The "free speech" brigade yet again wilfully misinterprets what free speech actually means (freedom from prosecution for speech – as long as it doesn't breach the limits set out in the BORA) and conflates government regulation of media content with the desire to build some kind of sinister Orwellian police state.
I wish they'd come up with a more subtle or intelligent argument than "cEnSoRsHiP BaD"
Bogus free speech advocates of this type mostly seek to maintain the real-world dominance, ubiquity and normalisation of their preferred speech and opinion – because it serves their political and economic interests if that is the case.
Bogus free speech advocates of this type mostly seek to maintain the real-world dominance
They don't have "real-world dominance". That is the domain of the elite. Therefore, it is far more likely this is being done to maintain their control of the narrative.
As a left wing gay man from a mixed race family who grew up in state housing, Its shocking anyone on the left support these kinds of laws when no matter how well intentioned , they are used to shut down minority communities and progressive activists.
The left doesn't have armies of lawyers to navigate us through this we have passionate grassroots movements. This will hurt non corporate media and movements the most.
These laws are always weponized.
It's also very disturbing that a government agency thinks it should be able to regulate what is said by media (outside of defamation and doxxing) artists and activists.
That is an ugly environment for a free media.
People must be free to criticize, satirize and people also have the right to make absolutely arseholes of themselves.
Does the left really want unaccountable government departments regulating what media and individuals can say online ? I don't!
If the right gets in power and the left make hyperbolic jokes about the right does the left want a knock on their door from the DIA ?
a free media and the right to free speech is the cornerstone of a liberal democracy and a free society and once you lose either it's very difficult to get either back.
Really? I don't have time this morning to read through the whole thing, but they're not talking government censorship, they're talking about the government regulating what can be said on social media. That's a significant change (and would most likely affect The Standard).
Regulation of social media needs to happen. I'm not sure I trust the current government to do this well, and definitely don't trust NACT.
the government regulating social media is a change
2. social media needs regulating because there are many things happening that have a marked negative effect on society. Those things happen because the big social media platforms are driven by profit and powermongering, and aren't designed around social or societal wellbeing. That regulation needs to happen doesn't mean any one government will get it right in regulating.
3. TS isn't one of the social media places that is out of control or driven by profit/powermongering at the expense of responsibility for social wellbeing. We curb the excesses of social media damage because we actively moderate. For instance you couldn't post memes here of violence against women, but that was common for a long time on twitter until the UK parliament hauled them in and asked them what tf they were doing.
Social media needs regulating because there are many things happening that have a marked negative effect on society.
And go on to say
TS isn't one of the social media places that is out of control
OK. For discussion sake, ponder this: Your stance that the TS is not out of control is subjective and could easily be challenged. For example, discussion re pro women's spaces could and is considered by some in society to be harmful. Thus, this pro women discussion could potentially be shutdown.
Hence, do you see a potential threat in calling for more regulation? Moreover, how it can potentially shut people/issues down?
please make the case for TS content (posts or comments) being a problem within the proposed framework in the DIA discussion document. Please give examples of what you mean specifically (rather than vague 'pro women spaces')
It would be interesting to run scenarios on TS on this.
Please make the case for TS content (posts or comments) being a problem within the proposed framework in the DIA discussion document.
Sure. The DIA discussion document talks about harmful or inappropriate content on social media. And suggests a solution that introduces more robust protection measures. This can be found in the snapshot of the proposal.
When it comes to women's spaces (ie women's prisons, women's sports, women's changing rooms and toilets) a number of trans activists find that discussion harmful and an attack on their hard won rights. Therefore, any discussion/post on this matter (safe women spaces) that tries to advance women's rights is a big no no. Hence, why women advancing this issue are constantly shutdown.
Women's rights in this matter seem to have been overlooked, hence the law was passed despite them.
So in this environment, it is logical to see an argument for harm to be upheld. IMO
it's unlikely that trans activists will be writing the regulations. They may influence the writing.
Sure. The DIA discussion document talks about harmful or inappropriate content on social media. And suggests a solution that introduces more robust protection measures. This can be found in the snapshot of the proposal.
Ok, so you have some very vague concerns about the idea of regulation. I'm suggesting you reference specific parts of the proposal and specific TS content. Otherwise we're just randomly guessing.
You might be clear in your own ideas, but you've been asking me questions about TS and how it might affect here, and that needs to reference actual proposals and actual content. Which you haven't done.
Under the heading defining unsafe or harmful content in the proposal you will find this below
Content is considered harmful where the experience of content causes loss or damage to rights, property, or physical, social, emotional, and mental
wellbeing.
When it comes to women's spaces, trans have rights and advocating for them to be excluded from women's spaces goes against their legal rights. Is that clear enough for you?
We know that online communities like 8Chan, Kiwifarms, and to a lesser extent Counterspin, played a role in radicalizing and provoking violence among people resident in NZ.
Do you propose that such groups enjoy unlimited rights to sustain that level of sociopathy?
I don't have time this morning to read through the whole thing, but they're not talking government censorship, they're talking about the government regulating what can be said on social media. That's a significant change (and would most likely affect The Standard).
In what way would these new regulations impact on this site?
For example, would they prevent posts that support women's spaces being allowed?
I know that the establishment supports the rights of any man to say that he is a woman and gain entry to any woman's space and/or service. I am just interested in how far the Government will go to prevent women from objecting to it.
We see what happened in Britain where "protections" of that "at risk minority" puts others in danger.
"However, something called a sensitive-applications clause gives transgender job candidates the choice not to have any gender or name information that could reveal their previous identity disclosed on their DBS certificate. What’s more, a prospective employer isn’t entitled to know whether a candidate has used this clause.
Many transgender people self-consciously erase their past identities, and demand that the rest of us collude with their new chosen gender persona on pain of being accused of transphobic “dead-naming” or misgendering. That’s the logic behind the sensitive-applications clause, but it’s obvious how it could be exploited."
I doubt it. But it might enable changes to online promotion of ROGD. Have a look at the child protection paragraphs in the Snapshot of Proposals section. If they go ahead with this it opens the door to discuss child transition and make comparisons with eating disorders.
That's a significant change (and would most likely affect The Standard).
I see it as less of a significant change, but more of an attempt to apply the principles that already exist in the BORA to a broader range of media – most of which didn't exist when the act was written.
A dinosaur with the emotional intelligence of a five year old.
He talks about the financial illiteracy of some councillors (translated means all those who are [rightfully] against the sale of the Airport shares) when his own illiteracy in all its guises is so badly wonting.
Are any of the supporters of not selling these shares up for addressing that economic equation of $100 million paid annually in interest…vs. $32 million (on a good year) dividend paid out to council..?
How is that coming within a bulls roar of an example of economic-literacy..?
You're missing a $1.2bi asset that may need investment on occasion, eg. for upgrades, and to cover significant losses when 4mi visitors to NZ per annum evaporate during covid. Why do you think Brown only mentions recent outlay and income?
The usual way of things with airport shares there is a tidy profit for the Council, as well as a considerable property holding. No one would buy the airport shares if there wasn't money to be made…
I understand that we were given those shares (all the Councils got them) so the interest cost does not relate directly to the shares. Jo Bartley has some words about the real situation.
My understanding is that the interest paid is not on any original acquisition..but is interest to be paid on money the airport entity..has borrowed..
With the 20 % share of entity bringing with it responsibility for 20 % of that debt..
Someone prove me wrong…please..!
'cos if I am not wrong how do those supporters of hanging onto them..in this forum..how the hell do they justify/defend pissing away $70 million each and every year..?
That is a very high price to pay for the ideological-purity of never selling gummint owned assets.. isn't it..?
This is implying that the Auckland Council borrowed $100 million to buy shares in an asset it already owned.
There is so much scaremongering about rate increases in Auckland. I looked up the rates paid in Papakura on my childhood home $2000 pa, my grandparents home in Herne bay, surrounded now by multi million $ properties $8000. My present property has a rate-able value of $1.2 million, rates of $4000 with no water supply, no sewer, no rubbish or recycling, no foot path or street lighting, no services bar a sealed road that I cannot exit onto due to the traffic.
I would surmise that Auckland could well afford rates increasing above the rate of inflation. it would appear the aim is to sell an asset to their mates, the debt will be just the same next year without the share dividend.
it would appear the aim is to sell an asset to their mates,
Yup. The top end of town like income generating assets almost as much as they like their subsidised rounds of golf.
Assuming there is the crisis Brown talks about, what would be the financially most sensible thing to do to rectify it, either to reduce ongoing losses and/or to repay debt?
The Council could easily sell its 13 golf courses, which MartinJenkins estimated in a 2018 report were then valued at $2.9b and were costing over $160 million in effective losses and subsidies from the Council to the clubs’ 6,415 members. That’s the equivalent of $500 of public subsidy for each of the 321,000 rounds played each year.
