wanted it to be noted that we will not go under the USA style of punitive policing without public protest. There are already cases of very bad behaviour by our police in the near past and those who think, worry about it and don't brush it to one side.
Don’t know where you get the idea that I too do not keep a leery eye on policing developments, but I do take some comfort that it is more tailored on the British system than the American one. There have always been isolated cases of bad behavior in the police through the years. The concern now is that they do not become armed and perhaps the recent activities of the police are more in response to the truckload of New Zealand bred but Australian raised, criminals that Australia dumped on us recently. Whatever, Level 2 is not a time to protest in mass on the street, for whatever reason – if you value LIFE.
The mass event street gathering – 1000 etc is nothing less than a full-on trial of our virus free status (which would inform the Cabinet decision June 8).
The government should invite those involved to come in for testing.
Hopefully it will be like WOMAD and the last round of the Super comp, major crowd events with no transmission.
It would be a weird day for political theory if US states tilted the Coronavirus trend downwards with statewide lockdowns caused by mass riots rather than medically-induced social distancing orders.
So images of chaos in a far off land will get middle class kiwis onto the streets. But the theft of our own country by global corporate power, and the displacement of the whole millennial generation, barely makes the news.
The race narrative is important but Class war is the insidious corruption that sets one against the other. The riots are a great distraction from the greatest theft in history; the looting of the US Treasury by Wall St criminals
Yippee, Greens up to 7, Ad will be thrilled! And National even lower – but taken before the Todd took over, looks like. ACT above NZF will get feathers a-flutter all over the place, and that 4% for others (TOP, MP, NC, SNZ I guess) could indicate something happening.
Greens probably shouldn't be getting too excited just yet, Dennis.. Roy Morgan are the most Green-friendly of public Pollsters … even more so than UMR:
Green Party-Support ratings
2020
Jan …….. RM 10.5% …. UMR 7.0% … TV3 5.6%
Feb …….. RM 10.5% … UMR 9.0% … TV1 5.0%
March … RM 11.5%
April ……RM 7.0% … UMR 5.0%
May ……. RM 7.0% … TV3 5.5% … TV1 4.7%
Roy Morgan were similarly the constant high-end outlier for the Greens throughout much of the final term of the Key-English Govt.
Unsurprisingly, then, the final Pre-Election RM has overstated Green support by roughly 3 percentage points at each of the last 3 General Elections.
So possibly just a little early to break open the Tofu & Spirulina Punch.
This confirms the Covid effect on Labour and National.
Polling was done April 27 – May 24. Todd Muller took over as National leader on 22 May so too soon to indicate anything, but he has had a poor start.
Compared to Colmar Brunton and Reid Research the Greens have been high.
NZ First are consistently polling under the threshold.
The polls rewarded Ardern and Labour over their handling of Covid, there was wide public support. But now there appears to be wide public moving on from level 2 restrictions and Ardern appears to be dithering.
She showed support for yesterday's protests, saying she understood 'the sentiment and urgency' (on RNZ), she didn't criticise the breaching of level 2, and said it was simply a police matter but seemed to agree with the police not acting.
She has sort of said Cabinet will bring forward consideration of lowering to level 1, but not until next week. She risks losing the public over this, and perhaps some of the poll indicated support.
Peters current strategy seems to be portaying himself as the voice of reason within cabinet. He came out early and confirmed that the government stood up to MoH to allow Kiwis to return to New Zealand when the borders closed.
He is now banging on about going to Level 1 immediately, and trying to differentiate himself from Labour.
The trouble with that is the polls clearly show the public is well on board and agreed with the government decisions. Tribal Nats will always vote National but everyone else is in support.
Govt parties on 66% – Labour (56.5%), Greens (7%), and NZF (2.5%) – Vs Opposition parties on 30% – National (26.5%) and Act (3.5%) – latest Roy Morgan poll: https://t.co/vTXda6UuSApic.twitter.com/LCt9xkMXBE
Yep – just confirms the previous two. Doesn't tell us what we want to know – is the Toddy-bounce the 10-15% they want, or has strapping on the Muller-charger given them a more modest 3-5% of kilowattage? And most of all, are there any signs of deceased felines?
Yeah, but useful for telling us precisely when the hefty shift in voter sentiment took place. (given that RM are the only Public Pollster sampling on a Monthly basis).
Looks like the main thrust occurred between late March & mid April…. right in the very heart of the Level 4 Lockdown. People feeling satisfied that the Govt was taking decisive action to protect them (even if some of us felt they were a little slower than they should've been) & that we were demonstrably doing significantly better than most of the rest of the World. Wouldn't be surprised if it's older softly-aligned Nats that have decisively swung in Labour's direction … with National's current calls for an immediate move to Level 1 alienating them even further..
Also makes Winston's gambit on the issue interesting. Is he forsaking his elderly base in order to attract pragmatic Nats (of all ages) potentially voting strategically for NZF to provide a counterweight to any leftward movement in the next Ardern-led Govt (a la 2002) ?
Looks like the main thrust occurred between late March & mid April…. right in the very heart of the Level 4 Lockdown.
Bear in mind though at that point the 1pm briefing by Ardern and Bloomfield was virtually the highlight of the day. Every man, woman and child in the country was glued to some form of telecommunication.
The publicity was all encompassing and something pollies can normally only dream about. So, as has already been expressed many times, Labour's current stratospheric polling will not last through to the election.
They should still win by a country mile but 72 MPs? Never.
There's no doubt this is an apex & they're extremely unlikely to take anything like 55-59% of the Party-Vote on Election Day (although I wouldn't entirely rule out Labour winning a slight majority of seats in their own right for the first time since the intro of MMP).
But notice Labour continued to rise & the Nats continued to fall during the move to Level 3 & then down to Level 2 (May Roy Morgan conducted between late April & late May), ie as we moved away from that unique period of public entrancement.
Well, it does cover the week of Muller's successful coup, and he is still the leader at the time of writing, so I'm comfy with the description. However, I do accept that its possible that the Roy Morgan polling was even worse for National until he took over and his confident and polished start has dragged the poll up many, many points in just a few days.
I did read some commentary after the last 3 news poll came out, that the low number had an affect on the voting intention of the TVNZ one a couple of days later, so if that's true, and RM again polled late, then it's quite possible the Muller affect may well have already started to be factored into the totals.
Quite right. It also depends on when in the polling period the majority of opinions were sampled. If the poll was geared to having most calls made nearer the publication date then the result would reflect at least some of the Muller magic.
Quite. Barring any major government balls ups, the only bounce Muller is likely to have, will be the one on his arse as Luxon kicks him out of his office in October.
Duncan Garner tried to hold the PM accountable for the police decision. She pointed out that there were constitutional reasons why the govt couldn't interfere with police decisions.
You can imagine the thoughts of the Minister of Police, listening in. "Jeez, folks still think a minister is in charge! Colonialism has an awful long shadow. I sure dodged a bullet there. So I can continue standing here looking useless as usual, while all that taxpayer money keeps flooding into my bank account. It's because I was born lucky, and the privilege system protects me. Thank god for the constitution! Life is wonderful."
A disturbing lack of integrity and awareness from the government agency and CEO of Rio Tinto after the mining company destroys an aboriginal cave site 46,000 years old.
"The federal minister for indigenous affairs, Ken Wyatt, the first Aboriginal person to be appointed to the role, said it was “incomprehensible” the blasting had gone ahead but said it appeared to be a “genuine mistake”.
“I believe that Rio Tinto are very genuine in the partnership they have with Aboriginal communities (and) organisations,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation."
"…Rio Tinto’s iron ore chief executive Chris Salisbury apologised for the distress the company has caused.
In a statement he said: “We pay our respects to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura People (PKKP), and we are sorry for the distress we have caused. Our relationship with the PKKP matters a lot to Rio Tinto, having worked together for many years."
Apparently, the government was able to issue consent to destroy identified sites, but was unable to revoke consents once issued.
BAU. Carry on with what you want to do, and apologise later. Such a toxic approach in business and real life.
The federal minister for indigenous affairs, Ken Wyatt, the first Aboriginal person to be appointed to the role, said it was “incomprehensible” the blasting had gone ahead but said it appeared to be a “genuine mistake”.“I believe that Rio Tinto are very genuine in the partnership they have with Aboriginal communities (and) organisations,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
This aligns with my own personal experience; I've personally seen Rio Tinto taking their relationship with local people very seriously indeed. This incident will be very much regretted and will have internal consequences.
There appears to be a point in any relationships where that trust and integrity can take a back seat, or be maintained. That is when true intention and robustness of processes can be determined.
From the article it looks like the PKKP had been campaigning for protection for this site for seven years. To describe it as a mistake after this seems PR speak, for "this one we didn't want to let go".
You may be right about Rio Tinto's intention, but from my perspective and the information in the article, this action seems to say otherwise.
The consequences have already been felt by the PKKP, internal consequences within Rio Tinto will be small change in comparison.
"This aligns with my own personal experience; I've personally seen Rio Tinto taking their relationship with local people very seriously indeed"
If true, that'd be a bloody big change from the late 60s early 70s when people had to protest by staking a claim at the HQ of RioTinto in Collins St (and were ignored). Or maybe it was Bourke.
Oh, very very sorry. Here's a million or two. Now can we just move on!
Not a lawyer – just an opinion – the beneficiary of the trust is not the legal owner of the trust therefore I don't think the trust can be forced to pay – however any payment by the trust to the beneficiary of the trust can be jacked from the beneficiary's bank account – just my opinion.
Who is doing the 'compelling'? The Court? Or one of the beneficiaries?
The concept of a trust is to very much prevent exactly this from happening; only the Trustees can determine how and trust funds are dispersed.
Having said this, when it comes to the not uncommon situation of a Residential Care Subsidies, the Ministry of Social Development has made a habit in the past decade of 'reaching past' the trust and counting trust assets as belonging to beneficiaries when determining whether a person has assets exceeding the threshold to qualify.
On the other hand there was an important High Court case (Broadbent) in 2018 that effectively ruled this was 'reaching past' was not legitimate. The consequences of this decision are still working through the system. In light of this it's clear that the Courts generally take the view that Trustees are the people in charge of a Trust, and no other entities should be interfering.
Also it's worth noting that the new Trust Act 2019 comes into force at the end of this year and substantially increases the responsibilities on Trustees and changes some important aspects of Trust operation. If you are a trustee you'll need to be aware of these as a matter of urgency.
Having said this, Trust law is not for amateurs, and I'm absolutely no-one to depend on. I found this is a very helpful site: https://mattersoftrust.co.nz/ Unlike a lot of legal websites it has actually useful information if you put the time in to understand it. I can also vouch for the legal company behind it … VATL.
If the trust provides for the welfare of the beneficiary then it is a wide scope. It is however up to the discretion of the trustees.
In saying that I have advocated for a couple of people who were beneficiaries of trusts who were receiving no payments ever from the trust – the trustees were his brother and sister and the family lawyer in one case – where basically the trustees were just waiting til the beneficiary died at which point they would get the whole lot.
The lesson from those two cases was that if the trust provides for the beneficiaries welfare they must also do so. It also likely helps if the trust records show some beneficiaries being provided for and not others – I've long advocated for a register of beneficiaries. There often seems to be favoured ones. There was also a case in Palmerston North some years back where a lawyer got in trouble because they were letting the person who had established the trust use it as if it was still his own money – it isn't. The law firm had to pay out what they had signed off on as trustees. Basically he depleted the trust in conjunction with his lawyer.
Lastly disbursements from trusts are also in most cases income under the Social Security Act and affect benefits.
As with lots of these things get a good lawyer and one from a firm different to that administering the trust.
where basically the trustees were just waiting til the beneficiary died at which point they would get the whole lot.
Yes. The new Trust Act 2019 is designed to prevent these scenarios; in particular it requires the trustees to be much more transparent about the trust to the beneficiaries.
No more secret decisions and a lot more robust paper trail.
lmao – the alt-right are now circulating images of who they believe to be "antifa organizers" that are just the indie rock band The National pic.twitter.com/tTUDWKKJII
— Cole Sansom – acab (@coolsandstorm) May 31, 2020
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says Cabinet will consider [ie: discuss at its scheduled meeting on 8 June] moving to alert level 1 on 8 June, earlier than previously indicated.
Cabinet had been expecting to consider the alert levels by 22 June and no later, but Ardern told Morning Report that based on the low number of cases, they could now deliberate on that earlier.
She said the country would be given a period of time to transition, but it was possible that we could be at alert level 1 by 10 June.
…
"We anticipated an even slightly longer tail of transmission [of cases] than we've had, we've been in contact with [the Director-General of Health] over the weekend.
It's all in how you frame it. "Government brings forward level one because of new information and advice from its officials."
Flexibility, advice sharing and taking, ability to react to changing conditions is a sign of a strong government.
Somehow portraying a government that has a 78% approval rating according to Roy Morgan, as ‘backing down’ to some pressure from a small percentage does not appear logical.
I would argue rather that the 78% approval is due to the people seeing that its government is strong, flexible, and adaptive.
Between the protests and the hotel foyer, 8 June probably a fair date to see if we've stuffed our dot-ball streak. It's not as certain as two full cycles of no cases, but it's not criminally negligent, either.
No, I think that if we start getting cases again towards the end of the week (especially multiple a day with no know source), we might be prudent to kick back down to L3 rather than pretending we're all good and going up to L1.
But, say, a nurse treating the current patient coming down with it would not be a reason to stay at L2.
Yes. To clarify, on this matter I don't think we're going to get 'criminal negligence' from this government. That would have required National to have been in charge back in early March – or put in charge at any point thereafter.
Not really. They had said that they would decide no later than June 22 (but that included looking at the matter earlier on June 8). They put it that way to placate their more careful health advisers. But she was discussing the issue with Bloomfield at the weekend prior to the protests, and now choose to emphasise that they were always going to look at it on June 8 – with the June 10 option.
As the first phase of the wage subsidy expires later that same week June 10 was always the latest date to placate business.
– Business confidence has been severely dented (so Grant Graham of KordaMentha tells us)
– the two tier benefit payouts, treatment of immigrant labour issues need to be rendered academic as does the 54 Avatars at the QT hotel just down the road
– Guildord of Vic Uni needs his international students back asap and the churn needs to be resumed
All things considered, it's worth the risk and we need to get back to BAU as soon as possible.
And as I listen to Neale Jones on N2N, there's a lot of hope and positivity to go around. That hope and positivity should even fix what Helen Clark recently said was a "lack of capacity" in our public service these days
Skiers coming back from Austria is what lit up the UK. Queenstown probably needs the Aussies but bugger all smaller skifields do because they don't go there.
There is an upside, for every winter month that NZers aren't heading off to Hawaii or Provence or on a stinking cruise ship the country is better off by almost a billion dollars.
I don’t know where you get your numbers from but if that money stays in the bank it will be the Ozzie banks that are better off, not the country as such.
I was due to travel with my wife and kids to the UK to see family this year. The trip is simply postponed until its safe to go. Unfortunately for the economy that means the money sits in a bank account for the next 18 months or so.
Unfortunately for whose economy, the UKs, because that is where you will spend it ?. At the moment not taking it out of the country runs in our favour for balance of payments. If you do make it to the UK next year factor in two weeks at the end starring out of a Mangere hotel window as that toxic wasteland will still be rife with the pox.
I think you missed the point entirely. The money will be spent in the UK economy when the trip finally takes place. The fact the trip is not taking place this year does not mean that money will automatically be spent in the New Zealand economy.
Whatever balance of payment benefit eventuates in the short term, will not help our local tourism businesses pay the rent, as the money is not being spent in their shops.
I am also not sure how you worked out that "18 months or so" would equate to next year?
Tourism is a net loss to NZ, its hard to get real figures as they are exaggerated by the industry but Kiwis spend far more money on overseas travel than incoming tourists do here, mainly because incoming only stay a few weeks if that, there might be 3 million of them but if you take out cruisers the number drops a lot so the number of stay days is probably only 20 million, the cruise ship passengers spend hardly anything, but Kiwi cruise ship passengers pay for everything in NZ dollars and a lot of the working visa young make money here ( and get most of their tax back ) and that pays for the rest of their trip through the islands or Asia.
It is irrelevant if it goes into an Aussie owned bank, it is still money staying in the country and being spent here on whatever or paying off bills which is exactly what has happened, so we are on a bit of a winner.
So the money not spent by Kiwis because there is nowhere to go could easily be a billion a month in winter.
Appreciate the point about hard to get real figures for the industry. Those that do stay & spend here do spend at least some of it in overseas owned hotels and businesses so there are profits repatriated, some work visas will be sending money home as well as that spent on further travel outside the country. It will be very interesting if we have a patch where it is largely local's spending and not too many overseas work visa's working so we can assess some of the yoyo effects of tourist money more accurately
Not true. Deposits are a bank liability, not an asset and essentially a form of loan to the bank. This is also why they pay (a small amount of) interest on them.
Too complex for me. I thought that if you deposit money in the bank for 18 months or so it helps to improve the bank’s liquidity ratio, which is regarded by RBNZ as a good thing. Maybe I got that all wrong then?
If you deposit into a bank they would get the money, but they also owe you the deposit. Basically there are two sides to this, there is the money they receive as the deposit which they can now use and the money they now owe you which has also increased.
My summary would be, if the banks could not lend money and earn interest and only functioned to accept deposits and make payments, then deposits would incur costs rather than pay interest (which I think is well understood). I think that demonstrates they are not earning income based on the deposits in themselves they are reducing the cost of their lending activities which actually earn the money.
Also if your looking at legal ramifications a deposit is basically an unsecured loan by you to the bank. Its treated this way in many circumstances where a bank is wound up.
Q3 today at QT:
“TODD MULLER to the Prime Minister: What new information, if any, was provided to Cabinet today to inform the discussion for a move to level 1?”
Would she be bound to say what she was told if anything? More likely to say the same as this morning that they always said that they would reconsider no later than 22 June. Having some new cases was not known to block such a move.
And there would not be much difference between Level 2 and 1. The border controls would stay the same but…
Pretty useless question actually. New information would include the latest data on cases and NZs response to level 2. It would also include advice on NZs preparedness to move to level 1 and the timetable for getting all the necessary information and advice to make a decision to move to level 1.
It is interesting that some who have advocated a move to level 1 now don't seem to understand that a decision is based on advice and evidence, and not random opinions of people not qualified to provide such advice.
New Zealand being fine in Covid19 terms is as useful as a single survivor who made it to the gate of the lighthouse when the ret of the ship is down and nearly all others are drowning.
He is – in an old-fashioned kinda way. Maybe he should listen to one of his bros a little more however. Given his service to NZ over the years, it'd be nice if he could leave it all without having the last thing in his legacy being something he wouldn;t want to be remembered by.
Still, when you've got a sleaze like Shane by your side pulling your chains, it's probably too hard an ask
Really?. We are the ones with the food and the timber. All the rest of the world has is a tsunami of plastic shit. Time we looked at import substitution a bit more.
I wrote this yesterday (and a wee touch of editing to update today) to mark the local Black Lives Matter protests.
Strong language is contained within, so if this offends you, scroll past.
Definition of fascism (Webster) : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.
I'm not marching today because covid. But I'm sure it's obvious by now I stand with the protests.
His name was George Floyd. He was murdered by police one week ago.
The right-wing media I could be bothered watching the past week have been trying to paint the narrative as bad black people are now burning your shit. It's insulting.
I've been watching this close. I've had less sleep than a crack fiend who found a fat wallet. What I've seen is in the first two days a massive and genuine outpouring of rage and grief, and the cops exacerbating it instead of allowing any healing to take place. Abandon the cop station and let it get trashed, charge the murderers, so simple. But they just pushed it.
From the late charges, to the no charges for the other three, to trying to paint Floyd as a dope fiend – or he wasn't healthy enough to take nine minutes strangling… Unfuckingtenable.
So instead of grieving and healing, it's just escalated. And it's spread, cos everyone's watching this bullshit. But it's not just because of the bullshit narratives, the cops keep being violent. And then there's the bad faith actors.
The gas masked up white dude with the hammer busting windows was a catalyst to kick shit off in Minnesota, a cop, or so an alleged ex wife says. He had an umbrella, gas mask, goggles, hammer… professionally ready to riot before the riots. Meanwhile the fucking cops have been shooting gassing beating crowds.
There was another white guy in the protest. He stabbed a protester. The cops went in and arrested him and tried to get the victim out. Some in the crowd were waiting, and threw rocks and eggs. The cops responded with rubber bullets, tear gas and flash-bangs.
So yeah, cops and some white dudes seem to have kicked it off. And the polices continued violence is not easing anything.
There are far too many instances of violent acts on peaceful protesters this past week. Rather than using their huge surveillance operation to identify external agitation, it is just indiscriminate violence by the state against protesters and those who side with them.
Now they're shooting press – fuck! We thought Trumps shit about dealing with American media was a joke, cos he's an idiot. And you can't do that when you live in la-la land… They're outright attacking media in every city, on camera. Gassing, shooting, bashing, arresting – a fucking senator arrested.
This is some full on fascist shit. In some places, the FBI's been whispering about imminent threat, so they're trading out rubber bullets for real bullets. Trumps just announced today he's going to 'sort it out' with the military. More escalation.
And, just when you thought they couldn't be worse, they're deliberately targeting medics. Gas, beatings, rubber bullets, arrests. This is actually a war crime (if it were war).
So now everyone with a heart wants to burn down Trumps America. Even Karen's out there, and she really wants to speak to the manager!
I didn't know about the white provocateurs. You're right about attacking media – shows the cops have lost the plot. Reminds me of when cops beat up some professors, back when I was a student at the University of Auckland.
In fact it seemed like the USA had taken a time machine back to '68 the other day, riots in 34 cities while a rocket took two astronauts into orbit, and I wondered if another Harvard prof would capture headlines telling all to turn on, tune in, & drop out. Trump then recycling Nixon's line calling him: "the most dangerous man in America". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary
It will be a lot more interesting if Trump gets to call down the powers of the 1807 Insurrection Act, which enable him to use the US military against citizens.
The general idea of that Act is to limit presidential power and for states to do that job. And there's a special Posse Comitatus Act prohibiting the use of the Army and Air Force for routine law enforcement.
But actions the President takes under the Insurrection Act are exempt from this. Last deployed in 1992 for the Rodney King riots.
Going to be a particularly weird 5 months to the election if he gets to bring the 101 Airborne on US citizens.
So it's gang crime as usual. Almost as if the 'thugs' are not the protesters at all.
I witnessed a murder by a gang in San Diego two days ago. Some protesters stopped it but too late. I reported it and sent the evidence to the police. They have not got back to me in 48 hours. I did get a robot reply with receipt of report.
Meanwhile I've seen protesters protect police, people and property. They've stopped fights, stopped vandals and looters. All while under fire from right wing press and police.
The police are very much a part of Trumps America. They're not doing their job at all, they're doing Trumps bidding, exacerbating chaos.
(my apologies to the many fine officers who exist, I’m talking about the broader picture in US this week).
Peaceful protesters were gassed and shot with rubber bullets to clear away a space near a church to give Trump a photo-op waving a bible flanked by AG Barr and Sec Def Esper. Monstrous. Anticonstitutional.
The Police response does look like Fascism, but the Fascism is coming from Trump and the republicans. The Police response is due to the police being more scared than the protesters, I saw it on the Great North Road during the Springbok Tour as we were trying to overturn a jumbo bin, the look in the cops eyes ( particularly the younger ones) said it all. They were terrified of being overrun as they knew they were outnumbered by 100s to 1 and a long truncheon is useless when you are on the ground and being trampled.
Its been a long time but I have never forgotten that image.
I felt sorry for the young cops the day of the final Eden Park match. I suspect most were just out of police college and they were frightened. One lot I saw were covered from head to toe with flour from bombs thrown at them. Pointless and stupid.
Covered with flour – pointless and stupid? If the worst that ever happened to them was being covered in flour they would think in their memoirs that policing had been a lark.
Flour bombs being dropped by an aircraft. Ever carried a bag of flour? Quite heavy. In the context of the final match at Eden Park it was very scary . The violence I witnessed on both sides left a bad taste in my mouth. I wouldn't want to see it ever again.
I used to think that Twyford was a bit hard done by trying to deliver poorly designed housing policy election promises. Now I know he is just a dope.
Once again the costs of the Avatar quarantine are being socialised onto the taxpayers and ratepayers. Which bit of full cost recovery for wealthy quarantine exceptions does he fail to grasp? And the hotel being used is of course part of an overseas chain so any profits are going to be repatriated. And what were the over entitled staff at the WCC thinking – ratepayers want to add their funds?
Plus staff are being rotated to provide coverage. Being rotated into and out of our community? And I see that general manger has still to address the shared spaces with other guests that he is busy ignoring.
They should be employees of the state and answerable to us NZ's but with bulk full cost recovery from the avatar crowd. If we don't – think just how much the America's cup is likely to cost us- and us taxpayers have enough to do without subsidising billionaires playing with their overpriced toys
After staying out of sight for a few days the exciting new National leader was back today. He had little choice, he could hardly avoid Question Time in Parliament. It didn't go well.
His preferred approach is to ask Ardern a Q which gives her a chance to go on about things the government has done. He then repeats the Q word for word, as if that were some masterful move. So Ardern gets another chance to go on about (etc).
The lack of enthusiasm among National MPs around him is painfully apparent. To avoid the "echo chamber" effect, I had a look at the RW social media, and they're about as unexcited as National's caucus. Not looking good for Todd.
On being replaced as opposition National party leader, the 'honourable' Simon Bridges was reported to:
be a bitrelieved
be a littlerelieved and looking forward to spending more time with his family
be feeling somerelief after the weight of opposition was lifted from his shoulders
have had a small sense ofrelief
National party 'place-holder leader' #2 (or should that be #3?), Todd Muller, will experience similar 'relief' sometime after the general election – maybe then he can start rebuilding his bridges with Simon.
Wonder if the opposition National party will retain Hooton as an advisor. If not, he can return to his PhD studies – the thesis will be a riveting read, I’m sure.
Wonder if the opposition National party will retain Hooton as an advisor. If not, he can return to his PhD studies – the thesis will be a riveting read, I’m sure.
RedBaronCV – just wondering if you had built a house recently?
Or do you just sit on your quaint ass and sprout.
You apparently hadn't even built a house for your friends at National for nine years.
Useless. Lazy boy
[You still don’t control your urge to insult and take down other commenters. It is not even clear to which comment you were replying. You have form with this and it needs to stop and you need to learn to use the Reply button. Last ban was one week, the one before for six months, and this one is one month – Incognito]
If this is what it takes to feel good about yourself – be my guest.
Doesn't alter my opinion that Twyford does not seem to be managing the avatar quarantine well – either financially or more importantly the actual situation on the ground. If this is a possible precursor of how we handle the other special interest groups- righties I suspect- braying to get their little cash cow in the door to save their own bloated salary then we are going to need a lot of hope and luck to remain covid free.
We also do not need some jumped up little hotel manager hiding behind customer confidentiality when he is mixing his offshore guests with the locals and trying to deny it. Never answers a direct question and seems to be more interested in PR spin than decent arrangements that would hold even in an emergency. That place will never see another dollar of mine.
Maybe the A-Cup should threaten to withdraw from NZ. Worked for the film crew. These film makers know how to play their cards well and bluff at the right time. We wouldn’t want to miss out on another instalment of those blue hobbits swinging from tree to tree like Tarzan, Lord of the Bungle.
The skin in the game from NZ is too deep to do that. And the film industry is more mobile than the AC industry.
1. The Auckland Royal Yacht Squadron hold the cup. That's 80% of the 1%-ers who are over 80 years of age right there. You can see it on display inside, and there's no way that puppy is going anywhere.
2. ETNZ is deeply sponsored by Kiwi-domiciled corporates like The Warehouse Foundation and TVNZ and Spark, as well as by the NZ Government directly. And they are housed in an Auckland Council building. As Defenders they are not going to go anywhere.
3. All of ETNZ's manufacturing and R&D is in Auckland, and not replicable elsewhere within years. They are staying put.
4. Both state and council have just spent nearly $300m just on the infrastructure. They just cancelled two leading tournament competitions because this is currently the only Covid-19-free port in the world with those facilities. And looks set to be so for a while.
5. All the other teams have just invested hundreds of millions to get here, their boats are en route and due in the next two weeks.
No one is calling bluff on the AC36.
Even reduced in scale, it's going to be the first major international sporting competition in the post-Covid 19 world.
It's the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron but your right it started as Auckland Yacht Club and in 1902 got royal patronage. Just an impression but I think of it as an elite social club and the sailors are with Richmond and Bucklands Beach.
Yeah avatars isn't really my neck of the woods (apart from knowing they are blue) but apparently these sequels have been about 10 years in the making or something like that? Doesn't sound like any great sense of urgency going on there but I'm sure there are others who know much much more.
I think we're actually nicer to Todd than his own (potential) voters are. Here's just one example of a bunch of righties getting pissed off with Muller. It's turning nasty over there …
There should be nothing surprising about what Donald Trump has done in his first week—but he has underestimated the resilience of Americans and their institutions.
Precisely because the problem is one of temperament and character, it will not get better. It will get worse, as power intoxicates Trump and those around him. It will probably end in calamity—substantial domestic protest and violence, a breakdown of international economic relationships, the collapse of major alliances, or perhaps one or more new wars (even with China) on top of the ones we already have.
Those that spent 2016 prancing around on their purity ponies and shrieking "Killary", "but her e-mails", and painting the Very Unstable Heinous and Hillary as somehow equivalent and voting Stein must be proud of how it turned out, too.
Do we really have to bring it back to the lowest common denominator? What I think is fcked up are the hand wringing liberals who want to deny history and pretend that if only we could replace the current with the old, then everything will be ok.
There are a myriad of factors in this, health crisis, economic crisis, decades of abuse of those in power. BLM got underway under Obama, but hey that's probably irrelevant now when we can blame everything on the current admin…
Since you seem fully on board with the Fourth Dorkman of the Apocalypse, it ain't a purity pony you're riding, maui.
But I'm curious, what is it you like about about the Dumpsterfire Fuhrer? Do you actually get a thrill out of watching the US getting seriously fucked up with the ordinary people getting further screwed and those at the top creaming ever more?
I feel a bit mean piling on like this, but then I remember that National's whole shtick is that the PM is a fluffy lightweight, and should be replaced by this guy …
It would be unfair if this was a "gotcha" that he couldn't be prepared for. But when it's THE lead story in the world news, and you've had several days to prepare for your next media appearance, you might have some idea what you're going to say.
Oh, what a brilliant footnotery we'll leave for the ages.
I think our detailry about immediate events will be like the best- noted footsteps ever to a volcano rim. See PR and News ideas about current events. Or to say, political party's ideas about what matters. Surface shit.
Can we talk about a little longer term ideas? Short term is Mordor's things.
Despite their dipshit younger MPs, whose completely ignorant speeches about freedom I'm hearing about from my crazy born-again relatives, not National. Mordor is the rule of the rich for the rich over the last 40 years which has delivered us to 10 years to do anything for the continuance of our species.
The downfall of progressive Labour at the last election over the brook may have tucked in the balls hereabouts but this is 1939 for H.s.s.
Imagine a true realist questioning Jacinda about her bullshit about poverty. Instead of the upper middle class reporters who ask for a salary.
"We are in the midst of a mass extinction, many scientists have warned — this one driven not by a catastrophic natural event, but by humans.
"We're eroding the capabilities of the planet to maintain human life and life in general," said Gerardo Ceballos, an ecologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and lead author of the new study."
When are NZ and the world going to start the POPULATION discussion ! NZ should leave space for some natural population increase so that discussion needs to start now.
Its awesome that our government is sorting out the Loanshark problems.
Its a good idea to have Tangata Whenua voices in council I say more Maori should run for council seats.
Its good to see investment in restoring our environment we are lucky to have a government that understands that we need to have a healthy environment so all the Tangata are healthy not just the wealthiest.
It will be good for our Pacific Island cousin when we resume travel to help restore the economy's.
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Michelle Boag - Former National Party PresidentWhen Todd Muller decided not to discipline Hamish Walker for his horribly racist press release last week, you had to wonder if his lack of proper leadership had something to do with a shared belief system? After all, the whiteness of the blue “team” ...
On Twitter today, lawyer Felix Geiringer asked a good question: why are MP's exempt from the Privacy Act? The Act imposes its obligations on "agencies", and s8 of the 2020 Act states that this term does not include... a member of Parliament in their official capacity The 1993 Act, ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhat was the climate and sea level like at times ...
So now we know, beyond all doubt. The National party has no interest in joining the “team of five million” in our fight against the pandemic but its priority is to take every opportunity it can to damage the government. The cynicism is breathtaking. It was prepared to leak the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters The massive dust storm that formed over the Sahara Desert in mid-June invaded the southeastern U.S. June 25-28, bringing dangerous levels of air pollution, low visibility, and colorful sunsets. The air pollution event over parts of Texas and the Gulf ...
In 1987, as a British Labour MP, I was elected to the Shadow Cabinet by my colleagues and was asked by the party leader to direct Labour’s campaign in the general election of that year. The election was to take place at the height of Mrs Thatcher’s dominance and we ...
National MP Nicola WillisHousing, which I would argue is a fundamental human right, has long been a problem in New Zealand. Not only do we have some of the most overpriced houses in the entire world, much of the housing stock is substandard and therefore affects not just people’s health ...
If the government has not lined up behind a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum the way some reformers would have liked, one entirely laudable thing it did do was commission some science around the public's choice.That science landed today, in the form of the report from an expert ...
Associate Professor Sara WaltonAt the heart of the discussion on opening up our borders is the dichotomy of health and the economy – both of which are actually intertwined, like many things with our economy, as this epidemic has shown.If we think about our country as a system, ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss This year will see the largest ever drop globally in both investment and consumer spending on energy as the coronavirus pandemic hits every major sector, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The crisis is accelerating the shutdown of older fossil-fuelled ...
A short opinion piece – Friday 26th June 2020 Whilst our Government has treated many financial victims of the current Covid-19 virus with appropriate generosity, the same cannot be said for those of the two earlier “epidemics” in NZ. The “Covid-84” virus (also called “Rogernomics”) spread systemic greed, with the ...