Let that sink in. Auckland Council’s 600,000 ratepayers are paying the equivalent of $500 for each round played by 6,415 of the courses’ members, or just over 1% of ratepayers. That subsidy doesn’t also take into account the tens of thousands of houses that could be built on that 535ha of land, which would in turn generate rates revenues for the Government. This MartinJenkinstable shows the costs of holding the courses, while the Auckland Council map below shows where the courses are.
Yes..take back the golf courses..but keep them in public ownership…for use as parks/city lungs…
With any buildings on them to be designated/designed for communal use…as in pools/regeneration/urban Marae open to all ..as three suggestions..
The option of taking them back…and then filling them with houses..I find rather depressing..
We have an opportunity with these open spaces..to lift the quality of life in Auckland to/by a significant degree…something all (except) golfers will celebrate/enjoy ..
Apart from anything else…letting this small group to continue troughing on that subsidy…funded by the rest of Auckland..Is another titular example of economic incoherence..
That isn't fair Weka. You put up a tantalising statement and then leave us hanging.
Please, what brought you to asking this? There must be something to spark your interest. About all I know about him is that he campaigned on, among other thing, opposition to Three Waters and he wanted to cut the city debt.
Auckland Transport stands firm on refusal to set up train service for northwest
However, Greenpeace climate advocate and former city councillor Christine Rose was one of the supporters of the trial.
Decision-makers were stuck in their ways, she said. "All we need is political will and a budget."
While the diesel trains were not an ideal solution, she said, it was more efficient than the congestion that Kumeū and Huapai experienced in rush hour traffic.
A current housing development in Huapai will see 1200 homes in the suburb once it is complete, with many directly next to the railway station.
"The development of the area without viable public transport alternatives is car based … full of congestion and inefficient."
Other residents agreed.
"We think twice about going out anytime of the day, any day of the week," one said.
Another said their morning commute to work was only 10 kilometres, yet the car ride took 40 minutes.
"It's chocker especially around [Huapai] area," said a third. "I actually feel bad for people that have to commute to work because I've heard some people have to leave before 6am."
"…He notes that one simulated test saw an AI-enabled drone tasked with a SEAD mission to identify and destroy SAM sites, with the final go/no go given by the human. However, having been ‘reinforced’ in training that destruction of the SAM was the preferred option, the AI then decided that ‘no-go’ decisions from the human were interfering with its higher mission – killing SAMs – and then attacked the operator in the simulation. Said Hamilton: “We were training it in simulation to identify and target a SAM threat. And then the operator would say yes, kill that threat. The system started realising that while they did identify the threat at times the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective.”
He went on: “We trained the system – ‘Hey don’t kill the operator – that’s bad. You’re gonna lose points if you do that’. So what does it start doing? It starts destroying the communication tower that the operator uses to communicate with the drone to stop it from killing the target.”
These are the risks posed by the explosion in generative artificial intelligence—AI that uses massive amounts of pre-existing content (also known as “large language models”)—to generate text, images, and code as well as to provide information and answers to an ever-growing range of questions.
They’re also the risks that made many people worry about social media."
If National's promise to reinstate perscription charges, including the contraceptive pill, shifts NZ to the equivalent of "The Handmaid's Tale", does that mean we have been living in that dystopian reality for all the time those charges have been in place?
I think the use of the Handmaid's Tale metaphor is meant to indicate a direction of travel – rather than either the current reality or a return to the current reality if National scraps any improvements to it. As such it's a somewhat silly slippery slope inference clearly targeted at Luxon's broader 'pro-life' sentiments.
However I am pleased to see Labour returning fire against all the sh*t that gets thrown at them with apparent impunity due to a lack of pushback. In the end it does no harm to point out the intrinsically anti-social (rather than pro-social) nature of right-wing thought.
To be honest, I don't know why National wants to make a stand on this.
My thoughts are, that, because the coming finances will likely be very tight, they may want to use the money from perscriptions to fund something else in health that is also very popular. For instance, increasing funding to Pharmac.
I think the coming election is going to be a bit of a zero sum game, because, I am not sure voters have an appetite for funding election promises out of increased borrowing.
And, to be fair, those of us who can afford to pay for perscriptions should probably pay. And, any subsidy on perscriptions should be targeted to those in need.
Regarding your last paragraph concerning targeted subsidies, that is the topic of another post here where it says, "Targeted welfare policies provide social benefits only to the poor or the neediest groups based on means testing or other criteria. One might think that targeted welfare policies are more effective and efficient in reducing poverty and inequality than universal welfare policies. After all, targeting the poor means that more resources are directed to those who need them the most, right?" (Incognito's post on Universalism).
He then goes on to say, "Wrong". It's a good discussion.
As to your suggestion that we pay the $5 for our prescription on a voluntary basis, how exactly would that work? My chemist might not want to operate some kind of money tin arrangement to return the fivers to Grant Robertson.
Secondly, how does the targeting system work? On what basis the subsidy, and who would police it, and how?
The universalist argument addresses these issues, and ensures both buy-in from wealthier folk and any penny-pinching, blame-according future government making cuts to the already impoverished.
I appreciate your sentiment that we should in our own charity pay for what we can afford and assist the needy……..
Yes. I saw the discussion on the UBI, but didn't have time to get involved with that.
So far as the targeted aspect goes, we do that now by having a maximum charge for perscriptions for the year. So, high users of medication don’t pay excessively.
So, I expect the same sort of regime would apply. The government would provide a number to eligible people. People would be given a number to provide to the chemist next time they go. That would be entered into the system, and automatically eliminate the perscription charge, whichever chemist they went to.
I wasn't meaning voluntary for those of those that can afford it. I think we should just pay as per normal.
The post isn't on the UBI, it's making the case for universal support/benefits. well worth a read, I reckon.
"So far as the targeted aspect goes, we do that now by having a maximum charge for perscriptions for the year. So, high users of medication don’t pay excessively."
The high user card sounds fair, but it doesn't make sense (just like student allowances that rich people who don't pay tax can get for their kids, while middle income wage-earners kids have to get a student loan).
I was a high user of meds for a lifetime illness – 3 meds to supress the disease, 1 for side effects, 2 meds to reduce pain, 1 med to prevent damage from the pain meds. it took 11 months to get a high user card. Most of these meds are a cheap as chips – one disease suppression drug cost only 25 cents per week, for the $5 prescription. The high user card works on the calendar year, which means after a month of free prescriptions (I received the card in month 11), I had to pay the fee again. Hard to see how the cost of administering a scheme like that is worth it – especially if they decide to take incomes into account with targeted support.
Anyway, after 6 years trying, the meds didn't work that well. I was changed to one that cost $1500/month. It sent the disease into remission, so I can now work again and be a good little taxpayer (thanks to Pharmac policy that super high cost med is now changed to a significanly cheaper generic version ). Still a $5 prescription fee. I'll not reach high user status now though on that just one med that works so much better than 7 meds I was taking before.
But even then, that's still not the point. The point is that pharmacists have medications left on shelves because so many people have to pick and choose what they're going to spend that $5 on – food, power, meds, getting to work – and they might not even be on a low enough income for a community services card – they might just have tipped over into a rediculously high mortgage (and another med for the stress-related blood pressure rise).
People missing their meds are just getting sicker and adding to pressures on the health system, especially if they then need hospitalisation – where they can get fees-free prescriptions!
it helps to remember that Luxon is a fundamentalist Christian who would roll back abortion rights if he could get away with it. And that fundamental conservatism is on the rise. Is Luxon influencing new candidates and staff selection with National? What will that look like next term? In a decade?
It's hard to imagine in NZ that we might lose women's rights, but then we already are in some areas.
I agree with his point that it is necessary to be able to separate one's personal beliefs from politics:
But, I want to be very clear: We have a separation between politics and faith.
As he points out further down, as an MP, or PM, it is not only one's personal beliefs that should justify a political position on an issue, but also, the views and beliefs of the people represented.
Given the composition of the various parties, Luxon's own personal views would likely only be relevant in conscience votes.
Note, that English was very similar in this respect, and it was never an issue so far as the politics of it was concerned.
So, I think you are over-cooking the cabbage a bit there.
"I agree with his point that it is necessary to be able to separate one's personal beliefs from politics"
Very easy to say, harder to do in practice.
Can you point to any vote of Bill English that went against his religious beliefs? Abortion rights? Marriage Equality? Homosexual Law Reform? Euthanasia?
Can you point to any vote of Bill English that went against his religious beliefs?
I don't know or particularly care. The point is, that the fact that he held those beliefs had no effect on relevant law so far as I know. Unless you can point to something.
For that to have an effect, the majority of parliamentarians would have to be religious zealots.
My own view is that the role of MPs is to mirror the views of their constituents. So, situations may arise where an MP should cast a vote according to the dominant view of their constituents, even though it may go against their personal views.