Everyone deserves a a decent life. We know this is possible with a fairer approach to income support and tax Read the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Poverty Action Plan here ...
After a long break, the government is back inserting secrecy clauses in legislation. This time its the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 3), which in its clause allowing Ministers to exempt purchasers of farm land from the usual rules also allows them to exempt an exemption from the publication requirement: ...
Over the past two years the government has repeatedly delayed a scheme to put cameras on boats to monitor Mew Zealand's pervasively criminal fishing industry. But it turns out that the industry actually wants cameras: Three of the country's biggest seafood companies have broken ranks with the rest of the ...
Louise Delany (public health lawyer)Health and emergency laws have played a critical role in this country’s successful elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog details key aspects of the legislation and comments on issues around testing, payments by incoming travellers for quarantine costs, and mask use. ...
I like Andrew Curry’s succinct and insightful futures blog The Next Wave. His most recent post is about social change. In particular, the decadal-long periods usually required for changes in values. He highlights a 2016 paper by Inglehart and Norris, who examined whether economic insecurity or a “cultural backlash” ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Stop making sense: why it's time to get emotional about climate changeThe science has been settled to the highest degree, so now ...
MONDAY JULY 6Washington (History, Sky 073, 7.30pm). The brilliant Doris Kearns Goodwin is the executive producer of this six-part series about America's first president. It combines interviews with live action and is narrated by Jeff Daniels. It's engaging, said Salon.TUESDAY JULY 7The ABC Murders (Prime, 8.30pm). Sarah Phelps has done incredible things with ...
I think we can all agree that the mainstream media in New Zealand has a very different set of rules for the right wing compared to the left. While Labour and Green Party politicians don’t seem to be able to fart without it becoming a sackable offence, National and Act ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 28 through Sat, July 4, 2020Editor's Choice'2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentaryA timely Australian documentary takes a 'solutions' approach, with the filmmaker inspired by visions of ...
Racist National MP Hamish WalkerEven before Todd Muller's coup ousted Simon Bridges by a single vote, it was patently obvious that the National Party promotes and stands for white privilege. In fact they’ve always worked to ensure the discriminatory status quo in New Zealand doesn’t change.So it’s no surprise that ...
Dave HeatleyZero community transmission. Just a handful of active cases, all in quarantine. New Zealand is in an attractive situation, at least compared to much of the world. The situation could be robust and enduring – or it might be fragile, just one border incursion away from a “second ...
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...
I wrote earlier in the week about the Scientology front organisations Drug Free World and Drug Free Ambassadors and their quite prominent role in anti-cannabis reform "coalition" assembled by Family First and a newloca branch of the American prohibitionist organisation SAM.It turns out Family First aren't the only ones helping ...
Nik GreenMuch of the public debate about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has focused on the extent to which government regulations have restricted personal and business activity.Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government Here in New Zealand, the question of when to change Alert Levels dominated the ...
James Higham, University of OtagoUnprecedented border closures and the domestic lockdown have paralysed New Zealand’s $40.9 billion a year tourism industry. In the process, the vulnerability of the sector to external shocks and the tenuous nature of tourism employment have been exposed. While New Zealand’s handling of the pandemic ...
Raising The Bar: Would that the Prime Minister and her colleagues would listen as intently to what the people – as opposed to the power elites – are saying as the Greens. Were they so disposed, the popular clamour for a transformational post-Covid reset would be loud in their ears. ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzDo you think the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown will slow or ...
A bit like a letter home. I have now been full-time at the University of Melbourne since 2019. Before that, I was 20 years at the University of Otago, Wellington. Indeed, I set up this very Public Health Expert Blog with Nick Wilson ten years ago. Now I am your ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections House Democrats have released a comprehensive report showing how – if they control the White House and both the Senate and the House of Representatives – they might move forward on climate change. Their “Climate Crisis Action Plan,” released June 30 by the ...
A ballot for three Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Electoral (Integrity Repeal) Amendment Bill (David Carter) Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate Visual Recording) Amendment Bill (Louisa wall) Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Bill (Judith ...
Not Ready: Todd Muller’s lack-lustre and self-contradictory performances offer conclusive proof that a political leader cannot be managed into competence. National’s new boss has Janet Wilson handling his media and Matthew Hooton writing his speeches. Both are highly professional political and public relations specialists, and Muller is lucky to have ...
Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...
It started as a family story, about a step-father who went out one night to break into an embassy in Wadestown, Wellington. John Daniell wanted to understand what his family had been part of when his mother and then step-father work for New Zealand’s Security Intelligence. He wanted to know ...
The Greens have shaken up the election campaign with the announcement of their radical poverty and action plan to reform welfare provision and introduce a new wealth tax for millionaires. It’s a big-thinking, controversial policy and has generated a lot of disagreement over how radical it is, whether it could ...
My house is currently supplied electricity by Meridian. As soon as I can change I will because Meridian spilled water to hike electricity prices. They got consumers to spend an extra $80 million on power unnecessarily. Clever them. The Electricity Authority has called their behaviour an “undesirable trading situation”, or ...
When Jacinda Ardern unexpectedly became the Labour Party leader shortly before the 2017 general election, she promised to lead a government of transformation. After nearly three years occupying the Treasury benches, health professionals working in public hospitals have been keenly waiting for transformational progress, including in the capacity and quality ...
Last night, One News ran a follow-up story to its Colmar Brunton poll results on the cannabis referendum, headed here as Government accuses big American anti-cannabis group of interfering in NZ politics.In truth it wasn't just the government: Justice minister Andrew Little, National's Shane Reti and the Greens' Chloe Swarbrick ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First leader Winston Peters today scoffed at suggestions that a team of six political operatives have been dispatched to New Zealand to assist his campaign. ‘As President Ronald Reagan once said, ‘there they go again.’ ‘The clickbait journos can’t ...
New Zealand First is pleased to announce Jenny Marcroft as the party’s election 2020 candidate for the Auckland Central electorate. Jenny spent years working in Auckland Central, having spent a vast proportion of her broadcasting career there. She says she, "knows the place and knows the people." Ms Marcroft says ...
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...
This week we moved into the second half of 2020 - and our Government delivered another week of big changes and major progress for New Zealanders. Read below for a wrap of the key things moments from the week - from extending paid parental leave, to making major investments in ...
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...
Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for the introduction of a Guaranteed Minimum Income to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and prevent more families entering into further debt with the Ministry of Social Development. ...
There has been renewed focus on New Zealand First acting as a handbrake on the Government after our decision to not support Auckland light rail. We are a handbrake for bad ideas, that istrue, but our track record since 2017 has seen New Zealand First constructively also serve as an ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP New Zealand First’s Fair Residency for Superannuation Bill passed its First Reading in Parliament today. The Bill makes a significant change to NZ Super by raising the minimum residency requirement from 10 to 20 years, after age 20. “Currently, a migrant of ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill in the name of Darroch Ball introducing a six-month minimum prison sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its second reading in Parliament. The new offence of "injuring a first responder or corrections officer with ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Deputy Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the launch of the new Criminal Cases Review Commission, gifted with the name from Waikato-Tainui - Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, announced in Hamilton today by Justice Minister Andrew Little. “New Zealand First has long believed in and ...
The Green Party is celebrating over $800m in new funding for green projects, which will get people into jobs while solving New Zealand’s long-term challenges. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is appalled that Meridian seems to have been unnecessarily spilling water from its dams to drive up its profits."While New Zealanders have been coming together in some of our darkest hours, we don’t expect power gentailers to waste water and ...
We wrapped up the first half of 2020 with a busy month, taking additional steps to support New Zealanders as we continue with our economic recovery. We rolled out targeted packages to support key industries like tourism and construction, helped create jobs in the environmental and agriculture sectors, and set ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has welcomed the appointment of Maurice Davis and his deep infrastructure and construction experience to the board of the Infrastructure Commission. Mr Davis (Ngāti Maniapoto), is the seventh and final appointment to the board led by former Reserve Bank Governor ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand’s click bait journalism is taking a turn for the worse, with yet another example of sensationalist, wilful-misrepresentation of the facts. “New Zealand First has worked constructively with its Coalition partner on hundreds of pieces of legislation and policy, and ...
The Green Party is today unveiling its Poverty Action Plan, which includes a Guaranteed Minimum Income to ensure people have enough to live with dignity. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Rotorua Museum redevelopment and Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi Forest projects will be accelerated thanks to a $2.09 million Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) boost, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
This week, we rolled out the next steps of our recovery plan, with new infrastructure investment, extra support for tourism operators, and a new programme to get Kiwis into agriculture careers. The global economic consequences of COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge, but we have a detailed plan to ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its final reading in Parliament today fulfilling a coalition agreement commitment. “This is an important step in saving the lives of New Zealanders and delivers a key coalition commitment ...
Whakatāne has been given a $2.5 million boost to speed up previously funded projects and create more than 450 jobs in the next decade. Of those, the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs could be delivered in the next six weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is in town to make ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $2.5 million to accelerate three infrastructure projects in Whakatāne, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This package is about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid by the Auckland Council to fast-track the more than doubling of the city's water allowance from the Waikato River. And he's coming out strongly against anyone who plans on getting in the way of this campaign. "It is my ...
The Green Party is thrilled to see changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Paris Agreement obligations. ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new ship, Aotearoa, set sail for New Zealand on 10 June from the Republic of Korea, and is due to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, announced Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “Aotearoa is the Royal New Zealand Navy’s new fleet ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters has today welcomed the Racing Industry Bill passing its third reading, creating the legislative framework for revitalising the racing industry while limiting the need for future government intervention. “For too long our domestic racing industry has ...
The Green Party has today put forward an amendment to the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill to ensure all people in prisons can vote in general elections. ...
The Green Party welcomes the decision to not proceed with Public Public Investment (PPI) delivery of Auckland’s light rail project and to instead run the process through the public service. ...
Hon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First List MP Hon Ron Mark welcomes the announcement of Provincial Growth Funding investment of $1.4 million to help secure the Wairarapa’s water supply. The funding boost will allow the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), and ...
New Zealand First list MP Mark Patterson has been selected to represent the party in the newly formed Taieri electorate at the upcoming election. Mr Patterson, his wife Jude and two daughters farm sheep and beef at Lawrence and Waitahuna. He previously stood in the Clutha-Southland electorate however boundary changes ...
Hon Shane Jones, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises A new ‘super depot’ to be built for NZ Post in Wellington will create around 350 jobs during construction, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises Shane Jones says. Shane Jones today attended a ground-breaking and blessing ceremony for the parcel-processing depot ...
Our strong economic management prior to COVID-19 - with surpluses, low debt and near-record-low unemployment - put us in a good position to weather the impact of the virus and start to rebuild our economy much earlier than many other countries.Now we're putting our plan to recover and rebuild ...
Darroch Ball MP, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Law and Order Recently released Police fleeing driver statistics have shown yet another increase in incidents with another record-high in the latest quarter. “This new quarterly record-high is the latest in a string of record-high numbers since 2014. The data shows incidents ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio is pleased to announce the inaugural launch of Kiribati Language Week as part of the 2020 Pacific language Weeks programme. “I am so pleased that this year we are able to provide resourcing support to the Kiribati community in Aotearoa which will ...
Wildlife institutions affected by a loss of visitor revenue during the COVID-19 lockdown are set to receive government support with nearly $15 million of funding available announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. “Eco-sanctuaries, zoos, aquariums, wildlife parks, and wildlife rescue, hospital and rehabilitation facilities provide crucial support for the recovery ...
The Government is expanding and accelerating frontline mental health and wellbeing services at tertiary education institutes (TEI) to help students manage ongoing stresses related to COVID-19. “The lockdown has been hugely disruptive for students. Many of them have had to relocate and move to online learning, isolating them from their ...
The Minister of Police says a major operation against the Mongrel Mob in Waikato will make a big dent in drug harm and violent offending linked to organised crime networks. “Senior leadership of the Waikato Mongrel Mob has been taken out as a result of Operation Kingsville, which resulted in ...
The Government is extending the border exception criteria to enable some offshore victims and support people of the Christchurch mosque attacks to attend the sentencing of the accused beginning on 24 August2020, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. “We want to support our valued Muslim brothers and sisters who were directly ...
A project to support volunteer efforts to look after streams and rivers is getting a boost thanks to support from DOC’s Community Conservation Fund announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today. “The government is backing efforts to look after waterways with $199,400 for the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust from ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter today announced that funding for the COVID-19 Community Fund for women and girls will be doubled, as the first successful funding applications for the initial $1million were revealed. “Women and girls across the country have suffered because of the effects of COVID-19, and I ...
The Government’s books were better than forecast with a higher GST take as the economy got moving again after lockdown, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Crown Accounts for the 11 months to the end of May indicate the year end results for tax revenue will be stronger than forecast. ...
A plan to revitalise New Zealand’s strong wool sector and set it on a new, more sustainable and profitable path was unveiled today by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. The newly-released report - Vision and Action for New Zealand’s Wool Sector - was developed by the Wool Industry Project Action Group ...
Community efforts to create a Predator Free Whangārei will receive a $6 million boost, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. The new funding, through Government company Predator Free 2050 Ltd, will create around 12 jobs while enabling the complete removal of possums over ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced that the New Zealand Government is reviewing the settings of its relationship with Hong Kong. “China’s decision to pass a new national security law for Hong Kong has fundamentally changed the environment for international engagement there,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand remains deeply ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced details of a multimillion-dollar investment in Whangārei for infrastructure projects that will help it recover from the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 200 jobs are expected to be created through the $26 million investment from the Government’s rejuvenation package ...
Following a second incident in which a person escaped from a managed isolation facility, security is being enhanced, including more police presence onsite, Minister Megan Woods said. “The actions of some individuals who choose to break the very clear rules to stay within the facilities means that more resourcing is ...
Waste reduction and recycling programmes in Kaipara are set to get a boost with Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage today announcing a $361,447 grant from the Ministry for the Environment’s Waste Minimisation Fund (WMF) Sustainable Kaipara. “The new funding will allow Sustainable Kaipara to partner with local schools, kura, community ...
The Government will support the Southland economy in the wake of multinational mining company Rio Tinto’s decision to follow through with its long signalled closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. “This day has unfortunately been on the cards for some time now, but nevertheless the final decision is a ...
New tools being developed to help boost Aotearoa’s Predator Free 2050 effort were unveiled today by Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau. A new rat poison, a camera with predator recognition software to detect and report predators, a new predator lure and a ...
The Coalition Government has approved the purchase of a fleet of Bushmaster vehicles to replace the New Zealand Army’s armoured Pinzgauers, Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced today. The new fleet of 43 Australian-designed and built Bushmaster NZ5.5 will provide better protection for personnel and improved carrying capacity. “The age ...
The Government’s three prevention frameworks to reduce family violence in Aotearoa were launched this week by Associate Minister for Social Development Poto Williams. The frameworks were developed in partnership with communities around New Zealand, and build on the work the Government has already begun with its new family violence prevention ...
The Government is pleased to confirm funding for improvements to radiology and surgical services at Hawke's Bay DHB, Health Minister Chris Hipkins says. "The Minister of Finance the Hon Grant Robertson and former Health Minister Dr David Clark approved funding for Hawke's Bay DHB’s redevelopment of their radiology facilities ...
• New funding for four beds at Napier’s Springhill Residential Addiction Centre • A new managed withdrawal home and community service, and peer support before and after residential care at Tairāwhiti DHB • A co-ordinated network of withdrawal management services throughout the South Island • Peer support in Rotorua and ...
Introduction, seafarers and POAL Good morning everyone, I am delighted to be online with you all today. Before I begin, I have to acknowledge that COVID-19 has disrupted the maritime sector on an unprecedented scale. The work of seafarers and the maritime industry is keeping many economies around the world ...
A $13 million investment from Government will create jobs and improve the resilience of the rail connection between Christchurch and the West Coast, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones and Regional Economic Development Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau say. The funding comes from the tagged contingency set aside in Budget 2020 for infrastructure projects ...
The Government is investing $761 million to assist local government upgrade under-pressure water services across the country, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The announcement was made at the site of the water bore that was found to be the source of the fatal ...
Recognised Seasonal Employers and migrant seasonal workers stranded in New Zealand will be able to continue working and supporting themselves with more flexible hours and roles, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. The time-limited visa changes are: Stranded RSE workers will be able to work part-time (a minimum of 15 hours ...
The Government is making immediate short-term changes to visa settings to support temporary migrants already onshore in New Zealand and their employers, while also ensuring New Zealanders needing work are prioritised, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. We are: Extending temporary work visas due to expire by the end of 2020 ...
Professor Peter Skelton CNZM has been appointed as Chief Freshwater Commissioner and Alternate Environment Court Judge Craig James Thompson as Deputy Chief Freshwater Commissioner for the newly established Freshwater Planning Process (FPP). Environment Minister David Parker today also announced the appointment of Chief Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook as the ...
Auckland Queen’s Counsel Neil Campbell has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Campbell graduated with a BCom and LLB (Hons) from the University of Auckland in 1992. He spent two years with Bell Gully Buddle Weir in Auckland before travelling to the United ...
The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to better enable the development and operation of commercial film and video facilities in Christchurch. The Proposal, developed by Regenerate Christchurch in response to a request from Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section ...