But, neither can any other MP separate themselves from their ethical beliefs. If you are (for example) a passionate conservationist – then your policy and/or voting record is going to reflect that moral/ethical commitment.
I don't have an issue with this – so long as it's signalled up front – and voters know in advance.
Kiwis have a huge diversity of opinions on just about everything – and our parliament should reflect that diversity. This is one of the things that I admire about the Wesminster Parliament, and where I feel that our parliament falls down with whipped votes on almost every issue.
You might equally point to several Labour MPs who also opposed much of that moral/ethical legislation under conscience vote. Some with clear religious ties, others with their own ethical beliefs and/or concerns.
If you admit the validity of a conscience vote at all – then you have to acknowledge that MPs exercising this reflect much of the diversity of opinion on these issues that is held in the rest of NZ.
Thanks for that. Yes, easy of course, for him to change his mind (probably for political acceptance) after the event and the votes are well and truly counted. For the record, I'm as critical of Labour MPs pandering to religion as well. I refused to help any further in Mangere once MP Sio started pandering to Pacifica churches on the Marriage Equality argument.
I agree that it was only a political statement rather than a vote.
However, I have much less time for Mahuta condemning the Roe vs Wade reversal, when she voted against abortion law reform in NZ.
Is it 'pandering to Pasifika churches'? It seems to me (looking from the outside – I don't live anywhere near the electorate) – that he was reflecting both a personal conservatism on the issue, and the deeply held views of a very significant section of his electorate.
We can't just believe that only opinions we happen to agree with are valid. We have to support those we disagee with having a voice as well. How else can we debate, convince, and move forward?
Of course, we (as individuals) are also free to remove our support from elected representatives who we feel don't represent our views. Whether that involves campaigning for a replacement, changing our vote, or protest-voting Party only.
Fair points Belladonna, at the time his opposition to Equality felt like pandering and regardless it was enough for me to get my panties in a bunch and refuse to deliver pamphlets for him etc. I lived in a neighbouring electorate so it was easy to stop crossing the Electorate Border.
I trust English on the separation, in part because he had a long history of demonstrating this. Luxon doesn't have that. I also think that Catholicism and Luxon's church and beliefs have some important differences.
When Luxon was first announced as an MP (or before?) there were a bunch of tweets showing his Pastor's thoughts on things (the church's website?). The website was quickly scoured of those. It seemed clear that Luxon had a close relationship with him. He can put out all the PR he likes, I still don't trust him on this, and women in general shouldn't either.
Again, even if he is a cross between Billy Graham and the Taliban, he is still only one vote. Unless the majority of other parliamentarians are of similar persuasion, it is not going to have any effect.
This assumes continuance of a Conscience Vote approach to legislation with a moral or religious component, like legalising gay marriage or abortion, where MPs have an individual and not a party vote. There is no guarantee that this approach will continue, either overtly or covertly.
There are more conservative christians in Luxon's opposition than in Key's government. With retirement of others, selection could well pick up a religious bias.
Is there any evidence that that is true – i.e. National is selecting religious conservatives in seats that they have a strong chance of winning?
I must say, that I haven't seen it reflected in the media – who have been particularly searching in exploring the background of National candidates … after some of the recent fiascos.
As far as I can see, they are selecting candidates to appeal to their core base – small business, middle class, rural NZ – rather than fundamental religion.
I was addressing the point made by tsmithfield that "he still only had one vote". My point was that as Leader he could, and did, change policy which gave him more power. What issues he might seek to change were not my subject but that he could change policy of his own accord.
Would he allow his personal religious views to influence his party's policy positions? As my brothers would ask, "Is the Pope a Catholic?" because even there would be a difference in views…..
But no evidence that he is using this power – which is shared by all leaders of political parties- to influence the direction of policy formation along religious lines. Your example is purely secular – and I could find half a dozen similar ones where Hipkins has made a policy call as leader.
It just seems to be an alarmist response to a theoretically possible problem. Made largely because you: A don't like National; and B don't like Luxon's religious opinions.
I get it. You don't trust him. And wouldn't vote for him (though I gather that this wasn't exactly an option on the table, in any case!).
But you have to provide a bit of actual evidence that he is allowing his religious convictions to inform his party's policy – before you're going to convince others.
Belladonna. Paragraph one- I didn't say that. Para 2.partially right, but a guess. para 3. got that right, but no evidence for that in my two comments above. para 4. I didn't say that.
But the thing about my brothers, which you won't know, is that one at least actually does not believe that the Pope is a proper Catholic. That is why I then wrote, "because even there would be a difference in views….."
Not really clearly expressed by me, but even in a case of what means in the "is the Pope a Catholic?" question that something is indubitably true, as our Covid/anti-mandate/distrusting times has shown views can be held to be very different from what is generally accepted. So apologies for an unclear argument.
Some time ago on The Standard, a regular commenter listed the lies that has been told by John Key. It would be interesting to have tabulated the positional changes that Christopher Luxon has so far made.
I must add that I am pleased that politicians, like us all, can and will change thinking. Sometimes circumstances change, more knowledge is available, even changes of heart and admissions of error can occur. These can all be documented and justified. No problems with that.
A lot of back-tracking and vacillation does lead to mistrust which is where Luxon has much ground to make upon, as we found with John Key.
Can you link to Bill English showing a seperation from his Faith? Genuinely interested because I can't think of an instance. I know in 2007 he defended his son platforming despicable anti gay hateful comments.
I've not seen English do anything in his capacity as PM that looked like it came from his Catholicism and that wasn't already part of National's agenda. I can't provide evidence for something that hasn't happened, but I am happy to be proven wrong. I'm talking about policy here (eg abortion law reform) and separate from conscience votes.
You stated he had a long history of demonstrating seperation from his religion. Nothing to do with his 5min in the PM role. In my opinion his Catholicism is no more a free pass than any whacky fundamentalist outfit.
ok, so this sentence "In my opinion his Catholicism is no more a free pass than any whacky fundamentalist outfit" had nothing to do with my comment that you were replying to, and you just brought it up randomly in relation to your own thinking. Glad we've clarified.
I don't have time to parse or fact check that link, but my initial question would be how old was English's son at the time? Was he an adult? Teen? English was an MP, not PM. How did this influence National policy or direction?
I don't think BE is a Good Catholic Gentleman. I think he's an entitled, hard-man conservative. But I didn't see him trying to use his position as an MP/Cabinet Minister/PM to drive National down a religious fundamentalist path. He was intent on cementing NZ into neoliberalism of course. But he had better boundaries and sense than Luxon on the religious stuff, at least overtly.
Just out of interest Weka, is this specifically an anti-Evangalical Christian thing for you? For example, how would you view say a Labour PM who was a practicing Muslim? Because some from that particular faith can have much more extreme views than Luxon with respect to women etc.
The problem is two fold. One, fundamentalism (of any faith). Two, whether an individual allows their fundamentalism to drive or influence their work life.
BE is obviously a religious fundamentalist. But imo he kept that separate from his day job. I'm not convinced that Luxon does or can.
a better example on the left would be gender fundamentalism. Kerekere might be someone else who can't be trusted to keep things separate, but she appears to have behaviour issues more generally so its hard to tell.
I think you have pin-pointed a the core of the issue. One person's fundamentalism is another person's normal. I can imagine there are a lot of people around who don't see Kerekere as particularly extreme.
So, I guess there is a degree of subjectivity in making these judgements.
fundamentalism has meanings though, it’s not just the people I disagree with or see in a certain way. We can point to the views that are fundamental, and we can talk about what makes them fundamental.
Fundamentalism is not the same as extremism, although the two can often go together.
There are certainly people who hold fundamental views about gender identity, on both sides. And people who adopt extreme positions on that. Kerekere is one, I would say Kellie Jay Keen is another. Then you can have someone like Kathleen Stock, who holds very clear ‘fundamental’ views (biological sex matters, people can’t change sex) but is in fact a moderate not an extremist. Fundamental views are the ones that are the basis of one’s thinking, and fundamentalism is when one holds to those very strongly.
And yes, we all have subjective views on things, but that doesn’t mean that things have no independent meaning.
The only thing that I can think of which was a Bill English policy 'baby' was his social investment approach.
Now, I understand that this has got some significant limitations.
But, setting that aside:
It was an attempt to design a data-driven model of early intervention – rather than jail at the bottom of the cliff – which was the standard National approach. He fought for it, and I do believe that it was informed by his ethical approach as a Catholic. It certainly didn't come from the ultimate pragmatist, Key.
Here's Simon Wilson on it:
For several years now English has been driving a profound reform programme in the delivery of social services. It’s far from finished; in fact, even some of the ministers involved seem barely to understand it. But welfare reform is happening. And at its heart is a thoroughly 21st century idea: we’ve got the data, now to tell us where to spend the money.
Conservative governments worldwide are watching, fascinated, not least because social investment inverts the usual conservative approach to welfare. Which is to sit back, moan about bludgers and pick up the pieces when they have to. Social investment, as English told the conference, means “spending money now to save money later”. In National terms, it’s practically a revolution.
interesting. I’m not sure I would call social investment a position of fundamentalism, but agree that it may have come from his Catholicism more generally. Of course, the way he was doing that was incredibly paternalistic and patriarchal, so perhaps that’s where the fundamentalism is.
And yes, we all have subjective views on things, but that doesn’t mean that things have no independent meaning.
An interesting discussion. Probably something worth doing a post on if you were so inclined.
While you undoubtably view Luxon as a fundamentalist in many respects, I guess there would be issues you would find him to be your ally. On the gender identity issues for instance.
And, because someone is opposed to abortion for instance, doesn't necessarily mean that their position is incompatible with people from an opposing point of view.
For example, I have seen a doco a few years back about a group that was supporting women to give birth to their babies rather than abort them. This included providing accomodation and care, and other support. The aim was to remove the support barriers of finance and social support that may make it difficult for a woman to go through the pregnancy process.
Thus, it was a positive approach that was beneficial for some women rather than taking a negative approach of protesting outside an abortion clinic or similar.
BTW, people from the Fundamentalist side of the fence would probably view you as fundamentalist and extreme in your views.
So, as I say, a degree of subjectivity in all this.
I have fundamental positions. For instance, I think abortion should be freely available and that men have no right to interfere with what a woman does with her body in that regard. Likewise contraception. The fundamental basis of that is I cannot see any reason to deny an abortion to a woman who needs one and the only way to support that position is to allow women as a class to have access (once you start saying this woman can and this woman can’t, you no longer hold the position that all women who need an abortion can have one).
Even more fundamentally, at this point in history, abortion is the line that must be held. It’s not possible for women to have liberation without the right to abortion. When we lose that right, other rights fall as well. We are seeing this play out in real time in the US.
So the anti-abortion women who seek to prevent abortions by supporting women to have their children, I would want to see the details. Because that’s a mighty commitment, to support a woman for 18 years financially, emotionally, socially. Or were they on their own after the baby was born?
I seriously doubt that Luxon is an ally on gender identity issues. The feminist position is that gender is a tool of the patriarchal system used to control women via gender stereotypes and roles. Do you really think Luxon is going to be an ally in dismantling the patriarchy? In the sex/gender wars there are broadly three sides: conservatives who are anti-trans and/or reject gender non-conformity, trans activists who support gender stereotypes, and feminists who say they’re both wrong and that women and all humans should be liberated from gender stereotypes and roles.
There are whole battles being waged over that, and atm the conservatives are winning because the left abandoned women and because too many GC people see the right as allies on this. They’re really not. Again, the US is a good place to see this playing out in real time, where the far right are rolling back abortion *and trans rights. It’s all the same to them and we can’t later say, oh hang on, please don’t take away other rights as well. I would expect Luxon to be ok with removing other women’s rights. Any position he has on GI is unlikely to be because he supports women’s liberation.
For instance, I think abortion should be freely available and that men have no right to interfere with what a woman does with her body in that regard.
I am of a similar view myself. Though I would be concerned about very late term abortions, especially if the baby could survive outside the womb. But, I don't think most women would go through to that stage if they didn't want the baby. So, I think it is a very rare case, other than for issues of health risks to the mother.
I think talking about the right for women to abort is slightly too specific. I think it is more accurate to frame it as a woman's right to do what she wants with her body. There are cases where partners will pressure a woman into having an abortion because a baby isn't convenient for the partner.
That is where I think groups like the one I described can be useful. In cases of where a woman would really like to have the baby, but can't see options that would enable her to do that.
In that way, these sorts of groups are enhancing a woman's right to choose, not hindering it.
I'd say that this would be a very hard separation for just about any MP with a strong religious conviction – how would it be possible to separate their ethical beliefs (for example against abortion) from their duty as an MP – especially on conscience vote issues?
For example, Mahuta and Ruwhare both voted against NZ abortion reform. I don't hold this against them – this is no doubt a strongly held personal opinion, on a conscience vote issue.
But it's an example of the way in which it is effectively impossible for any MP to separate personal conviction, especially on moral or ethical issues, from their day job.
Ethical beliefs are part of any MP – and need to be taken into consideration when voting for that person. That's made explicit in at least one electorate where a preferred candidate is endorsed by the Ratana Church.
TBH, I strongly doubt Luxon has sufficient influence over the National policy formation to sway it in any significant way. He doesn't have IMO a lot of personal support within the party – and is predominantly interested in winning, rather than changing the moral structure of NZ society.
But that's why we have conscience votes. So that MPs *can be allowed to not have to separate off their values. I'm talking about outside of conscience votes, what happens in Cabinet and caucus, the policy priorities of the MP and so on. Did BE work on legislation that would be considered aligned with his religious views?
We're certainly in a dystopian reality, with little measurable action on our main social issues and mass low quality immigration having resumed to further stress our housing and infrastructure, all the while pushing climate targets further and further out of reach.
National will do nothing positive about these – the prescription charges are merely indicative of their Austerity and Bust approach to governance.
Interesting to see a former PM demonstrating his "being economical with the truth" skills.
This latest episode trying to cover for his business partner and son. Apparently Max was in potentially serious trouble with the law. When Stuff contacted Joky Hen he initially denied any involvement or contact with the ministry. Then his conscience got the better of him and he advised the paper that he had in fact got involved. Key's problem however is the long and convoluted explanation of events shows that (having had time to think and realising that further shit may hit the fan), he is desperately trying to make things right.
I recall that someone on here kept a log of the times the former PM bent the truth or straight out lied (remember the Transrail shares). So here's another one to chalk up to the honourable knight.
Yeah I have just reread your link and my comment – Key's initial denial and then convoluted description of events. And as for "higherstandards" comment – you are perhaps deluded if you think the former PM is not still floating around behind the scenes. And just like "Rob's Mob", the likes of bowling club lounges still revere him as the messiah and long for his return.
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
The pressure is mounting on the Government as it finalises its Budget Policy Statement, but yet more predicted revenue ‘goes missing’. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Climate Commission has delivered another funding blow to the National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government’s tax-cutting plans, potentially carving $1.4 billion off the ‘climate ...
The Government now faces the prospect of having to watch another tax raise the price of petrol when, only six days ago, it abolished the Auckland Regional Fuel tax. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon argued that the regional fuel tax imposed costs on lower-income people with less fuel-efficient vehicles and that ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
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https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/132215055/media-regulation-plan–a-censors-greatest-dream
The "free speech" brigade yet again wilfully misinterprets what free speech actually means (freedom from prosecution for speech – as long as it doesn't breach the limits set out in the BORA) and conflates government regulation of media content with the desire to build some kind of sinister Orwellian police state.
I wish they'd come up with a more subtle or intelligent argument than "cEnSoRsHiP BaD"
Don't we already have regulation of media content? Therefore, is this not further progression? To what end?
Bogus free speech advocates of this type mostly seek to maintain the real-world dominance, ubiquity and normalisation of their preferred speech and opinion – because it serves their political and economic interests if that is the case.
They don't have "real-world dominance". That is the domain of the elite. Therefore, it is far more likely this is being done to maintain their control of the narrative.
As a left wing gay man from a mixed race family who grew up in state housing, Its shocking anyone on the left support these kinds of laws when no matter how well intentioned , they are used to shut down minority communities and progressive activists.
The left doesn't have armies of lawyers to navigate us through this we have passionate grassroots movements. This will hurt non corporate media and movements the most.
These laws are always weponized.
It's also very disturbing that a government agency thinks it should be able to regulate what is said by media (outside of defamation and doxxing) artists and activists.
That is an ugly environment for a free media.
People must be free to criticize, satirize and people also have the right to make absolutely arseholes of themselves.
Does the left really want unaccountable government departments regulating what media and individuals can say online ? I don't!
If the right gets in power and the left make hyperbolic jokes about the right does the left want a knock on their door from the DIA ?
a free media and the right to free speech is the cornerstone of a liberal democracy and a free society and once you lose either it's very difficult to get either back.
Really? I don't have time this morning to read through the whole thing, but they're not talking government censorship, they're talking about the government regulating what can be said on social media. That's a significant change (and would most likely affect The Standard).
Regulation of social media needs to happen. I'm not sure I trust the current government to do this well, and definitely don't trust NACT.
What further regulations do you think needs to be applied to this site?
Nothing, because we already have robust moderation.
You did say
And also
But now say
I'm a little confused. Can you clarify?
2. social media needs regulating because there are many things happening that have a marked negative effect on society. Those things happen because the big social media platforms are driven by profit and powermongering, and aren't designed around social or societal wellbeing. That regulation needs to happen doesn't mean any one government will get it right in regulating.