The Government has launched a bold plan to boost primary sector export earnings by $44 billion over the next decade, while protecting the environment and growing jobs. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today released Fit for a Better World – Accelerating our Economic Potential, a 10-year roadmap to unlock greater value ...
A new approach to prevent family harm that encourages greater collaboration across government and community groups is being celebrated at the opening of a new facility in Auckland. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today opened the Multi-Disciplinary Family Harm Prevention Hub Te Taanga Manawa in Lambie Road in Manukau. The facility ...
The Government has released a major new report on the options for relocating the Port of Auckland’s freight operations while deferring any decision on the issue. “That decision needs to be informed by policy analysis that is still to be completed. As a result it will be up to a ...
The history of Rāpaki is being restored through the inclusion of te reo in thirteen official place names on Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula and around Lyttelton Harbour/Whakaraupō, the Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage, announced today. “I am pleased to approve the proposals from Te Hapū o Ngāti ...
Bookings for seats on Air New Zealand flights into New Zealand will be managed in the short term to ensure the Government is able to safely place New Zealanders arriving home into a managed isolation or quarantine facility, says Housing Minister Megan Woods. “Last week Air Commodore Darryn Webb and I ...
Grant Robertson has today announced the first major release of funding from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced at Budget 2020. “Today we’re setting out how $80 million will be invested, with $54 million of that over the 2020/2021 financial year for organisations from community level through to elite ...
The Government is maintaining current levy rates for the next 2 years, as part of a set of changes to help ease the financial pressures of COVID-19 providing certainty for businesses and New Zealanders, ACC Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “New Zealanders and businesses are facing unprecedented financial pressures as a ...
Small businesses are getting greater certainty about access to finance with an extension to the interest-free cashflow loan scheme to the end of the year. The Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme has already been extended once, to 24 July. Revenue and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says it will be ...
A package of 23 projects across the country will clean up waterways and deliver over 2000 jobs Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Environment Minister David Parker announced today. The $162 million dollar package will see 22 water clean-up projects put forward by local councils receiving $62 million and the Kaipara ...
Tena koutou katoa Nga tangata whenua o tenei rohe o Pōneke, tena koutou Nau mai, haere mai ki te hui a tau mo te roopu reipa Ko tatou! Ko to tatou mana! Ko to tatou kaupapa kei te kokiri whakamua Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa Welcome. I ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $1.5 million to ensure QE Health in Rotorua can proceed with its world class health service and save 75 existing jobs, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development, Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. The PGF funding announced today is in addition to the $8 million ...
A new programme, which sets a firm course for the Building and Construction sector to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has been announced by the Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa. “A significant amount of New Zealand’s carbon emissions come from the building and construction sector. If we’re serious ...
For one hour a week the supermarket lights are dimmed and the music stops. And it’s a kind of triumph, writes Michelle Langstone.I thought there’d been a power cut. The lights were out at the entrance, so you arrived into a kind of gloom. There was no music, and no ...
It’s no secret that New Zealand’s Covid-19 response was one of the world’s most effective. But to get an idea of how eagerly parts of our economy have rebounded post lockdown, take a look at our electricity demand data.Despite an impending wave of unemployment and looming fiscal challenges down the ...
In the second in the Spnioff’s Last on the list series, Dave King explains what inspired him to stand for the Act Party in Manurewa. At 20th spot on the list, if David Seymour’s party can win around 16% of the party vote, King is parliament bound.It wasn’t that long ...
Basketball is growing massively in popularity around the country, led by thousands of youngsters picking up the game every day. To The Line looks at what it’s like for New Zealand high school kids with hoop dreams.If there’s been a narrative rumbling away in the sports pages, it’s that of ...
Unbelievable. A first-rank world leader picks a needless fight with blameless allies, thus imperiling their unity. But that’s General de Gaulle for you.Impressive work, even by his standards. In 1967, Canada was to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge (their Gallipoli – except that they ...
From RNZ Saturday Morning Described by a Guardian reviewer as “superb hate-reading”, writer and columnist Anand Giridharadas‘s latest book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World investigates the hypocrisy of billionaire “do-gooders”. He questions how and why we have become reliant on the philanthropy of the super-rich ...
The Professional Hunting Guides Association is welcoming the High Court decision on DoC’s controversial tahr campaign. The High Court in Wellington was asked on Wednesday by the Tahr Foundation for a judicial review of DoC’s plan to kill thousands ...
With the 2020 general election nearly three months away, a new campaign is asking voters to vote in line with the future. Vote Climate 2020 aims to highlight the opportunity to build momentum behind climate change, ensuring climate justice is a key election ...
“ACT will target the gangs by hitting them where it hurts – their pockets,” according to ACT Leader David Seymour and Firearms Spokesperson Nicole McKee. “New Zealanders deserve to be safe and secure, but violent gangs are a scourge on our ...
Waffles don’t need to be sweet – these cheese and onion numbers make an excellent savoury breakfast with an egg, or an equally tasty dinner with leftover mince.It’s easy to default to sweet breakfasts without thinking. At least that’s the case in our household, as porridge or bircher muesli is ...
The government is revitalising the wool sector, splashing out on freshwater restoration projects, relieving student stress and showing kindness to Muslims by extending the border exception criteria. It is also increasing its support (in announcements from two separate Green Party Ministers) for women and for wildlife institutions. And it is ...
People have called it for it be pulled from the service, but the escapist fantasy of 365 Days is nothing new, writes Alie Benge.To every generation, a bullish alpha-male psychopath is born, and is for someone reason considered a romantic hero. We’ve been through a lot this year, and instead ...
As Aucklanders reluctantly adjust to the inconvenient practice of water conservation, a drought-savvy Northlander shares the tips and temperament needed to get through the dry times.Auckland’s water shortage was recently reported on The Project, and viewers were earnestly exhorted to fill their dishwashers completely before turning them on. My husband ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk A request by the Philippines’ biggest radio and TV network for a new franchise has been rejected by a congressional committee in a vote that will go down in history as a flagrant violation of the country’s constitution, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The Paris-based media ...
Hamish Walker's privacy leak debacle dominated the news this week, but it's not the first time a southern MP has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, writes Daisy Hudson. ...
Let’s not allow the focus on big-budget infrastructure projects to detract from the vital role public transport will play in revitalising our cities in a post-Covid world, says Greg Pollock.The recent match between the Blues and the Hurricanes was one of the world’s first major post-lockdown sporting fixtures. It was ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
In the heart of Christchurch is a Designated Character high school. What makes it unique? And should there be more like it? Frank Film visits Hagley College Paddy Grant was a 27-year-old truck driver when he rocked up to Christchurch’s Hagley High School, as it was then known. It was ...
"After he calms down we share the pie and talk about how hard the years since the show have been for him": a short story by Wellington writer Jordan Hamel. Every morning it’s the same. Cling wrap on the toilet seat, a pop up snake in my can of breakfast ...
Childcare centre closures have left families and staff out in the cold. In some cases, they were given just three days’ notice, Laura Walters reports Staff and families of Auckland’s Discoveries Educare branches feel blindsided by the sudden closure of the early childhood education centres. The Ministry of Education has ...
Controversy and the America's Cup go hand-in-hand and the latest edition is no different with Emirates Team New Zealand at the centre of financial mismanagement allegations. Extra Time unpicks the debate and ponders what does the latest Cup drama mean? And should we care? A study has revealed racial bias ...
Over the decades, Mike Fox has witnessed the housing market progressively tilt towards larger, more expensive homes. Without a major overhaul of the current regulatory processes, he says, things will never change.It’s one of the biggest problems our country faces – we cannot produce the affordable housing that’s so desperately ...
So-called dirty deals have been roundly denounced over the years. Hayden Donnell argues that they need to be normalised, and even embraced, in September’s election.Just before the 2011 general election, Patrick Gower was confronted with a political act so stomach-churning, it forced him to abandon his trademark reserve. John Key ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics, University of South Australia Victoria has recorded 288 new COVID-19 cases since yesterday, the largest daily increase we’ve seen so far. This big jump must have the Victorian government and health authorities very concerned, especially since nearly ...
The controversial 101 East episode Locked Up in Malaysia’s Lockdown on 3 July 2020. Video: Al JazeeraPacific Media Watch Newsdesk Malaysian police summoned six Al Jazeera media workers today for questioning relating to an investigation for defamation and violation of Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA), reports IFJ Asia-Pacific. ...
Analysis - A National MP destroys his career, the government explains how someone with Covid-19 could walk around a supermarket and the closure of Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is announced. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Abrar Ahmad Chughtai, Epidemiologist, UNSW Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly today recommended people in Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire wear masks when leaving the house: […] If people have symptoms and they need to go for a test, for example, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rochelle Wynne, Director, Western Sydney Nursing & Midwifery Research Centre, Western Sydney University Over the past week, we’ve seen a spike in the number of COVID-19 infections among health-care workers in Victoria. This includes a doctor at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, one ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Paddy Nixon and Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics including the return to lockdown in Victoria, National Cabinet setting to slow the flow of Australian’s ...
We prefer our heroes untarnished. And few match the heroism of Winston Churchill. But a recent report in the Times reminds us of the inevitability of human frailty and the consequences of keeping it under wraps.During the second world war, Britain’s greatest single loss of life at sea was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ou Yang, Research Fellow, University of Melbourne Donald Trump has ordered US federal agencies to bypass environmental protection laws and fast-track pipeline, highway and other infrastructure projects. Signing the executive order last month, the US president declared regulatory delays would hinder “our ...
SAFE CEO Debra Ashton says "The NZDIA has done the right thing, and we’re glad to see Bertram has been held to account over his actions. He should take this as an opportunity to right his wrongs and show that he takes animal welfare seriously." ...
Takuta Ferris, Te Tai Tonga candidate for the Māori Party, is urging government to place whānau first in the wake of announcements around Tiwai Point. “The declaration that one of the region's major employers the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is closing ...
Dietary Requirements is The Spinoff’s monthly podcast in which we eat, drink and talk about it too, with special thanks to Freedom Farms. This month, we’re joined by The Spinoff’s managing editor, mall rat and self-confessed food philistine Duncan Greive.On this month’s Dietary Requirements, the gang’s back in the studio, and ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Chart 1: United States and Australia rising. Chart by Keith Rankin. These charts look at Covid19 incidence in China (the most important first-wave country, with a limited second wave), Italy (the lead second-wave country), and USA and Australia (second-wave countries – drawing their caseload from Europe ...
The Government must listen to the Muslim community to rectify its failure to act in the past, says the Human Rights Commission. The Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand (IWCNZ) submission to the Royal Commission of Inquiry was released this week. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, President, Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics. Senior Research Fellow, Moral philosophy, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Law Futures Centre., Griffith University Earlier this week, 150 high-profile authors, commentators and scholars signed an open letter in Harper’s magazine ...
You can’t keep a good woman down and Helen Clark is no exception. Her new appointment, as co-chair of a review of how the World Health Organisation handled the coronavirus pandemic, will test her formidable political skills. Sitting with her is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Liberian president, who handled the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Connor, Lecturer, James Cook University While many people may enjoy a game of backyard cricket, only a few go on to become elite professional batsmen in Australia. Cricket batting is example of what human skills can achieve. The fastest bowling delivery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee Baumgartner, Professor of Fisheries and River Management, Institute for Land, Water, and Society, Charles Sturt University This article is a preview of Flora, Fauna, Fire, a multimedia project launching on Monday July 13. The project tracks the recovery of Australia’s native ...
CEAC review of pre-election National’s “outline plan” just sent to us by Todd Muller 9/7/20 was actually his speech about his plan and was described as ‘an outline’. So in our review of National Party response to A Greener, Smarter Future; climate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Podger, Honorary Professor of Public Policy, Australian National University In Hidden Hand, China scholars Clive Hamilton and Marieke Ohlberg examine the Chinese Communist Party’s influence in Europe and North America in a similar way to how Hamilton dissected the CCP’s influence ...
“I can see why people are fed up, many are wondering how to clothe and feed their kids, or how they are going to pay their rent next week and still others are wondering what has happened to our beautiful Kiwi Way of Life. Well no party in parliament ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk Sixty press freedom groups and civil society organisations, journalism institutions, filmmakers, and other supporters have formed a coalition in support of Maria Ressa and independent media in the Philippines, united around the call to #HoldTheLine. Today the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Center for ...
National MP Michael Woodhouse also received Covid-19 patient emails from Michelle Boag, and deleted them when he realised she was implicated in a separate email scandal. National Party leader Todd Muller says no further MPs in his party received confidential information from Michelle Boag, after revelations today that Michael Woodhouse also ...
The government is extending border exceptions to allow overseas victims of the Christchurch mosque attacks and their support people to attend the shooter's sentencing. ...
Ever wanted to be Iron Man? Sam Brooks prefers Pepper Potts, but he had a great time stepping into the iron suit anyway.The first few moments of Iron Man VR are where it plays its hand, confidently and assuredly. You hold your palms out in front of you, and Iron ...
SAP has released to the public a policy paper, “Helping Kiwis get back to work: How data and technology can drive a bigger, better, faster economic recovery.” ...
A new poem by Jordan Hamel.Mermaids When you lose grip and start to drift.The first thing you’re supposed to do issteer into it or steer away? Not all mermaids are royaltysomeone needs to audit the oceanprovide cashflow projectionssome mermaids are actuallymiddle-aged accountants named Stephendreaming of a land-view holiday home. I saw a ...
Want to work for The Spinoff? We’re looking for someone to fill an exciting new role based in our Auckland office. We’re looking for a video and podcast content manager: an experienced writer or sub-editor with a strong understanding of social media to manage our video and podcast content across various channels. ...
National Party leader Todd Muller says no further MPs in his party received confidential information from Michelle Boag, after revelations today that Michael Woodhouse also received four unsolicited emails. ...
By RNZ News Opposition National list MP Dr Jian Yang has announced his retirement from New Zealand politics and says he will not stand in the 2020 general election after three terms in the party caucus. He said politics was “demanding” and he wanted to spend more time with his ...
Bayer-Monsanto's June 24 announcement of a US$10.9 billion pay out (1) to people who have been harmed by Glyphosate, is effectively an admission of guilt. Spokesperson for The People’s Inquiry 2020 Asha Andersen says, “The Ministry of Health, The ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has filed a complaint with the Electoral Commission and the Parliamentary Speaker’s Office over Lawrence Yule’s new taxpayer funded billboards promoting Mr Yule as the ‘Voice in Tukituki’. Union spokesman, Louis Houlbrooke ...
Ten points, two plans. Which points are whose? With an election within spitting distance, Aotearoa’s two biggest political parties are all about the plans. “You don’t have a plan!” says one party to the other. “Yes we have a plan, or certainly a plan to have a plan, or a plan ...
Four months after he announced his re-selection, a National Party MP whose links to Chinese spy agencies attracted the interest of New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service has announced he will not stand in the next election A three-term National Party MP who studied at an elite Chinese spy school before moving to ...
National list MP Dr Jian Yang announced his retirement from politics and said he would not stand in the 2020 general election after three terms in the party caucus. ...
A new political party, the New Zealand TEA Party, with headquarters in Auckland, has been established. The party aims to contest the queen- or kingmaker position to form a coalition with the largest parliamentary party as part of the general elections ...
A review has determined fish oils are non-hazardous and no longer require oversight by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). We regulate pesticides, household chemicals and other dangerous goods and substances under the Hazardous Substances ...
New Conservative calls on the government to join with our Five Eyes allies and add New Zealand's signature to a joint statement condemning the continued removal of freedoms in Hong Kong. New Conservative also calls on the government to give safe-haven ...
Latest from the Beehive – Hard on the heels of the government promising help for the Southland economy in the wake of Rio Tinto’s decision to close the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, it was announcing the delivery of more money to the North, at the other end of the country. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luciano Beheregaray, Professor in Biodiversity Genomics, Flinders University As the global climate shifts, it’s important to know which species have adaptations to survive. Our research published today in PNAS found it largely depends on where they evolved. We looked at the capacity ...
From eggplant emojis and twerking llamas to sweaty anthropomorphic butts, we present some of the most fascinating, hilarious and outrageous complaints dismissed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) from 2019 to now.Avocadon’t (January 2019)The ad: In this ad from Specsavers, a man gets ready to join a cricket match, but ...
They might sound like the same thing, but light rail is quite different from light metro – the system that transport minister Phil Twyford now favours for Auckland. Katy Wakefield and Jessica Rose of Women in Urbanism explain why the metro option is a poor substitute for LRT. Transport is ...
Why isn't the Government spending $30m to extend Tiwai Point's 2,600 jobs until after the Covid-19 recession, after Manapouri's power can be transmitted elsewhere, and after there's a hydrogen plan for the smelter site, Bernard Hickey asks. The sense of shock and foreboding about the future was clear in Invercargill Mayor ...
An intensive care doctor is outraged health officials are giving helicopter rescue trusts a daily list of Covid-19 patients, saying it's completely unnecessary. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Seth Lazar, Professor, Australian National University In the US, tireless opposition to state use of facial recognition algorithms has recently won some victories. Some progressive cities have banned some uses of the technology. Threetechcompanies have pulled facial recognition products from ...