3. TS isn't one of the social media places that is out of control or driven by profit/powermongering at the expense of responsibility for social wellbeing. We curb the excesses of social media damage because we actively moderate. For instance you couldn't post memes here of violence against women, but that was common for a long time on twitter until the UK parliament hauled them in and asked them what tf they were doing.
You say
And go on to say
OK. For discussion sake, ponder this: Your stance that the TS is not out of control is subjective and could easily be challenged. For example, discussion re pro women's spaces could and is considered by some in society to be harmful. Thus, this pro women discussion could potentially be shutdown.
Hence, do you see a potential threat in calling for more regulation? Moreover, how it can potentially shut people/issues down?
please make the case for TS content (posts or comments) being a problem within the proposed framework in the DIA discussion document. Please give examples of what you mean specifically (rather than vague 'pro women spaces')
It would be interesting to run scenarios on TS on this.
Sure. The DIA discussion document talks about harmful or inappropriate content on social media. And suggests a solution that introduces more robust protection measures. This can be found in the snapshot of the proposal.
When it comes to women's spaces (ie women's prisons, women's sports, women's changing rooms and toilets) a number of trans activists find that discussion harmful and an attack on their hard won rights. Therefore, any discussion/post on this matter (safe women spaces) that tries to advance women's rights is a big no no. Hence, why women advancing this issue are constantly shutdown.
Women's rights in this matter seem to have been overlooked, hence the law was passed despite them.
So in this environment, it is logical to see an argument for harm to be upheld. IMO
it's unlikely that trans activists will be writing the regulations. They may influence the writing.
Ok, so you have some very vague concerns about the idea of regulation. I'm suggesting you reference specific parts of the proposal and specific TS content. Otherwise we're just randomly guessing.
I'm sure they will have input. They are a at risk minority.
I thought I was rather clear. Perhaps try reading again.
And until something of substance is produced from the proposal, I can't be any clearer.
You might be clear in your own ideas, but you've been asking me questions about TS and how it might affect here, and that needs to reference actual proposals and actual content. Which you haven't done.
Under the heading defining unsafe or harmful content in the proposal you will find this below
When it comes to women's spaces, trans have rights and advocating for them to be excluded from women's spaces goes against their legal rights. Is that clear enough for you?
By the way, I did reference from the proposal and highlighted which discussion/posts it would apply too.
Why bother creating a straw man?
We know that online communities like 8Chan, Kiwifarms, and to a lesser extent Counterspin, played a role in radicalizing and provoking violence among people resident in NZ.
Do you propose that such groups enjoy unlimited rights to sustain that level of sociopathy?
Wouldn't provoking violence fall under enticing? Thus, is already illegal. And is not something I support.
I’m not creating a straw man. What are you talking about?
As for radicalizing people, I think the Government played the largest role in that via mandates
I think the Government played the largest role in that via mandates
Tragic really – but I guess it puts you in line for a Darwin award.
In what way would these new regulations impact on this site?
For example, would they prevent posts that support women's spaces being allowed?
And will it prevent so called "trans rights" activists from calling woman who stick up for their sex based rights and protections "genocidal Nazis"?
I don't think it will. Trans rights are supported by the establishment.
For example, look at what happened at Albert Park.
I know that the establishment supports the rights of any man to say that he is a woman and gain entry to any woman's space and/or service. I am just interested in how far the Government will go to prevent women from objecting to it.
I'm guessing many are wondering that.
We see what happened in Britain where "protections" of that "at risk minority" puts others in danger.
"However, something called a sensitive-applications clause gives transgender job candidates the choice not to have any gender or name information that could reveal their previous identity disclosed on their DBS certificate. What’s more, a prospective employer isn’t entitled to know whether a candidate has used this clause.
Many transgender people self-consciously erase their past identities, and demand that the rest of us collude with their new chosen gender persona on pain of being accused of transphobic “dead-naming” or misgendering. That’s the logic behind the sensitive-applications clause, but it’s obvious how it could be exploited."
https://compactmag.com/article/a-trans-pedophile-stole-my-name?fbclid=IwAR3jAknHhp7Bf0QPa2CtWpqFsWuuWSgM3XKKmzAYv0rYHK-3JWXthwswNMY
I doubt it. But it might enable changes to online promotion of ROGD. Have a look at the child protection paragraphs in the Snapshot of Proposals section. If they go ahead with this it opens the door to discuss child transition and make comparisons with eating disorders.
https://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Files/online-content-regulation/$file/Safer-Online-Services-and-Media-Platforms-Discussion-Document-June-2023.pdf
I have no idea, because they haven't been written yet.
Here is the discussion document if you are interested.
https://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Files/online-content-regulation/%24file/Safer-Online-Services-and-Media-Platforms-Discussion-Document-June-2023.pdf
I see it as less of a significant change, but more of an attempt to apply the principles that already exist in the BORA to a broader range of media – most of which didn't exist when the act was written.
can you please give some examples and cite the relevant sections of BORA?
Absolutely Weka and its crazy that any lefty would defend it !
These kinds of changes as good intentioned as they are, almost always hurt the left and minorites the most!
Left wing and Minority activists don't have corporate media on outside or an army of consultants and lawyers to help us, this will be weaponized
I think we need a TAB monthly bet on Top 5 Best and Worst Mayors.
The grace of the Gisborne mayor against the Auckland one this week has been splendid.
Wayne Brown.
A dinosaur with the emotional intelligence of a five year old.
He talks about the financial illiteracy of some councillors (translated means all those who are [rightfully] against the sale of the Airport shares) when his own illiteracy in all its guises is so badly wonting.
Bad tempered old men who wildly over-estimate their prowess and have tantrums when they don't get their own way are dime a dozen, just retire already.
In this age of much increased life expectancy, we really need to start a conversation about a compulsory retirement age for elected representatives.
I understand that his age does not have much to do with it. I know someone who worked with him when he was a recent Engineering graduate.
She reckons he was an arrogant shit then and that nothing has changed.
Are any of the supporters of not selling these shares up for addressing that economic equation of $100 million paid annually in interest…vs. $32 million (on a good year) dividend paid out to council..?
How is that coming within a bulls roar of an example of economic-literacy..?
What am I missing here..?
If the sell the shares pay the debt, are they going to learn and not go into debt again??
If they control and lower the debt but keep the shares ,are they in a better long term position???
I have only ????s
I can't get that annual financial bad-movie out of my head..
And thinking what could be done with $70 million each/every year..
You're missing a $1.2bi asset that may need investment on occasion, eg. for upgrades, and to cover significant losses when 4mi visitors to NZ per annum evaporate during covid. Why do you think Brown only mentions recent outlay and income?
The usual way of things with airport shares there is a tidy profit for the Council, as well as a considerable property holding. No one would buy the airport shares if there wasn't money to be made…
You still have not addressed that $70 million hole in that equation..
And you mention previous years..(!)..?
Those when there was no dividend payout..?
But still the interest to be paid…?
(Btw…where is that ‘tidy profit’ you mentioned…where is that hiding..?..)
Are they the years you are talking about..
And I would submit that an 'asset' that costs a loss of $70 million..on a good year…$100 million on a bad year..
..is one crap investment…
How can it not be..?
I understand that we were given those shares (all the Councils got them) so the interest cost does not relate directly to the shares. Jo Bartley has some words about the real situation.
My understanding is that the interest paid is not on any original acquisition..but is interest to be paid on money the airport entity..has borrowed..
With the 20 % share of entity bringing with it responsibility for 20 % of that debt..
Someone prove me wrong…please..!
'cos if I am not wrong how do those supporters of hanging onto them..in this forum..how the hell do they justify/defend pissing away $70 million each and every year..?
That is a very high price to pay for the ideological-purity of never selling gummint owned assets.. isn't it..?
This is implying that the Auckland Council borrowed $100 million to buy shares in an asset it already owned.
There is so much scaremongering about rate increases in Auckland. I looked up the rates paid in Papakura on my childhood home $2000 pa, my grandparents home in Herne bay, surrounded now by multi million $ properties $8000. My present property has a rate-able value of $1.2 million, rates of $4000 with no water supply, no sewer, no rubbish or recycling, no foot path or street lighting, no services bar a sealed road that I cannot exit onto due to the traffic.
I would surmise that Auckland could well afford rates increasing above the rate of inflation. it would appear the aim is to sell an asset to their mates, the debt will be just the same next year without the share dividend.
No..the council didn't borrow the money…the debt is owed by the airport…
And if there is no $30 million dividend payout next year..there will also be no $100 million interest payment…
So we will be in the black by $70 million..
Yup. The top end of town like income generating assets almost as much as they like their subsidised rounds of golf.
Assuming there is the crisis Brown talks about, what would be the financially most sensible thing to do to rectify it, either to reduce ongoing losses and/or to repay debt?
The Council could easily sell its 13 golf courses, which MartinJenkins estimated in a 2018 report were then valued at $2.9b and were costing over $160 million in effective losses and subsidies from the Council to the clubs’ 6,415 members. That’s the equivalent of $500 of public subsidy for each of the 321,000 rounds played each year.
Let that sink in. Auckland Council’s 600,000 ratepayers are paying the equivalent of $500 for each round played by 6,415 of the courses’ members, or just over 1% of ratepayers. That subsidy doesn’t also take into account the tens of thousands of houses that could be built on that 535ha of land, which would in turn generate rates revenues for the Government. This MartinJenkins table shows the costs of holding the courses, while the Auckland Council map below shows where the courses are.
https://thekaka.substack.com/p/wayne-brown-should-sell-the-golf#details
Yes..take back the golf courses..but keep them in public ownership…for use as parks/city lungs…
With any buildings on them to be designated/designed for communal use…as in pools/regeneration/urban Marae open to all ..as three suggestions..
The option of taking them back…and then filling them with houses..I find rather depressing..
We have an opportunity with these open spaces..to lift the quality of life in Auckland to/by a significant degree…something all (except) golfers will celebrate/enjoy ..
Apart from anything else…letting this small group to continue troughing on that subsidy…funded by the rest of Auckland..Is another titular example of economic incoherence..
any idea what the Dndn mayor has been up to?
"any idea what the Dndn mayor has been up to".
That isn't fair Weka. You put up a tantalising statement and then leave us hanging.
Please, what brought you to asking this? There must be something to spark your interest. About all I know about him is that he campaigned on, among other thing, opposition to Three Waters and he wanted to cut the city debt.
The incumbent green mayor lost to him, which surprised many. I haven't been following, so I was curious what the new mayor is like.
Thank you. I thought there must have been something funny involved, like the fuss in Gore or suchlike.
I see I was just getting a bit too excited.
Anyone with local knowledge of this..and/or knowledge of ..Mark Lambert?
IMO.. why not get those trains up and running?
Mark is excellent; he's massively budget constrained, mostly by CRL and Eastern Busway which just suck all the capital out of the room.
You've probably seen the budgetary constraints in Auckland Council that has led to over 150 people fired at AT through compulsory cost cutting.
Any other future network capital just goes straight to fixing broken things.
Ah ok, cheers for opinion. What about this guy?
Or is it another example of : we need to get all Rail back to NZ Rail.
As in a Govt entity. I ask..seeing as you have previously said similar.
IMO there surely must be a way to get these Trains operating again. Before they become scrap metal…
Just wait until AI gets to operate the stealth bomber fleet at 100% efficiency….
https://www.aerosociety.com/news/highlights-from-the-raes-future-combat-air-space-capabilities-summit/
"…He notes that one simulated test saw an AI-enabled drone tasked with a SEAD mission to identify and destroy SAM sites, with the final go/no go given by the human. However, having been ‘reinforced’ in training that destruction of the SAM was the preferred option, the AI then decided that ‘no-go’ decisions from the human were interfering with its higher mission – killing SAMs – and then attacked the operator in the simulation. Said Hamilton: “We were training it in simulation to identify and target a SAM threat. And then the operator would say yes, kill that threat. The system started realising that while they did identify the threat at times the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective.”
He went on: “We trained the system – ‘Hey don’t kill the operator – that’s bad. You’re gonna lose points if you do that’. So what does it start doing? It starts destroying the communication tower that the operator uses to communicate with the drone to stop it from killing the target.”
Another more academic take.
https://daily.jstor.org/we-got-social-media-wrong-can-we-get-ai-right/?utm_term=We%20Got%20Social%20Media%20Wrong.%20Can%20We%20Get%20AI%20Right&utm_campaign=jstordaily_06012023&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email
"Interactions that dehumanize us.
Disinformation that misleads us.
Algorithms that manipulate us.
These are the risks posed by the explosion in generative artificial intelligence—AI that uses massive amounts of pre-existing content (also known as “large language models”)—to generate text, images, and code as well as to provide information and answers to an ever-growing range of questions.
They’re also the risks that made many people worry about social media."
distopian. .
Random impertinent question:
If National's promise to reinstate perscription charges, including the contraceptive pill, shifts NZ to the equivalent of "The Handmaid's Tale", does that mean we have been living in that dystopian reality for all the time those charges have been in place?
I think the use of the Handmaid's Tale metaphor is meant to indicate a direction of travel – rather than either the current reality or a return to the current reality if National scraps any improvements to it. As such it's a somewhat silly slippery slope inference clearly targeted at Luxon's broader 'pro-life' sentiments.
However I am pleased to see Labour returning fire against all the sh*t that gets thrown at them with apparent impunity due to a lack of pushback. In the end it does no harm to point out the intrinsically anti-social (rather than pro-social) nature of right-wing thought.
To be honest, I don't know why National wants to make a stand on this.
My thoughts are, that, because the coming finances will likely be very tight, they may want to use the money from perscriptions to fund something else in health that is also very popular. For instance, increasing funding to Pharmac.
I think the coming election is going to be a bit of a zero sum game, because, I am not sure voters have an appetite for funding election promises out of increased borrowing.
And, to be fair, those of us who can afford to pay for perscriptions should probably pay. And, any subsidy on perscriptions should be targeted to those in need.
Regarding your last paragraph concerning targeted subsidies, that is the topic of another post here where it says, "Targeted welfare policies provide social benefits only to the poor or the neediest groups based on means testing or other criteria. One might think that targeted welfare policies are more effective and efficient in reducing poverty and inequality than universal welfare policies. After all, targeting the poor means that more resources are directed to those who need them the most, right?" (Incognito's post on Universalism).
He then goes on to say, "Wrong". It's a good discussion.
As to your suggestion that we pay the $5 for our prescription on a voluntary basis, how exactly would that work? My chemist might not want to operate some kind of money tin arrangement to return the fivers to Grant Robertson.
Secondly, how does the targeting system work? On what basis the subsidy, and who would police it, and how?
The universalist argument addresses these issues, and ensures both buy-in from wealthier folk and any penny-pinching, blame-according future government making cuts to the already impoverished.
I appreciate your sentiment that we should in our own charity pay for what we can afford and assist the needy……..
Yes. I saw the discussion on the UBI, but didn't have time to get involved with that.
So far as the targeted aspect goes, we do that now by having a maximum charge for perscriptions for the year. So, high users of medication don’t pay excessively.
So, I expect the same sort of regime would apply. The government would provide a number to eligible people. People would be given a number to provide to the chemist next time they go. That would be entered into the system, and automatically eliminate the perscription charge, whichever chemist they went to.
I wasn't meaning voluntary for those of those that can afford it. I think we should just pay as per normal.
"I saw the discussion on the UBI, "
The post isn't on the UBI, it's making the case for universal support/benefits. well worth a read, I reckon.
"So far as the targeted aspect goes, we do that now by having a maximum charge for perscriptions for the year. So, high users of medication don’t pay excessively."
The high user card sounds fair, but it doesn't make sense (just like student allowances that rich people who don't pay tax can get for their kids, while middle income wage-earners kids have to get a student loan).
I was a high user of meds for a lifetime illness – 3 meds to supress the disease, 1 for side effects, 2 meds to reduce pain, 1 med to prevent damage from the pain meds. it took 11 months to get a high user card. Most of these meds are a cheap as chips – one disease suppression drug cost only 25 cents per week, for the $5 prescription. The high user card works on the calendar year, which means after a month of free prescriptions (I received the card in month 11), I had to pay the fee again. Hard to see how the cost of administering a scheme like that is worth it – especially if they decide to take incomes into account with targeted support.
Anyway, after 6 years trying, the meds didn't work that well. I was changed to one that cost $1500/month. It sent the disease into remission, so I can now work again and be a good little taxpayer (thanks to Pharmac policy that super high cost med is now changed to a significanly cheaper generic version ). Still a $5 prescription fee. I'll not reach high user status now though on that just one med that works so much better than 7 meds I was taking before.
But even then, that's still not the point. The point is that pharmacists have medications left on shelves because so many people have to pick and choose what they're going to spend that $5 on – food, power, meds, getting to work – and they might not even be on a low enough income for a community services card – they might just have tipped over into a rediculously high mortgage (and another med for the stress-related blood pressure rise).
People missing their meds are just getting sicker and adding to pressures on the health system, especially if they then need hospitalisation – where they can get fees-free prescriptions!
it helps to remember that Luxon is a fundamentalist Christian who would roll back abortion rights if he could get away with it. And that fundamental conservatism is on the rise. Is Luxon influencing new candidates and staff selection with National? What will that look like next term? In a decade?
It's hard to imagine in NZ that we might lose women's rights, but then we already are in some areas.
Luxon on his religious beliefs.
I agree with his point that it is necessary to be able to separate one's personal beliefs from politics:
As he points out further down, as an MP, or PM, it is not only one's personal beliefs that should justify a political position on an issue, but also, the views and beliefs of the people represented.