Open mike 02/06/2020 
The Council of Disobedient Women There is a regular segment in the Speak Up For Women podcasts called “Absolutely Blasted Mad Moment of the Week”. Each podcast the speaker and the host discuss a recent event that is the most insane thing they have seen in the gender critical space ...11 hours ago
Todd Muller - Dishonest National Party leaderIt seems that dishonest Todd Muller is, like many right-wing politicians, entirely morally bankrupt. I mean just look at the National Party’s leaking omni-shambles over the last week or so. They’ve imploded in a spectacular display of backfiring dirty politics, the likes of which ...16 hours ago
TUESDAY JULY 14Yorkshire Airport (Prime, 7.30pm). Bloomin’ ’eck, behind the scenes at Leeds Bradford Airport. Apparently, there is plenty of “northern charm”, although reaction in the UK ranged from “brilliant” to “patronising”. It is narrated by Hugh Dennis, whose middle name might be “Arch”.WEDNESDAY JULY 15Queen: Live at Wembley (Prime, ...17 hours ago
Simon Bridges must be the unluckiest person in New Zealand politics. When he was elected as leader of the National party, he also became Leader of the Opposition – a position, he was entitled to assume, that would require him to “oppose”. But the government he set out to oppose ...18 hours ago
Check out Speak Up For Women’s new podcasts: Episode 3 In this episode Speak Up For Women spokeswoman Ani O’Brien (@aniobrien) is joined by Beth Johnson (@beth_nosnhoj) to discuss the proposal from Statistics NZ to change standard data collection policy to “gender by default” rather than sex. They discuss why the ...1 day ago
During a recent public consultation on the future of Archives New Zealand, a key report was suppressed. The Ombudsman has ruled that the refusal was unjustified. Sadly, the consultation was over by the time of the the decision has been made. However, the law on the use of the ...1 day ago
Everyone is paying attention today to the Supreme Court ruling that the President is not above the law and that Trump's tax returns can be given to a New York grand jury investigating him. But the Supreme Court decided another, far more important case yesterday, and effectively restored Native American ...2 days ago
Transcript: National Party policy announcement on roads – 8 July, 2020 Muller: Good afternoon everybody. Thank you for coming. Reporter 1: Is Hamish Walker a racist? Muller: Hang on… you haven’t even said good afternoon to me yet. Reporter 1: Good afternoon Mr Muller. Is Hamish Walker a racist? ...2 days ago
Today’s content Tiwai Point to close Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Government subsidising practically everything plays hardball with Rio Tinto (paywalled) Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Sudden closure of aluminium smelter worst outcome for jobs, consumers and the environment Brian Fallow (Herald): Tiwai closure sad news – and an opportunity for the environment (paywalled) Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Rio ...2 days ago
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Anja Mizdrak, Dr Jennifer Summers, Prof Michael Baker The pandemic-related lockdown is possibly the most dramatic public health intervention in NZ history. It helped achieve the elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 virus in NZ. But it was also associated with 548 fewer total ...2 days ago
Reprehensible: There is much that could be said about Michael Woodhouse, but what would be the point? Any man who willingly involves himself in a situation as reprehensible as the one depicted in the above photograph has already vouchsafed all that decent people need to know about his character. That there have ...2 days ago
79 Articles Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Six hundred years of South American tree rings reveal an increase in severe hydroclimatic events since mid-20th century (open access) Late summer temperature variability for the Southern Rocky Mountains (USA) since 1735 CE: applying blue light intensity to low-latitude ...3 days ago
Some are surprised at this sudden brain implosion on the part of both Michelle Boag, former National Party President, and the National Party in general, in exposing the private, confidential details of COVID patients. Others…? Let’s be blunt: not so much. Too many of that Party have long operated with ...4 days ago
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Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...1 week ago
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...5 days ago
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...7 days ago
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...1 week ago
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio is pleased to announce the inaugural launch of Kiribati Language Week as part of the 2020 Pacific language Weeks programme. “I am so pleased that this year we are able to provide resourcing support to the Kiribati community in Aotearoa which will ...17 hours ago
For one hour a week the supermarket lights are dimmed and the music stops. And it’s a kind of triumph, writes Michelle Langstone.I thought there’d been a power cut. The lights were out at the entrance, so you arrived into a kind of gloom. There was no music, and no ...4 hours ago
Unbelievable. A first-rank world leader picks a needless fight with blameless allies, thus imperiling their unity. But that’s General de Gaulle for you. Impressive work, even by his standards. In 1967, Canada was to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge (their Gallipoli – except that they ...6 hours ago
The Professional Hunting Guides Association is welcoming the High Court decision on DoC’s controversial tahr campaign. The High Court in Wellington was asked on Wednesday by the Tahr Foundation for a judicial review of DoC’s plan to kill thousands ...12 hours ago
The government is revitalising the wool sector, splashing out on freshwater restoration projects, relieving student stress and showing kindness to Muslims by extending the border exception criteria. It is also increasing its support (in announcements from two separate Green Party Ministers) for women and for wildlife institutions. And it is ...15 hours ago
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk A request by the Philippines’ biggest radio and TV network for a new franchise has been rejected by a congressional committee in a vote that will go down in history as a flagrant violation of the country’s constitution, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The Paris-based media ...17 hours ago
Hamish Walker's privacy leak debacle dominated the news this week, but it's not the first time a southern MP has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, writes Daisy Hudson. ...18 hours ago
In the heart of Christchurch is a Designated Character high school. What makes it unique? And should there be more like it? Frank Film visits Hagley College Paddy Grant was a 27-year-old truck driver when he rocked up to Christchurch’s Hagley High School, as it was then known. It was ...22 hours ago
"After he calms down we share the pie and talk about how hard the years since the show have been for him": a short story by Wellington writer Jordan Hamel. Every morning it’s the same. Cling wrap on the toilet seat, a pop up snake in my can of breakfast ...22 hours ago
Childcare centre closures have left families and staff out in the cold. In some cases, they were given just three days’ notice, Laura Walters reports Staff and families of Auckland’s Discoveries Educare branches feel blindsided by the sudden closure of the early childhood education centres. The Ministry of Education has ...22 hours ago
Controversy and the America's Cup go hand-in-hand and the latest edition is no different with Emirates Team New Zealand at the centre of financial mismanagement allegations. Extra Time unpicks the debate and ponders what does the latest Cup drama mean? And should we care? A study has revealed racial bias ...23 hours ago
You can’t keep a good woman down and Helen Clark is no exception. Her new appointment, as co-chair of a review of how the World Health Organisation handled the coronavirus pandemic, will test her formidable political skills. Sitting with her is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Liberian president, who handled the ...2 days ago
National MP Michael Woodhouse also received Covid-19 patient emails from Michelle Boag, and deleted them when he realised she was implicated in a separate email scandal. National Party leader Todd Muller says no further MPs in his party received confidential information from Michelle Boag, after revelations today that Michael Woodhouse also ...2 days ago
Alan Brent looks at how NZ's solar resources can be used more effectively to address energy demand in our transitioning economy. ...2 days ago
Four months after he announced his re-selection, a National Party MP whose links to Chinese spy agencies attracted the interest of New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service has announced he will not stand in the next election A three-term National Party MP who studied at an elite Chinese spy school before moving to ...2 days ago
Why isn't the Government spending $30m to extend Tiwai Point's 2,600 jobs until after the Covid-19 recession, after Manapouri's power can be transmitted elsewhere, and after there's a hydrogen plan for the smelter site, Bernard Hickey asks. The sense of shock and foreboding about the future was clear in Invercargill Mayor ...2 days ago
Herald examines Trump's twitterwar: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12336072
So the small numbers who actually read him get leveraged up massively due to msm recycling. Then there's his leverage of the Republicans:
So there's the strategic basis for his campaign: Trump vs America. Now we wait to see if the penny drops in the minds of Americans. To prevent that happening, he needs to start a war somewhere, like Iran. Dominance is his modus operandi. Alpha male. Primate deep psychology – watch it induce mass submission.
That's unfair to primates. Gorillas apparently are quite peace loving and sit around eating leaves. But then chimpanzees can raid other family groups and eat their babies. But even so, I think there is some deep-held atavistic psychology that comes out in humans, a blood-thirsty viciousness apparently only just held in check by a thin layer of so-called civilisation. History shows our higher intelligence has led to a more clever application of aggression when useful to the people in power, and which often is admired by many without power.
some deep-held atavistic psychology that comes out in humans, a blood-thirsty viciousness apparently only just held in check by a thin layer of so-called civilisation
Have you encountered the alien intervention theory? Been around for decades in some form or another. The genetic version postulates tinkering with the genome in prehistory, the basic idea being that we are partly designed/engineered, partly natural.
The question of which animal species prey upon themselves is an interesting one, regardless. I've not seen any authoritative comprehensive documentation of this.
“Tinkering with the genome in prehistory?” This sounds like a plug from the Book of Mormon, or was it the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
It follows the conceited line of thinking that we are so prefect it is inconceivable that we arose by chance.
The fossil record supports chance!
Sounds like you may have been taught by a schoolteacher. 😉 Books written by scientists to explore the holes in Darwinist theory are usually worth reading.
The missing links have long been the main weakness of the theory. Mutation & selection documented by intermediary forms is persuasive. Trouble is, there are so many damn sudden appearances of new species without any sign of evolutionary transition to explain them. So chance remains a bit player in the overall game…
I think I read it in one of Jane Goodall's reports from her eye witness accounts of chimpanzee life.
The alien idea – it smacks of us never wanting to look at ourselves too closely. It’s sort of ducking out of the idea that our free will has led us to the edge of the pit, either the victim to be shot or the perpetrator, it’s the human inside; an actor in a failed boxoffice epic.
Wasn't me, and you can't prove anything
😊 Don't worry, I wouldn't even try. Wrong planet. Back in the '90s I subscribed to Nexus awhile & got entertained by all the competing scenarios, until I cottoned on to the trend towards delusionality & bailed out. But the theory that more than one alien race/species from different galactic origins & with different motives have visited &/or intervened here in the distant past &/or currently does a certain je ne sais quoi about it. Aesthetic appeal?
Given the number of galaxies, stars and the likelihood of Goldilocks planets in our known universe, the statistical chances of other extraterrestrial life is a good bet. I’m long out of the loop, so don’t know who else is here, but if I had to choose what's more likely, intervention or intelligent design creationism, I'd go for ET over JC any day.
As it happens, with a flat battery, I'm only hanging around until 2137 when time travel gets invented and I can go home. It's a tough road, but at least the monkey men get the climate sorted, eventually.
"but if I had to choose what's more likely, intervention or intelligent design creationism, I'd go for ET over JC any day."
+100%
The Gods Were Astronauts
Isn't that the title of a book by Erich von Daniken?
Y'know, if we're going with the idea that ancient astronauts were messing around with our forebears, I'd kinda like to think that instead of boring little green men in spacesuits that it was an entity more like Cthulhu.
You don’t get to choose your parents nor your ancestors.
"Have you encountered the alien intervention theory?"
Only in fiction. "Quatermass And The Pit" – top-notch sci-fi TV series of the late 1950s. Check it out.
"Only in fiction. "Quatermass And The Pit" – top-notch sci-fi TV series of the late 1950s. Check it out."
Brilliant. They don't make television like that today
I am curious as to the though processes of those who organized and went on the march yesterday. How did they come to the decision to break the level two restrictions. I was very concerned because there are good reasons we are not at level one. The virus can take two weeks to show itself. Some people particularly young people can have very mild or no symptoms and be infectious. I understand the anger at what is going on in the US but why?
I too wondered who thought this type of gathering was a good idea and whether there was one nationwide organiser or group or different groups in each town. What is happening in the US is awful and I'm not fussed on armed cops locally either but how does potentially infecting others when we are almost clear help?
Also do we know if anybody was being funded to do this?
Having seen a few of the Facebook events pop up in some of the political groups, they looked spontaneous and independently organised.
I fully get why the police/government decided not to impose themselves on the situation as they could have, but really the organisers have to take a long hard look in the mirror as to whether it was worth putting New Zealand lives and all the investment we have put into eliminating Covid-19 at risk for a grandstanding protest that those in a position to improve the American situation would have taken less than zero notice of.
Could be a case of the heart short-circuiting the brain, Dawn. Easy to empathise with the protestors, and I think their passion overcame common sense.
More concerning is the apparent police collusion. Looks like the supervising officer decided not to enforce social distancing.
I reckon Level 2 is now a joke. Civil disobedience has prevailed. If we can't trust the cops to support the govt, no point the govt maintaining their pretence. The people have taken the lead to eliminate public safety mechanisms, and govt must follow their lead…
I dont believe it is a joke. The majority are abiding by the rules. Not logical that we should all break the rules because some people have. If anyone knows someone who went on the march they should ask them to stay away for two weeks.
That would be a good idea. Peer pressure can be effective. But it seems to me human nature is the problem here – resurgence hasn't become evident, and community transmission didn't get proven as far as I can tell. People have jumped to the conclusion that the precautionary principle is insufficient. Unless the protest produce new infections, they won't have reason to change their minds.
Oh, the AM Show just put up the graphic of their poll result: 66% believe we ought to be on level 1 now.
If you're quoting the spam then you really don't have a clue.
At level 4 we heard a lot of noise about moving down. Actual polls (not the spam) showed 80%+ support at remaining.
At level 3 … ditto.
91% supported the government response in both the TV1 and TV3 real polls.
I could give you a dozen links if you've been asleep for months, just let me know.
91% supported the government response in both the TV1 and TV3 real polls.
That was then, this is now. Let me know when you learn how to tell the difference between then & now, huh? I'll clap loudly.
So you feel AM Show viewers don't represent kiwis? So what? You'll be vastly outnumbered by those who do.
They aren't people.
AM polls are fake – as even they admit.
Well, we actually don't know that. You make a valid technical point, of course, and Tim Watkin's dissenting opinion likewise, but since the decision-makers were not provided with info on the actual fakery, and made their decision on the broadcaster's admission of guilt, we can't really evaluate the extent of bias going on. But yes, grounds for scepticism.
"A poll published on the Newshub website last year was found to have been manipulative by the Media Council, sparking calls for poll results to be better monitored"
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12201159
AM show polls … I'd not regard that as a great sample.
But I do sense that the governments last statement of position was seen as too conservative, given no community transmission for a month despite coming out of lockdown.
The greater fear now is for the economy/jobs.
The PM has now placed emphasis on the government deciding to go to Level 1 on June 8, rather than no later than June 22. Which fits better with the balanced approach it has taken since we came out of lockdown.
" Looks like the supervising officer decided not to enforce social distancing."
So you recommend mass arrests? Snatch squads grabbing people? Turning an entirely peaceful protest into conflict? Deploy hundreds of cops, bundling people into vans? Hoping nobody resists?
There's a police commander's job going for you in the USA.
Fortunately the NZ police were smarter than that.
That kind of response would seem to send a message of New Zealands solidarity with the US regime rather than its citizens. Seems NZ police have much more sense than that.
Pathetic response. Smart policing is doing what the situation required: liaison with the organisers to enable a dignified social-distancing protest. Anyone could figure that out. Try using your brain for a change.
My brain says: "How do we control thousands of people?"
How many cops needed? How much do they break distancing, in order to enforce distancing? How do we deal with non-compliant protestors, who are hardly there because they are deferential to cops?
They did liaise with the organisers. There was contact tracing and appeals for distancing. People were told where to get masks. But … the people are not a hivemind. If 95% behave and 5% don't, what happens?
One image of a cop and protestor in a struggle is the headline leading the news. (Source: all media, since forever).
Precisely. Note: they were mostly young people. We were all young once so give em a break. Looks like the police did.
Apart from insufficient distancing by some, it was well managed and respectful.
If 95% behave and 5% don't, what happens?
Good question, but my impressions were formed by wide shots of the crowd, and they showed 100% misbehaviour – anyone conforming didn't become evident to the eye. It is true that such impressions can mislead, however.
Or, taking names and quietly arresting later.
Oh great, we're back to the let's sacrifice elderly and disabled people conversation again.
The 'people' don't get to decide, because we elect social democratic governments (albeit neoliberalised ones) to take top level decisions that the people aren't in a position to make.
I can't imagine Labour extending L2 for no good reason, and I assume the reason is that the science is unclear if we are covid-free yet.
So fine, go to L1 early but if we get another outbreak, then I hope that there will be more support for disabled and elderly people this time.
"I reckon Level 2 is now a joke. Civil disobedience has prevailed. If we can't trust the cops to support the govt, no point the govt maintaining their pretence. The people have taken the lead to eliminate public safety mechanisms, and govt must follow their lead…
So I take it then pal according to you, if a load of hoons drive down a road at 100ks where the limit is 50ks for safety reasons the limit should be altered as they have taken the lead to eliminate public safety mechanisms.
Which part of the country? I think the biggest thing under level 2 was the schools opening bringing hundreds of pupils into daily contact. Also, if it was fewer than 100 and they recorded details its within the present sports group restrictions (I played a football match yesterday, this is allowed now). Its possible they were more or less physically distant while marching also.
The Auckland one was the most concerning. We also have a cluster which still has an active case.
Funded by George Soros!!! Bill Gates, etc… not helpful from me but I disagree it was unnoticed overseas, the fact even little ol' NZ cares about what's going on matters. Even Taika got slammed for his "eloquent black man" comment.
The idea is that marching (I def saw photos with no physical distancing and MSM seemed to be saying no-one was) and protesting are high risk activities because the shouting and calling spreads droplets further. People touch stuff too, and how many people are still practicing not touching their faces? Why was there no requirement to wear a mask? And so on.
Also, no contact tracing (other than the app people).
I figured it was bandwagoning showboating, just couldn't resist the chance to be right-on. Seems more likely than a conspiracy of jetboat operators and tourist tat sellers to jemmy open the airports.
After some of the weekends events and news reports – should we have one government managed quarantine system with a well known set of operating rules and using suitable premises? Or does Minister Twyford get to sign off groups of people for entry who are basically designing their own quarantine locations?
Secondly is there going to be a chilling economic effect from a constant influx of say chartered aeroplanes of individuals from virus ridden countries – to the extent that locals continue to maintain a background higher level of anxiety about being infected and therefore curtail their own activities?
Good point. I am still wary and try and keep distance, but that only works when the vast majority are doing the same. And sometimes I forget and comfort myself with the knowledge that we have eliminated the virus. Yet testing at entry points to the country and reports of inconsistent isolation and lack of take-up of face masks leaves me uncertain again. Anxiety reigns especially when the young people from the individualistic, entitled generation are heard so often dissing the control methods as unnecessary.
Old Winston needs to go. How can you have a deputy saying things against the government, during a global pandemic, using flawed logic? He's lost his marbles and should be removed. Call a snap election if you must, why not. The incumbent will win. Give the morons in the street their level one, call a snap election, win the election based on your bribes, both monetary and intangible "freedoms", sit back, relax, straight back onto twitter and Yap App for magazine style governance. I'm getting the hang of central politics in the Brave New World. Literally anyone can do this.
He hasn't lost his marbles. He's targeting 5%. Especially soft Nats who are hearing nothing from their own leader.
quite correct observer. winston is going to be the big winner this election, with many nat voters holding their noses ,and voting for winston.
Not necessarily. NZF might get over the 5% threshold and they might even get more seats than in 2017, but will they be Kingmaker again? If they’re not, or not the only one, they’ll lose their leverage during coalition negotiations. In 2017, National had a lot of leverage and yet they missed out.
So will the announcement be we will consider L1 in 2 weeks after the incubation time
The PM has indicated a decision on June 8 – and the normal two days notice – Thus June 10 barring any new cases.
It would be nice to know what level 1 is?
At the moment it is just a phrase. The government hasn't given us the rules so it is difficult for anyone to say we should be at "Level 1".
The rules for level 2 have been relaxed gradually over the past 3 weeks so it is always a moving target.
I know there is enormous pressure coming from the sports and arts communities to allow crowds back into their events. So I think the only change will be crowds and packed pubs. Are we expecting anything else?
Level 1 was specified at the beginning of this. It's a timing thing – the first phase of the wage subsidy ends June 12.
Even this past weekend hospitality and tourism were limited by the easing Level 2 rules.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/121661515/coronavirus-auckland-cbd-restaurant-sales-down-as-alert-level-2-rules-bite
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/tourism-operators-crying-move-level-1-after-turning-away-customers
What do you mean it was specified at the beginning of this?
Under level 1 will I be able to go and watch the rugby at Eden Park, attend a concert at Mt Smart or attend a mass protest up Queen st.
None of this is clear yet so I don't know why people are screaming we should be at Level 1 when we don't know what that is.
What each Level – 1 to 4, specifies was made known months ago.
Three ticks. There are no restrictions on gatherings or movement at Level 1.
https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-system/covid-19-alert-system/#alert-level-1-%E2%80%94-prepare
We have certainly not known for months what each level meant. As we have moved through the levels, the government has defined them days before we enter a new 'level'.
Level 2 was a phrase we all knew about since mid-March, but it wasn't until 7 May that we were advised exactly what it meant.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300007246/coronavirus-jacinda-ardern-unveils-level-2-a-safer-version-of-normal
Likewise the bullet points you have linked to for level 1 hardly tell us what we can and can't do. For example can you please clarify what this means:
"Border entry measures to minimise risk of importing COVID-19 cases"
What are those measures?
So to get back to my original point, we need to know what level 1 means exactly, which I am sure we will find out in the coming days.
EiE of course we dont know the exact specifics of each level, that is by design and is an important feature. We dont know everything about the virus behaviour and there is no way to predict the exact situation at any point in the future. To work is MUST respond dynamically to externals
No shit Sherlock
That's why it was premature for idiots to call for a movement to an undefined level.
Oh i see what you are saying then 🙂
Even this past weekend hospitality and tourism were limited by the easing Level 2 rules.
They are also limited by the perception of a significant part of the population,that there is still underlying risk,and discretionary businesses are always fragile.
The arguments for opening of borders,level 1 etc, by politicians and lobbys, are fighting for their relevance,not the collective good of the people of NZ.
We face future austerity because of the cost of loss of economic activity/unemployment. That will not be to our collective good either.
Personally I'd have the world's nation states print its pandemic cost money – and commit to using the "saved" resource to manage transition to GW
We do not face austerity,NZ households have never had so much money sitting in bank accounts in NZ (192 billion in cash at the 30 may)
It is the affirmation of confidence of the NZ public to spend (rather then save) or to invest in businesses that offer resilience under the new social contract.
That's news to many individuals and businesses.
And I was referring to the austerity that has led to our underfunded infrastructure and public services (such as health) over decades (the 2008-2017 austerity the latest period). It won't get better going from 20% to 50% debt to GDP. We do face return to austerity, because of the bill (if we adhere the neo-liberal rules that constrain government).
Confidence in safety to be active in the community and the confidence to spend/invest are in this instance inter-connected. One occurs with being safe from the virus, the other involves a more open economy. A pandemic makes this a tricky balance.
Recessions like runs on banks are self fulfilling prophecies,if business lobbys prefer layoffs rather then shareholders taking a hit on dividends say,they will fulfill their own expectations.
If it was a shock ,rather then a persistent downtown however,then it may be a trim rather then a number one.
Data suggest the former,and policy helped bridge the divide.
https://www.interest.co.nz/business/105315/westpac-economists-say-some-recent-data-tentatively-suggesting-economic-situation
If you seriously think the 2008-17 period was characterised by austerity, you need to get out more often.
Yeah the risible pay round for nurses and the understaffed wards was nothing.
Yes, get out of your own right-wing cocoon, Paddington.
Austerity so that Bill English could pretend to 'balance the books' meant that Police were so underfunded that they had to quietly give up doing Alcohol checkpoints.
With much noise, a National Govt had heroically (and cost-free) lowered the drink-driving alcohol limits. But then they starved the Police.
A few years later, they had given NZ the distinction of being the only country so far to have lowered limits, but had a subsequent increase in alcohol-related accidents. Other countries had had the brains to increase the number of alcohol check-points, but not our good old National Govt.
Add to that sewage coming through a hospital ceiling and drainage through hospital walls; school buildings run down…
No Austerity, huh?
Running down of social health is what I call it.
"Yeah the risible pay round for nurses and the understaffed wards was nothing."
Between 2008 and 2017, health spending increased in nominal terms by 44%, in real terms by 23% and in per capita terms by 10%. So you can quote anecdotes all you like, but the stats don't lie.
"Running down of social health is what I call it."
Between 2008 and 2017, health spending increased in nominal terms by 44%, in real terms by 23% and in per capita terms by 10%. So you can quote anecdotes all you like, but the stats don't lie.
Reads like an anecdote to me, in two comments, no less, for emphasis, no doubt. Unfortunately, you did not provide a link to your wonderful and compelling stats so we just have to assume you got it from the National Party Facebook page or KB. Maybe you rectify your omission, yes?
I'd be interested in seeing DHB deficits by those measures over the same period.
Look, Mum, I can link!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/102941246/do-we-put-enough-money-into-the-health-system
I'm not sure what those numbers are, McFlock, but the DHB deficits are ballooning at the moment:
"New figures, quietly dropped on the Ministry of Health's website yesterday, shows the total deficit across all 20 DHBs for the first five months of the financial year sits at more than $230 million.
That's almost $60 million higher than the deficit over the same five-month period the year prior and $166 million higher than the same period in 2017."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12309912
I happen to think our health system is world class, but our appetite for health spending is voracious.
"Look, Mum, I can link! "
Yep, the numbers are huge. It's interesting that the spend to GDP is about the same in 2017 as 2008, considering the rate of economic growth post the GFC.
You got the hint, almost?
I mean, it's interesting, but my DHB has been running deficits for many years. If it spends its budget allocation plus $20mil, does that count as another $20mil in spending or not? And if it gets another $10mil the following year, but still has the same costs so has a $10mil deficit, does that count as an "increase" in funding? And how much of an aberration has my DHB been over the last 15 years or whatever?
I have googled, got lots of links about dhb funding, but very little about DHB debt over the period – increased a lot over 2018/19, but before that?
Meh, merely a mild interest late at night. I'll leave it. Answers to questions close to the questions that were actually asked are quite tiring and just another rabbit hole to distract from the bleeding obvious.
The funding of DHB deficits must be included in the crown accounts at some stage, because they are another from of government spending.
Must be. At some stage.
Fills me with so much trust that a reduction in DHB "debt" to the govt isn't touted as an increase in funding, even though there might be zero effect on the ground. /sarc
The march organisers should be prosecuted for yesterdays flagrant breach of the level 2 lockdown rules. I guess they'll get all high and mighty on the moral imperative, but they are no different in this to the idiots on the right who feel their right have been breached in the last few months.
These are the rules. Except for those afflicted with a performative stupidity, they are simple to understand. If you break the rules, you will be prosecuted. Simple.
Even a month ago I would have agreed Sanctuary.
No full excuse from me though, and morality aside, people all over the country apart from many seniors are milling about like it was xmas eve. Supermarket ques are gone etc. The march and rally organisers highly encouraged mask wearing, and are running an online attendance register.
They broke the rules, obviously.
Still, we've got to admit that there's an amusing twist here – the righties shout "Dictator Ardern" but never make it as far as protesting (possibly because any such protest by them would not even get close to the 100 limit).
In the end, the first protest that challenged the Evil Leftie rules was … by the Evil Lefties.
has there been anything on the register numbers vs attendee numbers?
“Black Lives Count”
In NZ it is LIFE counts , that is why we have endured the last two months in Lockdowns. The emotive non-savants, led by Shalene Williams clearly think LIFE does not count in NZ. She broke our country’s rules and should be prosecuted accordingly. She could have been a bit more creative and come up with a law abiding way to make her message.
Janet the world and its woes still goes on while we have come out of a pandemic with little trauma compared to the shocking sight of a policeman in a supposed civilised country with his knee on someone's neck.
We watched a murder by an upholder of laura norder. The 'emotive non-savants' were moved in their hearts and brains for the suffering people in another country, while also trying to fit in with the controls at the end of our quarantine period. With you apparently any rule wins over true humanity, no matter what the situation is.
I was as appalled as most at the apparent murder of this American man and I am well aware that the USA policing system and the way all Americans relate to the police there is totally different from ours, thank goodness. Listening to our medical experts, we are NOT out of the pandemic yet.
There were other ways to express “true humanity “ It did not have to mimic the current American way where even the Covid situation is not controlled to help save lives.
But Janet you have such faith in our police behaviour being beyond reproach, which is unjustified. Part of the concern of the protesting crowd is self-centred, they wanted it to be noted that we will not go under the USA style of punitive policing without public protest. There are already cases of very bad behaviour by our police in the near past and those who think, worry about it and don't brush it to one side.
Don’t know where you get the idea that I too do not keep a leery eye on policing developments, but I do take some comfort that it is more tailored on the British system than the American one. There have always been isolated cases of bad behavior in the police through the years. The concern now is that they do not become armed and perhaps the recent activities of the police are more in response to the truckload of New Zealand bred but Australian raised, criminals that Australia dumped on us recently. Whatever, Level 2 is not a time to protest in mass on the street, for whatever reason – if you value LIFE.
Thanks for your reply. I was sure there would be one. It is a great blessing to be so sure about one's certainties.
The mass event street gathering – 1000 etc is nothing less than a full-on trial of our virus free status (which would inform the Cabinet decision June 8).
The government should invite those involved to come in for testing.
Hopefully it will be like WOMAD and the last round of the Super comp, major crowd events with no transmission.
The Auckland ones were protesting outside the US embassy, they now have a CIA file on all of them anyway.
It would be a weird day for political theory if US states tilted the Coronavirus trend downwards with statewide lockdowns caused by mass riots rather than medically-induced social distancing orders.
And somewhere else the government met demand for a confirmation of the chance for an earlier move to Level 1 because of a mass crowd protest …
So images of chaos in a far off land will get middle class kiwis onto the streets. But the theft of our own country by global corporate power, and the displacement of the whole millennial generation, barely makes the news.
The race narrative is important but Class war is the insidious corruption that sets one against the other. The riots are a great distraction from the greatest theft in history; the looting of the US Treasury by Wall St criminals
The Auckland ones were all under 30. Stop fucking moaning.
+100 Ad.
Why diss roblogic and swear. Surely that comment is relevant.
expected. leftist identitarians get off on moral indignation and can’t handle criticism
Maybe lefties are too pure to indulge in ordinary coarse diversions and so the 'moral indignation' is undiluted relief from all that probity.
Your class analysis failure is being left behind by the generation on the streets.
You could always print out all your labels, wait for rain, set fire to them and see if they keep you warm for half an hour.
Failing that, just try to keep up.
Ad is more old school left I think.
You mean the kids are too dumb to get globalisation?
Roy Morgan are back in Town.
Confirming the sweeping realignment:
Yippee, Greens up to 7, Ad will be thrilled! And National even lower – but taken before the Todd took over, looks like. ACT above NZF will get feathers a-flutter all over the place, and that 4% for others (TOP, MP, NC, SNZ I guess) could indicate something happening.
Greens probably shouldn't be getting too excited just yet, Dennis.. Roy Morgan are the most Green-friendly of public Pollsters … even more so than UMR:
Green Party-Support ratings
2020
Jan …….. RM 10.5% …. UMR 7.0% … TV3 5.6%
Feb …….. RM 10.5% … UMR 9.0% … TV1 5.0%
March … RM 11.5%
April ……RM 7.0% … UMR 5.0%
May ……. RM 7.0% … TV3 5.5% … TV1 4.7%
Roy Morgan were similarly the constant high-end outlier for the Greens throughout much of the final term of the Key-English Govt.
Unsurprisingly, then, the final Pre-Election RM has overstated Green support by roughly 3 percentage points at each of the last 3 General Elections.
So possibly just a little early to break open the Tofu & Spirulina Punch.
Swordfish. Have Morgans been poling since January? Because the graph shows Labour already out in front from February and the steadily upwards.
Yep … apparently on the quiet … then released all the data yesterday.
Here's comparisons between Pollsters in 2020:
………………… Lab ……… Govt ………….. Nat …….. Oppo
Jan
RM …………. 40.0% ….. 53.0% ………… 40.0% …… 43.0%
UMR ………. 41.0% …… 55.0% ……….. 39.0% ……. 41.0%
TV3 ………… 42.5% ….. 51.7% ……….. 43.3% ……. 45.1%
.
………………… Lab ……… Govt ………….. Nat …….. Oppo
Feb
RM ………… 40.5% ……… 56.0% ………. 37.0% ……. 40.5%
UMR ………. 42.0% …….. 57.0% ……….. 38.0% ……. 41.0%
TV1 ………… 41.0% ……… 49.3% ………. 46.0% ……. 47.7%
.
………………… Lab ……… Govt ………….. Nat …….. Oppo
March
RM …………. 42.5% …….. 57.0% ……… 37.0% ……. 40.5%
.
………………… Lab ……… Govt ………….. Nat …….. Oppo
April
RM … …….. 55.0% ……… 64.5% ………. 30.5% …….. 33.0%
UMR ………. 49.0% ……… 59.0% ………. 35.0% ……. 37.0%
.
………………… Lab ……… Govt ………….. Nat …….. Oppo
May
RM ………… 56.5% …….. 66.0% ……….. 26.5% ……. 30.0%
TV3 ……….. 56.5% ……… 64.7% ………. 30.6% ……. 32.4%
TV1 ……….. 59.0% ……… 66.6% ……….. 29.0% …… 31.2%
This confirms the Covid effect on Labour and National.
Polling was done April 27 – May 24. Todd Muller took over as National leader on 22 May so too soon to indicate anything, but he has had a poor start.
Compared to Colmar Brunton and Reid Research the Greens have been high.
NZ First are consistently polling under the threshold.
The polls rewarded Ardern and Labour over their handling of Covid, there was wide public support. But now there appears to be wide public moving on from level 2 restrictions and Ardern appears to be dithering.
She showed support for yesterday's protests, saying she understood 'the sentiment and urgency' (on RNZ), she didn't criticise the breaching of level 2, and said it was simply a police matter but seemed to agree with the police not acting.
She has sort of said Cabinet will bring forward consideration of lowering to level 1, but not until next week. She risks losing the public over this, and perhaps some of the poll indicated support.
[Fixed typo in user handle]
Peters current strategy seems to be portaying himself as the voice of reason within cabinet. He came out early and confirmed that the government stood up to MoH to allow Kiwis to return to New Zealand when the borders closed.