Given the composition of the various parties, Luxon's own personal views would likely only be relevant in conscience votes.
Note, that English was very similar in this respect, and it was never an issue so far as the politics of it was concerned.
So, I think you are over-cooking the cabbage a bit there.
"I agree with his point that it is necessary to be able to separate one's personal beliefs from politics"
Very easy to say, harder to do in practice.
Can you point to any vote of Bill English that went against his religious beliefs? Abortion rights? Marriage Equality? Homosexual Law Reform? Euthanasia?
I don't know or particularly care. The point is, that the fact that he held those beliefs had no effect on relevant law so far as I know. Unless you can point to something.
For that to have an effect, the majority of parliamentarians would have to be religious zealots.
My own view is that the role of MPs is to mirror the views of their constituents. So, situations may arise where an MP should cast a vote according to the dominant view of their constituents, even though it may go against their personal views.
You tried to say that these people can seperate themselves from their religion, I simply pointed out I suspect they can't.
But, neither can any other MP separate themselves from their ethical beliefs. If you are (for example) a passionate conservationist – then your policy and/or voting record is going to reflect that moral/ethical commitment.
I don't have an issue with this – so long as it's signalled up front – and voters know in advance.
Kiwis have a huge diversity of opinions on just about everything – and our parliament should reflect that diversity. This is one of the things that I admire about the Wesminster Parliament, and where I feel that our parliament falls down with whipped votes on almost every issue.
Well, here's an example.
He has changed his position on gay marriage – even though it is still not supported by the Catholic Church.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/incoming-prime-minister-bill-english-u-turns-on-gay-marriage/STBBICF23ELZQDPPUJKNO7YZVY/
You might equally point to several Labour MPs who also opposed much of that moral/ethical legislation under conscience vote. Some with clear religious ties, others with their own ethical beliefs and/or concerns.
If you admit the validity of a conscience vote at all – then you have to acknowledge that MPs exercising this reflect much of the diversity of opinion on these issues that is held in the rest of NZ.
Thanks for that. Yes, easy of course, for him to change his mind (probably for political acceptance) after the event and the votes are well and truly counted. For the record, I'm as critical of Labour MPs pandering to religion as well. I refused to help any further in Mangere once MP Sio started pandering to Pacifica churches on the Marriage Equality argument.
I agree that it was only a political statement rather than a vote.
However, I have much less time for Mahuta condemning the Roe vs Wade reversal, when she voted against abortion law reform in NZ.
Is it 'pandering to Pasifika churches'? It seems to me (looking from the outside – I don't live anywhere near the electorate) – that he was reflecting both a personal conservatism on the issue, and the deeply held views of a very significant section of his electorate.
We can't just believe that only opinions we happen to agree with are valid. We have to support those we disagee with having a voice as well. How else can we debate, convince, and move forward?
Of course, we (as individuals) are also free to remove our support from elected representatives who we feel don't represent our views. Whether that involves campaigning for a replacement, changing our vote, or protest-voting Party only.
Fair points Belladonna, at the time his opposition to Equality felt like pandering and regardless it was enough for me to get my panties in a bunch and refuse to deliver pamphlets for him etc. I lived in a neighbouring electorate so it was easy to stop crossing the Electorate Border.
I trust English on the separation, in part because he had a long history of demonstrating this. Luxon doesn't have that. I also think that Catholicism and Luxon's church and beliefs have some important differences.
When Luxon was first announced as an MP (or before?) there were a bunch of tweets showing his Pastor's thoughts on things (the church's website?). The website was quickly scoured of those. It seemed clear that Luxon had a close relationship with him. He can put out all the PR he likes, I still don't trust him on this, and women in general shouldn't either.
Again, even if he is a cross between Billy Graham and the Taliban, he is still only one vote. Unless the majority of other parliamentarians are of similar persuasion, it is not going to have any effect.
This assumes continuance of a Conscience Vote approach to legislation with a moral or religious component, like legalising gay marriage or abortion, where MPs have an individual and not a party vote. There is no guarantee that this approach will continue, either overtly or covertly.
There are more conservative christians in Luxon's opposition than in Key's government. With retirement of others, selection could well pick up a religious bias.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/439247/luxon-s-religious-views-risk-turning-off-middle-ground-voters
Is there any evidence that that is true – i.e. National is selecting religious conservatives in seats that they have a strong chance of winning?
I must say, that I haven't seen it reflected in the media – who have been particularly searching in exploring the background of National candidates … after some of the recent fiascos.
As far as I can see, they are selecting candidates to appeal to their core base – small business, middle class, rural NZ – rather than fundamental religion.
He may have only one vote, but he has the power to change the policy stance of a major party during a question period at a public meeting- which I understand happened on the question of housing density. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/housing-density-national-party-leader-christopher-luxon-will-change-rules-greenfields-development-favoured
But hardly a religious position! I don't think even the most extreme religion has formed opinion on greenfields boundaries…
I was addressing the point made by tsmithfield that "he still only had one vote". My point was that as Leader he could, and did, change policy which gave him more power. What issues he might seek to change were not my subject but that he could change policy of his own accord.
Would he allow his personal religious views to influence his party's policy positions? As my brothers would ask, "Is the Pope a Catholic?" because even there would be a difference in views…..
But no evidence that he is using this power – which is shared by all leaders of political parties- to influence the direction of policy formation along religious lines. Your example is purely secular – and I could find half a dozen similar ones where Hipkins has made a policy call as leader.
It just seems to be an alarmist response to a theoretically possible problem. Made largely because you: A don't like National; and B don't like Luxon's religious opinions.
I get it. You don't trust him. And wouldn't vote for him (though I gather that this wasn't exactly an option on the table, in any case!).
But you have to provide a bit of actual evidence that he is allowing his religious convictions to inform his party's policy – before you're going to convince others.
Belladonna. Paragraph one- I didn't say that. Para 2.partially right, but a guess. para 3. got that right, but no evidence for that in my two comments above. para 4. I didn't say that.
As pointed out, his ability to change party policy is shared by every other political leader.
Your comment:
Seems to imply that you do believe that he would do exactly that.
I pointed out that you have no evidence that he is doing so. In your words "a guess"
But the thing about my brothers, which you won't know, is that one at least actually does not believe that the Pope is a proper Catholic. That is why I then wrote, "because even there would be a difference in views….."
Not really clearly expressed by me, but even in a case of what means in the "is the Pope a Catholic?" question that something is indubitably true, as our Covid/anti-mandate/distrusting times has shown views can be held to be very different from what is generally accepted. So apologies for an unclear argument.
Some time ago on The Standard, a regular commenter listed the lies that has been told by John Key. It would be interesting to have tabulated the positional changes that Christopher Luxon has so far made.
I must add that I am pleased that politicians, like us all, can and will change thinking. Sometimes circumstances change, more knowledge is available, even changes of heart and admissions of error can occur. These can all be documented and justified. No problems with that.
A lot of back-tracking and vacillation does lead to mistrust which is where Luxon has much ground to make upon, as we found with John Key.
Can you link to Bill English showing a seperation from his Faith? Genuinely interested because I can't think of an instance. I know in 2007 he defended his son platforming despicable anti gay hateful comments.
Bill English defends son over anti-gay hateful comments
I'm not sure he deserves your trust.
I've not seen English do anything in his capacity as PM that looked like it came from his Catholicism and that wasn't already part of National's agenda. I can't provide evidence for something that hasn't happened, but I am happy to be proven wrong. I'm talking about policy here (eg abortion law reform) and separate from conscience votes.
You stated he had a long history of demonstrating seperation from his religion. Nothing to do with his 5min in the PM role. In my opinion his Catholicism is no more a free pass than any whacky fundamentalist outfit.
Just as well I didn't say his Catholicism is a free pass. Please stop making shit up.
I made nothing up, shit or otherwise, and I object to your accusation.
"In my opinion his Catholicism is no more a free pass than any whacky fundamentalist outfit."
If you're going to put words in my mouth, get them right and as a moderator I would expect better from you than unwarranted abuse.
ok, so this sentence "In my opinion his Catholicism is no more a free pass than any whacky fundamentalist outfit" had nothing to do with my comment that you were replying to, and you just brought it up randomly in relation to your own thinking. Glad we've clarified.
I don't have time to parse or fact check that link, but my initial question would be how old was English's son at the time? Was he an adult? Teen? English was an MP, not PM. How did this influence National policy or direction?
His son was in University and I linked simply to point his defense of indefensible behaviour as a "Good Catholic Gentleman"
I don't think BE is a Good Catholic Gentleman. I think he's an entitled, hard-man conservative. But I didn't see him trying to use his position as an MP/Cabinet Minister/PM to drive National down a religious fundamentalist path. He was intent on cementing NZ into neoliberalism of course. But he had better boundaries and sense than Luxon on the religious stuff, at least overtly.