He is now banging on about going to Level 1 immediately, and trying to differentiate himself from Labour.
The trouble with that is the polls clearly show the public is well on board and agreed with the government decisions. Tribal Nats will always vote National but everyone else is in support.
I can't see Winston's strategy working.
Govt Bloc vs Oppo Bloc
Roy Morgan
The poll is already out of date, but who cares?
Newshub reports as if it were the latest poll.
In the linked story, they get around to mentioning the dates eventually (and in this case the dates really matter). But headlines always beat details.
This will probably happen in the campaign, with RM polls especially. September headline: "party X slumps/surges!'. Even if it happened a month ago.
Yep – just confirms the previous two. Doesn't tell us what we want to know – is the Toddy-bounce the 10-15% they want, or has strapping on the Muller-charger given them a more modest 3-5% of kilowattage? And most of all, are there any signs of deceased felines?
Todd went splat. Look.
Yeah, but useful for telling us precisely when the hefty shift in voter sentiment took place. (given that RM are the only Public Pollster sampling on a Monthly basis).
Looks like the main thrust occurred between late March & mid April…. right in the very heart of the Level 4 Lockdown. People feeling satisfied that the Govt was taking decisive action to protect them (even if some of us felt they were a little slower than they should've been) & that we were demonstrably doing significantly better than most of the rest of the World. Wouldn't be surprised if it's older softly-aligned Nats that have decisively swung in Labour's direction … with National's current calls for an immediate move to Level 1 alienating them even further..
Also makes Winston's gambit on the issue interesting. Is he forsaking his elderly base in order to attract pragmatic Nats (of all ages) potentially voting strategically for NZF to provide a counterweight to any leftward movement in the next Ardern-led Govt (a la 2002) ?
Bear in mind though at that point the 1pm briefing by Ardern and Bloomfield was virtually the highlight of the day. Every man, woman and child in the country was glued to some form of telecommunication.
The publicity was all encompassing and something pollies can normally only dream about. So, as has already been expressed many times, Labour's current stratospheric polling will not last through to the election.
They should still win by a country mile but 72 MPs? Never.
There's no doubt this is an apex & they're extremely unlikely to take anything like 55-59% of the Party-Vote on Election Day (although I wouldn't entirely rule out Labour winning a slight majority of seats in their own right for the first time since the intro of MMP).
But notice Labour continued to rise & the Nats continued to fall during the move to Level 3 & then down to Level 2 (May Roy Morgan conducted between late April & late May), ie as we moved away from that unique period of public entrancement.
WOW !!! Dang that's good news 🙂
Don't political parties traditionally receive a boost in the polls when there is a leadership change?
Roy Morgan poll result converted to seats:
Labour: 73
Greens: 9
National: 34
Act: 4
Muller is taking National into 2002 territory. There's now a strong chance Bill English will lose his Worst. Leader. Ever. title.
I know we're all having fun with this but the poll isn't about Todd Muller. There are no time machines on the market yet.
Well, it does cover the week of Muller's successful coup, and he is still the leader at the time of writing, so I'm comfy with the description. However, I do accept that its possible that the Roy Morgan polling was even worse for National until he took over and his confident and polished start has dragged the poll up many, many points in just a few days.
April 27 – May 24, 2020.
May 22, 2020 – the day after the election.
I did read some commentary after the last 3 news poll came out, that the low number had an affect on the voting intention of the TVNZ one a couple of days later, so if that's true, and RM again polled late, then it's quite possible the Muller affect may well have already started to be factored into the totals.
Quite right. It also depends on when in the polling period the majority of opinions were sampled. If the poll was geared to having most calls made nearer the publication date then the result would reflect at least some of the Muller magic.
Quite. Barring any major government balls ups, the only bounce Muller is likely to have, will be the one on his arse as Luxon kicks him out of his office in October.
Duncan Garner tried to hold the PM accountable for the police decision. She pointed out that there were constitutional reasons why the govt couldn't interfere with police decisions.
You can imagine the thoughts of the Minister of Police, listening in. "Jeez, folks still think a minister is in charge! Colonialism has an awful long shadow. I sure dodged a bullet there. So I can continue standing here looking useless as usual, while all that taxpayer money keeps flooding into my bank account. It's because I was born lucky, and the privilege system protects me. Thank god for the constitution! Life is wonderful."
Stew would've stood at the door handing out assault rifles to his boyzngirlz given half a chance.
A disturbing lack of integrity and awareness from the government agency and CEO of Rio Tinto after the mining company destroys an aboriginal cave site 46,000 years old.
Apparently, the government was able to issue consent to destroy identified sites, but was unable to revoke consents once issued.
BAU. Carry on with what you want to do, and apologise later. Such a toxic approach in business and real life.
This aligns with my own personal experience; I've personally seen Rio Tinto taking their relationship with local people very seriously indeed. This incident will be very much regretted and will have internal consequences.
There appears to be a point in any relationships where that trust and integrity can take a back seat, or be maintained. That is when true intention and robustness of processes can be determined.
From the article it looks like the PKKP had been campaigning for protection for this site for seven years. To describe it as a mistake after this seems PR speak, for "this one we didn't want to let go".
You may be right about Rio Tinto's intention, but from my perspective and the information in the article, this action seems to say otherwise.
The consequences have already been felt by the PKKP, internal consequences within Rio Tinto will be small change in comparison.
"This aligns with my own personal experience; I've personally seen Rio Tinto taking their relationship with local people very seriously indeed"
If true, that'd be a bloody big change from the late 60s early 70s when people had to protest by staking a claim at the HQ of RioTinto in Collins St (and were ignored). Or maybe it was Bourke.
Oh, very very sorry. Here's a million or two. Now can we just move on!
A completely off-track question for any legal minds out there:
If a court order for fines or compensation is made against a beneficiary of a family trust, can the family trust be compelled to pay?
Not a lawyer – just an opinion – the beneficiary of the trust is not the legal owner of the trust therefore I don't think the trust can be forced to pay – however any payment by the trust to the beneficiary of the trust can be jacked from the beneficiary's bank account – just my opinion.
https://communitylaw.org.nz/our-law-centres/
Free service check their website for the one closest to you and give them a call
Thanks, Barfly. Will check that out.
Who is doing the 'compelling'? The Court? Or one of the beneficiaries?
The concept of a trust is to very much prevent exactly this from happening; only the Trustees can determine how and trust funds are dispersed.
Having said this, when it comes to the not uncommon situation of a Residential Care Subsidies, the Ministry of Social Development has made a habit in the past decade of 'reaching past' the trust and counting trust assets as belonging to beneficiaries when determining whether a person has assets exceeding the threshold to qualify.
On the other hand there was an important High Court case (Broadbent) in 2018 that effectively ruled this was 'reaching past' was not legitimate. The consequences of this decision are still working through the system. In light of this it's clear that the Courts generally take the view that Trustees are the people in charge of a Trust, and no other entities should be interfering.
Also it's worth noting that the new Trust Act 2019 comes into force at the end of this year and substantially increases the responsibilities on Trustees and changes some important aspects of Trust operation. If you are a trustee you'll need to be aware of these as a matter of urgency.
Having said this, Trust law is not for amateurs, and I'm absolutely no-one to depend on. I found this is a very helpful site: https://mattersoftrust.co.nz/ Unlike a lot of legal websites it has actually useful information if you put the time in to understand it. I can also vouch for the legal company behind it … VATL.
Thanks, Redlogix. I saw there were changes coming up, will have a look at the links.
Thanks for the lead there Red.
I need to read up on it.
If the trust provides for the welfare of the beneficiary then it is a wide scope. It is however up to the discretion of the trustees.
In saying that I have advocated for a couple of people who were beneficiaries of trusts who were receiving no payments ever from the trust – the trustees were his brother and sister and the family lawyer in one case – where basically the trustees were just waiting til the beneficiary died at which point they would get the whole lot.
The lesson from those two cases was that if the trust provides for the beneficiaries welfare they must also do so. It also likely helps if the trust records show some beneficiaries being provided for and not others – I've long advocated for a register of beneficiaries. There often seems to be favoured ones. There was also a case in Palmerston North some years back where a lawyer got in trouble because they were letting the person who had established the trust use it as if it was still his own money – it isn't. The law firm had to pay out what they had signed off on as trustees. Basically he depleted the trust in conjunction with his lawyer.
Lastly disbursements from trusts are also in most cases income under the Social Security Act and affect benefits.
As with lots of these things get a good lawyer and one from a firm different to that administering the trust.
where basically the trustees were just waiting til the beneficiary died at which point they would get the whole lot.
Yes. The new Trust Act 2019 is designed to prevent these scenarios; in particular it requires the trustees to be much more transparent about the trust to the beneficiaries.
No more secret decisions and a lot more robust paper trail.
Thanks. Answered two questions I had actually. Will pass this on to the person involved.
Meanwhile, in the Idiocracy..
Well, I consider Indie rock to be a form of terrorism.
I like indie pop.
Govt backing down on timing of move to Level 1. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/418043/cabinet-to-consider-alert-level-1-move-on-8-june
It's all in how you frame it. "Government brings forward level one because of new information and advice from its officials."
Flexibility, advice sharing and taking, ability to react to changing conditions is a sign of a strong government.
Somehow portraying a government that has a 78% approval rating according to Roy Morgan, as ‘backing down’ to some pressure from a small percentage does not appear logical.
I would argue rather that the 78% approval is due to the people seeing that its government is strong, flexible, and adaptive.
Between the protests and the hotel foyer, 8 June probably a fair date to see if we've stuffed our dot-ball streak. It's not as certain as two full cycles of no cases, but it's not criminally negligent, either.
"but it's not criminally negligent, either"
Correct – in this case negligence would require [insert either right-wing party of choice or "Sweden" here].
No, I think that if we start getting cases again towards the end of the week (especially multiple a day with no know source), we might be prudent to kick back down to L3 rather than pretending we're all good and going up to L1.
But, say, a nurse treating the current patient coming down with it would not be a reason to stay at L2.
Another dot day today.
It feels great to go dotty.
Yes. To clarify, on this matter I don't think we're going to get 'criminal negligence' from this government. That would have required National to have been in charge back in early March – or put in charge at any point thereafter.
Not really. They had said that they would decide no later than June 22 (but that included looking at the matter earlier on June 8). They put it that way to placate their more careful health advisers. But she was discussing the issue with Bloomfield at the weekend prior to the protests, and now choose to emphasise that they were always going to look at it on June 8 – with the June 10 option.
As the first phase of the wage subsidy expires later that same week June 10 was always the latest date to placate business.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/121661515/coronavirus-auckland-cbd-restaurant-sales-down-as-alert-level-2-rules-bite
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/tourism-operators-crying-move-level-1-after-turning-away-customers
Making this clear now may give some businesses confidence to keep workers on past the wage subsidy period.
As Winston often says, 'words do matter'. Thanks for pointing out what was actually said, rather than what some reported was said.
There's an election coming up.
– Winston needs to get his trans-Tasman bubble
– Business confidence has been severely dented (so Grant Graham of KordaMentha tells us)
– the two tier benefit payouts, treatment of immigrant labour issues need to be rendered academic as does the 54 Avatars at the QT hotel just down the road
– Guildord of Vic Uni needs his international students back asap and the churn needs to be resumed
All things considered, it's worth the risk and we need to get back to BAU as soon as possible.
And as I listen to Neale Jones on N2N, there's a lot of hope and positivity to go around. That hope and positivity should even fix what Helen Clark recently said was a "lack of capacity" in our public service these days
He might just get it before the election – Queensland has blocked inter-state travel until 1 September.
He should instead look at visas for Australians coming here for the skiing in July August.
spc +100
Skiers coming back from Austria is what lit up the UK. Queenstown probably needs the Aussies but bugger all smaller skifields do because they don't go there.
Gotta get some snow first. Aussie fields may be in better shape than ours, but early days of course…
There is an upside, for every winter month that NZers aren't heading off to Hawaii or Provence or on a stinking cruise ship the country is better off by almost a billion dollars.
I don’t know where you get your numbers from but if that money stays in the bank it will be the Ozzie banks that are better off, not the country as such.
Exactly
I was due to travel with my wife and kids to the UK to see family this year. The trip is simply postponed until its safe to go. Unfortunately for the economy that means the money sits in a bank account for the next 18 months or so.
Unfortunately for whose economy, the UKs, because that is where you will spend it ?. At the moment not taking it out of the country runs in our favour for balance of payments. If you do make it to the UK next year factor in two weeks at the end starring out of a Mangere hotel window as that toxic wasteland will still be rife with the pox.
I think you missed the point entirely. The money will be spent in the UK economy when the trip finally takes place. The fact the trip is not taking place this year does not mean that money will automatically be spent in the New Zealand economy.
Whatever balance of payment benefit eventuates in the short term, will not help our local tourism businesses pay the rent, as the money is not being spent in their shops.
I am also not sure how you worked out that "18 months or so" would equate to next year?
Tourism is a net loss to NZ, its hard to get real figures as they are exaggerated by the industry but Kiwis spend far more money on overseas travel than incoming tourists do here, mainly because incoming only stay a few weeks if that, there might be 3 million of them but if you take out cruisers the number drops a lot so the number of stay days is probably only 20 million, the cruise ship passengers spend hardly anything, but Kiwi cruise ship passengers pay for everything in NZ dollars and a lot of the working visa young make money here ( and get most of their tax back ) and that pays for the rest of their trip through the islands or Asia.
It is irrelevant if it goes into an Aussie owned bank, it is still money staying in the country and being spent here on whatever or paying off bills which is exactly what has happened, so we are on a bit of a winner.
So the money not spent by Kiwis because there is nowhere to go could easily be a billion a month in winter.
Appreciate the point about hard to get real figures for the industry. Those that do stay & spend here do spend at least some of it in overseas owned hotels and businesses so there are profits repatriated, some work visas will be sending money home as well as that spent on further travel outside the country. It will be very interesting if we have a patch where it is largely local's spending and not too many overseas work visa's working so we can assess some of the yoyo effects of tourist money more accurately
Not true. Deposits are a bank liability, not an asset and essentially a form of loan to the bank. This is also why they pay (a small amount of) interest on them.
Too complex for me. I thought that if you deposit money in the bank for 18 months or so it helps to improve the bank’s liquidity ratio, which is regarded by RBNZ as a good thing. Maybe I got that all wrong then?
If you deposit into a bank they would get the money, but they also owe you the deposit. Basically there are two sides to this, there is the money they receive as the deposit which they can now use and the money they now owe you which has also increased.
My summary would be, if the banks could not lend money and earn interest and only functioned to accept deposits and make payments, then deposits would incur costs rather than pay interest (which I think is well understood). I think that demonstrates they are not earning income based on the deposits in themselves they are reducing the cost of their lending activities which actually earn the money.
Also if your looking at legal ramifications a deposit is basically an unsecured loan by you to the bank. Its treated this way in many circumstances where a bank is wound up.
Ta
I'd rather we have a bubble with the pacific islands before we have a bubble with the Aussies.
Jacinda had a chat with the Leader of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, and we have flights beginning from there.
And Winston may be shit out of luck….17 new cases in Oz yesterday
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Nope. Ardern made it clear when we moved to Level 2 they were looking to move to level 1 by 22 June at latest, but sooner if conditions allow.
Q3 today at QT:
“TODD MULLER to the Prime Minister: What new information, if any, was provided to Cabinet today to inform the discussion for a move to level 1?”
Would she be bound to say what she was told if anything? More likely to say the same as this morning that they always said that they would reconsider no later than 22 June. Having some new cases was not known to block such a move.
And there would not be much difference between Level 2 and 1. The border controls would stay the same but…
Pretty useless question actually. New information would include the latest data on cases and NZs response to level 2. It would also include advice on NZs preparedness to move to level 1 and the timetable for getting all the necessary information and advice to make a decision to move to level 1.
It is interesting that some who have advocated a move to level 1 now don't seem to understand that a decision is based on advice and evidence, and not random opinions of people not qualified to provide such advice.
Winston is right.
If we are going to survive the current collapse of world trade, we need a trade bubble to open up fast.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/20/wto-reports-big-slump-in-global-trade-as-coronavirus-takes-toll
New Zealand being fine in Covid19 terms is as useful as a single survivor who made it to the gate of the lighthouse when the ret of the ship is down and nearly all others are drowning.
"Winston is right".
He is – in an old-fashioned kinda way. Maybe he should listen to one of his bros a little more however. Given his service to NZ over the years, it'd be nice if he could leave it all without having the last thing in his legacy being something he wouldn;t want to be remembered by.
Still, when you've got a sleaze like Shane by your side pulling your chains, it's probably too hard an ask
Really?. We are the ones with the food and the timber. All the rest of the world has is a tsunami of plastic shit. Time we looked at import substitution a bit more.
The Singapore connection? and soon Australia? and possibly Taiwan?
Winston is only right if you are Winston
I wrote this yesterday (and a wee touch of editing to update today) to mark the local Black Lives Matter protests.
Strong language is contained within, so if this offends you, scroll past.
Definition of fascism (Webster) : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.
I'm not marching today because covid. But I'm sure it's obvious by now I stand with the protests.
His name was George Floyd. He was murdered by police one week ago.
The right-wing media I could be bothered watching the past week have been trying to paint the narrative as bad black people are now burning your shit. It's insulting.
I've been watching this close. I've had less sleep than a crack fiend who found a fat wallet. What I've seen is in the first two days a massive and genuine outpouring of rage and grief, and the cops exacerbating it instead of allowing any healing to take place. Abandon the cop station and let it get trashed, charge the murderers, so simple. But they just pushed it.
From the late charges, to the no charges for the other three, to trying to paint Floyd as a dope fiend – or he wasn't healthy enough to take nine minutes strangling… Unfuckingtenable.
So instead of grieving and healing, it's just escalated. And it's spread, cos everyone's watching this bullshit. But it's not just because of the bullshit narratives, the cops keep being violent. And then there's the bad faith actors.
The gas masked up white dude with the hammer busting windows was a catalyst to kick shit off in Minnesota, a cop, or so an alleged ex wife says. He had an umbrella, gas mask, goggles, hammer… professionally ready to riot before the riots. Meanwhile the fucking cops have been shooting gassing beating crowds.
There was another white guy in the protest. He stabbed a protester. The cops went in and arrested him and tried to get the victim out. Some in the crowd were waiting, and threw rocks and eggs. The cops responded with rubber bullets, tear gas and flash-bangs.
So yeah, cops and some white dudes seem to have kicked it off. And the polices continued violence is not easing anything.
There are far too many instances of violent acts on peaceful protesters this past week. Rather than using their huge surveillance operation to identify external agitation, it is just indiscriminate violence by the state against protesters and those who side with them.
Now they're shooting press – fuck! We thought Trumps shit about dealing with American media was a joke, cos he's an idiot. And you can't do that when you live in la-la land… They're outright attacking media in every city, on camera. Gassing, shooting, bashing, arresting – a fucking senator arrested.
This is some full on fascist shit. In some places, the FBI's been whispering about imminent threat, so they're trading out rubber bullets for real bullets. Trumps just announced today he's going to 'sort it out' with the military. More escalation.
And, just when you thought they couldn't be worse, they're deliberately targeting medics. Gas, beatings, rubber bullets, arrests. This is actually a war crime (if it were war).
So now everyone with a heart wants to burn down Trumps America. Even Karen's out there, and she really wants to speak to the manager!
I didn't know about the white provocateurs. You're right about attacking media – shows the cops have lost the plot. Reminds me of when cops beat up some professors, back when I was a student at the University of Auckland.
In fact it seemed like the USA had taken a time machine back to '68 the other day, riots in 34 cities while a rocket took two astronauts into orbit, and I wondered if another Harvard prof would capture headlines telling all to turn on, tune in, & drop out. Trump then recycling Nixon's line calling him: "the most dangerous man in America". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary
It will be a lot more interesting if Trump gets to call down the powers of the 1807 Insurrection Act, which enable him to use the US military against citizens.
The general idea of that Act is to limit presidential power and for states to do that job. And there's a special Posse Comitatus Act prohibiting the use of the Army and Air Force for routine law enforcement.
But actions the President takes under the Insurrection Act are exempt from this. Last deployed in 1992 for the Rodney King riots.
Going to be a particularly weird 5 months to the election if he gets to bring the 101 Airborne on US citizens.
All white groups of vigilantes armed with baseball bats and golf clubs now roaming Philadelphia, and the cops don't seem to care.
Civil war seems imminent without Trump backing down.
Yeah, right.
Meanwhile drivebuys,shootings and killings still happened in Chicago.
82 shot,19 fatally in one weekend in 1 city.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/6/1/21275944/chicago-weekend-shootings-most-violent-weekend-2020-may-29-june-1
So it's gang crime as usual. Almost as if the 'thugs' are not the protesters at all.
I witnessed a murder by a gang in San Diego two days ago. Some protesters stopped it but too late. I reported it and sent the evidence to the police. They have not got back to me in 48 hours. I did get a robot reply with receipt of report.
Meanwhile I've seen protesters protect police, people and property. They've stopped fights, stopped vandals and looters. All while under fire from right wing press and police.
The police are very much a part of Trumps America. They're not doing their job at all, they're doing Trumps bidding, exacerbating chaos.
(my apologies to the many fine officers who exist, I’m talking about the broader picture in US this week).
Tv 1 news had a good item
on how police can easily diffuse the problem by their actions
talking, taking a knee, taking lead of the March . There are some very impressive people out there but their actions are sometimes lost
Fuckers think they're in Baghdad.
And then there is the troll crew. Pieces of shit just out to burn things down.
Matthew Lee Rupert, white boy and all round psychopath, went out to cause mayhem and record it.
https://abc7chicago.com/matthew-lee-rupert-rioting-explosive-devices-fbi/6225615/
tRump's thugs drove clergy from their church so tRump could pose with a bibly.
The author was living in Mosul when the US invaded Iraq.
The Police response does look like Fascism, but the Fascism is coming from Trump and the republicans. The Police response is due to the police being more scared than the protesters, I saw it on the Great North Road during the Springbok Tour as we were trying to overturn a jumbo bin, the look in the cops eyes ( particularly the younger ones) said it all. They were terrified of being overrun as they knew they were outnumbered by 100s to 1 and a long truncheon is useless when you are on the ground and being trampled.
Its been a long time but I have never forgotten that image.
I felt sorry for the young cops the day of the final Eden Park match. I suspect most were just out of police college and they were frightened. One lot I saw were covered from head to toe with flour from bombs thrown at them. Pointless and stupid.
Covered with flour – pointless and stupid? If the worst that ever happened to them was being covered in flour they would think in their memoirs that policing had been a lark.
Flour bombs being dropped by an aircraft. Ever carried a bag of flour? Quite heavy. In the context of the final match at Eden Park it was very scary . The violence I witnessed on both sides left a bad taste in my mouth. I wouldn't want to see it ever again.
I used to think that Twyford was a bit hard done by trying to deliver poorly designed housing policy election promises. Now I know he is just a dope.
Once again the costs of the Avatar quarantine are being socialised onto the taxpayers and ratepayers. Which bit of full cost recovery for wealthy quarantine exceptions does he fail to grasp? And the hotel being used is of course part of an overseas chain so any profits are going to be repatriated. And what were the over entitled staff at the WCC thinking – ratepayers want to add their funds?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/121692713/taxpayers-forking-out-to-keep-la-avatar-crew-in-quarantine
Plus staff are being rotated to provide coverage. Being rotated into and out of our community? And I see that general manger has still to address the shared spaces with other guests that he is busy ignoring.
Nonsense. Of course security is on our dime. Unlike the corrupt who like to provide their own oversight.
It's a matter of protecting NZ'ers.
They should be employees of the state and answerable to us NZ's but with bulk full cost recovery from the avatar crowd. If we don't – think just how much the America's cup is likely to cost us- and us taxpayers have enough to do without subsidising billionaires playing with their overpriced toys
I feel an OIA or 10 coming on in the not too distant
Todd-Watch latest …
After staying out of sight for a few days the exciting new National leader was back today. He had little choice, he could hardly avoid Question Time in Parliament. It didn't go well.
His preferred approach is to ask Ardern a Q which gives her a chance to go on about things the government has done. He then repeats the Q word for word, as if that were some masterful move. So Ardern gets another chance to go on about (etc).
The lack of enthusiasm among National MPs around him is painfully apparent. To avoid the "echo chamber" effect, I had a look at the RW social media, and they're about as unexcited as National's caucus. Not looking good for Todd.
Hehehe that's hilarious because, he was doing the same last week in Qtime.
I wonder if anyone has pointed out to him that it's the governments MP's who ask the patsy questions.
I was wondering whether Mallard might intervene to say 'asked and answered' at one point in Muller's endless repeating of questions … LOL.
PS – Mallard seemed to be grumpy with Robertson today. Has Robertson done something to annoy the Speaker?
Haven't watch today's qtime yet.
But I will absolutely be tuning in tomorrow morning for the Wednesday media rounds with nationals latest disaster, Mr muller.
On being replaced as opposition National party leader, the 'honourable' Simon Bridges was reported to:
National party 'place-holder leader' #2 (or should that be #3?), Todd Muller, will experience similar 'relief' sometime after the general election – maybe then he can start rebuilding his bridges with Simon.
Wonder if the opposition National party will retain Hooton as an advisor. If not, he can return to his PhD studies – the thesis will be a riveting read, I’m sure.
LMFAO !!!
Boot lickers going to boot lick.
God Bless Cornel West – Cornel speaking in the first 4.50 sec (give or take) analysis by Kyle is really good as well.
lazy boy
RedBaronCV – just wondering if you had built a house recently?
Or do you just sit on your quaint ass and sprout.
You apparently hadn't even built a house for your friends at National for nine years.
Useless. Lazy boy
[You still don’t control your urge to insult and take down other commenters. It is not even clear to which comment you were replying. You have form with this and it needs to stop and you need to learn to use the Reply button. Last ban was one week, the one before for six months, and this one is one month – Incognito]
gaslighting – classy.
If this is what it takes to feel good about yourself – be my guest.
Doesn't alter my opinion that Twyford does not seem to be managing the avatar quarantine well – either financially or more importantly the actual situation on the ground. If this is a possible precursor of how we handle the other special interest groups- righties I suspect- braying to get their little cash cow in the door to save their own bloated salary then we are going to need a lot of hope and luck to remain covid free.
We also do not need some jumped up little hotel manager hiding behind customer confidentiality when he is mixing his offshore guests with the locals and trying to deny it. Never answers a direct question and seems to be more interested in PR spin than decent arrangements that would hold even in an emergency. That place will never see another dollar of mine.
Twyford is seriously in need of some stable policy.
It's ridiculous to have international film crews being able to come in to the country but not the Americas Cup crews.
Carve-outs are stupid and beget more stupidity.
Maybe the A-Cup should threaten to withdraw from NZ. Worked for the film crew. These film makers know how to play their cards well and bluff at the right time. We wouldn’t want to miss out on another instalment of those blue hobbits swinging from tree to tree like Tarzan, Lord of the Bungle.
The skin in the game from NZ is too deep to do that. And the film industry is more mobile than the AC industry.
1. The Auckland Royal Yacht Squadron hold the cup. That's 80% of the 1%-ers who are over 80 years of age right there. You can see it on display inside, and there's no way that puppy is going anywhere.
2. ETNZ is deeply sponsored by Kiwi-domiciled corporates like The Warehouse Foundation and TVNZ and Spark, as well as by the NZ Government directly. And they are housed in an Auckland Council building. As Defenders they are not going to go anywhere.
3. All of ETNZ's manufacturing and R&D is in Auckland, and not replicable elsewhere within years. They are staying put.
4. Both state and council have just spent nearly $300m just on the infrastructure. They just cancelled two leading tournament competitions because this is currently the only Covid-19-free port in the world with those facilities. And looks set to be so for a while.
5. All the other teams have just invested hundreds of millions to get here, their boats are en route and due in the next two weeks.
No one is calling bluff on the AC36.
Even reduced in scale, it's going to be the first major international sporting competition in the post-Covid 19 world.
It's the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron but your right it started as Auckland Yacht Club and in 1902 got royal patronage. Just an impression but I think of it as an elite social club and the sailors are with Richmond and Bucklands Beach.
Yeah avatars isn't really my neck of the woods (apart from knowing they are blue) but apparently these sequels have been about 10 years in the making or something like that? Doesn't sound like any great sense of urgency going on there but I'm sure there are others who know much much more.
See my Moderation note @ 3:53 PM.
Thanks I kinda wondered what he was on about
I have that problem with many here but most keep the personal insults out of it or at a tolerable level.
Can’t wait to tell the family i have a “quaint ass”
Not for the faint hearted. Thread of some of the shit going down in the US. Very very bad.
https://twitter.com/jpegjoshua/status/1267599264257015816
Are the Todd-squad backing the wrong deity?
I think we're actually nicer to Todd than his own (potential) voters are. Here's just one example of a bunch of righties getting pissed off with Muller. It's turning nasty over there …
https://twitter.com/pulpyfictorious/status/1267582391511445504
Surprising the protesters aren't exercising their 2nd amendment rights. Seems to be the way to get the respect of the police.
Observe their rights:https://twitter.com/bbcease/status/1267582823428501508
War crimes upon their own. America meet Nazi Germany.
His GOP enablers must be chuffed.
A Clarifying Moment in American History
There should be nothing surprising about what Donald Trump has done in his first week—but he has underestimated the resilience of Americans and their institutions.
Eliot A. Cohen
January 29, 2017
[…]
Precisely because the problem is one of temperament and character, it will not get better. It will get worse, as power intoxicates Trump and those around him. It will probably end in calamity—substantial domestic protest and violence, a breakdown of international economic relationships, the collapse of major alliances, or perhaps one or more new wars (even with China) on top of the ones we already have.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/a-clarifying-moment-in-american-history/514868/
Those that spent 2016 prancing around on their purity ponies and shrieking "Killary", "but her e-mails", and painting the Very Unstable Heinous and Hillary as somehow equivalent and voting Stein must be proud of how it turned out, too.
Ah yes, you absolutely deserve this moment. Those glib charlatans.
🙂
+100
You were just unlucky that your 2016 horse pulled up lame, I mean no one saw that coming…
This time you have a demented old stallion though. What could go wrong…
Do you believe that President Trump is a good leader – that he is a decent man?
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trump-absent-leader-during-national-crisis-hides-in-bunker-tweets-2020-6
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/anderson-cooper-cnn-trump-protests-washington_n_5ed5b371c5b6480deb60e330
Do we really have to bring it back to the lowest common denominator? What I think is fcked up are the hand wringing liberals who want to deny history and pretend that if only we could replace the current with the old, then everything will be ok.
There are a myriad of factors in this, health crisis, economic crisis, decades of abuse of those in power. BLM got underway under Obama, but hey that's probably irrelevant now when we can blame everything on the current admin…
You could have answered two simple questions but chose not to – duly noted.
…clippity clop.. clippity clop..
//
Since you seem fully on board with the Fourth Dorkman of the Apocalypse, it ain't a purity pony you're riding, maui.
But I'm curious, what is it you like about about the Dumpsterfire Fuhrer? Do you actually get a thrill out of watching the US getting seriously fucked up with the ordinary people getting further screwed and those at the top creaming ever more?
maui, is this what you see in the mirror?
https://www.salon.com/2020/06/02/trump-voters-wanted-this-all-along–now-the-trolling-has-turned-to-real-world-violence/
Marvelous.
I feel a bit mean piling on like this, but then I remember that National's whole shtick is that the PM is a fluffy lightweight, and should be replaced by this guy …
Todd Muller and the sound of silence
It would be unfair if this was a "gotcha" that he couldn't be prepared for. But when it's THE lead story in the world news, and you've had several days to prepare for your next media appearance, you might have some idea what you're going to say.
Or you do have some idea, but dare not say it.
Oh, what a brilliant footnotery we'll leave for the ages.
I think our detailry about immediate events will be like the best- noted footsteps ever to a volcano rim. See PR and News ideas about current events. Or to say, political party's ideas about what matters. Surface shit.
Can we talk about a little longer term ideas? Short term is Mordor's things.
It’s called an epitaph, not a footnote.
Is Mordor a metaphor for the National Party?
Despite their dipshit younger MPs, whose completely ignorant speeches about freedom I'm hearing about from my crazy born-again relatives, not National. Mordor is the rule of the rich for the rich over the last 40 years which has delivered us to 10 years to do anything for the continuance of our species.
The downfall of progressive Labour at the last election over the brook may have tucked in the balls hereabouts but this is 1939 for H.s.s.
Imagine a true realist questioning Jacinda about her bullshit about poverty. Instead of the upper middle class reporters who ask for a salary.
H.s.s?
Agree with you.
What about …
"We are in the midst of a mass extinction, many scientists have warned — this one driven not by a catastrophic natural event, but by humans.
"We're eroding the capabilities of the planet to maintain human life and life in general," said Gerardo Ceballos, an ecologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and lead author of the new study."
When are NZ and the world going to start the POPULATION discussion ! NZ should leave space for some natural population increase so that discussion needs to start now.
Kia Ora
Newshub.
That's is a great idea building A supermarket instead of A KFC fast food restaurant in Otara.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora
Te Ao Marama.
Its awesome that our government is sorting out the Loanshark problems.
Its a good idea to have Tangata Whenua voices in council I say more Maori should run for council seats.
Its good to see investment in restoring our environment we are lucky to have a government that understands that we need to have a healthy environment so all the Tangata are healthy not just the wealthiest.
It will be good for our Pacific Island cousin when we resume travel to help restore the economy's.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora.
The Am Show.
Yes I think the government has done great mahi handling the virus issues.
Scamp is sweet.
Ka kite Ano. 😇
Kia Ora
Newshub.
That's is cool our government lowering the business loss from 50 % to 40 % for them to get wage subsidies extended.
I think everyone coming into Aotearoa should be tested.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Te Ao Maori Marama.
I think the new trade training package will be great for Maori we just have to grab the opportunity and get qualified.
It looked like there were 10.000 people in Taramaki Makaru March.
I tau toko Rahui to preserve Kia Moana for our Mokopuna.
Yes the Native Americans are treated badly to.
Ka kite Ano