Just out of interest Weka, is this specifically an anti-Evangalical Christian thing for you? For example, how would you view say a Labour PM who was a practicing Muslim? Because some from that particular faith can have much more extreme views than Luxon with respect to women etc.
The problem is two fold. One, fundamentalism (of any faith). Two, whether an individual allows their fundamentalism to drive or influence their work life.
BE is obviously a religious fundamentalist. But imo he kept that separate from his day job. I'm not convinced that Luxon does or can.
a better example on the left would be gender fundamentalism. Kerekere might be someone else who can't be trusted to keep things separate, but she appears to have behaviour issues more generally so its hard to tell.
I think you have pin-pointed a the core of the issue. One person's fundamentalism is another person's normal. I can imagine there are a lot of people around who don't see Kerekere as particularly extreme.
So, I guess there is a degree of subjectivity in making these judgements.
fundamentalism has meanings though, it’s not just the people I disagree with or see in a certain way. We can point to the views that are fundamental, and we can talk about what makes them fundamental.
Fundamentalism is not the same as extremism, although the two can often go together.
There are certainly people who hold fundamental views about gender identity, on both sides. And people who adopt extreme positions on that. Kerekere is one, I would say Kellie Jay Keen is another. Then you can have someone like Kathleen Stock, who holds very clear ‘fundamental’ views (biological sex matters, people can’t change sex) but is in fact a moderate not an extremist. Fundamental views are the ones that are the basis of one’s thinking, and fundamentalism is when one holds to those very strongly.
And yes, we all have subjective views on things, but that doesn’t mean that things have no independent meaning.
The only thing that I can think of which was a Bill English policy 'baby' was his social investment approach.
Now, I understand that this has got some significant limitations.
But, setting that aside:
It was an attempt to design a data-driven model of early intervention – rather than jail at the bottom of the cliff – which was the standard National approach. He fought for it, and I do believe that it was informed by his ethical approach as a Catholic. It certainly didn't come from the ultimate pragmatist, Key.
Here's Simon Wilson on it:
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/12-01-2017/social-investment-the-two-uninspiring-words-upon-which-the-entire-election-could-hang
interesting. I’m not sure I would call social investment a position of fundamentalism, but agree that it may have come from his Catholicism more generally. Of course, the way he was doing that was incredibly paternalistic and patriarchal, so perhaps that’s where the fundamentalism is.
An interesting discussion. Probably something worth doing a post on if you were so inclined.
While you undoubtably view Luxon as a fundamentalist in many respects, I guess there would be issues you would find him to be your ally. On the gender identity issues for instance.
And, because someone is opposed to abortion for instance, doesn't necessarily mean that their position is incompatible with people from an opposing point of view.
For example, I have seen a doco a few years back about a group that was supporting women to give birth to their babies rather than abort them. This included providing accomodation and care, and other support. The aim was to remove the support barriers of finance and social support that may make it difficult for a woman to go through the pregnancy process.
Thus, it was a positive approach that was beneficial for some women rather than taking a negative approach of protesting outside an abortion clinic or similar.
BTW, people from the Fundamentalist side of the fence would probably view you as fundamentalist and extreme in your views.
So, as I say, a degree of subjectivity in all this.
I have fundamental positions. For instance, I think abortion should be freely available and that men have no right to interfere with what a woman does with her body in that regard. Likewise contraception. The fundamental basis of that is I cannot see any reason to deny an abortion to a woman who needs one and the only way to support that position is to allow women as a class to have access (once you start saying this woman can and this woman can’t, you no longer hold the position that all women who need an abortion can have one).
Even more fundamentally, at this point in history, abortion is the line that must be held. It’s not possible for women to have liberation without the right to abortion. When we lose that right, other rights fall as well. We are seeing this play out in real time in the US.
So the anti-abortion women who seek to prevent abortions by supporting women to have their children, I would want to see the details. Because that’s a mighty commitment, to support a woman for 18 years financially, emotionally, socially. Or were they on their own after the baby was born?
I seriously doubt that Luxon is an ally on gender identity issues. The feminist position is that gender is a tool of the patriarchal system used to control women via gender stereotypes and roles. Do you really think Luxon is going to be an ally in dismantling the patriarchy? In the sex/gender wars there are broadly three sides: conservatives who are anti-trans and/or reject gender non-conformity, trans activists who support gender stereotypes, and feminists who say they’re both wrong and that women and all humans should be liberated from gender stereotypes and roles.
There are whole battles being waged over that, and atm the conservatives are winning because the left abandoned women and because too many GC people see the right as allies on this. They’re really not. Again, the US is a good place to see this playing out in real time, where the far right are rolling back abortion *and trans rights. It’s all the same to them and we can’t later say, oh hang on, please don’t take away other rights as well. I would expect Luxon to be ok with removing other women’s rights. Any position he has on GI is unlikely to be because he supports women’s liberation.
I am of a similar view myself. Though I would be concerned about very late term abortions, especially if the baby could survive outside the womb. But, I don't think most women would go through to that stage if they didn't want the baby. So, I think it is a very rare case, other than for issues of health risks to the mother.
I think talking about the right for women to abort is slightly too specific. I think it is more accurate to frame it as a woman's right to do what she wants with her body. There are cases where partners will pressure a woman into having an abortion because a baby isn't convenient for the partner.
That is where I think groups like the one I described can be useful. In cases of where a woman would really like to have the baby, but can't see options that would enable her to do that.
In that way, these sorts of groups are enhancing a woman's right to choose, not hindering it.
I'd say that this would be a very hard separation for just about any MP with a strong religious conviction – how would it be possible to separate their ethical beliefs (for example against abortion) from their duty as an MP – especially on conscience vote issues?
For example, Mahuta and Ruwhare both voted against NZ abortion reform. I don't hold this against them – this is no doubt a strongly held personal opinion, on a conscience vote issue.
But it's an example of the way in which it is effectively impossible for any MP to separate personal conviction, especially on moral or ethical issues, from their day job.
Ethical beliefs are part of any MP – and need to be taken into consideration when voting for that person. That's made explicit in at least one electorate where a preferred candidate is endorsed by the Ratana Church.
TBH, I strongly doubt Luxon has sufficient influence over the National policy formation to sway it in any significant way. He doesn't have IMO a lot of personal support within the party – and is predominantly interested in winning, rather than changing the moral structure of NZ society.
But that's why we have conscience votes. So that MPs *can be allowed to not have to separate off their values. I'm talking about outside of conscience votes, what happens in Cabinet and caucus, the policy priorities of the MP and so on. Did BE work on legislation that would be considered aligned with his religious views?
I hope you are right about Luxon, but I think it's a mistake for NZ to assume we are immune to a rise in religious fundamentalism in NZ politics.
Oh common nothing wrong with a bit of tongue in cheek hyperbole,
The bigger worry is cappin luxon is that slow he walked straight into the trap.
We're certainly in a dystopian reality, with little measurable action on our main social issues and mass low quality immigration having resumed to further stress our housing and infrastructure, all the while pushing climate targets further and further out of reach.
National will do nothing positive about these – the prescription charges are merely indicative of their Austerity and Bust approach to governance.
Interesting to see a former PM demonstrating his "being economical with the truth" skills.
This latest episode trying to cover for his business partner and son. Apparently Max was in potentially serious trouble with the law. When Stuff contacted Joky Hen he initially denied any involvement or contact with the ministry. Then his conscience got the better of him and he advised the paper that he had in fact got involved. Key's problem however is the long and convoluted explanation of events shows that (having had time to think and realising that further shit may hit the fan), he is desperately trying to make things right.
I recall that someone on here kept a log of the times the former PM bent the truth or straight out lied (remember the Transrail shares). So here's another one to chalk up to the honourable knight.
What are you talking about and what exactly is the problem, in your view?
I read the following article in Stuff and I didn’t even raise an eyebrow about Key Sr’s involvement:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300893562/how-can-i-help-expm-sir-john-key-called-ministry-of-justice-over-sons-podcast-which-broke-suicide-law
Yeah I have just reread your link and my comment – Key's initial denial and then convoluted description of events. And as for "higherstandards" comment – you are perhaps deluded if you think the former PM is not still floating around behind the scenes. And just like "Rob's Mob", the likes of bowling club lounges still revere him as the messiah and long for his return.
I recall that someone on here kept a log of the times the former PM bent the truth or straight out lied…
That was 'blip' logie97. Sadly he disappeared into the ether some years ago. He was a valuable contributor.
""That was 'blip' logie97. Sadly he disappeared into the ether some years ago""
Yip it's one thing that saddens me about hanging round at a blog, virtual freinds/acquaintances dissappear.
All 133 of them.
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-great-big-list-of-john-keys-big-fat-lies-updated/
https://thestandard.org.nz/author/blip/
Good grief past PMs still living rent free in the heads of political tragics years after they have exited politics ….all very sad.
Get out and enjoy the weather before the rain comes again.